Chapter 7

Weightlessness.

All I remember is praying in peace and feeling immediate discomfort. After that, nothing. All I feel right now is a sense of missing. What am I missing? I don't remember. Am I confused? I do not know. All I know is nothing.

Nothing has weight here. Nothing has energy here. Nothing has soul here. Yet here I am. Thinking. With every thought, I become more and more aware.

A ripple of sense of self invades me. But what am I right now? I am not essence, I am not a soul. I am nothing. Am I the void? Did I dissolve in it? Then why I am still aware?

As I go into a loop of thoughts that always result in nothing, I am becoming more and more restless. A crack appears in the void. White light pierces the void and shines upon me. I can feel everything again. Basking in the familiar light for a few seconds.

I open my eyes, walk towards the hole pierced by His holy light. And exit this cursed place. Oceans of red surround all that the eyes can see, dark purple tides cross the red paint. Where am I?

A table sits in the middle of nothing, on it, two chairs. With a slight smile, I sit on one of them and close my eyes.

"My Child." Said a wizened voice, "I am sorry for not coming to you earlier. I managed to save you, but not everything that is you." Said My Lord in a helpless tone.

"Please O Fateless One. Do not burden yourself with that. I am already thankful to be alive." It's true, I am. But I am also confused. "Where are we? Weren't Gods supposed to not interfere in mortal affairs? Why was that Seraphim on our world?"

"This... Is the In-Between. Strictly speaking, you are actually dead. The Void ate everything that made you a mortal. The Void eats the weaker parts first, then devours the stronger parts. That's what I meant. As long as you were still a human I could not save you. But the Void ate all that made you human. Right now, all you are is a powerful Soul that lacks humanity." He stated solemnly.

"I see." I bite my upper lip in thought. "Wait, how do I have a body then?" I ask in confusion.

"The In-Between is where the realm of the true gods is. Here, everything is what it is. And Nothing is what it isn't. Universal rules do not hold significance here. It just is. So you have a body because I believe you should have a body. It's just that simple."

"Ah, yeah. Simple. Got it." As I turn around looking the In-Between I ask a question that has been burning me. "What now My Lord? Am I to follow you as Valkyries follow Odin?"

I do not mind this, I love my God, the Fateless One. He gave me purpose 7500 years ago. And I swore eternal loyalty to him, no matter what happens.

-Sigh- "Before we speak about that. I have something to tell you. Ishmallah is still alive." Said the miniature God of secrets. From the breast pocket of his little orange vest, he fetched out a purple feather. "Ishmallah knows how this place works. The moment he was sent to the void he split his consciousness into multiple pieces, each one of them a lesser copy of what he is and what he symbolizes. Through the In-Between, he launched his consciousness made feathers through the multiverse. Higher beings can't access the Multiverse. So I do not comprehend yet how he did it. However, I managed to catch a single one of them. I already purged it from his power, now it works as a compass." He said giving me the feather.

"Your task is not done Belatsunat, you're now no longer a mortal. Right now you have two choices. The Void ate your humanity, and with it, your oaths and curses. You're now free to do as you wish. So either continue your freedom becoming a goddess or become my envoy."

"Wha-This... Belatsunat... My name. You... Why can I say my name? Is, is this true? What about Kara-Hardas? Is he free from the curse?" I am not crying. Nope. This is just sand on my eyes, we're on a beach after all. With waves and all. Yeppers.

-Sigh- "Kara-Hardas is still cursed. But, you will be able to destroy the curse if you become a Goddess. It all depends on what type of goddess and what is your motivation." He says looking at me straight in the eye.

"But... Alright." I slap my face with both hands. "Let's do it. Tell me what should I do!" I say with an excited grin.

"Haha! That's right My Child! First of all, you and Ishmallah drank both the Golden Void, the objective of the potion was simple: Drag the recipient to a mortal coil and be destroyed with a window to the Void. However, it seems that one of the archmages that sacrificed their soul wanted you dead as well, and tried to modify the ritual. What the potion instead did was to tie you and Ishmahllah fate as one. Now you're both linked in essence. The only way to kill the other is to absorb the essence, with your lack of humanity and his divine origin you will become a goddess when you absorb his entire being. I have enchanted that feather, it will point the way to him. When you have absorbed everything of him, you may absorb that last feather. Now, I will open the window to the multiverse. Go forth Belatsunat, daughter of Sumeria. Know that I will wait for you here."

As My Lord makes a window in mid-air, big enough to suck me in, I can't even say goodbye as it absorbs me in a second.

The next time I open my eyes, I found myself in a white sea, all I see it's white and bubbles. And inside the bubbles there are images.

Going towards the nearest bubble, I see a little boy with messy raven hair, green emerald eyes, and a lightning scar on his forehead, shaking in a room under stairs. Ignoring it I look at more bubbles. There are an infinite number of bubbles.

"This is the multiverse?" I say out loud in wonder.

Most bubbles have a hundred or so bubbles near them, watching I understand why. The other bubbles are different versions. For instance, right now I see the same raven-haired boy but this time, he's mind-controlling a fat man to hit a fat boy with a tuna.

Also, it depends on where I look at the bubble. Different perspective allows me to see different years. Right old, left young, right old, left young, right old, left young~ Hahaha!

"Oh yeah, hey feather. Where to?" I say waving the feather around. Oh? Did it shine for a bit in that direction?

By the way, how am I moving? I am flying? Floating? And how will I come back to the Multiverse after I enter a world?

As I question things I should have asked the Fateless One, the feather directs me towards a set of bubbles. Observing the images on the bubbles I can see a black-haired woman with long hair and red eyes, wearing a school jacket as one would a cape. Standing on a bridge, fighting fifty bikers or something like that. She's smashing them all.

However the image is not centered in her, she's part of it, but the center is a brown-haired boy. He seems... Boring? It's a group of friends, a wild man with a bandana, a blue-haired girl trying to flirt with the boring boy, a red-head girl cheering for the girl who is beating the bikers, a green-haired trembling on the side... Huh.

"Hey, are you sure this is the world? I kinda don't wanna enter there. Also... Worlds are centered around some people. Was I the protagonist of my world?! If so my world is shit! Hmpf." All the answer I receive from the feather is a slightly brighter shine when I approach it to the bubble. "Oh well, alright."

As I touch the bubble I suddenly find myself above the clouds, falling towards the bridge. Crossing my arms I began to think. The Feather hasn't stopped shining since coming to this world. First I have to triangulate the position. To do that... Perhaps to the edge of the town first?

As I fall through the clouds I could hear a voice, a scream. "Nee-chan! Look, to the sky!" A male, weak, in his late teens. "On it, Yamato!" Female, strong, vigorous, in her late teens. The red-eyed woman.

"Hoh?" It seems she is gonna grab me mid-air. Yeah no. I do not need help. As the red-eyed woman jumps from the bridge to one of the beams supporting the said bridge, and towards me, I look at her straight in the eye as she launches towards me, and open an umbrella that appeared in my hand making me float as she overshoots. Hehe.

"Watch out girl, you almost made me crash. I believe I deserve compensation." I say with a grin as I float towards the middle of the bridge.

Voices of confusion and exclamations surround me.

"What!? What did you do to my sister!" Said red ponytail.

"Oh, oh, Momoyo is gonna beat her up. It's a shame since I the great Gokudera had a chance to flirt with her!"

"Eh? Since when you were great. Besides, look, Momoyo is coming back." Eh? There was one more person? I did not see him! Is he a ninja?!

Before Momoyo could approach me, she was approached by the boring male, who as I feel his essence suddenly became the most interesting being here. Apart from me of course.

"Nee-san, wait. She's strange, I don't think is a good idea to fight her." He said trying to sound cool, eh, it's this his personality? He's kinda lame for a being without fate.

"Yamato, move aside. She's doing something weird to you." She said completely serious. As she spoke, everyone else shut up and stood aside, looking at me with confusion and some anger. Well, the anger only came from the blue-haired woman.

"Heh. I am doing nothing, just inspecting him. Besides, are you sure you want to face me? You're way too weak to face me." As I warn her, everyone else seems to break laughing.

"Haha! You will tell me what were you doing to Yamato after I beat you up! And then we are gonna go on a date!"

Eh? "Eh?" I confusedly tilt my head. "What?"

It seems she will not deign to answer as she just ran towards me. She's slow.

"Kawakami Style, Dynasty Warriors Punch" What a bold woman, shouting her techniques like that. Straight out of a manga I'll tell ya.

The technique was simple, it was just a simple punch with a lot of Ki infused in it. At least she can use Ki.

As her punch comes towards me, I can see that she believes it will hit me, everyone thinks it will hit me. After all, I haven't moved at all. They probably think I can't react fast enough. Hell, I can see Momoyo's eye excited glint turn slowly into a disappointed look. Now we can't have that.

So I stop the fist with a finger.

"Wha-" Before she finished her question I flick her forehead with another finger, tossing her twenty meters away. I hope I didn't hurt her, I am holding back as much as I can.

Tilting my head to the side I dodge an arrow. Huh. Turning my eyes to the blue-haired girl that's trying her best to make me angry I chuckle. "Little girl, next one it's going straight to your knee," I say my eyes glinting dangerously.

However it seems that they do not understand how strong am I exactly, Momoyo could comprehend it, the others? They're too weak to understand the difference. All the girls get in combat-ready position, huh. The boys are kinda useless here. Even muscles are running away towards where I threw Momoyo.

The tense silence of the bridge was broken by a gust of wind, making my 'opponents' rush at me at the same time.

Seven arrows in a second, to different parts of my body. Nice. I catch the two first arrows, turning my body to the right to dodge a backstab from a rapier. It seems a blondie girl is part of the group and just joined.

Using one of the arrows I throw it to another arrow coming towards me, dull heads, at least they won't die.

With a back-handspring, I use my feet to kick the Naginata coming towards my neck, redirecting it towards a katana that was trying to pierce my sides.

"Heh. Kids. I am gonna beat you up. You better start praying."

As I get ready to attack them a voice shouts. "Wait, stop!"

Yeah, nope. I redirect one arrow that suddenly appeared in front of my face with two fingers. Yeah, fist of the north taught me a lot. The arrow flew back two times faster than what the archer girl shot hitting her knee.

I take one step forward, bending a little bit to dodge a sword slash. I punch the overextended hand grabbing the hilt, making her drop her weapon. As I grab it mid-air, I deflect the rapier making it bounce and hitting with a solid punch the stomach of the blondie. All that is left is the naginata girl. I throw the katana to the floor, stabbing the bridge and lodging the weapon upright.

"Come girl. Attack me." I say with a grin.

"Kawakami Style, Agito" She shouts with all her might as she does a slight tsubame gaeshi with her naginata. A slash downwards, followed by an upwards slash. But so fast it seems like the maw of a lion is about to bite me.

"Hoho, amazing. You might be the most skilled person in your group. Not the strongest. But the one with the most skill." I say as I stop the attack with a finger on the edge of the Naginata. "And yet, before overwhelming power, all you skill amounts to nothing," I say as I flick her head.

As she flew towards where Momoyo was because she was currently above me about to kick me. -snort- "You need to do better than that girl." I say as I grab her extended leg, throwing her to the side. "As I said, you're all too weak. Besides, you attacked me first. Well, it was fun, see ya!" And with smoke, I disappear like a ninja.

Hmm. That boring boy... Why does he feel a bit like my Lord the Fateless One? It's just because h has no fate? Oh well, for now, let's go towards that mountain! Let's begin to triangulate the location of Ishmallah.