97 Universe

After what felt like forever, the elevator finally slowed to a stop, and Nyx was practically vibrating on her feet as she swayed her hands around like a kid in a candy store. It was honestly endearing seeing her like this, and Riku almost found himself wanting to see her without the hood and cloak for once just to see if it would somehow reduce her cuteness factor if she actually flaunted her literal godlike figure.

...

...

What the hell did he just think about? Did he seriously thought about Nyx like that?

"Welcome to the planetarium proper~"

Shaking his head, Riku turned his attention back to reality as Nyx's eager welcome rang in his ears. At the same time, the elevator doors finally opened, revealing what was possibly the most mind-bending sight he had ever seen so far during his journey in the Deep Blue.

"Woah.... This... This is trippy...." Shizu absently gasped, her eyes practically glued to the sight before them as they slowly stepped into what almost felt like thin air. "And we're walking on nothing... Am... Is this real?"

"Clearly, it is since we're all here," Nyx smugly stated with a puff of her chest. "Now you see why this place is great?"

Blinking, the former assassin felt like his neck was about to snap in half at how much he was craning it to see... everything. Yes, everything. It almost felt like the entirety of existence was right in front of them. Even as the sound of his footsteps echoed across the abyss, it still took his all to believe that he actually hadn't died and gone to the deep abyss or some other kind of afterlife. No, they were literally walking on space, casually passing galaxies and small clouds of stars as they entered the main planetarium area.

"I can see that," Riku couldn't help but remark, his own awe getting to him as his jaw metaphorically fell to the floor. "This is..."

"I feel so small..." Shizu lamented with a weak chuckle. "We're really just a small speck in the grand scheme of things, huh..."

"That's pretty much the case, Shizu," Nyx oh so helpfully added with a sagely tone. "In the grand tapestry of existence, humanity is really just a small tiny part of the universe. Worlds are constantly being made and destroyed, and some could even harbor life depending on if Big Sis Solis wanted to do experiment on some stuff. But that usually only happens if we're all in agreement to make a new intelligent world."

Shizu's eyes widened in existential horror. "You mean... aliens exist?"

"Obviously," Nyx casually chuckled as if she hadn't just dropped a massive bomb of information on them. "It would be dumb to have Thirteen Gods preside only one decently made world. I'm pretty sure there are new worlds under construction before all of this too. They just got put on hold so that we could all focus on the Game for now."

The former assassin felt his chest sink at the gravity and literal scale of what was in front of them. It almost felt like the entire world disappeared right behind them yet again, replaced with what was possibly the grandest and most largest scaled map of the universe to ever exist in the entire known reality. And that was compared to when they first entered the Sea of Stars to begin with. It was that big of a gap between then and now.

Still, such revelations shouldn't distract them from the task at hand. If they wanted to leave this Realm, they had to complete whatever challenge Astra had in store for them. Whatever it was, he wasn't sure, but he was honestly hoping now that it would be easy enough for them to get the top spot in this game.

And yes, he was reconsidering just staying in the middle of the pack now. If they were doing this well, then they might as well try and see if they could put as much distance between themselves and the competition behind them.

"Ah... Really doesn't get old seeing this," Nyx hummed in satisfaction as she placed her hands on her hips while staring at the impossibility before them. "It's really relaxing just staring at the whole universe, right?"

"I... guess so," Shizu absently remarked, still at awe with the sight before them. "It just... I don't know... Too big?"

"That's the universe, for you," Nyx shrugged in amusement. "But yeah, we're here now, so all that's left is to do the challenge."

"Which is?"

Nyx made to open her mouth to answer Riku's question, only to close it just as quickly as a frown settled on her face. The former assassin simply crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for his patron goddess to give them an answer.

"That's... something that I haven't heard from Big Brother Astra still," Nyx replied, her frown turning deeper as the faint glow of chaos wrapped her entire body. "I'll get back to you two once I get some answers. In the meantime, why not just sit back and relax? I know I will while you two get on with the challenge."

Before they could both reply, Nyx was already sinking deeper into the floor... assuming there was even a floor as they saw the goddess casually floating around before settling to lounge on thin air with her eyes closed, leaving them to fend for themselves with no sense of purpose or direction.

"So... What are we supposed to do now?" Shizu asked him.

Riku shrugged. "No idea. I guess we can walk around a bit? I can always contact Nyx if we want to get back to her."

"I guess so," the fortune teller shrugged back. "And as for Tyche... He's... He said that I shouldn't bother contacting him for now. That I should just rely on you and Nyx for the time being."

The former assassin raised a brow at such words before deciding to leave such tidbit of information alone for now. If there were answers that needed getting, he'd get them soon enough. For now, they should just wait for Nyx for further instructions.