Chapter 409: Unknown Knowledge (Bonus GT)

I screamed, but I did not hear the sound; I felt it tearing out of my throat, a raw, primal sound that was swallowed by the vastness around me.

The shapes in the distance were closer, and I could see them more clearly, and I wished I could not. I had seen Sovereigns, what I suspected were gods, and even a portion of the Pale Matron, a Demon God and a Transcendental being, but no matter how twisted or profound these beings were, they were still creatures that my mind could understand.

What came close and peered at me were ideas given form, concepts that were so old I could not even conceptualize how long they had existed, because my soul could not hold all of that number... These concepts had no place in a world of order and structure, things I feared that even gods were not supposed to see, and they were looking at me with great interest.

"Interesting... potent... potent,potent,pootent!!! Interesting... So much Order in brokenbrokenbrooookeennnn....."

Fragments of words that had no meaning entered my head, and I saw the shapes move and fold in on themselves. I think I was screaming so hard that blood was pouring out of my mouth when I saw what was inside them, as knowledge that I had no way of understanding or knowing poured into my soul.

I saw the void that lay behind all things, the absence that preceded existence, the cold that was older than the first star. I saw the face of something that had no face, and it was looking at me, and it was smiling.

There was no time in all my life when I contemplated the structure of all things, or what existence meant, or even if there was a first star, but the presence of these things shoved this alien knowledge into my soul, and something in me changed; this was not knowledge that was meant for a being on my level, but now I knew them.

I felt my soul begin to unravel. The threads that held me together, the patterns that made me Elric Voss, the memories and the hopes and the fears that defined who I was, they began to come apart, loosening like knots that had been tied too loosely.

My name slipped away from me, and the shape of my face became uncertain, as the boundaries of my body dissolved into the vastness of the space around me.

I was becoming part of the void, and I completely knew what this meant. I was becoming part of the shapes of the things that lived in the space between stars.

I heard a sound of something vast and ancient and indifferent, a sound that bypassed my ears and arrived directly in my soul, and it was asking a question that I could not understand, that I was not meant to understand.

"Why are you in that shape? Whywhywhywhywhyy..."

I tried to answer, struggling to find the shape of myself that made me Elric Voss. I reached for my memories, and they crumbled in my hands. I reached for my name, and it dissolved on my tongue. I reached for the hollow place where my soul had been welded to something that was not quite me, and I found only emptiness.

I was being unmade, reduced to nothing by the attention of things that had existed before time had a name. I was becoming part of the void, and the void was becoming part of me.

[Warning: Cognitive threshold exceeded. Soul integrity at 7%. System intervention required.]

These words were like an unshakable beacon in the midst of this madness, and I felt the System surge, bringing a wave of order and structure that pushed back against the chaos. It wrapped around my consciousness, trying to pull me back, and I was grateful for its presence, like a child who now understood the reason their parents said never enter the dark forest at night.

[Eldritch exposure detected. Initiating cognitive shielding.]

However, I had gone too deep, and the shapes did not retreat from the light of the System. They pressed closer, and I felt their attention sharpen, focusing on the System’s attempt to protect me. They were curious now, and their curiosity was a weight that pressed down on my soul like the gravity of a black hole.

"By the lights of heaven... what is a black hole, and what does it have to do with gravity?"

"Why do you not see me... why do you not SEE MEEEEEE!!!!"

The voice of the shape screamed into my mind before it was silenced with a finality like the universe ending, as a pressure settled into my mind and began to reshape it. I felt my thoughts scattering before reassembling into patterns that were not my own.

[New Skill Acquiring: Eldritch Perception (Unique)]

[Warning: Skill acquisition is not standard. Cognitive integrity at risk.]

I felt the skill taking shape in my mind, a new way of seeing that was a wound in my perception. It was a crack in the System’s careful architecture, an opening through which the chaos could seep. I could feel the shapes in the distance watching me, and waiting to see what I would become.

[Skill Acquired: Eldritch Perception (Unique)]

[Description: Unfiltered perception of reality’s deeper structures. The bearer may perceive truths that the System would normally translate or suppress. Warning: Prolonged use may cause cognitive strain. Use with caution.]

And then I heard another sound, the sound of a heartbeat... my heartbeat. The only thing that was still mine, and had not been taken from me.

I held onto it, the rhythm of my own existence, the proof that I was still Elric Voss, that I was still alive.

The shapes turned away, and their attention lifted. The void receded, and I fell.

I fell through the darkness, silence, and the infinite space between stars. I fell for an eternity, and for a single heartbeat, and then I hit something solid, and I woke screaming.

Not long after, I collapsed into a red haze as my soul gave up in exhaustion.

∞

"LubDubdub... LubDubdub..."

I woke to the sound of my own heartbeat.

It was the only sound I could hear: my heart, pounding in my ears like a drum, and then the ragged sound of my own breathing.

I could not open my eyes. I tried, and I felt the muscles of my eyelids strain, but they would not obey. My body was there; I could feel it, but it was distant, disconnected, like a house I had been locked out of.

And then I felt a presence beside me, heavy as stone.

"You are awake," Dorrik’s voice said. It was quieter than I had ever heard it. "I was not sure you would be."

I tried to speak, but my throat would not work. So I tried to move my hand, but that did not work either. Am I going to die like this?

"Your soul," Dorrik whispered, as if anything louder would blow me out like a candle, "is a ruin. I have seen many things in my long years, but I have never seen anyone go that deep and survive. The void... it does not let go. You were supposed to look into the stone, lad, not into that place. How potent is your soul to be able to see so far?"