My Ultimate Sign-in System Made Me Invincible - Chapter 380: The Infinite Dimension (2)

Chapter 380: The Infinite Dimension (2)

“The Grand Universe’s overseers established additional restrictions after the invasion,” the Voidling continued. “Rules that prevent beings from other universes from accessing the Infinite Dimension leading to your reality. Not merely for your universe’s protection, but to prevent another catastrophic breach. The damage took millions of years to stabilize.”

Liam forced his attention away from the philosophical implications and back to the immediate present. He couldn’t afford to get lost in existential contemplation about cosmic invasions and universal operating systems. He had a specific goal, and that goal required reaching the Grand Universe.

“Can you show me?” he asked. “In the future, after this is done—can you take me to the damaged sections? The parts of the universe that collapsed during the invasion?”

The Voidling’s massive body seemed to hesitate in its swimming motion. “If you survive your first entry into the Grand Universe, I will take you anywhere you wish to go. Show you anything you wish to see. The fact that you can even contemplate entering that realm and surviving speaks to the entity backing you.”

“You doubt I’ll survive?” Liam kept his mental voice neutral, curious rather than defensive.

“I doubt most beings could survive,” the Voidling replied honestly. “The Grand Universe is not hostile by nature, but it operates on scales and principles that annihilate unprepared consciousness simply through exposure. You would be the first from your universe to attempt entry in recorded history. That alone makes survival… uncertain.”

“But you think I might succeed.”

“You have surprised me at every turn,” the creature acknowledged. “You achieved awakening despite universal laws that prevent it. You built technology that shouldn’t be possible for your species’ age. You located me despite impossible odds. You survived looking into my eyes when countless others have lost their minds. Perhaps you will surprise me again.”

Liam nodded slowly, accepting the uncertain assessment. “If I do survive, if I succeed—I plan to help my home universe. To strengthen it, if possible. To ensure nothing like that ancient invasion can threaten it again.”

“Then we share a goal,” the Voidling said, and Liam detected what might have been satisfaction in its telepathic voice. “The changes you represent may be exactly what the Dark Energy Universe needs to evolve beyond its current fragility.”

They continued through the Infinite Dimension in companionable silence after that, Liam no longer attempting to process every impossible stimulus around them. Instead, he focused on conserving his mental energy, preparing himself for whatever awaited in the Grand Universe.

Time passed—or didn’t pass, given the Voidling’s explanation of temporal non-existence in this space. It might have been minutes or hours or days. Liam had no way to measure duration in a realm where past, present, and future existed simultaneously.

Finally, the Voidling spoke again. “We are approaching the barrier now. The membrane between the Infinite Dimension and the Grand Universe. As we draw closer, you may see glimpses of the other realities—fragments bleeding through from the other two satellite universes and from the Grand Universe itself.”

Liam focused his enhanced vision, straining against the sensory chaos to perceive what lay ahead.

At first, he saw nothing new, just the same impossible colors and undefined shapes that had filled his perception since entering this realm. But gradually, like images slowly coming into focus through fog, he began to perceive… something.

A massive sea dragon burst into his vision, its scales gleaming with colors that hurt to perceive directly. It soared upward through what might have been sky or ocean or something that was simultaneously both. The creature was incomprehensibly vast, its body stretching across distances that made planets look small by comparison. Then it was gone, vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Another image replaced it—a giant of impossible proportions, its body composed entirely of ice that radiated cold so intense Liam could feel it even through the Voidling’s protective field. The giant moved through what appeared to be a frozen wasteland, each step causing avalanches of ice and snow that could have buried continents. Then it too faded from view.

A third vision appeared: a massive silver serpent erupting from waters darker than the void of space. It rose higher and higher, its body coiling through storm clouds that crackled with lightning of colors Liam had never seen. The serpent’s jaws opened, impossibly wide, and swallowed the sky itself—or perhaps it was swallowing reality, consuming some fundamental aspect of existence. The image dissolved before Liam could understand what he’d witnessed.

Then came the final vision, and this one froze Liam in place with recognition and awe.

An impossibly beautiful woman sat upon a throne that seemed carved from concentrated darkness itself. She wore a crown of deep purple shadow that pulsed with power Liam could feel even across whatever distance separated them. Her dress was black-purple, flowing like liquid night, and around her throne coiled dragons—not just one or two, but dozens, perhaps hundreds, each one radiating power that dwarfed anything Liam had encountered except the Voidling itself.

The woman’s eyes met his directly, and Liam realized with shock that she could see him. She could perceive him through the barrier, across the Infinite Dimension, despite the protective field surrounding him. Her lips curved into a smile, and though no sound reached him, Liam heard words form directly in his consciousness:

“Welcome. You finally made it here.”

Then the vision shattered, reality reasserting itself with painful abruptness.

“Prepare yourself,” the Voidling said, its voice carrying urgency for the first time. “We are crossing the barrier now.”

Liam had no time to process what he’d seen, no opportunity to analyze the woman’s words or the implications of her awareness. The Voidling surged forward with sudden speed, and they struck something invisible.

The transition was like nothing Liam had experienced before. It wasn’t like the instant relocation when the Voidling had pulled him from the Voyager, or like the disorienting sensation of FTL travel, or even like the overwhelming chaos of entering the Infinite Dimension.

This was crossing a fundamental threshold, moving from one state of existence into another.

And then they were through.

The Grand Universe spread before them, and Liam found himself utterly without words to describe what he was seeing.