"You're a great Master," I smiled.
The woman just scoffed before slowly getting up from her seat, and as I also stood up to follow her, she grabbed a cold cup of tea that was lying on her bedside table and handed it to me. And as I grabbed it, I already anticipated what she was going to say.
"I'll refill it with some hotter tea."
And as I began walking out of the room, I heard her say something strange.
"Be careful of Orion. An apotheosis into godhood causes horrible dissociation."
…
(Orion POV)
As my friends were welcomed by the servants of the estate, I let them go to explore the place while I returned to my meditation. For some reason, it helped me feel less… light? I couldn't fully explain it, but it felt like there was a thick fog in my mind, preventing me from exploring any further or using anything else.
The world around me darkened once again, and slowly it felt as if I had been pulled back somewhere. No, I know where I had been pulled back. It was the back of my mind, the very back of my head. I felt queasy as I dropped further and further back.
[Quasi World has been revealed]
As soon as I stopped drifting back, I read the panel in front of me. The darkness of my closed eyes had completely devoured me, and it felt as if I had been trapped in this icy cold blanket of the abyss for eternity.
I felt weird. Each division of my cell was noticeable to me. Each drifting golden blood cell rushing through my veins was heard, seen, tasted, and felt by me. Every single droplet of mana surrounding me soaked my surroundings, allowing me to feel every single thing on this plane of darkness.
I could feel my body aging. I could literally feel my body fucking aging. It was disgusting, grotesque, and a well-rounded horrible feeling that made me want to puke. I wanted to escape from my own skin, yet I was still trapped in this eternal and infinite plane of darkness.
[Quasi Municiples have entered your body]
[Godhood 0.1% has been completed]
Suddenly, memories that were familiar yet felt entirely different flooded my brain. My eyes rolled back, and my breathing cut immediately. The fog was disappearing, making it seem more like a hole that needed to be filled. And as it was finally getting filled, everything inside of me began to churn and twist.
My organs felt as if they were about to burst. My bones felt as if they were about to shatter. My muscles felt as if they were about to tear. It felt strange, but it didn't hurt. It was like I was spectating the actions of somebody else but in 4D sensations. I experienced it. Everything. I experienced everything there was to feel, smell, taste, see, hear… I experienced it all.
"What the hell?"
My mouth moved on its own while another panel chimed the start of something new.
[Quasi Municiples begin to erode your mind and body]
"Where am I?"
"Who am I?"
"Hello?"
"Why is my mouth moving without my-"
"Urk… what happened?"
"It feels weird."
"Am I alive?"
"Am I dead?"
"I was just about to kill Satan-"
"I had Zeus under my foot-"
"Everything was under control-"
"I succeeded at everything."
"I lost everything."
"SHUT UP!" I shouted, using my own mouth while I gripped my head. Even as the voices stopped emitting from my mouth, they still strangled my brain and whispered unnatural and foreign thoughts into my mind. "ALL OF YOU SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! CAN YOU EVEN HEAR ME!"
Most of them sounded like me exactly, while the remaining had different tones, dialects, slang, and accents. They had all been shaped by one exact split. We all generally had the same memories until one exact moment that beamed in my brain. I could see it, feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it… all of it.
My rebirth. That was the turning point that caused all of us to diverge. Our fate had been shattered upon being rebirthed, but why? Reincarnation was a common thing, especially when there was a literal goddess controlling that… so why was I special? Why were we special? Why were we different?
"I'm going to lose my mind," I grimaced, gripping my head and digging my fingers so hard into it that my nails punctured the outer skin. My skull was thankfully still intact, but it wasn't long before it shattered as my hands only began to press harder and harder into me.
HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Suddenly, everything went blank. And then, I opened my eyes, and everything was back to normal. I was on my bed, still in a meditating pose, and just as I stretched my legs out and placed my feet against the solid cold marble floor… everything came rushing in.
[Quasi Municiples begin to erode your mind and body]
They were all talking, questioning, and commenting without even conversing with each other. I doubt any of them could even hear the others or, at most themselves. They just kept talking and talking and talking, slowly getting louder and louder until I couldn't even hear myself think.
Somebody proceeded to burst through the door into my room, feeling something was off. They were blurry, but I could slightly make out that it was Aisa now rushing towards me as I writhed back and forth, resisting the urge to tear my head off my neck.
I… have… to… use… a skill…
The system responded to my will as Aisa used some kind of skill. Her hand turned into a pale mouth that whispered something, commanding the mana around her and then utilizing that mana to attempt to ease my pain… but that's the catch. I wasn't in pain. I wasn't in pain at all.
[Innate Calm] [Breath of the Snowy Underworld] [Sleep Inducer]
Nothing worked.
