Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.
Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.
The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.
"Speech"
Time*
Chapter 87: Shift In Changes
I am slowly, painfully, going through a process of having my very being messed with by all the Sefirot, without any of them doing it on purpose. And the constant urge to attack anything around me isn't helping either. So much so that I'm starting to lose my perception of time itself, making me unable to tell how long I've been here, held captive at the center of all the Sefirot surrounding me. Seconds, minutes, or even hours could be passing, and I honestly have no way of knowing anymore.
As I look at each Sefirot, I can feel their gazes locked onto me. Through the passive use of Listen, I can hear enough of their intentions to tell that I am now their absolute focus, and nothing else matters to them—not even each other.
In fact, I begin to comprehend a few words here and there through their incomprehensible whispers, enough to gain a rough understanding that each Sefirot is using the Beyonder Characteristics within me for something beyond simply pushing these unknown changes onto me. Whatever else they're doing, the Beyonder Characteristics inside me seem to be playing a much larger role than I originally thought.
Then visions begin to appear within my mind, leaving me deeply confused and doubtful about what I'm seeing. Yet at the same time, my Spirituality responds to each vision, reinforcing them with an instinctive certainty that tells me they are real or, at the very least, showing me something that truly exists.
And considering I'm still surrounded by all the Sefirot, I can't exactly dismiss any of this as some random hallucination. Especially when I still have absolutely no idea why the Cards of Blasphemy brought me here in the first place.
The longer I'm forced to use Listen, the more I feel myself drifting toward slumber, my thoughts growing heavier with every passing moment. Yet there is still something, or someone, reaching out to me through all of this.
I can't figure out what it is or who it could be. The presence feels distant, buried beneath everything else pressing against my mind, but it refuses to disappear completely.
Right now, I just want all of this to stop and let me rest. I'm so exhausted right now that even trying to stay conscious feels unbearable.
Suddenly, my Spirituality screams at me in warning, and before I can even react, a blinding flash of bright crimson light consumes everything around me.
The next thing I know, I find myself standing back on the sandy beach.
Warm sunlight hits me from above while I stand there blankly, my mind struggling to catch up with what just happened. The steady sound of ocean waves reaches my ears as they roll against the shore, almost painfully ordinary compared to where I had just been.
For several seconds, I can do nothing but stare ahead in stunned silence.
I'm pretty sure I was thinking about something important that I needed to do, but I can't quite place my finger on it. In fact, I'm certain I was about to do something right before the Cards of Blasphemy brought me before all the Sefirot.
With that thought, I quickly sort through my memories using the Recall ability of the Paragon Pathway.
A massive flood of memories I'd forgotten suddenly hits me like a tsunami, all rushing back at once.
Then, within seconds, I realize there is literally a tsunami right before my eyes.
...Oh. That's why I used a tsunami as a metaphor just now.
I couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as the wave crashed into me, immediately sending me into a violent spiral of chaos.
The force drags me beneath the surface and deeper into the ocean, tumbling me around until I can no longer tell which way is up. Through the churning water, I watch the sunlight above rapidly fade from my vision, growing dimmer and more distant with every passing second.
Then the darkness of the deep ocean begins to take hold of me.
Honestly, I should be feeling something right about now. Besides that brief feeling of hopelessness from before, however, I find myself completely apathetic.
I feel nothing.
Nothing at all.
I remember everything now, yet somehow, none of it does much for me. The memories are there, clear and intact, but whatever emotions should come with them simply aren't.
Furthermore, I finally realize exactly who has been calling out to me.
Momoyo.
She's calling for me, but deep down, I know this isn't truly her. There's something wrong with the voice, something my instincts and Spirituality refuse to accept no matter how convincing it sounds.
Therefore, this must be someone, or something, using Momoyo's voice and my attachment to her to fool me into believing that the calling is actually coming from her.
I might not feel anything right now, but there is one thing I can still understand clearly.
This person, or thing, tried to influence me.
That realization alone causes something to stir deep within me.
And what resides within me are the 22 Cards of Blasphemy, the Sefirot, and everything else I have obtained up to this point. The moment that foreign influence is recognized for what it is, they react.
All the Sefirot begin appearing around me one after another, their presences pressing against the surrounding darkness.
At the same time, the 22 Cards of Blasphemy manifest around me in a protective formation, circling me like a barrier against whatever is trying to reach into my mind.
Ah. I understand now.
Fate Lust.
That thing, along with the rest of its kind, had tried to influence me. It wants more chaos in the world—more fights, more deaths, and more explosive emotions spreading among everyone. And for some reason, it desires to use me as its vessel.
The moment I was at my weakest, while the Sefirot were still in the process of changing me and making my very existence better adapted to becoming a Beyonder of every Pathway, Fate Lust made its move.
Its desires had become uncontrollable after it noticed that two important Devil Fruits had disappeared forever. Whatever those Fruits meant to it, their loss was apparently enough to make Fate Lust act without thinking twice.
And by interfering with me at that exact moment, Fate Lust had unintentionally disrupted the process taking place between the Sefirot and me.
The Sefirah Castle releases translucent, squirming maggots all around me, each one trailing bluish-black fog. The fog begins fusing with something surrounding me—mostly the ocean itself, from what I can tell, but I'm not completely sure what else it's attaching itself to.
The Chaos Sea begins merging what is real with what is illusory, causing whatever Fate Lust is using to influence me to become caught somewhere between reality and falsehood. At the same time, it begins stripping away pieces of whatever truly belongs to Fate Lust, taking those things for itself.
The River of Eternal Darkness imprints Fate Lust with the concept of Death through the Symbol of Destination and Endpoint. Almost immediately, the sound of Fate Lust's panicked screams echoes throughout the entire ocean, distorted by the depths around me.
The City of Calamity prevents Fate Lust from fighting back at all, exploiting its existing connections to place curse after curse upon it. Each one weakens Fate Lust further, preparing it to be Conquered and ultimately reduced into a soldier beneath the Sefirot's control.
The Knowledge Moor uses the pre-existing knowledge contained within itself to corrupt Fate Lust with polluted knowledge, things that should never be known or understood in the first place. As more of that knowledge pours into it, Fate Lust itself begins becoming contaminated.
The Key of Light draws Fate Lust's attention entirely toward itself, almost like an irresistible beacon. It lures Fate Lust further and further toward the Sefirot, preventing it from focusing on anything else, including me.
The Brood Hive takes hold of Fate Lust both figuratively and literally, refusing to let go no matter how violently it struggles. Escape simply isn't an option anymore.
The Tenebrous World seals and binds every possible escape route Fate Lust could use, crushing even the slightest possibility of slipping away. It isn't merely trapped; it's being denied even the hope of escape.
And finally, the Nation of Disorder imposes numerous ironclad laws upon Fate Lust while simultaneously distorting the rules and authorities that originally belonged to Fate Lust. Every attempt Fate Lust makes to retaliate is twisted, restricted, or outright forbidden before it can even begin.
Watching all of this happen around me, I realize the Sefirot aren't simply defending me anymore.
They're dismantling Fate Lust piece by piece.
Not to be outdone, the 22 Cards of Blasphemy take action as well, arranging themselves into a vast formation around me. Their influence spreads outward in every direction, reaching everything nearby, including the Sefirot themselves.
In fact, rather than interfering with what the Sefirot are doing, the Cards of Blasphemy seem to be helping them.
Exactly how, I have no idea.
Each card contributes in its own twisted and incomprehensible way, reinforcing, redirecting, or somehow complementing the powers of the Sefirot. The interactions between them are far beyond anything I can currently understand, leaving me only able to observe the results.
Whatever this formation is doing, however, one thing is obvious.
It is making Fate Lust's situation considerably worse.
I close my eyes, then reopen them.
I'm back where I was at the beginning, standing on the sandy beach of the island from before the 22 Cards of Blasphemy took me into that unknown space.
For a moment, I simply stare at my surroundings, wondering what that place even was. Part of me can't help but question whether I had somehow been dragged into a space connected directly to my very soul, allowing the Sefirot to reach into my existence and change me from within.
Whether those changes are for better or worse, I still don't know.
All I know is that this began sometime after I became a Sequence 8: Listener, and apparently, simply remaining at that Sequence for long enough was enough for something much larger to start happening to me.
Then again, I really shouldn't expect anything less. Becoming a Sequence 9: Monster already allowed me to perceive things that normally remain unknown or hidden, and advancing to Sequence 8: Listener only pushed that perception even further beyond what I could handle before.
Having the 22 Cards of Blasphemy and the Sefirot within me are also massive factors in whatever happened recently. At the same time, their presence seems to have placed me in an incredibly dangerous position with Fate Lust.
If the Sefirot hadn't reacted immediately when Fate Lust made its move, I have no idea what would have happened to me.
Nonetheless, even with Fate Lust's interruption, the changes made by the Sefirot remain. They're simply half-finished and will require some time before the process can resume.
However, even in this incomplete state, I can already feel that the madness within me has shifted in some strange way. I have better control over it now, though calling it actual control doesn't feel entirely accurate.
It's more like the madness is still there, still influencing me, but something has changed so that I won't recklessly throw my life away because of it. I can still act upon those impulses, but there's now something within me that recognizes the difference between taking a risk and pointlessly getting myself killed.
Time will tell whether these changes are bad, worse, or somehow even more horrifying than simply dying in the end.
Considering everything that's happened to me so far, I can't exactly rule out the possibility that death might eventually seem like the preferable outcome. For now, though, all I can really do is live with these changes and see what they eventually turn me into.