Winston's avatars had each developed a form of 'fake pathway' for themselves. Guided by the omnipotent shinsu, they had successfully emulated every pathway Winston could remember from the Lord of the Mysteries world.
When any avatar would die, alongside the beyonder characteristic, the developed powers were to be swept back to Winston's main body to be distributed again through his connections.
However, when seated inside the domain of Phantaminum, cut off from the outside world and unable to influence it using both Shinsu and Beyonder abilities alike, how could the powers possibly return?
Once each of his avatars died and the characteristics returned to him, the power was left behind, unstable and without an owner.
But then-
Booooom!
Who had claimed that nascent power?
Was it Enryu? Being the closest one to those powers, and being able to grow stronger through them, it was naturally the first thought that came to mind. But clearly, that was not what had happened.
"Sylvain!" Winston's lips stretched into a wide grin as he called out the name of the fish. He remembered to have left it with Tiara last time. As it wasn't an avatar created by Winston, it was not the target of the teleportation and the subsequent killing by the Enryu.
As each of Winston's returning beyonder characteristic still held some semblance of a consciousness; the first characteristic to have returned had, in turn, signalled the fish to follow the moment it escaped the domain of Enryu.
As a being inherently molded by spirituality pertaining to the Fool, Error and Door; stealing and travelling was practically in the fish's blood. Following the returning beyonder characteristics through the still open astral world was not a herculean task.
And to steal something that no longer has an owner?
Winston felt the surroundings turn illusory as a string of words began to appear in the air before the silver scaled shinhueh.
'As Phantaminum's domain began to crumble under the pressure of the innumerable doors that kept appearing inside a spacial gap, Sylvain appeared in the air; mounted atop a huge supercilious phantom.'
'The phantom figure resembled a storm of indistinct knowledge. In the split second Phantaminum's domain had been pried open; Winston's body, influenced by the pull of the collapsed space that soon turned into a space time storm - darted right towards the exit!'
'Winston smiled and did not attempt to resist. His small body flew through the domain and landed right behind Sylvain on a large stone tablet, covered with a red cloth!'
Phantaminum watched it was happen with a strange expression. In the next moment, he held out his hand and the world seemed to still. The words stopped their writing, struggling for a bit about what to come next.
Seeing this, Sylvain opened it's small mouth and proclaimed, "Story Alteration is prohibited here."
Just like that, the words crumbled, swept into the storm of knowledge that the fish was mounted upon. Behind the fish, Winston let out a wry smile.
The fish seemed to have become unusually smart. Using Visionary powers to throw me out. And when it realized they were no longer viable and could be influenced, it used the Justiciar's powers to seal both of them. Under the influence of the Sun, Dark Emperor, Abyss and the Hermit and Paragon, the effect of that proclamation that bound both was so proportionately increased... Fuck! It's better than me at using them! Winston silently lampooned in his heart but berated himself in the next moment. Now was not the time for these thoughts.
Phantaminum smiled lightly at the proclamation and Winston, looking down at the stone tablet below him did not hesitate.
He held out his hands and jumped off.
His small figure flew down from the spacial storm that had enveloped the space. It was one of the powers he had attained as a sequence 3 of the door pathway. He too could collapse space and make areas get swallowed by space time storms.
As he fell, he held out his arm and grasped a hold of the stone tablet, taking it with him.
In that moment, an image appeared in his mind. It was of the vision he had gotten about the theater. The images of the inverted Hanged Man and the Devil flashed past him.
Under the influence of Sylvain's power, the storm of pure knowledge enveloped Winston, shielding him from the power of the space time storm and carried him outside!
Feeling the normal wind upon his face once again, Winston looked around.
The storm of knowledge had been shredded and he was now falling down from the sky towards barren ground.
Shiiiiiiiiiii!
A blinding light flashed from above and the sky tore open. From inside, the large phantom of the axis was clearly visible. In front of it was the poor fish, doing it's best to buy Winston some time.
Winston's brows furrowed. Shinsu, as the axis had said, was a form of axis power; a power that could fulfil desires and remodel reality.
In essence, it too could be used to combat an axis. Although it wouldn't necessarily be able to defeat it.
That was the result Winston had reached with decryption. And since he was someone holding the mysteries pathways, he held some sway over fate and was not under the influence of Phantaminum. With increase in sequence, he only got stronger and stronger; shaking Phantaminum's control more and more until he could no longer hold on.
Phantaminum bore down with his hand that seemed to encompass the sky. Winston felt as if he was being targeted by the world itself.
Another image flashed by his eyes. The image of The Tower.
In just a few moments, the fish's body fell from the sky; dead.
It could evade death, come back to life in various forms. But it had already done so multiple times in front of the axis. This was all the time it could have bought.
Winston's expression turned cold as he looked up. Phantaminum tore through the sky and fell down; his speed almost frightening.
His relaxed expression said, 'You won't remove the restriction. You'll die if you do. The only one capable of doing so is me. There is nowhere to run or hide.'
And so, in the next moment, still feeling the wind rushing past his face and the ground getting ever closer; Winston took a hold of the spear lodged in his chest.
Phantaminum's eyes widened and his figure finally reached Winston.
In Winston's eyes, the final words lingered. 'Death is near.'
Meeting his eyes without fear, Winston pulled out the spear in a single motion.
Spurt!
...
And so, Winston exploded.
Boom!
Phantaminum stopped in the air, some blood and viscera having splattered on his face, looking confused over what he needed to do now.
"What was he thinking?" In whatever way the axis tried to think, he could not figure out Winston's thought process in killing himself so anticlimaticaly.
"Instead of killing yourself, isn't it better to be imprisoned for a few hundred years and then released? He was so reasonable until this point. Could it be that he thinks dying is better than to be imprisoned? But he only needed to have watched a couple of movies and enough time would have passed outside..." Indeed, Phantaminum was thoroughly confused.
The tablet covered in red cloth that was flowing in the air reached the ground.
Boom!
It made a small crater than kicked up a large swath of dust.
This was a place that lied between the gaps of the tower, not unlike the hidden civilisations Winston had found at some point. Here, the ground was chaotic and prone to moving by itself. Ravaged by intense shinsu flow, it was not a habitable place in the slightest.
As the dust cleared and the slate came into view, the shinsu flow around it threw off the red cloth.
And instantly, the first line inscribed on it came to life.
'This place is suitable for rebirth.'
Instantly, a shift went through the air.
Phantaminum who was about to turn back and watch more movies suddenly looked down at the ground. Slowly, his eyes began to widen.
The second line came to life.
'This place is suitable for 'new life.''
Again, the same change.
Phantaminum didn't wait anymore.
His figure instantly swept into the space and appeared at the head of the stone tablet. Holding out his fist, he tried to destroy the tablet then and there!
But alas, it was too late. The final line came to life at the last moment.
'This space is suitable for the return of beyonder characteristics.'
He did not end up striking. Because right before it, something happened.
Slowly, a smile seemed to bloom upon Phantaminum's lips as he looked towards the 'sky.'
"So that's how it is, huh."
From high above, somewhere infinitely higher than where he stood, Phantaminum felt an invisible pressure descend down and slam right into him.
He gritted his teeth slightly. Innumerable whispers that he had never heard before began to ring into his ears and the world seemed to be covered by a dense gray fog.
In the end, he looked right before him. In the space where the stone tablet rested, above it innumerable spheres of light began to coalesce, collapsing inwards and attempting to undergo a qualitative change.
The spheres of light each seemed to reflect the images of doors, worms and puppets that further connected to the fog that seemed to permeate the world.
In the next moment, a skeleton formed and organs appeared inside it. Soon, skin overlapped the muscles and the naked figure grew hair.
Phantaminum tried his best to break out of this invisible suppression, but to his dismay; he found that his status as a axis was being suppressed. Reality turned illusory and all tributaries of the river of fate turned away from his 'destined outcome.' Without it, he was unable to act in any meaningful way.
Finally as Winston opened his eyes, the gray fog seeped into his body. And his beyonder characteristics returned.
Garments soon appeared over his figure; a royal blue gabardine suit. His worms too had been regenerated as he resurrected from his 'true death.' Instinctively, he now knew he only has two more chances to rebirth until he advanced to sequence 2.
With a smile, Winston stretched out his hand and his arm sank into the void. From history, he pulled out the nascent figure of a fish and a singular card.
Flipping the card over, he showed it to Phantaminum. It has the number '0' and 'The Fool' was boldly written on it.
As the gray fog began to retreat, Winston spoke to the axis before him.
"Let's start from the top, shall we?"
...
A/N: I turned out to be satisfied with this chapter. These are turning out a bit differently than what I imagined for them but that's alright I guess. Anyways, the third volume was the one I had thought about the most since I started writing this book; so the ending will probably not be rushed.
Anyways, throw some stones.
Cheers~