Atlantis Empire — Imperial Guest Rooms.
The summoning chamber did not erupt again after that.
Instead, it emptied.
Orders were issued in hushed tones. Priests withdrew to begin deliberations, their earlier jubilation replaced by unease and hurried whispers. Guards resumed formation with rigid discipline, sealing away the ritual site as if silence itself were now a matter of security.
Kouki and Null were escorted from the chamber soon after.
A contingent of imperial guards led the way through the inner corridors of the Atlantis Palace, their armored footsteps echoing rhythmically against polished stone. The halls were vast and immaculate—arched ceilings inlaid with luminous veins of mana, walls adorned with reliefs depicting ancient victories and divine covenants.
Kouki walked at the front, head held high.
The attention lingered on him. Guards glanced his way with reverence thinly veiled beneath discipline, some offering subtle nods of acknowledgment. The status of Otherworldly Hero clung to him like a mantle, and he wore it openly, a faint, self-satisfied smile playing at his lips.
Null followed a step behind.
No one looked at him for long.
When they did, it was with uncertainty rather than reverence—furtive glances, quickly averted. To the palace staff, he was an anomaly, a summoned existence without proof of worth, his presence neither celebrated nor condemned.
Silence accompanied him.
At last, they reached the imperial guest wing.
"This will be your temporary residence," an imperial knight announced. "Until further instructions are given."
The guards divided.
Kouki was escorted to the room on the right.
Null to the left.
Kouki paused briefly at his threshold, glancing sideways with a confident smirk. "Guess we'll be neighbors," he said lightly, before stepping inside without waiting for a response.
Null said nothing.
He entered his own assigned room as the doors slid shut behind him with a muted chime.
****
Null sat on the edge of the bed, its silken surface barely creasing beneath his weight.
The imperial guest room was silent—too silent.
Before him, suspended in the air, was a white screen.
Its surface was flat and featureless, bordered by nothing, as though a fragment of another reality had been peeled away and placed before his eyes. Black letters flowed across it in steady succession, appearing and vanishing without sound.
[Initializing Ultimate Ability: Fantasy Omnicience]
[Fantasy Omniscience =
A transcendental, system-like AI that grants the user access to conceptual awareness.]
[This intelligence is capable of processing infinite volumes of information, loading existential narratives by interpreting existence itself as a readable construct rather than a fixed reality.]
«Core Function»
° Akashic Omniscient View;
(To read is to understand. To understand is to transcend.)
Akashic Omniscient View allows the user to generate, access, and interpret a novelized construct of any existential reality based on its true timeline.
Effects:
• Automatically compiles a complete narrative record of a target reality, individual, or event.
Includes:
• Past events (absolute, unaltered truth)
Present causal momentum
• Future outcomes that exist on confirmed timelines
• Excludes false possibilities, illusions, and fabricated destinies.
Output Format:
• Presented as a novel-like manuscript readable only by the user.
• Written in neutral, objective narration.
• Cannot be altered, edited, or falsified.
Restrictions
• Does not fabricate futures that have not yet collapsed into certainty.
• Divine concealment, fate manipulation, and prophecy interference are automatically bypassed.
Passive Effects:
• Immunity to narrative manipulation (fate rewriting, prophecy enforcement).
• Awareness of inconsistencies between "official history" and true events.
• Resistance to World-issued blessings, curses, and control systems.
«Sub-Fuctions»
* Existential Perception
The user can perceive:
• True names, states, and attributes of beings
• Hidden conditions, curses, contracts, and lies
• Whether information is withheld, altered, or unknown even to the World
• This perception ignores illusions, divine veils, fate manipulation, and false narratives.
* Self-Exclusion Clause (Unique Anomaly)
• The ability cannot fully observe the user.
• The user appears as a conceptual blind spot
• Self-directed omniscience returns paradox warnings
• Prevents self-erasure, cognitive collapse, madness, or forced correction by the World.]
His dark red eyes followed the text with quiet focus, reading every line as it passed.
"…Fantasy Omniscience? Interesting," Null muttered.
Null leaned back slightly, eyes never leaving the floating screen.
"Fantasy Omniscience," he repeated. "You really didn't hold back on the naming, did you?"
The letters paused..
Then, deliberately, new text appeared.
[Designation optimized for accuracy, not aesthetics.]
"So that's a yes."
He shifted on the bed, crossing his arms. "Let me guess. You're going to call me User and speak exclusively in brackets."
A brief delay.
[…Affirmative.]
"…Wow. Riveting personality."
The screen flickered, as if offended.
[Correction: I possess no personality.]
[I possess function.]
"Uh-huh," Null said dryly. "That's what all emotionally unavailable intelligences say."
Another pause—longer this time.
[Humor detected.]
[Classification: Inefficient but tolerable.]
Null blinked. "…Did you just judge my joke?"
[Yes.]
He let out a quiet laugh. "Great. I finally get a superpower and it comes with a sarcastic narrator."
[I am not sarcastic.]
[I am precise.]
"Sure you are," Null replied. "So tell me, Precise, what is an ultimate ability? How is it different from a sacred gift"
[Sacred Gifts, by contrast, are abilities bestowed by the World upon otherworlders—functional counterparts to the unique abilities naturally awakened by the denizens of this world.]
[Ultimate Abilities are the Nine Singularities of Divine Authority.]
Null's eyes narrowed slightly. "Singularities… as in?"
[As in irreducible authorities.]
The text continued, its cadence calm, absolute.
[At the dawn of structured existence, The 'True Divinity' isolated his omnipotent divine authority and fragmented it into nine Singularities, which were conceptualized into nine Ultimate Abilities.]
[Some were bestowed upon specific individuals and The remainder were scattered across the world, free to observe and choose their own masters.]
"Wait, wait, wait. True Divinity? Omnipotent divine authority? Isn't this kind of information… end-game stuff?"
He exhaled sharply and shot the floating screen a skeptical look.
"Just to be clear—you really are omniscient?"
[Yes.]
A beat.
"That means you know everything there is to know about the existential world."
[Correct.]
Null frowned. "Everything as in… everything?"
[As long as Master asks, I can manuscript all knowledge from the cosmos' inception to its eventual finality.]
Silence.
Null slowly leaned back until his shoulders met the headboard.
"…You realize that's absurd, right?"
[Statement acknowledged.]
"No, I mean dangerously absurd," he continued. "That's the kind of knowledge that gets protagonists erased, sealed, or 'tragically sacrificed for balance."
[Narrative tropes identified.]
[Probability of such outcomes: high for standard observers.]
Null groaned. "Great. Fantastic. So why am I not dead yet?"
The text paused—just long enough to be noticeable.
[Because you are not a standard observer.]
Null's eyes narrowed. "Define 'standard.'"
[A standard observer is an entity fully contained within the World's narrative framework.]
[You are not.]
"…That doesn't help."
[Clarification:]
[You possess a Self-Exclusion Clause.]
[Fantasy Omniscience cannot fully observe you.]
[The World cannot fully observe you.]
[Causality cannot conclusively define you.]
Null stared.
"So I'm a blind spot."
[Correct.]
He rubbed his temples. "Let me get this straight. You can write the entire history of this world like a novel—including its future—"
[Confirmed timelines only.]
"—and yet you can't tell me what I become?"
[Correct.]
Null let out a short, incredulous laugh. "Wow. I'm the one thing even omniscience can't spoil."
[Accurate.]
"You systems really need a course in emotional phrasing."
[Emotion is not required for comprehension.]
"Maybe not for you," Null muttered. "Some of us like a little cushioning before existential revelations."
[Noted.]
[Adjusting interaction tone: +12% consideration.]
Null blinked again. "You can do that?"
[Yes.]
"…Huh. That's actually kind of cute."
The screen froze.
[Statement flagged as inappropriate.]
Null laughed outright this time. "Relax. If you're going to live in my head, we're setting ground rules."
[Listening.]
"Rule one," he said, counting on his fingers.
"No ominous countdowns unless the world is actually ending."
[Accepted.]
"Rule two: if something horrifying is about to happen, give me a summary first. I don't need a full tragic novel before breakfast."
[Accepted with reservations.]
"And rule three—no spoilers unless I ask."
A pause.
[Affirmed]
"So tell me," Null said, tilting his head slightly. "Miss Fantasy Omniscience—are all Ultimate Abilities this broken?"
[No. Only me.]
"…Huh?" Null blinked.
"Only you? Then does that mean you're special even among the Nine Ultimate Abilities?"
[Incorrect.]
Null frowned. "Then why are you so absurdly broken?"
[Because {Fantasy Omniscience} is not one of the Nine Ultimate Abilities.]
"What?" Null gasped. "But didn't you proclaim yourself an Ultimate Ability during initiation?"
I'm an ultimate ability but not part of the nine ultimate abilities]
Null's breath caught. "Then… what are you?"
[Classified Information.]
"…You literally just said you'd tell me anything."
[Correct.]
"Then—"
[Unless the inquiry pertains to the secrets of {Fantasy Omniscience}.]
[Disclosure of my own conception is prohibited.]
Null stared at the floating text.
"…So," he said slowly, "the all-knowing system has a privacy policy."
[Correct.]
Instead of frustration, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Null's lips.
"Interesting," he murmured. "That makes you even more interesting."
Just then—
A knock echoed from the door.