Now that I don’t have a squishy human to keep alive, I can explore the paths offered to me to my heart’s content. There is power beyond anything I can currently access here; the three properly-formed Titan paths that my previous venture offered me are proof enough of that.
This is, I realize, the first time I’ve been alone in my nullspace.
And I am alone. Thanks to the sudden surge of Titan energy alongside Sierra’s plight last time, I didn’t even realize, but RI1 is gone. Somehow, the other experiment managed to Adapt to the nullspace and leave.
I… don’t know if I should be worried about that, but it’s not like there’s anything else I can do about it. The objective I received to kill him doesn’t tell me where he is, which means that my only path is, as usual, to advance.
And here I am, standing within a pocket world scintillating with colors that only I can see. Even Sierra’s manasight showed her nothing more than oppressive darkness with beams of annihilating light slicing through their centers.
Alone, I can relax. Alone, the nullspace is different.
Colors beyond the visual spectrum play over my vision, only fading slightly when I close my eyes because the colors are mine—because they are me. This nullspace is tied into me intrinsically, so much so that I have no interface with which to exercise it as a skill—it simply is.
Once again, I set myself to Devouring what remains of my fallen fellow proto-Titan.
This time, I sense the colors beyond sight twisting, twirling, sending me down the strings of fate and Titans.
I give into the paths, moving past the ones that Scintilla, Sersui, and Inome itself have offered. They’re all powerful in their own right, but their primary benefits stem from the incredible power they offer in my nullspace. I need more than that. Descent unto the Void can bring people in here, but without the Category 5 power I briefly wielded in my Equalized proto-Titan form, I know I won’t be able to use it against the foes that actually matter.
RI1. Alexander Callen. Sapphire.
Why is it that I kill and kill and kill but the forces arrayed against me can only grow stronger? It’s like trying to catch water with a sieve.
I need the tools to plug the holes.
Path of the Burning Sky
The Burning Sky sears. It chokes. It incinerates. It suffocates. It will not stop until there is nothing left to burn.
Grants the Fire magic affinity at 8th level.
Grants the Air magic affinity at 8th level.
Grants the Light That Burns the Heavens special skill.
Grants the Dynakinesis skill.
Nullspace alteration: The Burning Sky. There is no breathable air in your nullspace. Any gas in your nullspace (including non-volatile gases) are perpetually aflame.
Magic (Power), Magic (Regen), and Magic (Meta) increase at 4x their previous rate.
As before, I witness scenes of utter devastation. A burning phoenix the size of a village annihilates towns with its mere presence. The air hundreds of miles away becomes unbreathable. In an instant, it kills tens of thousands; in a minute, it kills ten times that.
This path, just like the three I’ve already seen, is undeniably powerful. Massive increases to my attribute growth alongside new affinities—any of these paths would make me unstoppable in the Seven Kingdoms.
But it’s not what I need. The Seven Kingdoms aren’t where my ambitions stop.
…are they?
I’m whisked away before I can consider it more.
Path of the Neverending Night
Of the sapient species, it is only the deep dwellers that have never learned to fear the dark. Those who survive the Neverending Night gain this understanding. Living beings fear the unknown; so, too, do they fear that which they know too well. The night, of course, is fear itself.
Grants the Darkness magic affinity at 9th level.
Grants the Everywhere and Nowhere special skill.
Grants the Scotokinesis skill.
Nullspace alteration: The Neverending Night. Any creature in your nullspace will be faced by its greatest fear. If it fears nothing or learns to overcome its fear, it will be taught how to fear anew.
Mind (Speed) and Mind (Resistance) increase at 5x their previous rate.
Night falls upon a floating capital city—one of the skyfolk’s. It does not stop.
When the Titan of the Neverending Night chooses to leave, every last being in the once-proud fortress city lies catatonic, suspended in midair.
This is not my path.
The thought frustrates me. Every one of these paths is amazing. They expand the range, versatility, and sheer power of the capabilities I have.
And yet, somehow, I know this isn’t what I want.
So what is it that I do want?
I was born with one truth to my name. I carved out another in red.
I advance. I kill.
Is that all I am? I don’t even know what Sapphire intended for me. I am a being of unparalleled growth, according to her. By all rights, I should be proving that statement true with every passing second.
That can’t be all. Sapphire has shown too much foresight to have not seen an eventuality like this coming.
It’s such a strange question to be asking myself.
I can’t stop the threads of power from sending me to the next Path, but I barely pay attention to this one, only recording it in my memory so I know what I have been offered.
Path of the Living City
Path of the Empty Void
Path of the Fallen Angels
The Path of the Fallen Angels, contrary to my expectations, does not involve Divine and Demonic magical affinities. Instead, it utilizes Divine and Darkness affinities, both which would be given to me at 8th level.
It’s a curiosity, but I can tell it’s not what I want.
Path of the Ceaseless Storm
Path of the Restless Undead
Path of the Blood Ocean
This one, I actually consider. Blood has always been my element, after all—but after a few seconds of thinking about it, I find myself unable to commit to it, and I continue observing.
The Paths start blurring together. I witness devastation in a dozen different forms. I watch humans, elves, skyfolk, deep dwellers, and races I didn’t know existed die in ways I couldn’t have come up with in a year.
And none of it sates me. None of it is right.
Seventeen Paths come and go, and I choose none of them.
To my surprise, there is an eighteenth.
Path of the Forgotten Realm
The Forgotten Realm has ____ _________. ____ ___ _______ ____ ____ __ _________ _______.
Grants the Antimemetic magic affinity at 9th level.
Grants the Forget-me-not special skill.
Grants the Antimemetic trait at Sapphire.
Nullspace alteration: ___ _________ _____. ___ ___ _____ ___ ____ __ ______ ___ ___ ______ _______.
Magic (Power) increases at 10x its previous rate.
This one intrigues me even more than the one that seems suited to my existing skillset. The ability to simply be forgotten by anyone, even the one I’m killing, is tempting.
And yet, somehow… it’s still not enough. I’m sure I could kill Callen with this. RI1… I don’t know if anything can kill him.
Deep in my soul, I know that Sapphire wouldn’t fall to this.
I push it away like I have the rest.
No new paths present themselves to me. The swirling colors are more muted now—not gone, but waiting. The only sound present is the echoing roar of my still-active Devour as I crunch away at Inome’s outer layers.
I ponder my choices, though my mind keeps on coming back to the last option.
There are sixteen observed Titans. The existence of this Path implies a seventeenth, doesn’t it? One that nobody’s noticed? I wonder if anyone even remembers the people who died—
Oh. I think I get it now. That gut feeling as to why these aren’t strong enough.
Every single one of the Paths I’ve been offered have been mockeries of another’s power. There are seventeen Titans, and each one of these options is the beginning to becoming a lesser form of one of them.
I have, without failure, always carved my own path. I am designed to carve my own path.
So how do I do it here?
A path taken; many paths offered.
The same mysterious jumble of voices speak that line again. It tells me absolutely nothing.
I sit. I consume. I think.
Here in the nullspace, I am closer to myself than ever. It’s not a sensation that anyone with a proper soul would understand, but my soul has never been mine. It’s a carefully crafted construction that I painstakingly recreate each time I lose it, and it is a wholly different self from Evelyn Carnelian.
Yet in here, I feel that we are one and the same.
I stand. I devour. I question.
My amalgam is happy to attempt an answer.
“The worldline. The wills of the gods. The Voice. The system. Names for this phenomenon vary across the world, but everyone knows what it is. Today, I hope to challenge your assumptions on what, exactly, your system means.”
I raise my hand. “Isn’t it natural? Isn’t it simply part of being a living being?”
The teacher smiles. “Everyone thinks that, ________. Of course you think it’s normal. We’ve all lived with the system throughout our entire lives. It comes as naturally to us as breathing or sleeping.
“And yet, it isn’t. Recent groundbreaking discoveries indicate that there were times where magic was not practiced through the use of a system. Texts believed to be dating back—“
“Excuse me, Professor _______,” I interrupt. “I’ve heard of this. Those were—“
“Faked?” The professor interrupts me in turn. “Fabrications created by a world that wishes there was a time before the Titans? Before the anomalies?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know,” she says, “who spread the news that they were falsified? It was us. Tomorrow, I’ll introduce you to Raiza Willen, a Director of Disinformation.
“We are the UCC. We contain threats to this world. We die in the light of the truth so those we protect may live in the blissful dark.
“Now. Let’s continue. Have you ever wondered why, exactly, in a world where magical beasts are commonplace, we define certain beings as ‘anomalies?’”
This one, I do know the answer to. “Beings that aren’t connected to the system. Ones that utilize magic, but cannot or will not be categorized properly by the system.”
“That is correct. We have spent centuries focusing on the ‘how.’ How to contain anomalies. How to kill them. How to ensure they never threaten another living soul. Now, however, I want to understand why. Why can anomalies exist? Why does the system not cover them?
“And if the system doesn’t apply to some, why does it apply to us?”
The scene changes, a blurry impression of an office giving way to something much clearer.
Glass tubes full of blood. Pristine white walls, untouched by battle.
Sapphire stands in front of one of the tubes, tapping the glass. Nobody else is here with her—with us—so it’s dead silent.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Each impact of nail against test tube echoes through the lab just long enough for the sound to die down before she does it again.
The half-elf turns to look at me. Her beauty, unearthly as always, seems deadlier now. Sharper.
Slowly, Sapphire’s lips stretch into a grin.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Look at this,” she says. “Look at you.”
The blood inside the tube burbles, and suddenly, I realize which one she’s standing in front of.
EV3, the label indicates. Inside, a misshapen ball of flesh contorts on itself as machinery manipulates it, stretching it out into a vessel that can survive the conditions outside.
“Six weeks,” Sapphire says, laughing high and clear. Her laugh is a crystal bell ready to shatter into deadly, throat-slitting shards. “Six weeks for you to achieve what no other experiment has in six hundred years. We truly do live in tumultuous times.”
Tap. Tap. A pause. Tap.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you see this yet,” she says. “The time is not yet right.”
She steps towards me, and I step back.
Or, at least, I try to. My body is frozen.
“My sweet, sweet little demon girl,” Sapphire says, getting so close to me that all I can see is her face.
I can’t feel her breath.
She leans in, touching her forehead to mine.
It’s not like it is with Sierra. There’s no mutual benefit here. No emotion driving this interaction but a mixture of hatred and fear. A connection forms, and it is for her only.
“Excise,” she commands, and a burning, crippling pain ignites within my skull.
I can’t see. It hurts. Broken gods, it hurts. Pain Resistance is either doing nothing or it’s just not enough to stem it, and I don’t know which truth is scarier.
I am lesser than I was a moment ago, but not in power. There is power aplenty waiting for me.
Sapphire is waiting for me.
“I look forward,” she says, “to working with you.”
Something tears straight out of my mind, and everything goes white.
I return to the Wastelands in a pool of blood.
A tear tracks its way down my cheek.
“Broken gods,” Sierra gasps, enveloping me in a hug. The pain fades as Sierra grimaces, taking on a fraction of it for herself. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I… lost something.”
Is it lost, when the memory was never mine to begin with?
The question is academic.
Though she may have created me with her desires in mind, Sapphire will not stop me. I refuse to let her control me.
And she’s given me more than she thinks she has. She takes, and inadverdently, she reveals.
That part of the amalgam is gone now, lost forever in a way that I can’t control.
That means I was on the right path. The origins of the system. The power that thrums through the Titans. They’re all interconnected.
“I think,” I say, “that I’m on the cusp of something. A discovery. Something that can break it all down.”
Sierra has no idea what I’m talking about. How could she?
“Then let’s break it all down together,” she says, touching her forehead to mine. “If you walk into the hells, I will follow.”
My system, its origins unknown.
My creator, her ultimate plans a mystery.
With the scant few leads I have, I have to find my truths.
My partner, her devotion inexplicable.
Together, we will break everything.
Together or alone, I will kill Sapphire.
Now that I don’t have a squishy human to keep alive, I can explore the paths offered to me to my heart’s content. There is power beyond anything I can currently access here; the three properly-formed Titan paths that my previous venture offered me are proof enough of that.
This is, I realize, the first time I’ve been alone in my nullspace.
And I am alone. Thanks to the sudden surge of Titan energy alongside Sierra’s plight last time, I didn’t even realize, but RI1 is gone. Somehow, the other experiment managed to Adapt to the nullspace and leave.
I… don’t know if I should be worried about that, but it’s not like there’s anything else I can do about it. The objective I received to kill him doesn’t tell me where he is, which means that my only path is, as usual, to advance.
And here I am, standing within a pocket world scintillating with colors that only I can see. Even Sierra’s manasight showed her nothing more than oppressive darkness with beams of annihilating light slicing through their centers.
Alone, I can relax. Alone, the nullspace is different.
Colors beyond the visual spectrum play over my vision, only fading slightly when I close my eyes because the colors are mine—because they are me. This nullspace is tied into me intrinsically, so much so that I have no interface with which to exercise it as a skill—it simply is.
Once again, I set myself to Devouring what remains of my fallen fellow proto-Titan.
This time, I sense the colors beyond sight twisting, twirling, sending me down the strings of fate and Titans.
I give into the paths, moving past the ones that Scintilla, Sersui, and Inome itself have offered. They’re all powerful in their own right, but their primary benefits stem from the incredible power they offer in my nullspace. I need more than that. Descent unto the Void can bring people in here, but without the Category 5 power I briefly wielded in my Equalized proto-Titan form, I know I won’t be able to use it against the foes that actually matter.
RI1. Alexander Callen. Sapphire.
Why is it that I kill and kill and kill but the forces arrayed against me can only grow stronger? It’s like trying to catch water with a sieve.
I need the tools to plug the holes.
Path of the Burning Sky
The Burning Sky sears. It chokes. It incinerates. It suffocates. It will not stop until there is nothing left to burn.
Grants the Fire magic affinity at 8th level.
Grants the Air magic affinity at 8th level.
Grants the Light That Burns the Heavens special skill.
Grants the Dynakinesis skill.
Nullspace alteration: The Burning Sky. There is no breathable air in your nullspace. Any gas in your nullspace (including non-volatile gases) are perpetually aflame.
Magic (Power), Magic (Regen), and Magic (Meta) increase at 4x their previous rate.
As before, I witness scenes of utter devastation. A burning phoenix the size of a village annihilates towns with its mere presence. The air hundreds of miles away becomes unbreathable. In an instant, it kills tens of thousands; in a minute, it kills ten times that.
This path, just like the three I’ve already seen, is undeniably powerful. Massive increases to my attribute growth alongside new affinities—any of these paths would make me unstoppable in the Seven Kingdoms.
But it’s not what I need. The Seven Kingdoms aren’t where my ambitions stop.
…are they?
I’m whisked away before I can consider it more.
Path of the Neverending Night
Of the sapient species, it is only the deep dwellers that have never learned to fear the dark. Those who survive the Neverending Night gain this understanding. Living beings fear the unknown; so, too, do they fear that which they know too well. The night, of course, is fear itself.
Grants the Darkness magic affinity at 9th level.
Grants the Everywhere and Nowhere special skill.
Grants the Scotokinesis skill.
Nullspace alteration: The Neverending Night. Any creature in your nullspace will be faced by its greatest fear. If it fears nothing or learns to overcome its fear, it will be taught how to fear anew.
Mind (Speed) and Mind (Resistance) increase at 5x their previous rate.
Night falls upon a floating capital city—one of the skyfolk’s. It does not stop.
When the Titan of the Neverending Night chooses to leave, every last being in the once-proud fortress city lies catatonic, suspended in midair.
This is not my path.
The thought frustrates me. Every one of these paths is amazing. They expand the range, versatility, and sheer power of the capabilities I have.
And yet, somehow, I know this isn’t what I want.
So what is it that I do want?
I was born with one truth to my name. I carved out another in red.
I advance. I kill.
Is that all I am? I don’t even know what Sapphire intended for me. I am a being of unparalleled growth, according to her. By all rights, I should be proving that statement true with every passing second.
That can’t be all. Sapphire has shown too much foresight to have not seen an eventuality like this coming.
It’s such a strange question to be asking myself.
I can’t stop the threads of power from sending me to the next Path, but I barely pay attention to this one, only recording it in my memory so I know what I have been offered.
Path of the Living City
Path of the Empty Void
Path of the Fallen Angels
The Path of the Fallen Angels, contrary to my expectations, does not involve Divine and Demonic magical affinities. Instead, it utilizes Divine and Darkness affinities, both which would be given to me at 8th level.
It’s a curiosity, but I can tell it’s not what I want.
Path of the Ceaseless Storm
Path of the Restless Undead
Path of the Blood Ocean
This one, I actually consider. Blood has always been my element, after all—but after a few seconds of thinking about it, I find myself unable to commit to it, and I continue observing.
The Paths start blurring together. I witness devastation in a dozen different forms. I watch humans, elves, skyfolk, deep dwellers, and races I didn’t know existed die in ways I couldn’t have come up with in a year.
And none of it sates me. None of it is right.
Seventeen Paths come and go, and I choose none of them.
To my surprise, there is an eighteenth.
Path of the Forgotten Realm
The Forgotten Realm has ____ _________. ____ ___ _______ ____ ____ __ _________ _______.
Grants the Antimemetic magic affinity at 9th level.
Grants the Forget-me-not special skill.
Grants the Antimemetic trait at Sapphire.
Nullspace alteration: ___ _________ _____. ___ ___ _____ ___ ____ __ ______ ___ ___ ______ _______.
Magic (Power) increases at 10x its previous rate.
This one intrigues me even more than the one that seems suited to my existing skillset. The ability to simply be forgotten by anyone, even the one I’m killing, is tempting.
And yet, somehow… it’s still not enough. I’m sure I could kill Callen with this. RI1… I don’t know if anything can kill him.
Deep in my soul, I know that Sapphire wouldn’t fall to this.
I push it away like I have the rest.
No new paths present themselves to me. The swirling colors are more muted now—not gone, but waiting. The only sound present is the echoing roar of my still-active Devour as I crunch away at Inome’s outer layers.
I ponder my choices, though my mind keeps on coming back to the last option.
There are sixteen observed Titans. The existence of this Path implies a seventeenth, doesn’t it? One that nobody’s noticed? I wonder if anyone even remembers the people who died—
Oh. I think I get it now. That gut feeling as to why these aren’t strong enough.
Every single one of the Paths I’ve been offered have been mockeries of another’s power. There are seventeen Titans, and each one of these options is the beginning to becoming a lesser form of one of them.
I have, without failure, always carved my own path. I am designed to carve my own path.
So how do I do it here?
A path taken; many paths offered.
The same mysterious jumble of voices speak that line again. It tells me absolutely nothing.
I sit. I consume. I think.
Here in the nullspace, I am closer to myself than ever. It’s not a sensation that anyone with a proper soul would understand, but my soul has never been mine. It’s a carefully crafted construction that I painstakingly recreate each time I lose it, and it is a wholly different self from Evelyn Carnelian.
Yet in here, I feel that we are one and the same.
I stand. I devour. I question.
My amalgam is happy to attempt an answer.
“The worldline. The wills of the gods. The Voice. The system. Names for this phenomenon vary across the world, but everyone knows what it is. Today, I hope to challenge your assumptions on what, exactly, your system means.”
I raise my hand. “Isn’t it natural? Isn’t it simply part of being a living being?”
The teacher smiles. “Everyone thinks that, ________. Of course you think it’s normal. We’ve all lived with the system throughout our entire lives. It comes as naturally to us as breathing or sleeping.
“And yet, it isn’t. Recent groundbreaking discoveries indicate that there were times where magic was not practiced through the use of a system. Texts believed to be dating back—“
“Excuse me, Professor _______,” I interrupt. “I’ve heard of this. Those were—“
“Faked?” The professor interrupts me in turn. “Fabrications created by a world that wishes there was a time before the Titans? Before the anomalies?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know,” she says, “who spread the news that they were falsified? It was us. Tomorrow, I’ll introduce you to Raiza Willen, a Director of Disinformation.
“We are the UCC. We contain threats to this world. We die in the light of the truth so those we protect may live in the blissful dark.
“Now. Let’s continue. Have you ever wondered why, exactly, in a world where magical beasts are commonplace, we define certain beings as ‘anomalies?’”
This one, I do know the answer to. “Beings that aren’t connected to the system. Ones that utilize magic, but cannot or will not be categorized properly by the system.”
“That is correct. We have spent centuries focusing on the ‘how.’ How to contain anomalies. How to kill them. How to ensure they never threaten another living soul. Now, however, I want to understand why. Why can anomalies exist? Why does the system not cover them?
“And if the system doesn’t apply to some, why does it apply to us?”
The scene changes, a blurry impression of an office giving way to something much clearer.
Glass tubes full of blood. Pristine white walls, untouched by battle.
Sapphire stands in front of one of the tubes, tapping the glass. Nobody else is here with her—with us—so it’s dead silent.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Each impact of nail against test tube echoes through the lab just long enough for the sound to die down before she does it again.
The half-elf turns to look at me. Her beauty, unearthly as always, seems deadlier now. Sharper.
Slowly, Sapphire’s lips stretch into a grin.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Look at this,” she says. “Look at you.”
The blood inside the tube burbles, and suddenly, I realize which one she’s standing in front of.
EV3, the label indicates. Inside, a misshapen ball of flesh contorts on itself as machinery manipulates it, stretching it out into a vessel that can survive the conditions outside.
“Six weeks,” Sapphire says, laughing high and clear. Her laugh is a crystal bell ready to shatter into deadly, throat-slitting shards. “Six weeks for you to achieve what no other experiment has in six hundred years. We truly do live in tumultuous times.”
Tap. Tap. A pause. Tap.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you see this yet,” she says. “The time is not yet right.”
She steps towards me, and I step back.
Or, at least, I try to. My body is frozen.
“My sweet, sweet little demon girl,” Sapphire says, getting so close to me that all I can see is her face.
I can’t feel her breath.
She leans in, touching her forehead to mine.
It’s not like it is with Sierra. There’s no mutual benefit here. No emotion driving this interaction but a mixture of hatred and fear. A connection forms, and it is for her only.
“Excise,” she commands, and a burning, crippling pain ignites within my skull.
I can’t see. It hurts. Broken gods, it hurts. Pain Resistance is either doing nothing or it’s just not enough to stem it, and I don’t know which truth is scarier.
I am lesser than I was a moment ago, but not in power. There is power aplenty waiting for me.
Sapphire is waiting for me.
“I look forward,” she says, “to working with you.”
Something tears straight out of my mind, and everything goes white.
I return to the Wastelands in a pool of blood.
A tear tracks its way down my cheek.
“Broken gods,” Sierra gasps, enveloping me in a hug. The pain fades as Sierra grimaces, taking on a fraction of it for herself. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I… lost something.”
Is it lost, when the memory was never mine to begin with?
The question is academic.
Though she may have created me with her desires in mind, Sapphire will not stop me. I refuse to let her control me.
And she’s given me more than she thinks she has. She takes, and inadverdently, she reveals.
That part of the amalgam is gone now, lost forever in a way that I can’t control.
That means I was on the right path. The origins of the system. The power that thrums through the Titans. They’re all interconnected.
“I think,” I say, “that I’m on the cusp of something. A discovery. Something that can break it all down.”
Sierra has no idea what I’m talking about. How could she?
“Then let’s break it all down together,” she says, touching her forehead to mine. “If you walk into the hells, I will follow.”
My system, its origins unknown.
My creator, her ultimate plans a mystery.
With the scant few leads I have, I have to find my truths.
My partner, her devotion inexplicable.
Together, we will break everything.
Together or alone, I will kill Sapphire.
