The sound was growing louder too. Or maybe his senses were simply getting used to the lack of anything else in this place, Fen couldn't actually tell. But now that he could hear more of it he was positive that it was a voice.
It sounded almost human, with an ethereal aspect to it. The voice was androgynous; Fen couldn't tell if the voice resembled a male or a female more. If it didn't seem so creepy, then Fen might even describe the voice as beautiful. Every sound it made was like an elegant song, filled with emotion and intent. Too bad he never studied music; the only thing he could decipher from the voice was an endless longing, but he didn't know the cause of it.
He could only listen as the voice grew louder and more decipherable. Just when it was about to reach the minimum sound requirement for his ears to pick up, a clear and pretty genderless voice whispered into his ears.
[Come to me. You're no longer needed over there... You can be safe with me.] His body shivered from the suddenness of the sound, but when Fen expanded his senses around him there was only darkness surrounding him. He couldn't see the origin of the voice nor could he see where he even was. The way it entered his ears was very similar to how Dey sounded to him, like it had to be translated to be sensed by his hearing organs.
[Why do you struggle so much? I've lived much longer than you, and it doesn't get much better than this. It only gets worse the longer you survive.] The voice didn't pierce his mind or anything, only remaining at a calm level sensual to his ears. Fen was no novice when it came to mind-altering magic; he had experienced it twice at the facility during the Program. Once during the introduction speech before the Initiation, and again after it. Through those experiences, he became able to pick up on the subtle use of magic to manipulate his emotions and logic.
And yet, despite his ability, Fen didn't sense any kind of magic. The only thing he could sense was the constant change in the voice's tone, from sadness to anger, from grief to acceptance, and from rejection to endless love. The voice didn't make any biological sense, the tone shifted in between every syllable the voice made.
[You have no choice but to entrust your life upon others, hoping that they won't betray you. Deion the Lost, the Void God... He means well, but his goals for you are very different from your own. I understand your feelings of trust in him, but you shouldn't completely expose yourself to him.] The voice continued on speaking by itself, not waiting for a response. [I don't know you, Fen Altairus, but I can understand you. I understand you're suffering, the struggle you go through. How could I not?]
Fen's mental consciousness stirred at her words. They understood him? How? Who were they?
As wary as he was curious about the voice, he continued to search for any sort of malicious intent hidden inside the voice but failed to find anything. But their words were too strange... How could they know both him and Dey?
[And Raisen York, the Unique. And unique he is, even I am forced to say that he is very special. Unique, even when considering the vastness of the known universes. You lack the experience to comprehend the vastness of that title, but you won't always be so young and naïve. However, despite his comical and silly nature you should not underestimate him. You do not know him like I do. I know him even more than I know you. The people that he's killed is not a small number, Fen.]
'The Unique'? Who the hell was this person, to speak of both Dey and Raisen like they knew them? The only person that should connect the two of them would be himself, and he for sure didn't have a voice as pretty as that... unless the change brought by his Vitul nature was changing a lot more than he previously thought.
[You wonder why I know these things, but your question is too small. Learn to see the bigger picture. Your sense of reality is restricted by your perspective. Don't you already understand where you are? Surely, from the moment you arrived you began to realize it. Do not deny it. Denying your own realization is the same as denying me, and I will not allow you to live in ignorance for any longer.]
The voice was right. As soon as his perspective shifted into his dark place, he already gained a major clue; he shifted immediately after the memory ended, when Edmond died. When Fen first went through the changes of being a Vitul, the first being that he killed was a Lesser Dragon. Through it's viewpoint, Fen felt death.
'No wonder this place felt familiar to my senses. Is this place...?'
[Good. I knew you were clever.] Fen could hear the smile in their voice. [Now, put it all together. Who am I, if I am in the place where death resides?]
'Of course, you must be Death... but that doesn't make much sense. how could something like death be alive? That's like saying that war is alive in a human form.' Fen pondered.
[While it doesn't make sense to you right now, it is true. Anything is possible in the infinite universe. At this moment, I am the first to have spoken to you without lying in a long time, isn't that right? Dey, Raisen, Ellora, your peer Amelia, even your precious Miko... You realize it too. That they're hiding something from you. While they hide their intentions, I am completely honest with what I want and desire.]
Ripples spread across Fen's mental consciousness as he unconsciously reacted and tried to deny their words. But he knew ever since he met Dey that the God wasn't being entirely truthful with him. Tiny details in his story that didn't add up that made Fen doubt his words. Even if he meant well, Fen didn't care about that; he just wanted to understand what was happening around him, to have some semblance of control of his surroundings.
'But if they're telling the truth, then how's Miko lying to me? No, that doesn't even make any sense. We never lied to each other. I trust her...' All the same, a seed of doubt imbedded itself into his chest, much to Death's joy.
'And what do you want?' Fen asked, wanting to confirm the theory building up in his heart.
Although he couldn't see it, he felt them smile. It was like the darkness around him suddenly changed shades into something brighter. For a moment, it was like a thin layer peeled off the universe and showed him the principles that all the universes were built upon.
[I want you, Fen.] Their words rang true. [I have awoken only a short while ago, and I already tire of watching watching others. You are the only one who can entertain me, the only one that makes me feel anything. It's not everyday a young Vitul strays into my vision...] At this moment a thunderous roar sounded around him, shattering the reality of darkness that wrapped around him. Suddenly, the world around Fen became much clearer and it was like a weight was lifted on his mind, allowing him to think clearly.
[Fennn! Stop holding onto him, you fucker!] With a pop and sparkle of bright black energy, the figure of Dey's energy form entered Death's realm. Immediately, Fen felt the Void God place himself in front of his consciousness and create a shield of energy around him.
After a moment, the reason behind the shield's creation revealed itself as thick tendrils of energy spiraled towards Dey uncaring about the vulnerable consciousness shivering beside him. The shield vibrated as it managed to endure Death's attacks, but many thin hair-like cracks were already starting to form within the energy shield.
[You dare enter my space?] Death growled.
Deion snorted and sent a burst of energy outwards, shattering the seemingly unstoppable attacks aiming for him in their tracks as his manifestation started blazing with energy. The shield flickered and disappeared as the Void God took back the energy he used to maintain it. All of a sudden, Fen started to understand why a God was labeled as higher beings.
[You are far too young to carry delusions of victory against me. This universe has barely reawakened itself from the last attempt at Transitioning, and you lack the strength to enforce your petty goals. You can't even defeat me, much less misguide a youngster like him!] Dey angrily snarled.
[My power is more than enough to deal with a mere manifestation, Deion the Lost. Is your real body stuck dealing with her even now, centuries later? And yet you mock my power...]
Rather than talking more, Dey's body shivered and disappeared, and a mass of black energy replaced it. The mass shrunk and grew denser while still maintaining the same volume until it exploded. The blast was so intense that even though his real body wasn't there, Fen's consciousness could feel the effects from the powerful blast even in his spiritual form.
A roar sounded all around him and although the blast pushed back some parts of the dimension, there were already signs of it healing. Death didn't take too kindly to being hurt, Fen supposed.
But that blast did Dey's power justice, being able to injure a figure like Death.
A much duller energy form of Dey appeared in front of him and scooped up his consciousness in it's arms. Gathering up his remaining energy and creating more when that wasn't enough, Dey created a dimensional Rift and dodged inside, narrowly missing a spike made from death energy as it grazed past his energy body, sending pain signals to the God's real body.
Fen could only watch stunned as this entire fight took place, too fast for him to properly take notice of their actions. The only thing he did notice was the feeling of Dey's arms and then a bright light surrounding him as he appeared back inside the Void God's own reality. The dimension wasn't actually bright, but compared to the reality with Death in it, it was much brighter with the few stars inside illuminating the place.
[Do... you... have... any, ANY IDEA, what you just did?!] Dey hissed as he pressed his arm into his side, recovering from the Death energy that managed to penetrate his body.
Fen took insult to his words. "What did I do? I got dragged into a dimension with Death! I didn't choose that!"
[Like hell you didn't! People don't just get dragged into the Underworld! Only specific Gods can enter and talk with other Primordials which aren't their own and even those are under extremely unusual circumstances like what I just did. Most of the time, we Gods stay as far away as possible from Primordials unless we need something from them.] Dey continued to mumble unintelligibly as Fen stayed awkwardly in place. He was still just an orb of consciousness, not even in a humanoid form, so it was quite difficult to express himself.
This whole chain of events was confusing, going from weird to outright creepy as Death itself claimed that it wanted him. He might even feel flattered if not for it being, you know, Death.
[Whatever it said to you, don't listen to it. Death is a lot of things, and 'honest' is definitely not one of it's traits.]
Fen crinkled his consciousness in thought. "Isn't that exactly what death is though? Death doesn't lie in real life, some people even call it merciful."
[Just as others describe it as vicious and cruel. Which is exactly why you should disregard whatever you heard.]
"You sure you don't want me asking what you're hiding from me?"
Dey had been pacing around his reality for a while during the conversation but his movements froze in place as his face creaked to the side to look at him. Even though he didn't have biological eyes, Fen could tell the God was avoiding his gaze.
[...I'm not hiding anything.]
'Like hell you aren't!' Fen kept his words from spilling out.
Instead, he sighed. "Sure. I don't have the energy to ask you anymore, I need sleep. A lot of shit happens everyday, but that was a lot even for me. If I only get two hours of sleep I'll go crazy."
Dey waved him off, for once agreeing with the candidate's statement. Talking with a Primordial was always a tiring experience. They weren't like other intelligent life forms; they were alive since the creation of the universe but most of them slept until the Transition occurred. Until that point, they waited and grew until the time was right.
A lot of Gods' powers originated from Primoridals, either having obtained their Godhood through a gift or by forcefully taking or stealing their power from them. Just like there were weaker and stronger Gods, there were differences in power for Primordials.
In the case of Death... Deion would almost never be able to defeat it in a fair fight unless there were restrictions imposed onto it; he only managed to escape this time because it was in a weaker state from having just awoken.
But, if Death was already awake and studying this universe then there were many more things that Dey had to worry about. It meant this universe was on track for another attempt at Transitioning, which spelled extreme danger for Fen and Deion in the case that it succeeded. In the best case scenario, it would only require the fast-track of several of his plans, and in the worst case scenario...
Then it was already too late to start worrying about whether or not he should act.
"Hmm..." Dey narrowed his eyes as he recalled a certain organization that may be the cause of the universe's accelerated Transition attempt. Of all the forces in this universe, none of them should be able to produce such startling results and yet, the Virtue Procural Foundation was doing exactly that.
Long after Fen already left his reality, the Void God continued muttering to himself, flashes of anger and anxiety appearing in his eyes as bursts of energy left his body and manifested into other copies of himself. After sharing a few other mental thoughts between his selves, the other manifestations quickly flew away and created a Rift to outside the Void dimension and into Earth's universe.
"I need to speed the process up. I can't wait for her to help me... Yes, I should have enough power to do it. As long as nothing else comes up, I won't even need my main body to find it." Relief was obvious in Deion's voice. With a flicker, this manifestation also left to somewhere else in the recorded universes.
The space seemed to become much darker in the Void God's absence, and the stars no longer shined in the same glory as a few moments prior to his disappearance.
The Void sighed, taking of breath of energy into itself as it continued to maintain the dark dimension it lived in.