"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
"Avalon…" Ven drifted closer to the gem-like world. "It's beautiful…"
A tug pulled him from his inner realm, back to reality. Ven's eyes opened, just in time to plunge through the universal wall. Stars hung around him, a galaxy in a quiet section of space. No crazed cultivators or intelligent worlds. A sigh escaped his lips. He needed a vacation, badly enough that his time imprisoned gained a hint of nostalgia.
"Ok, let's check on everyone…"
A breath brought him back, into his inner realm. Avalon had settled, with the Earth in its orbit like a companion moon. A legion of space craft drifted in the void, drones that carried a mission of exploration. Ven smiled. Lyra had done an amazing job, her efforts pulled the A.I. hive mind free of its traumatised loop.
His body slipped into the reshaped Avalon's atmosphere, a taste of earthy loam and sun baked fields. The grand city stood below, surrounded by untouched grounds. Two curious drones buzzed past, scanner's extended as they mapped the newfound world. He slipped into their formation and joined their exploration.
"Having fun?"
Dante's voice whispered into his ear. Ven rallied his spirit and suppressed the urge to jump. The skeletal fellow had appeared at his back, undetected even within a realm connected to his soul.
"Just checking out the new yard," Ven shrugged as he turned to the devil. "What the hell happened… how did Avalon end up inside my…"
A rumble from within stopped him short. His true body called out, at the edge of some unknown cliff, a change that bubbled up from the centre of him. Ven vanished from his inner realm, eyes opened to peaceful space. He pressed a hand to his chest, a tremble in his normally fine-tuned control.
'System… there's an energy transference between my realm and body,' Ven reached for the elusive force with his aura, but it slipped past untouched. 'I thought you said you could stabilise things?'
[The connection you are experiencing is normal,] the system yawned in his ear, words masked behind a tired fog. [When a cultivator changes his inner world to a realm, they begin a new stage of progression.] It yawned again, a drawn out sound, muffled slightly, as if behind a hand. [You're friend, Cain, joined himself with the realm by merging into its power, but I have formed a true bond between you and this place.]
'It's changing my body…'
Ven shifted his neck and shoulders, a twitch that ended at his toes. The intangible power leaked into every cell, muscles and bones in a cycle of death and rebirth. Foul liquid pushed from his pores, remains of the cast off biomatter. The vacuum of space froze it to his skin, a layer of crystal tar, thickened every second.
[It will stop eventually, now let me rest…] his system grumbled. [It took a large amount of energy to connect Cain's bizarre infinity to my central core.] A shuffle, the sound of a body as it stretched, tickled at Ven's ears. [I had to replace a multiverse as the attachment point and create a bridge between me, you and this realm.]
'Fine, but let me know when you're up to talk,' Ven sighed and retreated into his inner realm. 'I want to know more about what that even means…'
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A trickle of power. The familiar touch of a central presence. It filtered into her crystal prison, warmth that opened her tired eyes. A multiverse… the taste of a realm, born from the laws of her home. The silent infusion cooled the pain in her soul, a touch that healed the broken framework at her core.
"Is that Unity?" The thought oozed, slow and viscus in her jumbled mind. Her instincts took hold and she reached out, the reborn matrix in her heart desperate to connect to a source once more. "I'm here… don't leave me alone!"
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"You've certainly cleaned the place up…"
Cain stood atop a grassy knoll, face pointed at the night sky. The earth hung, a half moon that cast a cheerful glow over the land. Ven's friend turned a sad smile towards him, black eyes lost in the past.
"It wasn't really my doing," Ven shrugged as he gripped Cain's shoulder. He met the man's gaze with a question of his own. "What is this realm, really? You didn't create it, or you wouldn't be a part of this place, even now."
Cain sighed, eyes returned to the heavens. Ven waited as his friend sorted through his thoughts, a menagerie of emotions on the man's usually jovial face. Whatever truth Cain faced, it weighed heavy on him.
"This place… could be considered the home my brother and I were denied," Cain's fists tightened as he mentioned his sibling. "It was where our parents were born… I stole it after the owner boarded it up and left it to rot."
Ven frowned, an eyebrow raised as he digested his friend's words. Cain's parents should be Adam and Eve, born to the garden. God's Eden, a paradise lost. If Cain's realm had such a history…
"Why was it all sand and blood?" Ven rubbed his chin as he struggled to recall the religion of his younger childhood. "The garden should have remained perfect, a constant reminder of what we'd lost…" He laughed. "Although, God is pretty hypocritical, an all knowing being that created creatures destined to disobey."
"Hypocrite is the kindest of his titles," Cain snorted, eyes aflame. "This place was left to rot, all the creations who weren't exiled died, left in their cage to rot by a disinterested owner."
A flicker of anger surfaced in Ven's heart, a spark that simmered alongside countless others. The gods of legend were depicted as flawed beings and reality had proved no different. Everywhere he went, their touch fouled the waters. A corruption that flowed from the top.
"Has there ever been a True God that stood for anything beyond their own power?" Ven voiced his thoughts to the air, a harsh judgement that pulled a grin onto Cain's face.
"Not that I have seen, though some Concepts are, by their nature, kind hearted and good," Cain poked at a stone on the ground, foot dug into the vibrant soil. "The gods of faith are all monsters, parasites that feed off the mental energy of mortals to stay alive."
"What good are they then?" Ven's face hardened, eyes set into a hungry slant. "Why stand for their bad behaviour, if we can stop them?"
"Stop them…" Cain's eyes bulged as he laughed, hands pressed to his sides. "We've just learned there's an infinite number of them, suspended in that ocean of death!" He shook his head as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "We can't even stand up to a single one, let alone an unlimited supply."
"Not yet," a tremble ripped through Ven's projection, an aftershock of the changes within his true body. A lightness grew in his heart by the second, a release from his instincts that brought a smile to his face. "But eventually…" Ven licked his lips, teeth sharp against his tongue. "Eventually, everyone meets their bigger fish…"