Keith found himself in a wide area that made him feel that he was in the middle of space. Completely dark, with small white dots in a sky he knew shouldn't have existed in the 'inside' of a room, with streaks of light he knew represented dense galaxies...
But there was also something else in this...room, to call it in some way.
If there was a door, it was a room, right?
Unless some weird shit like 'the inside is bigger than the outside, so how could you know you were on the outside to begin with?' could happen.
And he was too worried about the feral teenager chasing him to ponder about the meaning of life.
"Welcome" a discombobulated voice that seemed to be made of an infinity of voices belonging to all kinds of people, both in age and gender, echoed inside Keith's head.
"Elio, I guess" this weird voice made all will to tease him with the S&M lover title disappear.
Keith looked around, but he couldn't see anyone.
But...he could feel it.
"Indeed, I am Elio, the Slave of Fate" the voices sounded again, and Keith wasn't sure if it was entering his head through his ears. "At least for now."
"You seem to be excited about it" Keith commented, as enjoyment was all he could feel from this being, but there was something deeper to him, something Keith instinctually felt he wasn't ready to sense.
"I am" Elio admitted. As a being that was able to contemplate the whole universe, he was among the most knowledgeable beings, even above some Aeons, so he immediately deduced Keith's ability.
"Good for you" Keith nodded in approval while checking the door to see if Kafka was near. "If you are not expectant about the future, you are doing something wrong."
"Seems so" Elio admitted again.
"I guess you are the one that ordered my kidnapping" mused Keith, forgetting about the murderous girl and focusing on this being without a body. He now realized that complaining because his arms fell off sometimes was a luxury, at least he had a body.
"I am" Elio affirmed. "You are important for the future of this universe."
"If you say so" Keith learned to not shrug, even if it took him some time. "Can I know why?"
"You aren't bound by Fate" declared Elio, certainty in his voice.
"I am too uncultured to guess what it means" confessed Keith.
"Your destiny is not set in stone" explained Elio in a way Keith could understand.
"You mean that everyone else's is?" asked a shocked Keith, who then donned a pondering expression. "And the fact that you know this, coupled with your moniker, something tells me you can do some interesting things with it."
"I never heard someone calling what I do interesting, but I can understand why would you think so" Elio said in his overlapping voice.
"What does it mean?" asked Keith. "I mean, the fact that I'm not bound by Fate?"
"I can see all futures" revealed Elio, making Keith too shocked to react.
"That's actually sad" muttered Keith, who couldn't even start to imagine the amount of pain and boredom Elio must be in. "I feel bad for mocking your title as Slave of Fate."
"But maybe that will end soon" replied Elio, and Keith was able to sense his excitement. "You are constantly opening new futures for this universe, simply by existing. The more you interact with people, and most of all key figures, your unbound future will start spreading and infecting everyone. It's easy to keep a train on its rails, but it's impossible if the rails got destroyed."
"So I'm 'infecting' people with my Fateless status?" asked Keith.
"No" but Elio's reply was one he didn't expect. "They are still bound by Fate, but it leads to a different direction."
"I still don't know if you are an ally or not" said Keith with narrowed eyes, thinking that as amiable as Elio sounded, he may very well be an enemy.
"I am" Elio said, without a shadow of a doubt in his voice.
And Keith couldn't detect any lies.
Of course, being able to see Fate could fool him and his ability, probably, but for now he had no other option but to cooperate and give him the benefit of the doubt.
His only chance to not participate in this being's plan was by killing himself, and he wasn't that eager.
"So I just need to annoy important people and you will take us to the best possible future?" Keith asked again, wanting to hear Elio's response. "Taking the path with less suffering or deaths to reach such a destination?"
"Yes" Was Elio's response, and Keith couldn't detect any lies.
Keith bit the inside of his gums, trying to think about the situation he was in.
He had talked as he had used to, trying to get as much information while revealing as little as he could, but he was now at an impasse. He had no clue about Fate, Destiny, or whatever this guy was spouting, but he knew he was being asked to make a decision.
His first thought, the one that was about to escape his mouth, was to reply 'I'm not interested in what you are selling, please don't call again.'
But what would happen to him then? If he was really messing everything up, and as happy as this guy seemed to be about his existence... well, he had no clue if he would be kept in a dark basement, with fragments of his soul getting sent to important people to 'change Fate'.
Could he refuse?
....
Obviously, no.
From what he had seen this month, Kafka was nothing less than twisted and best, and very twisted at worst, he still needed to find out more about all this, but if the Stellaron Hunters, as this group seemed to be called, were looking for someone like her, it showed how little scruples they had.
'Accept for now, wait and see, escape when I can' decided Keith, hoping Elio couldn't know his plan doing some weird thing.
"Well, it's good by me I guess" Keith said after sighing. "Something I need to do? Or even better, is there something you can do to help me? I lost all my memories, and you sound too powerful to be useless with my problem."
"No, memories are the territory of Fuli, the Aeon of Remembrance" revealed Elio, making Keith sigh in resignation. "But I can look at your Fate closely, to try to understand the reason why you are not bound by Fate."
"If I won't die between horrible sufferings, go ahead" Keith shrugged, risking losing his other arm in the process.
With the agreement of the involved party, Elio LOOKED.
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Seeing Fate was not easy.
It should be quite telling saying that even in the almost infinite universe plagued with beings called Aeons that could alter reality by just existing, only Elio could do it in such an easy way.
Fate was the same for everyone, they were the tracks their life would lead to.
These tracks had a myriad of bifurcations, sometimes doing strange movements, but Elio could still see where they led.
So looking at a person's Fate was like having an aerial view of all the possible destinations all the tracks could lead to.
Elio didn't expect to see tracks in Keith's Fate, after all he didn't have one, but he couldn't even guess what would he see.
He was 'blown away' in a manner he had already expected, to get the aerial view he was now sick of seeing.
But...there were no tracks.
No rails, no roads, nothing.
How could this be? He wondered, more in curiosity than in shock, as he had already expected not seeing what he was used to see.
Even Aeons had Fate, what made Keith so incredibly special?
Not finding anything in the space that should have been filled with threads of Fate, he chose to look at the source.
If Fate was the tracks, the person was the 'train', the vehicle that would travel through those tracks.
A risky process for him, as it deviated from his ability, but he felt that he needed to see this in order to be able to choose the best possible future.
Of course, looking directly at a person in this space was different, but he could 'sense' something, more like a certain feeling of what the person's most probable path would be.
But Keith had no path to travel, so what would he be able to sense?
The moment Elio looked at Keith, reality fell on him like a hammer.
There was only one instinctual feeling he got.
Keith had no tracks, because he didn't need them.
Keith had no future, because he wasn't bound to one.
A being that would crave his path, set his own tracks, forge his future and decide his fate.
There was only one being able to do this, a being that had disappeared eons ago.
And that being was...
Akivili, the Aeon of the Trailblaze.
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But as amazing as finding a remnant of Akivili was, Elio needed more.
He felt his existence getting damaged by using his curse to do something he wasn't supposed to do, but he forced himself to keep looking.
Akivili was the one who would explore the unexplored and decide his future, forging the trails people called 'miracles' that would connect with the impossible, but even such a being was still bound by Fate. The only difference between him and the rest of Aeons was that Akivili's tracks led to an infinite amount of destinations, while Keith had 0 destinations Elio could see.
So why was Keith not affected by Fate?
Elio risked his life, his consciousness and his existence to keep looking, trying to find something else.
And his sacrifice was rewarded with a single feeling.
UNKNOWN, was what he felt.
The same word he used to define Keith's existence appeared now in the form of a feeling.
But there is no gain without loss.
Just as Elio sensed the UNKNOWN, it also sensed him, and the result was terrifying.
Elio felt his own existence being consumed in a way he wasn't even sure IX could.
This UNKNOWN followed no rules, it was just a part of the universe, closer to it than even the Aeons.
Just like heat, space, or time, this UNKNOWN was yet another integral part of the workings of the universe, and it was something Elio simply wasn't allowed to see.
So Elio, the being who had for millennia watched the whole future, felt fear.
An instinctual feeling told him that if this UNKNOWN focused on him even for a bit longer, he would simply cease to exist.
Elio did the only thing he could, he ran away from this thing, so far that he wouldn't need to come into contact with it again.
Choosing a future, honouring his fallen comrades, save the universe.
None of these things would make looking at this being worth it.
He wasn't a selfish person, he would gladly sacrifice himself if it brought salvation to the world, but the more he looked at this being, the more strength this UNKNOWN would gain.
Because he was validating its existence with his knowledge of it, and bringing this UNKNOWN into existence would only bring disaster.
And Elio, the Slave of Fate, for the first time in his life, worried about the future.
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"Did you see something?" asked quietly Keith, feeling something moving inside him.
Obviously, it wasn't a physical thing, it was something deeper.
Had he been using a human body, he would have been paler than a vampire's corpse, but being inside a puppet saved him this time, even if this extremely uncomfortable feeling remained.
"Yes" Elio replied.
"You are terrified" muttered Keith a bit scared, because he didn't want to think what could make Elio feel this much panic. And even worse was the fact that it was something inside him.
"I am" admitted Elio, who despite feeling panic, enjoyed this emotion, a new one for him.
"Stop going in circles and tell me what you saw" grumbled Keith, wanting to know what happened.
"I can't" confessed Elio, and Leith could discern that he didn't lie. "Giving a name to things is a way of recognizing their existence, and in doing so they can manifest."
"...I will have to live with that I guess" muttered Keith, who knew that for as long as he lived, he would wonder what was inside him. Whatever Elio saw scared him so much that he was even afraid of putting a name to it.
"But this has not been without gains" added Elio, making Keith pay attention. "The futures you create are different, and not all of them are good. But thanks to this, I'm now sure of what we need to avoid to reach them."
Just like Elio said, the moment he was aware of the UNKNOWN he knew that the moment some being, Aeon or not, tried to peek into Keith's future or soul, this UNKNOWN would swallow the whole universe.
Maybe swallow wasn't the correct word.
This Truth would appear in the universe, and as a result, everything would disappear, eroded by its sheer 'weight'.
After all, this UNKNOWN had no will, it only existed.
"Good for you, I guess" said Keith, who despite not having a body suddenly felt very sleepy. "Can we talk later? I want to have a nap."
"Yes" Elio affirmed, keeping his 'eye' on Keith.
Keith promptly turned to the door and opened it.
"There you are" Kafka, who wore an icy expression, had been waiting outside the door she hadn't been able to open.
Seeing Keith come out, she was ready to enact some heinous act to hide her shame forever, but Keith's expression made her pause.
Pause, not stop.
"Do it later" Keith said, but as he was walking past her, his legs failed him.
"..." Kafka looked at the unmoving Keith on her feet wondering about the randomness of life.
A brief look through the open door let her see the mystical space inside, and a new look at Keith's weird state made her realize that maybe killing him was out of the question.
But he was vulnerable right now, and she was thirsty for vengeance.
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Elio was contemplating some deep thoughts.
Seeing the UNKNOWN made him question some basic things he had until now considered a truth.
Aeons were what mortal called Gods, they were a manifestation of an Aspect of the universe.
There were strong Aeons, weak Aeons, or simply weird ones. But they were the apex creatures in the universe, or so had Elio thought.
This UNKNOWN was something else, but he knew he couldn't dwell on it, and using it for his own benefit was out of the question as it would endanger everything he had been working for. Of course, Elio knew better than to think the UNKNOWN would stay being one for long, everything in this universe was below the tapestry dictating the rules it was governed by, and this UNKNOWN, no matter how strong, wasn't any different, and it would eventually turn into another fragment of the universe.
But there was something else that caught his attention.
Akivili.
What the hell was he doing inside Keith? No, that wasn't correct.
How did Akivili turn into Keith?
Because Elio was absolutely sure that his feelings weren't wrong.
There was no being so disdainful against Fate than Akivili, whose flame of determination to destroy everything in his path towards the future he chose was unmistakable.
Even if the vast majority of the futures he saw involving Aeons were caused because of the UNKNOWN, thing he knew because he still couldn't see the tracks, some other futures involving Aeons now had a path leading to them.
The UNKNOWN was outside of Elio's ability, but Akivili wasn't.
Overall, the futures where Akivili's existence was revealed were not good.
Relationships between Aeons weren't always friendly, and the resurgence of such a strong Aeon able to tear through the Concepts the vast majority of the other Aeons had wouldn't make the rest of the Aeons happy.
Akivili was the Aeon of the Path of Traiblaze, and it meant that he would conquer everything making a path for others to follow, that was what trailblazing was about.
So once he conquered something, others would chase.
Of course, Akivili was far from being the strongest one and no Path was undefeatable, but his Path was too strange and unpredictable for the rest of Aeons to be calm about his resurgence.
And Keith seemed to be anything but conventional.
Elio still didn't know about Keith's future, as the UNKNOWN inside him rendered him unable to do so, but he knew it was a matter of time.
Maybe he won't awaken his powers as an Aeon in time to battle the enemies he would face, but Elio was sure of something, and the fact that Akivili was in contact with this UNKNOWN only reinforced the idea.
Akivili never stops moving forward.