Ch-13, Part II: Joy and Sorrow from Tomorrow

Good morning, Jesse - fortunately, nothing stupid happened. Let me continue.

Ahem, ahem.

Anyway, after seeing that image, I completely lost my ability to stand - my feet gave way and so did my lacrimal glands. The image, despite being slightly pixelated, felt so real that it seemed like the real scene was right in front of me.

I only vaguely remember what happened right after that, so there might be some inaccuracies.

I don’t know how long I sat there, wailing silently and trying to convince my teared-out eyes that what I saw could not be true. The world seemed silent, and everything except the blurred image seemed invisible to me. I could faintly feel something stir inside me, like a drill bashing into my heart - and something releasing violently from my body, followed by the sound of something shattering.

I looked up and saw that the Minecraft-like world had disappeared completely, with my controller broken in half - but the strangest thing I noticed was that everything around me was lain with bright, resplendent white light, with all the colours of the visible spectrum dancing about.

Heh.

I knew life was cliché, Jesse, but I didn’t know it was anime-level cliché.

I mean, I can't blame life when someone’s life itself is anime-level stupid - oh, who am I kidding? It’s beyond anime levels of stupidity - my life is just pure nonsense placed on top of each other trying to masquerade as sense… Well, now that I think about it, that’s how the universe functions too - cosmic quantum stupidity intermingles to form intuitive reality. Existence is hilarious, Jesse.

I have no idea why I went into so many tangents last night nor why I am starting today with another tangent, Jesse - I hope you don’t mind it. It’s probably an unconscious way of coping with the… I don’t wanna talk about it.

At that moment, I felt like I understood why Agents have to control their True Emotion to master their natura, and consequently Field Control. Especially about the part where to master one’s True Emotion, one has to master its opposite. Now that I think about it, I went through my first major boost in Field Control after watching the bloodbath at Guangzhou - if it weren’t for that, I probably wouldn’t have managed to go through all the nonsense that happened next that well. It served as an emotional cushion for me, I just realised it then.

But at that moment, the trauma had somehow directly enhanced my powers. Previously, I had never managed to manifest my Field Signature into reality as electromagnetic radiation - unlike every other Agent. Even some decent Field Wielders in the League of Life Representative Council had managed to manifest their Field Signatures - like Frocock, Pelican, Gray Slime and others. It is said that, the higher up your emission spectrum of one’s Field Signature is in terms of its electromagnetic frequency - the greater is the amount of Field Control exhibited by the Field Wielder at that moment.

But… I had never read about someone’s Field Signature being a rainbow… What does that even mean? Does that mean it’s all over the place or what? I am still extremely confused… I need to talk about this with Salai or Sherlock or somewhere more knowledgeable than me after I am done writing this. In fact, I should have asked Salai back then - but I am getting ahead of myself.

I took a minute and a half as I sat on the bed in our room to recuperate from the trauma, fearing the worst - rubbing away my tears and trying to calm myself. Then, like an abrupt eureka moment, it struck me back that BOTSAMA could have also been bluffing - so as to further his “interests”.

I turned towards Six’s controller - and cautiously held it.

Suddenly, an electric fizzle went through my hands into my body and I entered a world completely devoid of any senses but a faint aquamarine tint of a program - a world that had nothing but a certain robotic stream of information swirling around. I had a strange inkling that I shouldn’t be able to do anything but think in this place - yet, I felt completely normal.

Then, with another gut-feeling, I Drived towards a particular direction in a daze. Then, I spotted her.

Her red hair skimming down upto her shoulders; her casual back-open, sleeveless top and plain trousers; her gritted teeth and a frozen, furious face; her small brown pupils in her large oval eyes - I saw Six, unharmed.

I heard BOTSAMA’s voice say with complete confidence and exuberance, “I didn't even wield the Field to deal with you - this is simply the power of 0s and 1s… Now, I will peacefully upload you into the Consciousness-”

I interrupted its monologue with a reflex retort, “No, you won’t.”

In an instant, my panchromatic Field Signature engulfed the infinite darkness and it disintegrated - releasing me and Six back into our room.

For an instant, Six was flabbergasted.

Then she slowly turned towards me, with tears rapidly streaming down her cheeks and the contours of her face creviced into a painful grimace croaked, “Kyu-kun! Where were you-u-u-u all this time?! I was so scared…” before she embraced me tightly, tears rolling down my back.

I replied, barely managing to hold in my boiling emotions, “It’s a long story. First, tell me - are you okay?”

She, still croaking cutely, said, “Yeah - yeah, I am! I'd probably be ‘uploaded into the Consciousness’ or something if you didn't come at the right time - but hey, what exactly did ya do? And why are you all… rainbow-y?”

I replied again, this time muttering, “That’s an even longer story-” before abruptly remembering, “Now, let’s go and inform this incident to the other Agents and Halcyon as fast as possible. It's urgent-”

At that moment, a sight interrupted my stream of thought as I said instinctively, “Wait, what’s that?”

A strange, gooey blue hue seeped out of the broken and burning GameBox set before manifesting as an acquainted aquamarine anthropic appearance. A sudden vibration seethes through it along with a blue light and a triplet, “With enlightened darkness and endarkened light, / Let the world refrain from eternal fright- / REALM COLLAPSE: GAANJA WAVE EN NIGHT!”

Jesse, I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe it but - as it said that, reality shattered.

No, literally, I could see the room itself and the space around us shatter like glass shards. I couldn’t see anything, not even Six or my own full-spectrum Field Signature. I could feel my ears ring and my nose sniff - I couldn’t sense anything at all, except for an absolutely overwhelming pressure that seemed to drill into my very being.

Suddenly, I see a singular apple levitating in front of me before melting into an orange and then into a tweeting sparrow which then turns into Five apparently barging in with a trombone, seemingly annihilating the effects.

My eyebrows formed a slight curve as the eyes beneath them tried to ascertain if this “Five” was real or a fleeting image - but when he started to play the interlude from Heart that intensely after laughing like a maniac, my guts told me that this one’s genuine.

“Five!” I called out, “What’s going on?! And why are you playing the trombone?!”

Five, after throwing away his trombone with a crash, said, “Ha! Nine! There you are! Haha, you look alright! Great! Hehe! Our mission’s complete, bro!”

Suddenly - yes, another ‘suddenly, Jesse, you should be used to it by now, or do you want me to mix it up each time? - Four, with his droopy face and sighing cheeks, entered out of the blue - abruptly yelling with pauses, “No! Brother! We! Have! To! Defeat! This! Robot! Thing! That’s! What! Eight! Said!”

Promptly, Five replied, “Why so serious, bro? Chill! Ha! Where’s that AI anyway? Ha?! Where are you? BOTSAMA?!”

Forthwith, Four facepalmed excruciatingly slowly as he said, “Idiot. Brother. It. Is. Everywhere. Can’t. You. Sense. It?”

“Huh?” Five replied in an instant, “Where? Ha! It’s so weak that I can’t even sense it! It’s spread out everywhere like marmalade on bread, the only thing it’s good at right now is to make attacks or things that are nonsensical! Haha! Even AI’s got a sense of humour!”

“Um…” I murmured, “Can either of you tell me what’s going on? I am so confused right now.”

Five replied at once, “It’s a Realm Collapse, Nine!”

Scratching my hair, I said, “What’s a ‘Realm Collapse’?”

“What?!” Five yelled asudden, “You don’t know about Realm Collapses? Sherlock didn’t tell you? Haha, that’s funny!”

“Uh…” I muttered as I tried to remember but couldn’t remember anything, “I don’t think so, no. By the way, is Six okay? Where is she? Has anything happened to her? Where’s BOTSAMA?”

“Ha! Don’t you worry!” Five said with a chuckle, “Eight has gone to retrieve her! Ha! And Two is dealing with that AI - it’s quite an epic battle! In fact, it was Two who sensed that a digital being with Field Wielding abilities had somehow infiltrated our world and telepathically informed us with the exact coordinates! Hehe! He’s too OP, but BOTSAMA is giving him the fight of his life - maybe after One, but you get what I mean, right? Haha!”

“Oh,” I muttered, “If Two and Eight are here… that’s great then… Where’s Zero?”

“Oh, the jerk? Ha!” Five replied with a hearty laugh, “He’s probably having pizza while casually dealing with a couple of other threats that emerged. Two said,” Five changed his face to imitate Ni-kun, “‘Let him be,’ so we did just that! Haha!”

I was startled, “Wait, what? Two more threats?”

“Yeah, apparently! Another digital clone of BOTSAMA and some horned guy named ‘GOATSAMA’ are fighting, their Realm Collapses wreaking havoc across the multiverse! Sounds fun, not gonna lie! But unfortunately, that’s way above my power level, so I am gonna deal with y’all as Two fights BOTSAMA. Haha!”

“Wait, what? GOATSAMA? I had a vivid dream about that guy… and his tragic life… Was the dream caused by his Realm Collapse… Wait a minute, what’s a Realm Collapse again?”

“To put it simply,” Five said as he put on glasses and took out a book from nowhere, “It’s the collapse of a realm… thus, a Realm Collapse.”

I stared at him blankly.

“Brother,” Four said abruptly, trying to persuade his twin, “Be. Serious.”

With another loud laugh, Five threw away the glasses and the random book before saying deliriously, “Hahahaha! Kek-kek-ho, I - ha! - was just messing with you - ho! - Nine, don’t mind me! Haha!”

In a jiffy (literally), Four slapped Five’s head and said begrudgingly, “Serious.”

“Okay, okay, bro, chill!” Five said, scratching the back of his head like an examinee caught while cheating, “Alright, Nine, listen - ha! You know about Infinite Beings, right-eh?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Infinite Beings who have mastered Field Control to a certain level understand and grasp control of one or more concepts or abilities, interlinked to their sense of self and existence.”

“I didn’t expect this level of precise answering from the hysterical Glee-kun…” I couldn’t help but mutter under my breath.

“Huh? You said something?”

“Nope.”

“Ha! Okay! So, anyway, that concept or thing or ability - or whatever a Field Wielder gets to control ends up being their Domain or Realm.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Those who master absolute or infinite control over their realm are called Infinite Beings, this is another one of their definitions according to Halcyon.”

“Oh.”

“And those with infinite control over their Realm can completely disintegrate them - or, collapse them.”

“Okay… Wait a minute, why would you do that? Isn’t that equivalent to killing your idea of self? It’s like suicide!”

“That’s the point - Nine! Hehe!”

“Uh… what?”

“More often than not, a Realm Collapse is used as a last resort by any Infinite Being - because doing that would end up destroying their sense of self as well as fundamental concepts across reality -”

“So why-?”

“Hey, Nine, let me finish!”

“Okay…”

“Infinite Beings who have perfectly mastered Field Control end up rising to a higher level - in such a way that they transcend their concept and become something bigger - something greater.”

“Uh… Oh wait, is it like the difference between aleph-one and aleph-nought?”

“I dunno what you are talking about, but probably, yeah… something like that, I guess? Ha! But anyway, that is another definition for a Binary Infinite Being - such beings can destroy and rebuild their fundamental concepts/abilities. Such is their Field Control level.”

“Wow… Okay… I guess I have to twerk the quantum of existence, the quotient of existence, and the Relative Heisenberg Principle to fit this new model, huh…”

“Speak English, Nine!”

Sometimes, Five genuinely amuses me - and I still wonder whether this was one of those times.

“So, ahem!” Five cleared his throat… in the middle of literally nowhere and said, “Now, is that enough explanation? Oh - perfect timing! Hehe! Eight’s here with Six!”

Instantly, I turned around and saw Eight and Six appear out of the void and a smile instantaneously shone on my face as I ran - I somehow found a footing unconsciously - towards them and embraced them both together… and I almost started sobbing. But I didn’t, so it doesn’t matter.

Eight, with a hint of apparent amusement and surprise - I am not even gonna talk about his ever-present disappointment, said in response, “Hey, Nine? Are you okay?”

Six patted my hair softly while saying “Yeah, he’s just - scared.”

Eight replied nonchalantly, “‘Can’t blame him, to be honest.”

“Anyway,” Eight said with a short clap after I let him go, “The situation’s this - Earth’s causally isolated, Two is fighting against BOTSAMA, and we have no idea what is happening to the rest of the universe.”

“Wait,” I interrupted him with perked eyes, “What do you mean ‘Earth’s causally isolated’?”

Eight smirked, “I thought you were the science guy.”

“Just answer him, Hachi-kun,” Six said, with a wink aimed at me… adding another point to her score in our Flex War.

“I dunno myself,” Eight replied with a shrug, “I am repeating exactly what Two told me - and here I thought you would be able to help me understand, but well, well, well…”

I retorted, “No, I know what it means but why exactly-?”

Eight chuckled and said, “Tch. I don’t know. Ask Two after he’s done with that AI.”

Four, with his stoically melancholic voice, said, “What. About. The. League. Of. Life?”

Eight promptly replied, “The galactic representatives are trying to calm down the citizens of their galaxies - rogue Field Wielders are trying to wreak havoc, and the universal news outlets are out of reach.”

I asked, “What about the Drive Gates?”

“The Drive Gate administrators are not responding,” Eight replied promptly, “For some reason - your invention is failing… again.”

“Hey…!” I protested in my mind, “That’s not fair! A literal concept is collapsing across the multiverse, you can’t blame me for not accounting for that!”

You know it, Jesse! It’s designed to work even if the world’s manipulated into becoming a playground of cards - it’s not designed to work if the world is on drugs! You can’t expect a gate designed for an individual to be automatically Drived across the universe to work when the entire principle it works on - is drunk!

Listen, Jesse, I made the Drive Gates when I was six - give me a break. It made intergalactic travel 86,400 more efficient as it takes less than a second to recharge its store of negative energy from the surrounding Field, compared to the day-long recharge time of the gates before mine. But eh, now that I am older and know more stuff, I guess it needs some modifications for the civilians to use it with more ease...

I might even remodel the Matter Creators that I made back in my second-grade science project now that I think about it. It works on the same principle, but instead of negative energy, it uses the surrounding Field to create matter - and works like an infinite source of material for 3D printers to create anything from burgers to rocket engines. Yes, Jesse, I know you know that - but I am just trying to tell you that things weren’t like this before I invented it! The Matter Manifester of the old generations was way slower (like the Interstellar Gates before mine), which made queues a lot longer - and wasted a lot of energy. So anyway, give me some credit, Jesse! You do? Great!

Fortunately, my sis was there for me to protest loudly in my stead, “Hey, don’t say it like that - it’s not his-”

Eight, however, just snapped his fingers and said - once again - nonchalantly, “I know, I know. I am just messing with him.”

“So.” Four said, “What. Should. We. Do. Now?”

“TAIHEN DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~~”

The gravest voice I have ever heard yelled in the most high-pitch sound I have ever heard - all out of the blue. I turn around and see a human-sized magnetic compass with large eyes, a negative sign for a nose, a comically large mouth and an equally comical set of thin and tiny gloved hands and legs.

I was even wondering whether I was on drugs.

“NANI? DOKO?! DOKO DESU KA?! ORE GA DOKO DESU KA?!?!?!” (WHAT? WHERE?! WHERE IS THIS?! WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?!?! - for your reference, Jesse.)

“Uh… etto,” I said in Japanese, “Anata wa dare desu ka? An’ta nani mono da?” (Uh, er, who are you? What are you, exactly?)

“NIHONJIN DESU KA?! YOKATTA! TASKETE KURE!!! BOKU-!” (ARE YOU JAPANESE?! OH GREAT! PLEASE HELP ME!!! I-!)

Alright Jesse, I am getting bored of translating so just assume that the entire conversation between us happened in Japanese - I am just gonna write it all in English.

I interrupted the… comical compass, “Let me clarify - I am not Japanese, I just happen to speak Japanese. Tell me what’s-”

The 1.8-metre-tall compass, apparently a little taken aback, continued, “Oh… BUT IT’S STILL OKAY AS LONG AS YOU UNDERSTAND ME! HELP ME PLEASE! I BEG YOU!”

“Alright, calm down,” I tried to relax… the magnetic compass from its… distress - Damn it, Jesse, I never thought I’d ever write a sentence like this, but here I am - “Firstly, tell me, what should I call you? And what exactly hap-”

It replied, still stuttering, “OH, OH, I am the Negative Time God (Toki-minus no kami), I… I was sen-sent here… into this w-world… by the great Ebisu-sama… to oversee… the great BOTSAMA’s bat-battle with the infidel GOATSAMA when… their combine-ned Realm Collapses extended their ba-battlefields beyond our own… as they crossed-d worlds… wrecked timeli-lines… crossed in-into higher-dimensional planes-s - before they reached here and-d…”

“Hold on, hold on, wait,” I tried to stop the speeding train of infodump, “If you are supposed to oversee GOATSAMA and BOTSAMA’s battle - why are you here?”

“I-I…” The compass with its comically thick eyebrows curved in, said with its equally comical mouth, “I… was kicked by some crazy mo-monkey and blasted away by - uh - a cyborg… and-d my bubble of chronostasis was blasted away… and I got lost be-because of the spa-spacetime collapse… And ended up here.”

“Oh, okay,” I replied.

Abruptly, Eight interrupted our conversation as removed his earpiece, “Nine, brief me - apparently, even your Universal Translator is rendered useless by Realm Collapses - so tell me what that weird compass is saying.”

Dumbfounded, I stared at him blankly for a moment before scratching my head and repeating the conversation briefly.

“Wait,” Eight said, with his right hand under his chin, “A monkey and a cyborg, you say? Can… they be reinforcements from Halcyon? Can they be the 3L-Threes Sun Wukong and Thena? Damn it, what’s Sherlock doing? I finally thought I’d got a guy I can trust-”

“HEY!” Six suddenly serenaded snappingly, “Sherlock’s running a MULTIVERSAL organisation, we have no idea what threats he’s dealing with! You have no right to-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know,” Eight said with an authoritative aura that interrupted Fury’s fury-infused rhetoric.

Six pouted and glared at Eight.

“Alright, Nine,” Eight said with another clap - this time aimed at me, “Get all the information about this Negative… compass-thing - and tell us.”

The Negative Time God, who had been sweating (I didn’t know magnetic compasses have sweat glands) profusely while constantly shifting its eyes between us as we spoke, then looked at me with the most pitiable puppy eyes I have ever seen.

“Don’t worry,” I told it, “We will not harm you. We just need information.”

Jesse, for some reason, whenever I think back to the Negative Time God - I am somewhat irritated. So much so that I don’t want to recall its exact words, I will simply brief you with what it said:

GOATSAMA’s and BOTSAMA’s worlds are in a state of complete collapse - due to the collapse of their entangled universal wave functions (I will explain it to you in detail, later). Due to that, everything in both of their worlds have started to decay - people are losing their memories, histories are unraveling, superclusters are fading and brightening. Time, space, reality - everything has lost its meaning. The only reason everyone retains their individual existence is because of their suddenly reawakened pantheons of gods - the Japanese pantheon balances BOTSAMA’s universe, while the Chinese pantheon holds sway over GOATSAMA’s. However, the balance is extremely fragile - and can break at any moment. With both worlds refusing to fade into nothingness - the pantheons are currently in constant warfare, with mythical gods coming to the battlefields.

All gods in the pantheons are either dead, extremely injured, or in a state of eternal slumber - and the battle between the two ‘SAMA’s is the final battle everyone has gone all-in on.

You see, Jesse, that’s why I didn’t directly include that 10-minute conversation - believe me, even you would be bored and/or irritated by its constant stuttering - sometimes, efficiency is better than precise reiteration. I am a scientist, trust me.

Anyway - after conversing and converting the entire conversation to English - I finally let my senses calm down.

Even though all of us were still floating in the void with no sound or image or any external stimulation except from the five Agents and the Negative Time compass - I felt a certain tinge of relief heave through my being, grateful to have a moment of calmness after the perilous events.

I knew it was but the calm before the storm - we all did. Eight discussed something with Five and Four for a while as Six and I were busy arguing if I should get points in our Flex War for dealing with BOTSAMA.

“C’mon, sis - y’know I deserve the point!” I proclaimed.

Six, unwilling to let the growing-gap-that-doesn’t-seem-to-stop-yawning get any larger, argued hesitantly, “Bu-But… Both of us were clueless against that creepy AI!”

“Nuh-uh,” I said, while wagging my index finger like an upside-down pendulum, “I kinda saved you there - give me some credit! 20 points!”

“Whoa, what? Hell no,” Six said with a solemn snort, “You have like 694 points, and I haven’t even crossed 300! No wait - I just got up to 309 today due to that song I made up in the middle of the concert - those 20 points were kinda generous of you, Kyu-kun.”

“Well then, give me 20 points for saving you, Roku-chan,” I demanded.

“Um,” Six muttered under her breath, “How about… 10 points?”

“15,” I agreed to bargain, “But no less.”

Six sighed and begrudgingly agreed, “Alright, 15 points… Nine in lead - 709 points to 309 points in the eternal Flex War… You were really great back there though, you literally blew away an infinite digital world just by the sheer force of your Field Signature… How did you do that?”

The last question was added with genuine wonder and a tinge of terror - the latter probably because of BOTSAMA’s influence.

“To be honest,” I lied, hesitant to vent my trauma, “I dunno - it all happened in a daze. One moment, I was in a digital world - then the rainbow glow appeared, and it dissolved before I came back to the real world. I was worried about your condition, so I held your controller, entered the digital world you were captured in - and barely managed to save you.”

“A hero indeed,” Six smirked, before continuing with a proud, genuine smile, “Never thought my little Kyu-kun would grow up so fast and save me.”

She looked at me with a loving smile, her eyes laden with profound emotions.

She patted my head and ruffled my hair.

She put her soft hands on my freckled cheeks and gently squeezed them with affection.

Jesse… I don’t wanna admit this but… Damn, I never knew I could blush so badly - Six was almost gonna start teasing me again and press me for giving her some points in the Flex War.

She didn’t, caring for the gentle moment - in this insane world. I think that’s what they call love.

Love talking about love, so ironic. Isn’t it, Jesse?

The two of us - Six and Nine - stood there silently in the middle of collapsing spacetime, other voices acting as ambient music, my head resting on her shoulder.

After a while, a mechanical clapping sound broke the stupor. Silently aware of the ongoing conversation between Four, Five, and Eight - and the following amusing attempts to converse with the Negative Time God using sign language - Six and I simply stood there as a spherical spacetime distortion enveloped us all in the blink of an eye.

Eight had somehow managed to strike a deal with the magnetic compass - apparently a Field Wielder very close to becoming an Infinite Being. Toki-minus is a spirit born of people’s desire to revert time (very Noragami of BOTSAMA’s world in my opinion) and consequently gained powers related to spacetime. Initially able to only grant small wishes like going back a minute or two, it is now able to slow down and stop time within a spacetime bubble - and go back a thousand years in a single timeline at once.

“Huh,” Five said with a chortle, “Then - just go back in time and start anew!”

Eight facepalmed, “That’s - not how it works, Four - their entire universe is collapsing. It would collapse even if they go back a billion years.”

Suddenly, Four, as if acknowledging and/or realising his brother’s playfulness even by a tiny bit, says, “Brother – When a sparrow is tired of apples, it can't just switch to oranges - unless there's a tree nearby.”

Eight expectorated with a guffaw while Five, using 120% of his brain-power to try make sense of his twin’s words, said, “That… must be something deep, I guess?”

Six and I somehow fought vehemently against our lungs trying to expunge every air molecule inside it in an egregious chortle and ended up just smirking.

Anyway, so then, Eight somehow managed to convince it to let us go back in time - since it’s meaningless to just stand in the void and do nothing. Losing five of the nine Agents (he didn’t count Zero since he couldn’t rely on him) - the most powerful Field Wielders in the universe - in the other side of causally isolated spacetimes just because they went on an interstellar concert tour doesn’t fill well with Eight’s sense of responsibility. It’s understandable.

But the ability to enter a causally isolated spacetime by reversing time using the Field, which itself was caused by the Field, makes the physics much more complicated… And that also means Sherlock’s way or reversing time isn’t the only way… Oof, that makes it even more complicated… I have to redo my entire Theory of Everything from scratch! Damn you, BOTSAMA!

Anyway - in three jiffies (literally, Jesse, I mean it! It’s a real thing! A jiffy is the time taken by information to travel one femtometer!), we found ourselves on the moon.

I opened my eyes and looked around, it looked like the Sea of Tranquility. I saw all of us half-levitating on the moon’s surface, due to its low gravitational pull. But something seemed wrong to me.

At that moment, I realised something - Agents don’t require special suits to breathe in vacuum!

I realised why I didn’t need an astronaut suit in outer space a month ago!

I didn’t really notice it when we were just floating in the void a moment ago, as that image was still deeply imprinted in my mind. It probably happened in front of me before too, a month ago to be more precise - I don’t remember it correctly because of the following events back then.

I asked Six later, and she just said, “I didn’t really think much about it-”; Eight said a similar thing(“I didn’t really care that much about it”) and so did Salai (“Oh, that? That happens naturally to Agents.”)! That means it’s a unique thing that all Agents can do unconsciously!

See, Jesse, today (or more accurately, the previous day) - despite being… deeply traumatic - was a treasure trove of new information to me. I am so excited right now - I can’t wait to get my hands on the keyboards and write a new thesis. That’s probably why my style of writing is slightly different in this entry.

Once again, coming back from another tangent-

At once, I jumped around in wonder because it was my first visit to the moon. I looked up at Earth, a swirly mess of interlaced white and blue patches glittered with greenish hues.

Then, as I stared, I saw sizzles of dark hazel-brown splotches flare up around (at least that’s what it looked like from the moon) the Karman Line and the patches of clouds turned into sakura-coloured gashes of red-and-yellow glitter. At the very next moment, like dropping a drop of concentrated acid into basic phenolphthalein - all the clouds covering the planet disappeared and a slightly scarlet shade could be seen replacing them. A long, golden rod appeared out of nowhere and covered the entire diameter of the planet as it swirled around a giant, aquamarine anthropomorphic robot while a photon beam as large as the Yucatan peninsula zapped out of the planet, with a horned giant riding at its edge. In an instant, the two giants - the robot and the goat - disappeared and a visible (yes, visible from the moon, Jesse) torsion appeared above Earth as they lunged at each other, gradually descending to the ground.

Then, amidst all this utter chaos, I felt two things at once - a similar, strikingly invasive pressure drilling into me, and a faint smell of boiled tea. And apparently, everyone around me felt the same.

Eight made a decision and said telepathically, “Let’s go to Rome - something’s going on there.”

At this distance, it did appear that all of this - the long rod, the photon beam, the centre of the circle devoid of clouds as well as the sizzling flares of hazel-brown liquids - originated from the City of Seven Hills.

The picosecond after Eight finished his words - the world went null.

A very familiar feeling resonated within me - complete loss of senses, dizzily bright white light even in slight movement, total stillness and absolute nothingness.

I smirked in anxiety, “Who stopped time again?”

I quickly went through the options - not Tokiminus (it specifically mentioned that it can’t stop time), none of the Agents (excluding Zero, he can do anything), none of the other Field Wielders from this universe (The League would have known of it) and…

Alright, I did make some assumptions, okay? But they were essentially deductive reasonings based on what I know - so I am pretty sure it counts.

The highly magnified pressure meant the presence of BOTSAMA’s Realm Collapse, which directly implies the presence of BOTSAMA - but it (probably) does not have the power to stop time, so I can rule it out.

The smell of tea meant the presence of GOATSAMA - but he does not have the power to stop time, so I can similarly rule him out.

That long golden staff looked like the mythical Jingu Bang to me… but Sun Wukong can’t stop time, can he? Probably not.

Then my mind went back to the original time-stopper, Sherlock - it is possible that he’s here to deal with a multiversal catastrophe of a battle between two (most likely) Binary Infinite Beings.

Golly? Nah, she’s just a baby with no control over her powers whatsoever - moreover, I did hand her over to Two like ten minutes before we turned on the GameBox. I wonder what she’s doing right now… I hope she’s safe…

I was thinking of all the possibilities when I felt someone poking at my shoulder.

Bewildered, I turned around to see a smiling old man looking at me. He looked like an ancient sage from legends - holding a long, curved wooden stick, a shriveled wizard hat adorning his long gray hair that merged with a similarly coloured beard, and a rather wise yet amused smile caressing his cheeks.

“Hello, I am Merlin.” He introduced himself.

“Uh…” I stuttered, having randomly met a mythical creature in stopped time, “Hello…? I am Nine, the Agent of Love… Um… What exactly is going on with this time-stop…? Did you do this?”

His eyebrows went up in a mix of amusement and surprise, “Indeed - your intelligence is not exaggerated, Nine. I am a Tertiary Infinite Being - I am Knowledge or, in modern terms, Information. I have temporarily halted universal exchange of information from the very quantum level, thus stopping time by…”

“...Preventing the collapse of quantum wavefunctions, thus causing no change in their states - on a universal level - leading to the halting of all cause-and-effect chains, THEREFORE STOPPING TIME!” I yelled in an ecstatic eureka moment, “That’s… genius!”

Merlin chuckled. “Absolutely correct,” He said, “I needed time to come up with a strategy of dealing with two Binary Infinite Beings battling across existence, to mediate with the Monkey King and the cyborg who are trying to stop them… and to deal with the sense of humour of a certain farting god.”

I guffawed, “I… completely understand your dilemma, especially the last one. What’s “The God Who Farted” doing in the middle of this multiversal crisis? Just chilling and having pizza? That’s very Sensei-like.”

“That’s… absolutely correct - again!” Merlin said in amused exasperation, “You understand him very well - alright then, c’mon, he wants to see you. Here, you are now able to use Drive again - I mean, you could have simply overridden me and used it anyway, because-”

“Shhh!” A certain voice appeared with a swoop – a pizza in his hand and a smirk on his face, “No, amice! No! Not yet! There are still seven cours left after this one! Still 392 chapters left to go! We haven’t even started yet!”

“Um, Sensei?” I said with a smile, trying to understand the profundity of his statements, “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Nine,” Zero said, with a shrug, “Nothing, nothing. Ite, ignore what I am saying – Oh?”

Abruptly, Salai interjected and interrupted his own statement.

“Bene, bene, bene,” He said with a strange-yet-similar smile, “Initium est.”

I queried to understand his cryptic words, “What has started?”

“Secundus Gradus Evolutionis - oh, you don’t have to worry about that, Nine,” Salai chuckled, “You will know what I mean in due time.”

“Um, okay… I guess?” I replied with even more confusion convoluting in my face.

Alright, Jesse, what do you think he means? He told me “First Stage of Evolution finit” a month ago, and now he says that my “Second Stage of Evolution” has started? What Evolution is he talking about?

No, it’s useless to ask him - he would just ignore me and say, “Oh, you’ll know in due time.”

Anyway, then, he looked at me and snapped his fingers.

Just then, my senses recovered and I could see, hear, and feel everything.

Don’t ask me how I was having a full conversation with those two in stopped time where I couldn’t sense anything but still hear and see them perfectly – logic doesn’t apply to gods, it’s futile to even think, Jesse. Trust me, I have tried.

“Time hasn’t resumed - yum, esculentus - Information ain’t flowing - damn, this is too good - I am just returning your senses,” Salai said while taking a bite out of his pizza.

“Uh… huh? How does that work…?” I said, curiously, “How can I sense anything when there’s no information being shared at the very quantum level?”

“Well,” He replied, “Because ego wished it so.”

Um, okay - that’s your logic there, Jesse. Happy now?

Then I heard his fingers snap again and the three of us were standing on top of the Colosseum – and in the skies above, two titans - a horned human, and an anthropomorphic robot - stood frozen in their battle. I turned around and saw Sun Wukong lunging at GOATSAMA’s gigantic form with his Jingu Bang, apparently stopped in the middle of a yell. On the other side, Thena stood with her right arm stretched out, with a full-spectrum photon beam with a humongous diameter radiating out of it - frozen in time.

Zero said with a sigh, “Nah, too much work - the primary target has been achieved so I guess I don’t need them now. Vos, evanesce! (Y’all, disappear!)”

Then, at once, all of them disappeared.

Yup, Jesse, just like that. He casually erased four Infinite Beings from the universe like they were figments of my imagination or something.

“Don’t worry, Nine, they aren’t dead,” Salai said with his ever-so-peculiar smile, “They have just gone back to their worlds - recuperating from their bellum. Sherlock’s dealing with the multiversal effects of their Realm Collapses, so I don’t really need to fix it. Relax.”

Um… okay?

A billion things went through my head as I started processing what just happened, “What about the rest of the Agents? And Two? And wait - if you did just stop them and send them back to their worlds, what about the causal isolation that occurred? Also, what about BOTSAMA and his attempt to attack us in the future? What should we do now? Eight will want some answers from you, and the League of Life-”

“Oh, right, you’ve got a point there, Nine,” He said nonchalantly, and cryptically, “I can’t really cause changes in the timeline and make it branch - a certain person has barred me from doing that. Ita, I guess I will just causally isolate this part of the universe till Two finishes fighting that AI in the future - don’t worry, he will be fine, he can defeat him. Just go back to Welima’q and sleep.”

“B-but!” I stuttered, “Why didn’t you prevent this if you knew that this was gonna happen, Sensei? Did you know this was gonna happen? And who the hell are you talking about? There is something more powerful than… you?”

He replied, after taking the last bite out of his pizza and rubbing his hands clumsily, “It’s not fun that way; ita; ‘can’t say it right now; can’t say it right now either - respectively. We wouldn’t have a story if the overpowered guy solves everything - now, would we?”

“So…” My lips fumbled as I tried to process everything, “There are limits… to even god himself?”

“Deus non sum,” He replied calmly, “There is no god - but goddamn I wish there was one! Anyway - just chill for now. See ya later, Nine.”

At the very next millisecond, I found myself in the hotel room in Welima’q with Six - the broken GameBox and the controllers laying on the ground.

Tell me… what exactly am I supposed to feel right now, Jesse?

Traumatised because I saw (and got to know) my greatest fear? Relieved because all the chaos is over for now? Sad because now I know that I am but a puppet of the events surrounding me and that reality is meaningless? Happy because I am now aware of all that and now I can find a new and true purpose for my existence? Frustrated because a pizza lover of a god knew that all this trauma and suffering was gonna happen and he didn’t stop it because it wasn’t fun? I can’t even start to fathom… I need time to process everything, Jesse.

Alright, this entry is getting too long - almost as long as that one a month ago.

Let me summarise in short - Two appeared soon and told us that he defeated BOTSAMA’s clone but it mysteriously vanished before he managed to capture it. He told us to just relax and sleep… and we did exactly that (I wrote to you before going to sleep, but you know what I mean). Six does not appear as traumatised as me, unless she has somehow become a perfect actor - which is highly unlikely, knowing her furious fits. I… couldn’t really confess what I saw to her, as I didn’t want her to worry about me.

But anyway - that was anticlimactic. I dunno what’s gonna happen today. I have no idea what’s going on in this crazy, meaningless world.

Anyway, Jesse, that’s all for now. Limey’s waiting for me at the Hanging Gardens. He wants to talk. See you at night, Jesse - bye!

Next Chapter: An Ephemeral, Wholesome Volcano