Chapter 9: The Plane of Non-Existence
Melanie was just there floating Rik walks up to her.
"Hi again" he said.
"Yes" Melanie replied, "hello Rik you are not supposed to be here".
"I know" said Rik, "I've been trying to get back with the others".
"No Rik" Melanie said, "you are on the right path only you are lost." "You embarked on your journey a little sooner than expected however." Rik is a little confused and wonders out loud,
"What does that mean?"
"Leave this world" Melanie said. "Leave and enter the realm considered the edge of the multiverse". "Enter the The Plane of Non-Existence, I have something to show you". She then fades away and Rik is left confused.
"Okay then" Rik said, "wait what is considered the edge? That is isn't really enough to go on, guess I just have to get lucky". Rik then hears some commotion amongst the jungle brush.
"Gah! Crash you imbecile!" said one voice.
"Geah yabababa!" Sputtered Crash.
"(Gasps) How dare you say that about mother!" Said the other voice. "I will make you pay for that!" Rik comes out from the brush and says,
"Uh, what even?"
"What?" Said the short big headed scientist. "Have you never seen an mad scientist and and an imbecile of a marsupial argue before?"
"No" said Rik, "can't say I have".
"Oh" said the scientist, "my bad then, I am Dr. Neo Cortex by the way. "I am recruiting just an fyi I have business cards!" Crash makes a face as if he wanted to say something in disgust.
"No thanks," Rik said, "I'm good, and leaving in fact, you good here.. Crash?" Crash gives a thumbs up and pushes Cortex so he falls over a log.
"Ah! Hey!" Screamed Cortex and the two fight in a literal cloud of dust. Rik shrugs and says,
"Well I guess I'll leave now then." Rik teleports away in search for the edge of something that possibly does not exist. Rik arrives in the next world in front of what seemed like a bank. Rik looks around and notices that the bridge leading to the entrance was out.
"Well maybe there's another way" Rik says surveying the area and notices that there is a passway nearby. He walks down and up the passageway and emerges from what looked to be the remains of a lighthouse.
"What is with the lighthouse?" Rik wonders out loud, "there's no sea 'round here." Rik walks down the path and up a hill where there are giant beetles. They looked cartoonish and a bit dumb.
"Oi, wat do ya reckon he's doin?" said the Giant Dung Beetle.
"I dunno maybe he's jest lost" said the Second Beetle. "Recken we give em a good ol bloody slap?"
"Yeh sure, only if he comes near here though" said the First Beetle. Rik begins to walk up the hill and the beetles flew in to attack, Rik is quick and hits a beetle with a knife.
"Oh S &%, Jerry! Okay you win I'm F&% out here!" the Beetle yelled in terror as he fled.
"That guy had some colorful words" Rik said as he sheathed his knives and continued along his way. Rik eventually walked up to a point that smelled absolutely horrendous.
"Geck!" Rik said, "Nope not goin that way, what a stench! Heh, and I thought Syx smelled bad!" He turned heel and went the opposite direction and towards the other pathway to what seemed like a giant barn. There were sentient blocks of metal hopping about and a bee with a sunflower that had giant- well never mind. Rik looked around a bit and saw that there was no way to go but back.
"Wonder where I am even going" Rik says to himself. He walks back towards a spiral path going up. He is then stopped by a queen bee asking if he seen her husband.
"Um yeah I think so." Rik said, "he might of been the bee with that sunflower with th-"
The queen just started crying,
"Oh I knew it, we are through I'm telling you! Through!" Rik wonders if it would have been better to not say where he was but then again it would have been wrong to lie. He walks up the spiral path and exits onto a bridge over a waterfall. He crosses the giant bridge and eventually realizes that the gaps between ledges were too far for him to leap. So he took a dive into the water below and swam towards a little island. He looks around and realises that there is nowhere else to go. He then hears a voice talking to him,
"Hey, you there, fox erhm.. No, no.. uhh dog?"
"Kobold," Rik said, "and my name is Rik."
"Ahh okay, I am Birdeeh."
"Beardy?"asks Rik, "you ain't got a beard."
"Ugh no, Birdy, I scares birds."
"Oh, right, anyhow what?" Rik says.
"There is passage," Birdy said, "wondered how strangers got here and it turns out there's.. secret passage, lever behind bush there". Rik finds the lever and pulls it and it opens up the path.
"Hey thanks for the tip!" Rik says.
"No problem if ya can, repay me with mepsipax."
"Uh sure, I will get on it." Rik said and he walks down the passage. Eventually the passage transcended into a sewer system of some sort and it smelled.
"Where's the exit already?" Rik asks himself as he continued walking. Eventually he found a ladder, Rik climbs it and removes the sewer cover to find he is in a town of some kind. A couple of grey squirrels looked at him wondering what he was doing down in the sewers no doubt.
"G'day" Rik says and walks down the street and towards what looked like a pub. He enters the place and looks around eventually he asks the bartender,
"Anything good?" The Bartender was a big squirrel with some muscle, he wrinkles his nose and says to Rik,
"You smell a bit y'know."
"Yeah I'm sure I do" Rik said.
"Well got any money?" No money, no service" the Bartender said. Rik takes the gem out of his pocket and fumbles for some coin.
"Will this do?" he asks. The bartender looks at the coins,
"Uh, what is that?" he asks.
"Some gold I happened to have from a while back" Rik says.
"My apologies, but we don't accept gold coins" said the Bartender.
"Okay guess I will go th-" Rik began before a red squirrel interrupted.
"Now, hold on a sec" he said. "I got yer tab, here give him a drink will ya?"
"Thanks" said Rik, "who are you?"
"I'm Conker," said the squirrel, "and I only did that to get your attention, anyhow what's your name?"
"I'm Rik," Rik replied, "and why did you want my attention?"
"Sit down have a mug or two first" Conker said. "Afterwards come with me to my house, I may know a thing or two about that gem you have there." Rik then remembers that Nate has talked about Conker before, Rik wonders if he really could help. The two of them share a drink and Rik tells Conker about his journey so far. They finish up and began walking to Conker's home. Conker tells Rik about his Bad Fur Day and how he eventually became a king.
"Wow," Rik said, "you were a king?" "What did you do to no longer be the king though?"
"Well I didn't know how to be one first of all" Conker said. "I threw parties with lots of booze and women and kinda ignored any real problems."
"Oh, so they kicked you out then?" Rik asked.
"Well they tried to execute me" Conker said. And I had another grand adventure proving that I was not worth executing by saving the world or something."
"Really?" asked Rik, "what was that all about?"
"Can't say," Conker said, "my sequel never saw the light of day."
"Okay whatever that meant" Rik said.
"Yeah don't worry about it" Conker said. "I always say things that don't make sense" Conker says with a wink towards no one in particular. They walk up to Conker's house and Rik asks,
"Why is your house so pink?"
"It belonged to my dead girlfriend" Conker said.
"Oh yeah, you told me about that" Rik said, "again sorry for your loss."
"It's fine, don't cha worry" Conker said. They enter the house and Rik notices that there is even more pink on the inside. Suddenly there is ringing from a device nearby,
"What is that?" Rik asks.
"My phone," Conker said, "let the answering machine get it" The phone stops ringing and Rik could hear Conker"s voice saying to leave a message through the phone. Then a women started talking,
"Heeello Conker, just wanted to thank you for the lovely evening last night." The Woman continues on, "and I wanted to espec-" Conker hits a button cutting her off.
"Who was that?" asked Rik.
"Wrong number" Conker said.
"She said you name though" Rik said.
"Oh there are plenty of Conker's out there I'm sure" Conker replied. He then takes out some packet labeled 'script'.
"Hmm let's see" Conker said to himself. "Wait, PG-13? I am not a PG-13 character! How did I not notice that?" "I should really get in better touch with my agent." Rik confused asks,
"What now?" Conker looks up and says,
"Ugh, you smell, take care of that will you? We'll talk then." Rik goes and washes the smell out of him as best as he could. He comes back to Conker talking to someone on the phone.
"Yeah, yeah," Conker said "I got the address, no problem, okay bye."
"And what was that?" asked Rik.
"Nothing, I take on some side business to get by."
"Okay, before we get started let me ask you," Rik said. "Why did you give Nate your gem and just stayed here?"
"Well" said Conker, "after doing what that spirity lady said, name was Eris I believe I decided to quit after a while." "Sure it was cool to go to entirely different worlds but I was not all about that righteous justice and stuff."
"So you quit cause you are not a good guy?" Rik asks.
"No," Conker said "I quit cause I was morally ambiguous and it didn't help me keep my home here". "In short it did not pay at all and I don't do nothin for free."
"Oh, so you're that type then?" Rik asks.
"Yep, anyhow that's why I gave Nate that rock" Conker said.
"And you said you also talked to a space lady too?" Rik asked.
"Yep," Conker said. "She glowed greenish blue and ghostly."
"I have spoken with her too" Rik said, "but she calls herself Melanie, weird."
"Guess she doesn't want anyone knowing her real name" Conker said.
"Yeah kinda like Tox" Rik said.
Just as Rik was going to ask Conker what he knew about the gem; a grey squirrel with ginormous glasses walked in from another room.
"Oh Conker! Had no idea you were home" he said.
"Rodent!" Conker yelled, "I thought I kicked you out a month ago!"
"You did" Rodent said, "but I have been living in your basement". "Who's your friend?"
"Just get outta here" Conker said, "I will deal with you when we're done chatting."
"Aww, come on Conker I just want to listen!" Rodent said.
"No you can't," Conker said "now get out of here before I kick you out, literally." Rodent then exits back into the room he came from.
"So he's a friend of yours?" asked Rik.
"Yeah, 'friend'" Conker said.
"You're not very nice to him" Rik said.
"Well I did kick him out," Conker said, "so if you can't imagine I'm not to happy to see him again." "Anyhoo, back on track, yes the gem let me see it." Rik hands it to him and Conker looks at it.
"Different compared to the last one but it's all still the same" Conker said. "Just seek out the world and select with your mind."
"Okay but where is the edge of the Multiverse?" Rik asks.
"There is no edge, infinite means forever, hello" Conker said.
"No, I need to go to the Plane of Non-Existence" Rik said.
"Oh, I see" Conker said. "It's considered the edge of the Multiverse cause that's where the erased universes go." "Hold on let me project this". Conker projects an image on the wall and Conker points telling Rik that it's somewhere on an Island. He must find the portal to enter since it's technically a waste dump rather than a universe.
"Wow you really know your stuff here" Rik said.
"Well," said Conker, "I did all this stuff before".
"Clearly, thanks for all your help" Rik said.
"Hey no problem," Conker said, "I knew I should help when I saw you with that gem."
Conker then thinks a moment and asks,
"Nate said something about defeating an evil right?"
"Yeah" said Rik, "what about it?"
"Well", said Conker, "have you noticed any disturbances from outside forces in other worlds?"
"No" Rik said.
"If the evil was that dangerous something would be up right?" said Conker "Kinda weird how everything is fine even though he says otherwise."
"That is weird" Rik agrees, "he did also mention to me before an attack that began all of this".
"Hmm," Conker says, "sounds like his conflict is on a more personal level don't it?"
"A little," Rik said, "I'm gonna go and see what Melanie wants to show me." Perhaps I will figure out what really is going on here." Conker bids Rik good luck and they says goodbye. Rik then teleports to The Island and looks for a portal way to enter the Plane of Non-Existence. After walking along the shore line Rik came across an archway of some sort up against an overhanging rock face. As he approached the portal activates and he enters.
"Woah" Rik said upon arriving to the Multiverse's junkyard. There were chunks of planet floating around. Space was illuminated with a light show of colors due to all the auras clashing together. It was like that one brief dream Rik had, including all of the artifacts that floated around. Rik saw some golden looking rod, a glowing ball with strange writing on it, a bronze-like egg shaped object. There were gems as well as many other strange and unique looking things floating about. And Rik noticed he had a view of other universes from this The Plain of Non-Existence, it was quite beautiful.
Rik walked around looking for Melanie and came across what looked suspiciously like a Dracon Mage skull and nearby there was also a canine looking one too.
"Strange" Rik says to himself, then suddenly Melanie appears behind him.
"You made it, finally" Melanie said.
"Finally?" Rik said, "maybe if you just brought me here I wouldn't have taken so long!"
"I am not aloud to directly interfere" Melanie said, "I can only influence change."
"What?" Rik asks, "you defeated Volkiris, that's kind of direct."
"No," Melanie said, "you and your friend wounded him." "And even though I said the chant you were the one holding the gem."
"Okay then" Rik says, "why am I here then?"
"Look around, do you see how cluttered it is?" Melanie asks.
"A bit I guess, why?" Rik asks.
"As you know erased universes come here" Melanie said. "However this is a rare occurrence and it is absolutely flooded now."
"Still don't see the bad" Rik said. Melanie then points at what looked like a black hole.
"The Black Hole in the distance keeps this area in check" Melanie says. "However due to all of the universes arriving at an alarming rate; there are now signs of danger as the black hole consumes more than it should all at once."
"And?" Rik asks.
"And" Melanie replies, "it's being built up to the point that it could become even stronger where it will expand outside it's own realm."
"I assume that's bad then" Rik said.
"Yes" said Melanie, "it is, it would be the start of a supermassive black hole that would consume endlessly." "It could destroy the whole Multiverse; and even though the Multiverse is infinite, worlds would be destroyed forever."
"Okay so it's bad universe stuff, but what do you want me to do?" Rik asks.
"You must break the cycle" Melanie said. "Only you can do it at this point, confront Nate, he is the cause."
"What? Why would he do this?" Rik wonders.
"He does not know yet" Melanie said. "Everytime he rewinds time to begin again he causes more universes to end up here because they no longer exist."
"Well what do I do? Just ask him about it?" Rik asks. Melanie looks to Rik and says,
"Just do whatever you can to help him break from this endless cycle."
"Why me though?" Rik asks, "I'm not as smart as Tox you know."
"Believe me," said Melanie, "I tried before with him, you were the only one I was able to get through to." "Do not fail or else it is one more step closer to destruction, return now to them and do what you must." Melanie fades away and Rik firmly grasps the gem as he
makes his way to the world he was in before. Rik teleports in to where he was in Grunty's lair before. Rik begins to walk through the castle wondering where everyone is, he comes across the room with the witches ugly mug on the floor.
"Rik? Rik where are you?" Tox shouted from down the corridor.
"Tox?" I'm here!" Rik shouted and Tox emerges from a doorway.
"Rik we have been looking for you" Tox said.
"Sorry, it's a big castle." Rik says.
"Rik" Tox says, "where were you?"
"I was just lost, that's all." Rik said.
"Funny," said Tox, "not only you disappear for a couple of hours but I can also sense that strong magic coming from you."
"Magic?" Rik asks.
"Yes," Tox said, "you have one of those gems don't you?"
"Alright," Rik says pulling the gem out of his pocket. "I do have one, picked it up awhile back just don't tell Nate alright?"
"Why not?" asked Tox.
"I have to break the cycle" Rik said, he spent the next several minutes telling Tox what he knew so far. Finally Tox says,
"Interesting, he is resetting time indefinitely, something strange is going on here."
"Yeah" said Rik, "we're gonna have to ask him what the deal is".
"Tox have you found Rik yet?" Nate said sounding not too far.
"Well it's time to go, ready?" Tox asks.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Rik says.
End of Chapter 9
