The staircase hadn't stretched that far upwards, maybe only twenty feet or so, but it suddenly ended. No warning, nothing. End of the line. If you'll let me say something so clichéd.
"It took so long to convince those cosmic fools of this scheme..." The distorted voice spoke up from below. "I thrive on chaos and disorder, they thrive on destruction, death, decay..."
Hearing this, my heart started racing. Time was almost up. I didn't even want to think about what would happen if he caught up to us. I turned to Haruhi, who had collapsed on the stairs, and began to shake her like a madman.
"Dammit Haruhi, wake up, wake up!" I yelled. Nothing. Her face still blank.
"You must have heard it all from Kirie Goshima. It all began with the spiral, descending out of space, out of the galaxies, out of the dimensional tear that allowed us access into your Macrocosm. It rooted itself beneath the spot that would soon become the town of Kurouzu-cho, and began to grow, grow into an entire city, a city of chaotic, iridescent, glowing spirals. And over time, the town grew above the city of spirals, and the spirals seeped up into the town, becoming part of it, possessing it..."
It was still talking. I kept shaking Haruhi, but she just wouldn't wake up. Looking down, I could see the Koizumi-thing walking slowly up the stairs, with the stairs themselves collapsing as it ascended.
"This pleased my masters, the Outer Gods. But no, this was not the end. After driving all but one resident of the town into insanity and death, we decided to preserve her, keep her as an anchor in your Macrocosm. The Macrocosm of Ani'hmey, as the Outer Gods pronounce it..."
At this point I had nearly reached the end of my patience and, I hate to say it, I was losing my sanity a little bit. I lost control and yelled,
"Macrocosm? What the hell do you mean? Stop rambling and get to the damn point!"
It laughed. A horrible sound.
"You...yes, we have observed you. So close to the God of this Macrocosm, Mr John Smith...or, Kyon, as you are affectionately known. You must have noticed some changes recently...changes in your classmates, changes in your atmosphere."
"Yeah. Universe fusion. I get it." I glanced over at Haruhi, and saw that she was still unresponsive. Well, not totally. I noticed her fingers moving, her fists slowly opening and closing.
"Hah! You get it? You lesser beings and your arrogance. I have seen your conversations with your petty little band, the "SOS Brigade." You all thought you had understood, Ayumu was your target and you had to get rid of her to save the universe. Hah, how simple it would have been! No, the being you suspected you knew, the one you would have called Ayumu has been trapped in the gap between dimensions for the entirety of this charade. No, your target was beyond your reach this entire time."
By now it had reached the curve of the stairwell leading around to where we sat. The end. Ominous doesn't begin to describe it.
"As soon as we tore through into Goshima's universe and established her as our anchor, trapped in time and space, we extended our grasp to other universes in your Macrocosm- your collection of universes, in simple terms- and we began to blend them together, merging them, one into another...we Outer Gods were locked outside of the Universe we had created, yet we found it so very simply to meddle in the affairs of your Universes. Eventually the plan was taking form- the plan to merge every universe in your Macrocosm into one continuous, everlasting spiral of destruction and chaos."
Haruhi was now looking around, blankly, while settling her hands in her lap. This was strange, but a good sign. I felt hopeful- if I could keep him talking, maybe she would come back.
"And you call us arrogant?" was all I could think of. Weak, I know.
"Don't make me laugh again." The Koizumi-being had made its way to the bottom of our flight of stairs and stopped. "Amidst all of our chaos, all of our universe-fusion and elimination, there was always one universe we could not touch. I will not make a fool of myself by asking you which one. It was your universe. The universe of this...Haruhi Suzumiya. It was blocking us, preventing us from proceeding further. So many universes had been conglomerated, crushed into our spiral, but yours...a presence from within your universe kept them regenerating...the God of the Macrocosm..."
It twitched a little. I figured this to be in disgust.
"In our original universe, there existed humans we called Dreamers, those who would scour the plains of the Dreamland to our ancestral heights in the region of Kadath, and attempt to communicate with the Outer Gods. In the land known to humans as "reality," there were numerous cults devoted to us, avatars brought to life...we were invocated, pulled into these forms, and we spread madness unto humanity. We could touch the world, find ways into the human universe outside of our inter-dimensional bondage...and these gave us ideas. We would find a Dreamer, wandering whimsically through your Macrocosm's dream realms, and we would snatch their mind away and imprison it within our insane, incomprehensible realms. In its place we would leave a construct of our own, one that emulated the subject, but was in fact a key...a Silver Key to our realm of spirals and madness, and we would unleash it upon your universe."
"Ayumu..." I mumbled, without even thinking about it. A sick smile stretched across the being's face.
"Yes. At least that resonates with you. If Goshima was the anchor holding us in your Macrocosm, Ayumu would be the key to entering the realm of God...or "Haruhi" as you know it. Things were, of course, made a lot easier by the fact that God herself pulled Ayumu into your universe. I've seen you all talking about the many-worlds theory, so you know the details- A timeline splits, and a new universe is created for every action. This was a stray thought, a single creeping moment in the corner of God's mind: maybe she would find the aliens and oddities that she so desired if she were visited by one from another universe. The chance that this timeline could be created was so small, so miniscule...but we capitalised on it. Planting Ayumu in, we had our anchor. Other anchors appeared- the alien world Yuggoth, spotted in the sky by a high school astronomy club, the creature Y'golonac, the defiler, the one that lurks behind walls..."
It gave a disturbing, unpleasant laugh and continued.
"The barrier subconsciously built by God around your universe was shattered and we instantly began the fusion. Universe upon universe upon universe, all merged together...Every universe created through the actions of every individual in your Macrocosm, all fused into one, all for the sole purpose of destroying God, and removing the final obstacle in our path to the Eternal Spiral of universes..."
"You mean...all of this...it was to destroy Haruhi?" I murmured, half-paying attention to the cosmic babble of the being and half watching Haruhi as the life slowly returned to her eyes.
"Of course. No matter how many universes we destroyed, new ones would sprout from the rubble of the old every time. Cosmic matter regurgitated, bringing the universes to life, destroying the Eternal Spiral when it was merely a glimpse, a tiny sprout..."
It then began to walk, incredibly slowly, up the stairs. Nothing I've ever seen was as creepy as that walk. The glowing spirals above didn't help my nausea.
"We realised that if there were a thousand alternate universes, it didn't matter what we destroyed- they would never stay permanently ruined because your God kept on bringing them back to life...and we could never destroy her because she would still be alive in an alternate universe. So, we ceased our maniacal attempts to destroy her and instead, brought your universe to the centre of our Eternal Spiral, with the other universes circling around it, all the way down...that would be "fate." God would have nowhere to run to if every universe led to the same place- destruction."
Haruhi seemed to be almost alert now. Her eyes were slightly brighter and she was moving around a lot more. I was starting to worry that she might not wake up in time. The being was getting closer...
"And so it all ended here. When the key within Ayumu was awakened, when that horrific beast emerged, transformed from the disguise it had held for that short duration, the gate to our dimension was torn open. All but you and God- Haruhi- were sucked into a void, their minds and bodies trapped in the Eternal Spiral of universes. Of course, we did not expect God to go without a fight- she had to build a final stronghold, a physical dimension, and infest it with her Celestial giants...hah hah hah! And all of this, right at the end, was done entirely subconsciously! Entirely to protect you, Kyon, even if it meant sacrificing her very will to the spirals, even if it meant becoming an emotionless, blank shell of a being..."
Far from it. The girl this thing had been complaining about was slowly beginning to return to life. I saw her eyes blink, her mouth move...thankfully, he didn't. I just needed to buy a little more time. My eye drifted slightly into the sky, and I could see the giant spiral still rotating, yet it seemed like it was slowing down...
"So this is it, huh? This is where our "Macrocosm" ends? You destroy Haruhi and turn everything into chaos?" I said, trying as best I could to sound hopeless. It smiled its horrible smile again.
"Of course. It would seem that even God's luck runs out in the end. With all of the alternate universes merged into one...this is the end for both of you. This is fate. And I can finally stop talking in this wretched human language..."
The being was now standing directly in front of us, its right arm raised. As it spoke its last words, I could see it begin to melt and transform...
"Kyon? Kyon? Where are we?! Don't tell me I missed the whole thing with that monster! The one with all the tentacles and the spirals?!"
I saw a flicker of despair on the creature's face. Straight away, it stopped mid-transformation and "snapped back" to its Koizumi-esque form. The girl lying comatose next to me had spoken, all right. I'm guessing this wasn't the flawless victory he was looking for. The spiral in the sky had now not only stopped rotating, but had begun to rotate in the opposite direction.
"Whoa! What's this, Kyon?! Is this thing an alien? No, wait...it's just Koizumi dyed jet-black! And who're you tryin' to fool with these stupid spiral backgrounds, anyway?!" Haruhi ranted. I had never been happier to hear it.
"No, no...this is..." The being stuttered, before jerking its head around to stare at the sky itself. It could see the spiral speeding up its flow, as if it was reversing everything, spitting everything back out like a malfunctioning blender.
"You! Wretched human filth! You...you would undo the machinations of the Outer Gods this way...we beings, that exist for destruction, for madness..." It started clutching its head, and it was at this point that it lost the form of Koizumi, instead melting and morphing into disturbing humanoid forms, presumably in an attempt to keep its grip on reality. Or something like that. Come on, expecting me to understand the mindset of some universe-hopping shape shifter is a long shot, to say the least.
"Kyon, I don't know what you tried to do with all of these trippy hallucinations, but I've had enough!" Haruhi yelled. "Where the hell did that alien go?! It was interesting!"
"No...she should have...lost her mind...to the spirals..." In the middle of Haruhi's rant, I looked at the being and saw that its form was, horrifyingly, being contorted to the weirdest shape I have ever seen. It was like it was being crushed and squeezed all over its body and, as the spiral in the sky sped up further and further, the creature became- and I can't believe I'm saying this- noodle-esque in appearance. I was thankful Haruhi was too busy ranting at me to turn around and look at it, if only because I wanted to keep her away from the nightmares I was going to have about it. It turned to me and reached for Haruhi with one of its long arms.
"We…" It spluttered, "We were the ones…engineered the death-stench…told the dark fortunes at the crossing…cursed the valley of mirrors…formed the holes in…Ami…gara…" It collapsed forward onto the stairs, and I was happy I didn't have to look at its grotesque face anymore. Haruhi turned round, but I quickly stood up and went in front of her, blocking the thing from sight. I did not want another explosion of Haruhi-emotion right now, thank you.
"Yeah, well, I'd say it was pretty stupid of you to let God in here without making sure she'd do no harm." I said, smirking a little. I was enjoying this, although this was probably more from relief than from sadistic joy. With that, I lightly kicked the remains of the thing into the sea of spirals below, watching it fall and fade from view.
"Kyon? Who were you talking to? Where's Koizumi? And…where are we?! I've asked you this, Kyon! Where are we?!" The princess demanded. I just gave a shrug and slumped back down on the stairs, trying to catch my breath and rearrange my thoughts after the entire episode. I didn't really expect Haruhi to accept my noncommittal shrug as an appropriate answer, so she continued to rant at me. Don't ask me what she said- I just blocked it all out. I was staring at the giant spiral in the sky, which was slowing down as if it were grinding to a halt.
As a matter of fact, when I looked into the spiral sea below, my suspicions were confirmed- all of the spirals were beginning to grind to a halt. I suppose I should have expected this, seeing as Haruhi was up and running again, but if I've learned one thing in all of my time with Haruhi, it's "assume nothing." Something's always bound to jump out of nowhere and surprise you.
