Continuing from part 40... Spoilers from included and/or represented works abound. Please read this fiction carefully.
"I used to be the errand boy for the Guardians of the Universe. It was a thankless job. I knew that. I had never asked for anything." Parallax explained his story. "The one time that I did, I was denied. It's thought to show just how unfair the universe really was... how much in need of a makeover. And then now it was gone. As were the Guardians."
"So I decided that we need a new start. A fresh beginning. Doneright. But first, I was limiting myself when I tried to remake Coast City." Parallax continued. "Fixing one city doesn't help when the whole world... the whole universe was messed up. I thought that was my blank page for creation. My chance to remake everything -- the way it should be."
"You teamed up with the old Monarch, Extant guy from the files... and wiped out the timestream!?" Malkuth is shocked. "You broke history itself!?"
"Meh, I dunno..." Netzach avoided the matter.
"We have reported to your authority with a recording of the ongoing organization." Parallax then plays the record by pressing play.
"I've seen the continuum from many different directions, and I know how to fix it, even if it means destroying it!" The recording has the leader of the Beach talking about her ultimate plan.
"You can't be serious..." Hokma is worried.
"Interesting place... Crisis energy and anti-Crisis energy mixed together, the ultimate form of entropy consuming all energy, all matter, all void... all existence. From here, you can look back on all that is and all that was... and change it. Easy to do... if you know how. The dimensions are inagony. And I'm the one who choose how it should be. The countdown has begun... the countdown to..." *static* "We break entropy itself."
"What the hell?" Binah is disgusted. "It's beyond impossible. Entropy crushes all energy and all matter. Existence dissipates in the face of entropy, as far as any sane person would be aware of."
"At least normally. But the intent is still there." The man in black replied. "In fact, she's gonna go ahead with conquering all realities... by literal force all around."
"And they said that they manipulated the future..." Chesed finally brought up something. "That all-evil modder guy even explicitly explained how the island would otherwise work out..."
"After the Rift Gate activation, someone sabotaged the coordinates and changed the destination, destabilizing the gate as a result. Which destroyed it in the process, causing a massive rift on top of the island." Hokma recapped what'd happen.
"The Beach sabotaged the timestream. We need to talk to Mem Aleph." Parallax responded. "She used to work for them."
"She... the Sorceress of Time? She worked for the..." Yesod is stunned. "How then, did she-"
"She betrayed that woman. She betrayed the so-called Realitiers. She betrayed the perpetuators, and escaped for the Quantum Realm." The woman revealed. "After what they were doing, she had enough. She defected, left the Netherrealm remains, wandered until this organization of yours brought her in. She knows a lot."
"So we go talk to her?" Tiphereth raised her hand. "And what about the unaltered?"
"We've already gone past the point of divergence, but the original timeline still exist." Parallax revealed. "We can use this timeline's Rift Gate to reach that timeline. The omniverse is already affected by tampering the 'Prism Shatter' event, so the rift is now free to cross between timelines."
"What if the perpetuators sabotage the Rift Gate, like someone else did it in that timeline?" Gebura questioned. "And where's the stars?"
"Call the groups earlier, the Kamisaman's group and a few guests. Take Ma and us all to where the Rift Gate is meant to be placed." Yesod told all. "We have a lot to discuss and investigate."
On the other side...
"Welcome to MEGA City!"/"メガシティへようこそ!"
MEGA City, the city that looks like futuristic Tokyo Bay. Described to 'bring the fury of storm', chaos and made of valiant cyberpunks not of Night City, but resemblance Japanese culture as such, the city's neo-urban nature is perfect for night mayhem also shown in Battle Royale.
One day, the Rift Warden, Stellan visited the neo-new city.
"So... the stars has decided to bring this city into here." He thought.
Stellan go between the buildings and is starting to understand what this place really is.
"I'm in an neo-urban city full of... lights and rails." Stellan spotted.
Some Loopers are fighting on, building some blockage and attached platforms, and shooting each other at all range and direction needed. Stellan nearly steps into the zone, which would've caught him into firing.
"I can get you what you need to keep the Peace." A lizard man approached Stellan. "You're... interesting. If you didn't know already, I mean: Peace Syndicate."
"Who are you?" Stellan has no idea.
"Thunder. Street warrior, sushi chef, and the coolest lizard in the Peace Syndicate." The lizard man introduced himself.
"You really look like a man with lizard for a head." Stellan is surprised.
"That Rift Gate... the stars led me to this city." Stellan began explaining. "Rift Gate, destroyed. Because somebody sabotaged it."
"The coordinates was '2138'." Stellan revealed. "After sabotage, the Rift Gate became unstable, and then exploded, leaving a massive rift above the island."
"You're... trying to find the saboteur, the culprit of it all?" Thunder responded. "So are we. Someone corrupted our infos on the Last Reality."
"Someone manipulated the coordinates. After the end of Rift Gate, we're still trying to find the culprit." Stellan responded as well. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Hail and well met. I am Stellan, the Rift Warden to the Oathbound."
"It's a pleasure to meet you. However..." Thunder then contacted Evie. "Evie, we have a guest. He is from Oathbound, and he knows about how the city ended up here."
"Let me contact whoever you're calling." Stellan took control of the communication with Evie, and then introduced himself and explained about the Rift Gate. He even talked about the Shapeless Man, how he met that, and that the Rift Gate has to be constructed as to avoid the end of everything.
"You are revealing your secrets to someone who might not understand." Thunder is surprised. "What are you doing?"
"We need to make a truce between the Oathbound and your Peace Syndicate. For now." Stellan told Evie.
"Mr. Stellan, we know about the Last Reality, but all our intel about them has been corrupted by the saboteur." Evie replied. "If they are working with them, this won't just be an inter-syndicate war that threaten any hope for unity between syndicates."
"It would potentially be... the end of everything. All of it." Stellan finished the idea. "Maybe we're tracking down the same target. Maybe."
"Keep all this a secret between us all." Thunder suggested.
"Huh? Thunder?" Evie heard it. "Oh, that lizard guy? He's a restauranteur, entrepreneur, party lizard, and well-loved man-about-town."
"I want to keep what we've been discussing a secret between Oathbound, your Peace Syndicate, and the likes that can be trusted with." Stellan suggested. "For now, Thunder, take the call back."
Stellam finished, and gave back the communication to Thunder, who continued the contract with Evie for a while, before hanging up... except not before this:
"Meet me and the Princess's associates in the floating island."
"What? The floating island?" Thunder then hangs up.
"Where is the floating island? I don't exactly recall one..." Stellan responded.
Suddenly, a chunk of land has been rifted near the city. It is the Loot Island, where Evie would turns out to be in. The light from the rift did not go unnoticed by the two.
"The floating island is nearby. Let's go!" Thunder went to the point.
"More island to contend..." Stellan followed.
The Loot Island spawned above the lake south to the city. A few rifts appeared to lead to the floating island, including one that spawned in the south edge of the city. Stellan and Thunder entered that rift, and is rifted to of the floating island.
"Evie, what do you want to tell us?" Thunder approached Evie before the house.
"It seems you had no idea of what going on outside of the actual island and the Last Reality. And others." Evie seems disappointed. "We brought a few friends of the Princess, and even a guest who collect realities and worlds thereof. His name is Brainiac, and the Princess hired him."
"Hail and well met. I am Stellan, the Rift Warden to the Oathbound." Stellan to Brainiac. "I came to the Oathbound at the order of theShapeless Man. He yearns for a Rift Gate. So I had the people help building it and setup."
"You must be the warden I heard from Oathbound infos." Brainiac replied. "There's much to discuss, while the Princess and her village sister are busy with her works on what she dearly call as the Shadow Kingdom."
"First up, the divine continuum itself. Or: Divine Continuum. Different emphasis, same thing." Brainiac explained. "It represents existence itself. It's made of space-time continuum of all infinite dimensions."
"I know about the... everything. You would probably call it as the greater omniverse." Stellan responded.
"Exactly. The greater omniverse is the spatial representation of the infinite multiverses and variations, comprised of infinite dimensions." Brainiac confirmed. "The temporal representation is hypertime itself, comprised of infinite possibilities, alternative timelines, possible futures and potential paradoxes. In short: infinite timestreams."
"I never thought the omniverse could have so infinite variants from all points in... timestream?" Stellan is surprised.
"Each multiverse and respective timestream co-hold a space-time continuum for each reality and all its variants." Brainiac continued. "All that's is about the very basic of the divine continuum, as far as everyone in existence itself can know and comprehend about."
"The continuum just takes the Schrodinger's cats." Evie joked about space-time, then laughed.
"Nice joke, you... little-" Brainiac tuned in.
"What do the continuum you talked has to do with the big island we're inhabiting right now?" Stellan questioned.
"And the saboteur's possible plan?" Thunder as well.
"I sensed a certain mothership disappeared after a while, just before I got here." Brainiac replied. "As the most intelligent conqueror in my universe and among the multiverse, I can sense something wrong about my reality. I even sent some of my spare drones to confirm my suspicions..."
"And to his very surprise, his universe is being manipulated by none other than the ones called the Realitiers." Evie revealed.
"Yes, they kidnapped my drones, my duplicates, my variants, and even my descendents to their advantage." Brainiac confessed.
"This is why the Princess hired him. His intelligence is useful for checking worlds." Evie responded.
"What about you? Why are you hired by the Princess?" Stellan questioned.
"Because she found out that the Realitiers broke the timeline, stalling the event we originally experienced, including when that rift on the sky. And probably... altering the island differently." Evie replied. "So while we're against the saboteur, we have matters from an whole other timeline."
"Alright, even more reason to stop the inter-syndicate war and unite the syndicates." Thunder conceded.
"Huh. So you three had to work with... more people from other realities." Stellan pointed it out. "Who's the Princess?"
"That's Princess Charlotte for you!" Evie shouted.
"Calm down, Evie!" Thunder to calm Evie down.
"Vril Dox, Thunder, you weirdo..." Evie facepalmed.
"What did I just saw? And just heard?" A Looper just happened to have been eavesdropping the entire exchange. "What? The omniverse has infinite variants? I don't remember about the omniverse other than about the Zero Point and the likes."
The confused Looper slowly approached the grouping.
"You... One of those who helped me construct the Rift Gate." Stellan noticed. "Why are you right here now?"
"I have no real idea what you're talking about." The Looper is confused.
The group then explain what they were talking about in detail. The Looper suddenly spotted some potential inconsistencies.
"Don't you know paradoxes exist? It's basically a fault in hypertime." Thunder pointed it out. "Inconsistencies can thrive there. And also, the actual situation is complicated. Sorry, but we have works to do."
"As for you, we need to win the trust of each Syndicate, one by one." Evie told the Looper. "When we're all united, the saboteur will have nowhere to hide." "We gotta unite as a city, and find this saboteur before it's too late."
The Looper suddenly eliminated, and in place of that, a magical girl appeared: frilly dress with onega-shaped details, makeups and stylized hair and eyes, wielding her magical staff, her dress magically coated, creating omega-shaped details, and dark brown hair. Her eyes glowing red with the irises shaped into the capital Greek letter of Omega; her hands glows omega symbol as well.
"Who are you!?" Thunder noticed.
"You have been baited." The girl mocked the group. "And finally, the last Brainiac, Vril Dox! After searching timelines, I finally found you!"
"Are you the saboteur!?" Evie angry.
"Not that one. I take control of this island." The girl points her staff to the group. "You are one of the original subjects, this Stellan."
"What!?" Thunder is ridiculed. "You can't be serious!"
"Anti-Life." The girl revealed. "Loneliness plus Alienation plus Fear plus Despair plus Self-Worth divided by Mockery divided by Condemnation divided by Misunderstanding times Guilt times Shame times Failure times Judgment, N equals Y where Y is Hope and N is Folly, Love equals Lies, Life equals Death, Self equals Dark-side."
Thunder and Evie is visibly stunned, but Stellan shrugs it off, and Brainiac isn't affected.
"In the name of Anti-Life, life is meaningless. Free will is a literal joke. You only need obey our gods!" The girl mocked the group. "I'm of Anti-Life."
"The Anti-Life Equation!" Brainiac objected. "Don't you dare bring the Equation to the island...!"