CHAPTER 135: UNTYPED COSMIC SOUL

The sky above Vaingall’s hallowed sanctuary began to change in a way that defied the realm’s chaotic norms.

A slit tore open in the fabric of reality, not with the violent rip of a rift or the bleeding wound of entropy, but a subtle, insidious parting, as if the heavens themselves were corroding from within.

White seeped from the edges, a pure, blinding luminescence that eroded the colors around it, turning the indigo twilight to pallid gray, the stars fading like ink washed away by water.

The air grew thick with an otherworldly hum, a vibration that resonated in the bones, carrying whispers of praise and prayer from unseen sources.

Eerie phantoms materialized in the sanctuary’s periphery—alien-like entities, translucent and formless at first, coalescing into shapes that defied biology—elongated limbs twisting into spirals, eyes like fractured prisms reflecting infinite voids, bodies that phased between solid and ethereal.

They hovered in clusters, some kneeling in reverence, others raising appendages in supplication, their forms whiter than the sun’s core, radiating a light that cast no shadows.

They appeared to be praising or praying, their silent gestures directed toward the descending anomaly from the slit, as if welcoming a divine birth.

Kivas stood transfixed, her silver-yellow hair swaying in the unnatural breeze stirred by the event, her halo pulsing with a mix of caution and curiosity.

The sanctuary’s stone plaza, usually a bastion of stability under Yoiglah’s colossal form, felt fragile now, the tortoise deity’s crystalline shell refracting the white light into prismatic shards that danced across the ground.

Kivas turned to Samael, who watched with arms crossed, her red-black hair unmoving despite the wind, draconic horns glinting. "Is all this... normal for an Untyped Cosmic Soul’s arrival?" Kivas asked wryly, gesturing to the corroding sky and the phantom worshippers. "Feels a bit theatrical, even for Fathomi."

Samael chuckled, her gaze fixed on the slit. "Not normal at all," she answered casually. "Cosmic Souls are immense—complex beyond our metaphysics. Fathomi’s reacting right now, trying to contain anomalies. At the same time, the Soul itself is clueless about the chaos it’s causing.

"The Untyped Cosmic Soul existing in Fathomi itself is already a great abnormality, so in a sense, what we’re seeing right now is not normal in any standard, heh."

Oizys rustled her black feather wings, violet halo flickering as she leaned closer to the holographic screens, which displayed Norn from the Lust Tier’s pov, alongside the lingering views of Salissic Vein through the Limbo Tiers. "Have you encountered an Untyped one before, Samael? Back when you were the Endless Dragon, you know, terrorizing."

Samael shook her head, a faint smile playing on her lips. "Never an Untyped. But I crossed a Black Cosmic Soul once. I had to subdue it first, wrestle its essence into submission before absorbing it. A nasty fight if I remember—twisting space into knots, time loops that nearly trapped me.

"You really don’t want to meet any kind of colored Cosmic Souls in your lifetime unless you have the guts for it."

"And the benefits of absorbing that Black Cosmic Soul was also gone when I embedded the Genesis Core in you?" Kivas curiously asked.

"Yep, all gone," Samael said with an exaggerated gesture with her hands of something being poofed.

Yoiglah’s amber eyes narrowed, his massive claw shifting subtly as the sanctuary vibrated.

"Should I act upon my endeavor?" Yoiglah asked

"No need, Yoiglah," Samael replied. "Just focus on establishing the connection with the blessings planted by Kivas."

The unreal slit widened, the white seepage intensifying, and slowly, the Untyped Cosmic Soul descended.

It emerged as a luminous orb at first, pulsing with unformed potential, but as it lowered, it crystallized into a human-like entity—pure white, curled in a fetal position, sleeping as if in gestation.

The phantoms intensified their praise, forms bowing lower, the air filling with a harmonious chime that soothed rather than unnerved.

Meanwhile, on the distant feed from Salissic Vein, the Lust Tier floated before Norn’s rift, its blindfolded helmet inclined in gratitude. "Thank you for the gift, Norn. It will serve me well."

Norn’s fractal forms quivered in farewell, the humanoid mouthpiece waving. "Use it wisely, teacher. Until we meet again~!"

The rift sealed with a sucking implosion, the bleeding wound knitting shut, leaving the sky scarred but whole.

The bizarre event—a colossal entity retracting like a receding tide, was enough to put immense madness on those who lack the resistance stats for it.

Back in the sanctuary, Samael extended her hand to Kivas, leading her forward with gentle insistence. "Come, now my dear. Time to claim it." Her touch was warm, her Mana Psyche and Hemo Psyche flowing outward, stabilizing the Cosmic Soul’s descent and Kivas herself, as if preparing for Kivas’ debut.

The white entity settled on the stone plaza, its fetal form hovering slightly, radiating a soft, inviting glow.

Kivas felt the pull, her own divine essence resonating with the untyped potential.

As Kivas stood before it, she reached out, her fingers brushing the crystalline surface.

In that instant, reality warped.

The world rippled like water disturbed by a stone, and Kivas was flung through time and space.

"Kuh!"

Streaks of colors were dragged away from her. Or to be precise, she was moving away from those colors at the speed at which everything was spaghettified in her peripheral vision.

But at times, the pulling force slowed down, in which Kivas could comprehend her surrounding environment amidst the great flung.

She saw that she soared over ancient seas where titans razed the waves and skies—colossal beings of storm and tide clashing in primordial fury, their roars shaking the foundations of the world.

Angelic elves with enormous wings and massive halos circled above, firing holy arrows that pierced the chaos, light beams lancing through the turmoil like divine judgments.

Then, the scene shifted violently—a massive, horrifying dragon—scales black as void, eyes burning with endless hunger—massacred winged people with halos, their screams echoing as flames and claws tore through their ranks.

The dragon’s roar was a symphony of destruction, the ground scorched, the sky filled with falling feathers and broken divinities.

"What is... happening!?"

Further back, heavens collided—celestial realms smashing together in cataclysmic fusion, stars shattering like glass, gods and divinities warring in a tapestry of light and shadow, the fabric of existence fraying at the seams.

Deeper still, the first of humanity fended against a massive horde of Nihils—entities of pure Calamity, mindless personifications of entropy, differing in forms and themes—some swirling voids devouring matter, others storms of decay unraveling flesh and soul.

Humanity, or the first instance of it in Fathomi, wielded all sort of Curio Items infused with their raw will, their cries of defiance a spark against the endless dark.

"It is getting turbulent!"

Finally, Kivas was cast into Fathomi’s unfinished genesis.

A realm of half-formed concepts, laws of physics flickering like faulty lights—gravity inverting randomly, time looping in pockets, elements blending into surreal hybrids.

Colors bled without boundaries, shapes melted and reformed, the world a canvas of potential yet to solidify.

Then, abrupt stillness. Kivas "fell" to a floor of white in a sky of white—an infinite expanse of purity, devoid of shadows or horizons.

It was an anticlimactic end, or maybe it was not the end to this cascade at all.

There, enthroned upon a seat of shimmering prisms that refracted infinite voids and stars, sat a feminine entity—crystallized perfection, her form a luminous echo of the Untyped Cosmic Soul itself.

But here, she was a vision of ethereal grace, limbs folded with an almost human poise, her surface alive with subtle facets that caught nonexistent light, casting rainbows into the boundless white expanse.

As Kivas steadied herself on the featureless floor, the entity began to monologue, her voice a harmonious cascade, like the birth of galaxies woven into sound.

"I fell to this world," she intoned, her crystalline eyes—facets within facets—gleaming with absorbed knowledge, "and in a single gaze, I perceived its essence.

"History unfolded like threads in a cosmic loom—eons of turmoil etched into every atom, conflicts that scarred the void, and the indomitable spark of life defying entropy’s grasp...

"One glance—that is all it took to encompass the world’s narrative, its endless strife, and the resilient flame that endures."

Kivas maintained her composure, her deadpan expression a mask of unyielding calm amid the philosophical storm. She crossed her arms, halo faintly pulsing in the white void. "So, you’ve suddenly gained a mind? Like consciousness?"

The entity laughed—a melodic resonance that echoed through the expanse like chimes in an eternal wind, her crystalline form vibrating with amusement. "No, I deny it utterly. Not a shred of consciousness stirs within me, nor a whisper of mind.

"It appears that I am merely the accumulated personification of what I have perceived and processed—a vessel swollen with colossal instinct and computational prowess, reacting to stimuli without true intent... Or that’s what it seemed."

She paused, her facets shifting like a living mosaic, as if contemplating her own words. "Yet, what is consciousness, truly? What constitutes a mind for any living entity? If I am but echoes of observed realities—history’s weight, conflict’s fury, life’s spark—am I not still void of self? And yet, here I converse."

Kivas tilted her head, unfazed. "Then explain, what makes you deny it so vehemently?"

The entity leaned forward, her throne’s prisms refracting Kivas’s image into infinite variations. "Consider this, I am nothing but the sum of processed data, instinct honed to perfection through exposure. But is that consciousness?

"No—for consciousness implies agency beyond reaction. It begs the question, if an artificial vessel, like a machine, programmed with intent to act, replicates thought—does it possess a mind?

"What of entities with barely any personalization, mere reactors to external forces, drifting through existence like leaves in a storm? Are they conscious, or simply... existent?"

Kivas’s eyes narrowed slightly, intrigued despite her stoic facade. "Do you have any desires beyond simply existing?"

The entity paused, her crystalline surface stilling as if in deep computation, then crossed one leg over the other with deliberate grace, the motion rippling light across the void. "Desire? That implies pursuit, a drive beyond preservation. Are you suggesting that true life demands chasing meaning, that mere existence is insufficient proof of vitality?"

Kivas nodded, her voice steady and filled with conviction. "Exactly! There’s nothing that proves something is alive more than desiring beyond mere existence and self-preservation—yearning for connection, change, or even imposing entropy on others.

"Survival alone is instinct, desire is the spark of life."

The entity uncrossed her leg, leaning back with an air of genuine fascination, her facets glittering like stars in contemplation. "Intriguing. Elaborate further—I am... compelled to process this."

Kivas smirked faintly, stepping closer, her presence unwavering in the infinite white. "A conscious entity with a mind must possess will—a will that neither defies the current nor blindly follows the flow.

"No matter how small or insignificant, the moment an existence harbors such a will, it transcends mere reaction. It becomes alive, shaping its path amid the chaos."

The entity regarded her, silent for a beat that stretched like eternity, then tilted her head. "By that criterion, am I alive?"

Kivas’s smirk deepened, her eyes locking onto the entity’s facets. "Do you even consider yourself alive? That question alone fits the requirement—self-reflection is will in motion, and so is the acceptance of oneself, to believe that you have the requirement to go beyond a mere existence."

The entity erupted in laughter once more, the sound cascading like a symphony of shattering crystals, her form vibrating with delight. "Ah, you’ve ensnared me in my own logic. Well played." She clapped her hands, the impact sending ripples of light through the void, a gesture of concession and acclaim. "Congratulations—you’ve cracked the code~

"And as for your question, recall the words I uttered near our first ever encounter in this realm." The entity grinned. "You can clearly see the answer, and I assume that you’ve noticed it as well."

"It is a little bit disappointing to find that it is within my expectation," Kivas smirked with heavy weight on her eyes.

"Are you hoping that I’m truly alive?"

"In a way."

"And why is that?"

"I just found that you can be a fun figure to converse from time to time in my close proximity," Kivas truthfully answered. "Not to mention, your possible interaction with some people I hold dearly."

"You’re hoping for a friend."

"It is a strong proof that I’m alive and well, both mind and body."

"Heh, what a cunning fellow." With a flourish of her arm, the entity gestured expansively, the throne dissolving into motes of light behind her. "Now, what do you desire, seeker of hope?"

"As of now, right after confirming your state of being." Kivas’s conviction burned bright, her voice resolute. "To absorb you—to become one with your existence."

The entity smiled, a luminous curve that illuminated the white expanse. "Very well. If that is your will, so be it."

She extended a hand, warping the individual space and time enveloping them both—the void folding inward, dimensions compressing in a kaleidoscope of collapse.

Before Kivas could brace, she found herself back in Vaingall’s hallowed sanctuary, the transition seamless yet jarring.

But there, time had frozen. Samael mid-step, her hand outstretched. Oizys’s wings half-rustled in surprise.

The air was still, the holographic screens paused in their glow.

Yet, within Kivas’s soul, something stirred—a presence compressing almost infinitely, denser than a star’s core, before imploding under its own weight.

The collapse reversed in an explosive surge, a big bang echoing through her spiritual imaginary space.

A new universe birthed within her, a nebulae swirling into stars, galaxies spiraling from primordial dust, concepts weaving into laws of physics and metaphysics.

Power flooded her essence, elevating her existential height—boundless expansion, a cosmos unfolding in her soul’s depths, forever changing her being.