Breaking Chasm #90…

<How are you feeling?> COLMUUN asked the Future Hybrid. His ghost was still with him as he couldn't be there himself, waiting for the verdict.

Skullius flexed his fingers and cracked his neck. He was feeling… invincible. He restored his [Entropy's Harmonizing Nimbus] to its fullness and pulled it over himself with all four hands as he adjusted his sitting position on the luxurious chair. He even propped up his legs on the table. It was as elegant as the rest of the waiting room. From the moment he'd been invited here, he'd known that not just anybody was allowed to be there.

"My physical properties are no longer voided. The restriction is finally undone," he said, grinning. "Man, that was a pain in the socket. I get it – it's restrictive for safety's sake, reminiscent of the Timemould Mirror Box – but damn." He clicked his tongue. "We could have been counting one Primeval down by now."

(A/N: Refer to Ch.1469.)

COLMUUN was honestly surprised. <It makes that much of a difference?>

"The Wanderer's Prison has no typical Realms and typical functions of the |Greater Cosmic Law|. It offers great benefits, but it's still quite the nightmare. The Wanderer knows just what it means for someone to live through the Prison's terrors and get to escape it. For Reality's sake, he has to put a stopper on the abilities of all the survivors temporarily," said Skullius, still tinkering with aspects of his body to see just how much they had changed now that he was free from the restriction.

Part of the restriction was for his own good as well.

<But you said only your physical properties were restrained.>

"I did." Skullius laughed. "It feels like a lifetime ago. Sila stole my body and sacrificed my mana core to enhance my physical prowess instead using Creeds. That made a world's worth of difference to my strength back then. The Prison does something similar, if you allow it. Not the sacrifice part, but allowing you to realise the worth of things most take for granted." He looked at COLMUUN's ghost. "Don't tell me you've become blind to what overwhelming, untempered physical might can do just because you learned to control a few aspects of the |Greater Cosmic Law|."

COLMUUN reserved his retort. It worried him that he couldn't tell the difference. Skullius felt the same despite this change he'd just mentioned – that his physical attributes, which had been under a voided status, restrained, were free now.

Could he really have slain the other JOISEN ANTERRAS easily if he'd had this new strength?

"Quick lesson for you," said Skullius, pointing a finger at the ghost. "With enough physical strength, you can fool your own body into saturating itself or any vessel with any fundamental energy source you want. Like so."

He gave a demonstration. A chalice was on the table, just inches away from his feet. It was made with a precious metal that Skullius recognized. It conducted Divine energy particularly well. Owning stuff like that was considered a luxury, he knew, for high-status Divine beings. He pointed at the chalice.

One second. Two seconds. The chalice began shaking.

Three seconds. Five seconds. A lively signature frothed from the chalice as its shaking turned vehement.

…And then a soft, mourning voice resounded from it, as though it were alive!

COLMUUN was dumbfounded.

<Did you just— 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"Saturate the chalice with enough life energy that it spontaneously developed a soul? Yes. I don't need to be a Deity to do stuff like that now," Skullius said and blew on the finger he'd been using to point. "Raw. Strength."

COLMUUN's mouth was agape. His jaw remained slack even when the door to the waiting room opened.

A woman walked in, her head hung. She was from a species even the Future Hybrid had never seen. When she reached him, she bowed as deeply as she could and then said:

"They will see you now, m-my lord."

"Great," said Skullius, and he warped from his sitting position to her side. "Lead the way."

The woman shuddered as she rose and stiffly led him through the door and into a great, clean hallway. She was panicking. None of the other attendants had dared to so much as glance at the man she was escorting now. When the top figures had deigned that they were ready to entertain this man – their hero – she, as the newest attendant, had been forced to bring him over.

The woman gulped so much that she could have drowned in her own saliva. She couldn't wait to send Future Skullius into the Magnitudinous Hall and flee.

Lucky for her, Skullius didn't say anything. In truth, aside from what she'd heard about him, she hadn't really felt a pressure deserving of his supposed feats and moniker as the hero of this branch of the Aspire to Divine.

By the time she pushed open the great spinning doors to the Magnitudinous Hall, her panic had mostly vanished.

"Forgive us for taking so long to meet with you," a boisterous voice said the instant Skullius came into view.

Twenty-three figures, impressive in one way or another, rose from their seats on the great table within the Hall in a gesture of respect.

Skullius waved a hand and brazenly took the empty seat closest to him without being offered.

"Don't worry about the pleasantries. Let's get down to business, shall we?"

The esteemed figures looked at each other and then sat back down. Just like that, their initiative lost to the stranger's, but they weren't offended.

"Your organization is trying to win a race against the Primeval Deities – a race for who can claim the largest number of Breaking Chasms in this Reality. But you're losing more ground than you're winning. The most precious ones among the Breaking Chasms, those that revolve closer to the boundary of Reality, are mostly in the hands of the Primevals. This particular one is also precious, correct? And you almost lost it to JOISEN ANTERRAS. That would have been blow – one your higher-ups wouldn't forgive."

The twenty-three shuddered in shock. They had imagined they were going to have to explain all this to the stranger before they pleaded for his assistance. There weren't that many freelancers in Reality who understood the nuances of the war.

But shocking as it was, this made what they had to do all that much easier.

"Then… you didn't just happen upon us, correct? You lent us aid purposefully," one of them said.

"You could say that," said Skullius. "Honestly, I was just impressed by the fact that this Breaking Chasm has been almost completely relieved of Fiends. The Aspire to Divine is vast, but most of its divided forces cannot exhaustively rid the Breaking Chasms they claim of those creatures. You all are promising."

"It took… great effort. As you said, this is one of the most valued Breaking Chasms," said another of the twenty-three. "It's one of the few that even comes remotely close to the path that Meredrien charts." He paused, his face turning solemn. "Every half a million Consternals or so, it even flies by where Meredrien scrapes against the boundary of Reality. But…" His face turned grave.

"Emmae doesn't like that one bit," said Skullius, but without a condescending tone.

The silence that followed was an adequate, resounding nod.

Skullius sighed as he regarded them all.

"I can offer my services," he said.

The esteemed figures beamed.

"…but to you only, not your organization."