Serene lake. Picturesque forest. Cozy hut, with the smell of roasting meat wafting out through the slightly open door.

  Freddy turned around, failing to find the portal he had just stepped through.

  His heart was beating out of his chest. Sweat pooled all across his body. A deep, surging sickness gnawed at his guts, chewing him up from the inside. He forced himself to calm down, but he couldn’t do it.

  The same thoughts spun in his mind on repeat:

  This isn’t real. The dungeon isn’t over.

  How much longer do I really have?

  Finally, his paralysis broke when he heard the gravely yet whiny voice of an older man echo from within the hut. “Hehehe, don’t be so scared. You’re done. Now come inside to collect your reward.”

  Freddy was having none of it. He immediately leaped back, trying to put as much distance between himself and the house. And yet, he didn’t fall into the lake as he expected. His foot landed on a solid, wooden floor.

  Every hair in his body raised at once as he blinked, and suddenly, his surroundings shifted to the inside of a cottage.

  He turned and spotted an older man with graying, messy hair and a full, unruly beard, dressed in lumberjack clothing and spit-roasting a hare in the fireplace.

  Freddy conjured his Crimson Wing Shield on both arms and raised his guard. But no attack came. He leaped back, preparing a kick to break through the door and leave, but the house suddenly spun around, and he found himself flying back towards the man.

  He conjured a javelin and threw it at the door, but the weapon just passed through the wood as if it weren’t even there. He threw another at the man, and the same thing happened yet again.

  Finally, he rushed to form a messy blob of blood metal and punched it with a double-starred Tsunami Strike. It blew up into a mess of red fog and shrapnel, but it all appeared to simply vanish in the next moment. His hand wasn’t even injured.

  In fact, his essence reserves were still completely full.

  He released an unwitting chuckle, raising his hands in surrender. “Well. I guess that’s that. What’s next, then? You gonna kill me?”

  “Hehehehe…!” The old man cackled unnervingly, still spinning the hare. “I had tried. For a whole century, even! But you lived. And now, you are owed a reward. But first!” He raised a finger. “We have to eat.” With a swift movement, he pulled the spit out of the fireplace and just slammed it down on the bare table. “Come on, what are you waiting for? This a big-un! Fled me for months! Plenty for both of us.”

  “I… No thanks. I’m not really hungry.”

  “Hmph. Your loss,” he said as he took a large bite out of the hare’s leg. “Well then, Mr. Impatient. I guess we’ll get started. Your first reward.” The man put the hare leg down on the table and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. His jovial mood vanished in an instant, and he dropped the unusual way of speaking. “An unspeakable time ago, deep within the depths of the Vast Nothing, through the machinations of chance that took eternity, It appeared.”

  A flash of something passed through Freddy’s mind, and an indescribable pain pierced through his soul. He fell over to the ground, breathing heavily and grasping his head as if his eye were about to explode. He found it impossible to hold back a scream of pure terror, and he couldn’t stop screaming until the memory of whatever he’d seen finally began fading as his mind failed to contain the information.

  Still, hints of it remained. He could feel it in the back of his mind. An awareness had appeared. An awareness of something defied by irrational limits and powers so vast they neared omnipotence. Within his body, mind, soul—it had left behind a mark, one so profound he could feel his latent aura churning, shrieking in horror as it was forcefully twisted into shapes he couldn’t understand.

  The man continued, “The being unravelled everything. Its unfathomable mind, spanning all layers of reality and states of being, peeled away the truth so thoroughly that it forever changed the fundamental rules of existence. Everything came down to an incredibly simple principle—the interplay of chaos and order. But there was something more. A paradox.

  “For when structure reached a certain level of complexity, it revealed a property even It couldn’t understand. There was order. There was chaos. And then… there was deliberation. Consciousness. A maddening law that sprung out of nothing. The ability to disobey. To flip between order and chaos as one pleased. To be. To choose. To play.

  “In its vast wisdom, It was quick to accept the truth. This was the only thing that mattered. This was the only thing that, in its infinite mystery, made sense. So It killed itself. Its corpseblood still flows through all universes and their dimensions and all their layers, seeping into further and further reaches of infinity, desperately seeking more consciousness to serve.”

  The man slowly got off his chair and walked over to where Freddy was still writhing in agony. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am part of this gift, one of the tools of It’s servitude. I am the primordial concept of Insanity.”

  Freddy’s mind flashed again. He saw a vast system of non-euclidean shapes, planets of tessellating gore, and loops of irrational, horrible decisions, all leading through the infinite paths seeking perch upon reason hidden in insanity. He gazed upon the essence of chaos in its interplay with order, and as soon as the image came, it vanished. His being roiled once again, but for some reason, he felt the agonizing headache suddenly disappear, as if a cup had appeared to hold the acid frying his mind.

  A bizarrely shaped cup. One that hid the liquid away so it would stop hurting him. One that jammed itself into a crack of its own making. One that would be with him henceforth; forever.

  He released a shivering breath and sprawled out on the floor, bathed in a pool of his own sweat.

  “Now, then,” the lumberjack said playfully. “Don’t give up on me yet. We still have a lot to learn.” With a mad grin, he snapped his finger, and Freddy appeared floating within the vast void of space. Far in the distance, he spotted the sun, its ever-burning sphere of cosmic flame casting a phantom light upon him.

  He gasped, finding himself able to breathe, but as soon as he could take a breath, he turned around, and had it stolen from him yet again.

  The Earth. In all its glory, he beheld the Earth, but not New Earth as it was later; Old Earth, as it was before.

  It spun rapidly before him; days appeared to pass in mere seconds. He saw the continents in their old, unaltered form. North and South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, the Eurasian supercontinent and all the scattered islands.

  The clouds shifted subtly, gathering and separating, flashing with flickers of mesmerizing lightning within vast storms. When the night came, he witnessed the fingerprint of mankind—their illuminated cities, spread so wide and far that they barely left anything untouched.

  Insanity was floating in the air beside him, observing the planet with a manic glee in its eye. “Beautiful, wasn’t it? So serene and purposeless, untouched and unbothered. Trapped within the vast, unstructured anarchy of yet another neverending universe. But then—”

  It was subtle. Like the click of a lock hiding just beneath the surface, something shifted, and the Earth—it changed. With immense speed, it transformed.

  Freddy already knew that New Earth was much bigger than Old Earth. But seeing the change with his own eyes drove home just how vast the difference truly was. Like a balloon, the planet inflated. Like the brown-touched foam floating on a cappuccino, the continents stirred.

  He watched the Northern Spine rise, clawing a scar through the North American continent. He saw the great eruptions of Antarctica as indescribably powerful volcanic activity melted its ice cap away, leaving it a scorching land of flame, thick clouds of ash and smoke hanging above it, lightning crackling through it with an intensity unlike that of ordinary clouds.

  The Great Arctic Cap spread its influence, rapidly consuming Scandinavia, Russia, and Canada, leaving the people there stranded deep within hostile territory. The Drake Bridge appeared, leaving a trail of volcanoes all the way from the smoldering continent of Antarctica to the tip of South America. A vast bridge of land consumed Jeju Island, connecting Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan.

  Italy twisted and expanded through the mediterranean, connecting Europe and Africa. The Vast Pit of Columbia opened. The Eye of Europa formed—a vast, circular wall that trapped all of Ireland, United Kingdom, Belgium and Netherlands, and cut deeply into Germany, France, and a bit of Denmark and Norway. Then, within those walls, the sea suddenly drained.

  The Saharan Spirals rose, the Pacific Continent formed, Australia split in two.

  So many geographical features changed that he could barely even keep up with them. Uncountable islands popped up, leaving barely any stretches of truly empty sea.

  And then finally, the changes stopped, leaving a much richer and far bigger planet behind.

  New Earth stood before him, almost the same as it was today. As he gazed upon it, he couldn’t hold back the overwhelming feeling of grief.

  The people of Earth—all of humanity. In the blink of an eye, their lives as they had known them had vanished. Their primary forms of communication. Self-defense. The very laws of reality itself. Anything and everything that had once made them feel safe—gone. Taken away in an instant.

  He tried to imagine it. How would he feel if the opposite happened to him? If the touch of ether was taken away and New Earth suddenly reverted back to the way it used to be? If he were left without his supernatural powers? If he were suddenly weak, defenseless, and lost?

  It was unimaginable.

  Suddenly, they started flying away from New Earth. Freddy’s stomach lurched, and he reflexively reached to grab a hold of something. First, they flew at the sun, until they were not so far from it. Once they got a good look at it, they started quickly moving away again.

  The sun kept getting smaller, and Freddy struggled to hold back the primal fear he felt at the sight of the star shrinking. Reluctantly, he turned to face the universe. They flew through a dense field of asteroids and then—

  They flew… through a veil. It was like a mist. Like the false skies of interspace realms.

  He felt his stomach drop once he witnessed his own reflection. “What…?” he muttered absent-mindedly. “The…”

  There was no universe outside the solar system.

  “You surprised?” Insanity asked. “Fun fact, almost none of your kind has yet figured this out.” It leaned in conspiratorially and whispered. “Truth be told, this has little to do with what I’m trying to show you, but I wanted to see your reaction.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Freddy saw a giant shadow moving through the asteroid belt. “Huh?”

  “No time for that now, we have a lesson to continue.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Suddenly, they sped back towards the sun, causing Freddy’s stomach to jump to his throat.

  In the blink of an eye, they reached New Earth, descended to the ground, and appeared over a city. The buildings were obviously misplaced. The roads were cut apart and disconnected. Some buildings had even toppled over.

  Slowly, he and Insanity floated down to the surface, flying into one of the half-collapsed buildings.

  There, he saw a teenager handing over a pink prime vestige to an older, hardened man. Both were surrounded by scared-looking people. They were all dirty and looked like they hadn’t slept in days. The man reluctantly grabbed the offered prime and scowled at it. “And you say this will give me superpowers?”

  “I…” the teenager tripped over his own words. “Yes. That’s what I heard them say. This is what that bastard used.”

  “You sure it isn’t a trick?”

  “I don’t think so. They’re desperately looking for more.”

  The man growled. “I don’t like it. What if this is some sort of demon? Or an alien… parasite of sorts? Bah.” He spat to the side. “And why give it to me?”

  “We get it,” a random bystander added. “But if we don’t act, we’re all going to be slaughtered. You’re the biggest man here, and you’re the only one who knows how to fight. Take it. Please.”

  “I agree,” a woman added.

  “Me too,” a man said.

  The hardened man’s scowl deepened and he released a shivering breath. He crossed himself, muttering a quick prayer. “Forgive me, Jesus.” Then he looked at the prime and said, “Okay then. Give me that magic.”

  As soon as the man said that, the scene suddenly changed, and they found themselves in a fancy office. A young, angry-looking man in a suit held a large firearm, fiddling with it and constantly trying to pull the trigger. It didn’t work. “It isn’t fucking jammed! I checked!” he shouted. “Fuck! Just fire for fucks sake!” In his anger, he flung the gun at the wall and grabbed an old-world smartphone.

  “And why the hell won’t my phone turn on!? An EMP? I’ve never heard of a goddamn EMP breaking guns before!” Just as he was about to throw the phone, too, a light flickered behind him. “Huh?” he turned around, suddenly coming face to face with a portal leading into an open field. In the middle of that open field, a human-sized, almost chicken-like monster stood, turning to face him and cocking its head in curiosity.

  The phone fell out of the man’s hand and clattered to the carpet. He took a step back and tripped over his own feet, falling to his ass. Then, he started cackling. “I knew I shouldn’t have fucked around with LSD.”

  The scene changed again.

  Three little kids ran down the street, not too far behind them, a woman screamed. “Take it to your dad! Hurry!”

  One of the three, a boy, clutched a prime in his hands and sprinted.

  Their mother held an umbrella. A moment later, two angry men appeared from behind a bend, one of them carrying a fire axe and the other a crowbar. She tried swinging the umbrella at them, but the one with the crowbar caught it with one hand and smashed her head open.

  He glanced at her and then at the children. “Shit! She gave it to the kids!”

  They sprinted after them. Just as they were about to catch up, a golden shield enveloped the children. They slammed into it, tumbling to the ground.

  “Do not touch the children,” an ethereal voice echoed through the empty space.

  The men turned around and spotted a looming, towering figure. It looked like a large female doll that had been drawn onto reality. The power radiating off her was soothing yet alarmingly intense. This was an eidolon.

  “I am Protection,” it said. “Please leave. I will not let you hurt them.”

  The scene changed again, and this time, they were looking over a different city. Down below, Freddy spotted a large number of people fighting. Their weapons were crude, and barely anyone could even use a proper ability. But the streets were flowing with blood.

  Fire-affinity archs fought almost uncontested, frying anyone who faced them with ease. It was the easiest basic affinity to use for lethal purposes. And lethal, it was.

  Anyone with any sort of physical boost was like a god among men, smashing heads and tearing body aparts like warriors of legend.

  Chills ran up and down Freddy’s body like an army of ants. He couldn’t describe the way he felt watching this. It was all so chaotic and horrible. He had heard the stories of those who survived these days. They weren’t joking.

  The early days of the Rift had truly been Hell on Earth.

  But as horrible as it was to see… it was also bizarrely exciting.

  He could feel an undertone of change and opportunity, as terrible as its consequences were. He couldn’t help but wonder—if he were there, living through this as anyone else, how would he have handled it?

  And he had to wonder; why was this being shown to him?

  Insanity, as if it heard his thoughts, turned to him and said, “Your world has re-established its order a long time ago. That can make it hard to see things clearly. I want you to behold the nature of the Gift in its purest form—as well as the paradox that lies within it.” It turned to the streets below.

  “And what is this ‘Gift’ supposed to be?”

  It smiled at him. “A different kind of power.”

  The sight before shifted, and he appeared in a different place again. It was night this time. He spotted a few teenagers walking outside in the street. But something was different.

  They carried guns by their sides. And as they met another group of boys, they fired at them.

  Freddy winced at the sight.

  He heard of guns many times. He had seen them portrayed in movies through special effects. But this was the first time he actually understood just how powerful and scary they were.

  The small pieces of metal flew at such immense speed that even he could just barely track them. There was no way in hell he could dodge or even react to an object travelling at such a speed. Perhaps he could live with his undeath and incredible toughness, but if even a single bullet struck him in the eye, he wasn’t so sure.

  And there they were. Children shooting children, spilling brains and blood on the otherwise calm streets. Carelessly using a power they shouldn’t even have.

  The image shifted again, and this time, he witnessed the bombardment of a residential block, with numerous explosions decimating the concrete buildings and killing hundreds of innocents.

  The sight shifted again.

  This time, he stood in the middle of a desert. Then, off in the distance, an immense flash of light illuminated the entire horizon. A mushroom cloud of fire lifted high into the air, and the shockwave travelled across the landscape.

  He slowly breathed out. “Holy shit…”

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Insanity asked. “The heartbeat of a star. A weapon that erased victory from the dictionary of war.” It turned to face him. “Do you now understand?”

  He wanted to say he didn’t. But he’d seen a glimpse of the vast being Insanity spoke of. Hell, he was talking to the literal concept of insanity. It was hard to deny the truth he was being shown. About the nature of power. About the nature of ether.

  The world wasn’t, and couldn’t be fair. And this wasn’t about fairness.

  He could feel his latent aura twisting in response to his newfound wisdom.

  And now that he knew this, he was slowly beginning to recognize a truth about himself. An uncomfortable one. One he’d rather leave buried.

  Just as he had the thought, the image changed again. He immediately recognized where they were.

  It was the evening of the 200th anniversary of the Rift. They were right before the gate leading to the 25th district, a line of people waiting to enter.

  “Whoa!” a young man yelped as someone leaped the fence right before his eyes.

  Freddy winced as he recognized himself, holding that damn can of beans. That jump had startled him more than he remembered.

  Bit by bit, he watched the scene play out before him.

  “Please provide identity verification or confirmation that you have business inside.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This is a private district. Mortals aren’t allowed entry without permission.”

  Freddy sighed as he watched it play out. Before him, he saw a pitiful, skinny young man. He saw the desperation, the anxious energy.

  The spite brewing within.

  “Sir, I will have to ask you to step away.”

  “Insolent! Do you have any idea who my father is!?”

  Freddy winced. God, watching this was torture. Did he actually try that trick? What an idiot.

  Obviously, it didn’t work. He was turned away.

  The scene suddenly started slowing down, as if time was crawling to a halt.

  He watched himself turning around, walking past the laughing crowd of one-stars, and clenching the bag in his hand. And he saw his own face. It was an ugly expression. A horrible look of hatred and resentment. It was a face he wasn’t even aware he could make. Twisted, angry—vengeful. Give him a knife, and he’d stab someone.

  That was how furious he looked.

  But the next moment, he took a deep breath, and pushed it all down.

  Time kept moving at a normal speed.

  His steps continued, leading him towards the short wall, where he sat and deliberated. While the hatred within him stewed. While the burning desire for more ate away at his core.

  Freddy watched with his lips curled into a nasty frown, knowing, feeling exactly what was happening to him at that moment.

  Insanity stepped in front of him, blocking the view of his past self. “It can’t be perfect,” it said. “It can not be fair.” The lumberjack turned to face Freddy with a serious expression. “But the tools have been provided. Anyone who wishes for power will get a chance to grasp it.”

  Freddy saw his past self walking away, his steps firmly carrying him down the path into district 26.

  “You have asked for it. With all your heart, you had wished for a chance to fight back. You can call it fate or destiny, but it is more a path towards an obstacle. And behind the obstacle, there is a reward. Ever since then, you have always weighed more on the big events and the big people. On the world. You’re more likely to be where things are happening.”

  “Is that why my life is so fucked up?” Freddy asked, still frowning. “Is that why all the”—he choked—”all the pain? All the suffering?”

  Insanity chuckled. “There was a fair of share of you simply being an idiot and getting yourself into trouble. But yes. This is why.”

  “Then how do I get rid of it?”

  Insanity grinned. “All you have to do is wish it and it will go away.”

  Freddy closed his eyes. “Done.”

  But Insanity was still grinning at him.

  “You said all I had to do was wish for it.”

  “I did say that, yes.”

  He breathed heavily, closing his eyes again. “Fuck.” He turned around. For a few seconds, he simply stood there, clenching his fists. “Can I go after him—I mean… after me?”

  “Sure. Take all the time that you need.”

  Freddy broke into a run, chasing right after his past self. There, he watched it all play out.

  “Passage break! Run for your lives!”

  From start to finish.

  “Do we get uhm… any form of… reimbursement for this horribly traumatizing event?”

  The drive home.

  “Did you hide under a body, too?”

  The run-in with his neighbors.

  “Jesus Christ, Freddy! What the hell happened!?”

  The moment he threw up out the window.

  And the agonizing hours it took him to fall asleep.

  He stood above his resting, shivering self, watching with a disgusted scowl. He’d been so pathetic back then. So fragile. So weak.

  So naive.

  Suddenly, he saw himself literally growl in his sleep, like some sort of angry dog. He couldn’t hold back a laugh at the sight. “God damn it, man.” He sighed. “I never knew that watching your past self could feel so embarassing.”

  Insanity appeared beside him, sitting on the small fridge. “Memory is usually quite biased. A mercy for most.”

  “A mercy, indeed.”

  Freddy stood there for a while. Then, the slowly leaned back against the window sill and crossed his arms. “Insanity—” he paused. “Can I call you that?”

  “You can call me Sally if you want, but Insanity is my name.” It grinned.

  “Okay… uhm… I think I’m done. Can we leave now?” And as soon as he asked, he appeared back in the cottage, facing the lumberjack. No. Facing Insanity. It grabbed another hare leg and continued its meal.

  “Any questions?” it asked through a mouth full of flesh.

  Freddy slowly walked over to the nearest chair and sat down. For a long moment, he simply stood there, unable to put together a coherent thought. “What’s with the lumberjack?”

  “Out of everything you’ve seen—no, out of all that I’ve shown you, is that really what you want to know?”

  “I have a billion questions I’d like to ask.” He hesitated for a moment. “But… I don’t think I actually want the answers. So tell me. Is this just a random dude, or…?”

  Insanity grinned. “I am already quite the fan of your species. But this man is something special.”

  Freddy heard doors opening, and he turned to the right. There was a door to a room there, cloaked by a sinister darkness. He frowned and reluctantly glanced back at Insanity. “What’s in there?”

  “His wife and two young daughters.” Its grin widened from ear to ear. “Wanna see?”

  Freddy scowled. “Ugh, that’s fucking sick. You know what, I’m done with questions. What comes next?”

  Insanity shrugged and snapped its fingers. The room elongated, turning into more of a hallway, and on one side, spirits started appearing. Some were alone while others were in small groups. All of them just stood there, completely unmoving, as if they were statues rather than actual spirits.

  Freddy looked at the row of spirits and then glanced at Insanity. “What is that?”

  “That’s the second part of your reward, Freddy. You have some abilities that need upgrading, don’t you?”