That screaming, painful sound echoed for everyone present except Astyss seemingly. And Rou. The high-dimensional beings all shook in terror as they realized that Astyss had called the high-dimensional predator that they'd feared for so long. But it began to shrink more and more as it got near before finally it landed after tearing a hole in the dimensional fabric to get here quicker.

  And where did it land?

  Atop Astyss's right hand.

  "This little cutie? This is the guy you feared so badly. That the old fart feared so badly he went insane? All those 'parasites' he had taken out? I mean, they were, but they were harmless. Just… helped this fellow keep track of where all of your worlds were, and in case things went poorly and things got contaminated properly, he could come over and suck it all up to cleanse it. He's a rare species. Most predators are mindless. This little thing here, well, he's got some sentience. Can't speak but he can understand me."

  Strangely though? The small puff ball that was on his hand, a bouncing orb without even a face, seemed to stare at Rou. Rou stared back. Astyss was surprised. What was it about this fellow that even the predator sensed?

  "Anyways, he wouldn't harm y'all without my permission."

  They said that, but Rou was staring at it. And it was staring at Rou. And he got the distinct impression it was hungry. Something about him made it hunger.

  "It wants to eat me." Rou stated plainly.

  "Hm? Shouldn't have any reason to, you're a mortal." The puff acted innocent for Astyss but it very clearly had its attention on Rou and he knew it.

  "But just in case…" Astyss promptly held it in front of him and stared at it. The predator, puff ball, cowered and shook, looking terrified as the extra-dimensional fellow took a moment to warn it. "There. I think he's got the point. Now… my bonus gift I mentioned earlier?" He grabbed the puff and squeezed it, causing the predator to shriek in pain before it began to excrete pure, diluted high-dimensional energy. Even the 'gods' of this world looked at it, practically salivating.

  This was something that they didn't know existed naturally. It had to be harvested, purified, diluted. A long process.

  But here this thing was leaking it like a leaky sponge?

  Astyss filled a whole orb of it.

  "For him." he pointed at Rou. "I'll reinforce his soul best I can before I go to hope it doesn't pop from all the other souls he wants to harbor, but if it does? Sorry, I tried. But on the off chance he survives? If any of you are still feeling generous, you can try to help him convert a soul to a higher-dimensional soul like you said he wanted to originally. But that has its own dangers. Here." He pulled a book on the topic of conversion out of thin air and tossed it to Laughter, as he was the first one to stay with Rou, before Rou felt himself lifted in the air.

  "Pardon me." And his soul was plucked from his body as if it was nothing. Astyss spent a while reinforcing Rou's body and soul, not just with high-dimensional energy but a bit of extra-dimensional energy too without anyone knowing, fond of him for his request.

  "And back you go…" With a movement, Rou was back in his own body again. "Still want to harbor those soul remnants?"

  Rou nodded, but took a moment to hug and kiss Affection, and Laughter as well, in turn hugging the others present to thank them for trusting him.

  Even Aether.

  After he was ready, Astyss promptly pushed those souls into Rou, who seized and seemed to faint.

  –

  "Rou!"

  Affection lunged at the fainted Rou and grabbed him, hugging him with fear in her eyes.

  "He's fine for now." Astyss reminded, "But this is my last offer. If you don't come with me now, you won't get another chance." He took the predator and flicked it unceremoniously, causing it to grumble softly and go back through the dimensional fabric to whence it came.

  "Oh, let me…" Astyss also took the restored worlds and shrunk them down, placing them within Rou. "There's not point in leaving these out here. If he wants to safeguard them in his final moments, I'll respect that. I imagine you all agree?"

  The remaining high-dimensional beings did, in fact, agree. Laughter even got up and thanked Astyss while Affection clung to Rou and sobbed softly.

  And then Astyss was gone.

  Well, not really. He said he was going, but in truth, Astyss stayed around secretly to watch. He wanted to know what was going to happen.

  With all the focus on luck? How could he not want to watch? Even in the extra-dimensional areas, it was unheard of for it to manifest in such a capacity.

  –

  How long had passed, no one could say. Not even for the high-dimensional beings who stayed with Rou. They had all basically begun to hibernate, sleeping off the time as they usually did when they had nothing better to do. Rou held softly between Affection and Laughter who alternated being awake to watch over him. Slowly dripping the pure high-dimensional energy into him, though as of yet they'd only managed five of the drops of the … hundreds of thousands perhaps that were there.

  –

  Meanwhile, Rou and Celia's souls just floated in harmony with all the others. Only, they were the two who were complete. Despite having been there in silence for an eternity, both Rou and Celia's souls remained whole and intact. Though Celia suspected she would have long since dissipated, her consciousness gone, somehow it remained. And Rou's soul had slowly started to strengthen naturally, idly soaking up ambient aether from the damaged souls that were also within him.

  Finally, though, both he and Celia were awake. But unable to interact with their body. At least, not well.

  "Hey."

  "Hey to you too."

  The two laughed and enjoyed their first shared words in who knew how long. Probably not even their 'gods' knew how long it had been. After all, there were no more lives on the worlds to count time.

  "I might have fucked up." Rou admitted towards Celia, their souls having regained the shapes of how they looked back then, before they were joined. Perhaps a perk of what Astyss had done to them. Their souls… reinforced somehow.

  "Mm. Even if you did, we fucked up." Celia laughed at that, and reached over to hug Rou, kissing him softly on the forehead.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "No matter what, you, me and Affy, together forever?"

  "Mm. No matter how long it takes, together, forever. And since we have forever, we can eventually find our family and friends, right?"

  "Right! We can find our parents. Though we'll probably be older than them by that point."

  The twin souls laughed and held hands, floating there in their consciousness, staring at the remains of the various worlds souls. Even the worlds that were there.

  "Is that Earth?" Rou saw his old world and thought it looked familiar. "Hey, come on, let me show you my old home."

  "Mm."

  –

  As the two souls had an eternity together in their own consciousness, time passing by at an altered flow, Rou and Celia eventually came to feel they were two parts of a whole. Hands always held in some way, never apart. Rou slowly exploring his old world with Celia, who marveled at all the differences. And then the other worlds in turn.

  –

  One age.

  –

  Two ages

  –

  How many ages? None could say. Even on the outside, Affection and the rest were in for the long haul.

  –

  Finally, however, Rou stopped one day, floating in the nothingness and bits of souls with Celia hugged on his lap, Celia napping as he stared at nothing. Then he reached his hand out and picked up a piece of a soul.

  "Hey, Celia, look."

  She woke up and looked at it. "What a coincidence, doesn't that look like your old maids soul? Well, part of it."

  "Yeah, but it's empty. …fuck. Was it pointless all along?"

  "Well, look there… some of her aether is still stuck on it. You think… maybe?"

  "Shall we go ask?"

  "Yeah, let's, I want to see Affy."

  –

  "Hey, hey, Affection, wake up silly."

  "Yeah Affy, come on."

  Affection slowly came to, having been so long she'd lost track of herself. It took a few moments for her to coalesce, her fox body yawning before she realized that Rou and Celia were talking to her.

  "YOU'RE AWAKE!"

  The twin-souled red panda was tackled as Affection laughed and cried, stirring the other high-dimensional beings.

  –

  They all sat around quietly as Rou pulled out that piece of Millet's soul from himself and showed it to everyone. "I found someone we know, and… some of her memories are left. You know how you made me, Affection? Some of my mom, some of my dad… and me?"

  "Yes?"

  And then towards Laughter, "And how you put me together again from the bits of everyone who offered from our world?"

  "...?"

  Laughter was still half asleep.

  "Could you do it again, for all of them, from me?"

  "..."

  All the high-dimensional beings just stared. "You want us to rip your soul apart, into bits and pieces, and join you up with… all of the remnants?"

  "Mm hmm. Well, his soul anyways. Mine doesn't have any of their soul bits, right? But his, it has everyones. A lot of them anyways."

  "But Rou, Celia, that would…"

  "It's okay dear." Aether spoke for the first time in an age even a high-dimensional being would consider an eternity. By this point, most all of them were older than Creation when he was still alive. It had been that long.

  "It's not that different from how us high-dimensional beings can use a 'seed' of ourselves to create a world. Only as a mortal, it's a bit insane. But then again, when hasn't he tried to do crazy stuff." Aether chuckled, causing the others present to laugh. Even Affection, just a little, though she looked upset. "It's been so long, I don't want us to be apart anymore. This time, I want to go with you. Be with you. In you too."

  "We certainly don't mind, we both love you and want you here. But can you join us?"

  Rou and Celia certainly were happy at the prospect. More company was always nice.

  "She can. And we can." Laughter spoke up. "She can be with you inside, and let us keep everything working well outside. And just maybe your crazy ass will manage to bring back everyone one day."

  Everyone seemed in agreement, leaving Affection to abandon her mortal body that she used for her own purposes and merge into Rou, leaving yet one more soul inside of him. One of countless. But now, Rou, Celia and Affeciton all hugged in such an intimate way that they could all feel like they were happier for the chance.

  "It's gonna hurt like nothing you've ever felt before. I doubt even Creation hurting you like he did would feel this bad. You sure, Rou?" Laughter walked up to him, patting him on the shoulder, a hand on each shoulder this time.

  "Yeah. We're sure. We'll help him out here."

  Each took a turn speaking through Rou's lips, Laughter leaning down to give him a nice, long kiss, before he waved his hand and Rou fell asleep - and he began to work on pulling Rou's soul apart, bit by bit.

  –

  Celia and Affection had a hard time listening to the pain Rou's soul was in, seeing it slowly get weaker and weaker as tiny bits were pulled off him. Little bitty bits where they would be joined with the husks of the souls that floated around, reformed into natal souls.

  And slowly, those souls outnumbered the remnants. And eventually when all of Rou's soul had been used and only just enough for him to remain in existence was present, Laughter began to join the other souls. It was all quite chimeric in process, but at the end of it all, they had no choice. Everyone came to share a bit of someone else.

  "So now all we need is some kind of cycle of reincarnation. But how would we even go about that without a high-dimensional seed?" Aether stood there in the cosmic, wondering. At which point Soil came up and pointed at the pure high-dimensional energy. "What if we let Rou create one? Using the old worlds as a base, even if a mortal, he might be able to. With us to guide him. Like Borgain did, bind all the souls to him."

  Some few looked over at Borgain, rather amused at the idea that after everything he'd done… even Borgain's soul that had floated there in a hell of sorts, able to watch but unable to interact, would actually have a part in trying to save everyone else.

  All of them were in loose agreement.

  "It seems Rou had a similar idea." Laughter began to cackle. "Except of course he wants to take it too far."

  Everyone looked at Laughter as Aether asked, "In what way exactly?"

  –

  Inside Rou's body, in his consciousness, the high-dimensional energy, pure and diluted, was mixed in full with his body and Laughter went along with his remaining thoughts as conveyed by Affection and Celia. He didn't just want to create one giant world. He wanted to 'germinate' his entire soul with a seed for every soul, tiny, singular, a chance for them to each have their own world to grow with.

  One world wasn't enough, it was too slow. There were too many souls. And somehow, Rou didn't think it'd work.

  –

  "Clever little bastard." Astyss watched from across the dimensional barrier with great curiosity.

  He appeared next to the others in the cosmos, hidden from sight as they couldn't see through his extra-dimensional barrier, and he quietly reached over to help Laughter do what he was having trouble with. All the worlds that were placed into Rou by him long ago? Fractured into tiny reflections of themselves. Illusory, barely functional for a soul or two at most. But that was what Rou wanted, and everyone trusted him enough, trusted in his luck, and his cleverness, and his willingness to risk himself for everyone else.

  "Luck works in mysterious ways. Or maybe it's not luck, but fate?"

  Astyss stared off at the cosmos, through the various dimensional barriers, lost in thought as he invisibly aided Laughter and the rest in maintaining Rou's form for a while. And then he was gone to wait it out and see.

  —

  "Once again, not quite right. It's closer, but…"

  "Not quite right? Disappointing. I thought this one showed promise. How many has that been now?"

  "37 proper. Still. I'm not like that at all!"

  "Oh please, with as much as he loves you, he'd never get you wrong. I've seen you wrapped up in blankets like that. I've been in them with you."

  "Ahem. Anyways… I guess the problem is he just didn't even notice, at all."

  "What if we…"

  "That's too risky. Of course we all would trust him fully but… I don't think he would want it."

  "You're misunderstanding. What if we all go with him? Even if things change, once he's strong enough, once we're strong enough…"

  "Have I ever told you I love you?"

  "Mm, yes, Affy, but I still adore hearing it. From both of you."

  "...l… .ou… ..o"

  –

  –

  –

  "Good morning Sweetie."