Chapter 13: Chapter 9 – Truths Revealed (1)

Both me and the rat, are what you may refer to as Gods." Bertram said matter-of-factly.

Ken looked at Bertram strangely. "So... like Jesus and Buddha and stuff...?"

Bertram received Ken's strange gaze while still smiling. "Hm. Well, I have no idea whether they actually exist. All I know is that I and the rat, are what's closest to humanity's idea of a God."

"The closest, huh...? Can you explain what exactly makes you and the rat Gods?" Ken asked Bertram curiously. Ken didn't think Bertram was lying. At the very least, Ken fully believed that Bertram fully believed what he had just said. This didn't necessarily mean that what Bertram said was true though. But even if Bertram was a crazy bastard that thought of himself as God, Ken was curious why Bertram would think so.

"Hmmm. Because we can swim through the corridors between Halls. Because we are essentially immortal and invulnerable to damage caused by those who aren't like us. And because each and every single one of us can, as long as we aren't restricted by the Planar Laws, destroy entire worlds. And because we can bend reality to a certain extent." Bertram recited lazily. "Those are some of the reasons why I can say that we are Gods. Make no mistake, though. We do not call ourselves that, it's just that God is the closest word I can use as a description for what beings like me and that rat are."

"Hm..." Ken sunk into his own thoughts. Bertram was, again, not lying. This meant that Bertram genuinely believed that he was immortal, had the ability to destroy worlds, and bend reality. Unless he was actually the edgiest edger to ever edge, Bertram was one scary dude. Ken had always felt that Bertram was creepy, so if what Bertram said was the truth, maybe Ken felt the way he did because his instincts were telling him to stay the hell away from this man. In any case, Ken couldn't feel any hostility from Bertram, so it was probably fine.

"Can you prove it?" Ken asked curiosity.

Bertram tilted his head in confusion. "Prove it...?"

"Yeah. Like, do something that can only be done by a God." Ken explained. "Sorry for not believing you, but what you're saying is just a little too..." Ken trailed off, not finishing what he wanted to say.

"Haha." Bertram chuckled, as if he read Ken's thoughts. He nodded, and said while smiling, "Certainly, I sound like a crazy person."

Bertram then waved his hand casually, then the space in between Ken and him warped. It was just for a moment, and afterward, the table was filled with all kinds of delicious-looking and smelling food. Ken's nose felt like it was going to have an orgasm from the array of pleasant smells wafting over him.

Bertram waved his hand again, and this time, the forest they were on warped for a short moment, afterwards, the scenery had changed to a barren wasteland. The ground around them looked dry and course, not giving anybody the false hope that anything would grow there. The sky above them had turned from blue to a poisonous-looking green, with equally toxic-looking purple clouds floating along in it.

Bertram waved his hand a third time, then clumps of the barren earth around them started rising up, forming humanoid shapes. Eventually, they all started resembling people Ken knew. One of the lumps of dirt had formed a statue of Dr. Murphy. Another had formed a statue of Hanzo. Statues of various other hospital staff and Ken's security guards were formed as well. Then, all the statues started moving. Or rather, they were dancing.

"Is this enough, Mr. Kagami?" Bertram asked as he smiled. For some reason, after seeing Bertram cause all of the nonsensical things in front of him, Ken felt that Bertram was growing less creepy. He was still creepy as hell, but it had lessened by now.

"Yeah... yeah, I believe you now..." Ken answered in a daze. He watched the statues dancing what looked like TikTok dances, and then observed the sky, which looked like it was taken straight out of an apocalypse novel. Then he took a piece of food from the pile that had appeared in front of him, a crinkle cookie, and put it in his mouth.

'Damn. Why is this so good?' Ken absentmindedly thought. Just like the cookies a while ago, this one tasted mind-bogglingly good as well. He took out another piece of food, a fried chicken leg this time, and bit into it. It tasted better than any fried chicken he had ever had in his life.

"Here you are," Bertram said, offering Ken a chilled bottle of water. He kept smiling as he explained, "Don't be afraid of running out, the bottle refills itself."

"Huh. Thanks." Ken received the bottle of water and looked at it with curiosity while saying a word of thanks. He opened it up and drank as much as he could, but the water never seemed to run out. Ken stopped drinking and looked at the bottle. It was still full. Ken just continued to stare at the bottle in wonder, until he heard Bertram's chuckling.

"I'm assuming that you no longer doubt me?" Bertram asked, amused by Ken's reactions.

"Ah... yeah. I knew you weren't lying, but I thought of the possibility of you being a crazy person. My bad." Ken bowed his head lightly and apologized.

"If you had started believing me immediately, I would have doubted your sanity instead." Bertram shook his head, paying no mind to being possibly thought of as a deranged person. "Well now, please listen to my explanation. You may raise your hand if you have any questions."

Ken nodded. He quickly washed the hand he used to hold the chicken leg with the water from the bottle, then sat up straight, focusing all his attention on Bertram. "Please."

"Hm." Bertram nodded, pleased. "Well let's first start with what happened to you when you were ten. I shall explain what I know." Bertram paused for a moment, seemingly gathering his thoughts, then said, "First of all, I do not know why that big rat showed up. I only know that it showed up where you found it, only a few minutes before you met with it."

Ken nodded, but a gloomy look appeared on his face. 'That means that Kyouka and I arrived at the worst possible time.' Ken cursed at his horrible luck.

Bertram continued. "The moment that the rat showed up in the Alpha Realm, it was immediately suppressed by the Planar Laws."

At this point, Ken raised his right hand. Bertram nodded, egging him to ask his question. Ken asked the question he had been wanting to ask since a while ago. "You mentioned those two terms before. What is the 'Alpha Realm' and these 'Planar Laws' that you speak of?"

Bertram nodded sagely while grinning, having expected Ken to ask this. "The Alpha Realm is basically the universe you existed on. I and a few other Gods call it that."

"..." Ken mused about Bertram's answer for a bit, then asked a follow-up question. "So, you are implying that there are other universes?"

Bertram nodded. "Yes, there are." Bertram paused for a moment then explained further, "However, the others aren't as large as the Alpha Realm. We call them Halls. The Halls are mostly just one or two, sometimes, even more, worlds joined together through some supernatural method, such as portals. The worlds in the Halls are normally multiple times larger than Earth, however, at the same time, they don't possess an 'outer space' as the Alpha Realm does. Beyond the skies of the Halls, there is nothing. This ultimately means that the amount of intelligent life in the Alpha Realm surpasses the amount in any of the Halls. In fact, the Alpha Realm most likely possesses more intelligent life than the millions of Halls combined."

"Hm..." Ken pondered about the things Bertram said, then he asked. "If the planets in the Halls are multiple times larger than Earth, then how come there is more intelligent life in the Alpha Realm?" Ken paused, then asked curiously, "Are there other inhabited planets in our universe?"

Bertram chuckled, seemingly very amused by Ken's question. "Who knows?" Bertram said mysteriously.

"Bastard." Ken cursed at him.

"Ahahaha." Bertram, who was apparently a God, wasn't angry about being cursed at all. He laughed loudly, but then seemed to remember something. Bertram said through stifled laughs, "Another difference between the Alpha Realm and the Halls, is that the influence of the Planar Laws is hundreds of times heavier in the former than in the latter."

"Planar Laws..." Ken was a bit miffed from getting informationally blue-balled earlier, but he snapped out of it. There were other more important things to talk about. "What are the Planar Laws...?"

"Hm. That, I can answer." Bertram nodded again, satisfied that Ken was asking the questions he wanted to answer. "The Planar Laws are... in a word, a system."

"A system...?" Ken parroted without thinking.

"Hm. It's a system that governs the Alpha Realm, the Halls, and the Gods." Bertram explained, a bit of gravitas in his voice. It was apparent to Ken that Bertram felt great respect for the Planar Laws. As well as fear. "It encompasses everything."

"...hm..." Ken ruminated for a moment, then asked, "It governs Gods too?... But you're Gods."

"Hm." Bertram nodded, understanding Ken's confusion. "I only said that 'Gods' is the closest things you could call us. There are some aspects of Gods, that doesn't apply to whatever we are."

"..." Ken stayed silent, listening intently.

"For example, in humanity's religions, it is mentioned that the universe was made by some God or another. However, we did not make the universes or the Planar Laws." Bertram said. "As far as I can remember, The Planar Laws, the Alpha realm, and the Halls have existed even before us."

"Huh." Ken nodded in understanding. "So there is some other more powerful being or beings than Gods, and they were the ones who made you guys, the Laws, and all the universes."

Bertram nodded. He looked at Ken in appreciation. "Quite astute. That is also what we thought. However, we don't really know anything about our creators. Nor their intentions in setting everything up to be the way that they are. Although there are some things that we do know about them, by examining what the Planar Laws disallow."

"Like what...?" Ken asked inquisitively.

"Hm. Well, the Planar Laws generally prevent Gods from using their powers to affect mortals as well as the Worlds they live on. So we can surmise that our creators didn't want us ruling over or oppressing the weak." Bertram said. "Or they might've just wanted to segregate the mortals from the immortals."

"Huh...?" Ken tilted his head in confusion. "Then what about you? Weren't you running around doing charity work back on earth?"

Bertram shook his head while smiling wryly. "That doesn't count Mr. Kagami. I wasn't using my powers to do any of that. The money I used was money I earned or gathered through donations. It wasn't magicked into existence, nor did I do something like hypnotizing people into donating. I lived like a mortal and worked like one. So the Planar Laws just let me do as I pleased."

"Huh. The Planar Laws sound surprisingly broadminded. I thought that it would be more... rigid if it was governing Gods and entire worlds." Ken said, impressed.

"Hm. It is, it is." Bertram nodded to himself. "They even allow us to toe the line a little."

"Toe the line...?" Ken echoed without thinking. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ahaha." Bertram chuckled a bit then explained, "You see, despite me not using my powers to affect the mortal plane directly, I used it indirectly to obtain some benefits."

"Benefits, huh." Ken looked at Bertram strangely. "What kind of Benefits."

You are reading story Glimpse of Eternity at novel35.com

"Oh, well. Like using my superior vision and insight to know which horse to bet on in a horse race. Or what cards a dealer and the other players have in poker and other card games. Or examining various companies so that I can decide which stocks to buy, or whether investing in them will turn a profit. I was also able to eavesdrop on some people who were manipulating the market a little, and I jumped in to earn a bit. Things like that." Bertram said nonchalantly.

"..." Ken just stared at Bertram with his mouth agape in shock. This God was going around gambling and doing stock trading!

"In any case, that is the nature of the Planar Laws. It is relatively open-minded, as long as you don't step over the line. However, it is also absolutely merciless when you do. Its power is undeniable and irresistible. Domineering and overwhelming. Once it sees you going against it, it is merciless. There are no such things as trials and appeals. The punishment arrives before you even manage to perpetrate a crime." Bertram spoke with a sense of solemnity and gravitas. He was showing off his respect for the Planar Laws yet again, although this time, Ken actually agreed with him.

'The Planar Laws sounds like a total Badass.' Ken praised inwardly.

"Despite its power though, the Planar Laws seem to also be subject to rules as well. So it cannot kill or destroy someone or something directly. What it can do is strengthen or weaken. If it really wanted to get rid of an offender, it would guide someone hostile to the offender and then help that someone to get rid of them. It cannot harm in a direct manner, but the things it can do cannot be resisted."

'Okay, maybe not as Badass as I initially thought, but still pretty sick all the same.' Ken was a bit disappointed but he was still inwardly respectful of these weird Laws.

"In any case, let us get back to the story. When the rat arrived in the Alpha Realm it was immediately suppressed by the Planar Laws. The rat had the ability to passively corrupt the lad around it and spread disease and rot. Usually, it wouldn't have had any trouble at all corrupting the entire planet immediately, but the Planar Laws suppressed it, and it was only able to corrupt the immediate surroundings. Naturally, the physical capabilities of the rat were also restrained immensely. It was to the extent that it most likely wouldn't have been able to run faster than a car."

"Hm." Ken nodded, indicating that he was still paying attention. He thought that not being able to run 'faster than a car', was still pretty damn fast, but he supposed that from a god's perspective, that was the equivalent of walking one step per hour. 'Also, it's only natural for it to run faster than a car, since cars don't run.' Ken inwardly chuckled at his own joke.

"The moment that your younger sister entered the corrupted lands, she should have died immediately, however, she was protected by the Planar Laws, so she remained unharmed. The same goes for you and your dogs. All you felt was that the land made you feel disgusting or creepy, right?"

"Mm." Ken nodded in agreement, thinking back to that time.

"Well, its effects should have immediately turned you all into rotten mush," Bertram said matter-of-factly.

"..." Ken just listened somberly, thinking that perhaps their luck wasn't that bad.

"Carrying on... When you actually met the rat, it screeched, yes? Well, that was a type of attack as well. It should have been enough to shatter the sanity of any mortal, but again the Planar Laws suppressed it. But even when restrained, the attack was still quite powerful, so it helped strengthen your souls as well. Which is why you all felt relieved after a short while. For some reason, the rat was already injured from the start. Which makes me think that the rat was a repeat offender, and the Planar Laws had led someone to kill it before it arrived on earth."

"..." Ken listened to Bertram's hypothesis and inwardly agreed as well.

"After it helped you recover from the rat's attack, it then started strengthening the pain that the rat felt from the injuries, as well as increasing the rate at which the rat's body deteriorated from said injuries," Bertram explained, a hint of admiration in his tone.

"What the fu-- It can do that...?" Ken was shocked while also amazed. When Ken heard that the Planar laws merely strengthened and weakened, Ken thought of it as if the Planar Laws were a more powerful kind of generic buffer / debuffer, but he was mistaken. Intensifying pain? Enhancing injuries? 'The Planar Laws are badass! What the fuck!'

Bertram, after nodding excitedly, seeming not unlike a fan talking about their idol, continued explaining. "Even through all of that, the rat still wouldn't give up on trying to attack you for some reason, so it jumped. This caused the Planar Laws to punish it again. That is how it became smaller and even weaker. The Planar laws even did something that I never even knew it could do. It pumped you full of...something, and it temporarily gave you God-like status. Meaning, that at that moment, you could hurt beings like me."

"...!" Ken's shoulders jumped in shock.

"Combined with the rat becoming as weak as a normal rat, you could have been a genuine God-slayer then and there," Bertram said, sounding incredibly amused.

"Yeah, but that isn't how it worked out, is it?" he grumbled gloomily.

"Hm." Bertram nodded his head solemnly. He then continued. "It must have been restricted by rules, since the Planar Laws were unable to completely protect you. Perhaps, too much was happening at the same time? Perhaps it had ran out of some sort of resource? In any case, you were injured, and your body started rapidly deteriorating. The Planar Laws slowed down the effects, but they still remained, as the Planar Laws couldn't completely remove them. So, judging that it had no other way of curing you other than getting the rat killed..." Bertram smiled. "The Planar Laws noticed me. It strengthened me to an enormous extent and even informed me of everything that happened in the clearing, as well as its current location. It knew, that the moment I found that rat, I would unconditionally be its enemy."

"..." Ken nodded again. Signaling that he was still listening. He could surmise what happened next.

"I have confidence that I could have found it by myself anyways, however that rat still retained an ability to hide quite well, and it could still escape to a Hall somewhere. It would have been hundreds of times more difficult if the Planar Laws hadn't helped me. After a brief chase of about four years, I finally caught it in an abandoned Hall, and ate it." Bertram stared longingly at the air, as if reminiscing about the most important moment of his life. "It was so unbelievably good. I have eaten plenty of things and beings before, however, this was the first time I had ever devoured a being on the same level as me. You have no idea how much power I obtained because of this." Bertram then looked at Ken fondly. "And it is partly thanks to you. I obtained so much, and I barely even had to do anything. I can't stop laughing in joy whenever I remember it!"

"..." Ken just listened to Bertram's words, while thinking to himself. 'So even after it was weakened to the extent that it was a normal rat, was incredibly wounded, and even had various other restrictions placed on it, that rat still managed to run around for four years!?! At the time, I thought that if I waited it out a bit, it would die from bleeding. I really almost fucked myself there. Good thing it decided to run.'

After finishing his thoughts, Ken asked Bertram, who had been staring at him thankfully, a question. "Then what happened to me? Shouldn't I have been cured the moment the rat died, as you said? I was sick for thirteen years. Not four."

"Hm." Bertram nodded. "I do not know exactly, but let me offer my own hypotheses. During the first four years or so, seeing as the rat was not dead yet, the disease was still infecting you. So, the Planar Laws likely strengthened you immensely, while weakening the disease. It also did another thing that I didn't know it could do. It infused you with...something just like it did right before you socked that rat. I do not know what it is that it infused you with, but it caused you to obtain abilities, that would aid you in enduring the illness."

"Abilities... what abilities...? I don't have such things, y'know?" Ken tilted his head in bewilderment.

Seeing Ken, Bertram shook his head. "You may not be aware, but you do. You have multiple abilities derived from your personality, as well as abilities bestowed upon you by the Planar Laws."

"..." Ken looked at Bertram skeptically. But didn't sense that he was lying, so he chose to believe Bertram for now. "Like what? What abilities do I have?"

Bertram grinned while answering. "Like the ability you just used right now."

"...huh?" Ken scratched his head. He asked, "I didn't use anything though? What are you talking about?"

"Haha." Bertram chuckled a bit then said, "Like your ability to detect lies. That is just one of them."

"Whu--!?" Ken spluttered in shock.

"This particular ability was born from your own personality and actions. It wasn't to bestowed upon you to aid you with your illness, it bloomed by itself, because of whatever was infused in you." Bertram smiled wickedly, "And because you're such a liar."

"..." Ken could say nothing to that.

"Another one is actually an ability that you had activated already before even meeting the rat. I believe it's an Insight-type ability. It was strengthened by whatever was infused in you, however, because you weren't aware of the ability, you could only use it to tell mundane things, like someone's mood, whether someone liked you or not, or whether they were hostile or not. You seem to have also mistaken this ability for intuition. However you are just unconsciously gaining insight about something, and you think of it as intuition."

"!!!" Ken stiffened in shock. He had indeed had something like that ever since he was a child.

Bertram paid no heed to Ken's shock, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "It happens from time to time. Faith healers. Psychics. There are even people who can tell the future. From time to time mortals in the Alpha Realm will manifest abilities from a young age."

"..." Ken was shocked by the information. But he snapped out of it because there was something he was curious about. "So, this Insight thing that I have. If I become aware of it, can I use it for things other than what you mentioned before?"

Bertram nodded approvingly at Ken. "Good. Yes, you can probably do so. I do not know what its effects exactly are. My insight ability can't examine you properly since you haven't really unleashed all your abilities yet. It's as if your abilities aren't complete yet. Why don't you give it a try? Here. Try it on this one, if you try it on me it will most likely fail."

Bertram took out an egg from within the inner pocket of his suit. He then threw it on the ground a few meters to the right of Ken.

The egg shattered as it made contact with the ground, then thick white smoke came out of it and then formed a weird-looking chicken. It looked like a normal chicken, except for the fact that it had four eyes, and was as large as a cow.

"Whu-- what the fuck is that...?" Ken asked without thinking.

"It's a snack," Bertram casually said as he smiled. He looked at the chicken-like creature, and the creature immediately stiffened, as if it was encased in solid stone. "Go on and try it on this thing."

"Uh... Sure." Ken was still confused and curious about where the thing came from, but he decided on learning how to use his superpower. Ken, who died at twenty-three, and was who-knew-how-many years old, was excited over finding out that he had superpowers.

Ken immediately began staring intently at the chicken. He focused on it so intensely, that he easily surpassed the focus of a man trying to shave his testicles. He just kept glaring at it, to the extent that the creature was starting to look at him weirdly. However, even after staring at it for ten minutes, nothing was happening.

"This isn't working." Ken sighed, visibly disappointed. In hindsight, he had been spending an innumerable amount of time in solitude, so ten minutes should be nothing to Ken, however, he just felt like it wasn't going to work.

'The feeling that it wasn't going to work was probably from my insight ability.' Ken mused, then he sighed. 'I can't believe my own ability just told me that I was trying to use it wrongly. Instead of doing that, why don't you just tell me how to do it!'

"Hmmm... how troubling..." Bertram was also confused about why things turned out the way they did. His eyes then brightened as if he struck upon an idea. "Perhaps your ability will only work if you want to know something about your target? Why don't you try asking some sort of question while trying to use it."

"Oh. That sounds good, lemme try that." Ken nodded then stared at the weird creature again. While staring at it, he wondered what it was called.

 

---