Chapter 16: HBA – Chapter 15 – Arc 2 – Prologue 2/2 – ELDRITCH was its theme?

“Evolution is Infinite.”

 

“Evolution is without an end.”

 

“Just because it is Infinite and without an end does not mean you can access said potential.”

 

*

 

Dream Realm - ???

Time was wonky in my current state, and without an anchor out in Reality on which to orient myself, that only proved itself more. 

 

No matter how much Time it took, I found the answer, the solution, the result of regaining a physical body.

 

After Divining everything to the best of my possibility, two Time Divinations, combined with the amount used to set my past in the proper order, I was left with about 70% of the Potential Chaos gained by collapsing my Time Stream. 

 

Technically it was Alexander's as well, as our bond had run that deep previously.

 

Either way, from my Divininations, it was barely enough for me to achieve this unbelievable transition of existence.

Taking a deep breath mentally, I initiate the transition process. 

 

With full awareness, I took a bit of PC and used it carefully on my Consciousness. 

 

Carefully, I infused the PC into myself and consumed it as fuel to split a teeny tiny part of my Consciousness. 

 

Once this teeny tiny part of myself was separate, I sent it into the Golden Flame. Better said, I sent it to the teeny tiny cells that were like tiny stars to my current awareness. 

 

I knew nothing would happen, but I was starting with this tiny part in case the Golden Flame would switch from its current balanced stasis into active destruction. 

 

When everything touched without bursting into ashes, my confidence increased, but care was the game for the day.

 

My teeny tiny split touched a biological cell infused in the Flame and injected itself inside.

 

Now, this part was the weirdest of all. Thanks to the increased perception of Potential Chaos telling me how everything behaved inside the cell physically, what I had to do was ignore the physical side of the cell. 

 

Instead, what I had to do was, use my teeny tiny split and act as a vacuum and swallow part of the Golden Flame attached to the cell without having it destroy the cell itself. It was a delicate balance because, at the same time, when it got sucked inside the cell, I had to combine those three aspects into one.

 

With lots of Divination backing my experience, I attempted it and failed promptly by vacuuming the flame too fast. 

 

On the second attempt, after splitting another teeny tiny bit and repeating the process, the suction was too slow.

 

On the third attempt, I achieved the right suction effect, only to fail with combining everything. 

 

Fourth, fifth and sixth attempts taught me the same.

 

I was wise to use muscle cells for this, but why am I failing?

 

Not understanding why it was happening, I did a few more Divinations when the results showed themselves.

 

I guess the saying that no theory will survive actual practicality has merit.

 

Once more, I attempt the same procedure. Before I tried the suction and fusion, I added a bit of Potential Chaos inside to lessen the load of what was happening and give the process more transformational properties. 

 

Nevertheless, I failed quite a few more times. The resulting combination of everything had to use the cell as an anchor and overflow from inside the cell. 

 

The teeny tiny bit of my Consciousness would act as a magnet and draw on Chaos. 

 

Then it would transform the Chaos into Life Essence, only to have the Life Essence fuse with the Golden Flame into a different form and achieve a balanced state of existence.

 

Finishing the angles with how it needed to be done, after quite a few failures and more consumption of all four ingredients, in this case, I succeeded.

 

For quite a few moments, I stared at the tiny cell with my awareness, as I had no eyes.

 

I hope my theory will work. Otherwise, there will not be enough Potential Chaos to complete the process.

Having gained the first success, I start with the second. With experience under my belt, more of myself was split and infused into the cells besides the first. 

 

It still took a few tries, but success came. 

 

Here comes the moment of Truth. 

 

Crossing my nonexistent fingers, I inch the two cells beside each other. The resulting combination of everything had created a sort of field around each cell. 

 

It is not exactly a barrier. Something tells me that it wouldn't be wrong either, but it wouldn't be right either.

 

The two cells inched closer to each other. The tiny fields surrounding them touched. At first, that was all that happened, but as I forced them to squeeze themselves against each other, a resistance appeared between the two fields. 

 

It was as if they were excluding each other on some unknown basis I was unfamiliar with, but the old saying that if your fist can't fix the problem, then your fist just ain't big enough.

 

Being the bigger baddie, in this case, I began using more force as I squished them together, all while trying my best to have the fields surrounding each other acclimate to each other. 

 

POP.

 

There was no sound in truth, but my mind imagined it when the two fields blended into each other and the cells attached, as they were meant to be.

 

With success under my belt, I examined the resulting field and noticed a very interesting peculiarity. 

 

The strength of the field had increased a tiny bit as was expected. 

 

What was not expected was the amount it produced.

 

I wonder how much the stacking will increase?

 

From this success, I began creating more and more of the resulting fields and having them combined with the initial two. Then the initial three, the fourth, and so on, until at one point, the field reached such strength that no longer a conflict between the expanding field and the new cells appeared.

 

Once that happened, it got much easier to integrate everything into one, but it was not until a big enough cluster of cells became one that the field exceeded its physical size. 

 

It wasn't much, but it was there.

 

Buoyed by the progress, I kept using Potential Chaos to separate parts of myself without adverse effects in favor of consuming Potential Chaos instead. 

More cells combined, and the field expanded more and more. Then came the point where the field reached other unconverted cells in the Golden Flame.

 

I called it a critical point, as the field wasn't just a field or barrier. 

 

It was also energy. It was Life Essence in a different form. 

 

Whatever its new form was, when this critical point arrived, I began to use this field as fuel for the fusion of everything. 

 

It gave me a bit of relief when I saw it work, as it relieved a lot of resource pressure from me.

Moment after moment, strands of muscle tissues began to form, as piece by piece, everything came together. 

 

At that point, I felt it was time for the second critical point. 

 

I stopped splitting pieces of myself and sent my whole self into this cluster of muscle cells. 

 

Once I did, I truly realized what it felt like to be crammed into something. There was a strain inside this field as if it would not be able to hold me forever. 

 

I never thought I would call myself fat in a case like this.

 

Before the strain of existence destroyed everything, I began infusing more Potential Chaos inside this field and myself. 

 

Like a bubble of air expanding due to rapid air pressure, the field inflated beyond any confines previously seen. My whole existence gave weight to this field as more and more clusters of cells and Golden Flame got swallowed. 

 

The resulting domino effect of feeling pieces of myself split without any of my input was enlightening. Achieving fusion with the Flame and the physical body became automatic, and the more I swallowed, the greater the expansion became. 

 

Flesh, muscle, bone, organs, blood veins, and the nervous system got swallowed and reconstituted. With every tiny cell having a piece of me I knew where everything needed to be. 

 

This unbelievable transition enlightened my existence to an entirely new level as bones attached to bones and a proper skeleton manifested. 

 

After it, my blood veins found their proper places. Organs reached their optimal positions. Flesh knit itself around them as muscle tissues attached themselves to everything. 

 

The most delicate of them all was the brain and the nervous system attached to it, but it too was delicately assembled, as if I knew where every piece needed to go. 

 

Done with my insides. Skin began to slide where it should be. Right after, fur became the finishing touch.

How long all this had taken had no meaning to me because I clung to the throngs of enlightenment. 

 

When my enlightenment reached an end, thoughts of mine cascaded over my physical Honey Badger body, and electricity began being produced all over my body. 

 

Those signals reached all my organs and issued a command.

 

WAKE UP. TIME TO WORK.

 

As everything worked as it meant to, I enjoyed feeling how fluid everything was. The best fact was that I was every part of this biological machine, instead of just having a Consciousness residing inside the brain and giving instruction remotely. 

 

I was everything. I did not need to rely on my nervous system to have a body part do as I Will. However, that was actively doing something. And there was no need for that. After all, why bother actively doing something when there is a system in place doing it for you?

 

Only after that did I open my new eyes.

 

For a moment, I was stunned at seeing nothing, but then I just shook my new head and called myself stupid.

 

“Grragra”

 

“Ghrra”

 

“Guahaharhahwah”

 

A realization hit at that moment. I could not talk in my current body as it did not have the vocal cords I enjoyed in my previous body.

 

With another shake of my head, I delegated it to the future. 

 

It was time to receive an Inheritance, but before that, I sent part of my awareness into my Realm only to realize there was a slight disconnect between the current me and the Realm from before.

Pondering for an instant, the solution came to me, and it was simple. I just had to do the same as I did with my new body. 

 

Flexing my awareness, I examined the field enveloping my body. It was about an inch away from my fur and about two inches away from my skin. 

 

I flexed it here and there and realized a simple truth. The compounding effect of a trillion cells working in tandem with each other, and drawing and transforming free-flowing Chaos into this new type of Life Essence was extraordinary.

 

I haven't even reached my peak. 

 

I gave an order, and in tandem, my whole body began to generate more and more Essence. 

 

The field around my body began expanding. 

 

In moments I found myself inside a bubble. Moments after, the bubble grew and grew without an end. It grew until the First Layer separating my Realm and Reality decided that was the end. 

 

Not understanding my limits, I noted another activity for the future. In the meantime, I interacted with my Realm through this field by infusing my Realm with it.

 

Soon a different kind of connection established itself between my Realm and me. 

 

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How exactly was it different? I knew not.

After I regained total control of everything, I examined the amount of Potential Chaos left behind. A staggering realization became the truth when there was none.

 

Fuck… Actually, is this bad in the first place? I may have lost it, but now I have an infinite amount of Life Essence in return, even if its form is weird.

 

Shrugging away the certainty, I focused on the here and now. 

 

The reason was simple. I would find other ways to acquire more of it.

 

I focused on my Consciousness, although it was weird calling it that now. I was more like a conglomeration of numerous pieces of Consciousness as there was no centralized center, at least if one disregarded my physical brain.

Remembering and searching for that elusive feeling, I came up with nothing. 

 

Instantly a dread came over me.  

 

No, no, no, Please tell me it's not true.

 

Sifting through every single piece of myself, I searched inside myself and found nothing.

 

I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe that I have just lost any connection I had with my past.

 

Not giving up, I collapsed the field version of Life Essence my body created to see if maybe it was interfering somehow, but still, there was nothing. 

 

Multiple times I reactivated the field. 

 

Multiple times I had it achieve a certain size and collapse back into nothingness when an idea reached me.

 

Acting upon it, I reactivated the field only to its default state. By default, the field envelops my body and nothing else. It stayed like that for a few moments before I juiced up my cells to produce more, but without expanding the field. 

 

Instead, I inverted its expanding nature inside myself. 

 

It made no sense, and I had no idea how it worked, but that was what happened.

 

The field of Life Essence expanded inside me, and along with it came a strange awareness. It was not of my body, as that I had by default. 

 

This one felt more abstract. It made it even harder to understand.

My awareness kept diving inside this abstract self that made no sense when I came upon a little star. 

 

There I stopped for a moment, but the moment I saw it, I knew what it was, without a doubt.

 

With the relief of not losing it, I touch it, mentally speaking. 

 

The first moment nothing happened. Then the little star exploded like a supernova. 

 

It expanded its presence, and it washed over me. 

 

The weirdest point was that it stunned me despite my new transition. 

 

The worst was that it somehow carried my awareness with its ever-expanding self.

 

In moments, this presence, in the form of a supernova, left my body and reached the outer layer of my Realm. 

 

There it interacted with my Realm boundary in the weirdest fashion I could imagine. It simply made no sense to me, but my outer boundary was being modified to my awareness. 

 

Into what? I had no idea. When the last changes clicked into place, the supernova-like presence diminished. 

 

For a moment, I imagined that it was over, but no. This presence had other plans for me. It ignored my protests and began to gorge on the Essence my body was producing.

 

I simply had no control over anything. I had no idea what it was planning. I had no idea what it wanted from me, but I was sure of one thing. Somehow, I have become a passenger in all this. 

 

That only proved itself, after this presence had gorged itself with so much Essence it was stupefying. 

 

Actually, what is stupefying is how I could produce so much and still not feel any adverse effects.

 

When the moment came that it had enough, this supernova-like presence that dwarfed everything I was, interacted with the outer boundary of my Realm. 

 

Then I was treated to one unbelievable experience, of having my perception of the Universe expand like nothing before.

 

Colors and shapes began to attack my mind. 

 

No color did exist in this place that could not be shown. No shape that could not be taken. In one moment, it felt like gas, in another like water, and in another like a solid. 

 

Only after this presence carried me a certain distance did things start making sense to me, in a sense. 

 

I was in some unformed part of Reality that was far more fluid than it should be, yet it existed and coexisted with Reality, at the same time. 

 

It was like adding another layer to my awareness. A layer that had always been there. I just failed to notice in my ignorance. 

 

Yet, the worst part was that I had this deep feeling of resonance with it, and then it all clicked.

 

Dreams. All of these are Dreams in shapes and colors and unfathomability that follows some unknown Rules and Laws. 

 

As the supernova-like presence carried me wherever it wanted me, I passed numerous strange and gruesome-shaped creatures. 

 

They had no definite form. Some were small as an insect or some as big as a hill. 

 

I passed numerous strange landscapes, that were not landscapes, in fact, but that was how I perceived them. 

 

On them, I saw more strange life forms interacting with each other. Some were feral to the core and stuck in battle as they consumed each other. Some were more mannerly as if these Dreams were reflections of some civilized realm.

 

All these new sights and experiences produced a wonder at what truly existed out there in Reality. 

 

At the same time, it made me realize what a teeny tiny little thing I am in the grand scheme of Reality. 

 

Yet, that was not the end. Out there in the distance, I felt something new was approaching. It had no definitive form or shape. 

 

As we closed in on it, I knew without a doubt what it was.

 

A boundary. We were approaching another edge. Deep inside me, a feeling of being splattered on its front surfaced. Like a fly being stuck by something much larger because it annoys it.

 

With dread, I felt myself splat upon it soon enough. There was no pain, but I did feel somewhat stretched as the presence began to force itself through this boundary.

 

POP

 

it succeeded and brought me outside, and another journey began. I arched my awareness to see what we left behind. At first, it just looked like a multicolored wall, but as the distance was somehow applied, I realized it looked like a bubble. 

 

Time passed as. I knew not how much, not that Time ever flowed the same inside Dreams. 

 

More bubbles came to my awareness in the distance. 

 

More Time passed as we passed those bubbles. By this point, I figured it wasn't wrong to interpret a bubble as one World.

 

Again more Time passed when I noticed the supernova-like presence lessened in strength. 

 

Wherever it was taking me, it was exhausting itself for its duty.

 

More Time passed, and more and more bubbles came to my awareness. As I watched them, I sensed that they were flowing in some fashion, and when they grouped themselves, it was easy to interpret their flow as river-like, as it carried them somewhere. 

 

More time passed as the presence grew weaker and weaker when the unexpected happened. It shifted its flow in some other direction. I had no idea where that direction was, but that was what I felt, but at the same time that it did that, I noticed something else. 

 

As we switched lanes, so to speak, in the original direction that we were going towards, I felt a strange attraction. It gave me a familiar feeling. Like something in that direction was very vital to me.

 

A slight feeling of dread came. Deep down, I knew and felt I was supposed to go in that direction, not this one. 

 

As a passenger, I had no control at all, and it sucked.

 

More Time passed, and the presence was weakening more and more. The speed by which it carried me began to slow down, yet it did not stop. 

 

It did not stop until that one moment it did, and I profoundly wished it had not. 

 

When it stopped, it flared one last time like a beacon in this strange new layer of Reality, and when it did, something flashed back as my awareness made sense of it.

 

IT was enormous. IT was beyond massive. Its size dwarfed any of the World Bubbles I came across. 

 

IT had scale on its outsides. Also oversized, from my vantage point. Its exterior was dominantly purple, with black intermixed into its plated form.

 

It had a bulbous front like a giant ball, but from three sides, enormous tentacles grew. They were longer than a few World Bubbles, and despite appearing to be still, I had no doubt they somehow flowed in some fashion. 

 

What I felt as I saw and observed IT in detail couldn't even be explained. Yet, even that was curbed by my existential crisis reaching a tipping point as the front part somehow opened a gap. 

 

Light spilled from it as it slowly opened in my awareness. It looked like it was in slow motion, but to IT, I had no doubt it was opening its eyelid by kilometers in seconds.

 

If there was an existential crisis peeking point, I had long passed it as I stared at the massive eye. 

 

It had a golden vertical slitted pupil with jade green acting as its sclera. The closer it was to the vertical slit, the greener it was. The closer it was towards that slitted pupil, the more golden balls decorated said green sclera and golden vertical slit like stars burning in some distant nebule. 

 

At its end, green turned into a darkness that flowed into its purplish-black plated body.

All in all, there was no doubt about what I was seeing. 

 

ELDRITCH was its theme. 

 

That theme had only one ending for me when IT's vision landed on this teeny tiny bug that I was when compared to it. 

 

I felt as if it saw through everything that I was. 

 

It felt as if it uncovered secrets I never even knew I possessed.

 

With existential crisis breaking any boundary I knew existed, my Will to live declared that I struggled to death to escape. And that was what I did. I labored with everything I had to release myself from this supernova-like presence and snap back to my physical anchor.

 

IT noticed my attempt, and one of its tentacles swung my way. It looked like it would take forever just to reach me, but I did not want to take my chances. 

 

Throwing everything I had at freeing myself, the massive tentacle inched closer and closer, yet even weakened from the long journey, I failed to free myself before the tentacle that defied size and velocity reached me.

 

In another fashion that defied common sense, its tentacle grew smaller and smaller as it reached me. By the time it hit me, it was a bit bigger and thicker than a human arm.

 

What happened when it touched me, I knew not. By that time, my existential crisis had broken any boundaries. 

 

I lost my awareness of everything.

When I regained self-awareness, I was back in my Realm with an unbelievable urge to sleep. 

 

At the same time, I felt strangeness reaching me from my Realm, but I did not give a shit. 

 

I just knew that I had to sleep. 

 

How I reached the Core, I knew not, but once inside, I spared Alexander one glance. 

 

Once I knew he was safe, I left my new body to float there as almost everything began to shut down into some kind of hibernation.

 

However, deep inside, I knew that when I woke up next, I would be a different Honey Badger than I was now.

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