Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 131: Revelations of The Maw

I walked back into the teleporter and commanded the computer to take me to the floor my quarters were on. 

The machinery whirred up and the familiar white glow of teleportation whisked me away to another of the pads. 

I emerged directly into my quarters themselves, there was a teleportation pod situated in the corner of the room. 

That was a smart move from the designers of the ship. 

If something went wrong, or I was desperately needed on the bridge at a moments notice, I could dive straight into the teleporter practically from bed to be taken to the command deck. No waiting or messing around running down a corridor. 

As it stood, I didn't want to do anything close to jumping into a teleporter to deal with an emergency, I just wanted to get into bed and attempt to sleep the horrors of the previous day away. 

I shrugged my way out of my clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor, and all but collapsed in my bed snuggling up into the covers like the filling of a burrito. 

"Computer," I mumbled in my sleepiness, "Set an alarm for six hours from now, but wake me immediately if things go pear-shaped." 

A small triple beep sounded off in the room, which I took to mean an affirmative. 

With that sorted, I let myself drift off into the thankful clutches of sleep.

xXx

"Huh, What was that?" I all but yelled, springing out of my bed aboard the ship. 

Except. 

I wasn't in my bed aboard the ship. 

Seemingly, I wasn't anywhere. 

Blank whiteness stretched on for an eternity in every direction, without any walls or floors to denote that I was in any kind of room. If I had to describe it, I'd say it looked like the exact opposite of the Chasm in every way. 

Where the Chasm had been a realm of blinding darkness, this was a realm of infinite light.

"Where the hell am I?" I asked again, reaching to push BB down into our Synchro state only to realise that the sensation I usually had of my constant companion was just no longer there. 

I was defenceles. 

"You are in my abode," said a feminine voice, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere at all. "I am the Goddess, and you are trespassing in my realm."

Well, that didn't sound great. That didn't sound great at all. In fact, that sounded equal parts bad and dangerous. 

"I I'm sorry. I don't even understand how I got here, let alone how to leave," I said. "I just went to sleep on my ship and then, poof, I woke up here." 

There was a moment of silence, and I couldn't help but feel like the infinite white before me was judging me somehow. It made me want to run and hide and never look back, but there was nowhere to do any of those things. 

"I brought you to the here and now, Human," The voice all but sneered, "But that is not what I meant. I meant the universe that you have inhabited, my domain, you have intruded upon it."

A sliver of ice ran down my spine. 

She was the goddess of the universe that I had been reincarnated in, and if this conversation was anything to go by then she clearly hadn't been consulted about my arrival and she didn't approve of it either. 

"I had considered burning your spirit out of the body you stole the moment you arrived, but instead I waited," The ethereal voice continued, "I waited to see what kind of man you would become, what actions you would take. Fortunately for you, I was pleased by what I saw." 

I let out a breath I didn't even realise I was holding, greedily gasping in a fresh lungful of air. 

Could it be that she didn't mind after all, then?

But if that were the case, why even summon me to this weird void in the first place?

"You have helped many people since arriving in my domain, and have pledged yourself to fight against the creatures of the Chasm, that is why I bestowed upon you the system that is helping to advance and regulate your manna usage," The Goddess said.

My mind felt as if it flickered. On one minute, stalled the next. 

The creatures of the Chasm?

The Null Space Invaders were from the Chasm?

The Chasm was Null Space? 

"You truly didn't know, did you? That the creatures who saved you from death were one and the same as those who were threatening all of creation." 

Threatening all of creation? 

"I don't understand! All they said was that I needed to live a fruitful life, do things with meaning, and that then I could be reunited with my family in the afterlife!" I yelled out loud. "They hadn't said anything about universal destruction." 

The entity that called herself the goddess cackled with a peal of laughter, "And you believed them? I knew Humans could be gullible, but you really believed that the giant shadowy creatures in a realm called 'The Chasm' just wanted you to live a happily ever after?" 

But "If it's not all about reuniting with my family, then why would they send me here? Why reincarnate souls so that they may live meaningful lives at all?" 

"Ah, well that's just the thing, isn't it," The Goddess said, quieter and more sombre now. "They do need you to live a meaningful life, but it's not for you to gain access to the afterlife. It is for something else entirely" 

I swallowed hard. Did I want to know? Did I want to know the answer to the journey that I had set myself on? 

"Tell me, why are they doing this?" I asked, desperation clear in my voice. 

"They want your soul to be rich and powerful," She said simply. "So they can feed it to the beast below, the thing at the well of all the multiverse, the true enemy of all life. 

"So they can feed it To The Maw."