Fragments of the Whole

Styx's wives and all his other important figureheads were on high alert as the dungeon was currently running on autopilot.

Aura had just defeated the guards in the fallen world with Styx piloting her body. This was because he wanted to search for the most protected knowledge and secrets of this world himself.

"Stop!" One of the guards, a woman by the shape of her body, dug her fingers into the ground and tried to command Styx. "You must not proceed, the lord must remain undisturbed!"

"I don't care about what you want, neither do you care for my reasons. Don't be hypocritical now that you have lost," Styx coldly stated to the fallen woman who no longer held the strength to move.

"You don't understand. Everything is for this world, you will destroy everything…"

"This world died long ago. It is about time you stop holding onto what is no longer there. Just step outside and see that nothing but ash and death remains."

Styx stepped over her and her fallen compatriots proceeded to enter a large cathedral that was mismatched from the rest of the city.

He had seen this building in the heart of the city many times, but the guards, whose strength was in the realm of gods, albeit heavily restricted due to limitations of minimizing mana usage, had prevented him and his forces every time.

It was a long protracted battle, but once Aura no longer tried physical attacks and instead focused on a war of who could take the opponent's mana first, this was no longer the case. The wolf girl held the advantage that she could return to the main myriad world and replenish her mana between battles, whilst the guards were forced to remain and protect this location.

Styx had long since feared they would follow Aura or the others and raid his dungeon, so countless heavy weapons charged with an insane amount of mana were prepared at all times at the entrance.

This was only a worst case scenario, as he always had Aura and the other ensure they weren't being followed before returning.

~~~~~

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Styx didn't find the grand library of treasures and forbidden knowledge that he had been expecting. If anything, the inside of the cathedral seemed as old and dilapidated as the world outside this terrarium city. Everything had a layer of dust on it that had been undisturbed for aeons.

Brass candleholders with no candles in them lined halls and paintings that were so old all the colors had faded until they were no longer recognizable.

Still, Styx pushed deeper into this silent building.

Whilst he hadn't found the trove of knowledge yet, if one could even survive in this old and unkempt cathedral, he still felt the undeniable pull of something familiar.

If anything, that pulling had only become more powerful the closer he got. By this point, he knew he could no longer return until he reached it.

Styx didn't know how far he travelled as his mind was constantly distracted by this feeling, but he travelled at least two floors underground.

He found himself standing before an old set of wooden double doors, each at least three times his own weight. They looked like they would collapse at just a touch, but mana flowed through them and reinforced their structure.

He didn't know what was in the room, but unlike the rest of the world, the mana inside was incredibly rich, as was whatever was drawing him here.

Pushing open the doors, Styx, in Aura's body, entered on full alert.

He had expected a battle, like some kind of final boss, but there was no final boss. What was inside was even more shocking.

On an old wooden throne sat a person, with wheat like skin and long black hair. He slept resting his head on a fist, elbow on the arm rest.

It was so quiet it could have been mistaken as a well preserved corpse, except all the mana in the room flowed through the body before exiting back into the world.

The shocking part of this, was that this person's appearance was exactly the same as Styx's.

The lookalike Styx's eyelids quivered and the entire circulation of mana through his body came to an abrupt halt.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and gazed directly into Aura's, Styx's eyes.

"I had known it would only be a matter of time before you reached here," Ancient Styx said, his voice parched and weak. "That appearance though..."

After an uncomfortable silence of staring at each other, Styx, in Aura's voice, finally opened his mouth.

"What is this?"

"Are you surprised? You remember your old appearance, right?"

"Remember? I am only inhabiting this body, I cannot leave my bounds."

Ancient Styx shifted his gaze, his body apparently too weak to move, and the mana in the room suddenly flowed. A wooden chair, similar to his own, rose from the ground behind Styx. It was a seemingly simple movement, but the aggregate mana in the room abruptly fell by a huge truncation.

Styx could already detect that it was slowly draining away, but the cost of such a simple thing was tremendous.

"Sit, tell me about yourself and your experiences. I don't have long left."

"Stop, I have countless questions right now."

"Are you going to have a competition of stubbornness with yourself?" The corners of Ancient Styx's mouth twitched upwards, a sign of amusement easily missed.

"...At least tell me who you are. Why do you have my appearance?"

"Is it not obvious? I am you."

"That is impossible."

"Unlikely, but not entirely impossible."

"Are there more [me]'s out there?"

"I can't see your essence, but that is unlikely."

Styx sat down and eventually talked with Ancient Styx, briefly explaining his existence as a dungeon and the world that was made up of a seemingly infinite number of worlds that warred against one another, before demanding answers.

"So, it is all coming back together..." Ancient Styx spoke slowly, his voice weaker than when they started.

"What do you mean? It is time you answered my questions."

"Have you not spoken with the other gods?"

"Other?"

"You, and me, we are gods, you know?"

Styx's mouth dropped open as he struggled to find words.

"Me? A God? That is ridiculous. I have nowhere near the power of a god."

"You were a human, and now you are a dungeon. That is how you think of yourself. Human was how I thought of myself too, once upon a time. No, that is incorrect. When we were nought but a priest of Anthea, giving our devotion, we were human. Once she bestowed upon us immortality, we became a god."

"That… that's impossible."

"Why? Because god's a mighty? They hold strength beyond what a mortal could? No, strength is not what defines a god, it is authority."

"And what was my authority?"

"We were given the authority of the land, the earth. This is how we were granted immortality. Anthea shared her authority with us, turning us into gods, albeit still in mortal form."

"…"

"Tell me, why do you think you were reborn as a dungeon, something so deeply connected with the earth?"

Ancient Styx slowly closed his eyes in weakness, whilst Styx was still in denial and ruminating over his thoughts.

"How can there be two of me?"

"Because neither of us are whole. I am but a tiny fragment. You are much more, but whether you are the rest of me- no, us, I don't know."

"Who split us?"

Ancient Styx remained silent as he gazed into the eyes of the wolf girl Styx was inhabiting. Aura was also there at the back of her mind, deeply confused and conflicted at seeing two of the person she loved with her entire being.

"That is a very long story, which I do not have the time to tell. Now that I have awoken, my very existence, long since stripped of power, is crumbling. Tell me, what do you hope to acquire from here?"

"Knowledge. In particular, more about the utilization of mana networks and skills, and the construction of the Tower of Babel recorded in the books here."

"The Tower of Babel? Why?"

Styx felt there was a hidden meaning, even revulsion towards the Tower of Babel that came from Ancient Styx's words.

"To be able to reach the divine realm, where gods reside. Aura, this body, will one day ascend, and I want a bridge to connect the mortal plane to the divine realm. It is in order to not separate her from me, whilst also being able to reach into the divine realm myself. I have tried asking Anthea-"

Styx abruptly stopped speaking as all the mana in the room shook, even depleting somewhat from the movement.

"Anthea has awoken?" Ancient Styx asked, his gaze piercing deeply into Styx's.

"...Yes."

"You had best not rely on her, or any of the other gods."

"Why?"

"Forget it."

"...Answer me."

"Or what, you will kill a dying god?"

"Just answer it. You are me, so what are you hiding?"

Ancient Styx seemed to go back into hibernation once again, but Styx could tell it was his final life force waning.

"The Tower of Babel is not what you think it is."

"It's not?"

"No. The tower is not meant to allow mortals into the divine realm, it is meant to turn mortals into gods. 99 floors, each one one step closer to godhead. Once you reach the 100th floor, you are then a god. To create artificial gods, that is the true purpose of the Tower of Babel."

"But we were already god's, right? Why create it, then?"

"For that, we need to go back to the beginning."