A Strange Force (0.4)

After an indeterminate amount of time spent lying down with his aching body in the void Nova felt that his soul had stabilized enough to move his body. However, the dominating pressure of that strange force would not allow him to do so.

If things stayed like this he would be stuck on the ground until the thing decided to wake up... Who knew when that would be?!

He decided to take matters into his own hands.

Fighting the instincts that told him not to move in the presence of this great force, he focused the wild spiritual energy in his body to circulate through his arm and raised it up into the endless void.

Without hesitation, he spread his fingers open wide, concentrating the unrefined spiritual energy into his hand, Nova clenched his fist and yanked on the fabric of reality!

Okay so maybe it wasn't the fabrics of reality. Maybe it was just that abnormal force occupying the void. But it seemed like he had grabbed at nothing. That is, until he felt his throat tighten. As if something was putting an immense amount of pressure on his windpipe.

"ACK!"

As the thing gripped his neck so hard Nova thought his head would pop, he spoke through clenched teeth, straining all the muscles in his jaw,

"That- tcH! Is an a- uGh! An awful way to! Tr-treat a! Guest-"

He choked out the sentence word by word and as the thing heard his voice it released him. Nova ended up on all fours hacking and coughing and wiping at the physiological tears that had welled up in his eyes. Now the thing had finally restrained its energy a bit. Enough that he was able to move freely without having to fight against its pressure.

"...What a way to greet a friend... Have you never heard of a handshake?"

He muttered at the strange presence that didn't seem to have hands, or any form at all, and also didn't seem to be capable of speech.

....

"...Cultural difference maybe?"

....

Nova knew was going to give himself a headache dealing with this communication barrier.

After a lengthy silence he felt the force wrap around his neck again. Before he could start asking it to not try to kill him, Nova felt the energy of the thing change slightly. It seemed to be... healing his injury?

He felt his throat after it released him and tentatively swallowed... It had really healed him.

"...Thank you. Sorry if I scared you."

.....

Already tired of the silence of the thing that couldn't respond he decided to explain things carefully so that he wouldn't get attacked again.

"I want to see what happened earlier. Can you show me? I'm going to use the energy to make a link between us. Please don't reject me this time."

When he said the word "energy" he raised the hand with the spiritual energy flowing through it. When he said "us" he tapped his head with a finger then pointed out into the abyss.

He couldn't see a single thing in this place, not even his own body. But for whatever reason he had assumed that the thing could.

And maybe it did.

He reached out into the nothingness and manipulated a small amount of energy to connect the being to him the same way The Law would connect a system to a host. He smiled as he linked to the thing without resistance. A link was a connection only The Law should be able to make happen. This was one of the things he was capable of now.

Nova had to refocus his mind as a few memories were actively sent to him through the link.

The memories were from the perspective of the strange thing and Nova quickly came to the conclusion that it was a presence that didn't have eyes because it's memories were vivid and panoramic. As if a high quality, wide shot, drone camera was shooting the scene. A cinematic view with no blindspots.

┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─────────═━┈━═─────────┉┈◈◉◈┈┉

A burst of light and energy. Like the explosion of a star in space as it dies.

In the vast expanse of space outside of a small world, an enormous amount of spiritual energy riots violently in between dimensions. Halfway through being sent to nurture The Law of the World via a certain system it was stopped in it's path. The system had blocked it! The rogue system was absorbing the energy!

The rift between dimensions that was opened in order for the host and system to transfer to the small world was shaking.

It sensed it.

The disturbance in the void woke the thing from it's slumber.

It used its own power and took advantage of the unstable energies in order to get to where all the chaos was.

In the midst of the violent energies colliding with each other was a familiar little soul...

Before the thing could act, it felt the presence of The Law.

Fear.

Through the link Nova could feel the immediate fear that this being felt when in the presence of The Law. It was indistinguishable from the feeling he had during punishments...

Within seconds it dove directly into the center of the chaos. Directly to him.

There was another explosion of light as The Law restrained the wild energies of the small world with it's own, much larger, mass of energy.

The thing wrapped itself around Nova. As it covered him, it was as if nothing was ever there and the light of the energy overwhelming his soul was hidden by it's cover.

While The Law had already started absorbing the energy it had restrained, the thing quietly slipped through the rift from before and left.

It returned to the empty black void Nova was currently in, unraveling itself and depositing his glowing and twitching, unconscious body onto the ground. It's fear from earlier never went away. However, there was nothing it could do. After observing him for a while it seemed to go to sleep...

┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─────────═━┈━═─────────┉┈◈◉◈┈┉

That's where the memory ended. Nova felt like he had been beaten over the head with a baseball bat as the thing immediately rejected his link after showing him that memory.

He had been ready to thank the thing for its assistance but instead he was curled up on the floor again with his head in his hands.

"AH! You have no patience!! What's the point of saving me if you end up killing me yourself huh?!?! It hurts damn it!"

.....

His complaints were met with silence.

There wasn't even a wound this time so there was nothing for the thing to heal.

Nova took a deep breath and calmed himself. Re-reminding himself to have patience as he sat upright, folding his legs into a comfortable position and leaving his hands free to gesture into the void.

"....Thank you for assisting me. I promise that I'll be an ally not an enemy. So let's get along from now on, okay? I'm assuming that we want the same thing, of course..."

It was strange to have a conversation with something that couldn't properly interact with you. Something you couldn't see or hear.

Nova waited in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity before feeling a pressure on his right hand.

....and just what was he meant to do with that?

After a few seconds had gone by without Nova reacting to the thing it manipulated his limp hand and made it move in a circle.

....A handshake. That's what this was meant to be.

Nova laughed.