"Alex... Alex, wake up."
Alex heard Khos' voice and slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that he was still moving through the Negative Space.
"Are we there yet?" Alex asked, sounding like a kid woken up during a car ride, and not seeing home outside the window.
"I have decided. I will be leaving now," Khos declared suddenly.
"Wait, what? How—? Start from the beginning. First of all, how much time has passed, and how far are we from the world border? And didn't you say you're pretty much just a voice in my head now?" Alex said, shaking off the last remnants of sleep.
"It has been 99,999 years. While you were asleep, I was able to achieve something that had become my life's goal since I left my own world. Never imagined it would be fulfilled in a place like this," Khos replied.
"Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine years... That's a long time... at least when you're alone."Alex said.
"Yes.. it is. As for how, weill I don't know if she did it knowingly or by accident, but Reprise left a way for me to survive. It seems it also helped me finally get free from the curse of being a node."Khos said.
"Wait, how did you do anything without using skills... ?"
"At first i wasnt able to use them. I could only keep up the bubble I created around you. But I kept trying, and something clicked. Probably because your body was still digesting my power after the merge. Once it was fully formed, it turned out I could use you as a node, and since most of the skills you got from the merger are just modified forms of mine, I was able to trigger them through the link we share and create a new body for myself. I apologize in advance—I spent some skill points on your behalf, but they were all mine anyway, so that's all you'll get from me."Khos said
"Forget that, i dont even know what those points are. what i want to know is can i use my skills now as well?" alex asked back.
"Yes. And if you check, you'll see you no longer need a node," Khos said.
Before Alex could say anything, a light shone, and a boy, around five to seven years old, appeared in front of him.
"Behold my new form's majesty!" Khos announced.
Alex couldn't contain his laughter at hearing a child's voice speaking like an old man. He broke into fits of laughter while pointing at Khos.
"What's wrong? I don't feel any discomfort. Is this not a correct-looking elf body?" Khos asked, conjuring a full-length mirror and studying his reflection.
"Man, how are you going to fight anyone in that body? Why didn't you make an adult body—were you low on energy or something?"
"I created the body that matches my age. Apparently, considering the slow aging of elves and the long lifespan of my kind, I'm still considered a child. Besides, it doesn't matter. I'm powerful enough to destroy my enemies without even moving," Khos said, trying to look cool, but Alex only saw a pouting cute kid. Without stopping, he went ahead and started pinching both of Khos' cheeks.
"Waahh... Schop dis madsheh at once," Khos mumbled, trying in vain to grab Alex's hands with his tiny arms.
"Damn that Reprise—what kind of monster did she create? Even if I'm restricted to the same cultivation realm as him while using him as my node, I should easily overpower 99.99% of species—even demi-gods!"
"Stop this and listen to me. This is serious. You need to activate the air bubble as soon as I stop casting it. It not only keeps you safe from negative mana but also provides stealth out here. This place is silent, but the creatures living here can rival, or in some cases, surpass Reprise. You'd best be careful," he added, making the still-laughing Alex suddenly panic and start coughing.
"W-what? How come I don't see any books about them in your collection? And why didn't you mention them before?" Alex asked.
"To write a book, you first need to survive—and nobody, I mean nobody, survives a void walker. They might keep you alive for entertainment, but you wouldn't make it back to write about them. And as for why I didn't warn you before, you didn't need to know. This is strictly on a need-to-know basis. Now use your skill, Memory Library, and delete this knowledge from your mind before you really attract disaster."
Alex felt uneasy. Given his luck so far, there was a non-zero chance he would encounter what should be impossible for others. He decided to follow Khos' advice. As soon as he focused on the skill memory library, the knowledge faded—all he remembered was the consequence, not the specifics of the conversation. What you don't know can't hurt you, after all. If Khos thought this was serious, Alex listened. Some creatures could know about you just because you thought about them.
Using the skill itself was no issue. As soon as he thought about it, knowledge on how to use it was already available to him.
He didn't realize it, but following Khos' advice spared him a deadly trip to the void realm, and left a random void walker confused as the scent it had noticed mysteriously vanished.
"I still don't get it—you're now an elf. How does that help your kind?" Alex asked.
"It's not that. What's important is that I now have a way for my people to leave behind the shell of the node, which is highly restricted by the universe, and to create a new seed within ourselves—a body compatible with our soul. In my case, my shell is merged with you. The solution was there all along; my mistake was thinking of myself as the same as all other beings. We are not the node—we're the seed of life within the node. The node is just a shell. Unlike others, whose souls are fixed at birth, we are malleable, so we can choose what we want to be. I chose an elf, since I'll need mana of an elf to defeat Merlin and make him my personal chair."
"Didn't you say before that he was your friend?"
"Don't get me wrong, he was the only one willing to help me—even if he had selfish motives. But the man is a menace. There's no being alive who can spend one minute with him and not want to hit him in the face—or somewhere more painful. Now, I'll have the power to make it a reality. He'll know the true power of an unrestrained system node."
"Well, good for you. Go, Khos," Alex said, making a cheering gesture while reading up on bubble creation in the books stored in his inventory.
"So, where will you go now?" he asked, after successfully using the skill and creating a bubble ten times larger than Khos's.
"I will be going back to Reprise's territory," Khos replied, making Alex do a double-take.
"You have a way back now? How? Aren't we being pulled toward another universe? And why in the name of everything magical—would you ever decide to return to Reprise?"
"I don't have a way—Reprise does. As soon as I made my new body and reconnected with you (since our bond broke after I switched bodies), I heard her voice telling me how to return. So, I can't take you with me, even if you wanted to come—which, from your face, I guess you don't."
Alex understood. If he heard her voice, then waiting to explain things to someone would already be pushing his luck.
"I could ignore her and stick with you—but this is a debt I have to repay. It's never wise for an immortal to make Reprise feel anything other than indifference or interest. So, yeah—I'm not about to risk her anger by ignoring her instructions. Well, see you," he said, and he vanished—like a dream that never happened...
...and then, psych, he popped back in.
"What happened?"
"Shit. It's your bubble," Khos answered, his expressions were still harder to read on his new humanoid face.
"Oh. So are you coming with me, then?"
"Nope, just need to step outside and trigger the skill again. It has two more uses left," he said, casting a bubble around himself and pushing himself up using skills, trying to resist the universe's pull. After a few minutes, he was out—Alex could still see him until he finally vanished
Alex waited for a while, but nothing happened.
'looks like he is truly gone for good this time' Alex muttered