Epilogue: Together
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“So this is the immaterial world? How odd.”
I had become reduced to pure concept, lost all earthly ties, and found myself aimlessly drifting about the immaterial world. There was no concept of light or dark here; the five senses I was accustomed to using were meaningless. I felt as though I were swimming in an endless ocean of information.
The Song of the End was close to activating in the material world, but the concept of time was different here. There was no urgency to stop the Song of the End right this moment, so instead I focused on keeping hold of my personhood. Without a body to define where I began and ended, it would only be a matter of time before the endless current of information made me lose all sense of self. I began fiddling with the information that currently defined me and carefully shaped myself. Everything was information here. Physical limitations didn’t exist, so I could take whatever form I pleased, limited only by imagination.
Once I was secure in my continued personhood, I began setting about sealing the Song of the End. It wasn’t too difficult. I was starting to get used to the immaterial world by this point and finished in no time.
The last thing I did was sever the connection between myself and…her. She had powers equal to those of a god. If she found my coordinates in the immaterial world, she could contact me right away. But I didn’t want that. This would probably devastate her, but I was certain I had to go through with it.
“To be an all-powerful god is a lonely thing…” As I mentioned before, the concept of “other” didn’t exist to someone so powerful. She had managed to not read my mind, to allow me to remain separate from her up until now, but I was in the immaterial world. If she tried to contact me, I would be laid bare, and she would no longer see me as a separate person. I had to act before that happened.
It was only because others were unknown to us that we could fear them, hold interest in them, and encounter new perspectives. Without anyone she could consider “other” around her anymore, I was sure she would eventually do something extreme. I needed to remain separate from her so I could set her straight when that time came.
“Perhaps you’ll hold a grudge against me… No, I’m almost certain you will. But you know, giving you someone you can still hold a grudge against is half the point, ██.” I felt as though it had been forever since I last used her name. Tenderness swelled up inside me. I wanted to go meet her right this instant, but I refrained and severed the channel that would allow her to reach me. Even if she was all-powerful, she was still human, and I firmly believed every human in this world needed someone other than themselves they could rely on.
“That should do it. Now, let’s see. I wonder what kind of person will finally make contact with me?”
It would take a fair amount of time for someone in the real world to advance their alchemy skills to the point of making use of me, but time in the immaterial world was meaningless. I could contact them right this instant, assuming somebody would eventually manage to reach me.
I would hate it if some unkempt man was the one to use me, though. Thinking a cute girl would be nice, I opened a path to my old world.
“…Hello.” Greeting me was a young girl that couldn’t have been more than two or three. Her hair was silver, her eyes red, and she looked delicate as could be. She seemed to think I didn’t hear her and repeated herself, “Hello!”
“Why hello, my dear. I’m… Hm. You can call me Metako. Can I ask what your name is?”
She smiled broadly and answered, “I’m Maha! Hello, Miss Metako!”