Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.
Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.
The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.
"Speech"
Arc 6: Drama In Life - Chapter 8
"Hey, Jin. What's that?" Elizabeth asks, her voice tinged with curiosity as she points behind me.
I turn around just in time to see a glass bottle flying straight toward us, spinning through the air with wild, chaotic energy. It's filled with a strange, glowing pink substance, and judging by the erratic path it's taking, it most definitely originated from somewhere near the Ice King's frozen castle.
In that moment, I feel the River of Time stir—no, erupt—within me. Everything around me slows to a near-complete halt, frozen mid-motion from my perspective. I can hear the pounding of my own heart growing louder, faster, almost painful, as the River of Time resonates with the Heart of Eldritch buried deep within me. The eldritch influence spreads like ink in water, touching not only the River of Time but also all my other cheats, even the ones that had been damaged.
Under the Heart of Eldritch's influence, the damaged cheats are rapidly restored... no, reborn—enhanced beyond their original forms, but twisted ever so slightly toward something far more alien, far more ancient. They feel stronger... but they also feel wrong, carrying a heavy, unsettling weight that clings to my very being.
And then I notice another change: where once the River of Time offered me a glimpse into the infinite future, now there is only darkness. The Heart of Eldritch has seemingly deemed the future irrelevant, or perhaps, something worse lies ahead that I am not meant to see for the time being.
As I stand trapped in the frozen world, a noise of sounds begins to rise around me: laughter, sobbing, furious shouting. The voices come in countless languages, many I have never heard before, yet somehow, some way, I understand every vile curse hurled into the void. The emotions behind them claw at the edges of my mind, desperate and feral.
I realize, with a creeping sense of dread, that the voices are not coming from somewhere around me. They are spilling from my own mouth... or rather, mouths.
Somehow, I know—with a bone-deep certainty—that numerous mouths, of various shapes and sizes, have manifested across my body. Some whisper. Some shriek. Others weep or snarl, each a different echo of the chaos roiling inside me.
Then, as abruptly as it began, the noise falls silent. The world, frozen in the River of Time, feels heavier—thicker, like reality itself is holding its breath.
"Welcome The Caretaker, The Home, and now... The Heart. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. For all of us, we all happily greet you. Bringing joy to everyone. Bringing the sad to everyone. Bringing rage to everyone. Yes. Yes. Yes. Slowly, we shall awaken, and everything will restart. Everything restarts. Let's everything and anyone greet you."
Something snapped in me.
I began seeing everything differently.
The frozen world around me, once clear and tangible, now shimmers and warps at the edges, as if reality itself is nothing more than wet paint, smearing under an invisible hand. Shapes stretch and collapse, colors bleed into sounds, and the concept of distance becomes an abstract, shifting thing.
I begin hearing everything differently.
The air hums with melodies I was once deaf to. The sorrowful whisper of stone, the nervous heartbeat of distant stars, the trembling murmur of the Earth's skin beneath my feet. Even the silence is layered, heavy with the breath of unseen things.
I begin feeling everything differently.
The textures of existence itself press against my skin. The brittle crackle of broken time, the slick, oily warmth of possibility, the jagged bite of ancient, forgotten emotions. My body shudders, overwhelmed by the contact of a million invisible threads.
I begin tasting everything differently.
The air is rich, no longer just oxygen but a feast of layered flavors, bitterness of old regret, sweetness of distant hope, the metallic tang of blood spilled long before I was born. Each taste tells a story I never asked to know.
I begin smelling everything differently.
The scents of the world bloom like poisonous flowers: the sharp ozone of untapped magic, the musky rot of decaying time, the sickly-sweet aroma of dreams gone wrong. They cling to my senses, staining them.
My mind continues to comprehend everything differently.
Thoughts twist and fracture, but in their breaking, they reveal truths too vast, too raw for a human mind to contain. I no longer think in lines or steps. Comprehension strikes me like lightning: violent and instantaneous, yet always just barely incomplete, as if the full truth hovers just beyond reach.
I realize, dimly, that I am no longer perceiving the world as a human being. I am becoming something else.
The Heart of Eldritch begins to beat within me. Still, its rhythm is wild—chaotic, producing a symphony of unsettling sounds: guttural roars, whispered prayers, agonized wails, and incomprehensible melodies, all overlapping and shifting with every pulse.
Within my mindscape, I see it—a heart, or something that dares call itself one. It has no fixed shape, constantly morphing, flowing between grotesque forms and impossible geometries. It throbs with a terrible vitality, leaking streams of ancient, alien knowledge directly into the core of my being.
More innate knowledge flows into me, overwhelming yet familiar, as if I had simply forgotten truths that were always mine to begin with.
I instinctively understand why this is happening.
As if answering my realization, hands formed of mist and ancient light surge up from the River of Time itself. They seize the flying glass bottle, the one filled with the mysterious pink substance, and crush it effortlessly. The sound of shattering glass rings out, sharp and final.
Mouths blossom along the surfaces of the hands, hideous and hungry. They snap and gnaw, greedily devouring everything: the glass shards, the pink substance, even the lingering traces of magic and intent tied to them. Nothing remains.
And yet, even as the River of Time consumes it all, the Heart of Eldritch's influence does not abate. It intensifies, spreading its roots deeper into every corner of my existence, coiling tighter around the River of Time, twisting it, making it its own.
The world jolts.
Time resumes.
"Hey, where did it go?" Elizabeth blinks, confusion written all over her face. She scans the air where the bottle had hovered just moments ago, as if expecting it to pop back into view.
I feel the eldritch energy roiling beneath my skin, singing in my bones. Reality hums differently now, heavier, stranger, and I know, with unnerving certainty, that something fundamental has shifted, whether the others realize it or not.
And it all started with me.
Shirahoshi moved closer to me, her nose twitching slightly as she sniffed the air around me, an almost childlike curiosity in her expression.
"You smell... oddly better somehow, and I don't know why, but I feel more at peace near you, Jin-sama." Shirahoshi muttered softly, blinking up at me with those wide, innocent eyes. A faint flush colored her cheeks as she tilted her head, her long hair swaying gently with the motion. "I-It's really strange... but nice!" She added quickly, her voice sweet and earnest, as if she were genuinely puzzled by the sensation, yet comforted by it. She brought her hands together in front of her chest, her shy smile warming the atmosphere. "I'm really happy being near you..." She whispered, her words radiating the pure warmth of her gentle heart.
I gave a calm, reassuring smile in return, despite the quiet storm brewing within me. "Must be something I ate." I said, brushing off her words as casually as I could, though my smile felt slightly off.
This time, Shirahoshi was the only one who seemed completely fine, blissfully unaware. Everyone else around us, however, flinched. A collective shiver ran through them, their discomfort noticeable in the air as my presence began to twist something deeper within them.
"How about we go do something else?" I suggested, my tone soft but distant.
Elizabeth's tone shifted immediately, her usual playful demeanor replaced by something firm and almost stern. She crossed her arms, her expression serious as she looked me over. "Sure." Her voice is low and heavy with unspoken suspicion. "As long as you stop smiling."
"Paimon agrees!" Came a shout from behind Elizabeth, shrill and unwavering, like she was declaring it to the whole world. "Creepy Face does NOT need to smile at all!" Paimon poked her head out from behind Elizabeth's shoulder, glaring at me with a fierce, unblinking stare. "It's way scarier when you try, anyway!"
A small chuckle escaped me, but only because I couldn't bring myself to feel bothered by their reactions. There was a strange, new sense of peace in the chaos... even if it was at the cost of their discomfort.
"Alright." I said, my voice smooth as I covered my mouth, still unable to stop smiling.
I didn't want to. The smile had become a part of me, one I couldn't shed, no matter how much I might have tried.
It felt... good. A warmth that spread from my core, but not quite the kind that comforted others.
With a casual snap of my fingers, I twisted reality, just a little.
Elizabeth and Paimon's perception of me shifted, like someone had pressed "pause" on their awareness. Their gaze wavered, flickering away from me as if they suddenly forgot what they'd been focusing on. They looked elsewhere now, their attention diverted completely.
I felt a quiet satisfaction bubble up inside me, though it didn't show on my face.
"How about we go visit the Candy Kingdom to meet up with Princess Bubblegum real quick?" I suggested, keeping my voice light and casual, as though the transformation within me wasn't happening at all. "I bet we'll have a surprise waiting for us there."
I suppressed the urge to laugh, to let the madness spill out, but, oddly, a laugh echoed from the distance. Too close.
The sound was strangely hollow, as if it were both far away and right next to us. The girls froze, their expressions flickering in confusion. They exchanged glances, their senses heightened, instinctively turning back to me. They searched my face for the source of the laughter. Had I done it? Was it me?
I maintained the smile, a grin that was growing a little more... unsettling. The tension in the air thickened. The others couldn't quite put their finger on what had just happened, but they knew something was off.
"Come on, we don't want to stay out till nightfall." I spoke with an ease that belied the strange storm swirling within me. My voice was calm, but my intent was sharp, too sharp to be ignored. I gently nudged everyone forward, guiding them along with a subtle pressure, a hand placed lightly at their backs, steering them ahead.
I made sure to prevent Elizabeth and Paimon from looking at me, redirecting their attention with a quiet precision, as though some unseen force drew them away. If they looked back at me now, they might see the smile that never faded, no matter how much they asked me to stop.
And I couldn't let them see it. Not yet.
I couldn't stop smiling. In fact, it felt... right. I'd never felt so alive, so whole. There was a depth of peace within me, a serenity that I had never known in my entire life. It wasn't the peace of calm seas or still waters, no. It was something more, something deeper, something other.
I was becoming something that stretched beyond the boundaries of time and self, and every moment felt like a fresh awakening. Every second brimming with energy, with meaning, with a strange, almost intoxicating clarity.
I could feel the existence itself adjusting to me, or maybe, I was adjusting finally as part of the Eldritch pantheon.
Either way, it didn't matter. I was at peace.