A crisp breeze stirred the treetops as Alex gazed at the blue-haired child before him. The golden-eyed youth studied Alex with an inquisitive tilt of his head, his massive wolf companion shifting slightly beneath him.
"Eh? A human?" the child muttered in surprise.
Alex offered a casual smile. "I suppose you could call me that. And you are?"
The child, still riding the enormous wolf, seemed momentarily lost in thought before he spoke again.
"English? Ah, sorry, I'm Rimuru. And you?"
"Alex. I'm surprised you speak English so well," he answered simply, slipping his hands into his coat pockets. "Quite the companion you've got there."
Rimuru chuckled. "Another Otherworlder, huh? This is Ranga."
Lily snickered from her perch on Alex's shoulder. "Otherworlder is an understatement."
Before any further introductions could take place, a sudden pressure filled the air. The ground beneath Alex's feet glowed with intricate patterns of light, forming a complex magic circle. Runes shimmered and pulsed, their intensity growing by the second.
Rimuru's eyes widened. "A Teleportation Circle?!"
Alex frowned. "Is this dangerous?"
"Nope," Lily replied, crossing her arms. "Just a regular transdimensional teleportation circle."
Before either of them could react further, the magic circle erupted with blinding energy, and in the next instant, Alex and Lily were gone.
Rimuru was taken aback, unable to sense the origin of the magic. Before he could investigate, Alex had vanished.
"Neh, do you know what that was just now?"
[.....]
His system did not answer. "Unusual. But, American? British? Hmm... I wonder who summoned him."
Meanwhile, Alex found himself standing in the middle of a bustling city street. Towering skyscrapers loomed above, neon signs flickering in the distance. The familiar scent of exhaust and concrete filled the air.
"Parallel Modern Japan," Alex murmured, recognizing the uncanny similarities.
Lily adjusted herself on his shoulder. "Oh? Looks like we got thrown into someone's backyard."
Pedestrians walked by without sparing them a glance as if their presence had gone completely unnoticed.
The air vibrated with an unseen force, and then, a voice; calm, vast, and emotionless, echoed around them.
[Outsider detected.]
[ Presence threatening the balance.]
[ Immediate removal required.]
Alex raised an eyebrow. "That's new."
A translucent, ethereal figure manifested before them, shifting between different forms of geometric shapes and abstract waves of energy. Its presence was overwhelming, an embodiment of the world's very fabric.
Lily's voice carried a note of realization. "That's not a God... that's the Will of the World. Or rather, the System governing reality."
Alex exhaled. "Great, so I'm being targeted by an automated cosmic firewall."
The entity's form stabilized into a glowing humanoid silhouette, its voice devoid of emotion.
[Your existence will disrupt the balance.]
[Removal is imperative.]
Alex smirked. "Well, you're welcome to try. But from what I surmised, if you could erase me outright, you wouldn't be standing here talking."
The Will of the World remained silent for a moment before responding.
[Direct erasure: Impossible.]
[Alternative method: Containment.]
Lily groaned. "Ah, classic System move. If it can't delete you, it'll just seal you away."
The air distorted violently as reality itself folded in on Alex. A gravitational force pulled at his very existence, pressing down from every direction. The once-bustling city dissolved into an endless void of shifting codes and light.
Alex could feel his movements slowing. "So, this is what full-system authority is like… Pretty neat."
[Containment commencing. Infinite prison.]
The Will of the World's voice rang out, and an immense force attempted to compress Alex into a small, isolated space.
Lily snorted. "Tsk, tsk. They always try the brute-force method first."
Alex sighed, rolling his shoulders despite the crushing weight. "Alright, let's get this over with."
With a single thought, golden ripples emanated from him, pushing back against the encroaching force. The System faltered, its form glitching as if struggling to process the resistance.
[Anomaly resisting.]
[Time Stop.]
[Space Lock.]
[Holy Barrier.]
[Anti-Magic Barrier.]
[Anti-Physical Barrier.]
[Increasing suppression level: Multiple Infinite Prisons.]
The reality around them shifted again, countless binding runes and laws rewriting themselves midair. The weight of the world's rules bore down even harder, attempting to overwrite Alex's very being.
But Alex simply smiled. "You're going to have to try harder than that."
[Failed.]
[Failed.]
[Failed.]
....
Alex remained still, enveloping his entire body with origin energy.
"Will it crash after trying so many times?" Alex muttered.
"Maybe. It'll probably overheat its processor and shut down," Lily replied with a giggle.
A few minutes later, the system continued to fail. Error messages and cascading lines of code and magic circles flooded the void, flashing in chaotic disarray around Alex.
"I wonder if this is what it's like inside a computer as a virus. This is getting annoying, to be honest." Alex reached out, and with a gesture, a crack in the void opened before him. Plunging his hand inside, he rummaged around before gripping onto something solid.
In his grasp was an ethereal black dragon figurine with flowing starlight, immaterial yet tangible to Alex. This was the Core of the Universe, the central hub governing this reality, akin to the operating system of a vast cosmic network.
[WARNING.] [WARNING.] [WARNING.] [WARNING.]
Alex ignored the visuals of errors and warnings around him. Holding it in his hand, Alex channeled a fine thread of origin energy into the core, duplicating its stored information and rewriting its parameters to ignore his presence.
The error messages flickering around them ceased. The void quieted as Alex closed his eyes, absorbing a massive influx of knowledge from the universal core.
An eternity seemed to pass before Alex finally opened his eyes, their golden glow flickering intensely for a brief moment before settling back into his usual azure hue. He returned the core to its place and snapped his fingers, restoring himself to the bustling Japanese city.
At this moment, Lily spoke. "Why would a god relinquish its omnipotence and willingly choose to die?"
Alex contemplated for a moment. "That's a good question. He was a consciousness born from the core of the universe itself, the creator of the worlds within it. Yet, he programmed an autonomous system to govern in his place and then relinquished his position to live amongst his creation."
He let out a slow breath. "Honestly, I don't know what to say. I was hoping he left behind a diary or a log in the core, but it seems he completely detached himself from it. Not even his memories after death were recorded. Maybe he fully integrated himself into the world, or maybe he is alive in a completely different form."
"Too bad. If he were still alive, you could probably gain some insights," Lily said with a shrug. "Well, you can always explore the world he created and figure it out yourself."
Alex chuckled. "That's the plan. Besides, we gained new race templates. Let's go greet Rimuru again, and see those races for ourselves." With that, he teleported himself back to the Stellar World of this new multiverse.