Chapter 255: Mysteries and Mistakes

“Fuck!” Xaz swore as she scraped the imploded human off her body, “Oh gosh, I think I got some in my mouth! Oh my god it tastes so fucking bad! I forgot we were dealing with humans!” 

I shook my head as I saw Xaz produce a whole pitcher of some kind of liquid before she downed the whole thing. She quickly dissolved the exploded bits of human from the dream and frowned to herself. We had decided to keep the cosmic, disintegrating background to keep with the unfathomable eldritch being motif going, but I was starting to think that even that was a bit too much for the unaugmented humans to handle. Xaz assured me that it was fine, although how much I could trust her was another story.

“Goddamn that’s vile!” Xaz spat, “And here I thought I’d be the only one to never, ever try Human in my lifetime! Why’d we decide to bring his real body in here? We’re working with consciousnesses only from now on!”

Xalla only snickered as she gazed at her sister with an amused look. “You wanted it to be authentic.”

“Well, I was clearly wrong! You said you’d be the responsible one!”

“To be fair,” I added before they could argue further, “I also agreed. And I didn’t think they’d explode by seeing a Xollon’s Prime form…”

“Rogue did mention that it was a possibility…” Xalla said absent-mindedly.

“And you didn’t mention that part?” her sister frowned.

The other Xollon just shrugged. “You said you had it all under control.”

“Ugh…”

“Anyway,” I continued and shifted back to my Secondary form. “I think we can all agree that we need a different approach.”

Thankfully, I didn’t have to expend any actual abilities to do so here in this strange place Xalla called the dreamscape. I wasn’t quite sure what this weird communal dream thing was - not even Awake Walter knew anything about it as far as I can tell - but I wasn’t going to complain. And as the name suggests, it was a space that straddled reality where the Xollon here could produce and do anything that they had experienced before. It was nice to have a safe place where you could do practically anything that you could dream of.

“Wait, wait,” Xaz said, “It’s too early to give up just yet. Maybe it’s the aura you’re giving off that’s frying the human’s brains? Try toning it down a bit.”

I saw no reason to refuse, so I turned back to my Prime form and tried to limit my presence (well, Noe did in any case, it wasn’t like I knew how to do that).

“Perfect!” Xaz exclaimed, “Let me grab another human.”

She scooted back a bit more than before, clearly not enamoured with the idea of getting any more human in her maw, before summoning a new individual. The human, a older woman, was confused for a second before she turned to look at my direction.

Then her eyes exploded. 

Before anything else could happen, Xaz intervened and removed the poor person from the dreamscape. I wasn’t sure what the consequences of having their virtual eyes fried out of their heads would be, but I didn’t think it was appropriate to ask. I just hope that the poor woman will survive the ordeal.

Xalla’s sister frowned. “Huh, I thought for sure that was the problem…” 

“I don’t think being in Prime form will work, Xaz,” Xalla sighed, “Why don’t we just stick to a different form? We’re in the CC, it’s not like we’re limited in options.”

“Gah, that’s not the point!” Xaz exclaimed, “Walter’s representing our family here, and you want him to show up as some inferior race?” She shook her head. “No, no, it’s Prime or bust, dear sister.”

Xalla only groaned in response.

“Uh,” I interjected, facing my girlfriend, “How about I go half, like what you did back in that fragile dimension?”

“Could work,” Xalla answered, “That fine with your ‘artful’ vision, Xaz?”

I could tell that the other woman wanted to protest, but logic ultimately won out, and she nodded reluctantly. “Yeah… I suppose we can try that. Kind of lame to have our hunk of a Xollon in that ugly form though. So much wasted potential…” 

Alright, Noe, do you mind changing me into whatever form Xalla was in before?

“Acknowledged, my Host.”

And just like that, my form started to expand and contort again, although there wasn’t any of the physical discomfort that normally came with such a transformation. I guess it made sense, since none of us were physically here, which also had the added bonus of allowing Noe to do all her tinkering without expanding any Luck Charges to boot.

Xaz shook her head again when she saw the new, diminished form. “What a waste…”

I thought Xalla would defend me, but I saw that she subconsciously nodded as well. Really, was this half, in-between actually that ugly to the senses of the Xollon? I’d managed to understand the aesthetic senses of the species in their Secondary Form - hell, I was dating one after all - but the Prime form and its variants were still more or less a mystery for me. 

“Think of it this way, my Host,” Noe added, “Imagine if you saw a human lose half their body weight while losing the ability to walk or move properly. That is about the equivalent of seeing a Xollon in such a state that you are in now. It is worse since you are a Xollon idol, one of the paragons of their species, at least in terms of looks.”

Huh, that would be pretty bad. Good point.

“Okay,” Xaz continued, not sounding even half as enthusiastic as before, “Let’s get the next human in then…” 

She and Xalla disappeared from view like before, and a new individual popped up. This time, the man’s eyes didn’t explode or melt or anything like that, which was a good start. What wasn’t so good, however, was the sounds of asphyxiation followed by screaming and shouts of insanity that followed. The poor guy started to gibber incomprehensibly before running toward the distant stars.

“Oh, come on!” Xaz exclaimed, popping back into reality before sending the insane guy back. “This is ridiculous! How can humans be so feeble?”

I transformed back and sighed. “They’re unaugmented humans, Xaz, I don’t think your original idea’s going to work, and this kind of outer space background…?”

Xaz frowned, her gaze wandering to the exploding stars and primal chaos floating around us. “What’s wrong with it? It’s pretty nice if you ask me.”

“It might be too much as well,” I shook my head. “Seeing the end of the universe and the death of stars is a tad extreme.”

“It’s hardly the end of the universe, Walter, just the death of a galaxy. You’re can’t be saying that an afternoon hunting trip’s too much for a human!” Xaz exclaimed, barely believing a word I said. 

“Remember that this batch of humans has only ever been on their own planet. Barely even reached their own moon.”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me… this kind of destruction’s the stuff hatchlings do right out of preschool!”

Geeze, was destroying whole galaxies some kind of normal activity for the Xollons? I knew that they were eldritch monstrosities - what with the mind-melting thing going on when someone views one directly - but I never thought about the true implications. If their newborn kids were that powerful, than what could someone like Xalla, or worse yet, Rogue, do?  Damn this race was scary…

“Unfortunately so, Xaz,” I answered, keeping my voice even.

“They’re not even seeing any of the action! Seriously, how did this crummy race get picked? Maybe they plan to have them suicide into the enemy’s mouth and poison their foes to death.”

“Be nice, Xaz,” Xalla scolded, “Walter’s project is on this race, and our mutual friend’s the one who seeded the species across the multiverse. They’ve got potential, um, it’s just very buried.” 

“No kidding…” She kneaded her frills with a feeler before producing a seat and slumping on it. “Gah, okay, Walter, let’s scrap the full Xollon experience and go with your first idea. I never thought I’d be working with a species with a weaker mentality than the one I got for that crummy final assignment!”

“Finally,” Xalla muttered, before resetting the dreamscape. 

We found ourselves back in the plain, white void. I materialized a table and chair for us to sit on. 

“Okay, Walter, clearly my ideas are not working,” Xaz said with a frown. “You have the floor.”

“Thank you,” I smiled back. “Let’s see what I can do.”

Noe, I think it’s about time for you to do your thing. Use as many Luck Charges as you need, let’s get things set up to welcome our worshippers.

“I will do as you wish, my Host.”

Noe didn’t need to take over my body for what she needed to do, nor did it cost all that many charges either. A scant 277 was all it took to transform the bland, white expanse into something completely different. Four huge pillars reaching high into the heavens surrounded the spot where Xalla and her sister were standing, and a billowing fog obscured everything around us in a one-hundred-meter radius. The sky was devoid of stars, instead replaced with an impossibly black expanse of pure void. 

The only thing that could be seen on the otherwise inky horizon was a singular eye of unfathomable size. It’s lidless stare seemingly encompasses everything in this tiny patch of reality amidst the void of nothingness. A ritual circle was created right at the center of the stone pillars, which is where I would assume the humans would appear, and most importantly of all, there was a little platform with three couches right behind the eldritch eye. It seems like Noe even thought about where Xalla, Xaz, and I could stand or sit, ensuring we’re all comfortable for the play. 

“The eye’s kind of impressive, I suppose,” Xaz admitted, “Although I still don’t understand why the lesser races seem to depend on such a fragile and primitive method of observation. I find these eyes tend to explode rather easily.”

I remembered seeing the exact same thing multiple times during my rather short time as an Aspirant, what with that incident with the exploding heads and melting eyes that started our little misadventures in that alien dimension. Honestly, I couldn’t help but agree with the Xollon’s observations. Using light as a medium to observe the world really was limited, and that’s not to mention how frail the organ was itself. Even too much light could damage a person’s vision, hence the invention of welding masks or even sunglasses. 

“Well, I think it’s fine for what we have to do,” Xalla added quickly, “Walter did a fine job.”

Xaz rolled her (nonexistent) eyes. “Yeah, that means a whole lot of nothing coming from you, sis. You’d say that no matter what your boyfriend here does.”

“Hey, that’s not tr-”

“All right, all right, no need to get defensive,” the other Xollon interrupted, “Let’s just summon the next batch to see if Walter here really did do a fine job as you say.” 

“I’m sure it’ll work this time, Xaz,” I said, although it was more accurate to say that I was sure that Noe did her job to ensure that things worked out this time. Well, it’s not like I could tell my friends that 95% of my plans only work because of my awesome System.

“It is good to see that you understand my effectiveness, dear Walter,” she said with a chuckle. “Although I wouldn’t take 95% of the credit. 94.5% at most, my Host.”

Glad to see you’re humble. I rolled my eyes, thankful that Xalla and Xaz didn’t notice the expression since I didn’t exactly have those vulnerable jelly orbs in my current form. 

“But yeah, no need to waste more time with test subjects, just bring in the main players.”

Xaz gave me an incredulous look. “You sure?”

I nodded.

She shrugged, and the same wry smile appeared on her maw. “Then let’s bring in the stars of the show! Everyone, to your positions!”