They walked and walked in the darkness.
The void pressed against Ren from all sides, thick and suffocating despite being completely empty. It wasn't just the absence of light. It was the absence of everything. No sound except their footsteps. No temperature, hot or cold. No sense of up or down beyond the vague feeling of the starlight stairs beneath his feet. The only point of reference in the entire infinite nothing was the System walking ahead of him, its pinstripe suit and glowing red eyes the sole beacon in an ocean of absolute black.
Ren found himself focusing on those red pinpoints with desperate intensity, afraid that if he looked away even for a moment, he'd lose his guide completely and be stranded alone in this emptiness. His breath came shallow and quick, each exhale disappearing into the void without echo. The darkness felt alive somehow, watching, waiting. It made his skin crawl in ways that even cosmic horror hadn't managed before.
Time lost all meaning. Were they walking for minutes? Hours? The repetitive motion of placing one foot in front of the other became almost meditative, his mind going blank as his body moved on autopilot. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. The System's glowing eyes ahead. The darkness pressing close. Nothing else existed.
Then without warning, the System stopped dead in its tracks.
Ren's head crashed against the System's skull with a solid thunk that sent pain radiating through his forehead. The impact jarred his teeth and made stars explode across his vision, actual stars this time, not the cosmic kind, just the regular concussion type.
"Fuck!" Ren stumbled backward, his hand flying to his forehead. He pressed his palm against the point of impact, trying to massage away the pain. His fingers probed gently at what would definitely be a nasty bruise.
"Could've warned me you were stopping."
His voice came out rougher than intended, partly from pain and partly from the shock of the sudden collision after the hypnotic walking. He blinked several times, trying to clear the spots from his vision while his other hand reached out to steady himself against nothing.
"What's up?" Ren asked, his tone shifting from irritated to concerned as he registered the System's posture. The demonic entity stood completely still, its horned head tilted slightly as if listening to something Ren couldn't hear. The red glow of its eyes had intensified, casting faint crimson light into the immediate darkness around them.
"It's coming," the System said quietly. Its voice carried a weight that made Ren's stomach drop.
"What's coming?" Ren's hand dropped from his forehead, the pain suddenly forgotten. His body tensed, muscles coiling in preparation for fight or flight, though he had no idea which would be appropriate or even possible.
"Just wait." The System's tone was strange, not quite fearful, but deeply respectful. Reverent, even. The kind of voice someone might use in a cathedral or at a funeral.
Ren held his breath, straining to hear whatever the System had detected. For several long seconds, there was nothing but the oppressive silence of the void pressing against his eardrums. Then, faint at first but growing steadily louder, he heard it.
The sound of metal scraping against metal.
It was a deep, grinding noise that set his teeth on edge and made his spine want to crawl out of his skin. Like someone dragging a massive metal desk across an equally massive metal floor, the screech of resistance and friction filling the void with discordant harmonics. The sound came from everywhere and nowhere at once, vibrating through the darkness itself rather than traveling through air.
Ren's eyes widened as he peered into the black ahead of them, trying to see the source of the noise. The scraping grew louder, more insistent, accompanied now by other sounds. Deep mechanical groans, the protest of hinges that hadn't moved in eons, the settling of weight beyond comprehension.
Then he saw it.
Light bloomed in the darkness ahead, not warm or welcoming but cold and sterile, like starlight filtered through ice. The illumination revealed something taking shape in the void, materializing from nothing as if reality itself was being edited to include this new object.
The door rose higher than any structure Ren had ever seen. A single sheet of black metal, wide enough to swallow a city gate whole. The scale of it was impossible. His mind struggled to process the dimensions, his eyes sliding off the edges as if his brain refused to acknowledge something so vast could exist in any physical space.
Its surface was carved, with precision so exact it looked machined rather than forged. The markings weren't random artistic flourishes or mystical symbols meant to inspire awe. They formed a vertical diagram. Ten circular engravings connected by a single central line that ran straight from top to bottom with mathematical perfection.
Ren's breath caught as his eyes traced the pattern, his medical training automatically categorizing and analyzing what he saw.
At the very top, the largest circle was set into the metal like a crown. Around it, thin rays extended outward in all directions, sharp and symmetrical, like a child's drawing of the sun but executed with inhuman precision. Each ray was exactly the same length, the same width, spaced at perfectly equal intervals. The lines converged back into the first node, and Ren realized the shape continued downward. A system of circles linked by branching grooves, each perfectly aligned with geometric certainty.
Below the crown were two smaller circles, one to the left and one to the right of the center line. The grooves connecting them curved inward like precise wiring in a circuit board, the metal channels so smooth they seemed to have been carved by lasers rather than tools. Each curve was a perfect arc, no deviation or roughness marring the surface.
Beneath those, a third circle sat alone along the main axis, larger than the two above it. The carvings within it were thicker, almost layered, as if etched multiple times to reinforce the lines. The metal there looked darker, more worn, as though this particular node bore more weight or importance than the others.
Two more circles followed, angled slightly lower on each side, their patterns denser and more intricate. The branches between them crossed like mirrored arcs before reconnecting to the central column. Ren's eyes followed the lines compulsively, unable to stop tracking their perfect symmetry even as his mind screamed that he should look away.
Further down, another single circle appeared. Deeper cut, smoother, with a rim polished to a faint silver sheen that caught what little light existed and reflected it like mercury. The contrast between the polished rim and the matte black of the surrounding metal was jarring, deliberate.
Then came two more symbols, twin circles etched close together, their lines bending inward before joining at a single downward groove. The connection point where they merged was so precisely carved that Ren couldn't see the seam, couldn't tell where one circle ended and the other began.
Below them, almost at the base of the door, was a smaller circle perfectly centered. Its edge was surrounded by ring like grooves so thin they looked drawn with a needle, each one nested inside the previous like ripples on water frozen in metal. Around it, Ren could count the narrow bands. Dozens of them, etched in continuous rings like containment layers, enclosing the small circle at the core in protective barriers.
Below that, the carving continued into a long, thin oval shape descending toward the bottom of the door. It wasn't a symbol, more like a channel or conduit, tapering as it fell. The groove was deeper here, carved with obvious purpose, as if something was meant to flow through it.
That last circle at the base was massive. Broader than all the rest, with dozens of fine lines spreading out from it like roots pressed into the ground. The engravings there were shallow but numerous, each line running beyond the door's edge and disappearing into the floor beneath their feet. Ren could feel them somehow, extending down into foundations that went deeper than he wanted to imagine.
He stepped closer despite every instinct screaming at him to stay back. His eyes followed the pattern from top to bottom again, unable to help himself. Ten circles. Each one connected in sequence, descending perfectly straight, no deviation in line or symmetry. The air near the metal felt colder, as if the weight of the material itself pressed outward, pushing against reality.
No lights, no movement. Just a door. A flawless, silent wall of carved metal, recording the structure of ten worlds stacked one above another, waiting behind it.
"Now we finally arrive," the System said softly.
Ren tore his eyes away from the door with effort, his neck muscles protesting as if they'd locked in position.
"This door is making me feel something. It's not a good feeling."
The unease in his gut had grown into something approaching nausea. The door wasn't threatening him directly, but its mere existence felt wrong, like staring at a mathematical proof that shouldn't work but did anyway.
"Well, what do you expect? It's the One Above All's room." The System's tone was matter of fact, but there was tension in its posture. Even the demonic entity seemed affected by their proximity to whatever lay beyond.
"Oh, let me do this first." The System turned and placed one clawed hand on Ren's head. The touch was surprisingly gentle, the sharp points of the claws carefully positioned to avoid piercing skin.
Ren felt something shift in his mind, like a key turning in a lock he hadn't known existed. The comfortable buffer that had been protecting him from the full weight of reality suddenly lifted.
Mental Resistance Skill suspension has been lifted.
The difference was immediate and overwhelming. The unease he'd been having suddenly almost magically disappeared. Every nerve ending in his body has been replaced by rational thought entirely.
"You will need this to even be in the presence of him," the System said quietly.
"And don't even think of looking at him directly."
"Why?" Ren's voice came out strangled.
"The skill description says I can look directly at gods."
The System's skull somehow managed to convey a smile, though it had no lips. The expression was in the tilt of its head, the slight shift of bone structure, the way the red lights in its eye sockets brightened with dark amusement.
"Do you think gods are the highest beings in the universe?"
Ren stayed silent, his throat too tight to form words. His mind supplied the answer anyway, connecting dots he'd been too distracted to notice before. The One Above All. The title itself implied hierarchy. Implied something beyond divinity.
"Yeah, you should know the answer already, don't you?" The System's voice was gentle despite the horrifying implications.
"Well, let's head in."
The door opened.
There was no dramatic grinding of ancient hinges, no theatrical display of power. The massive metal sheet simply moved, swinging inward on invisible pivots with perfect silence. The opening revealed nothing but more darkness, somehow deeper and more absolute than the void they'd been walking through.
They walked inside.
The door closed behind them without sound, cutting off even the memory of the void they'd left. Ren and the System stood in complete darkness, not the empty darkness of the void, but a darkness that felt occupied, full of presence despite containing nothing visible.
"Hey, System," Ren started to turn toward his companion.
The System was already kneeling.
The demonic entity had dropped to one knee with its head bowed, the posture of absolute submission. Its clawed hands rested on its raised knee, and every line of its body spoke of reverence and fear.
Ren's knees buckled before his conscious mind made the decision to kneel. His body acted on pure instinct, responding to something his rational brain hadn't fully processed yet. He hit the ground hard enough to send pain shooting through his kneecaps, but he barely noticed.
The pressure began increasing.
It started as a gentle weight, like someone had placed a hand on his shoulder. Then it doubled. Doubled again. Kept doubling in geometric progression that made his bones creak. His face grew hot, blood rushing to his head as his blood pressure spiked in response to the building force.
It was the feeling he'd experienced before. The sensation when someone's blood pressure increased dramatically, when the body struggled to push blood through vessels that were closing under external force. His face felt hotter and hotter, the skin of his cheeks burning like he'd been slapped, his ears ringing with the rush of his own pulse.
Then he felt it. The presence in front of him. Not close, maybe ten meters away, but the distance felt simultaneously vast and insignificant. Like the space between them didn't matter because this thing, whatever it was, existed on a scale where meters were meaningless.
It must be him, Ren thought, his mind latching onto the certainty like a drowning man grabbing driftwood. It must be the One Above All.
His body trembled with the effort of remaining still, of keeping his head bowed. But curiosity, that damnable curiosity that had driven him through medical school, that had made him open the Origin book, that defined him as fundamentally as his fear of blood, began whispering.
Just a glance. Just his feet. That would be okay, wouldn't it? Just to see what feet looked like at this level of existence.
Ren's eyes cracked open, his lashes lifting slowly. He kept his head bowed but let his gaze slide upward, tracking along the floor toward where the presence emanated from.
What he saw instead of feet was static.
Not metaphorical static, not the confusion of an overwhelmed mind, but actual visual static. Like a television tuned to a dead channel. Pixels of black and white and gray flickering in rapid succession, creating a shifting mass where reality should be. The pattern hurt to look at, made his eyes water and his head throb, but he couldn't look away.
Why can't I see more? The thought bubbled up unbidden.
Ren tried to push his gaze higher, to see past the static, to glimpse even a fraction more of what stood before him.
Sharp, blinding pain exploded in his eyes.
It felt like someone had driven ice picks directly into his pupils, pushing through the soft tissue into the optic nerve beyond. The pain was so intense it whited out his vision completely, replacing the static with pure, blazing agony.
"Ahh, fuck! What happened?" The words tore from his throat in a strangled scream.
Ren's hands flew to his face on instinct, pressing against his eye sockets. His fingers met something warm and wet and squishy, something that definitely shouldn't be outside his skull.
The realization hit him with nauseating clarity.
"Shit... Did I just... gouge my eyes out?"