Esper Labyrinth - ESP - Superhero - LITRPG

The air was humid and hot. Heavy with fumes from all the dead and dying animals on the black, brackish waters, as well as from the rotting plant matter clinging to the edges of the murky pools.

Each breath felt as though it was a fight all on its own. As if someone had been suffocating me with a wet rag as I inhaled. The smells didn't make the impression any better. Neither did the sounds for that matter.

It was a strange thing to contemplate right now, as I was more or less aware this world wasn't real. No, I knew for a fact that I had stepped through the open Rift and that this was Pandemonium. That this was not real.

But it was also strange.

I couldn't feel the Intruders that should have been making up the space. Not even in the same manner as I'd felt the building blocks of the worlds the other versions of me had created.

At the same time, I felt power like [Omniscience] being pushed down. Not suppressed, but merely muffled.

I didn't feel like a mostly all-knowing Esper here. I didn't feel the apathy and callousness that Shifter forced into my mind. Nor the pull of [Solomon's Sociological Regulation X] trying to keep me from losing my emotions and connections.

Instead, I felt…

human.

Normal.

As if I'd somehow managed to forget that I had those powers all over again.

Moreover, the swamp was not eliciting the reactions I should have been having as a human. The water did not feel gross or overstuffed with bacteria. I was not panicking at the sight of all that muck and fearing an infection or else the presence of a nasty parasite.

Instead, I felt a strange sense of calmness. Of belonging.

As if the fetid swamp was actually a sunlit pool at the back of a hotel. That, or a beach filled with small white grains of sand, beset by clear blue waters that caressed the shoreline.

It felt relaxing. As if I was meant to be here.

I'd grown up watching documentaries of places where the Rift Spawn were the most dangerous. Places like shallow coastlines or wide bogs like the everglades. Where some hydra might just decide to pop out for lunch at any given time.

At the same time, I also had a lot of experience through [Limited Omniscience]. These places were always full of life. Full of little minds minding their own little business.

The swamps of Earth were filled with mosquitoes, frog-spawn, larvae of all shapes and sizes, snakes, salamanders, small birds, big birds, bats, fishes and lizards. Not to mention all the different kinds of plants. In other words, swamps were a haven for all kinds of life to thrive and spread. A place of opportunity for just about every living thing to some degree.

Even the odd human being still went there, if only to shoot down a duck or two.

Going back in time to the earliest periods of the planet, the Cambrian explosion had seen the surface of the Earth being filled with life and that life developed in swamps like this one.

Looking around, I almost got the sense that some giant spider or scorpion was about to leap out from behind a bush. That a giant gryphon-fly was about to swoop in and try to eat my eyeballs.

No such thing happened of course.

Instead, the waters began to boil and churn beside me. Until another face surfaced from beneath the muck.

"Mittens is here!" Mittens spoke with glee.

"Great. Did the others come with you?" I asked him hurriedly. "Did you bring the stuff?"

"Mittens has sought! Mittens has brought! Mittens is here!"

He pulled out a storage ring and presented it to me.

I noticed the bloodstains first, but then I saw the gnomish insignia on it and decided that I didn't care.

I waited for a few more seconds while Mittens fished out a few boards filled with colorful illustrations. It wasn't necessary per se, but I knew electronics had a nasty habit of croaking here in Pandemonium where the threads of reality were all tangled up, and I wanted to have a few visual cues detailing my plan.

I knew it was stupid. I knew I had a perfect memory and any Divine that met me here would most certainly have an even better memory. But I wanted a visual cue regardless. More importantly, I wanted all the Divines in attendance to examine the display and see that this little board had been made in concert with Mittens about seven months ago. When Hazimon had thrown his temper tantrum.

I wanted them all to see very clearly that my predictions had come to pass and that if anything they had come to pass even earlier than even I had dared to imagine.

In my own foreknowledge, I always saw myself just barely getting three abilities to Tier 10 before the year was up. Good thing too, because I also predicted that it would take at least a year for some Divine to figure out how to stop Pandemonium from roiling and churning. In response to all those humans I was so irresponsibly boosting and giving Veiled Princes and domains within the other side.

From there, the plan was simple blackmail.

I would show that I was indeed necessary for the System to run, because none of the Divines would have gotten it working in all that time. Even all of them together were barely good enough to get a System window flashing sporadically in that old wooden hall, and that didn't come with any Titles. Or level-ups. Or really any kind of assistance that the System was supposed to be providing.

I would also show that I was on the precipice of ascension and that any Divines who were still undecided should back me up over Hazimon the has-been.

Furthermore, while I couldn't outright predict the actions or reactions of Divines, I could rely on the fact that the System existed to know I was more or less predestined to come out on top. Also, there was the prophecy.

In all honesty, I was more than strong enough to kill Hazimon by myself at the present moment and I was very, very tempted to portal over and do just that.

Just recalling that Buddy was temporarily killed because of his filthy, unreasonable followers was enough to make my blood boil in my veins. These days, it was all I could do to stop myself from fantasizing about wrapping my fingers around his grimy seahorse throat and squeezing until the light left his eyes.

"You don't look so good." Randall noted from the side and I turned to see him and Serpent Tongue floating towards me. Both wearing suits that were slightly different than before.

These new ones were a mix of scarlet red intermixed with gold thread and strikes of purple. All of whom flowed down to a lower half that was more robe than suit and which slowly faded into a stark white that did not blemish in response to the murk and muck of the swamp.

"I've had a lot of things going through my mind." I said, truthfully.

"I thought that was always the case." He deadpanned.

That drew a grim stare from Serpent Tongue but it still elicited a chuckle out of me. It was mostly [Sociological Regulation X] acting out the part of [Social Hunter IV] but I was still glad for the reflexive expression. It gave me some hope that, despite how much things had deviated from the original plan, our situation could still be salvaged.

"Follow me. Voice of Order and the others should be around here somewhere."

I paused.

"Well, no. They are this place and everything in it, but I figure they'll be waiting someplace more dramatic to have our talk."

I strode forwards without another word and gently pushed aside the fronds in my way whenever one stood out.

"Don't beat yourself up about that Troubadour guy." I told them soon after.

"Yeah. About that." Randall started. "Shooting him felt like I was shooting at you. My own Psy, which makes up my organs now mind you, started twitching and vibrating all over the place. I thought I was about to be disintegrated."

"Disobedience will do that to you." Serpent Tongue sighed. "It is sad. And unfortunate. Some poxy pretender has displaced out dear Master's shadow. His beloved twin and tool. Now the Tall Man is no more and this cheap forgery prances about in his place. Oh, for love! The tragedy of it! How will we ever recover from this indignation!?"

Anezka's possessed face drooled next to him. Also nodding.

"Mittens does speak. Mittens does squeak. Mittens does think the world now looks bleak."

"I'm working on it." I assured them. "Just trust me that this will all get sorted out soon. I just need to take care of the more pressing issue of a rogue Divine showing up and maybe blowing up the world out of spite first. As sick as I am of the Troubadour and of Cultist Sully's shenanigans, it will all get sorted out eventually. If I have to wait until I ascend and all my abilities get to level 99, then that's what's going to happen."

Randall didn't say anything for a few seconds, but when he spoke, his worry was palpable.

"About that other topic then. Are you sure she isn't just going to start manifesting in places and blowing up Earths?"

"I'm fairly certain. For starters, her problem is with me, but not because she actually has a problem with me, but because Hazimon has a problem with me and she's very loyal. At least according to all the records of her I read from when she was still alive. And all the people who knew her from before she ascended whose minds I read. Secondly, I did go easy on the Kenari people. At least at first. Most of the damage that I was responsible for can be attributed to the Drake. Then later to our little escapade with Hazimon's smear campaign. I know it sounds horrible. Because it was. But neither I nor Mercy nor Crushing Void even got close to the kind of damage we could have done. Mind you, I have all my Telepath powers again."

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The three still-living nervous Systems stuck in my body squirmed at that. I flexed my muscles a bit, and the silent screams echoed throughout Pandemonium. Becoming a visible wave of misery. Three powerful minds begging for death.

"I do have to run the backlash through these three first, but I'll be more or less healed in another month or two. The lingering effects of [Silence] are mixing with [Corrupting Influence] and my own [Presence] rather nicely. I doubt it'll take me much longer to be back to full strength. But back to the point. I could have portaled in to every single world and every single Instance inhabited by Kenari and I could have done whatever I damn-well pleased with the people there. I didn't. I did mess up a lot of things but I didn't indiscriminately cull the entire species. Even though I could have."

I felt some kind of twitch out in the distance. Heard the shivering of something I hadn't accounted for before.

[Solomon's Animalistic Senses X] was my Enhancer sensing power and it was at 35. When it came to just levels, it was my weakest sensing power, but only because it was my newest sensing power and I'd neglected using it overmuch. Still, I had most of the memories of Leatherface Sully. Who not only developed the power himself but also abused it at every opportunity in conjunction with his own [Omniscience]. So, I was very good at actually using it, even if this body hadn't done so too much. [Solomon's Unfailing Senses X] was my Shifter version, focused more on things like the combination of [Bio-Sonar IV] and [Olfactory Mastery III]. It was level 41 and I had a lot of experience training it up. Moreover, it was a combination that I didn't share with the Seeking Drake, since I levelled the single components by my own effort. The Projector power I'd gotten from Randall, [Solomon's Forgiving Sight X] was level 41 and while I hadn't relied on it to any real degree, I was more than familiar with it due to all memories I'd taken from the man himself.

Needless to say, I was very good at telling when something moved the wrong way. Even without relying on my most powerful sensing ability. [Limited Omniscience X] at level 77.

I had formed a mental map of all the Intruders pretending to be animals and plants from the moment I'd entered this place. If pressed, I was fairly certain I could have made out the location of each individual droplet of water, as well as their current trajectories.

So, it was very odd indeed to find something shifting around out of place. Perhaps it was merely an Intruder changing their shape out of fancy.

Yes. That was it. An Intruder which had been part of the scenery until now manifested a body. Some kind of trilobite-adjacent shelled creature. That body now swam in the primordial pool that made up this place. Way off in the distance.

Then another one manifested in a similar shape. Then another and then another after that. Some taking the forms of insects, some taking the forms of early arachnids. Some remaining as half-amphibian, slithering fish and some taking on the forms of pseudo-sharks.

I grunted, preparing myself for a fight in case any of these Intruders thought to test us. Perhaps on the orders of Singing Metals or some other Divine we'd offended.

None of them approached however.

The expanse that spanned approximately 200 kilometers merely filled up with more and more examples of life. They swam and slithered and crawled and flew about the murky waters and danced upon the roots of odd trees. But none of them showed any kind of aggression.

"As I was saying." I continued as I walked. "I did escalate the conflict when we were all looking for the Veiled Assassin and what remained of the loyalists. That part is on me. But most of the damage done was still inflicted by rival empires showing up after our ploy. That and the Kenari's implosive civil war. If Singing Metals really did manifest back home and started culling entire Earths of human life, then I would have nothing to stop me from doing the same right back. I've healed enough people, not only humans, that I'll keep coming back again and again and again. My return is almost as great a certainty as her own. We could destroy each other's species, but that wouldn't change anything. I would still ascend as a new Divine and she and I would be stuck with two extinct species. We would hate each other for all time, knowing there was nothing left of our species beyond our own persons."

Randall nodded.

"Nobody wins in that scenario." He said calmly. "It's mutually assured destruction."

"Quite. Whereas, I could bring the System back in its entirety. By merely adding my own realm's connections back to the greater whole. She would once again be free to manifest and she could take charge of what remains of the Kenari empire. She's still free to hate me, but I'll have humanity to safeguard and she'll have her people to safeguard. We'll be at a stalemate, but she'll get to keep her people's legacy. In this scenario, we both have things we love that the other can destroy. We both have plenty of reason to avoid further conflict. Why, I would even be willing to sign a treaty stating that I will not show any more preferential treatment to humanity when it comes to boosts. A more than adequate concession, I'm sure you'll all agree. We can all be on the same level and we can all get along without trying to extort or threaten each other."

"Especially given how a lot of humans are frolicking about on the 7th or 8th Tier, and a most of the Kenari masters are otherwise indisposed at the moment." Randall retorted dryly.

"Exactly." I agreed with him.

"Which means that the treaty essentially boils down to, I'll stop tearing your empire to pieces so long as you ignore the way we've more or less completely replaced you when it comes to relevancy. We won't kick you any more so long as you agree to never start kicking us in the first place."

"That's more or less it. Yes."

Randall harrumphed.

"You know, when you put it like that, we almost sound like bullies."

"Nonsense." I waved his concerns away. "We were the ones being threatened first. I still hold to that. And I still hold on to the moral high ground here. If any Divines start asking pointed questions, I'll merely point to the fact that Hazimon abused his High Enforcer status to try and gnome us bloody. I still have those memories fresh in my mind, and I can and will point the finger at him when the questioning comes. Not that I think it'll be needed. Again, I have something these Divines need, if they ever hope to interact with the regular material world like they used to once again. From a point of pure practicality, backing me grants them their System back and assures this kind of thing never happens again. Since I am the last of the original five."

"Of course. Well said Master." Serpent Tongue nodded sagely. "If anything, these decrepit fools should count themselves lucky that your generosity extends oh so very fay. Mnn. Yes. I cannot imagine how truly generous and kind-hearted you must be to allow these wretches a chance to recover. When their deeds are so black as to warrant complete and utter extermination. Oh truly, your great magnificence is the stuff of legend Master."

"Again, quite." I kept walking without putting too much thought into what he was saying.

"Backing Singing Metals only leads to a future of uncertainty. Best case scenario, the regular flow of time keeps going without me and the System never recovers. That means no proper levelling for anyone else. Training will still be possible, but hardly anyone else will level. It means no new species in the Labyrinth. It means no new Espers will be granted Psy by the System. It means no more access to the System Store. It means no more access to System Interfaces. More importantly, it means no more access to the material world on most occasions."

"Pandemonium will turn into a prison." Randall quipped.

"Exactly. Very aptly put Randall." I agreed. "And I am still sorry it had to be this way."

It was his turn to wave some concerns away.
"Please. Leave it. Humanity was saved. Yes, you committed atrocities. Yes, I think you're a bigger monster than I ever could have been before. But humanity was saved and hardly anyone died. I chose this hoping for this exact scenario. I can't be angry at you right now."

"Still. I am sorry it had to be this way."

Randall said nothing else, but eventually grunted.

"It's not as if your little slice of paradise is hard to live in or anything. Let's just say that I'm enjoying myself and leave it at that."

I was content with leaving matters like this, so I moved back to the original topic.

"So, yes. Pandemonium will be a prison. A gilded cage, if anything, but a prison nonetheless. I assume that's not the best outcome for our dear Divines. And all that assumes that time simply keeps going. If I am right, and I fear I am because a lot of my predictions cut off in case of my true death, then me dying means my Divine self won't create the System in the first place. It means nothing that has happened, will happen. It means this timeline will be just like Cultist Sully's timeline."

"A possibility that never came to pass." A voice spoke.

It came from everywhere at once.

From the surface of the water and from the fetid soup beneath the water.

From the oily, scaly trees and from the black-green mosses growing along their roots.

From the empty air. Both behind and in front of us.

I didn't acknowledge it. After all, we were in Pandemonium.

I knew we were being listened to. This speech was as much for their benefit, as it was for my own Intruder's.

"I reckon time will reset all the way back at the point where Voice of Order made his original call for help. He'll never get the System. Meaning he'll never ascend. Meaning his image in Pandemonium will simply bleep out of existence. Same with all the others. Sure, some shadows might remain, for a time, but even the possibilities that were the other versions of me started vanishing after it became clear that I was the real Sully. Not them."

The black, dark, brackish waters trembled. Ripples forming and sloshing the soup around our legs as we trudged along.

But no other voices came to greet us.

So, we kept walking. My eyes examining the odd flora and fauna some more.

The trees here, if they could be called trees, were odd. They had some manner of scaly, rubbery substance covering them in place of bark and they were all fat and stumpy. Most of them failing to reach higher than my head. Those who did reach higher were more like bulbous pustules at the bottom. Having one long rubbery trunk like the neck of a giraffe, that ended in a crown of pseudo-leaves.

The leaves were odd as well. They were spiny and spiky. Like pine needles. Only attached to much bigger fronds and branches made up of those same scales.

It was as if I really had taken a trip back in time and this really was Earth during the Carboniferous period. One big primordial soup where critters were just starting to…

"Wait a second." I said suddenly. "That's a Microdictyon!"

"Bless you." Randall muttered. Looking bored.

"Yes indeed my good master! Bless your kind heart and your kind words! Always and always!"

"Wha…! No! Stop acting like Crushing Void! I didn't sneeze! That's a prehistoric Earth creature! It's a worm with armor plating! It's from the Cambrian and not the Carboniferous, but that thing is from Earth! I know because Vince did a diorama for one of his projects and he got sick so we all helped him make it! Also, I've read a couple million biologists' minds but that's beside the point! That thing is from Earth!"

I pointed at another section of water.

"And that's a Marrella! It's an extinct genus of arthropod! This is an Earth swamp!"

The voice giggled.

"No. This is a swamp that so happens to have critters from ancient Earth. In the form of Intruders of course."

I shook my head.

"Why?"

"Why not? We thought you might feel some things when you got to see your own ancestors. How … diverse… life could be. It'll make a difference, when it comes to some of the points I'll be making."

I didn't consider myself a genius by any means. But I still managed to figure out where they were going with this.

"I already stated, I am willing to sign a concession making sure I don't give humanity any preferential treatment." I said aloud. "I do understand that life is diverse. And so is sentience. I'm not asking for preferential treatment from others either. That, and I would be more than willing to boost a select few from other species in order to balance the scales, as it were. Benevolent Mercy did turn me down, and the Seeking Drake flat out doesn't give a single flying gnome what happens to his people. But both the Golden Cruelty and the Crushing Void were receptive."

"The former gave you an excuse to sit out the majority of recent battles." The voice pointed out. "She wasn't even there when Singing Metals showed up to chastise you. What makes you think she's your ally?"

I shrugged.

"Well, I mean, if we look back on things. I never asked her to be my ally. I just wanted neutrality out of her and the Moving Mountain. I'd say this is still within the bounds of a job well done. Besides, we've been going around mopping up the remnants and dregs of Hazimon's loyalists this whole time. Those I can detect with my very much improved [Omniscience]. She's technically doing far more by undermining their political calls for help and their search of allies than Crushing Void is doing by… well… helping."

I shrugged again.

"The Drake doesn't really need help to destroy things or to kill people. Neither do I. I'd say Golden Cruelty is doing a fantastic job."

The air vibrated in what might have been a chuckle.

"If you say so." The voice allowed. "But enough pleasantries. You have made your pitch, as it were."

The foggy bog transformed before my eyes. The soggy air and fetid waters parting ways to reveal a pyramid made up of square slabs of obsidian. One that defiantly had not been there before.

"Come closer, and hear our worries in turn. Let us begin these negotiations in earnest, my Mad Tyrant."

The waters completely receded, until only mud was left.

"Let us confer, for a better tomorrow."