The light came back in an instant, and I stood on a folding platform made of a small comet. I could feel a tear roll down my face. Why did that have to come up now? I was facing the Conscious Sea and left wondering how I got here.

  I felt the hum again. My instincts kicked in, and the shield traveled from my arm to my hand. The feeling was far more intense than I had ever felt before. When the swaler was far, it was a whisper in my mind. When the swaler was in front of me, it was an ambient noise complenting every sound. Now, it's a deafening alarm telling me to run, begging for me to get away.

  If I don't, I will die.

  A shining light engulfed space. Overpowering every star in the sea. I could not turn around to face, as I feared my eyes would shrivel in my head.

  The light dimmed as the star reappeared. I turned around to see a close-up of a golden eye the size of a moon.

  "How did you get here?" I hear in a booming voice. I keep my shield up. Every drop of slime on my body is screaming to run. The feeling is instinctual, as if it is coded into my DNA. I will die if this creature wills it. Beast isn't an accurate term. This is something beyond a Cosmic Swaler. I try to see past the eye, but I can't. The size takes up all aspects of my vision. This is something more, and I don't know what it wants from me.

  "I will ask again, slime, how did you get here?" The voice booms once more.

  "I don't know," I respond, holding my shield up as I scan the area. Eye, eye, and more eye. One eye zips to the back of my head, and there is only empty space. No other platform or rocks for me to jump to. I am stranded here.

  "The last thing I remember," I continue saying. "Is a Cosmic Swaer about to eat me up, and now I'm here. In front of you. So, will this be a chat or a fight?"

  "You want to fight me?"

  "Not at all."

  "You say a Cosmic Swaler ate you? Where you in its way?"

  "No, it chased me."

  "Now, this is peculiar." A light shines from the eye, blinding me. When I can see again, the eye is gone. I look up to see someone standing in front of me.

  Standing Nine feet tall is a woman. Her hair is made of feathers made of sharp blades that flow like air. Her eyes shine gold, and her nose has a sharp line stretching out to her face the color of a clear blue sky. Her dress is elegant and flows as if it were made of silk intertwined with the light of stars. Her presence commands your eye's attention. They force you to look at her visage as to look away can mean your death.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Throughout this, I can't describe this sensation as fear. It is more akin to alertness. I don't worry about death, but I'm aware she can orchestrate a fate far worse than drifting in space.

  "Why would he bring you? He wasn't sent for you, but here you are, " she says.

  "You are the one who would know. "

  She gets close to me and does the creepiest thing I could think of. She sniffs me.

  "I smell him." She says to me as her fingers reach toward me. A familiar aura drifted out from my chest, and she plucked out a purple light. It combines and forms a thick, viscous purple liquid. It's from the Life Vien.

  Her eyes examine the purple. Her eyes shimmer for a second and then zip to me.

  "Where did it find you?"

  "It followed me through the Conscious Sea. We ended up colliding on a rock called Bronxen."

  She bends and gets close to my face

  "Wait, how do you know that name. Are you a follower of theirs?"

  "Follower? That was the name of the floating rock the colony of Resur made its home."

  "Floating rock? Like a planet? The colony was built on top of it?" I nod as my response. She examines the purple once more and shifts to me. "What was this to the planet?"

  "Many streams carried it throughout the planet. From what I was told, it started as an underground stream filled with this substance throughout the rock. People credit it as the reason life sprung."

  "The reason life sprung." She chuckled. "He would have found that hilarious."

  The purple goo starts to crystallize and condense in the air, forming a heart-shaped crystal as she speaks an incantation. "What we share, I shall wear, as proof I care."

  A silver chain materializes from the gem and around her neck. She looks at it fondly and then back to me.

  "I never asked for your name. May I know it? " she asks. My body listens as if the air of danger displayed has been replaced with a serine breath.

  "My name is Cid."

  "Oh, is it short for something? Cinder, maybe?"

  "Cosmic Eternal Deity"

  "Diety? That is a bold claim."

  "I am aware."

  "That means you are a god."

  "I am."

  "May I ask of what?"

  "What do you mean of what?"

  "Your concept. Each god represents an idea where they draw their power. A god of fire controls fire and grows powerful in its presence. A god of money gains power by acquiring wealth and having rich followers. So a god unaware of what their power is drawn from will struggle in all the multiverse."

  "I've been struggling for so long."

  "May I ask for a favor? There is something I want to confirm. I want to see the colony you are from. To see it clearly, I would need to look into your mind. May I enter it with your permission."

  "How can I trust you?"

  "I'm asking for permission instead of simply walking in."

  "I like how you act like that is showing kindness. Fine. I'll let you in under one condition: You answer my question first."

  "A question for question. That is simple. Fire away, wet one."

  "Are you a god?"

  The smile that slid across her face is gentle, but the cosmos stands still when she speaks.

  "Yes, I am a god."