Chapter 6 Alt Title: Star Trekkin' Through the Multiverse

October 4th

I left a note in Twilight's new library tree that said that I'd be back in a few years, and to keep innovating. That was three hours ago. Currently, I'm drifting through the Void, wondering where I should go first.

That universe over there looks nice, but what's with the weird color? It's completely shrouded black, that's not normal...

Well, I guess that settles which Universe I'm visiting. I approached the black orb, and learned something new. Something surprising, but not exactly frightening.

"It's a dead Universe. What."

I didn't even know Universes could die before now, I wonder what happened?

Oh, that's new. I guess being me allows me to access a Universe's data logs...I have no idea what I can do with this.

Let's see who's Universe this is and what the hell they did to kill the Universe.

Oh my. That's bad.

I'm glad they killed off their branch now; this kind of stupidity cannot be allowed to continue without risking the entire Multiverse. What did they do? They used Space-Time magic to rip open portals in the Space-Time Continuum of their Universe without stabilizing them first. Why? They were trying to win an intra-universal war, which they themselves instigated. And they were losing too, dumbasses. Their race, you ask? Nothing you readers would know about, but they called themselves 'Tetraxians' of the planet 'Tetrax VI' in the 'Tetrax System' in what we call NGC 1068, in the year 1002394, Earth Standard Time. They look like a cross between a praying mantis, a centipede, a scorpion, and a wasp. They are smart, very smart, but they lack any and all common sense, and are about as aggressive and xenophobic as you can get, and they pissed off every single FTL-capable race in the Universe, just to try and assert their dominance.

Well, that's enough of that, hey, what's this?

I can remake Universes in my image now, apparently.

Maybe now the Tetraxians will be smarter, after all, I did reprogram their aggression centers to be less active, though still active enough to keep a 'Top Predator' position.

IDEA!

Right, let's search for dead and newly born Universes. I think I should be able to use them as training grounds, given my newfound ability to edit and alter Universes to my will. Although, I have to wonder if it's just me that can do so, considering how many eldritch abominations there are floating around the void. Maybe I can ask Fausticorn about this ability, we do have sort of a Master/Apprentice thing going on right now. Now... where is she, that's the question. She's usually not too far from the Equestria Cluster, which I'm actually still in, so she should be close.

Oh, you were wondering how I'm in the Equestria Cluster even though I saw that dead Universe earlier? Well, turns out that dead Universes drift around instead of staying close to their Clusters, considering the fact that they've got nothing to call a 'Base'. Same goes for New Universes too.

Anyways, there's Fausticorn over there. "Lady Fausticorn, over here! I have a question for you!"

"Greetings, young one, I hope you are well. Now, what exactly is your question?"

"Well, I discovered earlier that I can take any Universe, living or dead, and edit everything about it such that it loses its previous identity and falls under my control. My question is, am I the only one that has this ability, or are there others that can do the same thing?"

"...To be honest, I have no idea Umbra, but I think it's just you. However, many of the Void's inhabitants may fear or seek to use your ability, so hide this from all others. You have done well in seeking my counsel before you did anything rash; is there anything else?"

"No, not for now. Right now I'm just wandering the Void, so, I'll see you later."

"Good bye for now, Umbra. I wish you a pleasant journey."

"Thanks, Lady Fausticorn."

What a nice lady, right? Well, let's get searchi–... wait a minute, I have a New Universe tucked inside my subspace pocket! alright, let's see what I can do with this thing.

Is the text on the screen different this time, or is it just me? I swear it was bolded text before. Whatever. Let's get to editing.

That should do it. I think.

Well, nothing to do but see what's inside.

VWORPLE

"AAGH SHIT, THAT'S BRIGHT!" Apparently the 'Big Bang' is still going on. And it's painful as all fuck. Ow ow ow ow ow. Time to go.

VWORPLE

"Right... how 'bout I set the time scale to this...sync it with this...do some of this and this and that..."

Okay, let's see about now.

VWORPLE

Huh... A gigantic, molten ball of rock. I guess I should scale a bit further then.

VWORPLE

VWORPLE

Ah, that's better. Nice and balmy, tropical weather. No seasons due to the planet's lack of tilt, a lush and beautiful jungle planet filled with everything from fruits to army ant looking things to giant death wasps....what?

"OH SHIT!"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

"SHIT!"

Oh, and they have magical death laser stingers, too. Sucks for me, sucks for them that they went up against me.

VVVVVVVV–CRUNCH

"Whew, that almost got ugly. Right, let's let this planet develop some and then we'll come back later. Back into subspace you go."

WHUMP

VWORPLE

"Okay, now it's time for a training montage, Rocky Style!"

Me rigorously teleporting as fast as I can to make an instantaneous transition...

I learn to code Universes on my own, being completely self taught with naught but the help of several coding manuals...

I create ever increasingly complex formations out of shadows...

I learn how to replicate anything that casts a shadow as its shadow form...

"GIGA...DORIRU...BREAKAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"....

Taking shadows and returning them, practice, practice, practice...

Creating my first shadow shield...

Punching a frozen pig carcass just for the hell of it...

Shadow possession for the first time...

Running up a really huge set of stairs...

Reaching the top and imitating Rocky's success pose...

3 Months Later

After a grueling three month long training session, which was shown in the form of a montage, I think I should be ready to take on the vast majority of threats out there. Maybe. I think.

Well, at least I got most of my defensive and 'Run Like a Bitch' skills up to par with my attack skills. I wonder just how strong I am now?

"Gah!"

Oh look, a stats bar. Wanna read it? It's currently set to a ten point ranking system, although I could switch to letters.

Huh... when the hell did I get a stat bar? Oh yeah, I'm floating through the SAO Cluster right now, which means the stat bar makes more sense. Okay, let's move out of here, it's getting kinda boring.

How about a crossover Universe... let's see... Gurren Lagann? nah, Spiral Power burns. Manly Willpower is basically the exact opposite of paradox emptiness, after all. Uh...Nasuverse? But with what? How about a Fanfiction 'verse? 'God Slaying Blade Works'? Eh... A little scary...but............ Fine.

VWORPLE

Oh shit, this is right at the beginning of the story. To give you an idea of what this looks like, imagine a giant toddler that's been covered in infected wounds, warping the surrounding area into a literal hell on earth. And oh yeah, Shirou looking almost dead...with excalibur in his hands. Shit.

"Excalibur."

OH SHIT

Copying a sword I found in normal Nasuverse, I replied in kind, and in doing so, fractured the timeline into an AU.

"Ea, Sword of Rupture! ENUMA ELISH!"

To describe the immediate scene from an outside perspective, well, one would see a giant beam of golden light obliterating a street in Naples, along with the newly born Angra Mainyu, and rushing towards a small shadowy figure. Said shadowy figure immediately generates a shadow protrusion–also called a 'sword'– which then generates a massive red tornado of pure, blinding truth, stopping the beam of holy light from destroying it also. You could probably tell which one is me and which one became the Campione.

"Ah, shit, my...everything really. I'm a shadow, why do I feel pain?"

Well, good news is, I'm alive and so is Shirou, although I'm not surprised considering the fact that he's healed from much worse things before. Bad news, I can't copy Ea ever again...unless I want to be incapacitated for the next three hours, due to the fact that I used a King's weapon.

Well, let's follow Shirou and Ilya for a while, ne?

Some Time Later

Y'know, when I decided to follow this version of Shirou, I didn't expect to have to deflect Excalibur more than once, but I guess being in the vicinity of Shirou's fight against Mordred was probably a bad place to be.

"Caliburn!"

"Shit! Mirror Shield!"

Okay, maybe it's not Excalibur, but Caliburn is just as painful to me as Excalibur is, both being beams of HOLY LIGHT and all.

Oh shit, Shirou's down and...oh no. I remember this part. Shit shit shit. I'm right in the immediate vicinity of these guys, and I know exactly what happens next. I do not want to have to deflect another Excalibur. Better get out of here now.

"Excalibur."

FUCK

"Time to go."

Whoosh

Maybe I should go visit some place where the resident form of energy manipulation doesn't hurt so badly. The funny thing is, normal light doesn't hurt at all, even if it's an industrial, steel cutting laser. Nope, it's got to be either stupid powerful, like Samus' Zero Laser; excessively magical, like Celestia's Sunfire beams she has in a few Universes; or Divine, like MOTHERFUCKING EXCALIBUR. So, that means that anything that glows, but is not excessively magical, like ki, chi, or chakra, won't hurt unless it starts glowing brighter than the goddamn sun, at which point the magical background energy diffused in the attack will have become concentrated enough to hurt. A lot. For example, a Kamehameha will hurt. Rasenshuriken will hurt. Moko Takabisha will hurt. Avada Kedavra will not hurt. Why? Because Avada Kedavra only shuts down all neural activity in the body. No body, no death. Take that Voldemort.

Also: exposition sucks, but I hope you'll forgive me for clogging your screen with all this expositionary text. And yes, I did just make up the word 'expositionary'...I think. The author is currently reading the text as spelled incorrectly, so...yeah. make of that what you will.

End Chapter 6