Chapter 65

  Another finger of the abomination rose slowly—this one from the hand on Lyne’s side.

  Adam crossed his arms, eyeing her expression.

  “My, my, what did you go through to come out with a face like that, wife?”

  Lyne twitched. Just a little.

  “I… I couldn’t even comprehend what I went through. All I know is—I somehow won.”

  “Well, that’s good enough. So… Now that we’re done with all the required trials, what happens next?”

  “It’s not going to make us fight that thing, is it?”

  “Let’s hope not.”

  They both turned their gaze upward.

  The abomination hanging there, suspended by its tail—then, disturbingly, it smiled.

  A congratulatory grin, twisted and wrong, stretching too wide across too many faces.

  Both of them saw.

  its motion.

  The tail has loosened.

  That creature began to fall.

  Adam and Lyne immediately readied themselves, Qi surging, every muscle tensed.

  Whatever that thing was going to do when it hit the ground—it wouldn’t be good.

  But

  instead of crashing—

  —it landed directly on the latrine in the center of the room.

  And then, in a sound almost too absurd for the moment, it flushed.

  The entire abomination swirled down in a spiral of distortion, vanishing like it had been sucked into another dimension.

  They had a moment's pause.

  Adam blinked.

  “Yup. I was right,” he thought dryly. “That was definitely a reference.”

  For a few long seconds, nothing happened.

  “Does it… want us to follow it?”

  “Since nothing else is happening, that’s the most likely case.”

  “Do you even know how it functions?”

  Adam nodded once, eyes gleaming with the kind of confidence that usually meant trouble.

  Then, without warning, he slipped an arm around Lyne’s waist.

  “H-Hey! What are you doing?”

  “Relax. I’ve given you a piggyback ride before—this is nothing.”

  He stepped up onto the toilet seat, still holding her close.

  “You’re insane.”

  “Possibly.”

  And with a grin, Adam reached out and pressed the flush.

  The world inverted. A whirl of pressure and light surrounded them—

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  and then everything fell away.

  They emerged into a realm of stars, suspended in a space without ground or ceiling—

  a galaxy stretching endlessly in all directions, constellations pulsing like living things.

  A voice echoed through the starlit void—deep, distorted, and amused.

  “At long last… after many, many years of waiting… finally, core formation cultivators.”

  Adam and Lyne turned.

  Floating before them—upright now—was the abomination. Its mismatched heads moved at different tempos; its many eyes blinked out of sync.

  “I was beginning to wonder if your sect even had any at this stage. I thought, perhaps, the great sect had grown so poor it couldn’t produce a single Core Formation cultivator.”

  It tilted one of its heads.

  “Tell me—are you two the first and only?”

  Adam and Lyne exchanged glances, then faced it again.

  “Uh… who exactly are you?”

  A hint of recognition passed through the creature’s shifting body. It began to spin slowly—rotating horizontally while orbiting them in lazy circles.

  “Ahh, right, right. Formalities. I am, of course, the higher being who created this secret realm. You may call me…”

  The voices overlapped in a ripple.

  “Bilbo. Now—answer the question.”

  “um yes…there ARE other Core Formation cultivators right”

  The creature stopped rotating and drifted closer, its patchwork limbs twitching.

  “Then why did none of them come here?”

  “We have no idea either.”

  Bilbo flipped backward midair, landing sprawled on its back, gazing upward at the endless stars.

  “No idea, is it? Hmph. Well—whatever.”

  It rose again, joints cracking in disjointed echoes.

  “Congratulations on completing the puzzles. Here are your rewards.”

  With a wave, piles of spirit stones, elemental crystals, and glittering treasures materialized in the air before them. Adam and Lyne quietly stored them away.

  “Looks like that’s all. Let’s leave.”

  “Stop!”

  Its overlapping voices boomed, rippling through the cosmos.

  “Did you really think you could leave just like that?”

  Both Adam and Lyne turned wary.

  “What else do you want?”

  Bilbo laughed—and the sound came from all its mouths at once, layered and wrong, like echoes colliding.

  “Answer three riddles for me, and I shall send you back. Easy enough, hm? These are things you are very familiar with. Common to both your worlds—Earth and here.”

  It pointed one elongated arm at Adam.

  “Then let’s get on with it—”

  But the words froze in his throat. His body refused to move. Invisible bonds coiled around him like threads of light.

  Bilbo’s arm swung toward Lyne instead.

  “I will be asking her. Don’t worry—I’ll make it simple. I only need one correct answer. What do you say?”

  Lyne looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled faintly at her immobilized husband.

  “Don’t worry, husband. I’ve got this. I’m sure I can get at least one right.”

  Bilbo floated lazily, its bodies twisting into a spiral as if it were both amused and bored.

  “Let us begin, then. Three riddles. Common in both your worlds, yet never simple to those who think they know everything.”

  Its mismatched heads all turned toward Lyne.

  ---

  Riddle One

  “I speak without a mouth, and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?”

  Lyne thought for a moment.

  “That’s easy—it's a spirit. The wind carries it, it has no body, and it can hear and speak through the world.”

  Bilbo’s eyes all blinked out of sync before its mouth curled.

  “Wrong.”

  Adam’s mind shouted in silence.

  Adam (mentally) No it's an echo. Spirits don't exist on earth.

  A faint crackle of energy wrapped tighter around his limbs. His jaw twitched, but he couldn’t speak.

  ---

  Riddle Two

  Bilbo smiled wider, its multiple teeth glinting in the starry dark.

  “The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?”

  Lyne tilted her head.

  “Fog. The more fog there is, the less you can see.”

  “Close... but still wrong.”

  > Adam (internally): that is a very valid answer. The other would be darkness but would that be different?. What is this smug freak trying to do

  His muscles strained. If thoughts had volume, the entire void would be screaming.

  Lyne’s brows furrowed in frustration. Her hands clenched at her side.

  “I’m sorry, husband. I didn’t mean to mess up.”

  Adam (mentally) You didn’t mess up—it’s him! He’s twisting words!

  Bilbo chuckled, floating in lazy somersaults.

  “Don’t look so tense, little princess. There’s still one chance left.”

  ---

  Riddle Three

  “I am not alive, yet I grow. I do not have lungs, yet I need air. I do not have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?”

  Lyne took a long, slow breath. She closed her eyes.

  “Fire.”

  Bilbo froze.

  For a long, uncomfortable silence, the void was still.

  Then, all its heads turned toward each other—then to Adam—then back to Lyne.

  Bilbo flatly “Wrong.”

  Adam’s mind exploded.

  Adam (mentally) This motherfucker is lying straight through his teeth! It’s fire! Everyone knows it’s fire!

  His aura thrashed, trying to break free of the invisible bonds. His eyes blazed, but his voice refused to come out.

  Lyne looked down, disheartened.

  “I… I’m sorry, husband. I thought that one was right.”

  Adam (mentally screaming) NO! NO! That fucker’s LYING! It was RIGHT! FIRE!

  Bilbo drifted closer, voice soft and mockingly kind.

  “How unfortunate. So close to wisdom, yet so easily deceived by simplicity. Tell me—what is more tragic, failing a test… or trusting that it was fair?”

  A moment of confusion came to lyne at that line.

  The starlit space rippled faintly, and the abomination’s many mouths curved into a grin.

  The air began to hum, rippling like disturbed water.

  The stars around them dimmed, and the abomination’s many hands spread wide as motes of light circled Adam and Lyne.

  “Well then... time to send you lovebirds on your merry way.”

  Lyne lowered her head, a faint sigh slipping out. Her hands trembled slightly — not from fear, but resignation.

  Lyne (quietly) “I’m sorry, husband... I couldn’t even get one right.”

  Adam’s jaw clenched, every nerve screaming for movement, for speech, for anything.

  His mind still burned with fury.

  Adam (mentally) That bastard lied. You were right, Lyne. You were right…

  Just before he sends them who knows where Bilbo gave an exaggerated sigh — one head tilting sideways, another yawning, while a third rolled its eyes in boredom.

  “Ugh… lying is soooo not my thing. Honestly, it leaves such a bad taste in my mouths.”

  One of its arms patted its chest in fake guilt, while another picked something invisible from between its teeth.

  “You see, I am saying this because I want to. There's this fine maiden acquaintance of mine. Quite the divine lady — curves like sacred mountains and eyes like twin suns. Anyway! She wanted me to do her a teensy favor — something about helping her believers by sending a few core formation cultivators their way.”

  Lyne blinked, her face going pale.

  Adam’s frozen expression twitched slightly, his thoughts exploding.

  Adam (mentally) What kind of higher being talks like this!?

  Bilbo chuckled, spinning midair like a delighted child.

  “So, me being the gentleman that I am — and trying to, ahem, climb those jade-white peaks of hers — decided to help! I’ll just send you two where you’ll eventually meet them. Who knows, maybe she’ll be impressed!”

  Its grin widened into something impossibly grotesque.

  “Bye-bye now! And best of luck, little lovebirds. As the saying goes—no cost too great to climb them jade peaks!”

  Lyne & Adam (simultaneously, shouting) “WAIT—WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY—!”

  But before the words finished, the space around them collapsed into white.

  The stars shattered. The abomination’s laughter echoed, distorted and overlapping across realities.

  The next thing they knew—

  There was only light.