Death... and me



Naturally, no one believed that straight away. "As useful as Gem? That's not possible. You are the Universe's Sentience!"

[Sure am... or was, to be more specific.] Sister Orb explained.

The twins' group looked at the Soul Gem Orb, knowing that Sister Orb would continue to talk. [Gem mentioned it already. I was so bored and dulled that I simply didn't care about anything anymore. So, why should I care about what would happen to the Universe? I just wanted to change my destiny. That said, I separated myself from the Universe.]

[That day, when I passed the Control Orb to Gem, was also the day that I lost all connection with the Universe. I'm truly, just a sentience. It isn't wrong to call me an AI, either, since I'm not that far from one. I can work with the system Gem created, after all. Unfortunately, my influence only applies to the Soul Gem Orb and the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm.]

Sister Orb then looked at Gem. [Have you never wondered why the system you created worked so perfectly? I mean, you found pretty much no obstacles during the creation of the system by using the Control Orb's properties.]

Gem didn't seem surprised when he heard those words. "So that's how it is. You were right. I was indeed impressed that the system worked perfectly from the very start. I thought it was due to the Control Orb's exceptional abilities. But now that I know you were there, it is very obvious that you intervened every time during the system creation, right? You made sure that the System compatibility got no issues."

Sister Orb confirmed Gem's words. [Exactly. That's also why I can work with the system since I put myself within its creation. In any case, that's all there is to it. Now I can't do anything about the situation of the Universe even if I wanted to. After so long, the Universe that I was part of has changed. Not only did the Universe change, but so did my sentience, or soul, for that matter. I wouldn't be able to integrate myself with the Universe anymore, even if I wanted to.]

[And you better be careful. Since my sentience left the Universe, there is a chance that a new sentience was born in my place. Of course, it's only a chance. If I were to risk a guess, I would say that not enough time has passed for that to really happen. I myself took a ridiculous amount of time to come to be.]

Rean pondered a bit before asking. "So, you are just Sister Orb now, right? Still, you were the Universe's Sentience before. You definitely have the answer to a lot of our questions. Not only that, the number of secrets that you know should be more than enough for Roan and me to reach the Divinity Realm."

[That's not gonna happen,] Sister Orb immediately cut Rean off. [I thought something like this might happen one day, so I sealed my own memories. As a matter of fact, it was only when Soul Gem found out about my existence that I myself discovered that I was the Universe Sentience. Until a few minutes ago, I truly thought I was nothing more than the AI Soul Gem created.]

[As for secrets of the Universe, all the ones that matter to you and would still be available after so long are sealed. I can't remember anything useful.]

Roan didn't quite believe that. "Is that so? Then you wouldn't mind if we tried to search for it in your memories, right?"

Soul Gem shook his head straight away. "If you think I have a way to peek into the Universe Sentience's memories, then you are wrong. I didn't even know it was there until a moment ago. First of all, is Sister Orb's soul really a soul? It is different from anything that was born in this Universe before. It's not like I can pull her out."

[You wouldn't want it anyway,] Sister Orb continued. [I'm part of the system. I'm the reason why it works so smoothly too. If you pull me out, which I don't think it is possible to start with, the system would collapse. I'm the mediator between the system and the Control Orb. My sentience itself keeps everything together.]

[Of course, if you don't mind losing the system and the Soul Gem Realm forever, then by all means, go ahead and give it a try. I only became this because I didn't want to live like I did before. I have experienced a lot and had a lot of fun thanks to these two. I have no regrets anymore.]

Rean and Roan couldn't see Sister Orb's face because she didn't have a body. That made it hard for them to tell whether she was lying or not. Yet, they felt that she was truly not lying. Perhaps it was due to the Soul Connection between them. But then again, perhaps it was also Sister Orb who was manipulating it to make them feel like that.

However, Rean and Roan just shook their heads in the end. "Forget it. Sister Orb is definitely not lying."

Celis, Kentucky, Gem, Sesame and Luan looked at the twins. "How can you be sure?"

Roan shrugged his shoulders. "She is too stupid for it."

Rean nodded. "Not to mention childish..."

Sister Orb would vomit blood if she had a body now. [Fuck you! Who the hell is stupid and childish?! Do you know how many times older than you I am? Even Roan's entire life as a Death Spirit isn't anything but a drop of water in the ocean compared to me!]

"Ha!" Roan snorted in response. "And what's the use of that if all this ancient memory is sealed? Isn't that the same as saying that you lost all that age?"

[This...] Sister Orb had no answer to that.

Finally, Gem raised his hand. "Ahem... if Rean and Roan believe it, then so be it. Still..." His expression turned serious. "Is there really nothing you can help us with?"