27 Hope to survive

Max could faintly hear it. It was as soft of a baby's whisper while sleeping, and as distant as the sun from the Earth. It felt strangely calming to Max.

But as the seconds passed, it gradually became louder, and was also no longer originating from a distance single source, but from all around him. The noise gradually turned from barely audible whispers to full-blown ravings.

Still, Max could not make out what it was saying, but he assumed it was either in Ancient Hermes or one of the other Mystical languages. Still, it kept getting louder and louder until it began to actually cause Max harm as he felt his mind begin to pound along with the unnatural rhythm of the ravings.

Soon enough, Max fell to his knees as his mind felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside, but since there was not enough space in his skull, it was being held together, only for it to press furiously against his skull in all directions, resulting in his brain being slowly squished into paste.

Only now did Max recall something. It was the fact that behind the scenes of Klein's revival, most of the True Gods had worked together with Evernight Goddess to dispose of the Fool pathway characteristics that were infected by a certain someone, while also preventing His descent onto Klein's body. And all of this was because His consciousness was within the Sefirot.

'Then what about the consciousness of Unity? Would it also not be within the Sefirot?'

Was the last thought Max could think of before he lost consciousness and his vision blacked out completely. This stopped the pain in his head but also stopped his thinking, resulting in him only feeling the moment he lost consciousness, and only recovering his thinking when he woke up.

…

'Urgh. Why didn't I think about the consequences of attempting to come into contact with a Sefirot? Why didn't I take into account other possibilities?' Max thought to himself with a groan as he recovered his senses and realised looked around.

Unfortunately, there was nothing around him other than complete and utter darkness.

Looking down to try and search the floor, Max realised that there was someone behind him, and turning around, he noticed that it was none other than Samuel, whose memories he had received after he was killed back on Earth.

Samuel was also looking at him with the same strange expression as he was looking at him. In a sense, the two were dead men, fused into one by a chaotic series of unforeseen events, revived by the effect of the combination, and thrust back into this unforgiving world.

The two were one, despite being separated, and their emotions were naturally shared, causing both to burst into laughter simultaneously upon realising what they felt towards the other.

However, at this moment, the two felt a kind of pressure they had not felt before. It caused them both to become silent as their backs became straight as a rod from the natural response to something frightening.

Max and Samuel looked around the empty void but found nothing. Then, the two gradually saw black, blue, green and red colours descending from various directions, converging to their locations.

'Sh*t where am I.' Max thought to himself as Samuel also thought the same thought at the same time. 

Soon, the two realised that the lights were actually eyes, and immediately the two recalled the vision they had had when they actively tried to lose control slightly to observe the changes it brought and his mythical beast form.

These were very distinctly the eyes of the hideous Unity in its full form before it was split into the four pathways and its Sefirot.

'Oh no, we need to get out of here! And fast!' Max cursed in his mind, a similar thought running through Samuel's mind. Except, he was analysing the current situation from a more analytical point of view. Although the two were already one, in this place, for some reason, the two could have their own separate thoughts.

'Should I call out to Him?' Max thought to himself as the idea entered his mind, before being thrown back into the trash. Doing this was essentially a nuclear bomb, where both parties involved would end up losing everything, and was only to be used if he had something he could offer that was more important than his own body.

'Escape' Max thought to himself, but then Samuel's thoughts entered his mind.

'To where?' Samuel threw his own thoughts into Max's mind unceremoniously.

'Back to my- our body.' Max rebutted, hoping there was a way out. But he felt the seriousness of Samuel and understood that this hope of his was futile.

'If I am not wrong, we are in your body, in your soul most likely. That would be the only reason why I can exist as a separate being. Anywhere else the two of us would still be one, fused perfectly together, and then perfectly with your body.' Samuel said calmly, though his emotions were not as calm and Max could feel it.

In fact, Max was also feeling this same emotion. Along with tiny hints of disgust, and awe, the main emotion the two were feeling was fear. Yes, fear. A Primal fear originating from their very beings, from their very cores as living creatures.

The Unity in front of them was not something they would be able to fight. At least not as a Sequence 9 Beyonder. Perhaps, when Max became a True God; at Sequence 0… maybe it might be possible.

But for now, it was impossible.

The eyes were swiftly moving closer and closer together and as they converged, Max could feel his senses screaming at him to do something.

'Move!'

'Change!'

'Escape!'

'DO SOMETHING!!'

Max and Samuel could feel their spirituality screaming at them to figure out a way to escape quickly. But they essentially only had three options.

'Operation [Nuke them all] and allow Him to sneak his way into our pathway. Maybe even killing us in the process.' Max thought while Samuel spoke out next in their mind connection.

'Operation [Corruption Guaranteed] and ask Mother Goddess of Depravity to help us. But she would also likely corrupt our pathway since it is evident she wants the Sefirot of Unity that is literally within her reach, but she is unable to touch it because she does not have its pathway. That was also likely the reason she had helped them so far.'

'Operation [Last Stand]. Fight the will of Unity until something changes.'

The third option was likely to end up in three results. Either Max and Samuel won and took control over the Sefirot, the will of Unity won and took over their body, neither of the two won and everyone either fell dormant or took collective control over the Sefirot and Max's body.

Despite being an Outer God, and an Ex-Pillar at the level of a Great Old One, Max still preferred dealing with Mother Goddess of Depravity over Him from operation [Nuke them all]. However, the [Last Stand] operation, had only one outcome where they lost everything, considering it was only the Will of Unity and not an actual alive Outer God. All they needed to do was either win, which was unlikely, or draw with the will of Unity, which was far more likely.

Thus, after a quick back and forth within just a few seconds, the two souls took the risk of fighting it out with the will instead of getting an outside party involved in this mess. After all, they knew the situation Klein had fallen into when He had intervened in his ascension and almost took control of the Sefirot.

With a serious expression, Max and Samuel reached out to each other, and grasped each other's hands tightly, before turning into light and merging together, ultimately forming a slightly older Max, but his overall size had actually more than doubled.

Still, in comparison to the colossus, they were nothing more than an ant. An ant preparing to face off against something that can only be considered the entire Solar System. A single person preparing to face off against an unstoppable force. A lone figure… hoping to survive.