79 The Nexus of Stories
A/N: And we are back! Time to start off the next arc!
It was overwhelming at first but other than that introduction from the System it didn't provide Shen with any other information. For what felt like hours he was simply stuck in the void of the Nexus of Stories only able to look towards that tree to get any sense of scale. During that time he did finally realize he could move.
It took more time than he was willing to admit, but instead of moving physically, it was more like thinking of where he wanted to go and setting the speed in his mind. That's when another idea hit him. He actually did have a method to gain information on things, it's just he hadn't had a reason to use it back in the RWBY Universe that he nearly forgot.
Without a moment's hesitation, Shen used one of the Systems abilities on the Void and a screen appeared in front of him, one he was familiar with.
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Void
Level: N/A
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[???]
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Summary: The Void is the nothingness that contains the Nexus of Stories. Lacking in everything, it exists as a paradoxical space outside of the Nexus of Storie's tales. Normally it would be impossible to survive in such a place as nothing can survive outside of its own story. While the Void can normally be considered endless it i- @Q#@!$@#e due to 1!@$!-
[Any further information requires for the Inspect Function/Skill to be leveled up.]
"Well, it's better than no information at all. But still…" He knew it wasn't leveled up so he wasn't annoyed by the lack of information, but the fact the system's text actually glitched out like that was new to him. The System seemed to be pretty much Omnipotent as long as you filled out its requirements.
It could pull powers from all across fiction and offer them up for a price and even stuff them into a roulette. If that wasn't powerful then Shen didn't know what was. But for once the System actually bugged out it was both intriguing to Shen and a bit worrying.
'For now, I can't really do anything about it, but I'll definitely have to look into it more. This void is so big there's no way It doesn't hide anything more than just the Nexus of Stories.' Turning his attention away to that, Shen inspected the large tree-like thing in front of him. He still couldn't get over how massive it was.
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Nexus of Stories
Level: ???
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[???]
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Summary: The Nexus of Stories is coagulation of both fictional and non-fictional stories. Its shape and appearance change depending on its observer and its frame of mind as its structure is too complex and indescribable to be viewed via normal methods. In its tree-like form
each of its branches represents a myriad of tales, each leaf a story and each vein a branching path.
Reading the Summary the System provided him Shen looked back up over the countless leaves and branches stretching across the void above him.
"Each of those leaves was a story huh?" Controlling himself mentally he began to move. Though in all honesty moving to this kind of place was almost pointless. Even if he imagined himself going at a ridiculous speed like that of light he would make no headway.
It was only when he thought of going at speeds nearing instantaneous movement that he actually began to cross the distances of the void. As he moved he began using inspect on the multitude of leaves above him.
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Epic of Gilgamesh Universe
…
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Star Wars Universe
…
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Touhou Universe
…
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Dark Tower Universe
…
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Pokemon Universe
…
{Inspect Information}
Target: The Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken Universe
…
Whether it be Epics of the past, games of the present, movies, visual novels, or normal novels, he was overwhelmed by the sheer majority. Surprisingly the leaves themselves weren't overwhelmingly massive. Compared to him who he assumed was human-sized while in this state, some were the size of houses while others were the size of skyscrapers in comparison, but none were too massive.
Yet still, Shen couldn't help but feel both terrified and impressed. Crossing by the Cthulu Mythos Universe he felt a chill. The Eldritch Horrors that exist within that Universe was beyond imagination. Shen was grateful he wasn't thrown into a Universe like that to start off, but at the same time terrified that such a Universe simply exists within a leaf.
'Wonder what would happen if I touched one of them.' It was a random thought that Shen had as he crossed by a rather harmless story. He didn't recognize the title when he inspected it, but from the name alone he assumed it was some random slice-of-life novel. Hesitantly he reached out his hand toward the universe.
Yet before he even made contact he felt something zap him, like a powerful surge of energy rejecting him entirely. The pain only lasted for a moment as Shen watched the crackling energy which he assumed came from the Nexus of Stories retreat and go dormant.
'So I can't just enter any of these as I please?' He assumed that's what that rejection meant. Taking another look around Shen attempted touching a few other universes that seemed harmless even if he was sucked into them. But he continued to get rejected by that rush of power, but he began noticing differences.
As he moved away from a certain spot the rejection got stronger, but as he moved in another direction the rejection got weaker. Following this pattern Shen began tracing the branches of the Nexus of Stories, as he moved he continued to touch one universe after another, checking if the force of the rejection got stronger or weaker.
He must have repeated this process for hours, moving and teleporting from place to place until finally, he saw it. It was smaller than a lot of the other universes but it stood out to Shen immediately. The leaf was a golden amber and the branch that connected to it seemed to adopt the same color.
Only a portion of the branch seemed to be covered in this amber hue with it slowly fading back to its normal color further away one looked from the universe which acted as the source. In the grand scheme of things this small infection was hardly notable, it covered an insignificant path of only a single branch of which who knew how many there were.
Yet Shen still used to inspect the universe which was acting as the cause of this and upon doing so he came to a realization.
{Inspect Information}
Target: The RWBY Universe
Owner: Shen
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<In-Universe Information>
Strongest Character(s): Sienna Taella (Lv. 19), Blake Belladonna(Lv. 18)
Race(s): Gods, Human, Faunus
…
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<Narrative>
Plot Divergences: Massive
Main Character(s): Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-fi, Fantasy
…
Rows on top of rows of information unfolded themselves through inspection. There was no prompt that he needed to level the skill up for more information, all of it was readable to him like a book.
He could see that Ruby and the others were still the Main Character(s) of the verse, which made it likely that they truly did have Plot Armor. Plot Divergences likely meant what had changed from the original, and there was no doubt the changes Shen had caused were massive.
With him outside of the universe the strongest characters defaulted to Taella and Blake which made sense.
'It says I'm the owner of the RWBY Universe, I wonder if that means…' Shen paused before reaching out his hand. This time around there was no rejection, instead, Shen was immediately engulfed in a flash of light. He was instantly pulled into the leaf and then further into the RWBY Universe, everything unfolded like a shattered mirror.
Shen's body and mind began to return to their previous state along with his emotions and humanity disappear.
Looking around there was no sign of the God of Light or the God of Darkness, instead, everything was a mess. Time was frozen and space was distorted, not just on this island but everywhere throughout the cosmos. The embodiments of Creation and Destruction were gone and now everything was left in this state.
Perhaps this is why the two brothers gave up, they knew this would happen and although it would leave everything in a perpetual state it may also permanently seal Shen away.
Unfortunately for them Shen's reach now expanded way beyond just the RWBY Universe.
'If things stay like this all the thing's I've built up in this world will have been for nothing.' Standing there for a moment Shen opened up his Systems and viewed the notifications it had given him. And low and behold there it was.
[Story Management for the RWBY Verse has been unlocked.]
Selecting it something flashed in front of Shen appearing right in front of him. Holding out his hand he caught it and realized it was a book. It was a very simplistic and clean book with the title only saying RWBY with no pictures or any other text. The book seemed completely normal until Shen opened up the cover.
At that moment he felt it. Like information was surging into his mind, not only did all of the information he got from the inspection flood in but also details about the world itself. The entire Story of RWBY and all of its minor details seemed to pop into Shen's head. And at the same time, he could feel he had control over these details.
'I see now, so it really is the ability to manage the story of RWBY.' Everything that was originally a part of RWBY that hasn't diverted away from the plot majorly was completely under his control. For example, he couldn't suddenly make Ruby and the others disappear or make Remnant as a planet larger as they had both been changed directly and indirectly by him.
They were no longer in the original plot as they should have been and are outside of his ability to manage the story.
But at the same time, he could get rid of their Main Character Statuses, Plot Armor, or even Ruby's Silver Eyes which had not been affected by Shen's presence. At the same time, he couldn't bring back the God of Light or God of Darkness as they were never supposed to die in the first place.
But what Shen could do was make it so their deaths didn't cause the universe to enter this chaotic state of neither destruction nor creation. Thinking for just a brief moment Shen began to focus. The book in his hand flipped through its pages with lines of text covering each one.
When it finally stopped the page it landed on began to glow brightly. All the changes occurred in an instant, and as Shen shut the book the sound it created caused his changes to take effect.
Space began to correct itself and so did time, the chaotic state of everything began to come undone and within seconds the world was back on its proper course even without the God of Light and the God of Darkness there.
As Shen watched all of this take place he looked at the book in his hands. It was power akin to a god, akin to the author. As long as he willed and followed the guidelines mentioned before, he could change the vert story of the world.
And with that fact, came the limitless potential the Nexus of Stories offered.
