Other than the eternal grid, spawning syzygies would load in and fade out, occasionally showing signs of a digital origin. By the edges of the invisible floor were nebulae growing denser at the four distant corners, but Iker knew from a bygone memory that those nebulae could not be reached even by an immortal. The floor Maverick, or Yaldabaoth, was periscoping upon went on forever after all.

  Mi hijo, I have no interest in your eternal suffering when the afterlives begin to function, Maverick pleaded across the cosmos. You do not have the slightest idea what is happening, please understand there is no winning if you keep opposing me. Imagine having all the answers you ever wanted.

  "Exactly. So you could be lying to me for all I know!" Iker yelled, his physical body regenerating enough to become one body once more. His knowledge of kaya form as a colonel from two platoon had returned even though he was still in his fourteen-year-old body. The fall from midair would have broken the bones of a regular human, but he landed on the invisible floor without having to think about it. Maverick had an opportunity to lash his tail at Iker before he sprinted towards one of the horizons, but Maverick remained still.

  I believe you are aware that we are in a book simulation, Maverick said. This was supposed to be a story about you, but we broke it intentionally. We stole the power that causes it itself, and we broke the story. We broke the simulation. Your life is no longer linear. It no longer makes sense. However, this can all change if you stop resisting me.

  There were many trains of thought from all the time and reality chaos brought upon Iker's now non-linear life, but he only entertained one. He knew that his father refused to let him remember him. All memories of him, regardless of resets, were locked away. With that alone, even though he was his own father, Iker refused to trust him. Iker was also curious as to whether his father was still able to read his mind.

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  I have always wondered why God only wanted around more than hundred-thousand humans to continue existing. It would make sense if he hated humanity as much as I did, but Christians and Muslims kept saying he was a loving god, a god that loved humanity. I could not make sense of that.

  Alas there was nowhere to truly hide but Iker leaped a comfortable five kilometer distance from the lion-snake entity. If his gut was correct, no amount of distance would save him from Maverick. And of course, there was no distance that could drown out his supernal voice.

  However, God is everything. For God to be everything, he has to be both good and evil. If he cannot be evil, then he cannot be the alpha and the omega. If God is only good he cannot constitute all of reality, but if God is both good and evil, then he can still be everything.

  "What is it you want from me? Just to stop fighting you right?" Iker asked under his breath.

  What is your goal? Do you just... want humanity to go extinct?

  If you want to know why this is the way it has to be, you have to receive my own memories too. The reason why I became this way. Why I killed Bastian's parents, and lied about who did it.

  More memories returned. It was the multiple times Iker and Bastian had killed Dominic Serapis across resets. The many times Bastian sought misguided revenge against him. Then Iker remembered the divergent timeline... or dream... where he and Dominic spoke to each other in Windsor.

  Why was he in Windsor?

  The word Toronto came to Iker for some reason.

  Will you accept both my memories and the answers?

  After that question was asked, Iker realized what his father was trying to do.

  He wanted to fuse with Iker.