(MC POV)
An Origin fragment.
Nani dafuq?
Why the hell is there an Origin fragment here?
No, why is there even an Origin fragment in the first place?
To put this into perspective, finding this thing is equivalent to someone finding their own finger while taking a stroll outside and only just realising they were missing a finger all this while.
I pointed a finger at it, "Hey… You're telling me this is the treasure of the deep?"
"That… That is correct…" The dragon underneath me answered a little hesitantly. "Is there something wrong with it?"
"How did this even come to be here?"
The dragon paused for a while, "I… Do not know. My ancestors have guarded this treasure for as long as I can remember, but I only know that it's important that it remains guarded…"
I frowned, "Do you even know what this is?"
The dragon shook its head, "I only know that it possesses immense power…"
Kiyomi raised an eyebrow, "Did you not think to take the power for yourself?"
"I am not stupid. That thing possesses enough power to wipe me from existence, who knows what might happen if I were to mess with it?"
Well… At least it's cautious enough not to do that, but in reality if someone were to absorb this, they would be able to manifest a little bit of Origin energy. That translates to being able to bend reality to a certain extent.
But seriously… Why the hell is there an Origin fragment here?!
Omniscience!
…
Eh? You're telling me that during that war with the Great Ones, parts of me were shattered which resulted in Origin fragments being scattered throughout the universe?
What the hell? Why didn't I know about this? And why the hell did past me even allow this to happen?!
…
Just to give the universe another way to change itself to prevent it from going stagnant? Why would that even be a thing? Did past me not even realise that someone could have used this power to destroy the entire universe?!
…
I did and I didn't care?! Ugh… Of course I didn't. If I could go back in time to slap myself in the head, I would.
Oh wait, I can, can't I?
…
Oh, if I were to go back in time there wouldn't be a past version of me there, I would have taken his place. Damn it, so I can't slap past me on the head.
I guess I can clone myself and slap him instead but that's not the same.
Guiying realised I was silent for quite a while and tugged at my sleeve, "Master? What's wrong? Is it something to do with that treasure?"
I nodded, "That's… An Origin fragment. Basically it's a part of me that was shattered in the past. Apparently there's multiple fragments of this scattered throughout the universe."
Kiyomi frowned, "Shouldn't Master be going to collect these fragments, in that case?"
"I believe so…" I answered hesitatingly.
The reason why I'm so hesitant is that I'm not sure what will happen if I become 'whole' again. At this point, I believe I could destroy the entire universe if I wanted to. So what would happen if I were to collect all of my Origin fragments? Omniscience?
…
…
Hmm? Why is omniscience silent now? Hello? Is this thing on?
…
Ok, yes it's still working, so answer the question please.
…
There's no answer because Origin is above omniscience… Right… Ok. I get it, because even omniscience needs an origin and it can't comprehend things beyond it. Fine.
In that case, let me just try and summon every existing piece of Origin fragment to me right no-- Ok bad idea.
Looks like if I were to do that, I would essentially be pulling the entire universe here since these fragments are rooted into the fabric of existence itself. To pull them here would be to pull all of existence around those fragments here too.
Then could I just identify their locations at least?
…
Looks like that's also not possible since they are existence itself. Trying to find them would be trying to find a specific drop of water in the middle of the ocean.
Great! Then how the hell am I supposed to find them? Leave it up to chance?!
Wait a minute… Why am I even trying to find them? Fuck that, just leave them where they are! If someone finds those scattered fragments and uses them, then I'll go and find them. If I manage to come across one like right now, then I'll just absorb them! There's absolutely no need for me to go on a stupid fetch quest around the universe to find these fragments at all, right?!
Even if someone were to go around and collect every single fragment in existence, they wouldn't be able to become Origin anyway, so why the hell should I care? I'm here to live my easy life, damnit! Let me live it without giving me so many problems!
With that said, let's just deal with the current fragment in front of me first.
Before I could though, the dragon shifted slightly, "I apologise but I might have misheard something… Are you saying that treasure is… A part of you?"
"That is correct," I affirmed, wondering what it was going to do with that information.
"That can't be possible! Are you not human?"
Kiyomi scoffed, "Master is an existence above Gods, for you to not even be able to tell that, you truly are pathetic."
The dragon hesitated, "If that's the case… Why are you walking around here in a mortal body?"
"Because I want to?" I answered as a matter of factly.
"Ah… I see… Umm… I have no more questions."
"Stupid lizard," Guiying spat, an action unbecoming of her station, not that I was in a position to criticise her.
Shrugging my shoulders, I ventured out of the air bubble on top of the dragon's head and floated my way towards the Origin fragment.
I wasn't really sure of what to do with it so I simply picked it up from the ocean floor.
Right as I was wondering if I should eat it to absorb it, the fragment slowly melted and seeped into the pores of my skin, disappearing completely as though it was never there to begin with.
With its disappearance, the light also ceased to be, plunging the area into complete darkness, something that was quickly dispelled when Guiying summoned her own ball of light.
I waited for something to happen, anything really, since I didn't know what to expect from absorbing it.
But there was no rush of power, no sudden revelation, no physical or even mental changes, absolutely nothing happened after I absorbed it.
I'm not sure if I should be disappointed or relieved, eventually settling on relief in the end since I could have very possibly just exploded and destroyed the universe too. So that not happening should be good right?
"Is that it, Master?" Kiyomi asked, anticipation clear in her voice.
I think she also believed that there would be some huge explosion or something.
"Yeah, that's it… Well, shall we go back now?"
"Eh? How about we have some fun underwater first, Master?" Guiying suggested.
It was only then did I realised both of them were naked.
Umm… Well, I guess I should have expected something like this… Time to get to work then.
