He was back in the throne room.

This time however he was able to see its true form – and hers.

The place had more than three dimensions and was b with intangible lines, flowing through the room in soft slopes, carrying what could have been anything from liquid to current to information.

Lady Luck was a fractal of indescribably intricacy colored in hues no earthly eye had ever seen. Each time Minhyun blinked she seemed to have become more complex. Her non-human nature was not disturbing, quite the opposite. He would have wanted to touch her, but was unsure if he even could feel the texture of something that had no shape at all and every shape at once.

“You require my help,” she spoke directly into his mind, “I’m aware of that, but you must first understand the consequences.”

“W-what are you?” Minhyun asked, despite the urgency.

“I am a researcher. This is my outpost. If you must know, it is observation station 9H33m-6T we are in. I have not lied about my curiosity and concern for humankind. I have observed and gathered and pondered.”

Minhyun was breathless. He was glad he didn’t have to physically speak because his throat was too dry anyway. “What’s your name? Your real, actual name.”

She spoke her designation which consisted of fifteen syllables, two temperatures, one and a half colors and about five hundred shapes aligning to a twenty dimensional crystal. Well, he wouldn’t bother trying to pronounce that, for sure.

Then she continued sending. “You must want to take on more power. I agree there is no other way to safe earth. But I want you to understand the consequence.”

“Which is?”

She paused. “You can never return. Not in your current form. Channeling even more energy through you – as much as you would require – is incompatible with a physical existence as you are enduring. You would destabilize and only stay coherent through continued use of the transmitted energy. The process is technically reversible but no compressive transfer between states is ever perfect.”

“And,” Minhyun sent carefully, “what are those imperfections?”

“A loss of parts of…of whatever makes you, you. Expanding your essence is one thing, breaking the additions away without tearing you apart is a challenge without equal. Memories, traits, understanding, habits, perhaps entire aspects of your life, deleted without replacement. You might end up different, you might end up an empty shell. Regardless of the chances I can and will not risk a reversal.”

“I have to do it anyway.”

Despite the alien anatomy, Minhyun was sure she had nodded or whatever the equivalent was. “I did not wish to deceive you but I admit there is no true choice. Farewell for now. I submit you into the care of someone who is better equipped to supervise the process. Wait here.”

***

Another fractal appeared in the room. It had more edges and less squiggles than Lady Luck. Its voice was less unambiguously female. Which is to say male. Maybe. How did they choose their voices anyway?

“Minhyun,” she or he or it said.

“Yes?”

“Do you consent to change form?”

“Yes?”

“Prepare to be decorporealized.”

***

There was a lot to see. A few septillion universes for example. They formed the Ring, although it was more of a tree, and lined up with other more or less similar structures. Above it – for some value of ‘above’ – was a greater connection, binding several undecillion Rings into an assembly. Layer after layer, with many dimensions more stretching in all directions – in new directions.

Universes with two different flows of time. Universes with no time. Universes which were constantly breeding offsprings. Universes which collapsed and reappeared over the course of milliseconds and such which did the same over a span so great they hadn’t collapsed once yet. Universes joined at the hip and universes in total undisturbed isolation.

Above and around and beneath and through was a meta-structure tying it all together in the only way it could be bound: The Hierarchy.

Minhyun was somewhere in there.

Orienting himself was tricky, he had to deal with more directions that he could count and he seemed to face the wrong way in one of them whenever he had positioned himself correctly in the others.

Then something or someone gently shoved him back in his own universe. It looked fairly familiar with its faint stars and its blue earth. This time he saw more of it, a network weaving through the continuum, much like his links. This was how matter and energy sang to him – sang to each other.

Eleven horrendous ships moved at warp speed.

***

It was a delicate maneuver. First he had to map out the flow of gravity within the entire solar system and keep it stable no matter what he did. If his actions launched the earth out of its orbit he would cause the end of humanity faster than the Void.

Then he linked himself to the only object able to stop the advancing vanguard. He took hold of each atom individually.

Minhyun grabbed the moon.

The boy tore his chosen projectile out of orbit and threw it into the path of the warping ships. Eleven impacts shook the rock sphere and cracks extended deep enough to make the moon break into pieces.

He held it together with ease and pulled. The moon accelerated towards him, flew past and made its way to the rift.

Minhyun pressed the moon through the scar in space and accelerated it further. It crashed into the eldritch machinery beyond the universe, collapsing Void structures meant to secure the rift. He didn’t know what he ruined but he ruined it thoroughly.

Then the moon got stuck.

Minhyun pulled and his ammunition broke lose, tearing Void technology in huge chunks out of its interdimensional mounting. The ugly spiky things poked out of the moon’s surface as it returned to its proper place.

With the correct orbit and velocity reestablished, Minhyun ceased his control of the solar system’s gravity.

Lady Luck and her kind fell over the weakened Void from the other side. The battle was decided within seconds. The rift was retaken by the protectors of humankind and could be mended.

***

In what he had once called her throne room, Minhyun faced Lady Luck again.

“So I guess this is it,” he said. “Can I go say goodbye?”

She hesitated. “I cannot say if this would be advisable. You can have a message relayed. I fear however that direct contact would be cause for great grief on either side.”

“Then… what do I do now?”

“You may inherit my research station and watch over humanity until the day we can establish contact safely. After the spectacle culminating in the Void’s defeat I suspect questions will be asked. Perhaps the day of contact draws closer more quickly than we anticipated.”

“And you’re just waiting around? Till something or other?”

“That is what we do.”

“Why?”

Had she been in her physical form, Minhyun suspected she might have shrugged or sighed.

Lady Luck spoke gently. “When species gain sentience, one of the first things they do is look up – look at the sky, whatever appearance it may have in their universe. As cultures grow mature they gaze upon their stars anew and consider them destiny. Many make it there. Many more do not.”

Schematics of space crafts became visible, both plausible and implausible within the limits of physics Minhyun was familiar with.

“Traveling between planets is hard,” she continued. “Traveling between stars even more so. It is difficult and unrewarding. Of those races that attempt it, few go far. There is little reason to follow this path.”

Her fractals shifted in a way that made her point at herself. “We anticipated this. We looked upon the stars and did what only the rarest of species do. We questioned the stars. We questioned our destiny. And chose a different path.”

More schematics – of machines wholly different from space faring ones. “Traveling through space is hard,” she continued. “Traveling through the fabric, the layers, the structure…it is distinctly harder. But only initially so within one Ring, and much more rewarding. Along the way of our ascent we met others who had defied their destined path and the Federation was founded to mutual consummation.”

“I see,” Minhyun said. “Humanity must be given the chance to choose its own destiny. To ask the question and answer it.”

“Then you understand?”

“Yes, but there’s one more thing I need to do. I have things on earth – people – I care about.”

“I fear I know what you will ask of me.” She sounded sad. That was absolutely not what he had hoped for.

“In the link – that supercharged link I had – I looked for Sujin. But she wasn’t there. My range didn’t extend to my sister. Can you tell me if she… What came of her?”

There was a quiet moment almost as if Lady Luck was taking a deep breath.

“I’m so sorry. You never had a sister.”

“Wha-“

“When I first interfered with your kind, when I found and imbued you, I was naïve and understood little of how your inner workings affect you. You were a wonderful person, but you needed a drive. I knew you would spend your life caring for those around you but never make use of your power. You were too incorruptible. And in my ignorance I did so much more than needed.”

"But I have her photographs and..."

"Of my making."

“You- But…”

“I’m sorry, Minhyun. She is not real. She never was.”

“But I saw her! I saw her in the scape!”

Her voice was unbearably sad. “You were dreaming, Minhyun. You still had dreams. Many of the ones you entered were your own. Your subconscious mind let you see what you wanted to see.”

On top of the devastating feeling there was another cruel epiphany.

“He knew,” Minhyun whispered. “Junior knew. That’s why he was acting like that.”

“Junior knew from the moment I told him about your existence. He knew before you ever met, even if he was unable to understand it.”

How much time passed he couldn’t tell. He felt too much to sort it all out. Strangest of all, she had been right – now that he knew, his drive was gone, shifted, replaced.

“Alright,” he said coldly, “I’m ready. I have nothing binding me to earth anymore. Except for one thread. Can you tell Aron what happened? I can’t see him or I wouldn’t want to leave again.”

***

It was not long after that he was left alone for a moment, awaiting the return of the one who had terminated his corporeal existence.

The spiky fractal reappeared. “Minhyun.”

“Yes.”

“Are you ready to be conceptualized?”

“…Yes.”

***

Minhyun linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and linked and…