"Hmm it seems she's really not awake."
He waved his hand over her; her clothes instantly materialized on her body.
Two hours later, Maya stirred awake, scanning her surroundings she was currently by a tree at the riverside. Inspecting herself, she noticed the clothes she now wore were exactly the same as the ones she had on before— except, they seemed to be brand new.
Then a sharp stench of fresh blood hit her nose. Turning to her right Maya caught sight of the headless corpse of the high-grade dragon that destroyed the creature from before. She didn't need to inspect closely— the clothes and the wings protruding from its back confirmed it was the same one.
Letting out a tired sigh, Maya muttered "You didn't have to keep its body right beside me"
There was a brief silence, making it feel like she was talking to herself
"Avaris, I know you can hear me, why are—"
"— I just thought it'd make a good scare" Avaris' body materialized in front of her, his usual grin in place.
Maya scoffed "Why would I be scared? it's just a slightly more powerful lizard."
"You're not qualified to say that, you couldn't even defend yourself at all. Anyway, now that it's dead you have to absorb its life essence, then we can go back to the area before and absorb the life essence of the medium grade beast before it dissipates" Avaris lectured.
Maya walked to the corpse, scrutinizing it for a few seconds, she asked "How exactly do I absorb life essence from others?"
A cup of juice materialized in Avaris' hands, he shrugged and said "That's extremely simple, all you have to do is, place your hand on the corpse and imagine you're taking in a breath." Pointing at his head, he continued "Remember your actual breathing has nothing to do with it, it's all in your mind."
Maya exhaled, trying to calm her mind. She placed her hand on the corpse; it felt unusually cold for something that died just a few hours ago.
Just imagine taking a breath
She had barely put in any effort when she felt aa huge influx of a foreign energy, it was accompanied by a bit of pain. After a few seconds Maya could feel a massive increase in her physical abilities. Maya was very surprised, her repeated compound resets earlier during her fight with the medium grade beast only increased her abilities by about ten percent, and that was only her physical durability, it had almost no impact on her strength and speed
Avaris gave a slow mocking clap from a few feet away. "Congratulations. You've ascended to lower grade qualitative existence."
Maya turned to him, eyes wide, her breath unsteady.
He grinned. "Feels good, doesn't it? Your physical abilities just went up by a hundred-fold, give or take. Although you're still a weakling, you're now a slightly stronger weakling. Also, with your extra abilities you're now fit to explore the first underworld.
"What extra abili—"
Maya was about to ask what extra abilities when she received a huge influx of information. Apparently, she could now freely manipulate temperature and flames, she could also change her skin to dragon scales, exponentially boosting her defense.
She gasped and stumbled back a step, gripping her head "What the hell!"
Avaris gave a satisfied nod "Ah. There it is." He proceeds to explain "For the first time you absorb the life essence a high grade or any grade above that, you will gain at least one ability related to the species of the life form you killed. This only happens once per species, so even if you kill another high-grade dragon, all you get is a boost in physicality and qualitative existence. You won't get any more extra abilities."
Maya steadied her breath and narrowed her eyes, the wild energy of her transformation simmering just beneath the surface. Her voice was strangely calm and level
"What do you mean by the first underworld?"
Avaris' smile stretched a little wider
"I could just infuse the information directly into your brain," he said with a lazy shrug, "but for three reasons I won't do that."
He raised a finger and continued "Firstly, I like telling stories." Adding in a second finger, he continued "Secondly, it would be too boring" putting down his hand, he muttered "Lastly, For the sake of the audience"
Maya blinked, her brows furrowing.
"What audience?"
Avaris chuckled "oh, don't worry about it," he said, waving a hand dismissively.
She stared at him, baffled and confused. She was about to press on further, when Avaris continued.
Avaris leaned casually against a tree, arms folded, that ever-present smile tugging at his lips. "Are you familiar with the concepts of the multiverse?"
Maya blinked "...A little"
He chuckled. "of course you are"
He gestured broadly, as if painting the cosmos with his words.
"There are infinite possibilities. Every single one— every choice, every breath, the displacement of a grain of sand on the beach, the random movement of smoke particles, every variation regardless of how minuscule— births a new world. At every point in time, including the beginning, there are infinite starting points or worlds. Each of these world's branches into infinite paths with infinite worlds and each of the worlds on the infinite paths in turn do the same. It's a fractal of creation, spiraling out endlessly. Worlds birth worlds at a rate that keeps growing further into infinity."
Maya's brows furrowed but she said nothing
"And in all of these worlds. Every life form dies eventually. All the souls from every world goes to the underworld."
He tilted his head
"The underworld exists outside conventional space and time, it's a higher reality that transcends the worlds in the multiverse. Every version of every person has a soul and that soul will be drawn in by the underworld"
Pointing at herself, Maya asked "Does that mean there are infinite versions of me?"
Avaris shook his head "No, I'm getting to that, don't interrupt me again"
"The underworld is stacked with infinite higher worlds, just so you know a higher world is a world directly crafted by a god. All the higher worlds in the underworld were directly created by the king of the underworld, unlike the dragon god, telling you his true name would kill you. Every higher world encompasses another, it's a layered reality where each higher world engulfs and absolutely transcends the one beneath it, while remaining nigh inaccessible to this world beneath it. Most of these worlds are created and destroyed at the whims of the king of the underworld. Besides these there are ten worlds the king of the underworld doesn't destroy for some unknown reason, these higher worlds are the pillars of the entire underworld and each of them is an infinite higher world that contains infinite worlds, they are ten in number each completely transcending the one beneath it. The first underworld is the world at the bottom of the pillar. In each of the ten pillar worlds monsters spawn infinitely, their purpose is to destroy the souls, the souls get stronger by killing these monsters but the stronger they are when they die the more soul essence the king of the underworld gains. Of course, it might seem like a meagre amount compared to his power but when he keeps getting this at an infinite rate, he grows exponentially more powerful every second. Also, souls can't die, so when they're destroyed, they simply restart their journey with their memories wiped besides the memories of their original life. The first world contains the weakest monsters and souls."
Maya stood frozen "you're sending me there?"
"Of course!" Avaris beamed.
"Okay let's say I'm done there and it's time for me to be resurrected, how can I be certain the underworld king won't stop you?"
Avaris blinked once. Then laughed.
"Oh, little Maya," he said "it is said that even for the gods, death is absolute." Avaris raised a finger "However, this only applies to existences weaker than the king of the underworld. Rest assured, the chances of the king of the underworld even attempting to interfere with me is zero."
"Back to your question on why you don't have any versions in the other worlds. The reason is because you were born in a higher world, a domain that transcends the ordinary worlds, this world was directly crafted by the dragon god, TAMIRA."
Maya's eyes narrowed a bit; her voice edged with curiosity "I understand it now. Is this you implying that you're stronger than the king of the underworld"
Avaris laughed for quite a while, then he finally said "Maya, do you remember what I told you when we first met? I told you I am God, I didn't say I was a god. Trust me I'm capable of much more than you or the king of the underworld are capable of comprehending."
Maya nodded while taking in the information, she asked another question "Does this mean that Avaris isn't your tr—"
"— no more questions for you, you can die now" After saying this, Maya's body instantly evaporated.