Auren Da'at vs Alice

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading."-William Styron

Auren: The Man Who Can Tell You What is Killing the Stars

Alice: The Bibliomaniac


Books. Knowledge. Life. All part of the same weirdly shaped three sided die. Books can be so life-like, yet they're forever fictitious, made to be shaped by both reader and author, providing insight on something you've never known. These two -book bound gods shall now have their narratives collide and fight to find out who would win a DEATHBATTLE!


Before We Begin...

Although neither have very long lists of media, there should be some things to be noted. Beginning with Bibliomania, due to the fact it only has one rather short manga, it's an obvious source to go off of for Alice. With Auren however, things become somewhat more interesting. You see, the author of I Can Tell You What's Killing the Stars has actually made a reboot for a future novelization of the original story, with both the original and more recent iterations being factored into this blog. Author statements and other stories connected to the broader universe will also be used. 


Background 

Auren 
"I will tell you my story and travels in hopes they will help your people survive. My name is Auren, I've come from a different dimension, a different universe trying to rescue and save as much life as I can."

What would you do if I told you that something, out in the vastness of space, is killing the stars? Well one man, or rather civilization, was faced with that dillema. Auren Da'at was a lead scientist for an advanced race from another universe that discovered a great threat to not just their universe, but to all worlds. The Void was a being with the sole intention of destroying creation, forcing Auren's people to create countermeasures to such a cataclysm. Attempting to create universe hopping suits, the race was faced with failure after failure, with each horrific death caused by each failure weighing heavily on Auren's mind. Eventually a suit succeeded, but there was only mere moments before their reality's end. There was only enough time for one suit to cross worlds, so Auren decided he must be the one to escape; as only he fully knows about the suit's true schematics, and so he could warn countless others. With a heavy heart, he left to a new universe, trying to find ways to stop the Void and save others from the fate that befell his people. Universe after universe and encounter after encounter he finally found a universe immune to the Void, and there he found love as well, yet the Void still was on his mind. He figured out the world was Void's metaphorical heart, so he must destroy it and leave with his family, yet even this couldn't stop the Void and Auren's, family was claimed by the same being that took away his original world. After all of this, he still figured out a way to travel beyond all universes: where everything is but words, yet the Void followed, and Auren was soon after eliminated. Although Auren was physically gone, his mind still drifted, and found his true self: the Absolute, a being beyond the Void, beyond the world, and beyond the narrative. He was a God compared to all else, as to him it was all just fiction. The Absolute is as the name suggests, as every moment, every love, every loss, was all just the Absolute wishing to see what it truly meant to be human.


Alice 
"I heard a loud sound. I opened my eyes. It would seem the sturdy coffin that sealed my has been broken. Did someone do it on purpose? Or was it an act of nature?  I'll leave this coffin and fill my belly for the first time in awhile. I'll eat without thinking of anything. I'll eat. Eat. Eat, eat, eat, and eat. It is, after all...my only happiness."

How much do you want your utmost desires? What would you give for your every wish to be granted? Well in this manor, all one could ever want comes with seemingly no price at all. In room 431 there was a girl named Alice, as cute as a button and maybe a little too hungry, she got plenty of treats from the Serpent, who oversaw the manor, yet the one rule of the manor was the single one she wanted to break: "don't leave your room". As soon as you do you'll begin to rot away, well certainly before you ever reach room 000. But in spite of this, Alice kept going room to room, desires upon desires of all walks of life, from punishing those they believe wronged them, to being birds, to having a perfect family. Yet Alice kept going, rotting more and more, even seeing another attempted escapee who was turned into mere words etched on paper after his failure. Even through that and nearly dying she still went on with almost inhuman casualty. But her determination was not impenetrable, as when the rot spread she eventually died, leaving the Serpent to celebrate his success, yet suddenly she came out of the rot alive and well, and despite the rot's accelerating onslaught, she managed to make it all the way to room 000, and like that she left. But so too did the Serpent, with the manor filled with guests letting ascend into reality...and still there was Alice. All too late did the Serpent realize Alice wasn't any little girl, but instead a sick princess who made a book of all truths: the one who made the books that were the Serpent's world. The Serpent was nothing to the true book of truth; in reality she only entered the the manor to see what the inside of a worthless book was like, and nothing more.


Experience/Intelligence 

Auren

In many respects, Auren is truly a genius. To begin with, he states all of human civilization would just be a blink in his current lifetime, which would make Auren roughly 40,303,008,000,000 years old, and his species has lived far longer, passing on knowledge massivel beyond what humans know. Auren has made a multitude of technological marvels such as his sentient suit, which has many functions that will be shortly discussed. He's also created devices capable of traversing and altering higher dimensions, and became so advanced by the end he knew the outcome of all possible and impossible worlds.


Alice

Alice has a perfect memory, being unable to forget a single thing she's ever known about. Because of this photographic memory she devoted her life to osmosing knowledge, reading books from across the world, and eventually managed to form a book of truth that essentially acted as an Akashic Records of humanity, absorbing all possible information about the now extinct human race. For reference, Alice believed the Serpent's book to be a pathetic replication of her own, despite it containing entire universes based around somebody's desires and people able to somehow figure out the logistics of human cloning and how to stop the rot, though it could be argued this came more from the book's odd magic than pure actual intelligence.


Equipment 

Auren

Survey Drone

A miniature drone used to scope out the inhabitance of any given planet, seemingly being able to scan the whole thing in quick time.

Sentient Utility and Integration
Technology

The Sentient Utility and Integration Technology (often abbreviated to SUIT) is Auren's trusty Swiss army knife of a spacesuit. It's used to travel dimensions, both spatial and mathematical, and as the name implies, is sentient, being able to make decisions like teleporting away while Auren's preoccupied or even fighting instinctually when Auren can't do so himself. SUIT can also be used to scan its surroundings to detect things ranging from movement or life to more esoteric matters, such as reality warping, time loops, to tampering with space-time itself. SUIT is also adaptative, automatically blending in with his surroundings and gaining resistances to abillities that can break the laws of reality and alter Platonic concepts, though he still seems unable to adapt to mind manipulation, oddly enough. SUIT can also heal wounds such as the user's spine being crushed, and can filter out smells and fungus, even on a metaphysical level...somehow. SUIT is also equipped for combat, possessing offensive options like shocking enemies and can make forcefields for defensive purposes, along with being naturally highly resistant, if not immune, to kinetic energy.

Coca Cola

A delicious beverage Auren got from a fetus consumer named Alex. He really likes it.


Spatial Disrupter

Via reversing the polarity of wavelengths this device is said to be able to destroy effectively anything; with this including the World Tree, which is described as the core, heart, soul, and very narrative of the Void, a being that supersedes narratives itself.


Alice 

Books

The books are powerful items that are able to absorb people, putting them in the book where their wishes can come true, and while you can escape the book, it has measures to prevent that, such as chipping away at your sanity and very desire to leave after each wish, and the rot, which gets stronger the farther you are from your page, with lower page numbers being able to completely destroy your body, soul, memories, emotions, and mind, unraveling it into just words on a page. Once completely filled up, everyone in the book basically fuses together under the control of the book itself, gaining power from their souls. Although we haven't seen the true extent of Alice's book of truth, it's said to be massively larger than the Serpent's, and contains almost all of the human population.

Creations

The book's wish granting can create things for the person who desires it, so it's fair to give Alice basically anything we see due to her encompassing of the books. This includes, but is not limited, to large strawberries, power armor, planes, and swords.


Abilities 

Auren 

Enhanced Perception 

Auren has shown the ability to see many things undetectable to a normal human, such as the in-between space of dimensional travel or every possible and impossible world and higher dimensions.

Purification 

Auren was able to erase Void's soul corrupting ink from existence.

Energy Absorption 

Auren passively siphons energy from the reader, making him "realer", which essentially grants him progressive transcendence over whatever reality he's in.

Avatar of the Absolute

Auren is actually the avatar of the Absolute to interact with planes lower than itself, with the Absolute being an entity that writes and transcends all of creation. While it has been shown to occasionally assist Auren, it's far from a safety net, not to mention it's debatable to say Auren and the Absolute are a one-to-one comparison (More in Before the Verdicts).


Alice 

Wishes
Being a book that's far superior to the Serpent, Alice should be able to grant any wish the Serpent could in the manor; letting them alter reality to their desires.

Time Manipulation 

As shown above, wishes can shape time itself, being able to remove time as a whole and even capable of pausing specific people.

Immortality 

In the manor people have gained the ability to completely ignore aging, and Alice can come back to life from dying to the rot, something which corrodes aspects like the mind, body, and soul.

Gravity Manipulation 

Another guest's realm has gravity warped to the point it was completely flipped.

Fire Manipulation 

One guy set a dude on fire. That's cool


Resistances 

Auren 

Plot Manipulation: Over the course of the story, Auren gradually became completely resistant to Void controlling the plot, even transcending narratives entirely by the end of his journey.

Biological Manipulation & Disease Manipulation: Through using SUIT's filteration Auren was immune to the Headless King's control, who could infect his entire world's population with transmutating fungus, with it being said this fungus is "metaphysical" and represents the concept of decay.

Reality Warping, Law Manipulation & Conceptual Manipulation: SUIT managed to counteract the Headless King's onslaught, even though it was tearing apart the laws of reality and attacking on the level of Platonic forms. 

Precognition: Beings like Void or the Headless King are able to view all of creation, past, present, or future, but were still unable to see Auren's destiny.

Memory Manipulation: Was able to remember things even after they were erased by Void, and has a databank that holds all his memories, including suppressed ones. 

Time Stop: Was able to move even while time was frozen, which was potent enough to affect realms outside of time entirely.


Alice 

Time Manipulation: She was unaffected by the lack of time in a person's room.

Mind Manipulation: Although physically impeded by the rot's corruptive properties, her determination to leave went untouched; despite the rot's ability to erase any desire to escape, which stacks the further someone strays from their room.


Feats 

Auren

Strength 

Speed
Durability 


Alice 

Strength 

Speed
Durability 


Weaknesses 

Auren 

Auren is lots of things, but invincible is not one of them, especially not mentally. Auren has shown a consistent weakness to mental attacks, even SUIT, while adapting to block reality warping attacks, couldn't protect Auren's mind. He's also a tad traumatized, but having everyone you've ever known and loved eventually get consumed by an evil void God that's also a dick to you does that to a guy. Auren also isn't a particularly direct fighter, typically planning and negotiating before any hands are thrown.

Alice 

Alice is a big fish in a comparatively small pond. From humanity's armies to Serpent's book, everything she's faced rather easily defeated, which is good and all until she has to pick on someone her own size. She's also quite used to letting things happen just to see what it's like overall.


Before the Verdict 

I Can Tell You What's Killing the Stars Cosmology 

To anyone familiar with Auren and the story he hails from, it's no surprise the cosmology backing it is massive, and without regards to the quality of writing, let's get right into it. Beginning with the base Multiverse, it's said that there are a transfinite number of universes with an infinite amount of layers, each viewing the lower level as mere fiction. But there aren't just multiple universes, but instead an endless hierarchy of Multiverses that transcends one another on a scale beyond even the idea of infinity, similar to the lower universes that comprise them. It should also be noted that these Multiverses form large cardinals like Berkeley's, with even standard universes operating under complex mathematical theorems like a Type IV Tegmark universe. 

Ascending past all possible and impossible worlds the array of Multiverses hold is the Bleeding Edge, which surpasses the very concept of things like dimensionality, narratives, and size. The author has also gone on record to state this structure contains and transcends all Platonic forms, dualities, and mathematics, further backing this up. All narratives begin from here, and are inserted into lower worlds in the blink of an eye. Before reaching the final thresholds of the verse, the character of Void is important to discuss in this context. The Void is the end of all things in this world, it embodies many Platonic concepts and can devour the reader's story. The Void could extend into the Bleeding Edge and affected its reality while confronting Auren. 

Beyond even this lies the Narratio Grandis: the hub of all possible and impossible things. The Narratio Grandis holds all stories, and is unable to be damaged by anything aside from the Headless King, and the final section of the cosmology: the Absolute. The Absolute is the unreachable height of existence, in which omnipotence, definition, and rationalization all fail to encapsulate its being. It is the author, origin, and synopsis of all things, with no level of infinity being capable of surpassing it. The author of the story further elaborates on the Absolute, stating that it is impossible to actually show in any plausible medium, and is the writer's envisioning of God. 

The Absolute...Or Not?

The Absolute. The namesake of the wider cosmology the story is in and strongest being of that cosmology, not to mention a key factor in the story's wider infamy. But is Auren actually the Absolute? Are they completely separate? Can Auren use the Absolute at all? Well it's a bit weird, so let's get into the nitty gritty of it. Starting off, the Absolute states Auren is his avatar, put into the book to feel the lower planes of reality. This may lead you to think of a character like Darkseid, who has avatars all controlled by his true form, but it's not exactly like that; Auren is shown to have his own mind and feelings, and to be a separate consciousness from the Absolute, and he was moreso re-absorbed back into the Absolute rather than the Absolute really being Auren. The Absolute is sorta like The One Above All from Marvel, with everything in the cosmology being an extension of him, and like The One Above All, while connected, even the closest avatars like The One Below All, or in our case Auren, wouldn't be fair to say they should get them in a fight. The Absolute is vague in many aspects, but Auren clearly isn't the true Absolute, with the writer further confirming this. Now that doesn't mean Absolute is completely out of the picture, as Auren is still connected to it, but it'd be a stretch to say Absolute will just solve all Auren's problems, as the Absolute has and will let Auren die.

Bibliomania Cosmology 

Compared to the last sections this one's a bit...weirder. While Auren's cosmology is very clearly displayed to battlebording sensibilities, Alice's is nearly the opposite, due to how bizarre the world she lives in is, but here's my best crack at explaining it. The first cosmological structure we're introduced to is the Serpent's book, which is where most of the story takes place in. Comprised of 666 rooms, each room is made up of an individual's thoughts and desires, shaping its reality drastically from person to person. It's shown that some rooms contain planets, stars, and potentially even galaxies and universes, though it's unclear if each room has the capacity to be that large. It is also important to note that outside of one person's room lacking time, the rest of the book seems to have spatial and temporal aspects, implying it is a legitimate reality instead of a purely fictional construct, with this possibly making it have a size of up to 665 universes, excluding one room due to it's lack of time.

Moving outside the book is the true state of Alice, along with her much larger book of truth that comprises the entire human race, rather than just a few hundred inhabitants. Due to existing outside the bounds of these book's realities it's possible to argue Alice would have some level of higher dimensionality in her real state, though the exact relation between these two realities isn't delved into within the series.

Serpent's Stroll Across the Book

Due to being the fastest finite feat seen so far and having multiple separate possible values, we might as well explain why exactly this feat is so weird. Starting off, to explain the basics, once the manor was full, the Serpent went to room 666 to gobble up every person and room within the time we took a character's statement that seemed to start as Serpent began his run-through. Having both a real person speak it out and put it in text to speech and both got roughly nine seconds, so that felt like a pretty safe estimate. So in nine seconds the Serpent traveled from room 666 to room 255, so 411 rooms, that just means we gotta find the length of every room and we're golden...and that's the problem, from the very start of the book rooms are shown with very inconsistent sizes. Now that doesn't mean we're out of luck, as we get some hints at room sizes; for example it's shown that the entire earth, the moon, and even stars in the background of one room, and there are also mentions and shown entire galaxies in certain rooms. That's where our lowest calc comes from, where we take the galaxy we know of, add in the distance of stars from that room, and use an average size for real life rooms for the rest, albeit barely changes anything. For the second calc we take the statement of their being an entire universe in one person's room, and assumes this is a full universe for certain, adding this to the previous galaxy and stars we get the second calc. And last but certainly not least in anything other than concreteness, we have the last calc: in this we assume every room is an entire universe, some are in houses while others are fairly vague where they're supposed to be, but if one room can have a full universe there's nothing saying the rest can't for a high ball calc, with that being the last one.


Verdicts 

Stats

Alright so just trust me when I say this is a bit more complex than it seems, okay? While on paper Auren is certainly Outerversal to even Boundless depending on who you ask, but there's a more layered discussion to it than meets the eye. Auren's strength mostly comes from the fact each universe transcends the last, therefore he transcends himself continuously, and while that's cool and all, the big problem in that is Auren still needs to transcend first to get that powerful, as realistically he's fighting on the same dimension Alice is. While I could compare the power of a big strawberry and a suit turning someone into a meatball, we know both have much more impressive showings than that. Auren could tank a universe blowing up in his face, which while impressive, is still outclassed, as the book contains potentially hundreds of universes, with a minimum of 665, and with her true form absorbing the entire human race, she can be hundreds to billions of times stronger than Auren before he eventually gets out of the universe, therefore transcending. In terms of speed, when talking, finite calculations, Auren also surprisingly takes an L. While the Void can take universes in just thousands of years, Serpent's little jaunt through the book is up to 458 times faster at a minimum, with his low and high ends blowing it out of the water even more. Yet something feels all too familiar, as it seems no fight is won on finite feats alone. Both have moved in places without time, and in some respects are beyond time itself, but Auren has more concrete Immesurable feats such as reacting in-between traveling dimensions and moving in a place beyond the concept of time space and size, while Alice's are a lot more obtuse to argue, meaning Auren ultimately is more reliably faster. 

Arsenal and Abilities

Alright, a lot of things here aren't too useful: a survey robot, fire manipulation, Coca-Cola or big strawberries aren't verdict changing in a fight between two reality altering super-beings, so let's get to the good stuff out of the gate. SUIT brings a good counter to most wishes as it could adapt to be immune to the powers of the Headless King, a much more powerful reality warper. But resistance is only so much, as Alice's immortality proves a problem for going on the offensive, luckily Auren does have an option in the Spatial Disrupter, which could destroy the World Tree, which was the very narrative of the Void, and while rot can unravel you down to just words, Alice has never shown to come back from being destroyed on that level, especially considering that the rot's unraveling is much less solidly defined than what the Spatial Disruptor operates at; the Spatial Disruptor should also ignore any durability issues, making it a very favorable advantage. But this isn't all to say Alice is down for the count just yet, as the books prove a great option to take auren out. SUIT has shown that with too much of something at one time it can't adapt and filter in time, and with the rot's increasing intensity it would most likely overtax SUIT's defenses, it also preys on Auren's biggest weakness as it affects his mind, able to remove his desire to leave and let him gain back everything he used to have something he wishes for often, though an important thing to note is that SUIT has teleported Auren away on it's own volition, and due to the transcendent nature of its dimensional travel, it's likely a good getaway option for Auren, making the books deadly, but not a death sentence.

Tertiary Factors 

A big theme of this matchup and both characters is knowledge, so who's actually smarter? Alice, a being with all of humanity's knowledge? Or Auren, a being from a species so far past earth's current achievements? Overall Auren is likely the smarter combatant, as although Alice has absorbed all of humanity's knowledge and can create structures that hold entire universes, Auren has made world changing discoveries about dimensional travel, and quite litterally sees all by the end of the story, giving him a solid advantage. However, Alice does surpass Auren when it comes to direct fighting, standing against the Serpent with humanity's collective knowledge. Overall though, Auren's best advantage here is SUIT's own sentience, practically being a safety net and automatically activate to save him from danger via teleporting, scaning, adapting, or taking the reigns on his body.

Conclusion 

Auren 

" I sat down and began reading the book. The book explained all of my travels and how I used to be something greater and wanted to experience emotions so I lowered my existence into an avatar named Auren Da'At..."

Advantages:
  • Smarter 
  • Stronger overall 
  • Can get past Alice's immortality 
  • More solidly Immeasurable 
  • Could potentially rid the rot of himself with his purification or transcendence 

Disadvantages:
  • Weaker when not transcended
  • Mind hax his number one opp
  • I prefer Pepsi 

Alice 

"I was aware of your existence. I opened the door knowingly... I wanted to see for myself... what's inside of my worthless little brother and his birth."

Advantages:
  • Stronger pre-transcending 
  • Faster with finite feats
  • Books capitalize on Auren's weaknesses 

Disadvantages:
  • Most hax resisted or adapted too
  • Way less reliable Immeasurable feats
  • Spatial Disrupter should be able to kill her



This was a surprisingly interesting match for what was originally thought of in planning of this blog as rather one sided. While both proved themselves to be smart, strong, and just...really weird, only one story could come out on top, and 

The Winner is....
Auren Da'at.

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