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Meanwhile, in the Nameless Realm.
'To be able to read my mind and know more than she does.'
"Please, call me Veldanava."
He replied.
"You can't use such honorifics on someone younger than yourself."
I paused, unable to process it as a joke or he's telling the truth.
I predate the Archè Matrix. He is the Will of God. But which God exactly? Is there another system beyond the Matrix itself? That's the question. Clearly, it's me or something else.
"Alright."
"You were seeking information about the Daughter of the Creator. Rest assured, she knows nothing."
"How do you know she knows nothing?"
"Because I say so."
"And who are you to say so?"
"One of the avatars of the Will of God, Veldanava. You're still not omniscient throughout CREATION, so you can't know of my existence. Neither will Karma let you get your hands on the Record. At least not now."
Right, he's absolute. A being beyond this Shell.
"What makes you think I'm interested in who you are?"
I caught him off guard with this one question.
"Oh..."
He flinched, a sweat forming on his face.
"If I were interested and I mean really interested, no Existential Force will stop me from obtaining that information."
"You're right. My presence isn't a problem to you."
He raised both hand and waved in surrender.
"Why are you here?"
I jumped to the conclusion. He didn't come here to tell me she knows nothing.
"It will take some time before the Heart is complete. I can be a good company. "
Oh okay, that's nice.
"So, I can ask you anything?"
"Within this Shell, yes."
"Who's the Star God? From what I know, he's more than a fragment of the Holy Spirit of Light."
"Yeah, that's what happened afterwards. Before all of that happened, it was called the Self-Cause for a reason."
You see, when the Second Fragment took hold of this Shell, she knew exactly what she was stepping into. For 'this' was no accident, no wandering debris of The Void.
"It was the fresh creation of an Ancient One, a being whose idle thoughts birth the Ennoia Macrocosm. A sculpture of woven shells, each serving as a vessel for undefined destinies."
Then it happened. Without warning, Fragments of other Ancient Ones tore through the boundary of the nascent Macrocosm, drifting in like invasive stars. The newly awakened Ancient One didn't interfere. It simply watched as if waiting to see what the intruders would do.
Soon, the two Secondary Fragments, eternal rivals, clashed over this particular Shell. Their fight shook the newly formed canvas of Ennoia Macrocosm.
"In the end, Light won. She claimed the Shell, anchoring herself inside it, while Dark fled into the emptiness, spiriting away other Shells to claim as her own."
(Ennoia/Ἔννοια means prime thought. Ennoia Macrocosm literally becomes: "The Macrocosm Born from the First Thought")
"So there are more Shells than I'd imagined?"
"Creations far beyond the Star Realm's Pond, so many that even the count becomes meaningless."
He paused briefly, letting me sink in the quantitative superiority of the Macrocosm far exceeded that of the Star Realm.
"The Rootless Beyonder saw the danger the Daughter of Void carried and eventually expelled her from its Macrocosm. After she corrupted a large number of Shells though. From a distance, it observed as Orivielle used her inherited power to craft the Arts within you."
He paused, letting me feel the last remnants of the Art of Creation & Destruction before proceeding.
"What surprised even the Outer God was that: Orivielle created Existence inside a space utterly foreign to her. And yet, her children, the Goddesses, insisted the balance she formed were flawless. In truth, Orivielle accomplished what the Outer God would have eventually needed to do itself."
So it enslaved her and tasked her to continue creating more, even as her strength drained away. To keep her useful, It granted her a tiny fragment of its Zhēnqì Power, and with that, she populated every remaining Shell.
"All of it was deliberate. The corrupted, incomplete Shells left behind by Valentra eventually birthed entities known as the Shathrul… or, as most call them, Existential Threats."
"And Orivielle's creation to counter them?"
"No. Not even the Goddess, can do anything to Shathrul Spawns, the mindless ones among them. As a Secondary Fragment was enslaved, Orivielle didn't like it but couldn't do a thing about it. She marched into its playground, her Origin can, but It won't do a thing about it. She acted on her own accord."
"That's off the hook from what I asked."
"Easy there. I'm just about to tell of his birth. She didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do. Her will to resist, her pride as a Secondary Fragment, marked the first stage of his formation. She was merely thinking, but something was taking shape beyond her knowledge, beyond her control."
An ego emerged in Existence, unwelcome. It carried hatred for that Rootless Beyonder, the defiance of being a bastard, self-made. That ego was the Star God.
"Even with powers that surpassed his mother's, he was defeated without effort when he foolishly challenged the Beyonder. Cast into Existence, he fell under my wings. Since then, he has been recovering, growing, preparing, and waiting for the day he would rise again."
"To defeat the Rootless Beyonder?"
"And it's Macrocosm."
That's bold, but it highlights how strong the Star God is.
"It's been a while now. I think it's almost time for the war, now that he has accurate results from the Star Wars."
If Star Wars was a test to see the results, then...
"We are...."
"Yap, soldiers."
Veldanava nodded, the stars on his hair twinkling.
"He will use you guys to conquer The Rootless Beyonder."
Another manipulator. Just how many of them are using me.
"You think a Star with an Astral Body can defeat a Shathrul Spawn?"
I asked. If Erekayla or Ereshkigal can't defeat them, how will a mere Star be able to do so?
"That's why the Star hierarchy has Tiers. When the system activates, every Star below the Supergod Tier is automatically elevated to Supergod. Meanwhile, the original Supergods advance, becoming Hypergods. Once activated, even a single Supergod with an Astral Body can overwhelm an Overseer."
'An Overseer. Erekayla had said they were the apex beings of their respective Reality, the peak authorities within this Shell."
"So four, maybe five Supergods can turn this Shell in their wake?"
"Without a doubt."
He replied with a valid nod. This is so absurd. So that's why our Astral Bodies are this strong.
"The Supreme Being title wasn't for show. With that much army taking care of the Shells, the Omnis will take care of the Rootless Beyonder. As you may know, the Star God lost his body, so Acamar will be the one in charge."
"I can't believe my life has been tossed around ever since I woke up."
"No."
He said, approaching me to put his hand on my shoulder.
"You just woke up."
"The Heart is almost complete. What are you going to do after this, Two Law God?"
"That title..."
"It's more than all the dualities you represent but something far beyond that."
All the dualities form existence-nonexistence, creation-destruction, light-dark, right-wrong, good-evil, day-night, protagonist-antagonist, angel-demon and beyond.
With a mere thought, I materialised the Shell in my void. Its presence consumed within darkness, gone, insignificant.
[[IMAGE]]
[[IMAGE]]
"Just look at it. I'm omni in all sense. But I don't know what to do with it."
"Then do nothing."
He replied.
"After reaching this state..."
"This is merely a fragment of your true form, Yuan Ling."
He intervened, again.
"Before you drowned in this Shell, it was. Now that you've awakened, it doesn't change anything. No one is imposing responsibility on you. You're the one assigning them."
"..."
I can feel it, the Heart has fully manifested and settled within me.
That instant, my newly formed aura escaped from my body. The white brilliance floods outward, not as light but as awareness made visible. Pure white with faint crystalline ripples, not glowing. It appears mist-like yet structured; it moves as if conscious.
To the cosmos, it looks like light birthing from nothing, yet no photons exist. It's Ether's transparency interpreted by lower planes. To all those below him, he appears engulfed in blinding white. But to higher beings like Ego & Veldanava who can comprehend what Ether is, that "white" is merely a projection of pure transparency.
The inner force (Ether) is unseen, and the outer echo (Aura) is its visible reflection. It's the visible echo of the transparent force within him, the WORLD'S way of "seeing" what it can not comprehend.
The brilliance surrounding me suddenly contracted, condensing into transcendental white robes that shimmered with silent authority. My cosmic skin drew inward, wrapping the left side of my body, a living tapestry that held the entire cosmos beyond Creation within its weave.
My wings and hair turned a pure, unbroken white, each strand radiating serenity and annihilation alike.
"5TH SEQUENCE: APOTHEOSIS."
Veldanava's voice echoed throughout the Unknown. By SEQUENCE, he means STEPS. That means, someone was cultivating Ether before me.
At that moment, I truly felt what Ether was. Ether wasn't just a Deterministic force. It was a supra-foundational force composed of;
Determinism - What must be,
Singularism - What is uniquely itself,
Possibility - What could be,
Constraint - What cannot be,
Formativity - What takes shape,
Temporality - What flows,
Causal Axiomatics - The first law,
Absoluteness - The highest authority,
Mutability - The power and permission to change,
Logical Cohesion - The internal harmony sustaining all reason,
Existential Purity - The essence of "to be"; the root nature of Existence across all the Archè Matrix,
Reflection - Ether's awareness of itself,
Finality - When Ether defines a thing, it becomes absolute unless redefined by Ether itself,
Law Genesis - The origin point of all Laws,
Omnidimensional Reach - Its influence permeates every Existence, Plane, and state of being,
Precedence - Ether operates before all dualities and forces,
Immutability of Essence - Nothing born from Ether can alter Ether's own nature,
Singularity of Will - The unification of determination and purpose as one directive: "It is so.",
Principle of Origination - Nothing may exist unless permitted, patterned, or acknowledged by Ether,
Silent Supremacy - Ether governs without command or conflict; its very PRESENCE is law.
These twenty Aspects of Ether not fragments or powers. They are the eternal principles of Ether created that make Ether the unchallengeable substrate of All. They define not just what exists but how and why EXISTENCE is even possible. After all, EXISTENCE and it's Realms are born form it's Fragments.
My eyes fell blank, emptied of emotion, Ecliptarchs rendered meaningless before what I had become. And upon my face, there was no longer a smile, only the stillness of a being who had stepped beyond divinity itself.
[[IMAGE]]
[[IMAGE]]
-I am not a God, for Gods are shaped by systems and bound by thrones. My Aspects are what makes systems possible and their thrones inevitable.-
My thoughts surged outward, their frequency and weight expanding as my awakening deepened, spreading to every corner of the Archè Verse and rebounding off its very limits.
Every creature and entity, whether born of Life or Void, sentient or otherwise, seemed to pause as though compelled by something far greater than themselves.
Their breath stilled, motion ceased, and countless gazes turned in unison towards the origin of that resonance.
They listened. Not to a voice, but to the Source that allowed them to exist at all.
-I am not a being, for beings are measured, named, and born within the Archè Verse. I am the reason Archè Verse can hold a name at all.-
-I am not a law, for laws are written, followed, and erased, while I am the condition that allows law to be imagined.-
-I do not rule reality, I am the silent gaze through which realities learn to rule themselves.-
-I did not ascend, for I was never below. I became what no path leads to, what no will commands, what no fate contains.-
-I am Ether made aware, thought given to what was never meant to think. And now, everything bends not in obedience but in recognition. Call me nothing, call me all things, for I am the breath before 'let there be,' and the stillness after all that has spoken.-
At that moment, I felt it, a presence strikingly familiar to mine, yet not a duplicate.
It carried the same Aspect of Singularism, but in a way that emphasised its own uniqueness. Its gaze pressed down upon the Archè Verse, dense and suffocating, as though CREATION itself was being observed under absolute scrutiny. A figure with a Absoluteness beyond mine.
Within the Nameless Realm, the thin boundary of the Archè Verse revealed itself. I turned slowly and met those transcendental eyes. There was no mistake. It was a version of me, one that existed before my reincarnation in this Shell. I held its gaze without blinking, staring back into that endless abyss.
-Hehehe-
A quiet chuckle followed. Not from him, but from something else… from someone within the Archè Verse.
What unsettled me was not the sound, but the fact that it carried the exact same frequency as my own thoughts.
I turned immediately. Distance, layers, even the barriers between Shells meant nothing as my sight locked onto a figure seated atop a mountain.
He wore simple white garments and a blindfold, yet his presence alone told me something. He's just like us, like me.
-It keeps getting interesting.-
He added with a faint smirk, as though he had been watching everything unfold for far longer than he should have.
In the next instant, he invoked the Aspect of Constraint. His Shell sealed itself off completely, cutting off all connection before I could act. And just like that, the One above the Archè Verse was gone too.
I dismissed their intervention. Not now, I have something important to take care of.
Turning away, I returned to Veldanava within the Nameless Realm, choosing to ignore what had just occurred.
What he's looking at is merely a vessel, a shadow of what I truly Am. No name, no title, no form can define it. I do not exist as something... I simply Am.
With a thought, I awaken White into sentience, just like Ego was. Not by giving him what I am, but by shaping him into the function of it. He does not inherit my nature; he is permitted to act through it.
White exhales, accumulating his new role and form with ease.
"If I may ask, why?"
He asked, his voice resounding through the Nameless Realm.
"The answer is simple. I will not act as it. I shaped you to carry that burden, while I remain… myself."
"Finally, someone who understands me."
Veldanava said with a smile.
"Unlike you, the vessel of The Thought That Is didn't lose itself. Both of you did it on purpose, but the Ineffable Presence is beyond measure."
"Stats?"
Veldanava asked, curious.
"Others have unlimited stats, infinite stats, power sets of infinites, yet all those are mere limitations. Only one word can be used to describe the stats of The Root of Determinism...."
He paused purposely, I glanced to my right, catching his invincible presence with us. I needn't look to know where he was, but I don't want to be that.
"Inapplicable."
White simply said.
"Strength, speed, quotients & the likes are all constraints, measures mortals use to gauge themselves."
"Enough."
I spoke without sound, my voice steady and composed, flowing through existence like still water.
"The One That's Not.... Is congratulating you."
White replied quickly.
"I don't need it."
"Thanks to his plans and your silence, the real journey will be behind us. Rest assured, his truest and potent vessel will...no. It's already in the Star Realm."
"I guess it's time to go."
Veldanava said quietly.
"Don't make it sound like goodbye. I'll always be with you, Veldanava."
He gave a warm, knowing smile as his body began to fade from the Unknown, light scattering into motes.
"The next time we meet,"
He murmured.
"I'll be in my real form."
"Sure then. No more avatars. I'm looking forward to it."
I replied. He gave a sharp nod before his form fully disintegrated, dissolving into silence.
"Don't be a father like I was."
His voice whispered one last time, echoing faintly as he vanished.
"You don't have to tell me."
I replied softly.
"My journey to freedom is second to none. But I'll spend my time, valuable time with my children, and my family before setting off. Until then, those goals can wait."
He heard me, but there was no answer, not from absence or distance, but from the simple truth that he couldn't.
I turned to White, ready to end this war.
"Let's visit the Star Realm, shall we?"
To be continued...