When my mind is thrust out of the Void Creeper's Domain, it does not fully disconnect. I still feel the access points to it beneath the fabric of everything in this universe.
It feels like it is watching everything, like a perfect barrier wrapped around this universe holding reality within.
Even though we were rejected, quickly my subconscious churns all of the available data and tries to make sense of why.
It was not because I asked the wrong question or made a misstep. Instead, the answer can only be comprehended with the means before me. It cannot be currently seen within that place.
Looking into the past, and playing it back and forth like a god from above is a simple task. With a powerful enough mind and perception, deducing the patterns of reality as if they are real is easy.
Yet, considering the amount of power held within Maria and my bodies, we alone have the ability to shape this universe however we wish.
Seeing into the future is not so simple. We were brought here because only we can decide the outcome ourselves.
Our minds have grown even more resilient from diving into the true Void Creeper's Domain. Now, peering through the membrane that surrounds this galaxy is as simple as looking through glass.
The entire universe's past from its inception up to this very moment is laid bare before me. I can see everything.
When I look at Ember again, I understand how he got here a little more.
Yet, when I look down at my blade, I still question him. "I now see how it came to this... Our galaxy is truly the last one remaining. Everything you said to Noctus was the truth, but what does this have to do with my soul weapon...?"
He nods, but still stares forward with indifference. Golden glyphs continue to churn slowly in his eyes, affecting all of the laws around us.
"This too will become clear with time. Though, the complete truth can only be seen once the system gathers enough energy to complete its final notification. That is when the great cycle can continue as it always does."
There is a connection between his golden glyphs and the golden glyphs in the core of my blade, yet they both only act as bounce points. The true changes are happening within the fabric of reality, and it feels extremely slow.
The active connection to Ember's mind grows dull, as though he's no longer interested in talking. He just stares off into the void and continues to slowly cycle the golden glyphs within his eyes.
I start to digest his words while replaying the pasts of all the dead galaxies in the vastness of space. Some were extremely advanced, connecting thousands of galaxies together, even creating supercluster-wide civilizations before finding that they were within a membrane.
Even though Ember injected artificial amounts of ether into each seed of life to accelerate their growth cycles, each time, they naturally ended up destroying themselves. Ember's search through their worlds and large energy collection centers never interfered much with the large-scale wars and extinctions that the races present brought upon themselves.
He waited for the natural end of each galaxy's era to bring all of the collected ether to the next one.
Many of the galaxies that were not yet altered, he placed pseudo membranes around, made entirely out of flawless-grade ether arrays with golden glyphs at their centers.
They were placed around the most technologically advanced civilizations to create false reflections of the rest of the universe. To them, it appeared as though the stars still shined bright in every galaxy, and there was not an immortal golden dragon extinguishing them one by one.
Each array was slightly different, but many had functions similar to enormous realm waves, slowing down the passage of time to preserve the life within them while systematic ether refinement takes place in all of the ones before.
Billions of years have passed within each of the nearly one trillion galaxies with life in this universe, yet each one has been isolated within spaces of their own, only aging 13.8 billion years in total within the true Origin Plane.
It is quite overwhelming to find out that we are really the only colony of life left... and we are the strongest forms of life that have ever emerged in this universe, as we are building off the backs of every other living being in existence.
Yet, it is still not enough to trigger the upgrade that is trying to manifest in my blade.
When I look back at Ember's patient gaze and link this to the memories of him watching hundreds of billions of galaxies fade all alone, I realize that he is prepared to do it all over again.
He is not indifferent because he feels no pressure to rush. He has just been through this process many times before and knows that the only thing left to do is wait.
Maria and I both come to this conclusion too, and look at each other floating in the void with a mixture of concern, apprehension, and an underlying acceptance of reality.
Yet, even in these few hours since we formed our silver cores, the rate at which the laws are adjusting and interacting with the system is slowing down. There is no longer such abundant chaotic energy to rush the cycle forward.
The only way to force a trigger like that again would be to release all of the remaining energy from the Upper and Lower Realms into the membrane. Yet, even thinking about doing that sends unnatural ripples through my consciousness. It would harm my mental foundation and mutate the system notification that is coming.
The most natural and beneficial outcome is to wait...
However, even if we died of old age and were born again over and over until the immortal cores rejected us, the fate of this galaxy would still have many eras left to go.
In order for us to watch the aging and death of the last pocket of life in this universe beside this immortal golden dragon, we must isolate ourselves from its passage of time.
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Author's Note:
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