Chapter 5643: A Thousand Origins
Chapter 5643: A Thousand Origins
<A Thousand Origins>
What could not be perceived by the vast majority was always the most pristine.
Down in the mud of the lower frameworks, authority was loud. Egos clashed against each other in open displays of light and force.
Dimensions bled. Observable Existences were shattered to prove a point. Up in the terrifying depths of true Dimensionality, existence was a perfectly still lake!
To stand at the absolute summit of reality was not to shout. It was to become a ghost to everything beneath you.
In fact, there existed domains so deeply seated in the unseen layers of reality that even strong True Lifeforms and ancient Primeval Lifeforms could not perceive them. If a Cenozoic or Mesozoic master somehow managed to fly through the coordinates of such a place, they would see only empty space and silent dark.
THE Concord of a Thousand Origins was exactly one of these places.
It was a vast, staggering architecture that defied every natural law of existence!
Exactly one thousand individual Dimensions were clustered together into a single, breathtaking metropolis. They were bound to one another by colossal, physical bridges woven from pure white threads of THE Argent Loom.
From a distance, it looked like a Dimensional reef.
An axis Dimension of pure, shining purple gold sat at the center, acting as the anchor. Bolted onto its edges were realms of entirely different natures.
A Dimension consisting entirely of endless blue oceans was grafted directly into a Dimension of burning black obsidian. A realm of floating crystal towers fed seamlessly into a sprawling jungle of petrified wood.
Of course, a city built of a thousand Dimensions did not house peasants.
The thoroughfares of THE Concord of a Thousand Origins were filled with the absolute apex of Existence!
Colossal Primeval Lifeforms pulled massive barges of tribute across the void between realms. Ancient True Lifeforms traded the fates of lower Observable Existences as casually as mortals traded coins.
Most importantly, it was the supreme gathering place for the children of the architects. Descendants of every conceivable lineage mingled, schemed, and operated across the sprawling bridges.
This place was the original forge. It was known in hushed rumors as one of the primary locations where many Descendants were engineered, stitched together, and born in the earliest epochs. It was a sprawling laboratory of authority, acting as one of the few places in all of reality where Those Who Remain could actually be reached!
To step foot in a place like this was to have won in existence.
Since the fracture of Vakochev’s Scales and the descent of the new Ruling, THE Concord of a Thousand Origins had become a blinding storm of fate and destiny. Because it was heavily populated by the highest concentration of the Ordained, complex and grand Narratives of Existence had begun to bloom in every sector.
Existential Moirai poured down from the space in localized systems. Above the crowds, golden shields, white swords, and travelers’ staves hovered proudly over the heads of the most devoted actors.
Rival lineages fought proxy wars of succession. Grand crusades were funded by the very air they breathed. The entire cluster of a thousand Dimensions was vibrating with the euphoria of a place that was finally paying its rulers for their cruelty!
Despite the sheer, suffocating density of authority crowding the white bridges, some of the true apex of the Concord was entirely ignored.
In a bustling central region, a dazzling woman walked through a courtyard surrounded by towering Descendants. She moved with absolute, gliding silence. Her white-blue robes shifted gently in the ambient wind.
She was followed closely by a second woman.
The follower wore plain, unadorned gray garments. She radiated absolutely no power. She carried no Intent, no roaring blue Infinity, and no trace of THE Primordial Source or Argent Loom!
Yet, she held a terrifying pressure that physically warped the air inches from her skin. The sheer weight of her bearing was so immense that if she allowed even a fraction of it to express itself, the courtyard of Descendants would have been flattened into paste.
The Descendants around them did not even know they were there!
A colossal, bronze-skinned Descendant wearing the Mantle of THE TYRANT stepped directly into the path of the two women. He did not bump into them. He simply passed right through the space they occupied, completely unaware that he had just walked through the projected shadows of two beings whose depth made him look like a drawing on a piece of paper.
The Dimensionality of these women was that high!
Because they generated their own standing and did not rely on the ladders built by Those Who Remain, their power rendered them absolute ghosts in the most crowded room in existence.
The follower stepped closer to the dazzling woman in white-blue. Her voice carried a quiet, lethal edge that ignored the surrounding noise of the market entirely.
"Queenling Thalia, what are we doing in a vile place like this?" the follower asked. "Descendants frolick and Those Who Remain choose places like this to do whatever vile things they want. What is there for us here?"
...!
Queenling Thalia!
Thalia Vasiliou stopped walking. She reached up with a calm, unhurried motion and brought her hood down.
Her striking, freckled face and deep red hair were exposed to a crowd of ancient monsters who could not perceive a single detail of her beauty!
She looked around the courtyard, taking in the golden signs hovering above the Ordained and the heavy, intoxicating smell of Moirai in the air.
She raised her hand to eye level.
Her pale skin was flickering. The edges of her fingers blurred in and out of existence, vibrating violently as if the hand was attempting to disappear. It looked as though her physical form was trying to merge with another version of her that absolutely should not be here!
Moving across Dimensions and Time carried an unfathomable cost. The rules of causality did not appreciate a closed loop being pried open!
The paradox of her presence was beginning to exact its toll, fraying the very edges of her Provenance.
Thalia looked at her flickering hand with complete, composed indifference.
"I have to talk to one of Those Who Remain in this place who owes us a favor," Thalia said smoothly, her voice betraying none of the physical degradation she was enduring. "He can answer some of my questions regarding Vakochev and THE Provenance of Existence."
...!
Two Provenance Lifeforms had appeared in this place.
It was not the first time such an impossible event had occurred in the deep history of existence, but it was certainly not something that happened openly. The sheer audacity of walking into the very forge where Those Who Remain engineered their children was a testament to the absolute grandness of their standing!
Vakochev had retreated too early. The new Ruling had descended long before the timeline dictated it should. The events she had traveled back to prevent were suddenly rushing forward, reacting to an existence that refused to play by the established script.
She needed to know why the timeline was breaking. She needed to know what the architects were rushing to prepare for.
Her aim here was a singular one!
Thalia lowered her flickering hand and moved forward, walking straight through the illusions of the mighty!
---
When an existence possesses the authority to rewrite reality and fears absolutely nothing, its appetites do not diminish as they actually inflate. The architects of existence, Those Who Remain, did not sit in quiet contemplation of Existence. They indulged!
They treated lower Dimensions like personal vineyards and ancient Primeval Lifeforms like disposable playthings, engineering lineages of Descendants out of sheer boredom and base desire.
Thalia Vasiliou walked through the deeper sectors of THE Concord of a Thousand Origins, her expression composed perfectly over a rising disgust.
She and her gray-robed escort passed through bridging Dimensions that showcased the absolute debauchery of the architects. They walked over a realm consisting entirely of oceans of wine where colossal Primeval Lifeforms drowned themselves for sport. They bypassed a floating continent where generations of Descendants were bred and discarded in endless, violent revelry.
Eventually, the dazzling lights of the Concord faded. Thalia arrived at the edge of a Dimension composed of pure, suffocating darkness.
In the center of the black expanse sat a towering temple of jagged obsidian. The grounds outside the temple were packed with thousands of kneeling Descendants. They pressed their knees against the cold stone, their bodies trembling in absolute reverence toward the open doors.
Thalia did not kneel as she walked straight through the kneeling masses, her white-blue robes cutting a pristine path through the dark, her escort following silently behind her.
They entered the temple.
The air inside was so dense it felt like walking through solid earth. There were no walls and no ceilings, only a central dais that defied all optical logic. Thalia stared directly into the center of the temple and saw what looked like countless event horizons stacked on top of one another!
The overlapping singularities leaked an air of terrible, suffocating power that warped the very concept of distance.
A voice echoed out from the stacked event horizons. It sounded wet, heavy, and slithering with ancient amusement.
"A Provenance Lifeform steps into my domain without an invitation." The voice pressed against the stone floor, forcing the ambient darkness to ripple.
"It is a rare thing for one of your kind to dare to come see one of THE Immense Ones unplanned."
Thalia stood perfectly straight. She did not let a single ounce of pressure force her gaze downward.
"You have worked with my Father before," Thalia spoke, her voice ringing clear and cold through the suffocating temple. "I can do something as simple as seeking an audience. On behalf of my Provenance Lineage, I came to call upon the favor granted by THE SECRETIVE DEFILER ages ago."
HUUM!
The event horizons spun faster, grinding against one another as the being inside listened.
"I seek to know of the conflict involving Vakochev," Thalia continued, her tone completely devoid of fear.
"Nobody heard any musings of the battle that was supposed to occur. Nor did anyone predict the premature descent of the Ruling of THE Provenance of Existence, which was only a rumor for all of us until it happened. I seek to know what happened."
...!
The darkness inside the temple deepened.
The stacks of event horizons began to part. THE Immense One materialized from the crushing gravity, forming into a hazy, colossal humanoid outline. Two massive obsidian horns curved upward from its shifting head!
The face held no distinct features, save for two eyes burning with a sickening, absolute power that devoured the light around them.
THE SECRETIVE DEFILER gazed down at Thalia’s pristine figure. The burning eyes dragged slowly over her white-blue robes, lingering with a heavy, unmistakable hunger.
"Vakochev simply could not measure up to the Narrative he sought to take down," THE SECRETIVE DEFILER rumbled, his voice dripping with base desire.
"And the new Ruling fell. You wish to know the mechanics of all this...?"
The hazy, horned giant leaned forward.
"I will tell you everything I can regarding what happened," THE SECRETIVE DEFILER said, a cruel amusement lacing his words.
"Because things definitely got interesting. But knowledge of this depth requires a toll, little Queenling. Present yourself to me as a gift. Be given the honor to lay with me for a thousand years, and breed to produce at least a hundred Descendants for my halls. Do this, and you will have your answers."
...!
A wave of absolute, freezing cold washed over the obsidian temple!
The gray-robed escort standing behind Thalia did not speak, but the terrifying pressure radiating from her frame spiked. The ambient darkness of the temple buzzed under the sheer weight of the escort’s anger, the stone floor spiderwebbing with hairline cracks beneath her plain shoes!
HUUM!
Thalia looked up at the hazy, horned outline of the ancient architect. Her freckled face was a mask of pure, absolute distaste.
"I would rather unmake my own Provenance and scatter my essence into the void." Thalia declared, her voice carrying the unyielding frost of an absolute sovereign!
And THE Immense One laughed as if he found this profoundly entertaining!
"Keep your secrets. I will find the truth from something that does not crawl in the mud."
She did not wait for a dismissal. Thalia turned on her heel, her white-blue robes sweeping over the fractured stone as she and her escort walked toward the exit.
THE SECRETIVE DEFILER did not strike her. He simply watched her go, his burning eyes narrowing with a cold, predatory amusement.
"Walk away, Queenling," THE SECRETIVE DEFILER boomed. "But do not forget that Provenance Lifeforms do not sit above THE Immense Ones. Do not forget who needs to suckle at the feet of whom."
BOOM!