Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 100: Soft(II): Gods and the Unknown
"..."
Enoch didn’t answer.
Long moments passed.
SHAH!
Ayah dismissed her chimeric form, her body shrinking and returning to its slender grace, her long lavender hair falling in waves, her piercing clear blue eyes pulsing with sharpness.
Her massive armour adapted to her body, shrinking and becoming much lighter, suited for agile movement.
Enoch sighed.
His sigh was deep, ancient, and weary, so much so that the aether in the surroundings reacted to it, coiling around him almost as if to reassure him.
Ayah’s eyes widened. Such things only ever happened to Uriel.
"What’s going on?!" she blurted out, unnerved by his silence.
With both of their quotas met and kings defeated, the most pressing matter would be attending to Uriel. Though the formation in the skies told them he was still alive, he remained the weakest of them all.
Knowing Uriel, she was sure he’d be able to find a way to let the formation run even if he died.
They had to get to him as soon as possible.
"Uriel’s a hard one to kill," Enoch finally said. "You don’t need to worry."
Ayah frowned at his words. "What the hell are you talking about?! You’d let his life and death be up to luck, when we could go and help him?"
"Beyond that, if he’s too injured, his chances of surviving as we travel are going to be too low and—"
He turned to her. "Then go."
"Go and help him, then. Surely you’re enough, no?"
Ayah’s eyes widened.
"I—...wha—..."
Her hands trembled before she balled them into fists, her knuckles whitening and her jaw clenching tightly.
It was true. She alone would be enough to go and help Uriel. All she needed to do was go. All she needed to do was move.
But she didn’t.
Enoch smiled. "You’re scared to face him now that the barrier is gone."
He sighed again. "And so am I."
"So, let him struggle for a bit. I’m sure he’ll make us pay when we see him again."
Silence followed, rain filling the emptiness between them.
Ayah’s shoulders dropped, shame and anger rising within her, yet her lips remained tightly sealed, even as her teeth pressed together and her breaths quickened.
He was right. Of course he was.
Enoch’s gaze lifted once more, returning to the skies, just as it had been before.
Minutes trickled by. The sound of war dulled and the rain intensified.
"Do you believe in God, Ayah?" Enoch suddenly asked.
The trembling of her hands stopped. She drew in a deep breath, then exhaled. She looked at Enoch.
BANG!
Thunder clapped loudly overhead.
She looked at him, but didn’t answer.
"They exist," he stated matter-of-factly. "Ascendancy leads to it."
"Each step of Ascendance is one step closer to Godhood."
He paused. "Then, upon achieving Godhood, it is said the true path starts. Only then can true ascendance begin."
He chuckled softly. "Gods aren’t as lazy and indifferent as the myths suggest. No, they’re quite active. Perhaps too active for their own good."
"They fight, they conquer, they grow, they sometimes die. They struggle as much as mortals do, perhaps even more, which I find quite ironic."
"This is all to say the Gods are quite... obstinate."
Ayah’s eyes narrowed, a deep sense of foreboding rising within her.
"And they truly do not like having their plans thwarted. They really don’t." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Her neck snapped upward, eyes locking onto the sky just in time to witness a sight she would never forget.
Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open.
As if the heavens were nothing more than a farce, a jigsaw puzzle torn apart, the skies peeled open, revealing a boundless void beyond.
And within that void...
"...so, the Gods always watch. To ensure their Will remains supreme."
...were eyes.
The boundless void beyond was filled with endless eyes, so many it was utterly impossible to count, each overflowing with maddening power words could never encapsulate.
Each aura was as vast as the skies, as deep as the ocean, and as endless as the void itself. They reeked of power beyond comprehension, beyond reckoning.
"..."
Ayah felt her head spin, her breaths shortening, her heart pounding as panic took hold. She forced herself to look away from the sky and locked eyes with Enoch.
He remained calm, softly smiling.
"Now," he said, "you may ask yourself, what could possibly warrant such obsession from the Gods? Surely only other Gods should stand against them."
Ayah felt her stomach drop as Enoch’s smile widened into a grin.
"What could possibly make the Gods so madly obsessed, so fearful? What could make them so afraid, yet so cowardly?"
BANG!
A thunderous boom shook the forest, and above, in the skies, Thoryl appeared, facing the endless divine gazes.
His hair was short and brown, slicked back neatly, his eyes light green, his suit impossibly clean.
With hands clasped behind his back, Thoryl shook his head, clicking his tongue.
Ayah felt like she was losing her mind.
Beyond all that unfolded in the skies, what occurred in the ruined settlement was even stranger.
Humans continued to battle the beasts as if nothing had changed, as if the madness above didn’t exist.
And that was because, to them, nothing had changed.
Only a select few could witness the horror in the skies.
Only Pioneers could.
Thoryl snapped his fingers, and as if the sky were nothing but a mirror, it shattered; the void and its countless divine eyes collapsing into a rain of falling shards.
Thoryl sighed. "Oh Mother... it truly seems your sons will never know defeat."
[Quicktime Event has been triggered!]
[Legacy Event has been triggered!]
Suddenly, all within the settlement froze, beast and human alike.
Then, they began to levitate, rising off the ground and drifting high into the skies. All were pulled upward.
[Multiple Divine Presences Detected!]
Within the broken void, a massive swirling portal of blue currents formed, filling the heavens entirely.
All those rising were drawn into it. The moment they touched the portal, they vanished.
One by one.
WHOOOSH!
Thoryl was alone.
He floated above the broken settlement, empty and slick with blood. He waved a hand, and the ruins began to fade.
Soil rose, swallowing rock and pavement. Trees tore free from the depths of the earth, looming high as greenery spread to reclaim the once-secluded path.
In seconds, it was as if the settlement had never existed.
And that was because it hadn’t.
Settlement 0001 had never existed.
It had always been Settlement 0000.
To most, such a difference would be meaningless. To others, it might be the most pivotal truth in Ithurial’s history and coming days.
Only time would tell.
TOH! TOH! TOH!
Thoryl walked across the skies, his steps echoing against air itself.
In his wake, the heavens mended as the portal vanished, the skies returning to dull grey, rain roaring back to life.
TOH! TOH! TOH!
He chuckled quietly.
"The Circle is broken."
