CHAPTER 498
NOTHING
Millions of cries shook the heaven and the earth -- and millions more bore through the hearts of the members of the Descent hanging in the sky. Enough souls sped toward them to fill the oceans ten times over, the black dots crowding the mountains like ants.
And there, above them, shining in resplendent colors that they couldn"t even quite describe, Elysian hovered, a faint smile hanging on her face. Her crimson-red hair stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of her, yet it seemed to eerily fit in a strange way. Strands wiggled about, as though of their own free will, loosely, like they were in the water.
The thumping of their hearts was drowned out by the absolute stampede of the people. None they could recognize, none they could comprehend. They were all living, just like them; their hearts beat, their eyes burned in fervent belief, their minds thought and comprehended.
"... she"s already a Maker," One commented, his expression turning grave. "This is bad."
"That"s impossible!" Two exclaimed, rapidly looking at him.
"How else do you explain all this?" One said. "She just created a world, life out of nothing. And at such speeds... this is... really bad."
"Uh, not to alarm you or anything," Four joined in from the side. "But Six and Seven are gone."
"... she must have expelled them," One said, sighing. "We can"t leave this place, at least not before we"re overran. We"ll fight."
"If she"s a Maker..." Five mumbled from the side, his flamboyant hair drowned out by the world"s light.
"Today," a melodic, choral voice reached them quickly. "It is time of the Descent to end. You may not want to spend the last few, precious moments you have on the pointless rabble."
"You seem awfully confident in being able to kill us," One said, turning toward Hannah. "Yet, I highly doubt it."
"... for the One who Unities," Hannah said, smiling wider. "Congeniality seems to elude you, Alladin. Look around. I am Everything. As much myself as I am you. You should know, Alladin," Hannah said, twisting her fingers in a strange loop as she extended her arms. "The holy sounds of the Engines of Creation. Hear them, now."
Without giving them a chance to reply, a loud thump burst out of Hannah, vibrating throughout the entire world. The light around her shuffled into the small wisps that exploded right after, turning into the sky-high pillars of ever-encompa.s.sing light. Golden, silver, teal, white, gray... colors danced about freely as she brought her arms toward her chest, clasping them loudly.
Another thump boomed out, this time around flipping the world unto itself, folding it like a sheet of paper, throwing everything into a cascading void. Yet, before they could adjust, they felt themselves pulled into the suction that they could not resist; the sensation of being dragged against your will through the membranes of reality was vomit-inducing, only One managing to somehow hold it in.
He gritted his teeth tightly, grabbing Two"s hand and interlocking their fingers together as Qi within them began to churn, displacing the s.p.a.cetime surrounding them and allowing them to rip free of the pull. Yet, just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the world around them changed once more, the singularity of light flashing like a droning pulse, splitting open with a violent explosion. Beams and rays burst out in droves, consuming the void"s darkness, birthing anew galaxies from the swirling ga.s.ses, stars, planets, life, everything.
The members of Descent stared at the sight with gaping lips, saucer-wide eyes. Not just a single world -- but the entire, countless systems. The entire cosmos, it seemed.
"Alas, what are we beneath the weight of everything?" her voice echoed out throughout the reality, seemingly visible, holy. "Do we even matter?"
"..." they remained silent, partly due to still being in shock, and partly because none of them wished to answer.
"We do," her voice gave a reply shortly after as she manifested right in front of them, draped in a one-piece dress this time around made entirely out of light, her eyes having returned to their natural emerald-green dye. "Everyone matters. All stories belong. Yet, you decided to arm against that dream, Alladin. You all imposed your wills against the wills of others, suffocating any who thought otherwise. You lived in the perennial denial of balance, never realizing you were killing the world just as much as the Writs and their Bearers were -- perhaps even more, in a way. The Engines of Creation aren"t selective -- they do not endow one with more than another. We rob others to endow ourselves, stack the cards into a house, and then into the sky-bounding mansion. I may be the Maker, but I do not choose who succeeds, nor do I choose who is better. Thus, if I, who created them, have no right to endow, what right do you posses to steal?"
"... you"ve went beyond the Origin, haven"t you?" Alladin spoke out after a brief silence, chuckling bitterly. "So has the Empyrean... hasn"t he?"
"... strength isn"t measured in loose layers," Hannah said, extending her arm outwardly, a small-scaled star suddenly appearing on top of her palm. "It"s not measured in levels, in cultivation realms, in these arbitrary boundaries. It"s much simpler than that. At the cores, everything is simple. Take the most complex thought you"ve ever had, the most convoluted idea you ever conjured -- they all stemmed from the singular moment of inspiration. And that first thought, the first thing that popped into your mind, defines it. Explains it better than hundreds of tomes ever could. What is life? Awareness. What is death? Temporary end. What is the purpose of life? To live it. You"ve taken the beautiful simplicity of everything and drove webs of lies through them, blinding others as well as yourselves."
"... though I"m not averse to discussing philosophy, I believe this is neither the time nor the place," Alladin said, taking a deep breath. "I"ve only ever known six others who"ve crossed the Origin, Elysian, not including myself. Your achievements are beyond impressive, I"ll admit. But, they"re not enough."
"..." Hannah looked deeply into his eyes, sighing after a little while, shaking her head.
She extended her left arm, pulling her index finger inwardly; Alladin suddenly found himself shot over to her without any ability to resist, her fingers quickly curling around his neck, holding him tightly. He had to admit, those eyes of hers, especially up-close, were beyond beautiful. Awe-inspiring, even. In them, beyond the holiness, he saw the seed of emptiness. A strange sight, to be certain.
"Tempest of Nothing, o" heed,
Sing me the song of Evermore,
Of the moment Your Mind was Born,
I am on my knees, I plead.
Tempest of Everything, o" behold,
I am Your Servant, Your Me,
In Thin alight, aligned are We,
I am on my knees, lonely but not alone."
"... h-how... how do you know that?!" Alladin asked, his eyes widening, lips quivering as though brushed by the frigid winds.
"..." Hannah said nothing, simply tossing him backwards as she turned around, walking away into the empty void. "May the Infinity be kind to you."
Just as her voice faded, the reality around them began collapsing, like being stuck inside a bowl cracking inside out. They could see the visible splinters in the cosmos they now inhabited; stars began churning light like mad, enlarging; galaxies began moving toward one another, as though pulled by invisible hands into congeniality; thousands upon thousands of quasars followed, alighting the entire cosmos with their brilliance; all of Creation seemed to suffocate within the concentric blasts of energy that could not be measured -- they could see it, the edge, collapsing unto them. It was fast -- too fast. The speed was beyond their ability to measure, and the reality beyond their ability to comprehend.
Everything, including them as they were thrown inwardly by the violent pull -- or perhaps a push, they couldn"t tell -- seemed to be moving toward some distant, central point of the cosmos, the point from which it all began. Their eyes witnessed the End -- yet their minds couldn"t process it. All things blurred, turning into flat, straight lines of light, churning energy in violent streams. It truly looked like those moments when they would speed up, that brief second before their eyes caught up, when all of the world around them would blur together into motion-lines.
They couldn"t say how much time pa.s.sed -- perhaps an eternity or perhaps a second -- when they found themselves in front of Nothing. The central point. Heart of the Creation. For all the things it swallowed, it seemed eerily hollow, empty. Nothing, indeed, was made up of nothing.
One held Two"s hand tightly, barely managing to glance sideways, meeting her tepid gaze; lonely and teary eyes stared back at him. In the end, beyond all, he found peace here. He would die, as all things born will, with many regrets, but at the very least he wouldn"t die alone. He smiled, ever so slightly, and she replied in that singular moment of respite.
While their thoughts slowed down to a crawl, their bodies began breaking, the Qi shields around them unable to protect them anymore. Like stone statues waned through the time, they disintegrated, bit by bit, their chunks vanishing out into the Nothing, becoming a small part of it. Invisible. Dest.i.tute.
The Descent had fallen in the eerie silence, forgotten. Eons of enduring, of surmounting, of becoming, amounted to nothing in the end. As though none of it mattered to begin with.