Chapter 2054: We Lead The Charge Prime gasped in pain and took several steps back before he fell on one knee, supported only by his black cane. Serene Ascension had no time to look after his master’s comfort as his mind was spinning at quadrillions of turns every nanosecond as he borrowed the power of the four layers of time to open a path into the depths of Prime’s eyes. This bloodline of Time had the potential to see the future, the real future, and not even Eos could draw this out of him unless he wanted to take Prime apart, and even then, there was a chance he would not be able to find this power. Despite all the preparations that were done, this process almost failed as, buried in the center of the eye, a thin red dot emerged that barely existed for such a short moment that if it were not for the impossible perception of a Primordial, no one would have seen it. In that barest fraction where that thin red dot existed, Serene Ascension collected all the candidates that would embark on this expedition and pushed them into the mark. "Did it succeed?" Prime groaned, and Serene Ascension was quiet for a while, and then he nodded, "Ah, it worked!" Prime eyes squinted in suspicion, "What did you mean by that? Did you not repeatedly assure me that your calculations were perfect?" "My calculations are always perfect, master, but in dealing with matters of the fifth layer, um, it’s more like I make theoretical calculations and not an assured thing, but I promise you, master, the calculations were perfect." Prime groaned and fell back on his back, closing his second eye so he could focus if any changes began to happen, "You should stop talking now and let me focus on my eye." Ⓟ The sky above a dead world opened, and ten thousand beams of light fell from the heavens like meteors. Their descent tore the clouds apart and sent shockwaves travelling for tens of thousands of miles. Quicker than the blink of an eye, the ten thousand beams of light impacted against the earth with a massive booming sound that should be heard from all corners of this world. This crash should have raised a lot of dust, but it did not, and the only reason why this did not happen was that this world had experienced so many powerful battles that it had become compressed. The light that had shielded those who had descended faded, revealing ten thousand Old Ones and three Primordials, but their current state was strange since they were wounded and they were not healing. In the blink of an eye, dozens of Old Ones began to fall, their essence had been exhausted in such a profound manner that everything about them, down to their soul had been used up. The fact that so many Old Ones were able to make it to this place was due to the intervention of the Primordials, and after arriving there should have been energy or essence in the air for them to draw upon and heal their wounds, but there were none. The only thing in this world... was death. Hundreds of Old Ones had fallen by this point, and if this trend continued, then in a minute, they would all be dead, but the Primordials who should have saved them had their eyes closed and seemed to be struggling with a mental battle. When this expedition had been drawn into the place that was as close to the fifth layer of Time as possible, their journey was not as they had expected. The journey through time was not a smooth one; instead, it was as if they were mortals travelling through a world-ending storm that was not made of lightning or rain but of Nexts. Each Next was a dimension of relentless, branching proliferation. Here, every possibility spawned not just a new world, but a new moment, each moment layered over the last, yet inaccessible to their senses, and so they could only be dragged by this storm, and the only thing that could guide their path was a faint red light ahead of them. Only the Primordials could see this light. This was true infinity! The Old Ones struggled under these relentless tides that their minds and bodies were not meant to endure, despite the relentless preparation they had made. One by one, they began to fragment. One Old One of crystalline logic found itself split across a trillion trillion contradictory outcomes, her consciousness becoming a shattered mirror. Another, a being of molten passion, experienced all his emotions at once, rage, joy, despair, in a single, paralyzing burst, becoming a weeping star of pure sentiment. The Old Ones dwindled, their bodies and souls suffering temporal dissipation. Some became trapped in recursive loops, reliving their first second of entry for an eternity. Others sped ahead into a frantic, blurry existence and burned out into brief, bright novas of entropy. "HOLD ON!" the voice of Vctorious Genesis resounded across their small group of ten thousand that was rapidly dwindling into nothing as the infinite series of moments was drawing out their lives and sanity. He could sense that the other Primordials were about to make a move, but he judged that it would be too late, and many Old Ones would be lost, so Victorious Genesis unleashed his Origin without holding back. In that moment that he unleashed his Origin, his eyes opened wide in astonishment as he saw the future not as a single raging river that headed to a single direction, but as a seething, infinite canopy of small streams, each sprouting, flourishing, and dying in an eyeblink. He saw ends. He saw death as a statistical certainty, not a theoretical concept. Victorious Genesis could feel his mind breaking apart, but his Origin followed its core concept... it sought victory in every situation. In the back of his mind, where there was nothing but chaos and pain, he heard the voice of his father in his head. "Victorious Genesis, I see the fire in your eyes. I know it well. It’s the same fire in the eyes of our people. We were created to lead the charge into the darkness for our Grand Creator, and you are braver than I ever was, which is why my fear is so much greater. I fear you will not know when to return when the going gets too tough." "Promise me this, son, that you will be as brave in your coming back as you are in your leaving. Do not go gently into the dark; fight with everything you have to return home to us. No matter where this journey takes you. This door will remain unbarred. This fire will be kept banked, waiting to be rekindled by your story." Victorious Genesis roared, and he felt the touch of two Origins pouring into his body and enhancing his concept, and from the jaws of defeat, he dragged all the Old Ones condemned to die and fixed his eyes on the dwindling red dot in front of them. "WE LEAD THE CHARGE INTO THE DARKNESS!" He roared, and behind him he could hear the roar of every Old One and the two other Primordials with him, "ARR.. HOO!!!" They roared back like elemental beasts. In the chaos of infinity, under the Origin of Victorious Genesis, they found the heart of the flow... but their journey was just beginning.