Chapter 440: Chapter 440: Prince Chapter 440 – Prince The transition was swift, yet jarring. In one instant, Noah was staggered back as Gaia threw him away, surprised, his neck trickling multicolored blood from her dug nails. The next, he found himself falling helplessly toward the glaring hole that was the Spirit World. He blinked, confused for a heartbeat. Next, Noah turned, with great difficulty, his head around. Nothing graced his eyes except fathomless void. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. Yet even without that ability, Noah had this instinctive feeling that not a single second had passed since last time. No. It was not a simple instinctive feeling. It was one of his innate skills: The Breath of Time. ’Not a second?’ He echoed inwardly. He had lived thousands of years in that realm with Gaia and all of those inhabitants... but here, time seemed to have fled. For a moment, this sudden situation alienated Noah to such a degree that he stood frozen. But all of that disappeared as a familiar voice whispered inside his mind. Softly, gently. {You are back.} The Records said, their voice dragged and drawled, then suddenly paused. Noah couldn’t see them. Not yet. But he could eerily sense perplexed, shocked eyes boring into him. {You...} The Records began, thousands of layered voices speaking in a wrenching symphony, {...what are you?} They asked. Noah didn’t answer. What he was? It was the question he had been asking himself through those thousands of years. Gaia was not the only one pondering existential questions. Noah did too. Numerous times, he questioned his existence. He didn’t have a choice. With what he had done, he needed to reaffirm himself. No matter how much he would love to downplay what he went through, something remained unchangeable. He had been reborn. The blood inside him was no longer the Elysiari bloodline. His own bloodline had been destroyed and sacrificed during his fight with Luelle. Instead, he had the blood of Gaia. The blood of Reality. Yet it was his own blood. Because he had stolen it and made it his, in the same way he did for his system. Still, that didn’t stop him from asking. Was he the same man? No. He was not. The power coursing inside him showed that much. His immortal body, one that would never die except if killed — and even then, the difficulty was immense — was also proof of that claim. Added to that, with Gaia naming him and his past name Brandon... Noah had been lost. Was he Noah? Brandon? Or even Raj Progenar Gaia? He had thousands of years to sort it out. And he did. "Who am I?" Noah echoed, smiling faintly. "I am Noah. I am Brandon. I am even gorydamn Raj." "I am me, Records. A fatherless child. A child born by himself. A child born from the womb of reality. And a child with three mothers." Gaia might not have accepted him. But Noah would not deny the truth. He was born from her womb. Her blood pulsed inside his veins. His hair and eyes were hers, and he had learned much through the help of her people. He made himself anew. And she played a big part in that. Though unwillingly. But Noah was never ungrateful. At least, he tried not to be. Finishing declaring his existence, he instinctively looked beneath him and saw he was very close to the Spirit World. There, he seemed to see tendrils of grey fog swirling and living like tentacles. {Fantastic.} The Records’ voice was filled with awe. That’s when they noticed something. Something enough to freeze all of them for a heartbeat. They... they could no longer see the records of Noah. It was completely veiled from them. Not only from them. It was veiled from anything and anyone in all realities and beyond. Noah had basically created himself. And no such being could be bound and recorded except by himself. {Truly fantastic.} The Records repeated, their voices like those of fanatics. {You have become something magnificent. Something special. Tell us, O Selfborn. What shall we call you?} They paused. {What would be your title?} For the first time in the history of reality, the Records asked a being what title he wanted. They asked because they no longer had the authority to name him. They were happy. Yet they were sad. It felt, to them, like they had raised a child and now had to painfully watch him take his own steps away from their influence. It hurt. It hurt more than it should. At their question, Noah spared them a smile. The void around brightened. His second innate skill acted: The Heart of Reality. He was the loving son of Reality. His joy was its joy. Its sadness was its sadness. So with a curl of his lips, a sense of contentment soaked the whole Perfected Reality, reaching even the Records. They gasped. "For the name..." Noah began, dragging back the Records’ attention. He remembered how the beings from Gaia’s realm called him. His smile deepened. "Just call me Prince." {Prince...} The Records whispered, tasting the name, then, {From now on, no one shall have the name ’Prince’ in their title.} The effect was immediate. Anyone with Prince as a part of their title was stripped of it. And that, from all corners of Reality. Gaia felt it. She scoffed, then scowled before barking at the dancing suns and moons. The Records continued... {The name now belongs to you, O Prince.} Noah laughed awkwardly. {And as a gift for your exploit, Prince, we offer you these. Please, take them.} Lights burst outward in front of him, blinding Noah in a mesmerizing tapestry of indigo, black, and blue. The lights coalesced, then began to form very defining shapes. The indigo was shaped like a drifting cloud. Soft and free. The blue was a sky, wide and expansive, looking down on creation. The black was in the middle. It had no fixed shape. It constantly altered itself, aligning with the other two lights, as if in perfect harmony with whatever it touched. Noah felt unique and incredible power inside each of them. He stretched his hand. The lights flew toward it and settled atop his palm. He clenched it, absorbing them within him. The powers of the Records traversed through his whole body, like water through dry stone, but suddenly lost, not knowing where to go. Noah directed them toward a deeper layer of his soul. There, a woman made of the origin light of reality stood, eyes closed yet fluttering sporadically, as if trying to open them. Noah meanwhile focused on the notifications in front of him. {Seed of Sky, Seed of Cloud, Seed of Harmony. That’s our power.} {Are they to your taste, Prince?} "They are, Records." Noah nodded. "She was silent all this time, getting hard to wake up. But with these things..." DING!!! Noah grinned. "You saved me time." Then... Providence’s voice echoed next, filled with confusion. Then it overflowed with happiness. Just at that time, his feet touched the tendrils of fog. They licked them, then wrapped around them mercilessly before dragging him down into the Spirit World. The Records’ last words rang inside his mind, {May your next adventure be successful, Prince.} PUFFF—! Noah’s body burst through the walls of fog. He fell like a thunderbolt on a stormy night, striking down from the heavens to the earth. He expected the landing to be earthshaking, yet his feet glided down to the ground easily. Noah opened his eyes lazily — feeling a uniqueness from his system rising inside him — and rested them on a world soaked in living, breathing fog. Those fogs curled around him, whispered to his ears, trying to block away his sight. Useless attempt. That’s when Noah noticed the presences around him. With that, the weird scene of Luminara kissing the ground with her forehead, and Serene looking flabbergasted. Noah frowned faintly, sensing something weird on the woman. Something akin to—! The voice of his new system, Providence, rang out, followed by the voice of the grey-skinned woman standing high above. "Welcome to the Spirit World, Brandon." —End of Chapter 440—