Like a blue sun, the presence of Ghribba the Silver Queen rippled across the expanse, her powers that transcended space and time, memories, fate, and destiny held all existence before her spellbound, and her gaze that looked into the distance with eyes that seemed to peer through reality made the hearts of all immortals shake in fear. Eighth-dimensional immortals were legends, they were the immortals that had reached the pinnacle of existence, they were below a few and above everyone else, and in a reality where Primordials were treated as concepts or forces of nature, eighth-dimensional immortals were collectively seen as the peak of reality. What did she see? At the height of her powers where everything before her was simply a small piece on a grand chessboard, what destinies could she grasp? What fate could she alter? What would it be like to be in her position? All of these questions were in the hearts of every immortal here, but none knew that in the mind of Ghribba, only stupefaction, and a sort of apprehension that was hard to define and therefore hard to conquer filled her spirit. Ghribba had lived a long time, and with the Passage of Time available for her to traverse she had seen as much of the last as her powers could handle, and yet, she had come across no mention of something similar happening in the past. The changes across reality, the destruction of the Frozen Road, that unknown entity, all of them seemed eerily connected. The blue-haired man, Soros, the first of her spawn and a glorious sixth-dimensional immortal bowed to her, the motion a little less deeper than the rest of the immortals behind him to denote that he was the favored prince and ruler of Aerovah. "Silver Queen, Mother, you honor us with your presence. Forgive me that your entourage is so small, you were not expected for another billion years at least." Ghribba seemed a bit startled by the sound of Soros’ voice and she waved his concern aside with a dismissive hand gesture, "Quiet child, tell me what happened here in the last few moments?" The blue-haired man was a bit uneasy and even as a higher-level immortal he could not help but stammer, "I – I think our production of Crystalline Stardust is going according to plan, we are even exceeding expectations and we will be sending up a batch, sixty trillion tonnes worth, in at most ten million years soon to aid you in your new and glorious conquest of the Celestial Archives," Looking towards his primary advisor behind him who had gone a bit pale at the mention of these great number of Stardust being delivered in such a short period of time, he could only give a reassuring nod towards Soros, the appointed ruler of Aerovah, and furiously figured out how to boost production to meet up with quota and knowing that he would have to dig into his personal pockets and many of the immortals here with him, this would surely create many enemies, but he had no choice, there was no greater power in Aerovah than Ghribba. Soros looked back at his mother, and he saw no reaction from her, she did not seem concerned with the offerings that were going to be sent to her, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing, and he opened his mouth to speak again, but he stopped and remained silent, just because he was the first of her spawn, did not give him the capacity to speak without being prompted. However, with some quick thinking, aided by fast suggestions thrown to him by multiple aides who he did not consult before rushing over to greet the true ruler of Aerovah, he inferred that perhaps the meaning of his mother’s question was not about the offerings that should be presented to her, but on a very obvious change that had happened recently, which was, drumroll please, the frozen road that had fucking disappeared! What was wrong with him was that he could not put such simple clues together when asked such a question that required an obvious answer. ’This is it,’ he thought, ’This is the final straw that would send Mother over the edge, and my rulership of Aerovah would be given to Ginah or even worse Ada. I need to recover my position fast, but how?’ However, no matter how he sliced it, or the many whispered suggestions by his aides, he knew his mother well enough that in times like these, the best option was silence. When what seemed like forever had passed but it was barely a moment, the Silver Queen sighed and Soros who knew his mother best would swear that she was afraid, but that was impossible, this should be anger he was observing, and it was most likely because of his performance, there were multiple immortals from all over reality that was here and his bad performance would surely be spearheaded by his rivals to push him from his seat. However, the voice of Ghribba, pushed his mind away from the mire that bogged it, "Return to your positions and prepare, in a few moments the Celestials will be here. I know you all have questions, and answers will be given to you in time. Soros, come with me." With a wave of her hand, Soros and Ghribba vanished, and in one of the greatest towers in Aerovah, a bright silver light bloomed all through its structure that shone on all the disks of this realm, signifying that the Queen had returned. The millions of immortals in the procession looked at each other in disquietness as rapid-fire information passed between them. Most of them were now stuck on Aerovah with the destruction of the Frozen Road, and some of them here were not necessarily allies of the Celestials and were only here for the purpose of trade due to the autonomy of Aerovah and the possibility of still getting certain unique Celestial resources that could be exchanged for great amounts of wealth in distant parts of reality. Although it did not take long for many of them to come to the conclusion that the Celestials may have greater concerns on their minds than immortals who were smuggling contrabands and Celestial resources, the procession soon dispersed, many of them returning to the base of Ghribba’s tower in the hope that they might be able to receive audience from the Queen. ® Ghribba had been quiet for days. Locked inside a temporal field that could stretch a single second to decades if she wanted, she was looking at the seven of her spawns who were lying prone before her in a state of deep slumber. Again and again, her senses pored over every single facet of their being, from the corporeal to the immaterial, she scrutinized their souls, memories, and bodies repeatedly and she saw no changes in their condition, they were her spawn, linked to her body and soul, and yet she knew they were dead and somehow they had returned, the two sets of bloodline crystals inside her soul could not lie. That laughter at the end as that unknown entity delivered a so-called gift to her haunted her consciousness, and Ghribba did not know if the two sets of bloodline crystals in her soul were deliberately put in place by that entity in order to torture her spirit. Your journey continues on freewebnovel A determined glow suddenly lit up inside of Ghribba’s eyes and she arose and pointed her palms at her seven spawns as a bright light bloomed between her fingers. Days passed and a bright light broke the gloom of this space, a massive invisible Celestial presence entered the domain of Ghribba. Her defenses could as well be paper before the might of this Celestial and his light shone over the entirety of this space to reveal the presence of Ghribba on her knees, with the bodies of her seven spawns lying down around her. No longer in deep slumber, they were now dead, their souls were quietly extinguished by their mother and they lay in place as if they were sleeping. They had all rushed to find their mother with joy in their hearts but their fate turned out to be terrible. The light from the Celestial presence pulsed and a single word entered the consciousness of Ghribba, "Why?" She did not reply, simply turned her palm open and in them were fourteen cracked bloodline crystals that she had dug out from her soul. Ghribba whispered, "I did not know if they were my children anymore…"