Chapter 2001: Too High A Price

เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 มี.ค. 2569 08:45

Chapter 2001: Too High A Price "Oh, is that the case?" Eos muttered as he stretched forth his hand and seized Noctis once more. It did not matter that the Primordial tried to struggle, even when he used various unknown methods alien to this Existence; the suction power from Eos’s hand was countless times stronger than what any Primordial could conjure. Already knowing the defenses of his mind, Eos easily crushed Noctis’s defenses, and this time, the consciousness spear he stabbed into Noctis’s core was a hundred. Causing the body of the Primordial to freeze in shock before disintegrating into ash. He had gained ten times more data from Noctis’s mind this time, but Eos was not fully focused on what he had acquired; the major part of his consciousness was on the Essence of Screaming Void in his Origin Realm and noticing the methods it was using to draw upon the power of his Essence to feed the resurrection of Noctis without his consent. With his control over his energy and essence, such a thing should be impossible, but it seemed that rooting Primordials in his realm, while it gave him benefits, also opened a backdoor for manipulation. Inside his Origin Land were streams of Origin Essence from all the Primordials who had rooted themselves in his Realm, he watched the Essence of Screaming Void infect his flesh and draw out power, and while Eos knew he could slow down this process by starving the areas surrounding the Essence of Screaming Void from accessing his energy, this was simply treating the symptoms and not the root cause. There was a rule inside his realm that had taken charge without his knowledge. It was as if he wished for the light and the heat of the sun, but he had been unaware that, as a side effect, the sun came with quite a powerful gravitational force around it. Except that he completely purged his body of the Essence of Screaming Void, his body would always try to feed this Essence power in order to resurrect Noctis. It was as if every Primordial inside him was being seen as his natural defenses, and when they were hurt, his body would attempt to heal them; they were now a part of him. The problem with this was that some of these parts were cancerous, and cutting them out was not that easy. For now, Eos took this option. He isolated the Essence of Screaming Void inside his Realm, and although power still flowed towards it. Eos calculated that with the present transfer rate of power, it would take a few billion years at the least for Noctis to return. Still, it was annoying that he could not do something more permanent to solve this problem at once. However, Eos knew there would be time to sort out this mess later. Right now, there were bigger fish to fry. The Ancient Primordials, Death, and the Abomination had only been pushed back, not defeated, and they would not leave Eos to take charge of all the power inside the Primordial Record. It was a shame that Eos would not be giving them any opportunity to stop him. Eos addressed the New Primordials, "You can all return to your Realms of choice. I would be summoning you all when I am done with the preparation of our outer defenses." They hesitated for a moment before they accepted his words and disappeared into the Origin Realm. Eva looked at Eos, and he smiled at her, and then she nodded and left as well. Turning towards a section of Limbo, Eos gestured, and space parted to reveal a wounded, gigantic turtle carrying thousands of Realities on its back. "You have watched this battle long enough. Why do you still hide?" Eos said to the startled Beast, who had not expected that it could have been so easily discovered. It walked forward, bleeding, its body covered with great injuries that could not heal due to the corruption of Enoch flooding through its veins. Its serpent’s tail had nearly been destroyed with only a little nub left; however, despite all of these injuries it carried, the Beast walked with grace and dignity with its head high. As it emerged from the void in space, the Beast found itself shrinking the closer it came to Eos. Then it realized that it was not Eos that had shrunken down; it was the space around him that had become compacted in such a manner that he might appear twenty feet tall, but the closer you came to him, the smaller you became. With the Beast a few hundred feet away from Eos, it had become as small as a wash basin. "Who are you?" the Beast spoke, "Your name is not recorded on the Cosmic Record, and yet you stand before me a Reality of peerless might. How were you born inside Limbo without being infected by the poison of End that had taken over all of it?" Eos looked deeply at this Beast, and then he sighed, "I can answer all your questions, but first you need to answer mine. What is your relationship with Enoc,h and how did you get to become the Guardian of the Cradle, which turned out to be his secret weapon?" With the mention of Enoch’s name, the turtle bared its square teeth in hatred, as if it wanted to devour Enoch at that moment. "I have no connection with Enoch; we only signed a binding Agreement that states he and his children would not interfere with the Cradle. In return, I, the Beast of Inevitability and the Beast of Final Rest, would not wage war against his children. Now, I can see how foolish my decision was." Eos’s eyes squinted, "What were the details of that Agreement and how did you come to sign it?" The Beast sighed, "Six hundred and fifty million Cosmic Eras ago, the Primordials arose from the ashes of war that swept across several Realities. They displayed their might by consuming seven of the most powerful Realities at that time, and naturally, this drew attention from my brethren and me. We did not know if this was a one-time thing or if these Reality Eaters could be a greater threat in the future, and so we sought them out." The Beast of Inevitability coughed, its body weakening, and although Eos could easily rid it of the corruption of Enoch, he held back. If he did not fully understand the mystery of this Beast, then Eos would kill it. There was a time when he had mercy and tolerance, but at the moment, he could not afford any of those. "We found the Primordials resting from their feast, and I could immediately see the hunger inside of them, and knew that they would not stop their actions. The sacrilege had just begun. I attacked them, but my brother betrayed me. Death aided the Primordials to escape my judgment, and when I asked for the reason he would stand by these abominations, it only gave me cryptic answers that made no sense at that time; only now that I see you, I understand what he meant. Still, the price that was paid for your birth was too high."

React

พูดคุย