Chapter 2011: Changing The Script Eos twisted his hands slowly, and the scenery shifted, and it was not just space that was changing, but time as well. With the right powers and understanding, it was possible to view the past. He showed her a horrible Psychic scar that was left behind after the blow that killed a Primordial. "You say that it was not the sacrifice that matters, but the end result. See that Psychic scar," Eos pointed to the wound inside Existence. "It remained on the battlefield, and Elyria was too weak to cleanse it because she had paid a terrible price to kill her brother, and so she was grievously weakened. However, it would not have mattered even if she were at her peak; she had sacrificed too much in that instant, and the power left behind was greater than her." Eos paused, and he gestured as if he was pulling in the tear in Existence, and the hole began to slowly close. As it did, it began to reveal the remnants of the dozen Realities that once existed here. This Psychic scar had taken form and swallowed all these Realities. "At first, the result of this battle was not detected, Eva," Eos said, "The scars left behind were treated with veneration. It was the spot where their protector sacrificed everything to save them; however, it was the mortals who began to suffer the consequences." Faint screams of pain began to emerge from these shattered Realities that were so heartwrenching, Eva went pale. She recognized these screams to be coming from a Primordial being, Elyria, who once saved all of these Realities. "The mortal children, generation upon generation, were born with a psychic void where the concept of ’sibling’ or ’trust’ should be, and some of them became immortals and pushed this concept to a greater height. Their civilization became a perfect, paranoid machine, efficiency born of emotional sterility. In the end, they calculated that their Primordial Guardian, weakened from the battle that gave them freedom, was an inefficient source of protection and energy. They tore her apart, Eva, using the very power she had gained from her sibling’s sacrifice to fuel their final, joyless ascent into a static, crystalline oblivion. Her sacrifice was to stop End, but what it did was give this force the chance to gather its might and silence her." "The arithmetic was correct, without her presence, all Realities in this corner of Limbo fell, and not even by the hands of the Ancient Primordials," Eos murmured, as the vision faded back to the original broken vista. "One for many. It just failed to account for the poison in the result. The victory was sterile, just a prelude to a slower, more complete death." He looked at Eva. "This is not an argument against you. It is data. The first page of a very long ledger. If you are going to be convincing me of the necessity of sacrifice, you have to know that my judgment is balanced." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 Eva drew in a deep breath; her confidence, so carefully assembled, developed its first hairline fracture. She blinked, still hearing the screams of Elyria in her head. In the end, the Primordial had become filled with hate. Before even these Realities were born, she and her brother had walked through Existence for many Cosmic Eras, and together they had protected these Realities from destruction many times over, but when her brother grew too greedy and wanted to oppress those underneath them, she paid the ultimate price to stop them, but her sacrifice only led to her demise. Her last cries of pain and anger had only led to the growth of End. This was not the example she wanted to show Eos, but her Origin of Revelations was still in its first layer, and she could not see everything quite deeply enough. However, just this revelation she had gained from the past had pushed her to the brink of her Origin Layer, and she knew if she returned, she would be able to ascend to the second layer of Revelations. Still, she was not here for her personal advancement but to aid Eos, and after furiously thinking for a moment, she selected the next target, and Eos took them to that place in the blink of an eye. Eos was a bit surprised at this new location because it was one of the places that the Archai had not recorded, and he was seeing it for the first time. It was a plain of seemingly endless darkness that stretched over a massive area in Limbo, and at the center of this plain of darkness was a gigantic heart that still had life. The heart would beat once every billion years and send reverberations all over the plain of darkness, and when Eos and Eva landed on this plain, they could sense the accumulation of these heartbeats over the many Cosmic Eras. Even after so long, this heart still beats, and even though there was nothing around this heart but a plain of endless darkness, it did not stop its duty, and until Existence ended, this heart would never stop beating. With a step, they appeared beside the massive heart, and Eva spoke outloud, "There is no corruption here, this heart comes from a Primordial of Light, and he ripped out his heart to plug a rift that would have torn through Existence and destroyed countless dimensions around. This single act had saved at least a hundred Realities around this place. Even though these Realities still fell to the Ancient Primordials in the end, these Realities enjoyed many Cosmic Eras of peace, and you should know that for lower-dimensional immortals, even one Cosmic Era is so long for them, it might as well be infinity." She sighed with deep emotion, "There is a place of pure sacrifice. A heart of light, forever in torment, so that all else may know light without pain, even if it was for a short time. This is the ultimate good." Eos was quiet for a while, and then he took a step and appeared on the heart, and Eva followed him. He knelt and placed his hand on the heart, and he closed his eyes; it was as if he was listening to the heart. After a long moment, Eos stood up from his crouched position. He turned to Eva, and for the first time on the journey, she saw a crack in his impassive armor. A faint, horrific recognition. He gritted his teeth and began to speak slowly, "His name was Luosan," Eos said, the words ash in his mouth. "He did not just tear out his heart. He was tricked. The damned ’rift’ that would have shattered these dimensions was a stomach. The ’void’ was a maw. He was not a savior. He is an everlasting meal, his torment the spice. This deception might have been for the sick amusement of the Ancient Primordials, but End feeds on his compassion, drip by eternal drip." He closed his eyes. "I have seen Mercy crucified, and this is just a variation of that travesty." Eva’s face went white, and she stared at the beating heart, now seeing not a noble sacrifice, but exquisite torture. This was not a monument to sacrifice, but the side attraction of a sick mind. Nausea, pure and cosmic, twisted in her gut. ’Hold yourself together, Eva. This would be hard, but you cannot give up now.’