Varos was sitting in a lotus position, his breathing unstable, his mind a battlefield of conflicting thoughts. What happened replayed repeatedly in his mind, burning itself into his consciousness.
Furthermore, the taboo knowledge he had obtained from the will was absolute, but it felt like a double-edged blade pressed against his throat.
His emotions churned like a storm, turbulent and unrelenting. The temptation to consume others, to seize everything they were and everything they represented, gnawed at him, an alluring yet perilous desire.
If discovered, he would become the enemy of all, hunted and obliterated by the primordials without mercy.
Yet, a voice within him whispered, relentless and seductive: But don't you want to reach the pinnacle of the universe? Don't you crave dominion over all creation? Don't you—
"Enough!" he roared, cutting off the dangerous thoughts before they could take root. The insanity of his voice startled him, a desperate attempt to silence the chaos within.
"I can't let greed blind me," he told himself, warning himself with a voice of restraint and reason. But another thought surfaced, just as strong and persuasive—"Without greed, you will never reach far. The power you have now is due to your greed for life." The voice of persuasion was getting stronger, and then Visions unfolded before him, illusions of power and sovereignty, of him standing at the peak of the Primordials, ruling over all.
But just as quickly as they came, he would snap back to reality, his fingers digging into his palms, oozing blood.
"What… was that?" he muttered, his voice barely recognizable.
No matter how tempting the knowledge was, his fear of death eclipsed it. The will had offered him a path to greater heights, but one that demanded strength beyond comprehension to walk. Without strength, it was nothing more than a road to destruction.
"He is resisting. Is he that afraid?" Vyrinox's voice carried an amused edge as he observed Varos. He could feel Varos's emotions. His fingers were lazily tapping against his knee. He had been intensifying Varos' greed, feeding him false futures and illusions, where Varos stood above all, where the Primordials bent their knees before him.
Yet, despite the temptation, he hesitated."Maybe your deception Law is losing its edge," Zarrakis remarked casually, his tone as indifferent as ever.
Vyrinox glanced at him, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah… maybe you're right."
He leaned back slightly, arms crossed. "Perhaps it's time I push deeper into the Deception Laws. I need to refine my methods."
Zarrakis barely reacted, offering only a slight nod. Vyrinox's expression shifted, a glint of anticipation flickering in his gaze. "Speaking of which, when can I get my Monolith?"
Zarrakis finally looked at him, his voice even and replied, "Anytime." Hearing this, Vyrinox nodded slowly, his focus drifting back to Varos.
"Interesting…" he mused, watching the struggle unfold. "Let's see how long you can resist."
At the same time in Origin Island.
Lex stood in his garden, carefully tending to the cosmic flora. His hands moved effortlessly through their delicate forms, each plant a manifestation of laws and rules, thriving under his watchful gaze.
But then he sensed a shift in the universe's laws. An anomaly, a foreign presence, entered the universe, something that did not belong. Without hesitation, Lex vanished.
In an instant, he reappeared at the very edge of the universe, where the universe met the unknown. His eyes narrowed as he observed the sight before him.
The expansion resembled a Big Bang, but it was not of creation but of an intrusion.
The universe expanded in chaotic bursts, an endless repetition of explosions. With each expansion, something foreign seeped in. Matter from beyond the cosmos, an uninvited force forcing its way inside.
His gaze settled on the matter, it was mostly grey energy. It swirled, chaotic and untamed, swirling like a massive storm of formless clouds, twisting and moving in unpredictable ways.
Lex extended his perception, scanning its composition—what he found made even him pause. Each atom of this energy was as heavy as a neutron star, an unfathomable density packed into something so minuscule yet alien.
But that was not all. This chaotic grey energy vibrated. A frequency so unnatural that even Lex, a being who stood at the pinnacle of the universe, could not fully perceive it.
There were countless of them, an endless sea of shifting, crawling, writhing grey clouds, moving in a way that defied all logic. They had no discernible pattern or fixed shape—just pure, chaotic motion.
Lex remained still. Watching. Calculating.
For the first time in a very, very long time, He felt something completely unknown. Out of curiosity, he tried to touch this grey, chaotic energy.
But before he could touch the chaotic grey energy, it vanished, not dispersed, not destroyed, but expelled.
The universe—his very body—had rejected it. In mere minutes, it had been cast out as if it were an intrusion that did not belong. Lex stood frozen, fascinated by what he had just witnessed.
The universe was breathing. A slow, imperceptible cycle of inhalation and exhalation, a rhythm so natural yet beyond even his understanding.
And that realization unsettled him.
He, the embodiment of the universe's will, had never once perceived this phenomenon.
Since his rebirth as the Universal Will, his focus has always been inward: refining cosmic balance, shaping laws, and overseeing the flow of existence itself.
Yet, he had never thought to look outward.
He had never considered that the universe might have its instincts separate from him. It was much like the human body. It seemed to operate with an autonomous system, instinctively rejecting anything foreign, similar to how a body would react to infections.
Lex had spent countless eons believing he was the only force governing creation, convinced that nothing moved without his decree. Yet here was proof that the universe had its reactions, defenses, and rhythm. It breathed, it rejected, and it adapted. And he, the supposed embodiment of this force, had never even noticed.
This required thorough investigation, but Lex decided to analyze the aftermath of the chaotic grey energy before delving into the mystery of the universe's breath.
The damage done by the chaotic grey energy in the mere seconds it was in the universe was staggering. What it left behind was not mere destruction but something far worse.
Absolute void.
An empty, dark space stretched before him, a place where even light from distant stars could not penetrate. There was no matter, energy, or remnants of what once existed. It was not merely a wound upon reality.
It was a place where existence itself had been undone. Where even the laws couldn't touch.
After witnessing the unfathomable void left behind, Lex moved toward the source of the expansion, drawn by the need to understand what had truly transpired.
As he traversed the cosmic expanse, he encountered matter unlike anything within his universe—strange compositions, elements that defied his vast knowledge, each piece a silent testament to something foreign.
Then, he saw the culprit.
A floating vast island.
Suspended in the void, drifting like a relic from a forgotten world.
Lex descended on the island, his gaze scanning the ground beneath him. It was not just a lifeless rock; it was a civilization—or at least, what remained of one. Buildings stood frozen in time, their structures weathered but unmistakably artificial. The island was in ruins, a silent graveyard of a world that did not belong to his universe.
This discovery was world-shattering. For Lex, it meant his universe was not alone, and while there was glaring danger outside of it, there was also an opportunity to grow more powerful.
For eons, he had suspected the possibility of existence beyond his own universe, but suspicion was nothing compared to evidence. And now, the evidence stood before him, undeniable and absolute.
Lex moved toward the ancient structures on the island, his gaze drawn to the unfamiliar inscriptions etched above the entrances.
The writings were unlike anything he had ever encountered. They were symbols, glyphs, and patterns that seemed both intricate and chaotic. He stared at them, trying to decipher their meaning. Then, a sharp pain stabbed through his mind.
A headache. A sensation he hadn't experienced in this life. Lex narrowed his eyes, now entirely focused. But the more he tried to comprehend the symbols, the more they slipped away.
The meaning danced at the edge of his understanding, always just beyond reach. And then, something even stranger happened. He shifted his gaze to another inscription, and the first one vanished from his memory.
A deep frown creased his face. He tried again, locking onto one set of glyphs, only for the previous to fade as if he had never seen it.
"What a strange writing system…" he mused, his mind working through possibilities. "This is not just a foreign language. It is designed to be unreadable without sufficient strength." he immediately concluded