Chapter 4873: Existence Is! II
Chapter 4873: Existence Is! II
The words were unfathomably calm, and Origin found herself searching within them for emotion that matched her own. She wanted to see pain. She wanted to see remorse that burned as hot as her anger. She wanted to know that her suffering had meant something to him beyond mere acknowledgment!
But she couldn’t find it.
Not the emotion she wanted, anyway.
THE Creature’s apology was sincere, but it was also the apology of a being who existed on a level where individual suffering, no matter how profound, was just one thread in an infinite weaving. He meant his words, but he couldn’t feel them the way she needed him to feel them.
She breathed out and controlled her existence, forcing the trembling of her form to still as she asked the question that had haunted her since her reconstruction.
"Why did you allow me to be collapsed?"
Her voice was steadier now, colder.
"The more I think of it, the more I can see that Paradox shouldn’t have had the power he had. Even if he supposedly took your heart by using Anaximander, even if you were chained, you are powerful. You were powerful."
Her eyes narrowed.
"So really, why...did I have to be collapsed? Why did you allow it?"
There were many whys she wanted to ask, but this was the critical one. This was the question that would determine whether anything between them could ever be salvaged.
THE Creature looked at her with a gaze that truly wanted to portray how he felt, the multicolored flames parting slightly as if to allow her to see more of his expression. What she saw there was not cruelty. What she saw there was not indifference.
What she saw there was the certainty of someone who had made calculations that others couldn’t understand.
"At that time, I mistakenly believed that it was all...for the sake of adversity."
BOOM!
As he said this, his finger tapped out in a gesture that was almost casual, and in the next moment the aura around THE Living Origin exploded with power that she hadn’t fully realized she possessed.
While she was sitting down, milky white light erupted from her existence as an aura of Absolute radiated outward with intensity that made the temple’s stones tremble. A heavy aura filled with Immensity that spoke of foundations forged through genuine hardship, through genuine suffering, through genuine loss.
And it continued rising.
The power climbed nonsensically higher, revealing depths to her foundation that THE Creature’s gesture had unlocked or perhaps simply revealed with a tap!
From Half-Step Absolute to Absolute with a tap!
But even as she felt this Immensity, her eyes were those of anger as she wanted to rebuke THE Creature.
For adversity?
For adversity?!
"One of the many mistales I made. I should have communicated with you more clearly on it."
THE Creature’s voice remained calm despite her obvious rage.
"I should not have been passive. But the hardship you and many others went through forged a grand foundation for your existences. It made Absolute possible for beings who might otherwise have never reached it."
His multicolored flames pulsed with something that might have been pride in what she had become.
"And it altered your existences to allow THE Second Scale of Existence to be possible for many."
BOOM!
...!
The words caused Origin to become even more ashen as her eyes grew cold with understanding that she didn’t want to have. The implications of what THE Creature was saying pressed against her mind with weight that threatened to crush everything she thought she knew about her own existence.
She looked at THE Creature with eyes that held ice rather than fire.
"THE Loom. THE Fallout. THE Living Paradox."
Her voice was quiet now, dangerously quiet.
"If you wanted, could you have stopped all of it?"
The question was a terrifying one, and the silence that followed was even more terrifying.
"..."
THE Creature did not answer.
And this alone caused the eyes of Origin to flash with Immensity as she understood that this non-answer was its own answer.
He could have stopped it! He could have prevented THE Fallout from ever occurring. He could have prevented the devastation that had reshaped Observable Existence!
But he had chosen not to.
For the sake of adversity.
"Haha..."
She couldn’t help but laugh, the sound hollow and bitter in the sacred space of the temple.
"Right. You are THE Creature. The entity that seemed so otherworldly and strong. I always found myself questioning how you could have been defeated by THE Living Paradox, how you could have been chained and had your heart stolen."
Her laughter died, replaced by a smile that held no warmth.
"It turned out you were playing games that us lesser minds didn’t even deserve to know about. How grand. How majestic you are, O Creature!"
Her words turned biting at the end as she rose from her seated position, her chest heaving with anger that she no longer tried to suppress. The Civilizational Authority around her trembled with agitation that made the temple’s multicolored stones flicker wildly, responding to her emotional state.
She looked straight into the eyes of THE Creature.
THE Creature looked back, and within the eyes of this entity shrouded by multicolored flames, there was a sense of true apology that went deeper than his earlier words had conveyed. He understood her anger. He accepted it as deserved. And yet he couldn’t fully regret his choices because those choices had led to outcomes that served purposes she couldn’t yet comprehend.
"Many things were done wrong, Ljósmóðir."
He used her ancient name, the name she had held before becoming THE Living Origin, and the familiarity of it made her chest tighten.
"We all live and learn. The ends do not always justify the means. I am trying to do things differently."
His voice, even though still grand, was earnest in a way that she hadn’t heard from him in eons.
"But know that what I did, while for myself, was also for you and many others."
Origin listened to his words as her chest stopped heaving, the anger slowly settling into something colder and more permanent. She smiled brilliantly, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes as she turned around from THE Creature.
"Did you get what you wanted?"
She asked this question without looking back at him.
"Do you have your Second Scale of Existence under your grand thumb?"
...!