Chapter 221: Concepts and Candidates
Concept
It could be defined as an abstract idea or mental image which corresponds to some distinct entity or class of entities.
In the simplest terms, a concept is a name or label that regards or treats an abstraction as if it had concrete or material existence, such as a person, a place, or a thing.
They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks behind principles, thoughts, and beliefs.
Those are some of the definitions of the word; Concept.
In the Cosmos, the definition of a ’Concept’, was not far off from these.
’Concept’ was simply the label that was given to the fundamental building blocks behind the major principles of the cosmos.
An example would be the concept of fire.
If this concept did not exist, there would be no fire in the cosmos. It was as simple to understand as that.
Among the Concepts that existed in the cosmos, there were major and minor ones. The major concepts were the far more popular ones that anyone could think about at the drop of a hat.
An example would be the concept of Fire that was mentioned earlier, the concepts of life and death are also other major concepts.
Minor concepts could be called offshoots of the major concepts, like the concept of Tenebrosity where the law of Tenebrosity was derived from, was actually an offshoot of the concept of darkness.
On a side note, all the universal laws that higher existences comprehended to increase their realm of existence, were derived from these concepts.
That was the origin of the universal laws that all universes in the cosmos abided by, the Concepts.
However, these ’major’ concepts were naturally unstable things and needed to be reined in, otherwise, they would spread their energy all around the cosmos and interfere with each other, resulting in incomprehensible chaos and disorder all around the cosmos.
The ’concepts’ were to the ’Cosmos’, what the ’aspects’ that the main entities of universes presided over were.
In other words, there were beings who presided over the concepts like the main entities of universes presided over the ’aspects’ of their universes.
The identity of the beings who presided over the concepts were the ones known as ’The beings who stand above all Existences’, the second of the three ’Great Powers of the Cosmos’.
The ’Eternals’.
Their true race of origin, was unknown. As was how long these beings had been in existence.
The earliest records of these beings, show that they had already been existing and governing over the concepts, hundreds of billions of years before those records were taken.
What was known, however, was their number.
Formerly Twelve, now Eleven.
They were the race with the least number of members in all of existence.
Each one of them governed over at least two of the major and most unstable concepts.
The power and influence they possessed were comparable to that of the progenitors, hence the reason they were considered a cosmic power on par with that of the progenitors, despite the difference in numbers.
Naturally, they had billions of subordinates working under them to make up for the difference in numbers.
Each of the Eternals was referred to by their rank, title, or both.
Although there was a different method of formally introducing the Eternals, they were usually referred to like that.
For example, the 6th ranked eternal, would be; ’The one who governs over death and darkness’, or ’The Sixth Ranked Eternal of Death and Darkness’.
On a side note, the Eternal who made the deal with Kelly, and the reason she was acting as a watcher, was the 4th Ranked Eternal.
’The one who governed over wisdom and knowledge.’
He was also the one who could be considered the Author of the ’Akashic Records’ as the name of the artifact was derived from his name, but that’s a tale for another day.
The upper Eternals, ranked 1-6, have been confirmed to be the original Eternals and have never changed ever since the Eternals came into existence.
However, the lower ranks, 7-12, have changed multiple times over the past few hundreds of billions of years.
In other words, the beings who held the seat of eternal, presiding over concepts, have met their ends multiple times.
Now then, just who could possess the power to kill these unimaginably powerful beings?
The answer would be the members of the third ’Great power of the Cosmos’.
The ’Aggressors.’
These Aggressors are known as beings who do not agree with the Eternal’s ideals for the Cosmos and seek to bring an end to these Eternals.
They number Eleven, just like the Eternals.
For each Eternal, there is a corresponding aggressor, and similarly, the aggressors ranked 1-6 have been the same ever since the Aggressors were discovered.
The three ’Great Cosmic Powers’, resided and presided over the three major parts of the cosmos.
The Progenitors who ruled over the ’Origin Multiverse’.
The Eternals who governed the ’Numbered Multiverses’.
The Aggressors who reigned over the ’Dark Multiverse’.
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"Hold on a second!! There’s more than one multiverse????!!!!
How’s that even possible?!!!"
Arthur’s loud shout cut Lucifer’s narration short. The images on the film strip around the duo also paused as Lucifer did.
The red-eyed man heaved a sigh and turned to Arthur before asking with a raised eyebrow.
"You refer to all of existence with a word as grand as ’Cosmos’.
Now then, Arthur, how big do you think the cosmos is, that there can’t be more than one multiverse?
If there wasn’t more than one, do you think that there would be a reason to call the sea of universes a ’multiverse’ in the first place?
It would have been a lot easier to refer to everything as the cosmos, don’t you think?"
Lucifer’s questions left Arthur speechless, he pondered on the red-eyed man’s words and realized that was indeed the case.
If there weren’t more than one ’Multiverse’ in all of existence, then there would be no need for the word in the first place.
Even so, for Arthur who only knew that universes were dozens of billions of light-years large and had never seen a universe with his two eyes (Besides the memories from the memory gem), comprehending the size of the Multiverse and the Cosmos the multiverse was inside, was simply impossible.
"Eventually, you would end up leaving this ’Multiverse’, a lot sooner than you may think. At that time, perhaps, you may be able to comprehend."
Without waiting for Artur to understand the hidden meaning of his words, Lucifer continued speaking immediately.
"Can I go on now? I haven’t gotten to what I wanted to explain yet."
Arthur nodded absentmindedly and Lucifer heaved a sigh once more before continuing with his narration.
◇ ◇ ◇
For the beings known as ’Aggressors’ who reigned over the ’Dark Multiverse’, to be able to end the lives of the Eternals, they needed to possess something special.
And that something was a concept.
In order to kill a being who had been chosen by a concept to preside over it, one had to possess a concept themselves.
The Dark Multiverse had its own concepts it ran on, hence the Aggressors who held these concepts, were able to end the lives of Eternals over the years in their numerous battles.
Now then, the Eternals who originally numbered twelve were currently eleven.
The reason for this was simple; one of these Eternals, was dead.
The ’Candidate Selection’, was the process of selecting a new being to take the seat of the deceased eternal.
The ’Candidates’, were as their title implied. Potential replacements for the deceased Eternal.
As for what eternal these candidates were potential replacements for, it was very obvious from the Aspects of Laws that these Candidates possessed.
The vacant seat was that of the 3rd Ranked, the ’Eternal of Time and Destruction’.
Dozens of billions of years ago, the Eternals and aggressors battled each other.
During that battle, one of the upper-ranked Eternals perished for the first time. However, this eternal did not perish alone. He took with him, his killer, the ’Aggressor of Time and Destruction’.
Ever since, the position has remained vacant, and the concepts had not chosen any new replacements.
As such, the Eternals, began the candidate selection, to produce potential replacements for the deceased eternal of time and destruction.
That was the reason behind the candidate selection.
The chosen beings who possessed absurdly high affinities for the laws of time and destruction were given ’Aspects’ of these laws. These were the candidates.
These ’Aspects’ granted them forms of undeniable truth and authority over certain aspects of the respective laws.
For example, the candidate who Diablo killed after the Nemo Galaxy auction, had the Aspect of Time: ’Reversal’.
These ’Aspects’, could be seen as half-concepts, as such, they required existences capable of wielding the most powerful energy in the cosmos, cosmic energy.
This was why the minimum requirement to be a ’candidate’, was to be a sub-cosmic being.
That was the truth behind the candidate selection, as well as the truth behind the cosmos.
