Chapter 753: Interlude 9 – 1: Elo Katra
"End of Existence"
The Cosmos
Date ???
Year ???
1907th Cosmic Cycle
It was a ’Planet.’
An enigma even among the incomprehensible phenomena scattered across the Cosmos.
Calling it a ’planet’ felt like a disservice to its true nature, yet its inhabitants insisted on the term.
It was where they lived, and if they chose to call it a ’planet,’ then it was.
No argument, no logic, no laws of reality could contest their declaration.
One doesn’t argue with others over what they choose to call their home, after all.
In sheer scale, this ’planet’ dwarfed entire galaxies. What even Deities might consider colossal was insignificant in comparison to this immense entity.
Its mass and structure extended into higher-dimensional planes, visible only to those who possessed the perception to comprehend such layers.
To most, its vastness appeared as a normal three-dimensional landmass, albeit unimaginably enormous.
But to beings of higher dimensions, the true scale of the planet was revealed: shimmering folds of existence, swirling eddies of time and space, and cascading dimensional strata.
The existences who called this cosmic anomaly their home shared its paradoxical nature.
No, it was inaccurate to call them paradoxical. This was simply their normal state.
They moved and interacted as though bound by the same physical laws as normal existences, but a closer look revealed otherwise.
They were entities whose existences were defined by more than three dimensions.
This was ’Elo Katra,’ the ’Planet at the End of Existence,’ the Headquarters of one of the three Major Cosmic Powers, and home to 11 of the Cosmos’ most powerful beings.
And, as Lostvayne would call it, it was the ’Eternals’ Family House’.
◇ ◇ ◇
Despite the grand descriptions, the interiors of the structures in Elo Katra looked rather ordinary.
They were composed of higher-dimensional matter, yes—but beyond that, there wasn’t much that stood out at first glance.
Through the entrance of one such building stepped a handsome, young-looking man with black hair styled in a neat, side-parted undercut.
He wore a collarless tunic with embroidery that ran down the chest, paired with fitted trousers of the same reddish-purple fabric that matched the colour of his triangular, spinning pupils.
"Whew... to think Quinn showed up that fast. That damn bastard Nash," he muttered, cursing the Progenitor Drifter as he twirled a hat on his finger while strolling down the empty hallway.
He had just escaped from the Valmone Universe, bolting the moment he sensed the Progenitor Devil, Quinn, entering the Second Multiverse.
Ranus had absolutely no intention of dealing with her stress right now.
Abruptly, he halted, his gaze shifting to the side as his brow lifted in mild surprise.
"Someone’s here?"
He took a step in that direction, and space folded around him. In a second, he was in another section of the building, in front of a white hammock strung between two trees, with a woman lounging atop it.
She was beautiful, exuding a mature allure that drew the attention of both men and women alike. Her outfit was a simple black one-piece dress that sharply contrasted her pure white hair and pale skin.
As Ranus arrived, her eyes opened, revealing a pair of silver irises. Her black pupils shifted toward him as she spoke.
"Oh, it’s Rany."
"Didn’t expect to see you here, Gyre."
When Ranus replied, the woman frowned faintly and shot back,
"My name is not ’Gyre’."
"And mine’s not ’Rany’."
Ranus retorted just as quickly, strolling past the hammock toward the shore of the ocean of liquefied cosmic energy nearby. Kneeling, he dipped a hand into its glowing depths, completely ignoring her piercing gaze.
"You do know this won’t stop until you quit calling me ’Rany’, right?"
By this, he meant his habit of deliberately calling her everything but her actual name.
"Hmph"
She turned her head with a soft scoff while Ranus began to gently stroke the head of a shark-like creature that surfaced from the cosmic ocean.
"So... what are you doing here?"
"...thinking about my life..."
Gyre, as Ranus insisted on calling her, replied while snapping her fingers. From a nearby door, a bottle of wine floated out and drifted toward her.
Just as she reached out to grab it, a tear split open in the space ahead, and a hand emerged, snatching the bottle away.
She frowned and turned toward Ranus, now holding the bottle, but before she could complain, he spoke.
"You can reflect without drinking my million-year-old dwarven wine. The guy who made this is dead, you know? This stuff’s a limited edition."
"Stingy."
She grumbled that word and snapped her fingers again, creating an exact replica of the bottle in his hands before popping it open.
"Show off."
Ranus rolled his eyes and stood, walking over to her. A table and chair materialised in front of the hammock, and he set the wine bottle down on the table, then sat, before asking.
"So, which part of your life has you stealing my wine?"
"...the romantic aspect..."
She muttered the answer in a voice so faint it barely counted as a whisper, but Ranus heard her loud and clear.
"And out of everywhere in existence, you figured my house was the ideal spot for that kind of thinking?"
"It was the closest."
"Of course, it was. Lazy ass." Ranus sighed, rolling his eyes again as he popped open his wine, conjured a glass, and poured himself a drink before asking,
"So? What major thing happened recently?"
For a moment, she was silent, clearly contemplating whether or not to tell Ranus. Eventually, she sighed and began.
"Well, a few years ago..."
’Years?’
Ranus lifted an eyebrow at her choice of words. He’d asked about something recent, and she was starting with a few years ago?
But a moment later, he remembered that he was the odd one here.
Her perception of time was far from normal. What she called a few years was to her what a few days might be to the average person.
’I guess spending too much time around regular existences has rubbed off on me,’ Ranus mused.
The thought crossed Ranus’ mind as he turned to the woman who had fallen silent once more.
Deciding to mess with her a bit, he took a sip of his wine and teased with a grin, "What’s wrong? Did you two kiss or something?"
"...yes."
The answer came in that same soft, barely-there whisper, and just like before, Ranus heard it clearly, causing him to immediately spit out his drink in shock.
The woman conjured a barrier just in time to block the spray from hitting her, then gave him a disgusted look.
"Disgusting."
Wiping his mouth, Ranus raised his voice.
"That’s not important right now! What matters is what you just said—are you serious? That actually happened?"
"Yes. Also, clean the table. It’s irritating to look at."
Ranus waved his hand, and the spilt wine vanished instantly.
"You two slowpokes—who’ve made zero progress for literal eons even after realising you had feelings—actually kissed?!"
Her brow furrowed at his words.
"What do you mean, ’literal eons’? Why are you making it sound like we’re slow?"
"Because you are!" Ranus shot back instantly.
"Should I call Julio over so she can remind you how long it took just to get you to realise those feelings? Let’s not even talk about the years it took to drag you out of denial. Think about it! Anyone would freak out after hearing this!"
Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, he continued.
"You know what? This is not something I should hear alone. I’m calling Julio—"
Ranus suddenly froze mid-sentence, his expression shifting to one of deep irritation as he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The woman mirrored his reaction with a heavy sigh, understanding the cause behind his reaction.
"...why now?"
"Thinking about it, it’s been about a million years since the last one, so I guess we were due."
He set his wine bottle back on the table and looked at her.
"No matter how much you ignore it, it’s not going away. Let’s just go deal with it."
Still frowning, she whined.
"I don’t wanna go..."
"Tough luck," Ranus said, already opening a rift in space. "We’re the closest ones to it anyway."
Before she could protest further, he grabbed her by the collar of her dress and yanked her off the hammock.
"Let’s go, Kaya."
"Stop calling me things that aren’t my name," she muttered as he dragged her through the rift.
