Chapter 823: Memories
[...
This dark space, that weird grey orb, the story, everything in it—it’s all on you.
I don’t know that story. You’re the one who knows it!
I simply took a memory from your soul—one you instructed me to—and told it to you!!]
Those were the exact words they had spoken, and as they began to fade, they said something else.
[I was created for one purpose—to tell you that story. Now that I have, it’s only natural that I return to nothing.]
Above all, the one thing Arthur could never forget was the ’story’ they had told him. A story they claimed was nothing more than memories from his own soul.
|The ten strongest came together to form the Primordials.|
|The Primordials discovered the truth of all existence.|
|They gained knowledge of the impending doom and tried to prevent it.|
Celestia had mentioned it not long ago. The Primordials of the Previous Era had tried to stop the end of their Era.
Arthur recalled the sight of vast armies, numbering in the quintillions of quintillions, with ten figures cloaked in distorted light.
He remembered that one of them was unmistakably a Titan, just like Hyperion.
No... Arthur was certain of it. That was Hyperion.
Then he remembered reality glitching, everything vanishing in an instant, followed by the haunting words:
|Impossible|
|Cannot be Prevented|
|Cannot be Stopped|
|Cannot be Averted|
Hearing those four lines, Arthur had understood that no matter what those soldiers marched for, or what doom they sought to halt, they had failed.
They had perished and been erased from existence, just like everyone else of the Previous Era.
Then he remembered the blood-soaked battlefield, with corpses piled as high as the sky and rivers of blood flowing everywhere.
And, of course, he recalled the next line that followed.
|The Zodiacs Crumble|
Arthur remembered the twelve corpses surrounding him, each bearing a blurred-out crest with a Numeral on the back of their palms.
|Death is Left Alive.|
He remembered the voice of a woman frantically begging him not to do something, and how he had still pushed her into a blank void despite her desperate pleas.
He knew that voice. He had heard it before, in his first dream of that ’Dark Future’. (Chapters 89-90)
And he remembered the voice that came right after.
It was a voice he knew all too well. He had been with the speaker in that first dream of his.
He didn’t see their face, but he saw an identifier. The curly golden blonde hair streaked with silver.
[You’d find me again, won’t you, my dear Master?]
Those were the words spoken... just before the broken sword in his hands shattered into pieces and faded away.
At that moment, Arthur bit his lips silently. Tuning out the arguing voices of Mofil and Lostvayne, he glanced slightly to the right, not enough for a full head turn, but just enough to catch sight of a part of someone’s body he hadn’t noticed before.
The instant he saw it—the blurred crest marked with a symbol of a ’Sword’ overlaid on it—Arthur’s heart sank.
’Celestia...it was Celestia...
There was no longer any denial he could force upon himself.
The sword he’d seen shatter was definitely Celestia.
And Arthur clearly remembered what had come after that sword broke.
He remembered that thing.
That entity.
That voice that sent a chill through his veins, and even now, just recalling it gave him goosebumps.
A dark humanoid silhouette, with two glowing red dots where its eyes should be, and a thin line just above its chin marking where its mouth would be.
One of its hands was slightly extended to the side, holding a giant shard of broken glass radiating a bright light.
He remembered the words that entity spoke:
—Why. Do. You. Fight. Knowing. It. Is. Futile.—
He recalled how the glowing shard brightened until it was unbearable to look at, and when the light faded, he saw a face he recognised.
He’d seen that face barely over a year ago, after all.
White hair, white skin, white gown, silver eyes.
Was there some sort of veil on his memory? He hadn’t made the connection when he’d met her, but now, recalling everything in order, he was certain.
’That was Gaia.’
Then came the line that followed.
|The last one falls|
Preceding the dark silhouette’s words.
—Accept. Your. End. For. It. Is.... Inevitable.—
He remembered it pointing at him, and how he tried to use cosmic energy to leap into a wormhole, but the light shot from its finger struck his chest just before the wormhole closed.
Arthur also recalled the maniacal laughter that followed.
|Chaos Delights|
He heard the voice filled with anger that followed.
|Order Rages|
Then came the silence.
|Balance Slumbers|
These were not memories of a dark future.
That being who resembled him was right.
They were memories embedded in his soul.
Memories of a past that even rebirth couldn’t erase.
Of an event so deeply engraved it could never be forgotten.
Something as significant... as the end of all existence.
’And the entity responsible...’
Just as Arthur thought this, Celestia’s voice echoed in his mind through their connection.
[Master.]
Arthur looked up, meeting her gaze, and as if she knew his thoughts, she said,
[Don’t think it.]
’...’
Celestia, though her expression remained unchanged on the outside, pleaded with him.
[Please, don’t finish that thought you were just about to have. You can’t let that ’thing’ know you still exist, even if it’s in a different form.]
’...’
Arthur quietly took a deep breath, then, turning his gaze ahead, he asked,
’Do you... remember it?’
Celestia was silent for a moment before finally answering,
[Yes.]
Arthur clenched his fist silently, hard enough that he nearly drew blood.
Celestia had just confirmed that her earlier words were a lie.
She couldn’t ’form conjectures about how she ended up in her current state.’
How could it be a ’conjecture’ when she remembered it happening as clearly as day—the feeling and sensation of her existence shattering into pieces?
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Arthur pondered the last three lines of the story in his memories.
The one who Delighted, the one who Raged, and the one who Slumbered.
Now, he knew exactly what... no, WHO had caused the end of the Previous Era.
That Dark Silhouette he remembered was nothing but a manifestation of that thing.
.
The one who lurked in every corner, where disorder reigned.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur took another deep breath, his fingers lightly tapping the edge of his chair’s armrest as he reflected.
’So, I really was the last one, huh?’
If his memories were correct, then he was indeed the final living being from the Previous Era.
The moment Arthur silently admitted this, a faint cracking sound echoed in his ears.
Celestia heard it too, as did Lostvayne.
They all looked around, confused, while the others glanced at them with questioning expressions, wondering why their expressions had suddenly changed.
"What’s wrong?" Berlal asked.
[Didn’t you guys just hear something crack?]
Berlal raised a brow, then turned to the others present, who all shook their heads.
[Weird, I could have sworn I just heard something crack.]
Of course, as beings of the Current Era, there was no way they could hear the sound of Balance’s spell weakening, triggered by the last survivor of the Previous Era acknowledging themselves as a survivor of that Era, and almost thinking of the cause, one of the things it was meant to obscure.
Unaware that his own self-admission had caused the cracking sound, Arthur continued to ponder the end of the Previous Era.
’Where had Hyperion and the Judge of the End been during that time?’
He remembered the shard of light that became Gaia, so he was certain of her location, having witnessed her come into existence at the Era’s end, but the whereabouts and survival of Hyperion and the Judge of the End remained a mystery.
What troubled him even more was something else.
|Death is left alive.|
He recalled the woman who had begged him not to do something, and how he had ignored her pleas and cast her into some kind of void.
’Death, huh?’
Arthur sighed deeply just as Berlal’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Arthur?"
He looked up at her as she said, "You’ve been unusually quiet this whole time."
Arthur replied, "I was thinking about the birth of the Cosmos and the dawn of all existence."
Unless they read his thoughts or memories, Arthur wasn’t about to reveal what he had just admitted to himself.
He had no idea how the Seekers of Truth, Eternals, or Aggressors would react if they discovered he really was that fourth survivor, and he preferred to keep that a secret.
There was a momentary silence after Arthur’s reply to Berlal before Wyndella spoke up.
"That’s quite a leap from what we’ve been discussing."
Arthur simply raised an eyebrow and responded,
"Is it, though? We’ve been talking about the beings from the Previous Era. Shouldn’t understanding the birth of the Cosmos and how everything came to be give us some clues about how they survived the non-existence between the end of the Previous Era and the start of this one?
Has anyone, I don’t know, actually asked them how they managed it?"
Berlal answered, "Of course, people have tried. They just refuse to answer."
Thinking about it, that made sense that they wouldn’t.
"Either they don’t want anyone to know their secret, or revealing it could bring consequences either for them or for whoever they tell."
If that was true, then it was only natural that they remain silent.
Sighing again, Arthur said,
"I’m really tired. I haven’t rested much in the past month, and while I’m physically fine, mentally I’m exhausted. This conversation has only made things worse."
Sensing Arthur was trying to bring the conversation to a close, Berlal asked, "Well, we still don’t know how your Rule Breaker ended up fragmented."
Arthur glanced at Celestia, then back at Berlal.
"Well, I think it’s obvious to everyone here that it happened at the end of the Previous Era.
Celestia confirmed she was created by two Primordial Progenitors who led the effort to stop the Previous Era’s end, and died in the process.
Maybe whatever caused their death also fragmented her. So even though she survived the void of non-existence before this new Era began, like the other Rule Breakers, she remained fragmented, her pieces scattered across the Cosmos."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"She ended up with me, but probably has no memory of how that happened because, if I remember correctly..."
As Arthur trailed off, Celestia spoke up.
[My earliest memories of this Era are awakening in Master’s hands while he was fighting a devil in his home universe.]
"And there you have it," Arthur said with a shrug. "For the record, that was when I was about 13."
Then, looking at Celestia, Arthur asked, "Is there anything you remember that might give us clues about what happened at the end of the Previous Era?"
Celestia’s response was exactly what Arthur expected.
[The memories I recovered cover my early existence, from my creation to a few years later, around the time the impending end of the Era was discovered and the Progenitors began their attempts to stop it.
After that, things become blurry, filled with many blank voids.]
"I suppose you wouldn’t know how the Previous Era actually ended either."
Arthur then called out to Lostvayne.
"Anything on your end?"
[I’ve told you before, Master. Most Rule Breakers weren’t conscious during that event. I was one of them.]
After Lostvayne’s reply, Arthur turned to Mofil.
"As for you and your Seekers of Truth, you’re free to pursue whatever truths you want, but don’t drag me into your schemes. I’ve already got the entire fucking god race to deal with."
With that, he stood up from his seat, rubbing his eyes. "I’m going to sleep. Lostvayne, once you finish arguing with Mofil, come wake me."
Without waiting for a response, Arthur activated his Cosmic Teleporter, opened a portal, and stepped through, disappearing to another continent on the planet.
