BXBX NOVEL Chapter 145: Darkness.
"No, beyond that, everything disappeared, his physical self, his spiritual self, but I can still feel his true presence around us." She rubbed her arms and huffed, with that same worried expression. "It is cold..."
"Where did he go then?" Arla asked, and it was Gadriel who answered rather than Ikaris as she too felt the foreign sensation sweeping across them all like a cold winter breeze in the heat of summer.
"I have sensed this once before, when I first gained consciousness." Gadriel tore the air around herself like a physical object and made a thick blanket out of it, hugging herself and looking at her younger sister. "This foreboding power that obeys only one being."
"This is the power of The Beginning."
"The what?" Dina asked confused. "I have never heard that term before."
"No surprises there, the concept is something that not even most gods are aware of." Ikaris scoffed. "The beginning is a conceptual realm, a realm of timeless creation and destruction where all laws fall flat on their face and obey its will, it is where the great darkness was sealed away." She added.
"I never imagined he would immediately be able to go there, or even sense it, I sought that power for millennia unsuccessfully, and only barely grasped its presence when I broke the laws of the universe and summoned him." She admitted, if I could have found it I would have been able to save Atla... I think."
"Why would Sol go to that place though?" Dina pulled her back to their present topic, and Ikaris lowered her gaze.
"I do not know, when he returns you can ask him, I am also curious." Ikaris rubbed her palms over her arms again and took a deep breath when Saleos finally arrived above them staring down. "We have a problem to deal with before then.
***
"So you're the bitch that's been pulling the strings and causing chaos from your cosy little prison here, hm?" Sol asked, leaning backwards and resting on a seat that appeared beneath him.
"Watch your tone-"
"Or what?" Sol asked, staring intently as his hair turned gold.
"I will-"
"You'll what?" He interrupted her again, and she stared at him with her fists balled for several tense seconds before she unfurled them and sighed, relaxing. "That's what I expected. This place doesn't belong to you, you're just a prisoner here, trapped forever in perpetual loneliness, right?" He asked, and she lowered her gaze and looked away.
"Why don't you have a seat." Sol ordered her, leaning comfortably as another chair appeared behind her, and then a table appeared before her with a cup of tea and a tray of biscuits. "This is nice, how long have you been standing in here?" He asked watching her slowly sit with a taken aback expression.
"...Unknown."
"How long have you been here in general?" Sol raised a brow.
"I do not adhere to the concept of time, this place confuses my senses." She answered, and Sol nodded and tapped his leg with a thoughtful gaze at her.
"Well I suppose you deserve that much torture at the very least after what you did." He frowned. "How did you do it?" He leaned forward foregoing all pleasantries as the chair vanished from under her and the tea she was about to sip disappeared along with the biscuits and the table, leaving her on the floor with her eyes wide in shock.
"I do not answer to you!" She stood in opposition.
"You do now." Sol's eyes flashed gold and she stumbled forward and fell to her hands and knees. "Adjust your posture and address me properly." He started sneering, and without missing a beat, she quickly fell into a submissive knowtow with her forehead on her forearms and her legs tucked beneath her. "Good, now speak; how?" He asked again.
"My child-"
"Void?" Sol asked surprised. Ikaris only mentioned the name of the direct descendant of darkness once. "The one who rampaged across universes?"
"Yes." She quickly answered.
"You're trapped in the Beginning, how could you still communicate with him, and isn't he supposed to be dead?" Sol asked.
"That boy... Void is still alive, he gained access to this place a long time ago, I was trapped here by the first, and he was left by himself in Origin."
"Origin?" Sol started tapping his foot as nothing she said made sense. "What the fuck is that?"
"The universe, the first and largest cosmic consciousness; Origin."
"I thought the light and darkness were the first, and then the beginning after." Sol leaned on one leg and sighed.
"We are the first celestial consciousness, origin came after us, the very universe itself lives and breathes,, it sees and knows all, and observes from the sixth dimension." Darkness answered, and Sol raised his head.
"Fine, what of Void and Origin?" He asked, feeling the powerful force that tethered him to the emptiness around him. "Not even Ikaris has access to this place so how did he do it?"
"It is not impossible, Void is powerful, he manipulated Origin into doing his bidding, essentially possessing it..." She paused and looked up at him. "Ikaris ...lives?" She asked.
"Ikaris is my woman." Sol raised his left hand, and the ring appeared over his finger, and then quickly disappeared again.
"I saw her shatter into countless... That should be impossible, Creation and destruction both lost themselves, how could she have loved through that?"
"Don't avert the topic-"
"The goddess of balance should have died with her kin!" Darkness shed Ikaris's appearance, losing her curves and becoming a skinny and malnourished looking-woman with bones sticking out of her back like thorns and soulless eyes that showed no depth. "I did everything, I told him everything, and yet he still failed to kill her!"
"Ikaris is off the menu." Sol didn't even bother to get upset as he stared at her. "Keep talking." He ordered her, and she quickly reverted into the appearance of Arla this time and reassumed her obedient posture before him.
"Void came to me eons ago seeking my knowledge after manipulating Origin, I told him of the centre of the universe he resided in, I told him of the multiple other dimensions that existed in tandem and the children of light, I told him how to manipulate the beginning into doing his bidding, and in the end I was captured and left here, while he seized the source and became -"
"What the fuck is the source??" Sol smacked his forehead. "If you don't summarise right now I'm going to erase you out of existence and leave your empty will behind."
"T-The source is the great power that holds a universe together, Origin's cardinal, its centre, its heart, Void and Origin are one in the same now, they have been for a long time."
"So in short, Void tricked Origin into meeting you, met and hated everyone else, started a war, got you captured and trapped here in The Beginning by the Godslayer, and then went on his merry way after basically taking Origin's place?" Sol stared at her blankly.
"... In summary, yes."
"So then it wasn't you who stared at me earlier it was Void?" He asked, and she nodded with her head still hung low. "Are you aware of anything that has been happening on the outside other than what he's revealed to you?"
"I am not, but I do know that he has cultivated his children and created several thriving civilizations-"
"While destroying countless others-"
"The children of light deserve to be destroyed." She answered without hesitation, and then froze when she realised that Sol had gone silent.
After speaking she dared not look up again, fearing that she would be annihilated as soon as she did.
"What... did they ever do to you?" Sol asked after literal minutes of silence.
"They stole the power we deserved, and tossed us aside, we existed first, we are the higher power..." She quietly replied.
"So basically, nothing... You're just bitter because the Beginning favours light over darkness." Sol stood and spread his hands wide. "I think you still have a lot of time here to reflect on your ways, or rather just stay here forever, it doesn't matter to me, I'll keep this thing as well."
"You are just like the first who called himself Godslayer, same spirit, same mind, same bias for those who dwell in light, darkness will always be more pure, darkness is supremacy!" Darkness snapped when she saw Sol take Orion by his leg and start dragging him while all the comforts he had sat on and enjoyed vanished. "Had you not come we would have never lost!"
"But I did come, and you did lose, right?" Sol looked around at her gesturing to the edges of the endless white void as they started going dark.
"If you love yourself this much then go ahead and live in it forever, you will never see light again, never see or feel yourself again, the darkness I leave will swallow you and leave no trace of yourself behind, you'll live everywhere within this endlessnes, and nowhere at the same time, no top no bottom, no left no right, nowhere, no time, no concept of self, ever again."
Black enveloped everything, and her form vanished with it; the only light came from Sol who had a majestic glow as he stood and slowly floated weightlessly with Orion still in his clutches.
"... Please, do not leave me in this place by myself."
"I'm not obligated to kill you, since you're no demon, but just know, I'm going to kill Void, and all his descendants, Darkness, you'll be alone for the rest of time, and when all the other universes are long gone, this one will still remain hidden deep within the farthest corners of creation, I'm taking The Beginning with me so, feel free to exercise your freedom to dwell in your own shadow."
"Wait!" She screamed, but Sol vanished and everything went with him, there was no sound no sensation, nothing but her, a fate worse than the large endless white space she had been in before.
"Please!" She continued screaming, but he had taken her voice too, there was truly ...NOTHING.
"Cool, now all I have to do is destroy the consciousness of the most powerful being that ever existed." Sol reappeared with a screaming Orion. "Aren't you still having fun?" He grinned.