Chapter 108: Genesis of the Epoch
Lea refused to entertain the thought.
Whatever was hunting her through this gray void, she wouldn't acknowledge it.
She just ran.
The crimson tree grew impossibly large before her. Its bark was covered in pulsing veins, darker red channels that flowed with something that might have been blood or sap or neither. The trunk stretched upward forever, vanishing into the featureless gray above.
The sounds of dried leaves crunching are closer than ever.
Ignore it. Just run!!
Lea's cursed form blazed with black and golden light, burning through her existence to maintain speed. The ground blurred beneath her. The tree consumed her entire field of vision.
Almost—
Her hand touched the bark; the surface was warm, as if alive. It pulsed beneath her palm like a heartbeat.
And then—
CRACK
Reality split, making way for a pale stone gate to materialize directly in front of Lea. Its surface was covered in strange geometric patterns that hurt to look at, angles that shouldn't exist, curves that folded in on themselves.
The gate then opened.
"No—!", Lea tried to pull back.
But it was too late.
Invisible force seized her, dragging her through the gate against her will.
And Lea fell into infinity.
Stars, galaxies, nebulae in colors that had no names. The cosmos stretched in every direction, vast and beautiful and wrong. Because all of it was arranged in a pattern.
An eye.
The entire visible universe formed a massive eye, staring at her with awareness that made her soul scream.
And standing at the center of that cosmic pupil was a figure in a jester's costume.
"Praise be to the Lofty Clown!!", they announced in a child-like voice, spreading their arms wide, "The Foolish One who hopes to save the universe!!"
Bashie Mahzala the Shapeless Comedy. The God of Order. The one who'd saved her from the faceless demons the first time they showed up.
Lea didn't hesitate. Her Judgement Blade manifested, and she lunged, all her rage and terror and fury channeled into a single strike aimed at the jester's heart.
All she could see was red.
The blade carved through Bashie Mahzala, splitting them cleanly in half into a shower of confetti.
Multi-colored paper pieces fluttered through the cosmic void, shimmering with impossible light. And standing exactly where they'd been before, completely unharmed, was Bashie Mahzala.
"Let it all out~", they said gently, "Let all of your anger out."
"Fuck you!", Lea screamed, slashing again.
Another strike. Another explosion of confetti. Another instant reappearance.
"I completed my Fourth Step!", Lea's voice cracked, tears streaming down her face, "I did everything right!! I got stronger!! And what did it get me?!"
"A fucking spider monster tortured me!! Made me hunt my friends!! Made me a puppet!! And then those demons dragged me to that place! That horrible place where people rot forever!"
"I thought... I thought becoming stronger would help...", Lea's strikes grew wilder, more desperate, "But every time I get confident, every time I think I can handle it, the world throws something WORSE at me!"
Slash slash slash
More confetti, and each time, The Shapeless Comedy reappears.
"Sinclair destroyed my home!! The Tome of Light nearly killed me! I think Charlotte is manipulating me!! And now I can't even exist without being hunted by things I can't understand!!"
Bashie Mahzala took each strike without resistance, their form shattering and reforming endlessly. Their voice remained soft, soothing.
"You're right!!", their arms flail in the air, "You don't deserve this unfairness!!"
Lea destroyed their form again.
"The universe has been cruel to you.", they continued after reappearing, "More cruel than any mortals should ever experience!!"
She stabbed them in the chest again.
"But you must go on strong.", they said gently, "Because giving up means they win, means all your suffering was for nothing!!"
"I DON'T CARE!", Lea screamed, her blade carving through them again and again, "I don't care about winning or losing or any of it! I just want it to STOP!!"
Slash slash slash slash
Her movements grew slower, weaker. The cursed energy sustaining her was burning out.
"I'm so fucking tired...", Lea whispered, her final strike barely making it halfway to Bashie Mahzala before dissolving, "So... so tired..."
Her blade vanished. Her armor cracked and fell away. Lea collapsed to her knees in the cosmic void, surrounded by drifting confetti.
The Shapeless Comedy simply knelt down and gathered Lea into their arms, cradling her like a child.
"I know.", they whispered, "I know you're tired. I know it hurts."
Lea sobbed into their jester costume, all her rage finally spent.
"Let me tell you something.", Bashie Mahzala said softly, their child-like voice somehow carrying infinite weight, "Existence is meaningless. The universe doesn't care about your suffering, it doesn't care about fairness or justice or any of it."
Lea's shoulders shook with silent tears.
"So why don't we give it meaning?", the jester continued, "That's the motto of us Jesters of Light, chosen by The Universal Matrix. Existence is meaningless, so why don't we give it one?"
They gently stroked Lea's golden hair.
"To light up the universe in brilliant light and laughter, to give all a smile on their face. That's our purpose. That's what we fight for."
"If I can't even make a person right in front of me smile, then what is my purpose?"
"I can't...", Lea managed, "I can't smile. Not anymore."
"Not yet.", Bashie Mahzala agreed, shaking their head, "But someday, when you're strong enough, when you've conquered the darkness inside and out..."
They pulled back slightly, their masked face looking down at her.
"And speaking of conquering, you did something remarkable!!"
Lea looked up, confused.
"You are the first!!", Bashie Mahzala said, wonder in their voice, "The first to escape the Realm of the Lord of Abyssal Depth!! The first Dreamer to fight their way out of Dream's Graveinstead of rotting there forever!!"
"What...?", Lea's voice was hoarse.
What did I do... she wondered.
"That place you were trapped, that was the True Labyrinth of the Mind. A small part of the Lord of Abyssal Depth's Realm in the Immaterial, where it tests all who seek to reach the Fifth Step."
Bashie Mahzala's diamond eye symbol glowed brighter.
"Most who enter never leave, they're consumed by despair, transformed into those grotesque shapes you saw. But you refused to yield, to break!! Your anger, your indignation, your sheer stubborn will to survive!!"
The jester smiled behind their mask. What they said was an implication, the truth that the Divine Domain on this planet was merely an imitation. Lea had survived the real thing.
"It proved you have what it takes to conquer that domain!! The Lord of Abyssal Depth has granted you the right to use its powers. You've passed the trial without even realizing it!! Yay!!"
Lea stared, unable to process the words.
"When you return to the real world, you'll be able to enter the Divine Domain, the Labyrinth of the Mind, just as you planned. You've already survived the real Realm."
"The journey will be much simpler!!"
They stood and pulled Lea to her feet.
"I'm giving you a Title!!", the Shapeless Comedy declared, their voice resonating with divine authority, "A blessing from the God of Order, a crown for the one who escaped the inescapable!!"
They reached out and touched Lea's forehead, and power flooded through her.
Cool, orderly, and structured. The opposite of her chaotic Malediction.
"I name you Faceless Twilight.", Bashie Mahzala proclaimed, "Blessed of the God of Order. The one who walks between darkness and light. The one who conquered despair itself."
The title settled into Lea's soul like a brand, permanent and unchangeable.
"There's only one thing I ask in return.", the jester said, their tone becoming more serious, "After you go to Australia, after you enter the Divine Domain and reach Fifth Step..."
They looked directly into Lea's golden eyes.
"Take the ring containing my fragment from Sinclair Apocrypha. She's been using my power without permission for far too long, I want it back to its rightful master."
Lea widens her eyes, "Sinclair? She has a piece of you?"
"A ring on her left hand contains an Avatar of me. That's how she maintains the Veil so perfectly, and how she orchestrates events with such precision when combined with her abnormal nature. I am her source of Veil."
Bashie Mahzala's voice hardened.
"Get it back for me however you can. That's all I ask."
Before Lea could respond, the cosmic void began to fade. The eye of galaxies dissolved, and Bashie Mahzala's form shimmered.
"Good luck, Faceless Twilight!!" the jester's voice echoed as everything went white.
"The next time we meet, I hope to see a beautiful and bright smile on your face!!"
=0=0=
Lea's eyes snapped open.
White ceiling, sterile smell, steady beeping of medical equipment... a hospital room.
She sat up slowly, her body aching but whole, no longer translucent. The curse she'd placed on herself lingers; its effects remain, and she could still feel the restlessness of the curses she put on herself.
"Patient is awake!", a nurse's voice came from somewhere nearby, "Call the doctor—"
Lea didn't wait.
Shadow Sneak activated. She melted into the shadows beneath the hospital bed and moved, phasing through walls, through floors, through the building itself.
She emerged in an alley three blocks away, gasping, her golden eyes blazing in the darkness. Looking around, she realized that this was still Umbros, the city half destroyed and under construction.
Jim would be worried, Solafant would want to help, and Dawn would demand explanations.
But Lea couldn't face them.
Not yet.
She'd been a puppet, a burden. Someone who needed constant saving.
No more...
The title burned in her soul... Faceless Twilight, the Blessed of the God of Order, The Shapeless Comedy.
Lea looked down at her hands; the corruption was replaced by the faint golden marks of her curses.
She would go to Australia alone, enter the Divine Domain alone, and reach Fifth Step and claim her power alone.
And then...
Then she would take that ring from Sinclair with whatever means she has.
Lea pulled her hood up, her Cloak and Silence merging to make her invisible to the world. She was a Dreamer on a mission now. And nothing would stand in her way.
She stepped into the shadows and disappeared, leaving the hospital, her friends, and her old life behind.
The hunt for Fifth Step had begun.
=0=0=
"Ah, so she had left my protection.", Charlotte closed the book she had been reading.
Her tone was not one of displeasure, nor was it disappointment. It was just a passing statement.
"Well... we should get moving.", she turned her head around, facing the eyes devoid of light and a wide smile.
"Don't you think so, Sinclair?"
"Yes~ but are you willing to accept a 'downfall', Charlotte? With how much pride you have, I never thought you would do this!!", she smiled, tapping her chest.
"Miss Mashhith" manifested, standing in front of Sinclair.
"It has been fun, hasn't it?", Sinclair asked, seemingly nostalgic.
The wrongness vibrates, seemingly saying something.
"For the future of this world~"
A light erupted from her chest, she reached into it, and pulled out a rapier-like weapon without a guard, without a handle. Just a golden nail.
"I declare as the Endling of Earth, I shall deny your existence."
She pointed the nail toward "Miss Mashhith", who was standing still.
"I shall cleave nature, destroy all you have built."
The library began to shake, as if fearing what was happening. Yet the four— no, three people in this place paid no mind.
"Stellarum Negata (Star Denier)."
Sinclair thrust the nail into "Miss Mashhith", causing the entire library to scream...
Sinclair withdrew the golden nail with practiced ease, its surface now slick with something that wasn't quite blood. "Miss Mashhith" began to dissolve, its wrongness unraveling like a poorly sewn tapestry.
"Well then~", Sinclair said cheerfully, tucking Stellarum Negata back into the light within her chest, "I have other matters to attend to, toodaloo~!"
She waved goodbye with theatrical flair, blowing a kiss toward Charlotte, "Do try not to lose too badly, darling. It would be terribly boring otherwise."
Then she turned around a corner, vanishing.
Charlotte watched as "Miss Mashhith" finished dissolving, splitting into two distinct forms.
One was another Sinclair, identical to the one who'd just left, was standing with the same unsettling smile.
The other...
A translucent figure, burning like a flame.
"It has been fun with you~", Sinclair narrowed her eyes, "All you have to do now..."
"Is to reclaim my place as The World amidst the chaos.", the figure finished in an echoing, ethereal voice.
A portal opened behind Sinclair, she gave the figure a bow.
"I wish you the best on your journey!!"
The figure nodded and stepped through the rift in reality. At the same time, the library began to crumble, its form vanishing with the departure of the figure...
"You know, this place should've suppressed any form of power.", Sinclair began, turning to Charlotte, "But I still can't explain how you do you!!"
The Chalk Princess had just recreated a section of the library, mainly the table and chairs. Where she casually sits on the seat of honor, reading a book she created herself.
She answered, "Bitch, I am Charlotte Silvi, the Argent Monarch of Humanity. I do whatever I want when I see fit, how I see fit."
"That doesn't even make sense!!"
The world turns once again as a new chapter of history writes its first line.
The Savior points his sword toward the North.
The Shepherd smiles as she treks across the Great Desert.
The Everflame of Justice burns brighter.
The Wheels of Equilibrium turn.
The Raidiant Thing stirs the tides.
The Scholar began to extrapolate fate.
The Bard sings of tales yet to be told.
The Overseer kept on watching.
The Blood Soaked Boar had found its next hunt.
The Director readied his next script.
Progress itself crowned a new champion.
The Merchant calculates their next venture.
The Slumbered Beast sang its melodies.
The Fragmented One awakened again.
The Jester awaits their rightful master.
The Blade hopes for a Wielder.
And Truth seeks its Master.
A battle of mythology is about to begin.
In the Velvet Tragedy, silver and black smiles.
"Let the show begin."
Both of them announced.
=0=0=Genesis of the Epoch=0=0=
Begin