Chapter 252: Time... Ticks (5)
"No... an incursion?!"
The words escaped the lips of the Supreme God of One Book, laced with both fear and disbelief.
An incursion was something he had never personally experienced, yet he understood better than anyone else alive—or otherwise—what it truly meant.
In fact, he was quite literally the only being in the entire Universe with even the faintest grasp of its reality.
The Supreme God of One Book, as mentioned before, held authority far beyond the Stage Two Pantheon he presided over... and that was because he was no ordinary entity.
He was an Anchor—more precisely, the Anchor of this entire Universe and Minor Existence.
But this was not to be confused with the Universal Consciousness.
Universal Consciousness, or any consciousness, differed fundamentally from Anchors, as they dictated the aspect ranks across the Universe.
Whether a being could be born with something at the Above Origin rank depended entirely on the state of its consciousness.
All such consciousnesses formed an intricate web, inevitably linking to the greatest consciousness within a specific section of Cosmology.
Just as worlds linked to star systems, and star systems to star clusters, this chain of connection continued endlessly.
In the vast expanse of Pantheos, there was typically a consciousness presiding over each level of cosmology—but Anchors were unique.
There was only ever one Anchor for each multiverse or minor existence.
Their sole purpose was to ensure that the segment of Cosmology they supported remained intact.
They were, in every sense, the lifeline of their Minor Existence or Multiverse... and if an Anchor were to perish, their entire cosmology would collapse with them.
As the feeling of an incursion gripped the Supreme God of One Book deeper, he rose from his desk, the movement at once graceful and heavy with dread.
In this moment, it was as if every essence in his bod... now thrummed with the tremor of imminent collapse.
He paused, his hand curling into a trembling fist.
"I thought... this only happened... if I died?" he whispered, the words barely audible as he struggled to piece together the sudden cause of this incursion.
Incursions were considered end-of-times events... something that brought on the complete and utter collapse of entire cosmologies.
Yet, they could only occur under one known catalyst—if an Anchor died.
When that happened, the now Anchorless cosmology would "crash" into the nearest, most damaged cosmology.
The result was an incursion—an event that would destroy both cosmologies. In one, destruction would be instantaneous; in the other, it would come as a slow, inevitable death.
However, it was clear that the Supreme God of One Book was not in any way damaged, which was the main source of his confusion.
What he couldn’t have possibly known—something that even most beings in Pantheos were unaware of—was that there existed another circumstance under which incursions could happen.
And the simplest explanation for it all was just one thing: power.
At that moment, the Supreme God of One Book didn’t head for the exit of his chambers, but instead stepped into a separate room.
"I must... seal myself for now," he muttered under his breath.
As noted before, he had never experienced an incursion before.
Yet, with the simple awareness that he might one day be the cause of such an event, he set about preparing contingencies, just in case.
HUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
As he took his first step, the world seemed to tilt beneath him, a disorienting shift that left him reeling.
Then, in an instant, he found himself utterly powerless for the first time since the dawn of this reality.
"No... no... why... can’t I move?" he gasped, his voice trembling as shock gave way to creeping terror.
"Is... it already too late?"
He hadn’t even made it out of his chambers—hadn’t even stepped far from his desk—when it happened.
Now, frozen in place, his pale skin, traced with the faintest lines of age, began to crack along his arms.
The fissures spread like spiderwebs, climbing upward, splitting through the white strands of his hair, the black tips flaring with an intense, searing light.
The sensation was exquisite agony: each split a river of fire, each burst of light a memory of creation and destruction entangled.
"No....no! Why is this happening?!"
His voice broke as the agony intensified, drowned beneath the tide of light.
In that suspended heartbeat, his form could endure no more.
HUMMMMM!!!!
His body burst apart in a strange, almost beautiful way.
Pieces of his form scattered like petals caught in a cosmic wind, fading into glowing specks of light.
From deep within... a portal opened—a tear in reality edged with the light of both destruction and renewal, pulling with a quiet promise of the unknown.
From the blooming portal, black light surged; it was like a void-like radiance, cold and consuming... it was a force that devoured anything in its path.
The darkness didn’t seep; it flooded, threading its way through the fabric of the universe, weaving through the cosmic web, invading every galaxy, every world, every trembling soul.
It was like a nightfall, moving with a will and hunger that drowned out the Supreme God’s silent scream.
Within the heart of the portal, visions flickered with dizzying speed.
The surface of the tear became a shifting window: across one world, armies clashed beneath shattered skies; on another, oceans boiled as titanic beings wrestled in the deep; elsewhere, cities crumbled in silence, their denizens reaching for salvation that would never come.
Universes collided, stars unraveled, and the cries of trillions... all desperate, furious, resolute—made a tapestry of chaos and defiance.
Yet amid the maelstrom, the vision slowed, settling upon a single tableau: an elven paradise untouched by calamity.
Verdant forests unfurled beneath golden sunlight, ancient trees arching their emerald canopies over wildflower-dappled plains.
At the heart of this beauty rose a colossal tree, its trunk vast as a mountain, its leaves shimmering with every hue of green and silver.
The air shimmered with life and grace, and the world itself seemed to breathe in tranquil rhythm.
HUMMMMMM!!!!
As the vision held steady, a sudden flare of viridian brilliance erupted from the portal.
The green burst split the darkness, arcing with purpose across the cosmos, racing toward a... certain Eternal Goddess, as if guided by fate itself.