Chapter 119 – The Memory of Their Beginning
The door opened without resistance.
Beyond it was a vast chamber filled with darkness.
Not the darkness of Oblivion.
Azrael knew the difference immediately.
This darkness felt empty, almost peaceful, as though the room had been waiting for someone to enter.
Seraphina stepped through first, and the moment her foot touched the floor, countless points of golden light appeared around them. They spread through the darkness like stars, gradually revealing an enormous circular hall.
There were no walls.
No ceiling.
Only an endless field of stars surrounding a circular platform.
Azrael looked around carefully. "This isn’t another ordinary floor."
The Tower System appeared.
[Tower System]
Floor 38 – The Memory of Separation
Objective:
Witness the preserved record.
Combat: None.
Time Limit: None.
Restriction: Memory cannot be altered.
Proceed.
The System disappeared.
The stars around them began moving.
One by one, they formed images.
The first image showed a world filled with golden light.
A civilization of beings with wings lived beneath an enormous sky. Their cities were beautiful, their architecture unlike anything Azrael had seen in the current realms.
Seraphina stared at them.
"The First Heaven."
Azrael nodded.
But the memory quickly moved beyond the peaceful civilization.
The seven custodians appeared.
Six stood together.
The seventh remained apart.
Then something unexpected happened.
The Origin Custodian turned toward the twins.
Not toward the people inside the memory.
Toward them.
Azrael’s expression changed.
"That shouldn’t be possible."
Seraphina felt it too.
The memory wasn’t simply playing.
It was responding to their presence.
The Origin Custodian raised one hand.
The scene froze.
The six custodians disappeared.
The First Heaven vanished.
Everything became white.
Only the Origin Custodian remained.
Its featureless face turned toward Azrael and Seraphina.
"You have come farther than expected."
Seraphina stepped forward.
"Are you really part of the Tower’s records?"
The figure remained silent for several seconds.
Then it answered.
"I am part of what the Tower remembers."
Azrael narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?"
The figure didn’t answer directly.
Instead, it looked toward Seraphina.
"You carry Genesis."
Then it turned toward Azrael.
"And you carry Oblivion."
The twins exchanged a glance.
"We know that already," Azrael said.
"No."
The figure’s voice remained calm.
"You know what you carry. You do not yet understand why you were given it."
The stars around them changed.
A new memory appeared.
It showed two immense forces existing together.
Genesis and Oblivion.
They were not people.
They were not gods.
They were fundamental forces moving through existence.
Where Genesis passed, stars were born.
Where Oblivion passed, dying stars finally disappeared.
Neither fought the other.
They moved together.
The cosmic cycle continued naturally.
Then the Seven Custodians appeared.
Six of them watched from a distance.
The seventh stood between the two forces.
The Origin Custodian spoke.
"They feared what they could not control."
The memory showed the six beginning the separation.
"But fear was not the only reason."
Azrael’s eyes narrowed.
"What else?"
The figure answered.
"They believed existence needed rulers."
Seraphina frowned.
"They wanted control."
"They wanted certainty."
The memory shifted.
The six custodians began creating laws.
Boundaries.
Realms.
Systems of order.
They wanted existence to follow predictable rules.
Genesis and Oblivion did not.
Their cycle allowed worlds to emerge unexpectedly, evolve beyond expectations, and disappear when their time was complete.
That uncertainty frightened the custodians.
"So they broke the cycle," Seraphina whispered.
"Yes."
The memory showed the chains wrapping around Genesis and Oblivion.
But this time, Azrael noticed something he hadn’t seen before.
The seventh custodian wasn’t simply standing there.
It was fighting the others.
The Origin Custodian attacked the six.
The battle shook the entire memory.
The six eventually overwhelmed it.
But before they could finish the separation, the Origin Custodian reached toward the two forces.
A fragment of Genesis was drawn toward one side.
A fragment of Oblivion toward the other.
The fragments became two small points of light.
Two souls.
Two future vessels.
Azrael stared.
Seraphina’s breath caught.
"The twins..."
The Origin Custodian looked at them.
"Yes."
The memory changed again.
The two lights traveled through countless worlds.
They passed through different realms.
Different civilizations.
Different eras.
Until they eventually reached the mortal world.
But the memory became distorted before showing their birth.
Azrael immediately recognized the distortion.
"Origin Concealment."
The Origin Custodian nodded.
"The truth of your beginning was sealed."
"By who?" Seraphina asked.
The figure remained silent.
Azrael stepped closer.
"Was it the six custodians?"
"No."
"Was it you?"
Again, silence.
Then the figure finally answered.
"Not entirely."
Azrael’s eyes sharpened.
"What does that mean?"
The memory began collapsing.
The Origin Custodian’s form started fading.
Seraphina reached forward.
"Wait!"
The figure looked at her one final time.
"You were not created to restore what was lost."
Seraphina froze.
Azrael stared at the figure.
"Then why were we chosen?"
The answer came quietly.
"Because the cycle must become something greater than it was."
The chamber fell silent.
The figure disappeared.
The memory ended.
For several seconds, neither twin spoke.
Seraphina finally broke the silence.
"Something greater..."
Azrael looked at the empty space where the figure had stood.
"That changes everything."
Caelan approached them carefully.
"So you weren’t brought together simply to restore Genesis and Oblivion."
"No," Seraphina said.
She looked at Azrael.
"We’re supposed to decide what comes next."
Azrael nodded.
For the first time, the purpose behind their journey felt different.
They weren’t walking toward some predetermined destiny.
They weren’t simply destined to repeat an ancient cycle.
They had inherited two forces that once existed together, but they weren’t required to recreate the past.
They could change it.
The Tower System appeared again.
[Historical Record Witnessed.]
[Major Historical Fragment Restored.]
[Genesis–Oblivion Separation: Partial Truth Acquired.]
[Twin Resonance Recognized.]
[Special Condition Fulfilled.]
[Floor 38 Complete.]
The chamber began disappearing.
The stars faded one by one until only a staircase remained.
This staircase was different from every one before it.
There were no dozens of steps.
There was no massive structure.
Only a short staircase leading to a single platform.
At its end stood a black door.
A golden line divided the center of the door.
Seraphina looked at it.
"Floor 39."
Azrael nodded.
They began walking.
As they approached, the Tower System appeared one final time.
[Floor 39 – The Choice of Genesis and Oblivion]
Warning:
This floor contains the final preserved record concerning the Separation.
The record cannot provide complete truth.
The final answer must be discovered beyond the Tower.
Proceed.
Azrael stopped before the door.
"So even the Tower doesn’t know everything."
Seraphina smiled.
"Maybe that’s the point."
He looked at her.
She continued, "The Tower preserved what history tried to erase. But it was never supposed to give us every answer."
Azrael placed his hand against the door.
"Then we’ll find the rest ourselves."
Seraphina placed her hand beside his.
Together, they opened the door.
Beyond it was not another battlefield.
It was a throne room.
And at its center stood two empty thrones.
One golden.
One black.
Between them was a third throne.
Unlike the others, it had no color at all.
No symbol.
No name.
Just an empty seat waiting between Genesis and Oblivion.
Azrael stared at it.
Seraphina slowly walked forward.
Neither of them knew who the third throne belonged to.
But they both understood one thing.
The Tower had reached the final question.
Not who would inherit Genesis.
Not who would inherit Oblivion.
But what would happen when the two finally stood together again.