CHAPTER 103: | [???]

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  CRACKLE!

  The currents shook violently as an undercurrent of ripples shattered the segment’s silence.

  Tendrils webbed the sky, yet a tiny figure, small as a bean, rushed toward the source of the corruption.

  His form dashed through the chaotic waters, then vanished as he collapsed the distance with a single step.

  His palm met the lashing tendrils as the source blocked him with its multiple, whipping arms, but he merely smirked.

  His words echoed throughout the entire segment, a whisper of devastation.

  "THE FIRST ZEN OF DISTORTION: IRIECE STYLE: RIPPLE OF THE VAST MULTIVERSE.”

  The ten rings encircling my wrist vanished as they were absorbed into my veins, then instantly transferred to the center of my palm.

  In a moment, time seemed to stop.

  All attention focused on my hand, their gaze expectant, as a single ripple phased through the folds of reality, then into the entire segment, destroying all spells currently weaved.

  But Amara... no, the one wearing her skin, the insanity-driven Amara, had already disappeared in front of me, rendering my strike a failure to restrain her.

  "You! How dare you! How dare you interrupt His holy resurrection?! The resurrection of the One True God?! How dare you?! How dare you! How dare you!"

  Her insane mumbling cut through the water as her form enlarged grotesquely.

  Mutations popped out from time to time, revealing that the souls she had devoured had been perfectly assimilated into her, in a crude yet devastatingly perfect way.

  Crunch!

  This situation was getting more and more troublesome by the passing moments.

  Even though I didn’t want to awaken my true race, it felt like that would be the inevitable outcome at this rate...

  Still, there should be a way to overcome this without using the last resort...

  Just like how I defeated him...

  My mind raced for solutions, solutions that would help me kill her, or at least drive her out of this segment so I could ponder a plan to get rid of her in the future.

  The word Fallen means something far more immense.

  Something that is ascribed to those of the highest of gods falling from their grace, or the highest immortals, or perhaps the highest of the Zenith.

  "But who are they?"

  It was something that I had no idea about, since I've only figured out about them after the hundreds of millions I was reborn.

  These beings were foreign to me, it was as if something immense was guiding them.

  Guiding them to accomplish a goal that I had no idea about...

  Fallen...

  "..."

  Some of my skills spoke of their glory, while some don't...

  I don’t know how some of my skills connect to them, or how I conceptualize 'Fallen Authority' as a Zen.

  It was weird, quite weird, that someone other than me was playing an orchestra, with me being the center of it.

  "Just who are you? Toying with me..."

  It was a question that should be left alone, but curiosity got the better of me, so I began to theoretize yet again what Fallen truly meant.

  Fallen doesn't mean someone falling from the highest, becoming a fallen, or a mortal seeking forbidden power and obtaining it, thus becoming a fallen...

  What is the process of becoming a Fallen?

  For me, it was through the fusion of my skills, skills that didn't match each other, skills that weren't meant to be fused.

  But I didn't fall, or nothing did, since it is my intent to be defeated, so how could I fall?

  "From what perspective should I look! To figure out why my skills had become Fallen?"

  ‘What is it? Something feels missing, as if I would fall in the far distant future... but how could I, who calculated billions of cycles, or an eternity, for a path for Ascendance, possibly fall?’

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  My path was perfect.

  It was a path that isn't something that a mere pleb would be able to comprehend, so how dare this new concept mark me as a fallen?

  ‘How ridiculous! The notion of me falling from grace is nigh impossible... so how dare these mongrels mark me as something that had foolishly fallen without notice?!’

  "This is ridiculous! How dare these mongrels that aren't even worth a dime! Dare to decide my play! The orchestra that I painstakingly created!"

  ‘This rage! This wrath that I am feeling right now! It was extremely suffocating to the point where I wanted to just ignore my plan and devour everything to oblivion!’

  "How dare those fools! How dare they touch my gameboard! How dare you!"

  Immense was the way to describe this bubbling wrath boiling inside me... Now I understood all of it.

  The acts that I did that didn't align with my goals... the day I killed her children... let Liora go... defiled her... let Solia kill her kin... tortured Aubrey...

  It was all along connected to those skills.

  It was the term Fallen that led me to such vain depravity... it was me being influenced by those cowards hiding in the dark, cowering in fear while calling themselves by the glorious name Fallen.

  I smirked at the revelation before me.

  Those small dots that most wouldn't be able to notice led me to this conclusion, a new player had messed up my gameboard.

  Now it was only a matter of smarts.

  Before I am controlled with their intentions, I must succeed in fooling them with my act... acting the way they wanted, and where they least expected it, I had already devoured them from the insides.

  "Pwehehehe.... HAHAHAHAH! FOOLS! LET US DANCE IN THIS BEAUTIFUL GAME OF VANITY! LET US KEU....."

  My words were cut short as a thick tendril tore apart my defenses and through my muscles before it punctured through my organs, then ripping through my back as pain shot through my nerves.

  Snap-Tear!

  "..."

  The world was silent.

  I felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, and detected nothing.

  It was silence and nothing.

  It was as if I was in the space of nothingness, but nothingness shouldn't exist in the reality...

  "Beguided, mortal, beguided at the perilous journey you'll witness, felt, and experience... beguided that us, the Unknowns, acknowledged your vanity..."

  I couldn't believe that I was hearing a voice in the space of nothingness.

  They've called themselves the Unknowns, otherwise, they are called by the many, the Fallen.

  It was familiarity that I've identified them as the Fallen, but why did he repeat beguided three times and tell me that they've acknowledged my vanity?

  ‘Was me pursuing 'Ascendance' a vanity itself? It was weird that someone as lowly as them was telling me that I am in the guile of vanity... it was amusing that these cowards had the guts to tell me about vanity... when their existence itself was one.’

  "Beguided as the guile of vanity is dangerous, mortal... you are in a precarious situation that He, the almighty, had predicted... beguided that you are unworthy to receive the grace of the one who achieved Apogee."

  I couldn't describe the sound of his voice, it was existing yet not at the same time.

  But I frowned at the words of Apogee.

  Apogee was a variation of the word Ascendance itself, so does that mean that someone had already achieved Ascendance?

  ‘Was my journey a vanity? No, it shouldn't be possible to meet those conditions... only those who possess the...’

  "..."

  My mind blanked for a moment as I looked around at the space around me.

  I couldn't see anything.

  All there was... was nothingness.

  I hear nothing, felt nothing, sense nothing, detected nothing.

  It was a weird space, but how did my mind blank when I've been fighting Amara's corrupted form, and how did I end up in this place of nothingness?

  "Beguided, mortal, beguided at the perilous journey you'll witness, felt, and experience... beguided that us, the Unknowns, acknowledged your vanity..."

  ‘My journey had been a vanity? How weird and pretentious! To claim that the orchestra that I've created in perfection is to be called a vanity by this voice who exudes nothingness.’

  "Hear me, the one who spoke of vanity! You who have no form, a being that existed yet didn't exist, what right do you have to call my journey a vanity?! It is ridiculous to hear those words from someone who's a vanity itself!"

  The voice went into silence, contemplating the words that I spoke, pondering how it could answer it.

  "Beguided as the guile of vanity is dangerous, mortal... you are in a precarious situation that He, the almighty, had predicted... beguided that you are unworthy to receive the grace of the one who achieved Apogee."

  "..."

  My mind went still for a moment as I shook my head, feeling that I've forgotten yet another important detail.

  ‘It was weird that I've been so out of place after entering this space of nothingness. It was as if something had been tampering with my min...’

  "..."

  My mind went still for a moment as I heard his voice, saying that someone almighty had achieved Apogee, but what was an Apogee?

  ‘How weird, what was my goal again? Right, it was to live a happy life with Samantha, have kids with her, be a father, and die old... but is that really I desire?’

  I questioned myself.

  Something felt wrong about my answer, it was as if I've been repeating a loop of doubt for like a few times already.

  It was weird that I couldn't remember.

  I...

  "Beguided, mortal, beguided at the perilous journey you'll witness, felt, and experience... beguided that us, the Unknowns, acknowledged your vanity..."

  "..."

  My mind went still for a moment before it was awoken by this weird voice.

  It was existing in the folds of reality, yet not, but the words that it said were weird, overall weird at all.

  It was hypnotic, as if I was forgetting somethi...

  "Beguided, mortal, beguided at the perilous journey you'll witness, felt, and experience... beguided that us, the Unknowns, acknowledged your vanity..."

  "..."

  My mind went still for a moment as I quickly regained myself, turning my head around as I felt the familiarity of the place.

  It was home, a home that I yearned for eternity.

  ‘How weird, I've been thinking of words like Ascendance? What ridiculous notion was that! When He, the almighty one who had achieved Apogee, was there for me to serve?!’

  It was weird that something like a mortal world would corrupt my mind into thinking Ascendance was my goal.

  Was my billion of cycles that I've undergone in the task to let the almighty descend into the multiverse futile?

  ‘Was my will to serve the almighty only amount to this?! Me, Eleysian, only amounting to this?! How dare those mortal women corrupt my mind! I-I must... n-no, I must purge their souls from the reality! Yes! That's right! I must devour them!’

  ‘I bowed my head to the unknown as the observer was satisfied by me recollecting my memories of the long past and the task that must be done. O-only then! Only then would the almighty acknowledge my existence!’

  "Please send me to the realm of existence, great guide! I, Eleysian, shall purge those corruptions from the world and carry out the great cause of the almighty! I beg you, let me continue my work!"

  The observer was still suspicious of me being corrupted but nonetheless opened the gate to the realm of existence as he spoke calmly.

  "Beguided! That the task of the Apogee shall be done without an error!"

  I bowed my head in recognition, then took my steps as I vanished from the space of nothingness and stepped into the realm of existence again.

  "Ahhhh... how serene the world is... and how beautiful it is to purge the filth that plague this multiverse!"