novelraw Chapter 680: THE Primordial Cause! II
Chapter 680: THE Primordial Cause! II
Achilles’s vision returned to the seas of Tian.
The golden waters stretched around him once more, familiar and warm after the cold infinitude of that primordial memory. THE Watcher floated ahead with platinum singularity dimmed from sacrificing those fragments of itself. Rose stood beside him with her own integration complete.
He touched his cheeks as...tears were falling from his eyes.
The wetness surprised him. He had not wept since...he didn’t even know, since before he understood what strength meant in a world that demanded it constantly!
But the memory of THE Primordial Cause was too heavy. It resonated with his being as a Primordial Architect in ways he could not resist.
He was forced to feel this emotion.
In this Observable Existence, he was the only Primordial Architect that would ever be born.
THE Primordial Cause had failed. It had exhausted itself trying to birth children that never came. And through some accident of Lamashtu’s Existential Lattice, through consumption of resources that should never have existed in this stunted reality, Achilles had become what that ancient Cause could not produce.
The grief he felt was forced onto him by the Cause itself. The sorrow of a parent who died before seeing their children live. The despair of potential that never became actual. These emotions did not belong to him, but they had been integrated alongside the memory, and now they pressed against his consciousness with weight that demanded acknowledgment!
They screamed...witness me! Witness ME!
...!
He controlled his emotions with effort that cost more than he expected.
He turned to Rose.
She was ashen and pale.
Her fiery green hair seemed dimmed somehow, that vibrant flame reduced to something approaching embers. Her sparkling skin had lost its luster, pallor replacing the healthy glow that usually radiated from her existence. Her flaming green eyes stared at nothing, unfocused and distant as she processed what she had been forced to witness.
As he understood THE Primordial Severance, he understood the heavy cost that would come from utilizing it.
Even they at THE First Scale would pay dearly for channeling a Pulse meant for beings at THE Second Scale. Their foundations would strain against forces they were not designed to contain. Their existences would suffer damage that might take years to repair.
But the cost would be even heavier for Rose.
She was not a Primordial Architect. She had only begun to assimilate his blood, her integration sitting at three percent of what was needed to form her own Heart. The methodology of THE Primordial Severance had been forced into her existence alongside the memory of a Cause that did not resonate with her nature the way it resonated with his.
He moved to her and wrapped his arms around her trembling form.
She shuddered against his chest, her body shaking with aftershocks of integration that had been too much too quickly. Her hands grasped at his purple-gold robes with fingers that would not stop trembling. She buried her face against him and breathed in deep, seeking anchor in his presence against the vastness of what she had witnessed.
Achilles held her tightly before turning to THE Watcher.
"I will be the one to try and enact the Pulse."
His voice emerged steady despite everything.
THE Watcher seemed silently shocked. The platinum singularity brightened slightly, the golden lotus petals pausing their rotation as if the Singular Cognizance needed a moment to process what it had just heard.
"You...were really able to learn it?"
The voice held disbelief!
"You could really integrate the memory and methodology of a Cause and Pulse? You just... what is that integration capability you possess?"
...!
Against such a question, Achilles only said what mattered.
"There isn’t time, right? Send me to where Lamashtu is, and I can try and end this before it is too late."
THE Watcher was silent for a moment before nodding. Authority began building up within the platinum singularity, golden lotus petals accelerating their rotation as the Singular Cognizance gathered power for spatial displacement.
At this point, Achilles held Rose close and whispered against her hair.
"I’ll be right back, okay?"
She pulled back enough to look into his eyes. Her flaming green gaze had steadied somewhat, determination replacing the dazed aftermath of integration. But beneath that determination, he saw fear that she would never admit to feeling. Fear of losing him. Fear of facing existence alone after everything they had built together.
She grasped his face with both hands.
"No bullshit sacrifices or anything like that, okay?"
Her voice came out fierce despite the trembling that still lingered in her fingers.
"It’s you and me in existence. You, me, and our family. Everything else can burn if it fucking needs to."
...!
Achilles looked at the woman he loved as he smiled and nodded.
"Everything else can burn."
He repeated her words as a vow.
Light began to wrap around him. THE Watcher’s authority enveloped his existence with spatial force that would carry him to where Lamashtu conducted his ritual. He held Rose close for one final moment, memorizing the feel of her in his arms, the scent of her hair, the warmth of her existence pressed against his own.
Then he disappeared.
The light took him away with speed. One instant he was in the golden seas of Tian with the woman he loved. The next instant he was gone, traveling toward a confrontation that would determine the fate of Observable Existence itself.
Heavy silence settled over the First Sea.
Only a Singular Cognizance and Rose were left behind.
Rose stood where Achilles had held her, her flaming green eyes turning toward THE Watcher with coldness that could freeze stars. She looked at the platinum singularity as if she were looking at a general that had just sent her husband to a war. The accusation in her gaze was unmistakable.
THE Watcher remained silent.
There was nothing to say.
The outcome now rested entirely on whether Achilles could accomplish what no being at THE First Scale had ever accomplished before!