Chapter 868 - 868: Cruotis Prime’s Apocalypse
It was an Apocalypse.
Amidst the chaos, the once-vibrant metropolis now lay in ruins, its towering spires reduced to rubble and ashes.
The air was thick with the acrid scent of burning debris and the distant rumble of destruction.
From above, the sky was a canvas of fiery hues as spacecraft plummeted to the earth in a fiery spectacle, their impact shaking the very foundations of the planet.
In the streets below, panicked screams mingled with the roar of collapsing buildings, a symphony of terror that echoed through the destruction.
Nucleus detonations lit up the horizon, casting an eerie glow across the landscape as mushroom clouds billowed into the sky, heralding the planet’s descent into nuclear winter.
Volcanoes erupted with fury, spewing molten rock and ash into the atmosphere, further adding to the planet’s misery. From the depths of space, asteroids hurtled towards the doomed world, their impact sending shockwaves rippling through the already ravaged terrain.
But perhaps the most harrowing sight of all was the plight of the planet’s inhabitants.
Once vibrant and full of life, they now lay strewn across the ground, their bodies twisted and broken, their souls consumed by the very Planet they once called home.
In the blink of an eye, all 32,636,150,867 existences of Planet Cruotis Prime were extinguished.
Regardless of their existence realms which ranged from the Master Level to the Low-Tier-Deity Level, all met the same tragic end in the cataclysmic apocalypse of this Prime World.
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The scene of that apocalypse flickered and faded away like an illusion, for it was nothing but a projection of a past event.
When Planet Cruotis Prime of the Orithyia Galaxy devoured all the existences on it in a single day. Both those from it and those who were visiting from other worlds.
All the energy devoured from their souls was harnessed to break the Karmic and Causality bonds that bound the Planet’s Consciousness to the Planet.
With this, the Planet’s Consciousness was freed, armed with Spatial, Destruction, Temporal, Karmic, Life, Death, Slaughter, Fate, and Elemental powers.
The Consciousness sought Evolution, to become even stronger and break the final bond that tied it to that planet.
“Did you just see that, Akasha?”
“I did.”
The ‘One Who Governed Causality and Laws’ observed this rare event in the Valmone Universe with a heavy sigh.
“Last time, it was a star—the ‘Star of Lightning.’
This time, it’s a Prime World.
Both are occurring in the same Galaxy. It seems there’s a bug in this galaxy we need to fix.”
He spoke with a grave tone, pulling up a projection of the spiral galaxy floating in the void.
This being was the master of the ‘Enforcer of Causality,’ who had once tried to capture Kayla in the future and whom the future EOTD had threatened.
“You have not forced it back to its place, have you?”
The ‘One Who Governed Wisdom and Knowledge’—the creator of the ‘Akashic Page’ in Evan’s possession—Akasha, inquired of his companion, who shook his head.
“I left it so I could show you the situation.
Otherwise, it would have automatically been forced back into its place.
It was born as a ‘Celestial Body Consciousness’, and it is to remain as such until the planet’s lifespan runs out.
Such, is its fate.”
“No.”
“…what?”
‘The One Who Governed Causality and Laws’ let out a confused voice when he heard Akasha’s reply, and seeing this, Akasha explained.
“We have been looking at normal Sentient Existences, searching for a Candidate who’d be accepted by ‘Time and Destruction’.
But this Planetary Consciousness…let’s nurture it to be a Candidate and see what happens.
If it succeeds, we will be able to control it.
Your action of not putting it back in its place the instant it escaped would be treated as a favour; one it would spend its whole life repaying us for.”
Hearing Akasha’s explanation, the other man shook his head and responded.
“It would not work out as easily as you think. But, you of all people should know that.”
The man got up from his throne and turned around before saying.
“Do whatever you wish. But make sure to clean up after yourself if it fails. That place is within ‘his’ territory, after all.”
After saying this, the man vanished into thin air, leaving behind Akasha, whose heavy sigh resounded in this empty space.
Eternals.
Beings who Governed over the Major Concepts of existence and kept these volatile things in check.
They were Higher Dimensional Entities, their power vast and unbound by the petty joys and sorrows that shaped other beings.
One would assume that with their immense power, ‘Death’ was something foreign to them.
They were beyond it, after all.
Yet, the reality was different.
One of them had died. To be precise, he/she was not killed but Erased from Existence.
That was the only way to end the existence of an Eternal, after all.
‘The One Who Governed Time and Destruction’ no longer existed.
There were no remnants of their being—no debris, no traces. Their existence had been entirely expunged from reality.
Memories and knowledge of them had vanished, leaving behind only the Empty Seat of the Eternal of Time and Destruction as a silent testament to their former presence.
This fact would be deeply shocking to Evan, were he to learn of it.
As of Year 1054 in the 50th General Calendar, there was no EOTD. Whether the entity he knew as the EOTD even existed at this point in time was also unknown.
When Evan came to the past, he encountered a series of perplexing system notifications:
[The ‘Eternal of ჸ̸Ɉ̸i̸l̷ɒ̵ɘ̷Я̵ ̶b̸n̶ɒ̷ ̶ɘ̵ɔ̵ɒ̸q̵Ƨ̸ gazes in your direction.]
[The ‘Eternal of ჸ̸Ɉ̸i̸l̷ɒ̵ɘ̷Я̵ ̶b̸n̶ɒ̷ ̶ɘ̵ɔ̵ɒ̸q̵Ƨ̸ questions the presence of an ‘Unfamiliar Eternal’.]
[ERROR#? System Database has no Record of an ‘Eternal of Time and Destruction’]
First off, another Eternal had sensed his existence due to the power of EOTD’s Blessing that Evan possessed.
However, confusion arose because there was no Eternal governing the concept of Time, leading this Eternal to question the existence of this ‘Unfamiliar Eternal.’
Then, the Devour Class System’s Error, owing to the fact that it had no record of EOTD’s existence.
Shortly after, Evan ceased to sense the EOTD’s presence through the skill, as if the man had simply ceased existing.
The Seat of EOTD had been empty for aeons, and the other Eternals were actively seeking a replacement for their fallen comrade.
To fill this void, they initiated the ‘Candidate Selection’ process—a brutal Battle Royale among chosen beings who possessed outstanding powers over the Laws of Time and Destruction.
Each contender bore a ‘Candidate Sigil’ denoting their status.
Candidates of Time competed to eliminate other Time Candidates and claim their Sigils, while Candidates of Destruction pursued the same objective within their own domain.
For Phase 1 of the Selection, Time Candidates were barred from harming Destruction Candidates and Vice Versa.
When Phase 2 commenced, however, that ban was lifted and the Candidates remaining could now attempt to gain powers of the other Concept.
Over the years, many had emerged victorious, but none had succeeded in the final trial—being accepted by the Concepts of Time and Destruction
These Major Concepts were very volatile and though devoid of will or consciousness, they could still somehow select who gained their power.
Candidates who failed met with varying fates.
The fortunate ones were simply rejected, missing the opportunity to claim the Eternal seat. The less fortunate faced erasure from existence, obliterated by the Concept of Destruction.
However, the Eternals could not leave them unchecked.
Imagine waking up one morning to find the sun inexplicably exploding in the sky because ‘Destruction’ went a little bit haywire.
Or going to bed on a November night and waking up on a January morning due to the chaotic whims of the Concept of Time.
It was disasters like this that the Eternals existed to prevent.
“What if we’re going about this Selection in the wrong way?
Let me test and see what happens if a Candidate starts with not one of the two, but both Sigils at once.
Bringing the ‘Dual Candidacy’ reserved for the Phase 2 to Phase 1.”
With that decision made, Akasha took action immediately.
The Sigils required to gain Candidate Status were things that could only be created by Two Specific Eternals.
The ones serving as the Interim Governors for the Concepts.
For the Concept of ‘Time’, its Interim Governor was the Eternal of Space, and the first person Akasha went to meet.