[Last Chapter: He said with a terrifying smirk]
Chapter 107, Episode 107
At the Village, the battle still reigns against The Manipulator
[Gorrath swung first]
[The axe came down hard enough to split the ground open beneath it]
[The Manipulator wasn't there]
[He was behind Gorrath]
[Nobody saw him move. Not the orcs. Not the dragons. Not the beasts]
[One moment he was in front of the axe and the next he was simply somewhere else, hands still in his pockets, coat not even disturbed]
The Manipulator: Slow..
[He said]
[Gorrath spun around swinging backhand.
The Manipulator leaned back two inches and let it pass his nose]
The Manipulator: Still slow...
[Gorrath roared and swung three times in quick succession, each strike trailing dark magic that carved the air apart]
[The Manipulator walked backward at a casual pace and didn't get touched once]
The Manipulator: Are you actually trying,I can't tell
[he said]
Gorrath: KILL HIM!!!
[Gorrath screamed]
[All twelve orcs charged]
[The Manipulator finally took his hand out of his pocket]
[He flicked one finger]
[The first four orcs left the ground and kept going. Up through the clouds. Past the atmosphere. Into the dark of space, their screaming fading quickly]
[He looked at the remaining eight]
The Manipulator: Who's next.
[Not a question. Just words]
[Three of them stopped immediately. One dropped his weapon. The smart ones, The Manipulator noted]
[The other five kept coming]
[He moved through them like they were standing still]
[One step between each one, a light tap on the chest to each of them as he passed, and all five hit the ground simultaneously from the force of taps that felt like nothing but landed like collapsed buildings]
[None of them got up]
[The Manipulator stood in the middle of the square and rolled his neck once]
[The beasts looked at each other]
[The black dragon landed. Hard. The ground cracked under its weight]
[It lowered its enormous head until one giant eye was level with The Manipulator's face.
Up close, the dragon's eye was the size of a cartwheel]
Prix: You are not human..
[the dragon said. Its voice was deep and old]
The Manipulator: No,What are you.
[The Manipulator said]
[The Manipulator smiled. Just slightly]
The Manipulator: Something you don't have a word for.
[The dragon held his gaze for a long moment.
Then it straightened up]
[The bloodred dragon landed beside the black one]
[The three beasts sat down]
[All of them just quietly accepting something that their instincts had been screaming at them since the moment he walked down the hill]
[Gorrath was still standing. Barely. His armor was cracked from the shockwave of his own missed swings]
[He was breathing hard and staring at The Manipulator with an expression halfway between rage and something he'd never felt before]
Gorrath: What do you want..
[Gorrath said]
The Manipulator: I told you already..
[The Manipulator said. He looked around at the broken village]
[The burning buildings. The frightened people in the square watching him]
The Manipulator: I'm looking for people worth fighting alongside.
[Gorrath stared]
Gorrath: You came here. For that.
The Manipulator: Yes
Gorrath: You could have just asked.
The Manipulator: You had villagers hostage
I had to make sure you were worth asking first.
[The Manipulator said]
[Gorrath was quiet for a moment]
Black Dragon: And are we..
[The black dragon said]
[The Manipulator looked at the dragon. At the beasts. At Gorrath. At the three orcs who had stopped and dropped their weapons when they had the sense to]
[He smirked]
The Manipulator: The jury's still out, But you're interesting enough to keep talking to.
[The Manipulator said]
[He turned and looked at the villagers.
A small boy near the front was staring at him with wide eyes]
[Not scared. Just staring the way children stare at things they've decided are the most fascinating thing they've ever seen]
[The Manipulator looked at him for a second]
The Manipulator: You okay?
[he said]
[The boy nodded rapidly]
The Manipulator: Good.
[He turned back to Gorrath]
The Manipulator: Put the village back how you found it..
[He said. It wasn't a request]
[Gorrath opened his mouth]
The Manipulator: That wasn't a negotiation..
[The Manipulator said]
[Gorrath closed his mouth]
[The ground shook]
[Not from anything visible]
[Just a deep rumble from somewhere far away that got closer and louder until the air itself felt heavy]
[The orcs felt it first]
[They stepped back without meaning to]
[Then the beasts whimpered]
[The dragons looked up. Three figures appeared on the hilltop above the valley]
[The first was an orc but nothing like Gorrath's kind]
[He stood twice the height of any orc in the square, covered in black armor that looked like it had grown out of his skin rather than been put on]
[His name was Vrakthos. Warlord of the Shattered Spine Clan]
[He had ended three wars not by winning battles but by showing up until the other side stopped existing]
[Its name was Maerath. The Bonescale. Oldest living predator in this section of the cosmology. It had outlived the gods of four dead universes]
[The third was a dragon]
[And the two dragons already in the square lowered their heads immediately]
[This one was white. Not pale. White like something that had never been touched by shadow]
[Its wingspan blocked out a significant portion of the sky and when it breathed the temperature around it dropped]
[Its name was Serevath. The First Cold. The dragon that according to old stories had existed before fire did]
[Vrakthos looked down at the square. At the unconscious orcs. At Gorrath standing there cracked and beaten]
[His white eyes moved to The Manipulator]
Vrakthos: You did this..
[Vrakthos said. His voice had no echo. It just landed flat and heavy like a dropped stone]
The Manipulator: Yes..
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: With what army.
The Manipulator: No army.
[Vrakthos stared at him]
[Then he smiled. It was not a good smile]
Vrakthos: Kill him..
[he said]
[All three of them came down the hill at the same time]
[Maerath moved first. Six legs hitting the ground in sequence, building speed that shouldn't have been possible for something that size]
Bonescale Rush — Extinction Charge
[The ground cracked in a line behind it as it accelerated]
[When it hit something it didn't stop. It had never needed to stop]
[The Manipulator watched it come]
[He stepped to the side at the last moment. Not far. Just enough]
[Maerath's momentum carried it through the square and through the far wall and into the hillside beyond]
[The impact shook the whole valley]
The Manipulator: Good speed, Wrong target
[The Manipulator said]
[Maerath pulled itself from the hillside. Its scales were undamaged. Its eyes were furious]
Bonescale — Marrow Shatter Roar.
[It opened its mouth and released a sound]
[Not fire. Not energy. A frequency so low and so powerful that stone cracked and the air turned visible for a second from the compression]
[The Manipulator felt it hit him]
[He didn't move]
The Manipulator: Interesting..
[he said. He tilted his head slightly]
[Maerath snarled and charged again, serevath came from above]
First Cold — Absolute Zero Breath.
[The temperature dropped so fast that the moisture in the air became ice instantly]
[A thick white beam of cold came down at The Manipulator. Not just cold. The kind of cold that stopped molecules from moving entirely]
[The kind that ended things at a fundamental level]
[It hit]
[The Manipulator stood in a pillar of ice]
[The square went silent]
[Then the ice cracked and then it shattered]
[He was standing exactly where he had been. Coat undamaged. Hands in his pockets]
[He looked up at Serevath]
The Manipulator: Nice try
[He said]
[He raised one hand and the temperature around him returned to normal in a half second radius that pushed Serevath's cold back like it was nothing]
Thermal Manipulation — Passive Correction.
[Serevath screamed and dove, wings folded, claws forward]
First Cold — Heaven Pierce.
[The claws hit The Manipulator directly. Both of them]
[The force of a creature older than fire driving its full weight through two points the size of spears]
[The Manipulator caught both claw with his bare hands]
[Serevath pushed down]
[The ground under The Manipulator's feet cracked and compressed and a crater formed around him from the weight being driven down through his arms]
[He held it]
The Manipulator: You're strong,For what you are
[He said, looking up at Serevath calmly]
[He pushed back]
[Serevath left the ground and kept going upward, tumbling through clouds, its enormous wings scrambling to stabilize]
[Vrakthos hit him from behind]
[Nobody had seen him cross the distance. For something that large he was terrifyingly fast]
Shattered Spine — World Ending Slam.
[Both fists together. Every piece of dark armor lighting up with black energy]
[The force of a being who had ended wars by himself compressed into a single downward strike]
[It connected with the back of The Manipulator's head]
[The shockwave leveled every remaining market stall in the square]
[The villagers were thrown off their feet. The three smaller dragons skidded back twenty meters]
[Gorrath shielded his face with both arms]
[When the dust cleared Vrakthos was standing over The Manipulator who was on one knee. One knee. Head down]
[Vrakthos stared]
[That had never happened before. The target was still there. Still existing. Still breathing]
Vrakthos: You actually felt that..
[Vrakthos said slowly]
[The Manipulator stayed on one knee for a moment]
[Then he started laughing]
[It was a quiet laugh. Genuine]
[He stood up and turned around and looked at Vrakthos with an expression of actual delight]
Vrakthos: That's the first hit I've taken in eleven years..
[he said as vrakthos blinked]
The Manipulator: Was it a good one..
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: I... yes.
The Manipulator: Good. Your turn
[He rolled his shoulder once]
[He tapped Vrakthos in the chest with two fingers]
[Vrakthos flew. Not stumbled. Not fell]
[Instead he flew. Backwards across the square, through the broken wall, across the valley, and disappeared as a speck over the opposite hill before the sound of impact]
[The Manipulator looked at Maerath and Serevath who had both regrouped and were now watching him with the full weight of their ancient instincts finally aligned on one conclusion]
[This thing is above us]
The Manipulator: Still want to go..
[The Manipulator said]
[Neither of them moved]
[Maerath lowered its head slowly. Not in defeat exactly]
[In recognition, Serevath landed and folded its wings]
[The square was completely quiet]
[The Manipulator looked at the crater around his feet. Then at the direction Vrakthos had gone]
The Manipulator: He'll be back..Probably angry
[He said to no one in particular]
[He smirked]
Maerath: Good.
[Vrakthos came back]
[Just like The Manipulator said he would]
[He came over the hill fast, dark armor cracked down the middle, white eyes burning, and the energy coming off him had changed completely]
[The casual cruelty was gone. What replaced it was something older and much less controlled]
[He was angry now, Really angry]
Vrakthos: What are you..
[Vrakthos said]
The Manipulator: You keep asking that..
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: Answer me.
The Manipulator: I did. You didn't like the answer.
[Vrakthos's armor began to move. The black plates shifted and expanded, growing outward, consuming the air around him]
[Dark energy poured from the cracks in it like smoke from a fire that burned cold]
Shattered Spine — Warlord's True Form.
[He grew. Not quickly. Slowly, which was worse]
[Each second adding mass and power until he was three times his original size, the ground cracking under his feet just from his weight]
[The white eyes were fully glowing now. The dark energy around him spread outward and where it touched the grass it died instantly]
[Maerath rose to all six legs]
[Serevath's wings opened]
[All three of them looking at The Manipulator at the same time]
[The Manipulator looked back at all three of them]
[He smirked]
The Manipulator: Okay, I will use one
[he said quietly]
[He raised his right hand]
[He looked at the sky above Vrakthos, above Maerath, above Serevath]
"Probability Collapse"
[The Manipulator snapped his fingers]
[Nothing visible happened]
[But The Manipulator had already seen every possible outcome of the next thirty seconds. Every dodge. Every counter. Every angle of attack. Every combination. Every miracle]
[He had collapsed all of it]
[Only one future remained now, His]
[Vrakthos launched first]
"Shattered Spine — Dark World Crusher"
[He brought both fists down at The Manipulator]
[The dark energy released on impact hit the ground like a second strike, a wave of pure force rolling outward that split the earth open in a line that ran all the way to the valley's edge]
[The Manipulator stepped over the crack]
[He was standing directly under Vrakthos's fists when they hit]
[The shockwave rolled around him. The ground on every side of him dropped two meters]
[He stood on a small island of untouched earth]
The Manipulator: You missed, Both of them
[The Manipulator said, looking up]
[Vrakthos pulled back and swung sideways]
[The Manipulator ducked under it and hit Vrakthos in the ribs with a straight punch]
[The sound it made was wrong. Too loud. The kind of sound that didn't belong to a fist hitting armor]
Vrakthos: What a devastating punch, This guy isn't a human. He was able to penetrate through my armor with just his physical strength... he isn't something to joke with.. his strength is basically immeasurable.. something further beyond the laws of reality itself.. who is this guy.???
[Vrakthos left the ground sideways, tumbling, armor shattering on the left side completely, and hit the hillside hard enough to remove a significant portion of it]
[Serevath came from behind]
"First Cold — Eternal Winter Lance"
[A spear of ice formed in the air above The Manipulator]
[Not one. Ten of them. Each one the length of a building, dense with the same cold that had once frozen an entire dead universe solid]
[They all dropped at once from different angles, no gaps between them]
[The Manipulator looked up at them]
"Phantasmagoria."
[The ground turned soft under Serevath's feet. The air became thick like water]
[The space above The Manipulator where the ice lances were falling simply stopped making sense — the lances hit the dream logic zone and turned into white birds that scattered in every direction and disappeared]
Serevath: What... he turned my attack into water and animals. Did he rewrite my powers...
[Serevath stumbled, wings struggling against air that was suddenly behaving like something else entirely]
The Manipulator: The ground is water now, For you, Not for me
[The Manipulator said helpfully]
[Serevath sank two feet into the earth like it was a pond]
[Maerath didn't use ice or force]
[It had been watching. Thinking. Old predator logic working through the problem]
[It opened its mouth]
"Bonescale — Resonance Collapse"
[The sound it released wasn't a roar. It was a frequency targeted specifically at living tissue]
[The kind of attack that didn't care about armor or barriers because it went through them]
[It found the thing inside the armor and shook it apart at a cellular level]
[It had killed gods with this]
[The sound hit The Manipulator dead on]
[He turned to look at Maerath]
The Manipulator: Quiddity Theft..
[He reached out with one hand, not toward Maerath but toward the attack itself, and stole the frequency's core property from it]
[The lethality. Gone. Taken right out of the attack mid-air]
[What hit The Manipulator was just sound now. Loud. Uncomfortable]
[Nothing more]
[He added the stolen lethality to his coat]
[His coat didn't look different. But its existence as an object had just become considerably more permanent]
The Manipulator: Thanks, That was your best one, wasn't it
[He said to Maerath]
[As Maerath stared at him]
[Maerath didn't answer but the silence was answer enough]
[Vrakthos pulled himself from the ruined hillside for the second time]
[He stood up straight and looked at The Manipulator across the destroyed square]
Vrakthos: You haven't drawn your sword?
[Vrakthos said]
The Manipulator: No.
Vrakthos: Why?.
[The Manipulator tilted his head slightly]
The Manipulator: It would end the conversation.
[Vrakthos was quiet for a moment]
Vrakthos: What conversation.
The Manipulator: The one where you decide whether to keep fighting or start thinking, You're strong. All three of you. In most situations, against most things, you win. That's not nothing. But you already know how this ends if you keep going.
[The Manipulator said. He looked at all three of them]
[Serevath had pulled itself free from the soft ground. It was standing still now, wings folded]
[Maerath had sat down]
[Only Vrakthos was still radiating that dark energy. But even it was quieter now]
Vrakthos: What do you actually want..
[Vrakthos said]
The Manipulator: I want a real fight, Not from you specifically. You're not quite there.
[The Manipulator said simply
He said it without cruelty, just fact]
Vrakthos: Are you trying to mock us??
The Manipulator: Nope, But you know people who are. Things that are. And I need to find them.
[He looked at Vrakthos steadily]
[Vrakthos studied him for a long moment]
Vrakthos: You came here To this village. To us. Just to get pointed in the right direction.
[He said slowly]
The Manipulator: And to see if you were worth bringing along
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: And are we.
[The Manipulator looked at the three of them]
[The warlord who had ended wars alone]
[The oldest predator in the cosmology]
[The dragon that existed before fire]
[He smirked]
Vrakthos: You'll do..
[he said]
[Vrakthos let the dark energy die out]
[It didn't happen dramatically. It just faded, like a fire running out of wood]
[He stood down from his true form slowly, the armor pulling back in, the white eyes dimming to their normal cold glow]
[He dropped to one knee]
[Maerath lowered its head to the ground]
[Serevath folded its wings completely and bowed its enormous neck until its chin touched the earth]
[The three smaller dragons and the beasts followed without hesitation]
[Even Gorrath, still cracked and beaten from earlier, went down on one knee]
[The square was completely silent.
The Manipulator looked at all of them for a moment]
[Then he put his hands back in his pockets]
The Manipulator: Get up, All of you.
[He said]
[Nobody moved immediately]
The Manipulator: I'm not a king, Get up.
[They rose slowly]
[Vrakthos looked at him with those white eyes]
[The anger was gone now. What was left was something closer to curiosity]
Gorrath: Who are you..
[He said]
[Third time asking. But different this time. Less demand, More genuine question]
[The Manipulator was quiet for a second]
The Manipulator: My name is The Manipulator..
[He said]
[Nobody reacted to the name with recognition. Which was fine]
[Most people who knew the name didn't get the chance to react to anything afterward]
The Manipulator: I'm not a hero, I didn't come here to save these people.That just happened to be a side effect.
[He glanced briefly at the villagers still huddled in the square]
[One of the villagers looked mildly offended by this]
[He ignored it]
The Manipulator: I came here because I'm looking for someone, And I need information.
[Vrakthos frowned]
Vrakthos: You destroyed half this valley for information.
The Manipulator: I needed to know if you were worth talking to first, Weak sources give bad answers.
[The Manipulator said simply]
[Vrakthos stared at him]
Vrakthos: Fair..
[He said finally]
[The Manipulator looked at the dragons. At Serevath specifically]
The Manipulator: You use fire, Old fire. The kind that existed before most things did.
[Serevath raised its head]
Serevath: Yes... Maerath's resonance attack. The bone structure. The way your scales absorb and redirect heat
[He looked between them]
Maerath: That's not natural development. That was taught.
[Serevath and Maerath exchanged a look]
[The Manipulator caught it immediately]
The Manipulator. Someone trained you, A fire user. Old one. Powerful enough to teach beings like you things you couldn't have figured out alone.
Serevath: Not really...
[He tilted his head]
The Manipulator: I want to know where Siriusniyo is...
[Dead silence]
[Vrakthos blinked]
Vrakthos: You think Siriusniyo is our master.
The Manipulator: Isn't he.??
[Serevath made a sound. Low and long. It took The Manipulator a second to realize it was laughing]
The Manipulator: What..
[He said]
Serevath: Siriusniyo is not our master
[Serevath said slowly]
Maerath: He doesn't take servants, He barely tolerates visitors.
[He said]
[The Manipulator was quiet]
Vrakthos: He doesn't even know we exist..
The Manipulator: Interesting, That's quite odd??
[Vrakthos added]
Vrakthos: We learned fire techniques from old texts. Fragments he left behind in dead dimensions. Not from him directly.
[The Manipulator processed this]
[For a man whose cosmic awareness covered the entirety of reality this was a rare thing. A gap. A detail that had been just outside the frame]
[He looked mildly annoyed with himself]
The Manipulator: Hm, If doesn't know yall exist in this world, that's something odd, if he sees all realities with just his mere power alone, that means it's a fluke... he definitely do know yall exist...
[He said]
Vrakthos: You were wrong..
[Vrakthos said. Very carefully. Like a man testing how fragile the ground under him was]
The Manipulator: I was incomplete, Different thing
[The Manipulator corrected]
[Vrakthos wisely said nothing]
The Manipulator: Tell me what you know about him
[The Manipulator said]
[Serevath spoke]
Serevath: Siriusniyo rules his own continuum. A separate stretch of space and time that exists outside the standard cosmological structure. His own dragon world. He built it.
Maerath: Alone, From nothing.
[Maerath added]
Serevath: He doesn't leave it often,
When he does, things burn. Not cruelly. Just because he exists at a temperature that most of reality isn't built to handle.
[Serevath said]
Vrakthos: His fire isn't elemental, It's fundamental. It burns concepts. Ideas. Laws. He once burned the definition of cold out of an entire dimension just because it was in his way.
[Vrakthos added]
[The Manipulator listened to all of this without expression]
The Manipulator: Hoedo you get to his continuum..
[He said]
Serevath: You don't, Not without being invited. The boundary around his world is made from his own fire. It burns anything that tries to cross without permission. Gods have tried. They don't try twice.
Maerath: Or at all, After the first attempt..
[Maerath said]
[The Manipulator nodded slowly]
[He looked up at the sky above the valley. Past it. Through it, really, the way he always looked at things — not at the surface but at the structure underneath]
[He already knew the answer to his next question. But he asked it anyway]
The Manipulator: And does he know I'm looking for him.
[Serevath hesitated]
Serevath: He knows everything that involves fire, And you just used heat-based abilities in a valley where his texts are embedded in the ground.
The Manipulator: So yes..
[The Manipulator said]
Serevath: ...Yes.
[The Manipulator smiled. Slowly]
The Manipulator: Good,Saves me the trouble of knocking.
[He looked at Vrakthos. At Maerath. At Serevath]
The Manipulator: You said you want to serve me
[He said]
"Yes"
[All three said]
The Manipulator: Then be useful. Tell me everything you know about his continuum. The layout. The boundaries. The fire laws he built into the walls. And get these people back in their homes. Fix what you broke.
[Vrakthos looked at the destroyed village around them]
Vrakthos: All of it..
[He said]
The Manipulator: All of it..
[The Manipulator confirmed]
[Vrakthos looked at the scale of the damage]
[Then he looked at the direction The Manipulator had sent him flying earlier]
[The hill that was now shorter]
Serevath: And the hill??
[He said quietly]
The Manipulator: You broke that one yourself..
[The Manipulator said]
[Vrakthos closed his eyes briefly]
Vrakthos: Right.
[The village was mostly restored]
[Vrakthos had put the walls back]
[Maerath had used its bone density to reinforce the foundations of the burned buildings]
[Serevath had melted ice over the scorched earth and let it cool into clean stone]
[Not perfect. But standing]
[The villagers had gone inside. Quietly. Quickly]
[The kind of people who knew when something large and important was happening nearby and wanted to be behind a door for it]
[The Manipulator stood in the center of the square looking at his three new subordinates]
The Manipulator: Hold still..
[He said]
[He raised his hand]
"Power Infinite Bestowal"
[The ability didn't look like much from the outside]
[Just his hand raised and his eyes doing that thing where they were looking at something beyond the visible]
[But inside each of them something shifted]
[Vrakthos felt it first]
[Like a door opening in his chest that he hadn't known was there]
[The dark energy of his World Ending armor stopped being something he generated and became something he was]
[Deeper. Permanent. His true form no longer had a time limit]
[New ability seeded into his foundation]
Absolute Warlord Domain —
Any being that enters within fifty meters of Vrakthos in his true form has their physical strength halved and their will to fight slowly consumed.
[He looked at his hands]
Vrakthos: What did you do..
[He said quietly]
The Manipulator: Updated you..
[The Manipulator said]
[Maerath's resonance ability had always been its strongest weapon]
[Now the frequency it produced wasn't just biological. It could target concepts]
[Shake the idea of something until it cracked]
Void Resonance — Conceptual Frequency. Can unmake the structural logic of an ability or object by vibrating its fundamental definition apart.
[Maerath opened its mouth and let out a low sound]
[A nearby broken cart simply stopped being a cart. Not destroyed. Just the concept of it collapsed]
[It became a pile of parts that had forgotten what they were for]
[Maerath stared at the pile]
[Then at The Manipulator]
Maerath: That's is deeply unsettling..
[It said]
The Manipulator: Good..
[The Manipulator said]
[Serevath received the last one]
[Manipulator reached into that contradiction and pulled it outward]
First Cold Ignition —
Serevath can now generate fire that burns at absolute zero. It doesn't heat. It freezes by burning. Conceptually paradoxical and therefore immune to all fire negation and cold negation simultaneously.
[Serevath breathed out]
[The flame that came was white and silent and the ground under it didn't melt]
[It frosted. Froze. But scorched black at the same time]
[It looked at The Manipulator with something close to reverence]
Serevath: How..
[It said]
The Manipulator: You already had the contradiction in you, I just made it official
[The Manipulator said]
[He lowered his hand]
[Vrakthos looked at the other two. Then back at The Manipulator]
Vrakthos: How strong are you??
[He said]
[The Manipulator didn't answer immediately]
The Manipulator: Strong enough
[He said]
Vrakthos: That's not an answer.
The Manipulator: No..
[The Manipulator agreed]
The Manipulator: It isn't.
[Vrakthos crossed his arms]
Vrakthos: You fought all three of us and didn't draw your sword. Didn't use anything serious. I could tell.What were you actually holding back
[Vrakthos said with curiosity]
]The Manipulator looked at him for a moment]
The Manipulator: If I had used one serious ability, this valley would not exist anymore. Not destroyed. Not damaged. Gone. Removed from the sequence of events that led to it being here.
[Silence]
Vrakthos: The village too,The hill. The river. Several things beyond this atmosphere that don't deserve to be caught in the edge of something meant for you.
[Vrakthos was quiet for a long time]
Vrakthos: So you went easy on us..
[he said]
The Manipulator: Very..
[The Manipulator said. Without arrogance. Just fact]
[Maerath spoke carefully]
Maerath: When we say very. We mean.
The Manipulator: Your best attacks together, touched maybe the outermost layer of what I am.
[The Manipulator said]
Maerath: Hold so, all the attack we landed and generated with all our power and strength, you didn't even receive a scratch
[He said with suprise]
[He tilted his head slightly]
The Manipulator: Yep, but Vrakthos actually hit me. That was genuine. The first real contact in eleven years. I meant that.
[Vrakthos looked at his own fist. Something complicated moved across his face]
Serevath: But below what you can fully do?
[Serevath said slowly]
The Manipulator: Far below..
[The Manipulator said]
[Another silence]
[Then Vrakthos looked up]
The Manipulator: The Great Destruction, Back from Two hundred years ago.
[The Manipulator's expression didn't change. But something behind his eyes did]
[A slight shift. The way a very still lake shifts when something moves deep underneath it]
Vrakthos: You were there??
[Vrakthos said. Not a question]
The Manipulator: Yes..
[The Manipulator said]
[Maerath leaned forward]
Maerath: We heard stories. Even in the deep territories where we lived. The ground shook for a year. The sky bled for three months. Stars went out.
Serevath: Some of them didn't come back, I remember, I was alive for it
[Serevath said quietly]
[The Manipulator said nothing]
[Vrakthos pressed]
Vrakthos: Voriath Luminael
[The name landed differently than other names did. Heavier. Like it had mass]
Vrakthos: You fought him??
[Vrakthos said]
The Manipulator: We tried.., and he was not even trying, His presence alone almost erased every being, Myself, and other gods and humans. He is far beyond the cosmos expected him
[The Manipulator said]
Serevath: We, You mean.Everyone
[Serevath said]
[The Manipulator said simply]
The Manipulator: Everyone tried.
[He looked at the sky above the valley. His jaw was set slightly differently than it had been a minute ago]
The Manipulator: The twelve legendary justice beings went first, Who they exist beyond space and reality and law and death. Beings that the concept of defeat had never been applied to. He killed eleven of them. One after another. Not quickly. Methodically. Like he was making a point.
[Vrakthos said nothing]
The Manipulator: The twelfth escaped, Morningstar. The only one. And only barely.
[The Manipulator said with grief and anger]
Maerath: What about the Fundamental Laws of Cosmos, Lyra. Draco. Liam. They govern all creation. Surely—, they should have done something
The Manipulator: They were there, All three. The Divine Domain shook for the first time in its existence. Lyra used the full scope of All Omniscience. Draco rewrote reality around Voriath three times. He stopped. It slowed him down. It didn't stop him..All of that was useless in the presense of Voriath
[Serevath made a low sound]
Vrakthos: And Siriusniyo, Even he??
[Vrakthos said]
The Manipulator: Even him, Siriusniyo burned concepts. Burned laws. Burned the definition of Voriath's power trying to reduce it. Voriath walked through it.
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: And you?
[Vrakthos said quietly]
[The Manipulator looked at him]
The Manipulator: I used things I have never used before or since, Things that should not be used. I rewrote probability. I collapsed fate. I declared his existence a lie three times with the Source.He answered every single one, it's like he was mocking my presence, even though it's far beyond the comprehension of the universe itself. He resisted everything
[The square was completely still]
Maerath: His subordinates..
[Maerath said]
The Manipulator: Xuantian and Mercurius Destroyed the foundation of reality, Not damaged. Destroyed. The entire structural base that all existence sits on. Ereshkigal lost half her realm in an hour. Half the Eastern World's strongest couldn't stand up. The twelve Empire States lost things that day they haven't fully recovered from even now.
Serevath: How was he stopped..
[Serevath said]
The Manipulator: His parents..
[The Manipulator said]
[Another silence. Longer this time]
Vrakthos: Ivaraj and Starix, those two are the Hyper Gods
[Vrakthos said slowly]
The Manipulator: They are the founders of existence, The only beings in the cosmology stronger than their son. And even they didn't defeat him. They sealed him,There is a difference though.
[He looked at the ground for a moment]
Maerath: What is the difference??
[Maerath said]
The Manipulator: Defeating someone ends the threat, Sealing someone just delays it.
Maerath: Ohh that's true..
[He looked up]
The Manipulator: And his two strongest subordinates. Xuantian and Mercurius. They have spent every day since then trying to break the seal.
[Vrakthos stared at him]
Vrakthos: And when it breaks??
[Vrakthos said, demanding for more answers]
The Manipulator If,....If it breaks.
Vrakthos: If??..,What happens.
[Vrakthos said it repeatedly]
[The Manipulator was quiet for a moment]
The Manipulator: Two hundred years ago he showed mercy, He would have ended us in one move of his power, but In his own way. He had goals. Structure. Reasons. His voice was even. Flat. He said afterward, before the seal closed, that the next time he would have none of those things.
[The three of them absorbed this]
Serevath: So the entire cosmology...
[Serevath said]
The Manipulator: Yes..
[The Manipulator said]
Vrakthos: And Siriusniyo, Is that why you're looking for him. Because of Voriath??
[He said]
[The Manipulator looked at him for a long moment]
[Then he smirked. Faint. But there]
The Manipulator: Among other reasons..
[He said]
[He turned and started walking toward the valley exit]
The Manipulator: Come...We have a continuum to find
[He said over his shoulder]
To be continued...