[N/A: With this chapter we officially reach two hundred chapters; it has been a long and difficult journey, but we must keep moving forward.
This chapter contains important revelations for the final plot of the story. So read it carefully.
Well, apart from that, after doing some calculations, this story has roughly two hundred chapters left, maybe less, to complete.
I would appreciate it if you left a comment with your opinion on this chapter or a review for the story.
Okay, enough writing, enjoy your reading.]
"Who are you?"
The question hung in the air without an answer.
Uriel observed the creature whose eyes were fixed on him without showing any hesitation.
"That's a difficult question," spoke the creature, its voice sounding as if countless people were speaking at the same time.
"I am what you could call the world, perhaps the universe, perhaps god, perhaps I am all and none at the same time, perhaps I am death or life, the soul or destiny, or I am also you," responded the creature.
"If you wanted, you could live in this world for eternity."
"It would be like never waking from the most wonderful dream."
"Are you telling me I'm trapped in this illusion you've created?" asked Uriel.
"No. I didn't create this world," the creature pointed with its finger at him.
"You were the one responsible for its creation."
"I?"
"This world was born from your desire to correct your mistakes until now and change destiny, along with my power."
The entity walked past Uriel while taking a new form.
The form was that of a dark-skinned man with deep marks on his face, slightly below average height, wearing dirty clothes covered in paint.
"In other words, this is my territory," said the entity, its form changed to that of a young woman barely entering adolescence.
"This is my domain..." the entity changed its form again, this time adopting the appearance of Isis from his second nightmare.
"...The Origin."
Again its form changed, becoming the perfect recreation of Kai.
"We have been watching you for much longer than you could imagine. You, who had always been closer to true darkness than anyone, but you resisted so desperately against it. We are the record of your struggles, the evidence of your resistance, the will born from weakness and the reward for your sufferings..." the creature adopted the form of Cassie.
"I am Darkness, I am the peace that comes after death, the destruction that destroys creation, I am the eternal rest where everything goes after being nothing. As well as the terror of the unknown and the hidden," it expressed with a slight smile.
"I am... you," the entity took the exact form of Uriel, one where he was weak and fragile, being in his true body.
The body of a thin boy with black hair who wore glasses and muted-colored clothes.
The entity moved its hand, dissipating the surrounding darkness, revealing the landscape of an immense sea of bright stars, beautiful nebulas and galaxies in constant motion.
"Within my Domain, you can do whatever you want," the entity created an enormous tree so massive that the largest stars seemed like simple fruits to be harvested.
The entity took a pale blue flower, observing it with a calm gaze.
"You can take our power, turn all our sleeping servants into yours, and absorb my power from them," the plant in its hand withered instantly before regenerating.
The environment changed to a colorful landscape surrounded by a clear blue sky with a bright sun.
"Although you can only do it within your own domain, the power to create, destroy, change the world and be above everything, including destiny that not even the void creatures or the great Gods could surpass. The true absolute and omnipotent power."
Uriel opened his eyes.
"Are you saying I can obtain the powers of a God?"
The entity smiled, changing its form, adapting the form of Uriel's current appearance, being an exact copy.
"We have been waiting for the day we finally meet for a long time."
The world turned black once more. The entity returned to its humanoid darkness form.
"I am the lord of darkness. We rule over the absolute darkness of the primordial void before existence. We are an existence that governs and balances, and an Administrator who helped shape everything."
Uriel frowned.
"Why are you speaking in plural?" he asked.
The entity tilted its head.
"It seems you are not yet ready to bear the weight of the truth," the entity responded calmly.
Uriel opened his eyes as he saw it standing before him with the appearance of a ten-year-old girl.
The ancestral entity placed its hand on his chest. Uriel felt something inside him begin to react strongly.
"That should be enough. I have healed the damage Jerom caused to your soul. As well as helping you unlock your third relic," the entity was now a few meters away from Uriel, using Sunny's form.
"Hey wait, there are still things I need you to tell me."
"Why am I in this world? Why me? What is my role in all this?"
The entity smiled.
"The answers to all your questions will come eventually, just as they did with us. Don't despair to obtain them now. We will see each other again later. I will only tell you to be more selfish."
Uriel ran toward the figure to try to stop it, but it delved into the darkness, disappearing completely.
"Damn it, she's gone," Uriel said, hitting the ground hard.
Feeling himself being pulled through, Uriel opened his eyes suddenly, finding himself inside his mental space, more specifically inside the house in his mental space.
"What the hell was all that? Was it real?"
At that moment, the voice of the spell resonated in his mind.
[You have unlocked the third relic of your aspect legacy]
---
Uriel remained motionless for long minutes, processing everything that had happened. The house in his mental space was identical to what he remembered from his childhood, the old furniture, the smell of wood and dust, the rays of light that filtered through the worn curtains. Everything was exactly as he had left it.
But something had changed.
He could feel it in the deepest part of his being, a presence that wasn't there before, or perhaps it had always been there but he had never been aware of it. It was as if a door had opened in his mind, revealing a dark hallway that extended toward the unknown.
"The third relic..." he murmured to himself.
He remembered the entity's words. "I have healed the damage Jerom caused to your soul." Was it possible that all that time he had been operating with a damaged soul? How much of his suffering, his confusion, his constant feeling of being incomplete, was due to that wound he didn't even know he had?
He walked toward the window of the house and observed the landscape of his mental space. Before it was only an expanse of shadows and mists, but now he could see beyond. He could make out shapes, outlines, something that moved in the periphery of his vision.
"What are you really?" he asked aloud, knowing no one would answer.
But something did respond.
Not with words, but with a sensation. A deep calm that spread through his body like a familiar embrace. It was the same sensation he had experienced while floating in that infinite darkness, the same peace that had enveloped him at the beginning.
"Is it you?" he whispered.
The presence intensified for a moment, as if affirming, and then withdrew to the depths of his being.
Uriel closed his eyes and concentrated on his interior. He could feel the third relic pulsing in his dark core, a power both new and ancient. It was different from everything he had experienced before. It wasn't like the soul essence he used to feed his abilities, nor like the darkness he wielded from his first relic. This was... primordial.
"We rule over the absolute darkness of the primordial void before existence."
The entity's words echoed in his mind. What did it really mean? What was that "we" it referred to? And the most unsettling question: if the entity said it was him, what did that imply about his own nature?
He sat on the old sofa in the house, the same one where he used to read as a child, before all of this began. Before the dreams, before the nightmares, before the Forgotten Shore, before the war, before the endless cycles.
"How many times have I lived this?" he asked himself in a low voice.
The entity had said enough to forget the number. Was it possible that he had been trapped in this cycle from much earlier than he remembered? And what if every time he thought he was starting over, he was actually just repeating a pattern he couldn't see?
He remembered the entity's smile when it adopted the form of Cassie, Sunny's form, Kai's form. Each of the people he had met on his journeys, whom he had loved and lost and found again. Were they real? Or just part of the illusion?
He rested his head in his hands.
"Be more selfish."
The entity's advice was strange. Throughout his existence, Uriel had strived to be the complete opposite. He had given his life for others, he had sacrificed his well-being, his sanity, his own soul to save those around him. Selfishness was something he had learned to abhor, to see as the root of all the world's evils.
But the entity wasn't evil. Uriel could feel it. It was ancient, yes, powerful, yes, but not evil. There was something in its presence that conveyed a deep wisdom, an understanding that transcended good and evil.
"What does it mean to be more selfish?" he asked the void.
He received no answer, only the sensation of the presence watching him from the shadows of his own mind.