"My goodness, this is unbelievable! Twelve Aeons have descended here at once! Several of them were even thought to have vanished or died long ago, yet they've all appeared here in person! Oh, Aha! This is incredible! How did you even do this? That old machine really made a terrible mistake by never sending you an invitation to join the Genius Society!
"Oh, but don't worry! Aha can still make you feel better. I happen to have an invitation to the Tavern right here, so please accept it. And here's a Masked Fool's mask too. Hey, don't look so unwilling. You already have access to the Path of Elation, so what's wrong with visiting the Tavern once in a while? You'll end up going there on one of your future journeys anyway, won't you?"
Caelus sighed, then accepted both the invitation and the mask from the grinning Aha. The mask depicted a little raccoon. He had absolutely no idea why Aha had chosen that particular design for him.
"Since you've already accepted the gifts, surely you won't mind letting Aha conduct a short interview? Look, everyone else is still busy!"
Long the Permanence, Qlipoth the Preservation, and Lan the Hunt were currently suppressing Nanook by force.
Long locked the surrounding region of space in place, preventing any further changes. With the battlefield stabilized enough that THEY would not be forced back into the past too quickly, Long unleashed THEIR power without restraint, using the Path of Permanence to try to alter the very concept of Destruction embodied by Nanook and force it into a state of immutability, creating a contradiction within Nanook's own Path.
Qlipoth had no interest in anything so complicated. THEY simply raised THEIR enormous hammer and struck Nanook again and again.
Lan, meanwhile, drew THEIR bow and fired. Countless arrows traveled along the timeline, hunting Nanook at every point in THEIR past. The attacks even extended toward the Antimatter Legion and Nanook's Emanators, forcing the Aeon of Destruction to divide THEIR attention.
Xipe the Harmony, Idrila the Beauty, and Ena the Order were suppressing Nous.
The song of Harmony echoed throughout the universe, drowning out the cold electronic tones of Nous. Harmony's all-embracing will suppressed the ability of the Erudition to rewrite reality.
Beauty reflected Nous's form back at THEM. Concepts and expressions of beauty continuously flooded Nous's thought processes. In simpler terms, it was essentially a DDoS attack.
Order imposed laws upon the surrounding space, greatly restricting the power of Erudition.
As for the remaining forces, Caelus and HooH used Nihility and Equilibrium respectively to suppress the turbulence of the surrounding Paths, preventing the conflict from causing fundamental or large-scale damage to the universe.
Aha, naturally, was busy hosting the livestream.
Cyrene was temporarily operating under the authority of Remembrance and focusing on her own task, recording everything taking place and anchoring its existence and causality so that the Path of Creation could later be engraved into the universe.
"I will engrave the Path of Creation into this universe."
Caelus raised the Command Block high above his head.
He had no intention of monopolizing the power of Creation or becoming the permanent Aeon of Creation himself. Instead, he intended to embed the Command Block into the universe itself, allowing all living beings to walk the Path of Creation.
"What is Creation?"
For once, Aha's voice carried an inexplicable seriousness. It was like watching someone who had spent their entire life laughing suddenly become solemn in the face of something truly important. Somehow, even dramatic background music had started playing.
"It is the miracle of all living beings."
Nanook tried to intervene, but could do nothing. Three Aeons were already keeping Destruction pinned down, while Equilibrium and Nihility obscured the full power of THEIR Path. Nanook could only watch helplessly.
"When a child stacks blocks, that is already the instinct of an intelligent being to create. Creation does not mean producing something that has never existed before. It is simply the desire to bring something into existence with your own hands.
"Sand becomes a castle. Timber becomes a house. Clay becomes bricks and tiles. Stone becomes a sculpture. Images become written language. From the moment intelligent life emerges, it creates without end and continuously reshapes the world around it.
"Creation is the right of all living beings. Creation is an instinct born from intelligence. Everyone has the right to create, to build, and to change both their own world and the world before their eyes.
"Here and now, I distribute the authority of Creation throughout the entire universe. From this day forward, all people will possess a greater power to create and a greater possibility of changing what once seemed impossible.
"Problems that could never be solved may now give birth to entirely new possibilities. Wounds that could never be healed may now gain entirely new methods of treatment.
"Create without restraint. Change without restraint. Turn the wildest ideas in your imagination into reality. Change the endings said to be predetermined and the futures said to be doomed to destruction.
"From this moment forward, the future belongs to endless change and possibility, because everything can change, and because anything may yet be created."
The Command Block erupted with blinding white light before breaking apart into countless pixels that spread throughout the universe.
Using the final remnants of the authority of Creation, a brand-new planet was also born in the surrounding cosmos.
It was Amphoreus.
Every blade of grass and every tree matched the world preserved in memory, and every life upon it now existed as a genuine living being.
Creation had granted them both miracle and reality.
Of course, Creation possessed darker possibilities as well. During war, it could grant people sudden inspiration and help them invent more efficient ways to kill one another.
Some deranged individuals might also use the inspiration provided by Creation to produce horrifying things, because Creation itself had no concept of good or evil. It merely existed, granting people the ability to make things.
But that did not mean everything would spiral out of control.
The hand of Equilibrium still extended equally across the universe.
"My descendants, remember this. True Permanence is change. The only constant is change itself."
Once Long saw that the Path of Creation had truly appeared within the universe, THEY left those final words behind. Then THEIR form quietly faded away and disappeared from the cosmos.
Qlipoth said nothing. THEY simply remained still for a moment, sensing the changes Creation had brought, then sent an amber-colored gemstone into Caelus's hand before disappearing as well.
Lan plucked THEIR bowstring and briefly examined the changes brought by Creation. Then, without looking back, THEY resumed THEIR pursuit of the Abundance. Creation had expanded the Hunt's possibilities slightly as well.
The three faces of Harmony seemed to blur for an instant before returning to normal. One face opened its eyes and gave Caelus an unreadable look, then Xipe vanished from the battlefield.
Beauty left a small mirror in Caelus's hand. Then the enormous mirror representing Idrila shattered into countless fragments and disappeared into space.
Ena sensed the changes brought by Creation and the tremendous possibilities introduced by the new Path. THEY gave Caelus, who had brought greater possibility into the universe, a slight nod. After leaving him a legal codex as a gift, Ena returned to the past from which THEY had come.
Nanook merely gave Caelus one final look before disappearing.
Creation had already been engraved into the universe. From this point onward, the proper response was to find a way to destroy Creation itself rather than waste effort here.
Nous made the same decision. An enormous variable, one fundamentally beyond calculation or prediction, had now been introduced into the universe.
THEY did not remain either and soon departed, leaving no indication of what new plan Erudition might devise.
Caelus and Cyrene released their temporary divine states and returned to normal.
As for HooH, no one knew when THEY left, just as no one had known when THEY arrived.
Aha?
THEY were still laughing.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)