Chapter 479: The Will of the Omniverse
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Beyond the omniversal temporal line, the She Beyond Omnipotence sat on her chair while running a hand down Kurai's hand. She was staring at the screen in the air, which showed Neji stepping into the Source of Creation.
She rubbed her chin, "Things are too fast this time." she thought aloud. Omniscience could let her know everything that would happen, but as she had mentioned to Neji before, she kept it turned off for the most part. She liked enjoying humane limitations from time to time, it gave spice to living.
Nothing major has changed, but events have sped up. Of the three paths that the Level 10,000 Quest provided, the other possibility's Neji had chosen the Chaos Path. For him to complete that quest, the goal was as follows:
[Navigate the Chaotic Realms, where reality itself is in flux, and prove your ability to harness chaos. If successful, you shall gain the ability to manipulate chaos, chaotic weaponry, and earn the title of "Shub-Niggurath, the Chaosweaver."]
He only managed to find that place after half a dozen years of search; he was already a Demon thanks to the Godmother taking him in, and that demonic side of his aligned well with the chaotic powers he gained. He grew quite powerful, earning the title of Demon King of Light and Darkness in the following years.
But in just a single year, this possibility's Neji had succeeded in finding his quest arena. Indeed, things were going fast, and perhaps for the better.
"He didn't turn into a Demon this time, so he's weaker," she said to herself. "But that should be made up if he succeeds in this Quest and gains the title of Celestialsapien." That race of creatures were Demons, Gods, and everything else that made reality.
In the other possibility, Godmother had turned Neji into a demon before Kimi was about to throw him out of the Dreamweaver's Fortress. The demonification caused him to lose his mind further, which made Godmother disappointed. She advised Kimi to throw him out so that he could gain control over his emotions in the outside world.
When he was cast out in that possibility, he appeared in front of Fotia and her fiance just like this time. Zephyr beat him up and put a collar around him, but Neji wasn't rational enough to think that he could deposit the collar inside his Inventory, that's why he spent a longer time as Fotia's slave than the few minutes this Neji did.
Thanks to the demonification, he was madder than all time, he grew extremely mad at the Primordial's daughter and fiance for the years of slavery they brought upon him. So later after he freed himself from them, he raped Fotia out of his own will, not out of pure madness. He tormented her and found fun in it.
Thanks to all this, his meeting with Lady Life was greatly delayed. He met her after he used Fotia and threw her away, by then years had passed of his stay here. Only after Lady Life left him the same emerald ring, did he search for the Chaos Realm.
"Interesting," she shrugged as she materialized a box of popcorn and began to eat, not forgetting to feed Kurai some. "Hope quickness doesn't bring his doom."
In nowhere was Neji safe from death, it didn't matter that this was a time loop. If he died, this was his last chance, and everything would end.
Raki focused on the scene on the screen, "Let's see how long the trial takes."
Hopefully not years.
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[This place looks… familiar.] Neji was familiar with the idea of Celestialsapiens, they were from a fairly popular cartoon.
Although he didn't watch it long enough to reach this far, he knew what Alien X was. Since the Omniverse was built upon the ideas originating from the Prime, it wasn't all that surprising that it was built in similar ways to some fiction.
Still, when he saw his quest mention the Celestialsapiens, he wasn't expecting them to be exactly this one.
"The Strongest Race in the Omniverse," said Anodi from beside him, as she too observed the titanic cosmic humanoids that stood still. "Even their weakest members are below Class 3, while their strongest are beyond comprehension."
She pointed at a celestialsapien in the far; unlike the others, this one has a special distinction. It was shaped like a woman and had a small glowing white orb in her hands with a baby Celestialsapien growing inside it. It was a pregnant Celestialsapien.
"It takes a baby Celestialsapien tens of thousands of years to develop. I'm not sure how much you know about them, but this race of people are immensely powerful beings with the power to control reality. Like most Omnipotence, merely thinking about something makes it a reality for them. Except they're special in that, they are outer dimensional entities. So their powers apply to anything," she explained. "But a Celestialsapien cannot do anything unless a majority or all its personalities agree. Yes, they are beings with more than one personality. Most of them spent eons debating before using any of their powers at all."
So more than a race of entities, they were just batteries through which ideas and dreams manifested into this realm.
"Each Celestialsapien has 2 distinct personalities inside them. There needs to be a 3rd agreement for them to do anything. So while they are arguably the strongest beings in the multiverse, they are pretty handicapped. Otherwise, they could have wished us to be erased right now, and we'd have been. We're basically invading the Forge of Creation right now, yet these Celestialsapiens are deliberating on what to do with us, unable to reach a decision."
[What if we were to attack them? Would they react then?] asked Neji, as he fiddled with his emerald ring. If he were to lose control and attack them, it might be the end for him.
"Eh," she shrugged. "It depends. If you were to be attacked by a qroaskito, would you hit it? Oh right, if you don't know, a qroaskito is like a mosquito from human worlds." She said, "Some might hit it and kill it, while some might ignore it if they don't even notice it. You're no danger to them, except for the baby, so go crazy, they probably won't harm you."
[I see,] he nodded, looked around, and focused back on the cosmic hut floating in the far distance. [By the way, is that the Temple of Equilibrium?]
"Oh," she looked at it. "Huh, yes. How did you notice it? I was staring in the same direction but it was invisible to my eyes." She blinked. "Right, it is said that it only reveals itself to those who are worthy."
[Worthy of what?]
She looked at him, "Worthy of meeting the Cube."
"...." he frowned and looked back at it.
[The Will of the Omniverse is looking at you intensely. It wonders who you are.]
The Will of the Omniverse… his longest benefactor. It seemed the time travel had affected it too, unlike how he hoped.
[The Will of the Omniverse wonders why you have its Blessing when it clearly does not remember giving you one.]
Unlike the friendly and helpful tone it had always used in its prompts, it now sounded slightly hostile. Looking back, why had it been so nice to him from the beginning…?
[I didn't expect the temple to be a hut,] he said to Anodi with blocks of text over his head.
"It used to be a big castle of marble, from what I heard from Mother," she replied. "It shrunk after… the incident."
[The incident?]
"The Omniverse's Will is far from what it once was. As the will of the reality we live in, it's supposed to be the strongest entity, but it's far from so." She said, "It holds barely any authority now. This is the core of the Cube Omniverse, you know? The race of Celestialsapiens exists to guard this place from invaders, they were the knights of the Omniverse's Will. But now they lack the will to even move, because their ruler, from whom they were supposed to take all the orders, can't even muster enough power to order them." She said, "The Will of the Omniverse was greatly damaged by the Prime's Primordial God in one of the earlier great wars between realities."
"...."
Neji stared at the small hut. He stared at it for long before looking back at Anodi, [I'll be going in then. Will you come?]
She giggled, "I can't go there unless I'm called. Celestialsapiens are the guards of this realm, and we Anodites are kind of gatekeepers to this realm. We're not even supposed to step inside, so no, I can't go in any further. I'll stand here and wait. Don't take too long doing whatever you plan to do."
Neji looked at her in silence before he said, [Thank you for your help so far.] As he turned around and flew towards the hut.
[The Temple of Equilibrium]
As she had said, it indeed was the temple, as the name floated above the hut when he approached it. The windows were closed, but luminous light leaked out of them. The door was slightly parted, with light shining out of the split.
Neji stopped in front of the door for a few seconds and then pushed it open. Blue light consumed him and a second later… he stood in a hallway, inside something that clearly wasn't a hut. It was just a luminous empty white room. He'd have mistaken it for void itself if not for the edges around the room.
There was a… child, a boy or a girl, Neji couldn't tell for sure. It was androgynous enough that Neji couldn't tell apart. It held a rubix cube in its hand, clutching it tight as it looked up at Neji with a suspicious frown. It had black hair reflecting the cosmic, and red eyes that were like exploding sun.
It opened its mouth, "...." lips moved but no sound came out, at least none Neji's ears could perceive. Rather, a system prompt flashed.
[The Will of the Omniverse demands your identity.]
'Huh,' Neji wondered how he should proceed with this.
[Image Here]
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