Chapter 873: The Truth of AO
A large blue gate appeared out of nowhere with a wave of sparking lightning. Cain pulled out of Lilia and looked back, "It's opened sooner than I thought."
"An hour was an estimated average. It could've taken less or longer depending on where the gate was." Lilia replied, flicking her fingers and releasing a wave of cleaning magic. "Let's check it out."
Cain clapped his hands, and their clothes appeared on their bodies, "Let's not waste any time," He said as Morena faded into his body.
With a tiny jump, Lilia started floating beside him with waves of magic rushing out of her body. "Let's go. I'm the guardian of the gate, so let me take control from now on."
"Go ahead," Cain replied, and several eyes emerged on Lilia's body, "Don't move." She said, her body melting into a dark-green blob that consumed Cain's body, turning him into a black silhouette of eyes, stars, and gushing magic.
"This feels strange," Cain said, his voice reverbing across the air.
"I'm not done yet. Just give me a second." Lilia replied, and Cain's black body shifted into a white silhouette of blinding light. "Let's go. Expect an attack, so be ready for interchanging control,"
"It's one body with two minds controlling it," Cain smiled, "Let's jump inside and see what happened to the gate."
"We didn't need this before, but I'm sure the gate isn't fine.
It couldn't be with the current situation," Lilia added as Cain approached the magic gate, "We would've been fine if we were sure it was closed." He took a step inside the magic gate, instantly finding himself standing in a titanic stone room with ruins everywhere, strange eldritch magic sparking everywhere to the point it felt painful even to him.
"The rot of the outer world is seeping inside. This isn't good," He walked forward, following the clear path ahead of him toward the darkness. That is what would get him closer to the gate.
"Halt!" Two massive metallic titans appeared out of nowhere, pointing their spears at Cain with a deep growl, "You aren't allowed further. Return from where you came,"
Cain looked at them. Even though he was smiling, nothing showed on his clear faceless head. "Hello, it's been a while." He replied.
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"Cain Lisworth, we shall never mistake your existence. You aren't allowed here, and neither is the daemon residing inside you."
"Calling your mother a daemon," Lilia's giggles came out of Cain's body, "I seem to have raised you well. That's how you should act."
"We're happy to hear that, but you know better than us that we should respect AO's will more than yours. If he left and closed the gate. We shall never allow anyone past it anymore." They bent down, "We kicked you two once before, and we'll do it again."
"So, it's a fight then?" Cain sighed, "History repeats itself,"
"Time doesn't exist here." The two titans replied as hundreds of others appeared out of nowhere, "What lies behind the gate is something no one should ever witness. You're better off dying here than going past us. This is the only truth."
"Me not walking past the gate is the truth of the world, the old world." Cain lifted his hand and pointed at one of the guards, a tiny ball of light flashing before his nail. "Truth, forbidden knowledge, it's the rule of this world and what shouldn't be told, what shouldn't be known. Gods must be all-powerful, and the overgod above them must be omnipotent in the world."
"It's not a wise decision to merge with Mother's forbidden knowledge. It'll be your demise." One of the guardians growled, lifting his spear, "We can't let the only man our mother loved die like this. We'll kill you ourselves so you can spend more time with her in the mortal world. Rewind and restart your whole life, stuck in a never-ending loop of failed tries."
The guardian swung his spear, piercing Arad's chest and smashing him to the ground, "It's over, ending. This shall be the last time you'll be here in this run." The guardians chanted as the one who stabbed Cain pulled his spear away, leaving a destroyed body with a splash of pure white divine blood.
ZOOor! All the guardians froze in place, and they gasped. "What's happening?" One of them cried, seeing the guardian who stabbed Cain move, his arm extending forward back to Cain where he stabbed, the splash of blood reversing back, and the spear pulled away as the overgod returned to his standing pose.
"Truth always existed, and it never shifted," Cain said, the light engulfing his body fading as he returned to his normal self. "I'm me, always was, and always will be," His eyes flashed with a blue light, looking forward.
Cain's consciousness shifted back to where he stood in the guild before the worried Mary. Then his mind panned all the way across everything until it returned to where he stood in front of the guardians.
"I didn't just change. I was always changed. I didn't get reborn out of nowhere. I'm the one who sent myself back, and this is the first time I've ever stepped foot here." He turned around, looking back, and saw Mary's bloodied body lying in the back. Cain waved his hand, and her body disappeared, "Let her return to the world. No more harm shall befall."
"You!" One of the guardians gasped, "You've integrated with mother's forbidden knowledge," He swung his spear at Cain's face, but the spear stopped before hitting him.
"You can't reach me into this world," Cain lifted his hand, gently pushing the spear away, "My brethren, protections of the world. The mission you've been set upon has ended. You can rest." He took one step forward, and the guardians moved out of the way.
"It can't be," One of the guardians gasped, "This is impossible. It wasn't AO..."
As Cain approached the gate, he looked back at the guardians, "I'm going to see what's behind it and look for AO. Don't let me inside until I force myself in, no matter the time, place, or reason."
Cain pushed the door open and walked outside the world, and just as the door closed behind him. He appeared back in front of the guardians with Lilia and Mary, ready to fight their way in.
CLANG! The first of the guardians smacked his spear on the ground, "You shall not pass!" He shouted.
As Cain walked outside the world, he sighed, "I thought it was AO who locked the gate behind himself, and it was me all the time."
^Time doesn't exist. Before the gate,^ Lilia smiled inside his mind.
As Cain floated away from the gate in the air-less void, he couldn't hear or feel a thing besides a few strands of strange magic floating around, marking his path.
"An infinite world of nothingness with endless possibilities." He looked around, extending his magic as far as he could to explore the unknown.
"AO! Where are you? I'm sure you can hear me." He shouted, amplifying his voice with magic and sending it in several forms, light, sound, and telepathic in the hope that AO would pick it up.
"No response guessed as much. He won't be lying close by." Cain sighed, "Should we explore this void for the abomination source?"
[They are baiting you out. Be careful]
A voice boomed in Cain's head, and he gasped, "AO?! Is that you?"
[It's me, but I'm not doing that well. The abominations have infested my body, and I'm in as good of a condition as a man with a body riddled with maggots.]
"I'm trying to stop their invasion," Cain shouted back, "Where are you? Where is your body so I can kill those Abominations?"
[You're inside my stomach, and so is the world and all of those stars in the distance.] As AO said that. Thousands of light orbs filled the void like the night sky. [Trying to cure my body is useless. My death is imminent. I have another job for you, something easier and simpler to do.]
"What is it?"
[For the first part, gather as much power as needed to recreate a world after my death. It's for the mortals and divines to survive. Then I want you to nourish my reborn self in the mortal world to power. Only then I could retake the burden of the world from your back. It's too great for a man to carry alone.]
"You know it isn't that simple to create a whole world, let alone something as large as what you made," Cain replied. Even with his current power, he could barely control the world. Creating it from scratch is impossible. He won't be able to make something tenth as big, let alone the whole thing.
[You can grow strong enough by exploring the void and conquering the abominations. They'll soon realize their plan failed, and they'll attempt to invade the mortal world once more. It's at that time you'll need to create a new one, and when I'll perish.]
"That'll be one heck of a job. It'll take years if not decades. But I guess that isn't much time anyway." Cain looked into the void.
"Let's say I managed to get the plan to work. Would I know who you are? Or should I just keep the world running until you pop out again?" He asked.
[My reborn self would hold my name.]
"Absolute Omnipotent? Who'll get such a name at birth? Guess it's fitting for you." Cain giggled.
[I'm not good at making names. That's a fake one I keep using,] Ao replied, [AO doesn't stand for Absolute Omnipotent. That's a joke I came up with one of my wives.]
"Then what's your name?"
[Arad Orion, the void dragon who holds the whole of existence in his nothingness. I'm the void that surrounds existence outside of time and space.]
"Hold up! What happened to Azathoth? I'm sure I've heard that name pop around a lot." Cain gasped.
[I'm him. He's the sleeping idiot god. I do hibernate a lot, and cultists who touched a slither of my existence came up with that name. To mortals, my sleeping a lot makes me a fool, and I understand their perspective.]
"I understand." Cain scratched his head, "How much time do I have?"
[Several thousand years, I can push myself to live longer when needed, so don't worry about time. It means nothing here.]