Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 105: The Sin

The storm of memory eventually faded, returning to an endless expanse of white.

The white void returned.

Uriel floated in his ghost form at its center, his gaze vacant and empty as it stared toward the endless horizon.

His shoulder-length white hair swayed beneath the pull of absent winds, and his chest rose and fell softly, breathing in the nothingness of the void.

His heartbeat was slow and steady. His back was straight.

He hadn’t gone mad, of course he hadn’t. By virtue of whatever hell he was in, he couldn’t.

He remembered absolutely every single second and frame of his life. Every emotion, every sensation, every interaction. All of it.

Everything.

Well... perhaps saying he hadn’t gone mad was inaccurate. He was still Uriel, but he was... different.

Or maybe he wasn’t. How could one change simply by remembering? Perhaps he was only becoming his true self now that he remembered.

It was hard to tell.

WHOOOOSH!

Flames manifested beside the unmoving Uriel, twisting and coiling until they formed Ophanis’ body.

White flames made her flesh. Long amethyst fire flowed as hair, and deep azure pupils burned within her eyes. She was the same as always, divine and discrete.

She stood beside him, looking up at his face.

"Is that the price?" Uriel asked, lowering his gaze to meet hers.

She shook her head. "No. That was only the precursor to it. The real price we have to pay will arrive soon."

"Hell was only the precursor?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She threw him a glance, but didn’t answer.

—

[The Sin of Heart Remembrance has formed.]

—

Before both Ophanis and Uriel, the white void trembled. From thin air, strings of golden light appeared, weaving themselves together into a beautiful circular rune that glowed like the brightest of suns.

Its radiance was so intense it painted the white void into an endless expanse of gold, yet somehow, neither of them was blinded by it.

RUMBLE!

The golden void shook, and across its endlessness, rivers of multicolored light began to form; diverging, converging, splitting, and rejoining without end. Their complexity was so vast that Uriel found it entirely impossible to fathom.

A golden void, contrasted by endless rainbow-colored rivers.

—

[Do you accept the Sin?]

—

Uriel turned to Ophanis.

She sighed, eyeing the rune, the so-called sin, for a long moment as memories of the past surged forth.

Eventually, she answered his inquisitive gaze.

"When Thoryl trapped us, he sent us into a white void like this one. The truth is that we are not in a void. We are in what is called the Mind Palace."

"If the Heart Realm is linked to the soul and emotions, then the Mind Palace is bound to consciousness and memory."

"Back then, Thoryl used the talent in your pack as a node, something that sent out a signal which summoned the Gate and the Eye within your Mind Palace."

"It should have been fatal. So fatal, in fact, that your very existence would’ve been erased across space and time... and fate itself."

"It wouldn’t have been just death. No. Every single person sharing direct blood with you would’ve died, and those with strong ties to you would’ve been spiritually crippled, unable to ever achieve... Godhood. Unable to remember."

"So that you would remain dead forever."

Uriel didn’t react as he once would have. Hearing her explanation, he hummed in understanding and nodded.

"I see."

He paused.

"I see," he repeated, a sharp edge underlining the words.

Ophanis hesitated for a moment, letting him digest what she had said before continuing.

"But I saved you. During the Advent, I fused into you and began remolding your body in preparation for what Thoryl would do."

"Because... your past self had prepared for it. To fix your Spark, you had no choice but to let Thoryl trap the current you."

"When we signed the Root Contract, we truly became one, as we once were in the past. Through me, the echoes of your past selves, those from previous timelines, reached out."

"They took control of the Gate of Truth and the Sacred Eye of Lies... and used them to fix your Spark."

"..."

Uriel looked away, closing his eyes for a few moments.

He could have exploded with anger, rage and madness tearing out of him as he screamed at the unfairness of it all.

Didn’t the mark on his chest stand in opposition to everything Ophanis had just said? Once again, he had been used in a scheme far beyond his scope, and worse still, it had been done by himself.

What annoyed him even more was that he knew that he knew. His future self would have known he’d feel violated by this.

And none of it even touched on Thoryl and his schemes, his strange obsession, the fact that he had nearly killed everyone Uriel loved before he had even realized it.

He had almost lost everyone he cared about in a blink.

He had every right to erupt in wrath or collapse into hopelessness, especially after the hell of memories he had just emerged from.

But he didn’t.

Uriel smiled softly.

Ophanis felt a tremor run down her spine.

"Being weak truly is the most humiliating of fates, hm?" He let out a faint chuckle before reopening his eyes.

"It strips you of all will and purpose so easily, yet orders that you chase after them. Sickening, really."

His ivory eyes were clear, his soul as calm and stable as an undisturbed lake. He met her gaze and nodded.

"Continue. I’m listening."

Ophanis took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

"By fixing your Spark across time, you not only defied and altered Fate, but also defiled the purity of the Gate and the Eye. And so... we were punished."

"The Sins are the punishments. They are... cruel."

She turned toward the endless multicolored rivers flowing around them, suffusing the golden void with brilliant, shifting light.

"These rivers."

She looked at them with pain and sorrow, woven tightly with rage. Her mane of flaming amethyst hair flickered, and her flame-borne body suddenly shone with fierce heat.

"They are you."