Chapter 223: End [2/2]
After the other Elian Reed ate the marble, the video showed various things. The Tyrant of the End tried to leave the world he started from but couldn’t.
As fate would have it, Forged couldn’t use mana. This limitation prevented him from using Origin’s legacy.
But the Tyrant of the End did not stop.
Time passed, and Elian saw in real time each attempt and trial. Using experimentation and science, his other version tried to systematically find a way out of his own world despite his numerous failures.
Unlike in this world where he had Fluffy and the others, the legions of golems in the other world had no free will nor a mind of their own.
They merely existed.
Thus, being the sole being alive, there was no one to give the Tyrant of the End counsel. He did not have anyone to confide in. He was truly alone in the entire universe. Elian couldn’t help but feel the irony.
The other universe was truly at peace. Because there was no longer anyone left remaining. There was no war, no chaos, and no suffering, but there was also no laughter, no love, and ultimately no life.
There was nothing.
As Elian watched, the silence transformed from comforting to something sinister. Elian’s own mind began to warp from seeing the passage of time. Although the quest said Dr. Magnolia would only speak to him for ten minutes, it felt like an eternity.
However, Elian could not stop watching The Tyrant of the End.
It was as if he saw both the worst and best versions of himself. This Elian Reed stood at the pinnacle. He was both the wisest and most powerful. But he reigned over a universe of ashes.
"Was this why Origin began to go insane?" as Elian commented as he cleared his throat.
It was. My brother and I were once human. But we gained mana and eventually became immortal. Once everything around my brother and me died, we were left to exist forever. But I do not think humans were meant to live for eternity.
"You chose to be mortal?"
Yes, I left my brother. And he resented me for it. I used my immortality to rewind time on our world, which had already ended. I once again lived like a human, erasing my memories as I did so. But on the night I was going to breathe my last, my brother did the unthinkable.
Elian could only shake his head. He was curious how they had turned immortal in the very first world to begin with, but he held his tongue. While it would have been interesting to learn, it was ancient history at this point.
He cloned that universe a hundred and fifty times using his own immortality as payment.
"Why?"
I only came to learn much, much later. Supposedly, I told him I wanted to live a mortal life. And to fulfill that wish, he wanted me to have as many as I could. It’s tragic that my selfishness caused him to go down this path.
Though Dr. Magnolia believed her brother hated her, nothing was farther from the truth. Using his own immortality as payment, Origin gave his all for his sister.
Dr. Magnolia briefly showed a montage of the various lives she lived. Some were tragic, others were blissful. In each life, she loved, lost, and died as a human would.
"What happened to the worlds that you left behind?"
They continued. When every trace of me was gone, my brother felt the universes were pointless. He detonated his body to destroy each reality. After the 25th, he grew tired of doing it himself and forced each universe to destroy each other.
"The Crucible."
Yes. In some twisted sort of way, this entire thing is something born of my wish to die mortal.
"Then how are you still in the system? How did you leave this message?"
Time in the multiverse isn’t a single stream but an ocean with many waves. What happens in one affects the others. In one of them, the Crucible began before I died. I grew to remember my true identity as I interacted with the System; after all, my brother patterned it after me.
"I see. Because of how much of you was in the System, did you piece everything together?"
Indeed. Every power, every talent, he allowed others to gain power like we did. I grew to peak Twilight and learned the truth. Through the Crucible’s system, even a pale imitation of our immortality was created.
"Eternal? Bianca’s Talent?"
Yes. The job Psychomancer is just a replication of one of our many abilities. Through it and another job called Dimension Walker, I came to learn my role in all this.
"So, what do you want to get out of all this? As it continues, I will end up killing your brother."
I am well aware of that. My only request is for you to stop the Tyrant of the End.
"Huh? Aren’t I the Tyrant of the End?"
No, you are not. It ties back to the way the Tyrant left his original universe to begin with. Watch.
Elian turned to see the video and came to understand. The Tyrant of the End was conversing with the System, brainstorming how to leave.
[System, I have exhausted every possible way to take Origin’s mana and leave this universe. If I cannot physically traverse the dimensions, can I simply move with my mind?]
[I do not understand your request,] the System answered.
[Are there other Elian Reed’s in the other universes? The ones where the Crucible exists? Do not try to mislead me; I know you have sentience and are linked through every universe.]
The system paused, but eventually replied.
[Yes. Of the one hundred and fifty different universes, twenty-five of them are no more. A hundred and twenty-five still have an Elian Reed. Although his power in each reality greatly varies. One commonality is that he is always turned into a golem by Bianca Valestra.]
[Hmm. So, becoming a Weapon is in my fate. Good. As the new god in this universe, I command you to create the unique Job, Tyrant of the End, for me. And I mean all of me.]
[Understood. What should the specifics be for this Job?]
[Allow the various Elian Reeds to see and experience all that I have. I am certain they will come to the same conclusion. My wealth of combat experience should be enough.]
[Understood. Job, Tyrant of the End, created. Memories of metal trait added to Forged in all universes. Any Weapon in every universe will now see portions of your memories and be able to share their own.]
[Good. That should be enough. What happens when I kill Origin in all one hundred and fifty worlds?]
[The multiverse would collapse and revert back to being only a single universe. The state of all surviving worlds will determine what gets recreated in the last reality.]
The Tyrant of the End made an uncharacteristic sigh.
[I see. Then I can finally end it all afterward. Just shutting down my brain is not enough. I wish to be truly free. I will collapse this multiverse and destroy the final one that gets recreated.]
[Please don’t. While the universe is not perfect, it holds the potential for both creation and destruction. Nothing embodies this more than humans. This is the race from which both my source soul and Origin came.]
Somehow, the tables have turned. The Crucible, which Elian once saw as a genocidal enabler, was the final bastion of humanity. Funny how the echoes of some higher being still believe in goodness when it saw the rise of the Tyrant of the End.
[I care not. If this universe were good, then it wouldn’t have given birth to me.]
[...]
The Tyrant of the End scoffed, and once again ceased to move. Shutting down, Elian understood its actions. With its legacy and plan in motion, it only had to wait until the other worlds ended.
Using the omniscient view of the system, Elian saw multiple alternate versions of himself reach the pinnacle of power. When they chose the final job at level 100 at peak Twilight, they gained the Job "Tyrant of the End."
Then they proceeded to butcher their own worlds and kill Origin. But then the scene he watched underwent a drastic change. Initially following Elian’s perspective, it began to show Origin’s take on the matter instead.
His appearance changed in each iteration. Sometimes he was a man, and others a woman. In some, he had yet to even walk, while in others he was already a ghost. It seemed that in every world, Origin lived as a human until he died, similar to Dr. Magnolia.
The absolute being would only remember his true identity after he gained his mana and memories. In some twisted sense, it was eerily similar to the solution Elian came up with.
"ELIAN, YOU’RE FINALLY HERE! LET’S FIGHT!"
STAB.
After a long battle, Origin died a second time with a stake to the heart.
Supposedly bored out of his mind, Origin grew excited and happy during their first few meetings.
But soon that changed.
"ELIAN, WELCOME BACK! BEST OUT OF FIVE!"
STAB.
"You got me good last time. But I’m not the same as last time!"
STAB.
As each Origin died, the remaining ones grew far stronger. Yet, like flies, they all died to the Tyrant of the End. And Dr. Magnolia made Elian watch each iteration.
Origin would live and die as a human, then gain his memories, fight the Tyrant of the End, and die. Like clockwork, this cycle continued for more than a hundred times.
Slowly, Origin’s excitement turned to anger.
"Just what the hell is this guy? Why can’t I beat him? He’s practically immortal!"
Then anger became fear.
"HIII!!! IT’S THE TYRANT OF THE END! I MUST HIDE!"
However, no matter what Origin did, the Tyrant of the End came for him. No matter where the absolute being hid, no matter how far he ran away, it all ended in the same manner.
"Elian, Buddy, let’s stop this, yeah? Just tell me what you want! I can remake this world exactly as you want it! You can be rich and powerful! I will give you the best powers, the best women, the best everything!"
STAB.
"YOU BASTARD! I WILL REALLY GET ANGRY! WHAT DO YOU EVEN WANT?"
STAB.
There, Elian saw the reason the Tyrant of the End was so effective.
It feared nothing; it valued nothing; it desired nothing.
Origin’s word earlier was true. Only it wasn’t the entire universe that feared Elian, but Origin himself.
"The Weapons are a force of nature that cannot be reasoned with, negotiated with, or bribed. They exist only to kill and destroy. And sadly, in every single crucible your Weapons have joined, they have won."
It lived for only one purposed.
To bring the end.
The moment the Tyrant of the End came into being, the genocide of the universe would begin. And it would end with Origin’s death, only to repeat in the next reality.
Somehow, seeing the creator of the Crucible slowly turn deranged from multiple deaths felt cathartic. Like giving an evil doctor his own medicine to choke on.
"Tsk. System! How many worlds has Elian Reed destroyed?" a newly reborn Origin asked.
[He has razed over 70% of the multiverse. Eighty-seven of the one hundred twenty-five universes.]
"DAMN IT! This cannot continue! If I die in all of them, I will really cease to exist! Help me stop him!"
From then on, Origin lost his happy-go-lucky self. He killed Elian before he became a golem, yet the Tyrant of the End still came into being. Bianca would ultimately choose someone else who had both Adamant and Driven and repeat the cycle.
He initially thought it was a fluke, so he moved from killing Elian to his parents, then from his parents to his grandparents. But...
"ARGH! This is pointless! I already killed his ancestors from over a hundred freaking generations! How the hell does some version of Elian Reed still get born? This is freaking insane!"
[If the goal is to stop Elian Reed, I would suggest leaving him be so we at least know we know for certain who will be his parents. We should instead stop him from being turned into a golem by Bianca Valestra.]
Even the system was helping the absolute being stop the Tyrant of the End. Yet it yielded the same result.
"HAAA! Just what the hell is going on with these freaking piles of crap! Killing Bianca Valestra does nothing! Like with Elian Reed, she simply changes names! Why the hell is fate helping these two? It’s like the universe has a death wish!"
Despite doing their all, Elian Reed and Bianca Valestra’s fates were intertwined. Any and all attempts to end their existences only delayed the inevitable. They would always meet, give birth to the Tyrant of the End, and die beside each other.
A tragedy written in blood, yet one that marches into oblivion without fail.
As if they were agents the universe conceived to correct itself.
The scene once again changed to show a ghost leaving a corpse and turning into the faceless being Elian was familiar with. A vast amount of mana rushed to it, and it grew powerful.
The one Elian was watching was by far the strongest he had ever seen. Elian’s body trembled just from its recorded memory in a video.
"System. How many of me remain?" Origin asked in exhaustion.
[One. You are the last.]
"DAMN IT! How the hell has it come to this?! Where are Elian Reed and Bianca Valestra in this universe?"
[By each other’s side. They are currently confessing their love to one another in Crestfall.]
"Huh? Confessing their love? Those two? I saw Elian butcher Bianca hundreds of times. That has got to be wrong."
The scene ended and showed no more. Immediately, Elian regained his vision, and it once again showed Dr. Magnolia sitting in her seat in the original recording.
[This brings us to this universe, Elian Reed. One final, last-ditch attempt I created without my brother’s knowledge. The literal fate of all life is in your hands.]