Chapter 3911: The Reality Zen Wanted |
Clarence had formulated several conjectures regarding the possible changes of the point of origin.
It might never change and continue on forever. In that scenario, the entire world had completely perished while Clarence and Zen remained trapped in an eternal prison.
Another possibility was that the point of origin would turn into the perfect land and restart the thirteenth-grade world. Since the first-grade and the thirteenth-grade worlds shared a common origin, it was highly possible for them to transform into each other.
The third and final possibility Clarence speculated of was that Zen's and the Evil God's existences would bring about new, unexpected changes to the very basic rules of this world.
In the end though, these all remained as speculations since this was the very first time Clarence experienced the downgrade.
However, seeing where things now stood, it seemed his third theory proved correct as the point of origin began to split slowly.
“What will happen next?” Zen asked.
“Maybe... We will both have a perfect land,” Clarence replied.
“You mean the world will completely separate in two?”
Instead of elation, Zen felt disappointed, “But you promised to give me a real world!” he growled.
He did not want a perfect land nor did he wish to become the ruler of the world. The only thing he wanted was to restore everything that had been destroyed: his loved ones, his friends, and his family.
“It wouldn't be difficult. I can give you my memories and you will be able to repeat the past,” Clarence assured him.
With that, his consciousness suddenly surged towards Zen's and took the initiative to fuse with it!
In this fusion, Clarence voluntarily gave up dominance which meant that Zen now would effectively devour a part of his consciousness and have ownership of his memories.
“Why? Why did you do that?” Zen asked in shock.
“Once the point of origin is restored to the perfect land, I will embrace a brand new world. I have no need to restore the past so it would be best to leave my past memories to you,” Clarence answered. In truth, he only wanted to remember the general information of the past.
With his reasoning, Zen found no need to say anything more and simply waited for their consciousness to merge completely. During the process, Zen found his knowledge increase exponentially.
Clarence's memories contained the highest level of omniscience: the distribution of any and all energy and substance in the thirteenth-grade world to the first-grade world. Needless to say, it was an infinite quantity of information.
With this, Zen would now be able to restore everything according to the past.
Soon enough, the divided part of Clarence's consciousness completely merged with Zen's.
Further on, the point of origin finally split into two with Zen and Clarence occupying their respective worlds.
Once he assumed control of the point of origin, Zen completely lost contact with Clarence.
The world Zen was in was infinitely small and his consciousness floated silently, alone with no source of sound, light, or feelings. It was at that moment that Zen truly felt lonely.
Bored out of his mind, he then decided to start sifting over Clarence's memories.
Within these memories, Zen was able to lay out every single detail of every single being that ever existed: kings, traitors, dreamers... Their life stories and inner thoughts were shown to him from birth until death, like overly-long movies of which Zen was the only audience.
After scrolling through the memories of tens of thousands of creatures, the point of origin suddenly began to change.
Zen felt it: the sudden disappearance of the infinitely large pressure that once engulfed him.
Soon enough, highly compressed substances and energy began to bounce back and the infinitely small point of origin popped.
It was a silent explosion.
In the midst of the violent surge of energy, there was no sound.
It was in this soundless burst that the space which allowed all substances to exist came into being.
The flow of time resumed.
Light spread out to every corner.
Finally, sound came after such a long period of silence. What was supposed to be a noisy explosion became music to Zen's ears.
Before him was a huge space.
There was nothing in front of him but he did not feel empty, instead, everything felt perfect.
It was indeed the perfect land.
He had already witnessed it once in Clarence's memories and it was exactly as it appeared there.
Everything in this land was constant and would last forever. There would be no more pain, separation, or betrayal. If he rebuilt the fairy palace here then everything would be perfect.
With that, he then began to extract the relevant information from his memories that would enable him to rebuild his perfect world.
Clatter...
Cyan rocks began to materialize into the void as they formed a high wall. In an instant, the fairy palace had been restored along with the people who lived in it.
Salome's lively giggles, Geoffrey's mischievous yell, and even Letitia's scolding voice — Zen could hear it all.
The familiar warmth and vitality rushed through him before he even entered.
Everything was perfect, simply, truly perfect.
He shaped his body and walked straight into the fairy palace. However, just as he was about to enter its gates, he stopped. For some reason, he found it hard to go inside.
The fairy palace was the same fairy palace from his memories and the people within it were as he remembered them to be. Everything was perfect and eternal in the perfect land.
However, this perfection disgusted him.
This was not the reality he wanted.
“Go.”
Zen ordered softly.
And thus, the fairy palace crumbled along with the people within it.
It wasn't just the fairy palace that he wanted to restore but the entire world.
His world wasn't perfect by any means. It was a world where disease, separation, death, and fear existed.
Nonetheless, that was reality and it could never compare to this fake world he was given.
To Zen, everything in the perfect land was just too false and strange.
“This place is too narrow. I have to downgrade it...”
While Zen grumbled, the thirteenth-grade world began to unfold. As it lost a portion of its details, it turned into the twelfth-grade world and the energy was divided into two.
Thus, Zen proceeded with his downgrade and soon the world changed into the eleventh-grade world and the energy quadrupled.
Soon, the world devolved into the tenth-grade world and the energy split into eight.
The ninth-grade world...
The eighth-grade world...
The seventh-grade world...
The sixth-grade world...
The fifth-grade world.
At that point, Zen finally stopped.
He could restore everything at any point. In a sense, he was the controller of time and he had to decide when to restart the past.
After thinking for a while, Zen finally made his decision.
Above him was indestructible gray soil. It was here that his family and friends in the fairy palace were forced to bid farewell to each other and meet their ends.
"My memories...
Restore them all."
Under his command, the fairy palace was recreated in an instant.
At this moment, the people within the fairy palace were all geared up to embrace their deaths. All of them suppressed their sadness under a calm and composed facade.
Margaret covered Salome's eyes with her hands, not willing to let her see their doom. With no idea of what was happening, Salome innocently asked her mother what was wrong.
“Nothing. Everything will be fine, sweetheart...” she replied and tried her best to hold back her tears.
“Mother, the blue line is gone,” Salome continued as she looked through her mother's fingers with innocent eyes.
Margaret's eyes, which had been shut close from despair, snapped open the moment she heard Salome's words.
True to what her daughter said, the blue line had indeed disappeared and everyone within the fairy palace was completely unharmed. Zen's avatar, however, had disappeared.
“Why? What happened? How did we survive that?” Margaret muttered in confusion.
It wasn't just her. Letitia, Aura, Lavender, and everyone else thought the same thing. They all survived yet Zen's avatars had all disappeared.
In the other side of the fairy palace, Fuxi, Geoffrey, Rocher, and the others had all closed their eyes and awaited death.
After a while though, they realized that the end they had been waiting for never came.
“Is this a miracle? Am I dreaming?”
Geoffrey had been praying with his eyes closed. He had no idea just how they would be able to escape their situation, so all he could do was pray to some higher being for a miracle. In a strange stroke of fate, his prayers were answered.