In the void before a lifeless universe hovered two individuals, the silence between them unnerving. Both remained no different to statues, for minutes, for hours, and eventually days.
An entire three years passed as one of them finally uttered softly, "So, my daughter is still alive."
"Yes," The other individual nodded, behaving as if the three years of silence never happened.
"That's good then," Draped with a dress created by moulding a universe, Compass Carburettor exhaled slowly, releasing solar flux in the form of exhalation, "I would have despaired if they all died."
"They all indeed died," Hazen spoke, trembling upon sensing the intermittent energy fluctuations coming from the other party in conjunction with his words, "At present, Stencil has all her past memories. She considers herself your daughter. But,"
He stared at Compass Carburettor and stated, "She's not your daughter. She'll kill you on sight without hesitation."
"Have you faced her before?" Compass Carburettor asked.
"Yes," Hazen nodded, "During the past seven millennia, while on the run, I faced her twice. She's the exact same Stencil you remember, but her inherent disposition is that of a System now."
"Don't I just have to revert her nature then?" Compass Carburettor was still calm, "As long as I destroy the part of her that's a System, I'll get my daughter back."
"That...will be impossible." Hazen sighed, "Stencil's a Grade 3 System. Her body is always split into fragments that are scattered throughout the Multiverse. Unless she converges into one entity, you cannot bring her back. Moreover, even I don't have the means to purify her mind and rid the System part of her."
"It's...impossible to..."
"Enough." Compass Carburettor raised his hand and spoke calmly. But, even though he seemed calm, Hazen could detect that it was just a facade. He was seething in rage. But, something was amiss about that.
Followed after a few hours in silence, Hazen raised his doubt, "Are you...even sad?"
"Sad?" Compass Carburettor tilted his head, "Why would I be sad? My daughter is still alive, you know."
"So, that's it." Hazen expanded his mental domain and focused, morphing his sight to the extreme until he began to see faint lines surging into Compass Carburettor.
The more he focused, the clearer these lines became until eventually, trillions of such lines continued to surge into his body. At present, Compass Carburettor seemed to be the vortex of these lines.
"You..." Hazen reined in his shock, "Have fully connected to the external influence of the Concept of Mortality?"
"Yeah," Compass Carburettor nodded.
'What happened to you?' Hazen felt a sense of eeriness as he stepped back a little and asked, "Are you...even Compass?"
"I am myself," Compass Carburettor didn't retort as his calm facade collapsed. The suppressed raging persona within too collapsed, vanishing as if it wasn't real. It too was just a facade.
One after another, all the facades collapsed, revealing the true nature of Compass Carburettor, one that was simply like a rock, unassuming, and unflinching.
"Experience..." Hazen figured out the truth of the matter, "By experiencing trillions of lives, your originality has been lost."
"My originality hasn't been lost. It's still there as part of my first experience." Compass Carburettor stated, "So, my primary actions are still influenced by my first experience."
"Tell me the truth," Hazen stared at Compass Carburettor, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Suppose Stencil dies, will you cry?"
Hazen stared at Compass Carburettor while the latter stared back. The two maintained the gaze as time spanned past, from a few seconds to a minute, to an hour, and eventually, an entire month passed.
Finally, Compass Carburettor opened his mouth and uttered, "No."
'I knew it.' Thinking as such, Hazen stared at Compass Carburettor's unflinching behaviour, "For how long have you been like this?"
"From the moment I conceptualised Dreamcraft." Compass Carburettor said as he suddenly expressed regret, clenching his hand into a fist, "I can still be my original self. As long as I focus, I can be myself. I do...have the necessary experience."
His emotional state calmly dissipated as Compass Carburettor blankly stared at Hazen, "But yeah, that's just an infinitesimal experience of myself."
In the dreamland world, he led different lives, from a good individual to a bad, to a neutral, to a dictator, to an oppressed victim, from an old man to a young boy, from a young girl to an old woman, from human to a fly, from stone to tree, and mountain to river.
The mind, emotions, feelings, thoughts, and experience of every single individual, whether animate or inanimate had become one with him. At least before, thanks to his Psyche Stars, a barrier had been erected between himself and his dreamland.
These Psyche Stars filtered out the contents of the dreamland and only gave him what he needed. But, all that changed once he unleashed his Genre Representation.
When that happened, the dreamland became a world in reality. And, all the data stored within the dreamland until then poured into him, fusing into his being.
Thankfully, he was within Faith Grounds then, so he was still Compass Carburettor in a sense, for the Psyche Stars that had become one with the Faith Grounds were actively acting as the filters to maintain his state of being as Compass Carburettor.
Though, once he became the God of Humanity, the filtration of the Psyche Stars began to weaken, for Faith was a powerful medium that interfered with their functions, especially since at that moment in time, Lore and Tell-Tale didn't function to his desires.
They pulled the Psyche Stars towards the betterment of the Faith Grounds, removing the filter on his being as immediately, everything part of the dreamland's data fused into him.
From that moment onwards, he stopped being Compass Carburettor. He was pretty much a Genre Representative with trillions of minds. Of course, unlike a Genre Representative, the trillion minds never clashed in him.
They just remained as memory reserves to be tapped into, and the sole discretion for that remained with him. At present, he was employing the memories, experience, and mind of Compass Carburettor, nothing more, nothing less. It was to mildly be as Compass Carburettor. After all, every single mind among the trillions in him was active, functioning as minds did for every action/reaction impulse.
Which was why he gave out such an answer, "If Stencil dies, I won't cry. I can cry and rage around as Compass Carburettor would, but it'll never be genuine."
"After all, only a trillionth of me would weep at that scenario."
