The chamber was like the insides of a heart, only enlarged by a thousand times. The heartbeats of its captives beat at the same frequency as the chamber. The witchers were all in deep sleep. The only one who could speak was Alzur, and he sighed at Roy. "This is the most impossible path, and yet it is the destined path. The power of the Most High led you here, where the end point resides."
Roy denied that claim in his mind. If he didn't do that, he might not be himself anymore. "I don't care what the Most High is. I came here of my own volition to find out what you're trying to do. Tell me, Alzur. What in the hell is this place?" Roy stared at the sorcerer. He'd watched Alzur's life that spanned a hundred years in the mist. The sorcerer's hair was white, and his face was covered in wrinkles. It hadn't been long, but he was a lot more wizened than he was in the scenes in the mist.
"This is the maze and cage constructed by the Most High. It's a cage for us."
A cage? Roy's eyes roved across the witchers. "What happened to them?"
"Worry not. They are well alive." Alzur shook his head. "Though like me, they're captives."
"From what I saw in the mist, you've had the Most High under control. Your hundred-year plan was coming to fruition. All you had to do was wait for the Most High to mature." Roy was perplexed. "So how did this happen?"
Alzur looked at Roy, a hint of fury flaring in his eyes. "I had the same conclusion you came to. I was ready to plunge into the new world, but I left one factor out of my equation: you. You came back, and much to my surprise, you were no regular shard. You weren’t even a regular human. You are the piece that decides who will lay claim to victory in this game."
"What's this got to do with me?" Roy's heart skipped a beat. "I couldn't do anything. I was just an observer in the damn mist. Whatever I did could never affect reality."
"Don't you understand? You woke the Most High up."
Roy fell silent for a moment. He was reminded of the scene where the red light created the clone, but Roy shook his head, chasing that memory out of his head. He remained adamant about his resolve and changed the subject. "What is the Most High, Alzur?"
Alzur gave Roy a look of surprise. "Even when the end is nigh, you are still passing through the mist. I see you do not belong to it completely. You are not connected to its thoughts." There was something glinting in Alzur's eyes. Something called hope. With a tired, ancient tone, he explained, "The Most High was born before the descent of humanity from the Conjunction. Before the natives of this world, the gnomes and the elves had even risen to power."
"Then it is a unique existence. Where did it come from?" Roy asked.
"From sentient life forms. We created it." Alzur's eyes glinted. "And because of one reason you know. The Most High feeds on the souls of sentient life forms, especially the dark side of humanity. That's how the Cleansing Flame came to be. It was created to hunt. The Most High was born from humanity's arrogance, greed, sin, and fear. Through the consuming of humanity's pitiful darkness, it grew from a hatchling into a fully realized life form. At first, it would devour individuals that possessed twisted souls, then broken families, then towns clouded by darkness, then cities shrouded in sin, and then it would move on to consume a civilization ruled by negative emotions. Finally, it would consume a whole world."
Alzur paused for a moment. "Ever since the Most High started sharing a body with me, I've witnessed part of its brethren's terrifying activities. They would devour and purify anything they came in contact with. The birth, prospering, and decline of many civilizations are set in stone, because it decreed it so. Those who lost their sanity, those who begin wars, those who starve, and those who are driven by their desire, will slowly but surely cover any world in darkness, and that darkness is what strengthens the Most High. It feeds on that darkness, growing ever stronger. The more wars that happen, the faster it grows. Then, eventually, the Cleansing Flame descends and engulfs souls tainted by sin."
"So…" With difficulty, Roy asked, "That thing was the reason the Dauk and Vorkers were wiped out?"
"Yes. Both civilizations thrived from their sacrifices to Lilit, but those who were sacrificed had souls filled with negative emotions. The Most High captured those emotions, set its sights on them, and eventually purified them, wiping the Dauk and Vorkers off the surface of this world." Alzur had fear and respect on his face. "I'll never forget the scene it showed me. A beam of bright light will tear through a great hole in the skies. In the span of hours, that beam of red light will penetrate the earth, the sea, the plants, every living being, and even metal. It will spread across the world, and everyone will feel its existence. Should anyone have even a bit of darkness hiding within their hearts, they will be cleansed."
Roy's lips were trembling.
"To be honest, besides from unborn babies and infants, no one can escape the purifying light," Alzur continued. "Because negative emotions are a part of humanity. The difference is that criminals act on their darkness, while most people hide it deep in their hearts, never acting on it until the day they die. The flames slither into everyone's bodies, igniting the darkness within their hearts, using it as fuel to burn the flesh and soul of everything it touches, turning it into food for the Most High. The flame signifies the end of days."
"So that's the Cleansing Flame?"
"It does not just burn sin. It's powerful and heartless. Everyone has a darker side hiding in them, but that's a more complex emotion and a far cry from being a sin."
Roy fell silent. The Most High is something that ends worlds? It's a universal-level threat like the White Frost. "If the Most High is that powerful, then how did it get locked in a box?"
"You have to understand that the goddess of the East, Lilit, was stronger than Melitele in her prime." Alzur had a conflicted look on his face. He was reminded of his mentor who died from Lilit's curse. "Lilit witnessed her people and believers getting devoured and cleansed. She used all her divine power as fuel and severely injured the hatchling Most High, but she couldn't finish it off. Then, with the last dregs of her strength, she sealed it under the ground for a thousand years."
"So you and Cosimo released it?" Roy had a conflicted look on his face as well.
Alzur nodded, sighing, but he had no regrets. "Cosimo was right. It's a box of infinite wishes, and a crate of disaster. We paid dearly for our actions." Cosimo died, while he himself was turned into a captive.
***
"So you're saying the Most High is the devourer of civilizations and bringer of untold death and destruction." Roy scanned the faces on the walls. He still remembered the wishes the grandmasters had. "I do not understand. How can it grant you your wishes?"
"You should have a guess at this point, Roy." Alzur said, "Think back on your experiences and the scenes you saw."
"They were all real," Roy said. "The birth of the grandmasters, the creation and destruction of the order, the founding and decline of witcher schools, and the reason you destroyed Maribor. Was that the past we saw?" Roy asked. "Is time travel another power of the Most High, besides Cleansing Flame?"
"What you saw was what happened to me, and these four. The stories were untouched. You are approaching the truth now." Alzur rasped, "Before anything reaches its end, it always has endless possibilities. Some might lead a story to a similar end, but some might turn everything on its head. Every element in the multiverse forms the trunk of the world tree, and every possible ending will split into branches on the same level on the tree's trunk. These branches are infinite in numbers. Some are close to one another, while some stand on the opposite side of the tree, leading to different outcomes."
He looked at the unconscious Erland beneath him gently. Erland was smiling, perhaps because he was immersed in a nice dream. "For example, when I first met Erland's mother, her conscience would’ve screamed at her, and she wouldn't have sold him to me. Erland would then keep working on the ship as a regular sailor or pirate. Eventually, he would marry someone and raise a family like most people. That branch would have a lot of leaves growing on it."
"No," Roy interrupted, "With how temperamental Erland was, the other pirates would've killed him off sooner rather than later."
"Which is another possibility, yes." Alzur turned to Ivar and brought up another possibility that was far removed from reality. "Ivar would’ve gone through the Trial like he did in this reality, but his evil eye would not have awakened. He would not have been troubled by visions of the Wild Hunt, thereby losing his reason to start the Viper School."
Roy fell silent. If that was what had happened, Letho, Serrit, and Auckes would have been long gone by now.
Alzur then turned his attention to the similarly sleeping, but tense and icy Arnaghad. "He might have gone through the Trial without any complications and retained his emotions. The order's conflict regarding the difference in ideals wouldn't have escalated so quickly. Perhaps the order could have survived longer." Then he looked at Elgar. "And perhaps on the day he left Kaer Morhen to look for armorers, he would have a change of mind and stayed behind to face the threat of extinction with his brethren."
***
"As for myself…" Alzur's eyes shone. "On the day I met Cosimo, I would’ve refused his invitation and never embarked on the path of magic. I would've remained a naive, reckless knight. I would've ignored the everlasting problems of humanity and monsters and stayed with her instead. She would never have been killed by that ghoul, and we would raise a big family together. Then we would grow old as a couple."
There was longing on Alzur's face. After going through a whole lifetime and facing accolades and curses, the sorcerer finally knew what he truly wanted.
Roy took a deep breath. "Those are nothing but conjectures. They do not exist in reality."
Alzur's eyes went red. He turned to Roy and adamantly said, "This is the truth. We live in a multiverse that encompasses every possibility. Like the examples I brought up, everything we face can have different outcomes, and those outcomes are what create parallel timelines."
Parallel timelines? Roy's heart skipped a beat, and his eyes glinted.
"These timelines, compared to ours, are different. Some might be in the past, some might be in the present, some might have gone further into the future, forming branches of different heights on the tree. Some are developing slowly, their leaves just breaking free of the branches. Some are going at their own pace, bearing fruits when they desire. Some developed too fast and wilted away. Some grow at the same rate, showing no difference between timelines. Some ran into great change halfway through, leading to a completely opposite result compared to the original timeline."
"So these timelines happen simultaneously but in different spacetimes, and some lead to different endings?" Roy rubbed his chin, and realization struck him. "So everything I saw in the mist happened in actual timelines, just parallel to ours?" So that's why the people I killed had souls.
"Yes. Those were the similar timelines I and the grandmasters have experienced, but they belong to different worlds. That's why even though you and your companions saw the same scenes, you couldn't see one another. No matter what action you took in those timelines, the next scene would not be affected. Every time the mist reappeared, it would take all of you to another parallel timeline."
***
Multiverse and parallel timelines. Roy held his breath, sweat drenching his forehead, and thoughts ran through his head. Could it be that the world I am in belongs to a parallel timeline? That would explain all the weird happenings. In some worlds, Alzur and the grandmasters are already dead. In some, Roy does not exist, or he's just a regular farmer boy.
"In these parallel timelines, some took the path they desired, some ran as usual, while the rest took up awful routes. In this timeline, I'm held captive by the Most High, which means there must be a timeline where I still control it. In this timeline, Cosimo died because of Lilit's curse, but in another timeline, he must have survived." Alzur looked at the ceiling covered in bloody tentacles, as if he could see brilliant sunlight behind it. A smile curled his lips.
Loudly and with passion, he said, "Roy, there must be a timeline where all our dreams come true. Where everything happens as we wish them to. That is what I seek. A perfect world that belongs to me. A perfect world filled with endless dreams."
***
He wants to find a perfect world in all these parallel timelines. A big and special dream. Roy was shaken, and he was at a loss for words. "So the Most High can cross parallel timelines as it pleases?" That's similar to the power of the Elder Blood, but the Elder Blood can only cross into worlds contained in the same timeline, while the Most High can cross to parallel timelines.
"The Most High is something that perches over the world tree. It can leap between branches as it pleases and even control them. Do you think it'll stay in a world it has devoured and wait for life to take root and restart the next cycle?" Alzur shook his head. "It'll leap into another parallel world to devour and cleanse and restart the cycle. Parallel worlds are infinite, and the Most High is eternal," Alzur declared.
The whole chamber thumped, as if something was about to awaken.
"When it first escaped the ebony box, it was at its weakest, and I swooped in at the right time. I had control over it," Alzur said, a little self-deprecating. "Time means nothing to the Most High. A hundred years is nothing but naptime for it. My plan was to raise it to maturity and use its power to transport everyone into their perfect worlds and merge them all into one timeline, and then I shall break my ties with the entity. Everything you saw in the mist were the most vivid memories everyone had. Those memories happened in the infinite parallel timelines out there. They're our reference for the search of our perfect world."
Roy paused for a moment. Can that really be the way for the grandmasters to gain their happiness? Are the friends and family in the parallel timeline really the ones they know? This was, of course, a great placebo for those who desperately needed salvation.
"The timeline we're in is where Cosimo and Lylianna were born. I had no plans to let the Most High devour it. For the longest time, it could not defy my will. It remained dormant, snoozing off all the time. However, as it grew, I felt my grasp on it weakening, and I had to give all my power just to barely come close to the finish line. Just when we thought we were about to win, you came."
Alzur stared at Roy, sighing. "You're the last straw, roy. You ruined our plans when we were this close to completion. You're the key for the Most High's full awakening. The stakes that tip the scales in the Most High's favor. Your sudden approach resulted in my abandonment. The Most High pushed me away. Perhaps when it finally merges with you, it will destroy this world and leap into another timeline to start the next cycle."
"No! I did nothing!" Roy roared. "I'm not the key! I'm not a part of this!"
"Even after all I've said, you still don't understand?" Alzur said, too calmly. "The real Roy died years ago in Kaer. He died on the day of that accident."
Roy felt his blood freeze, and once again, he was reminded of that image he saw. The boy drew his last breath, but the red light created its clone right beside the corpse.
***
"This has all been its plan. The Most High recreated the body, mind, and soul of the dead boy, and it created you. It knows of your impulses. It knows how to drive you forward using your desire and curiosity. It knows of your longing for the Elder Blood and the endless worlds. That's how it managed to predict your actions. It set you up, manipulated you, and kept you out of my line of sight until the time was right to reunite. It used you as a timer to decide the right moment for the puzzle to be pieced together. That's why you came today, at this moment, right on the cusp of its maturity. It led you here to wake it from its slumber, right when we were about to ascend to our perfect world."
Roy tensed up and roared defiantly, "No! Everything I did, I did of my own volition! No one can control me!" Before he knew it, he was already covered in sweat, and a chill ran down his spine.
"No. You just refuse to accept the truth, but at this point, you have to acknowledge something. You are a part of the Most High." Alzur gazed at Roy, and he enunciated, "You are the shadow of divinity."
***
***
