Fourth went silent as the Worm overhead paused for the first time in nearly five billion years and stopped consuming the Universe Will, he slid down the tree, and from his horrifying mouth, he spat out hundreds of teeth that rained down from the sky and slammed around the Third Prince.
Each tooth was so massive it could stretch across an entire star. These teeth began to shrink and before long they all assumed the humanoid figure of Fourth.
Hundreds of Fourth spoke at once, their voice merging in an unnerving symphony like the singing of a mad god,
"I will forgive the act of finding the Primordial Record and hiding it away from us because only those of our bloodline may use it and without the essence of our father and the life force of a Primordial its powers are still mostly sealed, but this could all come undone if one of us were to fully activate it. Tell me Third, do you have a child? Child? Child? Child? Child child childchildchildchildchildchildchilchildchilcchilcchildchildchildchildchild????"
The Third Prince opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water before he barely whispered, "Yes."
The heavens shook as the worm above roared in rage. His voice reached eternity causing the entire Universe Will to tremble.
The hundreds of Fourths came closer to the Third Prince until they were only a few inches separating them, "Is he under your control?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})The Third Prince whispered again, "No."
One of the humanoid bodies of Fourth suddenly seized another by his throat and began to tear it apart while consuming its flesh, and in a short while the rest of Fourth descended on the single body and ate every single part of it.
Since they were so close to the Third Prince he could see and hear everything in excruciating detail as the needle-sharp teeth of Fourth consumed the selected body. The smell from its butchered body was so pungent that the Third Prince frowned.
The Third Prince understood that this self-cannibalization was a method Fourth used to control his anger, if he had not killed one of himself at this moment, then he would have devoured the Third Prince.
Whatever spell of madness that overtook Fourth seemed to be dissipated as he regained his composure and calmly asked
"How long do we have?"
The Third Prince licked his dry lips, "It might already be too late."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The hundreds of Fourth were silent as if they had all turned to stones and then they all said,
"Tell me everything, from the beginning, and do not leave out any single detail."
©
The Third Prince began to talk. His words were slow and steady as he dispassionately narrated a tale that began many Eras ago.
In the distant past when he was at the height of his powers, he had traveled across the many universes, and in a certain universe on the verge of death, he had come across details of unique variants of Empyreans called Travelers, whose unusual ability involved the power of wishes and luck.
He had considered this power to be truly noteworthy, for it was the first time he had heard of a power like this. Using his Time Reversal ability, he reversed the time for the entire universe back for trillions of years until he found these interesting targets and everything changed for him.
It also became the last time he was ever able to use his Time Reversal ability again, but he hid this from his brothers.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})He discovered that the universe that birthed this strange Empyrean was in a dire strait, perhaps a certain mutation had occurred during the creation of the Empyrean, and it had created a powerful Empyrean whose abilities were greater than it could control, and this universe decided to destroy its creation, but the price it paid for the destruction of this Empyrean was so great that it also died a short trillion years later not even leaving a Will.
It was important to note that a universe had the ultimate advantage over its Empyreans, and it could easily deprive them of a greater amount of their powers. No Empyrean would ever have the power to survive the wrath of their universe, but this particular Empyrean must have missed the memo, for she battled her universe to a standstill.
Usually, the power of the Third Prince Time Reversal was limited. He could reverse Time and make certain changes but a lot of those changes had to be properly planned because any changes he made would rapidly accelerate Time, leading to unimaginable consequences.
The Third Prince's reasons for going back in Time were mostly for the purpose of investigations, and he rarely interfered in whatever he saw during his time spent in the past. Unexpectedly he became involved in something that should be impossible.
He came across the final battle between this powerful Empyrean and its universe and he discovered that this Empyrean also had another unique ability to procreate. In a stunning move that shocked the Third Prince, the Empyrean turned to his position and smiled before she and her entire children were destroyed.
This matter was not as simple as it appeared on the surface, from the signs that he could see, this Empyrean against all odds had been battling with the Universe Will for millions of years, his arrival had triggered a change as if she was waiting for him.
He was suddenly wrenched forward in Time until he returned to the present where he discovered that the universe that was supposed to be dead was now alive. His shock had been inestimable.
This change was caused by him and that Empyrean, against his wishes this strange Empyrean had found out that he would be coming and had made certain preparations that would ensure that his presence would trigger something, that smile she gave him at the end was full of awareness and filled with secrets.
He also discovered that he had also lost the power to reverse time. The Third Prince had not been too distraught because he figured out that there was a great mystery here and if he played his cards right, he might be able to achieve something that was great and unexpected.
His thinking was correct as more mysteries were slowly unveiled as time passed.
Universes died all the time, and the process of their birth was largely unknown, but the Great Darkness was filled with the power of the Primordials which created unknown changes.
A certain unique transformation happened every Era where the essence of Chaos the creator of universes would amass and in a span of billions of years after the end of an Era, there would be hundreds perhaps thousands of Big Bangs happening as new universes were born.
This was also the reason why Fourth was so powerful because unlike any of them, he could search the Great Darkness for fragments of the main body's essence and collect them. It was unknown how many drops of Aether he must have collected, Fourth played his cards close to his chest.
What was strange about this universe however was that every time it died, another universe would be born, precisely in its location, and after studying this phenomenon for countless years he figured out that this was not just a coincidental event but more like a function of his Time Reversal ability, and he could not shake the feeling of being used by that Empyrean who controlled luck and wishes.
Fourth could no longer be silent as waves of anger erupted from his body, "You told us that you had found a unique area in the Great Darkness that was isolated and attracted the essence of Chaos without fail guaranteeing that a new universe would always be born here. But it was not the area but the universe itself that is causing it. How could you be so foolish, Third? Your selfishness and shortsightedness is monumental! Do you perhaps wondered if there was something bigger than that Empyrean?"
The Third Prince sneered, "I don't have much time and the more you talk, the more of that time you waste."
There was a weird sound like countless firecrackers going off, but it was only the sound of hundreds of Fourth grinding their teeth, but he remained silent.
The Third Prince sighed, "Yes, I attracted you all to this universe, but it was you all that decided roaming the Great Darkness for universes to consume was too dangerous and if we could secure a permanent site for this purpose we would accelerate our plans and reduce the interference of other great powers."
