189 The Advent Of Change (2/2)

Reed had spoken a new word that had never been uttered, and with its arrival came change.

Timespace — In a literal sense, the physical domain of time.

He had forced the world to do a thing that could not exist normally. Reed had altered the universal constants that the world operated on to produce reality as it was understood and experienced.

Time itself had been rendered a more palatable concept, one with three distinct physical dimensions. And in return, space had been reduced down into a single non-linear dimension.

This was, without a doubt, a grand violation of universal order. In a different era, Reed would have been sentenced to a final death by the Ancient Mulians had they witnessed what he had performed. Even they, who opposed the use of pain and death as punishments for terrible crimes would not have allowed what Reed had performed go unanswered.

He had made a mockery out of everything they stood for and had possibly endangered the very Structural Integrity of the Universe.

Only God, the Creator of the Universe, had the right to tamper with the laws of the Universe. To them, for anyone else to attempt such a thing was the highest taboo possible.

But none of that matters anymore. It's already beyond saving anyway...

He strode forward, marching across a jungle of overlooked memories and past giant mountains made of remarkable events.

In this otherworld of time, seconds, minutes, hours, and years were tangible physical distances instead of abstract, fleeting shadows. An entire world formed of an endless number of events and memories comprised this beautiful, ethereal world.

Entire flower fields made of first loves and declarations of eternal fidelity could be seen everywhere he journeyed. Love was a weed! It grew and proliferated out into the furthest reaches of time, far beyond what he could see.

Daisies of pure love, orange blossoms of eternal love, hyacinths of jealousy, and even carnations of rejection...

The sight of a world covered in flowers was enough to render Reed speechless and even make his jaded heart throb anew with genuine passion.

Immense sequoias — life histories of extraordinary people — sat beside smaller pine trees and humble apple orchards in bloom. They were all equally splendid, bearing unique scars of the trials and tribulations of their lives from birth... to death.

Deep below, where Hope was dim and Fate was heartless, was where the damned lived. Near the bowels of the earth, in deep caverns never to be explored, they would remain as their punishment.

It was a tremendous sight to behold — the entire history of the continent of Mulia. How he wished to show the people closest to him this incredible scenery, but he knew it would not be possible. Their unequipped minds would never be able to process the information, not without their brains cooking themselves into a soupy mess...

Alienated from everyone he cared about, a part of him felt the all-too-familiar melancholy creep around him. He had not felt this way since before he arrived in Mulia.

Billions of years stretched out for what seemed like an eternity to Reed as he felt how truly insignificant he was compared to what laid before him.

And this is just one continent of a single, rocky pebble of a planet. If this is the timespace of Mulia, then what would the timespace of Mu look like?

And what of the solar system that Mu resides in? Or what of the galaxy it inhabits? It's just one galaxy in a single universe that's part of an entire multiverse...

He was an ant in the face of this wide world.

...No, less than that.

Less than an electron in an ocean of stars. In fact, it was debatable whether or not he even registered as anything in such a vast and stunning realm of marvels...

And for a moment, Reed fell into despair. It took hold of him as questioned why he continued to struggle to survive in a dying multiverse. Why he so desperately wished to save the feeble last spark of life that was Mulia?

To save the people of Mulia from eternal damnation at the hands of the Infestation?

To protect his loved ones?

To right the mistake he had committed?

To prove himself? For whom and for what?

To be a hero?

To live another day?

To...

No... it wasn't any of them; It was all of them. He desired for greatness that could not be so easily described, despite what he told himself and others.

The image of various figures flashed inside his mind. Specters of people who had given him what he always required the most — their tender guidance, their little morsels of wisdom — something that had never been afforded to him in his past life.

A light to shine away the ignorance, fear, and hatred that had been festering in his heart of hearts. To put his Faith where it belonged, beside Hope, in order to carve a better future.

Here, in the meadow of time, the echoes of his guiding stars called for him to draw all the strength he could muster. To confront the accursed Fate that haunted him with a chest burning with Hope that no darkness could ever dispel.

Reed had arrived at his destination after a long voyage measured in memories, nightmares, and grains of sand. He stood at the precipice of a daunting chasm that held unnatural filth within it not natural to Mulia. The taint of the Infestation was an easy thing to identify, as nothing compared to it in repulsiveness.

Bereft of the Mark of Responsibility , the reset nodes located within the last two fissures would not answer his calls. He had lost that right when he shook off the burden. A feeble attempt at blackmail, one that He had devised in preparation to quell Reed into compliance.

If Reed wanted to save Mulia, he would have to accept the bearing of the hateful brand and come to terms with it. But that threat no longer held any power on Reed, not after he came to realize what he could do with his newfound abilities.

You made a mistake, brother mine. But I don't fault you for it; not even you could have imagined what could be accomplished this power. After all... it was the one thing you could never obtain, no matter how desperately you wished for it.

Although the evil slumbering in the chasm intimidated Reed, he knew it would not compare to the suffering that would befall Mulia should he flee.

It needed to done, no matter the pain he would have bear.

Reed took a long, deep breath and filled his lungs with courage, and then...

”————!”

He roared out a new word that he had fashioned in the Elder Speech. One filled with unprecedented strength unlike anything ever witnessed in history.

And it would change everything from then on. Mulia would never be the same again.