Within the infinite and ever-expanding number of Creations, there existed a place, a single place, that was beyond the realm of simple understanding. This place was but a single place, yet it remained and existed within all the Creations, old and new.
This place defied the transcendental walls and connected what was meant to be separated. Yet, at the same time, this place defied the Wills of Worlds and separated what was meant to be connected.
This place, that was but a single place, had boundaries far, wide and blurry. Where it ended and where it began, were answers not easily known. Same was true for the Realities, that had been all made to come together, to be one in this place.
This place -the name of which was known to all the Existences but the Creatures that knew of it were few to none- was vast beyond imagination. Within the boundaries of this place, even the Gods could be lost and forgotten.
Within this unending place, existed not the beings of flesh, blood and bones but the very manifestations of the Creation Laws, the Existences called Wills and the various mutated Existences called Gods.
None of these Existences risked moving freely within this place or even dared to think of leaving. Within the boundlessness of this place, the very idea might cause one to be lost and forgotten. And if they dared act, the horror of such a crime had been witnessed not just once.
This place was their home and their prison.
But who created this place and how it came to be? The answers to both these questions were unknown to even the most powerful Existences of the innumerable Creations and the uncountable Realities. For this place had existed since the beginning of the first Reality or perhaps even before that.
Yet, there was just one Existence that knew the answer to these questions and it preferred to keep it the answers unknown. The one Existence to know the truth was the most elusive of all. The one, to know the truth, was one with the domain, The Cyclic Time.
And this place, the truth of which was only known to one, this place was Tilism. The home of the horrors. The prison of the pandemonium.
Within this place, there existed numerous Existences, free yet confined. They could observe the Realities outside this place but they could not manifest there themselves. They were allowed to manipulate their domains but they weren’t allowed to manifest themselves.
These were the rules of Tilism. They were not the Laws. For if they were the Laws, they would manifest and would be defeated. Thus, these were the rules, the enforcement of which had caused the annihilation of civilizations, planets, Creations and Realities.
The hubris of the Gods had been sundered time and time again.
Within this place, and such conditions, a particular Existence gazed in the distance.
This existence was not a single existence but an entity formed of innumerable lives that existed within it. It was not One but Innumerable. It was a massive and shapeless Existence that could choose the form of different creatures to manifest itself in.
Though, any form that it could manifest in, towered above anything in its vicinity. Such was the immense size of this Existence. And this was true for its current form as well; the form of the tiger that the Existence had manifested in.
But this tiger was not made of flesh, blood and bones. Instead, it was made of trees, plants and creatures, both alive and dead. Its massive eyes were made up of dead and alive trunks and its irises of uncountable flowers.
The Existence’s legs were made of the massive trees and its tail of various creatures. Its body was the canopy of trees that just continued to rise while its stripes were made of the dead and rotting trees and flesh.
The humongous form of the Existence expanded slightly before it contracted and a breath left it as the Existence sighed. Its quest had failed and its relentless pursuit had born no fruit. The creature, that it had reincarnated, had sacrificed itself.
It no longer existed. It was no longer a mortal in an immortal’s body. A unique happenstance that had been its goal. A creature with the cunningness and the adaptability of the week mortals but with the body and the abilities of the immortals.
In its place now existed a true immortal. A creature that was immortal both in body and ego. The creature sighed. It had failed.
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Within the innumerable Creations, there existed Existences that could not be contained within single or even multiple Creations. The enormity of these Existences was to such a degree that the mere manifestations of these Existences would begin the process of shattering that Creation.
For this reason, these Existences remained dispersed in the Essences but that was not enough to prevent the Creations from shattering. Thus, dispersed as their Essence forms were, they still had to be spread across the uncountable Creations and innumerable Realities.
Though, even this was barely enough. The dispersed form of these Existences saturated the Creations and the Realities, old and new. They saturated the Creations and the Realities that were just born and they saturated the Creations and the Realities that had shattered.
This dispersed saturation made these Existences omniscient and omnipotent within the one and all Creations and the Realities. They saw all. They knew all. They manipulated all. Secrets did not exist for them. Even thoughts were a domain that could not escape their grasp.
Such was the power of these Existences. For they were The Eternals. The Original Creations.
They were the keepers of the Creations and they were their guardians too. But what they guarded against was not the good and the evil. Instead, they guarded against the audacity of the mortals and immortals alike. For somethings within the Creations and the Realities were meant to be unknown, but the foolish audacity of mortals knew no bounds.
For this reason, these Original Creations had stepped in more than once, to bring an end to such audacities. And every time they had stepped in, they had shattered Creations and destroyed mortals, immortals and the Gods alike. Nothing had escaped their will that had demanded annihilation.
These Eternals were but the keeper of the Creations. And they were the guardian of Creations only in name. Yet, the destruction of Creations had never been what they had sought. Instead, it had always been but a mere consequence of their actions.
As such, these Eternals remained unmanifested for as long as they could. They remained aloof as long as they could. For their manifestation and their care bode nothing good for any Creation, let alone the pitiful mortals and immortals within.
At this moment, though, all of these unmanifested horrors had focused their attention on the tiny immortal that had just sacrificed itself to gain magic. Such attention, if it was focused even on the Gods and the Wills, their spirits would be sundered and hope extinguished.
But the tiny immortal was creature too weak to even comprehend the death that stared in its face. If an ant was put under a magnifying glass, in the heat of a festering summer and burned, would it know what killed it? The creature was much akin to that ant.
Thus, the creature felt not a single thing out of place as it continued with its life. Not knowing that its life had been scrutinised by being so powerful that nothing across the infinite Creations and the Realities could challenge them.
At this moment, one of the dispersed horrors began speaking. But to call what happened next, like speaking, was akin to calling the End of a Creation, a hiccup. For when the unmanifested horror spoke, cosmic horrors descended.
As the speech passed through the mortals and the immortals, they morphed and mutated into unspeakable horrors before dying horribly. The planets changed to nothingness and the stars morphed into dust. The comets changed to planets while the blackholes changed their nature and erupted.
This was the unintended consequence of the communication done by just one of the Eternals, The Formless Creation. And all that it had asked had been, “Is this, the Creature?”
Somewhere far away, so far that it was not just in another Creation but in another Reality, another Eternal Existed. It heard the question and it saw the destruction. And it cared for neither as its attention remained focused on a tiny creature.
Yet it nodded its head and as a consequence, time became chaotic. Mortals aged and died while immortals turned back to eggs. Thriving civilizations returned to hunting and gathering while cavemen developed undefeated empires. The Gods turned back to unmutated Wills while the Wills de-manifested.
Planets turned to dust clouds as the time rolled back for them and the stars exploded to become black holes as the time moved forward for them. Somewhere else, civilizations came to an end as they collapsed over time, while elsewhere life blossomed as intelligence was born.
And all this, because of the nod of a single Eternal, The Illusionary Eternal.
In another Reality far away, another Eternal spoke. Its speech travelled and the mortals or immortals, that it passed through, forgot their entire lives and became unresponsive. While the Gods and the Wills, that it passed through, forgot their origins.
But that was not all. As the speech continued to travel, planets forgot their paths and left their orbits while the stars forgot their trajectory as they collided and exploded. Gravity itself forgot what it did and stopped working while the light itself forgot how to travel.
This was the unmitigable consequence of the small communication done by the Eternal, The Forgotten Creation. And all this Eternal had asked had been, “Will it, be enough?”
But before the Illusionary Eternal could even begin to answer, the youngest of them all, spoke from another Reality.
As it spoke and its speech travelled, the mortals and the immortals died en masse. The Gods and the Wills dared not to live and shattered. Civilizations died in a single moment and the continents became bare.
Yet, death did not end. Death continued its naked dance as the cores of the plants cooled down as they died while the stars stopped burning as they welcomed their end. The blackholes collapsed on themselves while the comets dissipated without hesitation.
Such was the unintended horror of the mere speech of the youngest Eternal, The Mutated Creation. And all it had said, had been, “But the process…”
All the cosmic horrors remained quiet as they pondered over the hesitation of their youngest. But this had been something that even The Endless Creation had agreed to and that particular Eternal had come back from its End to do so.
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