Chapter 1596: You Are A Brat
(A/N: If you want, you can read Ch.1115. It will make this Chapter make much more sense.)
.....
Inside a dark sea urchin-like vessel flying through the great void...
Future Skullius was resting on a comfy king-sized bed in the centre of a massive room. For all its space, however, the room didn’t have a lot of furniture or decoration. The star and circle tiling gave the floor a bit of nuance, and a single harsh golden light source stuck to the ceiling gave much-needed light, but any decent home designer would have shuddered at the plainness of the decor.
How this bedroom’s size didn’t match the dimensions of the flying vessel from the outside might have been impressive, but such a thing was par for the course with high-level mortal artefacts and Treasures.
"Was it always this difficult to sleep?"
With two of his hands behind his head and two more clasped before his chest, Future Skullius couldn’t help but think of Britnee. He hadn’t realised being so far from her would make him start feeling so anxious to the point of losing his ability to sleep.
The trip to Aigas might have been a short one, but back on the small world he had made his home after Aigas and the Prison, a large amount of time was sure to have already passed.
Would Britnee chew him out?
Would he find that she’d already moved on with some other extra-terrestrial anomaly?
Would she nag him about his younger self as she usually did?
These thoughts drove the future Hybrid further and further away from peace.
...But so did Serenity.
Gliding over him as a shapely blue flame, she sniped him with yet another question livid with insecurity. She was not used to Skullius knowing more than she did.
"How much do you know exactly?"
Future Skullius grumbled. "About what?"
"About everything. If you know about my father, then..."
"Yes. I know."
Serenity groaned uncomfortably.
Her reaction made Future Skullius just a tiny bit more motivated to indulge her.
"It’s funny now when I recall all those times you intentionally withheld crucial information from me, feeding me disconnected bits of it. I wonder if that brat version of me even recalls that you’ve mentioned your... origin before. An abridged version, I suppose"
"W...what do you mean?" Serenity said, her voice cracking.
"You really don’t understand your sisters, do you?" said Future Skullius and he chuckled. "Actually, I find that you are the most immature one."
"I am not!" Serenity cried.
Future Skullius laughed. "If that’s so, then paint this picture for me, will you?" He sat up and pushed a large, fat white cushion behind his back to rest his back on. "Before all this, before the wider reality was just one big blanket of darkness, before there were many worlds cluttering this place, before you knew you would actually succeed in going against the Wanderer’s Order for all three realities... why were you the only one among your sisters who didn’t produce something original?"
Serenity shuddered and fizzled.
"Father’s... Order?" She might have frozen over in fright. "It...It’s been a long time since someone called it that."
Future Skullius rolled his eyes. "Fine. Let’s call it the |Greater Cosmic Law| then. Easier on the tongue, right? Emmae managed to comprehend the Immors aspect of the Law – life and death. Void managed to comprehend the Heide – the Fallen Shadow – aspect; the Litte – the Absolute Sun; and the Eklhesh – Space and Distance." Future Skullius gave Serenity a stern look. "How come you didn’t manage to learn a single advanced aspect of the Law on your own?"
Serenity would have launched a good defensive against the question... if she actually had any good answers. She fumbled over her words.
"I did... I did learn a few things. I mean I..." She clicked her invisible teeth. "It was a tense situation, alright?! The Frenzy was taking people one after the other. The more people died around me, the more I lost focus. I don’t even know how Void and Emmae kept their cool. Wyrrim told us not to worry but... but that was before we knew what she was, and that she was the one who caused the Frenzy in the first place! I just didn’t want to die."
Future Skullius scoffed.
"Ah, but of course. You panicked, is the answer, is it? It’s pretty funny that we’re in this whole mess because you three sisters just didn’t want to accept death, even if it was only temporary. Wyrrim told you that, didn’t she? Eventually. And all three of you sisters just wouldn’t believe that the Frenzy wasn’t going to kill you permanently." He sighed.
"Do you know that this is the only Reality where people actually fought against that death? Everywhere else, the Immors was and is well-received. Everyone knows that with death comes an infinite cycle of reincarnation. No one tempers with it as readily. Death and life are not meant to be permanent under the Immors." Future Skullius sucked his teeth. "And now it’s up to me to find AKHASHA, comprehend Conste, and restore everything to order."
The Wanderer’s Order, or the |Greater Cosmic Law|, was a stalwart system that existed before Serenity, Void and Emmae transcended into the Existential Parallels. The translucent infinity that existed around the first world in this reality represented the deep, cosmic powers none had yet to temper with successfully back then.
Indeed, the |Greater Cosmic Law| was made of up of five aspects: Immors (life and death), Litte (Absolute Sun), Heide (Fallen Shadow), Eklhesh (Space and Distance), and Conste (Time).
Serenity sat on the floor, speechless and stunned. "How were we supposed to just believe that death wasn’t permanent? Especially when it came about because of something as terrifying as the Frenzy?"
"So... believing that extinction could be erased entirely was easier less absurd?" said Future Skullius, his brow raised. "I would have believed it if Void was the one saying this, not you." Serenity shook from the words and Future Skullius nodded. "I know about that too. In my opinion, you have no right to give TITEMIUS a bad name when he owes his life – whatever shape it takes right now – to Void. As a matter of fact, the enmity between you three sisters is foolish when compared to the mess you collectively created across this whole Reality."
"You copied Emmae’s failed study of Immors (Undeath) to establish the base for Null Life and Void used TITEMIUS to draw out that stolen knowledge out of you in order to complete her knowledge of Heide, and consequently, Voided Death. I’d say that’s fair. So, what if TITEMIUS seduced you to get that information? He had no choice but to do as Void said, right? If someone brought me back to life – kind of – after I died from a horrible disease, I’d at least complete one request of theirs."
Serenity didn’t seem to like this conclusion Future Skullius had come to.
"I know I did Emmae wrong. I tried to make amends, but she wouldn’t listen. And as for Void..."
"You never tried altogether." Future Skullius shook his head. "It all harkens back to TITEMIUS. He did betray you, but he was infatuated by you. That’s why he fed you Void’s knowledge of Eklhesh, and from it, you managed to create the Null Verse. He was sweet, I’d say." The future Hybrid smirked. "Yet, despite all this you can’t help but want more, can you? You want everything Void knows about the |Greater Cosmic Law| and more. Hence why your apology to her is on hold. Hence why my younger self is such a nice trump card for you."
Future Skullius pushed himself against his fluffy cushion and pulled up his hands as though to display some invisible title card between them.
"Tell me all of this doesn’t say... brat."