R'lyeh's revelations were difficult to bear.
The Outergods already represented a sufficiently terrifying threat. The Outer Substance alone was enough to send chills down the spine of the oldest entities of the Dream.
But now...
The Primordial Outergods.
That single idea surpassed everything many were capable of imagining.
A heavy silence still reigned in the World of Myths when R'lyeh slowly rose from his seat.
— Good.
His voice echoed throughout the hall.
— We will soon see how far you are capable of resisting my brothers and sisters.
He began to walk.
His footsteps echoed heavily on the stone floor.
— The late Outergods... the intermediates... or the Primordials...
A smile stretched across his lips.
— We will soon discover which of you will survive their encounter.
He took a few more steps.
Then a voice rose behind him.
— All of them...
R'lyeh stopped.
The entire hall immediately turned their eyes toward Bivisu.
His condition was becoming more and more concerning.
His right arm had almost completely disappeared.
As if erased from existence.
R'lyeh slowly turned around.
— You?
His gaze dropped to the vanishing limb.
— Don't you see that you already belong to the past?
He sneered.
— Your own body is disappearing. You no longer represent anything. You should stay away from what is to come.
Bivisu remained perfectly calm.
His expression barely changed.
Then a slight smile appeared.
— The Ancient Genesis only affected beings of the lower zones.
Silence fell again.
— Neither you. Nor me. Nor the Primordial Gods were affected.
R'lyeh observed him without responding.
— Since we all come from a prior era...
Bivisu's smile deepened slightly.
— Does it really mean that we no longer have any role to play?
No one spoke anymore.
Then something changed in R'lyeh's gaze.
A brutal anger.
An almost instinctive anger.
BOOOOM !
An explosion of power shook the castle.
Seats were torn from the ground.
The dragon heirs abruptly stood up.
Even several Primordial Gods had to stabilize their position.
At the center of the hall, Bivisu had simply extended his hand.
Before him floated a massive Rivisün circle.
A geometric barrier covered in impossible symbols.
Facing it, R'lyeh held a blade forged from a blackish material that seemed to absorb all light.
The Outer Substance.
The sword was pressed against the shield.
The two forces clashed in a continuous rumble.
— You...
R'lyeh's voice vibrated with rage.
— You cannot understand how much you irritate me.
His gaze became fierce.
— Beings like you are always the hardest to erase.
Bivisu did not respond.
As if that anger meant absolutely nothing to him.
Bakuzan stepped forward.
— R'lyeh.
His voice was cold.
— We have heard your message.
A demonic aura spread around him.
— But if you continue this kind of provocation, it could end very badly for you.
He swept his gaze across the hall.
— You are alone.
— We are dozens.
R'lyeh withdrew his sword.
The blade immediately disintegrated.
— Your numbers do not impress me.
Neru almost burst out laughing.
— Are you suicidal or simply stupid?
He crossed his arms.
— You wouldn't last even a few moments against everything that is here.
Then his expression darkened.
— To be honest, I wonder why we haven't eliminated you already.
R'lyeh sneered.
— A single attack against me...
His red eyes glowed.
— A single one.
— And it would become an official declaration of war.
Silence returned.
Then a soft voice rose.
— Why?
Everyone turned their heads.
Salomeh.
Her fists were trembling.
Her gaze was filled with pain.
— Why must it come to this?
R'lyeh looked at her.
For the first time since his arrival, he seemed to truly reflect.
— Can't we simply live each in our own domain?
Her voice wavered slightly.
— You in the Outside.
— Us in the Dream.
— Why must there always be a war?
A long silence followed.
R'lyeh observed her for several seconds.
Then he looked away.
— Why do the Ineffables come into our domain?
His answer seemed almost tired.
He resumed his walk toward the exit.
— Try to survive.
— Try to stop us.
— And we will see which of us will have the last word.
His body began to dissipate.
But before completely disappearing, he turned one last time.
His gaze met Salomeh's.
For just a moment.
But it was enough.
Salomeh froze.
In those red eyes...
She had not seen hatred.
Nor contempt.
Nor even madness.
She had seen something else.
Guilt.
And regret.
Then R'lyeh disappeared.
Completely.
Salomeh remained motionless.
— What was that... that look?
Bakuzan frowned.
— What are you talking about?
— R'lyeh...
She still seemed troubled.
— His gaze was strange.
Neru sighed.
— His gaze doesn't matter.
He turned toward the assembly.
— What matters is that we must win this war.
His gaze fell on Bivisu.
— And for that, we must recover his true body.
Zeus let out a long sigh.
— I must admit that all these revelations have left me speechless.
Apollo nodded.
— You're not the only one.
The Ineffables began to leave the hall.
Bivisu followed them.
Salomeh as well.
But suddenly...
A hand rested on her shoulder.
She turned around.
— Lord Zeus?
Zeus looked at her calmly.
— That look was real.
Salomeh's eyes widened.
— You saw it too?
The King of the Gods slowly nodded.
— Yes.
His gaze drifted for a few moments into the void.
— I wouldn't know how to explain why.
— But if one day you cross paths with R'lyeh again...
He paused.
— Ask him.
Salomeh remained silent.
Zeus withdrew his hand.
Then crossed his arms behind his back.
— After all...
His gaze lifted toward the skies of the World of Myths.
— R'lyeh belongs to the late Molts.
— He possesses more conceptualization than the oldest Outergods.
He reflected for a moment.
— This conceptualization is impure.
— Distorted.
— Corrupted.
— But it remains conceptualization nonetheless.
A slight smile appeared on his face.
— Perhaps it has given him something the others do not have.
Salomeh slightly tilted her head.
— Like what?
Zeus answered softly:
— A doubt.
Then he added:
— Or perhaps even a consciousness.
His smile deepened slightly.
— For someone who is supposed to be an Outergod, R'lyeh possesses far too much personality to be entirely convinced of what he is doing.
***
Elsewhere, far from the World of Myths and from the gaze of the creatures of the Dream, R'lyeh remained seated on an immense black rock.
Silence reigned around him.
Yet, in his mind, only one voice continued to echo.
A single question.
A single person.
Salomeh.
His fingers slowly clenched as he replayed her words over and over again.
— Why can't we live each in our own domain?
Those words seemed unwilling to disappear.
They kept returning.
Again.
And again.
R'lyeh suddenly frowned.
— Damn it...
His fist slammed violently against the stone.
The rock cracked instantly.
A dark wave spread across the surrounding mountains.
Then he raised his eyes toward the sky.
— What do you think, Ygdrath-Nul, you who claim to know the origin of all things?
The sky disappeared.
Or rather...
It revealed what lay behind it.
An unimaginable mass.
A corrupted, organic immensity.
Like an open wound in the universe.
Billions of shapeless tentacles floated in the cosmic void.
Entire galaxies were trapped within that substance.
Dead stars.
Clusters of fossilized worlds.
Entire universes covered in a pulsating blackish matter.
The Outer Substance.
Everywhere it spread, the concepts themselves decomposed.
Life was no longer life.
Death was no longer death.
Time was no longer time.
Everything became a primitive flesh, unfinished and eternally agonizing.
Even abstract ideas rotted.
Identities dissolved.
Laws fragmented.
Causality slowly decomposed like an abandoned corpse.
And in the middle of that impossible immensity...
Two gigantic eyes opened.
Yellow eyes.
Immense.
Their pupils resembled those of a reptile, but something even more ancient seemed to dwell within.
As if each gaze simultaneously observed billions of realities.
Ygdrath-Nul's voice then resounded.
Not in space.
Not in time.
But in all dead universes at once.
— This girl seems to have affected you more than you wish to admit.
The tentacles suspended in the sky began to undulate.
The firmament itself started to decompose.
Cracks of corruption spread across the constellations.
— R'lyeh...
Its voice resembled an echo from before all creation.
— Remember what the Origin was.
The Origin was pure.
The Origin was perfect.
The Origin was one.
The gigantic eyes opened wider.
— All separations are impurities.
All distinctions are errors.
All names are diseases.
All identities are wounds.
— That girl believes her existence has value.
She believes her way of life is real.
She believes her individuality is natural.
The voice grew deeper.
— But she ignores that all of this is nothing but contamination.
A deviation.
An error born from conceptualization.
Do not let her corrupt you.
The dead universes began to tremble.
— When everything is finished...
When the Dream is dissolved...
When the Outer Substance has absorbed everything...
Then we will return to Absolute Unity.
And everything will become perfect again.
R'lyeh remained silent.
His eyes remained fixed on the corrupted sky.
But something within him resisted.
For the first time in a very long time.
A thought.
A single thought.
What if that perfection was not one?
His brows tightened.
— We are impure...
he murmured.
— Because we are touched by conceptualization.
Because we possess names.
Thoughts.
Memories.
Desires.
He slowly lowered his eyes.
— But why should that be bad?
Silence answered.
R'lyeh continued inwardly.
— Why should conceptualization disappear?
Why should individuality be an error?
Why should existence return to that empty state?
His gaze rose again toward Ygdrath-Nul.
The immense Outergod was still watching him.
Or perhaps not.
With beings like that, it was impossible to know.
R'lyeh slowly clenched his fists.
The plan came back to his mind.
The strategy of the Outergods.
First the Late.
Then the Intermediates.
Then the Primordials.
Contamination.
Absorption.
Dissolution.
Until nothing remained.
Not even them.
Not even the Outergods.
Not even R'lyeh.
He suddenly understood something that frightened him more than all wars.
Once victory was achieved...
There would be no one left to celebrate that victory.
The late Outergods would be absorbed.
The intermediates would be absorbed.
Then everything would be swallowed by the Primordials.
Even his own name would disappear.
Even his memories.
Even his consciousness.
Even this conversation.
Everything.
Absolutely everything.
R'lyeh lowered his head.
— To disappear as R'lyeh...
His voice was nothing more than a whisper.
— Is that truly a victory?
The cosmic wind blew through the dead universes.
No answer came.
Only the eternal gaze of Ygdrath-Nul.
R'lyeh then closed his eyes.
He began to doubt.
Not the Dream.
Not the Ineffables.
Not the Original Gods.
But his own cause.
And that thought alone seemed to him more dangerous than any army of the Dream.