Chapter 399
Within that frozen stillness, every layer of rejection, pride, and distance he had built between himself and Xavier collapsed.
They were no longer bound by choice, but by a shared threat that hunted both their lives, though in different ways.
'What is the true essence of this reason? Why does the responsibility to save Erietta fall upon my shoulders? Is it merely because I am the reincarnation of Xavier XVII, or because the Gods see me as nothing more than a replacement body?'
The paralysis broke after several minutes that felt eternal.
Ilux "awoke" from his deep trance, active awareness flowing once more through his rigid body.
Yet he did not immediately sit up or move much.
He remained lying in the same position, only now his eyes were sharper, more alive, though still fixed upon the same ceiling.
Then, with a measured motion almost ritualistic in nature, he raised his left hand upward.
His arm extended straight against gravity while his body remained supine.
The posture was strange, as if he were inspecting that hand, or perhaps measuring the distance between himself and something unseen above the ceiling.
In that pose, his question emerged.
Not as hesitant murmuring, but as sharp, logical criticism directed at Xavier, who would surely hear it.
He questioned necessity.
Why must he, Ilux Rediona, act to save Erietta?
The argument that he was Xavier XVII's reincarnation and therefore also targeted by the Gods was logical from the standpoint of self-preservation.
It was an egoistic reason he could accept.
But was that all?
Was there no deeper, more personal, or more moral reason compelling him to move, beyond merely saving his own skin from the same threat?
'Even if you were to beg me—not once, not dozens of times, but one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times in prostration—my answer would remain the same.
I would refuse. Without hesitation. Without drama.
Because this is not about pride, nor about compassion. Facing the Gods is not a risk that can be negotiated with good intentions. This is not a wager where victory or defeat ends the matter. It is an invitation to layered destruction, where a single minor mistake is enough to erase every remaining possibility of life.'
That question was not the end of his refusal.
On the contrary, he reinforced it more firmly within himself.
Ilux imagined an extreme scenario to illustrate his resolve.
Even if Xavier humbled himself to the lowest possible point.
Even if he pleaded with all the sincerity his soul could muster, asking Ilux to follow him on a mission to save Erietta Bathee.
Even if that plea were repeated one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine times, accompanied by as many bows before Ilux's consciousness—a humiliation unimaginable for a Hero King.
Without the slightest doubt, Ilux declared he would refuse.
It was not a matter of negotiation.
It was a final line drawn clearly.
His reason was direct, rooted in the most primal instinct of survival.
He did not wish to risk confronting so many of the Gods.
'And do not mistake this—this is not because I am afraid.'
Foooh!
'I cannot forget what you said a few days ago, when your pure consciousness touched mine. Those Gods are not ordinary figures. They are, in essence, your children—born of your marriage to Myra Astrielle. Their blood carries a legacy beyond comprehension. Their power clearly transcends the normal laws binding living beings. So how could I consider this a sane decision?'
Ilux's refusal, which seemed rooted in fear, in truth possessed deeper and more complex layers.
His reasoning was not as simple as being intimidated by greater power.
Several days before this turbulent night, in one of their rare exchanges, Xavier had revealed a shattering truth.
He had confessed that the Gods they spoke of were not entities like Quil-Hasa the Almighty and Omnipresent.
They were not God in a transcendent, unreachable sense.
Instead, they had a deeply personal and tragic origin for Xavier.
They were children.
Descendants born from his union with Myra Astrielle in a life thousands of years past.
This fact altered everything.
They were not abstract cosmic forces that existed before chaos.
They were beings born from love and the bond of two souls now locked in conflict within Ilux.
Because of that extraordinary origin, Xavier had asserted that their power must stand far—far—above that of ordinary beings, whether human, angelic, or elemental.
'The more I think about it, the clearer it becomes that your suggestion is irrational. This is not merely a risky plan—it is flawed from its foundation.'
Hhhh!
'How can I, a three-dimensional being, be asked to pierce into four, five, six dimensions and beyond… without Authority equal to Divine Authority?'
Fhhhh!
'Aldraya and her twelve siblings naturally possess the cosmic right to move between such realms. And me? With what—determination? Courage? That is a joke. Not to mention the final destination.'
Hiiiih!
'The Land of the Gods. A place where all layers of life overlap like stacked screens trampling one another. There, anything beneath them—including me—is nothing but fiction, illusion, a fragment of story unworthy of remembrance.'
Fhuuuh!
'In the eyes of the inhabitants of the Land of the Gods, my nature is no more than a pebble. And a pebble daring to leap onto the sacrificial altar would be crushed before its presence is even acknowledged.'
To Ilux, Xavier's proposal was not only dangerous, but fundamentally illogical.
The logic was simple and lethal.
How could he, a being existing within three dimensions, ascend into higher strata of reality—fourth, fifth, sixth dimensions and beyond—without equal Authority?
He was not Aldraya Kansh Que, the Highest Angel endowed with Divine Authority as innate inheritance.
Nor was he like her twelve siblings who might share similar access.
Ilux was merely human, a reincarnation whose powers were elemental and perceptual, still rooted firmly in three-dimensional reality.
Ascending without proper means would not be a leap.
It would be metaphysical suicide.
And the ultimate destination of this mad proposal was the most horrifying of all.
The Land of the Gods.
The place most likely to host Erietta's sacrificial ritual.
To Xavier, it was not merely a location, but an existential nexus where all strata of life intersected and overlapped like endless layered screens pressing upon one another.
There, lower realities—the three-dimensional world from which Ilux originated—were not regarded as real, but as fiction, illusion, or at best an insignificant pebble in the eyes of its inhabitants.
Those dwelling in the Land of the Gods—the descendants of Xavier and Myra who had inherited cosmic thrones—existed within a perception of reality entirely different, where the laws of cause and effect, space, and time did not apply at all.
To be continued…