CHAPTER 342

  THE FOUNDING SEVEN

  In-between the planes of reality, phased inside and outside the void itself, surrounded by the ever-expanding cosmos, a simple-looking room stood isolated from the rest of the world, doused in perpetual silence, surrounded by eternal spatial storms vainly attempting to tear it apart . Its wooden walls withstood everything, seemingly invulnerable to any damage whatsoever save for the one of time .

  Two praying mats lay flat on the floor, parallel to one another, occupied by a man and a woman sitting cross-legged, meditating in perpetual, eternal silence . On woman’s forehead, a silver-jetted ’2’ lay imprinted, glistening faintly in milky white; on man’s, ebony-black ’1’ stood seemingly carved into his skull, the edges blending in perfectly with his high forehead .

  A space just in front of the two suddenly tore open as five figures walked through, quickly sitting opposite of them . All five figures had similarly embedded numbers on their foreheads, ranging from ’3’ to ’7’, all wearing identical robes laden with faintly golden threads at the edges .

  Among the seven figures was one Lino was rather familiar with —— Six, the Eternal Watcher, who sat absentminded, his gaze slightly dulled as though deep in thought . A woman sitting next to him, with faintly cyan ’7’ etched onto her forehead, had short, brown hair and beyond ordinary-looking features, making it easy to mistake her as practically any other average person . Save for the pair of tantalizing, black eyes, she had no distinguishing features . Titled ’Maiden of Effervescence’, she was a rather ironic existence, as despite her title, hardly a soul knew she even existed .

  A man with a deep-blue ’5’ carved into his skull was a complete contrast, donning a fascinatingly long, rainbow-colored hair, style reflected also in his eyes . He had rather chiseled features and an eternally plastered smile on his face . ’Ghost of the Thousand Masks’ was his title, and even Six had forgotten the man’s original appearance; he’d often joked that the ’Thousand Masks’ should be changed to ’Billion Masks’ by now .

  Sitting by his side was another man, Four, donning a wholesome cloak, faint traces of his face covered up in white gauze, only revealing a pair of blaring, crimson eyes without pupils . Even beneath the somewhat loose robe, he appeared rather lean and slender, even skeletal . Titled ’Harbinger of the Undead’, he oozed rather eerier air about himself that caused even those currently sitting next to him to sit a bit further apart . .

  A woman with ’3’ carved bloodily into her skull was tall, muscular and rather mean-looking, her expression seemingly frozen in perpetual state of anger; her eyebrows were sharp, looming over blazing, coral eyes seemingly spitting flames out . Her hair was wild and unruly, mirroring the color of her eyes and seemingly even the shape of the flames . She was titled ’The First Sun’, though for many she was merely the last .

  " . . . so . . . what’s up everyone?" Seven spoke out emotionlessly . "We haven’t seen each other in a while . "

  "I’ve seen you yesterday . " Five replied with a strange smile .

  "Your creepy obsession with her ran the comedic course about four billion years ago," Six said, sighing lowly . "Now it’s just really . . . really . . . really sad . "

  "You’re just jealous I’ve caught glimpse of her left tit once . " Five scoffed .

  " . . . you do realize she gave birth to two of his children?" Four joined in with a rather low and somber voice . "I imagine, in order for that to happen, he must have seen her everything . "

  "I selectively choose to ignore that . " Five said .

  " . . . like you selectively choose to ignore your duties?" Three chimed in with faint anger in her voice . "I have come to inspect you four times in the past millennium, yet not once have I actually come across you . "

  "Not everyone’s as duty-obsessed as you are," Five scoffed . "The rest of us just want to live fun lives . "

  "So obsessing over Seven for eons on end, without ever standing any sort of a chance, and drinking yourself to sleep whenever it gets too much . . . is your idea of a fun life?" Four said . "Interesting . "

  "It’s not true he never stood a chance," Seven said . "I did promise I’d come to stand on his grave naked once he croaks . "

  "Hear that?" Six grinned . "So hurry up and die so your dreams can come true . "

  "Humph, you’d like that, wouldn’t you? To take out your sole love rival? I don’t think so . "

  " . . . I think it’s kind of adorable he’d stayed loyal to her all these years," Two suddenly said, opening her eyes and smiling faintly . "Despite the fact that he hasn’t had sex since he was an ordinary human, aged nineteen . "

  "Oh, look who decided to get off her high, mighty, aloof tower," Five scoffed . "And only to talk about sex . God, will you ever change? Hasn’t he fucked your libido out of you by now?" he pointed at the only man who hadn’t spoken thus far, One .

  "Yeah," Six joined in, stroking his beard . "At one point, you two practically fucked the mankind back into existence . "

  "Ah," Seven moaned lowly . "Good old days where incest was really your only option . . . "

  " . . . I imagine we didn’t gather here to do the same thing we do all the time —— talk about random things for an hour and leave," Four said . "Why have you summoned us, One? We were busy . "

  "No you were not . " One replied, opening his eyes as well .

  "No we were not, but still . That’s no reason to ruin our fun . "

  "I will be quick," One said . "Gaia won’t be able to reach the First Scripture, at least not in time . "

  " . . . so? What’s that got to do with us?" Five asked .

  "We’ll have to untangle the web of lies, everyone," One said, sighing faintly . "I feel this is our last chance . "

  " . . . you want to go to war?" Six asked, arching his brows .

  "You’re the closest to the boy," Two said . "You tell us . "

  " . . . I thought our involvement would remain minimal," Six frowned . "And only in the namesake of balance . Aggravating the Outsiders and encasing us into a war hardly seems to echo that sentiment . "

  "The reason we abstained from involvement thus far was precisely because balance, however thin, was there," One said . "But, it will break; Chaos is already beginning to devour other elements, outside of the Empyrean’s will —— meaning it has achieved the First Stage . "

  "Then just counter it, as we did so far," Four said . "What’s the issue?"

  "The issue is that it’s not just Chaos," Two sighed . "Composition of elemental world is being tampered at the base; we cannot afford to disrupt it any further . "

  " . . . I’ve looked into it," Seven said . "But, I was incapable of tracing the disruptions back to the source . "

  "There was a massive escalation in disruption around the time the Empyrean killed the Light Bearer," Four said . "Could the two somehow be related?"

  " . . . spikes can be observed in patterns," Five said, his expression turning serious . "Each time Bearer was felled, we’d seen increased volume of disruptions across the board . I think we can safely conclude that they are not merely natural shockwaves, and are artificial in make . "

  "I’ve managed to isolate their source," Two said . "They aren’t of Noterra origin . "

  " . . . inter-dimensional?" Six mumbled, frowning . "Weren’t we isolated from any Worlds with potency of influencing ours?"

  "That is the reason why we need to untangle the web," One said, going back to the start of the discussion . "We still can’t ascertain Ataxia’s or Gaia’s intentions, and we have to know them . In order to do that, we have to escalate their conflict . "

  " . . . Gaia is one thing, but I very much doubt we can get Ataxia to do anything he doesn’t want," Four said . "Remember, we exist in part because of him . "

  "I am almost certain Ataxia isn’t of this world," One said, stroking his chin as he sighed . "And, if there’s a threat from the Outsiders, I need to know with absolute certainty . We lucked out with the spatial holes thus far, but we won’t be lucky forever . The most terrifying aspect of this is that these disruptions aren’t targeted; four other worlds I’m overseeing are undergoing similar changes, only on a much larger scale . "

  "If we have noticed them," Three said suddenly . "Ataxia must have too . If it was something that could threaten everything, he would have already informed us . Seeing as he hasn’t . . . "

  " . . . in any case, this must be thoroughly understood," One replied after a short silence . "I will head farther out into the Ether and expand our Zone of Understanding by another quadrant . In the meantime, Six, seeing as you’ve already established a relationship with the Empyrean, try to enlist his help in isolation . Have Seven and Five assist you . Four and Three will assist Gaia in reaching the First Scripture; I know we have promised Ataxia not to go after it, but times have changed . Also task Eight and Thirteen with ensuring the safety of other Bearers . We can’t have the Empyrean going around and killing them one after another . Especially not now . "

  " . . . I’ll remain here," Two said . "And attempt to counter the disruptions, however little . "

  "We shall meet again in twenty years," One said, his body slowly disappearing into a vault of smoke . "Before then, I hope we all complete our tasks; especially reaching the First Scripture . . . I have a feeling it is a quintessential piece to our puzzle . . . "