Chapter 3: Choices of Destruction
Nanook didn't know how much time passed after his altercation with Hypnos. The Imaginary Space lacked a stable sense of time, and he wasn't in the mood to worry about something so inconsequential when he was too busy meditating on the cosmic scale genocide he committed.
It had truly opened his eyes to who he was now. These hands of his, this existence of his, he could no longer look at it the same way he has before.
The hands you use to hug, to feed, to rest upon, could just as easily strike death. Few ever paused to consider such a thought, and Nanook himself had never allowed it to cross his mind, that is, until now. Life, in its fragile entirety, could be held tenderly and cherished, yet with the same hands it could be extinguished, as effortlessly as closing one's eyes.
This was the truth he, the Aeon of Destruction understood. Ironic, isn't it?
It would surely have Aha laughing for several Amber Eras.
Naturally, such enlightenment came with its own set of questions… and choices.
Choices that probably weren't the brightest to make right after committing genocide.
Choices whose consequences he was currently facing, if being hurled through asteroid belts was anything to go by.
Perhaps—just perhaps—he shouldn't have opened up the Path of Destruction, thinking it was something Yaoshi would do, right in the middle of the galaxy he had nearly wiped out… and then proceeded to sever his connection to the Path entirely, choosing to ignore everything like IX while he tried to process the fact he had killed quadrillions.
RRAAAARRRRGHH!
GRAAAHHH!
URRRAAAAAH!
RAAAAAAGH!
GRRRRRAHHH!!!
The cacophony of trillions of souls crying out tore into Nanook's ears, dragging him out of his spiraling thoughts as the culprit appeared before him once more.
The thing hovering before him couldn't be called a person anymore. It was a Spirit-World creature through and through.
Its entire body was composed of a black, shadow-like substance from head to toe, with faint crimson streaks shifting beneath the surface. Its face bore no true features, only two glowing red circles where eyes ought to be. Its elongated arms ended in jagged claws aimed directly at him, and the shadows pooling at its feet warped into countless faces contorted with rage, apathy, madness, despair, and agony. Above it floated a brilliant, halo-like ring of light, creating a stark and unsettling contrast.
What held Nanook's attention, however, was how profoundly steeped in Destruction this being was. This was unmistakably an—
"Emanator."
The claws of his Emanator lashed toward him faster than mortal sight could register, yet to Nanook, the movement was slower than a drifting feather.
Still—just like before—he didn't bother to dodge.
Swish!
Drip.
Nanook glanced down at the black hand drenched in the golden ichor of Destruction leaking from his natural gash. It hadn't pierced him, but the familiar scene of a Destruction Pathstrider turning their claws on their own Aeon made him pause.
Was this the fate of all Nanooks across the stars?
"""""DESTRUCTION!!!!!!!""""""
It probably was.
Countless overlapping voices shrieked with unfiltered hatred as the shadowy body of the Lord Ravager burst into a spray of blood, the environment warping with it.
…
Crimson.
All Nanook could see was the color of blood—an endless sea of it spilling from nowhere. Before long, a colossal figure rose from its depths: a towering mass of black flesh riddled with innumerable red eyes, a stark halo of light floating above its warped head. Beneath it, smaller versions crawled out of the churning tide, their tendrils coiling and dragging at the Ruin Author's legs.
"Nightmare Authority and a Divine Kingdom?" Nanook didn't feel even a flicker of surprise at how the situation was developing. He had sensed Hypnos' corruption—an Outer God's corruption—clinging to this Lord Ravager the moment it appeared before him.
As for the appearance of a Sequence 1 Boon or Beyonder Characteristic from the Dream related Pathway… surprising, yes, but it made a twisted sort of sense.
Like a child lashing out because others dared speak bad of their mother. In this case, although corruption played its part, the greater reason was simpler: this Emanator was one of the countless who had died by his own hand.
That was why he allowed this legion of billions of souls to attack him freely, without resistance. He genuinely didn't know what else to do—
The Ruin Author abruptly paused, a thought surfacing.
"Eternal Darkness and the Mother Goddess of Depravity… if the two collaborated, establishing a Cycle of Reincarnation is possible. And it doesn't even have to be the Mother Goddess. The Earth Mother would suffice…"
The more he considered it, the more plausible it sounded. Setting up a reincarnation cycle wouldn't erase what he'd done, but it was a beginning.
At the very least, it was better than drowning himself in guilt. The only reason he hadn't collapsed yet was likely because of his heightened outlook and mental fortitude as an Aeon.
Nanook's attention drifted back to the Lord Ravager, and he let out a quiet sigh. The Divine Kingdom—barely formed for a single heartbeat—began to unravel.
Entropy seized it, dissolving the boundary between Nightmare and Reality into absolute nothingness.
GHRRAAAAGHHHHH—!
The Spirit-World creature howled in fury at his action, abandoning its Authority altogether as it gathered Destruction Path energy into itself and charged.
Nanook's eyebrows shot up at its action. "Self -Destruction?"
How could he allow them to do that to themselves?
So, for the first time since transmigrating, Nanook truly gazed upon an entity.
The Spirit-World creature froze as an overwhelming conceptual weight crushed down upon its being. In the next instant, the Aeon of Destruction began flooding it with Imaginary Energy, elevating its strength further, and truly crowning it as a Lord Ravager.
Previously, Nanook had acted almost exactly like IX, the Aeon of Nihility, utterly indifferent toward his Pathstriders. Yet, just like Nihility, Destruction permeates all things. Life exists in a universe where entropy—Destruction—is ceaselessly increasing.
Thus, through this universal envelopment and their exposure to immense quantities of Destruction—the annihilation of their worlds—the being before him had become something akin to a Self-Annihilator. Reaching the level of an Emanator in a fashion similar to Acheron.
"Self-Ravager."
Unoriginal, yes. But did he care?
No. No, he did not.
A drop of golden blood from his wound floated upward, suspended before Nanook for a heartbeat, before flashing into a streak of light and sinking into the Emanator.
The black-and-red form, halo included, melted into a pool of molten gold before reshaping into a humanoid silhouette. The liquid gold shifted methodically: first forming a skeletal frame, then muscle coiling over bone, followed by organs, flesh, and finally skin—until the figure appeared wholly human.
Everything about it resembled a human except for the absence of primary and secondary sexual characteristics; it was entirely androgynous. White hair cascaded to its neck, a bone-white mask veiling its face yet failing to hide the baleful golden eyes watching him.
In this moment, the miracle of Imaginary Energy became unmistakable.
Imaginary Energy—Imaginary Element—was the current that flowed throughout both the Tree and Sea multiverses. It was the power that constituted the Paths and the power saturating the Imaginary Space. Because of its connection to the Imaginary Tree, the source of worlds and universes, Imaginary Energy embodied order, creation, structure, laws, time, soul, and spirit. Unlike its counterpart, Quantum, which embodied space, distortion, chaos, and entropy.
Because of this nature, Nanook was able to reshape this Emanator of his entirely.
Standing before him now was a being one could place above a True God yet beneath an Above-the-Sequence.
….
"Why?"
The Lord Ravager questioned his Aeon.
++++
A/N: Idk where this came from, but could you blame me for trying to recreate a Phainon-Nanook scene?