Above us another singularity formed, this one with a blinding light that pushes away the very void.
A point of absolute smallness yet absolute power.
A radiant light in a never-ending abyss. A point so holy and sacred that it deems the universe itself unfit to touch it.
"No matter how powerful the pulling force is. The pushing force of a white hole is one which allows it to never be touched, since black holes pull in everything, white holes push everything away, as the black hole approaches the white hole, the absolute pushing force will tear it asunder." I exclaimed
He adjusted his monocle, "Black holes are constructs of dying stars, I was thinking that you may have chosen 'death of a black hole' for your phrase, in which case you would have instantly lost due to a black hole already being a corpse. Moreover, like stars, they function on the principle of gravity. When mass occupies space it ever so slightly warps the fabric of spacetime around it and when a lot of mass occupies a small space the pull on spacetime strengthens drastically, this effect is the reason why galaxies exist. In solar systems, stars represent the greatest mass occupied in the smallest space but before the largest stars die their structure becomes unstable, forcing a majority of their mass into their core, which creates a gravitational pull greater then the star ever had, pulling all of the star into a single point, creating a gravity so immense that it shatters space itself. Invoking a pit of dead never-ending hunger, an error in god's supposed realm, something that should not exist. That is what a black hole is."
He continued, "A white hole is the opposite of that, moreover they are mathematical constructs, things that only exist on paper. But I won't go down that route, there's a way more intresting way for you to lose. White holes are the polar opposites of black holes, they instead of consuming, expel matter. But then where is all this matter coming from? That sadly, is outside my knowledge, but I will say that there is no such thing as an infinite source. It has to run out eventually, unlike a black hole a white hole has a certain limit associated with it. It cannot exist forever because just like how a black hole can cease to exist if it somehow loses all it's matter beyond a certain level, a white hole that only expels matter eventually shrivels out. Which brings us back full circle, a white hole may be the polar opposite to a black hole but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's its counter. A black hole is eternal, a white hole is uneternal, a black hole is one of the most dangerous universal constructs, while a white hole is one of the safest. Therefore, I win this round.
Uhh, no. "You really think I wouldn't catch it? You still failed to elaborate on how a black hole actually beats a white hole and I know why, because you can't, because it doesn't. No matter if it dies or not before a black hole means absolutely nothing. This game isn't an outliving competition it's a versus competition. This makes this a draw, since neither one can harm each other." I refuted
"Oh but it's not a versus competition at all. It's a contest of superiority, my exact words in which the rules are based off of were, 'I say a word or short phrase and then you have to say a word or short phrase that beats my word or short phrase and then we argue about which one is superior.'
Superiority, not fighting potential and wouldn't you say that something eternal is superior to something mortal, after all that is why you wanted the ascension ritual in the first place, am I right?"
I was about to perform my rebuttal but my mouth wouldn't move, I couldn't speak and I knew why. I didn't believe what I was going to say. My true thoughts said that he had a point. If I observed this debate from an outside perspective I would agree with him. From what he has described, I don't consider a white hole superior to a black hole.
My heart trembled at this relevation, I've gotten scared of this monster before, hell, my body has even gone into flight or fight mode once or twice. Yet this was the first time that I felt that I might actually die.
Being scared is different then feeling fear.
Looking at his calm expression I could ever so slightly see the emotions that leaked from it, something resembling joy, a strange feeling only describable as a mocking madness, and a sense of profound assurement, that somehow he knew that he couldn't possibly lose.
I've seen overconfidence and arrogance before, but this was different. It's the feeling poker players give off just before playing the winning hand. The feeling that someone gives off when they have already won. A feeling which planted seeds of despair in my heart, seeds that only bloomed greater the more loses I acquired.
"This isn't even real anymore." I said defeatedly
We were now on our 7th round and I lost every single one. Thankfully, this game is first to ten and not best of ten games or I would have already lost.
After the first round it just got even more ridiculous. For the second round I picked an omnipotent god and he countered with a concept known as 'the omnipotence paradox' to explain why an omnipotent god cannot exist outside a closed system and if the system is closed then god is not omnipotent.
He also had some reasoning on why being a paradox is more superior then being the subject of a paradox, hence why he won.
The games after that weren't much different either, weather he was defending his argument or attacking mine, it always ended up in his win.
I began to suspect he was cheating somehow, but cheating in logic? That's just impossible by definition.
On the fifth round he choose a pair of scissors, a pair of fucking scissors. He won that one too! I chose a star and he still won! Do you know how crazy that shit is! Although it took him a time I suspect to be nearly three hours to explain the core principles behind why scissors can cut the sun because he never specified how strong and big that pair of scissors were and since I couldn't flip the logic, scissors were superior to a star.
I began to think that he could make anything true and I began to question what truth was.
The answer?
Truth was language.
It was interpretation. Truth was whatever you needed it to be. Whatever HE needed it to be. I couldn't do that! I couldn't do what he was doing! I was going to lose! I was going to die!
You know, I have a loving family back home. I have a sister who cares for me so much, astrocratic titles are conferred on families with ascenders. Listen, the world isn't nice to families without titles, to them they aren't even human!
That dynamic may feel wrong to some people, but deep down I'd always agreed with it, even if I was the one at the short end of the stick, I believed ascenders to be superior to normal people because they were!
That's why instead of destroying the system I aimed to become an ascender to give my family that power.
But this guy?
He made me realize that I was inferior and not only that, I couldn't name a single superior thing! How can I aim to be superior when I when I can't even define it! I-"
"What do you choose for the seventh round?" He asked me
Shit, I really doubt I'll win even one no matter what I say, do I really need to play again? I'm so fucking done with this shit. Every loss causes me to be in so much more pain, like a hammer to those nails digging into my coffin.
I looked up, if that is even a direction here. It's funny like that, in a death game about discerning truth, I don't even know that much.
It's almost like my lack of cardinal directions avalanched into a cardinal sin.
I feel terrible.
Originally when I started losing all I felt was anger. Anger, because I couldn't figure out how I could possibly win.
I felt anger because I considered this game rigged, this ritual rigged, like the universe itself denied my ascension. That it scoffed at the hope for my family.
Yet, eventually after losing for a time that felt like years a truth came to me, that maybe, just maybe, ascension wasn't cut out for me and as more time passed that maybe snowballed into a certainty.
But now? I'm still angry but that fire is far gone. It's the kind of anger felt when freezing to death. The anger felt on a deathbed, knowing that you can only cry. I feel it around my heart, to the point where I can't feel my own heartbeat.
It may seem like I'm pathetic, and I very well might be. If the past me heard this I'd probably try to slap some sense into myself, but even the thought of being pathetic doesn't give me the motivation to continue.
Even when I think about my sister, my family and why I wanted this in the first place, the willpower I came into this ritual with, is no longer there.
Years in timeless abyss will do that to you, maybe if I won, even if it was just once, I may have wanted to continue now, yet in these past years I have only ever looked at a clock, ticking down ever so slowly, towards my fated absolution.