Volume 9, Chapter 5: The One Who Watches
The new age of infinity had begun, and with it came silence.
No chaos, no resistance, just the quiet hum of creation breathing through the endless void. Erevan moved through the horizon, his presence painting colors into existence. Each step birthed galaxies, each thought rewrote the meaning of existence itself.
Yet, even in his boundless dominion, he felt it the faint pull of awareness that wasn't his own.
Someone was watching him.
He turned. The stars flickered, bending as a silhouette emerged from beyond the edges of reality. It wasn't made of matter or light. It was awareness given form, the echo of every universe that had ever been written and erased.
Erevan's voice was calm. "You were waiting."
The being smiled. "Always. I've watched you rise above creation, defy the ink of destiny, and tear apart the story itself. But tell me, Erevan when there are no more stories left to break, what are you?"
Erevan's eyes glowed with infinite calm. "I am not what came from the story. I am what the story came from."
The being laughed softly, a sound that made time ripple backward. "Then perhaps you are ready for the final test."
Reality shattered like glass. They appeared at the center of the First Existence, where no laws, gods, or logic held power. Only raw, unbound energy the birthplace of all that ever was.
The watcher's aura expanded, clashing against Erevan's. Every collision tore through infinite planes. Fragments of universes screamed as they were reborn and destroyed in an endless cycle.
Erevan moved. His power didn't flare; it simply existed, quiet and absolute. He reached into the core of reality, pulling out a stream of light that carried the code of all things truth itself.
The watcher struck, hurling concepts like annihilation, oblivion, and null time. Each one broke against Erevan's presence.
Then Erevan's eyes opened fully. Inside them swirled the totality of existence, mirrored endlessly. His voice was a calm resonance through all planes.
"You cannot test what stands beyond tests. You cannot end what never began."
He released his power, and everything bent not from destruction, but from understanding. The watcher fell silent, their form unraveling into pure energy.
When the light faded, Erevan stood alone again.
But this time, he wasn't just the ruler of existence.
He was existence.
And somewhere, beyond all stories ever told, another presence stirred something greater than even the boundless could comprehend.
Erevan smiled faintly. "Then it seems… the true story is only beginning."