Chapter 4936: Temporal Infinity II

THE Youngest spoke with voice that held weight pressing against the fabric of THE Interstices itself.

"This...is an Infinite Everything. An extremely rare and unfathomable thing as I have already put conditions in it."

The object floated between THE Youngest’s palms, a lemniscate of pure blue-gold light that seemed to contain galaxies, Wheels, folds, and everything within its surface. It burned with warmth that made Amser’s temporal perception waver, his ability to see past and future momentarily overwhelmed by something that existed in all moments simultaneously.

"Taking it may allow you to fully fight and remove that infection. If you were fully infected, this would not work."

THE Youngest’s eyes held no mercy and no cruelty. Only honest assessment.

"The price to use this... well, you will know when you take it in. It is to bind and back everything that is your Civilization of Temporal to THE First Tongue. This will likely alter your Civilization to fill it with a glimmer of Infinity, which will fight off your infection."

He paused.

"But the cost... well, you will see. Take it. I am curious what will happen to a Temporal branded with Infinity."

BOOM!

His voice was heavy.

The Infinite Everything floated before him now, placed on THE Youngest’s palm and allowed to drift forward until it hovered within arm’s reach. It was beautiful beyond description, an infinity symbol of compressed potential that held more authority in its small form than most Absolutes accumulated across their entire existences.

Blue-gold light pulsed from its surface in rhythms that almost matched Amser’s heartbeat, as if it was already beginning to synchronize with his existence.

He just had to hold it!

He just had to reach out to it!

But the raising of his hand...

Amser tried to lift his arm toward that endless glimmer of blue-gold, and immediately felt the infection actively stopping him. His muscles, which should have obeyed his commands without question, suddenly weighed more than mountains. His tendons, which should have moved with the ease of eons of practice, now felt like they were being held by countless invisible hands!

Every increment of progress required effort that exceeded anything he had ever exerted.

It felt like the hardest action he had taken in his existence.

Even harder than that step he took to become an Absolute!

That step had been difficult, yes. It had required everything he possessed at that time, every fragment of foundation and will and determination. But at least during that step, he had only been fighting against the natural resistance of existence itself. He had only been pushing against the weight of reality that didn’t want to bend to his authority.

This was different.

This was fighting against something inside him that actively didn’t want him to survive as himself.

His arm trembled as it rose. Sweat that shouldn’t have been possible for an Absolute of his caliber appeared on his brow. His teeth clenched until he felt like they might shatter. His temporal authority burned around him with desperation that exceeded anything he’d ever manifested!

But...

"I! Am! AMSER! MODRED!"

He reminded himself of who he was with roar that tore through THE Interstices with force that made the gray void ripple. He was the son of the one who named him. He was THE Living Temporal.

He was an Absolute who had walked through time since before most beings in Observable Existence had been born. He was himself, and he would remain himself, and no infection would take that from him!

His hand closed around that endless glimmer of Infinity.

BOOM!

The moment he grasped it, he felt waves of coolness scorch his existence.

The sensation was impossible to describe with words that belonged to linear time. It was cold and hot simultaneously. It was gentle and violent in the same instant. It was the feeling of being unmade and remade at the same moment, his existence torn apart and reassembled with something new woven through its foundations.

Blue-gold light flooded into his temporal weavings with force that exceeded anything he’d experienced since becoming an Absolute.

The Infinities washed over him in waves that penetrated every aspect of his existence. They flowed through his memories, reinforcing them against the dissolution that the infection had been causing. They surged through his Civilizational foundations, filling cracks that had been spreading for what felt like eons. They pressed against the invaders that had been claiming him piece by piece.

And those invincible snakes of infection that had been grasping his existence began to cry out.

He could hear them. Feel them. Sense their distress as the Infinities pushed against them with authority they couldn’t resist. The warm whispers that had been promising him unity and belonging and family now became screams of frustration as they were forced away from foundations they had already begun to claim.

The tendrils that had been woven through his consciousness were being burned away by blue-gold light that declared their presence invalid!

The infection was being pushed out!

But that wasn’t all that was happening.

His Civilization of Temporal was changing.

He felt it deep in his core, felt his authority over time itself being infused with the glimmer of Infinity that THE Youngest had placed within that Infinite Everything. His temporal perception, which had always allowed him to see past and future as extensions of present, now expanded. He began to feel what it meant for time to shine with Infinities.

Time that regenerated rather than merely passed.

Time that contained endless variations rather than singular progressions.

Time that was Infinite in ways that his previous understanding had never encompassed.

His Civilization was becoming something grander than it had ever been before.

But...

In the end, as the transformation completed itself and the last traces of infection were burned away from his existence, he had a solemn realization.

His Temporal had become unfathomably grander, yes. His authority over time now held dimensions that he had never possessed before. His power had increased in ways that exceeded anything he could have achieved alone.

But... that glimmer of Infinity hung brightly above his Civilization.

Above.

His Civilization below. Infinity above. And it would remain so forever.

His Way of Temporal now hung below the glimmer of Infinity of THE First Tongue. No matter how grand it became, no matter how powerful he grew, no matter what heights he reached in the future, it would always be under this Infinity. Under THE Youngest. Under the being he had once tried to hunt.

The hierarchy was established.

It couldn’t be changed.

Amser opened his eyes and breathed heavily, looking at the entity his Civilization now fell under. His body was surrounded by snaking tendrils of purple rivers of time, but those rivers now began to shine with glimmers of blue.

The purple of Temporal with the glimmers of Infinity. Beautiful in a way that his previous authority had never been. Grand in a way that his former self could never have achieved.

This was the cost.

To retain who he was, he still had to become the subordinate of another.

He stared into the calm eyes of THE Youngest. Those ancient-young eyes that held no triumph, no gloating, no satisfaction at having brought a former enemy to heel. Just calm observation. Just patience. Just the steady confidence of someone who had known exactly what would happen.

Amser Modred closed his eyes and felt his own weavings again.

His memories of the one who named him. They were there. Intact. Clear in ways they hadn’t been since the infection began.

His ambitions. Still present. Changed, perhaps, but not erased.

His hopes. His dreams. His identity.

They were all intact!

And that sweet voice that had promised him everything if only he would surrender himself...

He couldn’t hear it anymore.

He opened his eyes once more as he looked toward THE Youngest with a complex expression that held gratitude and resentment and acceptance and rebellion all woven together in ways that only an Absolute who had just traded freedom for survival could understand.

And as if this being didn’t want to put him in an awkward position, THE Youngest smiled.

It was a simple expression, holding no mockery and no condescension. Just acknowledgment of what had occurred and what it meant for both of them going forward.

He returned back to his throne, settling onto the crystallized authority with ease, and said calmly while reaching for his pen once more.

"Crazy that it worked. But hey, welcome to the folds of quintessence and Infinities, Amser Modred."

His pen touched golden paper.

"Now, without Infinities, how did you keep the infection at bay? I am unfathomably curious."

...!

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