Chapter 19: The Origin's Call
The landscape began to stabilize, the tension in the air slowly dissipating as the fragments of Manus were absorbed into the Codex. Steven's breath came in short bursts, the weight of his newly awakened abilities pressing heavily on him. He could feel the codex humming at his side—alive, aware, and still restless.
Atheron's eyes were fixed on the horizon, where the eyes had once been, now closed but still lingering as shadows in the corners of reality. "That was too close. The Absence grows restless. It knows you are no longer just a threat. You are a disruption."
Steven nodded, his fingers brushing over the smooth surface of the Codex. "I'm not going to stop. I'm rewriting this reality, piece by piece, until it's mine to control."
Atheron turned, his gaze softening. "Be cautious, Steven. The more you rewrite, the more you risk breaking the very fabric of this world. The Absence does not just destroy—it deletes everything, erases the concept of existence itself."
"Then I'll make sure it doesn't get the chance," Steven said, his voice firm. "I'm going to the source."
Atheron hesitated. "The Origin?"
Steven's grip tightened around the Codex. "I need to understand it. I need to know what the Absence truly is. Why it's so powerful. Why it's after me."
Atheron's expression darkened. "It's not just after you, Steven. It's after everything. The Absence is the original Void, the part of existence that was never meant to be. It was born from a place where nothing exists—not even time or space. It is the anti-reality, the negation of all things."
Steven looked up, the weight of those words pressing down on him. "Then how do I stop it?"
"You don't stop it," Atheron said quietly. "You rewrite it. You can outlast it, if you can rewrite the rules of reality itself."
Steven exhaled, his mind racing. He wasn't just fighting for survival anymore. He was fighting to protect everything—the universe, existence itself—from a force that sought to erase it all.
"I have to find the Origin," Steven said, a resolve building in his chest. "If the Absence is the negation of everything, then the Origin must be the force that created it. I'll confront it and rewrite the fate of both."
Atheron nodded, a reluctant respect in his eyes. "Very well. I will stand with you. But know this, Steven—the Origin is no mere entity. It is the first thought, the first spark of creation. It has seen every version of this universe and every version of you. It is beyond the reach of simple magic."
Steven's eyes burned with determination. "Then I'll need more than just magic to face it. I'll need to become the Codex itself."
Atheron's expression softened with a grim smile. "And so you shall, Steven. But you must be careful. The line between rewriting and destroying is thin. Cross it, and even you may cease to exist."
Steven didn't answer. He couldn't afford to worry about that now. His mind was focused on one goal—reaching the Origin and rewriting the universe before the Absence could erase it all.
A ripple in the fabric of space interrupted their conversation. The ground trembled beneath their feet as a new rift tore open before them. This one was larger, its edges jagged, oozing with a dark, oily energy that seemed to seep through the very air.
From the rift, a shadow emerged.
A massive figure, towering over them, draped in black armor that reflected no light. Its presence was overwhelming, its energy suffocating.
This was no mere servant of the Absence. This was the Harbinger of the End—the last guardian between Steven and the Origin itself.
The figure's voice rumbled through the ground, sending vibrations through Steven's very soul.
"You dare approach the Origin?" the Harbinger boomed. "Then you shall face the reckoning."
Atheron stepped forward, his blade raised. "We're ready. I don't fear you."
But Steven's voice cut through the tension. "This battle isn't for me to win with force. It's for me to rewrite."
He raised the Codex high, feeling its power surge through him, like a thousand possibilities opening at once.
"Let it be known," Steven muttered, "that the end of the Absence begins here."
A flood of light erupted from the Codex, an unearthly energy that stretched across the sky, wrapping the Harbinger in a cage of reality itself. The ground shook violently as the universe reacted to Steven's command, the laws of existence bending at his will.
The Harbinger's eyes narrowed, but it could not escape. The Codex was rewriting its very existence, locking it within a reality of Steven's choosing.
"You cannot fight what is written," Steven said, his voice resolute. "And I've already written your end."
The Harbinger's form began to unravel, its armor crumbling into dust as the energy from the Codex dissolved it, piece by piece.
But even as the Harbinger disintegrated, the rift behind it grew larger, its dark pull threatening to swallow the world whole.
Steven turned to Atheron. "The Origin is c
lose. We don't have much time."
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To be continued