Chapter 111: The Paradox of the Sealed Epoch
In the vast wilderness of the Astral Chasm — a realm that existed outside time yet bled into all realities — the celestial winds howled like forgotten prayers. Each gust carried fragments of the multiverse's memories, whispers of timelines lost, civilizations that never came to be, and destinies aborted before birth.
Kael stood at the edge of an impossibility — a temporal breach known only as The Sealed Epoch.
Behind him, Elenai and Zeraphin exchanged uneasy glances. The space around them trembled, unable to contain the dense Authority resonating from Kael's core. His form had changed again — taller, sharper, his irises now swirling vortexes of cosmic data. He wasn't just wearing power anymore.
He was power.
"Are you sure?" Elenai asked, her voice a tether of clarity.
"No," Kael admitted. "But this... this is the only place that might hold the truth about the First Authority."
Zeraphin frowned. "Even if it does, opening the Sealed Epoch means unraveling a paradox that was never supposed to be touched. We might bring forth something older than causality."
Kael smirked. "Perfect. Then maybe it'll finally answer who tried to kill the concept of 'beginning.'"
He stepped forward.
The boundary crackled — a web of runes that danced like ancient music notes etched in golden defiance. The Sealed Epoch wasn't merely sealed by magic. It was cursed by consensus — a pact made by every living concept to forget what lay behind it.
But Kael was no longer bound by the consensus of reality.
With a whisper in a tongue that had no vowels, he raised his hand.
Boom.
The moment his fingers touched the seal, the fabric of space-time screamed.
From the breach burst forth a tidal wave of forgotten possibilities. They weren't visions — they were aborted realities, each one crashing through Kael's consciousness.
He stood still.
The Origin War. The Betrayal of the Sixth Flame. The Crowning of the Blind Sovereign. The Day When Time Hid. The First Cry of the Void.
One by one, he saw everything. Not just history — the motivations behind why it was erased.
Elenai gripped his shoulder. "Pull back! Kael, if you take all that in—!"
But Kael's voice was different now. Echoing. Twinned. Layered with something ancient.
"No… not until I meet Him."
Inside the Sealed Epoch
The world flipped.
They weren't in the Astral Chasm anymore. They stood in a land beyond comprehension — the Refusal Plane. Mountains floated on the memories of forgotten gods. Rivers flowed with pure potential. Stars blinked and reversed.
Here, causality was a suggestion.
Standing atop a hill that defied gravity was a figure with seven shadows and no face.
Kael stepped forward. "You're the Chronicler of Negation."
The figure turned, its silhouette echoing with every being who had ever tried to rewrite destiny.
"I am the Archive of Denied Fates," it spoke. "And you… are the one who cracked the seal. Why?"
Kael didn't hesitate. "I want to know why reality is incomplete. Why every Authority rank has a blind spot."
The Chronicler's form flickered. "You seek the forbidden — the Authority of Zero. The one that existed before all laws. Before Fire, Time, Space… before Death."
Kael's breath caught.
"I knew it."
The Truth of the Zero Authority
The Chronicler extended a hand, and a single glowing glyph formed between them.
"Zero is not the absence of power. It is the power to choose non-existence. The first Authority was not a builder... but a breaker."
Kael's mind reeled.
Every system of Authority they had encountered — from elemental dominions to fundamental absolutes — had been structured to maintain a balance, a hierarchy.
But Zero?
It was the original rebel — a code written in defiance of reality.
And now, Kael knew: the only way to defeat the upcoming anomaly — the "He Who Rewrites Laws" mentioned in the hidden pages of the Codex of Beginnings — was to embrace the Authority that undid all others.
The Price of Knowledge
"But," the Chronicler said, his voice grave, "to wield Zero is to undo parts of yourself. You must erase one truth you hold sacred. One core belief."
Kael closed his eyes.
His mind flashed to his first day as a mortal.
To his promise to never become like the beings who played with destinies.
To the memory of his human mother, whose last breath whispered: "Remember who you are."
Slowly, Kael whispered, "I choose… to forget my origin."
A soundless shatter rang through the Refusal Plane.
Kael's past disintegrated from every timeline, every echo, every whisper of history. Even Elenai and Zeraphin stumbled, forgetting parts of who Kael had once been.
But Kael stood tall.
He now carried the Glyph of Zero.
The paradox made manifest.
Outside, the Multiverse Shifts
Back in the real cosmos, things had begun to tremble.
High above the Authority Realms, the Thirteen Spires that monitored all equilibrium turned black — one by one. The Sentience of Equilibrium blinked for the first time in an epoch.
"Unauthorized Authority detected," it said.
"Classification: Impossible."
"Designation: Kael, He Who Bears the Glyph of Zero."
"Threat Level: ∞"
From the edge of the Void Realm, a pair of ancient eyes opened.
The Weaver of Origins had awakened.
And for the first time in recorded reality, it whispered:
"It begins again."
Chapter 111 End.