A Reaper's Philosophy-Chapter 86: Endings

"It all began with Greed’s wild ambitions!" Lilith began to say. "The Concept of Greed had long been envious of exousia’s power. Greed represented exousia’s ambitions. Because of this, he believed he was the one who knew how best to utilize exousia and wanted it for himself.

Greed was boastful, and rightfully so. His realm was one of the biggest and the only one of its kind that was infinitely expanding.

Although my realm was the pinnacle of life and there were thousands of new beginnings happening by the day, Greed’s realm still rivaled even mine. The people of his realm were as ambitious as Greed himself. They were highly intelligent beings who ceaselessly strived for more.

They quickly populated their realm, terraforming planets and creating cities astronomically as big as solar systems. They could achieve all this because of Greed. Greed showed them a method to access exousia through the use of runes. From then on, his people were able to figure out how to utilize exousia and incorporate it into their technology. Their ambitions led them to achieve the impossible.

Unfortunately for them, they outgrew the expanse of their own realm. Despite it being capable of infinitely expanding, it’s growth was far too slow for their goals. To make matters worse, they also suffered from gigantism, just like every other realm. Gigantism was a problem that all lifeforms faced.

Greed felt as if it were up to him to save the realms and that gigantism was a flaw in exousia. He intended to subdue all the realms under his rule. To do this, they needed to search beyond their realm. By tapping into exousia, they were able to detect hundreds of other realms and were overjoyed by the prospects.

Unfortunately, upon further investigation, they quickly found out how much better off their realm was. Every other realm was only as big as a solar system, while Greed’s realm was as big as 5 solar systems.

My realm was in his eyes as well, as it was as big as a galaxy. Greed was ambitious, but even he knew better than to intrude into my realm.

Nonetheless, Greed wanted infinite power, and his people wanted an infinite realm. Eventually, they managed to discover yours. A realm unlike any of the others. A realm that was infinite in size, but completely separate from the others. It was difficult to detect. Your realm ran directly parallel to exousia’s realm. It was a blank canvas, completely devoid of any life.

It was not completely empty, however. Dark clouds filled the realm. The clouds carried baryonic matter within them and at the center of it all was you, forever roaming a dead planet.

I created that planet long ago. It was the first thing I attempted to create outside of my own realm. I watched as the plants and trees before me decayed and turned to dust...it scared me. You scared me! Such a concept could not be found within any other realm." Lilith explained.

"Sounds like I was pretty badass." Grayson said.

"Shut up! You rarely showed up in The Realm of Poieo(the realm of concepts) and were the weakest amongst all of us. Your concept could not be practiced, and beginnings could not be made within your realm. You pushed everyone away, and eventually, everyone forgot about you.

Despite all that, I still had a deep desire to attempt a beginning within your realm. This unique desire we feel is how we identify exousia’s will.

Back then, I paid close attention to Greed’s movements, amongst other troublesome concepts. As the most powerful concept, I also had a responsibility to keep order. I alongside the concept we’ve been calling Theós. His actual name is Nomos. He is the concept of Laws. Theós is just a persona he adapted because it was what this universe needed." Lilith continued to explain.

"So, whose realm are we in now?" Grayson asked.

"We are in yours." Lilith answered.

"What!" Grayson exclaimed as he punched through a giant, metallic centipede.

{Killed Stainless Centipede: Mythical Beast}

They killed various beasts as they continued to glide through to the north. Their pace was steady. Even with the suppression in Evnoia, reaching a speed of 45,000 km/h wasn’t too difficult. Grayson currently lacked enough destructive force to contend with the powerhouses of Evnoia.

’Intent!’ A word that had stuck with Grayson.

Intent was the power that Dunamis had used against Grayson. It is the manifestation of one’s will. Because of intent, Grayson’s wound could not heal. It was an intimidating and mysterious power. Grayson had done extensive research on it back at the Hardon Sect.

Intent is separated into realms as well. Ordinary Intent, Ascended Intent, Mythical Intent, Legendary Intent, Heavenly Intent, and Deity Intent. The weakest being Ordinary Intent. With Ordinary Intent, a host is capable of planting temporary fake emotions into the minds of their victims. Ascended Intent on the other hand can plant real emotions and has a much more lasting effect as it attacks the heart. Emotions like fear, rage, jealousy, joy, disgust, etc. can all be manifested with intent.

Mythical Intent has the power to manifest illusions. Not every host can form intent. Most hosts only train their intent to the ascended realm. It is difficult to progress one’s intent further than that. One needs a resilient mind, intensive comprehension, and an unwavering belief in the path they have chosen. This belief is what solidifies one’s intent and makes it a reality.

Intent can influence the force of one’s exousia. Once a host trains it to the Legendary realm, it can even change the properties of one’s body and powers. If one has enough comprehension of Legendary Intent, they can turn a fish into a frog. They can refine their exousia with the intent and increase the destructive force of their powers. They can even go as far as combining powers and creating something new entirely.

Grayson was using this time as an opportunity to practice with different powers. He had yet to have a grasp on what intent was. In all his research, it was never stated exactly how one forms intent. Only that one needs to have complete belief in their path.

There was no information on the realms above, but rumour has it that those of the Heavenly realm could create entire worlds!

Grayson was now trying to create a new kind of power out of the ones he currently had. His hands were covered with dark smoke that rose like a blazing flame. Each step he took claimed the shadows around him. If one looked closer, they would see a deep, dark purple lightning dancing within the smoke.

Everything that the smoke touched, turned to dust. Even Mythical Beasts would die instantly upon coming into contact. This was the most destructive power that Grayson had. With this power, even Heavenly Beasts and Heavenly Hosts would need to be warry of him. Unbeknownst to Grayson, he had already began to slightly merge his intent with this power. This was an aspect of the Legendary Realm.

Grayson had once maded a stop in the sect’s library and read numerous books on paths, exousia, and a few on intent. He was quite knowledgable and applied this knowledge into his training.

The fiery dark cloud danced around Grayson like a snake. He was gaining more control of the power, and each kill gave him new understanding. Battles were the best way to discover more about one’s path. The more one uses their power in battle, the more insights they can get about themselves.

"How are we in my realm right now?" Grayson asked withdrawing the fiery cloud.

"A few of us have the ability to access other realms and introduce our philosophies into them. We do this for the realms to be able to function. Certain concepts are necessary in all the realms. Without this inborn ability, a concept can never introduce their philosophy into a realm that’s not their own." Lilith began to say. "Your realm was particularly most tempting to Greed not just because of it’s infinite space, but also because it is the only one that didn’t collapse upon a concept entering it.

I confirmed this to Greed when I entered your realm. Despite my fear, I still had a deep desire to attempt a beginning within your realm and Greed’s interest in you had been making me worry.

So, I thought, ’If there’s one thing, I cannot do wrong, it is follow exousia’s will. Perhaps this would put a stop to whatever Greed is scheming.’

Thus, I came back to your realm, once again. 2 concepts were capable of being within the same realm and there were no signs of collapsing. This meant any concept could introduce their philosophy within your realm and even become the dominant concept. With how weak you were, Greed could have done that with ease. Unfortunately for him, there was still the problem with your concept, being what it was.

Your concept put an end to any beginnings in your realm. That was probably why Greed hadn’t immediately acted now that I think about it.

When I first arrived, you said nothing to me. You did not welcome me, nor did you ask me to leave. For years you just watched me try again and again to introduce my philosophy into your world. No matter what I tried, everything almost immediately died.

One day, however, you seemed to be acting differently. As usual, I would come every day into your realm and attempt a beginning. Unexpectedly, this time you approached me and asked if we could try it together.

I was confused at first but was also out of options. Inevitably, I wasn’t against it. A few days into it and I realized my creations took longer to die out. The more we worked together, the closer we came to a certain equilibrium. You controlled the Byron matter within the dark clouds of your realm and were able to minimize the effects of your philosophy. Finding a way for a beginning and an end to coexist in the same realm.

Unfortunately, we eventually, realized there was something missing. There was no logic behind how much time it took for my beginnings to end. Some lasted only a few hours, some ended instantly, and others would even last for days. There was no system.

That’s where Nomos (Theós), came in. As the Concept of Laws, he could assign an equilibrium for each individual lifeform. Grass, trees, animals, and man. We quickly brought life to the dead planet and thus, Evnoia was born.

Evnoia grew, and flourished quickly, despite its people having limited lifespans. The people were hard working and had a closer relationship with exousia. They could communicate and draw power directly from it. Gigantism was no longer a problem for them either. They truly seemed favoured. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

This was because people could now die. This allowed them to live by the nature of exousia. They came from exousia, and they returned back to exousia." Lilith said.

"What is exousia’s nature?" Grayson asked.

"You know it when you see it. You once saw it in Elaine." Lilith answered. "Other concepts saw this and wanted it for their realms as well. This new concept brought people closer to exousia and cured gigantism.

Of course, not all the concepts wanted this for their realms. Some of them preferred their realms to not have this new philosophy, in fear of overshadowing their own or losing the progress that they had been making. What they didn’t realize, is the fact that you could introduce your philosophy into different realms just means that that was how the realms were meant to function.

Nothing was meant to last forever, that was why gigantism was such a problem. Nonetheless, there were still many concepts unwilling to accept the philosophy.

One such concept who was adamant about accepting the new philosophy, was Greed. Greed only wanted to gain more; he was not willing to lose any of his people. Time passed and your philosophy was eventually adapted within three-fourths of the realms." Lilith added.

"Most of this is still all just a blur," Grayson said.

"Do you really not remember anything? Do you not know your philosophy?" Lilith asked.

"I am the Concept of Endings, and I have been quite stubborn." Grayson admitted.