Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 108: Collapse(II): Choice

Uriel thought he knew pain.

But he didn’t. He truly didn’t.

He’d never felt sadness so deep that all colour drained from his soul, rage so potent he lost all touch with reality, or bliss so consuming that his very spirit shuddered beneath it.

Until now.

"..."

His mind, shattered and broken, was mended by his storm of memories, an anchoring point to his consciousness and identity, the only thing stopping him from dissolving entirely. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Perhaps to say his mind had been mended would be an overstatement, a massive one. It would be far more accurate to say that the shards of his mind now loosely stuck to one another, barely held together by force of will alone.

If it hadn’t been for his Uniqueness stopping time, his mind would have most likely collapsed once again, scattering beyond recovery.

"Uriel!"

Uriel’s gaze shook, then slowly gained clarity, Ophanis’ voice piercing into his very soul and dragging him back from the abyss he’d drowned in.

Spiritually, he gasped for air, as if his essence itself had been suffocating.

"I AM ALIVE!" he screamed and roared within his mind, the declaration tearing through the silence.

But he couldn’t move.

His Uniqueness massively enhanced his mind, allowing the world to slow to a crawl, or in this extreme case, to stop entirely, stretching a single second into hours if he so desired.

But it didn’t grant his body the power to move at the same speed his mind operated. So unless he deployed a buffing formation, just as he had during the tide, he was essentially trapped within his own flesh.

He didn’t seem to care, though.

Time was still and frozen for as long as he had aether, so Uriel let the silence settle, taking a few previous moments to try and calm down.

But he couldn’t.

He tried to breathe in and settle himself, but he couldn’t. His mind swung violently from clarity to darkness in erratic patterns that left him dizzy, unbalanced, and confused.

He forgot where he was at moments. He even forgot who he was at moments, only for the storm of memories to crash into him again, so violent and overwhelming that he nearly blacked out every time.

Every second of clarity he experienced was agonising, as though he were perpetually a single step away from collapse, a sense of unavoidable doom washing over him again and again.

He was scared.

Scared to go mad once more. Scared for time to retake its course and for the pain to return in full. His thoughts were broken and incoherent, primitive and nonsensical, lacking structure or order.

He hallucinated.

New worlds, unfamiliar sounds, and alien sensations washed over him within the frozen frame he was trapped in, indistinguishable from reality.

Unbeknownst to him, a third hell had superimposed itself upon the other two.

And a long cycle began.

...

Silence.

Ophanis had no more hope.

She had called out so many times that she no longer had the power to do so, the little energy she had left depleted, her existence itself threatening to fall into slumber.

She called out again and again, summoning his memories in an attempt to awaken him, but he always sank back into his cycles of clarity, fear, and madness, never able to hold on for long.

She couldn’t do anything.

From the very beginning, she had known he would accept the Sin, and she had known it would most likely mean death. But she had hoped nonetheless, clinging to that fragile possibility.

In the past, she and Uriel had faced what seemed to be far greater odds and surpassed them. They had fought Gods and worlds and come out alive. They had gone through hell and heaven unblemished, emerging stronger each time.

She had desperately hoped this would be nothing more than one more challenge added to the long list of trials they had already conquered.

She had hoped.

But it was—

’I am conscious.’

Uriel formed his first thought in what felt like an eternity, and it came with such smoothness and calm that Ophanis lost her breath, relief and worry crashing into her all at once.

Uriel was calm, impossibly so, unnaturally so.

As if he hadn’t just emerged from three overlapping hells.

As if he wasn’t dying.

His mind was so clear it was unnerving, almost frightening in its precision.

And he didn’t waste time.

The moment his mind cleared, his senses immediately moved, scanning his situation with ruthless efficiency.

’My body is breaking down and my mind is collapsing. I’m dying on both the physical and spiritual planes. I have approximately ten minutes within this frozen expanse before my aether runs out.’

’My mind will most likely begin breaking down again in three minutes, and my body will become irreparable in five minutes at most.’

Though Uriel was calm and clear, beneath his Will burned an incredibly sharp and radiant intent, an all-encompassing desire to persist, to endure, and to thrive.

He didn’t know where this burning flame had come from, only that it fueled his mind and allowed him to remain conscious and razor-sharp despite everything.

He wouldn’t waste such an opportunity.

Immediately, he decided to focus on repairing whatever the Sin had done to his mind. Fixing his body before stabilising his mind would be as inefficient as it would be vain.

’...hm...’

His thoughts spun at ridiculous speeds, and he almost instantly found a path of survival.

Timeless Resonance.

He had seen his memories play out so many times that every single second of his life was etched into him. Even moments where he had been unconscious, such as during his battle with the Emperor, were perfectly clear.

He would be a fool not to understand what Timeless Resonance truly did, having witnessed it so thoroughly through his own memories.

But there was an issue.

’Timeless Resonance can help me break the limits of my mind and evolve in a manner that allows me to survive, but... the options aren’t good.’

Unlike before, he could clearly sense the fabric of his Talent, feel its inner workings, and perceive the precise changes it would force upon him.

The first path of limit-breaking evolution Timeless Resonance could induce was one where Uriel lost all emotions, to such an extent that even inherited emotions would become meaningless.

His mind would become sharp, clear, and entirely unaffected by his own emotional state or by any foreign emotions imposed upon him.

He could also tell that this path would render him immune to most mental attacks, on top of causing his mage prowess to skyrocket beyond previous limits.

’...’

The second path of limit-breaking evolution Timeless Resonance could grant him was the exact opposite.

This path would fracture his mind into countless fragments, independent yet harmonious. He would possess an endless spectrum of personalities and minds, across which the burden of emotions could be distributed.

Not only that, he would gain a hive mind of millions of himself. His mind would not merely be sharp; it would be supreme. His aether talent would reach a stratum never before seen, perhaps across the entire universe itself.

But he would be as good as dead at worst, and insane at best.

He would still be one person, but with a million shades.

He would constantly cycle from personality to personality, never truly singular again.

Uriel grimaced.

’...damn it.’

He hated both options.