Chapter 625: Fundamental Permissions - Transcending Perfection

The Prime Expanse had often been described as a place where beings were not just cultivators, but Ideas and with those above that becoming the pure essence of their own paths.

This was a level even the Mother and Father existed on, though they were the rawest essence of the entire cosmology in which all other beings lived.

Yet, beyond the Prime Expanse, there wasn’t truly another realm brimming with life.

No—only three beings had ever set foot in what was known as the Primordial Expanse, a place that was to the Prime Expanse what the heavens are to the mortal world.

Even these three—the Mother, Father, and Minx—had never encountered what was called the Fundamental Permissions.

And while their name carried an air of mystery, in truth, they were surprisingly simple.

The fundamental permissions were the most basic, foundational allowances that governed what could and could not exist, act, or be expressed across all of the... First Absence.

By default, they encompassed both existence and nonexistence.

These were the unseen rules that determined whether something was allowed to occur at the deepest levels of... everything— rules that even the Mother and Father were bound by, whether they realized it or not.

No entity across the eighteen thresholds, not even the most ancient and powerful essence within the Prime Expanse, had ever touched or sensed these threads.

They existed far beyond grasp of ordinary Meta beings.

Ash’s lips curved into a slow, intrigued smile as he continued staring into the distance.

"...Not going to lie," he murmured, "I didn’t expect the First Absence to be much more than that."

Now that he was fully omniscient, Ash could clearly see that the First Absence wasn’t just a neutral bubble or the holding place of the Treasury.

In fact, it wasn’t a bubble at all—it was a portal, leading to even more of the Principles and other wonders like the Treasury of Existence.

Elysia, who had been quietly watching him, tilted her head slightly.

"So... there was an entire civilization before the Mother and Father?" she asked.

Now that she thought about it, the Origin’s essence came directly from the Mother and Father, while the Isness essence was a natural evolution of the Origin’s essence.

’Does this mean this place runs on Isness rather than Origin?’ she wondered.

It wasn’t a random question.

They remembered witnessing the exact moment Minx came into being—seem from nothing, though clearly that wasn’t the truth.

Ash didn’t answer immediately and he really didn’t have too. As Elysia, they were obviously having the same thoughts, she was his mind after all.

His gaze remained fixed on the portal.

Beyond the thin veil of the First Absence, he could now perceive a vast, incomprehensible space. At the forefront stood a simple, elegant desk — the kind one might find in an old study.

Resting on its surface was a small, metallic nameplate that clearly read:

NovelGeek2

But what truly caught Ash’s attention was what lay behind the desk.

Faintly, as though viewed through a heavy mist, he could see massive, towering structures that defied conventional geometry.

Enormous beings moved between them — not in the way gods or Ideas moved, but in a manner that felt fundamentally different.

Their forms were fluid, shifting between states of existence that Ash couldn’t fully categorize.

Some appeared as vast silhouettes of pure rules, while others seemed to exist as living architecture themselves.

Ash opened his eyes, the reddish-purple glow within them sharper than before.

"I guess this is the true final stage," he muttered. "And it seems like our old friend is waiting for me to step in there."

Nia, still resting against his side, looked along with interest.

"What is this?"

Ash didn’t reply right away, his eyes distant as if still fixed on the endless colorful threads, the desk, and the shapes beyond it.

For the first time in ages, a flicker of genuine excitement stirred within him. Finally, he spoke.

"Beyond the First Absence... there’s more," he said.

"It’s not just empty space or some neutral zone like we believed. If I’m right... the Author is there, waiting for me at this desk, and behind it..."

He paused, his smile growing a touch.

"There are massive structures, and beings moving among them. Beings unlike anything we’ve seen before — not Ideas, not even Meta beings. Something completely new."

Ash went on, a trace of anticipation in his tone.

"The First Absence isn’t just some bubble. It’s a threshold—a gateway. And beyond it lies something far greater than anything we’ve faced so far... or so they say."

He fell silent for a moment, letting the weight of that revelation settle.

Nia, still nestled comfortably against Ash’s side, glanced up at him with a curious glint in her dark eyes.

"Well, if that Minx was technically born before the Mother and Father," she mused,

"it’s not so far-fetched to think she might have come from somewhere else."

Elysia’s face took on a thoughtful look, her gaze drifting as if lost in consideration.

"Well, it looks like there are still a few things to clear out before it’s only us," she said quietly.

Nia let out a soft hum, her demeanor showing curiosity rather than worry.

"That just makes it sound even more exciting~" she responded with a playful lilt.

Then, before he could get lost in further contemplation, Ash focus sharpened.

Without another word, he reached out.

His consciousness extended toward one of the countless colorful threads tunneling into the First Absence — the Fundamental Permission of Possibility.

This was something that existed on a level above Origin, above Quantum, and above the very notion of what could or could not be.

And much like Elysia had guessed, it all stemmed from not Mana or Origin’s essence, but the rawest form of Isness.

It was the permission that decided whether something was allowed to exist as a possibility in the first place.

Ash’s hand moved through the air as if grasping something invisible.

And then, he took hold of it.