Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 81: God Paths

Uriel’s eyes snapped wide open, and he found himself in his room, still burning.

The notifications came flooding in.

[Your Path has shattered!]

[Your Class has shattered!]

[Your Frames have shattered!]

[Your True Core has shattered!]

[Your Spark has shattered!]

Each notification was more devastating than the last, and the pain he’d been able to ignore while facing the red eye seemed to erupt all at once.

His body began to collapse and break down into sludge of flesh and bone as his mind melted into an incomprehensible fresco of madness.

But the little bit of consciousness he had left wasn’t worried in the least.

He remembered everything perfectly.

[Your Path is evolving!]

Uriel didn’t have eyes anymore, but still closed them, letting himself finally settle.

’It’s finally over.’

Calm and quiet.

His first bodily transformation from his path had been swift, but this was even more so, silent and calm, in a way that soothed his mind.

The pain he’d been feeling dulled, muted, until it disappeared entirely.

His body continued to melt, turning not into flesh, but into a fog of light and darkness, through which emerald and bronze vines danced amid fluttering masses of golden sand.

His body entirely dissolved, and he was left as a cloud of pure elements.

The mass of elements gathered, condensing into one whole; an ivory-and-onyx marble core stood in their place, lined with emerald and gold runic etchings.

The core suddenly caught fire, a white flame consuming it, not to harm it, but rather to complete it.

The room was empty, free of any burn marks or signs of gruesome transformation, the core silently floating in the air.

[Your Sparks have mended!]

[Your Sparks have healed!]

In the depths of the core, three scintillating points of light flashed briefly before submerging into its depths; their appearance alone seemed to stabilize and complete the core.

Silence ensued.

While silence still reigned, slithering tendrils of darkness and light collapsed, transmuting into flesh and bone to form the body of a ridiculously handsome young man.

A tall and slender frame floated in the air, lean, with faint muscles hugged by pure jade-white skin, radiant ivory that seemed more like marble glass than flesh.

From his head, long hair fell like a sea of silver-white fire, stopping at his shoulders. On his back, the serpent tattoo reappeared, as did the broken circle scar in the middle of his chest.

Around Uriel’s feet, gold and emerald markings snaked upward to form radiant tattoos that stopped at his knees, as if they’d been dipped into vats of gold and liquid emerald.

His brows and eyelashes had become entirely white, fitting his sharp, angular face, handsome, yet soft enough to make him look androgynous.

He floated in the air for minutes, and slowly, his heart began to beat once more, powerful yet slow. His core, too, regained life, his mage circles reforming around it as his natal aether cycled once more.

After a while, he floated down, opening his eyes, their ivory radiance blinding, faint rings of dark gold seated deep within.

[God Path Options available!]

He woke up, his mind perfectly clear. Even so, he basked in the silence for a moment.

"Choose your path, then go to sleep. Your transformation isn’t over yet." Ophanis’ voice echoed in his mind, and he felt the mark on his back stir.

Uriel nodded slowly. He could feel a languid tiredness seep into his mind. He wasn’t necessarily exhausted, but he wanted to close his eyes, to wrap himself in a warm bundle, to let himself—

’Wake up,’ he told himself.

More notifications unwound in front of him.

[The Crucible must be formed. From a grain to a seed, it shall grow, and the heartless must be burned, their ashes condensed to reignite the long-forgotten strings of the Heart.]

[You have achieved a miraculous feat, staring at the highest of truths and falsehoods, and in despair, you found your heart rather than sinking into the path of severance.]

[Those of severance open up to the world. Those of the heart open up to life and death.]

[You have chosen the Heart and forsaken the Heartless, and thus, your God Path has opened.]

[In your heart, the seed lay, and from the obscure and radiant, it shall bloom.]

Uriel read it all calmly.

’If I had decided to stop being myself, I’d have gotten another description? Did that mean I would’ve survived the encounter with the eye anyway?’

It didn’t make much sense to him, which didn’t say much, considering nothing had made sense for a long time already.

But what he did know was that his pack had been altered by Thoryl so the false talent he’d been given would trap him in that white space forever.

Ophanis had saved him and had brought about endless benefits. He could even feel his spark. and it was... special.

’But the price,’ he lost himself for a bit. ’I inherited the sin of... the sin of... I forgot.’

He sighed bitterly.

[Choose a God Path!]

<Obscure Radiance Seed Path.>

<Forgotten Twilight Heart Path.>

<Lost Fallen Eclipse Path.>

<Heartless Radiance Path.>

<Soulborne Madness Path.>

Uriel read all the paths, but he didn’t immediately choose.

"I don’t suppose you can help me choose?" he asked Ophanis.

"The question is flawed. There is no need for help, because there isn’t a better or worse path. They’re all equivalent." She answered, before falling silent.

Uriel nodded to himself, then fell silent as well, thinking.

He tried using his spark, attempting to see if resonating with it could help him find the right answer, but his heart skipped a beat when he realized that his spark wasn’t the same, not nearly.

He’d known changes had occurred to it, namely that it wasn’t shattered anymore thanks to Ophanis, but right now he—

’I have three sparks?!’

And they were dormant, just like before Enoch had helped him awaken them. He’d have to undergo yet another awakening process to gain access to them.

They couldn’t help him choose.