The Beginning Of A Five Year Agony-Chapter 42: A fool..I once cared for

Solmira stood up from the dining table. The soft, continuous murmur of the grand chamber deepened slightly around them, a subtle shift in the atmosphere. "Walk with me, Samuel," she uttered... her voice carrying a different tone quality, a majesty and a quiet invitation. It was a tone that suggested deep longevity...

Samuel rose from his chair, a slight stiffness still in his muscles despite the heartfelt rest...

He followed her out of the grand dining chamber and into a wide and open corridor...

The walls here also shimmered with slowly... shifting colors, and the light around was soft and diffused, making the space feel vast yet extremely peaceful.

Ahead, the corridor opened into what looked like an immense and accurately cultivated living garden...It was contained entirely within the structure itself, stretching far in every direction under a high and clear ceiling that seemed to merge seamlessly with the Clouds beyond human view... Plants of incredible colors grew in intricate and natural patterns all around... some glowing brightly with their own internal light...collectively creating a calm and quiet atmosphere. The wind was perfectly still and clean, carrying a sweet fragrance, distinctly different from the smoke, ash and dust Samuel had breathed for so long...

They walked slowly, side by side, their footsteps in synchronization on the smooth luminous tiled floors. Solmira’s movements were fluid and graceful with almost ethereal Elegance... Samuel, despite his recent period of deep rest, felt the subtle ache of his muscles, a constant, grounding reminder of his mortal body.

But His mind, though, was fully engaged, processing the implications of his current limitations and the words that had just been exchanged.... He thought about what she had just said about Arithmos, about him being a "fool" she once cared for...The memory of The blue-crest kingdom destruction... luminaire the goddess, and his journey to the demon realm weighted on his chest with a sense of pressure...

"You mentioned Arithmos," Samuel began, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between the both of them. His voice was quiet, almost hesitant, not wanting to disturb the peace, yet compelled by a deeper need and urge for answers.

"You said he was a fool you once cared for. What... what happened between you and him?

"Nothing." She uttered looking forward...

Samuel looked at her for a while...but then he remembered something that had always been on his mind... Something Veora told him while she pushed him into the portal... During his escape...(Back in Chapter 1)

"What is The Great War of Existence?"

He wanted to understand the history and foundation, the true context of the power that now flowed through his own veins, the origin of the god whose essence now resided within him. He needed to know the full story of everything thing...

Solmira stopped walking... They stood near a cluster of tall and light blue plants that emitted a soft and pulsing glitter, casting gently, moving shadows around them...

She turned and faced him fully, her eyes, the color of a new fresh strawberry...Crimson red, holding a deep and deniable sadness that seemed to stretch back through countless ages. Her gaze was distant as if she were looking into the past, reliving her memories...

"The...Great War of Existence,’ as it is called," Solmira began, her voice low and almost a murmur, but yet each word was distinct and carried immense weight for Samuel... "It wasn’t a war like humans understand. Not just armies clashing their blades on a battlefield, not just soldiers fighting for territory. It was a conflict that spanned through realms, across countless realities and dimensions. It was about fundamental ideas, about the very nature of creation and control, about who truly governed the rules of existence itself...."

She looked out at the vast and vibrant garden, her gaze was still distant as if she was seeing the events unfold in real time.

"Before that war, the divine realms were vastly different from what they are now. There was no single and unified authority, no universally accepted hierarchy. Many more gods existed, each immensely powerful in their own right, each with their own unique realms...It was a time of immersive and untamed creations, bursting with new forms of life and new realities, but also a time of agitating frictions, of clashing ideologies."

Solmira sighed softly... "Some gods believed that existence should be structured, ordered, and controlled with absolute precision. They desired a grand, perfect design for all realities, where everything had its place and followed immutable laws. They sought ultimate control, believing it would lead to ultimate stability and harmony. Others, however, believed in boundless freedom, in the power of chaos to generate new forms, in unchecked growth, and in the constant, unpredictable evolution of all things. They championed wildness, the right of existence to unfold without control. They saw strict order as stagnation, a form of slavery or death..."

Her gaze shifted back towards Samuel..."Arithmos... he was one of the latter. The God of War, yes, but not merely war in the human sense of physical combat and strategic battles... He embodied conflict itself, the brutal process of transformation through destruction, and the constant, necessary, and often brutal change of evolution... He believed that only through constant struggles, through the breaking down of old forms, could true strength emerge. He was powerful, immensely so, almost unparalleled in his raw might. And direct. Always direct in his methods, never subtle. He cut straight to the core of things, believing in force as the ultimate arbiter...."

She paused, allowing her words to hang in the air, allowing Samuel to process the implications. "The war, the Great War of Existence, began because the gods who believed in absolute order, in total and unwavering control, felt fundamentally threatened by the unbridled and unpredictable expansion of those like Arithmos. They perceived his philosophy as a chaotic force that would unravel their careful plans. They wanted to impose their will on all of existence, to create a perfect, unchanging hierarchy, a grand, universal system that they alone would govern. They saw realms like yours, young worlds populated by sentient beings, not as unique, evolving entities, but simply as resources. As new territory to bring under their absolute rules and laws..."

Samuel remained perfectly still, listening intently to her every word. The sheer, overwhelming scale of what she was describing made his own recent battles, even the annihilation of the blue-crest kingdom...feel small, almost insignificant in the grand cosmological scheme. The thought was humbling and terrifying to imagine...

"Arithmos absolutely refused their dominion," Solmira continued, her voice gaining a quiet, focused intensity as the conversation went on... "He saw their desire for absolute control as a cage, a limitation on true existence. He rallied others who valued freedom above all else, who believed in the inherent right of worlds to develop on their own terms, to forge their own destinies without divine interference... He became a fierce champion of self-determination, though his methods were always... inherently violent. He sought to tear down the established order, to shatter the very foundations of their control. To him, anything that limited potential, that stifled growth, that imposed a static form on existence, was an enemy to be eliminated with extreme prejudice..."

"He sounds... a lot like you," She stated with a soft tone,

Samuel swallowed...noting the chilling feeling...The words felt strange coming from her...mouth

A faint and sad smile touched Solmira’s lips. Her eyes held a mixture of understanding and profound regret. "He was... She stopped..."That is why your eyes are green, Samuel. He chose you. He saw that same fire, that same unwavering conviction to fight for what you believe in, to tear down what you perceive as unjust... He saw the potential for a great, destructive force in you. You embodied that force yourself, a primal drive to break and reform anything in the way..."

She paused, her gaze turning distant again, lost in memories that stretch across eons of years. "The war lasted for ages. Not mere centuries, but eons. Entire realms were consumed, erased from existence. Gods fought gods, and forces clashed that possessed the power to shatter stars and unravel the very fabric of reality and dimensions. It was a time of unimaginable power, unleashed on a cosmic scale, and, consequently, a time of unimaginable destruction. Arithmos, with his unmatched strategic brilliance and his relentless and overwhelming power, was at the forefront of every major conflict, every decisive battle. He was unyielding. He never hesitated. He always pushed forward, relentlessly, no matter the cost...."

"And you?" Samuel asked softly, compelled by her very words. "Where were you in all of this? And Which side did you choose?"

Solmira’s closed her eyes for a moment, a brief, fleeting expression of pain crossing her face. Her features seemed to tighten, almost visibly... "I was on his side," she stated, her tone lower, almost a whisper, yet utterly audible. "I believed in him. I believed in the freedom he fought for. I believe that existence should be vibrant, diverse, unpredictable, constantly changing and evolving. I fought by his side. We... we were close. Our domains, color and war, seemed so fundamentally opposed in concept, but they complemented each other in the chaos of that era. He provided the necessary destruction, the tearing down of old forms, and I represented the new beauty that could rise from that very destruction, the vibrant life that could emerge from the ashes."

Her eyes opened again, fixed on a point far beyond Samuel’s stance, as if she were seeing a ghost of the past.... playing out before her view...

"Enough... With the history lessons...,Now what do you want to know about the..."outer Dark..."

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶