Chapter 170: The Archive of Eternity

Ting! Humanity has discovered Mana! The Age of Mana has begun!

What's this? I can't help but wonder how and why I got this message.

Nothing answers my question, so I keep watching. The realms change rapidly, and soon a new chime rings in my mind quickly, followed by several more.

Ting! Behemoth, The King Kaiju has been spawned!Ting! Leviathan, the Water Kaiju, has been spawned!Ting! Gryphon, The Wind Kaiju, has been spawned!Ting! Phoenix, The Fire Kaiju, has been spawned!Ting! Treant, The Earth Kaiju, has been spawned!

Ting! Titania, The Beauty Fairy, has been spawned!Ting! Una, The Charm Fairy, has been spawned!Ting! Gloriana, The Grace Fairy, has been spawned!Ting! Mab, The Elegant Fairy, has been spawned!Ting! Tanaquill, The Allure Fairy, has been spawned!

Ting! Crius, The Asgard Titan, has been spawned!Ting! Thea, The Olympic Titan, has been spawned!Ting! Helios, The Ayodhyan Titan, has been spawned!Ting! Hyperion, The Heavenly Titan, has been spawnedTing! Eos, The Takamagaharan Titan, has been spawned

Ting! Fafnir, The Cosmic Dragon, has been spawned!Ting! Bahamut, The Celestial Dragon, has been spawned!Ting! Kuzuyru, The Nine-Headed Dragon, has been spawned!Ting! Tiamat, The Chaos Dragon, has been spawned!Ting! Nidhogg, The Ruin Dragon, has been spawned!

Ting! Mark, the Human, has become the first mage!

Ting! You have become an Archive of Eternity!

An Archive of Eternity? There is a lot to unpack here. So a bunch of monsters or whatever has spawned, and now I am an archive of some sort?

Nothing answers my questions, but more and more notifications flood into my mind. Notifications of great deeds and terrible destruction. This continues for what seems like ages, with a few notable messages standing out to me.

Ting! Nidhogg, the Ruin Dragon, has destroyed a world!…Ting! Destroyer of Worlds, Nidhogg, the Ruin Dragon, has destroyed a world!Ting! The First Mage, Mark, has reached the rank of World Mage!Ting! Destroyer of Worlds, Nidhogg, the Ruin Dragon, has slain The First Monster, Behemoth, the King Kaiju!Ting! Dragon Slayer, Crius, The Asgard Titan has slain the Destroyer of Worlds, Nidhogg, the Ruin Dragon!

Each message has its own story to tell, each representing decades of time. More and more messages flood my mind, each being burned into my soul.

It seems I have my answer of what Archives of Eternity are, a record of these messages. However, that begs the question: Am I doomed to be adrift here forever? There's no point in worrying about it; I can't change anything.

The messages keep chiming in my mind for what seems like forever.

Ting! Fafnir, The Cosmic Dragon, has mastered inter-realm travel!Ting! Sona, the Human, has slain a Dragon!Ting! Sona, the Human, has reached the rank of World Mage!Ting! Leviathan, The Water Kaiju, has slain Helios, The Ayodhyan Titan!Ting! Ca'thal, the L'mnun, has reached the rank of World Mage!

Realms fade into nothingness as more appear; I continue to drift further and further away, looking at the multiverse from afar, yet now I don't seem to be going any further. Just what is this place, anyway?

It's almost as if the multiverse is infinite in size, yet somehow I managed to cross the entire thing and pass into an infinite edge of nothingness.

Ting! Charlie, the Human, has become the First Cultivator! Ting! The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human, has Reached the 7th stage of Cultivation!Ting! The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human, has slain a Kaiju!Ting! The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human, has saved a city from a Kaiju!Ting! Lilly, the Elf, has Reached the 7th stage of Cultivation!Ting! The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human, has Reached the 8th stage of Cultivation!Ting! The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human, has saved a world from Tiamat!Ting! Champion of Magic, Tiamat, the Chaos Dragon, has slain The First Cultivator, Charlie, the Human!

Time is weird here; it's as if all time is passing in an instant, yet no time is passing at all. I can't tell how long it has been, but it's been around six hundred thousand generations of realms since I died and around four hundred thousand generations since the messages started.

Ting! Iris, the Elf, has reached the 7th stage of cultivation!Ting! Forest Queen, Lilly, the Elf, has slain a Titan!Ting! Forest Queen, Lilly, the Elf, has Reached the 8th stage of Cultivation!Ting! Tyrant, Kuzuyru, The Nine-Headed Dragon, has slain Forest Queen, Lilly, the Elf!

As time goes on, the number of notifications of world mages dwindles, and the notifications of cultivators raise until finally, a series of announcements put the Age of Mana to an end.

Ting! Forest keeper, Iris, the Elf, has reached the 8th stage of Cultivation!Ting! Forest keeper, Iris, the Elf, has defended a world from Tyrant, Kuzuyru, The Nine-Headed Dragon.Ting! Forest keeper, Iris, the Elf, has reached the 9th stage of Cultivation!Ting! Forest keeper, Iris, the Elf, has slain Tyrant, Kuzuyru, the Nine-Headed Dragon.

Ting! The Age of Mana has come to an end, and the Age of Cultivation has begun!

The message of an elf slaying a monster so great is creation justified a message must have come as a shock to the rest. A feat only achieved by other great monsters now held by another race stirs p a torrent of activity from the great monsters.

Ting! The World Traveler, Fenrir, the Cosmic Dragon, has torn a hole in reality!Ting! Yggdrasil, Treant, the Earth Kaiju has created Migard!Ting! The Fairies of have created Faewild!Ting! The Titans have created Pantheon!Ting! Champion of Magic, Tiamat, the Chaos Dragon has slain Forest keeper, Iris, the Elf!

It seems that most have decided to leave, sensing that they are no longer the kings of the realms. Where they went, I don't know; no star was born along with those messages. However, not all of the great monsters left peacefully. A torrent of messages of worlds being destroyed and champions that resisted them being slain flood my mind until they realized that it was futile to simply rampage.

Enough time must have passed that they probably thought Iris was just a fluke and no others will challenge their place as the strongest in all the realms. They were right; no one else was able to reach the same power as Iris and the great monsters until the end of the age, many hundreds of thousands of generations of realms later.

Ting! The Enlightened One, Runor, the Dwarf, has Reached the 9th Stage of Cultivation!Ting! The Enlightened One, Runor, the Dwarf, has formed a mana core!

With Runor's deed of forming a mana core, a wave of change ripples outward from one of the stars, a slow change that envelops all of reality before sweeping past me far in the outer reaches of the void.

Ting! The Age of Cultivation has come to an end, and the Second Age of Mana has begun!

The Second Age of Mana is by far the longest one, lasting well past a million generations of realms; it is also by far the most peaceful one. The great monsters either hid away in sub realities of their own or probably fell asleep, endless destruction no longer able to motivate or entertain them. However, this age ended with the herald of new great monsters to challenge the old.

Ting! Terra, the Earth Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Aqua, the Water Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Pyro, the Fire Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Zephyr, the Wind Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Glacier, the Ice Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Electra, the Lightning Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Lux, the Light Elemental, has been Spawned!Ting! Umbra, the Dark Elemental, has been Spawned!

Ting! The Second Age of Mana has come to an end, and the Age of the Elements has begun!

Almost like wandering natural disasters, messages of endless destruction followed the spawning of the elementals. Words froze solid, civilizations buried under mountains, shredded by wind, and the old great ones finally awoke to battle against the new threat.

Ting! Champion of Magic, Tiamat, the Chaos Dragon, has slain Glacier, the Ice Elemental!Ting! Champion of Magic, Tiamat, the Chaos Dragon, has slain Aqua, the Water Elemental!Ting! Pyro, the Fire Elemental, has slain Champion of Magic, Tiamat, the Chaos Dragon!Ting! The Eternal Serpent, Leviathan, the Water Kaiju, has slain Terra, the Earth Elemental.Ting! Lux, the Light Elemental, has slain Lifeflame, Phoenix, the Fire Kaiju!Ting! Thea, the Olympic Titan, has slain Electra, the Lightning Elemental!

No further great monsters died after that, and their activity died down a lot, but I still get messages of the destruction or other actions they do. Time passes on, and even the Elementals settle down, slumbering until the ends of their realms before moving to a new and younger realm.

It seems as if this age lasts forever. The stars change color each generation, changing from blue to a rainbow of colors that I can only guess are influenced by the different elemental mana in them. No new magic like cultivation or a change like the mana has been achieved or discovered, and it seems like it never will again until a foreboding message appears.

Ting! The Orcs have discovered Misama and Aether!

Just like with the discovery of mana and mana cores, this brings a wave of change to the void that announces the end of the age.

Ting! The Age of Elements has come to an end, and the Age of Magic has begun!

Ting! Fate has formed!Ting! Destiny has formed!Ting! Luck has formed!Ting! Prophecy has formed!

Ting! Life has formed!Ting! Death has formed!Ting! Creation has formed!Ting! Destruction has formed!

Something is odd about these messages; unlike the great monsters, these aren't spawned? Are they even monsters, or are they concepts?

It doesn't take long for the answer to become clear with messages of powerful monsters and people being slain by them; even two of the great monsters died at the hands of these new... things.

Ting! Death has slain Lux, the Light Elemental!

Ting! Destruction has slain Stormwing, Gryphon, the Wind Kaiju!

Now that I think about it, all messages had acknowledged the race or species of monsters and people, but not for these new things, as if they aren't actually alive, just what are they?

I got no answers to my question, but new things appear; mentions of cursed beings and the destruction they wrought. Vampires, mummies, lycanthropes, wraiths, and many more.

I suspect these new 'things' are somehow related to magic, but I don't know how or why; all I can do is wait for the next message, the next piece of the puzzle. However, one thing I did not expect is the next stream of messages that sent a shiver down my soul.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!

In an instant, a star vanishes before a second is swallowed.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!

One by one, the stars disappear. Whatever those 'things' are, they are unbelievably powerful, even going so far as to destroy entire realms, and I can do nothing but watch.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!…Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!

Where once there was a thick cloud of stars, millions or even billions in number, now stands an ever-thinning cluster of realms, each chime of the messages signaling the doom of an entire universe.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Avatar of the Sun, Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain The Endless Serpent, Leviathan, The Water Kaiju!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Pyro, the Fire Elemental!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Zephyr, the Wind ElementalTing! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Life!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Creation!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Destruction!Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has slain Seraphim, Hyperion, the Heavenly Titan!

Soon the number of stars in the void numbers less than a hundred, then less than ten, then finally, the last realm stands out like a tiny grain of sand in the sea of darkness, for it too vanishes with the last two chimes.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!

Ting! The Age of Magic has come to an end!

I wait for the Reality Eater to come for me; perhaps this was how it all had to end, with everything winking out quietly in the eternal night of the void. I wait and wait, forever. An eternity passes, then another, and another...

Without the generation of realms fading away and new ones appearing, it is impossible to tell the passage of time; I just wait for my turn to finally vanish. Yet that never came; I just stay here, floating in the void until I see a single bright light!

It shines like a tiny candle illuminating the void, and with its appearance, a welcome chime rings in my mind.

Ting! The Age of Rebirth has begun!

One by one, stars appear until shining jewels fill the void once again! Messages begin to flow in as new and old races accomplish great acts, Goblins, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and more. No great monsters spawn, no more of those weird 'things', nothing so powerful, so unreachable, that only one person in all the ages can match. Perhaps the Reality Eater was necessary to cleanse the realms.

Time marches on. Ages pass. The Third age of Mana, the Age of Souls, the Age of Vitality, each age lasting well into the millions of generations of realms. However, one thing that always worries me is the mentions of cursed beings that started during the Age of Magic, but the Second Age of Magic never came; instead, a dreaded message reappears.

Ting! The cursed being, Reality Eater, has devoured a realm!

One by one, like a countdown, the stars once again begin to vanish until the silence and darkness fill the void once again, leaving me with two questions: Is it the same Reality Eater or a new one? And, will this happen again?

There's nothing I can do but wait for either the Reality Eater to come for me or for realms to reappear. However, when a new star emerges, I can't feel any joy this time, for I know that the Reality Eater will end everything again, and I am helpless to do anything about it.

Time and time again, the cycle continues, an endless cycle of destruction and rebirth after many ages. Eventually, I stopped dreading the times when the Reality Eater reawakens. Just like the cycle of realms dying and forming, this too is just another cycle, and in a way, it became another way to measure the vastness of time here, in the void. I start calling them End of Ages since no ages begin for a long time after them. Still, it might be more appropriate to call them Great Calamities since it doesn't seem to be a natural process like the creation and death of the realms.

I learn that changes such as the ones before the first End of Ages are actually really rare, only done by extraordinary individuals such as the dwarf that made the mana core. It was just a fluke that so many happened before the first End of Ages. However, they include changes such as Essences, Anima, Arcana Core, Skills, Classes, and finally, Bond, which had brought the Age of Gods.

No great monsters have spawned since the First Age of Magic, and they are all gone; perhaps that's a good thing, but it makes me think: What would have happened if the Age of Magic never happened? There's something about Miasma and Aether that must prevent such powerful monsters from forming, but that is a question I'll probably never get an answer to.

It has been fifty-two million Ends of Ages, each an eternity long in darkness, forever drifting on the edge of the void, looking upon the shining jewels of the realms from afar. There's a type of beauty in all of this, in the cycle of destruction and creation, in the lives that chimes with ambition and vibrant life. Even at the end of everything, their legacy is sealed within me, their memory cataloged in my soul, an Archive of Eternity.

Other Legacies are out there, it took me a long time to figure out, but I guess sometimes souls are knocked out of the realms only to eventually drift into another realm and be reincarnated. When my soul was knocked out from my realm, there were relatively few realms, so it was easy for my soul to become lost, and it's possible my soul is, or was, not the only one. Did that change? And am I the only Archive of Eternity left, or are there others, kindred souls stuck on the edge of the void, spending the passing eternities in solitude?

I notice a large woman far off in the distance; she is dressed in a beautiful dress sitting on the edge of the void, admiring the shining gems far off in the distance. This is the first this has happened. Is she a kindred soul? Her long hair flutter in a non-existent wind, and as my soul slowly drifts closer. I can't help but silently wish she'll notice me, but I drift ever closer until I'm just an arm's length away from her!

“So... Beautiful!”

She finally notices me and wraps her hands around me to inspect me closer.

Ting! The Goddess of Beauty and Creativity, Myrou, the Spirit, has discovered a Primordial Legacy soul.

Ting! The Goddess of Beauty and Creativity, Myrou, the Spirit, has discovered the Archive of Eternity.