The dragon's harem

Chapter 2128: The Light Born of Darkness

In the before time, in the dark and endless void of nothingness, outside the confines of reality in which the mortals and gods alike are used to living, an endlessly titanic existence swam, going everywhere yet nowhere, having existed in the every and never.

At that time, words didn’t exist yet; even the concept of concepts themselves hadn’t been born yet. That titanic dark existence was nothing more than a fluctuation, a nothing that had started to become something, and it was bored. It thought, what if I paused for a second, and then unpaused? The ’Then’ was the important part, not the act of pausing. It had created the concept of time, things happening in a clear order.

Yog was then born, a voice in the vast mind of the void, and at the time, it didn’t look like a cute little halfling but was more like an endless mass of black tentacles of pure darkness, bubbling like tar.

The void wanted to create more, to break the boring mold, and Yog nodded, agreeing that they could make something to fill the nothing. But how could the void do that?

The void always sought a lower state of entropy, meaning that its energy kept rising without an end in sight. That increase directly correlated to how excited it got; the more it wanted to create something, the more energy it got. And it always wanted to give that energy out.

That is why the universe he created ultimately carried his will even though it lacked his power. That is why everything in the universe keeps giving its energy away and reaching lower states of energy.

It, the void, would later be called AO and nicknamed many names. The Ambiguous Overgod, Absolute Omnipotence, Adam’s Origin, The Abstract Old, and in several ancient writings, the A, was a pyramid that had its peak marked, and the O was an infinity symbol, clearly labelling AO as the Infinity above all else.

When AO wanted to create the universe, he first conjured an endlessly dense orb of matter that was no bigger than an apple through those fluctuations, and then exploded it to form the primordial soup that everything was later born from. He had created countless powerful beings at that time, creatures like Yog, Myno, and the other primordial concepts, and their power was already off the charts, almost matching AO, so they could work for him efficiently.

But when the dense matter collapsed into the first star, AO noticed that he had made a horrible mistake. He had started a chain that he didn’t intend, and it was far too late when voices of those stars rang back in his head.

She was the first and last creature he made by mistake, the only one he didn’t intentionally limit or give clear properties like destruction and creation. She had been born from what he created and matched that power rapidly. The universe recognized her as a part of it, and her power only grew over time.

She is no mortal, no divine, and no primordial. What Arad saw now inside her chest was the same thing that AO saw back then when she first appeared. An integral part of the universe itself, and one that cannot die or be replaced.

Her name wasn’t Amaterasu; that was just a label that mortals once gave her, and they had even given names to gods who were born of her radiant essence. In the ancient past, when she was first born, Yog and the primordial called her the Light Born Of Darkness.

AO’s brain is with Yog, and his heart, the core, is inside his mother’s chest. The only part Arad has is his soul, and that only left the universe, what remained of his great body. Now, that was the scary part: the universe would’ve crumbled ages ago if not for what he is seeing now.

Amaterasu’s soul wasn’t linked to a divine portfolio, since she isn’t divine; she is a Nymph of the stars. But what her soul was linked to was the universe itself, and everything in it. Literally everything, the worlds, mortals, and even the gods, everything was bound to the universe, and the universe itself was bound to her.

Without the star, life wouldn’t even form; none of the gods could even exist without their believers, and the universe would’ve crumbled to pieces ages ago. The source of all entropy, of all power, the energy source that kept the universe alive even after AO was gone, was Amaterasu herself. The spark of power he made by mistake still burns to this day.

Then Arad realised the second problem. Without him giving the universe energy, entropy would eventually cause everything to die out and rest with nearly zero energy, returning to being a lightless void as AO was. The Universe itself is nothing but AO’s void with too much energy, and that left one question. Wouldn’t the universe die quickly when its source of energy, AO, is gone?

The answer was a clear Yes; the Universe should’ve turned back into a void eons ago. The only thing that kept it alive was Amaterasu, who used her own soul and energy to stand in her father’s shoes and fuel the Universe. Today, Amaterasu is thousands of times weaker than she was at the dawn of time, having lost all of that power to keep the world going.

”What is this soul? You’re not linked to any portfolio.” Arad growled, and Amaterasu covered herself. ”Of course, like my creator and father AO, I’m above such things.” She smiled, leaning back on her cloud as she threw a smug grin toward Eris and Isdis. If the gods could be called AO’s immune cells, Amaterasu is a whole organ, beating with more life and energy than anyone could ever fathom.

Eris and Isdis took a second to relax after what they saw, and the two felt extremely lucky that they were already gods. They have shat themselves from the horror and magnitude of what they saw, but as gods, nothing came out the other end besides pure holy water. It would’ve been extremely embarrassing for them to do that in front of Arad.

The more they learned about Amaterasu, the more they realized that she wasn’t just the empress of the Universe but a crucial part that cannot be replaced. She wasn’t just powerful; she was the power everyone needed to survive, and without her, nothing would ever exist.

That explains a lot of things, like why the gods never banded together to defeat her or why no one dares question her. She is the only thing keeping them alive after AO’s disappearance.

Amaterasu relaxed and leaned on her arm as she now looked at Arad’s face directly. ”If Eris manages to compress a small Gravastar, then I’ll give her enough energy to force twelve stars. Then I would want you to suck the orcs’ worlds into your stomach, where they’ll exist from there.”

”What about the Orc God?” Arad opened his palm and pulled an orb of pure light. ”You gave me this...”

”Keep it. It’ll find its master on its own.” Amaterasu stretched her arms, then turned toward Eris and Isdis. ”And, for you two, I would like for you to spend a lot of time together. One of you is pure heat, and the other is cold; you can refine each other faster than if you trained separately.”

Then combed her fingers. ”When a divine of control meets a divine of murder, the result is horrifying. Now, add peace and a whole star into the mix; Now, you’ve got the perfect match that would make anyone you face cry.”