MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 990: ???’s Thoughts-1

In an endless emptiness, untouched by any sign of life and inhabited only by the entity that transcended every limit of reality, a peculiar silent assembly unfolded.

Two silhouettes appeared, positioned side by side, staring into the vast, formless void as if their gazes hunted for something that ultimately revealed nothing whatsoever. The initial figure mimicked a human shape, but his core was entirely foreign. He took the form of a breathing black hole, a human-like shadow forged from flawless darkness, consuming the slightest hint of light or matter that ventured too close.

Each line of his presence emitted that same total obscurity, so thorough and relentless that it almost insulted the fabric of being. He represented pure negation, an emptiness that had opted to adopt a loose human contour.

Beside him to the right rested another entity, who might seem human upon initial inspection, if not for the intense aura of command and superiority that enveloped him like an extra layer of skin. His locks were solid gold, cascading and luminous, perched on his scalp like a timeless crown shaped from the essence of creation. His gaze glowed golden too, though lacking any trace of warmth or benevolence. Rather, it burned with a fierceness so piercing and domineering that a single flutter of his eyelids might cleave the multiverse, tearing through worlds and ideas in equal measure.

They were ??? and Romulus.

Right then, the pair lingered in total quiet, yet quiet alone failed to capture their state fully. Being at a loss for words seemed too basic for entities of their stature. Indeed, could anything in all of reality truly catch them off guard?

They had arrived prior to all others, before any hint of being, before the initial universe had even awakened. They had observed the rise and fall of worlds with the indifference of watching days turn to nights. Astonishment lay forgotten under layers of endless routine. Even Anthony had failed to startle ??? or Romulus since his rebirth.

Still, one entity had deeply stunned them. That entity was Lucian Darkheart, and the cause of their stun was the power he unleashed; LORDTEE’S Personification.

"Are you certain you were the one who granted him that ability?" Romulus had to inquire, his golden eyes tightening just a fraction.

??? stayed mute for an extended pause, as if he too grappled with processing the scene he had beheld. "If it was not me, then who else?" he responded at last, his tone steady but laced with an odd nuance. "I simply chose not to scrutinize Lucian’s and Aaaninja’s abilities closely, to preserve some thrill. Being all knowing can be quite the burden, after all."

In typical situations, such a display would not faze them. At worst, they might feel a slight entertainment from the strengths Anthony and his allies commanded. To ???, it served as mere diversion, an epic tale spun for his enjoyment. He had reborn Anthony purely from ennui and the endless void of immortality ahead.

What disturbed them presently was not the raw might on show, but its roots. They detected that the power Lucian invoked stemmed from a wholly separate domain, a sphere or origin that escaped both ??? and Romulus's grasp. Such a thing defied logic. ??? preceded all that is; should every creation crumble back to utter void, he would endure unscathed, positioned outside all rules, all orders, all imaginable scaffolds of the cosmos.

Nevertheless, to his utter disbelief, this one who loomed above every rule, above birth and being, had encountered something he could not follow, could not identify, and could not hold sway over.

’Fourth Wall Breaking: LORDTEE’S Personification,’ ??? pondered in silence while reviewing the name of the power Lucian had proclaimed when activating it. That one expression had offered ??? and Romulus a hint, the Fourth Wall.

Lucian was not the initial one to graze that so-called fourth wall. To ???, Anthony had from time to time referenced it, frequently citing a figure known as the Author who allegedly pulled strings from the shadows. On each occasion, ??? had brushed off those mutterings as drivel, steadfastly maintaining that no superior force lingered above him.

But for the first instance since before creation's start, ??? sensed uncertainty. A subtle spark, hardly noticeable but real, ignited in his boundless consciousness. Maybe he had erred. Yet at the same time, he might still hold true. Maybe no elevated realm of control waited, and the Fourth Wall Lucian boasted of breaching was just another twist of his own power, misinterpreted and wrongly named.

Then an idea struck him, one that amplified the enigma instead of clarifying it.

Aaaninja had employed the River Of Time Personification, and the River Of Time without doubt was real. Aaaninja had managed to summon and command that power from his core because he held insight into the River Of Time and upheld a profound, inherent bond with it.

Following that reasoning, shouldn’t Lucian Darkheart harbor some recognition of this LORDTEE if he had succeeded in embodying such an entity?

As if Romulus had glimpsed ???’s musings, he gestured lightly with his hand, and ages of Lucian’s existence spread out before them like a revealed scroll. His full history emerged in perfect detail, his present incarnation, his prior life prior to rebirth, even the instant of his renewal. His system too lay exposed to their sight, devoid of any veil.

Still, neither ??? nor Romulus showed any shock at these disclosures. Rebirth was commonplace; it formed a standard event across the Multiverse. The system itself held no novelty, just a tailored artifact given shape and purpose.

However, after sifting through each scrap of Lucian’s recollections from both existences, they uncovered zilch.

No sign of LORDTEE.

No murmured insight.

No overlooked meeting.

Nothing in Lucian’s mind suggested the presence of such an entity. It was like LORDTEE had wiped himself completely from Lucian’s perception, or maybe had never entered it at all.

And yet, in a twist, ??? could achieve the identical feat. If someone probed Anthony’s recollections, they would detect no hint of ??? there either. That stemmed from a natural aspect of his supremacy, an innate hiding arising from residing outside conceptual edges.

’Who is this LORDTEE?’ both ??? and Romulus inevitably wondered, their reflections aligning on that one core query.

Their thoughts shifted back to the exact instant Lucian had triggered the power, the golden ray that had poured down on him before dissolving into oblivion. They had failed to pursue its source or endpoint. The enigmatic tome that had appeared before Lucian had similarly dodged their view; they had not glimpsed its exterior, nor sensed what Lucian inscribed inside its sheets. To them, it had seemed empty, barren of content, as if some hidden power had purposefully blocked their sight.

For entities who transcended all-knowing within the bounds of being, facing a barrier, even briefly, was not just odd. It was without precedent.