Chapter 714: What Now?
"Then," Seeker asked calmly, tilting her head slightly, "Are you ready to die?"
Alex Prime frowned, his green eyes narrowing as he prepared another calculated strike.
But something made him pause.
His gaze swept across the burning hall, taking in the devastation for the first time.
Countless Primedivas lay dead or dissipating, their eternal essences scattered like dying motes of light among the flames and rubble.
The realization hit him like a physical blow.
CLANG!!!!
His sword slipped from his fingers and clattered loudly against the cracked floor.
"No..." he whispered, voice hoarse. "This... this can’t be—"
Ancestor Seeker let out a soft, genuine laugh that echoed through the inferno.
"Look closely, little Alex. You might want to watch this."
In that moment, her humanoid form began to shed.
Hummmmmmm!
A radiant, overwhelming pressure filled the hall.
Her scholarly clothes dissolved into wisps of light as her true form started to emerge — something ancient, vast, and terrifyingly beautiful.
And in that moment.... whisps of pure energy began leaking from Alex’s body.
Cracks spiderwebbed across his skin, glowing with stolen power as his Probability Command, his sword’s authority, and every other ability he possessed started being drawn toward her uncontrollably.
Even the burning knowledge around them — lost tomes, ancient scrolls, and forgotten concepts — began to reform and spiral toward Seeker in glowing streams, as if her mere presence was a black hole for all information and power.
Alex’s eyes widened in pure horror as his body started to break apart.
"What... are you—?!"
Before he could fully disintegrate, a powerful spatial distortion tore through the hall. Alex was violently teleported away in a flash of emergency light, barely escaping death.
A deep, authoritative voice boomed from the flames above, laced with barely contained shock.
"E...enough."
It was his father, Dono Prime — one of the true Leaders of the Source of Expansion.
His absolute command of Disruption rippled outward, attempting to tear apart Seeker’s transformation, disrupt the draining effect on Alex, and even reverse some of the damage done to the Library of All.
But the moment his power touched Seeker’s emerging presence, it backfired catastrophically.
Luna, still leaning casually against the half-collapsed pillar, began a slow, genuine round of applause.
The sound echoed softly through the roaring flames and falling debris.
"Bravo," she said with a warm, sisterly grin. "You’re fitting right into the family after all."
Seeker let out a light, melodic laugh as she fully reverted to her usual elegant form, brushing a few stray embers from her long brown hair.
"I suppose I am. Though I still wonder... why you never fought much before. Even back in the True Realities, you rarely lifted a hand."
Luna chuckled, pushing off the pillar and walking over to her through the smoke and fire as if strolling through a garden.
"Simple. If it’s not Alchemy, Husband, or the Family... I can honestly care less. Everything else is just noise."
At that exact moment, two figures descended gracefully through the burning air above them — Aurelia and Aurora, walking on nothing but shimmering strands of power as if the flames and collapsing architecture were merely stage lighting.
Aurelia’s red-golden hair flowed dramatically behind her, phoenix-like embers dancing in her eyes as she looked around at the magnificent destruction with clear approval.
Aurora floated beside her, white-and-blue hair swaying, golden eyes sparkling with nine black rings as she took in the scene.
"So?" Aurelia called down with a mischievous grin, landing lightly beside them. "How was the show?"
Aurora landed right after, folding her arms with an excited bounce.
"Did you at least make it entertaining? We tried enacting the tale of Alexandria."
Seeker smiled warmly at the two of them, the flames reflecting softly in her eyes as the Library of All continued to crumble and burn gloriously around the four women.
"It was... adequate," she replied, a hint of playful teasing in her voice. "Though I do believe we gave them something... to deal with for the coming years."
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Far away, in a vast crystalline chamber suspended high above the Source of Expansion, Alex Prime reappeared in a flash of emergency spatial magic.
He was physically mostly intact, but his mental state was in ruins.
His long white hair was disheveled, his green eyes hollow with shock and frustration.
He stood silently in the center of the grand hall, staring at the five Leaders of the Source who sat upon elevated thrones of living conceptual energy.
To his left sat Dono Prime, the White Elven patriarch of the Prime Branch — tall, regal, with flowing silver-white hair and piercing emerald eyes that mirrored his son’s.
Beside him was Tamaka the First, an ancient Void Dragon matriarch in humanoid form.
Her scales had long since transformed into smooth obsidian-like skin, while two elegant obsidian horns curved gracefully from her forehead.
Her long hair moved like shadows, and her eyes glowed with a deep purple glow.
The third was Lorz Origin, a towering High Celestial with radiant golden skin and six majestic wings of pure light.
His presence alone radiated divine authority.
The fourth was Kees the Second, a graceful Moon Elf, whose skin glowed like polished moonlight, with white hair that flowed as if underwater and eyes that held the depth of forgotten lunar seas.
The fifth and final leader was Kor Eternal, a powerful Titan — massive, broad-shouldered, with crackling azure lightning constantly dancing across his dark blue skin and a wild mane of storm-cloud hair.
Standing slightly apart from them was the Oracle.
She had been here ever since Irene, Tamaka’s daughter, had been killed in this very hall.
Since then, she only watched everything with quiet, calculating intensity, her dark hair neatly tied in a bun, fingers tapping slowly against her arm.
Alex finally broke the silence with a heavy, exhausted sigh.
"What now?" he asked, voice rough.
"We declared war on the Ineffable Clan... and we learned almost nothing from that fight."
It wasn’t just that either... they had planned for an encounter with the Ineffable and not only them, but a few other select places they had found using their powers.
However, they couldn’t have possibly known that the very Library that held the collection of powers they’ve been born with since their existence began... was now long gone.
Tamaka the First shifted on her throne, her draconic presence heavy.
"Tsk... only one remains who can even remake the Library of All."
Dono Prime’s expression darkened.
"We will worry about that in due time.... With the Festival only a few years away... We need to start weakening that clan now — divide them, expose weaknesses, target the ones around the Main Character before he becomes untouchable."
Lorz Origin’s wings folded slightly.
"The real problem is that we can actually die..." He said, "Who knew... such a problem would ever arise? Not only that... they’re all monsters in their own right.
This isn’t just one overwhelming force. It’s an entire faction of them."
The frustration was thick in the air.
The Oracle remained silent, her sharp eyes flicking between them all as she mentally dissected every detail of what had just happened.
Alex stared at the floor for a long moment before speaking again, voice low.
"We were completely unprepared for what they truly are."