Chapter 11: Carvings

He exhaled sharply. "Man, if someone had told me a week ago that the universe started because two godly balls of energy decided to bump into each other, I'd have laughed in their face."

He rubbed his temples. "So what I'm getting from all this is..." He held up his fingers, counting off. "One: Reality is basically a celestial family drama. Two: There are actual gods out there, or at least there were before they faded. Three: The Nether Kin? Yeah, those guys are basically cosmic monsters from the nightmare side of the family tree. I wonder if they actually produced some of the aliens on Eon's Refuge cos those guys are outright monsters. They scare the shit outta me each time I come across them."

Dylan let his hands drop and exhaled. "And four… no matter how I try, the only thing I can see about the Primordials is that somehow, a leftover piece of the very first seed ended up on Earth. And, guess what? It's this shard called the Echo Shard."

He looked down at his hands.

So… what did that make him?

Sure, he wasn't a god or anything. He was just some random guy who got caught up in something much bigger than him.

But if the Echo Shard was really a fragment of that, of the original cosmic event that started it all, then it wasn't just some powerful relic.

It was a piece of the very foundation of existence.

And it was inside him.

Dylan exhaled again, longer this time. "Mahn, this is so above my pay grade."

His mind spun with questions. If the Primordials were once rulers of the cosmos, where were they now? Did they all just fade away like Auranthos and Xyphora? Did any of them still exist, hidden somewhere in the vast universe?

And if the Nether Kin were still alive and kicking, plotting their revenge… then what was their endgame?

The more he dug into the Echo Shard's memories, the more he felt like he was staring into a bottomless pit.

But the strangest part? No matter how deep he tried to go, he couldn't see past a certain point.

Every path, every vision, every trace of knowledge—it all led back to the same thing.

A single fragment of the Seed.

Falling.

Drifting endlessly through the void.

Until it finally landed on Earth.

Dylan swallowed.

He had no idea why it ended up here. Because if Auranthos was all knowing, will he 'forget' a fragment? What he didn't know was if Auranthos had chosen this planet or if it was just a random accident. But one thing was certain.

This wasn't just history.

This wasn't just some ancient war between divine beings.

This was unfinished business.

And whether he liked it or not, he was now part of it.

He leaned back and exhaled again.

"…Yep. This is a lot."

After a long silence, he finally groaned and ran a hand down his face.

"I swear, man, I was this close to just living an easy life in Helion City." He held up his fingers, leaving less than an inch space in-between them. "This close! But nooo, the universe just had to drop an extinction-level artifact on my head and make me the main character."

He let out a laugh—part amusement, part sheer exhaustion.

"Well… at least it's not boring. I got powers."

Dylan stood up, brushing off his clothes.

Now that he knew the truth, there was no going back.

He had to get stronger. He had to understand his powers. And more than anything, he had to figure out what the hell he was supposed to do with this knowledge.

Because if history had taught him anything…

It was only a matter of time before the past came knocking.

And when it did? He better be ready.

His eyes slowly drifted across the towering stone walls of the ruins, his mind still processing everything he had just uncovered. But then something clicked, something that didn't make sense to him before.

The drawings on walls.

Figures locked in battle. He had seen those creatures in the Echo Shard's memories.

His heart started to race as he approached the nearest wall. The carvings were impossibly old, worn by time but still clear enough to understand.

The celestial clash. The war between the Primordials and the Nether Kin. The same story he had just seen play out in his head, now laid out in carvings.

Dylan's fingers traced the outline of a massive figure wielding what looked like a blazing spear of light. Solmara. The celestial son of Auranthos. The image showed him facing down a duo of dark, writhing monsters, his siblings, Vorrak and Nyzzira.

His eyes flicked to another section of the wall. This one showed a different person. A human?