Chapter 10: Divine realm
Lex materialized inside the tower; the vast empty space around him mirrored the void outside the tower.
He raised his hand, and a flow of dark, swirling energy cascaded from his fingertips, filling the space like ink exposed to water with unnatural speed.
This black and chaotic energy throbbed with raw power, shaping itself easily under his authority.
With precise, fluid gestures, Lex divided the swirling energy into distinct layers that materialized as vast, endless expanses of land.
Each layer dark, endless plane stacked one above the other, expanding upward to form massive pyramidal layers within the tower.
At the tower's deepest layer, Lex connected an Origin Pipeline, transforming the Origin Energy into Demonic Energy. He then dispersed the Demonic Energy into the bottom layer.
The demonic energy was not merely powerful; it was corrosive and a force of unrelenting decay.
Although it is a powerful as Immortal Energy, its nature was vastly different; it was an invasive tide, seeping into every crevice of the tower, spreading like a disease.
It began at the lowest realms, creeping along the darkened layer, and slowly ascended, transforming each layer with relentless force.
The very land itself twisted under its influence, warping reality, reshaping the environment in grotesque forms.
Amid this tumultuous energy, a weak consciousness began to pulsate at the bottom layer, emerging from the chaotic interplay of destruction and creation.
Lex watched, his expression calm, intrigued by the potential of life forming under such extreme conditions. After watching for some time, he left and let this nascent consciousness evolve independently.
He scanned the towering structure he had created within the void, each layer bore its own mark of creation. Many of the layers were barren expanses, desolate and silent.
However, interspersed among these layers were oceans of startling colors; some layers contained seas of deep, ominous red, others harbored black waters, and a few contained viscous, almost living fluids that moved with instinct of their own.
Each terrestrial layer showcased a unique topography. The thirtieth layer was an endless tundra dotted with snow-laden mountains that seemed to scrape the sky.
Below, on the twentieth layer, twisted forests stretched outward, each tree warped into grotesque shapes, as if sculpted by a mad artist's hand."
Each layer served a specific purpose. At the very peak of this colossal tower, Lex created a unique layer, a vast ocean that spanned half the entire layer of the land.
In this aquatic realm, he decided it would be the place where the eggs from which demons would eventually hatch nestle.
The future of these demons was tied to the deepest layer they could reach after their birth; the strongest among them would dwell in the lowest, most formidable depths, closer to the tower's dark heart.
Having established the hierarchy and geography of his creation, Lex instilled the realm with a series of different laws, these laws would govern the realm autonomously and would sustain the order he had designed.
Satisfied, Lex's form flickered, and he vanished and reappeared in the thirty-third layer of deep space.
This void region resembled the first layer so closely that one might easily be deceived into thinking they had never left the first layer.
Lex had chosen this spot for a monumental task: to create the Divine Realm, destined to be the second most powerful realm in the universe.
This new realm would harness fifty percent of the total Origin Energy of the origin ocean, a testament to its importance and might.
Lex also designed the entry to this realm to be a near-impossible feat. Only those born within its borders or those possessing unmatched strength and determination would be able to traverse its boundaries.
With this, he aimed to ensure that only the most worthy could claim a position in this exalted realm.
With a wave of his right hand, Lex began the creation. Energy from all around converged swiftly at a single point, condensing into a tiny, glowing substance within the void.
With quiet authority, he spoke: 'Open.' At his command, the substance collapsed, shrinking to the size of an atom, then a quark, and finally, into a singularity beyond comprehension.
In the following moments, an intense silence filled the void. Then, the singularity exploded, inflating rapidly like a colossal balloon.
The explosion sent shockwaves echoing through the universe, a deafening sound that marked the birth of something grand.
Lex immediately infused it with laws as the realm expanded explosively, shaping the chaos into order. During this cataclysmic expansion, matter began to coalesce and form land.
This landmass grew astonishingly fast, expanding a light-year with every passing second. To any observer, the formation of this new land was a visible spectacle; its rapid growth and occupation of space could be seen unfolding in real-time, a testament to the immense power at Lex's command.
At the same time, somewhere else in the universe, the primordials were startled by the deafening sound that echoed through the universe; Timorath, a primordial accustomed to the quieter side of the universe, turned to his friend, Vastoth, whose knowledge of the spatial laws was unparalleled among their kind.
"Vastoth," Timorath's voice carried a mixture of awe and concern, "What do you make of this tumultuous noise?"
Vastoth, eyes closed in deep concentration, replied slowly, his mind racing through possibilities. "I am not certain, but I think it originated from the deeper layers of the space, regions beyond my reach. My mastery allows me to traverse only up to the seventh layer."
Timorath's eyes widened in disbelief. "The universe holds depths beyond the seventh layer?" he mumbled, a hint of trepidation in his voice.
By his limited understanding of the laws of space and time, he could maneuver through space up to the third layer, but the idea of more was both thrilling and daunting.
Timorath, Unconvinced by Vastoth's speculative answer and driven by a blend of curiosity and urgency, conjured a domain around himself.
He manipulated the fabric of time in this domain and tried to rewind and recapture the sound.
He strained his consciousness, hoping to pinpoint its source. As time rewound repeatedly, Timorath's efforts proved futile; the sound remained elusive, slipping away with each attempt. Frustrated and now utterly powerless, he relayed his findings to Vastoth.
With a heavy sigh, Vastoth shared his conviction. "Do not exhaust yourself further, Timorath. Such phenomena can only be the workings of 'Him.'"
Hearing this, Timorath felt a mix of relief and embarrassment. "I thought… perhaps it was a treasure," he admitted sheepishly.
Vastoth gave him a skeptical look, his lips twitching in amusement. "A treasure, indeed," he chuckled. "We all cling to our secrets and desires, don't we?"
Meanwhile, Kismetor, another primordial being who had been leisurely devouring a star, also perceived the unsettling sound. It disrupted his meal, yet a spark of excitement flickered within him instead of irritation.
"At last," he thought, a grin spreading across his features, "something exciting happens, I'm so tired of this empty universe."
Lex was now watching intently as the land expanded endlessly. Once the expansion ceased, he enveloped his consciousness to grasp the true magnitude of this realm.
What he perceived was so astonishingly large that the realm basically felt like a small universe.
Lex calculated its total expanse; it was one Gigaparsec in total or about 3.26 billion light years.
Compared to the vastness of this realm, all other realms felt like mere pebbles across a desert.
He teleported to the center of this vast realm with a mere thought, positioning himself at the heart of what could only be described as his grandest creation yet.
He raised his hand upward slowly, and the ground quaked; then, mighty mountains heaved upward from the ground, their peaks piercing the heavens.
Below, oceans unfurled from the ground, filling the land with waters reflecting the newly formed skies like divine mirrors.
Golden clouds scattered across the sky. Every breath taken within the divine realm was imbued with the air of purity, the air vibrating with exuberance energy that soothed the soul and calmed the mind.
The landscape was breathtaking, and the laws were easily felt in some sacred locations. At the active volcanos, the fire laws were manifesting in the form of firebirds made purely of law energy.