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Chapter 248: Purpose and Meanings
🕑 Added 2025-04-05 15:20:44 +0000 UTC‘It’s quite embarrassing.’
Aleph was self-aware of the one-liner he spouted earlier.
Ever since becoming an Aeon, bits of his childish side showed up. It was completely different in Earth where he had to remain cautious, lest he gets barraged by Mobius’ counterattacks.
Fortunately, nobody minded his slight eccentricity here. He was, after all, the most normal Aeon.
Mobius would definitely scoff at this and verbally attack him, however. Outwardly, he remained as casual as ever. His oversized white t-shirt and black shorts were something worn by shut-ins. The only distinction he had from other neets was the white halo above his head.
“It’s a good plan. I rate it an eight out of ten.”
“Why, thank you.”
Seemingly expecting Aleph’s appearance, Polka did not shy from the tea and drank it by sip. She immediately saw through its true nature.
“Even for a delicacy, it is my first time seeing this. What was the term used here… enlightenment?”
She had her fair share of exploration throughout the cosmos. The most common denominator between enlightenment and tea were the ones written in Xianzhou’s ancient myths.
To this, Aleph nodded.
“It’s a precious tea set from the West Palace.” He explained. “It lies in another world where beings similar to Aeons exist in quite a ridiculous number.”
The West Palace was the court of the Queen Mother of the West. She is the Heavenly Emperor’s wife. Most importantly, these two people were once the assistants of Yuanshi Laozun—the Three Pure Ones.
Aleph does not have a concrete idea of their strength, but the ‘history’ recorded on the tea cup verified his overall conjectures.
The biggest focus was naturally the man who split the primordial chaos, thereby creating a habitable universe from scratch.
Thus, everything related to the high-level powers of that world holds important value—the tea set being one of them.
The woman sitting across from him did not pay much attention to its history. The moment she heard ‘another world’ was the time she looked at him with shock.
Despite her face being blocked by a virtual and unnatural mesh, her body language was enough to express her current emotions.
Seeing this, Aleph clarified:
“It’s not a world found in the Tree. A completely different world, I must say.”
His words implied he could connect with a completely different world. Its consequences were enough to stun the woman who lived for thousands of trailblazing years.
One action of his was enough to derail the entire world’s future!
“No wonder…”
She looked at him differently.
Polka’s initial plan was to make enough waves to meet Aleph, the Aeon of Perpetuity, face to face.
When she encountered the pathstriders of his [Path], she was a first-hand witness of its peculiarity.
[Perpetuity] showed tendencies of abnormalities. Its nature of being able to superimpose onto another [Path] was a great indicator of it.
It reminded her of another [Path] that acted similar to it…
Finality.
“I’ll keep my previous question. Did you get the inspiration from the Doctors of Chaos?”
Aleph’s attitude was the complete opposite of Aeons’. It was like Polka faced someone from the Genius Society.
“You must have noticed already. My answer is no.”
“As expected… Who could’ve expected that the person who hindered Finality’s descent was influenced by Terminus themselves..?”
He fiddled with the tea cup as he relished at this great discovery.
“It should have started when you broke the circle’s boundaries.”
“Your words are spot-on.”
Polka Kakamond is one of the geniuses selected by Nous themselves. Her brilliance was enough to spark an impact just as big, if not bigger than Zander One Kuwabara himself.
Out of all the geniuses, she was the third one to breach the Circle of Knowledge’s boundaries, thus creating a Knowledge Singularity.
What she witnessed in that state, however, subverted her beliefs completely.
“The world lives in a fixed and predetermined state. Should it be disrupted, Finality comes slightly closer to the present.” She explained with a matter-of-fact tone. “Aeons are beings who do exactly that. Other than them…”
“The geniuses from the Genius Society.”
Aleph continued Polka’s words after the latter’s nod.
“You could not wholly control Aeons’ emergence, so you settled for the next best thing.”
“A mortal’s power is limited.”
“I can see your point.”
Tap-!
His right foot stomped lightly on the ground.
The surrounding paradise was eaten up by a dreadful place.
Dead grass was present on their feet. Every single flower in place was wilted, if not turned to ashes.
Hou-!
A horn-like sound resounded from afar.
There, they saw the appearance of an extremely hideous giant insect. Its form itself suggested endless hatred throughout the land they stood on.
“This is a world.” Aleph stated calmly. “A world that has lost its meaning of existence. A world that should not exist. A world that is destined to meet its end.”
Lostbelts are worlds that deviated from its original history. They are worlds that should have met their ends a long time ago. They are akin to dead branches that need to be pruned.
For some reasons, they persisted in existing up to now.
“Of course, there are reasons why they are better off with nonexistent.”
Aleph explained the simple logic behind lostbelts. The Chinese Lostbelt, for example, looked like a paradise. That was until the realization of ‘zero progress’ strikes.
If everyone lives the same life with no improvements, would it still be meaningful to live?
“This world held a nice place for me.” Aleph commented. “Every aborigin of this world ended up dying. All of their will to fight, rendered meaningless with this outcome.”
Polka Kakamond remained silent. She saw where this conversation was heading.
Aleph continued on his rhetoric.
“Why did they fight? Why struggle when the ending is fixed? Why, indeed.” He muttered before continuing, “Because that, in itself, is their purpose of living.”
It wasn’t just the Lostbelts.
The Earth where honkai existed is a huge example. Aleph himself once felt the desperation of an entire era over their destruction.
Fortunately, he was able to break that impasse.
“We have way better conditions than these Lostbelts. Our fighting chance is at least a hundred times better than theirs. Isn’t it too much to give up early?”
Polka Kakamond’s face was blocked by a mesh, yet Aleph sensed a smile directed at him.
“You want me to trust you.”
“Yes.”
He smiled as he said:
“I won’t mind breaking Terminus’ arrangements."
