There was a low and quiet tune in the air as Liang Chen laid bare the Void, a soft hymn that danced through the air. It was similar to the first time he entered the Void, countless Voidborn kneeling as they chanted in reverence. But there were no Voidborn heralding his arrival this time, not a lowered head in sight. No, the hymn came from the air itself, this time it was the Void itself singing.
But there was another sound that mixed in with the hymn, a low and droning sound that subtly merged itself into the tune. How familiar wasn't he with this sound, how many times hadn't he heard it in his life? It was screams. Roars, cries, shouts, wrath unfettered as it roared at the sky.
"So you exist even here..."
Liang Chen knew that these screams weren't physical, there weren't actually countless Voidborn shouting right now. No, these screams were those that should have long been silenced, anger unfulfilled and sorrow engraved on the soul. Not even the Void could escape the vestiges Liang Chen had started to tap into with his poison, not even the Void was free of wrath. The wrath of the dead mixed with the hymn as it rose, subtly altering it. Whatever the hymn originally wanted to convey was lost in the wrath, now it was nothing more than a dirge, a silenced cry for justice.
"Ho... It's home..."
The voice that came from behind Liang Chen sounded a bit choked up, stammering and hesitant even. The five figures behind him were standing there somewhat dumbly, gazing out upon the land that spread out in front of them.
"Home...What has time done to you? How did you end up like... like this?"
The one who questioned spoke in a low voice thick with anguish. They could all sense it, this was their home, this was their Void. But looking at it, they simply couldn't recognize it. Their home was a great wilderness untamed and untouched by time, an endless paradise as colourful as the world outside the Void. But now there was no wilderness, no great trees or frozen wastes, not a single one of the places they had slowly acquired over time was there. It was just grey and black, a bleak land, a hopeless land.
"It...It was me, I did this... I got arrogant, greedy. I reached my hand for the world, and the serpent coiling around it retaliated..."
To Liang Chen's surprise, there was one among the figures who actually had an answer to their question. The only one that had introduced themselves, Chen Daoge, lowered his head in shame. It was he who had fought Jormungandr in the past, it was he who had brought this ruin to their land. There was a bout of silence from the four other figures, but in the end, what they showed Chen Daoge wasn't condemnation.
"With strength comes pride, and with pride comes arrogance, comes fear... I remember Shao Ye Long said something very similar when he spoke about the time he went against Jieshu."
Liang Chen had never heard about this Shao Ye Long, but since the figure said he went against Jieshu then he guessed that he may have been the first Voidborn Ruler, the first to go against the original Void.
"To live is to desire. We are embodiments of the inevitable end, all things return to us sooner or later so we should never need to desire anything. But we do so all the same... to live is to become corrupted."
The Void, the inevitable end of all creation. What need did it have for desire when all things would eventually return to it? But in the end, it desired just like any other. It was true in the past when the Ruler's set out to acquire things and it was true now. After all, if the Void didn't desire something, why would it birth Voidborn and Rulers?
"Even now, when we've stepped past everything and just await our end, we end up desiring, don't we?"
The one who spoke up this time reached out their hand, grasping for the endless Void that Liang Chen had revealed. They wanted to go home. They wanted to walk the lands they used to be familiar with, wanted to see if any of the people they once knew were still alive. They desired to return.
But it was a desire that couldn't be granted. The hand that reached out was stopped by an invisible wall as it tried to leave the white area and return home. Liang Chen had revealed their home to them, but they could only watch from their prison. The one who had reached out to the Void but failed to reach it suddenly seemed to sense something, tilting its head as it turned towards Liang Chen.
"This...The Ruler of this generation is still alive...So you really aren't one of our Rulers...Then who...what are you?"
They may not be able to enter the Void, but they could still sense the oh-so-familiar energy that was pouring in through the opening Liang Chen had created. And thanks to that they could sense a familiar energy, the aura of a Voidborn Ruler. Five of them were here, meaning that only one Ruler should exist right now. And that Ruler was very clearly still alive within the Void, giving credence to Liang Chen's earlier statement. He was different, he wasn't a Voidborn, he was not a sibling born to carry on their duty.
"I am Liang Chen. And just like I said, I am not one who was born by the Void. No, I chose the Void, I accepted it and took it in."
He could have abandoned it when he first took in the Voidborn blood, back when his bloodline first mutated thanks to all the extreme bloodlines it carried. He could have forsaken the Void back then, he could have cut it out from his bloodline or chosen to never use it. But he didn't. He took it in and used it, he accepted it and merged it into his very being. The inevitable end, the great decay, the cruellest concept in existence. He knew what it was. But he took it in all the same, accepted it all the same. And perhaps, in turn, it came to accept him and his wrath.
"I'm going to leave now. This place... is not where I belong. There are people waiting for me, praying for me."
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Liang Chen could feel it. That soft tugging sensation that pulled on his being, that quiet prayer and the silent desperation that beckoned him towards where he should have been cultivating. Was it Yumao crying? Or was Sheng Lian screaming desperately to make him come back? It didn't matter. They screamed, they cried. And Liang Chen, he was the one who responded to such screams.
"Wait, wait. Please, for just a moment, please..."
"Please wait!"
The figures all called out at the same time as Liang Chen set one foot into the Void, rushing to stop him. He halted his step and turned his head, sweeping his gaze over the figures. They were anxious, worried. They had no features but they drowned in sorrow, they oozed despair. He could feel it within himself, the anguish, the pain, the helplessness.
"..."
The five figures looked at each other in silence for a second, their gazes hopping between each other and Liang Chen. Who should talk? Who should make the request? Could they even do it, did they have the right? What if he said no, what if he rejected them? They hesitated, they worried. But in the end, they had to act, so Chen Daoge spoke up.
"Yo... No, Liang Chen, you said you accepted the Void?"
Confirmation, he wanted it, no, needed it. The Void was alone, the Void was the enemy. All who existed feared the Void, because it was what came for them all in the end. To accept it meant to accept being the enemy of all, the greatest evil all tried to avoid. But Liang Chen nodded his head all the same, without an ounce of hesitation.
"I have."
His was the path of sin. Once he reached the end of his path he would be the only source of evil left in existence, only like that would he be able to abate his wrath, would he be able to accomplish his goal. At that time, the Void would no longer be considered the greatest evil, he would.
"In that case, would you listen to a request? Consider it the final desire of departed rulers unable to do a thing."
Chen Daoge's voice hardened a little as he spoke. They couldn't leave this place, had it not been for Liang Chen then they wouldn't even have been able to see the current state of the Void. Was it selfish of them? Definitely, it was approaching the height of selfishness. But they still had to do it. They had failed their duty in the past, but the ones who ended up having to pay the price for that never ended up being them. No, the ones who paid the price were always the ones they tried to protect.
"The Void...No, the Voidborn, please... please protect them. We have made the world hate them, and in turn, they have come to hate the world. The world, their own hatred, their idiocy, their endless desires, this horrible world I have left for them, please... protect them from it."
The figures lowered themselves as Chen Daoge spoke, bowing as deeply as their current form allowed. Some of them killed Universal Hearts and universes due to their desires, some of them fought entire Multiverses due to arrogance, some of them killed just to fill the Void. They had fought and fought, be it due to arrogance or their own twisted ideas of what the Void needed. It was only later, while trapped here, that they realized how wrong they had been from the start. The Void didn't need them to do any of that, wanted them to do any of that, they just needed to exist and dispense the final end that awaited all existence, nothing more.
But they had already strayed, and they had taken the Void with them. Voidborn after Voidborn sought to escape the Void and enter the real world, they sought to return it all to the Void, as their rulers had done in the past. And it had only gotten worse after Chen Daoge's time, his actions led to the Void becoming a place where it was hard to live, now most Voidborn just dreamed of escaping it.
But the world wouldn't accept them so it was inevitable that they were hunted when they escaped. This fostered anger so they fought back, which in turn fostered anger in the world. It was an endless cycle of hatred and wrath, an endless cycle of pain that they had created, forced upon the people they were supposed to protect and rule.
Liang Chen stood in silence for a bit as the five figures remained bowed, unified by their request. The arrogance of their time had already been tempered and ground, hotheadedness had given way to calm and understanding. They were Rulers, they were meant to rule. And in that, they had failed spectacularly.
"..."
Liang Chen turned his head away, his gaze drifting across the Void. He saw the same lifeforms as last time, wurms and humanoids doing their best to scavenge the wasteland to survive. But above all that, he heard the screams. The roars of silenced wrath, the lingering resentment of the deceased. The dirge that the Void sang for him. Would he help? Would he protect the race that had been driven astray by their rulers? To him, the answer to this question would always remain the same, it was the answer he had engraved into his very being.
"If there are innocents suffering, I will protect them. If there are sinners running about, I will judge them. That is who I am, that is what I do. And to that end, it doesn't matter if they are men, demons, monsters, or Voidborn."
That was all he said before he stepped forward again and enterd the Void, a wave of his hand tearing open a gate that led to Purgatory's Cradle. Man or monster, demon or Voidborn, it never mattered to him. Where innocents screamed, he would protect. Where sinners laughed, he would judge. Whenever there was someone who the heavens had ignored, he would act. That was the vow Liang Chen had made in the past, and it was the vow he upheld to this day. And now it was time to make sure that he could continue upholding that vow.