"Because you are me—I am you."

As soon as Solis' words reached his mind, Sylvester lost himself to a burst of visions that took over his cosmic consciousness. The scenes flashed before his thoughts as if he had always known them—his own actions, his own manipulations.

Left as a chaotic bundle of energy, Sylvester's uncontrolled expansion of his body stopped abruptly. But the chaotic energies floating around him didn't end, still spreading in every direction in long flares akin to fiery ribbons, lashing at anything that dared to come closer.

Aveda maintained his distance, furious and confused about what was happening. Why wasn't Sylvester under his control already? Why does he continuously grow stronger right before him?

Boom!

Silent, and yet deadly, Sylvester's body continued to grow, lashing out whenever Aveda tried to approach and contain the godly energy. This energy was no longer in Sylvester's control, and his very existence had taken over as his instinct to live.

All the while, Sylvester was brought to a realization he had always been hinted about.

…

"W-What is this? Where am I?" Sylvester gazed at the light before him, appearing like a small window in the sea of darkness. There were scenes beyond it—greenery, plants, vines. "T-That's me… But younger!"

It was a strange sensation, like an experience he'd had before, but from the body of the kid he was watching. Eight years old, maybe? No innocence in his eyes as he sat down with crossed legs with a white cat beside him.

"Miraj?" Sylvester's thoughts suddenly drifted into fond memories while he continued to watch the boy. However, nothing significant happened. The boy simply sat with his eyes closed as the day passed.

Sylvester watched aimlessly, confused as to why he was seeing himself. But then it struck him—I am you.

Without thinking, Sylvester willed for something to happen. A vision appears in the mind of the boy. A vision that Sylvester remembered—a baby being born somewhere out there, a small girl who saw the boy as the boy saw her.

"I…" Sylvester realized it. "I gave myself the visions?"

Right then, the scene changed, and Sylvester saw something else through that same window. Once again himself, but a few years older. Sitting cross-legged and trying to speak to Solis.

"I am Solis," Sylvester muttered, willing for the visions to reach the boy's head. The vision of Xylena as she ran for her life. At the same time, Sylvester realized something. "She can see through without my help… her abilities… they go beyond space and time."

The emotional moment, the first exchange between small Xylena and his young self. As she screamed and asked why he wouldn't help her if he could see her.

But Sylvester, as he watched through the eyes of his supreme being, knew things couldn't be changed. They had to be as planned… planned by himself… in that very moment… for the past of his present self.

"Argh…" Sylvester felt pain all of a sudden, something ripping him apart once again. His body had lost all its shape and form, and pushed back against the last bastion of his life—his consciousness, his thoughts, his mind. "What am I… turning into?"

Snap!

But right then, the scene before him changed yet again. As his mind was lost in a dark void, the only window before his vision revealed a young boy. It was a dense forest, and the boy sat alone on a high tree branch.

Perhaps three years old, his face looked hideous beyond belief. A mangled mess of burnt flesh, his breath oozing steam. Even as his tears dripped, they turned into steam.

"Lord Inquisitor?" Sylvester realized what he was seeing. This was the childhood of Lord Inquisitor, when he was abandoned by his mother in the forest. When he first saw the vision.

His instincts spoke to him, and Sylvester sent a vision into the mind of the young, lonely boy—a vision of another boy with a halo behind his head, who sang of joy and kept him alive, strengthening him to thrive.

"Beauty of hearts matters, not matters the face.

Be strong, my friend, this isn't your end place.

Blessed by fire, there lay another that awaits your grace.

O' young child, open your mind, Solis you must embrace."

Sylvester sang the hymn that he sang for the first time. Yet, he had already sung it before, he could feel it—the time and space, a game older than existence itself.

"The halo is your message, trust it without a doubt,

Your life's purpose, soon you'll know about.

Year 5100, 89th day, seek the boy of the miracle in the South,

You'll know when holy sermons come from his mouth."

Right before Sylvester's eyes, the young boy radically changed—from timid to headstrong. The holy hymn repeated to him every single night in his visions, seemingly imprinted upon his memories.

One year passed, then another, and then one more. Every night over that period, the boy heard the visions, and during the day, he repeated the same hymn as he caught prey and survived the wilderness.

When the day came, the 78th Pope found the boy in the forest, the boy spoke as such that the old man couldn't help but accept him as his own—a child born to be a Clergyman.

His eyes were firm, his lips spewing flames, his nostrils burning with steam—visions forever etched in his memory. He looked at the Pope and said, "Take me to my Solis. I have an oath to fulfill. His light, his justice, his fury to this world I must instill."

And so, the Inquisitor High Lord was born. Holding his bodily pain captured behind his visor, he fulfilled his destiny and saved the child of the miracle.

Sylvester fell silent as he watched the view change yet again. Realization dawning how deep his plan went, and how many eons were spent perfecting it. How many sacrifices it had cost. Right before his eyes, he saw the death of Princess Fernis of the Masan Empire.

Her heart so pure, and her yearning so strong. With the power of the Supreme Being, Sylvester gifted her visions and a few more days to live—all so her dream could be fulfilled, so her grand purpose could reach its final moment.

Same for the little girl of the Divine Desert, a Moonwatcher as she was called. Kimino, her name, born without eyes and emotions, and yet able to see the future. Her aid led the young Sylvester to the ancient temple in the middle of the desert.

Where the young bard met the First Pope. Being the Supreme Being, Sylvester himself, saved from complete destruction after his sacrifice to contain the Orb of Purity.

It was all connected—every mystical thing, every piece on the board that somehow felt right.

Solis had been the master, the player, the victim, the victorious—All a grand game for the end to be glorious.

"Aargh…" Sylvester's mind was losing its identity, turning into a generic lump of energy that merely existed as a wheel of control over the laws of reality. The dark void around him was endless, and yet he felt utterly suffocated. The scenery through the window before him showed him nothing but his own existence now.

A gigantic lump of energy the size of many universes.

"S-Solis?!" Sylvester voiced, staring at the identical being inside that window.

The being on the other side voiced back, directly through thoughts. Their voices held no difference any longer. "For thousands of years, you have awaited this moment. For thousands of years, you have toyed with Aveda—played with his desire for victory over his brother, played to his whims to maintain the veil of control. Many you called close have died for his wishes to be fulfilled. You had to… you had to maintain the illusion—to seed the confusion, his delusion—all the while you reach closer and closer to your supreme fusion."

'I killed Sir Dolorem? Shane?' Sylvester realized the true meaning of those words. 'I fooled Aveda?'

"What brought me to this world?" Sylvester questioned hastily, feeling his control waning over his mind.

The full series is hosted on My Virtual Library Empire, known as MV7LEMPYR.

"Something I have pondered for eons, something for you to ponder for eons." The other side responded, "Everything that has ever occurred was to bring about this moment. You have lived victoriously, managed every component."

"Ugh…" Sylvester struggled more, "But… This is impossible… It's a paradox!"

"Space, time, reality—here is an existence beyond common sense," the voice spoke from the other side, the widow before Sylvester started to grow bigger as if fighting against the void that surrounded his thoughts. "I am you, you are me; that is the only rule, only law, the only truth to this—there is only one god, I am you… I am..."

Woosh!

The window in the void grew with a flicker, overcoming the darkness. Sylvester felt as if he got sucked into the window itself. And the next thing he knew, he could feel himself again—midspeech, finishing the words that he wasn't speaking.

"...I am Solis!"

Lost, pained, and confused before, Sylvester abruptly felt whole once again. As if a piece of himself had rejoined him, as if his severed limb had grown back.

"I… am… Solis…"

"I am… Solis…"

"I am Solis!"

Again and again, Sylvester found himself repeating those words. Decillion upon decillion years' worth of memories flooded his head like a soothing wind gently tracing his mind.

"I've always been Solis…" Sylvester realized.

Memory of every single Sylvester in any reality across any space and time, or abnormality, entered his mind. The memories of Solis—what had been done, and what was to be done—all of it was there, all at once.

'This is…' Sylvester felt something as he could once again see his surroundings. 'I've become… a constant!'

The boundless reality he was in, which was filled with Aveda's energies, didn't feel threatening anymore. Absorbing them brought no pain or setbacks—but rather comfort.

"No… What have you become?!" Aveda roared, his mortal body still intact as he retreated further and further. "All this time… you have been…"

"Fooling you," Sylvester responded, the answer to that question was in his thoughts before the question was even asked. "All this time… all that I've sacrificed…"

Aveda appeared visibly shaken, finally turning his back and slicing his arm towards empty space.

Woosh!

A small slit formed right then, a portal for his escape. "Yet you are no stronger than Ashraska…"

"Fooled yet again…" Sylvester boomed, and his inhuman, cosmic horror body started to condense at a rapid rate. All of the flaring energy gathered closer and closer, creating a humanoid shape once again. "So full of confusion."

Snap!

Aveda escaped before Sylvester could finish condensing himself into a humanoid form. Yet, Sylvester didn't panic or move. He waited until his flesh formed, followed by his golden hair, and then his robes.

At last, ready, he closed his eyes for a moment to feel all of that control and energy running through him. He felt no more humanity left in him—what had he become? It was a question to which he had grown numb.

With an expressionless face, he raised both his human arms forward, placing the back of his hands joined together. Then, as if clawing at something, he dug into the void—the fabric of reality itself.

Crack!

Crack!

Seemingly, as if a piece of glass was being broken, Sylvester ripped apart the reality around him. Right on the other side, Aveda's frightened being appeared.

"Your sense of control is an illusion." Sylvester walked right through the portal he made, ripping through countless universes and accurately reaching Aveda. "That you can run is your delusion."