Chapter 81: Third Question

The Eternal Serpent stared at Cassian for a moment before speaking.

​"That was your second question."

​Its golden eyes reflected countless stars within their depths.

​"Now... what is your final question?"

​Cassian drew a slow, deliberate breath as a strange feeling settled over him.

​Bittersweet.

​Three questions, that was all he had been granted. Yet, somehow, two had already been spent.

One had shown him a path toward surpassing even Cosmic Pillars, while the other had revealed harrowing truths regarding the Endless Blackness.

​Now, only one remained.

​Cassian knew this final question had to matter. Fortunately, he had already decided what he wanted to ask from the very beginning.

​His eyes met the Eternal Serpent’s golden gaze. "What is the purpose of the Lord System?"

​The question echoed solemnly throughout the void.

​For a long moment, neither spoke.

​Cassian’s expression remained calm, but his inner thoughts were anything but.

​The Lord System had always been a mystery, not just to the Astral Dominion or humanity, but to countless interplanetary civilizations throughout the endless cosmos.

Entire libraries had been written to analyze it, and entire fields of research existed solely to unravel its origin.

​Yet nobody truly knew why it existed; they only understood what it provided.

​Power. Wealth. Authority.

​A path beyond mortality itself.

​Cassian remembered reading countless historical articles regarding the First Integration, every account sounding almost surreal.

The moment a civilization achieved interplanetary status, reality itself seemed to acknowledge them.

A small portion of the population would naturally awaken Lord Seeds, receiving starter resources directly from the Lord’s Domain itself.

​Meanwhile, those who awakened later through external means, individuals like Cassian, would receive their starter packages through organizations such as the Lords Association.

​From that point onward, a Lord’s journey would begin.

​Territories. Summons. Expansion. Conquest. Evolution.

​An endless climb toward greater power.

​To most people, it sounded like a gift, a divine opportunity and a blessing beyond compare.

​But Cassian had never believed that.

​Nothing in existence was truly free, especially not power. The Lord’s Domain was not a charity, and the Eternal Will certainly was not handing out authority capable of reshaping worlds out of simple generosity.

​There had to be a reason. A purpose. A price.

​Why would a realm as vast as the Lord’s Domain empower outsiders? Why grant strangers the right to govern its lands?

​None of it made sense... unless the Lords themselves served a higher function.

​And that was precisely what Cassian wanted to know.

​The Eternal Serpent remained silent for several moments, long enough that Cassian wondered if the question required deeper consideration.

​Eventually, the ancient being spoke:

​"The purpose of the Lord System..."

​Its colossal eyes shifted toward the void beyond the boundaries of the Lord’s Domain.

​"...is to face the Endless Blackness."

The Eternal Serpent continued:

​"The Lord’s Domain was born from the Endless Blackness. But the Endless Blackness did not appreciate its creation. It did not celebrate it, it did not nurture it... it despised it."

​"For the Endless Blackness is exactly what its name suggests: an endless void. A place without life, without growth, without purpose, and without meaning. It wished for the Lord’s Domain to become the same, to abandon creation and return to absolute nothingness."

​"However, the Endless Blackness was merely that, an endless void. It possessed neither the means nor the power to directly oppose creation. So it did what the Lord’s Domain had done."

​"It evolved."

​Cassian’s sky-blue eyes narrowed into sharp slits.

​The serpent nodded. "From the Endless Blackness emerged entities: predators, abominations, things that should not exist, creatures born solely to consume creation. These creatures became known as Parasites."

​"They reside within the Interdimensional Plane: the space between realities, the cracks between worlds, the gaps between existence itself."

​Cassian frowned. "And from there, they attack?"

​"Correct," the serpent nodded. "They gnaw upon reality, burrow through dimensions, and erode the boundaries of existence. And wherever they gather... wounds appear."

​Cassian took several moments to digest the information.

​Parasites. Interdimensional predators. Creatures residing between realities.

​The implications were terrifying.

​Yet the Eternal Serpent was far from finished.

​"The greatest difficulty is that the Parasites are not ranked among creation. They exist outside many of the limitations governing reality, dwelling within the Interdimensional Plane where most forces cannot easily reach them."

​The serpent paused before continuing. "Imagine an elephant."

​Cassian blinked, the sudden, mundane analogy caught him off guard.

​"An enormous beast," the serpent explained, "powerful enough to flatten forests beneath its feet. Yet tiny parasites can burrow beneath its skin, feeding upon it, weakening it, and harming it. And despite its overwhelming strength, the elephant struggles to reach them."

​Understanding dawned immediately in Cassian’s mind.

​The serpent nodded smoothly. "The Lord’s Domain is the elephant. The Parasites are the pests. The difference in scale and structure prevents direct retaliation."

​"The Eternal Will can identify the wounds. It can mend them, and it can slow the damage. But permanently eliminating every Parasite is another matter entirely."

​Cassian felt a cold chill run down his spine.

​For the first time across two lives, he realized the terrifying position of the Lord’s Domain.

​It was not losing, but neither was it winning.

​It was merely enduring.

​The Eternal Serpent’s eyes narrowed. "The Endless Blackness understood this weakness. It is, after all, the progenitor of the Lord’s Domain, it understands creation better than creation understands itself."

​"The Eternal Will knew that if this state of affairs continued..." The serpent’s voice turned grave. "...it would only be a matter of time before every wound expanded, every realm collapsed, and all of existence ceased to be."

​"So the Eternal Will devised a solution."

​Before it could elaborate further, Cassian spoke up:

​"The Lord System."

​The Eternal Serpent stopped mid-sentence. Its massive golden eyes shifted toward him, and then a deep, reverberating chuckle echoed throughout the void.

​"Correct."

​For the first time, there was unmistakable approval in its vast voice. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

​"The Lord System, the greatest weapon ever devised by the Eternal Will. The answer to an enemy too small for creation to grasp, and too numerous for creation to eradicate."

​"The Eternal Will could not directly reach every Parasite. It could not personally patrol every wound, and it could not descend into every crack within reality. So it created something capable of doing what it could not."

​Cassian already knew the answer.

​"Lords."

....

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