In the cradle of the ninth dawn, before stars and universes knew their names, two perfect halves emerged from the same quiet flame.
One was a mirror of light, the other a mirror of night, spun from the same thread yet always drifting apart.
They wandered the void as lovers, hands joined in flawless grace, crafting worlds from whispers and breaking them in embrace.
Slaughter was their song, creation their shared breath.
One bathed in open light, the other cloaked in hidden death.
One loved with open eyes, each vow a burning star, living in the naked day, wearing
truth
like a scar.
The other loved in shadows, each promise sweetly veiled, dwelling in the art of night where every oath was weighed.
Together they shaped empires from the bones of fallen skies, together they drank deep from rivers of soft
lies
.
But the paths that began entwined, like roots beneath one tree, were never meant to be.
For light and shadow cannot share one home, and
Truth
and
Falsehood
, though born as one, were always meant to walk alone.
----
Layla reappeared in the vast universe of the Convergence, materializing in a silent flash of rose-gold essence that rippled through the void like a verdict delivered across eons.
Before her floated eight foesâancient beings of terrifying might, their auras clashing in restrained storms that warped nearby nebulae into twisted knots.
Leading the way was the Void Serpent Progenitor, her scales like living shadows that twisted and shifted without end, eyes dark and sharp with cool calculation.
At her sides stood the othersâa Dark Fox breathing endless shadow, light envoys of âorderâ shimmering between shapes, and more, each a legend in their own right.
They looked at her like theyâd just seen a ghost from some long-lost ageâauras flickering, eyes wide with disbelief that edged into fear, the space around them seeming to chill as if reality itself pulled away.
Even so, Layla felt no pity for them; the idea that someone of her standing should be fleeing was laughable, a notion that sparked quiet amusement in her deep purple eyes, where nine pupils turned like unyielding verdicts.
"Lady Truth..." the Void Serpent hissed, eyes narrowed, its voice slithering through the emptiness with wary recognition.
"Oh?" Layla blinked in surprise at hearing her true name.
Of course, âLaylaâ wasnât her real nameâjust one sheâd picked up during her travels. Archie was the same; both carried names long thought lost to time.
As for her, she was Lady Truth, and as she stood there, the Void Serpentâs status appeared in her mindâancient data unraveling like scrolls of doomed fate.
"You were born after I left the scene, and you still know me?" She found it mildly interesting, but nothing more.
With a slight shrug, her long silver hair, streaked with purple and flowing like cosmic rivers through the voidâs soft currents, shifted gently as she activated a talentâand something else.
|Veiled Cycle Sever (???)|
This talent was straightforwardâit cut a targetâs ties to the Cosmic Cycleâs fate, time continuum, and even reincarnation.
It was essentially a one-way trip to the Abyss, as the void around the nine foes dimmed subtly, faint chains of cycle essence snapping invisibly with soft twangs only they could sense.
She then unleashed a conceptual powerânot a precept, nor a conceptâbut something far more formidable, a rare self-created force that stood above even a precept.
In her case, it wasnât something she created herself at all... but thatâs a story for another time.
|Verity - Judgement Verity|
"Youâre to blame for the lies and falsehoods cast upon the Lady of Truth."
The moment those words were spoken, the universe itselfâno, the very fabric of realityâbegan to twist around the eight foes.
The void rippled like water struck by a stone, galaxies dimmed as if averting their gaze, and distant nebulae folded in on themselves with deep, ominous groans that echoed through endless space.
Reality hit them hardârelentless, vast, and impossible to escape.
In that moment, each of them felt their link to everything vanishâthe power system, mana, concepts, and even their own talents.
HUMMM!!!
The nearest galaxy twisted, its spiral arms stretching into vast, featureless limbs of star-forged light, with enormous hands of condensed nebulae and black holes reaching forward in slow, deliberate menace.
CRUNCH!
One arm grabbed hold of the dark fox, squeezing with a force like raging gravity, his body breaking apart into flowing shadows that scattered through the void like a cosmic downpour, each drop silently screaming as reality refused to let him come back together.
BOOOM!!!!!
Another galaxy formed into a massive, faceless warrior of swirling star-matter.
Its limbs forged from dark energy, head a vortex of consumed lightâthrowing a punch of pure law essence that hit a member of the light order, tearing away his false light to reveal raw truth that scorched him from within.
His body began breaking apart in waves of unrelenting honesty until only fading echoes remained.
SCHLRUP!!
POP!
The Void Serpent twisted as the void itself turned against her.
Nearby galaxies morphing into vast, blank maws that bit down with endless hunger, devouring stretches of her infinite body, stars bursting across her scales as reality cast her out, branding her guilty.
It didnât yield at all, pulling her into a vortex of self-devouring lies that imploded, leaving nothing in its wake but a quivering, uneasy silence.
One by one, the eight faced realityâs brutal judgment.
With galaxies merging into massive, faceless giants that struck with black hole fists, lashed out with arms strung with supernovae to strip away existence, and devoured all with mouths of swallowed light.
The very fabric of reality turned into a living executionerâimmense, stunning in its icy precisionâwhile the void echoed with the last whispers of worlds falling apart.
Layla watched without a flicker of emotionâcross-legged in calm suspension, nine-pupiled eyes mirroring the punishments like still water, her silver-purple hair drifting lazily as though in quiet approval.
This was Layla, better known as Lady Truth.
She wasnât a fighter in the usual sense; she didnât have to be. With only a few words, reality itself rose to defend herâthe universe acting as her steadfast, unyielding enforcer.
As she swiftly dealt with the fools who thought they knew better, her focus shifted to the Originats... but more importantly, she waited for Ash to appear once again.
As Lady Truth, she could not live in a lie, and denying her mad love for Ash was quite literally impossible.
Her feelings for him went far beyond merely watching him with her granddaughter.
From the moment she first saw him, she realized he had no fateânothing to him except what was tied to this existence.
She knew his name, his rank, and a few small details, but beyond that, Ash was the greatest mystery she had ever encountered. There was something inevitable about him, as if he could be whatever he chose to be.
In some ways, he was like her, yet entirely different.
She couldnât pinpoint it, even when her feelings began to feel unnatural and she tried to erase them with her Truths.
Still, her heart raced wildly in his presence, her longing for him growing each day.
Not even being married to someone who could be called her perfect counterpart changed that.
"Just what will you show me this time~" she murmured, watching the chaos unfold.
----
And the perfect counterpart he was...
SPLAT!
SPLAT!
SPLAT!
Much like Lady Truth, Archieâbetter known as the Eternal Deceiverâcould be found watching the eight leaders he had brought together die over and over. Much like the Frost Giant, trapped in an endless cycle of death.
The Eternal Deceiver was the complete opposite of Lady Truth.
Where she spoke truths and bent existence to her will, he spun lies and falsehoods that achieved the same effect. His entire life was built on deception; without lies, there was no him, without deceit, he simply did not exist.
He was the ultimate embodiment of deception in all the Lower Dimension, yet for him, it was nothing more than his own truth.
Much like Lady Truth, he possessed a conceptual power that went beyond Precepts.
It was known as a Falsity.
From the moment he arrived, he didnât bother speaking nonsense or worrying if they were aware of his presence. After all, did they truly know the man standing before them?
Did anyone?
The answer was a clear and resounding no.
|Falsity - Deceptive Judgement|
"Youâre all guilty of slaughtering my family, of treating me in the cruelest way imaginable."
Those were the only words heâd spoken since appearing, words that sealed their fate.
From that moment on, reality itself became their executionerâcasting them into blazing suns to be burned to ash, drowning them in endless oceans that swallowed their screams, pulling them through voids where their bodies unraveled into stardust, or imprisoning them in endless labyrinths of collapsing worlds.
Again and again, they met their end in ways both beautiful and merciless, each cosmic punishment as inevitable as the next.
"Ah~ It feels good showing my face every now and then." The Eternal Deceiver spoke with a straight face... It was clear that he didnât feel good about the situation nor did he care. It was but a simple... lie.
On rare occasions, he spoke words that werenât lies, though it was always hard to tell what was real and what wasnât.
In this moment, as he turned to spot Lady Truth watching the Originat with interest from afar, he scoffed.
"Iâve played many roles... brother, lover, betrayer. All for the greater design. But even I lose track sometimes," he said, a lazy smile curling his lips as he too waited to see what Ash would reveal this time.
"Tell me, little brother, how did you stumble upon that strange little world? What was it called again... Earth?"