"I seriously doubt thatâs the case... I honestly think another faction has stepped into this war."
Victorious slowly turned to face Destiny, her golden eyes narrowing as she studied the other woman.
For a long moment, she didnât speak.
The distant, low rumbling of the Prime Expanse cracking continued in the background, a constant reminder of how unstable things had become.
She let out a quiet breath through her nose.
"I seriously doubt thatâs the case," Victorious said, her voice calm but firm.
"Another faction stepping into this war... that would mean another being on the level of the Father and the Mother has appeared."
She shook her head slightly, her expression grim.
"From everything we know, thatâs impossible."
From her words, it was clear they knew nothing of the First Absence or Minx.
Unlike her actions in the True Realities, Minx wasnât fond of the Prime Expanse.
On top of that, the beings of this Realm had never learned of the Mother and Father firsthand, nor had they ever seen them.
Still, through ancient texts and legends, it wasnât too difficult to piece together a rough picture.
And thatâs without even mentioning the War theyâd all been fighting since before most of them could remember.
Destiny stayed silent, simply standing there as the breeze teased strands of her silver hair across her face, the faint gust carrying a whisper of coolness over the balcony.
Victorious folded her arms, the polished crimson plates of her armor catching the fractured light above, each reflection sharp against the shifting sky.
"So," she went on, her tone steady but laced with curiosity, "what exactly is it youâre asking me to help you with?"
Destiny was quiet for a few seconds.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked out over the deteriorating expanse, watching as distant concepts fractured and faded into nothing.
When she finally spoke, her voice was lower, more serious.
"...Iâm not sure," she admitted. "At first, I thought this was something only personal to me. But with things reaching this point..." She paused, then turned her head to look directly at Victorious.
"Iâm no longer certain this only concerns me."
She took a small step closer.
"So, before we start talking about what you owe me... maybe we should figure out exactly what weâre dealing with first.
Whateverâs going on here, itâs more than just someone messing with my threads. And if we donât get to the bottom of it soon, I have a feeling neither of us is going to like how things turn out."
Victorious met her gaze and held it, letting the weight of Destinyâs words sink in. The balcony gave a faint shudder again as another distant rupture rolled through the Threshold.
At last, Victorious gave a slow, deliberate nod.
"...Alright," she said. "Iâll help you. But if this ends up being something even, we canât handle..."
At this point, it wasnât really about figuring out if the situation was beyond them.
If the person or faction behind it had enough power to completely impact the entire Prime Expanse, then it was clearly far more than they could normally handle.
As mentioned, they were Wardensâjust two of the countless foot soldiers serving the Prime Expanse.
For them, free time like this was a rare treat, with most of their time swallowed up by the relentless chaos of the battlefield.
Yet, the dangers they faced werenât without purpose.
As in all wars and armies, there was always the chance to earn meritâenough to rise through the ranks and elevate oneâs standing beyond that of a mere Warden.
With that thought in mind, Victorious was never one to refuse a favor, especially when there was something in it for her.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and called upon her talent, letting its power awaken within her.
|Victory Sight (Lower)|
At this stage of power, all beings within the Prime Expanse were Metaâbeings capable of wielding power at the 5th Wall.
This meant they could all tap into the greater narrative to some degree.
But this wasnât the next step in a hierarchy of ranks; in fact, there were no more ranks, per se, but rather a shared path of progression that each undertook to transform their very existence.
From the moment one was either born into or ascended into the Prime Expanse, they would typically become an idea.
And what were Ideas?
They were exactly what people thought about every dayâquite literally.
Take Destiny, for example.
As her name stated.... She was an Idea of Destiny, though her nature was far more intricate.
Like many, she held the title of Warden, marking her as a Lower Ideaâthe Lower Idea of Inevitable Paths.
This meant that, like all beings, she didnât rely on external skills, talents, or tools.
She was the embodiment of everything one could conceive regarding Inevitable Paths.
With a single thought, she could wield her powers without limit, and the only ways to oppose her were through someone vastly stronger, a true counterpart, or another in the same thresholdâbut operating on a much higher level.
And just like Victorious, every other being only held one talent that marked their level of an idea and one that would constantly evolve with them.
----
So, in this moment as she used her Victory Sight...
HUMMM!!!
A faint pulse of golden light flickered across her body before her eyes snapped open.
Instead of their usual sharp golden color, they now glowed with a swirling mix of
red and white
, the colors shifting like liquid as her talent took hold.
She fixed her gaze on the fracturing sky and the deteriorating layers of the Prime Expanse stretching out before her.
With clear intent, she focused on a single question.
Who is the cause behind the deterioration of the Prime Expanse?
The moment the question formed in her mind, the vision struck her.
First, she saw the
Lower Framework
.
What she witnessed made her entire body go cold.
There was nothing left.
Where entire Realities, multiverses, and endless layers of existence should have been, there was only pure, empty white void.
No laws, no concepts, no manaânothing left of what had once existed beneath the Prime Expanse.
It was as if someone had reached down and cleanly erased everything beneath them, leaving behind nothing but blank, hollow space.
Seeing this... Victoriousâs breath hitched.
"The l... lower framework is gone?"