Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 493 The Truth About the Core of Chaos

The tearing force of the spacetime turbulence was like countless blunt knives, every inch of skin feeling the aching pain of bones being squeezed. Yet, the dark purple wings on the guardian's back drew elegant arcs through the turbulence, the runes on their edges shimmering with a dark purple light, like the sharpest blades, deflecting all the incoming energy streams, scattering them into tiny particles of light. He could clearly smell the lingering golden blood aura of the fused entity, a scent that flickered like a candle in the wind, being devoured by a more powerful chaotic force, leaving behind a faint burnt smell.

Passing through the vibrant, turbulent barrier, the full extent of the Chaos Core was revealed—a dark purple planet suspended in the void, a hundred miles in diameter, its surface covered with spiderweb-like black cracks. Within these cracks flowed chaotic power like magma, each pulsation distorting the surrounding spacetime, causing distant stars to appear and disappear in the distance. Twelve colossal black stone pillars surrounded the planet, inscribed with ancient script from the Observer civilization, interspersed with tiny purple crystals, recording the origin of the Chaos Core: "Formed from the very chaos of the Creator God, it was used to balance the entropy of the universe."

The Guardian's Chaos Lightsword suddenly trembled violently, and the five luminous feathers on its blade formed a pentagram that emitted a dazzling golden light, illuminating the back of one of the stone pillars—where the deliberately erased second half of the sentence was engraved, the characters of varying depths, clearly forcibly scraped off with a sharp weapon: "If the observer's bloodline resonates with it, the secret of creation will reappear."

"Finally, my successor has arrived." The voice of the Goddess of Fate came from within the core of chaos, tinged with weariness yet also with anticipation, as if she had waited for a thousand years. Her figure appeared on the planet's surface, still possessing that holy appearance, her white robe embroidered with golden star patterns, while the fifth feather at the top of her scepter emitted a dark purple light of the same origin as the power of chaos, incongruous with the surrounding environment.

The Guardian gripped his lightsaber tightly, the frequency of his wings flapping gradually increasing, the air currents creating ripples in the surrounding spacetime: "Did you capture the fusion?" His gaze was sharp as a sword, fixed on the Goddess of Fate, trying to find the answer in her expression.

The Goddess of Fate chuckled softly, her laughter echoing around the Chaos Core, causing the black stone pillars to tremble slightly. She lightly tapped the void with her scepter, and a crack on the surface of the Chaos Core suddenly widened, revealing the scene within—the fused entity was bound by countless golden chains to a beating, dark purple heart, the size of a room. Each beat produced a muffled sound, and the fused entity's body would twitch. Golden blood flowed along the chains into the heart, forming winding streams on its surface, making the dark purple patterns on the heart even clearer, writhing like a living thing.

"She wasn't captured; she was fulfilling her destiny." The goddess of fate pointed her scepter at the heart, her tone tinged with a barely perceptible envy. "This is the primordial core of the Lord of Chaos, and the other half of the Heart of Spacetime. When my sister and I were vying for the right to create the world, I sealed her core here. Now, only a being who has fused the bloodline of the Observer with the power of Chaos can reactivate it and allow the universe to return to its original balance."

The Guardian's Observer Mark suddenly ignited, the heat spreading through his veins and resonating with the pulse of the Chaos Core. Patterns identical to those on the heart appeared on his wings, shimmering as if echoing the heartbeat: "You've been using me all along? From the Forgotten Library to the Mirror City, it was all your doing?"

"It's guidance, not exploitation." The goddess of fate suddenly appeared before the guardian, so close that the faint sandalwood scent emanating from her robes could be smelled. Beneath her white robes, a section of her arm was revealed, the mark on which was identical to the guardian's observer mark, except that it was surrounded by a halo of intertwined gold and dark purple, the halo resembling two intertwined snakes, constantly rotating. "We are both inheritors of the observer's bloodline, but you haven't yet understood your true identity, haven't yet accepted the chaotic power within you."

She waved for the Guardian to look at the other end of the Chaos Core, where a palace formed from the power of chaos stood. The palace walls were translucent, and the windows reflected countless scenes from different timelines: in some timelines, the Guardian and the man in black perished together, the explosion illuminating the entire galaxy; in others, he successfully activated the Heart of Time but transformed into a star, merging into the embrace of the universe; and in still others, he became the new Lord of Chaos, ruling the universe alongside the Goddess of Fate, his face bearing a cold expression.

"These are all possible futures." The voice of the goddess of fate was seductive, like the whisper of a venomous snake. "The power of balance is not a curse, but the right to choose. You can choose to destroy the core of chaos, allowing the universe to return to a single force of creation, and from then on there will be no more conflict; or you can choose to accept it, become an existence beyond the creator god, and control the destiny of all time and space."

Just then, the Chaos Light Sword was suddenly drawn from its sheath, its blade pointing directly at the throat of the Goddess of Fate. The light on the sword flickered, as if warning something: "The Fusion said that you betrayed the Lord of Chaos and cruelly sealed her away in order to monopolize the power of creation."

The smile on the goddess of fate vanished instantly, replaced by icy rage. The radiant feathers at the tip of her scepter erupted with blinding light, causing the guardian to involuntarily squint: "That's just her side of the story! The Lord of Chaos wants to devour the entire universe with the power of chaos, returning everything to nothingness. I sealed her away to protect all living beings across time and space!" Her figure suddenly blurred, merging with the surrounding chaotic power, her voice echoing from all directions, "You think the wings on your back are the power of chaos? Those are the true form of the observer's bloodline, a gift bestowed upon us by the creator god!"

The Guardian felt a sharp pain shooting through his wings, as if countless needles were piercing them simultaneously. The patterns on his wings began to resonate with the Observer's Mark, forming a complete rune. The light emanating from the rune caused his body to float involuntarily. The pulse of the Chaos Core quickened, and the dark purple heart suddenly erupted with intense light. The fused entity's scream pierced through the light, filled with endless agony: "Don't trust her! The Chaos Core is the Prison of the Creator God. She wants you to become her new jailer, trapped here forever!"

As the merged entity roared, the black stone pillars on the surface of the Chaos Core suddenly shattered, scattering debris and revealing the corpses of the Observer Elders encased within. Their expressions were contorted in agony, clearly indicating the immense suffering they had endured before death. Each had a fragment identical to the scepter of the Goddess of Fate embedded in their chest, still stained with golden blood. New fragments of memory flooded the Guardians' minds: the first generation of Observers had not voluntarily guarded the Chaos Core, but had been forced by the Goddess of Fate to kneel before it and swear a blood oath; the deaths of successive Guardians were not due to the power of balance, but rather were secretly eliminated by the Goddess of Fate, their bodies staged as accidental deaths to prevent them from discovering the truth about the Chaos Core.

"The lies end here!" The Guardian infused the Chaos Lightsword with the power of creation, and the five luminous feathers on the blade, forming a pentagram, suddenly expanded, enveloping the entire Chaos Core. The golden light collided with the dark purple chaotic power, and the resulting shockwave caused the entire Chaos Core to tremble. The cracks on its surface continued to widen, revealing more of its internal structure.

The goddess of fate distorted in the shockwave, like a reflection in water. She roared in anger, her voice filled with despair: "You will destroy everything! Without the balance of the Chaos Core, the universe will be consumed by entropy within a century, and everything will turn to nothingness!" Her scepter suddenly plunged into the Chaos Core, and the dark purple heart began to contract, as if being tightly gripped by an invisible hand. The fused body became transparent at a visible speed, and the golden blood dwindled.

The wings on the guardian's back suddenly detached on their own, transforming into a dark purple arrow of light that shot towards the heart with a whistling sound. The moment the arrow pierced the heart, the dark purple patterns on its surface began to fade, revealing the golden core within—the true Heart of Time and Space, radiating a warm and powerful light. The fused body broke free from its chains, transforming into a golden light that merged into the Heart of Time and Space. The light erupting from the Heart of Time and Space peeled away layer after layer of the Chaos Core's dark purple outer shell, like peeling an onion.

"No!" The fifth feather at the tip of the Goddess of Fate's scepter suddenly shattered, turning into countless golden dust. Her figure grew fainter and fainter, almost disappearing into the air. "I've protected it for so long, not to let everything be reduced to nothing! Everything I've done is for the balance of the universe!"

The outer shell of the Chaos Core completely peeled away, revealing the scene within—a microcosm perfectly fused with the power of creation and chaos, where countless stars were born and destroyed, following the laws of nature, without interference or constraint. The Heart of Spacetime floated at the center of the microcosm, radiating a soft light, and the voice of the fused entity came from within the light, carrying the joy of liberation: "This is true balance, needing neither guardians nor cages, everything follows the laws of nature."

The guardian reached out, wanting to touch the Heart of Time and Space, only to find his body becoming transparent, resonating with the stars in the microcosm. His consciousness gradually expanded, sensing the birth and destruction of every star in the microcosm. He then understood that the price of activating the Heart of Time and Space was not self-sacrifice, but becoming part of the laws of balance, forever protecting the balance of this microcosm and feeling its pulse.

Before the goddess of fate completely vanished, she left behind a final whisper, her voice as soft as a sigh: "In the end, you followed the same path as them, becoming a slave to balance." Where she disappeared, half a broken observer's badge fell, its patterns perfectly matching the guardian's badge, only its color was gold, a stark contrast to his silver badge.

When the Guardian's consciousness fully merged with the Heart of Spacetime, he saw the final image left by the Creator: the Creator was not a solitary being, but rather the collective embodiment of countless observers of spacetime who, at the dawn of the universe, created everything with their own power. The Core of Chaos and the Heart of Spacetime were originally one, but he deliberately separated them so that future generations would understand the true meaning of balance, waiting for the day when someone could reunite them and comprehend the true significance of balance.

Just then, a crack suddenly appeared at the edge of the microcosm, and from it emerged a hand clad in a black robe. The skin on the hand was pale, the nails jet black, and it held the last fragment of the Key of Destiny, a feather of light that emitted a dark purple glow, blending seamlessly with its surroundings. The black-robed figure's voice carried a familiar madness, like the scraping of metal: "Now, it's time to return everything to chaos!"

The guardian attempted to harness the power of the Heart of Time and Space, only to find its consciousness imprisoned within its own cosmos, as if bound by invisible chains. It could only watch helplessly as the black-robed figure inserted the final feather of light into the Heart of Time and Space. The instant the feather was inserted, the Heart of Time and Space's light began to dim, like a candle flickering in the wind. The stars within its cosmos extinguished at a visible speed, transforming into countless dark purple specks of light that merged into the black-robed figure's body.

In the ruins of the Chaos Core, the half of the golden Observer's Badge suddenly resonated with the black stone slab dropped by the Guardian, automatically flying together to form a complete circle. The patterns on the badge began to flow, forming a rune never seen before. The rune shimmered with a light that intertwined gold and dark purple, as if it were brewing some new power. A powerful aura emanated from the rune, causing the entire void to tremble.