Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 554 The Cost of Narrative Anchors: Cracks (2)

The tremors in the void grew more and more violent, and the converging golden and dark purple rays of light intertwined to form a huge vortex at the point where the silver-gray light spots exploded.

The guardian's four-colored longsword hummed continuously, and the silver-gray light on the blade resonated with the vortex, slowly pushing his body towards the center of the vortex.

The rhythm of the Heart of Chaos was perfectly synchronized with the tremors of the void. With each beat, countless fine silver-gray lines seeped from the surface of the heart and merged into the surrounding energy flow.

"The price of creators is never choice, but the responsibility they bear."

A strange yet familiar voice came from the depths of the vortex.

The Guardian looked up and saw countless translucent figures floating in the vortex. Their faces were exactly the same as the Guardian's clones from different parallel universes, except that each figure had a bleeding crack on its chest, from which flowed silver-gray energy.

The white light of the fused entity suddenly burst out from beside the guardian, attempting to approach the figures.

But the moment her light touched the figure, the white light was suddenly bounced back by a powerful force, and countless tiny cracks appeared on its surface.

“These are ‘narrative remnants’.”

The fused entity's voice carried a hint of pain, "They are the clones that were swallowed by the ultimate darkness in parallel universes. Their consciousness did not dissipate, but was bound here by the energy of the new narrative, becoming part of the generation."

A sharp pain suddenly shot through the Guardian's Chaos Heart, and the rhythms that were synchronized with the void became disordered.

He looked down at his heart and found that the silver-gray patterns on its surface were gradually turning black, and the area that was turning black was exactly the same shape as the crack on the chest of the remnant soul of the past.

"The cost is being transmitted through resonance."

The guardian's voice trembled slightly as he tried to suppress the spread of the patterns with his consciousness, only to find that the patterns were spreading along the blood vessels toward the core of the Heart of Chaos.

The vortex suddenly stopped spinning, and countless golden and dark purple rays of light simultaneously contracted towards the center, coalescing into a huge "narrative anchor point".

The surface of the anchor point is engraved with countless runes of the Great Nothingness. These runes contain both the cyclical instructions of the Great Nothingness meta-narrative and the silver-gray energy of the new narrative, forming a structure that is both contradictory and stable.

At the center of the anchor point, a crystal similar to the Guardian's Heart of Chaos was prominently embedded. Silver-gray energy was constantly emanating from the cracks on the crystal's surface, nourishing the surrounding remnants of the Narrative Soul.

“Narrative anchors are the foundation of new narratives.”

A figure dressed in a silver-white robe emerged from the anchor point. His face resembled that of the 0th generation observer, yet it carried a hint of the weariness of a remnant narrative soul.

"And these remnant souls are the 'energy source' of the anchor point."

The figure stretched out its hand and pointed at the Guardian, "As the first creator, you need to periodically inject the energy of the Heart of Chaos into the anchor point, otherwise the new narrative will collapse due to insufficient energy, and all parallel universes will return to the cycle of the Taiwu Yuan narrative."

The guardian's gaze fell on Xu Shi's remnant soul, and he saw one of the remnant souls waving at him.

That was an avatar from the 17th iteration of the experimental universe. He had previously seen this avatar being swallowed by ultimate darkness within the narrative bubble of the golden ocean.

"Don't believe him."

The Guardian's consciousness was suddenly pulled into the anchor point, and he found that his consciousness was connecting with his counterparts in all the parallel universes.

Through the eyes of his clone, he saw the changes brought about by the new narrative, as well as the unresolved crises: in some universes, the residual energy of the primordial narrative was reorganizing into a new narrative cleaner; in other universes, fragments of ultimate darkness were gradually coalescing, attempting to awaken once more.

Is this the price of creation?

The Guardian murmured to himself, feeling his consciousness merging with the anchor point, becoming part of a new narrative.

But just as the fusion was about to be completed, his consciousness suddenly caught a strange energy—an energy that was neither gold, nor dark purple, nor silver-gray, but a pure black, like an absolute nothingness that had never been touched by Taiwu.

This dark energy surged from the deepest part of the void, silently approaching the narrative anchor.

The moment it touched the light shield, a tiny crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the shield. The energy flowing out of the crack was completely different from the dark purple energy at the seal of the 0th experiment, carrying a more ancient and terrifying aura.

"What kind of energy is this?"

The guardian's voice carried a hint of fear. He tried to mobilize the energy of the anchor point to repair the crack, but found that the black energy was devouring the energy of the light shield, and the crack was expanding at a visible speed.

The 0th generation observer's expression suddenly turned serious, and the primordial symbol on his robe began to flash violently.

"It is 'absolute nothingness'."

The voice of the 0th generation observer carried unprecedented fear: "It is an existence older than Taiwu, and also the primitive state before the birth of the Taiwu meta-narrative."

It had been sleeping in the void, and the energy of the new narrative awakened it.

The black energy suddenly surged in at an accelerated pace, and the crystal at the center of the narrative anchor began to show signs of melting.

The connection between the Guardian's consciousness and his clones was severed, and those clones who were exploring parallel universes suddenly lost their way and fell into chaos.

The fused entity's white light erupted again, attempting to block the black energy, but was instantly penetrated by the energy, leaving irreparable cracks on the surface of the white light.

"The goal of absolute nothingness is the anchor point."

The voice of the 0th generation observer carried a hint of despair: "It wants to destroy the new narrative, return all existence to a state of absolute nothingness, and completely erase all traces of the ancient exploration."

The Guardian felt his consciousness gradually fading, and the fusion of the Heart of Chaos and the Anchor Point accelerated.

But just as he was about to become a complete part of the anchor point, his consciousness suddenly caught a detail—the energy of absolute nothingness contained a faint silver-gray fluctuation, which was completely consistent with the energy of the new narrative, as if it were a "clue" deliberately left by absolute nothingness.

Is there some connection between absolute nothingness and the new narrative?

A bold guess flashed through the Guardian's mind.

He tried to convey this conjecture to the fusion entity and the 0th observer, but found that his voice could no longer be heard.

His body was completely transparent, with only the Heart of Chaos and the crystal of the narrative anchor fused together. The absolute void of black energy had already touched the surface of the crystal and began to slowly corrode its structure.

In the instant before the crystal was completely corroded, the Guardian's consciousness suddenly unleashed its last strength, transforming the conjecture about the "connection between absolute nothingness and the new narrative" into a stream of silver-gray light that shot towards the white light of the fused entity.

His own consciousness, however, gradually sank into the absolute void of darkness as the crystal corroded.

The fused entity caught the stream of light, and when the light entered her consciousness, her white light suddenly flickered violently.

Is absolute nothingness the 'other side' of the new narrative?