The path ahead shimmered like liquid light, twisting and folding upon itself. Every step Lui took felt heavier, not from gravity, but from the weight of existence itself pressing down on him. He had seen worlds being born, timelines weaving, dreamlands folding—but now, something else stirred in the infinite void.
A presence emerged. Vast. Overwhelming. Beyond comprehension.
"Who… are you?" Lui whispered, his voice trembling as the words echoed across the endless expanse of reality.
The air thickened. Stars flickered. The Dreamroot itself seemed to pause, holding its breath.
"I am… The First Silence Before All Concepts," the voice resonated—not as sound, but as truth, vibrating directly through Lui's consciousness.
Lui stumbled back, awe and terror colliding. His mind screamed, trying to comprehend a being that existed before all concepts, before all reality, before even thought itself.
"You… created all of this?" he asked, gesturing toward the endless cosmology stretching in every direction. Void World, Chaos World, Dream Worlds, infinite timelines—all radiating from the presence of the Silence.
"I did not create in the way mortals understand," the Silence replied. "I walk. Existence follows. Concepts, worlds, life, death, time, space… they are the echoes of my movement. To call it creation is merely naming what naturally flows from what I am."
Lui swallowed hard. "Then… why? Why walk? Why create all of this?"
A pause. The Silence's presence pulsed, vibrating through reality itself. "Because there is no why. There is only movement. There is only the unfolding. What you call reason is a human perception. I am the first motion. I am the origin. I am the Silence before all things. And yet, all things are my echo."
Lui's chest tightened. The magnitude of the being before him, the truth of the infinite cosmology, threatened to shatter his mind. And yet… he felt something else. A spark of purpose. A calling.
"I… I want to understand," Lui said, his voice firmer now. "I want to follow. I want to see it all. I want to know what it means."
The First Silence's presence pulsed again, a ripple across all existence. "Then walk. Observe. Learn. But remember—understanding comes with responsibility. To witness infinity is to carry infinity within. Many cannot endure it. You… may."
And with that, the Silence moved onward. Each step reshaping the Dreamroot, each movement birthing and folding countless worlds, each pause echoing the truth of everything that ever was and ever will be.
Lui took a deep breath. His journey had shifted. No longer was he merely following Andreas or seeking fragments of knowledge. Now, he was walking alongside the first motion of existence itself, striving to understand the being that was the origin of all things.
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