Later
"...." Caelus is sitting in front of Belle and Wise as they give him a questioning glance. Phil, Trigger, and even Seed had joined in the conversation, standing next to the Phaethon siblings while also giving the young man a questioning glance.
"Well? We're waiting for an explanation," Belle demands.
"...where do you guys want me to start?" Caelus asks honestly.
"How about we start asking the one who scarred our mind, who's the one that laughed earlier?" Wise asks.
"As I told you, THEIR name is Aha, an Aeon of Elation," Caelus explains.
"Yes, but that doesn't answer anything," Trigger points out. "What's an Aeon? And why does the Elation part sound important?"
"...is this why you and Seed enter the store out of nowhere?" Caelus asks with a raised eyebrow. Honestly, with how they interacted earlier, it looks like they were not going to see each other for a while.
"I can't help but know!" Seed pouts. "The laugh was so scary! I don't think I could sleep anytime soon!"
"Please don't humor him, Seed," Trigger sighs before facing Caelus. "And you should stop changing the subject."
"...Aeons are interdimensional beings who have ascended to the higher plane of existence, becoming an embodiment of the Path," Caelus explains. "As for Paths, it's a power drawn from the Imaginary Tree based on the philosophy that the users used."
"..what's an Imaginary Tree?" Phil asks.
"Multiverse," Caelus says in a deadpan manner. If the entire squad had drunk something, they would spit it out in shock.
"...hold on, Multiverse is real?" Belle asks in disbelief.
"The probability of the Multiverse existing was not high, but it was never zero." Fairy chimes in. "Although no one has ever proven its existence and it has always been a simple trope that exists in the Science Fiction media. Currently, only 3 out of 657 Science Fiction stories have used this topic."
"3 out of 657? That's low..." Caelus says with a sweatdrop.
"Fairy's useless trivia asides," Belle says in a deadpan manner, which earns a glare from Fairy. "Is Elation a Path? What kind of Path calls Elation?"
"In simple terms, the Elation philosophy can be summed up as 'The world is nothing but a big fat joke,' and it was not from one perspective," Caelus explains.
"...you're implying people following Elation truly think the world is a joke, or they believe it because of depression?" Trigger asks as Caelus nods.
"Yup," Caelus says. "Aha is a being who embodies the Elation perfectly. He once bestowed his entire power on a worm just to see if it could become a genius and join the ranks of all geniuses in the entire cosmos. His ascension to Aeon-hood is through climbing the Imaginary Tree-!"
"Hold on, aren't Imaginary Tree the multiverse itself?! How can they climb it!?!" Belle feels like her brain is slowly short-circuiting.
"Don't ask me. The story comes from the follower of Aha, so take the story with a grain of salt," Caelus sighs before he is interrupted again.
"They have....followers?" Wise asks in disbelief.
"Did you guys forget? I literally called Aha a god before," Caelus says. "And yes, they have followers. The Masked Fools and the Mourning Actors. They might be more, but they're the famous ones."
"...I think we need to slow down with this explanation." Trigger sighs. "Also...your powers, they're Paths, aren't they?"
"...yup," Caelus confirms, causing everyone to look at him. "For now, I follow the Path of Destruction and Preservation."
"...okay, Destruction is self-explanatory, and Preservation is your force-field ability, right?" Trigger guesses as Caelus nods. "...is following the philosophy of the Path the only way to access such powers?"
"It's...more complicated than that," Caelus scratches his cheek. "But, one main factor is that you need to gain the gaze of the Aeon to confirm that you follow said Path. Sometimes, THEIR gazes could grant the target's powers, but most of the time were just confirmation of the Path you took. It didn't help that a lot of Aeons were...picky."
"...." Phil looks like he had seen the edge of the universe, walking towards the wall with nothing but a blank expression before bashing his head into the locker.
"I start to regret asking..." Belle feels like she needs an ice block to relieve the headache she received just from hearing the information.
"Let's be real, no one is expecting a massive bombshell dropping into us like a ton of industry-grade Ether Explosion," Wise says with a sigh.
"...there are gods?" Seed asks blankly.
"...great, you broke Seed," Trigger says plainly. "And giving everyone an existential crisis."
"You guys are the ones who want to know," Caelus exclaims in disbelief. "Anyways, any questions?"
"I...have a lot," Belle says. "But, something has been bugging me since you started explaining. Is...Hollow caused by whoever follows the Path of Destruction?"
This question caught Caelus off guard, and the entire room fell silent. Of all the questions Caelus had expected, he hadn't expected this.
'...honestly, the Hollow reminds me of the Black Tide in Amphoreus. But that only happens since Lygus adds the Destruction Equation into the scepter created by the Amphoreus. Unless ZZZ is a simulated world and Hollow is the Equation, it's unlikely that Destruction caused the Hollow.' Caelus ponders. '...yeah, this is a bit confusing. I would say destruction has nothing to do with Hollow, given the game creator had confirmed both ZZZ and HSR are separated, but that won't work unless I want them to feel a second existential dread, and my existence here had indirectly attracted Aeons into this universe...'
"Caelus?" Caelus snaps out of his thought as he looks at Belle, who gives him a concerned look. He simply shakes his head before sighing.
"Honestly? I had no idea either." Caelus admits. "Aeons had...influenced the cosmos a lot, but there are worlds that they didn't influence. It's...very confusing...It didn't help that I'm not an all-knowing, because if I were, I would be in the Path of Erudition."
'Although I would like to find out if Aeon did in fact influence this world. Or perhaps the origin of the Hollow. ZZZ hasn't explained a lot of things, and I am still curious even after playing the game for a year. Living in this world only made me curious even more, especially since I don't want to die when Exaltist had gone full insane and decided, 'Let's cover the planet with Hollow instead!'."
Ping! BZZT!
Caelus blinks as his surrounding is filled with nothing but static screens as reality shifts into the Path Space. Caelus wonders what is going on again before his system had displayed itself in front of him.
[Erudition (LVL 0): 1000/1000]
'...I didn't remember filling the bar...' Caelus frowns a bit as he grabs his chin. '...oh, right. Learning how to reverse engineer a military tech and college-level Ether Tech lessons also filled it. But, I'm sure that isn't enough to fill the bar?'
"What is it...?" Caelus ponders as he looks at every Erudition pathstrider, and what do they have in common? The Herta had shown a lot of curiosity about any type of scientific research, specifically Aeon and Divinity. Ruan Mei shows curiosity involving any type of life form. Screwlium shows curiosity about human emotion.
Does Erudition also mean the curiosity of an unknown knowledge and the desire to figure it out?
Ping!
[Erudition (LVL 0): 1010/1000]
'...okay, so I was right...in some ways,' Caelus sweatdrops before looking around and startles to see a giant glowing red orb shine on him like a sun. Caelus winces when he starts hearing loud static noises, and he covers his ears. From all the noise, he could only make out one word.
'Curious...'
'W-what is Nous curious about!? Is it the world of ZZZ?' Caelus thought as red light shone on him and the static noise grew louder.
"G-Gah!" Caelus yells in pain, covering his ears, but to no avail.
'Knowledge...Unknown...Seek...'
Caelus feels lightheaded as he slowly loses consciousness. The last thing he saw was the light glows blue.
[Erudition (LVL 0): 1030/1000]
[Erudition (LVL 1): 30/100]
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A Few Seconds Ago
"C-Caelus!" Everyone yells in panic as Caelus is suddenly covered with static resembling the one they used to see on a broken TV before disappearing from reality.
"W-where did he go!?!" Phil yells in panic as they glance around. Trigger even uses her 'vision,' but there's a lack of 'void' in this room. Caelus's presence is unique to her vision, so she would immediately find him if he's nearby, so it doesn't make sense that he just disappears.
"...c-could it be an Aeon had taken him?" Belle asks in fear, startling everyone. It's the only thing that makes sense, especially after everything. Before they could start speculating, Caelus suddenly popped out of reality and crashed into the chair he was in earlier, looking like he had a severe migraine, and his eyes glowed blue.
"Ugh, y-you could be a little gentler, Nous..." Caelus groans before looking around and winces in pain, closing his eyes and pinching his forehead.
"Caelus!" Everyone exclaims as they start to crowd him.
"G-guys, personal space!" Caelus yells as he glances at them before shutting his eyes and hissing in pain. "Oww, damn it, migraines...."
"A-are you okay?" Phil asks in concern.
"Y-yeah, just met another god..." Caelus groans. "And now, I've got some weird vision that grants me some sort of info, and my head can't keep up with the amount of information inputted into my brain. It didn't help when an advanced tech is nearby, and oh, Aeons, I can see Fairy's entire algorithm! Can somebody drag me out of this room!?! I feel like my head is splitting in two!"
"...HUH!?!!" Everyone yells in disbelief, trying to process what he had just said.
To be Continued