The gate before them pulsed with endless light its runes rewriting themselves every second as if the very laws of existence bent to its presence The wolf pup growled playfully while Serath's face drained of color.
Serath: Ryo… do you feel it? This is not a gate between worlds It is the foundation of worlds themselves Behind it lies the First Layer of the Crown Cosmology.
Ryo yawned and adjusted his satchel.
Ryo: First layer? How many layers do they stack before things get interesting?
Serath: Seven… that we know of But some whisper there are infinite crowns each ruling over the one below To stand here without collapsing into nothingness is already impossible for mortals Yet you walk as if it were a garden path.
The gate trembled. The voice of something vast and faceless echoed across every dimension.
Crown Gate: Who dares walk the Spiral of Eternity? Who dares press a hand against the Source of Realms?
Ryo dusted crumbs from his shirt.
Ryo: Me Ryo Just passing through.
The gate shuddered harder as though insulted.
Crown Gate: The multiverse you know in all of fiction or any mortal dream is but a flicker beneath this threshold To open me is to step beyond their highest thrones.
Serath gasped.
Serath: The Crown is acknowledging him… it compares even the greatest pantheons of other realms as nothing more than flickers.
The wolf pup barked once tail wagging as if it understood.
Ryo pressed his palm against the luminous surface The gate's endless runes halted frozen as though something greater than eternity had touched them.
Crown Gate: You should not exist And yet you override the script Enter anomaly Enter strongest one
The gate split apart revealing an ocean of skies stacked upon skies each one birthing countless multiverses each multiverse dwarfing anything known in fiction Stars bloomed like thoughts then died like breaths Worlds collided like sparks Beyond them all a tower of crowns stretched upward without end.
Ryo: Finally Something that looks impressive Let's see if they've got bread shops inside.
Serath staggered forward muttering.
Serath: Ryo… this is only the First Layer of the Crown Cosmology Each higher layer rules everything beneath it If this already dwarfsFictional totality then… what lies above?
Ryo: smirked stepping through the threshold.
Ryo: Guess we'll find out.
And with that the strongest being in fiction entered a cosmology that made the greatest universes of mankind look like fading sparks on a forgotten night.