After returning to the Veyris Eternal Empire...
Kael Veyris remained unusually quiet.
Aurelion noticed.
"You've been thinking."
Kael nodded.
"There is one place I have not visited in a very long time."
Aurelion smiled.
"Then let's go."
Without another word...
The two vanished.
Not through space.
Not through time.
Not through dimensions.
They simply arrived.
Before them stood an endless hall.
There were no walls.
No ceiling.
No floor.
Yet the hall existed.
Countless colossal statues stretched endlessly into the distance.
Each statue depicted a different form of Kael Veyris.
Aurelion looked around in amazement.
"All of these..."
"...are you?"
Kael nodded.
"Every form I have ever taken."
"The Dragon Emperor."
"The Chaos Dragon."
"The Chaos Form."
"The Abyssal Form."
"The Celestial Form."
"The Void Sovereign."
"The Primordial Nothingness."
"And countless others."
Each statue radiated a different presence.
Some shone with infinite light.
Some were formed entirely from living fire.
Others appeared as dragons whose wings stretched beyond infinite realities.
Some resembled vast cosmic oceans filled with countless stars.
Others could not even be understood by perception itself.
Aurelion stopped before one statue.
It had no face.
Only an endless cloak of darkness.
"What form is this?"
Kael answered quietly.
"The Nameless One."
"It is the form I took before names existed."
Aurelion remained silent.
Even he could feel the ancient stillness surrounding it.
Further ahead...
Another statue slowly opened its eyes.
The entire Hall trembled.
Aurelion instinctively stepped back.
"The statues are alive?"
Kael smiled.
"No."
"They are memories."
The statue spoke with a voice older than creation.
"...Creator..."
One by one...
More statues awakened.
A dragon of endless galaxies lowered its head.
A being made of infinite celestial fire knelt.
A colossal eldritch horror with countless eyes folded its tendrils.
A living ocean of darkness became still.
Thousands...
Millions...
Endless manifestations bowed together.
Not out of fear.
But out of recognition.
They were all aspects of the same existence.
The Primordial Nothingness.
Aurelion slowly exhaled.
"I finally understand."
Kael looked toward him.
"What do you understand?"
Aurelion smiled.
"The reason no one can truly define you."
"You aren't a being with many forms."
"You are an existence whose possibilities can never be exhausted."
Kael looked across the endless hall.
"Perhaps."
"But regardless of how many forms I possess..."
He smiled gently.
"I still prefer returning home."
At that moment...
One final statue stood at the very end of the endless hall.
Unlike all the others...
It had no shape.
No color.
No light.
No darkness.
Nothing could be seen.
Yet both Kael and Aurelion knew something was there.
Aurelion whispered,
"What is... that?"
For the first time in countless ages...
Even Kael's expression became solemn.
"That..."
"...is the form I have sworn never to awaken."
Silence filled the Hall of Forgotten Forms.
Even the awakened statues lowered their heads toward the unseen presence.
Kael turned away.
"Come."
"It is not time for that story."
Together...
The two old friends left the endless hall.
Behind them...
The unseen final form remained perfectly still.
Waiting...
As it had since before the first beginning.