Spending more and more time studying the intricate wonders of the Heavenly Way, Alexander was still cross-legged, patiently waiting until he fully comprehended the Heavens' structure.
As usual, time flew by and he himself aged without it showing.
Alexander did not know how old he currently was. After attempting to comprehend the Heavens a few hundreds of millions of years ago, he had yet to even fathom how aged he truly was.
Five hundred million years old?
A billion perhaps?
Even more?!
Alexander thought that somewhere around seven hundred millions was a rather crude yet credible possibility.
He had spent so much time, but to his own perception, it felt like a distant dream.
Compared with the boring and tedious tribulation, this layer was much, much more profound. It also lacked the pain the tribulation did, which might have helped.
The Heavens were a subject much more complicated than he first imagined.
To birth the Heavens, Alexander first started with small scaled experiments, ranging from creating an artificial intelligence inside multiple Universes to one above the Celestial Realm.
It concluded with the Celestial Realm being the pivot point of the whole maneuver. Without the best Heavens he could muster for the Celestial Realm, there was no point in even continuing.
After this incredibly important discovery, Alexander ended up with different options. The most enticing one was to birth the Heavens like any other being within his Multiverse. And after enslaving it, use it like a servant.
The problem was... how to? There was no creature he could reference to or use. He preferred safety, and luckily, Valtos wanted him to be safe as well. Or more so, wanted Alexander to attain great heights as to become useful to the Dark Wall.
This meant that a set of information had previously been transferred to his mind. And after some referencing, Alexander knew how to further proceed.
Creating something inside one's own internal world was not difficult in any way. Of course it would only be possible to create something that the one in question understood.
But Alexander understood. And therefore, could and did manage to create a proper Heaven. This being was sentient, but honestly quite lacking in the intelligence and knowledge departments. Alexander felt like this singular Heaven was like a pet. A trained pet.
It could follow simple orders and do simple tasks.
There was only one thing left to do.
Alexander could only let it grow and comprehend. Let the Heaven birth new consciousnesses and become the true Heavens.
Thankfully, his internal world's speed was still mind confusing. The flow of time was so broken, anyone experiencing its scenery would immediately vomit and perish under the amount of information thrown at them.
Seeing worlds spin so fast they left optical illusions or watching energies spread and move around like a psychedelic storm was just stupidly dangerous to witness.
But to beings capable of flying at insane speeds freely, such a scene was at worst nauseating. Especially with a strong mind, where such problematic occurrences could be ignored at will.
As for Alexander himself, as the owner and literal absolute entity of this Multiverse, he felt nothing wrong.
Therefore, with the screwed time flow, the Heaven's consciousness, which looked like a green ball of flesh, squirmed around before spreading at breakneck speed.
The green flesh turning into something different, as if the roots of a tree, engulfed Alexander's Origin Core.
The Celestial Realm completely covered, Alexander saw smaller pieces of green flesh gradually fall down and pierce through the Celestial Realm in question, landing some time later above the Universes.
These smaller pieces also turned into enormous green roots, spreading and coiling around the Universes' upper portions.
'Oh... so that's how the Heavens actually look like...'
'Could've been worse to be fair.'
Alexander was not aware of how much time had elapsed since then. This stage, while only a matter of patience near the beginning, still took a hefty amount of time.
'After consolidating my cultivation to the Origin Realm's peak, I'll see how my experiments are going. They should be done by now, no?' Laughing, Alexander closed his eyes and let his internal world move freely.
.
.
.
Opening his eyes, Alexander was quite excited to see his experiment's progress. How much could he learn from this? In the worst case he would be able to rule out their probabilities for later purposes.
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Entering the sealed world, Alexander landed inside a giant white space.
And, far into the distance, a small red dot could be perceived.
With his powerful vision, Alexander already knew what it was.
'Why is my clone red? It almost looks like it's using [Wrath State]... Well I can't really complain, red is probably a sign of success. Red is the color of primordiality after all!'
'Actually, why is it so big? It's five times taller than me now-'
Interrupting his thoughts was his giant clone's grave tone.
"Are you Alexander? This body's main? What a great surprise! Now, I can just kill you and take over the Realms once more!!"
Frowning deeply at the rude and nefarious voice, Alexander was about to ask something when he abruptly narrowed his eyes before bending his back, evading a sudden red fist.
Taking a step back, Alexander was shocked. His clone, that at best should have been near the Primordial Harmonization Realm, was actually comparable to someone in the Universe Realm!
'What the hell is goin-' Bending his neck to his right, Alexander dodged another brutal punch by a hair's breadth.
"Can you not?" Sending a right kick to his clone as a response, Alexander saw it catch it with relative ease, but even so, it could not stop the shockwave from spreading.
The red clone's stomach pierced through, it jumped backward, inspecting the damage.
"Maybe I have underestimated you..."
"Are you stupid? I am at the peak of the Origin Realm while you are around the Universe Realm. What did you expect moron?" Sighing, Alexander looked perplexed by the clone's sudden changes. But it did not matter, after absorbing its soul, Alexander would receive all of the necessary answers.
"Well, for someone so weak... being able to even stand in front of this Deity is quite remarkable indeed! But even your stable mind won't be able to save you!" The clone's eyes turning redder than ever, with veins bulging everywhere, the clone's size grew even more.
After attaining a height twenty times Alexander's own, the clone launched itself at him like a predator ready to feast on fresh meat.
'I guess I could try it out, maybe it's useful for things below the Origin Tribulation layer.' Clearly unimpacted by the clone's grandiose act, Alexander circulated his Origin Energy before sending a palm strike toward the gigantic red clone above him.
Noticing the sudden sparks of blue lightning crackling around his opponent's arm, the red clone widely opened its eyes in denial.
"What?! How does a trash like you..!!!"
"Huh?" Confused by the horrified clone above, Alexander saw his palm strike's shockwave imbued in the Heavens' understanding blast the clone apart like nothing.
"..."
"What 'Deity'? Why did I even take this seriously..." His shoulders falling from disappointment, Alexander, just a motion away from collecting the clone's soul, saw the remaining head abruptly move.
"How dare you?!! Using the powers of the Heavens... traitor! How dare you attack me?! I am... the Greater...!" Its voice fading from the incoming death, it spewed out its last words with clarity and pure hatred.
"...Primordial..."
"Deity..!!"
"I..."
"will..!"
"...remember..."
"...your sin!!"
"Okay. Don't worry, I'll remember to not remember your words, don't even mention it."
Gritting its teeth, the red clone's decapitated head slowly closed its eyes with clear unwillingness.
'So, onto that soul...' Collecting said soul, Alexander carefully examined it before swiftly absorbing it.
His casual demeanor careless about some remnant soul or consciousness froze on the spot.
While Alexander somewhat expected that being to be a remnant of a much stronger being, the clone's soul contained... breathtaking information.
'Well... this is actually problematic, very problematic!'
A set of blurry and incomplete memories surging, Alexander felt pain within his chest.
The pain came from around his Reversed Heart acupoint. The suffering he experienced was, however, not even close to the sheer mess his mind currently was. He knew the dangers to be null. He would live past this trouble without issues, but the discomfort was still there.
And without any prior warning, he blacked out.
Opening his eyes, Alexander's dream took place, or more so, the being's dream. Or maybe its former life.
Alexander inspected himself with some confusion, lacking proper lucidity. Seeing himself incredibly tall, he also recognized the red color of his skin.
Taking a closer look, he could feel this color to be artificial, or maybe unintentional. It was as if a red aura coated his entire body. As for his size, Alexander had no real comparison to make. Nothing around him looked out of place, everything scaled correctly.
However...
Opening his eyes wide, Alexander noticed his fancy clothes to be made from peculiar materials. This revelation surged his true memories, gifting him back some lucidity.
'Primordial Human!'
The clothes he wore were made from countless worlds. But the most shocking part was the scenery. He was currently under a blue sky, white clouds drifting around sparsely.
A few yellow stairs upfront, he walked to their summit.
Immediately, a baffling sense of immersion and ambition surged within him, a golden balustrade blocking him from falling a far distance below. And beneath was a true sea of people.
All of them were Primordial Humans!
Alexander estimated there to be thousands upon thousands of them just near him, let alone across this strange yet somehow familiar world.
'What is-' Unable to finish his confused thoughts, his body moved on its own, speaking loud and clear words of dominance.
"I, the Greater Primordial Deity, declare our Half-@fsAjè\H Continent to now truly be the @fsAjè\H Continent!!" The man's words heard like a broken game or system, Alexander felt his mind go numb from the specific word alone.
"The Realms are ours!! This is... our..." The voice calming down, or more so baffled and angered, the body's true master stared at the now clouded sky in unrestrained wrath. Below the balcony, the sea of people was not angered, but downright horrified. And among them, hurried discussions caused an uproar.
"Didn't the Lord say we would be the @fsAjè\H Continent? So why are the Heavens..."
"No!!" Screaming one after the other, they all realized the madness of their Lord, the Greater Primordial Deity.
"Did the Lord... do so without their agreement?! This is taboo! What did the Lord do?!!"
"Why must we suffer from a crazed Lord?!"
The dark cloudy sky abruptly enlightened by countless sparks of blue lightning, crackling with thunderous roars, it caused the fabric of reality to shiver incessantly.
"Heavens!! How dare you go against this Deity?! How dare you!! I am the most powerful being, none can defy me!!!"
Before the so called Deity could finish its words, a bolt of lightning thicker than anything Alexander ever witnessed fell upon him.
"Ahhhh!! I will not forget this! I am Immortal! The Heavens cannot hinder my growth, cannot stop my rise, and can only kneel in front of me!!"
Feeling the being's pain and suffering, as well as the Heavens' powerful means, Alexander was completely lost. Nothing he could do made a difference, and his screams resounded with the Deity's.
"You cannot deny it!! I am the true sovereign of the Realms! The true master of the world! Even you cannot halt my future! My fate is not within your hands! It will always remain with me, because I am @fsAjè\H!!!"
A bolt even thicker than before crushing both him and Alexander, the world shattered and reality collapsed.
The blue sky turned into a chaotic mess of energies, distant clouds covering both top and bottom.
"I will never forgive this!! I..."
"...will...remain!!"
The Greater Primordial Deity exploding in a mist of pure redness, Alexander could not witness the memories any longer, his mind on the verge of collapse.