"It is called Provenance? How interesting..."
John now had the key needed to access this space. You might think he could use his artifact to go there. He couldn't! Not even an astral gateway would allow him to reach this spot.
So how did that rank 7 wizard reach this space?
An exploit! You see. The concepts in Provenance spend all their time 'dreaming'. Within their dreams lie endless multiverses.
Even now. John was within the 'dream'. Just like how original incarnations are the foundation of the universe. Concepts are a step above.
So what did this rank 7 do? He became a 'nightmare'. He woke up one of the concepts. But he did so by manipulating their dream. He hitched a ride through their own power.
That is how he entered Provenance.
So John just needed to scare the renderer of reality.
He needed to scare the master of the universe he was in. Currently he was in the collapsed wizard world universe.
John's body began to become incomprehensible. He started to look like an eldritch entity.
His illusory disguise also shifted.
Making it look like there were millions of himself. It was all an illusion though.
He used his artifact to transport himselft to the edge of the broken multiverse container.
He couldn't see the source of the concept. But he turned his head and used his eyes. He reached beyond the universe.
He was trying to infect whatever concept was seeing this. But John's approach was entirely wrong. He was operating off of incorrect information.
There was no concept rendering his current universe. Concepts create multiverses through their dreams. But the universes are real. They aren't dreams. To pull off what he wanted to do. He would need perfect timing.
He had already missed his chance.
After seeing no reaction. John reverted back to a human form.
"Fuck."
"Maybe..."
John started to think.
"From my understanding. It is in fact overgods that render existence. Not concepts. Nor gods. There is one place where I can acquire the power I need to construct a concept."
"Maybe Gaia can help..."
John formed a brain in his skull with the pattern needed to have the ability to open the chaos realm. A red portal opened up.
He stepped in.
He easily navigated the chaos.
He found the road zero had built in the chaos realm. He followed it... he then saw something that surprised him.
A door made of roots.
"Gaia!"
The door opened and he was sucked in.
He saw an infinite stone maze. A floating island and tree abomination sitting on a throne.
Gaia spoke:
"What do you want?"
John said:
"I wish to enter Provenance!"
Gaia laughed. It felt like someone was scratching a nail on metal.
"Even I would not dare to enter that place. You will be going to your death."
John laughed.
"I don't really do the whole dying thin-"
John saw reality warp as he was ejected out of Gaia's sea of consciousness.
He looked around confused. He saw many entities floating in space completely still.
All various colors. With a body made of space and stars.
He was in! He had reached Provenance...
All of these concepts had their eyes closed. John felt extreme danger.
They all opened their eyes and stared at him.
John was blasted with the concepts attacks. He did something unexpected that even surprised the concepts.
He lowered his defenses completely.
"Bring it on!"
He charged at the blast of reality warping attacks. His body began to disintegrate.
"Endless pressure! It makes the diamond!"
That's right! John was using concepts to push his limits! He needed to experience distress. He needed to experience a calamity.
His body was tough. But this was on another level.
He used his ability 'Lifesteal'.
He began to absorb the attacks. His body went through a cycle of destruction and creation. Death and rebirth.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
John realized something important when Zero destroyed his global existence. It was in that 1 second before losing consciousness. That was the second he had converted billions of experiences into a pattern over the skin of his body on the quantum level...
When the cards are down. When he is about to lose. When it is the end of the story for him.
That is when he is most excited! That is when he does the incomprehensible!
So he even wondered himself...
What would he do this time?
He looked forward to it!
"Ahhhhh!!!"
He felt the pain of getting erased by concepts to be a new type of pain. But he realized something...
Through the stimulation of these concepts. It was as if they had awakened something inside of him. Think of riding a bike. After you learn how to. Even if you go years without riding. It only takes a few moments to pick it back up.
Even John didn't know this. But he had the 'etching' of something legendary about him. What was this? It was his concept 'Emflowcreagen'.
It was long gone.
it no longer existed in the cosmic order.
But a blue star was shining in his eyes.
A wave of blue energy exploded from his body stopping all attacks
He was starting to remember it. Remember the power he once wielded.
He cracked his knuckles.
Half his body was missing. His eyes were bloodshot. He felt an itch on the level of soul. But he was manic! He was happy!
"I have to thank you Zero."
John rushed at the concepts. They rushed at him. A legendary battle between a 'mortal' named John Destinatus and the concepts that dreamed reality began.
John experienced having himself erased.
John experienced having himself killed.
John experienced having his soul shattered.
John experienced having his will stressed.
But he could respawn! Don't forget! He still had his calamity system! A lot of functions were broken. But respawning on the spot was allowing him to survive this battle.
His calamity system should've been destroyed with his will... but the etching of his concept saved him.
With each death.
The etching of his concept was growing stronger.
The fight went on for 10,000 years...
The concepts ironically had no 'concept' of time. To them. A second might as well of passed. But they were dealing with John.
Everytime he respawned. His energy was completely restored.
10,000 years...
100,000 years...
100,000,000 years...
Now even the concepts themselves were getting annoyed. They then made a mistake. They tried tracing back John's origins and erasing that to destroy this 'virus'.
John's eyes opened wide in shock.
You see. During this battle. John had absorbed so much energy from Lifesteal. That even he found it ridiculous.
He felt as if he was touching upon something mysterious. His fighting style was also in constant refinement. He was subconsciously fighting the same way concepts fought.
He was attacking soul and will. He was erasing existence...
Funnily enough, if John had came here with his Emergence Point. He wouldn't have made such progress. He was evolving from the near death experiences.
The concepts weren't idiots. They weren't spamming the same attack.
Every single second of the battle. They erased John in a different way. John was learning their moves from them himself.
A attack wouldn't work on him more then once.
After over a hundred million years. The etching for his concept awakened. His eyes were glowing blue as he smacked the attacks of the concepts away.
His body started to glow blue.
He then saw 'it'.
Emflowcreagen! It had revived... but he wasn't 'it'.
He got into a battle with the very concept he had created.
The other concepts had him surrounded.
He couldn't escape.
He felt 'tired'.
The mental stress finally caught up to John.
A hundred million years was his limit...
John closed his eyes. He was so tired.
"I lost..."
He closed his eyes and began to fall into nothingness.
His concept caught him though instead of killing him. It began to fuse with him. But it would take too much time.
The other concepts tried to attack him. His system had shattered. He no longer even had the calamity system.
Because when his concept revived. He had lost the last etching he had.
This was the end of the story.
But then something unexpected happened.
When his calamity system was destroyed. So was his storage space. It had collapsed. Why was this important? Inside was his artifact!
Inside the artifact were the souls of Deathless.
The energy he had accumulated from the concepts leaked from his body empowering the souls reforming their bodies.
Back when John had formed Deathless. He had given them new names. What he didn't calculate however was that the names they got for their identity back then would be the concept they would inherit energy from!
A woman who had the number '1' woke up in Provenance. She was Life. She had absorbed the concept for lifes energy.
A man who had the number '2' woke up as well. He was Blasphemy. He absorbed the concept of Blasphemy.
This happened for every soul in Deathless that remained.
#4 a woman named Vitality.
#5 a woman named Intuition.
#6 a man named Knowledge.
#7 a man named Fate.
#8 a woman named Curse.
#9 a man named Mystery.
#10 a man named Calamity.
#11 a man named Boon.
#12 a man named Purpose.
#13 a man named Pride.
#14 a man named Inspiration.
#15 a woman named Guardian.
#16 a woman named Dowager.
#17 a woman named Golem.
#18 a woman named Sloth.
#19 a woman named Wrath.
#20 a woman named Envy.
All of these souls reformed their bodies. Their bodies were also similar to John's abyssal body. Thanks to it being made from the concept corresponding to their names.
You would think they would be confused about the situation. But they were not. The energy they absorbed also had the memories of John.
They saw his legendary battle. They felt proud to have such a master.
So what did they do?
They blessed John!
"Blessing of Life!" - Imprints the existence with 'Life'.
"Blessing of Blasphemy!" - Imprints the existence with 'Blasphemy'.
"Blessing of Vitality!" - Imprints the existence with 'Vitality'.
"Blessing of Intuition!" - Imprints the existence with 'Intuition'.
"Blessing of Knowledge!" - Imprints the existence with 'Knowledge'.
"Blessing of Fate!" - Imprints the existence with 'Fate'.
"Blessing of Curse!" - Imprints the existence with 'Curse'.
"Blessing of Mystery!" - Imprints the existence with 'Mystery'.
"Blessing of Calamity!" - Imprints the existence with 'Calamity'.
"Blessing of Inspiration!" - Imprints the existence with 'Inspiration'.
These blessings had different effects.
Life - The existence cannot die.
Blasphemy - The existence can bend the rules.
Vitality - The existence will have endless vitality.
Intuition - The existence can understand things without data.
Knowledge - The existence can grasp infinite opportunity.
Fate - The existence can mess with fate.
Curse - The existence can curse other entities.
Mystery - The existence is hidden.
Calamity - The existence can mess with probability.
Inspiration - The existence will be inspired.
John opened his eyes in shock. He was in the arms of his concept. Getting attacked by other concepts while those in Deathless protected him.
He felt the blessings and even without his calamity system. He felt divine inspiration.
He first used his blessing of Knowledge to grasp at infinite opportunity. He also tampered with fate and calamity. Making the probability of what he was about to try higher.
He used Inspiration to think of how to best utilize this power. He used intuition to feel the rythm of the universe.
10% fused with his concept.
The people in Deathless were getting wiped out.
John began to tap into his existence through his Intuition and Knowledge.
20% fused with his concept.
Only seven members of Deathless remained.
John began to construct his Origin.
30% fused with his concept.
Five members left.
40% fused...
Three members left.
50% fused...
Everyone in Deathless had sacrificed themselves to allow John to make it so far.
The concepts attacked John one more time. His concept jumped in front of him and was destroyed. He only had made it to half fusion.
This had weakened his concept making it vulnerable.
John thought back to Deathless.
"I said... Even in death! You shall not know rest!"
John was full of fighting spirit! He charged at the concepts. He had no system. If he was wiped out one more time. He would be a goner.
He dodged the attacks using his Intuition.
He held on to this life by a thread.
John held both hands out and put his palms facing eachother. The blessings he had recieved began to manifest themselves as an object.
He compressed this object into a tiny particle. He then infused it with the entire 50% of his concept he had absorbed.
John began to talk to himself.
"You know... I quite like blowing things up."
"I am the one that collapsed the abyss."
"You know what else I am?"
Trillions of lines of code formed on the point mass in his hands. This was the combined effort of Deathless, his concept, and multiple lives of accumulation.
"I am the Origin of Calamity."
The point mass ignited.