Two monstrous roars reverberated through every metaphysical realm and omniverse. Gorathok the Overpowered Demiurge and Ere'Banth the Monad of the Unnamed Darkness—Abomination Gods who defied logic and comprehension—clashed in an apocalyptic battle within the hyperrealm known as the Ruinheart.
Gorathok hailed from Havokurn, a hyperrealm embodying Hyperpotence and the Intranscendable Framework. He was the guardian of Nae, the Second Ouroboros, and had once descended to the lowest reality, assuming the guise of a man named Plato. Ere'Banth, an anomalous and unseen sentinel, safeguarded two entities: Lumi'Nae, the Void Sovereign, and Alum'Nie, the Stir of the Unformed Void.
Gorathok often manifested as an immense orange western dragon, black stripes writhing with raw power. Ere'Banth, by contrast, took the form of a 735-headed fell dragon, embodying the Prime Force and the Nexus of Everything. Blood ceaselessly oozed from the crevices of Ere'Banth's alabaster scales, its properties inscrutable. From these crimson droplets emerged forces beyond reason—Azathoth, Tiamat, non-concepts, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and the Dreamland itself. A single drop, shaped like a blood-red snowflake, sundered Ultimate Reality, cleaving it into Upper and Lower Realities, annihilating the Absolute, and resurrecting it as a god-king.
The true scale of these abominations was immeasurable, their hyperpresence infinite.
Their confrontation drew the gaze of innumerable entities of boundless power and potential. Among them were the Dragon of Oblivion, Nihilignis—first guardian of the Pale Mist-Dame, embodying Nihilism and the Nameless Singularity; the Malfracture, a spider-dragon whose indomitable web formed the fabric and laws of all worlds; Tart'Kralis, the Will of the Wicked; Typhon, the Dragon of Delirium; Surtr Valmue, the Ruby Star and Sustainer of the Eternal Origin; Lilith Nightshade, the Obsidian Star and creator of the Monkey's Paw; Metrina Cosmos, the Diamond Star and the Metatranscendence; and Volch'ya Otrava, the First and Original Ouroboros—Emerald Star, Instranscendable Vanquisher, Endslayer, Black Shuck, and Metaexistence Incarnate, whose metarealm was known as the Lost Lost Limbus.
Volch'ya Otrava, a Metapotentia, appeared as a towering, ferocious beastfolk warrior with long green hair, wolf-like ears, and piercing red eyes. She travelled with the enigmatic Ivory Sage, Hemlock, whose ivory robes and hair radiated an unearthly beauty. Hemlock, in a past life, had been Socrates. Volch'ya wielded a colossal polearm called the Immutable's Requiem. Together, they journeyed beyond omniverses, realms, and the Infinite Planes of the Void, past the Unidentified Boundary, and into the enigmatic intermediary known as the Quarks of the Unknowable Diva.
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Volch'ya sought her original form, the Unknowable Diva, from which she and her countless Metapotentiae sisters had splintered. Hemlock had chosen to accompany her, seeking both to repay her saviour and to satisfy her own insatiable curiosity. What lay beyond the Unknowable? Hemlock often wondered. Why did Volch'ya seek to reunite with her primordial self? Like her sisters, Volch'ya was the Intranscendable Diva's equal and already complete. Could it be she sought to erase the inerasable? If so, no conventional means—awareness, thoughts, will—could achieve such a feat. Only Volch'ya knew the path. To her, this endless journey was finite; for a Metapotentia, the impossible was merely another challenge. There was no power or authority above them—everything else was but a flawed imitation of their essence.
Yet, Hemlock could not voice her musings. Volch'ya's presence was elusive, her communication incomprehensible. Hemlock could never discern when Volch'ya was near or when she had moved beyond. It was as though Volch'ya guided her subtly, always one step ahead. Despite possessing power surpassing omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, Hemlock knew far less than she desired.
Volch'ya... What do infinity and worlds look like to you? Are they like sewing needles forever spiralling through cloth spun from yarns of creation? What lies beyond Fate, the End, and the Unknowable? Is Free Will merely the by-product of your sisters' eternal deadlock, or has it been delegated to some lesser being? Is power itself an illusion, a cruel game the Metapotentiae play for amusement?
Her ghostly presence vanished once more, leaving Hemlock in a vast, profound silence.
As I follow your steps, whose steps do you follow? To me, you are the Unknowable—seeking the whole of yourself that does not wish to be found. Yet you are both the cause and the solution to this paradox. Will the problem resolve itself when you tire of sightseeing? But... will you ever tire? You are never bored, experiencing everything as though it were the first time, despite there being no power or authority greater than you.
Hemlock's gaze wandered, and in the distance, she glimpsed Volch'ya's ghost glancing back. For the briefest moment, there was recognition—a smile as if they had met anew—before the phantom vanished once more, reappearing farther away, like an echo or a mirage. Hemlock, bearer of Eros and Chaos, felt powerless before her. To Volch'ya, she was but a harmless pup, a fleeting amusement.
"Where are you going? Where have you been?" Hemlock whispered, her voice a fragile thread lost in the boundless void.