The Primordial Record

In this eye Cornelius thought he saw the past and the future, he saw a million worlds and lived a million lifetimes on each of them. He saw great cities and expansive ruins that spanned an entire world and the vision kept on coming.

Although this vision felt real, it also felt unreal, and it was impossible for him to differentiate which of these sentiments was correct because he instinctively knew that both sentiments were correct.

When it seemed that Cornelius was being dragged towards the heights of madness and beyond it, the eye spoke.

"ALL WHO ARE WORTHY SHALL WITHSTAND MY GAZE FOR THE SPAN OF SIXTY SECONDS… ACHIEVE THAT FEAT AND YOU SHALL BECOME A MINOR GOD…"

"ALL WHO ARE WORTHY SHALL WITHSTAND MY GAZE FOR THE SPAN OF THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX SECONDS… ACHIEVE THAT FEAT AND YOU SHALL BECOME A MAJOR GOD…"

"ALL WHO ARE WORTHY SHALL WITHSTAND MY GAZE FOR THE SPAN OF NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE SECONDS… ACHIEVE THAT FEAT AND YOU SHALL BECOME A HIGH GOD…"

The voice boomed in the plain and inside their consciousness at the same time with a language that they should not have understood but they all did.

No one here doubted these statements, there was a certain truth inside of it that was as certain as the sun rising and setting. This eye that made them feel less than ants, less than dust held the power to shatter the heavens and would speak nothing but the truth.

No, it felt as if it went even beyond that… what this eye spoke of would always become the truth!

Even on the brink of madness, this knowledge scared him.

Cornelius opened himself up to the possibility that he could become a god. In the entirety of Trion there were only seven gods, was it possible that he would become one of their number? Every wish he had ever wanted would be granted, he could finally fight for his freedom, and he could finally get his revenge for the countless years of torture. But would it come so easily?

"BE WARNED, YOUR LIFE WOULD BE FORFEIT IF YOU FAIL THIS RITE OF ASCENSION. PLEDGE YOUR SOUL TO THE EYE OF TRUTH AND ARISE."

A set of mysterious Runes appeared inside Cornelius's head, and he grasped the meaning even though the Runes were far too complex for him to understand.

It simply conveyed the fact that he was submitting the entirety of his being to The Eye of Truth, and in return, if he had the tenacity to fight for it, he could become a god.

Cornelius did not waste a single second in contemplating if he was willing to submit himself to the Eye of Truth. As a slave, he had never been given the chance to ever choose for himself, and if the opportunity of choice was presented to him to become a god he would take it, no better chance would he ever come across in this lifetime or ten thousand more lifetimes.

He accepted the contract, idly noting that no one here had rejected it.

"PREPARE YOURSELVES… YOUR REBIRTH BEGINS."

The eye above blinked again, and it transformed from silver into purple. Because the eye was so massive, the change was incredibly startling. Starting from the center of its pupils, the color spread out and the heavens and the earth turned to the color purple.

Even their bodies turned purple.

Inside his head, Cornelius thought he heard a whisper, "Do you know the true color of the soul?"

The force that held them in the air was reversed and they all slammed into the ground with bone-crushing force creating minor pits with their bodies. Cornelius groaned before what seemed as if an entire planet slammed into him.

Cornelius had lived through three thousand years of agony on Trion, endured what others would call the stuff of nightmares, and lived through where others had gladly killed themselves to escape. He could boast that he had understood every form of pain that could be inflicted on a person, whether physically or mentally.

What he was experiencing now placed all his previous knowledge of pain to shame.

In his experience, Pain had its threshold, when it was taken to a certain point, the body and mind cease to be able to even process it, leading to a sort of numbness, of course, his masters on Trion knew this and made sure their slaves were kept at that sweet point where their bodies could feel everything and not a single inch past that point.

What he was experiencing took that threshold of pain and shattered it, showing him that there would be no limits to his pain. He would only survive if he could endure it.

Once again, he observed that whatever was happening to him, was touching a part of him that he never knew existed. A part of him that did not have the facilities of the flesh, was this his soul?

This body of his was stripped down to the core, and an endless wave of purple energy slammed into him with relentless waves, forcefully entering deep into his body and binding with it.

He felt himself swell, from the size of six feet, his body expanded, shattering the ground around him as he grew for more than a hundred feet. With more body mass, the pain grew alongside it.

"Have mercy, it is too much for one man to bear."

He looked at the time in his consciousness and would have cursed aloud if he had the ability to do so when he noticed that only twenty seconds had gone by. How would he fare for sixty seconds?

A scream was enough to draw his attention for a moment as the woman beside him exploded into a purple smoke, leaving a shining orb that ascended into the sky.

"DEATH IS THE PRICE OF FAILURE."

The voice of the supreme being slammed into his consciousness and Cornelius understood that whatever they were dealing with, this being was not a benevolent entity. Either they arose as gods or they would die.

Cornelius began to laugh inside, the stubbornness that allowed him to survive through three thousand years of torture became his foundation. With a cry of rage, he began to push himself from his prone position on the ground. If he would die, then it would be on his feet, for too long had he stayed on his knees.

With a cry from the depths of his being, his entire body surged up from the ground, he no longer hid from the pain but accepted it, drawing it deeper inside of him as he challenged it.

His body expanded from three hundred feet to a thousand and he felt as if he could crush the skies.

"Give me more!!!" He screamed as he stood on two feet and opened his arms wide. He looked to the sky and he would have sworn he detected a faint note of amusement from this eye.

"SIXTY SECONDS HAVE ELAPSED. YOUR SOULS HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENTLY PURIFIED. HEAD DOWN THE PLAIN FOR YOUR ASCENSION."

"Is it over?" Cornelius gasped, "But I can take more!"

"NO, YOU CANNOT, A SECOND MORE AND YOUR SOUL WOULD BE GONE. REJOICE CORNELIUS FOR YOUR SOUL IS NOW PURE, PICK YOUR PATH AHEAD AND BECOME A GOD."

Cornelius fell to his knees and looked around him, a new energy was slowly blooming inside his body, it felt so powerful that it scared him. He looked around him to rejoice and he was met with silence.

Of the one thousand people that arrived, only one other had survived. She looked across at him, and without saying a word she began heading towards the end of the field.

Her footsteps shook the earth.

He followed behind, dumbstruck. He knew the trials were difficult, having experienced it himself, but he had no idea that of them all only two would survive this process.

Cornelius did not feel sadness for their passing, in fact, he was aware that they should be envied. Having lived a life as slaves, the choice to pursue power was given to them, and even knowing they might die, they took the chance.

"Brothers and sisters, I will carry your dreams with me."

The field rapidly ended and Cornelius walked beside the woman who had paused at the edge of the field. He wanted to talk to her but her attention was focused downwards at whatever was ahead of them.