Chapter 177 - Interlude 5 - 2 – Hyperion And The Figure In Black

"Why didn't you protect Lucifer? Last time I was awake you told me you had taken a fancy to him. If so, why did you let him die at the hands of 'those' guys?"

Quinn frowned and clicked her tongue at Luka's question before answering with an annoyed tone.

"Do you really think I'd willingly let him die in a ditch somewhere, I was attacked by the 'elemental' bastard, he held me off long enough for the gray-haired old man and the space idiot to finish off Lucifer."

The other progenitors listening shook their heads in exasperation at Quinn's habit of not addressing people by their actual names.

'Who refers to one of the leaders of one of the three great powers in the cosmos as the 'space idiot'?'

Luka could not help but chuckle inwardly at Quinn's attitude that never seemed to change even after billions of years.

"So he sent someone to hold you off since he knew you would come to Lucifer's aid huh?

How Shrewd."

Luka then placed a hand on her chin and returned to the original topic.

"Anyway, the candidate girl seems to be mingling with the seekers of the truth and they seemed to have discovered something too. A vestige of the previous era.

A bit too coincidental if I do say so."

Hearing Luka's words, the other progenitors all nodded in affirmation. Adamas pondered on them for a few moments before speaking up.

"It's almost like someone wanted us to find the vestiges."

"It's most likely that shady 'judge'."

"Definitely them."

To Adamas' words, Aleksas spoke of his suspect and Luka affirmed it immediately much to the confusion of the other progenitors. Luka ignored this and continued speaking.

"The candidate girl discovered something about the previous era herself too, that's why she's mingling with those shady seekers." 

Astrel, the progenitor demon, turned to Luka and asked.

"This candidate girl you speak of, can't you find out what she saw?"

Unfortunately, he got a negative reply from Luka.

"Nope, there was fear in her eyes when she hinted at it, she's definitely not gonna tell."

Hearing this reply, Astrel gave Luka a gaze as if he was looking at something strange. He asked once again with a raised eyebrow.

"Can't you just force her?"

"I dislike using forceful means.

Oh, and Aleksas daughter is with her so don't go trying anything."

Luka replied and the Astrel clicked his tongue in annoyance before resting his head on the table. And like so, the meeting continued with the progenitors discussing other important matters, only concluding after a few hours had passed.

◇ ◇ ◇

Progenitor Titan Hyperion was seated atop a giant throne, unlike his human-sized figure during the meeting with the other progenitors, he had returned to his original size of over thousands of meters tall.

His throne floated in an originally dark space that was lit up by the presence of countless stars and nebulae.

He sat with his left elbow propped up on the throne's armrest and face resting on his palm. In his right palm, was a human-sized suit of full body armor, it was black in color with gold highlights and was constantly glowing a faint golden light while morphing into different forms.

It changed from the traditional full body armor, to a casual set of shirt, jeans, shoes, and a cap. Next, it changed to a knight's uniform with the boots and hat, and then it became a three-piece suit with a top hat.

He held up the small human-sized morphing piece of armor in his gigantic palm and gazed at it with his golden eyes as it returned to its full body armor appearance.

"Go and find your owner, Celestial Darkness."

He then blew a bit of breeze with his mouth towards it.

Energy flowed out with the breeze and the armor glowed before dethatching into various pieces and turning into streaks of light, flying in different directions.

The helmet flew north, the shin guards flew east, the breastplate flew west, and the boots flew south and so on and so forth.

He then sighed as his size began increasing along with his throne until he was as tall as almost 50 thousand light-years! That was long as the diameter of a galaxy!

The next moment, his gaze trembled as he turned towards a particular nebula out of the millions around him. This particular nebula was moving towards him at a frightening speed, faster than the speed most high-tier deities could achieve.

It blitzed across the billions of light-years of distance between its original position and Hyperion's, arriving in front of Hyperion, less than ten seconds later.

Next, there was a tear in space above this nebula, and like how one would open a pair of curtains, two black-gloved hands appeared from within the tear and opened it wide.

A being then came out of the tear and gazed at Hyperion in silence. The being was dressed in all black robes, with a hood above their head obscuring their face from sight.

Two dots, glowing in an iridescent light could be seen from inside the hood as the being tapped a random star in the nebula below them. The star trembled before enormous amounts of ambient energy began to flow into it.

Next, its size rapidly increased until it was about half as large as Hyperion's giant throne. The being then did the same to themself, enlarging their body size until they could comfortably sit upon this extra-large star.

Not minding the heat this star was giving off, the being spoke to Hyperion, their gender being indiscernible from their voice.

"You sent Celestial Darkness to find its true owner?"

"Yes, it was not going to listen to me anyway."

Hyperion nodded and replied to this being, who only snorted before plucking out another star from a random nebula and crushing it in their giant fingers.

"Are you still moving behind the scenes?"

Hyperion asked with a curious voice and the being turned to gaze at him in silence for a while before replying.

"Yes."

"To what end?"

"For Balance."

Hearing the reply, Hyperion facepalmed and sighed in exasperation.

"Balance this, balance that, balance everything. Even in the previous era, the 'both of you' spoke of balance so much towards the end. As if you were 100% sure it existed."

"Of course, Balance ex-!"

The hooded being replied casually to Hyperion's words before abruptly realizing something strange and stopping.

|What did you just say?!|

The being turned their body around to face Hyperion and asked in a loud voice. Space around the both of them quaked due to the power behind the being's true voice but they paid it no mind and stared straight into Hyperion's golden eyes.

Seeing this, Hyperion only laughed amusedly.

|You recalled your memories of the previous era?!|

"Isn't it obvious?"

Hyperion replied while gazing at the myriad of nebulae around him apathetically. He poked his fingers into one and pulled out a star, which he then placed in his palm before closing it. Upon opening it once more, there were now two stars in his palm.

"Speaking of which, I've recalled all my memories, which means I've recalled how you really look. No need to use the whole mysterious look on me...um...."

Hyperion turned his gaze to the being as he was at a loss on how to address them.

"Wait, what should I call you anyway, your actual name or your title? You did have quite a few titles in the previous era, some of them are still valid till now.

Should I call you...

'Herald of Equality'?

'The Original Watcher'?

'Judge of the End'? 

Or...."

Throwing the two stars in his hand back to the nebula he picked the original one from, he then spoke the final title in his true voice while gazing at the hooded being with a look of respect.

|The First Progenitor.|

****THRUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ambient energies surrounding them thrummed wildly and the essences of various laws that governed the cosmos danced around them as the identity of this mysterious figure was finally disclosed.

The First Progenitor! 

The progenitors were the start of every race, the origin points of every race that existed in the cosmos. 

However, even these progenitors, had a start.

The hooded being seated atop a gigantic star in front of Hyperion, was the start of the progenitors.

As for the race they were the progenitor of, that was still unknown for now.

|Tsk...You were a lot easier to deal with when you didn't remember anything.|

The first progenitor clicked their tongue before speaking to Hyperion with an annoyed tone. To this, Hyperion just laughed before replying.

|Actually, I had long since begun recovering my memories, before you came to meet me all those eons ago, I just did not say or do anything since the memories were incomplete.|

He then sighed before continuing.

|What are your plans now, are you going to continue moving behind the scenes like you have?|

To his question, the first progenitor shook their head before replying.

|No, any more interference would do more harm than good. I would not take action for a while.|

Hyperion nodded before raising his hand and clenching his fist. A gold light shone from within his clenched fist and when he opened it once again, there was a familiar planet-sized weapon in his palm.

It was the same one as the vestige of the previous era that the progenitors just recently discussed about, except this one was not damaged like the one they discovered.

He tossed it into a random Nebula like he before speaking in a normal voice.

"Don't pull any stunts like you did with those prophecies years ago, someone of your status being weakened is not a sight I like to see."

The first progenitor stretched out their hand into the nebula that Hyperion just threw the weapon inside and pulled it out before staring at it in silence.

Essence of the law of destruction wrapped around it and it crumbled to dust. The first progenitor then chuckled and stared at Hyperion before saying.

"I would do so if need be, it's for the sake of 'balance' after all."

Although Hyperion could not see their face, he felt like they were smiling under the hood. The next moment, the first progenitor shrunk in size before moving back into the spatial tear they came from.

It closed up behind them as Hyperion sighed for the nth time today while closing his eyes and deciding to take a short nap.