The Empyreal Gem Master

The Unweaver called out for the one who had truly cleared the Trial of the Apex of the Infinite Cosmic Tower to show themselves!

His entire being pulsed with unease, every fiber of his premonition and every ounce of the assimilated power of the Cosmic Tao rang with alarm bells.

Above them, the glorious and fantastical scene at the very Apex of the Infinite Cosmic Tower was unraveling, fracturing apart to reveal something even grander beyond. Yet not a single flicker of joy could be found within him.

He turned to the vast gathering of cosmic entities and asked again. He didn't have to wait long. From among the many stern and somber faces, a single figure stepped forward.

Alexander!

His other clones didn't bother to appear. Only one body came forth, clothed in a simple green and white robe, looking for all the world like a young king from some distant countryside.

Nothing about him screamed terror or monstrous complexity, and yet, his laid-back posture and gentle smile as he nodded toward the Unweaver sent many powerful beings staggering backward.

The Unweaver's gaze locked onto Alexander, his features sharpening into a severe expression. He couldn't sense the depth of the man's power. And so, he asked plainly.

"Do I know someone like you? Have I ever wronged a personage such as yourself—for a performance like this to unfold? For my very weavings to teeter on the edge of annihilation?"

The Unweaver had always been callous. Calculating. He did what needed to be done to achieve his ends. But he also valued clarity.

So he asked directly. And Alexander, who appreciated that honesty, shook his head just as a white bow appeared in his hands.

A single motion. A simple weapon. And yet, the moment it appeared, the Unweaver's heart sank. His expression darkened, his aura twisted with grim realization.

"You and I don't know each other," Alexander said softly. "In fact, I only met you when everyone gathered here not too long ago. But someone else does know you. And since they're the reason I'm here… I'm simply honoring a bond of karma. Fulfilling their final wish. Does the name the White Ascender…Arthur mean anything to you?"

…!

The White Ascender.

The words fell like thunder.

The Unweaver's face contorted with disbelief, eyes narrowing in stunned recognition. Behind him, among the crowd of cosmic beings, several exchanged shocked glances, whispers rising between them.

They remembered. The White Ascender, a close companion to the Unweaver, once thought lost long ago.

There was something there.

The Unweaver shook his head, incredulous, his voice cracking as he replied.

"Arthur? Fucking Arthur? He's dead. Gone! His weavings can't possibly stretch across existence itself to come and shackle me just as I'm about to fulfill my dream!"

He couldn't believe it. Couldn't accept the truth.

But Alexander only gave a slow nod, raising his bow.

"Even the weavings of the dead can haunt you in ways you'll never understand," he said. "You and I? We have nothing between us. But your betrayal, the annihilation of a single man's existence has now led to the collapse of your own. Cause and effect. Karma. What you did then… is simply returning now."

"It is," he whispered, "for the sake of peace."

HUUM!

The bowstring drew taut…and then released.

The arrow was faster than thought, swifter than the blink of an eye.

In an instant, the chest of the Unweaver brimming with radiant stellar clusters of Cosmos was pierced by an incandescent arrow glowing with the brilliance of the Primordial Cosmic Tao.

It looked as if entire Cosmos had birthed a golden spear, streaking across the clusters of Cosmos.

Crimson brilliance drowned in that golden light as it could not resist.

The Unweaver stood, expression unchanged, as the arrow lodged deep in his chest. His voice was steel.

"I refuse to believe this."

HUUM!

He was defiant.

To the very end…he was defiant!

But Alexander lowered his bow and took a few quiet steps forward.

He walked through multicolored starlight and impossibly vast space, and with a blink appeared beside the Unweaver.

He offered only a solemn nod before passing him by.

And the moment he passed…

BOOM!

The golden arrow in the Unweaver's chest erupted into a storm of divine authority, drowning out the crimson radiance of the Ruinborn. His cosmic filaments trembled-fracturing beyond repair.

"I refuse… to believe this! Fuck karma! Fuck causality!"

…!

His words rang out- cold, bitter, and brimming with defiance.

But Alexander never looked back.

He stepped forward, reaching the apex of the Infinite Cosmic Tower, where the shimmering barrier was now fracturing.

His fingers touched the broken veil, and it shattered like a mirror, falling into countless shards.

Gasps echoed behind him.

From the opening in the tower, light-years away…they glimpsed it.

Brilliant Rivers of Reality.

Glimmering with majesty and beauty.

Rivers where countless universes and Cosmos swam.

Beyond the Infinite Cosmic Tower… was the Infinite Tower of Existence.

And what they saw now was only the beginning—a vast threshold of Reality itself, overflowing with Cosmos and unknown entities likely stronger than they'd ever imagined.

From one prison… they had simply stepped into a grander one.

BOOM!

Behind him, Alexander felt the final collapse of the Unweaver's existence—the golden arrow's authority unmaking his essence.

Defiant or not, reality remained unchanged.

A debt had been paid.

Alexander closed his eyes for a moment… then opened them, and took another step.

He now stood outside the bounds of the Infinite Cosmic Tower. The weavings of The Peacemaker and The Investigator spread from him once more—this time moving toward those dazzling, multicolored Rivers of Reality.

The beginning of something greater.

The end of something unfathomable.

He floated above it all, atop a Tower that once contained his home of Ephesus that contained his Sacred Gold Mountain, and he looked toward the next ascent.

A new Tower. A new purpose.

He smiled, heart full of peace and wonder, and whispered to himself in affirmation.

"Existence is what we choose it to be."

…!

Depending on perspective, some felt a stifling pressure—a new cage, a larger tower.

One could choose not to care. To focus on themselves, their growth, their reasons for living for the next thousand years or more.

Existence…was a choice.

Alexander repeated it to himself, his heart light.

His fingers brushed the Enneagram etched into his chest.

The reason he could stand where he did now.

The reason he existed with his current power.

His purpose…was peace.

But also? He was curious.

Curious about the Enneagram—what it was, how it worked, and how it granted him such impossible power.

He felt its hum in his chest- so complex, so silent- and he asked the same question he had once asked before.

"What are you?"

…!

A question asked long ago, when the Enneagram had been innervated and recorded in its Database the Gem Recipe of Ice Wave.

Back then, and even now… the answer was the same.

[I am you.]

…!

Three words. And yet they made him smile.

The unfathomable Enneagram—its mysteries endless. It granted him the ability to birth Empyreal Galaxies, to forge fantastical Gem Recipes, to master powers no one else could fathom.

To forge Empyreal Gems he could forge and socket into himself that effectively made him an Empyreal Gem Master with his Supermassive Empyreal Universe and Cosmos.

He was an Empyreal Gem Master.

No…he was THE Empyreal Gem Master.

And as he floated before the breathtaking Rivers of Reality, he knew he would uncover every mystery in his own time, in his own way.

He would live his life—for peace, for curiosity, and for his family.

He was the Peacemaker.

And he would live…as he wished.

Towards the glimmering Rivers of Reality, he smiled and took another step forward!