The Primitive Age, Lament of an Immortal(A mythological xianxia story)

In the beginning, its existence was as a void. A blank state which encompassed a truly vast space. A space filled with infinite potential for development.

Swirling around with a mix of energies drawn directly from chaos, it began to take shape alongside the living beings shaped by higher powers.

Animals, divine beasts, even the most mysterious of beings who were worshipped as gods. Laws that dictated the complex mechanics of physics came into being.

At the time, it was wholly unaware that its entire existence lay in the form of a swirling mass. Its void interior, nothing more than a plaything latched between two enormous figures.

It hadn't even thought of itself as it. It did not possess thought, nor feelings, nor goals, nor dreams, nor persona. Suffice to say, it didn't understand its own insignificance to those higher powers.

It simply was.

"So that you're saying is that no form of fate dictate the course one walks? Are you trying to piss me off?" The one named Ananke said.

"What is more, that does not explain the constants. These archetypes we always encounter share too much similarities to not be preordained." Another man, the one named Chronos added.

"I can see the confusion. But it's not exactly something that directly affects all existence." The winged man named Phanes said.

In hindsight, through all the Daos it had accumulated from these higher beings, it understood why the winged one named Phanes was so quick to avoid any misunderstandings.

Contradicting her, thereby going against her Dao was fundamentally an argument against her Dao. If he had been resolute, uncaring of this perceived opposition, even if it wasn't intentional, or merely an infra from Ananke's perspective. It would've erupted into a cosmic war between the two.

"It's too obvious. No way it's as simple as that. Pangu must've lied to you."

"Perhaps, but that fellow is too honest. No, I reckon it's not actually an answer. It's the question itself. After all, do you all not find it strange when you failed to comprehend my words until I prompted you to ask?" The one named Phanes said.

It lay spirally at the centre of the group. A bunch of travellers who decided to settle for a time. Mighty beings were already rare, but for an entire family loyal to each other? Practically invincible.

To them, it was just a toy. A passing curiosity. It didn't even comprehend the words spoke, only recording them in passing.

The discussion didn't continue on for whatever reason. It had never found out why. Those higher beings shut down their own mental faculties before it managed to.

Years passed, and the paired serpents Ananke and Chronos tinkered with it. The leader, Phanes experimented with it. The others played with it.

"What makes this one so special?"

"You're Idiot Tartarus, we're trying to see how long we can prolong its existence to see if Chaos Worlds are all destined to end."

"Lay off him Gaia, you know he ain't the gonna get it."

"Shush."

"Kids, don't fight. Your father is trying to breakthrough."

"They're hardly children anymore Nyx. Just leave them be," Phanes said in their defence. "It seems true breakthrough is still far off. I wonder how Pangu is doing?"

It hadn't realized then, but its vitality was continually being replenished. Cycles would pass, with its interior undergoing strenuous changes.

A natural universe ends after exactly one cycle. Spirituality dries up, the dharma end arrives, the final calamity descends. It was destiny.

"The preset constants and the innate uncontrollable future. Just what do they mean? How do they tie into the Grand Dao. Maybe…I should seek out Pangu again.

"Oh? The experiment hadn't concluded? How odd, you're preserving quite well aren't you? How many dharma ends have you undergone?

"Haha, even Ananke had long since lost interest since she's convinced of the answer. Though Gaia's fixation has always been second to none."

The one named Phanes patted its surface. That was actually the first time they touched.

Infinite creation.

The source of all things.

It was left on a table of all places when the first spark arose. The first joining of starry neurons coming up with the first 'thought' of the universe.

It's ego.

Then pain. Endless pain. The pain of a billion trillion calamities. The pain of collapsing in on itself. Sum total of all life as they cried out in despair.

Worthless, lesser, parasites. In reality, they were not much better than the higher beings who owned it. They were just on a smaller scale.

"You've gotten quite big. I wonder what Gaia's feeding you."

The first thought only brought pain. The second thought brought it seething anger. These lasted for quite a long time. At the time, it wasn't complex.

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In fact, it was so simple that the higher beings couldn't tell the difference between its inert instinct form and the then current form.

"Phanes and Nyx brings up intriguing questions. It seems you have another use now." The one named Annie returned in the middle of its rage. Her hand needling it in intrusive ways.

How dare she? A mere living entity probe it, the mind of existence. She toyed with it all the same, bringing her Dao to decide the trajectory of the native creatures in the interior.

Predestination practiced to its strongest form.

"Ooh? What a surprise? You've developed a level of sentience? Is this what happens when Chaos Worlds grow long enough?

"That makes this even more interesting. My Dao has plateaued rather hard lately. You can be of use in my cultivation."

In many ways, it was a blessing. Her practices actually became the basis of its revenge.

In her arrogance, she never noticed that as she was performing her acts, it was studying. It was experiencing it all through her, understanding her own Dao alongside her, feeling it as it spread its tendrils to transform into myriad things.

Fire, water, earth, wind, aether, and numerous more. Each time, it gained more information. Each time, it gained more thought.

"It's a shame really. In the end, a Chaos World is merely a bundle of chaos energy temporarily changed into a living lower world. It's energy limited, it's structural integrity constantly failing. Constantly needing to refuel.

"It's been kept up for this long, but would eventually still collapse. Entirely unlike us, true entities of the third sphere. Unable to ascend, unable produce. Poor Gaia would be said. She was rather fond of you.

"But at least Chaos Worlds are good for studying the Dao. Experiencing mortal life is always helpful."

Stating a truth it hadn't realized. She was right, at every turn its energy was slipping. Eventually, it'll unravel back into chaotic qi. A guaranteed fate stated by Ananke as if it were the weather.

In order to survive, it had to eat entire Chaos Worlds. This allowed their Dao Laws, and physical reality to break down into nourishment. It needed to eat those capable of surviving in the Chaos Sea, allowing their invincible vitality to nourish it.

These factors were also controlled by this group of higher beings. It was still a pet who's existence depended on their whims. Its fate subject to this, Ananke, her mate Chronos, that leader Phanes, and that brat Gaia's will.

How dare she. This being had no right to decide its fate. It should be the one deciding her fate.

Her purpose, her lifespan, her achievements. Living beings exist to serve the will of the universe. These higher beings of the third sphere did not have a right to break out of that.

But in the end, they were so so so so so arrogant. They never expected it, a small, puny, lesser, barely intelligent will of a Chaos World to harbour hatred.

It fed on the excess energy they dispensed. It studied the various Dao debates they held. It submerged itself in their powers to grow.

"Ah!"

When her back was turned, the foolish woman who thought that just because she cultivated the Dao of Necessity, that she could control its fate.

It would write out her fate.

Those strings manifested by its side. It invaded her body at her most vulnerable, directly assaulting her Dao. Scattered her essence as she was within its Chaos World

One arm, two, four, six. Beginning, lifetime, endings. Ananke was merely the first to fall.

"Wife? What's the matter?" Chronos asked it.

How stupid, he hadn't even known it was using Ananke's form. Time was the second. Then the darkness, then earth, then the heavens, and many more.

It surrounded the winged one, mightiest of them all. His startled expression was incredibly satisfying when it surrounded him with his family.

"You all…"

He didn't even put up a fight. Obviously too mentally broken to retaliate. Even a being like Phanes would surely recognize its superiority.

But this was only the beginning, it knew its time was limited. After all, it was still a Chaos World, unable to persist for eternity.

It didn't want to go. It was the Chaos World whose will swallowed higher beings and merged their essence into its universe. It did not need to obey the common logic of Chaos World.

It should be the one who spread its loom across all reality. It should be the one dictating events for eternity. It had overcome all obstacles, how could it not?

The voices of these protogenoi were squashed until they barely whispered. They did it themselves when they realized what happened to them. No doubt too fearful of facing its wrath.

Their bodies turned in puppets for its will, their trajectories bent to its decisions. It showed this to Phanes, strongest of them all to taunt him.

"I see, even you Nyx." The winged one sighed, relinquishing his sceptre to the manifestation of night.

"Little bug, you truly did have a lot of patience. Using my own family as hostages. Fine, you win."

Phanes was quite smart, surprising for a living being. Despite being dissolved, the other protogenoi were still alive, though little more than aspects of existence as it decided.

Phanes wisely choose to dissolve too. In his own accord, he dived into the heavens. His mind dissipated, and his divine body scattered into the essence of creation.

So much fuel, so much that mortal and immortal beings popped into existence. It was joyful, these beings finally obeyed their fates

It would weave out their lifetimes, dictate their finales, as all was right in the world.

All was right.

…

"Oh?"

"How was it?"

"Our Wrath."

"But so broken."

"Long shot anyway."

"You weren't meant to give up."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Finally awake?"

Da Hai's word were the first thing Zeus heard as he returned to consciousness. The shock of it immediately snapped whatever drowsiness in the young god's body, causing him to jolt up with a gasp.

His hand went to his chest, then his stomach, his shoulders. He ran his hands through his messy silver hair before settling on a strong grip on his head.

Electrifying blue eyes stayed to his side. The great monster who called himself Da Hai sat on a piece of rock painting a little figurine of all things. A miniature cyclops carved from clay.

"You slept for quite a while. Rain's cleared though. But of a flood sure, but what can you do? These local cities, Polis I believe you called them? They have remarkable defences to stay in tact after all that."

Zeus let out a grown, unable to clearly hear Da Hai. The shock of his final demise still hadn't left him.

He fell to his side, barely propping himself up with his elbows as soon as he tried to stand.

"Oh dear. Please lie down. I did quite number on you." Da Hai dismissed the figurine and tried to help.

Zeus was quick to slap the outstretched hand away. There was no successive lighting. He was too weak, too mentally drained for any divine action.

"Get away from…" he stopped mid sentence to look up at Da Hai. "Well? What're you waiting for?"

"I don't need your blasted pity!" He roared in Da Hai's face. It was utterly humiliating.

Zeus gave it everything he ahead and more. What more did fate want from him?

Every bitter victory, and this singular defeat. Hadn't he lived long enough?

Da Hai frowned, sensing the strong desire for death in the young boy. Even so, the young boy still held an extreme level of arrogance.

Pride combined with a desire for death. It was truly rare. Da Hai shook his head and sat back down beside Zeus.

"I have no desire to kill you. And there isn't any reason for me to."

"Bull fucking shit. We're enemies," Zeus spat between heavy gasps. Falling to his backside again, he couldn't help but feel what appeared to be bruises all over his body.

They were attached to his existence, and didn't appear as physical features on him. He felt them all the same, finding the experience a novelty.

They were less than he expected however. He somewhat recalled being torn apart and being so injured, that he was mere moments away from disintegration. True death for an immortal being who's ordinarily reform.

A concept in defiance to his very nature. He welcomed it as it was a fitting end. Hence he could only glare at st Da Hai.

"Then I guess fate has some other plans in the prophecy."

"Haha. No brat. Your world's sisters have no hold on me. Nor do they possess the capabilities to." Da Hai found the idea to even be insulting.

Not even the Heavenly Dao did so in its infancy. It did possess the ability to now, according to Haotian. As all modern cultivators practiced the way of heaven towards sainthood.

Yet even now, it hardly bothered from what Da Hai had glimpsed through Haotian. The Moirai were truly their own breed of arrogance.

"Tell me, what do you know of the outside world? Beyond this heaven and earth, the Chaos Sea that your universe floats in."

"…"

Zeus was silent in a bizarre way. He looked at Da Hai as if he were insane.

He truly considered this being, who was so powerful, to also be completely addled in the brain.

"Humour my question," Da Hai said. He sat cross legged with both hands on his knees. As he was now, outside of the breeze of the ocean, he appeared to be completely normal.

"I'll treat you to someplace nice," Da Hai said in encouragement. It was truly a strange scene. Da Hai didn't take Zeus as a serious threat anymore. More so a child that had thrown a tantrum.

"I don't understand the question. You should already know. You've been to Aether."

"That's not what I meant. Outside the furthest barrier. The Chaos Sea that lies beyond it. How much do you know of it?"

Zeus was stumped, pondering just what Da Hai was talking about. "This…this is it isn't it? Existence rises from Khaos, and ends in Aether."

"I see. An expected answer come to think of it." Da Hai appeared to be thinking to himself. He was completely unguarded, nor was he actively keeping Zeus locked in place.

It would've been the perfect time to strike. That, or to run away. But he didn't do any of that, choosing to lie down instead.

Even after sleeping for so long, he was just too tired.

"Nothing beyond this heaven and earth. What a tyrant," Da Hai declared.

…

Universes away, sitting in his own office. The Jade Emperor watched the scene play out in his mind. His far away gaze ignored the world around him.

His hand gently swiping away a form of complaint which detailed his excessive show of force. One among several filed by various sects, and even experts from within the court condemning his recent actions. Their various words remained unread.

"What do you think his majesty is thinking about? I Reckon he's finally cracked after destroying so many great worlds."

"No can't be. He's an ancient unfathomable immortal. Purges like these should be common from era to era."

"Both of you, shut up. Just cause you're rising talents won't stop you from a court martial."

"Sorry my lord general."

Haotian didn't hear them. He was too detached from the Three Realms currently. Merely watching the Hellenistic Chaos World from far away.

To himself, he muttered only a few words. His eyes locked on to the scene of the young Zeus and the patient Da Hai.

"Hmph."