Chapter 736: Let’s Achieve Perfection Together

That was in the distant past, during an age of prolonged antiquity.

At the twilight of the First Era, within the royal capital of the Ailuo race, Kululu sat perched atop an ivory tower wearing her laboratory coat and clutching a clipboard. She gazed at the fractured firmament and exhaled heavily.

"The Final Ark and half-plane sanctuaries have been dispatched. With Fuen overseeing them… matters should proceed adequately."

"Though I wonder how many will survive."

Behind her stood Lolth, hands buried in her pockets.

The dark hooded sweatshirt and relaxed trousers she wore differed little from her current attire, giving her the appearance of a commonplace engineering student. At Kululu’s words, Lolth responded with a similarly somber sigh.

"We do what we must and leave the rest to destiny…"

"Though should I prevail, all shall be preserved."

As she spoke, Kululu displayed uncharacteristic hesitation.

"Must you truly go, Teacher Lolth?"

"The peril would be immense, would it not?"

Lolth met the anxious inquiry with sudden laughter that echoed across the crumbling heights.

"What nonsense is this, Kululu? When has any moment between dawn and dusk ever been ‘safe’ in our world?"

"Danger changes nothing – in my former realm’s tales, a formidable youth’s guardian once spoke wisdom I’ve come to respect."

"Greater power begets greater responsibility."

Kululu’s nodding agreement gradually transformed into a bowed posture of defeat. After an extended silence, the young scholar finally spoke through suppressed tears.

"I’ll accompany you."

"Stay clear of complications."

Lolth ruffled the girl’s hair affectionately.

"You, Fuen… and Earl – my three finest pupils."

"Your existence holds more value than you comprehend. Survive, Kululu – that is your imperative."

The scholar rose obediently as celestial fragments began their descent. Lolth tilted her head upward to confront the oozing "malice" seeping through reality’s cracks – the bleeding laceration of their world, the true visage of the End of Days.

Anarchy incarnate devoured all concepts within its reach, dissolving spatial boundaries and fundamental principles alike. From her sleeve, Lolth withdrew a single radiant twig glowing with auric brilliance.

"By my life—begone!"

Lolth spoke, her voice resounded with solemn majesty between heaven and earth.

All existence in the cosmos heeded her words, her teachings, her commandments.

Including… the End of Days itself.

For one fleeting moment, this chaotic and irreversible "Annihilation" grew stagnant and sluggish beneath the weight of Lolth’s proclamation.

She tossed the branch skyward, its arc erupting in a shower of gilded flames that crystallized into stardust within frozen space.

With ethereal grace, Lolth ascended from the tower’s pinnacle, dancing across constellations of suspended sparks toward the celestial rift.

This tableau existed within "eternal" stasis – the manifestation of Lolth’s divine authority and the cosmos’ collective will.

Without faltering, she stepped into the maelstrom and became engulfed in primordial spite.

The void itself howled its condemnation.

"Why?"

"Because I dissent. The reason requires no complexity."

Lolth’s serenity intensified the swirling hatred.

Accusations replaced inquiries in the dissonant chorus.

"Betrayer!"

"Indeed… Forgive me, I betrayed you," Lolth murmured, hands clasped like sacred sigil over her heart. "Now – endeavor to claim your vengeance."

As she challenged the abyss, a singular luminance kindled behind her.

"I recall your critique – my philosophies too ‘dispassionate’…"

"Unavoidable, beloved companion. My origin lies in realms of perfect order, where reality’s foundations rest upon glacial permanence – that tedious arithmetic where one eternally equals one."

"No sovereign consciousness directs or rectifies existence there – yet perceive this paradox…"

"In truth, I find such chaos within order… delightful!"

"Each truth lies preserved yet undiscovered, eternal yet ever-new."

"Should we trace creation’s roots, you’d find not cold calculus, but…"

Here Lolth abandoned eloquence, lifting her hands in mirthful surrender to laughter.

The luminous sphere behind her convulsed – swelling with catastrophic instability, manifesting in a state fundamentally opposed to her "eternal" authority.

Against perpetual stillness stood ephemeral metamorphosis.

Or more precisely…

"Detonation!"

"BOOM!"

Laughter and cataclysm merged as the singularity devoured reality, fueled by Lolth’s eternal essence, her arcane wisdom, her extradimensional nature – every facet of her being catalyzing this transdimensional combustion.

Though clad in divine mantle as Eternal Goddess, opposing the End of Days with borrowedworld physics resembled mantis defying chariot wheels.

Yet annihilation was never Lolth’s design.

She merely needed to obstruct the "pathway" through which the End of Days corroded and annihilated reality.

"Perish!"

All malice converged upon her being as the cataclysm interposed itself between the world and the End of Days, halting its advance as decisively as Lolth had envisioned.

Yet this directionless venom now had but one remaining vessel… Lolth herself.

This too aligned with her foretold conclusion.

Lolth shut her eyes, embracing her ordained fate.

"Not entirely disagreeable—rather magnificent, truth be told…"

"Moreover, being my second demise… Chronologically speaking, I’ve long surpassed my natural lifespan…"

The ancient goddess pondered with glacial clarity, her heart serene.

Pity the End of Days cannot be fully eradicated…

This marks the extent of my power. The remainder lies within those younglings’ hands.

Her consciousness began drifting into lethargy when abrupt vitality surged through her thoughts.

"What sorcery is this?"

Beyond the infinite void, Lolth perceived nascent concepts materializing around her.

"Forgive me, Mentor!"

A lilting voice chimed as the pink-maned maiden manifested before her.

"I’ve abandoned my post."

The river of chronology solidified around them—the flowing essence of Kululu’s Divine Kingdom.

Goddess of Records and Seals—or perhaps more accurately, Sovereign of Time and Tangibility.

"Kululu, you imbecile… Have you come to court oblivion?"

Lolth’s stunned whisper met Kululu’s clarion declaration:

"Apprentices mirror their masters! Besides, I’ve no intention of perishing in your tragically noble fashion!"

"We shall both survive this… I’ve journeyed this far—now guide us back breathing, Mentor!"

"Until then—you’re forbidden to expire!"

The maiden kindled every temporal fragment within her grasp—countless historical truths from eternity’s dawn and infinite potentialities from existence’s twilight.

Timelessness merged with chronology, coalescing into imperishable flames binding their essences.

"Mentor…"

"Be it a hundred cycles! A thousand eras! Ten millenniums! Even a hundred-thousand trials!"

"With eternity as our crucible and infinite chances forged—together we shall craft perfection!"