This story is only a fairy tale. But even the God who dreams at the center of the World, the God who created all things in Existence, can never, ever destroy it. For it is a story of momentary love, forever carved into infinite time---- It is the Song of Life.
Since its inception in 2003, Demonbane has become one of the most famous Mecha genre Visual Novel series while heavily incorporating Cthulu Mythos elements within its storyline. The following blog aims to elaborate on the complete cosmology of the verse using information from:
NOTE: MASSIVE THANKS to Mugen no Setsuna and Revenger/Lucas Kakunin for their relentless hard work in detailing the cosmology of the verse in their post in Spacebattles and without their help, this blog would not have been possible.
Main Universe
The first and foremost thing that needs to be known about the cosmology of the Demonbane verse is the Main Universe. Straight out of the Prologue in Zanma Taisei, we got a description that the universe is infinite in size, where the Other, which is referring to the horrors of the Universe violated the World over and over again, for eternity.
The Abyss.
The endless, limitless Sea of Stars.
The far reaches of the infinite void, the other side of a lonely world----
Who knows of the strange things that lurk there, the threat that approaches?
Who knows?
In a place beyond human knowledge, beyond insanity, the World and the Other violate, rape, and defile each other----
Over and over again.
Still they continue.
Still they return.
Forever into the future, forever into the past.
And even now, at this very moment.
In chapter 1, Al said to Kurou that a sorcerer like Kurou shouldn't limit himself as thinking everything is governed by Euclidean Geometry. This proves that the Main Universe in Demonbane Mythos are following the laws of Euclidean Geometry, and it's the job of the magicians to transcend them. This is further supported when R'lyeh, the city of Great Old One Cthulhu, is summoned, Kurou described it as a non-Euclidean Geometry structure, hence we can safely conclude that the gods like Great Old Ones or above transcend the Euclidean Geometry laws of Demonbane universe. Additionally, in Leica's Route, Kurou also described R'lyeh as something that is not built according to the laws of three dimensions.
Spoilers/Scans
Scan
Japanese Text
English Translation
Common Route Chapter 1
「汝も魔術師の端くれなら、全部をユークリッド幾何学に当てはめて思考するのは止せ」
“As a fledgling sorcerer, you should know better than to assume that everything is governed by Euclidean geometry.”
Unfortunately, several battleships were caught during the surfacing of the [pillars], carrying them far high into the sky along with a large amount of seawater.
The thunderous din that shook the seas has not ceased. For R'lyeh is not a city of a single [pillar].
An overwhelming mass of seawater was blown to the heavens for several kilometres away, and the [pillars] surfaced on the sea one after another.
Each time, the battleships and the sea monsters flew through the air in unison, and then they were thrown either into the top of the pillars or on the sea level, leaving no original form left and shattered into small pieces.
It was a nightmarish scene without a sense of reality, too grandeur, too terrifying.
However――the surfacing of R'lyeh is not what truly needs to be feared.
The [pillars] that emerged from the sea are clearly made of some otherworldly material----they can only be buildings of R'lyeh.
They are all [twisted] while towering in [straight lines].
I know it's totally a paradox, but that's the only way I can describe them. Earthly concepts are incapable of explaining these structures built according to non-Euclidean geometry.
――But that's not the problem.
A [pillar] catches up to them out of nowhere, but they just barely manage to dodge it.
The destroyer robot still continues ascending.
Far up in the sky…… They reach a height where they can see the entirety of the sea, Doctor West and Elsa become the only ones to grasp the entirety of the situation.
“What…… does this mean robo?”
The [pillars] that emerged from the sea are clearly made of some otherworldly material----they can only be buildings of R’lyeh.
They are all twisted while towering in straight lines.
It’s totally a paradox, but that’s the only way they can describe them
Earthly concepts are incapable of explaining these structures that are not built according to the common laws of three dimensions.
But that’s not the problem.
Countless [pillars] jutting out.
They aren’t just arranged at random.
They are surrounding Cthulhu in a perfect circle.
It would remind them of Stonehenge in England.
Except that the scale is completely different, of course.
Indeed----what lies beneath them is a vast circle of stone.
The "De Marigny’s Clock" novel introduces us to “The Spiritual Dimension”. As its name suggests, this is the spiritual dimension overlapping the material one, where the flow of spiritual power that exists everywhere in the material dimension, can be seen and it shows the true side of the world. This is where the real enormous form of Deus Machina resides, being described as “a mass of super logic with overwhelming density” and in a constant state of being both perfectly ordered and wriggled chaotically, the manifestation of the Deus Machina in the material world is only a shallow part reflected by its true form, and of course don’t expect physical laws or any law that apply to the material world to work here, since obviously, this dimension gives a middle finger to the lowly laws of the mortal world.
Keane passed the ample to West.
Looking closely, the students of Shrewsbury doesn’t need to be delivered directly, but instead they already had ample for emergency out of their pockets, then they took off the caps and swallow all the contents. West also imitated what they did, he poured a mouthful of the liquid down his throat.
Then,
“Nuoh…!?”
The perception extended by the “Golden Mead” completely changed the way West perceived the world. His sense of sight and hearing became sharpened like never before, even he felt something like the flow of spiritual power.
No, there was more. West intuitively realized now that his body had moved from the normal space to a spiritual dimension that existed overlapping there. The change in his senses was a side effect.
The sea, deck, and normal materials became all translucence, and he felt uneasy about below his feet.
On the other hand, the appearance of those who drank the Golden Mead is clearly visible to him, probably because they have moved to “this side” as well.
And there’s more---on the shimmering deck like heat haze, Deus Machina Ambrose showed its solid existence. No, the machine that once looked like an ordinary airplane now looked like a mass of super logic with overwhelming density, sometimes it was perfect in order, but sometimes it wriggled chaotically. In other words, the body of steel that materialized itself in the normal space, was only a shallow part of its existence, just like the ripples caused by fishes on the water surface.
(So this is… The so-called true essence of Deus Machina!!)
Facing its enormous presence, West smiled half-scared and half courageously.
This is consistent with the description for Deus Machina given in the official website, where they are called imitations of gods.
“
Machine Gods---Deus Machinas
A general term for Magic Robots possessing greatest power, which is also known as imitation of God. Their structure is a crystallization of Over Technology that current Magic Theory cannot analyze.
By summoning through a Grimoire, a magician is capable of controlling the Machine God as their pilot. Depends on the elements of the Grimoire, their armaments and abilities might differ.
”
In addition, as per Kishin Hishou, what makes up everything in the World is Information which not only acts as the quintessential fundamental aspect of magic and creation but also of duality itself, leading to everything in creation being Infinite x Infinite.
“The very essence of magic is Information. No, if we traced back to the origin, we can safely say that all of creation is constructed by Information themselves.”
---Information.
+/-.
White/Black.
Yin/Yang.
Life/Death.
0 (No)/1 (Yes).
If you went thoroughly, then all things in this world are infinite x infinite from one way to another.
Just like this kid said.
So to summarize, the Main Universe of Demonbane is a Limitless Universe governed by Euclidean Geometry and where Information is the most fundamental aspect which forms the essence of magic, duality, and everything else in creation. The Universe also contains the Spiritual Dimension where the laws of the Universe are not followed implying it is a Non-Euclidean Realm and where the true form or essence of the Deus Machinas exists as a mass of super logic with overwhelming density and they manifest into the Euclidean Space of the Main Universe as just a shallow reflection of their true selves. This makes the entire Main Universe of Demonbane as 4D or Universe+ in structure.
Multiverse & Higher Dimensions
Moving on, we now come to the most controversial part of the Demonbane verse, which has been a major source of misconceptions about its cosmology across different online battleboard forums and websites throughout the years. But let's remove the misconceptions once and for all, and let's get down to explaining the Multiverse.
Now there are different universes in the verse and what forms as the Multiverse with all these different Universes having their own laws and stuff. Not to mention the fact that each Deus Machina originates from a different universe (bar Demonbane and Liber Legis) with a different law. For example, Ogre is summoned from a blood universe, or even Nameless One is an imitation of God from another world with foreign law.
It must have been modeled after image of an otherworldly god, and moved on principles from another world.
This can only mean one thing.
“……A Deus Machina!”
“Wha…… Nameless One! [Tyrant]…… Nero! Why youuuu!?”
“--------!”
As Demonbane destroys the mobs of Dagon, we see it ahead of us.
Countless blade flashes struck in the empty space.
I instinctively reverse Shantak’s thrusters and stand still.
The space before me, the empty space, is sliced apart.
The blue sky scatters into tiny fragments.
A space-time rift forms the irregular polygon in the empty space.
From the blood-colored universe beyond it, resembling an armored warrior and a demon, the giant of steel emerges.
“Deus Machina Ogre…… we go to battle.”
“……Titus!”
The massive Ogre flies out of the space-time rend.
However, the most crucial part of Demonbane's "Multiversal" cosmology is the famous quote, "universe extends within the universe, universe extends outside the universe". The grandiose scale of the entire multiverse is 90% supported by this quote alone, so a proper explanation must be made to understand how big is the multiverse of the Demonbane-verse.
First, we should know that Azathoth's dream included all of creation, even the endless chain of universes was a part of it. The blind Idiot God was then sealed inside the Shining Trapezohedron and the Garden of Chaos was cut off from the world, setting all of creation free from the torment of the Evil Gods because the Elder Gods remade all of creation into a world that forbids the existence of Evil Gods. Only after that did Nyar (Nyarlathotep) create the Klein Bottle and trap the entire creation in endless cycles inside the Klein Bottle.
A universe inside a test tube.
A universe inside a reactor.
A universe inside a coin locker.
A universe resounding with the beats of a drum.
A universe imprisoned within a brain.
A universe wrapped in a chewing gum paper----
A universe reaches to the outside of another universe.
A universe reaches to the inside of another universe.
A moment that swallows an eternity.
A finest dust that contains an infinity.
A universe reaches to the outside of another universe, a universe reaches to the outside of another universe reaches to the outside of another, a universe reaches to the outside of another universe reaches to the outside of another universe reaches to the outside of another universe…… an infinite series of universes.
This is the story about how all things are infinite and zero.
The infinite and zero melt together, the Snake of Samsara decays and falls, creating the soup of boiling chaos----
Everything is as foam on the waves.
Creation is but a fleeting dream, dreamt by the blind idiot-god who is King-of-All as he dozes on the edge of waking.
When he wakes, it will end.
It will simply vanish, and there will be no one to know or remember.
Or perhaps it will simply never have existed at all.
So is the World really nothing more than a fantasy?
This is a hypothetical, but----
There are those who do not think so.
The quote is pretty much the same as in Kishin Hishou, except for many new lines added, which we will explain one by one.
“I know…… I know very well! I know how did you manage to imprison my blind idiot father!”
And----from the 731 aspects within the 24 faces on the distorted trapezohedron, reflect an innumerable of worlds (stories).
They weave an infinitude of stories (worlds).
“Shining Trapezohedron! The elementary material to form this divine tool that seals the Creator (Azathoth) is……”
The innumerable of worlds, from within each dwells infinitude of stories, unfold simultaneously and parallelly.
A universe inside a test tube/A universe inside a reactor/A universe inside a coin locker/A universe resounding with the beats of a drum/A universe imprisoned within a brain/A universe wrapped inside a chewing gum paper----They shine and glow, dizzingly shifting, reflecting and fading like a kaleidoscope.
“----It is the universes! You turned an infinitude of parallel universes into a barrier and sealed the Court of Chaos!”
A universe locked inside another universe, a universe locked inside another universe locked inside another universe, a universe locked inside another universe locked inside another universe locked inside another universe…… The apex of infinity/The center of all things/The zero of zenith----
The center of chaos is sealed, dozed by the melody of faint otherworldly flutes and rhythm of maddening drums.
Shining Trapezohedron.
It is the infinitude of worlds itself and the very divine treasure that freezes/restrains/seals and destroys the universe of the Boiling Chaos Azathoth.
“Just one…… Just to simply seal the true universe meant for the gods, you piled the corpses of infinite number of universes!”
“----They are not corpses.”
“They are the mourn of the mother, who was robbed from her child’s future.”
“They are the wrath of the father, who could not protect his child’s future.”
“They were mocked by evil, the roar and pray of innumerable worlds…… Still.”
“That will----became power.”
“Chaos. See it yourself, beyond the Faceless, and carefully through your eyes of wastelands.”
“From the infinite skies of innumerable of worlds, what kind of beings are coming from there----”
So from these quotes from both Kishin Houkou and Kishin Hishou, we can gather two major pieces of Information:
There exists an infinite number of Universes, Worlds, Stories, and Timelines
EVERYTHING, LITERALLY EVERYTHING in the verse, has universes that exist within itself that extends to Infinity.
In layman's terms, there are infinite universes present that extend parallelly as well as in a hierarchical manner where each higher universe has infinite universes and each of these universes also contains infinite universes and so on for infinity.
This part of the quote: "A moment that swallows an eternity. A finest dust that contains an infinity." indicates that even Infinity and Eternity are trivialized by mere finite moments and objects as these are but a single moment in higher universes where they are contained within the tiniest speck of dust. Therefore, every universe in Demonbane always has an infinite number of higher universes extending outside itself and an infinite number of lower universes extending inside itself.
This part of the quote: "This is the story about how all things are infinite and zero." indicates that the final universe (which is described as being both infinite and zero) also falls into this endless hierarchy of universes. Furthermore, in the bad ending where the Evil Gods were released from the Shining Trapezohedron, an unknown Evil God said that Kurou's universe is contained within the brain, this statement fits with this line of the quote: "A universe imprisoned within a brain."
"The infinite and zero melt together, the Snake of Samsara decays and falls, creating the soup of boiling chaos---." – The serpent of samsara references the cycle inside the Klein Bottle. When infinity and zero become one, it will decay and return all creation to the soup of chaos. So it's evident that these endless chains of the universe within the universe also apply to every cycle inside Klein Bottle.
We know from the above quotes that basically all of creation is nothing but a fleeting dream of the Blind Idiot God who is the King of All. Should he ever wakes up, everything will simply vanish or won't even exist in the first place. That is, not until the arrival of Elder Gods. All of these universes in creation are mere "elementary material" that make up the whole Shining Trapezohedron. To be more specific, they are corpses of universes that had been tormented by the Evil Gods in the original world until the Elder Gods appeared and sealed Azathoth inside the "infinite chains of universes within universes.", cutting off the Blind Idiot God from its dream and remaking creation into a world where the Evil Gods are forbidden to exist.
We even have endless stories dwelling inside endless chains of infinite universes, these universes were also gateways where all Demonbanes of all stories could be called forth to help fight against the Evil Gods. One thing worth noting is that Demonbane was a "product" of the Infinite Spiral, once the Infinite Spiral is gone, Demonbane is no longer needed since its role to destroy the Evil is fulfilled. So "those stories" can be safe to infer that they have come from the Infinite Spiral. But there were also Demonbane that didn't belong to the Infinite Spiral, for example, Kuzaku and Another Blood's Demonbane (from different worlds) were summoned to this battle, Kuzaku came from a world where the Infinite Spiral is ceased to exist, and Another Blood was the result of the fragmented world where the world was divided into an infinite number of stories due to a failure of Evil God's summon, also her world was an impossibility, she didn't have any possibility, and yet still manifested herself into the world.
“The Anticross that were supposed to be non-existent. This applies to Demonbane as well! ---In the end, who the hell are you!”
“You don’t understand? You and I both shared the same existence.”
“What did you just say?”
“I am---the [Necronomicon]. The compilation of abominated knowledge. That means I am your copy… Original (Mother).”
“You said [Necronomicon]!?”
“…Nonsense. The Greek Manuscript, The Latin Manuscript, The Incomplete English Manuscript… Even other versions like the Machine Language Manuscript also exist. But there is no way a copy that was written by such a twisted spell like you could exist.”
“It’s a matter of course. Because I am… the [book] that doesn’t exist.”
“Doesn’t exist…?”
Doesn’t exist---like the Anticross?
“I am the life that could not be born. I am the life that no one desired. I am the [book] that carried on the curse in my blood. I am the story written by enmity. I am---”
“Necronomicon Blood Language Manuscript.”
---Underground Providence.
The Geofront (Secret Shrine) of [Starry Wisdom].
“And thus, the world has been torn apart! Behold! The causality is dissolved, countless stories are overlapping to each other!”
“---For it is Chaos! It was the beloved Chaos that swallowed the entire world itself!”
“[Starry Wisdom]! … Father! Where are you!?”
“Daijuuji Kuzaku! So you too have arrived at my table!? You will challenge my Game, just like your parents did!?”
“Game, you said?”
“That’s right… All things are merely a Game. I am the one who toys with the world. I am---”
“---I am Game Keeper (Toys Manipulator).”
“What are you plotting, Father!”
“I am doing nothing. I only lighten up the flame---with a spark called Chance on a firewood called Fate!”
“Correct, the ones that held up the feast of hell are humanity regardless!”
The era of Great War (Magic War).
The fierce battle has brought upon the great collapse.
By the failure of the [Evil God Summoning] ritual, which has gone spiraling out of control.
That impact has been spread all over the world.
“This is…!?”
“A rift in space-time---the aftermath of the divine power going haywire tore apart space-time and cut off the world. The torn world then branched, isolated, and became the Demon World governed by Otherworldly laws.”
“The world… is torn apart?”
“Space. Time. And so do causality. And you, too, shall be torn apart with no exception… Just like this!”
“…!? GUAHHHHHHHHH!”
The body of the young boy dissolved into a blood-stained breeze.
The blood-stained breeze consisted of countless magic symbols, then they turned into a symbolic string (snake) and formed a twin spiral.
The twin spiral (Caduceus) is ripped from the body---or, from the soul of Kuzaku.
“Gah… Haa… Haa… Haa…”
The intense pain tore the boy asunder, body and soul, as he could not help but collapsed onto the ground.
Then, the slender fingertip caress Kuzaku's cheek, who's gasping for some air.
Looked into the saphire windows of the confused Kuzaku is a pair of crimson pupils.
“How could you..."
“---It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, [me].”
The twin spiral weaved into a maiden in red.
Along the pleasant fragrance of blood lingering in the air, the maiden looked at the young man.
That silhouette is somewhat unclear, extremely ephermeral
Said maiden of fantasy then spoke her words.
Lowering the fingertip touching his cheek, she placed her palm on the young man's chest---on the yound man's heart, as the maiden called his name.
As [me].
Is [myself].
“…[Me]?”
“Indeed. That is [you]. The [you] yourself. Another possibility of [you] that has been diverged and torn apart.”
So from all of these Quotes, it is very clear that the entire cosmology of Demonbane consists of an Infinite Number of Universes/Worlds/Timelines that are based on infinite possibilities and non-possibilities, and thus it makes the Cosmology a High Multiverse+ structure. But wait a minute, didn't we say that there are infinite universes present that extend parallelly as well as in a hierarchical manner where each higher universe has infinite universes and each of these universes also contains infinite universes and so on for infinity?? While some might be sceptical about this and think that it is nothing higher than High Multiverse+ structure, it is in fact the opposite.
We have initially established in the Main Universe section how the Main Universe has a Non-Euclidean Realm called the Spiritual Dimension where the existing entities manifest or project themselves as shallow reflections of their True Form in the 3D form. In addition, we have found that even Infinity and Eternity of a universe are trivialized as these are but a single moment in higher universes where they are contained within the tiniest speck of dust meaning a Lower Universe is just a Subset of a Higher Universe. However, to solidify the difference between a Lower Universe and a Higher Universe, we have to look at the fight between Super Demonbane and Super Liber Liges from Gunshin Kyoushuu.
Liber Legis swung the The Cross at full power.
The clash between the Divine Spear and The Cross generated a furious time-space quake and sent the two Super Deus Machinas to the other side of time and space.
And---
In the distant interstellar space. Demonbane was sent to the middle of outer space where an unknown and massive nebula floats on the background.
A momentary loss in orientation function.
"Where are we---This place is---Where is him!?"
(Below, Edgar!)
From "below" Demonbane, countless gravity shells broke through the wall of space.
It failed to react in time, several gravity shells landed directly on the legs, right arm, waist, head --- 70% of the frame was destroyed in an instant. Then, the second wave came to finish off the remaining chest---
Demonbane lifted its left hand. The energy of two hearts (engines) concentrated on the palm.
(---Defense spell---No---I won't be able to offset this!)
Demonbane's chest was swallowed by the mass of supergravity, then vanished and discomposed to elementary particles.
All that left in space was everything from the elbow of left arm.
There, a shining clock face hovered on that palm.
Time Manipulation Spell – [De Marigny's Clock].
Giriririri---!
The arrows on the face screeched, rotated in the opposite direction and rewound time.
Chest, head, right arm, legs --- the frame that was completely erased is regenerating while also reversing the causality.
At the same time, the countless gravity shells that once landed on Demonbane reversed their trajectory and were sucked into a single point in space.
"Found you!"
Demonbane instantly assembled the Divine Spear, following the trajectory of the gravity shells and plunging itself to the space beneath its feet.
"Ooraa!"
It trampled on the void and swung the Divine Spear. Like a fish caught by a spear, Liber Legis was pulled up from below the interface of space. The tip of the superthrust pierced through the crimson chest.
Gi---
Despite having lost its heart, Liber Legis grabbed the handle of the spear and attempted to fight back.
"Like hell you would!"
The wave of magic expanded through Demonbane's body in a spiral. From the legs to the hip, through the arms, the handle of the spear, then its tip---
Voo---!
It was a sudden Lemuria Impact without the mechanism to generate a barrier or a chant to bolster its magical power --- The vortex of Sublimation Spell amplified by Spell Helix and guided to one direction, stretched forward like a tornado around the tip of the Divine Spear and the frame of Liber Legis in there was disassembled, leaving only torn limbs.
"Ha, how was that!?"
(Not yet, Edgar!)
Demonbane gazed on the torn crimson left arm. In its palm, there was a shining clock face---
Giririri---!
Just like what Demonbane had done, the frame of Liber Legis regenerated via the reversal of time. The Sublimation Spell of Lemuria Impact that destroyed Liber Legis returned to elementary magic and flew back to the tip of the Divine Spear.
Don---!
The entire body full of magic gears exploded from the overload and knocked back Demonbane.
"Bastard, you cheat!"
"What you can do, I can do too... The more power you grow, the more I can grow too. That is the setting."
Liber Legis opened the left arm and lifted the clock face.
"I can utilize a spell like this to its full potential too, like this---!"
The second arrow on the magical clock skipped a few seconds --- Then, Liber Legis teleported before Demonbane. It erased time of approach.
Then, Liber Legis held the cold of absolute zero and swung the right arm-blade. A deadly strike --- No, a hundred deadly strikes. A hundred Hyperborea Zerodrive were initiated simultaneously. Demonbane, on the process of repairing its magical gears cannot avoid this.
Demonbane activated the spatial distortion mechanism in the legs while accelerating its interior speed to the limit --- But, Liber Legis' left hand went to Demonbane,
Gi---!
Demonbane's time was stopped --- No, before that, Demonbane also pointed the the left hand that unfolded the [De Marigny's Clock] to Liber Legis.
Two head-on opposite time manipulate spells seize and twist the structure of time and space by an invisible method to create a flow of time that favors themselves.
Gi, gi, gi...!
Caught between two powerful forces, the distorted universe screamed and exploded.
And---
Demonbane entered a universe full of colors that are not colors and never seen before.
"Cheh, again...!?"
Edgar = Demonbane quickly looked around.
Was it a city or a spaceship --- Demonbane is now hovering on some sort of massive artificial structure.
(No, that --- That is Liber Legis!!)
The moment Al Azif said so, the city from below ascended sharply and so was another city descended from above and sandwiched Demonbane.
The "city" they saw was merely the surface of Liber Legis' fingertip --- Liber Legis is now 10,000 times larger than Demonbane.
The pressure from above and below caused Demonbane's frame to scream.
"Hey, isn't this against the rule!?"
(This world seems to have less binding force on reality than our universe --- Imagine and create, Edgar! An even stronger form of your own!!)
"Like, this...!?"
BOOM---!!
Edgar unconsciously chose the "imagine of explosive maturity".
Demonbane became as large as Liber Legis and destroyed its by releasing energy like an atomic explosion.
"Hoho, impressive."
Master Therion laughed.
"Stop playing around!"
Demonbane swung at Liber Legis while releasing extreme heat from its body.
Liber Legis stopped Demonbane's fist by its fist while regenerating its right arm.
The impact caused the surrounding space to scream and break.
The two Deus Machinas flew away and began to accumulate power.
Liber Legis grew bigger, Demonbane grew bigger, then both grew even bigger, bigger, bigger---
The moment of their next blow, the universe could not withstand their energy and collapsed.
Next---
They were sent to a huge universe.
The two Deus Machinas that should have the mass and energy to destroy the universe were less than a single molecule in this place.
While avoiding gas molecules that collide with another in frenzy like billard balls, the two of them unleashed an immensely powerful technique.
Then,
They were sent to a slow universe.
Here, the flow of time was heavy as tar, even movement was hard for them despite the time manipulation ability.
They can clearly recognize another's techniques from occurrence to arrival. Therefore, they have plenty of chance to prepare for both defense and counterattack.
The concept of "reaction speed" does not exist in here, only perfect tactics like tsumeshogi could decide the outcome.
Next---
They were sent to a dead universe.
It was a world where nothing could happen, with a perfect thermodynamic equilibrium and complete stability in time and space.
No matter, no energy, and neither Demonbane and Liber Legis could exist in here.
Yet, they continued to fight, not by existing, not by action, only by methods unimaginable to beings in normal universes.
Next---
As the two Super Deus Machinas changed size, form and rewrote magical structure, they soared, rushed and fought across dozens, hundreds, thousands of worlds like dry stones bouncing on the water surface.
At one point, they wielded thousands of blades. At one point, they became a single bullet.
At one point, they exchanged quick blows in femtosecond. At one point, they delivered a heavy blow that took billions of years.
At one point, the side-effect of their swordplays shook dimensions. At one point, they destroyed space via bombardments of stray bullets.
They clashed as they accelerated, reversed, halted or annihilated the flow of causality, destroyed, created innumerable universes and rewrote history over and again.
Next---
Where they arrived to was the hyper-hyper timespace that is on top of hyperdimension and above hypertime and hyperspace.
There, Edgar and Al Azif caught a glimpse.
Inside innumerable universes that burst like bubbles,
Inside the infinite rings of time that connect like chains,
Countless Demonbane fight, fought and have fought.
They are one of the feasible possibilities.
They are one of the chosen possibilities.
They are one of the lost possibilities.
They diverge, circulate and converge like the flows of blood, they are innumerable yet one fate, likewise, a part yet everything.
Across the entirety of an eternity, across next eternity beyond the eternity, across the infinite chains of eternities---
The Eternal Sword That Smites Evil (Demonbane = Atheleta Aeternum) fights, fights and fights to the very end.
Then---
"Oh my, this is getting repetitive. Then, this flow should not exist then."
Nyarlathotep rewound the clock instantly.
---Time is reversing!?
A power even superior to the "clock" of Demonbane and Liber Legis.
Someone is manipulating the hypertime that governs hyperspace from outside time and space.
The trace of the battle lasts an eternity was erased in an instant.
---Edgar, hurry to the spaceship---
---Please save the Earth, Edgar—
---Let us do it together, big bro---
---Very well, Edgar. I shall make a contract with you---
---Edgar---
---Ed...---
---...---
Now, this would sound kinda meta here. We all know that there are infinite stories in Demonbane Mythos. Following the afterwords of Gunshin Kyoushuu, in Jin Haganeya's commentary section, he made it clear that the stories are branched into a countless, infinite number of varieties, these stories are coming from those who spin on the tale of the Demonbane Mythos and not just limited to one person even if that was our original author, but from a writer, a painter, a narrator, a singer, a performer, a reader, or a listener. In short, anyone can tell the stories themselves and each of their stories will diverge into countless other stories. The stories of "Demonbane" will keep branching infinitely and from these branches will diverge into another infinite then rinse and repeat, as long as they are being told by anyone including we, the readers (Yes, Jin Haganeya said directly to us. We readers are those who built the very Mythos of Demonbane universe). Furthermore, they are also continued to other media like Kishin Houkou's anime adaptation, which low-key confirmed that every work of Demonbane, be it Visual Novels, Light Novels, Anime or Manga is all part of the main canon.
Now then, the Mythos (Saga) is not built by a single God or a single Hero. But rather they were born in the heart of the people. Each person told the “stories” that resided within them, and in addition to each one being told, countless, infinite variety of [stories] blended together and thus the Mythos (Saga) is being formed. Just like the nightmare that the young boy of Providence once dreamt of, it has turned into a great Mythos and continue to develop even at this moment.
If [Demonbane] also harbors the Mythos (Saga) and at the same time dwelled by the Mythos (Saga), then it was not created by a single person---for example by myself alone as the original author. It was created by the intersection of countless [stories]… Like a writer, a painter, a narrator, a singer, a performer, a reader, and a listener.
With that thought in mind, I myself (Nitroplus) made the PC Game [Kishin Hishou Demonbane] which is the sequel of [Zanma Taisei Demonbane] (or [Kishin Houkou Demonbane]). This game is the story that has received impact from many people working on [Demonbane].
As a prime example of that, the fact that it is linked with the first Side Story Novel written by Mr.Furuhashi, [Kishin Taidou] can be brought up. In [Kishin Hishou] Azrad who was supposed to be the past Master of Necronomicon made an appearance, then he fought side by side along with Kurou and Al.
Additionally, I think everyone who has bought and played [Kishin Hishou] already aware, that [Kishin Hishou] is also linked with this book – [Gunshin Kyoushuu].
[Demonbane] has grown into such a rich story all thanks to Mr.Furuhashi.
Indeed, it’s not just Mr.Furuhashi alone. The story of [Demonbane] starting with the TV anime version of [Kishin Houkou Demonbane] diverged into countless branches. And each and every branch bears the fruit of innumerable feelings of innumerable people. They mutually affected each other, whether directly or indirectly, and matured for the creation of the next new story.
This great ring that connected all stories no doubt is the grandly Mythos (Saga) itself. We are all living inside this.
This might come as a bit of spoiler, but at the end of this book Mr.Furuhashi coldly declared that “From the start to the end, nothing can be said to be meaningful at all.”. However, while concluding so he strongly appealed us [to be there] right in the last sentence.
That’s right. The will [to tell] of a person will too never gonna disappear.
As long as there is someone who keeps telling. As long as there is someone who keeps listening.
As long as there is someone who keeps moving. As long as there is someone who keeps watching.
As long as he is there. As long as she is there.
As long as I am here. As long as you are here---
To the weavers of [Demonbane Mythos (Saga)], I sincerely thank you all.
So basically, there are three main key takeaways from this entire ordeal:
A Lower Universe is so small compared to a Higher Universe that even two Infinitely-growing Super Deus Machinas, whose mass and energy alone was able to destroy a Space-Time continuum via their sheer presence, were practically nothing compared to even a Molecule in the Higher Universe. Basically, showcasing that a Space-Time continuum of a Lower Universe is nothing compared to even a Molecule in the Higher Universe. This proves qualitative superiority between a Lower Universe and a Higher Universe, which is further supplemented by the fact that a Higher Universe trivializes even Infinity and Eternity (Aka Infinite Space and Infinite Time) of a Lower Universe while Higher Dimensional entities in the verse project themselves in the Lower Dimensions as mere shallow reflections of their True Selves. This proves that the Cosmology of the verse extends infinitely in a parallel as well as hierarchical manner due to the presence of Infinite Possibilities for everything making the Multiverse a High HyperDimensional+ structure.
Two Infinitely-growing Super Deus Machinas viewed the infinite "time looped universes" as bubbles from the Hyper-Hyper Time-Space, the point of view here shows that after outgrowing infinite bubbles, the two continued transcending/growing infinitely until finally, they reached The Hyper-Hyper Time-Space and kept enlarging in there. This is called the Hyperdimension which exists at the zenith of Creation and allows the two Super Deus Machinas to view the entire Infinite Hierarchical Structure of the Multiverse at the same time where their past selves were fighting for eternity and destroying and recreating the Universe. This make the Hyperdimension an At least High HyperDimensional+ structure.
There is still a Realm that exists "Outside of Time and Space" from where Nya (Nyarlathotep) was able to control/manipulate the flow of Time across all of creation and reverse it to the point the events of Gunshin Kyoushuu were retconned. Considering the fact that this realm exists completely outside of Space and Time and beyond the Hyperdimension which was the Zenith of Creation, this makes the Realm or the Outer Universe (which will be discussed and explained next) a Transcendent structure.
Outer Universe
Now we come to a very interesting part of Demonbane Cosmology which has never been fully and properly explored, which is the "Outer Universe". The Outer Universe is the highest plane of existence inside every loop and eternity. This is the primordial cosmos where the Great Old Ones or Gods reside, and which can be accessed by the entity Yog-Sothoth who is described as being allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep which is the last utter sweep that has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike.
But behold the light emanating from the depths of the sea cast by the flames of the primordial Universe that dwell in the monster's eyes. Is this thing really a living creature?
"Not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep -- the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike."
“And…… Behold what lies beyond the Gate…… Look upon the Torrent of Chaos.”
“Focus your sorcerer’s senses, and perceive its true form……”
Liber Legis points at the Gate, drawing my attention to the Darkness on the other side.
I focus my senses and look into the swirling Chaos----
“----------------!”
Horror. Terror. Awe. Pressure.
……They're there.
Just beyond that vortex.
Those that give of a presence either equal or greater than Cthulhu’s.
And there are countless of them. Such many beings that are fully capable of destroying the Earth on their own……!
“Yog-Sothoth exists at all points in Time and Space, and is connected to the Outer Universe where dwell the Great Old Ones…… just as Al Azif said.”
“What do you think will happen when the gods realize that the Gate has opened here?”
“----They will come upon this world like a flood, an unending tide of Evil Gods!”
In the completely reborn world----time flows properly again----a normal world is finally returned to the people that caught a glimpse of the realm of gods in Outer Universe.
It is also the Universe where Eldritch Beings/Cosmic Horrors originated from, including an avatar of Nyarlathotep. This is shown when Kurou travelled to the Forest of N'gai or when Al killed the Dunwich Horror, an offspring of Yog-Sothoth.
What I saw was----Ygnaiih…… Eee…… Ya-Ya-Ya…… Yahaahaaa……
A chant.
……O Great Messenger----
To the dwelling on Earth from the world of seven suns----To N’gai Forest----Coming----
Flute.
The Black Goat in the Forest----Who Conceives a Thousand Young----Nightmare…… Overflowing----
A voice of something that is not human.
Ia! Shub-Niggurath!
Flapping. Laugh. Chant. Chorus.
Then, I found myself in a very dark and dense forest.
Beast-like devilish music coming from deep in the forest.
The darkness writhed and danced to match that abominate tone.
Ygnaiih.
Ygnaiih.
“Guh!”
And then the entire forest pulses like a living creature.
Incomprehensible music, roar of nightjars, screaming and beating mixed with the rustling trees. The flood of sound is deafing my ears.
I crouched against my will.
The earth is vibrating.
The beat of the forest is shaking the area.
The forest wriggles and becomes a shadow painting.
A shadow that is the being of Outer Universe casts upon reality.
A formless gigantic something is sneering and shivering. The shadow has risen.
A formless monster that roars and swings its tentacles that can expand and contract infinitely as claws, the darkness with three burning eyes, a shimmering tree with golden tendrills.
The shadow of Outer Universe howls.
Its birth cry akin to the death cry reaches the end of time and space, to the center of the world and touches the Heaven.
Its voice shattered my soul.
I have no answer.
I have no response.
I give myself to the dream.
To this death like half-sleep.
“Ygnaiih…… Ygnaiih…… thflthkh’ngha…… Yog-Sothoth…….!”
“This is the end! Come, Aeon!”
“Y’bthnk…… h’ehye----n’grkdl’lh……”
“Begone, fiend! Return to the court of your father!”
“Eh-y-ya-ya-yahaah----e’yayayaaaa…… ngh’aaaaa…… ngh’aaa…… h’yuh…… h’yuh…… Help! Help!”
“F-f-f-father! Fatherrrrrrr! Yooooooog-Soothothothhhhh!”
“----Well done, Al Azif. I did not expect you to destroy that Other, that monster that existed by the laws of Outer Universe.”
The Outer Universe is the true battlefield of Demonbane and Liber Legis which can be accessed by stepping into the Gate of Yog-Sothoth, where an individual will be swallowed and suffer the violent torrent of time and space spiralling chaotically, the distortions of space-time continuums beyond the laws and concepts of the human world, the thrash of dimensions, the haywire of all causality, all at once. An individual can even be thrown off the causality or discarded into an angle of nonexistent space-time.
Dimensions thrash.
Inversed time spirals.
It flows in reverse.
It flies.
Everything in the world, all causality, goes haywire.
The [Illusory Heart Mother] is tossed about in the violent torrent of time.
“What in the world!? What the hell is this!”
“We’ve been swallowed by Yog-Sothoth! Watch out! If we’re not careful, we’ll slip off into an angle of non-existent space-time!”
The trio was first thrown off into this sea of chaos (not to be confused with the actual Sea Of Chaos), and witnessed that everything there is pure chaos, all laws and concepts are meaningless, and dimensions, space, and time go haywire. This place/universe is akin to a melting pot in which everything rejects each other, the concept of direction and distance has no meaning. Any being who dares to come here will be tormented by the insanity of this universe both spiritually and physically, even a mage like Kurou (whose mind and soul are protected by spells) and Deus Machina like Demonbane (every Deus Machina already surpasses laws and concepts let alone the likes of Demonbane) could be torn to shreds at any time by the madness of the universe.
The aim is beyond the Gate of Yog-Sothoth.
Beyond the Other world where time and space swirls.
With our unshakable resolve----
And with the prayers of our friends in our hearts, we will face the ultimate insanity.
We are in a space of myriad vivid colors.
The flow of energy is undefined and there is absolutely no order here.
There is only the Sea of Chaos, where everything is both one with and separate from everything else.
We have been tossed into a world where distance and direction have no meaning.
“Proceed with caution as you seek him out. You mustn't get confused and lose sight of yourself.”
“Nothing is more important in this place than to keep your soul firm.”
“Got it.”
I spread the network of my nerves (inter-net) from the depth of my consciousness throughout the world, searching and feeling through everything it touches.
This space exists by different principles than the human world.
Seeing me as an intruder trying to expose its secrets, it assaults my mind and soul with utter insanity.
While enduring the burning agony in my nerves, I send my mind-tentacles even farther, trying to catch Master Therion's presence.
“Nngh...!”
It's all I can do to keep my identity from being torn to shreds by the horrifying madness.
Shit......!
We'll never find him like this!
“Have no fear.”
I hear Al's voice.
The pain vanishes like it was never there.
Power builds in my soul, boiling with intense heat----but my heart is utterly calm.
Al speaks with unshakable will.
“I will protect you.”
“...Yeah!”
Al's resolute words seem to blast away the malice from the world itself.
I impose my sorcery with a force to invade the world.
And then, on the very edge of my senses, I faintly perceive Master Therion's presence.
“So that's where you're hiding!”
I summon Lloighor and Zhar.
Then I combine the two short swords into the shape of a boomerang.
I throw (swing) it. The dizzily spinning sword catches something unseen----
The World changes. From the other side of the shattered scenery, another universe comes pouring in.
The Outer Universe encompasses and connects with otherworldly universes of incomprehensible laws and different principles of reality.
“Calm yourself, Kurou. Even though the dimensional door has been opened, those creatures won't be able to pass through immediately!”
“You have a decision of terrible import to make first!”
Al affixes me with a stare of irresistable gravity.
I can see my face reflected in her jade green eyes. For some reason, I'm reminded of the first time we met.
Once again, I feel like I'm being drawn into their depths......
Al's voice breaks me out of my reflections.
“As you already know, Yog-Sothoth is connected to all points in Time and Space.”
“Which means that it is impossible to know where that Gate leads.”
“Once we pass through it, we will travel throughout all universes, from past, present, to the future.”
“And----“
She pauses.
I don't feel shock or despair at her next words, but rather a numbness creeping slowly into my heart.
“----We will likely never be able to return.”
“You're too naive! The laws of this Universe are meaningless beyond that gate, to say nothing of your human concepts! How can I ask you to plunge into such madness......?”
“You're the one who's being naive! There's no way you can beat Master Therion by yourself!”
The change is soon perceived by all things still living here.
None can tear their eyes from it.
For it is absolute and hopeless, an Other of cosmic grandeur, far surpassing their meager human understanding.
In addition, the Outer Universe itself is the Gap/Space between Worlds, and as vague as it is, it still has value to the grand scale of the infinite possibilities of the multiverse. The Trio was sent to this space and was expected to wander ever between space and time after the fight against Master Therion if Azif wasn’t still able to summon Demonbane into this space and sent Kurou back to the human world. The fact that Demonbane could manifest itself into the space between universes and still had its Cor Leonis active further supports that every world/universe in Demonbane-verse has infinite possibilities, even a small rift in time or a momentary dimension between worlds.
As for Daijuuji Kurou and Al……
The Deep.
The Abyss.
The endless, limitless Sea of Stars.
Al and I sit side by side, gazing at the softly twinkling Milky Way.
“……How beautiful.”
“Yes, it truly is.”
Of course it is.
No matter how the World is defiled by Evil……
Nevertheless, the World we live in is truly beautiful.
Just a trifling conversation without any meaning.
Though they have no meaning…… but it makes me really happy to confirm the obvious that way.
It’s not like I’m looking for meaning anyway.
After our battle, Demonbane was ejected into this Universe.
With its damage severe and its magical power exhausted, it is completely silent.
Demonbane has finally fulfilled its role.
Till just now, you’ve done well to follow me, who is such an arrogant and authoritarian master, without spitting even a single complaint.
……Good work, Demonbane.
Alright, so what’s gonna happen to us?
First of all, I’ve got no idea where or when this universe is.
We’re completely dead in the water, even if we managed to make a move.
So am I just gonna sit here and wait to die?
No…… somehow I get the feeling that I cannot die in my current state.
It seems that I’ve surpassed such a domain.
So I’ll continue drifting through the sea of stars like this for eternity…….?
That’s fine by me, I thought.
I mean, I never believe that I’d be able to go back to my original world right from the start.
I was prepared for this a long time ago.
“I don't know, but this is----”
I know what she's trying to say.
This light is overwhelmingly powerful----but it isn't at all cruel.
Its intensity is the indomitable power of life.
The breath of life is in it, hot and gentle.
What is this light?
What has come to us as we float for eternity in this gap between times, this gap between worlds?
Once again I’m engulfed by space-time quake.
I am drifting through the torrent of Time, the space in-between dimensions.
……How did the fight turn out?
What happened to Liber Legis?
What happened to Demonbane?
What happened to me?
Even as I struggle to make sense of things, my vision is drowned in the richly-coloured darkness, I can’t hear any sound, and I have no feeling at all in my body.
There is nothing in existence to hanging on.
I’m filled with an unbearable feeling of loneliness and dread.
Damn it…… Al…… Where are you, Al?
What’s going on!?
There is no reply.
I can’t even sense her presence.
Even if there were a reply, I would have no way of knowing.
……What the hell is happening to me?
……Could it be I’m already dead?
If that’s the case, then it would explain a lot.
Or maybe…… I slipped into an unnatural [angle] of space and time?
Either way, I’m screwed.
Damn it…… I can’t just float around like this!
I made a promise…… I promised the princess that I’d come back!
Even though I did…… I’m so helpless……!
“You’re not dead. Your descent angle has already been decided. That’s right. This is the most important part, did you really think I would let it end so easily? I’m more passionate than that you know?”
“Master Therion!?”
I hear a voice that I shouldn’t be able to hear.
The twisted echoes of his unbearable laughter squeeze my heart.
Feelings of disgust run rampant in my chest, but in a cruel twist of fate, those feelings become my only link with the world.
I confirm the form of my own body as I pursue my archnemesis.
A golden shadow lingers within the richly-coloured darkness.
The Golden Beast.
“Masteeeer Therionnnnn!”
“From this point onwards we will both fall into the same place. And with that…… you will know the true machinations of the gods.”
“Machinations……?”
“The ecstasy of despair…… and the endless exhaustion of battle await. Now…… Let us begin.”
The Golden Beast spreads his arms, purposely exposing his chest to me and smiles.
His eyes look like he’s dreaming.
So lovely and sweet.
So calm.
So gentle……
Fear courses through my body.
I suddenly notice I’ve been running through the richly-coloured space.
With a surging vigor, as though trying to swallow up the golden darkness.
A crack spreads across Master Therion’s smile as he bursts out a laughter.
“Ahahaha! Ahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahaha!”
“Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
And with that, the world shatters----the doorway to infinity is flung open.
I am----
What have I already lost?
I don't know.
But the world we came from----the world I walked with everyone, with Leica, is slipping through my fingers like sand.
There was terrible loneliness and fear.
But even that fear is trying to slip away.
All the proof that I am myself, is being lost----
“That's not true... Everything's just returning to the way it was. Before the cycle began.”
...I hear someone's voice.
In this world where everything's being lost, it is the most warm and comforting of things.
I cling desperately to that comfort.
“There's nothing to be afraid of. Kurou.”
“...Al, is that you?”
As I call her name, it sends a ripple across the world like a drop of water hitting its surface.
In the center of the ripple, Al appears.
Her silver hair wavers without wind.
“You were all right. I'm so glad. I was horribly worried all by myself.”
“Yeah... But, sadly, I can't stay much longer. Time is about to begin moving properly. This place is like a rift in time... Like an ephemeral dream.”
Now, from the given information, we know that the Outer Universe is the primordial cosmos where the Great Old Ones or Gods reside and from where Eldritch Beings originated from. Now from Kishin Hishou itself, we are able to get a description of the Yog-Sothoth as well as the Great Old Ones, where the latter was called Primal and Undimensioned.
Nor is it to be thought...that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.
As explained in the previous section of the Multiverse and Higher Dimensions, it is also the realm from where Nya was able to rewind back time of all of Creation including that of the Hyper Dimension itself, and it is also a realm that exists outside of Space and Time, beyond even the Hyper Dimension. It is also an inaccessible realm to Creation which both Super Deus Machinas could not at all access despite their infinite ascendence through the infinite hierarchy of the Universes in the Multiverse and being able to reach the Hyper Dimension. This shows that the Outer Universe transcends the entirety of Space and Time, and it is a realm from where Undimensioned entities such as the Great Old Ones originate and exist, thereby making the realm Undimensioned. As such, we can construe that the Outer Universe is a Transcendent Structure.
Infinite Spiral
While the Outer Universe is the true battlefield of Demonbane and Liber Legis, it is, however, the connection of all “eternities,” where the snake's jaw of reincarnation will devour the current cycle and give birth to a whole new one inside the Ring of Yog-Sothoth. An infinite repeat of death and birth, destruction and creation of an endless cycle. Every single cycle has its own Outer Universe, which has been repeated indefinitely.
“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
“Do you understand, Daijuuji Kurou!? If you wish to save this world, follow me! Come to the end of the World, the end of Time!”
“In the space between unknowable times, beyond the unknowable worlds, you and I will settle our score once and for all!”
“This is the final movement! Come, amuse me to the very end! Entertain Master Therion, the child of gods!”
“----Thou God-Slaying Blade!”
Al Azif's Route - Chapter 15
「では、始めようか。終わりの始まりを。始まりの終わりを。永劫の終焉を。永劫の開演を――」
"Then let us begin. The beginning of the end. The end of the beginning. The ending of eternity. The opening act of eternity---"
Hadou Ruri's Route - Chapter 15 - True End
永劫の接続点へ。自らの尻尾を喰らう、蛇の顎へ。
大十字九郎とマスターテリオンが戦う、決戦の宇宙へと――!
To the point where eternities meet. To the jaw of the snake who eats his own tail.
To the battlefield, the universe where Daijuuji Kurou and Master Therion fight----!
So what is this Cycle and what is the Ring of Yog-Sothoth?
The Cycle (also called Loop or Eternity) refers to an infinitely-looped timeworld in which every universe, world,... is trapped in an endless cycle where histories repeat itself for an untold amount of time. All things in existence are trapped within this infinity prison and everything is succumbed to Fate. The main event of every loop takes place at Outer Universe, where Demonbane/Daijuuji Kurou/The Evil-Slaying Blade and Liber Legis/Master Therion/The Beast of Apocalypse will fight and decide the fate of all things. If the battle between Master Therion and Kurou (or someone qualified to fulfill the role of a hero fighting against Therion) comes to an end without having any expected result, the loop will reset, be destroyed, return to ashes and a new one will arise with slightly different events but the same outcomes.
The Ring of Yog-Sothoth or Snake of Reincarnation or Ouroboros is described as where all things are bound, it is the place that exists beyond space-time, causality, where all eternities meet and end, connecting the previous worlds/eternities/loops to the next ones. If the ring breaks then so do all the worlds, returning everything to nothingness and reborn in the new world where its existence is forgotten, so the world can move towards the future. The Ring of Yog-Sothoth bounds and contains all the Cycles into one single Ring of Yog-Sothoth.
But this leads to another thing which is The Ring of Nyar or The Garden of Nyarlathotep. The Garden of Nyarlathotep is where an infinite number of Ring of Yog-Sothoth is contained, and the destruction of the garden means the destruction of all of the current and previous loops/rings.
I know Fate.
I know Despair.
I know that the World is trapped in the Court of the Infinite Snake.
I know that Fate is but a twisted, warped ring.
I know that Despair exists for the future that can never be reached, and for the people who know it not.
Endless aeons.
Unknowable aeons.
Strange aeons.
In this inescapable prison, where even the Beast who controls the Wheel is himself trapped, why is it that I am moved? Why? Why?
Ahh, of course.
It is because he is here.
He, too, is but an eternal prisoner.
He, too, is but an eternal slave.
He, too, is but an eternal fool.
Yet still he fights without doubt, over the countless aeons.
Is it because he does not know the World?
Is it because he does not know Fate?
Is it because he does not know Despair?
Perhaps. But is that really all?
If so, then why does he yet exist?
This infinite purgatory has lost the will to smite Evil.
It lost it without even knowing.
The power of the sage who defeated the children of the Gate and Key cannot reach.
The blind sage who bears the knowledge of Celaeno has been sealed somewhere.
The society that stands up to the evil gods on behalf of humanity has not even been formed yet.
The society that stands up to the evil gods on behalf of humanity has not even been formed yet.
I do not know.
He is the only one I do not know.
In this eternal darkness, he alone shines like a raging bolt of lightning.
Surely he is the chain that keeps me affixed to this reality.
Ahh.
Therefore.
Therefore.
These emotions that have multiplied over countless eternities, these feelings that have built up over unending aeons.
Ahhhhh, how I want to release them all.
Even if only greater Despair awaits me.
Master of the Necronomicon.
Mage King of White.
God-Slaying Blade.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance once more, Master Therion. How many times has it been now? I stopped counting after three thousand.”
“I do not know. And moreover, it has no meaning.”
He closes his eyes as he speaks, that smile gone from his face.
Now there is only----emptiness. No, it only masquerades as emptiness. This is hate, despair, fear, and awe......
And although it does not appear on her face, Etheldreda is directing clear animosity towards Nya.
Nya shrugs, sighing theatrically.
“Now then... Do you suppose young Kurou will be be able to find you through the guidance of the Ancient One?”
“That question has even less meaning.”
The fear freezing my heart becomes fuel for the fighting spirit burning hot in my chest.
The point of no return passed long ago.
I don't even have a place to return to.
So what am I waiting for?
For us, there is only the road ahead.
“----Al.”
“----Yes, let us go. The final battlefield awaits us. And beyond it...”
“Whether we end up in Hell or a world of Evil...... we'll always be together, right?”
“......Yes.”
“---Master.”
“---Yes, I know. The main event starts now.”
“At last... Okay, I'll go watch from where I won't get in the way.”
“Yes... The moment when my goal that repeated for eternity is finally comes to fruiton.”
“Are you happy that you will finally be released from this prison of time and fate?”
“.....Don't make me laugh, Nya. If we are released… Then what lies beyond waiting for us?”
"Ahahahaha...... Ahahahahaha...... Ahahahahahahahaha! I'll be rooting for you, Master Therion. You were quite the amusing toy......”
“......Master.”
“No matter, Etheldreda. One thing is true...... Whatever might await us beyond this battle, it cannot be any worse a hell than this.”
For us, there is only the road ahead.
“----Al.”
“----Yes, let us go. The final battlefield awaits us. And beyond it……”
Whether we end up in Hell or a world of Evil----We’ll win.
We’ll win, and protect the future of that world.
“----Master.”
“----Yes, I know. The main event starts now.”
“At last… Okay, I’ll go watch from where I won’t get in the way.”
“Goodbye, Master Therion. I’ll see you in the next eternity.”
“……What a vile woman.”
“No matter. Now, it’s just him Daijuuji Kurou----”
“……Master.”
Now.
That is all.
That is all I can do for him now.
No matter what----
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
……That presence.
That chaotic presence that intrudes upon my spirit.
The darkness burns before my eyes.
I knew it……
“Are you the strange being that haunts Kurou?”
"We meet again…… Al Azif."
The darkness writhes, taking a humanoid shape.
The shape of a woman.
“Just like before…… Now, answer me, abomination. What are you planning?”
“All I want to do is change the world so it is right and beautiful.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“……Who knows?”
Hee hee hee…….
I can hear a giggling, chuckling whisper.
Rage builds up in my heart.
“……You!”
“Daijuuji Kurou won’t disappear.”
“……What?”
“I won’t let him disappear. He’s very, very important to me.”
“Tell me, what are you----”
“In any case…… are you sure that’s what you want?”
“--------?”
The shadowy form of the woman wavers as it whispers.
Those words somehow twist their talons around my heart.
My will shaken, the shadow-woman laughs and continues.
“Are you sure you want to return Daijuuji Kurou…… to his own world?”
“What are you……”
What is she saying?
I won’t allow myself to lose Kurou.
Because Kurou is the first one who, the first to, my heart----
“That girl is waiting for Kurou to come back to her, after all.”
!?
Something deep within my soul screams.
Something hot and red begins to build up inside.
The dark figure chuckles, and continues to speak.
“His heart is not with you. No matter how far away, no matter the distance that separates them, even if time tear them apart, his heart will always be with that girl……”
It bursts forth.
The bleeding.
It won’t stop.
The bleeding continues.
It keeps bleeding---- Hatred.
“You’re right by his side now, but…… you’re all alone.”
“That will continue, unchanged and unaltered. Forever and ever.”
“Just like it was before you met Daijuuji Kurou.”
“A----------------aaaa…… hhhh!!”
……A fatal wound.
“But.”
But.
“If you were to travel with him into eternity……”
Perhaps, with Kurou----
“No!!”
I scream.
I cry.
I howl.
I shatter the passions that lay dormant inside.
I’m dragged along by my unbridled emotions as I continue to scream.
“Don’t trifle with me!! I…… I! That’s not the result I want!”
“Oh, really? Is that so? ……I see. You’re very strong.”
“18:58, 22 October 2022 (UTC)RM97 (talk)!”
I begin to weave.
I begin to weave a spell.
A spell that will destroy everything.
This loathsome darkness, this Chaos, this entire world.
A great, powerful, beautiful, magnificent spell that transcends all limits, to destroy this vile abomination……!
“Unfortunately, I have no more use for you now. The tiny opening created by your moment of hesitation was enough to settle everything.”
“--------Huh?”
The spell begins to dissipate.
The spell that I had woven to the utmost limit of my ability begins to dissolve.
It disperses and vanishes.
“The next eternity is about to begin. We will meet again, [Al Azif]. We shall be rejoined at the end of the next eternity.”
“It would be nice if I could meet the next you…… and the next Daijuuji Kurou, standing in the domain of the gods……”
“Wait!”
“You should start over from that spot. From before you were born----from Roba El Khaliyey, until you return here……”
“Nngh…… Ahhhh!”
The darkness laughs.
The wriggling darkness.
The howling darkness.
The crawling darkness.
The darkness changes shape and form, its burning eyes are warped with joy.
Yes, three burning eyes----
That’s right…… Why couldn’t I remember?
You are that Chaos----
“Nya…… rla…… th……!”
I see.
These machinations…… They were all…… All of them, all of them, all of them are the works of this Chaos.
I look at everything.
I understand everything.
But it’s all too late.
I will once again be trapped within the reincarnation serpent.
I will lose everything.
I……
Tiny particles of light are floating around, spiraling.
They gradually grow in numbers and intensity.
They glow brighter than the lighting of the room, and I realize what the light is.
Each individual particle is a magic symbol.
The spinning magic symbols are weaving a complex spell.
“What!?”
And the spell begins taking shape.
It forms a small humanoid shape and becomes a body.
Pale skin.
Jade eyes.
The tip of her silver hair is incomplete, still layers of glowing magic symbols.
I know the girl weaved from the spell all too well.
“Al!? How!?”
Her jade green eyes look into mine.
My vacant eyes fill with life anew.
Al begins speaking, as if to herself.
“...I've managed... to come back... but I won't last long. Causality is... already falling apart...”
As soon as she speaks, Al's body begins fading away like a ghost.
Occasional static runs across her like a broken monitor.
I can't make sense of what's going on.
“I came... to tell you something... Ruri... before the cycle catches me... again...”
“Tell me... something?”
I don't know what's going on... but I can tell it's something extremely important. I focus all my senses as to not miss anything and pay all my attention to Al.
“The truth... about the cycles... and... about Kurou...”
Kurou!
My heart skips a beat upon hearing that name.
I lean forward and ask Al.
I'm desperate.
“What about Kurou!? Where is he! Al! Tell me! Please, tell me!”
I don't know if my shouts are reaching her or not.
Al holds her hand up to me, still talking as if to herself.
“I'm going to transmit... what I gathered... of Kurou's conscience...... Take in... Kurou's thoughts...”
Al's hand glows.
And----the memories shoot through my brain like lightning and burn deeply into my mind!
And the electrifying shock turns my body stiff literally.
And in front of my eyes...
“I... delivered... it... I will... the next causality... next time... I must...”
And still stating at her hand, her body begins unraveling into threads.
Al's body is turning back into light.
But I can't move.
I tremble at the memories that burned themselves into my head so clearly----
“The future, absolutely----”
I learn everything while the dissipating light shines on me.
Everything, that Kurou experienced after he departed.
Hadou Kouzou.
“----------------What?”
“Did you see it? Did you see the truth of things?”
“...Master Therion.”
I turn around to the voice.
The red machine is floating there, and on its palm stands Master Therion.
With the rift of a smile across his face, his dark, gold eyes full of twisted delight, he looks down on me.
“This is the beginning, Daijuuji Kurou. I will appear before you again, with the Black Lodge at my side.”
“And you should know... what you need to do until then.”
A thick, hazy darkness gathers in the depths of my heart and weighs me down with its pressure.
I stand there speechless, to which Master Therion laughs.
“Ahahahahaha! Yes! That face!”
“The sight of you, being slowly eaten away by despair! That is my only food to exist in this eternity! Now, entertain me this time as well!”
“How far will youget this time? How much will you be able to deceive Fate?”
“You, having lost Al Azif! Just how close will you be able to get to me!?”
“Ahahaha, there could not be a play more exciting than this!”
“...You bastard!”
I yell and try to summon my magic gun----
But without Magius, I can't use that power.
My empty hand thrusts out into space.
“Ahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahaha!”
Liber Legis turns into light.
Master Therion disappears into the crumbling light.
Instantaneous teleportation.
“Wait! Goddamn youuuuuuuu!”
“Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
The light vanishes without a trace. Leaving only laughter.
I fall down to the ground.
The wind kicks up the dusty dirt.
Completely lost... I stare across the barren wasteland.
“...Princess.”
After three months, I returned to Arkham.
The sight of this city before my eyes was nothing like the Arkham I know, but just an old, deserted town.
In order to carry out Hadou Kouzou's will, I searched for the woman in the picture.
But I wasn't able to meet her.
While Kouzou was wandering the frontiers of Arizona, the woman he loved had lost her life to illness.
Like the time with Kouzou, I'm left with a horrible feeling.
But the good news----if it be called that.
There's something I found out.
After she had left Kouzou, that woman had birthed his child, unbeknownst to him.
After the mother's death, with nowhere to go, that child was taken in by an orphanage.
I went to see that child.
The battle I would risk my life for against the evil that did not yet exist.
The fight against Black Lodge.
The child looks up at me anxiously. I put on a completely fraudulent smile, swallow the pangs of guilt, and speak...
“Nice to meet you, sonny. I am----your father.”
I----become Hadou Kouzou.
To tell the truth, the map Hadou Kouzou left me was completely correct.
The place he had his eyes on was indeed the gold mine, the giant gold vein that nobody had been able to find.
He was no doubt an incredible adventurer.
That gold became my foundation.
I worked sleepless nights and whittled away at my life to learn business, economics, leadership... anything and everything I would need.
And where that wasn't enough, I used magic.
And in addition to magic, I had the knowledge of the future.
I didn't need to read into the future or anything.
I just had to move according to the story that had been laid out previously.
And under me, Hadou grew so massive, spanning the world----and the Hadou Group, the leader of the world, was completed.
But that was only a means to my goal.
And suddenly----although to me, it was just destined----the evil magic society Black Lodge appeared in Arkham City, the world's greatest city.
“Long time no see... Daijuuji Kurou. Oh, pardon me. Hadou Kouzou. As promised, I have returned to face you again. To this city of despair and strife."
And so begins the second act.
The battles with the Black Lodge only grew in intensity.
We both knew the future... And it was Master Therion, who had probably repeated countless eternities, who had the upper hand in that knowledge.
It was a difficult battle.
And my body was much too old to face them head-on.
But yet----I had a reason to keep fighting.
“Father! Hurry! Hurry!”
My son hurriedly, but with a great smile across his face, runs up to me.
With respect, trust, and love for his father in his eyes.
He looks at the man who has fooled him for 30 years, and will continue to do so, with undoubting eyes.
It pains me to look back into those eyes.
And there's one more thing that's making me uneasy.
Or rather, it was just born.
As I stare at the back of my son, I ask myself.
Can I stay as Hadou Kouzou?
Seeing her, watching her grow up, can I still remain Hadou Kouzou?
Will I be able to continue fighting?
I close my eyes.
I recall those memories.
Before this time began.
Before the world before this cycle.
There, I met her----and.
How did the Hadou Kouzou of that world do?
I think about the man I never met.
Hadou Kouzou.
Daijuuji Kurou.
The previous me.
Were you able to stay as Hadou Kouzou?
You should have been able to.
That's why we were able to meet.
The last Hadou Kouzou... like all the Hadou Kouzou before him, should have been able to fight, proudly, to pave her future.
Yes, it's all right.
I will be able to stay Hadou Kouzou.
Without hesitation, without a doubt, I will stay Hadou Kouzou.
And to pave the way to the future, I will store up all the power to smite Evil.
And then I'll entrust it.
To the warriors of the future.
To those who will arrive at the eventual victory.
I will leave every last thing I have.
Currently, the underground base construction plan is well underway.
And in the top secret hangar----recovered from Arizona, Demonbane sleeps.
The sword that smites Evil will be left to her----and by her hands, it will be passed down to the warrior who will protect her.
And that's where she'll make a huge mistake.
The person she hands the sword to, of all people, will be an irresponsible, selfish, complete stranger.
He will cause her lots of problems, lots of anger, and without learning his lesson will until the end keep making trouble for her.
That's how it will pan out.
But I hope you will be able to forgive him.
He's terribly irresponsible and selfish and a complete stranger----but his hatred for evil is the real thing.
He will not leave loose the evils that will try and take your future away.
And eventually, he will pave the way to your future----I believe in it.
I stand before the medical room.
From here on, I will become Hadou Kouzou again.
And until the end, I will remain Hadou Kouzou.
But, now.
Just this one moment, I hope you'll forgive him for going back to being Daijuuji Kurou.
Because he was terribly regretful about having broken the promise he made with you.
And because finally, the time has come when he can fulfill it.
We distill ourselves into but the tiniest fragments of information and transcend through time and space.
To the point where eternities meet. To the jaw of the snake who eats his own tail.
To the battlefield, the universe where Daijuuji Kurou and Master Therion fight----!
Warm.
Soft.
Sea of light.
Demonbane drifts.
The machine which has conquered its eternal fight, and the warrior who has defeated eternity and paved the way to the future, are about to fulfill their long, long duty.
In the sea of light,
inside Demonbane, in the cradle of steel,
Daijuuji Kurou and Hadou Ruri sleep in each other's arms.
They are as still as the dead.
But they wear on their lips peaceful smiles.
Darkness.
Wavering darkness.
That burning darkness.
However, its presence amid this sea of light is naught more than that of a ghost's.
The darkness descends upon Demonbane and forms into a woman's figure.
She gazes into the giant eyes beneath her.
“...Looks like I've been completely defeated. I never expected a miracle like this to happen.”
“That is what humans are. You should keep that in mind.”
Though the darkness spoke to nothing, Al replied.
The darkness smiles.
A derisive, mocking, and jealous smile.
“I hope you know, though. If the ring breaks, so will the worlds up until now. Your world was only a part of my ring.”
“Everything will be returned to nothing. Al. Kurou. Ruri. Your battles, sufferings, bravery, and despair, your encounters, partings, joy, and suffering, all of it. They are all but a fleeting illusion.”
“.........”
The woman begins to break apart into the light.
And not just the woman.
Demonbane, Kurou, and Ruri crumble into light.
Breaking apart.
Melting into light.
“You are but products of an insane causality. Now... All will return to proper causality. You, too, shall return.”
“I will gaze from outside the universe upon your struggles once more, and I shall continue to laugh.”
All returns to proper causality.
The darkness disappears.
The darkness disappears completely and utterly.
All returns to proper causality.
And all rewinds to nothing----
“Sorry, but that's wrong, faceless one.”
Al smiles, a flood of light shining upon on her - the light of Demonbane, Kurou, and Ruri.
“It's not an illusion. Even if the universe doesn't remember it, even if all returns to nothing, the fact that their will existed shall remain. Nothing can ever erase that.”
“Not me, not a God like you, not the Time like Yog-Sothoth, not All like Azathoth. Ever.”
Everything is swallowed in light.
The world is white - so very white.
Al extends her arms.
It's as if she is trying to grasp that light.
“Their will exists. And that will is going to create the future. As they did----”
Her fingers melt into light.
Her hands themselves melt into light.
“----Kurou.”
Her body begins to waver.
Causality breaks down her thousand years----her thousand years which have repeated uncountable thousands of times. But she fears not.
“----Ruri.”
They shall lose it all, but they shall obtain once more.
They shall create a proper world.
All existence disperses.
Light itself is gone.
“I'll be looking forward to the future you create.”
Al's voice echoes through the flood of light.
It resonates through the emptiness without audience.
“The Wheel of Fortune turns, the universe repeats, and time is a spiral.”
“All is bound in the ring of Yog-Sothoth. So all you have to do, is turn back time and go beyond causality. And in the next iteration, Leica will be yours.”
“This time, never letting go... Never letting Daijuuji Kurou take her...”
“Leica... will be mine...?”
Ryuuga, in his unconscious state, responds in a childish voice.
Etheldreda smiles gently back, like a mother.
The earlier takeover of his soul pales in comparison.
The Pnakotic Manuscripts' spell is literally a seizing of his very existence.
The enchantment seeps into the center of his heart like a sweet toxin----
“And for that, Yog-Sothoth's ring must remain connected. Offer the now useless Leica of this current time to the god of time.”
“And Leica's sin will be forgiven... And then. The next world will be a world for the two of you. You and Leica will finally reach the blue sky.”
“Looks like you've completely defeated me. Congratulations, Kurou. Al Azif. I certainly wasn't expecting my garden to be broken like this.”
A smile spreads across her face like a gaping fracture.
No, it really is a fracture.
Half of her face shatters audibly.
“But you know what? If the cycle shatters, the world until now will shatter as well. Kurou. Your world was also a part of my cycle.”
“So, Kurou. Even if you return to that city... It won't be the world you lived in.”
“Arkham City, in its golden age, chaotic age, and dark age, will no longer exist.”
“.........”
Her body is shriveling into dust.
“You are but a product of a haywire causality. Now... Everything will return to proper causality. You, too, are no exception.”
“And I will laugh again at your insignificant selves struggle in your lives from space outside the Universe.”
Now it is worth mentioning that, there is a realm where the "Censorship" (which is a mechanism that restrains every character in the loop from gaining access to the memory of all the previous loops) is slightly weakened. In chapter 8, when retrieving one of the lost pages of Azif, Kurou encountered Ithaqua who have traveled to many different worlds and were brought to an otherworldly dimension outside reality “edited” by someone (Nero), where the censorship (which is a mechanism that restrains every character in the loop from gaining access to the memory of all the previous loops, for example, the name of Nyarlathotep is forbidden to speak by any being, even Cthugha, a Great Old One that hostile to Chaos) is slightly weakened. This is further supplemented by Kishin Houkou's Short Story, in a past battle of Al with her Deus Machina Aeon, she almost regains her memory of summoning Demonbane before the censorship program reset and prevented her to do so. The fact that this place could temporarily escape from the censorship’s effect is worth mentioning because the censorship works on a scale of the Loop, and thus, the place may exist on a level of the Outer Universe at least.
Spoilers/Scans
Scan
Japanese Text
English Translation
Common Route - Chapter 8
……何かが違う。気配が違う。世界の空気が違う。まるで異世界のような――
…Something is different. The presence is different. The air of the world is different. As if I was in another world---
“I don’t know who made this place... A space of a different phase that exists outside reality. In this realm, the censorship is weakened even if slightly.”
Cthugha spoke a foreign word that does not belong to human language.
However, it was blocked by something like a radio noise, making me unable to hear it clearly.
“Humph… Censorship, huh? That was quick. It’s about the time for the White Blood Cell Program to reach this place.”
“---Censorship?”
And then the maiden lost in the labyrinth of thought while she was in the middle of battle.
Some souls dwell within Grimoires. And a soul with high-ranked spiritual power will also possess flesh and bones. That girl---the spirit of the Grimoire [Al Azif] is such a being.
The will born from Al Azif in the form of a young girl is [to fight]. To vanquish enemies of the world, by the might of the Other Gods.
The Other Gods. Simply speaking, [Evil Gods]. Should a mortal find themselves mesmerized by those frightful existences, eventually bear their claw toward the world they were born into---Such folly never did cease to exist, no matter the era.
Her mission is the extermination of those aforementioned servants of Evil Gods. By the otherworldly arcane surpasses even the otherworld arcane that corrupts the world.
It is a contradiction, kill the otherworldly with the otherworldly. And, prior to said fundamental contradiction is the original meaning of existence of the Grimoires, which are compilations of otherworldly knowledge: to destroy the otherworldly and protect the world.
In the end, the maiden failed to grasp the reason behind this contradiction.
However---something is sleeping in the inner depths of her memories. That is sleeping, now stirring an urge within.
If she keep digging into the very depth of her memory seeking for it---then her hands would reach out to the image of that sword.
A distant ideal. An ideal that shouldn’t exist.
But that has been established in the distant past. And it has been promised in the near future---
The sky of hatred---
Righteous---anger---
Draw forth the sword---Evil---
<The sword>.
[Warning. Subject is breaching to the top-secret matter of fact. Activate all White Blood Cell programs. Prioritize strengthening the censorship. Increase spell level to the maximum. Resetting. Overwriting.]
---A flash of light (Whiteout).
Slipped out from the loop of thought, I have returned to myself. When I noticed, the situation has changed.
Ouroboros Rondo is the thing responsible for resetting, destroying, and creating a new Loop every time the old Loop comes to its end. This is shown in the short OVA with the same name, at 4:24, we can clearly see that when the "story" arrives at its culmination, resulting in both Demonbane and Liber Legis's defeat, the entire Ouroboros Rondo is "closed", indicating the Cycle is "finished" and no longer needed, after that the Ouroboros Rondo opens to a new eternity/cycle again and dismisses the old one. Moreover, WOG also confirmed that the Ouroboros Rondo represent the Loop in Demonbane universe, whenever its spinning, the world/cycle is changed and thus, begins a new battle. The tree that contains the Rondo is the image of branching universes aka it is the Ring of Yog-Sothoth (Credits to Mugen no Setsuna for the Translation)
Pardon me, sensei.
Today I re-watched “Ouroboros Rondo” with a friend of mine, though I am a little curious about this “Rondo” thingy.
Is the tree below here the “mad divine tree” and does this spindle represent the Wheel of Fortune? Or could it be another shape of the Trapezohedron that represent the world (Demonbane's universe) itself?
Jin Haganeya:
The motif here is "Prayer wheel". Certainly you can consider it as the symbol of timeloop.
According to the maker of this video the image apparently is “Al Azif but not the book”. The interpretation is that the memories of the loop is engraved based on each spin.
I think your interpretation for the tree is correct as well. It is the image of branching universes.
Lotus:
Thank you very much!
To get a better understanding, you can watch the videos linked below.
(Vietsub + Engsub) Kishin Houkou Demonbane Special OVA -「OUROBOROS RONDO ①」
(Vietsub + Engsub) Kishin Houkou Demonbane Special OVA -「OUROBOROS RONDO ②」
Now moving on to the final aspect of this section (also the meat of this section), we come to what's called The Infinite Spiral, also known as The Klein Bottle. The Klein Bottle is the sole world in which the existence of Evil Gods is allowed after a majority of them were sealed inside the Shining Trapezohedron by Elder Gods. Nya created this world in hopes of breaking the Shining Trapezohedrons and thus releasing the Court of Azathoth along with all the evil gods. Every being, including Master Therion himself, is trapped in this infinity for that purpose. Specifically modified to stay out of Elder Gods' sight (Or at least Nya believes so), this world is impossible to interfere with. Even the destruction of the Ring of Yog-Sothoth, Ring of Nyarlathotep, or even her Garden is naught, but a fraction to the Klein Bottle, only in AI Azif's route did it truly break.
As always, I first learn the truth amid a torrent of excruciating pain and pleasure.
A flood of information that far surpasses the storage capacity of my brain.
The records of Time, the memories of the World, descriptions of Fate.
The knowledge of Despair is forced upon me.
And at that moment, I curse the Universe for once again giving me life.
The Wheel of Fortune is out of control, for the Evil that rides it has sent it spinning furiously down paths it was never meant to go.
It spins ever towards a more critical moment.
Towards a more apocalyptic ending.
And it has finally passed the point of no return.
“.......The Shining Trapezohedron.”
For Daijuuji Kurou, the God-Slaying Blade, has at last laid hands upon it.
He was once a mere human, but these strange aeons have finally brought him to this pinnacle.
Everything is as the Evil lurking behind the Universe has decreed.
The harder he struggles, the tighter the spider web traps him. All things are but slaves to Fate.
However......
“Okay...... Let's say that it's all useless. Would you be able to just do nothing?”
“Could you stand just sitting by? Hmm...... I don't think I could.”
......Even if you knew what I know, you would surely keep fighting. You would surely keep struggling.
Now I know.
Now that I've met you, I know.
That you don't know Fate and Despair is irrelevant.
You are someone who will always do what needs to be done.
You may have fears and doubts, but you will always make the choice.
That must be what they call strength.
I've never had that strength.
However, there is still time.
The Shining Trapezohedron.
That forbidden, cursed weapon.
Even to them,it is a double-edged sword.
It has the ability to put a tiny flaw in Fate's plan.
I will stake everything on that flaw.
All I need is unflinching determination.
Daijuuji Kurou, I will borrow some of your strength.
So----
I heard one voice.
The world quickly crystallized.
The leaden sky is dominated by a black sun and a red moon.
The wind carries silence, and the smell of death.
There is only wreckage as far as the eye can see.
These ancient-seeming ruins are but blasted testaments to the long-since vanished presence of human life----this is Arkham City in its twilight.
“Nya......”
No, this isn't a woman, and its name is not Nya.
“.......Nyarlathotep.”
The shape of the woman disintegrates into a writhing mass of dark Chaos, and from the Darkness stare three burning eyes.
"Yes, Kurou, that is my true name. I must thank you for working so hard for so long."
”......What're you talking about?”
“You have fought Master Therion again and again. Last time, the times before that, and the times before the times before that.”
“However, you were never able to reach his level until now.”
“....................”
“The Shining Trapezohedron. To become a vessel fit to wield it, you have fought all this time. Right in the palm of my hand.”
“The Shining Trapezohedron....... What the hell is it?”
“The true and original Universe.”
“The Universe where we Evil Gods dwell, a World of infinite terror and beauty...... When they defeated us, it was torn apart as you've seen.”
“......They?”
“Our Universe was sealed inside the Shining Trapezohedron. That is the world to which those pierced by it are taken.”
“Our Universe was severed from this present Universe in the same way.......”
“Your goal is......”
“The destruction of the Shining Trapezohedron, and the release of our Universe, the Court of Azathoth.”
“Our power as observers far surpasses that of you humans, so we will change your Universe into our desired shape. All Existence* will become ours.” (Note: The word used here is 三千大千世界, meaning Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds. It’s a Buddhist term refer the entirety of the cosmos in Buddhism, which consists countless physical and spiritual layers and planes of existence. In other context, this term refers to the totality of all things or the entire cosmological structure in a fictional work)
“We will leave no trace of them in the Record (History).”
“......For a god, you seem pretty scared of them.”
The dark Chaos quivers with laughter.
Its contempt is so beautiful that it is practically hate.
“You are the ultimate manifestation of human good, and Master Therion is the ultimate manifestation of human evil. The energies of your Trapezohedrons are in perfect opposition.”
“This will destroy the Trapezohedron...... Thank you, Kurou. You will make my wish come true.”
“......I bet you think everything's just gonna go your way. Shit!”
Chaos clings on my body.
The muddy Darkness are about to swallow me.
“.................”
“Don't be so cold, Kurou. You were my pawn, yes, but it's true that I'm fond of you.”
“I love you, you know. It's just that this I the only way I can show my love.”
“Everything is over...... Now we can love each other forever.”
“Was Master Therion also....... trapped in infinity like this......?”
“I'll release Master Therion. That child is already endlessly exhausted..”
“I don't know where he'll land after being freed from the infinity, but if it's what he wants, how can I say no? However.....”
“I'll be so very lonely without him, Kurou, so you have to comfort me. I will grant you pleasure unending.”
“For all eternity, until even death dies, and beyond. We can go mad and be shattered as much as we like.”
The battle against Black Lodge and Master Therion has ended.
However, no one remembers that it ever happened.
No.
Black Lodge never existed in Arkham City in the first place.
As we fought beyond Yog-Sothoth, outside the boundaries of Time and Space, I came to know the truth.
History has repeated itself countless times.
Al and I, Master Therion and Etheldreda, Demonbane and Liber Legis, we were all trapped in an unending time loop.
Everything was to destroy that sacred artifact, the Shining Trapezohedron, and return the World to Chaos.
But we defeated Miss Nya----Nyarlathotep, and stopped the gods' plan. We conquered fate, and were freed from the curse of the Eternal Spiral.
Master Therion's name was erased from history, and the organization that he created, Black Lodge, never existed.
Black Lodge will never make anyone weep.
No one will ever suffer the tortures of Fate.
That Earth (Planet) illuminates those heroes in blessing.
“Ahahaha...”
But all is according to plan.
We only exist to bring the universe to its ultimate moment. Daijuuji Kurou.
All things are slaves of Fate.
All things are but sacrifices offered to Fate.
Even that nobility of yours and others.
Even your beauty.
Everything.
“Ahahahahahahaha...”
I will teach you.
I will teach you despair from this moment.
No matter how many eternities pass by me, the delight of this will never fade.
In this wavering space between times----
The despair you show the moment you unravel God's machinations.
In these eternities I violate, there can be none more sweet.
I shall face you with the savage ecstasy of violating a virgin.
Liber Legis fades away. My vision burns. The machine ignites in violent flames. Demonbane has entered the atmosphere.
“Master... Therion!”
I reach out with my arms.
They'll never reach him, of course.
But I struggle, like the spirits of the dead would crawl out of hell----
“Is that all?”
Master Therion's cold voice speaks directly to my brain.
The otherworldly voice is, as before, horribly beautiful.
And the voice has no derision nor anger----but simply emptiness.
...What is this? What is the emptiness that gouges into my heart like this?
“This time, this is the end. But here, as always, I shall show you the moment at which we must arrive. I shall show you a glimpse of one fraction of the moment.”
Master Therion. You...
“Observe.”
Liber Legis fades away.
Twisted darkness and raging light swallow it.
“----Wha...”
“----What?”
Time stands still.
Moonlight
Starlight
Burning flames of the atmosphere
The demon hand of gravity that pulls Demonbane
Earth
Universe
Life
Death
All stand still.
In this frozen time, Lieber Legis alone moves.
Its mechanical, empty eyes look down upon Demonbane.
Out of nowhere.
In its extended hands.
A box is suspended in space.
It is an asymmetrical box, uneven and constructed upon its own Geometry.
The box creaks.
The box opens. Unfolds.
Otherworldly light spills out.
What is this.
What is this light.
This wildly thrashing light.
This light, teeming with darkness.
Its existence surely located in the realm of gods.
It is cannot be, it is the Paradox, the tear in the World, the taboo of gods.
The light swallows.
Darkness swallows.
The world is swallowed.
This...
This power is...
In this madness of light and dark, I hear the voice of the Other.
It speaks some sort of otherworldly words like a prayer, or perhaps a curse----no, its words are those of the strange entities that are impossible to decipher and exist beyond human reason.
But the otherworldly curse eventually becomes recognizable words.
The voice announces.
Shining Trapezohedron----
“Remember this, Daijuuji Kurou. For the eventual awakening to come.”
Its power, released.
The battle between the azure and crimson Deus Machina.
Beneath them lies the vast, blue planet.
Earth, 65 million BC.
At that time, the energy emitted by Liber Legis slams into the area now known as the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, erupting in a massive explosion.
For life on Earth, it was simultaneously the sickle of the Grim Reaper, as well as the golden gift of evolution.
The center of the blast reaches 60,000 degrees Celsius.
It vaporized everything in an instant.
The crater reaches 170 kilometers in width, and its depth pierces the Earth's mantle.
The power of the explosion is some thousand to ten thousand times greater than that of all the nuclear weapons in the world that simultaneously detonated.
Great tremors shake the Earth, and tidal waves surge forth from the seas.
A thick curtain of dust fills the atmosphere, ushering in an ice age that would last nearly a million years.
There's no way for Daijuuji Kurou to know that fact.
And, as for Demonbane----
......I understand.
Overwhelming destruction.
No, that isn't enough.
This is denial.
Denial of the future.
Denial of the past.
Separated from time and space, rendered extinct, dragged into an Otherworldly angle, the very underpinnings of existence stripped bare, the collapse of information.
Yes... I know...
I know this power.
Beyond this distant eternity----through the eternity beyond eternity, I know this power.
Despair lowers its curtain.
We cannot hold on.
If we hold on---all that awaits us is [destruction].
Consider the options.
Make the spells fly.
Even if we must measure everything in the universe, we must overcome this despair.
We must create a World that will let us escape from the despair.
Even if we have to cause a miracle.
Do not let it capture him.
I won't allow it to capture him.
Him.
My Master.
Daijuuji Kurou.
At least it has to be him.
No matter what, he must return to the world in which he belongs----
Leica's armor of Metatron breaks apart, shining in the space.
The armor then breaks into particles of light and disappear into the sky.
Without her wings of light, Leica is in rapidly getting sucked intothe abyss!
“Why...!?”
“Leica...! --------~!?”
It wasn't just Leica.
My bodysuit, too, turns into grimoire pages and scatters into the sky.
Without my black wings, the abyss sucks me in.
“What's going on, Al!?”
“Ah... Ahhh...!”
“Al!?”
Al's body is fading away slowly.
Her already pale skin is now completely transparent.
Like a fleeting illusion, Al's apperance wavers uncertainly.
“Al--------!”
Her sorrowful jade eyes gaze back at me.
Something shines in their corners.
Al attempts to say something----
And she disappears, like the morning mist before daybreak.
A single drop falls on my cheek.
“...Al...?”
Stunned by the sight of the disappearing Al, I fall.
What just happened?
All of a sudden, before I knew it, she disappeared----
disappeared.
“!! Leica!”
A fear jolts through my body and I search for Leica.
Down below, in the eternal abyss, a faintly glowing white figure.
Leica is looking up at me.
But, like Al, she's so faint----
“Leica! Why... Why!”
I frantically reach out for her.
But the distance between us is too great.
The abyss separates the two of us.
A fear akin to rage wells up inside of me.
“Why...! Why is this happening...! We came all the way here...! It can't end like this! Dammit!”
“--------Kurou.”
Leica... scatters into light.
Wait... Maybe not...?
The one that's disappearing... Could it be, me?
In my unfathomable emptiness, I hear a voice.
“Everything's just returning back to the way it was. To the proper world without evil gods, where Black Lodge wasn't formed, and where Metatron and Demonbane don't exist.”
“To that empty world...”
“You were all right. I'm so glad. I was horribly worried all by myself.”
“Yeah... But, sadly, I can't stay much longer. Time is about to begin moving properly. This place is like a rift in time... Like an ephemeral dream.”
“...I see. What's going to happen to me?”
“Like I said. Everything's going to return to the way it was meant to be. You too----you'll return to the plain human Daijuuji Kurou who never met me. To the you that should have been.”
“.........”
“Black Lodge will not exist. It's the proper world without the unjust threat of Evil. Leica's life will remain unaltered. The hero burdened with a sad destiny is no longer necessary.”
“...Is that...”
If there's no Black Lodge, then the peace and happiness they destroyed will come back.
Leica will never go through that suffering.
So maybe it is for the best.
But----
“That means... Everything's never going to have happened, right?”
“.........”
Al hesitates for a moment.
There is a brief pause before she answers.
“...Not everything. There are futures that were kept from happening by Black Lodge, too.”
“That's... true.”
“Until now, the world wasn't moving towards the future. Every time it repeated... everything was destroyed. It will finally be freed from that cursed eternity.”
However, even this Infinite Spiral or Klein Bottle only encompasses just One True Universe or Route in the Demonbane verse (Yes, only one universe, but which contains infinite otherwordly universes, dimensions, Hyperdimension, Ring of Yog-Sothoth and other shenanigan stuffs available in the cosmology so far). Ergo, every Route in the Demonbane Universe is just one Klein Bottle or Infinite Spiral, and only the Elder Gods’ world/True End's world and the Happy End’s world from Al Azif’s Route are the universe universes that escaped the Dark Mythos of this Infinite Spiral.
“YOU ARE COMING WITH USSSSS!”
Yes, this is also another world and another story.
The Infinity Spiral schemed by God has been shattered---once again, the world is beginning to move toward the future.
For the woman, that is a behemoth crime.
For the man, that is the zenith of pride.
In contrary, however, the path they treat is the one of radiant nobility. Of beautiful hearts.
They sacrificed their everyday life, for the birth of a mythology.
That is, their choice, their path.
The terminus of that path, is the future---
“Oi oi, what in the heck is going on…!?”
“We have to evacuate the civilians! Hurry and… Uwoaaaaaah!?”
“This is trouble, my Lady!”
“We have observed the quake Azathoth particles on a massive scale!”
“There’s a high possibility that it is Materialization…”
“…! Could it be!”
“My Lady!”
“Come with me, Winfield!”
“No doubt… That thing… That machine is…!”
“Demonbane!”
Once there used to be a great battle.
It was a hellish spiral that stretched out infinitely.
Once there was someone that defeated it.
The distorted world has been corrected, time started flowing toward the future.
No one remembers that battle anymore.
Even he and she no longer exist in this rightful world.
Everything is the event that resulted from causality.
But…
“Daijuuji-san! Al Azif!”
“Eh…?”
---That is a cradle.
A cage of an amniotic membrane filled the interior of the cockpit made of steel.
It embraced, gently, a singular, young life.
With the warmth of the deep ocean.
“Tekeli-li.”
“…Dunsany?”
“Why are you… What on earth happened, Dunsany?”
“Please look, m'lady… Look inside it.”
“Eh...?”
It protects.
That being, a mere spawn of the abhorrent, is protecting the little heartbeat embraced within itself, earnestly.
That action, is not unlike fulfilling a sacred mission, entrusted by a great divinity.
That is, perhaps, something of even greater importance.
That must be, a hallowed oath.
A paramount oath, made with those it holds dear.
Forged from mutual trust and friendship, inherited in the blood veins, is the bond of utmost genuine.
It holds the bond in its heart, give it all to protect that life. The being before their very eyes, is anything but abhorrent.
Even the spawns of the cursed blood could learn of the nobility lies in the soul.
“…An infant?”
“Tekeli-li!”
From Dunsany sent a letter.
It was written in familiar handwriting, as follows here.
---Please take care of this child.
[Naming Daijuuji Kuzaku].
It was a life entrusted to her, a life that was beyond causality.
It was the proof that both he and she, although are no longer available in this world, indeed existed here.
That was the story of another future, ahead of a certain choice.
As such, here is a comprehensive summary of this section:
Cycle/Loop/Eternity: A looped world which consists of the entire events of the universe and multiverse with the Outer Universe itself being contained in and part of it as the end and the beginning with Ouroboros Rondo acting as the process for destruction and creation of a new Cycle/Loop/Eternity. As such, this makes a single Cycle/Loop/Eternity a Transcendent structure since it contains the Outer Universe as part of it.
Ring of Yog-Sothoth: A realm containing all the Cycles/Loops/Eternities in it as a single Ring, and destruction of the ring means the destruction of all the Cycles/Loops/Eternities into complete oblivion. As such, this makes a single Ring of Yog-Sothoth a Transcendent structure since it contains and encompasses all the Cycles/Loops/Eternities.
Ring of Nyar/Garden of Nyarlathotep: A realm which itself houses an infinite number of Rings of Yog-Sothoth with the destruction of the garden meaning the destruction of all of the rings containing all the current and previous loops. As such, this makes the Ring of Nyar/Garden of Nyarlathotep a Transcendent structure since it contains and encompasses an infinite number of Rings of Yog-Sothoth.
Infinite Spiral/Klein Bottle: A realm houses the Ring of Nyar/Garden of Nyarlathotep as a mere aspect/fraction of itself where the latter's destruction means nothing to it. It was created by Nya in hopes of breaking the Shining Trapezohedrons and thus releasing the Court of Azathoth along with all the evil gods. Every being in creation, including Master Therion himself, is trapped in this infinity for that purpose and only in Elder Gods’ world/True End's world and the Happy End’s world from Al Azif’s Route did the Spiral break. However, the Infinite Spiral/Klein Bottle is just one of the routes we see in the game, which makes all the different routes and possibilities of the game represent different Infinite Spirals/Klein Bottles. Ergo, this makes the Infinite Spiral/Klein Bottle a Transcendent structure since it contains and encompasses all the previous structures while itself being present in multiple numbers, with each representing an entire Route.
The Gameboard and Stages
The eternal battle between the Good and Evil has been taking place in many [Games], with each [Game] being a whole world, including the main world of Kishin Hishou and the previous [Game], aka the Infinite Spiral. Even the defeat of the Game Keeper/Nyarlathotep holds no meaning to itself, because it is nothing but foam on water, just like how everything is but a mere fleeting dream. The Game Keeper/Nyarlathotep will always return with many more [Games] to challenge its eternal rivals. Of course, after the failure of Infinite Spiral along with the rise of Elder Gods, it’s not that easy to make a new [Game]. In Elder God’s Ending, Nyarlathotep, as Father Ny, attempted to start a new Infinite Spiral, but this time the Elder Gods exist, so his attempt backfired. Moving on to Kishin Hishou, Nya took a lot of effort to set up the Clockwork Phantom's opera, however, Kurou and Al challenged her game and said that they will destroy every single of her Game Boards as well as Stages, regardless if there are others beyond the current ones or not.
Spoilers/Scans
Scan
Japanese Text
English Translation
Kishin Houkou : Al Azif's Route - Chapter 15 - True End
In this empty world.
In a world where only the girl existed.
In this lonely world.
A voice other than hers is heard.
At that moment, the world ceases to be empty and lonely.
It cannot be seen or heard, it cannot be smelt or felt, yet there is a definite presence here, and it is rapidly defiling the world with its Evil.
The miasma-carried wind blows.
The girl stops reciting her verse.
The foul presence standing behind her calls her name.
“----Nero.”
“You.”
The girl’s face is suddenly terrible to behold.
She turns, empty hatred burning coldly in her eyes.
“Nyarlathotep.”
Evil stands there.
“It’s been some time----I suppose you could say.”
A tall, dark-skinned man looks up at the girl from the bottom of the spire.
The girl rises to her feet.
She stands straight and steady atop the precariously tilting ruin. She looks down at the man and speaks.
“Oh…… So you’re using that form here, Augustus. Nah, I guess your name changes depending on what’s inside you, right?”
She smiles fearlessly.
The man’s mouth splits in an evil grin.
The girl speaks his name.
“----Father Ny.”
The black man’s laughter echoes through the wreckage.
“No no, names mean nothing to me---they mean nothing at all.”
Something rumbles.
Burning darkness bursts from the man’s body.
They enveloping him in flaming darkness.
The sky is clear and bright, with not a single cloud, yet the man’s face falls into shadow.
His pitch-black expression and his burning eyes brightly shone.
No.
A third flaming eye splits his forehead.
The girl snorts with contempt.
“You’re awfully stubborn for a god. Haven’t you given up yet?”
“I suppose my plans failed in that world. Well, no matter. Why not give it another try?”
“It’s impossible to say how it will end this time……. but that’s what makes it interesting. Time and space have no meaning for me. All things in the Universe is but a fleeting dream.”
“Even if it is all but a fleeting dream----there are things so strong and beautiful that even the gods can’t destroy them. For example---”
“For example----”
The girl looks back to the sky.
In this world filled with Evil, the blue sky alone is pure and beautiful.
She resumes her poem.
Her words are a prayer.
Her words are a wish.
Her words are an oath.
Her words----are a fairy tale.
But their prayers worked.
One day, the sky shone with light.
Everyone looked up at the sky.
And then they saw it.
From the sky burning with hate, a giant of light came to the blood-soaked Earth.
He arrived, shone the heavens and illuminated the earth.
A good god had come.
The good god looked upon the blasted Earth and was enraged.
And then the good god drew its shining sword and went to bring judgment to the evil gods.
“For example, Daijuuji Kurou----perhaps?”
“………………”
“I see, you have a point----I raised him, yet he far surpassed my expectations. I admit it, I was defeated in that world by Daijuuji Kurou.”
Shrouded in darkness, the man’s expression is utterly unreadable.
But there is bitterness in his voice.
Along with a scent of hatred.
And most of all----there is the warmth of love.
There is a softness that belies his godly nature.
“Yet for the Faceless I am with Thousand Forms, that event was just merely a dream. If the World is but a fleeting dream, then I am a foam on the water as well.”
“You must be awfully lonely.”
The girl pauses her storytelling and speaks without turning.
A smile splits the man’s shadowed face like a gaping wound.
“Which is why this jester must do his part to bring comedy to the World. I shall play my role to the end. Come, Nero. Let us begin our next burlesque.”
“………………”
The girl does not answer.
Nor does she turn.
She just looks up at the blue sky----and tells her story.
The fairy tale continues.
The good god and the evil gods started fighting.
To tell the truth, the good god wasn’t all-powerful and all-knowing like everyone had hoped.
It would be a lie to say that the [Elder Gods] brought judgment to the [Great Old Ones].
This story is just a fairy tale----but even in a fairy tale, lies are lies.
There were only evil gods in the Universe after all.
But it is true that everyone’s prayers worked.
They reached the good god.
“------------”
The girl and the man should be all alone in this blasted world----but suddenly there is another presence.
At that moment, the world ceases to merely be polluted by Evil.
Something pure that cannot be seen or heard, or cannot be smelt or felt, yet there is a definite presence here, rises up against the Evil that invades the World.
The Evil, unchanging and eternal, vies for dominion with the Good, momentary and yet the weaver of eternities.
The dark man turns to face the holy presence.
There, beneath a mountain of wreckage, the man and woman stand.
When the dark man recognizes the two, his faceless visage explodes into a myriad of emotions clearly visible through the darkness----surprise, elation, hatred, and envy.
The absolute Faceless is litted up by the colour of emotions.
His three burning eyes glow fiercely.
The girl does not turn.
Looking up at the sky, she once again lifts her voice in song.
She sings the fairy tale.
The evil gods were just too strong.
The good god suffered much pain, and was cast down again and again.
He was covered in wounds, and drenched in blood, yet the good god never gave up.
Again and again he rose to his feet, again and again he forced back his tears, clenched his teeth, and with the sword in his hand did battle with the evil gods.
As the evil gods looked upon the good god, they began to feel fear.
His suffering should be unbearable, he should be crying out in terrible pain, so how does he keep standing over and over again?
Eventually, the evil gods found themselves losing to the good god.
“Incredible----to think that you would come to even this World.”
“And thus, the world has been torn apart! Behold! The causality is dissolved, countless stories are overlapping to each other!”
“---For it is Chaos! It was the beloved Chaos that swallowed the entire world itself!”
“[Starry Wisdom]! … Father! Where are you!?”
“Daijuuji Kuzaku! So you too have arrived at my table!? You will challenge my Game, just like your parents did!?”
“Game, you said?”
“That’s right… All things are merely a Game (jest). I am the one who toys with the world. I am---”
“---I am Game Keeper (Toys Manipulator).”
“What are you plotting, Father!”
“I am doing nothing. I only lighten up the flame---with a spark called Chance on a firewood called Fate!”
“Correct, the ones that held up the feast of hell are humanity regardless!”
“Good grief… this scenario is indeed inevitable. Am I correct, O' Demonbane---my beloved archnemesis.”
“Well then, ladies and gentlemen, let us begin… The final act of the play [Clockwork Phantom (Mechanical Nightmare)].”
“Heh? The Keeper (Manager) of the Game decided to step onto the Stage herself for the role of Last (Final) Boss huh, Nya-san?”
“Did you ever commit yourself to the spotlight like this, Chaos?”
“---The entirety of the universe is backstage. Every single character who made their entry was merely of the supporting cast. This whole setup is no more than programs of the Stage.”
“Ahahaha. And of course… In a sense I am no exception in the setting.”
“Now then, let us march on, to this final act… And see which ending will be the Deus Ex Machina (Spiral Toy) shall remain, until the very end? Before the curtain calls, what kind of Deus Ex Machina (Cliché Ending) shall await us?”
“How about retiring yourself from all of these Game making antic then. Have you realized what the heck are we yet?”
“We are the sword. The sword that smites Evil. The blade whose might judge even God. Thus we will bring this whole Game Board down and cut it to pieces along with the wretched strings you attached.”
“What lies beyond Game (Board) is also another Game (Board). What lies beyond the Stage is also another Stage. There shall be no escape for you.”
“Escape? What dumbass shit you just said…?”
“I’m going to beat the bloody crap out of every motherfucking thing of the Game (Board) beyond Game (Board), as well as Stage beyond Stage do you copy!”
The D2 project further confirms the existence of countless [Games], Kuzaku and Another Blood/Kureha (who have already ascended to the level of the Elder Gods) continue to challenge numerous [Games] prepared by the [Game Keeper] like their parents. Therefore, it can be inferred that the more [Games] are being created by Nyarlathotep, the bigger the cosmology of Demonbane becomes, as long as the battle between the two forces continues without end.
The raging storm didn’t just stop at ravaging Arkham City alone. Europe. Russia. Arabia. Africa. South America. Australia. Asia… The torn world cast itself in its lone battle against Evil. However, there was a Storm Knight who was traveling across time and space. And that is Demonbane Two-Sword with the two Daijuuji Kuzakus.
“So this is… The World of Vjedogonia.”
“…Wrong. What are you talking about to begin with?”
“I’m just a passing by Demonbane!”
“I am completely clueless over here.”
“Man. Why the stern face all the time, Sir Knight?”
The two Daijuuji Kuzakus---one is the young boy knight who bears the nickname “Two Sword Two Gun”. One is the maiden in red who is addressed as “Another Blood”. The two of them once denied and ruined each other. But the knight soon learned love and accepted his own evil. The maiden overcame her own evil and accepted the love. The two finally acknowledged each other and chose the path to fight side by side.
“Stop fooling around already and focus with all of your might, Blood-Colored Rose. We are already under the mechanics of the Game.”
“I know I know. Jeez, you are still a stubborn head as always.”
The world that has been torn apart---over there is the fairy land dominated by otherworldly laws (rules) and the Game Board that has been prepared by Evil God. Daijuuji Kuzaku along with his Demonbane have challenged numerous Games. At one time they entered the underground labyrinth and fought against Evil Dragon, at one time the machine transformed into a pirate ship and fought with a ghost ship. Nevertheless, the Game set up by Chaos still continued. The battle of Twin Sword That Smites Evil kept moving.
“Now, Game Keeper (The One Who Toys With)… What would be the next Game then?”
The torn space-time. The rules that governed the world. The Game of Chaos. The Players who challenged the Game---Game Keeper (The One Who Toys With)… Chaos laughed while looking down at everything.
What is the meaning behind this Evil Game that dragged the entire world into? What kind of plot that the Evil God scheming? Yet, if one looked back at this state of affairs, one surely will ended up sneered at. A puny human and his attempt to comprehend God, the finest material for a great comedy.
However, Chaos… The one with a bizarre scent of Man, is the Evil God obeying Providence with surprising commitment, might be the one provide the answer on a momentary whim. The corner of the maw twisted by cosmic hostility curled up and it laughed satisfactorily---
“Oh dear… I’m just your humble manager of the middle floor after all. In anyhow my purpose is still the same no matter what.”
Behind those three burning eyes harboring a slim desire---
“Serving God---regardless of what kind of God will be.”
From this section, we find that a [Game] or [Gameboard] can not only contain an Infinite Spiral but also be on a large scale than the Infinite Spiral, with a single [Stage] containing numerous [Games] or [Gameboards] while there are multiple [Stages] as per the statement "What lies beyond Game (Board) is also another Game (Board). What lies beyond the Stage is also another Stage." implying they extend indefinitely in a hierarchical manner. As such, the entire structure of the [Stages] is an indefinite number of layers higher into the Transcendent region.
However, we find a very crucial piece of information here in this section. All of Time and Space is entirely meaningless to Nyarlathotep, and even its Avatars are mere "Foam on the Water" despite each of them having the power to casually control the [Gameboard] as the [Game Keeper]. In addition, all of creation is merely a fleeting Dream, and from the perspective of Nyarlathotep, even the event of Infinite Spiral is but just a mere Dream. Ergo, the layers of a Transcendent Structure (from the Universe to the [Stages]) are entirely irrelevant to Nyarlathotep, whose mere Avatars control the entire [Gameboard] structure, and thus, it can be construed that Nyarlathotep exists on an Ontologically Deeper level than the hierarchial layerings in the Cosmology so far to consider the entirety of them as a mere dream. However, to understand this properly, we move on to the final part of the Cosmology, the Sea of Chaos.
Sea of Chaos
Chaos (also called Sea of Chaos/Boiling Soup of Chaos) is the Primordial Void and the source of all things in Existence (and Non-Existence). It is the territory of absolute darkness where time and space are unknowable, light and dark cannot be seen but simultaneously can perceive the end of the world, while everything such as light, sound, air, presence, creation, destruction, moment and eternity are closed off. It is a realm of pure nothingness beyond human understanding that exists beyond unnatural and impossible angles that Three-Dimensional beings cannot hope to comprehend or reach. Moreover, Chaos is the True Infinity and it is the very essence of Nyarlathotep as well as being the Court of Azathoth – the True Universe of Evil Outer Gods. If the Shining Trapezohedron is broken, the Court of Azathoth will be released into all creation, and everything will be plunged back into Chaos.
At the tip of the crossed swords comes a raging flood of Light and Dark.
Hands of Light.
Hands of Dark.
Hands of Dark.
Hands of Light.
Each trying to annihilate the other's World, they begin a fierce battle.
When one World tears and erodes another, that World is itself then swallowed up, assimilated and eroded in return.
Worlds are crushed, that others may feed.
Worlds are eroded, that others may feed.
Worlds are immolated, that others may feed.
Worlds are frozen, that others may feed.
Worlds are thrown down, that others may feed.
Worlds are cursed, that others may feed.
Worlds are consumed, that others may feed.
Worlds are torn, that others may feed.
Worlds are pierced, that others may feed.
Worlds are raped, that others may feed.
Worlds are tortured, that others may feed.
Worlds are violated, that others may feed.
Worlds are aborted, that others may feed.
Worlds are embraced, that others may feed.
Hundred million of Worlds are created and slayed in this domain.
And finally both Shining Trapezohedrons crack.
And then I know.
The existence of pure infinity----Evil that is sealed inside the Shining Trapezohedron.
“T-this is......!?”
“Kurou--------!”
“Hehehe! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!”
“Hehehe! Aha! Ahahahahahahaha!”
Master Therion laughs.
The Pnakotic Manuscripts laughs.
Liber Legis laughs.
Their mouths are like gaping voids.
Their voices are filled with the exhaustion of utter despair and the hatred of their chains.
“I said that I would teach you despair, did I not? This end was determined long ago.”
“What......!”
“You lived in peace without even knowing...... How it will please me to watch your souls torn to shreds!”
“Damn you.......!”
“That’s right! For everything is……!”
“Everything is......”
At the birth and death of parallel universes.
Cloaked in the darkness of Chaos, a woman emerges from a sudden rift at the center of our battlefield.
She alights atop the Shining Trapezohedron.
I know this woman well----
“Nya......!”
“No! That's......!”
“----As I, Nyarlathotep, have willed it!”
“............!?”
The Faceless God of a Thousand Forms.
The Crawling Chaos.
An Outer God----Nyarlathotep!
“Now, O Universe, return to thy true form!”
And the Universe sinks into Chaos.
There is nothing here.
And yet it is full.
In this space that is everything and nothing, I wonder if I'm falling or floating.
I can't even tell that much.
I reach out, groping for something to hold onto.
However my fingers touch nothing, yet seem to be extending forever.
Searching for something, I focus my eyes.
I can see no light, nor even darkness, yet at the same time I can see to the ends of the World.
In this place, the boundary between myself and the World is indistinct.
This is the Court of Chaos.
......I have to keep my armor of self strong.
Or else I will melt into the World.
Even while floating in this peaceful World, my soul is constantly engaged in fierce battle.
My eyes which shouldn’t be able to see anything, see the shadow that blocking the light.
“Hey there, Kurou.”
I heard one voice.
The world quickly crystallized.
The leaden sky is dominated by a black sun and a red moon.
The wind carries silence, and the smell of death.
There is only wreckage as far as the eye can see.
These ancient-seeming ruins are but blasted testaments to the long-since vanished presence of human life----this is Arkham City in its twilight.
“Nya......”
No, this isn't a woman, and its name is not Nya.
“.......Nyarlathotep.”
The shape of the woman disintegrates into a writhing mass of dark Chaos, and from the Darkness stare three burning eyes.
"Yes, Kurou, that is my true name. I must thank you for working so hard for so long."
”......What're you talking about?”
“You have fought Master Therion again and again. Last time, the times before that, and the times before the times before that.”
“However, you were never able to reach his level until now.”
“....................”
“The Shining Trapezohedron. To become a vessel fit to wield it, you have fought all this time. Right in the palm of my hand.”
“The Shining Trapezohedron....... What the hell is it?”
“The true and original Universe.”
“The Universe where we Evil Gods dwell, a World of infinite terror and beauty...... When they defeated us, it was torn apart as you've seen.”
“......They?”
“Our Universe was sealed inside the Shining Trapezohedron. That is the world to which those pierced by it are taken.”
“Our Universe was severed from this present Universe in the same way.......”
“Your goal is......”
“The destruction of the Shining Trapezohedron, and the release of our Universe, the Court of Azathoth.”
“Our power as observers far surpasses that of you humans, so we will change your Universe into our desired shape. All Existence* will become ours.” (Note: The word used here is 三千大千世界, meaning Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds. It’s a Buddhist term refer the entirety of the cosmos in Buddhism, which consists countless physical and spiritual layers and planes of existence. In other context, this term refers to the totality of all things or the entire cosmological structure in a fictional work)
“We will leave no trace of them in the Record (History).”
Absolute and utter Darkness.
Inside the stingy, clinging Darkness, I’m floating.
I'm sinking.
I'm falling.
I'm climbing.
No, those sensations are all wrong.
If I were forced to illustrate it in some way, it'd be like I'm proceeding through unnatural angles, impossible angles that beings existing in the three dimensions cannot hope to comprehend.
To where does this strange Darkness lead?
To when does it lead?
I don't know.
Space and Time are unknowable in this place.
Everything is closed off.
Light, sound, air, presence, life, death, creation, destruction, transience, eternity.
I am trapped in the Darkness of Chaos.
Faced with Chaos beyond human understanding, my mind is falling apart.
This unimaginable Other is raping my soul.
Even so, I struggle to hold the pieces of myself together.
The only thing keeping me whole is my will, the resolve that I mustn't be extinguished in this place.
Anything that is reduced at the level of losing its meaning (aka on a fundamental level) will return to the Soup of Chaos. Things like symbols, information, etc., are not exceptions either. Even the Shining Trapezohedron, which is stated to exist in the realm of gods, returns back to the Garden of Chaos as well after being completely used and destroyed by Demonbane (Note: Leica’s Route also described Shining Trapezohedron as the substance of gods created by weaving the boiling Chaos). Nya further stated that all creation would eventually return to the boiling Chaos, as the entirety of the universe has been decided by Fate. When Etheldreda is being consumed by Ryuuga, she returned to Chaos for now, and Ryuuga will soon follow her.
Their machine guns roar. The muzzle flashes lighting up the night. Magic circles glow around the barrels of their guns.
The rain of bullets mixes with the rain from heaven. They fall upon the lone person standing in front of the howling muzzle.
The Tyrant.
Even among the gathering of sinners known as Black Lodge, she bears the greatest weight of evil by far. A ruler sinister and vile, who has greater mastery of cruelty than any other, who has enslaved the very concept of violence itself. A Tyrant. Truly a Tyrant among Tyrants.
The bullets fall upon the Tyrant's barrier field.
The instant they strike, the field disintegrates into arcane symbols as the Azathoth that composes it is dissasembled at the level that lost its meaning and returned to the unknowable domain, the soup of Chaos.
“That's right. The book Miskatonic chose for Kurou was the Necronomicon----your copy.”
“To think that they'd let a mere student get close to the Necronomicon. I wonder if there was something in Kurou that drove the people of Miskatonic to do so----”
The burning darkness speaks.
As her consciousness drifts through the nightmare, Al faces the darkness.
“...So it's you that's possessing Kurou.”
“Possessing... No, it's nothing like that. I'm just helping him remember.”
“And why are you doing that?”
“Because it's necessary for him. To reach greater heights.”
“And why do you insist on Kurou? What's your motive?”
“That, I can't disclose right now.”
“Get out of Kurou.”
“I can't do that. The story inside him hasn't reached the necessary state yet.”
“Then I'll have to destroy you.”
The burning darkness laughs. While wavering, quivering, trembling.
Her ecstasy spills out and spreads across the world as a wave.
Al weaves a spell. Still trembling with ecstasy, the darkness takes notice of Al's actions. Its eyelids open, ripping through the darkness. Inside are two flaming eyes.
A flash. The partially completed spell melts away.
“What is this...!?”
“And you, you only enter the stage later. For now, just rest...”
“......!”
And at the same time, Al's consciousness melts away.
Into chapters, symbols, information, everything disperses into the nightmare.
In the last moments of her crumbling consciousness, Al pushes every last bit of her senses to try and discern the true nature of the darkness.
Quivering darkness. Laughing darkness. Howling darkness. Crawling darkness.
The burning eyes of the changing, shifting darkness are looking at Al.
Those burning eyes----
“Are you... Chaos----”
“Now, the clockwork is set in motion. It's about time I finish this up.”
“What do you mean! Why are you doing this!”
“I told you. This is how we return to sweet destruction.”
“All things in the universe returns to its proper place. To that blind, mindless, boiling chaos.”
“So what are you...!”
“You, Al Azif, myself, Leica Crusade, Ryuuga, Demonbane, Liber Legis...”
“No, this universe itself exists solely for that purpose. It's merely a piece controlled by Fate... That's what she's saying----Daijuuji Kurou.”
Fate? Fate, she says?
That's all they keep saying.
That every single little thing is merely a puppet dancing on God's palm? Fuck that!
To the decomposing garden of chaos of ecstasy, hatred, relief, and pain.
To the boiling cosmos of the gods.
To the eternal being that dwarfs the boundless.
What significance, in this infinity, does the existence of humans have?
I, too, return.
I return, and am destroyed.
I am destroyed, and disappear.
I disappear, and become a part.
That's all. That's all it is----
Leica-san!
There is a voice that reaches beyond even that infinity.
It's so faint... A merely insignificant voice that can be easily swallowed by the muddy stream of the world, and shattered to pieces.
Such a fragile voice tears through unsurmountable despair, and resonates in my soul vividly.
With all its might, it tries to tell me of what is important.
It tries to tell me of my existence.
I begin gathering the shattered fragments of my consciousness.
The girl's body and face fall into darkness.
But her eyes, like a tranquil lake in the stillness of night, her dark, quiet eyes, watch Ryuuga until the very end.
“Now, answer me Ryuuga. Are you Ryuuga? At this moment, are you truly Ryuuga? Who am I? Where did my soul go? And what about yours?”
One darkness loses shape----but only to give birth to a new darkness.
“Master... My master... It will be all right... When the time comes, I will... for you... But now... I return to chaos...”
Ryuuga. You, too, will soon follow.
The voice stops.
Darkness still oozes out of Ryuuga, wavering, writhing.
But, in the absolute black of darkness,
Blacker than the darkness of universe,
“I am me. As long as this burning pain remains.”
That scar burns crimson red.
Suddenly a particle of light was born in the darkness.
I reach out to it.
The true identity of the light, is radiating, from a box.
It's an asymmetrical container, from whose tiny cracks is seeping a faint glow.
My oustretched hand touches the box easily.
The lid swings open on its own, revealing me its contents.
Inside is... something utterly bizarre.
A black crystal held in place by seven supports.
Looking closer, I observe it to be a polyhedron with many irregular flat surfaces, and red striations running across it like blood vessels.
Although it is clearly mineral in substance, it also seems to be pulsating like a living thing.
The light is emanating from this crystal.
With the lid open, the light overflows from within.
The light is an being of Other. I can only describe it that way.
The flood of light howls madly as it swallows me.
Surrounded by the insane storm of Light and Darkness, I hear an otherworldly voice.
It speaks some sort of otherworldly words like a prayer, or perhaps a curse----no, its words are those of the strange entities that are impossible to decipher and exist beyond human reason.
But eventually the chanting becomes something I can understand.
The voice declares:
Shining Trapezohedron----
“Aaaahh...! At last, you've arrived to my domain...!”
Someone's delighted voice reaches my ears inside the chaotic Darkness and Otherworld.
“What is... this power...?”
“What's wrong Kurou!? Come on!”
I awaken from the nightmare, bathed in the shine of the crystal.
But even as I'm awake, my consciousness is still trapped within the murky chaos.
So everything that's about to happen----is all like a dream.
Right. Even the light and dark that infiltrate the world.
They devour the blue of the Earth----
The Darkness gathers.
The Darkness gathers.
The Darkness gathers.
Twisted, insane, and writhing, the otherworldly Darkness gathers.
Tearing apart the darkness of universe----
The Light gathers.
The Light gathers.
The Light gathers.
Raging, howling, and gloating, the otherworldly Light gathers.
This sector of space, looming over the blue planet, has become an otherworld.
At the utmost reaches of the darkness.
On the extreme end of light.
This is an otherworld.
A world that must not be.
It is the nest of paradox, the tear in the World, the taboo of gods.
And----
“What... What's going on...?”
This is a battlefield.
No, one-way slaughter is not battle.
This is the execution grounds.
With absolute authority, Demonbane begins judging Evil.
“The Hilanipla System!?”
Demonbane begins moving on its own.
It thrusts out its right hand.
An overwhelming darkness appears, distorting and swallowing its surroundings.
Lemuria Impact.
A black hole that generates infinite heat.
Lemuria Impact's energy begins distorting even dimensions.
And in front of my eyes, a dimensional rift forms.
Demonbane reaches its arm into the rift.
It seems to have grabbed hold of something. It proceeds to pull it out of the rift.
The object shows itself.
“.........What... is that?”
I don't know.
What should I call it?
It's a twisted temple pillar.
A twisted holy tree.
A hallowed sword with no blade...
Whatever it is, it is completely Other.
It exists outside the scope of human knowledge.
That's because it's a sacred relic created by weaving the boiling chaos.
Demonbane wields the giant temple pillar larger than itself in both hands and swings it around.
Shining light and dark blackness trail through and brand space.
A magic circle floats in front of Demonbane, and it thrusts the temple pillar up, piercing through its center.
Liber Legis lies ahead of the tip of the temple pillar.
Liber Legis shudders----or that's the impression it gives.
Demonbane, now an embodiment of fear that causes even inanimate souls to tremble, bolts through space.
What happens directly afterwards is so nightmarish that even with my consciousness caged in a dream I can't help but find it utterly ridiculous.
First, half of Liber Legis is blown off completely.
“08:08, 17 July 2022 (UTC)!”
Half of the giant robot flies off to be devoured by light, violated by darkness, and into another dimension... to an Other place, to an infinite, absolutely evil pit, it falls.
That's the only way to phrase it with the feeble human imagination.
Demonbane shoots past the other half of Liber Legis it didn't devour. It lowers the temple pillar and halts.
Slowly, it turns back around at Liber Legis.
“Ah... aah... aaahhh!? What is...! What are you...!?”
I don't know either.
Demonbane is going on a rampage, detached from my will.
I feel Demonbane's----
No, that's not right. I feel the other entity controlling Demonbane's evil delight.
A chill and fear that take my soul and freeze it over, and burn it up.
“Stop... Stop, Kurou. This is... bad!”
Al screams, shuddering in terrible dread.
But I can't do anything about it.
Demonbane's mouth opens.
Its roar echoes through what should be soundless universe.
“Wake up... Kurou! This is... This is wrong! Something's wrong...!”
Leica, too, is desperately calling to me, pale from the horror of what may be coming.
I know. I know, but.
This is... This object, this phenomenon that came with the Shining Trapezohedron, is frightening.
If this goes on, something horrible will happen to us... no, to the entire universe.
I have to regain control of Demonbane somehow.
But my consciousness is still wandering the wide corners of the dream world.
This side and reality are cut off from each other like two colliding ocean currents.
Demonbane holds up the temple pillar again.
Down below, Earth.
Liber Legis, now one half and powerless, gets pulled in by the gravity and falls.
Liber Legis's exterior burns up, caught in the atmosphere.
“...Why.”
The temple pillar turns to point at the falling Liber Legis.
“Why, every time I'm about to reach Leica...
This will be the final blow.
“Why does a fear beyond comprehension get in my way!?”
To arrive at the place expelled from the universe, the place not of the universe----
Demonbane shoots the Shining Trapezohedron, to the land of chaotic causality where no truth exists, born from destruction, destroyed by birth----!
“----!? No... Stooooop! Demonbaaaaaaaane--------!”
I give every last thing I've got to interrupt Demonbane.
I alter the Shining Trapezohedron's vector... to the [outside] of the world.
“--------!?”
“Kurouuuuuuuu!”
“Guh... ahhh... AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”
“Demonbane!”
The [outside] floods into the world.
The [outside] swallows Demonbane and Liber Legis.
No, more like, it cuts out this entire section of space and drags it in.
And inside the anomaly that violates the world, I see it.
The divine pillar crumbles.
It crumbles into light.
It melts into darkness.
The object that exists in the realm of gods once again returns back to the garden of Chaos.
Exploding light.
Rotting darkness.
Burning darkness.
Freezing light.
And then----
Earth, 65 million BC.
At that moment, the energy that suddenly flies in from space crashes into what will later be the Yucatan Peninsula of modern-day Mexico, and triggers a huge explosion.
For most of Earth's life, it is the sickle of Death, for others however, it bestows the golden gift of evolution.
The center of the blast reaches 60,000 degrees Celsius.
It vaporized everything in an instant.
The crater reaches 170 kilometers in width.
Its depth pierces the Earth's mantle.
A tremendous earthquake shakes the planet, and giant waves assault the entire world.
It also kicks up massive amounts of dust, engulfing the entire world----and brings an ice age of a million years into the future.
There's no way for Daijuuji Kurou to know that fact.
“...Kurou, the hero that knows no despair, the God-Slaying Blade, finally reached the power of the Shining Trapezohedron.”
“Then next, next it may finally be it. The time of my long-cherished wish after hundred of millions of eternities might finally arrive.”
“Finally... Finally, finally, finally, finally...!”
The woman of darkness shudders in ecstasy as if carried away by the heat. Her delightful laugh echoes.
“Yes... It might end next time. And for that, let's repeat one more time. Let's go up the spiral of time.”
“Yes. This time, this time we'll reach it. That familiar, horrific chaos. That boiling, blind and mindless sea of chaos----”
“With you. Right, dear...?”
The woman of darkness embraces her breasts.
Out of nowhere, in between her voluptuous breasts, that bottle----that bottle of the Embry of Evil, lies.
Bubbles form in the dimly glowing liquid.
The embryo's eyes open slowly.
The eyes of Evil, filled with darkness of the other.
In the Bad Ending of Al’s Route, when Kurou was getting violated by Nya, he felt that his entire existence is being destroyed, his body is gradually collapsing an atomic level, and his soul is spread out to the world as if returning to the root of the world or a mother’s womb. The moment Kurou finally lost himself, he saw the shape of the true universe of Outer Gods.
“I'll release Master Therion. That child is already endlessly exhausted..”
“I don't know where he'll land after being freed from the infinity, but if it's what he wants, how can I say no? However.....”
“I'll be so very lonely without him, Kurou, so you have to comfort me. I will grant you pleasure unending.”
“For all eternity, until even death dies, and beyond. We can go mad and be shattered as much as we like.”
“I will love you without limits, and without mercy. Kurou...... this is what it means to make love.”
This Evil----it's so pure that it resembles love.
Its love is a poison, sweet and fatal.
In this world without death, that poison is no longer poison, but simply despair.
“Come....... Join me in this pleasure......”
“!? Gah... Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”
Then I am collapsed----swallowed by Chaos.
I break down into cells.
I collapse into atoms.
My solid shell falls apart, leaving my soul to disperse into the world.
My very existence is being destroyed.
However, as if I'm returning to the origin of the World.
As if returning to my mother's womb.
This complete tranquility can only be obtained by giving up everything.
It's probably similar to death.
I, Daijuuji Kurou, fall into the woman known as Nya, and melt.
But I only find out afterward that what follows is not tranquility at all, but hell.
I am violated for eternity, without end, without relief.
Endless torture.
Endless----pleasure.
I am trapped in a cage of unimaginable ecstasy, from which I can never escape.
I can smell the sweet stench emanating from me as my soul rots, falling to ruin.
I struggle through the Soup of Chaos like a man possessed, searching through the torrent of rotten meat, honey and Chaos. Then I continue to devour.
It tastes of sweet nectar. It tastes of sweet poison. It tastes of sweet filth.
I continue to feast over and over again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, until my brain is hideously burned and my nerves burn to nothing.
I understand nothing.
Am I embracing or being embraced am I penetrating or being penetrated am I filling or being filled am I on top or on the bottom or upside down everything is melting together and falling apart.
In the midst of consciousness of the violent, roiling Chaos----
In the midst of the thoughts that have lost their boundaries and burned away----
I see it.
The shape of the Universe.
In addition, as per WOG from Jin Haganeya himself, all gods in Demonbane Mythos are archetypal-like beings, confirmed to be similar to Plato’s Theory of Forms. For example, the manifestation of Yog-Sothoth to the PoV of Kurou and others varies from countless spheres to the Gate or a giant pillar. Basically, the image of these Lovecraftian gods that we “saw” is just a fraction of their form among countless in our very perception.
今日はね、もうひとつ哲学的な問題を聞きたいです。
概念的な存在はどこにあるのか?この問題に対しては先生はどう思う?
時空の外に存在するのか(プラトンのイデアみたいに)
あるいは人の頭の中だけにあるのか、それともある高次元の中に存在する? Jin Haganeya: 概念の話は私には難しい問題です。その上でデモンベイン内での神々はどういう存在なのかをお答えします。作中でヨグ=ソトースが召喚された時、九郎たちの目にはそれが巨大な扉のように見えました。しかしある時は無数の球体に見え、ある時は巨大な柱に見えました。 OP: なお、この問題に関して、先生の作品に登場する神々はどのような存在ですか
物理的?概念的?それも教えてほしい。 Jin Haganeya: これは人間には神の真実の姿をとらえることは決して出来ず、個人個人の感覚や精神、魂のかたちに合わせて、別々の神を幻として見ているに過ぎないからです。なのでイデア論に少し似ているかも知れません。
OP: “Good evening, Jin-sensei.
Today, I wanted to ask for another philosophical question.
Where do conceptual existences belong? What do you think about this question?
Do they exist beyond time and space (like Plato’s Realm of Ideas)?
Or they are simply something within a human’s mind, or do they exist in a higher dimension?” Jin Haganeya: “A conversation about concepts is a difficult one to me. On top of that, I will tell what kind of gods in Demonbane. When Yog-Sothoth was summoned in my work, he manifested as a gigantic gate to Kurou and others. Yet, at times, he manifested as countless spheres or at other times, he manifested as a gigantic pillar.” OP: “Furthermore, concerning this question, what kind of being are the gods in your works? Are they physical gods or conceptual gods? I would like hear your opinion.” Jin Haganeya: “This is because humans are never able to perceive the true form of the gods, they merely see a god in different forms as illusions according to an individual’s sense, mind and soul. Hence, it might a bit similar to the Theory of Forms.”
From the information gathered from this section as well as from the previous section, we can construe that the Sea of Chaos is the Pure Nothingness beyond Duality itself (as it completely lacks everything including information which forms duality itself) and the background on which the entirety of Demonbane's Cosmology consisting of all levels and layers of Existence (and Non-Existence) from the Universe to [Stages] exists and also is the origin for the entire Demonbane's Cosmology. The Sea of Chaos is also the essence for the Outer Gods such as Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Azathoth, etc., and is the True Infinity which views the entire cosmology and their qualitative layering as a mere fleeting Dream which is inaccessible even for people who can ascend past the indefinite layers of stages and can only be accessed if they are fundamentally erased or if they are summoned by the Outer Gods. Furthermore, it can be argued from all the given information so far that Chaos is the ultimate Archetype from where everything emanates into the lower realms. As such, given the information, it can be concluded that the Sea of Chaos is a Transcendent+ structure.
Conclusion
Here is a Tl;Dr of the entire Cosmology of the verse:
Universe: A Universe+ structure being Infinite and Eternal containing Non-Euclidean Dimensions.
Multiverse: A High HyperDimensional+ structure containing infinite levels of transcending hierarchial Universes with each containing infinite number of lower Universes.
Hyper Dimension: An At least High HyperDimensional+ structure beyond the Multiverse from where all Universes are seen simultaneously as bubbles.
Outer Universe: A Transcendent structure outside the Hyper Dimension and being beyond Space and Time while being Undimensioned and housing all Great Old Ones.
Cycle/Loop/Eternity: A Transcendent structure beyond the Outer Universe and containing the latter as part of the Cycle.
Ring of Yog-Sothoth: A Transcendent structure beyond the Cycle/Loop/Eternity and contains an indefinite number of all previous and current Cycles/Loops/Eternities.
Garden of Nyarlathotep: A Transcendent structure beyond the Ring of Yog-Sothoth and containing an Infinite Number of Rings.
Infinite Spiral: A Transcendent structure beyond the Garden of Nyarlathotep where even the Garden is just a mere aspect/fraction of it.
Game/Gameboard: A Transcendent structure beyond the Infinite Spiral, which can contain structures on a Larger Scale than the Infinite Spiral and are present in numerous numbers and layers.
Stage: A Transcendent structure beyond the Games and containing all of them while itself having numerous layers of Stages, with each Stage being beyond another Stage.
Sea of Chaos: A Transcendent+ structure due to being the True Infinity in relation to which all of the Cosmology is just a mere dream while itself being a completely inaccessible realm of Pure Nothingness beyond Duality and Distinction where everything is one and same and from where everything emerged from and where everything will return to eventually.
So yes, Demonbane Cosmology is insanely big and hopefully, the upcoming Zanma Taisen can provide more information and details on the cosmology, Lovecraftian entities, characters, etc. Do let me know your thoughts and opinion regarding this blog in the comments.