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[Figuring out a way to stop The Null from engulfing the entire chaos realm proved more difficult than I imagined.]

[You’ve already experienced it; nothing works properly within The Null except the most basic components. The Null won’t kill you, but it won’t make you comfortable either. It doesn’t discriminate in its treatment; everything is the same. More importantly, it’s a tumor for the Primitive Universe, one that must be purged.]

[But even though it was difficult, I had to do something anyway. Despite not wanting any of this to happen, I cannot deny that I, too, am responsible for the birth of The Null. This duty is something that can’t be hidden from. I won’t die in peace if I leave everything just like that.]

[While I was busy making plans, I maintained a distant yet steady attention to what was happening to my kin.]

[As expected, the implosion had a terrible consequence, one that they’re finding out slowly.]

[The greedy and entitled fool had fallen from grace, struck down by his own hubris. His pursuit of perfection caused him to regress. He became even weaker than we were before the creation of the Phantasmal Furnace.]

[Obviously, they tried many ways to suppress this incident. They minimized its damage, thinking that if they believed that it’s not a big deal hard enough, it would just miraculously go away and they could go on about their way.]

[They were so deep into their delusions that they can’t hear the screams of their instincts anymore.]

[Fools! All of them. They’ve doomed us all!]

[Their efforts were like a paper cover trying to snuff out the fire. Not only did it not help, it just made it even worse.]

[Their negligence caused The Null to grow steadily in a stable manner. They tried to seal it even though they knew it was useless, saying that there were just some technical issues happening. It’s such a blatant lie, so much so that nobody believes it, and because of that, fear steadily spread among us.]

[The problem wasn’t just limited to that. The explosion caused by the incident left profound damage to our star domain. That damage caused the known laws and logic to start becoming unstable.]

[It started with spatial warps appearing out of nowhere, causing our ships to have minor accidents here and there. Then, as time passed, it grew to the scale where planets were being displaced or, worse, being torn apart by sudden spatial storms.]

[The longer they ignored the problems, the worse they became. At some point, our home became a hostile environment, one that was slowly killing us all. And by the time they couldn’t ignore the problems anymore, it was already too late. The aftermath has already changed our home beyond our means.]

[This late realization is what sealed our fate because we were trapped in our own home. We can’t leave at all. Some have tried to escape, but everybody who tried to was swallowed by the cruel spatial storms and was scattered in the endlessly chaotic spacetime continuum.]

[I felt profound sadness watching all of this happen. It’s made worse with the knowledge that somehow, I, too, am partially responsible for all of this.]

[Alas, I don’t have much time left. I need to make something.]

[Could I have saved my own kin? Maybe. I’ve thought about this so many times, yet I’ve already made my choice. I know it’s cruel of me to abandon my own people, but it’s already too late for us. We’ve already reached the point of no return.]

[I suppose this was karma at work. Maybe we, as a collective species, have sinned so much that balance came knocking at our door, asking us to pay our debts. And instead of paying, we chose to ignore it and slam the door on its face. Now it sent the consequences of our actions to hunt us down.]

[The other creatures of this chaos realm, be they humans like you or even the awful Horde, they’re not part of it. They didn’t ask for this, and it would be very cruel of us to drag them down with us.]

[So, I suppose that my final wish was to end this with us. If there’s anything we’re supposed to drag as we fall, it should be this disaster so that others wouldn’t have to deal with it.]

[Alas, my kin has devolved past decency. Everybody’s out on their own. They don’t care about the rest, and they’re willing to do anything just to escape from this disaster.]

[All their efforts were useless, though. Many have tried to escape, but nobody managed to do so. I watched as, one by one, my kin fell. I didn’t interfere; I didn’t help. I remained distant and focused on my work instead.]

[Slowly but surely, our home became desolate. Our natural resources withered. Our contact with the outside world was severed. We can’t call for help, and we can’t escape either.]

[The decline was sharp and staggering. Day by day, my kin became more desperate. I watched as our numbers dwindled from millions to mere thousands. The earth we used to live in became hostile or desolate. We starved, we bled, and we died.]

[It wasn’t long until I discovered that there were only hundreds of us left.]

[I managed to preserve myself only because I already accepted the terms of my death. It seems that luck has smiled for me one last time, allowing me to live just long enough to finish my project.]

[I stayed within The Null, because even though it made me vulnerable, it also protected me somehow. And here, I built a device that could anchor and freeze the growth of The Null.]

[The tool I made was the Mystic Astrolabe—the very same thing that you saw earlier.]

[I never made it with the purpose of making trouble for you or anyone. It’s here to keep The Null here. It’s this astrolabe that sealed this entire domain. You already know that it’s very easy to enter this place but extremely difficult to leave, right? Yes, the astrolabe was the one regulating that.]

[Because had I left everything as is, the chaotic spacetime caused by the birth of The Null would eventually spread everywhere. Obviously, I didn’t want that to happen, so I had to do something.]

[Aside from that, the Mystic Astrolabe is also a perpetual motion machine. So long as it continues moving, it will never run out of power. It’s not a big deal if it stopped for a while since it could store energy too, but its true main purpose is to permanently anchor the Null here, sparing the rest of the Heavenly Star Chaos Realm from its effects.

[As for the maze, it serves as its protective shell. I specifically designed it to be nigh impossible to conquer because I don’t want anybody else to go out or find out the existence of the astrolabe aside from you, human of the future, because I know that you’re a decent person.]

[With the key you’d get from my body, you can safely skip the entire maze and go directly to the exit point.]

[But please...since you’ve read this far, I ask you to not do anything harmful to the Mystic Astrolabe. Leave it behind; allow it to keep moving to anchor this disaster here. Don’t allow our mess to affect the lives of others.]

[You can have everything I left behind in this room as well as the riches I preserved from my fallen kin. They will be of great help to you as you begin your adventures in the Primitive Universe.

[Just...please, let our sins be buried with us. That’s all I ask.]

And as Cedric flipped to the last page, the last words of the architect, ones he assumed he wrote with his dying breath, he read:

[I wished there was another way. I wish I had found out sooner about the corruption. I wished I’ve done things differently, I wished and I hoped to have to another chance, but we both know that it’s already too late.]

[We, the Divine Bloods, are no more. We’ve already paid deeply for our arrogance and hubris, so please, let us rest here, bury us with our mistakes, and allow our bodies to shackle it down so we may never cause harm again.]

[— Sincerely, Architect Columbus.]

**

Cedric snapped the book shut and took a deep breath.

He sighed, breathing out the heavy feeling on his chest. The fate of the Divine Bloods, how lamentable. What started as an innocent act of protection turned into a twisted and maddening mess that caused their annihilation.

Every grievance he felt about being abused by the maze had completely evaporated. He wasn’t angry at the architect anymore, and even if he still was, so what? The architect’s dead; what use is there to continue being angry? He couldn’t blame him either; he created the maze to conceal the astrolabe; therefore, it must be ironclad.

As Cedric stood before the corpse of the architect, his eyes softened. He gently touched the hand clutching the key, and with a slight nudge, the key fell into his hands just like that.

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