Chương 253: At The Edge Of Reality

Vale stared up at Maximus with wary eyes, his posture tightening almost imperceptibly as he tried to read the man's expression. Maximus returned the look in kind, his head slightly lowered, his gaze angled downward, his eyes narrowed just enough to obscure whatever lay beneath them. Yet Vale caught it anyway: not emotion in the usual sense, but hesitation, perhaps even doubt, flickering behind that otherwise impenetrable exterior. For a few seconds, neither spoke.

Then Maximus shifted, crossing his thick arms over his chest as if settling into a decision. His voice came low and carefull.

"Kealix von Eskarion." Vale blinked, a faint crease forming between his brows.

'Him too?' The thought passed quickly, but it sharpened his focus. He tilted his head slightly, studying Maximus more carefully now.

"What do you and Silfur have to do with that name?" For the first time since Vale had known him, Maximus's composure slipped, just barely. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, subtle but unmistakable. It vanished almost immediately, replaced by a short, controlled exhale.

"It's nothing," he said, though the answer carried less certainty than before.

"I only wanted to confirm what Silfur told me. You truly have no idea who that man is… do you?" Vale lowered his head, exhaling through his nose in quiet frustration.

"No. Not really." Then he looked back up, his eyes staring with renewed intent.

"But I'd like to understand something else. You… the so-called Seven Sages." Maximus scoffed faintly, though it lacked bite. His gaze drifted briefly to the side, settling on a small arrangement of chairs and a table tucked into the corner of the bakery.

"If you intend to ask questions like that," he said, "we may as well sit." Vale followed his line of sight, hesitated for only a moment, then shrugged and moved toward the chair.

"Fine." The wood creaked softly under his weight as he sat. Maximus took the seat across from him, posture straight, presence heavy even in his stillness. When their eyes met again, the atmosphere between them had shifted, it was less reactive now, calmer, as though both had silently agreed this was no longer a casual exchange. Maximus leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharpening.

"What is it you want to know?" Vale didn't answer immediately. He studied him first, measuring his tone, posture, cadence, then finally spoke.

"Who are you people, really? You call yourselves a cohort, but that doesn't explain anything. Where did you come from? How did you meet?" Maximus leaned back, folding his arms again as he closed his eyes, organizing his thoughts before speaking.

"We are not from the same origin," he began.

"Each of us comes from a different world, different systems, different rules, different truths. We were… wanderers, in a sense. Hermits, if you prefer the term. Each searching for something, purpose, meaning, understanding." His voice remained steady, but there was a quiet weight beneath it now.

"In time, those separate paths intersected. Not by coincidence, but by convergence. We realized we were pursuing variations of the same question. So we formed a cohort." Vale's brow furrowed slightly.

"And that shared goal?" Maximus opened his eyes.

"To reach the edge of existence… and witness what lies beyond it." The words hung in the air, stark and unembellished. Vale blinked, then let out a faint, incredulous chuckle.

"The edge of existence? You say that like it's a destination you can just… walk to." Maximus didn't react to the skepticism. If anything, his stillness deepened.

"In principle, it is simple," he said.

"You move forward. World to world. System to system. Universe to universe. You continue until there is nothing left to traverse." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Vale's expression shifted, skepticism giving way to something more analytical.

"You're serious."

"I am." Vale leaned back slightly, exhaling through his nose.

"Then explain something. If you were already on that path… how does Kealix fit into this? Didn't he send you here?" Maximus closed his eyes again. Silence followed, longer this time. When he finally spoke, his voice carried a subtle change. Not hesitation… but recollection.

"No," he said.

"We were not sent here during our journey." His eyes opened, locking onto Vale's.

"We had already reached its end." Vale stopped breathing for a moment, his eyes flickering.

"It's just that," Maximus continued, "he was waiting there." The shift in Vale's expression was immediate. The skepticism didn't vanish, but it fractured, replaced by something sharper.

"…What did you see?" Vale asked quietly.

"At the edge." For the first time, Maximus's gaze broke. He looked down at the table between them, his jaw tightening faintly as though the memory carried more weight than he preferred to show.

"It was not what we expected," he said. A pause followed.

"It was a prison." Vale felt a faint chill trace down his spine.

"Black suns hung in the sky," Maximus continued, voice steady but lower now.

"Not celestial bodies as you understand them, but constructs, singularities designed to drain energy, to suppress anything within their radius. They hovered above a suspended figure… bound." His fingers flexed once against his arm.

"Chains..... no, not chains. Shackles. Instruments designed not merely to restrain, but to inflict permanent degradation. They pierced his body from every angle, anchoring him in place, preventing recovery or escape." Vale didn't interrupt.

"The realm itself was unstable," Maximus went on.

"High-order spawn, entities far beyond anything you have encountered, invaded continuously, drawn to him. They sought to devour what remained of him." His eyes weakened slightly.

"They all failed." Vale swallowed.

"Three guardians stood watch," Maximus said.

"They did not intervene for us. Only for him. Every entity that approached was erased by their might." A silence settled before he continued.

"The prisoner… despite his condition… was not weak." Maximus lifted his gaze again, locking onto Vale with quiet intensity.

"He subdued all of us without effort." Vale stopped, his mind struggling to reconcile the scale of what he was hearing. Maximus leaned back slightly, the tension in his posture easing just enough to signal the end of the recount.

"Before he sent us here," he said, "he spoke only once." Another pause followed.

"He told us his name." Maximus finished, voice calm, definitive.

"Kealix von Eskarion." Vale stared in disbelief as the implications settled into place, each layer of Maximus's explanation compounding the last. He leaned forward slightly, trying to anchor the scale of what he had just heard into something coherent.

"Wait," he said, voice tightening with disbelief.

"You're telling me all of you, together, couldn't even damage him? Not even a little?" Maximus didn't hesitate. He gave a slow, measured nod.

"Yes." The simplicity of the answer made it worse. A brief silence followed before he continued, his tone shifting into something more analytical.

"However, you must understand, none of us were operating at full capacity. This reality is not aligned with our origin points. As a result, our power output is… restricted." Vale's expression sharpened hearing the words.

"Restricted how?" Maximus regarded him for a moment, as if weighing how much detail to offer, then spoke with deliberate clarity.

"Think of it in terms you're familiar with," he said.

"You draw power from planes, external layers of existence that you can access and channel. Your strength scales with your connection to them." Vale nodded faintly, following.

"We function similarly," Maximus continued, "but our source is not structured like planes. It is more abstract, less accessible from outside its native framework. In this environment, that connection is weakened, partially severed. As a result, our output is capped. We cannot fully manifest what we are capable of." Vale raised a hand to his chin, absorbing the explanation.

"So… there are power systems beyond planes," he muttered, more to himself than to Maximus.

"Different frameworks entirely?"

"Correct." Vale looked up again, ready to press further, but Maximus spoke first, anticipating the direction of his thoughts.

"After arriving here," he said, "we spent time analyzing what we encountered at the edge. Observation, comparison, elimination of inconsistencies. What we saw does not align cleanly with this tower… but it is not entirely separate either." Vale's focus snapped back.

"Meaning?" Maximus leaned back slightly, his gaze steady.

"This place, the tower, exists outside conventional reality. That much you already understand. It is a containment system of sorts, housing entities that cannot exist freely within standard frameworks." Vale nodded slowly.

"What we encountered," Maximus continued, "appears to operate under a similar principle, but on a different layer. Parallel in function, not identical in structure." Vale stared his eyes wide as the pieces began to align.

"So what you're saying is…" He stopped briefly, refining the thought.

"The gods trapped here, whatever they are, they're separate from this Kealix. But he's still… related to them? Just… contained elsewhere?" Maximus gave another slow nod.

"That is our current conclusion." He lowered his gaze slightly, voice deepening.

"A being significant enough to require isolation from others of its kind. Not placed within this system, but sealed in one of its own design, or one designed specifically for it." Vale felt a faint tension coil in his chest.

"A separate prison," Maximus said.

"More specialized and restrictive." A brief pause followed.

"Which implies one thing." His eyes lifted again, locking onto Vale with quiet intensity.

"That whatever Kealix von Eskarion truly is… he is not merely comparable to the entities contained here." The words settled with weight.

"He is likely something far greater."