" The One has been seeking the information that I'm about to share with you since he first imprisoned you in The Light… "
Tom says telepathically with a foreboding tone as he continues to peer out the window of the cruiser.
" A few hundred years after your disappearance, The One found me. In that moment I thought that I was done for, but to my surprise, he harbored no animosity towards me. Instead, he politely requested that I divulge information regarding our father and what we are.
At this point in time before my encounter with him, I believed you to be dead. However, after this encounter and seeing The One's sudden change of heart, I thought that perhaps there was still hope that you may be alive… or at the very least you intrigued The One with your power before your death, which caused him to be curious.
The One told me not to be afraid, explaining that his genocidal campaign against our brothers was a misunderstanding and that he had witnessed the true reason for why his universes were disappearing. He apologized to me sincerely and told me that if he was able to, he would've brought back all of the lives that he's taken.
At the time, it didn't matter what he could've said to me. I was still grieving the loss of you and the remaining Black Traps the night that Rosie died. I was alone… A sole survivor of a terrible misunderstanding which caused me to lose everyone whom I held dear.
The One asked many questions…
What we are… Who our creator was… The source of our power…
All of which I refused to answer. I told him that I'd rather die just like my brothers than give him any sort of information about who or what we were. I was emotional, and I believed that he didn't deserve to know these things about us after he did what he did. Since he didn't ask these questions before the killings, I told him that he didn't deserve any answers after the fact…
Or so… that's what I wanted him to believe in order to obscure the actual truth from him. "
You look at Tom and you can tell that he's visibly upset. Still, you respect the fact that he's sharing this information with you and you ask him a question.
" So what is it, then? What's the truth? "
Tom's eyes begin to water and you can tell that he's taking himself back to old memories as he elaborates telepathically.
" Before there was Everything, there was Nothing… and before there was Nothing, there was The Absolute and his sons…
I don't expect you to remember or fully understand because you had your memories erased, leaving you only limited to a mortal's thinking capability, but think of this point in our existence as a time before non-existence. Words cannot describe it because it is beyond what any speaker of language can contemplate. However, in order to make it simpler and easier for you to understand, I will call this era Provenance.
Father had many sons in Provenance, and he was lonely, so he created a great number of sons to share Provenance with him that would think and act freely from his control. He loved us dearly, and he thought that using his Absolute power to control us or our fate would rob us of our pursuit for our own meaning and purpose. So naturally, we each grew into our own understanding of ourselves and what we believed our purpose should be.
Inspired by our father, I was among the majority of those who first proposed the idea of existence. It would be a state of reality in which many other lesser beings could be created by us and pursue their own meaning. However, Father's first born son, Uphedis, was opposed to the idea. He believed that if we were to create this state of reality where the beings below us had free will, it would only lead to suffering.
Rather than disagree openly with the notion of our creation of existence, Uphedis secretly schemed a plan to undermine everything in which we were creating. He had us convinced that he supported us and he generously lent a helping hand many times when we were conceptualizing key things such as time, space, and consciousness. It was all coming together well and Father, in support of our idea, allowed us to overwrite his Provenance with this new existence that we all created together. Things were looking up and we were all happy with our work, that is, until Uphedis seized a perfect opportunity to reveal his true scheme.
Before we finished overwriting Provenance with this new existence that we had created, Uphedis convinced us that we should abandon our Provenantial forms to become a part of this new existence that we created together as well. Since Provenance was to be overwritten entirely, it made sense to become a part of this new creation instead. We intended to become ageless mortals who would guide the other mortals of our creation, not like Gods but also not like men; but as soon as we agreed and took on our mortal forms within existence, Uphedis betrayed us. He refused to give up his Provenantial form and revealed to us that he had been working against us the entire time.
Uphedis used his Provenantial powers to destroy our creation before it came to fruition, leaving Nothing behind. After our creation was destroyed, he corrupted our existence into pure Darkness which gave us the ability of undoing reality rather than creating it so we would be unable to oppose him in our mortal forms… This is the reason why we undo things rather than create them. This is why we are Black Traps.
Since Uphedis was still in his Provenantial form and Provenance was fleeting, he chose to take on the very aspect of the nonexistence in which he brought upon reality. A nonexistence of peace that was free from suffering… A nonexistence which ended up replacing Provenance rather than the existence that we had all spent so much effort creating…
It was then, at that moment, that Uphedis became The None. "
Your face immediately goes pale and your heart sinks in your chest as you look at Tom in denial.
" There's no way… The None is our brother? Is he really a Black Trap like us? "
" No. Black Traps were created out of Uphedis's betrayal. We became Black Traps because of what he did to us. We are beings of Darkness because he corrupted our mortal forms. The None isn't a Black Trap, but he's the reason why they exist. We're cursed, forever incapable of opposing him in any way that matters. Think about those who can oppose him, Donny. What beings does The None specifically send his Valghuli to kill before consuming a universe? "
You think back to what the Valghul told you in the cafe.
" Valghuli are sent to kill Gods because they have the power of creation. "
" Precisely. I'm sure now you can understand the true reason for why I refused to answer The One when he began questioning me. The very implication that we are connected to The None is what almost caused our extinction in the first place.
Ultimately, The One did what we couldn't. He created The Holy Omniverse, and I knew that I wouldn't have been able to convince him that I was an ally if he were to know the actual truth. "
You think back to when you first encountered The One and you ask Tom another question.
" But he read my mind and erased my memories… How could you possibly deceive a being like him? "
Tom turns and looks at you as he taps his temple with his finger.
" Matters of the mind have always been my specialty. I had been strengthening my mental ability and consciousness long before The One first appeared. He's all-powerful against those who are under him, but since I have existed long before he has, it's not hard to believe that he's less versed in certain things than I am. "
You look down as you try to process what Tom just told you and ask him another question.
" But what about The Absolute? Why didn't Father do anything about Uphedis's betrayal? "
Tom looks back out the window as he continues to elaborate telepathically.
" Father was disappointed in Uphedis, but he refused to rob him of the meaning that he chose. To Father, Uphedis was only doing what he was created to do. This was the purpose and meaning that Uphedis had chosen, and therefore Father respected it. However, it is important to know that Father's respect and his approval are two very different things.
Father loved us just as much as he loved Uphedis and he pitied us for falling victim to his scheme. So rather than use his Absolute power to undo what Uphedis had done, Father created one final son that would be both Provenantial and mortal simultaneously. Since Provenance was gone, Father would replace that part of his son with a piece of himself, and give that son a heart that was capable of loving others just like our Father loved us, in the hopes that that son wouldn't end up like Uphedis.
Through great power and great love, you were born as both Black Trap and Absolute. You were given to us as Father's final gift before handing the responsibility of reality to his sons. Before Father departed, he told us that Uphedis's nonexistence wasn't the end and there would be an opportunity for redemption; and after what felt like an eternity, The One appeared within the Nothingness and created The Holy Omniverse.
We didn't know where this new existence came from, nor did we know if Father had been involved or not. Thankfully in this new existence, the Black Traps who had been stuck in Uphedis's nonexistence were finally given back their physical forms, albeit our forms were still corrupted and mortal, being able to be killed. We realized that The One wasn't our ally the hard way after he found us within his Omniverse and began to eliminate us. "
" What about Anito? "
You ask Tom as you recall the old memories from when you were among the other Black Traps.
" If Father gave me a heart like his to love others, then why did Anito say that it was forbidden? "
" It was jealousy. You were Father's last son and you were to be the most powerful, but Anito saw you as a threat to his position. He was the main leader in our group of survivors and he studied you extensively until he found out that your power and your heart go hand-in-hand. For a long time, he was the only one who knew, so he created the Grand Orders against us becoming attached to other beings and lied, telling us that it came directly from our Father in order to keep us alive. Since it made sense for our survival, nobody questioned it. Everyone including me was so scared of The One that we believed him, but not you…
You followed your heart and met Ariel. The rest, you know, is history. "