*If you're new to the Realm Lord story I recommend catching up before reading this chapter!
Chapter 106
The End Without End
Elder Yorven awaited Shadow at the top of the hill. Sunlight broke against the mound of green grass and splintered into several directions, making the hill appear as though it had a crown. Shadow walked slowly up the incline, a sense of calm anticipation rising inside him. He knew that this time he would be successful. All the blocks inside his mind had been removed, which Shadow now realized were the true reasons he could not register the speed necessary to activate the sign posts.
Shadow could not predict what lay ahead of him, but he understood that Elder Yorven had been correct when he said that it really did not matter. Shadow had already decided his course, and whatever awaited him in the past, Shadow knew how he would respond. Ever since he had begun his hunt for the Realm Lord, his true objective had not been the truth, it had been solace. Shadow understood that now. However, the truth was not a blanket of comfort, but neither was it a weight to crush him. The truth simply was, and what really mattered was how Shadow responded to it.
This next venture into the past would be different than the last. Shadow did not seek the answer to the ache inside his own soul. In the end, it did not matter who his creator was. Both Gerald and the Realm Lord had aspirations for what Shadow would be, and yet both of their efforts had been frustrated. He was not merely the sum of their intentions, nor the result of all of his experiences. Shadow was more than his pain, and more than his promise to Maria.
The truth was that Shadow was all of it. Everything combined to make him who he was, both the good and the bad. By embracing his whole self, Shadow broke free of the chains that would have otherwise held him back.
Shadow reached the top of the hill. Elder Yorven inclined his head in a sign of respect. "Good luck." Nothing else needed to be said. Shadow took the purple Chaos Emerald and held it aloft. He could not use Chaos Control to gather speed, but he wouldn't need to. The gem flashed with a white light and the ground started to shake. Shadow felt the power rise inside him. It did not burn like a volatile fire. It was warm and comforting. Shocks of blue electricity fired about his feet. Shadow gathered all the energy and readied to release it into one burst of super sonic speed.
He crouched down into a ready stance. Shadow felt the world slow down around him. His sense of hearing and sight peaked. Instinct told him when to start. In a blast of blue energy, Shadow tore down the green slope. Trails of blue flame were left in his wake. Shadow raced past the sign post and felt a sense of weightlessness enter his body. White stars danced around him. The fields of Little Planet vanished. Shadow was running down a stardust speedway straight into a cosmic void.
"THERE YOU ARE!" A voice echoed out of everywhere at once. Darkness swelled around him in the form of cosmic smoke. Shadow ignored them and continued to run down the road of stars. Something moved beside him, a great looming darkness whose very presence seemed to fracture reality. Cracks in the air formed, as if it were made of glass, and was moments away from shattering. "YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME!"
A terrible dread started to work its way into Shadow's heart. He pushed himself to go faster, but the darkness was inescapable. Figures wrestled shape out of the darkness, and a thousand Realm Lords hovered about him. "I am the Realm Lord. The Titan of Time, Bender of Chaos, Molder of Entropy, Guider of Fate, the Spark that Livens the Universe, the Heat Death that Destroys it, the Singularity of Possibility and the Expansive Rip of Destruction. I am the End and the Beginning, the Never and the Always."
The chorus of voices furthered the breaking of the glass. Shadow knew by instinct that once the glass shattered he would be at the mercy of the Realm Lord. "No!" Digging deep for more power, Shadow accelerated. He burst forward and the road of stars led him beyond the foggy darkness.
"We will be there together some day." Her voice magnified until it became the world around him. Shadow's racetrack now tore down an endless series of repeating Space Colony Ark hallways. Within every room he passed, Shadow saw Maria, her fleeting time passing by with every moment. "We will see everything it has to offer. I want to see oceans, forests, snow capped mountains, and vast deserts. I want to see it all. But it would mean so much more if you were by my side."
Shadow could see himself sitting beside her. A desperate yearning to turn off course to go to her, rose within him. He started to move, but a deeper instinct pulled him back. In response to this defiance, the scene changed. Shadow was now running the final chase against Sonic along the highway of the Ark. Sonic ran just beyond Shadow. He looked back and his mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "Just a faker."
Shadow ignored this. He understood what was happening. The Realm Lord was attempting to push Shadow off course. He ignored Sonic and did not follow him down the highway, he turned as his star road changed course.
"YOU ARE MINE!" The star road suddenly started to rise at an incline. Shadow's feet slipped as he tried to maintain his speed. Ahead of him, Shadow saw a white star burst to life. He knew that if he could just reach it, then he would be safe.
He pushed all of his energy into his speed, but the road continued to rise until it was almost vertical. Below him, Shadow heard a colossal roar and a great violent wind. A swirling void opened and started to suck Shadow downward. Twisting within the maw was the Realm Lord, Maria, Sonic, Rouge, Professor Gerald, everyone that Shadow had ever known.
Shadow's feet were slipping. The road had turned past vertical and was now flipping back on itself. Shadow tried to crawl with his hands. His foot slipped and Shadow started to fall. "Not yet, Shadow." A voice that Shadow did not recognize echoed inside his head. He felt a sudden surge of power flood his body. The star road started to steadily straighten out. The void roared in rage and made a last desperate attempt to capture him. But it was too late. Shadow reached out towards the white star.
He felt himself being pulled forward. Shadow gave into the pressure. His body seemed to compress as if he were going to be pulled through an impossibly tight tube. The pressure increased until Shadow thought he might burst. He couldn't breathe.
And then it was over. Shadow stepped out onto a sunny hillside. Light danced in his eyes as he caught his breath. Shadow walked to the height of the hills and watched as they steadily dropped off until falling into a vast sea. Across a narrow bay, waves crashed noisily against rocky cliffs. Seagulls cawed overhead as they flew towards the horizon. Wind rustled in Shadow's quills. He had returned to the coastal countryside he had seen when Yorven had taken him to the Tempus Vanitas. The sign post had clearly understood Shadow's intentions and had brought him to the correct place.
Shadow exhaled and waited for his heart to slow down. Once he had recovered, Shadow crossed the field and took the bridge that passed over to the adjacent cliffside. The wood groaned beneath his feet and the wind made the bridge sway in the open air. On the far side of the bridge, Shadow walked along until he found the giant steps. He ascended these until he reached the courtyard.
The stones were pristine and shone like white marble. Shadow's footsteps created a loud echo which rose out of the bowl. He saw the fountain with the great wheel in the center. It no longer moved in both directions but continually spun in a gradual circle. This was the confirmation of what Shadow was already guessing. The place was no longer under the spell of temporal stasis.
Shadow continued forward. He passed through the great entryway and into the central chamber. Dozens of golden braziers were set along the walls. Their firelight created a dome of golden light which reflected off of the stained glass ceiling. The monument of statues from Shadow's previous visit was missing. Instead, Shadow was led down a strip of fine carpet. On either side of him, Shadow could see that the chamber branched out in several directions. The true expanse of the temple was far beyond what it appeared from the outside.
Huge tapestries hung on the wall. Some featured battles of immense scale, others seemed to display the creation of great monuments, others presented icons of the universe and various planets. Shadow had the sudden realization that he was entering a gallery set before a throne room.
The floor dipped down towards the far end of the chamber. Shadow stopped before a set of steps which lowered into an inverse of a dais. Beyond the light of the fires, Shadow could see the vague outline of a throne, and someone sitting upon it.
"You are not the hedgehog I have been waiting for." The shadow rose from its carved throne. It shuffled forward until the light revealed it as a hedgehog. He had dark purple fur and wore a midnight black cloak. His eyes sparkled like blue stars. In his hand he clutched a golden rod tipped with a glowing sapphire. When he spoke his voice was magnified throughout the empty space. "I have seen the birth and death of countless universes, but I still cannot predict the turns of fate. Shadow the Hedgehog has come here instead of the other, what does that portend for our shared fates?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Gothro." The hedgehog inclined his head, before raising it and staring intently into Shadow's eyes. The impact of the stare seemed to root Shadow to the spot. An endless void threatened beyond Gothro's eyes, only partially covered by spots of shimmering white light. Shadow could not seem to pull himself away. Timeless did not even begin to describe Gothro's face. It was as if Gothro himself had fashioned time into being in ages of eternal darkness before the sparking of the first sun.
Shadow could hear echoes of distant memories inside his own head. The roar of the battle at Red Mountain, the futuristic city hum of Elysium, the terrible cry of the BioLizard, these disjointed scraps of distant time seemed to flood in Shadow's senses. Then, as if some part of him were suddenly alerted, Shadow felt himself go rigid. His heart skipped a beat. A cold shiver ran down his back. Shadow couldn't move. His mind was racing back into time, but his body was motionless. "There you are." Shadow made a stupendous effort to break free of Gothro's stare. He managed to draw back slightly and to fall onto one knee.
"He cannot hurt you here." Gothro's voice broke the illusion. Shadow felt the pressure dissipate and the threat fade from his mind. He sighed and pushed himself back to his feet. "The mark of the Realm Lord lies heavily upon you, I was unsure if I could keep him away from this place. But it seems I have been victorious, at least for now."
Shadow shook his head. "I don't need to be here long. I just need answers. Are you the one who created the Time Stones?"
Gothro's eyes glinted like light reflecting off of steel. "Yes…and no."
"I didn't come here for riddles."
"Yes I made the Time Stones, but I was also betrayed and murdered before I had the chance. Riddles are all I have to offer."
Shadow folded his arms. "So that has already happened? I thought I went back to before?"
"You cannot arrive at a time that never was."
"So you can't help me then?
Gothro shook his head. "Not as much as you can help me. I know who you are, and why you have come here. You wish to uncover the riddle at the core of the being you know as the Realm Lord, isn't that right?"
"Do you know what he is?"
Gothro nodded and ushered Shadow forward. "I do, but first there is much we need to discuss. Walk with me." Shadow didn't have any other choice than to obey.
Gortho led Shadow down one of the many hallways which branched out of the main chamber. They reached a set of moon shaped gates which opened at their approach. Beyond the gates, the walls of the chamber suddenly drew back. Shadow stopped short. He stood atop a high road which led down into a vast subterranean city. Stone buildings carved with exacting detail stretched beyond Shadow's sight. They had the appearance of only having recently been built, yet there was an atmosphere of empty decay that hung over the city. It was not the kind of stillness that Shadow had experienced before, but it was as if Shadow were looking through a portal into a world that never existed.
"What is this place?"
"The Stardust Sanctum, it was the home of the Lore Masters and the origin of our great civilization."
"It was?"
Gothro chuckled. "Yes, as you can see, no one has ever lived here. Nor did anyone ever build it."
"So what are we looking at? Is this an echo, like the Tempus Vanitas?"
"Tempus Vanitas?" Gothro repeated. He smiled and shook his head. "An apt name, but no, this is unlike the stasis that exists in the future. This place does not really exist in the common use of the phrase. What remains of our works on Little Planet are only temporal scars, left behind due to the mysterious temporal energy of the planet. Though our empire extended across the universe there are no traces of it anywhere but here." Gothro paused at the edge of the terrace so they could look out over the entire area.
"So the Doom has already happened? There is no way to go back to the time before?"
Gothro shook his head. "It is not possible. The paradox that exists at the core of the civilization of the Lore Masters is beyond linear time. Our society was never built. You could not find us either in the deep past or in the expanding future."
"Then how am I speaking to you now?"
"I will get to that. There is much I need to tell you. Come." Gothro ushered Shadow forward and the two of them headed down the great stairs leading to the main road.
"Long ago, my people were the first to discover Little Planet. Our civilization had already advanced to an interstellar level and we were on the pursuit of new discoveries. As soon as we landed on the planet we knew that there was something strange about it. I elected to remain there and study the planet's many mysteries. It wasn't long until we discovered the temporal holes within the planet. We found we could travel backward and forward into the planet's history. Our experiments consisted of going into the past, planting a seed and going back to the present to witness a fully grown oak. However, we did not know about the Planet's propensity to vanish. Before our brethren could return and pick us back up, the planet moved. We were transported to a random spot in the universe and perhaps a random point in time. Most of my company despaired, but a handful of us rallied the group. We could make a life for ourselves here and, with the power of the planet, we could create an advanced society. So, for the next fifty years or so we transformed Little Planet. We made many of these structures, planted gardens, built lakes and rivers and a deep underground labyrinth."
Gothro paused and pointed to an inscription. It depicted a crescent moon circled by sparkling gems. "The more time I spent with Little Planet the more I started to understand the energy within it. I channeled that energy and created the Time Stones. They were not bound to the linear existence of Little Planet and truly gave one the freedom to ride the currents of time. At first we were not aware that by traveling through time we were creating new timelines, and we used the Time Stones purely for the gaining of knowledge. Thus began the ascension of the Lore Masters."
They had reached the main city district. Great domes and many layered pillars stretched out all around them. Shadow could imagine how the Lore Masters had used the freedom of time to build such incredible marvels. Gothro pointed towards one of the larger domes rising above the other buildings to their right. "That was once a great library. We filled volumes of books with our accumulated knowledge. Science, architecture, art, governance, every branch of learning was at our fingertips. There was no question beyond our grasp for the answer was either in the past or the future."
Gothro continued to describe the height of the Lore Masters as they passed through the empty city. Shadow understood why the place possessed such an eerie mystique. It was haunted by lives that were never lived. At the end of the road, a long stairway led up to a white marbled temple. Gothro paused before heading inside and gazed out over the city. "We had everything we could ever want right here. The legacy of this place could have been one of prosperity and noble pursuit. But there is a price to pay when the mortal is mingled with the immortal. Come and see."
They entered the pantheon and were quickly blinded by overwhelming darkness. Shadow paused and heard shuffling to his right. A moment later a torch ignited. Gotrho held it up and ushered Shadow forward. They walked forward into a grand empty space. Huge shadows suddenly loomed up before them. Shadow recognized them as the statues of the Lore Masters. He saw the outline of Gothro, the Twins, and then he stopped. The once empty pedestal of the missing god was filled. Shadow peered forward to try and make it out, but Gothro pulled him back. "You will see, but first you must understand."
He brought Shadow over to the shrine of the Twins and held up his torch. "Freol and Baer, were emboldened by their knowledge. They believed that their wisdom should be spread across the universe. They had seen societies rise and fall, traveled to the birth of the cosmos and the heat death at the end. Under their guidance, a perfect universe could be created, one led by those whose wisdom was time itself. So they created fleets of ships and left Little Planet to conquer galaxies. I did not join them on the conquest nor did I stay their hand. I saw the wisdom in their pursuit. It was perfectly logical for the wise to rule others, for only we could truly know what was best."
"But it wasn't enough. The Twins could have had all knowledge but they were still limited by their mortal frames. Eventually, their bodies and minds would decay and the power of the Time Stones could not restore them. They brought this concern to me and it was my suggestion that we train a new breed of Lore Master. I thought our knowledge should be given to another as well as the Mantle of safeguarding the universe. For, though I kept it to myself, I had been plagued with a grievous fear. I sensed an evil rippling its way through the various timelines and I wondered if perhaps we were the cause."
"The Twins were not satisfied by my answer. My connection to the Time Stones meant that I was immortal. The Twins' jealousy had only grown over the years as they saw themselves wasting away while I remained unchanged. So they turned their attention to solving their mortality. With the Time Stones they were able to travel forward and backward searching for a society that had the means of making them immortal. At last they found their destination."
Gothro brought Shadow closer to the statue of the twins. He gestured to a symbol of a phoenix carved into their thrones. "There is a planet called Arvana. Like Little Planet, it is a mysterious place filled with strange energies. The Twins conquered the planet and raided its storehouse of power for the creation of powerful artifacts called Sol Gems. With the power of the Sol Gems, the Twins could greatly expand their empire. Furthermore, the Sol Gems could be used to partially restore their bodies. As long as they had Sol Gems they had a temporary solution to their morality. However, the abuse of the Sol Gems was a grave crime against nature. As the vitality of Arvana failed a power was unleashed that was far beyond even the Twins. The Flames of Disaster."
Gothro indicated an image of a lashing fireball. "The Flames destroyed Arvana completely, but the Twins had managed to escape by retreating into the past. They had found their solution. The Twins conquered Arvana again, but this time they did not use the Sol Gems to create an empire. Instead, they spent their time creating an even more nefarious device; Iblis, a machine capable of harnessing the Flames of Disaster."
"I saw what they intended to do and I became terrified. The evil that I sensed rippling through the waves of time was becoming stronger. I bent my will into stopping the Twins, into averting their cause. Again and again I caused the Flames of Disaster to be released before the Twins were ready. But they could always retreat to the past and the dance would start again."
Shadow gazed up at the statues. Each of the echidna's had the same face, the same stern expression. "So they used this Iblis machine to become all powerful?"
"No, they never got the chance. I managed to frustrate them, but eventually the Twins recognized my meddling. They returned to Little Planet to confront me. I told them my fears and I hoped we could come to an arrangement. At first, it seemed the Twins would heed my warning. However, they only needed confirmation. They could not kill me without destroying the Time Stones, the source of their power. So insead, they traveled to the past to kill me before I had created them."
Gothro frowned and shook his head. "This is what brought about the Doom. The Time Stones themselves were now a paradox and everything that had been built because of them was enveloped in Limbo. Our society disappeared and the Twins and myself vanished along with it."
"I don't understand. If they killed you, why were you sent into Limbo?"
"When I created the Time Stones I fulfilled a deep longing within my soul. As soon as I came to Little Planet I sensed the temporal energy and felt drawn towards it. Fashioning the Time Stones was not a simple act of craftsmanship, I poured my very essence into the stones. We were connected, two halves of the same whole. If I were to die then the Time Stones themselves would have faded away. The temporal nature of the Stones mingled with my own nature, I made the stones corporeal and the stones made me immortal. This was not my intention, merely a consequence. To destroy me while keeping the Time Stones that they so abused, the Twins returned to the time before I had created them and killed me. This was their great mistake. For the connection that I shared with the Time Stones eclipsed even the logic of concurrent events. Killing me meant there were no Time Stones, so there was no way for the Twins to go back and kill me. This paradox banished the Twins into limbo. I shared a similar fate. The stones that the Twins used did not disappear from reality, they already existed in a state beyond time. If the stones existed then I must exist, but I was also dead. Paradox ensued and I was cast into the void of limbo."
Shadow closed his eyes and tried to piece everything together. "These Twins…they are the Realm Lord? He said he was banished to Limbo and has been trying to claw his way back."
Gothro shook his head. "The Twins were lost in limbo. Their individuality was consumed and they became mere forces of nature. Spread out through all time and all universes, the Twins devolved into pure nature. One, the force of Order, the other, Disorder. Without a will or intent, they strove against one another and their interplay led to the formation of more and more timelines and more and more divergence."
"I don't understand. What does any of this have to do with the Realm Lord?"
"You are forgetting the fourth Lore Master, The missing god. The time has come for me to pull back the curtain so you can see the end. For you see, my betrayal was purchased with a lie. A serpent slithered into the garden and took the loyalty of my brethren away. When the Twins discovered my meddling they were enraged and confronted me. I poured my heart out to them and told them that they were making a grave mistake. They wanted to use the Flames of Disaster to make themselves gods, but that would only bring about destruction. At first they were angry with me, but then I showed them the end."
"The end?"
"Do not forget the Time Stones. Many times the Twins had traveled to the end and had seen a heat death consume the universe. Other universes often suffered similar fates, but always, in the end, a universe was consumed by the basic forces that hold it together. Only I ever looked further, to the true end. That is what I must show you now, Shadow the Hedgehog." Gothro headed towards a tall door on the far side of the pantheon. Shadow looked back to try and see the statue on the missing god's pedestal but it was still shrouded in darkness.
He was led beyond the doorway into a long hallway. The flickering light of the torch illuminated walls covered in strange paintings. Shadow tried to decipher them but they seemed to be incoherent scratchings and drawings of strange beasts. Gothro paused at the door at the end of the hall and placed his torch into the nearby sconce. He then drew out a key of solid diamond and fixed it into the lock. Clunk! The door turned and Shadow was assaulted by violently bright light. He covered his face with his arm. "Come inside."
Shadow walked through the door and his eyes slowly adjusted to the light. He stood in a completely empty white void. When Gothro shut the door it vanished as did the wall behind them. The room seemed to stretch on for infinity in every direction. "Do not fear, the door is still behind us. We will not be here long. This is the Seeing Room, it will allow me to show you what I saw when I looked behind the curtain."
Gothro raised his hand and the light vanished. The room went from all white void to all black void. The emptiness of this darkness was paralyzing. Infinite nothingness extended in all directions. Shadow felt overwhelmed. He wanted to turn around and run. Gothro grabbed him by the arm and whispered in his ear. "Look up."
Shadow did so. The Realm Lord hovered in the emptiness. He did not move and did not seem aware of them. His presence seemed to fill the vacuum with a palpable dread. Shadow cringed back. His spine tingled and his skin crawled. This was wrong, horribly and terribly wrong. "I looked beyond the end to see what was the result of all our striving and this is what I saw." Gothro said heavily.
"This is the victory of the Realm Lord, the Realm Lord triumphant. It is him alone, he is the universe and he is all. Though he planned to create anew once creation was in his hand and all the universes had been stopped, once he was victorious…the Realm Lord finally understood. This is what he wanted after all. He is everything and everything is him. There is no universe he could create that would be more perfect or reflect back a more pure form of Order. This is the End without End. The fate of everything is to be consumed into the Realm Lord and there is no output."
"This is the future I beheld with the Time Stones, the one I warned the Twins about. When they saw this their hearts were flooded with grief. For you see, I made the same mistake you did. At first, I believed that the Twins or one of them was the Realm Lord. I believed that transforming themselves into gods would turn them into monsters. The Twins were convinced and the three of us agreed to destroy the Time Stones."
"Wouldn't that kill you?"
"It was a price I was ready to pay. We had already subjected the universe to our rule, but we realized that despite our wisdom and high learning, our rule was a tyranny. However, at the last moment, the Twins were deceived. The missing god came to them and convinced them that I was being untruthful, that I had used the Time Stones to show them a false future in order to manipulate them into giving up their power. When the Twins committed their great sin, the missing god was also sent into limbo."
"Why? Did he go back in time with them?"
"He was already back in time. For the missing god came from far into the future. He is the Lore Master that never was, the true Realm Lord. The time has come for the final revelation, but it will not be so for you, for I believe you already know of whom I speak. The Realm Lord is who you have dreaded it to be from the beginning."
Gothro placed his hand on Shadow's shoulder. The touch made Shadow flinch as he still couldn't see anything. "Before we go, look one last time at the end. This is the current future, Shadow the Hedgehog, the future of all timelines. As of yet, we have not escaped this fate, but there is still hope. Once I strove with all my effort to avert the purpose of the Realm Lord, but in that struggle I became aware of a third will. One that was higher than both mine and the Realm Lord's. This will made its own influence upon existence but to what end I could not say. This will was incomprehensible and I humbled myself before it. Over the long stretch of my timeless prison I have become more acquainted with it, while the inverse has happened to the Realm Lord. He has become more and more ignorant. The Realm Lord believes that myself and the will of Chaos strive against his growing influence. He is unable to perceive this third will and you were the one who proved it to me."
Suddenly, the empty void vanished. They stood in the Time Stone chamber in Elysium. Maria lay wounded on the floor and Shadow saw himself rising up to defend her. "When you defeated your doppelganger you demonstrated that this third will is far more powerful than the Realm Lord appreciates."
Shadow watched as two versions of himself fought. It was strange and discombobulating. "I don't understand."
"Don't you? It is the will of love, Shadow. Love that transferred across timelines to lead this Maria to free you from your binds. The love that caused Gerald to mix his granddaughter's blood with yours, the love that led Maria to sacrifice herself for you, your love that led you to honor your promise. A seed of love was planted, and when it came to fruition, the power that was unleashed was greater than the Realm Lord's."
Shadow saw himself burn with blue energy and unleash the Chaos Blade to defeat his counterpart. Then the vision faded and they returned to the room of white void. "You have heard the Realm Lord speak about his agents, creatures whose existence they owe to his meddling?"
"Yeah, he thought I was one of them."
Gothro smiled. It was strange that he could feel such mirth after so many evil revelations. "Perhaps the will of love has its own. You are who you are because of love, not because of the twisted manipulations of the Realm Lord."
"I'm nobody's pawn."
"No!" Gothro said cheerfully. "And that is the best hope we have. Now come, you understand the game and what is at stake, it is time for you to see your enemy." Gothro led Shadow back to the pantheon. He retrieved his torch and held it aloft as they approached the pedestal of the missing god. When the light touched it, Shadow beheld a statue of Doctor Robotnik towering over him.