Chapter 3201: Fate Of The Cosmos

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Cosmos Corridor, Unknow

The Big Crunch.

It was a scenario predicting a hypothetical fate of the universe, in which the expansion that began with the Big Bang eventually halts and reverses.

They believed the trigger would be gravity. If the universe contained enough matter and energy, the gravity between them would slowly overcome the outward expansion, pulling galaxies, stars, and eventually all of space itself back together into a single singularity.

However, observations of the universe’s accelerating expansion suggested that the Big Crunch was unlikely, and most scientists began to favor scenarios like the Big Freeze, in which the universe expands forever and gradually cools toward absolute zero.

Now that I’m listening to BoBo, I realize they got it right, only it didn’t apply to their universe.

What they failed to count was that there were many universes out there. Some are big, some are small. Some expand fast, some expand normally, and some expand slowly.

As BoBo pointed out, a Big Crunch can be triggered when two expanding universes collide. But collision isn’t the only way. In a universe that expands too slowly, the gravity inside it can eventually grow stronger than its expansion, and then the Big Crunch happens.

What I’m trying to say was that there wasn’t just one way for the universe to end.

Maybe that holds for the one universe they were observing, but on the scale of the multiverse, a universe could end for any number of reasons, be it the Big Crunch, the Big Freeze, or the Big Rip.

If a universe’s expansion accelerates exponentially, becoming so violent that it tears space and matter apart, we have the Big Rip.

If a universe expands forever, growing cold, dark, and empty as its energy spreads out completely, we have the Big Freeze.

Having comprehended the spatial and ice rules well enough, I not only realized that these were likely possibilities, but that I had personally used them in many of my battles, on a much, much smaller scale.

I’m not saying these three are the only possible fates. With infinite universes come infinite possibilities.

So far I had only considered a universe running its natural course and coming to an end. I hadn’t considered external factors, like the Transcendents or the Cosmos Calamity Tree that BoBo kept bringing up. Were they capable of ending a cosmos? Or were there other threats out there in the cosmos?

But first, I needed to clear one thing up with BoBo.

“What do you mean, you and I?”

BoBo, who had been burying her face in another calamity fruit, paused to look at me before biting off a huge chunk with her tiny mouth.

“We are the protectors of the cosmos,” she began. “Well, you are. I’m more like your sidekick, doing the logistics work.”

“What?” I exclaimed, unable to fathom that a World Calamity Tree was a protector of the cosmos.

If she had said that World Calamity Trees were the cleaners of the cosmos, I might not have even reacted. But protectors? Since when had devouring realms counted as protecting the cosmos? Come to think of it, ‘devourer of the cosmos’ or ‘destroyer of the cosmos’ would be a better title for the World Calamity Tree.

As if she had read my mind, BoBo clarified, “You say that because you don’t understand how the cosmos and the myriad cosmos function. Since you have a complete consciousness and an awakened World Calamity Tree bloodline, you now have the right to know the working of the Cosmos… the Myriad Cosmos… and the Myriad Cosmos Corridor—”

“Good, because you’ve had enough Calamity Fruit for now, and I’m cutting you off.”

Hearing that I had the right to this knowledge, I cut in, since BoBo had begun eating a Calamity Fruit after every other word or two. Tonic or not, the Calamity Fragrance and Fruit seemed to have an addictive effect on pixies, cursed or not.

“Aw, may I have one more?” BoBo asked, grabbing on to a small branch of mine. “Come on, please. That’s the last one, I promise!”

“Maybe later, but not now,” I said sternly.

How could she have lived an insanely long life, have working knowledge of the entire myriad cosmos, watched several cosmos collapse and built, and still act so childish? Yet she wondered how the pixies got tricked so constantly.

“Fine,” BoBo agreed, but she kept rubbing her face against the branch she had grabbed earlier.

“What are you doing?”

I had stopped producing not only the Calamity Fruit but also the Calamity Fragrance.

“You smell so good,” BoBo replied in a tone that reminded me of MayMay and Dredre, which brought back a bunch of shameful memories. Suppressing them, I checked on BoBo. “Honey, are you sure you’re not cursed too?”

“I’m bored. The sector I’m assigned to has nothing going on. I like to observe cosmoses, but when a world calamity comes along once in a while, we get to experience Calamity Fragrance and Fruit. It’s nothing special, but for some reason your Calamity Fragrance and Fruit are simply too good. I wanted to share it with my tribesmen, but I couldn’t stop eating.”

BoBo’s answer was to drag her body across the branch into the leaves, grab a handful of them, and rub her face in them.

“Honey, I’m getting worried. Can you stop rubbing yourself on me and come stand before me?” I asked, seeing that BoBo was aware of her actions but showed signs of not being in control of them. It was definitely an addiction.

“Do I have to?” BoBo asked reluctantly.

“Yes.”

“Fine.”

I sensed BoBo leave my branch and stand before my trunk at a respectful distance. However, her face had none of the dark pixie giggle or enthusiasm. She looked lethargic and even annoyed, that was the first time I saw such a mix of emotions on a pixie.

‘She’s showing withdrawal symptoms already?’ I wondered, only to hear the dreadful giggle, followed by, “I got you again.”

Novel Raider: The First Fiction Summoner