Chapter 305: The Truth About Genesis Is Revealed, The Three Heavenly Kings’ Sacrifice

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Riven saw images of the Precursors sitting around an ancient council, and a tall and beautiful woman confronting them with anger, frustration, and sorrow in her eyes.

"This was Genesis," his mother said. "She was once one of the greatest among us. She had seeded thousands of planets with life. But after watching so many of those worlds get swallowed by the End of All, she started to lose faith in our mission. Little by little, the End of All whispered to her, and she listened."

"Darkness..." Riven muttered.

His mother nodded. "The darkness changed her. Over time it completely took hold. She became his Apostle. Instead of planting life, she began to devour it. The more she consumed, the stronger she became. Her hunger never stopped. Neither did her greed, her pride, or her lust for more power."

"Gluttony, Greed, Pride... and Lust?" Riven frowned, suddenly being reminded of something... his own Authorities.

The visions changed again. He saw Genesis now, no longer resembling anything human or even Precursor. She had become a massive, shifting monstrosity, tearing into other Precursors. They fought back with everything they had, changing their forms into different perfected chimeras, but none of them could match the endless, shifting shape she had become.

"Her power and her hunger were endless," Viviane said quietly. "She turned into a true vessel for the End of All Things. One by one she hunted down and consumed her own people. The Precursors who had spent their entire existence planting life were eaten by her."

Riven stared at the scenes unfolding in front of him. "That’s... horrible. What happened after that? How did she end up here?"

The visions shifted once more. Viviane looked at him with clear sorrow.

"In the final battle, while Genesis was in the middle of devouring an entire planet’s worth of life, the last three strongest Precursors, known as the Three Heavenly Kings made their stand. The Ten Thousand Poison Master, the Asura Blood Sea Emperor, and the Divine King of the Cold Star combined their power and sacrificed themselves to stop her. They managed to seal her just as she was about to finish consuming the blue planet. But she was so strong by then, as a vessel of the End of All, that the cost was enormous. The three of them shattered into countless pieces. Their remains scattered across space like stardust and eventually formed new stars and planets full of life, the same way many of our kind had done after death. Genesis herself fell as a meteor and crashed into the surface of this world, where she remained sealed... until now."

"Until now," Riven repeated, still trying to process everything he was seeing. The truth about Genesis’s origins and the fate of their entire race settled heavily on him.

What remained of his mother’s mind — the part that had lived dormant inside his cells until this moment — continued speaking.

"You, my son, are now the only Precursor left besides her," she said. "You have to stop what humanity is doing. They’re not only destroying this planet, they’re draining its life force. The more life dies here, the stronger the End of All grows inside her. She might look dormant right now, reduced to mummified cells that seem cooperative... but that won’t last."

Riven stayed quiet for a few seconds, then nodded. The memories of the future he had already seen were still clear in his mind. "Yeah. I know."

Viviane smiled and stepped closer. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead.

"Mommy is very proud of the man you’ve become, Riven. I want you to keep growing stronger... but never forget that, despite everything, you’re still human. You’re special in a way even Genesis isn’t. You inherited the Purified Precursor Cells, but you also have her ability to Devour. You can both Devour and Assimilate. That means you gain power the same way she does... but you also become something else. A library of life."

"Library of life..." Riven repeated the words as he looked down at himself. For a moment he saw his own body as an entire ecosystem — plants growing, animals moving, everything living together in balance. "The Spiritual Realm I carry... is that an extension of my soul?"

She nodded. "From what I’ve been able to understand, Spiritual Realms are pieces of the soul that still carry a spark of the Precursors."

"What about Authorities? Cosmic Monarchs? Gates? The System?" Riven asked quickly, the questions tumbling out. "Are they all connected? And why do I have four Authorities — the same ones Genesis has? What does that mean?"

Viviane’s form started to fade at the edges. "I know that the Cosmic Monarchs answer directly to the End of All. They are his final enforcers."

"So the pruning of life..." Riven’s eyes widened. "That’s them. They’re trying to drag everything back into darkness, back into the void. But what are the qualifications for ascension? What does that even mean?"

"It’s when life, or rather an entire civilization, evolves far enough together," she explained. "They become strong enough to stand against the darkness. The bar for ascension is incredibly high because the Universal Computer left behind by the Precursors has been searching for their replacements for eons... and it still hasn’t found any."

"T-The System... the Universal Computer?" Riven stared at her. Viviane simply nodded.

The revelations kept coming, one after another. He could barely keep up.

"The Precursors created what you all call the System as a way to classify and track all life," she said. "It was meant to be a vast library of knowledge. After the Precursors died, its purpose changed. It began searching for beings who could take their place. That’s why it started focusing on the planets targeted by the End of All, while also trying to preserve as much life as possible through the Gates."

Riven lowered his head as the pieces finally locked into place.

The Gates were never random. They were a preservation system built by the Universal Computer the Precursors left behind.

The End of All commanded the Cosmic Monarchs to cut down worlds that grew too full of life.

True ascension had probably never happened before, because it would only occur when a race became worthy of replacing the Precursors themselves.

But even after everything he had just learned, one question still sat heavily in his mind.

Was it actually possible? To ascend... and escape the final calamity?

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