After A Thousand Years

"Imagine my surprise when I came here with Eli and Eri, and saw you looking the same way you did when I left you. No one else noticed, but I did since we once walked the desert together. I could not believe it."

"I knew you had to be some kind of supreme cultivator. Are you a Descended One?"

"Hm?"

Wahvu frowned and furrowed his grey brows. Gilgamesh's mouth was wide open as he stared at the sky, noticing the only notable difference in the Library after 1,000 years.

Hovering in the heavens above, plain as day, was a Book Collection in ruin. Scattered spatial fragments of a destroyed Omniverse loomed above the starting ground like a colossal field of shattered glass, emitting mystical colors that added to the light that was already raining down.

The books themselves were torn apart, with random bits of paper lingering about, oozing the almighty spatial power of dimensional natures.

From that terrible sight, Gilgamesh felt the anguish of countless agonized souls, and almost opened himself to their pain. However, at the last moment, he hesitated.

He did not yet believe he was ready to sympathize. Not when he could not properly deal with his own pain. Instead, he stared blankly at the sky's newest decoration, unsure of how to feel.

An entire Omniverse had been destroyed. Just what happened during those 1,000 years? All the other Book Collections were just as Gilgamesh remembered them, except for that single one.

1,000 years...

A whole thousand years...

It was hard to accept. Gilgamesh did not even think about the possibility that he would be stuck in enlightenment for so long.

However, when he thought about what he had learned... He could not help but smile.

"Maybe it makes sense after all," He mused.

It was only then that he noticed Wahvu staring at him with a careful expression. "Did you not notice the great battle? Some have come to call it 'Heaven's Culling,' here in the desert."

Gilgamesh shifted, "Tell me what happened."

Wahvu let out a breath and wiped his forehead.

"I'm not sure when exactly it began, but a few hundred years ago there was an uproar in the Library. Across the entire expanse of sky that we can see from here, a choir of voices began to sing-- well, chant really."

"They joined together in a dreadful song: 'She will not be forgiven for her crimes. Let God punish her. Die, Florence. Die.' That was what they said, over and over, without stopping for two hundred years. It almost drove us all crazy!"

Gilgamesh thought about the words, but there was nothing he could gleam from this. He also had no idea who 'Florence,' was.

"The battle started shortly after the voices began. From here, we couldn't see anything, but we heard the terrible echoes coming from within that Book Collection. They shook the entirety of the starting ground."

"From all around the world, young heroes and old hermits came from their seclusion to observe. The Empress herself was roused from her meditation, becoming yet another spectator."

"In the end," Wahvu sighed, his grandchildren also listened attentively, despite having heard the story many times before, "the Book Collection was destroyed from the inside."

"The voices stopped, and only a single voice screamed. 'Florence! You will die for this!' was what it said. Sounded like a woman's voice, but I couldn't exactly be sure; my ears were ringing and bleeding, just like everyone else's."

The more Gilgamesh listened, the more his eyes widened. It must have been a terrifying thing to witness.

He could not even begin to imagine...

How he had been able to just completely tune it out!

As Gilgamesh and Wahvu continued to catch up, another challenger was defeated by one of the top ten victors of the tournament.

After that, no one seemed to want to challenge them.

"Does no one else wish to challenge our victors?" The Empress asked. Gilgamesh could not be sure, but there seemed to be a hint of impatience in her tone.

No one spoke up, and it looked like the Tournament was coming to a close.

However, at the last moment, a voice travelled through the sky.

"I issue a challenge to the number one victor!"

Descending from the sky in a blur, a figure clothed in all white robes landed on the stage, slightly shaking the ground and sending numerous ice fragments shooting up into the air.

As that white-robed figure appeared, the broken ice raining down around them obscured them from view.

"Who is it!?" Someone cried out, alarmed.

"What gall! To act this way before the Empress!"

"Just who could it be!?"

The audience voiced their complaints and curious exclamations, and as the ice crystals slowly fell, they revealed a young man.

He seemed to be in his twenties, with a squared jawline and fierce, piercing fawn colored eyes. He stood well over six feet, with long, wavy hair flowing about him. His skin seemed to glow in the light of the Book Collection, and his aura, though subdued, was radiating from him as though he were a star.

When Gilgamesh saw him, his mouth instantly fell agape.

The Empress saw him, and her eyes narrowed. Interest flashed in them. "State your name then."

The young man straightened, and his eyes immediately found Gilgamesh's eyes in the crowd. "I am Dorian!"

When he said this, gasps and shrieks filled the Spiritual Oasis.

"Dorian? You mean 'DORIAN' Dorian?"

"Oh. My. God!"

"Dorian!? From the Seven-World Continent!? That guy that has hundreds of true energy natures!?"

"What in the library is he doing here!?"

Dorian flashed his smirk in Gilgamesh direction, causing the latter to wince. He almost threw up at the sight of that smirk, since he was reminding of when he had once worn that expression.

The Empress faltered slightly before asking with a forced smile, "Dorian, are you sure you want to challenge these youngsters? They lose out to you in terms of talent by more than a thousandfold."

Dorian giggled and waved her off nonchalantly. "Na, I was just trying to make an entrance."

He suddenly took a step forward and looked to Gilgamesh again.

"What did you think, buddy? Was that the kind of flashy entrance that you like?"

Gilgamesh frowned. When had he ever stated that he liked such things?

It must be The Scripture in Dorian's head, filling his mind with bullshit!

Gilgamesh stood up and walked in the direction of the stage, under the wide-eyes gazes of the spectators present.

When they realized that it was him that Dorian was talking to, they were all stunned. Even Wahvu was speechless.

Dorian, the most popular person in the entire starting ground in the last thousand years, was talking to this random vagrant that no one even recognized?

The Empress' eyes widened with both shock and realization when she saw Gilgamesh approaching Dorian. That keen look made an appearance again.

She absolutely had to speak with him!

Gilgamesh strolled up to Dorian and gave him a look. "What was the point of all that?"

Dorian chuckled dryly, "Just to get your attention. I've been searching for your soul signature for about fifty years now. I was only just able to sense it, so I rushed over."

Gilgamesh nodded, taking note of that.

"I see you haven't changed a bit. I'm surprised those clothes managed to survive after a thousand years." Dorian eyed Gilgamesh's ruined outfit with a bit of surprise.

"So am I," Gilgamesh said, only then noticing how brittle his clothes were. "So, why were you looking for me?"

Dorian smirked again; Gilgamesh gagged silently, managing to swallow it down.

"There are no more true energy natures for me to acquire in the starting ground, but I'm still not done with my Awakening. I need to leave this place, and go further into the Library in search of new natures. If I stay here, I'll never unlock my inherent nature and become strong enough to accomplish my goal."

Gilgamesh was pleasantly surprised to hear this. In conjunction with the rumors he heard being spread by the millions of spectators around them, it seemed that Dorian had been working hard in the last 1,000 years.

He had acquired every true energy nature he could possibly acquire in the starting ground. That was an impressive feat- to say the least.

"And...?" Gilgamesh pressed, though he already knew where Dorian was going with this.

As for the people listening, they were all stumped by the nugget of information that Dorian had just casually dropped.

Envious gazes were as common as grass as the Spiritual Oasis become a cesspit of jealousy. No one here would not kill to be able to honestly say the words Dorian had just said.

What kind of broken-ass concept was that!? To acquire every nature of true energy the starting ground had to offer!

Who the fuck was this guy!?

The Messiah!?!?

Dorian ignored everyone else and merely smiled at Gilgamesh, looking excited. "I'm just here to ask you if you'll come with me."

Once again, a collective gasp filled the Oasis.

Gilgamesh wasted no time with his flat, dry response. "No. Go ahead without me."

This time, there was an enraged uproar.

"Oh brother, this guy's retarded!!!"

"He's gotta be an idiot!"

"Take me, Dorian! Take me instead of that vagrant!"

They all voiced their opinions in that moment. No one could accept that an 'idiot' like Gilgamesh existed.

Dorian laughed as though he had already expected that answer, "Well alright then! Wish me luck!"

Just as fast as he arrived, he was gone in a blur of white, leaving behind the sound of his white robes flapping.

Gilgamesh stared at the sky, and felt the urge to say a few words. With the thunderous sound of Dorian's departure still echoing, no one heard them.

Even if they did, it was doubtful that anyone would believe his words.

"It took you about 1,000 years to acquire every nature of true energy in the starting ground..."

"While it took me 1,000 years to acquire the knowledge... of every nature of true energy that exists within the entire Library..."

He ended with a sigh, "That doesn't really seem fair, until you consider the kind of person that God is."

After that, he returned to his seat and waited for things to die down. Wahvu did not even know how to begin questioning him.

And the Empress?

She returned to her throne. Her eyes never left Gilgamesh.