Lowly Ascent

Nihil was motionless in ink, his arms swaying slower than they should; his body bobbing up and down.

"Ready? Once we start we can't stop. This time, Fate will stop at nothing to win." Upon his return, Doom made sure to send a strong remnant soul. The Doom before Nihil was incomprehensibly stronger, it was the strongest remnant soul the Doom in the Landfill could create. Even the strongest Rulers would have to kneel, even the Gods ruling in the lands above would shake in its presence.

Nihil took a moment to empty his mind. When he was ready, he nodded and it began once again.

The icy cold depths gurgled and rumbled, and Nihil's soul was bashed hundreds of times by the thick waters surrounding him.

Doom's actions gave rise to a force of burning power. Once more, a string appeared before Nihil's head and entered a world above. A slit in space and time ruptured open, and once more a world beyond worlds was beholden by mortal eyes.

In the space beyond, a change had occurred, the vast nebulas and peaceful planets were no more. Everything was colliding, planets smashing into each other, cosmic storms ripping through space, and there was an unwavering force at the center of it all.

Strings moved about, creating an array of weaves and patterns, all connecting to the unchanged thing at the center. The being whose existence remained constant so that the world would not falter before it.

Fate's eyes roused from their slumber, all locking onto the one far away trying to defy its will. It would not allow such an action, not twice from the same blasphemer.

"Well, it seems we ruined its mood the last time. It seems to be collecting essence through destruction." Doom made an educated guess.

"Essence?" Nihil had never heard of such a thing.

Doom laughed, "What do you think? Essence is what it is, the essence of energy, an even purer form if you will. Technically, you can purify infinitely, there might even be a form of energy above essence, but as far as I know, essence is the limit. No one has gone for purer energy since the current one can destroy universes given enough is gathered."

Nihil's jaw was gaping, he never thought it possible to destroy an entire universe. He learned of the biggest atomic bomb in existence, and Fate was gathering it to deal with him.

"Can you stop it?"

Doom knew what he meant, "Of course not, this level of cultivation is beyond what I can do. Fate must have gathered enough essence to form a small planet by now, that's more than enough to destroy the Landfill you live in!"

The pressure from beyond the crack was already bearing down on the two. However, this pressure was giving power to Nihil's soul, one that helped his origin grow. A little more time and it would complete itself. In doing so, he would ascend to a new stage in his existence.

"The fruit can only draw Fate's power for a little while, about seventy percent will be used up giving you a whole origin. After that, the rest of the energy will help empower your being. Hopefully, Fate doesn't break the rules and leaves after that." Doom repeated his plan before heading towards the crack.

The goal was simple, Nihil would infuse a piece of his soul in the fruit, and through recreating the ritual from before, Doom would make the fruit siphon off Fate's power, using it to condense the rest of Nihil's origin.

Fate was the overseer of all things, it was the reason Cain was born, and so it had lived with him all his life. Due to this, Fate is a part of Cain, and thus Nihil could use this fact to retrieve more of himself. This was only possible because Nihil was still under Fate's influence.

Perhaps he succeeded in getting the fruit due to Fate as well, so it could punish and deal with him in person.

Contrary to Fate's plans, Doom was present, a being not under its influence, and therefore unpredictable. Fate would have to rip apart the Concept of End before it could fix the blasphemer who wishes to separate its existence from it.

Nihil continued to float in the inky ocean, he didn't need to do anything but focus on turning the strange energy entering him into his new origin. If he didn't change the energy in time through the technique Doom gave him, he would die instantly. The power was of fate, and no being besides Fate could harness such a force, it had to be immediately changed or the consequences would be unimaginable.

As the power passed through the ocean, strange things would occur, the waves would move in directions that made no sense, the waters would freeze; they would turn thick like mud. The power of fate created a trail of chaos.

There was no order without someone in control of it.

'Even this small amount can do so much damage to the environment?!' Nihil was bewildered, the energy siphoned off Fate wasn't even a whole percent, it was such a small decimal it would take hours to write down. 'Amazing...to affect everything around it like this, when can I do something similar?'

"Damn it!" Doom was having a hard time, Fate was not going easy. His defense faltered further when from above, a group of assailants attacked the core of the planet.

It was the lower gods.

"This is where he was hiding!"

"Look!" Hysteria pointed to the gem siphoning Fate's energy. "It's the Fruit of legend!"

The gods became so obsessed that they did not even notice Doom, the Kaiser too could not keep a level head. The pressure from the great being could not stop their instincts, they were more beast than sane.

Nihil saw this and became panicked. 'Shit, did Leon throw them out? Why didn't he tell me?!' It was then he realized he was blocked out from his mindscape.

Everything was going wrong. Once Doom had to start defending on two fronts, Fate had invaded a great deal. Its strings finding puppets, the gods.

None of the five could stop it from happening; strings that had always existed above their heads shimmered. In a single moment, their minds were not their own, their existences forfeit for Fate's pleasure.

They may have been born in Doom's world, but all life began with Fate. It was a silent deal, for life, you needed Fate's permission. No matter how strong, as long as there was a string, there was no use going against the Overseer of all things. 

"You...dare." The Kaiser, no longer themselves, spoke with a commanding and absolute tone, the voice rippling into inhuman sounds.

"How did it end up like this!" Doom was too blind, too blind to see their pride as a Concept overshadowed its sight. How could a concept as weak as he dares face the one who ruled the centerpiece of existence, the manifestation of Order?

If Chaos was the manifestation of its world, Fate was the manifestation of the world of Order. There was no way for Doom to beat such a being unless it fell from that position.

'It's done!'

Still, Nihil had done it, his origin was complete; now all that was left was to jumpstart his transformation.

The string above his head wavered and weakened. This time, Nihil felt he could cut it of his own volition.

"What are you doing!? Stop, take the Fruit, forget about severing the string!" Doom saw the actions of the foolish mortal, his power was already torn between two sides, and he could not stop Nihil's actions.

The Dao formed on the palm of the dark soul's hand, sharpness emanating. Nihil brought his pale hand up and.... a downward swing brushed away the ocean. The impossible was made possible.

"H-How...." Doom choked on his words. 

By some unknown force, the fruit too was being pulled towards Nihil, the Monarch was about to take his seat among the beings at the top, his world of only darkness, his soul the deepest black.