Galaxy's First Ruler

"Dreams are inadvertently related to Thoughts; Like Dreams, Thoughts can be Real or a Hoax."

*

Aldrich didn't mind scaling mountains, even if he knew it would have taken him thousands of years. If he had to do it, he would. What he abhorred wasn't the time or efforts, but the scenario whereupon reaching the peak and finding someone else already there, smiling at him.

As if saying, "So you have come!"

That's why when Aldrich didn't see any Stats hovering over Rosalia's head, it troubled him deeply. No Stats meant whatever the Ancient Oracle was doing to receive Prophecy, couldn't be called a Skill, and hence, wasn't a part of RECORD.

Aldrich looked at the troubled expression on the little girl's face as if her thoughts were undergoing an immense struggle.

"Even If I were to show you, you won't be able to hear the Ancient Saying and Prayer."

Aldrich's mind coursed through devoured individuals' memories. But he found only a little about the Ancient Saying that Rosalia spoke of. They were like an incantation of Skills, and the only difference being, the medium between Mana and user wasn't RECORD.

"Don't worry about it, just go through the usual steps."

"Humph!"

Rosalia scoffed as she heard Aldrich's adamant words. She stood up and, with a wave of her hand, countless rose petals surrounded the platform like a tornado. The Ancient Oracle then closed her eyes and moved in circles within the platform, as if trying to sense something.

Just as she made a full circle and reached Aldrich's back, she snapped her eyes open.

"There!"

Aldrich followed her eyes and looked out, but aside from petals, he couldn't see anything.

"What's there?!"

Rosalia turned around and gave him a disgusting look. Aldrich didn't care a bit of the look she gave him, or her gestures, as long as he would get his answers.

"For the Prophecy to work, the Ancient Oracle, i.e. I need to face in a particular direction."

"What's so special about that direction?"

Aldrich racked his brain, and a copious amount of data came surging to him. But the smirk on Rosalia's face told him that the real reason might be truly out of his expectations.

"Hehe! Aren't you a clueless one… That is the current direction of the Center of the Galaxy."

"Center of the Galaxy…"

Aldrich muttered and thought of countless possibilities, but none seemed to fit the current scenario. So he did what any other excellent student should have done. He looked at the little girl and asked again.

"What's in the Center of the Galaxy, other than a Black Hole?"

Aldrich noticed how Rosalia's face became blank as he asked the question. There was no fear, no repulsion, nor any disgust. It was completely blank as if it was supposed to relate all her emotions in response to this question.

"All questions don't have answers, God of White and Black."

The Ancient Oracle crouched down on her knees and brought her hands together in prayer. The hammerish wind abated, and the ravaging sound of the petal-tornado lightened.

Aldrich noticed surroundings had become dim and everything seemed to become darker in seconds. The unusual thing was the color of Rosalia's skin, which whitened until she became completely white.

Crack!

Aldrich observed as her skin cracked from all over. Her legs, arms, her bareback, and even her face got overwhelmed by these cracks. He couldn't help but compare the cracks to the pattern of a snake.

The Ancient Oracle opened her eyes and her round marble-like green eyes had turned into a green slit.

Hisss!

"What's this?!"

Aldrich looked around as a sudden hissing noise took over everything within the platform. The hissing noise restricted his Divine Sense from coming out of his body as if it felt nauseated by its presence.

"I…"

Hissssss!!!

The hissing intensified around Aldrich, trying to hinder him from hearing Rosalia's voice. But the Black Veil hidden within his body came out of its own volition and fluttered around him. The incomprehensible noise that had made his ears useless vanished, making Aldrich hear the next words clearly.

"… Rosalia Basemath, on the authority of my status as Ancient Oracle, calls upon the Will of The Great Old One."

Grrrr!

Aldrich was still repeating the last words in his mind when everything around him vibrated and blurred. The dark hues within the platform completely took overall colors and Aldrich found himself in a pitch-black environment.

Thump!

Fear.

Aldrich wasn't a completely fearless man. He feared nothing that even had the slightest possibility of him to understand it. And the fear of the unknown could be buried to be rotten by time. But this place made him helpless, strengthless, and it made him call out words that he didn't want to utter while alive.

The moment Aldrich got surrounded by blackness and saw an archaic altar in the distance. Aldrich couldn't be more familiar with this strange environment.

'Fuck! I can't move or say anything.'

"Daddy… Sha… can."

'Hmm?!'

"But… Sha… scared."

Aldrich again felt petrified. Neither his body nor his eyes could move. He saw in horror as the altar kept growing bigger and bigger and came to stop just as its size felt like the asteroid he had faced in space outside Earth.

Aldrich saw a white mass squirming and rippling in a white glow and, with every turn, it was getting a definitive outline. Aldrich felt like a python had coiled itself around his body and was squeezing his chest. He could feel the skin on his body getting cracked with every squeeze.

Ugh!

But just as his last breath was about to come out, the Black Veil around his body left him and hovered between him and the altar. The white altar and the squirming mass blurred, and the unseen python vanished.

Hissssss!!!

The mass on the altar exponentially enlarged and turned into a humongous White Snake with no eyes. It slithered on the altar and looked at the pair. Aldrich clenched his teeth, preparing himself for his eyes to burst apart. But the Black Veil swayed, blurring the White Snake even more.

A reverential voice came out of Rosalia, unperturbed by the happenings behind her.

"Eyeless All-Seer

Slithering White Prophet

Imprisoned Conjuror of Thoughts

… I plead with you to share your authority."