"What happened?" Gravis asked.
"I think I know what happened," Orthar said with a thoughtful expression.
"Enlighten me," the Opposer said evenly.
"You were abandoned," Orthar said.
The Opposer remained silent.
"Death wanted a will, but as a Manifestation of Death, you didn't have a will. Therefore, you couldn't possibly become Death's will," Orthar added.
Gravis' and Mortis' eyes widened in understanding.
Right!
How could someone without a will become the will of something else?
"Correct," the Opposer said evenly. "After trying to make me its will, Death simply receded."
"We were incompatible."
"After realizing that we were incompatible, it simply assimilated me into itself. I would lose my structure and become more Death. Like a drop of fresh water that had been thrown into an ocean, I would dissolve until I was part of the ocean."
"But, then how are you alive?" Gravis asked.
The Opposer's expression became complex.
"Energy interfered," the Opposer said.
Orthar's eyes widened with intensity as he heard that.
He knew what that meant!
"It noticed me, and for whatever reason, it decided to fill me with Energy. My old mind from before I have entered the Gate of Death had fused with the memories I had gained while being the Manifestation of Death."
"Emotions returned to my being. Dreams returned. My will returned. A new personality was formed."
"I was essentially born again."
"As soon as I regained my will, Death returned. It wanted me to make its will again. That action wasn't born of a decision but of instinct. Like an insect that only works on instinct, it saw something compatible and reached out to it."
"However, since I now had a will, dreams, and a goal again, I declined Death."
"I wasn't willing to pay the price."
Orthar looked at the Opposer with narrowed eyes. "Are you telling me that Death doesn't have a will, but Energy does?"
Gravis' and Mortis' eyes widened.
"Yes," the Opposer answered. "Death doesn't have a will, but someone has already become the will of Energy. That someone has probably noticed what had happened and decided to revive me. I'm not sure if it was out of pity or a different reason, but they decided to recreate my old self and fuse it with my new self."
Orthar's eyes quickly moved around as he was calculating at terrifying speeds.
For a moment, the entire administration of the Cosmos paused.
For just one moment, no new tribulations took place, and no Karmic Luck was changed.
"That explains a lot," Orthar said. "On my journeys, I have seen countless Cosmoses made of Energy, but only an incredible rarity had anything related with Death in them. Even more, I have never seen a Cosmos that had over 5% Death to Energy ratio, except for your Cosmos."
"Additionally, Death can't form life without someone directing it. Someone has to manually create the life in Death."
"Yet, what about the first Cosmos made of Energy? What about the very first lifeform? Who created them?"
"I don't know as much about Death as you, but I know that the inherent destructiveness of Death doesn't allow it to create life on its own. Energy is different in that regard. If you push enough Energy together, at some point, life will form."
"It could be that the first lifeform has become the will of Energy since it had been the only will in existence at some point."
"Possible," the Opposer said. "However, I won't talk more on the subject."
A bit of frustration appeared in Orthar's eyes, but he kept himself in check.
He didn't answer.
"Anyway," the Opposer said as he looked at Gravis and Mortis again. "After I gained an actual personality and will, all the Emotions I should have felt while being the Manifestation of Death broke out."
"My goal also returned, and my previous goal from before I had become the Manifestation of Death hadn't changed. I wanted power. I wanted to never be weaker than anyone again."
"Fueled with conviction and anger, I created my Cosmos. First, I tried to make it entirely out of Death, but it was impossible. If I did that, I would stop existing again. My Cosmos and I would just cancel each other out."
"So, I created my Cosmos with 50% Energy and 50% Death."
"It's a delicate balancing act, but my Cosmos gives me incredible powers."
"An unknown number of years later, I returned to this Cosmos to take my revenge," he said as he looked at Orthar with cold eyes. "Maybe he wants to tell you what happened?"
Gravis and Mortis looked at Orthar.
Orthar only looked evenly at the Opposer. "The guy I failed to kill returned, and he unleashed all his powers. I thought that I had been lucky since the mistake I failed to rectify had given me another opportunity to rectify it, but I had been mistaken."
"Only a relatively short amount of time had passed, but he was already far more powerful than me."
"I feared for my life, so I did the only thing that could save me."
"I used up a huge part of my Energy storage to pull him into my Cosmos."
"After that, we fought, and the fight basically ended in both of our Cosmoses on the brink of destruction. One more attack and we would both die."
"That's when we came to an unspoken agreement to not attack each other, and we went back to regaining our powers, and that's basically how we got here. We are at an arms race, and none of us are confident in taking out the other one without dying," Orthar explained.
Gravis and Mortis looked at their father, and he nodded, confirming that Orthar spoke the truth.
However, Gravis had one last question.
"Orthar, I want to ask you something," Gravis said.
Orthar looked at Gravis. "What is it?" he asked.
"Why did you create my mother?" Gravis asked.
Silence.
The Opposer also didn't know the answer, and he looked at Orthar.
Mortis also looked at Orthar.
The Economistress shot through all their minds, and they all wanted to know why Orthar had created her.
Orthar looked at the three of them and focused on Gravis.
"It wasn't only one reason. In fact, there were five reasons."
"Five?" Gravis asked.
That was more than he had imagined.
"The first reason was to change his goals," Orthar explained. "If he learned to love, he might not chase power as fervently anymore. As long as he focused on something else, I would eventually overtake him."
"The second reason was as a distraction. I knew what his Cosmos must look like to give him so much power. The more distracted he is, the higher the chance of him making a misstep."
"The third reason was the slowing of progress. As long as he couldn't fully concentrate on his Cosmos and absorbing Energy, I would gain the upper hand in our race."
"The fourth reason was a shot in the dark. I didn't believe it would happen, but to be prepared for every eventuality, I decided to do something to get on his good side. If anything happened in the future that could make him leave peacefully, this action would help me."
"The last reason might surprise you, but I felt bad for him."
Gravis and Mortis brows furrowed in a skeptical expression.
"You felt bad for him?" Gravis asked with a doubtful voice.
Orthar nodded. "You've seen how I have created the emotions. There is sadness and anger, but there is also happiness and love. If I only desired power, I would have simply given everyone an undying lust for battle."
"Back when I first created my Cosmos, I was different from how I am now. I was young and naïve. In a way, my goal has been similar to your father's. I went through some things that made me hate the Cosmos I have been born in, and when I got the power, I wanted to create something very different from that Cosmos."
"In the Cosmos I have been born in, there was only intelligence without emotions. Everyone only wanted to become powerful as efficiently as possible. However, a select few of us managed to evolve our instincts to something more complex, and that complex thing was emotions."
"Initially, I believed that these evolved instincts could serve as a great power, and I developed that concept while creating my Cosmos. Emotions took form, and since I can harness the power of my Cosmos, the emotions also entered my being."
"For the first time, I felt things, and I realized how grey my old life has been. I wanted more colors, so I created more colors."
"When I saw your father return, and when I saw his life, it reminded me of my previous life."
"So, even though the other four reasons were far higher in priority, the fifth reason was still part of why I created your mother."
"In a sense, I felt alone, and I didn't want my greatest enemy to feel this nothingness."
"That's why I created your mother."