Amun stood at the edge of the endless ocean, his hands resting behind his back as he gazed across the still surface. He did not explain further but I heard regret in his tone.
I watched him in silence for several seconds, weighing the questions forming within me. Every answer he had given so far had only deepened the mystery rather than resolving it, but that did not stop the need to understand. If anything, it made the need stronger.
"Did I become the Executor," I asked finally, "or was I always meant to be one?"
Amun did not turn immediately. He remained facing the ocean, his posture relaxed, as though the question did not surprise him.
"No one is meant to be an Executor," he said. "You become one."
He turned his head slightly, just enough for me to see the faint smile on his face.
"The only advantage you ever had was your lineage. I have always chosen candidates from the old lineages. Those whose blood still carries memory of what came before. That is all."
His gaze shifted fully to me now.
"And even then," he continued, "you have not become one yet. Not truly."
I frowned slightly at that.
"You carry the authority," he said, "but the path is long, Billion. The trial you passed was not designed for survival. Many before you entered that place. Almost all of them never returned."
His words lingered in my mind. He raised his hand casually and waved it once.
The ocean vanished.
The endless horizon folded inward, replaced by something else entirely. We now stood high above a world.
Far below, a vast landscape stretched outward, filled with cities, forests, rivers, and open plains. Human beings moved across its surface, living their lives in complete ignorance of the forces that governed their existence.
I watched them closely. They had no Essence. No law authority. No power beyond their physical forms. They woke, worked, spoke, loved, and struggled, unaware of the greater structure surrounding them.
"They live," Amun said quietly, following my gaze. "They struggle. They build meaning within their limited time."
He paused briefly.
"They do not need to understand existence to exist within it."
I remained silent.
"What does it mean to be the Executor?" I asked.
Amun clasped his hands loosely behind his back.
"In the beginning," he said slowly, "or more accurately, in what you might call a new beginning, one individual was chosen." His eyes remained fixed on the world below. "That individual became the first Executor." He turned his head slightly toward me. "The role of the Executor was not to rule. It was to impose."
"To impose what?" I asked.
He smiled faintly.
"The First Order."
The words carried weight beyond their simplicity.
"The First Order was the foundation upon which the new existence stabilized. Without it, nothing could persist. Nothing could grow. Nothing could remain."
He paused.
"The Executor is the one who imposes that Order."
I narrowed my eyes slightly.
"What is the First Order?"
He shook his head gently.
"That is something you will come to understand on your own. No explanation I give you now would have meaning. It is not knowledge that can be given. It is knowledge that must be realized." His answer frustrated me, but I understood the implication. Some truths could not be explained. They had to be experienced.
I shifted my focus back to him.
"Did you choose me," I asked, "or did the System?" Amun considered the question for a moment.
"For some things," he said, "I chose you."
He raised one finger.
"And for others, the System did."
He raised a second finger.
"We operate independently," he continued, "but toward a shared necessity."
He lowered his hand.
"You were not forced into this path. But you were guided."
Guided but not controlled. The distinction mattered to me.
I continued watching the world below for some time. They moved through their days with purpose defined by survival, emotion, and relationships rather than power. There was something grounding about it.
But Amun did not belong to that simplicity. And neither did I.
My gaze shifted back to him, lingering on the faint illusion of chains that extended outward from his body. They were not fully visible, but their presence could be sensed, stretching far beyond what the eye could follow. They did not appear to restrain him physically.
"Why are you chained?" I asked.
He laughed softly as though he had been expecting that question for a long time. He did not answer immediately. Instead, he kept his eyes on the world below, watching the people who lived and died beneath us without ever knowing what existed beyond their sky.
"That," he said eventually, "is something you will have to discover for yourself."
He raised his hand slightly.
"You are still at the beginning of your path, Billion. There are truths that cannot be explained to you yet, not because I am unwilling, but because explanation without understanding becomes meaningless. Grow stronger. Continue forward. When you reach the point where the answer matters, you will not need to ask the question again."
His words did not frustrate me the way they might have earlier.
I let that realization settle before shifting my attention to the larger structure surrounding everything I had experienced so far.
"What is the System really?" I asked. "And who created it?"
This time, Amun did not answer immediately. His expression shifted, becoming more thoughtful as he considered how to respond. He gestured toward the world below us, toward the countless lives unfolding in quiet ignorance.
"The System," he said slowly, "is a governing entity. It exists to maintain stability within the Prime Universe. It observes, evaluates, and intervenes when necessary to preserve structural continuity."
He turned his head slightly toward me, his blue eyes steady.
"But the System you know is incomplete."
’Incomplete.’
I frowned, trying to reconcile that statement with everything I had experienced so far.
"What do you mean?"
Amun raised his hand and extended four fingers in front of him.
"The System was never a singular construct. It was divided at its creation into four parts. Each part carries a segment of its total authority."
He lowered three fingers, leaving only one extended.
"The portion governing your universe is only one of those four."
The implication formed instantly.
"The other three..." I said slowly.
"Are with Theras," Amun finished calmly.
The words struck harder than I expected.
"How is that possible?" I asked. "Why does he have them?"
Amun’s faint smile returned, though this time it carried less amusement and more inevitability.
"Because power does not belong to those who deserve it. It belongs to those capable of taking it. And Theras has always been capable of taking what he desires."
He turned away from me slightly, his gaze drifting across the distant horizon as though recalling something far older than the world beneath us.
"The System itself was not created to rule existence," he continued. "It was created by the first Executor. It exists as a governing framework, a structure designed to help impose the First Order upon existence itself by him. He just wanted an assistant and he created the System."
The System was not the ultimate authority. It was a tool. A tool created by someone who had once held the authority I now carried in its incomplete form.
My attention shifted to the final question that had lingered in my thoughts since the moment I first heard its name.
"What is the Empty Throne?"
Amun did not answer immediately.
Instead, he raised his hand and waved it gently.
The world below us dissolved.
Reality reshaped itself once again, and what replaced it was not another planet, not another ocean, but something far more profound.
A throne stood in the distance.
It was not constructed from any material I recognized. It did not reflect light, nor did it emit any visible energy. Its presence could not be measured through Essence or law. It existed but also appear like an illusion that was just in my head.
It was vast. It felt as though it existed at the center of everything, even though it stood far away.
Amun’s voice broke the silence.
"The Empty Throne is the ultimate destination. It is not simply a seat of power. It is the point at which existence itself becomes subject to the one who claims it."
He turned his head slightly toward me.
"The one who ascends that throne does not merely rule a universe. They become something beyond limitation. They exist across past, present, and future simultaneously. They are no longer bound by sequence or causality."
His blue eyes held mine steadily.
"They become infinite."
The weight of those words settled deep within me.
"That," he continued quietly, "is what Theras seeks."
His gaze did not waver.
"And whether you realize it or not, Billion... that is the path you now walk."
The throne remained in the distance, unmoving, patient, waiting for the one who would finally claim it.