## Making Sense
The cosmic awareness had been a firehose of raw data, and Tao was still damp from the deluge. He had absorbed vast quantities of general knowledge spanning the entire reality system in moments. It was nothing like reading a book or browsing the internet; this was the background hum of existence itself ~ a chaotic, unorganized noise.
It's one thing to sense it, he thought, a wry smile touching his lips. It's another to make sense of it. Good thing the Library of Heavenly Paths doesn't have that limitation.
While his conscious mind struggled, the that aspect of self (LoHP) was already at work. It sifted through the cosmic static, detecting patterns in energy flows and information currents based on his memories and intent.
The knowledge I received isn't a handed-down cosmic blueprint, but a reassembled puzzle ~ an inference, not absolute truth.
Feeling a fatigue that was more spiritual than physical, Tao took a few hours to rest. He sat cross-legged on the ground, using the time to optimize the anchoring system that kept him from unraveling; with new ideas blooming in mind. He watched the aura of matter and the faint consciousness of creatures drifting in the void, finally erasing the backlog of unstable changes within his domain.
He wasn't ready to let the environment interact with him freely yet. Control over his new reality-warping abilities was still fresh, a new suit of meat clothes he wasn't done tailoring.
Beneath a solitary tree, he watched the thundering sky, the spectral form of Alioth moving in the distance like a cosmic cleaner, devouring the debris of abandoned timelines. He enjoyed the colourful shades and new details, which was simply a treat for the vision.
Compared to some of the demon beasts in my ring world, he mused, this thing is a cute cat ~ provided you ignore the reality-level restraints in here.
A strange sense of isolation settled over him while feeling gratification over existing creation.
It was lonely, even being here.
## Where I stand
The next clear answer from the LoHP arrived swiftly regardless of his concerns: his position in this reality's power hierarchy.
"Somewhere between low and mid-universal tier?"
The data placed him in the realm of dimensional gods like Dormammu or true Shuma-Gorath, a step above world-forgers like Odin or Galactus. Not the absolute apex, but dangerous enough to be considered a serious power.
His first thought was immediate and visceral.
This assessment is full of shit.
"Sure, I can manipulate reality," he muttered aloud, arguing with the silent verdict. "But it's all through translation and resonance. I'm using my own cultivation principles - adjusting it, not native rules. They do not flow through me.
My effective control has been reduced from my full divine sense to barely beyond my own domain. That's significantly less ~ way less ~ than what this 'universal tier' suggests."
In a hypothetical fight, a being like Dormammu wielded endless energy within his domain. Tao's energy was self-sustaining and vast, but not infinite ~ not without tapping into gifts he was reluctant to use normally.
The key parallel with it, was his ability to absorb energy and whole realms to grow stronger. The main difference was structure: his "dimension" was internal, a universe he carried within himself.
" I had effectively been reduced to a planetary-level reality warper due to the restraints. "
## Balance
Other information pieced together from the cosmic awareness, formed something more like a code of conduct: More on why making complete use of abilities to counter infinity power would not bore well for the reality.
"I really doubt my psyche has grown to match the abilities I possess. I've never had any real responsibilities attached to this power. Something to think about."
Given my recent actions, I suspect this knowledge was being presented to me deliberately.
The universe emerged within Oblivion ~ the void ~ expanding into it while simultaneously drawing from it. This created perpetual tension between Oblivion, representing absence, and Creation, representing existence.
"The Living Tribunal maintains balance between them," I reasoned, counting my fingers. "Eternity and Infinity embody growth and form. Order and Chaos make reality malleable instead of static. The Phoenix grants life, thought, and meaning ~ harvesting energy from nothing, though without absolute control over the process. Death permits the cessation of life and thought, completing the cycle."
Together, they constituted the forces of creation. No single entity governed it entirely, because creation's diversity required multiple aspects working in concert.
" Oblivion, however, stood alone. He alone embodied absence. He alone was needed to hold that title."
°°°°°°°°
His actions in the Far Shore had only affected Oblivion's domain. Had he consumed anything tied to the creation aspects ~ a fragment of Eternity, a spark of the Phoenix ~ cascading effects would have rippled through all of creation, alerting the cosmic abstracts immediately.
Normally, a equilibrium existed between creation and dissolution, a closed loop recycling endless energy. But disruptions driven by personal will broke this cycle.
Like story, when the Phoenix resurrected her dead sister from nothing. Such acts were forbidden.
And he, Tao, held no rightful place in this reality's resource exchange system.
Oblivion could appeal to the Living Tribunal. But unless the entity specifically noticed him, or he repeated his devouring on a massive scale, would they even summon him for judgment?
Yet, he planned to stay. What other debts would he accumulate? Would a summons become inevitable?
•••••••••
He rose from his seated position, a knot of dark, silent nihility energy twisting between his fingers. "Without knowing the codes, I still committed an imbalance," he said to the empty air. "Is this why I was granted creation energy? To avoid disrupting the existing order too badly on my journey?" The questions hung, unanswered.
He expanded his senses again, carefully this time, avoiding the treacherous pull of the cosmic awareness. He'd learned his lesson. As he walked, the next series of analyses from the LoHP unfolded in his mind.
And as he'd guessed ~ it was a lot. He planned to digest it while slowly moving forward to the citadel space.
### Absence of Absolute Space - Time
The disorientation he'd felt upon arrival now made perfect sense. There was no complete framework for time as an absolute, foundational rule. Here, the primal law of time felt incomplete ~ fractured and hollow, as if it were a derivative of causal and spatial law, not a fundamental truth itself.
Hence my need for trial and error to anchor myself in a place without time, he thought. It wasn't flowing; it was being computed. Simulated.
When he stretched his perception, he didn't feel the universal pulse of Time. Instead, he sensed a temporal scaffolding ~ faint grids of rules designed to keep causality from collapsing by smoothing changes into the future plane of space. Time and space existed, but as limited, degenerated rule concepts within lower planes.
In my internal world, time was a current of essence - it pulsed, expanded, coiled around the cycles of Heaven and Earth. As the creator I can tear out time and events will be gone back, no matter how powerful the beings inside are if they are born of same essence.
Here, it was a variable, a byproduct of causal regulation. The very sense of "before" and "after" came not from natural rhythm but from some higher algorithm - a lattice of cause and effect stitched together by design.
## Perception of Space Time
So if it doesn't exist, why can I walk and cover the distance? That is perception of effect arising from causality rule.
Since he exist in a lower layer of multiverse :: In a sense, he had been stepping down through differently perceivable temporal planes. TImeline - farshore - observation plane - void. It was better to imagine it from a shifting perspective rather than trying to understand it in absolute.
> Time in an individual timeline might feel linear from cause and effect ~ like a straight line from past to future and back.
> But it was more accurate to visualize them as helix wound around - spiralling another temporal axis curve.
> Yes, he is talking about the timeline and void itself respectively. Once a person is pruned, it strips the unique temporal aura that ties one to her past leading them to fall to next perception in space - time plane ~ An axis curve.
> For anyone standing at the vantage point of the axis, they could simultaneously observe time in lower layers across larger spans while still experiencing their own proper flow of time. An entire millennia can be passed for the one in spiral but one at center might had barely moved an inch yet.
The manipulation of reality for slowing down time / rapidity or for observations like in TVA is enough to make use of this lowest layer of derivative space - time structure. Stretch it to limit, stagnating entropic flow or reversal within a small scope is possible.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
About space, from a broader perspective, the material universe ranges from pure chaos to absolute order.
> With that aspect of existence separates into those formed from pure abstracts, mystical elements to concept science and logic. There are spatial dimensions accomodating both or together. Earthly plane is one where Science & order take predominance.
> The collection of all universes doesn't equate to multiverse. Outside that collection there are dimensions or pocket realities fragmented from previous cosmos or made such. For each of those material worlds, a counter world exists with distinct opposing properties, that stretch from future plane to past, as such their sum total would bring nihility. Just like chaos and order.
> But space when examined from lens of reality makeup was doing slightly better than aspect of time. It hasn't degenerated that much.
> Space here would be how causality and absolute spatial rule looks when stretched out. What one call distance isn't true separation, only the way different causes appear apart from each other.
> Moving through space wouldn't mean crossing real gaps, but shifting from one state of cause to another. But to actually walk, you don't need to do all that analysis just as time doesn't need him to actively enforce to work. The laws of space is significantly less dilute than time. So whatever I am comfortable with still exists.
I can have a physical existence which can tread that illusion without much work.
So, as time is the feeling of sequence, space is the feeling of spread. Both are mirrors of the same rule : causality shaping how existence is perceived.
In simple words, if time isn't absolute but only a way mortal minds sense cause and effect or the lower layers of reality rules, then space also has the same kind of illusion. Just shaped differently.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
## What happens in Citadel?
But it didn't stop there.
That description applied to a regular three-dimensional spatial observer. They are present in different capacities . For beings inside those normal universe spaces, the earlier analogy still held true. What about those outside those degenerated realms?
LoHP proposed that further 4th-layer topology for one leaving the limits of space and time rule : The native cosmic being ~ not to be perceived outside of a folding or winding, but aspects existing as whatever it is, the eternity.
I'm going there, Tao reminded himself. I can make more sense of it when I arrive.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
## Now comes me..
I represented a sequence of events that were never supposed to be present in the first place - but the sequence doesn't violate any causal rule.
He could appear at any unaccounted-for moment and tear a hole in the story's fabric. Stretch that effect far enough, and the cosmic bouncers - the Living Tribunal and its kind would eventually notice him. They'd probably or utmost just classify it as another abstract entity.
The reality is fluid. Which means can he live normally as he would in glory city?
Nope. Not at all.
I am not creating order out of nothing, in some form I am giving it a reason by resonance of laws - an energy transformed; devoid of sentience but similar to its own by ability.
Rules only facilitate balance and conversion and not bother about the source which is perpetually cycled.
> What was violation is my sudden presence or sudden absence and me trying to use intent to manipulate reality by feeding on its own disorder.
> Up until now, I am in null state. My presence is not registered. No violation if I stay within my domain and mimic the same.
> The usage of intent to manipulate, generate an expectation: A feedback to the reality from inside my domain for the minor changes I did. To smooth things out in overall equation.
Which were resolved just before - when he could replicate the rules properly at the expense of creation energy. No violation again.
But siphoning energy from nothingness, an action with no record in the universe's ledger? That was a violation.
••••••••••••
Marvel's space-time felt like an ongoing script ~ every interaction potentially possible. My very existence is an unscripted actor who could derail the entire play if I step on stage carelessly.
I mean in real life you can tear few pages away and start again, what about here?
Looking through the lens of cause and effect it's as the builders wake to find an entire tower standing where yesterday was empty ground. Blueprints show nothing. Foundations don't exist. It's there, casting shadow, but without history - a monument to an event that never occurred.
My solution? A permanent shielding of my presence. A mobile domain where my own rules are absolute. Outside, I can only interact through forms this reality understands.
No grand displays of power at universal level- just subtle influence.
•°•°•°•°•°•°•
Or so, I thought.
"Even if I fail, the danger isn't to me," he had that idea initially. "I could envelop this entire universe in my shield. The consequence would be theirs, not mine."
But now, with more context, he wasn't so sure.
The tricky part was that this universe's space and time were fluid. Sentient. To isolate, he had to mimic that sentience perfectly, becoming a flawless copy of nothingness.
His shield was also now a near-perfect cloaking device.
I was a true ghost existing in my momentary bubble of my own reality of my own making. My actions are invisible; only their effects remain. Higher beings could erase the world, but they'd never find my fingerprints.
That's what I want here. My past secured, my present hidden.
But there's a catch.
The cosmic forces here were space and time. If he walled himself off completely, would the universe around him keep functioning? Or would it break down, not from his attack, but from his defense?
His power is meant to stop interference, not to force reality to do its job.
And honestly? I don't know the answer.
The bottom line is this: I am a walking paradox. A disruptor of natural balance by my very nature. Unless I play by the local rules, my mere presence could break the game.
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
"My thoughts are a lot faster, but I, ..... still have miles to go before I reach, miles to go before I reach."
Being mostly confined to talking with his mind often, he shifted to humming a tune as he continued on his path.
His adjustment period, which should have taken months or years through slow learning curve and making mistakes, was nearly over. His rapid adaptation had granted him near-perfect control over the local domain rule set, allowing him to simulate it within his personal reality.
But the LoHP's information confirmed the complexity was far greater than what he could perceive. Relying on simulation in a real fight wouldn't be practical.
Still, stripping the sentience from these laws and recreating them also wasn't the same as living under them. He could mitigate that limitation later.
I can always come back after the timelines are free, he reasoned. No point causing more trouble for someone who's trying to retire from constant conflict.
Right?
Anyway, the first step was to at least see this "He Who Remains" before making any final decisions.