Chapter 38: The Gate of the Silent Witness
The transition from the elemental chaos of the Sixth Gate to the Seventh was like stepping from a screaming battlefield into a hollow, airless cathedral. There was no wind, no heat, and no sound—only a silence so absolute it felt like it was pressing against their eardrums.
They stood in The Hall of Records, a space that seemed to exist outside the boundaries of time and geometry. Thousands of floating monoliths, made of a material that looked like frozen smoke, drifted in a void of deep indigo. Each monolith was etched with glowing runes that detailed the life, the sins, and the final moments of every being in the lower dimensions.
[System Notification: Entering the Seventh Gate - The Silent Witness.]
[Domain Rule: The Truth is Absolute. Deception is impossible.]
[Warning: The Guardian of this Gate is not a warrior, but a Mirror of the Past.]
"This place..." Isabella whispered, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the silence. "It's as if the universe is staring at us."
Cyan didn't respond. He was looking at a massive monolith in the center of the hall. Unlike the others, this one was bleeding a dark, violet light. As they approached, the runes on its surface began to shift, forming images—familiar faces, forgotten screams, and the cold, metallic taste of betrayal.
"Master, look," Clara pointed to the side.
A figure emerged from behind the central monolith. It was a being composed of pure, liquid silver, with no features other than a single, massive eye in the center of its chest. It held a quill made of starlight and a book that seemed to contain the weight of entire galaxies.
"Cyan Valerian," the Witness spoke, its voice not a sound, but a thought that echoed in the marrow of his bones. "You have broken the seals. You have devoured the messengers. You have stained the perfection of the Architect's design with your 'Sin.' But do you know the true cost of your path?"
The Witness waved its hand, and the hall transformed.
Cyan found himself standing back in the Abyss of Silent Bones. He saw his younger self, broken and bleeding, staring up at the dark sky. But this time, he wasn't alone. He saw the "Butterfly Effect" of his choices. He saw the families of the soldiers he had killed in the Imperial Palace. He saw the children who had lost their fathers because of his "Righteous Revenge."
Most painfully, he saw Lyra. Not as a goddess, but as a young girl in the church, praying for a savior she thought was good.
"Every power-up you received, every level you gained, was fueled by the displacement of others," the Witness continued. "Your 'System' did not create energy; it stole it. To make you a God, the System had to make a thousand others into dust. You are not a liberator, Cyan. You are a more efficient tyrant."
[System Warning: Emotional Instability Detected.]
[Status: The 'Law-Breaker' Skill is failing against the weight of the Truth.]
The four Goddesses were also forced to face their own monoliths. Lilith saw the civilizations she had razed to satisfy her hunger. Azrael saw the heavens he had abandoned. The weight of their collective sins began to manifest as physical chains of silver light, pulling them down toward the indigo void.
"Give up the Cores," the Witness commanded. "Acknowledge that your existence is an error, and I shall grant you the 'Mercy of Oblivion.' You will cease to exist, and the pain you carry will finally end."
Cyan was on his knees. The silver chains were tightening around his throat. For the first time, the "King of Sin" looked defeated. The logic of the Witness was perfect. He was a monster. He had caused more suffering than he had cured.
"Is... is it true?" Isabella sobbed, her emerald light fading. "Did we do all this just to become worse than the ones we hated?"
Cyan looked at the silver liquid of the Witness, then at the reflection of his own eyes in the floor. He saw the monster. He saw the murderer.
But then, he saw something else.
He remembered the look in the eyes of the oppressed peasants in the Empire when he killed the corrupt Duke. He remembered the hope that had flickered in the hearts of the "Lower-Class" mages when the Church's iron grip was broken. It wasn't "Perfection," and it wasn't "Purity." It was Freedom.
Cyan began to stand up, the silver chains creaking and snapping under the sudden pressure of his will.
"You talk of 'Perfection' and 'Efficiency'," Cyan said, his voice low and vibrating with a terrifying calm. "You count the lives lost as 'Data Errors.' But you forget one thing, Witness."
He grabbed the silver chain around his neck and pulled, the metal shattering into stardust.
"I never claimed to be a hero. I never claimed that my path was 'Good.' I accepted my role as a monster the day the Architects threw me into the dark."
Cyan's aura exploded, not in a blast of mana, but in a wave of Solidified Will. He stepped toward the Witness, his purple eye burning with a light that threatened to consume the Hall of Records.
"The Architects want a universe of 'Zero Errors.' They want a garden of plastic flowers that never wither because they never truly lived. I choose the rot! I choose the pain! I choose the sin of a world that is broken but belongs to us!"
[Skill Evolved: Absolute Sovereignty - The King's Decree.]
[Effect: Within your domain, your 'Truth' overrides the Laws of the Universe.]
Cyan didn't use a sword. He walked up to the Witness and placed his hand on its "Eye."
"You want to record the truth?" Cyan whispered. "Then record this: The King of Sin has arrived, and he is not here to be judged. He is here to be the Executioner."
The Witness let out a sound like a thousand mirrors shattering. The liquid silver body began to turn black, infected by the sheer intensity of Cyan's refusal to repent. The Hall of Records began to dissolve, the floating monoliths crashing into the void as their "Truths" were rewritten by Cyan's will.
[System Notification: The Seventh Gate - OVERTHROWN.]
[Core of the Witness Acquired.]
[New Skill Unlocked: 'Truth-Eater' - You can now see through any illusion and erase the 'History' of your enemies.]
The indigo void collapsed, and they were back on the bridge of light. The Goddesses fell to their feet, gasping for air as the silver chains vanished. They looked at Cyan, and for a moment, they were terrified. He looked... older. Not in years, but in the weight of his soul.
"Master..." Isabella started, but she couldn't find the words.
"Don't apologize for what you saw," Cyan said, staring ahead at the Eighth Gate. "We are monsters. That is the truth. But we are the monsters who will tear down the prison of the 'Gods.' If the price of our freedom is our souls, then we've already paid it."
He looked at his hand, which was now pulsing with the silver-violet energy of the Seventh Core.
"Seven down," Cyan said, his voice as cold as the void. "The next gate is the Gate of the Ancestors. They will try to use our 'Blood' against us. But they forget... I've already spilled enough of it to drown their heaven."