Sunny did want to know one thing, though.

‘The third paradox?'

Oblivion had called the birth of the Flame the first paradox — the Paradox of Chaos. Weaver, meanwhile, had called the destruction of fate at the hands of a Fated being — the Paradox of Fate — the third paradox.

Then what was the second paradox?

Once again, that question had no answer. However, Sunny had an inkling of a suspicion.

The paradoxes were numbered, which suggested that they came in order. The first paradox, the Paradox of Chaos, described the inevitability of a forever-changing entity — the Void — eventually creating an unchangeable axiom, the Flame of Desire. Due to their very nature, the Void and the Flame had been destined to clash, which led to the Void being sealed.

Thus, the Void was the source of its own fall.

The third paradox, the Paradox of Fate, described the inevitability of a flawlessly determined force, fate, eventually creating a being who could render it impossible to determine. Was that being Weaver? Or was it Sunny? Or were they one and the same, as far as the eventual paradox went? It did not matter — what mattered was that fate was the source of its own destruction, as well. So what came between the paradox of the Void and the paradox of fate?

Sunny was inclined to believe that it was the Flame.

The Void, the Flame, and fate — these were three absolute forces, with fate governing the other two. Both fate and the Void had a destructive paradox woven into their very foundation, so why would the Flame be any different?

In fact, Sunny already knew the seed of destruction woven into the very foundation of the Flame — of the existence created by the gods. In fact, there were two strong candidates for what the second paradox, the Paradox of Order, could be.

The first potential seed of destruction was defined by a simple question that Nether, the Demon of Destiny, had once asked the Goddess of the Black Skies... and later expanded on by the Puppeteer Moth, the Spirit of Doubt.

Why did the flame wane?

Sunny found it uncomfortable to think about, but it was true that the Flame that gave life to all of existence waned. Perhaps because it had been cut off from the fuel that was meant to feed it — the Void — or perhaps because that was simply its nature, but the Flame constantly grew weaker.

The Flame was waning, yet at the same time, it was growing stronger — because the lives and aspirations of those the Flame gave life to fueled it. According to the Puppeteer, living beings existed exclusively to feed the Flame with their lives, which was the epitome of cruelty and endless hunger.

Sunny, however, did not really believe the sinister moth. He rather saw the process as a part of natural, symbiotic, and even beautifully poetic order. The Puppeteer insisted that the gods could have made their world flawless, thus sparing all the living things populating it the need to struggle, strive, and aspire — to hurt, fight, and despair.

But Sunny agreed with what Ananke had said once... that a flawless thing was no different from a dead thing, because it could never grow and improve — it could only remain still and unchanging. So, being flawed was the essence of life.

Regardless of whether the Puppeteer had deceived him or not, the Flame waned, but it also fueled itself and grew stronger. It was a wondrous, self-sustaining miracle... but would it always remain the same? Who was to say that the flames of desires burning in the souls of living beings would not become insufficient to fuel the Flame one day, and that it would not be extinguished?

That, in Sunny's mind, was the first possible explanation of the Paradox of Order.

The second one was far more obvious...

It was the Forgotten God, who was destined to consume the world one day — the literal Flaw of Existence. Or maybe it was daemons, who were born of the Forgotten God.

The daemons... were they the Paradox of Order?

Sunny thought that it was quite probable. He scratched the tip of his nose.

‘Honestly, though, I am not even sure if I should care.'

Cosmic paradoxes and theoretical principles that were so great that even the confines of the vast universe could not contain them... what did any of it have to do with him? Sunny had a bunch of far more practical problems to deal with.

Like eldritch deities who had fallen to Corruption, abyssal horrors that defied understanding, the complicated intricacies of Apotheosis, and the literal damn apocalypse.

Who had time to ponder lofty issues of cosmic proportions when they had to deal with the lowly, mundane issue of the world ending?

Definitely not Sunny.

In fact, Sunny felt that as soon as words like paradoxical, axiomatic, and cosmic entered the conversation, and as soon as he felt the need to invent a word for something more absolute than the absolute... that was his sign to scamper off.

‘I should probably follow my own advice and do just that.'

Sunny threw a final look at the runes before dismissing them.

There was one last fact he was yet to address... it was that, apparently, he had the dubious honor of being an avatar of fate.

He had been one in the past, at least, before fate was torn apart.

Much more interesting, though, was that the Nine had been avatars of fate.

That... was bitterly ironic.

After all, one would expect Weaver, the Demon of Fate, to be its champion. Turned out, it was actually the opposite — Weaver had been the enemy of fate, while its nine champions had been born by fate to destroy the nebulous daemon.

In hindsight, it was a miracle that Weaver had survived for so long while going against nine walking manifestations of fate — of an absolute force that both the Void and the Flame bowed to — despite their humble beginning.

Not only that, but Weaver had even defeated the Nine, thwarting their plan to destroy all of existence and enthroning the Nightmare Spell as its new governing force. The mission of the Nightmare Spell was still shrouded in mystery... one thing about it, however, was clear.

It was that the Spell had not completed its mission yet.

Would it achieve what Weaver had created it to do, in the end?

‘I guess it depends on me, Nephis, and Cassie.'

Coincidentally, Sunny was an heir of a daemon, Nephis was an heir of a god, and Cassie was a seer deeply connected to fate. How would their journey — and therefore Weaver's design — end?

To answer that question, they would have to wait and see.

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