A large blue gate appeared out of nowhere with a wave of sparking lightning. Cain pulled out of Lilia and looked back, "It's opened sooner than I thought."
"An hour was an estimated average. It could've taken less or longer depending on where the gate was." Lilia replied, flicking her fingers and releasing a wave of cleaning magic. "Let's check it out."
Cain clapped his hands, and their clothes appeared on their bodies, "Let's not waste any time," He said as Morena faded into his body.
With a tiny jump, Lilia started floating beside him with waves of magic rushing out of her body. "Let's go. I'm the guardian of the gate, so let me take control from now on."
"Go ahead," Cain replied, and several eyes emerged on Lilia's body, "Don't move." She said, her body melting into a dark-green blob that consumed Cain's body, turning him into a black silhouette of eyes, stars, and gushing magic.
"This feels strange," Cain said, his voice reverbing across the air.
"I'm not done yet. Just give me a second." Lilia replied, and Cain's black body shifted into a white silhouette of blinding light. "Let's go. Expect an attack, so be ready for interchanging control,"
"It's one body with two minds controlling it," Cain smiled, "Let's jump inside and see what happened to the gate."
"We didn't need this before, but I'm sure the gate isn't fine.
It couldn't be with the current situation," Lilia added as Cain approached the magic gate, "We would've been fine if we were sure it was closed." He took a step inside the magic gate, instantly finding himself standing in a titanic stone room with ruins everywhere, strange eldritch magic sparking everywhere to the point it felt painful even to him.
"The rot of the outer world is seeping inside. This isn't good," He walked forward, following the clear path ahead of him toward the darkness. That is what would get him closer to the gate.
"Halt!" Two massive metallic titans appeared out of nowhere, pointing their spears at Cain with a deep growl, "You aren't allowed further. Return from where you came,"
Cain looked at them. Even though he was smiling, nothing showed on his clear faceless head. "Hello, it's been a while." He replied.
"Cain Lisworth, we shall never mistake your existence. You aren't allowed here, and neither is the daemon residing inside you."
"Calling your mother a daemon," Lilia's giggles came out of Cain's body, "I seem to have raised you well. That's how you should act."
"We're happy to hear that, but you know better than us that we should respect AO's will more than yours. If he left and closed the gate. We shall never allow anyone past it anymore." They bent down, "We kicked you two once before, and we'll do it again."
"So, it's a fight then?" Cain sighed, "History repeats itself,"
"Time doesn't exist here." The two titans replied as hundreds of others appeared out of nowhere, "What lies behind the gate is something no one should ever witness. You're better off dying here than going past us. This is the only truth."
"Me not walking past the gate is the truth of the world, the old world." Cain lifted his hand and pointed at one of the guards, a tiny ball of light flashing before his nail. "Truth, forbidden knowledge, it's the rule of this world and what shouldn't be told, what shouldn't be known. Gods must be all-powerful, and the overgod above them must be omnipotent in the world."
A voice boomed in Cain's head, and he gasped, "AO?! Is that you?"
[It's me, but I'm not doing that well. The abominations have infested my body, and I'm in as good of a condition as a man with a body riddled with maggots.]
"I'm trying to stop their invasion," Cain shouted back, "Where are you? Where is your body so I can kill those Abominations?"
[You're inside my stomach, and so is the world and all of those stars in the distance.] As AO said that. Thousands of light orbs filled the void like the night sky. [Trying to cure my body is useless. My death is imminent. I have another job for you, something easier and simpler to do.]
"What is it?"
[For the first part, gather as much power as needed to recreate a world after my death. It's for the mortals and divines to survive. Then I want you to nourish my reborn self in the mortal world to power. Only then I could retake the burden of the world from your back. It's too great for a man to carry alone.]
"You know it isn't that simple to create a whole world, let alone something as large as what you made," Cain replied. Even with his current power, he could barely control the world. Creating it from scratch is impossible. He won't be able to make something tenth as big, let alone the whole thing.
[You can grow strong enough by exploring the void and conquering the abominations. They'll soon realize their plan failed, and they'll attempt to invade the mortal world once more. It's at that time you'll need to create a new one, and when I'll perish.]
"That'll be one heck of a job. It'll take years if not decades. But I guess that isn't much time anyway." Cain looked into the void.
"Let's say I managed to get the plan to work. Would I know who you are? Or should I just keep the world running until you pop out again?" He asked.
[My reborn self would hold my name.]
"Absolute Omnipotent? Who'll get such a name at birth? Guess it's fitting for you." Cain giggled.
[I'm not good at making names. That's a fake one I keep using,] Ao replied, [AO doesn't stand for Absolute Omnipotent. That's a joke I came up with one of my wives.]
"Then what's your name?"
[Arad Orion, the void dragon who holds the whole of existence in his nothingness. I'm the void that surrounds existence outside of time and space.]
"Hold up! What happened to Azathoth? I'm sure I've heard that name pop around a lot." Cain gasped.
[I'm him. He's the sleeping idiot god. I do hibernate a lot, and cultists who touched a slither of my existence came up with that name. To mortals, my sleeping a lot makes me a fool, and I understand their perspective.]
"I understand." Cain scratched his head, "How much time do I have?"
[Several thousand years, I can push myself to live longer when needed, so don't worry about time. It means nothing here.]