Within the Subspace, an immeasurable span of time passed. In the outside world, only moments had elapsed.
When the System destroyed half of Morgoth's soul within the Subspace, the effect rippled outward instantly. Morgoth's true body staggered. His aura diminished sharply. His strength plummeted.
Sylas seized the opening.
He did not give Morgoth a single heartbeat to use the Flame Imperishable to recover. Time froze. Sylas accelerated to Morgoth's side in the space between instants, his hand transformed into the sharpest weapon imaginable, and he drove it directly through Morgoth's chest.
With one hand, he tore the Flame Imperishable from Morgoth's heart.
Time resumed.
Morgoth looked at the sacred fire blazing in Sylas's hand. Then he looked down at the hollow cavity in his chest, where the Flame had burned for so long.
His expression shifted through a cascade of emotions: bewilderment, unwillingness, resentment, hatred. And then, at last, all of it dissolved into a calm, weary serenity.
"You won."
His voice was barely a whisper.
His soul had been fused with the Flame Imperishable for so long that the two were inseparable. With the Flame stolen, he was powerless to resist.
Sylas did not hesitate. He sent the Flame directly into the Subspace, where it merged with the other half. The Flame Imperishable was whole once more.
Morgoth's soul, no longer sustained by the sacred fire, was annihilated by the System in an instant.
And so, Morgoth Bauglir, the mightiest and most terrible of the fallen Ainur, met his end.
Sylas regarded the lifeless body for only a moment. He sent it into the Subspace as well, where it dissolved into nourishment for the growing world.
With Morgoth dead and the reunited Flame Imperishable blazing within the Subspace, the sacred fire revealed its true power as a creation-level force. Its energy permeated every corner of the dimension, which expanded and evolved at breathtaking speed. The sky rose higher. The earth grew wider and deeper. The oceans filled. Life proliferated in ever-greater abundance.
Sylas appeared within the Subspace and set to work.
He used the Flame Imperishable to dismantle the System, breaking it apart while it was still engaged in digesting Morgoth's residual energy. Simultaneously, he used the System to decompose the Flame. Under his precise manipulation, each entity broke the other down: the Flame's creative power was absorbed by the System, and the System was restored to its original state by the Flame's purifying fire.
What emerged was no longer a system. It was no longer a game mechanic or a sign-in interface.
It was pure, fundamental magic. The raw World Origin of the Harry Potter universe, stripped of its shell and laid bare.
Sylas devoted himself entirely to refining and integrating this fundamental magic into his own being. The aura emanating from him grew ever more mysterious and powerful.
Within the Subspace, time flowed.
Thousands of years. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Billions.
The Subspace had long since evolved into a complete, self-sustaining world. Life had emerged: single-celled organisms at first, then slowly evolving into multicellular life, then crawling creatures, then mammals and ever-more-complex forms. These organisms lacked intelligence, surviving on instinct alone, reproducing across the land and forming populations.
Then, one day, the entire world trembled.
An overwhelming presence descended upon creation. Every living creature cowered in primal terror, unable to move.
A colossal figure appeared at the center of the world, towering from earth to sky. Sylas stood with his arms raised, supporting the heavens. Chaotic energy radiated from his form, and as his body expanded, the distance between heaven and earth grew with him.
The world expanded and expanded, stretching to its absolute limit, then transformed into an infinite universe.
Sylas stood above the cosmos.
He waved his hand and created countless planets and nebulae, arranging them into star systems. He waved again and scattered stars into every corner of the universe, filling the darkness with light. He gestured toward the boundless landmass below, and it fragmented into innumerable pieces, each becoming a life-bearing planet that he set in orbit around the newly created stars.
Throughout this process, not a single living creature was harmed.
Sylas found an empty region of the universe and placed a single, dazzling star at its center. Around it, he arranged eight planets in concentric orbits.
The third planet from the star was formed from the richest portion of the original landmass. Sylas regarded it for a long moment.
It looked empty. The life that had populated the original land had been distributed to other worlds. This planet was a blank canvas.
Sylas allowed his form to shrink, and he descended to its surface.
He began to create.
From clay, he molded familiar animals, one by one. With a gentle breath, each came to life. After populating the world with ordinary creatures, he crafted magical beings: fire drakes, phoenixes, thunderbirds, unicorns, mermaids, centaurs, elves, and giants.
Finally, Sylas took a drop of his own blood and fused it with the living soil. From this union, he shaped humanity and bestowed upon each one a soul and the gift of intelligence.
Sylas's creation was complete.
He had fused with the fundamental magic of the HP World Origin. He had absorbed the creative power of the Flame Imperishable. He had condensed within himself the essence of a Creator God.
His power had broken through the limits of dimensional existence, reaching a higher plane entirely. Within this universe, he was omniscient and omnipotent. Countless laws were born from his will.
/
He controlled the life and death of all things. He was the supreme being of his own creation.
Sylas looked upon the world he had made, and a satisfied smile crossed his face. Then his gaze turned outward, toward the chaos beyond the boundaries of his universe.
"It's time to go see Him."
In an instant, Sylas vanished from his universe and reappeared in the world of Arda.
He returned first to Valinor, to see Manwë and the Valar.
They sensed it immediately. The aura emanating from Sylas now carried the same quality as Eru Ilúvatar's own presence: boundless, transcendent, absolute. They knew he had broken through to a higher realm.
The Valar's attitude toward him became cautious, even reverent. None dared to inquire about the Flame Imperishable.
Sylas was not surprised by this. After exchanging farewells with the Valar, he sought out his oldest friend: Gandalf.
This was his last return to Valinor.
As he bade Gandalf a solemn farewell, Sylas gave him one final gift: he assisted Gandalf in breaking through the threshold of the Maiar and ascending to become a Vala. For a being who had achieved creation-level power, this was a trivial act.
He did the same for Elrond, Galadriel, and others among the Elves, elevating each of them to the pinnacle of their potential.
After saying his farewells to Valinor and all his old friends, Sylas gathered his family.
His wife Arwen. His son Elroth. His daughter Elseth. His companions: the dragon Smaug, the Thunderbird Sorontar, and the serpent Herpo. Along with the willing followers from his territory in Avathar, they entered Sylas's universe and settled upon the world he had designated as "Earth."
It is worth noting that Elroth had already married a Noldorin Elf and fathered twins. Elseth, on the other hand, had married a male Elf and, much like her maternal grandmother Galadriel, proved to be the stronger partner in the union. She and her husband had a lovely daughter.
Both families followed Sylas into the new world. There, Elroth and Elseth each established their own Elven kingdoms, becoming the supreme rulers of two new Elven kindreds.
Having settled his family, Sylas did not linger.
He departed Valinor, passed through the barrier of the universe, and entered the chaos beyond.
In chaos, there was no distinction between up and down, left and right. No concept of time or space existed here. There was only a state of pure, absolute nothingness.
Following a sensation he could not name, Sylas traversed the formless expanse until he arrived before a colossal hall that towered in the depths of chaos itself.
This was the Timeless Halls, the dwelling place of Eru Ilúvatar.
Before the entrance stood a tall, imposing figure. He was clad in white robes, with a long white beard and flowing white hair, surrounded by endless radiance. Musical notes drifted about him, fragments of the Great Music, sacred and eternal. He was supreme, ancient beyond reckoning, and radiant with a quiet, knowing warmth.
He had been waiting.
The old man looked upon his guest, and a smile appeared in his eyes.
"Welcome to the Timeless Halls, Sylas."
[ END ]