The Criolin.

     The way they managed to kill every single Blocalian at the exact same "moment" throughout the multiverse.

     When Tika and Delphi's eyes locked, he understood how the feat had been accomplished both telepathically and multi-dimensionally. What kind of sentient beings were the Criolin, anyway? They weren't a species derived from a natural environment, weren't predators or prey, nothing like that. But, if they didn't evolve naturally, then they were planted there, cultivated by a more highly advanced species, but who and when and why?

     It had to be Infini herself.

     No other entity could have granted the gift, the burden, they were given...

     because the gift they were given was emotion. 

     That emotion was rage, and a very specific form of rage.

     It was the rage of the powerless. 

     One constant with the "history" of the multiverse. The mightiest among the greedy thrived, the more merciless among them exploiting everything they saw and slaughtering any entity that got in their way. 

     Infini drank deep from the power they emanated and learned from their adventures and deeds.

     But what of those trampled on so that the powerful could be provided their conquests and victories? What of their emotions, the power they emanated? Where did all that energy go?

     It collected.

     Why? Only Infini knew.

​     The Criolin, for whatever reason, had access to that collection. They could weaponize the despair and resentment and anguish of the overwhelming majority of the multiverse.

     At the moment the Criolin both converged and expired, they did two things:

     (1) They delivered and detonated the force that eradicated every Blocalian in the multiverse, and,

     (2) they passed this ability to access that force into Tika's parents...

     so that, at the moment of ​their demise, they could pass that ability on to Tika...

     so that, now, Tika could use that force to shred everything within Delphi that made him Delphi.

     An infinite rage.

     An infinite anguish.

     An infinite despair.

     They were what overwhelmed Delphi until everything within him shut down.

     Only a single memory remained...

​     and not even one of his memories, but one of Tika's.

CONTINUE