U-EDEN09 (Aug 9, 2022)
Puzzle
"Things don't stay pretty forever."
Knowledge – III | 1 Word
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: This one, actually, is a direct quote.
Clue 2: What exactly has Ray seen?
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Gore-fests
Explanation: In CD-HNY08, Ray says 'I've seen enough of these gore-fests to know things don't stay pretty forever'.
Summary of Receipt
Summary
Transcript
Demiurge stood in the decaying rot of Eden, before him, was a small giggling baby. He lifted his massive hammer high above his head—and brought it crashing down with all his might. The child was smashed in a flash of light. The storm of particles left behind, swirling around his hammer in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of creation undone. Demiurge took a moment to watch the shimmering lights. They were morbidly beautiful.
"It's such a shame," Demiurge said as he looked down at the glowing viscera that swarmed his hammer. "Archons can't die."
The particles slowly began to coalesce into a solid form. A ghastly infant with pale silver skin and bright crimson eyes, her hair like spun starlight, reformed exactly as she was. She opened her eyes and let out a small gasp as the shadows cast over the remains of Eden once again darkened. Demiurge swung his hammer again, shattering the infant. Again and again, over and over, until the particles could no longer reform. Until nothing remained of the abomination but a small, empty space in the decaying garden.
"It will be back. It's an Archon. It's one of us."
"When did you… how long have you been here, Abraxas?" Demiurge asked, his voice taut with restrained anger.
"A while, my Lord. Long enough. You were smiling, you know. When you were… destroying Eve's child."
Demiurge only glared at his vassal, eyes ablaze with anarchy. "How could this happen?"
"You didn't trust her."
"I did. I thought I did. I gave her the most important piece—I gave her… everything."
"How many times did you visit her in Eden? How many times did you undo her work? How many times did you squander her ideas? Did you even tell her what she had? What you had given her?"
"She wasn't ready."
"No, my Lord. You weren't ready. And I fear you never will be."
"You speak out of turn, Abraxas," Demiurge said, raising his hammer to the Archon's neck, his eyes buzzing with chaos.
"I have never spoken to you with anything but respect and reverence, my Lord. I do so now. It was not Eve's fault—you set her up to fail."
Demiurge's grip on the hammer tightened, his knuckles white with tension. Slowly, he lowered the hammer into the sinking sludge of Eden. The sky grew dark with black storm clouds, and the world around them grew cold and foreboding.
"What now, my Lord?" Abraxas asked, his voice softer, almost pitying.
"What else? Start again." Demiurge raised his father's hammer, a sense of finality in his movements, and swung it hard enough to shatter all that was. The world disintegrated into fragments, only to reassemble in an instant. Everything clicked back into place, unchanged.
Nothing ever changes.