Beauty and Perfection

Fear, dread...

This was an extreme emotion Padilla had not felt for a very, very long time.

So long that they had forgotten the exact time.

So long that when recalling and understanding the memories and feelings related to their past, they mostly viewed them from a third-party perspective, as though watching a movie, completely removed from the experience with little actual emotional involvement. Even their mood was rarely affected.

At any rate.

Long before they transformed from a flesh-and-blood lifeform into a Mind Life.

As the leader of their entire species.

They had already wielded great authority and considerable power, so they basically had nothing to fear.

Back then.

There were only two things that could make them feel fear.

First:

Death, in every sense of the word.

Murder, death from illness, natural death, accidental death...

All of it terrified them.

But there was nothing strange about such things.

Because fearing death was a basic instinct of all life.

Thus, they had never felt ashamed of it. They only considered the fear of death perfectly normal and nothing worth marveling over.

Moreover.

Back then, the thought of fearing death as a lifeform had itself been one of the fundamental forces driving them forward.

That immense fear had constantly whipped them onward, forcing them to break through one difficult situation after another, discover the key point that allowed flesh-and-blood beings to achieve Mind Ascension, and lead their entire species out of the many difficulties brought about by their physical bodies. In the end, they became one of the many Transcenders, able to calmly and freely look down upon the countless wonders of the world.

Now.

As Transcenders, they had long since reached heights they had once never dared even imagine. Even if the three-dimensional universe were to be completely annihilated,