Summary[]
A blog dedicated to the cosmology of the Instant Death novel and manga series.
Celestial Foundations/Heavenly Records[]
The Celestial Foundation (also called Heavenly Record) is the universe/timeline itself. Differently from a normal timeline, a celestial foundation consists of not only the universe, but also a vessel/canopy that envelops said universe:
Volume 8 Chapter 5
Volume 3 Chapter 3
The Celestial Foundation is capable of containing multiple timelines simultaneously. Whenever Darian died, his soul was able to travel back in time. Every time he travelled back to the past because of his death, it created an entirely different timeline:
Volume 5 Chapter 8
There are numerous parallel worlds inside the Celestial Foundation:
Volume 11 Chapter 12
This is supported by Lynel's Random Walk ability. Every time he dies, he is sent to parallel universes with different possibilities to ensure his survival. And he is stated to have died "countless times":
Volume 12 Chapter 10
Volume 2 Chapter 10
Volume 12 Chapter 10
As we know from the above, Celestial Foundations capture everything on a conceptual level. This would also include dimension as dimensions are considered elements of a universe, resulting in a Celestial Foundation containing the concept of dimensions:
Volume 3 Chapter 3
The Abyss[]
The Abyss is a dimension that is presumably within the celestial foundation of Yogiri's original world before he was isekai'd. It contains 4 spatial dimensions and seemingly one of time, as the King could age and starve to death while inside it.
Volume 4 Side Story
Volume 4 Side Story
The Sea[]
The Sea is a multiverse that contains all celestial foundations. It is stated possess a countless amount of them. The foundations are structured in a stacked abstract vertical hierarchy. The energy flows from the top to bottom, and due to that, one needs a tremendous amount of power to transfer from a lower world to a higher world. In addition, the Sea itself is also stated to be infinite.
Volume 3 Chapter 3
Volume 13 Chapter 9
Foundation Eater/Heavenly Record Eater[]
The HREs are cosmic beings of immense size that swims throughout the Sea. They are big enough to dwarf entire celestial foundations and constantly eat those for nourishment, but also for consumption of knowledge and raw information derived from them.
Volume 3 Chapter 3
Volume 3 Chapter 10
Volume 8 Chapter 5
Celestial Axis[]
The Celestial Axis is a "conceptual corridor" that connects all words, acting as a metaphysical bridge that a god can walk on to reach another world:
Higher Universes[]
The higher universes (not to be confused with universes higher in the hierarchy of the Sea), are universes situated beyond the Sea. Taking UEG's statement into account after Toichirou managed to step into a higher universe, it is implied that they are "much more of a higher-dimensional" structure than the Sea. In addition, each higher universe is contained by a larger higher universe, which is in turn contained by a yet larger higher-universe, and so on. And each of those higher universes were equated to a higher dimension that consenquently dwarfs the previous.
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そこは星々の大海だった。 トーイチロウたちのいた、“海”の中に各天盤が浮いている天盤世界ではない、別の法則に支配された別の世界体系。 ビッグバンから始まり膨張していく宇宙。 惑星が恒星の周りを公転し、恒星が集まって星団を作り、星団が集まって銀河を、超銀河を形成する。そんな世界だ。
「お主、思ったよりも高次元な存在であったな。まさかここまでとは思っておらなんだ」 They were in a sea of stars. It was not the Sea that contained the celestial foundations that housed their worlds, but a different space ruled by different laws. It was a universe beginning with a big bang. It was a world where planets revolved around stars, stars gathered into constellations, constellations mixed with nebulae to form galaxies, galaxies came together to make up clusters, and clusters were organized into superclusters. That was the kind of world it was. "You are much more of a higher-dimensional being than I thought. I did not expect something like this." |
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| ~ Volume 10 Chapter 19 |
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ＵＥＧは平然と、トーイチロウの背後に出現していた。 そもそもが、まったく別の世界からここに来ているのだから、別の宇宙への移動などお互いにできて当たり前なのだ。 そこからはさらなる悲劇と惨劇の繰り返しだった。 つまり、お互いに宇宙間を移動し、相手が移動する宇宙を予測して、その宇宙を消し飛ばすのだ。 相手のいる宇宙を内包する多元宇宙の外へと移動し、そこからその宇宙を攻撃する。 するとさらに相手はより上位の宇宙へと移動して攻撃をするのだ。 つまりキリがないのだが、終わりは唐突に訪れた。 トーイチロウの攻撃が、ＵＥＧを含む宇宙を消滅させたのだ。 UEG calmly appeared behind Toichiro. She had followed him from an entirely different world first, so it was no surprise she could follow him here as well. Now what would follow up would be even greater tragedy. They would both leap between universes, trying to predict their opponent's moves and erase their destination before they made it there. They would attempt to jump out of the dimensional space occupied by their opponent and destroy it from the outside. As they did, their opponent would jump to an even higher-dimensional universe and attempt the same thing. There should have been no end to the cycle, but suddenly there was. Toichirou's attack had erased the universe containing the UEG. |
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| ~ Volume 10 Chapter 19 |
Volume 11 Chapter 21
Going by the above, there might be an infinite amount of higher universes. While it is more or less implied to be a theory from Kouryu's part, half of it was already directly proven true in the battle of UEG against Toichirou, and considering how Kouryu is Nigh-Omniscient and the most knowledgeable entity shown thus far in the verse (even in comparison to other Nigh-Omniscient beings), it isn't far fetched to assume its validity.
One might say that the higher universes being considered "higher-dimensional" would be a contradiction (since they are above Celestial Foundations, which already contain the concept of dimensions) but not necessarily. Lower universes or Celestial Foundations are stated to be "in and of itself" (existing of its own capacity or independently) and being the foundation of everything on a conceptual level it'd be conceptually isolated from anything else.
The reason why this would apply to the higher universes is because the higher universes which contain and dwarf the lower ones would also as a result have their own higher concepts or foundation "in and of itself" that everything is a part of as they do not share the concepts of the lower worlds. This is further supported by them having their own laws.
This would mean that there is an ontological difference between lower and higher universes, having their own ontologically higher version of dimension thus not being a contradiction.
Ultimate Ensemble World[]
The Ultimate Ensemble is the totality of existence, the collectivity of all worlds, including the Sea, higher universes, and places beyond even those. It contains worlds with different laws each, which are also nested within each other:
The novel uses the same kanji used to refer for Tegmark's Ultimate Ensemble (究極集合). But since it's somewhat ambiguous, it's only possibly considered to be Tegmark's Ultimate Ensemble.
The End[]
Also known as Yogiri's true self, it is the end of all things. An embodiment of nonexistence that overcomes all others, and from which everything returns to after their end/deaths, of which there is nothing beyond, not even Fate and Plot itself, as those are also equally terminated in front of this calamity. Kouryu, an extremely knowledgeable god in regards to the cosmology of the multiverse, compared Yogiri to a natural limiter of reality, in which it is the inevitable end of the line that puts in check whatever god or entity that tries to destroy all of creation, ensuring its safety and balance, even if indirectly. It is omnipresent across all of space and time. According to the author, this true form is beyond the concept of dimensions entirely, to the point where no amount of dimensional stacking would be able to reach it.
Conclusion[]
- The Abyss: 3-A, possibly Low 1-C
- Celestial Foundations: 2-B
- The Sea: 2-B, possibly 2-A
- Celestial Axis: 2-B, possibly 2-A
- Higher Universes: Varies from Low 1-C to High 1-B
- Ultimate Ensemble: High 1-B, possibly 1-A
- The End: 1-A