A new Beginning (Again)

In a desolate land, under a grey sky filled with circles leading seemingly nowhere, a piece of corporeal shadow seemingly popped out of nothing.

The shadow, now just a floating blob of unperceivable darkness, started to beat like a heart. Slowly but surely, hundreds of tiny tendrils extended out of the blob, which now looked like a hedgehog filled with spikes of the texture of spaghetti. Seemingly afraid of disturbing the land it spawned in, the tiny spikes extended and started to twine with each other, slowly forming bigger and bigger formations.

First came the torso, then the head, and finally legs and two pairs of arms. If someone were to look at it now, they would see countless fractal patterns the color of monochrome. The blob of darkness, now in the shape of a humanoid, looked around, seemingly surprised to find itself in such a place, where not even a speck of movement, the signature of life, seemed to exist.

Suddenly, two lantern lights started to burn in the skull of the shadow, giving it much needed contrast. It lifted its hand, examining the texture and feeling of its new form.

Slowly but surely, a jagged line, mockery of everything resembling teeth, opened up on the face of the shadow, bleeding out aurora of colours, bathing the desolate landscape in all its glory, seemingly making the ground look even more primal and jagged.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, the first of this world, as if in greeting of the first lifeform.

A sinister laugh, mockery of sound itself, echoed throughout the lands, signifying the arrival of its first and only master.

(A/N: Edrien,the shadow)

_____

A tiny bleach white monkey skull, filled with segmented horns at the top, shuttled along the ground with eight legs reminiscent of a spider, fleeing from the predator all of its kind knew existed, but never knew how it looked for one simple reason. Not one of its many brethren was able to survive the attention of the oldest known being in these lands.

(A/N: The skull)

Seemingly in panic it threw itself to the side, trying to evade what it could not perceive.

Suddenly it stopped, not out of its own wish, but because it was suspended in air by a ripple in the air. Slowly, the ripple grew to a shadow of a hand holding the tiny skull, lifting it up from the ground, which was the only means of escape the little skull spider could use. From within the shadow, materialized a being with no name, for it needed none.

"Well, what do we have here?" said the slouching hole in existence, dangling the skull from one of its legs.

Suddenly, a strange energy passed through the skull into the hand, seeming to try to wither it away, as if death itself decreed for it to die. Sadly, the energy was neither potent enough, nor large enough in quantity to do anything beyond making the hand flake a little bit. In a second, those flakes gathered back into the hand, now no worse for wear.

"Now now, none of that. Or I might pinch you too hard accidentally, and kill you. Now let's see, just what you are." the shadow spoke, it's voice grating on the surrounding air, making the gentle breeze ever present in the realm to something more of a strong summer wind.

The shadow opened its eyes, and all of existence unraveled, displaying its secrets like a rented mistress displays hers to its client.

Monochrome expanded outwards from the colorless figure, sapping everything of the feeling of presence, making anything in its immediate vicinity crumble at the slightest touch, as if the very building blocks of the universe fled, leaving behind hollow shells.

Just when the little skull could no longer take it, the monochrome aura of the being retreated back, leaving dust and desolation behind. The figure blinked, even without a face, just two eyes, managing to convey the feeling of disappointment and flabbergasting.

"Heh, seeing as what you are, I expected something more than this...honestly, it's about times your kind started appearing, even if the monkeys in the overworld are simple minded, they still are able to feel fear. Well, it would be a waste to just kill you now, little Death, go on, run, grow, and when the time comes, come back to entertain me." the shadow said, its voice the sound cracking glass.

With his piece said, the figure threw the little skull spider away, which immediately started to put everything it could in its tiny legs to get as far away from the shadow as possible.

"Sigh, I guess it is still early, humanity is still in the primate stage, and so are these confluences of fear. It makes sense that Death would be the strongest at this time, after all its the most prevalent concept currently." the being of darkness murmured.

"No matter, even if the current time is of no use to me, I still didn't explore my newfound powers. It would be stupid to waste this playing hide and seek with what amounts to rats. I'll stop scaring the new inhabitants of this realm, maybe they will be able to grow, or multiply, faster." with that said, there was a clap of sound akin to thunder, and the shadow vanished from the lands of desolation, or what would be later be known as, Hell.

_____Scene Change___(tell me if I should continue to use this to change scenes when needed.-AN)

*crrr-crraaack*

A web of broken reflections sweeped the surrounding, creating typhoons and dust storms, ruining the earth and obscuring the sky in unperceivable cover of debris. In the eye of the storm, where only stillness reigned, surrounded by utter chaos, stood a shadow with all four of his arms outstretched.

"Hmmm, still nothing compared to before, the nerf in power is truly hard to reconcile. I just hope I will be able to understand what is blocking me from achieving my previous height of power. Even if I am slowly growing stronger and more skilled, it is still slower to what I had in the privious world." the shadow scratched his chin.

"But I guess it is expected, after all, in the cultivation world, the whole place was so filled up with Chi that you only needed to reach out to grasp it. Now, not only the underlying energy system is completely different, but the concepts I comprehended previously, which were my main sources of strength, were altered by my death." looking at his clenched fist, Edrien thought about his current problems.

"After all, it seems logical to be altered by such an important event as Death, I just wish the things I spent so much effort to master weren't altered without my input."

Previously, he managed to obtain the concept of Denial by simple refusal to be tied down by the existing hierarchy of power, and with the knowledge that there must be more to the worlds beyong his, at the time, current one, it was even easy to be firm enough in his resolve as to be recognized by Heavens and granted sought after knowledge.

"Defience previously was able to create a domain around me, in which any phenomena, if not wished by me, could be reduced in strength or straight out snuffed out. Now it gained a more sinister edge, overflowing with emotions and Unwillingness to Believe, almost...almost as if no higher power existed, holding everything in Contempt. As if the heritage I gained when I was reborn here altered it into something aimed against a god. Or maybe The God."

While thinking that, aurora of purple appeared in the sky, casting down everything it found lacking, reducing the howling winds to mere whispers and the gathering storms to a light mist. Nothing could achieve a greater form in the light, for very existence was full of flaws that the Concept of the now Contempt exploited.

"The Concept of Growth experienced the most change, it is no longer a benevolent force, promoting growth in me just as much as in my surroundings. Previously I was able to advance in alchemy due to how fast I could grow herbs and fruits, giving myself unending recources to advance, as well as making myself more recipient of Growth, having faster cultivation than the norm. Now it is no longer anything but a force seeking to take everything for itself. It is like being eternally starving, seeking the next meal, seeking to take other people's excellence for myself. Indeed, the word Hunger suits it much better. Thank God I was able to turn it off, or the feeling it created in me, what with there being next to nothing to eat around, would have drove me mad. Although...not everything is bad with this one."

In a fleeting fraction of a second, a shadow of spindly legs and eyes and teeth was cast on the ground, undulating as if alive, stretching its seekers, searching for things to consume, for it was eternally hungry, just waiting for the moment the prey will present itself. What little vitality of the lands remained after the last few tests of strength was sucked out, chewed, and turned into nourishment, feeding the very being responsible for the monstrous eldritch shadow stretching the horizon.

"And finally, the reason I am here, the reason I was killed. The thing I sought aftet so much I sacrificed everything for and paid the ultimate price. Inedequacy, the ability to tell the reality that it's not good enough, and then full Nelson fuck it. Limited reality warping my ass, how is it limited when I needed to use the times inability to only flow straight and forward, to prolong the fight with Yao Ming? Casting the many moons down, using literal celestial objects as snowballs by making them Inedequate enough to not fail their own gravity. Now, even weakened, it's ability to make possible to impossible only grew in strength and number of applications. Previously, the concept focused more on the nature of there being not enough, of too much scarcity. Now it's straight up probability manipulation, with which I can make anything fail. Got a new car? Bam, the brakes broke. A storm is gathering? Bam, the needed hot weather failed to rize up fast enough to create the said storm. The moon is anoying you? Bam, it failed to resist sun's gravity. Say beye beye to Luna-chan. I just wonder how long it will take me to get used to new energy constrains to effectively use the new...hmmm..Failure? Yes, Failure concept.

Whelp, no time like getting used to it like today. And next hundred years I guess."

At those words, cracks, countless spiderwebs of cracks appeared around Edrien, casting anything cought in it to complete oblivion, where reality itselfs fails to exist.