Prologue

"The same exhausting day, sigh."

Maximus let out a deep, weary sigh as he sank into the welcoming embrace of his bed. Being young had its advantages, as it granted him boundless energy to tackle each day with unwavering dedication. At the last moment his eyesight took in the visage of the ancient amphora — the prized possession which his archeologist father gifted him — wobbling ominously as his exhausted mind drifted into sleep.

From that point onward, his coherent consciousness grew hazy and fragmented, losing its grip on reality.

*ARGH*

He screamed, but no voice came, as intense pain assaulted him, as if something had latched onto him, leeching off the very existence of his soul.

*BADUMP*

A deafening impact echoed through his being, bypassing the confines of his ears and reverberating deep within his consciousness. An indescribable sensation consumed him, as if he had been subjected to the merciless filtration of a turbulent whirlwind, leaving him disoriented and battered. The sensation of being latched onto nowhere being felt now.

*UGH*

This time nothing external but he felt full, full of energy, with nowhere to empty it. His senses seemed to have abandoned him, exacerbating his mounting panic amidst the relentless agony that plagued him.

Suddenly, a huge amount of total energy disappeared, and an extra thread appeared in his vision.

Immediately after, a set of memories rushed into his brain as he realized that he had just gained an ability! The ability to perceive and manipulate the underlying patterns and archetypes that defined reality itself. To manipulate the essence of concepts and reshape their fundamental nature, altering the very laws and principles of existence. But he soon snapped out of the reverie.

Looking around, a ball of light entered his vision, amidst the countless empty husks. Against logic, he sped up and tried 'emptying' his leftover energy onto the ball of light, mistakenly gobbling it in the process. But his vision, if you could call it so, with only empty husks, balls of lights and threads floating across it, saw that he only managed to cut a thread which connected to that ball of light.

He felt a little energy leave him but there was still some left. Abruptly, an idea occurred to him and he looked down at himself. Contrary to what he thought, instead of seeing his body, he was a ball of light too, with a thread connected to the ball and disappearing into nothingness. But inside his ball of light was a ball of thread which didn't connect anywhere, but just gave off a palpable vibe of fragility. He tried infusing energy into himself, and saw that, indeed, he could only cut the thread connecting to his ball of light and a little energy left his 'being'.

Looking around, he saw two empty husks near him, remembering how he had mistakenly gobbled up that ball of light, he hurriedly got away and tried infusing the remaining energy onto them. Instantly, those empty husks lit up, turning into balls of light.

However, just as he began to revel in the relief of releasing that unsettling energy, the strange vision that had enveloped him, consisting only of empty husks, balls of lights, and threads, abruptly vanished. In its place, a return to normalcy occurred, restoring his perception to its usual state, with all his senses restored.

And the first thing he noticed was,

"Where the fuck am I?"