Chapter 124

When the void engulfed me, I found myself back in the space in between. This place was both a crossroads and a repository of memories. The flow of time was so distorted that echoes of the past still could be heard.

I carried on, as the only way to go was forwards. My priority was still to find my way back home, but I had become greedy for answers. I hoped to experience more visions so as to better understand how everything had happened.

My prayers were rewarded. The world disappeared and I was once again in the middle of the void that had devoured my old world. There was nothing to see or hear, yet it seemed familiar, like I had already been there. Only an eternal, infinite absence of everything. And yet words still reached my mind.

|| What the f**k is happening! || the soundless phonemes got imprinted in my mind.

|| Explain || a voice that made me tremble in fear and rage spoke.

|| Tell me where I am! ||

|| Explain || the command grew sterner.

|| Hiic! P-please, wait a moment. I d-don't understand what's going on! ||

|| It isn't yours ||

|| W-what are you talking about? ||

|| It isn't yours. Thief. Thief. Thief ||

The word "thief" continued to resound across the absence, growing in strength and austerity. A shiver ran through my body. I was afraid of the voice, but it was not fear of death.

|| T-thief? I-I'm not a thief! I'm a good citizen! I pay all my taxes and recycle! ||

|| You lie. You took what isn't yours. Deceiver ||

|| Deceiver? Thief? Wait a moment… you are the one who wrote the last comment to my story, aren't you?! ||

|| Not yours! || the fury in the voice reached even my bones.

|| F**k! P-please calm down. You're gonna cause me a heart attack. Fine, I admit it. I stole the idea for the book. B-but why is that such a big deal? ||

|| You can't give it to me ||

|| G-give you what?! ||

|| The seed of the world ||

And the discussion continued. I drifted through the void, eavesdropping on their conversation, until I finally came across the two. Although there was no light and I couldn't see, I could still somewhat distinguish their features.

The first one was a young man in his thirties. He had no noteworthy characteristics and floated casually through the void. The woman was different. I could barely distinguish her, and yet her figure made a strong impact.

I knew it wasn't her true appearance, only a shadow of her true self, and yet she exerted a pressure I could barely tolerate. Her dimly visible figure radiated elegance and beauty that didn't belong to the world and a threatening aura like no other I had come across. I wanted to distance myself from her but I had no control over my motion. I instinctively closed on myself, trying to cover my body with my arms and legs as if protecting myself.

|| Wait, you are saying you can recreate the world from the novel? ||

|| Only with the seed ||

|| Why do you need the original creator? Can't you just copy the idea? ||

Only silence followed, but the growing impatience became palpable.

|| Fine, you can't. Then just take the original ||

|| It must be given. He refused ||

A disturbing smile showed on the face of the man.

|| Do you need permission? ||

|| … Explain ||

My disgust grew with every passing second as the man relayed his awful proposition of forcefully taking what wasn't theirs. The woman listened attentively to the man and had a strangely beautiful smile that made me sweat cold.

The two discussed some more on how to proceed. During the conversation, it came up that all living beings of the old world had a spark inside of them. It didn't give them power but it ensured their protection. On the other side, the woman could use it for other purposes. The man would give its spark up and hand it to her and she would use it to carry out what they had to do.

They turned into the distance and set their eyes on their prey floating in the void. My point of view changed and darkness covered my eyes. I didn't feel my legs. I didn't feel my arms. I didn't see or hear. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what was going on. I missed my home. My family. I didn't know what had become of them. Did I have a family? Memories were trickling out of my mind like water through a colander. Nothing around me made sense. My senses grew duller with every passing second. Was I dying? I didn't know. I was stuck in a limbo between life and non-existence. Why wasn't I dying? Something was keeping me here. Something was trying to take me away. I didn't want to be taken away. I wanted to return home.

|| Don't be afraid || words imprinted themselves in my waning mind.

|| Everything will be okay || a hand touched my cheek.

|| Our world will be beautiful ||

I punched the ground of the liminal space. A crater formed and several strands of time broke. I fell on all fours as sweat trickled down my forehead. I felt dizzy. I tried to breathe in oxygen, but that proved impossible to do. My heart felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. I trembled like a child as the old me took hold of my body.

It took a long time before my new nature was able to regain control of my body and calm me down. I had just relived my worst nightmare. The moment she found me. The moment she dug through my soul and tore it apart, taking what she wanted. The moment my world was conceived.

I materialised in the middle of a barren land. The atmosphere was filled with mana and the ground was covered in a thick layer of cerulean dust, under which laid an innumerable number of bones.

"His scorn is still strong. The story won't start this way. I still need him"

I felt as if I was being torn apart, a phantom pain of this day. The sky turned crimson and a light rain trickled on the ground. The bloody water coloured the land and the soaked dust started to pulsate.

The scene changed. The land was still barren, but a few people walked through it. Voices resounded in their ears, teaching them about the world that was before. They were emancipated as there was nothing to eat or drink, but yet they carried on, driven forward by the fire in their eyes.

Time passed quickly and only a few survivors remained. Many had lost a limb or two, but a few had changed. Their body was coated by a pale layer that protected them from the fangs of mana, but even that was being nicked at. Suddenly, a small crowd appeared on the horizon. Androgynous beings clothed in layers of pulsating energy. They neared the dying men and dispersed the surrounding mana, giving them respite. They offered a helping hand and guided the rescued through the wastelands.

Decades had passed and the new humanity had managed to survive. The genais had created a safe haven and had clothed and fed them with food and water produced from mana. Not all humans could draw nourishment from such sources and many met their demise. Only the most resilient survived.

A handful of people returned from their wastelands. Their state and demeanour were incomparable from the other humans. They were the first archs, the first generation free from the yoke of mana. They weren't strong but were resilient. They spoke with the genais, confirming the state of the world. Nothing remained.

A joyful laugh resounded as the young man showed the world his great creation. From this day onward, their weaker kind would not be limited to living in the ancestral cave where the genai had brought their ancestor. Now that the great tower of obsidian soared towards the sky, the world would be conquered. The young man thanked those that had helped him to reach this glorious achievement and remembered all the genais that had sacrificed themselves to provide the base materials needed. The young man swore he would dedicate his life to carpet all the lands with his creations, as it was his duty and pleasure as the greatest among his peers.

Centuries passed and the world got covered in Perimeters. Three generations of Legions of The Black had been born and died off in pursuit of this feat and they had been successful. The obsidian pillars kept mana at bay and there wasn't an inch of the surface where humans couldn't live and archs thrive. A new age was about to start.

It didn't take long before the archs grew bored with their lives. Things had drastically changed for their feeble cousins, but not much had changed for them. Now that mana wasn't an issue anymore, the things they built could last, but only The Black found infinite pleasure in creation. And so, they set their eyes on the skies.

They reached the moon and the nearest planets and their boredom continued to grow. The rest of the cosmos was as barren as their own world if not more. They looked for purpose and entertainment, but there was nothing for them out there. So they decided to look somewhere else.

When The Black heard of the aims her kin had set for themselves, she got intrigued. She found a new purpose in their ravings and decided to make them a reality. This was indeed the great authority of the Legion of The Black, to build miracles. Her younger brother The Green, a romanticist who had found his true calling while listening to the stories of the old verdant world, was the one to incite her and ignite the fire in her heart.

A few years went by and a door to other worlds was created. And yet, there was nothing beyond their own. The stories of other universes had revealed themselves untrue. The calculations they had made postulated their existence, but something else had denied it. The two Legions saw something their kin couldn't perceive, but it disappeared as soon as they laid their eyes upon it. Nevertheless, they now knew where they had to look.

Two generations later, the young The Black, with the help of the newly born Legion of The Blue, an old woman who had found strength in her desire to bend the world to her will, turned the miracle into reality. Together they tore a hole into the weave of space-time and mind and opened the door to the higher and lower layers. It was then that their Mother began to worry.

It was a new era. Archs poured out in the other planes and disaster followed suit. Immortal children had found an unending playground. Reality had become their sandbox and they loved to play with it. They razed civilizations to the ground, bringing back everything that those worlds had to offer. An age of gold stained in the blood of innumerable had started. Food, drinks, resources and even living beings were carried back and used to adorn and enrich their home. Archs organized themselves in groups and then in families led by their respective Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Although most of them were guided only by curiosity and interest in exploring the Otherlands, a few found solace in fighting and conquest.

The ever-expanding wave of destruction continued to reach out to ever more distant worlds. No species they came across could stop their conquests. Archs were strong by nature and quick to adapt. In less permissive worlds, they could still exert their unreasonable capabilities, while in less restricting worlds, they quickly reached the top.

After thousands of years, higher beings started to send their children to stop the advance of the archs, but they could only stall them, continuously losing ground. Differently from those made by those beings, archs were created to be strong and to not yield in front of strangers powers. And their Mother grew evermore worried.

Firstly, she tried to turn archs one against the other. She influenced their minds and a great war appeared on the horizon. The Blue intervened, the first Legion in ages to discern the true nature of what their ancestors saw through the door. He called upon the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, too old and wise for their Mother to control, and forcefully suppressed the rebellions. The Blue then bared his fangs to the skies and made plans to bring down his Mother. Unfortunately, his great strength was poison to his body and time took him before he could find a way to reach his goal.

It was centuries before new Legions would emerge. Only the line of The Green was uninterrupted, as they were the only Legions uninterested with the matters of the world, spending their whole life isolated in their Garden, generation after generation. In the meantime the momentum of the archs in the Otherlands slowed down until it came to a stop. Without successors to the line of The Black, no new vessels could come to be and the few remaining ones were strictly regulated.

With time, the archs grew tired and idle. Their Mother tried to take advantage of the situation and took a more direct approach. She revealed herself to humans and armed them with powers and wisdom. She denounced their kin as an enemy they had to cast down, and riled them up against the archs. The response of the latter was quick and brutal. They showed no remorse nor hesitation as they cut down men, women and children. They culled the human population, keeping only a few survivors and forcing them under the ground, left alive only for the purpose of conservation of the spieces.

More time passed. The archs were the undisputed rulers of their world. Nothing endangered them. And due to this, the purpose of the genais was no more. They weren't like common living beings, and without a purpose they could not continue to exist. They had come into being to ensure humanity wouldn't meet its end. So they began to disappear into nothingness. Their Mother rejoiced at this sight, as the moment she had been waiting for had finally come.

It was a day like any other under the shadows of the great pillars. The only difference was that the voices of her brethren were falling silent, one after the other. She had been there since the first days, when she extended her hand to the last remaining groups of humans. She knew her time had come, and still she couldn't help but feel sadness at the thought of her siblings becoming nothing.

After all they had sacrificed, after so many of them who had given themself for slaughter to The Black to let the humans walk freely under the sun, she couldn't accept their reward would be to remain only as a memory that would be soon forgotten. She never gave much thought to the title her siblings had given her, but now she couldn't help but rise to their rescue. That was the duty of a King.

She took the only road that stood in front of her. She visited one of her oldest friends, the great Patriarch of the west, a fourth generation archuman who had lived for aeons. Her friend welcomed her with all the honours and had her served with the best plates he had discovered while scouring through innumerable worlds.

She repaid his grace by having his entire land devoured by the earth. Many lost their lives that day and many more remained trapped under the ground for decades. The Genai King continued to raise her infamy, with the only purpose of finding a new purpose for her species.

She was different from her siblings. Her control of mana was incomparable to theirs and the degree of influence and control she could exert over her entire species had no equal. Genais all over the world turned on the ones who had been their friend just the day before, and the Great War commenced.

It was a long-drawn and painful conflict. Archumans were strong and resilient, but genais could spawn from nothingness. The Genai King suffered at the sight of the pain she was inflicting both upon her siblings and her past friends, but there was nothing else she could do.

Day and night she weaved mana, trying to change her species' nature, but she couldn't do it alone. She needed to channel the hate and scorn of the archumans to change something so profound as the purpose of existence of an entire people. Genais were born to "die for humans". What she was trying to achieve was to change it into "die to humans". From one kind of sacrificial lamb to another kind of sacrificial lamb. A grim future awaited her species, but at least they would have one.

The war went on for centuries. After the first few decades, the casualties reduced severely on the archuman's side as they became used to the new state of the world. Moreover, the line of The Black re-emerged and archumans began to travel to the Otherlands once again.

The Genai King panicked. If the archs didn't perceive her and her siblings as enough of a threat, the great spell she had been weaving for centuries would be no more. She looked for an ally and found an unlikely one. The youngest of the line of The Green wasn't fond of her own species, as she saw them as barbarians who only destroyed the beauty of creations and squandered the wealth of biodiversity the Otherlands had to offer.

The Green approached The Black and convinced him to keep himself out of the war. He readily agreed, as he held no interest in the fate of his species, but only in the fate of his creations. Legions couldn't travel to the Otherlands, so it made no difference to him whatever she and the Genai King had set their mind to do.

The Green entered the field and the war took a turn. For her entire life she alone terrorized the entire world as there was no one who could stop her fury. In the end old age took her, but the plan she and the Genai King had designed was fulfilled.

The Genai King channelled her powers and those of many beings from beyond the Otherlands and laid a trapping Veil on her world. Impeded by it, the archs were forced to turn their attention to the Genai King and the newly born Legion of the Green.

It was at that moment that the vision split. On one side, the story went on, the Legion of The Candor was finally born, drove away the Genai King and gave respite to a worn-torn civilization, decimated by The Green, The Bright, The Purple and their followers a hundred and fifty years prior.

On the other side, something else happened. It was strange. That side of the vision appeared fainter, as if someone had tried to erase it.

There was a child, no older than ten, walking through a field filled with the decaying corpses of genais and young archs. The child appeared completely unperturbed by the grim scene and a big mischievous smile showed on his face. He approached without fear the one who had been the cause of all that destruction, an adult woman surrounded by an aura of light.

It was the Legion of The Bright, the one who shone like the sun and wanted to be revered by all. On her side there stood the Legion of The Purple, the one who wanted to hold the entire world in his hands. They looked at the child and spoke to him.

The Bright intimated him to kneel to her and accept her as the only light of his life. The Purple ordered him to kneel to him and declare his allegiance. The child didn't listen to them and continued his approach.

The two Legions raised their strength to the sky. The light of the sun was drowned out by the brilliance of the bright. Hundreds were engulfed by the fog released by the Purple and fell under his domain. Soon they surrounded the child, ready to jump at him.

The child laughed at the sight, not blinded in the slightest by the light of The Bright. He opened his arms wide. In an instant, visible ripples travelled through reality and many lost their balance, tugged by the sudden force sprung from the small body of the child.

He then clapped his hand and the entire region disappeared. The eyes of the child shone scarlet through the thick cloud of dust and darted towards the two Legions. They had survived the attack but their mouth stood agape, unable to process what had happened. Suddenly a childish voice resounded and broke the sky in half.

"You are naughty fakes! I'm gonna punch you!"