I was the last man alive in this dying universe, which was being devoured by a super massive black hole. I was in my beloved spaceship Andromeda.

All my crew were long dead and the ship was set on an auto-pilot trajectory for a head on collision with the black hole.

I guess this is the best way to go, having achieved immortality and living for nearly a hundred thousand years. Life took its toll on me.

Everyone I ever loved, all of them died right in front of my eyes, one way or another. So much pain, so much suffering and leading to what?

I will have my retribution against time itself! Why?! Why, choose me in this charade of madness called immortality.

As the spaceship crashed into the black hole, it started disintegrating instantly. I felt my body seething towards the darkness and then, there was nothing.

I could still feel myself or something similar to it, I was raging in madness. Is there no end for me in this life!

Then, I realised I was in my soul form. I wanted death, complete death!

So, I started agitating myself towards complete disintegration and then there it was my soul dismembering itself bit by bit and then there was darkness.

There was complete darkness, or something equivalent to it.

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Darkness is just absence of light I believe.

Then I woke up in a room barely able to keep my eyes open.

I let out a cry, I feel something warm and then I stop crying, I then fall asleep.

Meanwhile outside the room, a man in his late twenties is anxiously waltzing up and down the corridor; this man is Raleth Targ, one of the heirs of the once very prominent Targ sect.

He then hears a cry and rushes inside towards his pale looking wife.

She is Aleara Targ the wife of Raleth Targ.

Currently she looks flushed with tears of happiness rolling down her face, having given birth to a baby boy.

“Aleara are you alright dear?!” asked Raleth in a concerned voice, “I’m fine dear...come have a look at our son! He is so beautiful, what should we name him?” asks Aleara excitedly.

Pondering for what would seem like an eternity, but were only a few seconds “His name henceforth shall be Azreth Targ!” announces Raleth rather proudly.

I wake up, adjusting to the light falling upon my eyes with questions like who am I? Where am I? Where is this place? I grow tired and then fall back asleep.

I wake up to a familiar scent and that same warmth from earlier.

I open my eyes and I see a woman, her facial features seem to be impeccable.

Compared to whom? I don’t seem to remember.

I look into her light blue eyes; I feel happy and let out a soft cry.

She had a wide smile on her face; I think she should be my mother.

A while later a tall man walks in with prominent cheekbones and a well-defined face with scarlet eyes.

He gives out a sense of authority, with an air of safety and certainty.

He must be my father; he then proceeds to take me from my mother’s arms.

I let out a small happy cry and he grins widely looking at me showing his all whites in the process.

A few months pass by; I am now six months old.

I seem to have grown quite a bit as I can crawl quite well. I try to avoid my mother’s grasp as I try to explore the mansion.

To my best efforts, as I try to crawl towards outside the mansion.

I always find my mother with the ‘stare’ and then she proceeds to spank me.

Other than my mother and father, there seems to be no one else in this huge mansion, I wonder why?

My mother brings me a lot of books with hand drawn pictures within them.

They usually are the ones with different types of beast and plant species.

Father is usually not around, no idea why.

A few months later, it’s my first birthday.

I can walk and run now, but it is still impossible to evade from my mother.

I can speak coherently, much to the surprise and happiness of my parents.

On the dinner table, I ask my mother “Can you teach me to read and write?” much to her surprise, she asks “Azreth, where did this sudden inspiration come from?” “Mother, if I am not allowed to go outside and play, at the very least you can teach me how to read and write, so I could read some books in the library” I pout with a bit of anger.

There is a sudden tear from my mother’s eye, she then starts crying and then proceeds to hug me. For some reason I start crying and hugged her tightly as well.

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The very next day, my mother starts to teach me basics of the language and calligraphy.

In the short period of three months, I master the language; much to the astonishment of my mother and father.

In the few times he came home to visit me and mother, he was extremely surprised with my progress and each time he frowned with a face of worry, I wonder why.

Shortly after, both my mother and father took me to the library.

Outside the gate there was a small dragon statue, my father told to me to place my hand in the dragon’s mouth.

As soon as I did, I felt my fingers being pricked and blood being drawn out of them.

A few minutes later I fell on my knees with my head feeling like it was about to explode.

My mother was shocked and scared, my father was astonished with an incomprehensible look on his face, but he did not do anything to interrupt the process.

A few moments later, which seemed like an eternity to me, the blood leeching stopped.

After that, there was a humungous roar which shook the very foundations of the heavens.

Azure golden clouds started forming on the top of the mansion, as large crackling lightning started raining towards the mansion.

At the very same moment, an extremely thin strand of pitch black radiance seemed to envelope the mansion.

As the lightning rained down upon the mansion, the black radiance seemingly absorbed everything and started to grow thicker.

A good few minutes later, the lightning stopped and the azure golden clouds dissipated into nothingness.

In a place very far away, deep within the mountains there was an old man with a profound and ominous expression, with a deep sigh he said “and let there be blood…” Deep within the pits of hell, there was a young man sitting on a golden throne with a slight smirk on his face.

This heavenly tribulation seemed to have awoken many powerful beings from their slumber across the expanse of the continent and piqued the curiosity of many others.

Meanwhile, back inside the mansion father and mother were huddled together with me between them with a scared, shocked and confused expression.

I was mostly confused more than anything else, wondering what was happening outside.

My father was the first one to speak “W-What was that?!!” he said frighteningly.

Suddenly the gates of the library flung open. As we stepped inside, my mother tried to console me that everything was alright.

There seemed to be two levels in this extremely large library.

Father said he did not have access to second level as he did not have the qualifications.

I did not understand what he meant by ‘qualifications’.

I was curious about the second level but did not pay much heed to it.

My head was buzzing with excitement upon the soon to be gained knowledge of this world.

My mother and father still had a worried expression with regards to the previous event.

That which they could not understand in response to the roaring statue or the thundering outside made them pale in thought.

They realised that these events might be related with Azreth and were worried about a sudden calamity befalling upon him.

Oblivious to everything else I ran to the very first row of books and asked father to pick a very large book and place it upon the table.

It piqued my interest; its name was ‘A time of Kronelock’. The name of the continent in which we were living was Kronelock.

It has a width of 900,000 Km’s. It is the second largest continent, the first being the Dark Continent.

Not much is known about the Dark Continent as it seems to be extremely dangerous and many people have died trying to explore it.

I also found out the vast number of species on this continent seemed to be cultivators.

The term cultivation filled me up with a sense of profound thought, it felt like something I experienced before but in actuality; I hadn’t.

Putting this thought at the back of my mind.

I kept reading on as I learnt about the different species inhabiting this continent; there were elves, dwarves, demons, beastmen, titans, dragons, angels and lastly humans.

It was quite surprising as I thought only humans inhabited this continent.

There were also various professions like enchanters, alchemists, array masters, mages and blacksmiths.

But I was most excited upon learning that I could become an extremely powerful person who could fly!