Complete darkness, like the void of nothingness when a deep, hypnotic sleep holds you. How many years have I been like this? I've since lost count as decades fade to millennia, and millennia fold onto each other for countless repetitions. I see nothing. I hear nothing, and I feel nothing.

I should have lost my mind long ago, allowing myself to slip into the clutches of madness and depravity, A choice that might have given me peace, I'm sure. But one thing kept my mind at anchor and gave me a purpose that lit up the darkness of my rest.

A Wish, maybe that is what I call it now. It might have been revenge at one point or a love and willingness to return somewhere, Now just a simple wish—a single torch in my endless darkness.

A voice seemed to resonate in my mind, like an echo within a dark cave. ”fascinating, I've never seen a soul like this before. Ancient,” a monotonous, slow voice seemed to echo in my mind.

The voice was high-pitched. A woman? No, a child

“...I doubt you can reply like this, very well,” following the sleepy, toneless voice. A snap of fingers seemed to resonate through my consciousness, or perhaps the correct terminology is soul.

It felt as if a heavy bolder was lifted off my chest. But, no, a description like this couldn’t possibly capture the freeing my soul felt from such a simple motion. Perhaps I had simply gotten used to the endless torture my soul had endured. As if 1000 lethal cuts left to bleed for eternity had suddenly closed up, no, reversed to before they were cut.

Suddenly the darkness disappeared, replaced by… how to describe it. A boundless infinity was the only thing that came to mind.

Points of shining, luminous masses of white, yellow, and red seemed to litter the void of darkness innumerably. Bright enough to blanket the darkness with light yet far enough to seem unreachable. The furthest seemed to shine with a faint white light, while the closest was radiant in its glory.

More points of white masses seemed to fly through the sky as streams of white trailed behind them, a dynamic addition to the static landscape. Blankets of soft gold and sea blue shifted through the sea of stars like clouds or sheets of silk, mesmerizing me in a hypnotic vision.

I wanted to somehow grab this mystical scene and lock it up for myself, where only I could view its beauty eternally.

[A Fragment of Pandemonium has been unlocked]

“It appears I underestimated the quality and strength of your soul, already unlocking a fragment of your soul without a mortal medium of flesh and blood. Interesting, how does your soul not shatter?” suddenly, a gathering of fragmented stars seemed to coalesce together, whirling together like a hurricane as each atom seemed to translate to a minor star of glowing radiance. Atoms turned to molecules linking together like astrological signs, then tissues of glowing organic matter seemed to form, then organs, before finally radiant, glowing white skin stitched and wove together. The body seemed to shrink and scale down before a more miniature version of the colossal land mass appeared before me.

As the brightness dimmed, a girl of indescribable beauty appeared before me. Or perhaps the correct word to describe such budding beauty was cuteness.

She lay above a small cloud of fluffy white smoke, inside which appeared to be many shimmering nebulas and galaxies of a miniature scale of what surrounded us.

An Illusion? I thought to myself, the detail and similarities to our surroundings astounding me slightly.

Before the golden, divine light surrounding her dimmed out, a simple one-piece dress had been woven around her skin, a beautiful cerulean color.

Her posture as she lay on the cloud of stars indicated fatigue as she rested her head on her left arm in a worn fashion. Witnessing her disposition, I could finally put a character behind her voice as the robotic, monotonous voice became more akin to lifeless and tired.

Ignoring her aura of divinity, she didn't seem any older than 13, with her long, smooth, waist-length hair that flowed down her shoulders, wrapping towards her back. Her hair shone with a bright, shimmering silver like the stars adorning her clouds.

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Looking towards her face, I couldn't help but pause for a second. The only words I could use to describe it are divinely crafted. Her cherry red thin lips, pale but healthy glowing skin paired with a childishly cute face, and shimmering silver eyes with the same glow as her hair.

I wanted her. Not in the same way as desiring the opposite sex, but in how one would desire finely crafted jewels.

[A Fragment of Pandemonium has been unlocked]

“Quite the pretentious one, aren't you” Her languid voice seemed to echo with more divinity than before, waking me from my trance.

Hmmm, she can read my thoughts. No, the Heart's desires? However, she doesn't look overly offended, as her beautiful face remains as expressionless and tired as before. If anything, I sense a hint of further fascination. However, I could be wrong, as her expressions give little away.

As she gazed at me, time and space seemed to lock, and what felt like hours of silence passed in seconds.

Her mouth opened, and just as I was expecting words fitting of her divinity instead, a loud Yawn erupted from her small mouth as she sat up and stretched her thin arms. Then, looking at me unabashedly, she continued in her monotonous tone, “Apologies, it's been millennia since I last took mortal form. I should say, it's a bit draining” She brought her arm down and rested her chin on her left hand as she continued in a crossed-legged sitting position.

“You should be able to speak now, right?” she asked inquisitively as her silver eyes gazed down upon me.

I tried opening my mouth to realize I was still missing it. Suddenly, as if by instinct, I attempted to project my voice through my soul. My voice? A memory ingrained in me I could not fully recollect, like a dream forgotten but embedded in your consciousness.

“I…I cannot remember a thing. All I recall is a long, long period of entrapment and solitude. The only thing keeping me sane through my misery was my goal, my mission, which I can no longer recall ” I was slightly surprised to hear the voice from my soul. It was soft and high like a woman, yet had a deep commanding arrogance like a man's. A hint of sadness was present as I finished my words.

Her lethargic gaze changed slightly as she looked at me with what appeared to be a shred of pity, or perhaps it was doubt.

“You may call me Yafen, lost one. I am what mortals would refer to as a True God.” she paused as if long sentences were a tiring chore for her. A streak of gold, slightly brighter than the other stars, seemed to travel slowly behind her.

“I've seen many lost souls pass through my domain before. However, none have been as Ancient or rooted as yours, like a bottomless abyss.” she paused to regain her breath again. As she talked further, I realized that although her voice was plain, childish, and monotonous, it had an indescribable charm to it, like soft velvet or a night of deep sleep, wrapping the listener in a comfortable embrace.

“I Assume you have existed since at least the Grey Requiem, making your soul hundreds of millions of years old, possibly even existing during the time of the Ancient Daemons,” Yafen said while still sluggishly stretching her limbs.

It was honestly starting to get bothersome hearing her pause constantly and even though I knew I wasn't short on time after spending close to eternity trapped, her manner of speaking was beginning to get rather grating.

I decided to break her slow, leisurely pace.”Can you Get to the point, Yafen? Why did you free me? What are you expecting of me?” I said, unable to hide the irritation in my voice.

Is it really Yafen I'm displeased with right now?

Yafen looked at me anew, now a hint of surprise clouding her aloof demeanor. ”Not a particularly patient one, are you, even though you have waited for possibly hundreds of millions of years. Sadly, how I talk is one of the curses of my divinity and something I cannot change readily” She paused again. This time, however, she seemed to glare at me subsequently.

Hmm, she is surprisingly more childish than I thought. I readily re-evaluated her.

“Thinking something crude again, are you?” Yafen's silver eyes seemed to be looking through me, her expression this time unreadable.

“I freed you simply because you crossed my domain and caught my intrigue. As for what I want from you…” her gaze seemed to pierce into me, as for the first time since our meeting, her dull expression changed to a slight smile, a hint of playfulness dancing in her eyes.

She quickly reverted back to her apathetic form as she lay back in her nebula of galaxies. “I will incarnate you among the mortals of one of the planets in another god's domain. What your fate entails after is entirely up to you and, sadly, out of my jurisdiction.”

I sensed a plot of sorts. She had clearly kept too many of her cards hidden and had ignored the latter half of my question.

What exactly is this godly being planning for me…?

I concluded that It didn't matter. She had freed me and given me a chance—a chance for what exactly, I couldn't remember. But I felt this inherent sense of confidence within my soul, an almost self-destructive confidence that told me it didn't matter what her plans for me were. I would triumph in the end.

I sighed. “Forget it. Your reasoning for freeing my soul no longer matters to me, as long as you can promise not to hinder me from completing my mission and regaining my memories, then…” the next words seem to get caught in my throat as if this was the first time I had ever ushered such words.

“Th..thank you for freeing me from my prison Yafen” I couldn't help but be thankful for my current absence of facial expressions. Why was a single thank you so daunting for me? I could no longer recall.

Yafen seemed thoughtful as she studied me and my inner turmoil. Interesting how I now take her silence as thoughtfulness, as her blank expressions become slightly easier to read.

“No need to thank me, you can simply see this as me planting a seed that I will reap great rewards for in the future, though I can't disclose to you what those rewards will be for now…” her cloud floated towards me slowly, almost at a crawl, did she inherently do things at a snail's pace? As she shifted closer and closer toward me, her figure began to become smaller and smaller until I began to look down slightly upon her.

Then as if directly whispering into my ear, “Just know that once your memories have fully returned, all will become clear,” her words traveled through my soul, soft and assuring.

Then, this time, bringing her hands together, the entire universe seemed to stop. The largest Comets stopped moving; luminant stars began to dull, and galaxies stopped rotating. She shut her glittering silver eyes as a look of slight concentration crept across her face.

Then, opening her eyes, with one more glance towards me, “I wish you the best in your new life Tene.”

Darkness.