In the void of space, a singularity formed. It tore through the fabric of reality, devoured space and time, feeding the little life that slept inside. 

The sight was phenomenal.

A black hole the size of a million suns ravaged through the void, searching for anything the universe could feed it with. It left a path of large debris as it devoured celestial objects, nebulas, and galaxies.

If one looked closely enough, one would see that the more the singularity devoured, the more the fetus inside its womb grew. It suckled on the celestial nutrients its mother had provided for her and grew at an astronomical rate. And finally, when the singularity reached the size of a pocket universe, the fetus's heart thumped. 

With every one of its heartbeats, its growth accelerated at the expense of its mother's health.

When it's first heartbeat came, its body reached infancy. The little female infant wore a crown of void-black hair and sported tiny, chubby limbs.

With the second beat, the infant became a toddler. Her hair kissed the tips of her shoulders as her body grew out of its tanned cocoon, and came out as milky white. 

The third beat, however, did not come as the child stopped breathing. Its mother's reaction was immediate and panicked. A soul-shattering shriek shook the universe as the supermassive black hole quickly tried to feed its child with an unadulterated dosage of cosmic energy.

The toddler's mouth opened slightly, desperately consuming its worried mother's nourishment before turning silent again. The universe hushed, biting its fingernails as it peeled its ears for the heartbeat of the child. 

Just as all hope seemed to have been lost, the soothing heartbeat returned with intense vigor. A plethora of colors imploded from within the supermassive singularity's womb, tickling its child's ravenous hunger; she greedily absorbed all of the cosmic dust into her body and smiled when she finished her meal.

Her heart throbbed with its third beat. The toddler instantly skipped the rest of the developmental stages as her body transformed into the size of a teenage girl. Her hair that blended with the emptiness of space elongated to the tips of her waist as her features became more announced.

As the fourth heartbeat pounded through the universe, the teenage girl's features changed to that of a mature, full-fledged adult. The sleeping beauty had an otherworldly charm that drew even the celestial stars in and displayed a body seductive enough to make angels fall. 

As her fifth heartbeat resounded, the universal black hole exploded and collapsed on itself, releasing an immense wave of radiation and heat, obliterating everything in its path, leaving behind its child two presents. The unwanted elements merged into a backless, stygian wardress that exuded an aura of supremacy and an elysian crown that demanded subservience. Both slowly fixed themselves onto the nude body of the gorgeous woman. 

Then the final sixth beat came. 

With it, the woman's eyes opened wide, revealing two orbs of gray-black that showed instant shock.

She sucked in a heavy breath of celestial dust, before her eyes darted left and right, scanning her surroundings in a shock-induced frenzy as her breasts heaved with every hectic breath.

'Where am I?!' The woman thought, her hands fumbling around her face. "Is this hell?" She removed the thought when a question hit her like a truck. Wait. What's hell?

She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to grasp at the fleeting memories in her brain. Her breathing slowed.

She scanned her surroundings again and clenched her jaw when she saw that only space greeted her. "Who am I?" Another frustrating question introduced itself.

"I... I can't remember anything?!" The raven-haired woman quickly took deep, regular breaths. For some reason, it felt right to do that as her panic started to grow tired. "No, I can't afford to panic right now."

"Breathe in. Breathe out. That's right; think carefully." She coaxed her mind into a state of calm. "Think. Remember. Is there anything you remember?"

She cursed as her mind gave her the middle finger. She looked at the infinite horizon, and the shimmering radiance of the cosmos as a thought struck her mind. "Wait a minute, how am I even breathing right now?"

She did a double-take. 'How do I know you can't breathe in space?' 

The previous resting stream of questions came back. 'Breathe in. Breathe out.'

Her curiosity slowly died down as she assessed her situation with a fresh mind. "First of all, I'm stranded in space, with no sign of life for miles."

She ignored the nagging curiosity and focused. "Second, I am somehow alive in said space without dying." She bit her perfectly trimmed fingernails. "Third, I have no recollection of anything and everything."

"No." The woman looked at a blinking star and somehow knew that it was called a star. "I do know what things are called and their functions, but not how I know them."

"Goddamn, it," She whispered, her voice chiming like heavenly bells. She crouched down and sat with her head down. As she saw comets whisk past her vision, she only then noticed she was also somehow flying? Floating? In space?

She returned her attention to the familiar warm void of space. "What am I supposed to do now?" 

A faint image of something green sparkled in her peripheral vision. 

"Should I just-Argh!" She clutched her head, holding it for dear life as she felt like a giant grabbed a hammer and was trying to break her head open.

She tightened her hold on her head as her body rolled around the void. "Whose memories are these?!"

She opened her eyes, noticing that her vision had turned red as a tragic tale of a young girl unfold before her eyes. 

The little girl didn't mind the innocent soul her parents had betrayed.

The girl didn't mind the fire her lover had set upon her body.

The woman didn't mind the stakes her followers had pierced into her heart.

She took all of the suffering, the agony, and pain with a smile, for, in the end, she had escaped the circle of hatred and suffering. 

And her name was, 

"Eve. The Almighty One." As the words left her mouth, the beautiful woman's eyes returned to their onyx color. 

She dropped down onto the cushion of space as she panted. "Wh-What? How, how do I know her name?"

Wiping the sweat forming on her brows, she practiced her mantra of serenity. As she calmed down, she felt something move inside her veins. 'What in the world?'

She fell into even more confusion as an answer formed immediately inside her mind. "Orix. The purest form of energy."

A set of instructions formed inside her mind, teaching her of the many things the practitioners of this mysterious energy were able to perform. It was in-depth, complete, and a full manual on its usage and application. As she continued reading the manual, the woman felt a sense of enlightenment.

"I see." She said, exhaling a breath of energy. "This supernatural energy is helping me survive in literal space even though I should have been frozen to death ages ago."

"It's all to the wonders of Orix." She muttered to herself.

In hindsight, Orix allowed it's few practitioners to perform godly feats, some of which are: bending the laws of the universe or surviving in a star. Of course, the level of achievement one could perform would depend on the practitioner's knowledge of the supernatural nature of Orix.

"But still, it doesn't change the fact that I'm still stranded in the middle of the uni-wait. What's that sound?" Her ears peeled further as she looked in a particular direction.

The sound of metal scraping against one another and the roars of men filled her ears even though it should have been impossible for sound to travel through vacuum. But nevertheless, she remained calm and attributed it to one of her body's abilities.

"Where the hell is it coming from?" She looked around and tried to search for the source of the sound but ultimately failed. There was nothing around for thousands of light-years except for the distant stars and clusters of cosmic energy. 

"Focus." A voice in her mind instructed her. "Relax your body. Direct the Orix in your stomach to your ears and eyes."

She immediately jumped back in shock. "What the hell?! Who are you?!"

Astounding silence answered her question as the void looked at her like an idiot. "Maybe I heard wrong?" She calmed her spiking heart. 

"What was that voice?" She scanned her eyes around.

She looked around, trying to see if there was anyone or anything that could be messing with her mind. Then, she pondered over the voice's words. She thought over who the mysterious voice could have been but scratched her neck in frustration as waves of answerless questions followed the train of thought. So, she instead focused on the voice's words and tried to think over what it had just said.

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"It's instructing me?" She asked herself. "But why?"

The previous sounds of war returned to answer her question. "It wants me to go to the sound?"

Her body and mind nodded at her question. She stared at her long, icy fingers that looked like it was going to break off soon. "I have no recollection of myself, stranded in a universe where logic and physics are thrown out the window and left with nothing but a mystical energy."

"And, this body wants me to dive into something I have completely, absolutely no awareness of?" She muttered to herself, aghast at the idea. "Granted, I have power, a lot in fact, but there is always the possibility of someone more powerful than me to just pop up and kill me."

She stared at the never-ending cosmos. "But, It's the only hint I've got."

She sighed. "Alright. So, it told me to focus?" 

She calmed her mind and closed her eyes, ignoring the visual stars and patterns that illuminated her internal darkness.

"Direct the Orix in your stomach." 

She tried to sense the pure energy that flowed through her veins and eventually traced them back to their origin; her stomach. Then, she tugged at the seemingly infinite mass of sheer power in her abdomen and pumped it to her ears. 

Instantly, a chaotic song of static and electrical chirps played at full volume in her ears.

"Arghh. TOo much!" She stopped her Orix circulation immediately and fell panting, trying to suck in every breath of Orix into her lungs.

After taking a moment to calm herself, she exhaled and closed her eyes. "Let's do this one more time but gentler."

"Gently..." The strangely warm feeling of Orix slowly slithered through her veins, as she ordered it to rest in her ears. The previous chaotic song transformed into a slow melody of beautiful harmony and order. It felt like the universe was singing to her, a song that only the trusted and seekers of knowledge could hear.

"How beautiful." She unconsciously relaxed into the choir of the universe before shaking herself awake. "No. I can't afford to lose focus here. Onto the next anatomy." 

She closed her eyes and slowly coaxed the Orix in her stomach. She masterfully, already having done this once, directed the pure energy into her eyes.

And as she blinked open her eyes, an abundance of color filled her vision. 

"Woah..." She could see almost everything in the universe. She saw the fireflies that shone with brilliance, the large clusters of celestial dust and energy, the beautiful nebulas that groaned, and finally, the black canvas that all of creation was painted on.

A tear dropped from her eye. It amazed her at how big the universe was, the amount of life it hosted, and the amount of paths is provided.

Yet as she looked in a particular direction, past the many oceans of gases, she felt something call for her. Nay, it begged for her. Without a thought, her instinct took over her mind and ordered the body to start the circulation of Orix. Her crown flared a deep gold as a blanket of energy wrapped itself around her body.

The beautiful woman seemed to gain control of her body again and wondered why her heart was thumping so loud. As she felt her blood starting to boil and the cloak of white on her body, she realized what was going to happen.

But it was too late. "Wait!" She could only gasp in shock before her body disappeared and zoomed through space. 

She closed her eyes and held her arms before her face, bracing for an impact of some sort in a moment of shock-induced stupidity.

"Lean into your aura. Trust it." The sultry voice came back and instructed her again.

She could do nothing but to place her trust in the voice. And so, she leaned into the gentle aura that protected her from the abrasion of air. She sped through the cosmos, looking on in amazement at the flashes of color that darted past her vision. Be it gas giants, remnants of a dead star, or the birth of a new one, and she saw all of it happen for a split moment before flying past them at speed beyond light.

She felt like she could just look at the cosmic flowers forever, but unfortunately, she arrived at her destination, or at least, the voice's goal. 

As the skin-tight, ghostly aura disappeared into mid-air, she felt a green light wash over her sensitive eyes. Terminating her circulation of Orix, she sighed, feeling the addicting god-like energy trickle down to her stomach. 

She shook her head before opening her eyes. Her breath stopped when her eyes landed on what was arguably the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She knew it sounded arrogant since she was just born not too long ago, but she stood by her claim.

'What is the name of...' The woman's thoughts were filled with praises of such beauty. Her eyes twinkled and glistened with a greenish glow as she looked at the emerald planet.

The giant marble blinked with vivid brilliance and basked in the protective warmth of it's flushed, celestial father. It turned away shyly when it noticed her gobsmacked face, blushing a deep green. Two blue moons teased their older sister, ridiculing her for being shy as they secretly longed for their romance. 

She felt small, floating before the jade planet as the scenery warmed her heart and cleared her muddled thoughts. 

For the moment, she felt at home. 

But her praises were cut short as the clanging of metals and the booming of explosions returned. But this time, it was a little different because this time, it was also accompanied with prayers and cries of agony that pleaded for salvation and aid.

'That's new.' She remarked as her mind was flooded with thoughts of sadness and misery as she listened to them pleading for help and mercy. She felt all of their emotions like she was them, and they were her. 

'Is it one of this body's abilities?' She felt even more curious of this body and the skills it hid. Nevertheless, she focused on the heart-rending moans and groans. It was at that moment, a queasy feeling in her gut told her, begged her to go or else she would regret it one day.

But what could she do? No, the bigger question was, could she even help them?

She had just been born not too long ago and her achievements since then comprised of just understanding Orix, enhancing all of her body (In theory), and traveling faster than the speed of light even though she had no idea how to replicate the effects again.

Also, she still had no concept of the power levels of this universe, but seeing as she's able to survive through space, it must be pretty ridiculous.

As she thought of just ignoring the calls of help, an image formed in her mind. It was of a girl who had been cursed with misfortune and begged everyone, anyone, to help her yet felt broken when no-one answered her calls. 

'Damn it. It's not even my freaking memories.' She clenched her fist, annoyed that her body was reacting to the calls. 

"Argh, fine, I'll go, so stop your whining already!" She yelled at her own body like a madwoman as the wails of pain decreased in decibel, satisfied with her answer.

She grimaced when a bright flash of light appeared before her eyes. "What in the hell...?"

"Well done. It looks like I can believe in you after all." The sultry, mysterious voice resounded, and this time, she knew it wasn't in her mind.

She rubbed her eyes open and felt her blood run cold at what she saw.

There was no mistaking the long, black hair, the crown that sat on her head, and the beautiful stygian wardress that she donned with pride. A string of words popped up in her mind.

The Breaker of Chains

 The Lord of All,

The Alpha and Omega

But most importantly, the woman in her visions had appeared in front of her with a smug grin on her face as she glowed like an ephemeral ghost. 

"Eve." She whispered in fright.

"Joan," Eve replied, a calm smile hanging on her ruby-red lips.

All of the hairs on Joan's skin rose up as she wore a dumbfounded look. "You... you know who I am?"

Eve floated closer. "Of course. I know a lot of things. I know the origin of life. I know the answer to death. He's a pretty funny guy once you know him." 

"Where was I? Oh yeah, the 'I know who you are' part. Right. " Eve grinned. "Of course, I know you. After all, we're the same person, you and I." 

Joan furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Eve tore a rift through space and took out a golden, embroidered mirror. "See for yourself."

Joan reached for the mirror with a confused look on her face. But as she held the mirror in her pale fingers and turned it around, she almost dropped it, courtesy of the million voltage that shocked her brain. 

"Wha... What?" Joan swallowed her shock and looked at the mirror and back to Eve again. Why did she see Eve's reflection in the mirror?! 

Joan felt her knees tremble and heard her bones rattle, but she ignored them and asked with a shaking hand. "B-But, how?!"

Eve ordered the mirror to return to the pocket dimension before looking at her younger self. "There are a lot of things that you don't know yet, little Joanie. But it's fine."

"All of your Lil ol questions will be answered in due time." Eve cupped Joan's face and looked dead serious. "But for now, you need to hurry."

"Hurry? To where?" Joan's eyes quivered like fishes as questions piled on top of each other. It hadn't been even a minute since this woman has entered her life, but she was already messing up her mind.

Eve placed her dainty hand above Joan's heart and smiled. "Trust me. You know where." 

She giggled when she saw the confusion in Joan's eyes before quirking her eyebrows up. "Before all of the whole 'world-saving' you're about to do, here's a little present from me." Her hands cupped both sides of Joan as she leaned in for a kiss.

A shocked moan escaped Joan's lips. But before she could try and push the mysterious woman away, an influx of memories had appeared in her mind. She closed her head and braced for an excruciating pain to hit her but felt confused when a gentle stream of information flowed inside her brain.

Joan soon realized that the memories were of Eve practicing her arsenal of skills, the martial forms she practiced to exercise their fullest potential, and, most importantly, the immense experience and instinct she attained from her long life of suffering.

Eve detached her rosy lips from Joan's and floated back. She smirked mischievously, "You're a horrible kisser." 

She enjoyed the dumbfounded look on Joan's face. "I hope you enjoyed the gift. 'Cause if you didn't, I'd be pretty mad at you." 

"I-you, what? Uh..." Joan stated dumbly in response. The stream of information that flooded her mind and the kiss that Eve had just imposed on her was too much for Joan to comprehend.

Eve just stared at her reflection and smiled. It was tiresome being able to know and do everything, but as she peeked at the endless paths that cruel fate had prepared for her, she felt excited. She grinned, not having felt that feeling for a long, long time. At least not since she had first started on her journey.

Eve sighed before realizing that her body was disappearing. "Ah. I guess my time is up."

"Wh-Wait!" Joan rushed to catch Eve's body as her brain registered the fact that Eve was slowly turning to cosmic dust. "You still haven't told me how you know my name!" 

Eve laughed and dodged Joan's grapple. "You'll know soon enough! After all, you have quite a lifetime to figure it out!" 

Eve giggled before snapping her fingers. "Well then, adios!" Her presence and body disintegrated into cosmic dust.

Joan was silent as she stood frozen in her position, her hands reaching for where Eve had just been. She inhaled a deep breath of Orix before slowly exhaling as she retracted her hand and stared at it before clenching it tightly. 

"What the hell, you can't just drop a bombshell on someone and just leave like that." Joan gritted her teeth. "What 'Absolute One'? More like a freaking scammer."

Joan raised her face and showed closed eyes. "I swear on my name that I'll figure out all of your mysteries. And after? I hope there is an afterplace for deities, you damned trickster."

"But first things first." Joan relaxed her body before circulating the warm, pure Orix around her veins. "I have a planet that needs my help, a universe of mysteries to be explored, and a life of questions that needs to be answered." 

Joan turned her attention to the giant jade marmoreal as the wails of agony filled her ears. She stilled her body and circulated Orix into her eyes smoothly. The super binocular view took her past the clouds of gold, past the seas of monsters, past the elysian islands, and finally rested on the source of the cries and moans of pain.

She felt like puking when she saw the grim theatre that was playing before her enhanced eyes. All source of color visibly drained from her face before she felt something cold wash over her mind, calming her down immediately.

She exhaled a shaky breath and brought herself to a state of absolute calm. "All right, it's time to see what this body can do."  

She closed her eyes and felt for her Orix that slept deep in her stomach and woke the colossal beast up. Her crown started to flare up brighter than any star as a cloak of white wrapped itself around her body. After she felt the warm hug of her aura, she passed down an order to her body.

"Fly." Her body instantly turned into a flash of white that whisked past the two moons and charged at the jade planet; the distance between her and said world quickly growing shorter by the second. 

'Just hold on for a little more. The cavalry is coming.' Joan mused as she blinked through space.