….Nu… Si… Nur.

“Sir Nur…”

The voice calling out was soft yet firm, belonging to a young woman, wearing a white trench coat, with long black hair framed by bangs. Her sweet voice carried a tone of hopefulness and quiet confidence, though her expressionless eyes held a lingering glimmer of light.

Nur sat at the back of the ship, slouched in a chair bolted to the spacecraft’s center. His tired eyes fluttered open after a brief doze. They seemed to have given up, their light extinguished.

Hearing Taliah’s voice, Nur stirred, his weary body responding as he straightened himself with effort, pushing past the weight of countless struggles.

“Finally…” His voice cracked as the words escaped, heavy with the burden he was carrying his whole life. “It… felt like eternity.”

Taliah turned her attention back to the controls, calculating the time until they reached the exit point. Her focus was on the faint white light at the end of the tunnel, which appeared to be some kind of wormhole.

Outside, the view was extraordinary. The wormhole was surrounded by swirling, vibrant colors—an otherworldly display that rippled and danced across the black void of space. Beneath its beauty lay a feeling of mystery, as if the universe itself held secrets too profound to grasp, the countless stars in the distance was visible from inside the rift.

The spacecraft floated silently in the expanse. Its black frame stood stark against the cosmic backdrop, and the steady hum of its engines was the only sound breaking the silence of the void.

The ship itself, shaped like a stealth bomber but triple its size, had an interior that was neither luxurious nor salvaged. It was functional, yet spacious, with nothing to suggest extravagance.

Although the ship could have accommodated a full crew, only two figures occupied it: Nur and Taliah. Just the two of them, venturing into the unknown.

Taliah, with a sudden worry in her heart, her slender hands clung. Nearby, a half-empty coffee cup sat on the console, now cold and forgotten. Beside it rested a notebook and pen, the latter lying as though it held untold stories waiting to be written.

Nur’s gaze shifted to the colorful abyss outside the cockpit window. As he stared, a faint vibration began to reverberate through the ship. It was subtle at first, almost imperceptible.

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The coffee cup, empty but still holding the stein, rested on the small table to the right of his hand. He show the cup trembling, The vibrations intensified, spreading through the spacecraft like an unspoken warning.

Nur, accustomed to the unpredictable dangers of their journey, remained unfazed. He had imagined countless ways things could go wrong.

Taliah, however, felt the vibrations growing stronger beneath her fingertips. The trembling coffee cup caught her eye as the silence that once surrounded them now seemed to deliver an ominous message.

The small white light ahead—their exit point—was growing larger and brighter.

The tremor intensified, causing the ship to begin experiencing malfunctions. It started to break down as if it were about to split apart. The ship was disintegrating into pieces, as if something was gradually consuming it.

Alarms blared, signaling an emergency. The ship had lost many parts and was rapidly shattering due to an unknown force. Suddenly, the food and necessities stored in the back of the spacecraft flew off.

The light that seemed to be still quite distant suddenly grew closer and was about to devour them and the spacecraft that was on the verge of destruction.

For a brief moment, Taliah turned to Nur. Her face, usually blank and expressionless, softened. A small, fleeting smile broke through, and her dark pupils glistened with unshed tears.

She whispered something, but her voice was so faint that it was swallowed by the hum of the void suddenly, The words never reached Nur.

As her tears fell, the blinding white light consumed them both.

“…”

When Nur opened his eyes, the world had changed.

He found himself standing in a vast white void, an endless expanse of nothingness stretching infinitely in all directions.

He looked down at his hands, his body. He was whole. But was this truly reality? Or had his consciousness drifted somewhere far beyond?

The only tangible thing in this empty realm was himself and the floor which felt as if he was standing in mid air due to his eyes perceiving only white and his shadow was non existing. His white trench coat stood stark against the blinding backdrop, his black hair and dark brown eyes contrasting sharply with the void. Beneath the coat, he wore a dark forest green vest over a crisp white shirt, a matching tie, and pants. His boots clicked softly against an invisible surface, the sound vanishing into the emptiness.

“Where… am I?” He muttered, his voice echoing faintly in the silence.

“I’ve finally done it, huh?” The words felt hollow, as if they had been ripped from his soul. Regret swirled in his chest, a relentless storm he couldn’t calm.

“I just might be dead,” he whispered, his voice trembling with disbelief.

Suddenly, as if drawn from the deepest part of his being, he muttered a name. “Miel…”

Regret clawed at him, sharper and more unrelenting than the pain in his heart

The pain was too real that made him break him from the thought that he was dead, instead he came up with a theory that he has been transported to another place

He clenched his fists as despair weighed on him, heavy and suffocating. The unbearable truth loomed, and for the first time, he questioned if crossing that threshold had been worth it.

Then, a thought struck him—a name.

“Taliah!”

His voice broke through the void as he called out again and again, desperation creeping into his tone. The last memory he had was of her tearful smile, her whispered words swallowed by the abyss.

He clenched his fists, his heart pounding as dread settled over him like a suffocating fog. She wasn’t here. He was alone.

But that couldn’t be.

Determination flared within him, banishing the fear. He couldn’t leave her behind. He wouldn’t.

Nur took a step forward, his boots striking the unseen ground beneath him. The white void offered no path, no destination, but he moved regardless.

Each step was a battle, his figure dwarfed by the infinite expanse. Time lost all meaning as he walked. Seconds felt like hours, and hours felt like lifetimes. The oppressive light pressed in from all sides, unrelenting and endless.

But he did not stop.

He had to find her.

“…”

Meanwhile on earth, 1st January 2024

Above the clouds, a tower lay piercing it

…