(MIKLAUS)

I started to open my eyes and was immediately blinded by more light than I'd seen before, it wasn't the light I was used to either. Blocking my eyes with my hand did nothing as most of it went through like it wasn't even there.

I tried to think of what to do, hoping it wasn't something I would need to just deal with constantly when the knowledge came to me. It flooded into my mind feeling both implanted and like it was my own at the same time.

Following the instructions that had appeared, I felt what I could only describe as energy flowing into my eyes into different sections. I 'closed' all but one stream of energy and slowly reopened my eyes. The blinding effect of all the lights I had seen earlier was now completely gone, my vision feeling almost like it was before.

However, as much as I wanted to think I had gone back to normal. That was the furthest thing from the truth. I could make out the stars above me clearly, almost as if I was standing directly next to them in space.

Now that I got a good look at them something was odd. A binary pair of stars were visibly revolving around each other yet they appeared to remain the same size no matter their position. Figuring it was better not to worry about it quite yet, I focused back on myself.

Rethinking back to what had happened at the mirror, the images of the other ‘me’ replaying in my head again and again. I reached up and grabbed my hair, pulling a strand of it down directly in front of my eye.

I had half-expected to see the dirty blonde hair I had been born with, but the look of my hand as I pulled down a strand of dark black hair, with a purple tip told me all I needed to know.

My hands felt like mine, but completely foreign at the same time. The grip strength held inside felt completely inhuman, along with the complete lack of calluses I used to have across my palms.

And as I looked down, any harbored doubt about my situation vanished. From the toned abs that now stretched across my stomach, the increased vascularity across my arms, and the muscles that were now perfectly proportional to this new body.

But even more incredible was the amount of energy I felt flowing through my body, so much flowing through me that it almost felt infinite.

It was truly amazing, and if not for the knowledge implanted in my head, I’d have probably been going insane. I mean all of this, it’s beyond what my imagination could have thought possible back on Earth.

Thinking of my home brought an immediate pang of guilt with it, memories of my mother flooding throughout my mind, overpowering all of my knowledge for a brief moment.

‘I wonder if there’s anything on this planet that might be able to help me. Something that can help me discover where I am, some people I can talk to, maybe someone with knowledge on how to directly go back.’

Realizing what I must do, I began to look around to see if there were any signs of life, or any possible signs that could lead me to something.

But everywhere I looked it was the same, just a few boulders and rocks here and there, with what I could only describe as tie-dye grass, and blueish trees that slowly swayed back and forth from the light breeze that swept across the otherwise barren land.

Thinking of all the new knowledge I had gained, I began to scan through my brain, hoping to find any answer that might help me, but for the first time my mind stayed completely blank.

‘I guess that would make sense, after all from what I saw it seemed the memories were from things that had already happened in previous lives, but this seems to be untouched by previous life. Or maybe that’s what we’re meant to think?’

As I stood pondering, I suddenly felt as something started to approach me, wait no, not something, someone?

I felt the hair on my arms slowly rise, as a shiver ran up my back. The energy coming off who or whatever was approaching me, felt nearly identical to mine, but at the same time completely different.

Quickly I began to search through my brain, hoping to find knowledge on how to increase the energy that I was giving off, in hopes I might be able to scare off whatever was approaching.

Instantly my body reacted to what I wanted, almost as if my body and mind were completely synced together.

I watched as a dark black and violet aura began to surround my body, the wind seemingly responding to my increase in power as winds fitting of a tornado began to blow.

Before I could wonder how the other energy would respond, I felt its power increase, once again matching my own.

‘It looks like I’ll have to try and fight this one out, but I guess it’ll be good to see what this body can fully do.’

Switching to a sprinter's stance, I locked onto where the energy was coming from, letting out a deep breath. I launched myself forward.

I felt an unreal speed push me forward, and just like that I found myself directly in front of three people.

Willing myself to stop, my feet planted a few inches away from the person standing in front.

I watched as wind immediately shot forward towards them, uprooting the grass, as it flew everywhere.

Looking to take advantage of the screen the grass had caused, I launched my fist forward at the front person.

But I felt my punch immediately stop, as my fist landed directly into her palm, sending a shockwave out that felt like it vibrated not just throughout the planet itself, but all of space.

“Is that any way to greet your friends, Miklaus?” The lady smiled as she let my fist go.

“What are you talking about? I have no idea who you are.” Taking a few steps back.

“That really hurts Miklaus.” Fainting a look of pain before she continued. “How could you say you don’t know us? We’ve known each other for years, and you drove us off a cliff.”

“Wait, Heaven?! But that’s impossible, you're way too beau….” Realizing what I was about to say, I quickly stopped myself, but from the look she gave me I could tell it hadn’t been fast enough.

“Way too what, Miklaus?” Giving off a half smile that sent shivers down my spine, more than the energy she let off ever could. “It seems this new look you’ve gotten caused you to also grow a pair of balls if you’re willing to say that to my face so nonchalantly.”

“If you’re Heaven, then that means those two are Reiji and Hikarus?” Giving my best attempt at changing the subject.

“That’s correct. It would seem the four of us are all together again.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I couldn’t help but feel baffled. Heaven the girl who could have been simply described as a Tomboy with curly red hair, was now the most beautiful woman I had set eyes on. The way her silky silver hair flowed perfectly down her head, her eyes that would turn from green to brown in the right shade, now were the most beautiful sea blue color I’d ever seen and were filled with life, and a perfect hourglass figure. She far surpassed any supermodel on earth.

Hikarus may have been the biggest change of all, the once dwarf-like friend now stood evenly with the three of us, and must have been on the taller side of six foot now. His once black hair was now replaced with a beautiful blonde looking like it had been made from gold, his once solid blue eyes, now a blood red, and his once tan baby face was now a milky white with a face that purely resembled that of a man’s.

Then there was Reiji, his once short auburn hair, now replaced with a long slicked back dark brown, his hazel eyes glowing a beautiful emerald green, and all the freckles he had once had were completely gone, leaving only a silky smooth face.

“You all look so different, it’s astounding.” Taking in everyone’s new appearance.

“Yours is quite something as well, your perfectly toned body, longish black hair with purple tips, and eyes that glow a violet color, and are shaped like the eyes we saw dragons have in the stories we’d read. You look like quite the bad boy actually.” Heaven finished.

“Wait, you all saw mirrors too right?” All three nodded to my question with a confused look on their faces. “Then that means you all saw symbols in the mirrors right? What did you guys see?”

The first to show their symbol was Reiji. He put his out and on the top of his hand and a little down the wrist was a Unalome, more than likely standing for the meaning of life.

Next was Hikarus, who had the Chinese symbol for light on the top of his hand, meaning he must control light.

Heaven went third, and had the Celtic symbol for sky, meaning she controlled the skies.

I went last, and as I put my hand out, on the top of it was the Ouroboros symbol but instead of the usual snake heads it was two dragons. Which meant I must control infinity, but I couldn’t help wondering if it meant I was also a dragon. That would explain the eyes after all.

“So life, infinity, light and sky. So Reiji if you stand for life, can you feel any around us?”

Reiji closed his eyes and his rune came to life, we felt a wave of energy wash over us and expand well beyond our own senses.

“Besides the four of us, I don’t feel anything… Not even any other planets or stars beyond these.”

“So, we are just out here alone? What’s even the purpose of this? Why are we here? More importantly, where are we and how do we go back home?” Hikarus asked, looking into the void of space.

None of us had an answer yet. This place, this universe was real yet felt wiped clean of existence. It was a blank slate.

We looked at each other and smiled one by one. With a mixture of needing a distraction from the many thoughts and emotions none of us wanted to address yet and the excitement at what we've become, we knew we just had to test this out. With a blank canvas all around us we decided to start this journey with how we ended our last.

A road, no, a space trip.

~~~

Playing god was hard.

It took us a long time to figure out how to create things. We started small with gasses and moved our way up to small rocky things. Reiji was a natural with Hik following quickly behind. Because of our new eyes and senses we didn't need any light to see and put off on creating stars until we got planets down.

Creation was as much a science as it was an art form. If we didn't form something right, it wouldn't last.

We made the rookie mistake of sticking close together for our practice, which quickly turned into a nightmare as everything clumped together or broke apart as we worked.

After a while I finally got the hang of it and created my first moon. Feeling proud I flew the five second distance to Reiji's area to brag a little but was shocked at what I saw.

He was across from me with his brows knitted in concentration. In front of him was a monstrosity of a planet, if I could even call it that. It was humongous and even more surprising was the interior, or lack thereof.

The crust was merely a frame with the inside being a complete mess of different shapes of rock. I expanded my senses a bit to see it from a distance and froze. Inside he had created a portrait of his family.

Everything I wasn't ready to address threatened to overtake me so I pushed it back down as hard as I could. Taking a deep breath I let the few tears that had escaped evaporate into the vacuum.

I cleared my throat, still curious how we could make sound in space, and moved closer to Reiji. I needed something to distract myself with.

"Dude, how is that even staying together?"

Reiji smirked at me and created a small sphere of matter in his palm.

"I figured out that injecting a small portion of our energy into our creations bypasses some of the rules." He demonstrated.

Intrigued, I summoned my own sphere, noting the imperfections in mine compared to his but chose to ignore it, for now, and began pushing energy in.

Reiji's eyes widened, "Slowe-"

It was too late. The ball exploded in a blast of violet lightning, pushing me back slightly. My surprised eyes met Reiji's and we both erupted into laughter.

(Heaven)

Powerlessness.

My whole life that's all I felt. My mom tried, she really did, for the first twelve years or so. But being married to an abusive cheater that acted like having me was simply a means to trap him in a marriage was bound to catch up to her eventually. After that it was just too much for her to bury inside and so she took it out on me. The easy target.

I couldn't blame her, not after seeing the angry drunk side of him. I was just glad that my mother was an easy target for him and he left me alone, for the most part. It wasn't until I "developed more", as he put it, that he began to take notice of me. Luckily I was a late bloomer.

If it wasn't for my friends, I'm not sure if I would have made it this far. I had the scars on my wrists from my several failed attempts as proof. Not that I ever dared reveal any of it to them intentionally. Something I realized was a mistake the moment my life changed for the better.

If going from my house I always took a bus to get closer to whichever one of their homes we were hanging out, Mik or Reiji's.

Always, except for the one time that I missed it by a few minutes. I had called to let them know I wouldn't make it yet it somehow ended up with Reiji going to pick me up. I was nervous but had time since neither parent was home yet, something that changed before Reiji arrived.

I should have had him pick me up somewhere nearby. I should have been more forceful in declining. Now Reiji might become his next target, and it's my fault. Those were my thoughts that ran through my mind while I waited and after he found me. Father wasn't too thrilled that I looked like I was going to head out and the fact that I didn't answer his questions properly only fueled his rage. The rage he then pounded into me.

I don't know how much time passed and I'm still unsure how Reiji knew. Perhaps it was my failure to hold in my cries as father had always demanded. It's not important now. There was the sound of glass breaking, a scuffle, then the wet sound meat being hit. Over and over. After a few minutes of it continuing I managed to open my eyes and saw a bloody yet uninjured Reiji on top of my father, pounding into the bloody mess that used to be his face.

Watching him beat my father within an inch of his life left me feeling euphoric. The same euphoria I felt now as the atmosphere on my first creation roared to life. My small collection of planets orbited around each other encircling me.

The euphoria turned to ecstasy as I marveled, once again, at the power at my fingertips. The energy danced to my will and I could tell it was growing and I was growing along with it.

Power truly was freedom.

(Hikarus)

I always strove for a challenge. Something that became harder and harder the more I pushed. Education was simply memorization and application, both of which had never been hard. A real challenge was discovering and working out something new. A near impossibility for how I was.

It wasn't that everything was discovered already, the issue was access and the freedom to delve into it. Life required money and that meant you were dependent on others. I could suffer and work a boring well paying job to fund my own work eventually or I could work as a researcher, and that would require me to delve into what they wanted. Both of which I did not want.

That's not including the limitations of a human body and living in a social society. I required sustenance and was expected to be involved with society. I did enjoy spending time with my friends, while I wasn't working on something I found fun, but everyone else was only a hindrance to that fun. My parents were an obligation. Awards and dinners were superfluous and taxing.

Sleeping began as a hindrance, that is until I figured out lucid dreaming. The term I learned later on when I shared my discovery with Mik. My dream world became my laboratory, one that took a decade of work to make as realistic as possible. Even then, it was directly influenced by my intent so it wasn't a perfect substitute.

That's why this power we have gained has been a dream come true. It's a complete unknown to anything ever experienced and with it I can do anything. Discovering the intricacies of the universe itself and how to use my new abilities.

Finishing my thirtieth planetoid and placing it into a stable orbit around the others, I smiled and gently moved one out of place to see how the others reacted in the chaos I had created.

(Miklaus)

The novelty of creating clumps of dirt had a limit and we, minus Hik, were approaching that fast. We could create near infinite more if we wanted and perhaps we would eventually, but there was one glaring issue. There were no stars. And while that mattered little to us, it wouldn't be a very good universe without those.

Hikarus passed on joining us for our initial attempts, something about testing the different results of pure element planets colliding. He had given us a run down though. As Heaven has so eloquently translated "a star is a big ass clump of gas". Now of course it's not that simple but Hik claimed figuring that out is the fun part.

Using the motto "bigger is always better", I went first. After countless days, more likely years as it was hard to tell the passage of time in a slightly less empty black void, spent practicing, we could create an earth sized planet in a matter of moments. Placing my hands out I felt my energy react immediately, a nebulous cloud of pure hydrogen expanded rapidly in front of me. In seconds it surpassed the largest planets we had made, even the ones we used Reiji's cheat on to make way bigger than should be possible.

As it expanded, something finally changed. I felt a light pull from the center and watched the massive cloud react. Like opening a drain in a full sink the gas particles seemed to be pulled into an ever growing clump. Enticed by the gravity, I lost focus and conjured as much hydrogen as possible.

I was but a grain of sand next to the condensing nebula yet it didn't ignite properly, it was turning into something more. The nuclear fusion couldn't withstand the sheer volume of matter I was shoving into the core. After a few more minutes, a ripple of gravity escaped triggering the implosion of the struggling core. I came to my senses at its trigger but only had time to feel my friends' auras next to me before it happened.

The massive failed star shrank into a sphere around the size of my palm and then rebounded in the same moment. The plasma and gas exploded out, disintegrating all of our creations thus far and sending us flying, actually managing to singe my hair.

I floated through space just watching the explosive wave continue to travel for light years. The sheer power and destruction of it was intoxicating. I wanted more, it was powerful but I knew it was child's play compared to me. The thought of conjuring more destruction was cut off by the arrival of Heaven and Reiji next to me, breaking the spell I had been under.

"That went well," Reiji joked.

“I’d love to see you do better.”