FIRST INTERLUDE

Years ago, across time and space

In a single, wrenching moment I lost everything, and was forever damned.

Pride led my hand, and grand visions of the future overshadowed my wisdom. I believed myself infallible, and unleashed a great horror into the world, perhaps the greatest this galaxy has faced. Even then, the tarnish of my soul was tempered by the light of my life, and together we fought the consequences of my Fall.

And then... she was no more.

I saw her perish, gone eternally, and I howled in peerless anguish. I became alone, both in existence and before that terrifying, savage, relentless adversary. Sorrow drowned my horizon and sapped my being, yet its reign allowed a sliver of basic, primordial fear to take hold of my actions ever so briefly, and I fled that hopeless battle waged in the darkest depths.

I raced to the surface, the air tearing away from my lungs in a wordless sonata of paramount turmoil and raw emotion. Liquid guilt bled freely, blinding my sight while I bounded up the elevated way. As I got higher and higher, the earthly pain from my flight shrieked in unison with the raging torment in my heart.

Sound from another microcosm echoed ahead. They rushed at me, valiant guards coming to defend their dearest from irreversible harm. Their great shapes overshadowed my mere physicality, as they bore down upon me the weapons nature had blessed them with. Without a pause, I drew a blade of radiant light, a weapon of my own creation, and drove forward. I whirled into a single, fluid motion practiced across centuries, mind focused and precise. There was no clash. I deprived those opposing me of their sacred gift, never slowing for an instant, untouched. Life drained, vibrant flesh became inert meat, and they fell, demeaned, while I passed through.

Ahead, more honorable wardens, all lashing in surprise, anger, worry. I became the avatar of their undoing, as my own deathly shadow followed behind. Time blazed in overdrive, its temporal field strained into a nigh-infinite line. My fate was sealed, and I had no chance for redemption, only one last, final duty.

The Shard.

If I was ever to find salvation, it was there in the world beyond worlds. There was the only possible answer, and it was the only thing which must not fall in the claws of the one I freed from justice. Drawing my power in full, I flashed across the interlinked mesh of spacetime, and reached for the pattern I needed: the Shard.

He must not take it. And she was erased, utterly destroyed. The only chance I had to get her back was to go to the depths of the Great Cosmos itself.

Wielding my Starblade, the most powerful of my creations, I tore open a rift inside the Shard, widening its connection until it stretched across all the endless planes of reality. With one motion I stepped inside and sealed the link permanently, so no other could follow me, be it mortal or god.

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Then I fell between the stars.

In one moment, I was defined, constrained, bound by the perceptions of my own core. In the next, I was infinity: blown across the canvas of Creation itself, shattered into pieces, each stretching for eternity. For unknowable time, I drifted in this endless, incoherent state, oblivious to anything save for the incomprehensible, unattainable vastness, that greatest of greatest, holiest of holiest, One, Supreme, Omnipotent, United…

…the Universe.

Yet I was not dead.

I needed her.

This single, dawning ray of anguish brought me back to myself.

I had to find Kalessia.

She was gone from my reality, erased, impossible to return to form or to be drawn from the time-stream and saved thusly; he had made sure of that. Yet she was not truly gone – she could never be. Nothing in the Great Cosmos was ever lost, for it always belonged to All, and returned to One, as the Celestial Way taught us. So I would find her here, in the world between worlds, find where her unique soul had departed to have another blessing under the stars of light.

I set out to search for her, and I found her. She was everywhere, infinite and eternal. She had endless incarnations: she lived in parallel dimensions, in different states, on a multitude of planes, happy, sad, in harmony, and in ruin. Her soul played the strings of reality, as did all others. She was with me; she was without me; she was herself; she was someone else; she lived long, well, and worthily; she died in misery and pain.

She was everywhere, yet she was nowhere.

My Kalessia, the one, dearest projection of the One Soul, the Kalessia I loved and lived with, was nowhere. She was gone. She was transformed. She was returned to the Whole, the Formless, the Absolute, the Perfect One, and she was happy, joyous, loving, and in harmony.

She was in peace.

Yet I remained behind.

I was without her.

I was still here.

I was still alive.

WITHOUT HER!

I WANTED PEACE!

I WANTED TO BE WITH HER!

Yet I was not.

I was alone.

I failed.

Death was not a guarantee. At best, it was an escape. No, my duty was clear.

Redemption was my road after all.

I made others suffer, and I let suffering happen. For my sins, I was punished with the ultimate suffering.

I had a vision. A galaxy in peace, a world in joy, a universe in eternal harmony. I wanted to leave my legacy for the reality I was part of.

Now, my dream was meaningless. Now, I must vasten the scale to the utmost infinity. So I could turn my dream into a sacred gift to the Universe, and earn thus the chance, merely the chance, of redemption.

I would make All into One.

And then, I would be with Kalessia again. We would all be Together, Now and Forever.

To do that, I had to return to where I so cowardly fled from. Struggling, I found my own reality and timeline. I found the link to another Shard: Terra Para.

Home.

I found the exit, and returned to my existence.

They were startled. They were afraid. They feared me. Yet I announced before all that Salvation was at hand, for I was to bring the Gift of Unity. I led them by example, and offered my Soul first to become the Light which would bring forth Eternity. My power surged; it was incredible, potent beyond any imagination, yet it was fleeting; I needed to open the Gates and cast out my Brilliance into the Light, and Miracle would Come Forth.

They tried to stop me, hurling themselves at me. Their attempts were futile; I merely applied my Will, and they became my heralds, unable to die, Revenant of the Coming Age of Eternity.

Then they fled, and in a final attempt at defiance, they locked my Temple, preventing my Redemption from giving Salvation to All.

They were fools. They did not see my Gift for the Truth it was.

It did not matter. I was Above and Beyond, Across and Beside, Within and Without, the Messiah who would sacrifice for the Benefit of THEM ALL.

And my reward would be my peace, my beautiful, pure, dearest love: my Kalessia.

Yet now my soul Burned, and my Time was counted. I had to act, and be decisive.

I did not want to force them. I wanted them to see, to enlighten themselves of their own volition, so they may Cheer when Unity came.

Now, I will show them the Way whether they want it or not.

I will make All into One.

Oblivion.

Singularity.

Perfection.

Eden.