The woman smiled at me, but it did not reach her eyes. They were cold and black, like onyx but somehow even darker than that. She was as tenebrous as the Void, like an extension of the vast realm around us. She sauntered towards me with the same stillness as a cold-hearted huntress.

I tensed up. "What are you?"

She smiled amusedly. "Shouldn't the question be who am I?"

"You heard me."

"Perceptive," she mused. "I can't sense fear from you, either."

"I've felt enough fear before it's become familiar to me," I said grimly. "You still haven't answered my question."

"if I showed you what I am, I can't guarantee you'll be sane, or whole," she warned.

"Then tell me who you are and why I'm here," I said impatiently.

"Feisty." She smirked. "I like that."

I cocked one eyebrow, waiting for her response.

The woman sighed. "I am a Goddess, you see. You may call me Hal'vera."

"You don't seem like one," I noted.

"Some say that." She shrugged easily. "As for why you are here, well… To put it simply, you must return to the Void."

I narrowed my eyes. "And just what do you mean by that?"

Hal'vera's grin became darker at that. "Tell me, Vali, the Cursed Child, what has plagued you all your life? What is the curse you bear? The same curse that made you a pariah."

"You're talking about that thing?" I inquired, clenching my fists.

"Contrary to what you might think, it is not a curse, but a gift. Power beyond mortal comprehension."

"It's killed so many people just for being in my way," I countered.

"Why do you care about those deaths? You've said so yourself: everybody dies."

"Except you."

"Except us," she corrected.

"You're the same as it, aren't you?" I asked, eyes locked to hers.

Her smile became much ghastlier. Around her, shimmering milky white eyes opened, stretching across the Void.

"Oh yes, you'll do," she cooed softly, but her plentiful voices made it reverberate until it nearly pierced through my eardrums. "Tell me: what does it mean to be human? What makes you all so special despite how insignificant you are?"

I pondered that question for a moment, knitting my eyebrows in concentration.

What does a human have that a Void Entity doesn't? What do we have that has made us prosper—

"The question is the answer," I said after a moment of silence. "You want our creativity. Our humanity."

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Hal'vera chortled. "The source of your downfall—being human—is also your greatest gift. What we have in logic and perception, you have in cunning—in cleverness. We may be more intelligent than you ever will be, but you are more creative. That is something we want. The enigma of humanity."

"And that's where we come in," I realized.

"Yes," she said in delight. "You have one of my brethren. It has found you suitable to be its host. It means that it worked."

"What worked?"

Hal'vera ignored me. "This is perfect. This is the beginning." She giggled darkly. "Now we need you to get stronger. We need you to learn how to work with it."

"Work with what?" I demanded. "What Void Entity is inside of me?"

The Goddess stared at me with searching eyes. She wasn't looking at me, but through me. Her peering gaze was trained at what was inside of me. My soul was visible to her black eyes, reflecting it.

"I see you, dear servant," she said softly. "Rise, Condemner of Sinners."

As soon as she uttered her words, a violent pain began to thrash inside of my chest. A cry was torn out of my throat. A rippling of shadows tinged with blood-red sparks seeped out of me, as if eager to return to its mistress.

The shadows all coalesced to one point, enlarging until it was the size of a basketball. Dark red pinpricks flickered across its surface like blood. The orb began to expand once more, swirling with interlocking dark tendrils, the dark-red lights stemming across each and every one of them. They rippled like muscles, inciting a chill from me due to how gruesome it looked.

But then bloodshot eyes—the same eyes that heralded death—opened across its body, looking every bit as grotesque as before. The worst part was that they were all uneven, not in rows, but sprawled haphazardly all around it. A mouth sprouted from the bottom left corner of its inky body. When it spoke, it did not make a vocal sound, but a screech that flooded into my mind.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Looking at it made me freeze in impenetrable fear, like daggers of ice stabbing into me. My mind tried to grasp its form, but it was too vast to comprehend. It was infinity. The more my mind understood, the more information tried to violently break into it. In comparison to the infinity that these two beings represented, my consciousness was nothing more but an infinitesimal speck of dust.

Condemner of Sinners' body changed form erratically, each more confusing than the last. Countless faces and scenes displayed themselves, each coated with blood and contorted with the sheer confusion that infinity represents, snapping my mind like a twig. A shrill, haunting cacophony of agony-filled moans ringed through my body, drowning out all other sounds.

My mortality cracked under all that pressure, the foreign sensation crushing me under its vast existence. Blood dripped from my mouth as I collapsed, convulsing violently, the moans becoming louder and louder. I could no longer think coherently, and I began to mutter incomprehensibly.

A voice—thousands of voices in one—spoke, "Oh, he died again." It was deeper and smoother than Hal'vera's, but not as graceful. "I forgot how fragile mortals are," the voice said dismissively. A tendril wrapped around me, and energy seeped into me. "You aren't allowed to die until I say so."

I gasped like a thirsting man, my eyes shot open. I stared at Condemner of Sinners once more, and once again, my brain tried to process the sight. My sanity snapped and, in a burst of blood, I collapsed.

"Try using a different form," Hal'vera suggested, not concerned whatsoever. "He can't comprehend your true form."

"But it isn't even my true form," Condemner of Sinners said irritably. "If it was, his soul would have crumbled to nothingness."

"Just change to something that won't destroy him. He cannot die while you're in the Void, but outside, he will be killed instantly unless he adapts to you."

Condemner of Sinners muttered something in a warbled voice. It was in a language I did not understand.

A moment passed and I felt the same tendril wrap around me, pouring the energy inside of me once again. I felt myself again. I slowly lifted my head up, looking at the flickering body in front of me.

It was vaguely humanoid, with veins of bloodred energy that flowed like liquid. Bloody eyes were littered all over its face-shaped lump, a mouth on its bottom left side. It grinned grotesquely, making me shudder once more. But it wasn't the same fear that killed me, as my sanity remained intact.

"So you didn't die, huh? Splendid," Condemner of Sinners mused. "I am the Condemner of Sinners. I am the Arbiter, the Judge, the Law. I curse those who roam free and commit atrocities and sentence them to an agonizing end. I am absolute."

"What is your real name?"

"A shame. I quite like this name." It sighed dramatically. "But if you really want to know, then I will tell you. I am Cxatl'zhe, but you may call me by my title. It is easier to pronounce for your mortal tongue.

I glowered at him. "You can't control me."

It chuckled frigidly. "I don't need to. You will see in time. As my host, we will be one."

"Wouldn't that destroy me?"

"No," it said amusedly. "A soul is much stronger than a mind."

"What do you two want? What is your real goal?" I demanded. "You haven't explained shit."

"Your questions will be answered in time," Hal'vera assured. "But we need you to see our vision. All will be clear after you bond with Cxatl'zhe."

"Don't you fucking dare—" But my angry shout was interrupted by Condemner of Sinners crashing into me, melding its body back into mine. A faint sensation that had become familiar flooded my mind. I realized now that it was the presence of another inside of my consciousness.

Hal'vera smiled coldly and pointed her hand toward me. "This is farewell for now. You will understand everything. Our goals will align. You aren't that much different from us as you may think. You will see."

"And what if I don't?" I shot back scathingly.

Her smile was enigmatic. "Oh, but you won't."

Anger curled up inside of me, but before I could respond, shadows muffled my mouth.

"Goodbye, Vali. We will meet again under better circumstances," Hal'vera promised. "The time will come when your powers will make sense and you will serve our purpose. It is foretold, it is inevitable. You may escape death, but you can never escape the Void."

The darkness covered my face, obscuring my view of the Goddess. I didn't even have a chance to ask me where she was taking me.

But before I lost consciousness again, I realized that she lied.

She wasn't a Goddess. She wasn't even divine. Void Entities were something else entirely, primordial entities beyond any mortal.

But I was going to find out.

The last thing I heard was Condemner of Sinners cackling. "This should be interesting."

***

Slumber made me sluggish, even as a small pinprick of light shot into my enclosed eyelids. I was loath to stir, the sleep that embraced me felt too good to shake off. It was strange, because it didn't feel like any sleep I'd ever had.

I noticed that my body felt much lighter.

Wait, lighter?

My eyes shot open, a surge of panic flowing through me. Light filtered through a window in front of me, blinding me momentarily. It was as if I never saw light in my life. When it cleared, I looked around and realized that the house I was in was unfamiliar.

I was lying in a bundle of what felt like blankets. I tried to talk, but all I could muster was a series of gagging sounds.

"There's another one," a woman gasped from somewhere behind me, but I didn't have the strength to turn my head. "We're almost there, Sylia," she said soothingly.

A grave moan tore out of another woman's voice. A masculine voice consoled her silently, his tone comforting.

The struggling woman cursed and moaned in agony for a few moments longer, before abruptly stopping. I heard a sigh of relief.

Then the warbling cry of a newborn baby rang through the air, healthy and strong.

"A boy and a girl!" the other woman gasped.

"Come see your sister," the man said delightedly and picked me up.

Uh oh, this is starting to become the thing that I feared.

Oh, please no. Let this be a prank. I'm begging you.

The man held me in front of the woman who gave birth. The baby stopped crying as soon as she saw me. She had small tufts of blonde hair and clear, emerald-green eyes that stared at me curiously.

When my twin sister and I were born, my parents had put up a picture of both of us. This girl looked almost exactly like her, except she had green eyes instead of the diamond-like eyes my sister had.

"I never imagined we would have twins," the woman who had given birth, Sylia, said tiredly. "What will we name them, Darius?"

"We talked about names for both genders already, dear," Darius, the man who held me, said gently. "I think we should just give them those names."

"It'll be funny if they call her Ruby," I mused mentally. A flicker of amusement that wasn't mine appeared in my mind, before disappearing just as quickly. I forgot about that thing for a moment.

Sylia smiled weakly. "Vali and Lorelai," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "They're beautiful."

I finally averted my eyes from the girl and trained my gaze to the woman holding her. She was gorgeous with silky blonde hair flowing down past her shoulders. Her eyes were green, but lighter than Lorelai. Despite her stressed and tired countenance, she was still every bit as beautiful.

I already knew what had happened, but I tried to deny it. The more I saw, the more it became harder to disprove my newfound reality.

I was reborn in a new life.

Oh shit.