Ethan found himself adrift in an abyssal void, a realm where darkness was not merely the absence of light but a tangible presence that enveloped him, pressing in from all sides.
It was a place of profound silence, where even the faintest sound was swallowed by the infinite blackness, and the concept of time seemed to unravel and lose all meaning.
"So you're finally here," a voice echoed, its timbre resonant with the power of the void itself.
It was Asura, the entity that dwelled within the shadows, its existence intertwined with the dark expanse.
Ethan's eyes searched the void, but there was nothing to see—only the oppressive, infinite black that seemed to stretch on forever.
He felt a chill run through his very soul, an unnerving sensation of being completely and utterly alone.
"What's this place?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper against the vastness that surrounded him.
The sound was fragile, almost swallowed by the oppressive silence.
"This is the border of the world," Asura replied, its voice carrying a note of solemnity that threaded through the words like a haunting melody.
"Border of the world?" Ethan echoed, his confusion palpable in the heavy air that hung between them, thick with the weight of the unknown.
"Look over there," Asura instructed, its presence commanding in its simplicity.
Ethan turned his gaze in the indicated direction.
There, amidst the engulfing darkness, stood a barrier of such magnitude that it defied comprehension.
It pulsed with a sinister purple hue, an ominous light that seemed to throb with the heartbeat of the darkness itself.
The sight sent shivers down Ethan's spine, a primal instinct warning him of the unfathomable dangers that lay beyond.
"What's that?" Ethan asked, his voice a mixture of awe and trepidation, his heart pounding with a primal fear he could not fully grasp.
"That's the border," Asura confirmed, its tone carrying a finality that sent a chill down Ethan's spine.
It was not just a physical boundary, but a demarcation of fates and worlds, a line between the known and the unknowable, the tangible and the incomprehensible.
It was a threshold beyond which lay mysteries that even the bravest souls dared not explore.
The sight of the barrier, with its foreboding aura, filled Ethan with an existential dread that seemed to seep into his very bones.
It was as if he stood at the edge of reality itself, peering into a realm where the rules of existence were rewritten by the whims of ancient, unfathomable forces.
The weight of the unknown pressed down upon him like a leaden cloak, suffocating and all-encompassing.
Ethan's voice carried a mix of curiosity and trepidation, each word tinged with the uncertainty that gnawed at his soul.
"What's behind that border?" he asked, his gaze fixed on the ominous barrier that loomed before them like a malevolent specter.
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Asura's eyes held a depth like the abyss itself as he replied, his voice a low rumble that seemed to reverberate through the very fabric of reality.
"The first worldline, or you can call it the [Prison of the Abyss]" he explained, his words laden with a weight that spoke of untold suffering and ancient mysteries.
Ethan's brow furrowed in confusion, the lines of his face etched with the furrows of his inner turmoil.
"Why am I here then?" he questioned, seeking clarity in the midst of his bewilderment.
His voice trembled with a mixture of fear and determination, a reflection of the tumultuous emotions raging within him.
Asura's explanation flowed like a somber melody, each word carrying the weight of centuries of history and untold suffering.
"Well, as you know, the Abyss was responsible for maintaining the cycle of death, but once he was trapped, the cycle halted. So the Gods created this border to harness the Abyss's power through it to perpetuate the cycle of death."
A chill ran down Ethan's spine, his body tensing with a primal fear that clawed at the edges of his consciousness.
"So am I dead then?" he inquired, his voice trembling with a sense of urgency born of the unknown.
"No, to be precise, you're on the verge of death," Asura clarified, his tone solemn yet not unkind.
His gaze held Ethan's, a silent reassurance amidst the turmoil that threatened to engulf him whole.
"Anyway, do you recall my words? I promised to reveal my desire when the time was right."
Ethan nodded, a flicker of memory igniting within him like a distant flame in the darkness.
"Yes. I remember," he affirmed, his voice barely above a whisper, his heart heavy with the gravity of the moment.
The air around them seemed to thicken with anticipation, the silence a palpable presence that hung between them like a heavy shroud.
Asura's voice was a solemn whisper, a sound that seemed to resonate with the very essence of the abyss itself.
"Now is the time. Hand over your consciousness to me for the remaining moments you have," he urged, his presence a heavy weight in the pervasive darkness that enveloped them both.
Ethan's heart, though faltering, was fraught with uncertainty, his very essence trembling in the face of Asura's solemn request.
"What would happen to my soul then?" he inquired, his voice a fragile thread in the vast tapestry of the abyss, each word tinged with the fear of the unknown.
"It would be unable to traverse the cycle of life and death again," Asura declared, his words echoing like a decree from the void itself, each syllable carrying the weight of inevitability and finality.
Ethan's confusion deepened, his mind reeling with the implications of Asura's revelation.
"What do you mean?" he pressed, his desperation for understanding driving him to seek clarity in the face of the incomprehensible.
His very being trembled with the weight of the truth that lay before him, the realization dawning like a distant star in the darkest reaches of his consciousness.
Asura's explanation unfurled like the dark wings of fate, each word carrying the weight of centuries of cosmic truth.
"When a person dies, their soul is drawn here by the power of the Abyss, but it halts at this border. Then, a few Gods arrive to guide those souls," he said, his voice a somber melody that echoed through the emptiness of the abyss, resonating with the inexorable truth of their reality.
"But if you entrust me with your consciousness, our souls will intertwine, becoming one," Asura elucidated, his words a chilling testament to the depths of their fate.
"As a fragment of the Abyss, I would plunge directly into its depths, bypassing this border entirely. And no God dares to tread within the Abyss."
Ethan's heart clenched with a primal fear, the weight of Asura's revelation pressing down upon him like a mountain of despair.
The thought of being consumed by the darkness, of surrendering his very essence to the Abyss, filled him with a profound sense of dread.
Yet, amidst the fear, there flickered a spark of something else—a glimmer of hope, perhaps, or the distant echo of a long-forgotten dream.
"So, what is your decision?" Asura asked, his question hanging in the air like the final note of a dirge, awaiting Ethan's verdict amidst the whispers of eternity.
The gravity of the moment bore down upon them both, the silence pregnant with the weight of an irreversible choice.
Ethan's mind raced with a torrent of conflicting emotions, his soul torn between the desire for redemption and the fear of what lay beyond the threshold of the unknown.
Ethan's plea hung in the void, a lone beacon of inquiry amidst the suffocating darkness.
"Before I answer, can you tell me one more thing?" he asked, his voice a fragile echo that reverberated with a vulnerability that belied his current state.
"Sure. Go ahead," Asura responded, his voice as enigmatic as the darkness that enveloped them, each word carrying the weight of untold secrets and ancient mysteries.
"Who am I?" The question was simple, yet it carried the weight of Ethan's entire existence, a desperate plea for clarity in the midst of the chaos that threatened to consume him.
Asura's response was not in words but in a smile, cryptic and unsettling, that spread across his features like the first crack in a dam, a harbinger of revelations yet to come.
Frustration surged within Ethan, a tide of emotions that broke free in a torrent, swirling around him like a tempest in the ocean.
"Why aren't you answering me? Tell me who I am!" he demanded, his shout a thunderclap that reverberated through the empty expanse.
"Do you truly wish to know the truth?" Asura's question was a whisper, yet it cut through the silence with the precision of a blade, slicing through the layers of uncertainty to expose the raw essence of Ethan's desire.
"Yes. Tell me," Ethan insisted, his resolve hardening like steel as he braced himself for the revelation that awaited him, whatever form it might take.
In that moment, amidst the darkness and the uncertainty, he knew that the only path forward was through the truth, no matter how painful or unsettling it might be.
"Fine then," Asura conceded, his voice a whisper that seemed to echo through the abyss itself.
With measured steps, he approached Ethan, the weight of his presence suffusing the empty expanse around them.
His fingers reached out, touching Ethan's forehead with a gentleness that contrasted sharply with the surge of energy that followed.
A cascade of memories flooded Ethan's mind, each one a piece of the puzzle that was his identity.
They came in waves, relentless and unyielding, crashing against the shores of his consciousness with a force that threatened to drown him in their depths.
Faces flashed before his eyes, voices whispered secrets long buried, and emotions surged like a storm in his soul.
It was a torrent of revelation, an unraveling of the fabric of his existence, until finally, the deluge subsided, leaving a new understanding in its wake.
"I see," Ethan uttered, his voice a hollow shell of its former self, stripped of emotion and weighed down by the burden of truth.
His eyes, once a mirror to his soul, now blazed with an anger that was cold, calculated, and devoid of any warmth—a reflection of the revelations that had reshaped his very being.