I stopped mid-step.
This… wasn't my domain anymore. The familiar hum of my influence was gone, swallowed by silence so deep it seemed to press against my ears. Darkness wrapped around me like a suffocating shroud, cold enough to seep into my bones.
I turned my head, slowly, cautiously. Nothing. No light, no horizon, just an endless void.
Then I noticed it, fine motes of golden stardust, drifting lazily around me, as if they'd been waiting for my arrival. They clung to my skin, shimmering faintly in the dark. I flexed my fingers, and the motes swirled together, drawn inward by my will.
With a thought, a dome of them condensed.
A golden orb floated before me, pulsing gently, like a living heart. I didn't know why, but I could feel its importance, it was a light source obviously but I felt drawn to it somehow. Before I could react, it shot forward, carving a glowing trail through the black.
That trail didn't last long. Something moved, skmething vast and silent snapped the orb from its path with terrifying swiftness. I saw teeth, a mouth and then… a face.
I froze.
Its features emerged as my eyes adapted to the void, long, scaled, almost like a fish, but wrong. Too many ridges. Eyes that didn't blink. And it was staring straight at me.
The edges of its mouth began to glow, a deep, venomous purple, building like the charge of a storm. I raised a hand, forcing the space before me to ripple and harden. A mirror of golden light formed, its surface perfectly smooth.
The purple beam came in an instant. The impact rattled my arm, and spiderweb cracks spread across the mirror's face. But the beam bent, split, and hurtled back toward its source.
It struck the creature in the eyes.
Its shriek tore through the void, a sound so alien it made my teeth ache. Then it lunged, with no hesitation, no warning straight towards me.
With a sharp pull of will, divine essence poured into my palm and stretched, twisting, curving, until the weight of a golden scythe settled in my grip. Its blade gleamed like a sliver of a newborn sun, the arc so sharp it hummed against the void.
The creature lunged, and I spun. The scythe carved through the dark, slicing deep into its flank. Purple ichor sprayed out like burning mist, sizzling when it touched my skin. It screamed again, the sound vibrating through my chest.
It tried to circle me, but I was faster. Teleporting in short, jagged bursts, the blade flashing each time I reappeared. I tore through fins, slashed across the armor-like scales, and finally slammed the butt of the weapon into the side of its head, sending it spiraling.
I landed on its back, pinning it down with both feet, scythe poised for the final blow. That's when I heard it.
Not a voice but more like the shape of thoughts, sliding into my mind like oil.
Spare me.
I froze. My grip tightened. "Wait... What. It speaks?"
The images it pushed into me were clear, a journey through the void, its body gliding between the unseen currents, slipping past horrors that would otherwise notice me. A mount, it was telling me. A way to travel not just here, but to something more.
The boundary,
"The what?" I asked aloud.
It answered without words again, showing me a wall, or maybe a shore, where the void ended. Beyond it, swarms of beings unlike anything I'd seen before.
"This isn't all there is. So i was still in the tutorial stage?"
A pulse of confirmation. I stared down at it, my mind spinning. I'd been so sure the void was the edge the end of everything. But if there was more… The thought hit me like a stone to the gut. Reincarnation stories, tales from my old world they never stopped at the first stage. There was always something beyond.
The fish's thoughts broke my spiral.
Get off thing. You're pressing too hard.
I blinked, realizing my boots were digging into torn muscle. I stepped off and muttered, "Sorry."
Its wounds closed slowly, purple light knitting the flesh until it looked almost unhurt.
"Where's the boundary?" I asked.
It didn't answer. Just looked away, then darted off in a particular direction.
"Clever thing. Negotiation when you are pressed between a rock and a hard place"
Then I followed, well at least for a few moments. Then stopped.
My eyes turned back toward my creation. The sphere of light I'd built, my realms, my people. Could I leave it here, unprotected? Could I take it with me?
The thought lodged in my chest like a weight. I focused on it, on the idea of holding it in my hand. Of it shrinking, becoming small enough to carry.
And then… it did.
The entire creation folded in on itself, collapsing into a marble that drifted toward me. Stars swirled inside its core, realms glinting like tiny gems.
I reached out, caught it, and held it in my palm. It felt warm, and it thrummed with life. Life of countless animals and other "things".
Without another word, I pressed it to my chest. I could feel the thoughts of all the creatures in the marble. It sank into me, stored away in the deepest part of my being.
I turned back to the fish, now waiting in the dark like a silent ferry.
"Alright, fish Caron or whatever" I said, and launched myself toward it, then sat on top of the fish creature. It flew slowly towards a direction I didn't know. The void was quiet and the golden motes around me made me look like a flame in a dark room. There was obvious movement around me, probably from other void creatures. They didn't approach though staying away from me and the fish thing I was riding.
After riding for what seemed like forever, the environment around us started changing. Instead of darkness, light was starting to drift into the area around us and infront a glare was shining.