When he opened his eyes, he found himself suspended in a strange place: starlight without light, decaying planets, and the wreckage of celestial bodies floating in silence.
He felt something watching him.
On the horizon... a faceless entity, a mass of pulsing nothingness, gradually taking on a hazy human form.
Celetia's voice echoed in his head:
Celetia:
"My lord, be careful. This is your true first opponent."
"It is the embodiment of the word 'origin', no mind, no soul, just instinct: survival. If you want to progress, you must defeat it... or die countless times until you learn how."
"First thought? Hmm... well then... let's make it interesting." Nava smiled bravely despite his fear.
Celetia let out a tired sigh at Nava's expression.
"I was just kidding, you don't have to fight it. This is a natural thing, but you can comprehend its existence and consider it a leader in the game, though it cannot fight and its presence is merely a source."
Nava frowned and annoyed
, "Wait, this is strange. How can killing a monster be this difficult while killing a boss is easy?"
Celetia replied with a "Hmm...",
"I didn't say it's literally a battle. It's all about your spirit. If you are weaker, you will die. So you'll be fine. It's like trying to contain a universe inside you."
Nava raised an eyebrow.
"Let me guess, it seems the Heart of the Earth contains entities that live on the source of this energy, and if you destroy it, they will be destroyed too?"
Celetia answered,
"Brilliant, my lord. Brilliant. It seems you're starting to figure things out." She said, only half-joking. "But seriously, yes, what you're saying is true. The monsters rely on their source of birth. But this is specific to the first floor only, because there is an infinite hierarchical ladder of floors, and each floor has its own conceptual level. As for the labyrinth, it transcends all floors. And it is above the physical concepts that humans think of."
Nava was astounded by the information.
"You said an infinite hierarchical ladder, meaning infinite floors. How do I get out of here then?" — "So, to simplify things, the labyrinth is exaggerated. Oh God, please just kill me instead of this life." Then he realized something:
He said aloud like a child on the verge of exploding,
"The teacher is hasty and impatient, remember when I told him: 'Develop your skills earlier'?"
Celetia replied.
Then Nava remembered that and said
"That's right, but what does this have to do with the topic?"
Celetia answered the question
"It's simple, you have all elemental magic, which means you have dark magic too, and from it comes nihilism magic and dark magic, so it will be useful in this situation."
Nava understood and nodded.
Nava: "I understand, I understand," he said, raising his hand.
Then, the leader of the first floor of the labyrinth seemed to vanish. But a severe pain suddenly shot through Nava's head, and his eyes began to shift into "Black Magic, First Form: Soul Absorption."
Golden-yellow? Diamond blue? It was bizarre, and there was a real presence trying to take absolute control over him.
Celetia then responded with absolute knowledge: "This is strange. What on earth just happened?" terrified by the whole ordeal, Nava cried out, "What the hell just happened?!" successfully triggering it. Black magic was the catalyst. After five minutes of agonizing pain and struggling to regain control of himself, he managed to return to reality.
"My lord, do you remember when I told you that millions of entities are your own soul? Because of the magic of darkness and light, something happened: it makes all the souls merge and become a substitute for you or your complete reflection. Consider it Yin and Yang—meaning a dark side of you, and a girl too... no, because it's duality and duality."
Nava felt terrified and thought,
"Great!, absolutely great!. Can I ever have something normal in my life?, just once? Damn it. "