"The Sea of Nihility?" Akira tilted his head, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. "So it's different from the Sea of Quanta in Honkai Impact…"
Selena's lips curved into a soft, mischievous smile. "Yes. The Sea of Nihility is the very opposite of the Imaginary Tree. If the Tree is existence itself… then the Sea is pure nothingness."
Akira blinked, leaning forward with interest. "And this… ties into our family how?"
Selena gave a light laugh, raising her teacup with elegance. "Patience, brother. I'll get to that soon. But if I tell you too quickly, it won't make any sense."
He sighed, but his grin betrayed his eagerness. "Fine, fine. I'll play along. Go on, then."
Selena's smile lingered, playful as always, though her words carried a weight beneath them. "Since the dawn of creation, the Tree and the Sea have been locked in an endless struggle. The Tree stretches outward, weaving existence into the void. The Sea presses back, devouring everything into nothingness. Their clash has raged for eons, each cycle greater than the last. Eventually, the Sea began to shape soldiers of its own, beings born of nothingness, created to invade the Tree's worlds. They are called… Oblivions."
"Oblivions?" Erika repeated, her brows furrowing. "That name alone sounds ominous."
Selena nodded, her smile never fading. "It suits them. Oblivions don't just kill, they erase. They invade worlds and devour them whole, not only wiping out life, but destroying the very data of reality. Once they're finished, it's as if the world never existed at all. Native species couldn't even fight back, no matter how powerful their attacks are, nothingness cannot be harmed. Countless worlds were consumed, turned into absolute nothingness."
Erika's face paled. "Turned into nothingness… what does that even mean?"
Selena leaned forward, eyes glinting playfully despite her grim words. "It means exactly what it sounds like. If they erase a person, everything about them disappears. Everyone forgets them, friends, family, even history itself. It's as if they were never born. No memory, or traces of their existence, will be left."
Erika shivered, her voice dropping to a whisper. "That's terrifying to even imagine…"
Akira, however, looked thoughtful rather than afraid. "If that's true… how strong are these Oblivions? If no one could resist them, they must be on an entirely different level."
Selena tilted her head, her smile widening. "They come in classes. Some are little more than just mobs… I mean, foot soldiers, not too difficult to beat down. But others…" her eyes glinted mischievously, "…others are powerful enough to erase entire worlds with a single strike. The problem was never just their strength. It's that no matter how powerful the natives' attacks were, they meant nothing. Against nothingness, nothing will work, like how can something hurt nothing?"
Akira's grin spread, excitement flickering in his eyes. "So then… what happened next?"
Selena set her cup down and continued. "To counter this threat, the Imaginary Tree created its own soldiers, beings born with the power to destroy Oblivions. They are called Asterians. A humanoid race, born with the strength to stand against nothingness itself."
Akira leaned back with a knowing smile, already connecting the dots. "So what you're saying is that we're Asterians, right?"
Selena's smile widened when she saw the realization dawn in Akira's eyes. "Yes. But it's a little more complicated than that. We're not the original Asterians, we're their descendants, born after countless generations."
Akira tilted his head. "So… are we humans or not?"
Selena shook her head, tapping her finger against her teacup. "No. We may look human, but we're not truly human. If I had to give it a scientific name, it would be something like Homo Asterialis. We're closer to humans now than the first generation, who were directly born from the Imaginary Tree itself. But at the core, we're still different."
Akira leaned in, intrigued. "Different how?"
Selena chuckled, her eyes glinting with amusement. "In fact, we're actually closer to elves than humans."
Akira blinked. "Elves? But elves have pointy ears."
Selena smirked. "True, but that's just one trait. Like elves, we're naturally stronger than humans, and our lifespans are much longer, too, and more comparable to theirs. That's why, no matter how you look at it, we're not really human."
Akira grinned, his excitement bubbling over. "That's… actually pretty cool."
Erika stared at him in disbelief. "Cool? You just found out you're not even human, and that's your reaction?"
Akira scratched his cheek sheepishly, though his grin never faded. "Well… this kind of thing happens in anime all the time."
At that, Erika groaned and rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable…"