The first sensation he experienced was weightlessness. He tried to move, flailing his limbs in search of something to grab, something to stand on, or anything to feel. Yet he touched nothing. Did he even have limbs? He couldn't be sure.
When he opened his eyes, or what he perceived as eyes, he saw not just emptiness, but a bizarre blend of everything and nothing at once. Visions of the past, present, and future flashed before him, only to be forgotten almost instantly.
He closed his eyes, no longer wanting to confront the void.
.....
He waited and waited for something to happen. How long has it been? Time seemed meaningless here. Perhaps only a few seconds have passed, yet why does it feel like an eternity?
In his 'head' he began counting. From 1 to 10 to 100 to 1000 to 10000 to 1^10 000.
By the time he stopped counting, he was sure that he had long passed infinity.
.....
A touch. He felt it. He didn't know when or how, but something resembling tendrils wrapped around him, pulling him somewhere. To where? He had no idea. Yet anything that was not the void would be welcomed.
As the unknown tendrils drew him closer to their destination, a single question emerged in his mind, a question he hadn't considered before: "Who am I?"
.....
Murmurs filled the air, a series of words he couldn't comprehend. That was the first thing he heard when the tendrils seemingly arrived at their destination. His 'head' rested on something soft while his body felt submerged in a liquid-like substance.
He attempted to open his 'eyes', but something obstructed his sight. He tried to move his 'body', but for some reason, he was unable to do so. When he attempted to speak, no sound emerged from his mouth.
With nothing else to occupy his mind, he concentrated on the inhuman conversation, hoping to catch any words he could understand.
"Az..." A girl's voice broke through the cacophony of the incomprehensible, a fleeting whisper swallowed by the abyss. He strained to sense her essence, but it was for naught as they slipped through his fingers.
Everything. That singular word captures her essence most profoundly. She is the embodiment of everything: the past, the present, the future, the cosmos, the void, the primordial beginning, and the ultimate end. An all-consuming enigma, she weaves the fabric of reality itself. She is everything and nothing, a paradox that defies the very nature of existence and unexistence.
Another voice, belonging to a different girl, slithered through the shadows. He could only grasp a fragmented syllable, a whisper from fathomless depths: "...g...th..."
In that moment, a singular notion crept into his mind, sleepy. This girl, ensnared in the tendrils of an ancient trance, lingered on the brink of awakening, as if the very fabric of reality threatened to unravel and pull her back into the abyss of slumber. Darkness coiled around her, and the air grew thick with an unsettling sense of primordial dread, a feeling that nothing was truly as it seemed in this eerie half-light. Faintly, he could hear the sounds of flutes and drums accompanying the being.
While the two girls exchanged whispers in a tongue lost to time, a spectral hand glided over him, a sensation both unsettling and intimate.
His 'head' twisted lazily to the left, drawn away from the undecipherable dialogue swirling in the ether. This presence, unlike the ephemeral voices, pierced the veil of ambiguity; he could feel its touch with a jarring clarity.
Chaos, a maelstrom of sensations swirling within him, entwined with a baleful mischief that sent tremors through his very essence. They crawled in multitude, brushing against his 'skin', a legion of unseen legs orchestrating a dance of disquiet that sent shivers rippling through his being, awakening emotions steeped in the unspeakable.
He decided to go still after that. Not even making any sort of movement for he fears what will/would/have/had happen to him.
After what felt like aeons, the two girls finally finished their conversation, whatever it was about.
An uncountable number of eyes stared at him as he felt his body being lifted by an unknown person beside him.
'Footsteps' are heard as they walk with him in their hands? "What a lucky soul you are. Not being obliterated beyond infinite is already a blessing." For the first time in forever, he finally heard clear, full words of a youthful girl, yet still more ancient than time.
"What?" He asked, surprised to find his own voice.
"The speck of an atom speaks, truly remarkable." The being praised. "Unfortunately, you've been given a purpose by Mother and her. However, given what I have planned for you before they intervene, perhaps it's a blessing in disguise," The girl continued.
He then felt a finger press against his forehead. A wave of tiredness enveloped him as he struggled to resist it.
Desperately, he tried to ask. Ask her anything! Where is he? What is he? Who is he? Yet the words died in his "throat".
"Ahh... questions, questions. Your head is certainly filled with them." He felt her opening something with her 'hands'. "Given that you'll soon forget about what you've seen and heard here, it will be meaningless to answer them." She answered much to his disappointment.
"You will be thrown into a universe foreign to your original. You will be given a new life, body, and name. There, you will embark on an adventure and turn the new universe on its head. As for your memories..."
He sensed her face going closer to his 'ear' as she whispered, "You need not worry about those pesky things. Although, as a small mercy, I shall personally leave some lingering 'familiarity' in your head. Don't want to be bored seeing you grow up after all."
"Entertain us from our endless boredom and perhaps, we will reward you with things that not even you know you needed."
Before he could ask any more questions, he succumbed to sleep, his memory of the encounter with these beings already erased as his body fully entered the portal to a new, whole new reality.
.....
THUNK!
THUNK!
SCREECH!
The sounds of hammer smashing against flesh and carapace reverebated throughout the vast cosmos as a pained screech of an Aeon is heard as THEIR children, untold in numbers, fly around THEIR shattered bodies to futilely protect THEM from further harm, their fluttering wings coalescing into a mass of bugs and death.
Although if one were to carefully hear, they could barely make out the sounds of a symphony accompanied by the sounds of laughter.
The gigantic hammer of the Preservation hovered above Tayzzyronth, its owner ready to deliver the final blow to seal the fate of The Propogation in an Amber Prison.
Yet, something happened. Something that was thought of as impossible happened. Something that, for the first time in the universe, made the Aeons go still, stopping their Primum Mobile, as a portal opened up amidst THEIR gigantic forms. The Aeons gazes at the portal as a being emerges from it.
A mortal. A human, even. A human who is currently curled up, unconscious, and unaware of the gods around him.
The hammer of Qlipoth, which would seal the fate of the Imperator Insectorum, halted as THEIR gaze was directed at the intruder who had just emerged from a place even beyond THEIR grasp. A place housing horrors far surpassed the Leviathans of old and could easily shatter the walls that THEY had built as if they were made of sand.
As THEY observed the mortal, the newly ascended Xipe stopped THEIR melodious symphony in horror, sounds of accursed flutes and drums drowned THEIR Harmony, threatening to mute THEIR harmonious choir and engulf the universe in pure madness.
Akivili of Trailblaze looked at the mortal and at where he had come from. It was then THEY accepted the fact that there are places, realms beyond reality that not even THEY could or should explore for fates beyond an Aeons' comprehension awaited THEM should THEY do so.
HooH faltered as the Equilibrium of the universe was disrupted beyond THEIR control, as concepts far beyond THEIR understanding threatened to leak into the universe. No, not disrupted, but merely revealed that THEY were never in control in the first place, that THEIR control this entire time was but a mere parlor trick to the beings on the other side.
Far beyond the battlefield, gazing ever upward in a place beyond the heavens, Nous' mechanical head flashed repeatedly in puzzlement at what THEY gazed. THEY tried calculating the future of this unknowable unknown, extrapolating billions upon billions of times a second to calculate the Instant that has now remained uncertain. The results only showed errors, and sparks began flying out of THEIR body as THEY struggled to comprehend what THEY were calculating.
Far away in an uncharted region of space, for the first and perhaps the last time, the ever-sleeping IX opened THEIR eyes to gaze at the thing which had roused THEM, before quickly closing them in an almost panicked manner. Perhaps Nihility is a much more preferable than the horror that THEY have gazed at.
Terminus of Finality, for a split moment so brief that it might not have happened, stopped as THEIR future became uncertain. The universe was fated to meet Finality, yet this event in the past has made Finality an uncertain thing in the future. Perhaps there is something that not even Finality could touch.
Yet, out of all of them, Tayzzyronth of Propagation saw one thing as THEY gazed at the mortal. Salvation.
In the instant, time resumed. Qlipoth's hammer, mere inches from Propagation to seal THEIR fate, missed its mark. THEY instead smashed the encroaching Swarm, which intends to hold THEM back while their progenitor makes THEIR hasty retreat.
Tayzzyronth approached the human whose form is but a speck compared to THEM. None of it matters as THEY already made THEIR decision.
THEIR form shrank as what little remains of THEIR essence and power forcefully made their way inside the human's body, fusing with it, and sacrificing what remains of THEIR intelligence as a trade-off.
The Aeons watched as Tayzzyronth was fused into the mortal. An impossibility that should not have happened given normal circumstances. This mortal, however, was anything but mortal.
When the last of THEIR essence was absorbed, a shell began to form around the human's body, encasing it in an insectoid egg, awaiting the day it would hatch.
The Swarm, no longer sensing their Aeon, scattered from the scene and into the darkness of the universe, their mission accomplished. They await the day when their progenitor shall be reborn anew and ascend THEIR wings once more.
The other Aeons disbanded as THEY had done what they had sought out to do and subdue the Propagation.
One Aeon, however, stayed at the spot where the portal, which had long since closed, was. THEY remained uncomfortably silent as THEY watched the egg lazily floating in space, surrounded by countless ambers containing the remains of the Imperator Insectorum, before a laughter, much louder than THEIR first, reverberated across the universe as THEY realised the entertainment that would come in the future.
.....
THUD!
"Whoa! What was that? Did the train just hit something?" March exclaimed as she fell onto the ground from the impact.
A man with brown hair adjusted his glasses and looked around. The Nameless of the Astral Express had just finished their meeting on their next destination to Trailblaze when something hit the train. "March, Dan Heng, stay here. Himeko and I will investigate. Make sure to be ready for anything." He instructed the two newest members of the Express.
Dan Heng and March nodded, readying their spear and bow respectively. While they might not show it, they were both a bit frightened at what had probably managed to get inside the Express.
A frightened Pom-Pom clutched their broom tightly while Himeko and Welt went to check the furthest train car, where the collision had most likely occurred.
As Welt and Himeko's form dissappear from sight, the trio held their breath as they waited for the two to return. Hopefully with good news.
Suddenly, a vibration in their pockets made March jump in surprise. She pulled out her phone and discovered a message from Himeko.
"Dan Heng, March, come over here. There's something you need to see. Make sure to bring Pom-Pom along."
Both of them exchanged glances and nodded, realising that whatever they had discovered must have been extraordinary. As they left the train car, Pom-Pom followed after them.
Arriving at the furthest train car, their initial tension was soon replaced by confusion when they found Welt and Himeko standing in front of a giant egg.
"Is that an egg from the Swarm?" Dan Heng asked, uncertainty lacing his tone. He had seen what an egg from the Swarm was like; this one, however, was much different and seemed much closer in size to a person.
"I don't know. Still, just because it seems harmless, we need to be careful," Welt said, his eyes analysing the potential danger the egg might pose.
"This isn't the start of some horror movie, right? You know, the one where a crew on a space station is being hunted by a monster?" March added. "Wahh!"
As March finished speaking, the egg began to shake, revealing that whatever was inside was trying to break free from its shell.
The crew of the Astral Express readied their weapons, holding their breath as they awaited the emergence of whatever was inside, hoping it wouldn't be dangerous.
Plop
When the egg fully hatched, the crew of the Astral Express could only look on in disbelief at what had just come out of it. A human boy in a fetal position with some odd-looking insectoid features.
Although still covered by a thin membrane, various pitch-black, mixed with red, armors resembling those of an insect dotted the boy's body, appearing rather unfinished, as some patches revealed his pale white skin.
On his back, a still-soft shell failed to conceal two pairs of membranous wings that looked both fragile and sturdy at the same time.
When the Express crew examined the boy's head and face, they found him sleeping peacefully, with strands of his light pink hair tipped with dark blue covering part of his face. On the top of his head, a pair of small pink wings juts out, forming a rather cute shape of a heart.
Evidently, the silent commotion around the boy must have stirred him awake, as they noticed his eyelids fluttering before he finally opened them. A pink iris stared back at them, and the crew braced themselves for what might happen next.
They were expecting various outcomes, ranging from the boy suddenly lunging at them to him transforming into some kind of monster. However, what they did not anticipate was for him to simply wave his left hand at them.