The universe had grown… boring.
Stars burned, galaxies spun, gods argued over who had the shinier halo—yet none of it stirred the heart of Zeke, the Eternal. He sat cross-legged upon a throne carved from the bones of dead time itself, sipping what might have been tea, or might have been the liquefied essence of a collapsed dimension. At his level, even he had trouble telling the difference.
Once, he had fought battles that split heavens apart. Once, he had wept at graves that no longer existed. Once, he had loved, and then lost, and then loved again—until, one by one, everyone faded, leaving only him. The last laugh, the last sigh, the last heartbeat… all his. Immortality was less of a crown and more of a very long, very lonely joke.
He set his cup down, the sound echoing across eternity like a thunderclap.
"Well," he muttered to himself, "that was fun. Let's start over."
And just like that, the most powerful being in all universes decided to quit.
Not retire. Not vanish. Quit. From the ground up. He would tear apart reality, weave it back together, and—because he was nothing if not a little selfish—make sure the new version of things didn't take everything he loved away from him this time.
He extended a finger. A spark of qi, simple and pure, flickered to life. This spark carried within it all twenty-two realms of cultivation, from Body Tempering to the very Eternal itself. It pulsed like a heartbeat, waiting for his will.
"A new world," Zeke whispered. "A new me. No more loneliness. No more… all of this." He gestured vaguely at the endless cosmic void, as if complaining about bad wallpaper.
But he wasn't stupid. (Well, not that stupid.) If he stepped into this new world with all his memories intact, he'd just be the same Eternal with a shinier coat of paint. No, the only way to make this real was to seal away the memories. He would forget the throne, forget the loneliness, forget the crushing weight of being at the top. What remained would be a youth—Zeke of Ashbourne.
A boy who could laugh, stumble, make mistakes. A boy who could fall in love and not lose everything to the cruelty of fate.
With a sigh that rippled through every universe, Zeke pressed a hand to his own forehead. Chains of golden qi wrapped around his mind, lock upon lock sealing away the memories of eternity. He would keep the strength—hidden, sleeping—but the knowledge of it would vanish.
When the last chain clicked into place, he chuckled. "Good luck, future me. You're going to need it."
And then, the Eternal closed his eyes.
When they opened again, he was just Zeke—a boy in a small, forgotten village, waking up late on the morning chores.
The universe trembled, gods blinked in confusion, and fate itself rolled its eyes.
The strongest being in all existence had just started over.