Chapter 1 – The Goddess in the Void
There was no pain anymore.
No sound, no light, no heartbeat.
Ren drifted in an endless void, weightless, his last memory still clinging to him—the rain, the cat, and his sister's face, blurred by tears.
"...Am I dead?" he whispered.
His voice didn't echo. It just vanished into the black.
For a moment, panic clawed at his chest. If this was death, then was that it? Just darkness forever? Would he never see his sister again? Never tell her how much she meant to him?
But then—light bloomed.
It wasn't harsh or blinding, but soft, like a sunrise spreading across eternity. The void itself seemed to breathe, and from the heart of that light stepped a woman.
No—not a woman. Something beyond human.
Her hair shimmered like an endless galaxy, strands shifting from silver to violet to deep cosmic blue. Her eyes glowed with constellations, and her very presence pressed down like a tide, yet soothed at the same time. She was dressed in flowing robes woven from starlight, her every step painting ripples of celestial radiance across the void.
Ren's throat tightened. His instincts screamed that this being was absolute. Not even the "gods" from myths could compare.
The woman smiled. Not the distant smile of a deity, but warm—gentle, as if she were greeting a long-lost child.
"Welcome, little soul," she said, her voice carrying both the echo of the universe and the intimacy of a whisper. "You have wandered far, and suffered much."
Ren swallowed, unable to look her in the eye. "...Who are you?"
"I," she said softly, "am the Supreme Goddess of the Cosmos. Keeper of stars, judge of cycles, and the one who governs the threads of fate across countless realms."
Her gaze softened further. "And you, Ren, are a soul who was wronged. Betrayed. Broken. Yet even in your final moment, you chose to save another. Such selflessness does not go unnoticed."
Ren froze. His chest ached at her words, and he almost wanted to laugh. Wronged, betrayed, broken... Yes, that was him. But selfless? No. He was just a coward who never fought back.
As if reading his heart, the goddess raised a finger to her lips, almost playfully. "Humble, too. But you cannot deny truth. You were human, Ren—but within you lies the seed of something greater."
Light swirled around her palm, condensing into a glowing sigil—half radiant white, half shadowed black.
"The Divine Bloodline of the Cosmos," she explained. "A legacy of light and darkness, order and chaos. In you, I will seal this bloodline, for your soul has proven worthy to carry both. You shall be reborn in another world—one filled with gods, demons, heroes, and monsters beyond mortal imagining."
Ren's heart pounded. A second chance? Another life?
But before hope could bloom fully, her tone shifted—playful, almost mischievous. "Of course, there must be rules. Your bloodline will be sealed. Only through trials, through choices, through the System I will place within you, may you awaken its power."
Ren's eyes widened. "...A system?"
"Yes." She leaned closer, and he swore galaxies swirled in her eyes. "It will guide you, reward you, test you. But remember this, Ren: every gift has a cost. And every path you choose will shape the destiny of worlds."
Her hand touched his chest, and warmth flooded him, wrapping him like a cocoon. His body felt weightless, like he was being rewritten.
"Now," the goddess whispered, her lips curling into a teasing smile, "what form shall you take, I wonder? A man, reborn with his old scars? Or… something new, something unbound by the past you left behind?"
Ren barely had time to process the question before the light engulfed him completely. His consciousness spun, unraveling into threads of stars.
And then—he heard her final words as her figure faded into the cosmos:
"Live, little soul. Struggle, fall, rise again. One day… when you awaken as a true goddess, come find me. It is lonely here among the stars."