The first feeling after the uncaring darkness of the Void was the warmth of the fire.
As the being's consciousness awakened, he started perceiving hushed voices around him.
"Quick, we should bury this thing before it's too late!" shouted a nervous female voice "This monster will bring a curse upon us if it wakes up!"
"Are you sure this will work?" responded another, this time male voice, full of uncertainty "It didn't even burn on the stake, and it floated on the water."
"Should we separate it and the book?" suddenly somebody asked, making everybody go quiet.
"Go on then" an elderly voice sneered, carrying sarcasm trained through life "Open the box and separate them" he mocked the other one.
All the disembodied sounds started raising, as they started discussing various ideas to deal with the problem at hand.
Suddenly, as somebody hit the ground with a shovel, or some kind of other tool, all the voices went silent and another one, deep and authoritative said "We shall bury it deep, and place a tombstone saying 'Here lies a beggar carrying the plague', so that no one will dig this Satan's spawn out" he spat on the side, as if wanting to get rid of some curse.
"And we shall be safe for generations to come!" his voice raised in ecstasy "Our children will remember us as savi..." the voice faded out as another layer of dirt was thrown on the dirty wooden box carrying a single book and a mysterious dark child.
--- ? ? ? years later---
As he slowly regained conciousness once more, what once was close to a shapeless blob of darkness, changed to something more like a small toddler.
As the boy opened his eyes he remembered.
Once, long time ago, he was born in the darkness, absorbing all the knowledge from the mundane world.
The World shaped him and gave him knowledge, as if it was his father, while the Void was the mother that conceived him and allowed him to stay safe until his birth.
He looked around, his vision unaffected by darkness surrounding him. In another corner of what appeared to be a tightly enclosed box laid a book seemingly made of nothing, as if when exposed to the outside it would absorb all the light, fortunately he did not need it to see.
He reached for it, itwas calling to him, telling him to regain what is rightfully his.
He opened it on the first page. There wasn't any preface, no prologue to introduce the content, no fancy decorative descriptions, only pure knowledge that overflowed from the black pages.
The boy started absorbing it, not knowing, or caring, that if anybody else as much as opened the book without protection they would instantly go crazy.
As he was reading the seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, hours into days. Even though he turned the pages, but somehow the amount left stayed almost the same. It was after all knowledge of supernatural itself, not some lousy textual explanation made by humans.
With time came growth, that made the being seem almost human. Slowly, he outgrew the box, his whole lower body sinking into the ground. In a blink he couldn't even read properly, as his head filled most of the tight cage, making it hard to even turn over a page.
After some thought he made a decison, grasped the tome, and unbothered by the three meters of dirt above him he slowly floated upwards into the forest.
As soon as his head came out of ground, he froze.
He spent a long time, first being shaped, and then absorbing the memories of every detail in the world. It was, however, all in vain.
He did not recognize the trees.
He did not recognize the soil.
He did not recognize the creek that flowed peacefuly, unaffected by his astonishment and annoyance.
He knew at this moment, that he slept for far too long.
Too much time has passed and everything has changed. Realising this dark truth, the boy slowly flew up, above the dark, twisted trees surrounding his place of growth.
The forest looked dead. Not a single leaf, or blade of grass in sight. In the distance shimmered some kind of barrier that seemed to extend upwards into a dome.
In the middle of the barrier stood a mausoleum towards which the boy floated, as it seemed to be the closest place where he could find the knowledge about the changes that happened during his slumber.
As he came closer, the pure white walls of the building fully came into sight, not covered anymore by the trees surrounding it. With a few golden decorative embelishments, the style gave of a religious feeling, without being too overbearing.
On top of the front wall hung a shining inscription that said "Libenter Vitam Meam in Proelio Contra Malum Offeram" at which he just scoffed. Inside there was nothing, except for a huge golden ring connected to a stone slab deeply embedded into the floor.
Deciding it looked like it was hiding something interesting, the boy sank through the floor, only to emerge a few minutes later carrying a skeleton dressed in white robes. He held it by the top of the hood, and then shook it like a carpet, making all the bones inside fall out onto the ground.
Ignoring the skull rolling on the ground, he threw the robe over himself and holding the book in one hand, he raised the other one up.
The void started seeping through the cracks in reality, gathering into a simple black staff.
'I can't be more barbarian than those lower beings after all' he chuckled, as he thought of all unnecessary etiquette humans created to make themselves feel better than they actually are.
Although he considered his form perfect however some clothes, especially ones with a hood, might prove themselves invaluable during the exploration of this 'new' society.
He looked at the staff in his hand, raised it up and hit the ground, which caused the crypt to sink and dissapear, as if it never existed.
'Self-righteous fools' thought the boy to himself as he picked up the only remaining letter of the sentence which annoyed him so much, a bright V, slowly eroded by the void flowing down from his fingers.
-------------
A golden barrier shimmering in the forrest seemed to dim, as a being dressed in white floated towards it like a color-swapped grim reaper. On his neck hung the V obtained from the previous destruction, although as if adapting to him it shrunk to the size a normal pendant.
The letter, previously symbolising life, now hung on a pure dark thread making for a weird mix of ligh and darkness.
Pure dark symbol somehow radiated an aura of holiness, making the barrier even less effective than it originally was.
The boy glanced at the golden dome with disdain. He could make something better than this when he was two years old, well... two years awake.
Without damaging the barrier he sank into a different layer of space, passing through as if it did not exist. Despite his disdain for the shoddy work, he did not want to reveal his existence too early.
From what he saw in the mausoleum, it seemed like the barrier was arranged by the Holy See, and one thing to know about them, is that they have their fanatics everywhere, always ready to begin another crusade.
He was sure that after so many years, their quickly growing influence managed to reach even the most remote corners of the world.
He did not want to spend his time in this new world on slaughter, but instead hoped to discover new directions for development of his power and knowledge in the mundane world.
In addition to that, while lower beings could not possibly hurt him in the slightest, but even a dragon would be annoyed if too many ants crawled all over his lair.
As he absorbed the fresh air full of freedom with his whole body he started looking around.
The first thing he saw were the lush green trees brimming with vitality, and various beautiful flowers surrounding them. Looking at it he felt that if he had facial features, they would certainly not look too happy right now.
'Disgustingly colorful' he though, as he started absorbing the vitality of the surrounding vegetation, slowly transforming the plant's appearances towards their cousins on the other side of the golden wall.
The second thing that caught his eye as soon as the leaves above his head fell off the tree, was a breathtaking night sky. The sight made him freeze, although he quickly recovered once again as he decided to float further away from the barrier.
'It would be better if that thing was eaten fully, together with those shiny sprinkles' he thought grimly, looking at the crescent moon and multiude of stars, destroying the peace and purity of the darkness with unnecessary embelishments.
As he flew through the forest, most of the trees dying behind him, suddenly he saw a scorched stone house, with hundreds of meters of vegetation surrounding it burnt to the ground. Interested he descended in front of the door, which was suddenly flung open.
A man in white robes similar to his own, although with a few bloody smudges on the hem wich were showing clear signs of somebody attempting to clean them off, jumped at him spreading his arms and legs like a flying squirrel.
The boy did not even rise his hand, freezing the opponent mid air. Just as he was preparing to crush the insect, something unexpected happened.
"My lord, I finally found you!!!" boomed an overly enthusiastic voice.
Oh? This sounds entertaining.
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How is it hanging everybody? Hopefully not as badly as it is for my aunt (the ceiling fan fell of. She said it was shoddy work, but I believe it had more to do with her weight).
Jokes aside, let me know whether you like the concept and my writing. Leave any constructive criticism in the comments (I would appreciate it if you didn't spam hate comments just because something is not to your liking).
If you have any fun ideas for the further plot, let me know somewhere too.
See you next time!!! (hopefully not yet hanging)