Aethron felt as if he had been sinking slowly into a pitch-black ocean for an unknown amount of time. There was no light around him, no sense of direction. Up, down, left, right… none of these concepts meant anything anymore. Time did not flow. Minutes, hours, years… all blended together. It felt as if he no longer had a body. He was not breathing. His heart was not beating. He felt no pain. No cold. No warmth. There was only a heavy, devouring emptiness that seeped into every corner of his soul.
Even though everything was over, he felt no peace. The silence and acceptance that death was supposed to bring never came. Instead, his mind was still burning. The image was still there. The werewolf's disgusting, mocking grin… The way it held his mother's head… The blood… The smell… The death inside the house… No matter how hard he tried to escape, no matter how much he wanted to forget, it replayed endlessly in his mind. He didn't want to die like this. He refused to accept such an ending.
"I don't accept this…" he thought. "I don't accept this…" He had no voice, yet his thoughts echoed through the void. If he had just one more chance… If he could breathe once more… If he could face that monster again… He would not care about anything else. His life, his soul, his future… He would sacrifice them all, as long as he could destroy that creature.
"I swear…" he thought, even as his consciousness was breaking apart. "Not just that enhanced beast… I'll erase its entire bloodline… its entire family… its entire species…" This was no longer just rage. It was a curse. It rose from the deepest part of his soul, stripped of logic, morality, and fear, leaving behind only pure annihilation.
Aethron's fury grew so intense that even the surrounding void began to react. The invisible ocean trembled. The darkness rippled. Cracks formed within nothingness itself, as if reality could no longer contain his hatred. And then… something shattered. Like glass. A silent yet absolute breaking sound. The void collapsed.
At that moment, Aethron's soul was dragged into something even deeper, even more ominous.
This place resembled nothing.
There was no time.
No space.
No logic.
Even the concept of impossibility had no meaning here.
Paradoxes were irrelevant.
Because this was a place where even concepts had died.
Everywhere, two colossal tree roots filled infinity. Each root was as thick as a mountain, as massive as a planet. Their ends were invisible. No one could tell where they began or where they led. They were intertwined within endlessness itself. And yet, something was strange… Despite being roots, they bore fruits. Shining, dark, unknown-colored fruits. As if the essence of universes flowed through them. As if each fruit contained a fate, a reality, a catastrophe.
As Aethron drifted among the colossal roots, he began to see the fruits hanging from them more clearly. Some of them were so unnatural that they looked as if they had been torn straight out of a cosmic nightmare. Their shapes constantly shifted. Sometimes they resembled beating hearts, sometimes wide-open eyes, sometimes twisted forms that the human mind could not comprehend. Dark and purplish light leaked from their surfaces, spreading a fear that gnawed at the mind the longer one stared. It felt as if each fruit contained the collapse of countless worlds, the deaths of gods, and the extinction of civilizations.
But that wasn't all.
As Aethron drifted between the two massive trees, he noticed something strange. One of them, the moment its presence touched his soul, filled him with indescribable peace. It felt as if warm light poured into him. His wounds, his pain, his fear… all faded away for a moment. He felt safe. As if everything could be fixed. As if his parents were still alive. As if this nightmare had never happened.
But the other tree…
Was the complete opposite.
The closer he got to it, the more something dark rose inside him.
Hatred.
Hunger.
The desire for destruction.
An uncontrollable urge to annihilate.
A black fire ignited in his heart. He wanted to tear everything apart, destroy everything, drown everything in blood. The moment he felt himself touch its roots, the werewolf's face appeared in his mind again. His mother's head. His father's arm. Blood. Screams. Death.
And these images only fed it.
Made it stronger.
Drove him further into madness.
Aethron was being torn apart between these two forces.
One side wanted peace.
One side wanted revenge.
One side wanted to live.
One side wanted to destroy.
But the strangest thing…
Was the place where these roots emerged from.
This was not normal space.
Not a dimension.
Not a void.
Not even a dream.
It was as if an incomprehensibly complex cosmic structure had fused with absolute nothingness. Existence and nonexistence had lost their boundaries. Something could both exist and not exist at the same time. It was real and unreal simultaneously. Logic shattered here. Physics collapsed. Even cause and effect lost their meaning.
And Aethron's soul…
As it wandered through this impossible structure…
Began to feel something.
A call.
Silent…
Deep…
Inevitable…
As if someone — or something — was whispering to him.
"Come here…"
"Choose me…"
"Accept me…"
The voice didn't come from his ears.
Nor from his mind.
It flowed directly into his soul.
And without realizing it…
Aethron began drifting toward that call.
Aethron continued drifting deeper among the ominous roots without even realizing it. He wasn't walking, swimming, or flying… It felt as if he were being carried by an invisible current beyond his control. The scenery around him grew wider and more overwhelming. The number of fruits increased. At first, he could only make out a few, but now they stretched endlessly in every direction. Each one was different. Each seemed to contain a separate fate, a separate catastrophe, a separate hope. It was then that he realized: the number of fruits here far exceeded the entire human population. As if every living being that had ever existed and perished had left its trace in this place.
That thought alone was enough to make him uneasy.
He was drifting inside a realm formed from the ashes of countless worlds, countless lives, countless civilizations.
And yet…
The call did not fade.
It grew stronger.
At first, it had been nothing more than a vague whisper, like a sound lost in distant waves. He couldn't understand it. He could only feel its presence. But as time passed, it became clearer. Louder. More insistent. It began pounding against the depths of his soul.
It felt as if someone was calling out to him.
As if something was growing impatient.
Aethron instinctively slowed down.
If "slowing down" was even possible here…
His soul's movement became heavier.
And then…
He realized something.
What he had been hearing…
Was not one voice.
There were two.
The first was gentle.
Warm.
Calm.
Like his mother's whispers when she put him to sleep.
Like the peace he felt sitting on the balcony with his father.
Like the summer breeze drifting through an open window.
This voice said:
"Come…"
"You're tired…"
"You don't have to suffer anymore…"
"Everything can end…"
"You can rest…"
It soothed his wounds.
Filled the emptiness in his heart.
Made him feel as if he could regain what he had lost.
But the second voice…
Was the opposite.
Cold.
Sharp.
Destructive.
It pierced his mind like a blade.
It echoed like a scream.
This voice said:
"Remember…"
"Don't forget…"
"How they killed them…"
"What they did to you…"
"Take revenge…"
"Don't let their blood go unpunished…"
"Erase them…"
It tore his wounds open.
Fed his pain.
Magnified his hatred.
It wanted to turn him into a weapon.
Aethron's soul was trapped between these two voices.
One promised salvation.
The other promised power.
One offered peace.
The other offered vengeance.
One wanted him to remain human.
The other wanted to turn him into a calamity.
And the most terrifying part…
Both were sincere.
Neither was lying.
Both offered him a real path.
Only…
The price was different.
Aethron instinctively drifted deeper in search of the source of the two voices. Fear no longer crossed his mind. Curiosity, rage, pain, and emptiness had merged into one overwhelming sensation. There was only one purpose left inside his soul: to see where this call was coming from. And finally… among the colossal roots, he reached a point far more complex than the others. Here, the roots of the two trees were completely intertwined. They weren't merely touching — they were merged into each other. Crushing, embracing, devouring, and supporting one another at the same time. It was like a knot where existence and annihilation were bound together.
At that point…
There were two fruits.
But they were unlike anything Aethron had ever seen.
One shone like pure light and serenity. Its surface seemed liquid, constantly shifting in gentle waves, releasing warmth and hope with every pulse. Looking at it touched the heart, making one feel as if everything lost could be restored. It seemed to contain infinite compassion.
The other…
Was a nightmare.
Its surface was cracked.
Dark veins crawled across it.
Black and crimson light leaked from within.
It whispered hatred, destruction, and madness into the observer's mind.
It felt as if the screams of countless destroyed worlds were trapped inside.
But the strangest part…
Was that the two fruits were intertwined.
They were not separate.
They seemed impossible to tear apart.
One side was light…
One side was darkness…
Yet together they formed perfect balance.
Neither could exist without the other.
If one vanished, so would the other.
Absolute balance.
Absolute contradiction.
Absolute fate.
As Aethron drew closer, the aura radiating from the fruits intensified. The space around him — if it could still be called space — grew heavy. Invisible threads formed around his soul. At first, he felt slight pressure. Then his chest tightened. Then his thoughts slowed. His mind blurred. The aura wrapped around him like vines, merciless and unyielding, refusing to let go.
Aethron tried to step back.
He couldn't.
His soul no longer belonged to him.
He tried to breathe.
There was no breath.
He tried to scream.
No sound came out.
And then…
Everything happened.
Both fruits vibrated at once.
Light and darkness erupted together.
Reality cracked.
The roots trembled as if screaming.
And before Aethron could understand what was happening…
Both fruits pulled him inside.
Like a vortex.
Like a grave.
Like a womb.
His soul was torn apart and dragged into them.
His consciousness scattered.
His memories fractured.
His identity began to dissolve.
Aethron was no longer just a human…
But he did not yet know what he was becoming.