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[POV - Ophis]
[Void Dimension - Fortress of Silence]
Silence.
Always silence. That's how it should be. That's how it always was. But now... now the silence was... different.
THRUM...
Something pulsed. Not in the void around me, but inside me. As if an invisible string had been plucked after millennia of quietude.
"Strange," I murmured to the nothingness, my voice echoing like a whisper of a lost child.
I floated through my dimension, bare feet lightly touching what could be called ground, if such a concept existed here. My black dress rippled without wind, moved only by the energy emanating from my being.
I saw. I felt. I knew.
A boy. Human in appearance. But... not human. Not demon. Not angel. Something... prior.
"Older than me," the words came out as if torn from a deep place I didn't even know existed.
Impossible. I am Ophis. I am infinity. I have existed since before time had a name. Since before creation had form. I am the first.
But this being...
FLASH!
Images passed through my mind like shuffled cards. The boy facing six warriors. The golden wings. The power that made dimensions tremble. The ease with which he defeated them.
"Stronger than Bakared," I stated, and for the first time in ages I felt something that could be called... interest?
No. More than interest. It was recognition. As if a forgotten part of myself was remembering something important.
WHOOSH!
I opened a dimensional portal with a casual gesture. I needed to see him up close. I needed to understand why my entire being vibrated in his presence, even from a distance.
"Perhaps... he'll help against Bakared," I thought, but I knew it was a lie. It wasn't about the Great Red. It was about something deeper.
It was about... home?
[POV - Great Red]
[Dimensional Gap - Dream Domain]
ROOOOAAAAAR!
My roar echoed through dimensions, making parallel realities tremble like leaves. But it wasn't a roar of anger. It was of... confusion? Fear?
I, who am the dream. I, who am the nightmare of gods. I, Great Red, felt fear.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!
My draconic heart beat like war drums as I remembered. Some time ago – time? what is time for someone like me? – I felt a soul passing through the gap.
Not just any soul. This soul... was like looking at the very concept of existence. Pure. Complete. Terrible in its perfection.
When I approached, every preservation instinct I possessed screamed a single truth: FLEE.
"If I fought against that soul..." I murmured to the empty dimensions, "I would die. Completely. Without possibility of resurrection."
And now he was back. No longer as a soul in transit, but incarnated. Manifest. And more powerful than before.
CRACK! CRACK!
The realities around me began to fragment just from my nervousness. I, who could devastate universes with a sigh, was trembling like a frightened hatchling.
"Who are you?" I asked the void, knowing he wouldn't hear me. Or maybe he would. Maybe he heard everything.
WHOOOM!
I retreated deeper into the dimensional gap, creating layers and more layers of protection. If that being decided I was a problem...
I didn't want to even think about it.
For now, I would hide. And hope our existence would never cross paths again.
Because even being Great Red, the Draconic Apocalypse, I knew when I was before something infinitely superior.
And that... that was terrifying.
[POV - Shiva]
[Mount Kailash - Domain of Destruction]
TAP... TAP... TAP...
My third eye pulsed rhythmically, like a cosmic heart beating off tempo. The disturbances in space-time were... crude. Obvious. As if someone was deliberately calling attention.
"Interesting..." I murmured, my voice echoing through the sacred mountains.
Brahma and Vishnu were in meditation session in the valley below, but me? I was restless. The cosmic dancer within me wanted to... dance. Destroy. Rebuild.
WHIRRRR!
My eyes – all three – moved, scrutinizing realities, dimensions, possibilities. And there, near Indra's domain, I felt... something.
A child. No, that was wrong. Someone who looked like a child. But carried the weight of ages. The power of creation and destruction intertwined so perfectly that even I, Shiva, the Destroyer, felt a pang of... envy?
"What irony," I laughed softly, the sound causing avalanches to slide down distant mountains.
Indra had been gathering his little human warriors to challenge me for some time. What a fool. As if borrowed power could overcome true power.
And me? Well, I had also gathered my own defenders. Not out of fear – as if I, Shiva, would fear Indra! – but for... fun. Balance. The eternal game between order and chaos.
But now...
CRACK!
My dance stopped abruptly when I understood what I had just felt.
"That human child..." I whispered, "just put Indra in his place. Without effort. Without unnecessary violence. Just... authority."
This wasn't possible. Indra was annoying, yes, but he was a god! One of the oldest! For someone to simply appear and...
THRUM!
My third eye opened completely, bathing the world in cosmic light. And through that vision, I saw.
I saw the boy casually returning to school. I saw the two seraphs at his side. I saw the divine ease with which he manipulated reality. I saw the authority that emanated from him like perfume.
And for a moment – just a moment – I felt something I hadn't experienced in eons:
Curiosity.
"Who are you, little destroyer?" I murmured, my voice carrying through dimensions like a whispered promise.
Because anyone who could put Indra in his place without breaking a sweat... that someone deserved my attention.
Perhaps even... my respect.
WHOOM!
I rose from my meditation position, my body unfolding like a cosmic serpent. The jewels on my forehead twinkled, reflecting the light of a thousand suns.
It was time to pay a visit.
Not as an enemy. Not as an ally. But as... equal?
The idea was so absurd I almost laughed. I, Shiva, considering a human as equal?
But as I watched the boy through the veil of dimensions, an inescapable truth crystallized:
He wasn't human.
Never had been.
And that... that changed everything.
[Sainan - Classroom - Simultaneously]
RING! RING!
The third period bell rang, bringing me back to mundane reality. I sat at my desk, picking up the pencil for the math test, as if I hadn't just reordered the cosmic balance a few minutes ago.
"Question number one," I murmured, reading the problem. "If a train leaves Tokyo at 9 AM..."
THRUM!
A familiar presence touched the edge of my consciousness. Small, ancient, curious.
Ophis.
I smiled discreetly, making some notes on the paper.
"Looks like we'll have visitors," I thought, solving the equation with half my attention.
Actually, several visitors, from what I could sense. The cosmos had awakened, and everyone wanted to meet the new player on the divine board.
"Well," I murmured, moving to the next question, "this should be interesting."
After all, it's not every day that millennial gods come to make friends with a high school student.
Even if that student is, secretly, the oldest and most powerful force in the universe.
TICK-TOCK... TICK-TOCK...
The classroom clock marked time, indifferent to the cosmic plans unfolding around it.
And me? Well, I had a test to finish.
The deities could wait.