Aeren stood alone in a desolate place, observing the empty sky above. After the strange phenomenon had ended, he turned around to survey his surroundings and noticed that there was absolutely nothing to his left or right. He felt neither shock nor surprise; instead, he regarded the scene with perfect calmness and detachment.
"This is the consequence of the pride of this world," Aeren murmured to himself thoughtfully. "If you attempt to capture heaven and deceive it into believing that this is its rightful place—if you create an elaborate illusion for years—heaven will eventually punish you. Mortals have always faced heaven's wrath whenever it chose to act, and yet you still have the audacity to imprison heaven in an illusory reality."
Aeren could sense that someone had managed to bring heaven down to earth, and that the green heaven had been completely oblivious to its presence among mortals. As heaven lingered in this false realm, the illusion crafted by the world began to capture it slowly but steadily. Before heaven could distinguish between its true reality and the earthly deception, it became trapped in this elaborate illusion.
The green heaven's illusion shattered completely as Aeren stepped beyond the facade constructed by the world itself. Finally released from its earthly deception, green heaven returned to its realm of verdant beauty. However, years of enslavement had left heaven filled with anger toward the people it had once granted opportunities. They had taken their own reality and illusion, unable to comprehend the meaning behind it, ultimately merging with the world and transforming it into a barren wasteland. Now, there was no magic, no clarity, no space, no time—nothing remained at all. It had all turned empty, leaving Aeren stranded in that complete nothingness.
"I'm stuck in nothingness," Aeren whispered, realising he had fallen into a new trap. Every time he attempted to move forward, he found himself back where he had started. There was no space to walk, no time to age, no reality to perceive, and no illusion to fall into.
"How did I not notice this?" Aeren pondered, confused by his own situation. He had never imagined he could feel this way. Although Aeren had helped the heavens reach their rightful place, he felt as if he had gained nothing in return. Instead, he found himself trapped in a state of nothingness, unable to change his circumstances. "This is what happens when you think you are too smart," he muttered to himself as he remained stuck in this void.
"What should I do?" Aeren questioned desperately. He recalled a time when he had once escaped from nothingness and returned to an illusory reality. "Is there a password that can take me out of this reality?"
As he waited patiently, Aeren looked around, only to see nothing. The emptiness nearly overwhelmed his thoughts, leaving him to simply experience the state of nothingness.
Gradually, Aeren began to comprehend the meaning of this nothingness; he realised where he truly was. "Nothingness is true reality, pure reality, without any illusions." He was stunned by this revelation, understanding that if only reality exists, then nothingness is what that reality looks like. Since nothingness cannot be seen, no one could truly know what reality looked like. Yet, Aeren stood in this reality, yearning to escape from this uncomfortable truth.
"Don't you want to see reality, Aeren?" he asked himself, only to find no immediate answer. He had long dreamed of witnessing the true reality, but now that it embraced him, he wanted nothing more than to flee back to the comforting illusions. "Yes! I do," Aeren finally responded to his own question with conviction.
A smile crept across Aeren's face as he listened to the answer from his own consciousness. Instead of questioning himself further, he looked around at his surroundings and finally began to see the beauty within this reality.
"What do you think?" Aeren questioned again, as he pondered to himself. He lay on the ground, but his reality felt like it allowed him to float in the sky; reality was his bed and pillow. As he began to believe he had truly entered reality, he yearned to see and walk on the beauty of existence beyond the illusion he had lived in for his whole life. "Beauty beyond illusion," Aeren replied to himself.
"HA HA HA HA HA HA... This is reality!" Aeren laughed uncontrollably, overwhelmed with happiness as he realized that he wanted to explore and live in this place. His final opportunity had come to him almost effortlessly. "This is a reward from heaven, HA HA HA!" Aeren understood that the green paradise did not punish him; instead, it rewarded him with the vision he had longed for.
His happiness was uncontrollable as he traveled through the vast nothingness and found himself in awe. Each moment of this new reality fueled his excitement. "See it clearly; we are in reality. We have become real, Aeren. We finally shattered our illusion and became real!" Aeren exclaimed with joy. In his new reality, he was indeed real.
"Yes, we are," Aeren replied, a smile spreading across his face as he gazed at the beauty of reality. His eyes, filled with wonder, began to transform—becoming truly real. His hair became real, his face became real, and his entire body started to feel real. He had become real.
"I'm real, Aeren! I'm real, I'm real! I'm no longer an illusion like the world, the galaxy, the universe, or any existence in space." Aeren shouted as he felt his body return to reality. Tears streamed down his illuminated face. "My real tears…" Aeren locked his gaze on those tears—tears that would never dissolve, never erase, never vanish. They were the tears of reality, destined to float for eternity.
"It is time, Aeren," his consciousness spoke to him as his physical form became real. This reminder conveyed something that only Aeren understood, and although he could sense what his consciousness was trying to express, he lacked the courage to voice it.
Aeren looked up at his reality as he floated in nothingness. Here, he could do anything he wanted, even create a world, but he found little interest in that. His true desire was to experience reality. As the words from his consciousness echoed in his mind, his heart began to beat again, but it swiftly shrank with sadness, emptying all emotion.
"Why?" Aeren questioned himself as a realization struck him. Suddenly, reality began to shatter—the pure truth of his existence fractured. The moment he began to understand, his vision of a green heaven dissolved, leaving the truth he sought to convey, but this time it was the green heaven that dissipated instead of Aeren. He accepted his reality and wanted to live, but as his heaven crumbled, it became clear that reality was beyond what heaven could control.
"Why do I have to return to this illusory reality?" Aeren lamented. He despised this illusion reality, but reality continued to break apart. He felt despair, helplessness, weakness, powerlessness, depression, and disillusionment.
There was no reply as he succumbed to the illusory reality. He knelt on the ground, his sense of floating vanished, and the ground claimed his position. Aeren realized that his emotions had shifted back to a state of calm detachment as he lost touch with his true reality.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Aeren screamed as feelings of detachment washed over him again. He surveyed his surroundings and noticed the desolate ground beneath his feet. Before him lay nothing like time, space, physics, or any aspect of the illusion. He looked around once more and saw the forest, drawing him back into the illusory reality.
"I'll reach you," Aeren declared as he took in the situation around him, realizing he had become human and caught in this illusion again.