Heal and Null appeared in an absurdly crowded place.
It wasn't a city.
It was a swarm of existence, a market of living realities, a civilization that seemed built in layers: overlapping streets, bridges crossing above and below without obeying angles, buildings stretching upward as if they wanted to pierce the sky… and downward as if they sought to bury themselves in the void.
The air was filled with murmurs, footsteps, voices in impossible languages, nervous laughter, arguments, transactions.
And yet… everything sounded as if reality itself were speaking in a low voice, afraid that something might hear.
The beings there were… strange.
Many had demonic traits, but at first glance they could pass as human.
What distinguished them were details the human eye noticed too late:
Horns on the sides or on the forehead, some curved like crowns, others straight like blades.
Skin with non-human textures: fine scales, dark leather, marks like embedded ash.
Limbs that were sometimes too long, or too perfect, or too "correct" to be natural.
And above all… the marks.
Glowing marks shaped like a sun, engraved on the neck, back, arms, or legs.
They weren't tattoos.
They were seals.
As if those bodies had been signed by an ancient oath.
Heal: we arrived —looks at Null and sighs— did this place surprise you that much?
Null: it's just that many look human, I could get confused —laughs nervously while looking around— I just hope I don't get lost.
Heal: (sighs) by the way, I was going to ask you something but I forgot because of Abyssal.
Null: (curious) what were you going to tell me?
Heal: (pointing at him with a finger) how did you get out of your fiction? If you're a human and clearly you are… how did you reach these realities?
Null remembered when Alanai threw him from his world, which means he didn't just cross distances but several layers of realities almost at the same time.
Null: (swallows) what do you mean by me being "fiction"?
Heal: (sighs) right… characters in books don't even know they're books (looks at him) humans don't exist here, because humans are nothing more than text or images in books, they can't pass through a book or writings… but you're here, which is a very unique exception.
Null: wait wait wait…
He stayed thinking.
And like a mental stab, he remembered Alanai.
Null: maybe it was because of her.
Heal: her? Who is "her"?
Null: Well I'll just say her name was "Alanai".
And then it happened.
The air… became heavy.
The murmurs shut off as if someone had flipped a universal switch.
Movement froze.
It wasn't normal silence.
It was a silence that felt imposed, as if the entire world had been forced to stop breathing.
The beings nearby stayed motionless, as if they had just heard the name of a curse that cannot be named.
Some lowered their heads.
Others stepped back.
A couple simply… went rigid, with the expression of someone who saw their own end.
Null: w-what's happening? (nervous) why did everyone react like that?
Heal: (stunned) Alanai? You're talking about Hakai? How can you mention her so calmly!! She's the only one who is absolutely on par with Eterodivinitar!!
Null: (surprised) Hakai? And who is "Eterodivinitar"?
Heal: you need to come now!
Heal grabbed Null and took him away.
And it wasn't "running".
It was a speed that bent time, as if each step were a cut between frames of existence.
Null felt his stomach rise, as if his body had been left behind and his consciousness was being dragged by force.
Null: WHERE are you taking me!!?
Heal: to the library.
They crossed timelines one by one.
Null felt it.
Like invisible doors: click, click, click.
Each one with a different air, a different smell, a different vibration.
As if they were crossing over infinite stacked "nows".
Until they stopped.
In front of them was a structure.
A construction so large the eye couldn't take it all in.
It had no exact "height".
It seemed to grow as you looked at it, as if your perception couldn't fix it.
At the entrance, letters carved into a material that wasn't stone or metal or energy.
LIBRARY OF INFINITE STORIES
The name wasn't a title.
It was a warning.
Heal pushed the doors open with force, as if she feared the place itself might refuse to let them in.
Heal: seriously I can't believe a human doesn't know Hakai… maybe you're from the lower realities of your domain.
Null: now you're telling me I'm more fiction than fiction? (sigh) what's left is for you to say I'm fiction of fiction of fiction of fictions.
Heal: well technically yes.
Null felt like his brain was going to explode.
Not because of the information.
But because of the implication.
Heal walked between endless shelves.
There was no "end" in any direction.
The corridors stretched like veins, and each shelf was a graveyard of universes.
The books… moved on their own.
Pages turned without anyone touching them.
Texts rewrote themselves with living ink.
Some covers breathed.
Others bled light.
Heal grabbed a book and handed it to Null.
Heal: tell me if it doesn't sound like the ones from your kind, if you look closely the pages move on their own and the texts write themselves, as if this fiction had life.
Null was left speechless.
He looked at the book.
And he felt something worse than fear:
a real existential crisis.
Null: so… everything I lived was some kind of simulation right? —laughs in a somewhat strange way and his breathing speeds up— nothing I've been going through was real? Am I just a text of something greater?
Heal: hey calm down, relax, just because you're fiction doesn't mean what you've been through isn't real, it's just that it's less real to others who are beyond what our perception can see.
Null: how do you know, if at any moment since we're fiction someone could delete us as "waste"
Heal tensed.
And for the first time her expression lost all patience.
Heal slapped Null.
It wasn't a normal slap.
It was a strike with conceptual weight.
Null fell to the floor, and when he fell… he crashed into a pile of books.
Several opened.
Pages scattered.
And when those pages were erased…
something died.
No blood was seen.
No scream was heard.
But the air trembled as if millions of stories had been ripped away at once.
(page erased = millions of universal timelines and existential branches of the human domain were erased with no recovery)
Heal: damn it, look what you made me do! —grabs Null and shakes him until he reacts— understand this. if they erase us, it's by their decision and we can't reverse it, but that doesn't mean you should stay on your knees playing dead when you aren't, damn it, if someone important to you is about to be erased are you going to stay sitting waiting for them to erase you too or are you going to do something? And if they want to erase you from every page and memory, are you going to stay sitting waiting or are you going to use what little you have left?
Heal slapped Null again.
Heal: idiot, you better not doubt that again or I'll throw you outside reality.
Null rubbed his aching cheeks.
This time he didn't laugh.
He didn't breathe weird.
He just stayed… thinking.
Because the truth was simple
Heal: well, what we came for.
Heal began searching for the book.
Not just any.
One that didn't contain human domains.
But the account of what was forbidden.
The generation of realities outside central Hell.Abyssal.And Hakai.
Heal: where could that book be? I'll have to search the whole library! How do you search for one among infinity?
Her voice sounded small.
Not because she was weak.
But because infinity respects no one.
Then…
A male voice interrupted them.
Man: hello, Heal, you brought visitors it seems —smiles kindly while looking at the books— are you looking for one in particular?
Heal turned.
He was a demon of average height, human appearance.
But with the solar mark on his right arm, glowing as if it were a star trapped in flesh.
Heal: hello, Kale, and yes, I'm here for the "ancient book" which shelf is it on?
Kale: ah I see (smiles) let me help you find it.
Kale closed his eyes.
And a powerful blue aura, but perfectly controlled, surrounded his body.
It wasn't an aggressive aura.
It was an aura of dominion.
His vision covered the library.
He didn't "look".
He read.
As if his mind could travel infinite shelves without getting lost.
The moment he saw the book, he moved his right hand.
The book vanished from the shelf.
And reappeared in his hand.
As if infinity, for once, had obeyed.
Kale: here you go (smiles) I hope you enjoy this legend.
Null was going to say something.
But Heal covered his mouth with an arm and smiled at Kale.
Heal: thanks Kale for the help.
Heal bowed in reverence and left, dragging Null along.
Kale looked a bit confused.
But he laughed a little and kept walking through the library.
Meanwhile, Heal and Null reached an empty shelf, with no one around.
Heal: don't mention Hakai, do you want them to interrogate you.
Null: I wasn't going to say her name... ok yes I was going to ask (laughs nervously)
Heal: (sighs) well it doesn't matter.
Heal raised her arms a little.
Opened the book.
And Null stood beside her, watching with curiosity.
Heal: this is the legend.