In a place... a place without name, without time, and without end. The surroundings were filled with emptiness—not just devoid of life or structures, but entirely lacking even the "feeling of existence." It was silent, chilling, and so peaceful that time seemed eternally suspended.
In the midst of this void where no shadow could reflect, a man lay still on a surface he didn't even know was "ground" or merely "solidified air." He had a height typical of a young man; his pure white hair flowed gently to his shoulders as a wind with no origin passed by. His golden eyes shone brightly, like a light of hope that could ignite even the deepest darkness.
He wore a long white robe patterned with gold accents that shimmered faintly when a certain light hit them. The sleeves extended down to his knees, giving the feeling of attire worn by a high-ranking deity.
A long time passed—or perhaps only a fraction of a second—before the body slowly moved. The pair of golden eyelids blinked open, receiving a white light too dazzling to look at directly. He slowly raised a hand to support his body before sitting up straight. Confusion appeared on his face as his eyes scanned the surroundings. But what he found... was utter "emptiness." There was no horizon, no ground, no sky, just white light stretching as far as the eye could see.
"Where... where is this place?" he murmured softly. There was no echo; even his own voice was faint, as if swallowed by the air.
A gentle breeze—or something like it—passed by, causing the hem of his robe to subtly flutter. The young man narrowed his eyes, concentrating to gather his power. A faint green energy began to circulate throughout his body before glowing from his palm. It expanded in all directions like a radar wave. The light vibrated the air around him and spread out limitlessly.
But the further the energy wave traveled, the more he felt "something"— It did not reflect back. It found no boundary, no obstruction, as if this world was truly without end.
The young man froze, his expression shifting from calm to contemplative, and from contemplative to serious. "Impossible... My detection power can cover entire universes, yet here... it detects absolutely nothing."
His heart began to pound faster. Although a powerful deity of the Celestial Realm, this uncertainty made him increasingly cautious. He tried to recall what happened before he arrived here—but found only a black void in his memory. The harder he tried to remember, the more the emptiness consumed him.
He sighed softly before mentally summarizing the ways to escape this place. There were only three paths...
The first path — Eliminate the owner of this place, if a true controller of this dimension exists. However, if this dimension was created to "exist forever," eliminating the owner might not help and could leave him trapped here for eternity. The second path — Use immense power to directly destroy this dimension. According to the laws of power, "a superior force can always crush an inferior force." The final path — Find a special route to escape, such as teleportation, making an agreement, or finding a loophole in this dimension.
He contemplated for a moment before making a firm decision— "I will use the second method."
The young man raised his hand forward. Dark-purple energy began to swirl in his palm, resembling a living mist. It pulsed with every beat of his heart. The aura of this power was so dense that even ordinary gods would tremble.
The power, initially the size of dust, began to expand—from the size of a bean to a fist. From a fist to the size of a mountain. From a mountain to the size of the moon. Then it expanded further to the size of a planet, the sun, a solar system, and finally... covering the entire universe.
The dark-purple power vibrated intensely before changing color from dark-purple to deep red and vibrant blue. Light spread out in all directions beyond imagination. A sound like thunder echoed across the boundless air.
BOOMMMMMM!!!
The explosion lasted for hours—four to five human hours—but in this place, time might not have flowed at all.
When everything subsided, he opened his eyes again. His golden eyes slowly adjusted to the light... But what he saw was still the same— The void... White... Silence...
"Impossible..." he murmured. His voice was faint but filled with shock.
This young man was the God of Hope, one of the high-ranking deities of the Celestial Realm. Though not the strongest, he was at a level that ordinary gods could not compare to. Yet in this place—his power was meaningless.
He took a deep breath, shouting out with a voice full of authority. ... The sound echoed back... empty. No shadow responded. He shouted again, louder than before, until the energy vibrated the air around him. ... But the result was the same—silence. Nothing happened.
He stood still for a moment, before his expression began to shift from anger to the same emptiness as this place. He wasn't sad, but filled with boredom, as if his mind was starting to be eroded by the endless "void."
"I cannot use the first or the last method..." he thought to himself. "To teleport out, I'd need power greater than this dimension, but I cannot do that... To have the owner of this dimension take me out, I must find them first, and I haven't seen even a shadow. As for the dimension's loophole... I used my power to search, but it's too boundless."
He paused for a moment, then slowly stood up. His gaze fixed upon the void ahead. The face that had been filled with despair began to change into determination.
"I am the God of Hope..." he whispered softly. "As long as I draw breath, I will never lose hope."
He closed his eyes once more, summoning his teleportation power with firm concentration. Golden light circulated around his body in a ring. Yet when he opened his eyes again—what he saw was no different from before. Except... his internal sense told him that "he had moved," but was still in the exact same place.
He laughed softly, the sound both despairing and self-mocking. "I knew it... that it would be like this."
The young man began to walk forward aimlessly, amidst the void that had no direction, no destination, not even his own shadow to follow. But every step he took was still filled with "hope"— The single thread of hope in this boundless universe.