TEoEAN?
Out in the dark space far past the heavens, something waited.
...
{I finally have a body...}
An injured boy lay flat on the dirt ground in the middle of a forest, opening his eyes to stare up through the thick leaves above.
{But where am I?}
{Where was it? Who was she? And... who am I?}
{I don't remember much.}
...
A candle flickered in a dark room. A young girl with snow-white hair and glowing blue eyes sat with an old book balanced on her knees, her soft voice reading aloud off the pages.
˹Eight heavy high-backed chairs formed a circle in a black room. Eight figures sat in them, leaking power strong enough to break the heavens as they talked about their realms.
The King of the Dark End of Existence slammed back against his chair, his teeth bared in a wide grin. "Haha! Our fifth heaven is growing faster than any of yours."
The Queen of Light Before Dark rested her chin on her hand, curving her lips into a calm smile. "That is true. Your side is growing fast. But the environment of our second heaven is still the best in all the seven heavens."
The Spirit Awaken King bit his tongue and frowned hard. "My sixth heaven has the cleanest, purest air. None of you can match that." He jerked his chin toward the leader of the seventh heaven.
The Queen of Perfection folded her hands in her lap, her face softening into a bright smile. "It is so nice to see everyone here. It feels like the old days."
The King Who Rules jerked his shoulders back, locking his arms across his chest. "Yes. And our first heaven is as strong as always. No one has ever dared to break a single rule here."
The Queen of the Essence of Life flicked her wrist, ignoring the sharp glare shot by the King Who Rules. "Oh, that sounds so boring! No one breaks the rules? How dull. Our third heaven has the biggest population. That is much more exciting."
The All-Knowing King turned his head away, his mouth twisting in a sneer. "Don't make me laugh. The rest of you still use old weapons like swords and bows. Our fourth heaven has advanced technology that is far ahead of everyone else." He shifted his gaze toward the dark corner. "What about you, Master?"
The Nameless Eternal sat completely still inside a pool of shadow, his voice dropping low enough to choke off every sound in the room. "I was once in a place called the eighth heaven. It is lost now, nobody lives there. It has the knowledge required to reach the supreme world."
Silence locked down the circle. The rulers traded blank stares, their brows pinching together because 'the eighth heaven' and 'the supreme world' meant nothing to them.˺
The white-haired girl closed the book cover with a soft thud as a cloud of spinning spiral smoke materialized beside her shoulder.
The smoke orbited in a tight circle, its wispy edges shifting. "Is that the end of the story?"
The girl tossed the book onto the desk, her blue eyes snapping to the smoke. "Oh! Hey, Nx. You are here. Are you spying on a pretty girl like me?" She tilted her head, one side of her mouth lifting into a smirk.
Nx froze in mid-air. He whipped around toward the open window, plunging forward to escape through the glass.
Her fingers hooked around the smoke, squeezing it tight as her cheeks swelled in a pout. "Where do you think you are going?!"
She rolled and squeezed the smoke between her palms for several minutes until her shoulders finally dropped, the anger leaving her face.
She thrust her chin up, patting her own chest. "Haha, you really love stories! Before this, you couldn't even talk. It looks like training with me has made you a lot smarter."
{Yeah, no. I was forced to be her training dummy.} Nx tumbled end over end in the air.
The girl pushed herself up from the chair, running her hands down her skirt. "To answer your question from before... yes, that is the end. But the eighth heaven is just a myth."
Nx drifted down until he hovered right over the paper, his smoke brushing the ink. "Why does the book claim to be a real historical record if it is just a myth? And what is the supreme world? Is it a real location?"
She leaned her head to the side, smiling softly. "Oh, it's just a story for kids. It is full of lies. Besides, you are more of a mystery to me than those. You have been with me ever since I was five, and even after nine years, I still don't know what you are."
Nx backed away, his color fading into a dull grey haze. "Everyone else calls me 'The Waste' and 'The Cursed One.' I don't know anything else about myself."
Her lips parted as she smoothed out her expression, giving him a gentle look. "That is a bad name. I will tell everyone they must address you as Nx."
"Thank you, ******." Nx rose into the air, settling flat on the top of her white hair like a fluffy hat.
{Wait, how does he even talk when he doesn't have a mouth?} The thought struck her like a slap.
A cold shiver crawled down her spine as her mind dragged her back to the day she first found him.
{Guessing from her look, she is thinking about that day again.} Nx recalled the story she had told him long ago.
...
She had slipped out past the heavy iron gates of the grand palace all by herself to pick wildflowers in the grass.
The blue sky split open, bleeding into a deep red stain as a burning streak plunged straight out of the atmosphere toward the earth.