Before the dawn of existence, before the birth of light and many that came before, there was darkness. Within that darkness, two beings were born. One was the incarnation of creation. And the other? She was the cause of destruction. Their origins were fraught with mystery, even among their own children.
They had many names, but the most commonly known among mortals were Aetherion and Nihtherion. Through the union of creation and destruction, sparked a small flame, a flame known as existence.
The existence consisted of three major aspects. Time, fate, and world. The eldest, the primordial goddesses.
Time ensured the linear flow of the past, present, and future.
Fate ensured the systematic functioning of existence, minimizing casualties and keeping chaos at bay.
The world was forced to bear the weight of existence.
With time, existence grew like a tree, branching over and over again with many possibilities. With those possibilities, new gods came to be. Even the creators were amazed, seeing endless possibilities, endless realities. The "world" was forced to bear all their weight, still, she did not complain. She did not ask for this. Like her other two siblings and younger gods, she too wished to swim through existence, but such a thing did not come to be.
When mortals revered time and fate, they did not mention the world. To them, she simply existed. She was even forgotten by other gods. A lonely goddess, forced to bear the weight of all. But she did not retaliate or rebel. She simply observed, bearing witness to all kinds of acts and evil atrocities of gods, the rise of heroes and the fall of villains, the birth of newborns and the death of the old.
After millennia of nonexistence, one day she sensed an anomaly. A foreign soul from another reality entered this existence. Her sibling, Elefraya, brought that soul discreetly to this plane and started looking for a suitable host for that soul. She was moving behind the scenes to change the fate of mortals while she herself remains neutral. A foreign soul with a body from this reality, an anomaly who is not constrained by laws.
Of course, this did not surprise nor held any interest for her. She has seen many things. This was nothing new. The goddess of fate finally found a suitable body. A 12-year-old boy. He was nothing special. No grand fate. Not destined to achieve anything great. Just a stepping stone for the main characters in fate. That's exactly what made him suitable.
Soon, the original soul will be extinguished, and the foreign soul will make that body his own and live the life of that boy. She has seen this before. It's nothing new. The process began.
She averted her eye and returned to her slumber. But before she fell asleep, she felt something. Something that never happened before. Something went wrong with the transmigration. The original soul did not disappear. He held on, refusing to die. "World" has never witnessed this before. A typical nobody fought against fate. That sparked her interest.
She looked through the boy's memories and was dumbfounded. She never really considered the suffering of mortals before. It was inconsequential for her. But this boy was the same as her. He was getting crushed under all the expectations, responsibilities, and ordinary talent. But he kept working hard to earn everyone's approval and validate his existence, only for a certain avatar candidate to come along and take everything that was supposed to be his. For the first time in millennia, she was excited to see the path he would take.
The foreign soul took over the body, but the original refused to leave. That created a weird existence. One where they were merged with each other, becoming one person. They were a single being, yet they were two different people. It was like one driving the car while the other was in the passenger seat.
Even when she fell into her slumber, she still dreamt of them. Throughout their journey, Adrian achieved many things, but Theon's will and defiance kept influencing Adrian's decision-making at a subconscious level.
She watched after them since the transmigration happened. She was even there when Adrian died. Somewhere along the line, she started being biased. She cheered for their success. When she found out about the arrogance of the goddess of "Time," she was also furious. Of course, she did not care about the regression. She had faith that the boy she had her eyes on would not simply give in just because of something like that. And she was right.
And now, in this situation where the gods denied him to achieve greatness, when "Time' once again interrupted in his life, that was to final straw. She has no intention of simply letting things happen and letting her foolish siblings do whatever they want. She opened her eyes and looked towards the last piece of flickering ember., The last remaining fragment of Theon's soul was still fighting, and she extended her arms towards him.
............…..
After waking up from falling unconscious, Theon felt as if he was floating through a river. No, is he even conscious? But either way, it was quiet and peaceful. He felt as if time nor fate did not exist in this place.
He smirked and thought to himself. "I thought the afterworld was more vivid and colorful. This is really what happens when you die? This is boring."
Then he heard a chuckling sound behind him. He tried to turn his head but could not.
"Ooh yeah, I'm just a soul"
Then he felt a pair of arms around him. Feeling confused about how a soul could feel this way? He was just as curious.
"Vivid and colorful might be even more boring than this, my darling little monarch. But if that's what you want, I can send you there. Or maybe I should just keep you with me?"
He heard a voice of woman. He did not know who that was, but her presence felt similar. Theon felt a shiver down his spine, and he had no spine right now. His instincts screamed, warning him of a dangerous yandere.
"He he, Vivid and colorful sounds perfect, can you just direct me to that place, dear goddess? Your radiance knows no bounds, and your beauty is on par with the world itself. Will aid this wayward soul just once?"
She chuckled again.
"That would be really convincing if you are actually looking at me, but how amusing that you compare me, of all people, with the world."
"What do you-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the goddess interrupted.
"Of course I can send you to a place like that, no big deal. But there is a slight problem. You need to be dead for that."
Theon frowned. He thought he was dead. He felt his life slipping away.
"You are dead." She spoke as if reading his thoughts.
" But you are also still alive. Gods gave you a penalty which almost eradicated your soul. But it kept fighting back. It was fragmented into pieces, but one last piece still remains, fighting desperately against the penalty and the demon king's attack."
Then she came even closer and whispered to him
"Are you fine with this, Theo? With leaving things as they are after everything that happened? If you are fine with it, I can give you a peaceful afterlife. You can finally rest."
Theon kept listening.
"Or you can learn from this."
"It's fine if you fail. It's fine if you fall down from the top. One who always wins will only be satisfied with where they are right now. But someone who fell from grace? They know what it feels like to lose everything. That person will never fall again."
"Tell me, Theon, what kind of person are you? Will you die today and remain in Adrian's shadow? Or will you soar higher than he ever did?"
Theon did not speak. He understood what she was saying. She knew everything about him. And she acknowledged his existence as well, whatever choice he makes from now on. She understood him because she was also like him in a way. And for people like them, there's only one answer to such a question.
She looked at him and smiled. "Wake up, my beloved. Put yourself back together and breakthrough that damn ceiling."
"Write your story among the stars for ages to come."