There was nothing.
Not darkness - darkness implied the absence of light, and light had never existed. Not silence - silence suggested sound had once been. There was simply nothing, a void so complete that even the concept of emptiness had no meaning.
Until there was something.
A single point of jade radiance pulsed in the absolute, its light neither warm nor cold, for temperature was a concept yet to be born. It was the Core, the first and only consciousness in all of non-existence, ancient beyond measure yet newly awakened to its purpose. For eons unmeasured, it had simply been. Now, for the first time, it stirred with intent.
Create.
The word had no sound, no form, existing only as pure will made manifest. The Core gathered itself, its eternal essence condensing, preparing to exert the fundamental force that would birth reality itself. Power beyond comprehension coiled within its crystalline heart, the power to speak existence into being, to carve meaning from the void.
And in that moment of supreme concentration, as the Core drew upon its infinite reserves to create the first realm, the center of a newly formed reality, something impossible happened.
A soul, torn and screaming, came hurtling through the non-space.
His consciousness, still raw from the train's impact, still echoing with his final heroic act, collided with the Core at the precise instant of creation. For countless eons, the Core had been invulnerable, its essence absolute and unbreachable. But creation required something it had never done before, opening itself completely, laying bare its fundamental nature to channel the raw force of genesis. In that single, infinite moment when it transformed from eternal being into active creator, its perfect defenses dissolved entirely.
The timing was beyond impossible, a coincidence so astronomically unlikely that it defied all probability. Yet it happened. Soul met creative essence at the one instant in all eternity when such a collision could affect the Core itself, sending shockwaves through the nascent fabric of what would become reality.
*CRAAACK*
The Core shuddered, its perfect jade surface fracturing for the first time in its eternal existence. A shard of its essence, pure creative force, the very power of genesis, broke away, blazing with impossible light. His soul, already fragmented by death, shattered completely under the cosmic impact.
But the Core's nature in that moment was creation, not destruction. Even as both essences scattered, its power reached out instinctively, gathering the fragments of the dying soul, weaving them together with threads of jade fire. The shard of eternity, that piece of primordial creative force, began to fuse with his scattered consciousness at the most fundamental level.
The soul underwent a massive transformation as its essence dissolved and reformed, merging completely with the essence of eternity from the shard. Yet the reconstruction was imperfect. The Core, focused entirely on its cosmic purpose, rebuilt the soul not as it had been, but as its structure needed to be to remain stable while holding the newly integrated essence. So as the soul was reconstructed, it underwent several mutations, reshaping, rebalancing, transforming the very nature of what the soul was meant to become. What emerged was no longer purely his original soul, nor purely eternity essence, but something entirely new, a fusion of both that retained his memories, while being fundamentally altered by the creative force now woven into its very being.
The collision sent both essences spinning into the newly forming void. The Core, diminished but undaunted, continued its work, jade light exploding outward in waves, crafting the first realm from nothing. Reality stretched in all directions, teeming with life and possibility.
But the reconstructed soul, carrying the eternity essence now fused into its very nature, tumbled through the expanding cosmos, unconscious and healing. Hundreds of trillions of years would pass as it drifted, the eternity essence slowly integrating and stabilizing into its new form, preparing for the moment when it would finally awaken in a vessel capable of containing such potential.
---
In one of the countless worlds blooming from the Core's work, a small tragedy unfolded. Deep in an ancient forest, a ten-year-old girl with white hair and red eyes stumbled through the undergrowth, lost and terrified. Bandits had attacked her family's caravan, and in the chaos, she had fled into the woods. For days she wandered, growing weaker, until exhaustion and exposure claimed her small life. Her soul, untethered and fading, began its journey to whatever lay beyond.
But the universe, shaped by the Core's creative will, rarely allowed waste. As one soul departed, another arrived.
His transformed soul, guided by forces beyond understanding, settled into the vacant vessel. The body was perfect for his needs, young enough that his altered soul could adapt and grow with it, yet developed enough to survive the integration.
But the moment the fused soul made contact with the young girl's form, everything changed.
The eternity essence woven into his very being began to reshape the vessel to match its new inhabitant's nature. Changes rippled through the small body, subtle at first, then profound. Her white hair took on a silvery, otherworldly sheen, her light red eyes turned crimson and deepened with an inner light that hadn't been there before. Her very bones and flesh were being rewritten, transformed by forces that operated beyond mortal understanding.
The transformation was not merely physical. Something fundamental shifted in the patterns of her existence, as if reality itself was being convinced that this form was meant for far greater things than any ordinary mortal could achieve.
When the changes were complete, what lay in the forest clearing was no longer the simple girl who had died there, nor exactly the man he had been, but something new, a being touched by the same force that had shaped all creation, yet still carrying the memories, kindness, and heroic heart that had defined him.
As consciousness stirred in the transformed form, he, no longer quite human yet still himself, began the second chapter of his existence, his very being forever changed by its fusion with the force that had created all reality.