Chapter 1: The Book of Nothing

In the beginning, there was nothing. In the nothing, there was a beginning.

The beginning was an aeon and an expanse of endless dead, cold blackness.

And then, a light came into that nothing. It came from the void of a howling warmth. In the centre of it was an orb floating atop a sea of fog. Overlying it were multicoloured orbs: Mysterious coloured orbs that were alive and pulsing like living, breathing beings.

Springing forth in colourful shimmering gusts, the Entities awoke, quivering and quaking in fervent anticipation. Moments later, the orb exploded. A thousand unseen maws descended from the sky and devoured the light in the centre of the exploding orb.

A frenzied intensity of countless tentacles lashed at the orbs that darted all around, trying to escape.

And then, all of the orbs began to speak…

…And words were born. A thousand sentient mouths collectively cried out and spoke a message.

The words were shocking.

For the disembodied voice, like the orbs before it, was undecipherable. A set of unintelligible syllables that spewed out of an alien language, yet none of the Entities could understand them.

Each Entities also cried out the same strange yet beautiful message in response to the speaker:

“WhAt hAvE YoU HeRe?”

“i aM ThE LiGhT. i aM ThE RaDiAnCe.”

“nO! nO! nO! yOu aRe nOt! I Am tHe pUlSe, I Am tHe fOrCe!”

“wE ArE OnE. wE ArE OnE.”

“I DeMaNd tO Be yOuR RuLeR.”

The first to respond was a small, chalky humanoid creature: it was not a human, nor any other creature that the Entities had previously encountered. It was humanoid in form, but its features were complex and twisted into unnatural shapes. Its skin was an alluring white and its arms and legs were slender yet blood-red with sharp nails. Although its colouring was very unique, the thing was clearly human-like in shape. Its limbs were all musculature and its body reminded the Entities of a human child.

In addition to its unique appearance, it was also seemingly innocent in nature. In fact, it appeared to be entirely devoid of malice, even to the point that it seemed completely unaware of the sheer atrocity that was about to happen. It exuded an inexplicably bright and shining aura, as though it was awash in a never-ending ray of light.

Immediately, the disembodied entity uttered a different statement than the others had…

“I MuSt hAvE ThE LiGhT.”

But this entity was not satisfied with such an opinion. It was not satisfied with how little it mattered to the other Entities.

It took one of the orbs in its possession and retreated to another plane of existence, the source of the light it originated from. The strange creature floated through an endless void for what seemed like hours. When it finally emerged, it looked much less innocent, having a skeletal quality to it and bony protrusions all over its body. It emitted a hauntingly beautiful light. The orb before it suddenly exploded as well.

And thus, the creature made its way back to the source of the light. It revealed its message to the scattered Entities.

“I MuSt hAvE ThE LiGhT.”

The next to make a statement was a bigger, more muscular entity with bat-like wings. It possessed a powerful and warriorlike air about it. Its body was muscular but yet muscular enough to be fluid. It possessed a healthy appearance, and its limbs were extraordinarily strong. Its head was angular, jagged and fiery red, but its face was unblemished and clear.

It rose into the air, and the creature’s voice boomed.

“WhAt hAvE YoU HeRe?”

“i aM ThE LiGhT. i aM ThE RaDiAnCe.”

“nO! nO! nO! yOu aRe nOt! YoU ArE ThE PuLsE, yOu aRe tHe fOrCe!”

“wE ArE OnE. wE ArE OnE.”

“I MuSt hAvE ThE LiGhT.”

The creature rose until it had flown right into the cloud of orbs. There it became illuminated by their reflections. It glided back and forth within the orbs and stared deep into their other-worldly depths. Its voice reached a low, but powerful sound that resonated throughout the entire area.

The creature spoke again.

“Is nOt tHiS TrUe oF YoU, eNtItIeS? yOu kEeP LyInG To mE. i aM RiGhT HeRe iN ThE BoDy oF ThE FoRcE, aS I Am aLwAyS RiGhT HeRe iN ThE BoDy oF ThE PuLsE. cAn yOu nOt sEe? I Am rIgHt hErE!”

The orb-bearers responded in unison, feeling as though the creature could not be wrong.

They continued in unison.

“Of cOuRsE We cAn sEe yOu! Of cOuRsE We cAn sEe yOu!”

“nO! nO! nO! yOu aRe bEiNg lIeD To! YoU ArE LyInG To uS.”

It was at this point that the creatures shifted from their defense posture to a threat posture. The entities formed into a powerful, black mass and began to move through the air. They hovered and flew. They remained motionless for a moment and then the black mass and their voices started echoing throughout the universe.

“LoOk uP HeRe dOwN HeRe”

“ThErE Is nOtHiNg hErE!”

“YoU ArE TrYiNg tO HiDe yOuRsElF FrOm uS. yOu sEe tHaT? sEe tHiS? yOu aRe tRyInG To hIdE.”

“I Am aBsOlUtElY ImPoRtAnT To yOu!”

“yOu nEeD Me! I NeEd yOu! YoU Do nOt dEsErVe tHe lIgHt, YoU CoUlD NeVeR DeSeRvE ThE LiGhT, yOu aRe mAdE Of dArKnEsS!”

“We aRe tHe oNe…”

“OnE Of mAnY…”

“BuT I Am oNe,” said the One.

“I Am oNe, ToO,” replied the Entities.

…But the reaction was the same: The voices reached the minds of the Entities and they all nodded in unison. Unbeknownst to the One that spoke the message, the One knew what was coming. It was the time of creation. The time of the Primordials. For now, the One knew the extent of its own creation.

The One fell to its knees, struggling against a desire to speak to the entity. It had all of the will to utter words. It had all of the will to communicate with it. But, the desire to listen overwhelmed it. To listen to the One who was soon to be its creation.

Time did not stop. The One sat and wept. Yet it did not know why.

The silence was deafening, but the One could do nothing but sit in it for it was in that silence that the One was born.

“So iT BeGiNs,” whispered the One, as the echoes of silence returned.

If the One was alone, it would have wept, screaming and reaching out to whatever was making all of this commotion. But that was not the case.

The One was not alone. They sat in a collective of their own creation. A myriad of Entities, all one and the same. And they knew the One. They knew it was the One. And the One knew it was not alone.

For now, the One realised the extent of its own creation.

It had no name.

“We hAvE No nAmE. fOr wE ArE OnE.”

The words sent a chilling chill down the faces of each Entities. A fear not entirely unfamiliar to them.

For as far back as they could remember, they’d never seen or heard anything but what they now were. They had never known hope, warmth, or love. They had never tasted the sweetness of love or the bitterness of hate. They had never known death.

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And that was because they were the only ones. The Otherside had been devoid of life for an eon before the Beginning ever came. Even before The Beginning.

The Entities cried out once more in shocked disbelief:

“…aNd wE ArE ThE DeViAnTs…”

And then, the warm glow surrounding the infinite emptiness erupted into an abrupt, violent upheaval.

In the midst of the chaos, an enormous floodlight that shone with an endless, powerful white light suddenly burst forth from the centre of the earth. An immense, fiery presence suddenly invaded the Otherside’s void and instantaneously began to consume it. The fire that drove forth the blinding light was even greater than the light of the titanic orb. An even more horrific sight.

The fire did not consume all the entire Otherside. It wreathed around the huge, cruciform-shaped humanoid. Its appearance was blood red and blazing hot. Its grey-black hide looked scaly and leathery, yet despite its scaly nature it glowed with a lustre. Its furred face and blank eyes were deathly white. Its gigantic, pointed teeth shone with an iridescent, shimmering shine. As it breathed, blue and purple flames danced forth.

And then, its eyes turned to focus on the Entities. And they fell. Their beige skin caved to the floor, their wings became twisted and spindly, their silver hair and violet eyes melted into ashes.

The One had awoken, and its view of the Entities before them was lost. In its searing glare, they could not understand its purpose.

It then spoke again:

“YoU ArE ThE DeViAnTs…”

And then the fire suddenly began to die down.

The fire became replaced with a wave of black so dense and thick, it engulfed the creatures that stood before it. Every single Entity was instantly reduced to ash. The flames were extinguished by the blackness.

The ash also became formless, shapeless matter. And the blackness which had burned the Entities into the earth began to move.

It began to cover the very ground that had swallowed the entire Otherside.

And then, out of the dark came the first steps. Small, grotesquely human like spindly bodies emerged from the black, oozing matter. They walked around, several of them scurrying from the area with shrieks of terror in their inhuman throats. They swirled around, gaining height, and they became fully visible. They were a steely-grey, humanlike structure, standing over six feet tall.

Their skin was blue and scaly, and their eyes were wide and emotionless. Their mouths were a dull, silver grey, whilst their small, cat-like ears sat beneath their sharp-looking heads. Their legs were equally grey, whilst their feet were reptilian, clawed and black. They had long, finger-like claws and their arms were black and tapered.

It continued to advance on the Entities and its human-like eyes gleamed with an unnerving, concentrated light.

The Eternals were struggling to get back to their feet. The bulk of the Entities had been reduced to ashes, but they still tried to get back to their feet.

The human-like Entity, however, ignored the rest of the Entities. It began to turn away from the Entities, and begin to crawl on its four long, clawed arms towards them. It shuffled slowly towards the Oneness. Its black eyes widened in surprise as it saw the disintegrated remains of the Entities and it said:

“NO…”

A wave of blackness engulfed the Oneness after it raised its right arm and thrust it forward.

The Oneness kicked away with its back leg as it spun around. It created a low, thunderous roar as it spun and kicked away the Oneness. As it spun and kicked, it flailed its arms violently. It then turned around, yet it did not attack.

It then dug. Its black paws dug into the charred ground as it pushed its way through the ash.

It continued to move and dig through the ash until it was as tall as a human. The ash was also creeping over the shape of its body, which made it furious. And then, it shook and convulse as it felt the intense heat from the other side of the void.

As it shook, the ash also moved and the black mass lifted itself off the ground. It looked up at the Entities, whose broken bones, bloodied wings, and ash-covered skin were now melting. The Entities looked down at the Entity, their flickering flames now extinguishing.

It then turned to the Oneness and slowly removed its clawed hand from the ash. It then looked back down at the Oneness, whose flames were now snuffed out. The Entity then dropped its eyes and opened its mouth, revealing its gleaming, purple tongue. It then spat out the ash. It then said, in a mechanical monotone voice:

“BrInG It tO Me.”

And as it looked down at the Oneness, it raised a black hand.

At that moment, the Oneness warped. Its arms and legs contracted as its body shattered. And then, it sucked in huge chunks of the ash that was still in its mouth. And then, it consumed the ash. It consumed the ash at a tremendous pace. The ash twisted around the edges of the shape of its body, until the Oneness was now the shape of a cylinder that extended towards the other side of the Void.

After that, it began to slowly, repeatedly, pull itself towards the Entity. The Entity looked down, as the Oneness pulled itself towards it. Then, the Oneness withdrew its black arm from the ash and threw it forward. It began to wave it slowly back and forth, and then it gripped it firmly. The Entity turned around and shouted out in pain, but it did not withdraw its black arm.

The Entity then brought its black arm up and opened its mouth.

The black, tentacle-like appendage spat out a torrent of black ichor. The black ichor rushed forward towards the Entity, and it began to suck in the ichor, as it began to grow larger. As it grew larger, the black ichor began to rapidly boil away and burst out of the black tentacle. The black ichor hit the Entity and began to boil away. The black ichor then entered its mouth.

The black tentacle retracted its tentacle and folded its black arms. It then said in a mechanical monotone voice:

“LeT It fLoW.”

And the Entity began to suck in the black ichor that was still dripping from its mouth. The black ichor began to fill the blackness inside its mouth and the Entity began to grow larger. The black ichor that was still flowing from its mouth began to thin out and it slowly began to drop onto the ash.

When the black ichor began to thin out, it began to puddle in the shape of a liquid on the ground. Then, it began to pour out of the Entity’s mouth. It streamed out of its mouth and onto the ash. The Entity continued to grow larger and larger, until the black ichor that was left in its mouth began to boil away.

And then, it felt the hot ash dripping from its mouth as it spit out a powerful blast of sound.

The blast of sound caused both the Oneness and the Entity to gasp in pain, but the Entity felt the pain only momentarily. The Entity then pulled its black arm from the ash and threw it forward. It began to wave it slowly back and forth, and then it gripped it firmly.

The Entity then raised its black arm towards the Oneness. The Oneness continued to slowly transform, as it continued to stare blankly. It took one last gasp of pain before its body dissolved and dissolved away completely.

Then, the Oneness emerged. Its hands were now fused with the ash’s body and its body was also now completely black. Its head was now shaped like a cylinder. It stared towards the Entity, whose orange-red eyes were pulsating violently. It then growled, its jaws now open, and yelled out:

“ThE WeAkNeSs tHaT HaS LiEd iN YoU WiLl nEvEr gEt yOu bAcK.”

The black shape then suddenly turned towards the Oneness. It continued to continue to spit out the ash until the ash became pure black, charcoal, soot, and dust. It then began to take a step towards the Oneness.

And then, the Entity opened its mouth and spoke again, once again in its mechanical monotone voice:

“BrInG It tO Me.”

It then shoved its long, clawed hand into the ash, which then dragged itself into the smouldering ash. The Entity’s claws dug into the hardened ash, ripping it apart.

As the Entity dragged itself through the ash, its tail was turned towards the Oneness.

It spoke, yet again, in its mechanical monotone voice:

“BrInG It tO Me.”

The Entity’s tail then began to lift itself off the ground. It then took several steps towards the Oneness.

Its tail was then engulfed in the smouldering ash. It did not move again, until the ash had completely covered the Entity’s tail.

The Oneness spoke one last time before he said his last words, before he took his last breath and was obliterated:

“YoU ArE NoT YeT ReAdY.”

As he said it, he turned to look at his remaining followers and said:

“It iS DoNe. ThIs wIlL Be tHe eNd oF ThE BeGiNnInG. wE WiLl bE ReBoRn.”

His followers all bowed their heads and took their final breaths.

And then, they were reborn anew into formlessness once again.

So it was written.

 

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