Chapter Text
In an empty void beyond the edges of universes, a mysterious being lurks in the darkness.
It was older than any creatures in the multiverse, magical or mundane. It was older than every universe in the multiverse. No one knows where it came from, how it was created, not even itself knows for sure.
Some say it created the multiverse, it will say it didn’t do it on purpose.
It had been sleeping for eons, dreaming of gods and kings. Dreaming of the destruction of civilization, and the birth of new nations.
Some would be surprised that a being such as it would partake in such a meaningless task, after all sleep was for fragile meatbags.
But it likes doing it, it is one of the best ways to pass the time, especially when nothing is happening.
Some would be surprised that it would still get bored. The entire multiverse is at its fingertips. If one universe is being too boring, surely it can just visit a new one, right?
But there’s a point where even that gets boring. It has seen entire civilizations driven to madness, it have witnessed a whole dimension burn. It had seen it all.
It had tried several ways to fight the boredom.
It tried to step in once, to assist civilizations and help them build their monuments or cities. But for some reason, it always ends with them worshiping it. And while the offerings of candies and pastries were nice, if it wanted candies and pastries, it could just conjure it up with his own magic. It doesn’t want to be worshiped, it wanted to be entertained.
It once made the mistake of telling its worshipers that once, and while the blood and carnage of war and conquests had been briefly entertaining. It didn’t take long for the novelty of the sight of people clubbing each other to death to pass. And it was once again bored.
So here it slept in the void, waiting for all universes to wither away and die. So it can finally have another go at trying to dismantle its own form.
And then, it woke up.
This tends to happen. At certain point, it would wake up from its slumber and then it would go back to sleep. Though sometimes, it would be too restless to sleep. So it would spend that time looking through what’s happening all across the multiverse.
It was using a scrying orb to look through the multiverse. And at one point, as he scroll through the multiverse, something caught his eyes.
If it remembered correctly, this was the same universe that the Collector resided in. Though oddly enough, as it looked through that universe, it can’t find him anywhere.
Odd.
But while that was interesting, that is not what caught its eyes.
It was a fairly unremarkable creature. It was small, not particularly weak or strong. she was probably on the younger side of her species, probably a teenager. Probably.
It wasn’t sure because its been a long time since he interacted with her kind.
But what was interesting is the fact that her species was not native to that dimension.
It turned its eyes away from the orb and look towards the direction of said dimension. If it was a mortal in its place, they would be unable to see anything but the dark endless void. But it wasn’t a mortal. Its eyes were powerful enough to see that universe, floating in the darkness amongst the others.
And sure enough, it can see a nearly invisible thread connecting both it and another world.
Dimensions being connected to one another isn’t really that unique. Natural portals between universes appear so often that even he, an omnipresent, omniscient being have trouble tracking most of them.
Curious about this creature, he continued to watch her story play out. And the more he watched, the more invested he gets.
And when her story finally came to an end, he started plotting.
This is the first time he have been this invested on something, and he doesn’t want to let this opportunity to slip away again.
…
Luz Noceda woke up in a cold floor, having no memory of falling asleep. She rubs the back of her head to ease her headache, and she was startled to find that the back of her head was in a ponytail.
That was odd, since when did she have a ponytail?
That detail was shoved to the back of her head as she finally got a good look of the room they were in.
It looked like she was in a movie theatre. With red cushioned seats arrayed in rising rows, the lowest rows being the ones in front while the highest rows were at the back.
There were names on the back of the seats, and she spotted her own name in front, next to someone named Amity Blight and Edalyn Clawthorne.
She looked around at the crowd of people she woke up with. And she was startled to find that most of the people here weren’t humans. Some were certainly human-like, but most resembled the creatures she have only read about on her fantasy books.
“Luz!” She heard her mom called out to her and she ran up to embrace her. “Are you alright?” She asked, worry clear in her voice.
“I’m fine, I just woke up. Where are we?” Luz asked.
“I don’t know.” Her mom turned to the other creatures, and she said, “Stay behind me.”
Luz wanted to walk up to some of the creatures, find out what they were or where they came from. But her mother’s grip on her arm kept her in place.
…
“Amity Blight!” Amity flinches at her mother’s familiar voice as she stomped furiously towards her, with the twins and her dad following behind. “What did you do to your hair?”
She can feel the stare of her classmates burning into her and she can’t help but blush in embarrassment. She doesn’t want anyone to see how terrified she was of her mom, people would think she was weak. And she knows her mom knows that.
Her over the top reaction is probably a way to humiliate her in front of everyone.
And it was working.
“I-I, I don’t know what happened!” She said, because she really doesn’t know. Why is her hair purple? What happened? Did someone pranked her while she was asleep?
“Well, change it back!” Her mom ordered her.
“I don’t know how.” She have focused all her efforts in learning abomination magic, that she have forgone some of the basic spells that most people already knew. Like changing the color of your clothes, or even body.
The twins smiled evilly and Edric began drawing a circle and he said, “We’ll help you.”
Nope, no way. As terrifying as it was facing mom’s wrath. She would never be desperate enough to let the twins do something with her hair. Chances are, they’re probably the reason why her hair is now purple.
But it wasn’t her decision to make.
“Do it. And no tricks this time.” Her mom said.
Edric casts a spell and her hair was back to normal. Green with the brown roots starting to show.
She sighed. Thankfully, the twins were just as afraid of getting in trouble as she was.
She does lament the lost of her purple hair. Prank or not, she kinda liked it.
…
Hunter, more commonly known as the Golden Guard, were looking around the room in confusion. I mean, he kinda has to. Otherwise, he would find himself looking down to whatever he was wearing.
The room was fairly large, with the seats arranged just like an arena. Though most of the seats were only facing towards a single direction. Towards them.
He idly wondered if whoever brought them here were expecting them to put on a show. And he snorted, who would be insane enough to do all of that.
All of the coven heads were here. The leader of the Emperor’s Coven were here. His uncle, the Emperor, was here.
Whoever abducted them will be in serious trouble. And as his uncle’s right hand, he will be the one who would punish the people responsible.
In the name of the Emperor.
So he held his staff, ready to take on the people responsible.
Well, it wasn’t really his staff. Truth be told, he have no idea where this creature came from. He just woke up holding it, just like how he woke up with his weird set of clothes.
He walked towards his uncle, who were discussing something with Lilith. He stood behind him. Ready to hand him over the staff if he asked for it.
But just before his uncle turned around, the staff transformed into its Palisman form and the Cardinal Palisman flew up to the rafters, where it hid among the shadows.
Before he can say anything about thew runaway Palisman, his uncle spoke up, “Hunter, what are you wearing?”
Hunter blushed, instead of the mask, cape and armor he usually wore, he was wearing a casual shirt with a ‘cape’ that is basically just a towel tied around his neck. He have no idea why the person who abducted them chose to replace his clothes with this, but he will make sure they regret it.
…
Eda woke up next to King, who was as confused and lost as she were.
She tried to rub her head, to wipe away the fog in her head. But then she realized that her right hand was missing.
Again.
Ugh, if the people who took them here decided to keep her hand as a souvenir, she’s gonna drown them in the Boiling Sea.
She looked around, and she found herself in a strange room that reminded her of a dueling arena. She wondered where she was and as she looked around at the other people, who were as confused as she were, she found a man in white wearing a horned mask.
Emperor Belos.
Next to him is her sister, who have mismatched eyes with a grey streak on her blue hair.
She grabbed King in her arms, who were just starting to recover from his dazed state.
And she run towards the nearest door, which were on the back of the room on top of the stairs. One of only two doors in the room.
She slammed the door open and she gasped.
There was nothing outside.
No ground, no sky, no trees nor stars. It was nothing but an empty void.
“What is this place?” Eda muttered.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” A voice said behind her and she turned around and found a man with a floating top hat, with wings coming from somewhere in his hips. His eyes were yellow with black slits and his smile was a bit too wide to be friendly.
She was gonna try and distract him so she can make her escape into the ‘void’, but before she could do anything, she was suddenly thrown into the air. She tried to cast a spell to stop her fall, but for some reason, it didn’t work. Luckily, she was able to summon Owlbert in time before she hit the ground and she flew into the air, and towards the open door.
But when she passed through the threshold, she suddenly found herself back into the room, having entered through the second door.
“What the-.”
“The Endless Void is not a safe place for any mortal.” The man, well, creature, said.
Furious, she swooped down and landed in front of the creature and she grabbed the collar of his suit with her only hand and she snarled, “Where did you take us? And where did you put my hand?”
The creature spoke, not just to her, but to everyone. By now, people have started to notice the commotion and they were watching their confrontation.
“Well, the hand thing is not me. But as to where you are?” The creature snapped its fingers and they suddenly found themselves in their seats.
She was sitting next to King, who was to her left. And a strange girl to her right. Her eyes widened when she noticed her ears.
What’s a human doing here?
“You are in the Endless Void, the space between spaces, a place beyond all universes and all of reality. I created this pocket dimension specifically for you. So you can watch your adventures.”
Several images appeared on the empty wall that they were facing. Starting from a girl wielding Owlbert, to that same girl showing another girl with green hair a light spell, to her and her sister clashing in front of the Emperor’s Palace, and the first girl appearing to send a spike of ice towards the Emperor’s head.
It was only now did she realize that the first girl and the girl she was sitting next to were one and the same.
More images flew by and she was unable to catch most of them. But the one thing she noticed is that this human girl seems to feature prominently in most of them.
“This is a waste of time. Why would I want to watch this?” Warden Wrath spoke up, standing up from his seat.
The creature smiled and said, “Because you don’t have a choice. I brought you here and I’m your only way back home.”
“And what’s stopping us from just walking out of that door?” Kikimora pointed at the door that she have just tried to escape from.
“Well, nothing. Aside from the fact that your home dimension is so far away that by the time you reach it, your dimension would have already began to decay. And that’s assuming you’ll be able to find it.” The creature said.
“So, you are the only one that can bring us home. Well, if that was the case, what’s stopping you from leaving us here to die?” Belos said.
The creature looked at Belos contemplatively, and then he nodded. “Fair enough,” He approached him and he ignited his right hand. “Why don’t we make a deal? You and your coven will stay and watch the whole thing, in exchange, I promise to send all of you back to where you belong.”
Belos looked at its hands, the glow of the flame are reflecting from his mask. And then he took it. The two shook hands.
Then the creature smirked and said, “This isn’t a pinky swear by the way.” from her seat, she noticed how this somehow caused Belos to tighten his grip on the creature’s hand. If you fail to follow the deal, I will devour your soul.”
“And what’s stopping you from breaking your end of the deal?” Belos asked.
The creature grinned and said, “As a demon, I am bound by my word.”
Eda narrowed her eyes, demons are never bound by their word. She would know, considering how many times she got backstabbed by one.
But it was very clear that that creature was no ordinary demon. Heck, he wasn’t just a simple magic user. He was too powerful, judging by how he casually created this place just for them. And even as he tried to hide it, she knows she was old. How old, she does not know.
He wasn’t a normal demon. So what was he?
The creature let go of Belos’ hands and he walked towards the front of the theatre. He summoned a cane which he twirled in his hand.
“Oh wait, I forgot.” A tiny portal suddenly appeared and a bird house fell out of it and landed on Lilith’s lap.
“What the-!” Hooty’s voice came from the bird house and Lilith lifted it from her lap. “Lulu? Where are we?”
Without any warning, Hooty was struck with a beam, which came from the creature’s finger guns. The creature smiled and said, “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He’ll wake up later.”
“Anyway, let the show begin.”
END OF CHAPTER 1