"Elijah… Wake up!"
A soft voice began to travel through Elijah's ears. This voice was slightly distorted, and most definitely came from a child.
"Who are you?" Elijah didn't question his surroundings. The infinite expanse of darkness adjourned with bright and small stars plastered across what felt like a three dimensional painting.
Instead, he was focused on a small woman with ever-changing and wavy white hair. Her eyes were void of anything life-like and there was not a shred of clothing on her. A blank body — a blank canvas.
"I… I thought you… you would remember me. I brought you to this world…" Her voice became dull and filled with sadness.
Thinking back to the murmurings he had heard many times over, her voice felt similar — the vibrations. "So you are the one who dammed me to a life of torture. You could've at least explained a couple of things to me! How the hell was I supposed to know this entire world wants to kill me!!!" Elijah's voice and tone rose with every sentence.
"I did tell you everything! I told you to save me, I told you about the power I gave you, and I told you about the danger of The Void!" The woman started expressing her disbelief and anger.
"You know what. I think you did tell me, but something must have happened and I forgot! Or maybe you are just lying!" Elijah did not hesitate to express his feelings. "How do I get out of here, I just want to escape Astraea!"
The woman sighed and began talking again. "I'm sorry, I suspected that could happen… After all, you did live for a very long time. That puny baby brain of yours couldn't handle everything… But hey, now that you are here and alive, how about I explain some things to you?"
"I'm good, I don't want your help. I can tell just by listening to you that you aren't as innocent as you think you are. Send me back, or wake me up. "
Esulith laughed, shifting her blank body in awkward directions. "You say all that to me after you lost my space affinity? How befitting of a failure…"
"You know, I actually do have some questions. What the hell are you, why did you bring me here, and why is the world the way it is? If you answer those, just maybe I will appease your desire to tell me everything. Although I doubt you were ever going to tell me everything in the first place." Elijah thought of an idea and removed his ego. Anger was in his heart and he just wanted to escape, get away from everything related to the Astraea Kingdom.
"Yippee!" The woman jumped and clapped her hands together. To Elijah, they seemed too realistic for the place they were in. "First off, I have a name… Esulith, although everyone calls me The Wanderer. I am a god, one of many. Although technically I am dead and my soul resides in The Void. Secondly, there was a war between the gods that created a hole that spread from one side of this planet to the other. The Void now inhabits that hole."
The woman being a god wasn't so out of the ordinary considering what Elijah has heard so far. However, the war between the gods was something that bewildered him.
"Why did the gods fight?"
"I was just going to get to that since you are interested. The simple answer is that we were bored and wanted to restart this world. The civilization had become too stale and slow, and many of the gods had already shown themselves to the public way too many times. A lot of the gods did not agree, while many of them did…"
Esulith paused her speech, and oddly enough, Elijah could feel she had more to say.
"... Hmm… That is at least what I know. I used to roam to every corner of the universe as I pleased… checking in on different world's I had nurtured in the past. So, there could be another reason."
"Do you God's not have any brain cells? Nothing is for you to control!"
"Relax! Everything was under our control! Without us gods, none of you would exist!" The woman paused while Elijah looked away. "Something unexpected happened at the end of the war. Our powers… were given to the people of this world. The elements that allow us to snap world's into existence, and our powers that allow us to protect ourselves from our creations."
"Of all of the worlds I have explored, this has never happened before. But… That is not even the worst part. There is this unnatural element that was created from corruption lingering inside this world. I, as well as the other gods stuck inside The Void call it, "void magic". It absorbs, decays, and tears anything it touches apart. The elements were never meant to be used for anything combat related…"
Elijah's eyes widened in disbelief from not just the powers of the gods given to the people, but from Esulith's ego that he couldn't help but laugh at. Although, environment's are prone to shape the people who inhabit them – so her way of acting would make sense.
"Maybe this is a good thing. The time for the fall of the gods and the rise of the people could be exactly what the universe needs."
"No! Without us causing apocalypses every once in a while, you people would become too strong for your own good. Wars across the galaxies would be never ending! And eventually… nothing would exist anymore."
While Esulith's point did make complete sense to Elijah, he felt as though it was unfair. But… Life itself was unfair. The truth was, Esulith was right about everything. It was necessary to restart life – restart the cycle as the cycle would only exist with the gods.
Although, just like with everything, varying amounts of nuance sit in the shadows.
A chance for the cycle to live on its own was possible, but just barely.
But what if Elijah did not care? There was absolutely nothing attaching himself to this world – even if it was earth, but in the distant past or future.
"So why did you bring me here? What makes me different?" Said Elijah as his eyes twitched. This was the moment of truth, the moment where he would find out why he was brought to this world filled with ego and lies.
Esulith began motioning her pale white arms astound the astral space they both effortlessly floated in.
"While it is random, I can choose once I lock onto someone. I saw your entire life you know, from beginning to end. And I decided you would be someone who could help. Once you perished, I simply dragged your soul through the stretches of time. "
"Couldn't you have at least chosen a failure, someone who deserved a second chance. I never wanted a second chance! I was happy with my life!"
"I've been choosing people like that for some time now, and it never seemed to work. They all lost themselves in the delicacy that comes with using our powers. And I fear the same set of emotions is now inside you as well."
Not bothering to respond, Elijah began to walk through the infinite space – closer to Esulith with a straight and tearless face. Her body was underdeveloped in a few different ways, giving him the idea of a child.
Esulith began to back away until Elijah gave her a cold stare. Only when his cold and emotionless hands tightly clutched her neck, did she finally freeze.
"What… are you doing?!"
"What makes the gods different from us humans?" Elijah asked in a monotone voice.
"We just live forever!"
"So you can still be killed?"
"... Yes!"
Elijah let go calmly. He never enacted any suffocating pressure, but wanted to get the cold hard truth through a threat. After all, Esulith had given part of what makes her, "her". This included the ability to fly and the space affinity that is no longer with him,
She was weak and frail, barely even considered as god anymore.
There was also the fact that this god had likely lost her true body, and her soul was the only thing lingering within this void. Not affected by the throws of time.
One question still bugged him. Where was this conversation taking place, and how was she able to communicate with him?
The answer was not something he cared about knowing. The only desire of Elijah's was to reach the Kingdom of Gion, and figure out what the hell he was going to do about his life. Solve the problem with the void, or live on as if it never existed…
"Can you let me go from here?"
Esulith filtered her head, revealing a glimpse of her deep black eyes behind a gap in her flowing white hair. "Are you sure you do not want to know of the truths this world holds?"
"What happened to the people who you told the truth to? I'm assuming they died because the problem still persists."
"…"
Esulith had to take a moment to think about her answer. She wasn't surprised that Elijah had inferred she had reincarnated many before him from their conversation. However, the fact he was asking such a question led her to believe there may actually be hope.
Thus, she responded with an open ended statement while feelings of likability washer over her.
"To reach an untouched palace, you must traverse uncharted territory."
Snap*
In the midst of Elijah smiling for the first time in what felt like forever, he witnessed his vision become blurry as the textures in sight warped to an unfathomable degree.