Six naked bodies lay motionless in a vast white room that glowed with its own brightness. Five of them were shadows. The second one from the right was Mary.
None of them had genitals, only smooth skin where those parts should have been.
All at once, the six figures gasped awake, dragging in air like drowning victims breaking the surface after hours underwater. Their frantic breathing steadied, their trembling eased and they rose to their feet as if nothing had happened.
Mary, realizing belatedly that she was naked, tried to cover her chest and crotch with both hands. She stopped only when she noticed the flat, untouched skin where her genitals should have been. Confusion flickered across her face as she brushed her hand over the blank surface.
A familiar voice spoke behind her.
"It feels strange, right?"
Mary lifted her gaze.
Isha stood there, completely naked, with her naked baby son, Obero, perched calmly on her hip. Neither of them had genitals either.
Isha's expression was gentle. "You humans find it strange, don't you? Being without them?"
Mary did not answer.
"It's fine," Isha said, waving a hand lightly. "You don't need to say anything. I already know how all of you feel."
Mary looked around. The other five shadows beside her were touching the smooth skin where their genitals should have been, each wearing the same puzzled or alarmed expression. And in front of every shadow stood naked figures who resembled people of different ages having similarities with Isha and Obero.
Isha cleared her throat softly, guiding Mary's attention back.
"This is one of our facades," she said.
At her words, the six Ishas fused into a single form. The six Oberos merged as well.
Where the cluster had stood, there were now only two people now. Obero, now an older, muscular man radiating the presence of a king.Isha, young and strikingly beautiful, carrying the elegance of a princess.
The six humans stared in astonishment.
Obero grinned. His deep voice filled the bright room. "I don't think we need to introduce ourselves, but we should anyway. The two who are reading this deserve to know as well. We are the siblings you worship, The Great King and The Lady."
Their awe deepened—until Isha snapped her fingers. The small sound echoed clearly through the room. At once, the humans' expressions relaxed back to normal, the trance breaking cleanly.
"Feels strange to be missing your genitals, doesn't it?" Obero asked.
They nodded. Arthur nodded with the enthusiasm of someone desperate for answers.
Obero's expression sharpened. "We created them for populating our worlds."
He stepped forward, the light bending around him as if even the room respected his presence. "Giving birth was meant to create clones. Which means you are your parents' clone, and they are their parents' clones, and so on. If we followed that chain all the way back, we would end up with only two original humans. The rest of you would be their duplicates."
His voice rumbled deeper. "If that were true, then every human would smell the same, behave the same and look the same as those two. But you are all different. Why?"
Fear filled the silence.
Obero stepped closer. "It is because of your tales. You humans don't have visible tails like animals, but you have something similar. Tales. Invisible, unbreakable, always attached. These tales make you think differently, smell differently, hear differently, speak differently and live differently."
He paused. "Why did I give you these invisible tails?"
No one spoke.
"Because without tales, humans would be just another species. A species I would grow bored of. A species I would erase. A species with nothing special to offer. But with tales, humans became something else. The only species of its kind. And why did I want you to be different?"
He extended his hand.
Ten crystal spheres, each the size of a marble, floated above his palm, spinning slowly in the bright air.
He plucked one between his fingers. The other nine vanished instantly.
He flicked the sphere forward. It hit the wall with a soft tap, then dissolved like dust.
All four walls trembled and shifted until they turned into transparent glass.
The bright white room dissolved into vastness.
Suddenly, the six humans stood suspended in a chamber made of glass, drifting in open space. Stars burned in every direction, huge and countless, their light reflecting off the transparent floor. Just beyond the front wall floated a massive planet, its swirling clouds and continents shifting in slow, majestic spirals.
While they stared in stunned silence, Obero's deep voice rumbled through the chamber.
"That is your planet, Nirvana. And I am its lord, The Great King, the one who created everything."
He raised his chin slightly, the stars gleaming off his skin.
"I created all things, from the smallest ant to the greatest elephant, from a grain of sand to a giant star. But everything I create exists for one purpose, to entertain us."
Shock rippled through the group. Yet after a moment, something like reluctant recognition softened their faces. Thin smiles appeared, as though part of them had always known.
Obero chuckled. "See? You already understood it. Every existence has only one purpose. To entertain me."
His grin sharpened. "So now, I want you to play a game for me. If you win and survive until the end, I will grant one of your wishes."
For a heartbeat, hope lit their expressions. Then the weight of their situation pushed them back into solemn stillness.
Obero's tone grew firm. "I created everything, and I can destroy everything. I can revive the dead and shape time without effort. Any wish you make, I can grant, as long as it does not interfere with the game."
Relief washed over their faces.
The room shifted back to its original bright, featureless white.
"To play," Obero said, "press the glowing objects in your hands, your pieces, against your chests. It will hurt a thousand times more than what you felt when time froze earlier."
Chess pieces appeared in their palms, glowing with soft blue light.
No one hesitated. One by one, they pressed the pieces to their bare chests. Mary closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and clenched her fists tight enough for her veins to stand out.
The moment the pieces touched skin, they sank inward like stones sinking into still water.
A black symbol bloomed over each heart, a tattoo in the exact shape of the piece they had absorbed. When they brushed their fingertips across the ink, it glowed a sharp, electric blue.
Obero laughed. The sound echoed through the white room. They all turned to him at once.
His grin lingered. "Many things make humans distinct from other creatures, but the greatest difference is imagination. Humans are the only beings who can imagine, and imagination is stronger than any creation of mine."
His expression hardened again. "The death you experienced when time froze was a test of your bodies. What you just endured was a test of your minds. And you passed. You proved you will not break physically or mentally. So now, the game begins."
He and Isha stepped forward.
The floor rippled under their feet and transformed into a vast chessboard, black and white squares stretching out beneath them. The six humans stood automatically in their assigned positions.
When they finally looked up again, Obero spoke.
"I will explain the rules."
He paced before them with the air of a king instructing new soldiers.
"This is a game from another human world, called chess. It is played with pieces, the same ones inside your chests. There are two sets of pieces, Black and White."
He lifted a hand.
"Each set has two rooks."Arthur's and Hercules's tattoos blazed.
"Two bishops."Indra's and Katherine's symbols lit up.
"Two knights."Aasia's and Mary's tattoos glowed bright.
"And a king and a queen."
Obero folded his arms behind his back.
"Each piece holds a unique power. As in every kingdom, the king and queen will rule you. And as in every kingdom, you must wage war against your enemy. You are the Black set, so you will wage war against the White."
His voice echoed against the glowing squares.
"Your objective is simple. Help your king and queen win the war."
"If your set wins the war, and you survive even after the war ends, I will grant your wishes," Obero said. His voice echoed across the vast board beneath their feet.
"The biggest difference between this game and the actual game is simple. In that world, chess pieces are not alive. But here, all of you are alive. So to balance it, I granted you immortality."
A faint shock rippled through the six.
"The pieces that now dwell inside your chests are your lives from this moment onward. Unlike your hearts, even if they break, they will mend again. Unless," he paused, eyes narrowing slightly, "they are shattered by a certain weapon called… no. I will not name it. You must learn to avoid it on your own. Aside from that, you are immortal, just like the lifeless pieces you represent."
He lowered his hand. "As for your opponents, the White set, the war itself, and everything else you must know, your King and Queen will help you figure that out."
He finished speaking, and immediately Isha, 'The Lady', stepped forward. For the first time since her merging, she spoke, her voice gentle and warm like a lullaby.
"Neither I nor my husband and brother, 'The Great King', will be your opponents. We will simply be the audience who witness the game... And now we can begin the game."
Her words wrapped softly around them, and while they listened, the six began to fade. Their bodies dissolved into drifting motes of light.
Mary felt drowsy, as though Isha's voice had pulled her into a half-sleep. Her vision blurred. The glowing white room melted away.
In the next instant, the brightness vanished, replaced by the familiar NEWS studio.
A man beside her tapped the hand mirror lightly. "Ma'am? Ma'am?"
His voice cut through her haze. She turned toward him, eyes unfocused, and he frowned at her puzzled expression.
Magi hurried over, worry tightening her features. "Did something happen?"
Mary blinked, the last traces of the dreamlike trance fading. Her posture straightened, her breath steadied and she slipped back into herself.
"Nothing to worry about," she said calmly. "I was just spacing out, I think. Let's begin the news."