Prologue: The Throne Above the Silence
Dark.
It was a deep darkness. Like a world without stars. Not just without light, but an emptiness that swallows time and space.
Inside a palace surrounded by nothing, an old awareness was sleeping. It was wrapped in a cocoon made from the threads of history that had faded long ago.
One year. One hundred years. One thousand years. Ten thousand years.
For this being, time was just a river that kept flowing. It could not touch him. But then, a small vibration came—like a single drop of water falling on a calm lake.
Two eyelids moved slowly. The dust of time and space on his eyelashes scattered and became tiny stars. But they died at once in the emptiness.
Tiiiinnnnggg.
A heart that had stopped beating since the last civilization fell… started to beat again. The shockwave spread and cracked reality. The darkness shook. A ray of ancient golden light broke through.
He opened his eyes. His eyes were cold, deep whirlpools of galaxies.
"…How long has it been?"
His voice did not come from a throat. It was his will, shaking the whole palace.
He tried to move. His body had become one with the ancient stone throne. It felt stiff. The throne floated above an endless sea of gray fog. This was a palace not listed in any world: The Mist Palace.
The black stone pillars around him began to glow. They welcomed their master back.
World Observer. The Old Dreamer. Ruler of Authority.
These titles from his past felt strange and familiar at the same time.
He remembered the last story he had read. He rested his chin on his right hand and looked down at the mortal world below the fog. There, civilizations grew and fell like summer grass.
He snapped the fingers of his left hand.
CTAK.
Pieces of his authority broke off from his fingertips. They shot through the fog toward the mortal world. They were no longer just energy. They were concepts looking for a container: humans, animals, or even lifeless objects—waiting for the ones who were destined.
"If the stage of this story is boring," he whispered, his gaze piercing through time and space, "then I will create my own actors."
He smiled wide.