Silence.
Not the comfortable kind, filled with thoughts or heartbeats. It was absolute, crushing silence, the kind that made it seem like nothing had ever existed.
Ethan Blake opened his eyes, or at least, he believed he had. There were no eyelids to move, no body to feel. Only… consciousness. He was there, present, floating in a white vastness without beginning or end.
Many would be confused in such a situation, but not him. He remembered.
The sensation of flames slowly consuming his body.
His lungs filled with smoke and ash.
His family screaming his name.
He tried to look at himself, but saw nothing. No hands, no legs, not even a shadow. Only the absolute white surrounding him.
But even without a body, Ethan felt present. Alive. Waiting.
Ethan tried to move, by instinct, and, curiously, he could. Not with muscles, but with sheer will. With every thought, he glided smoothly.
Then, he felt as if the space around him were trembling.
As if the white surrounding him had begun to stir. Invisible ripples passed through the dimension, like a veil being pulled back, slowly converging toward a single point in space.
And from that point, she emerged.
First came the outline of a female silhouette, drawn with light itself. Then, details began to fill the void: long white hair like ivory, blending with the very environment; eyes as blue as the sky at the height of morning; skin pale as freshly fallen snow; rosy lips curling into a suggestive smile.
Her body was voluptuous, almost exaggerated, with curves that seemed essentially perfect. An ethereal aura surrounded her, as if the very fabric of reality bent around her.
"Welcome, Ethan Blake," she said, her voice velvety.
He didn't respond right away. The words echoed inside his mind, resonating with familiarity, though he had never heard them before.
He stared at her, unflinching. "Are you the one who brought me here?"
"I am Aurelia," she declared, raising her arms as if blessing the void itself. "Goddess of Dualities. Order and Chaos. Creation and Ruin. The beginning and the end."
Ethan remained silent, processing the situation. He didn't like the feeling of trust that was building inside him. He was never one to trust easily.
Aurelia laughed, a low, captivating sound that echoed through the void. "You don't seem impressed."
"I just died and now I'm here. Hard for anything to top that."
She stepped closer, her hips swaying with provocation. "I like that about you. That sharp gaze, that sharp tongue. Perhaps I didn't make a bad choice after all."
"Choice for what?"
"To be my instrument in my world." She stopped just a few steps away from him, so close Ethan could almost smell her fragrance, sweet, ethereal, impossible. "You'll be more than a man. You'll be my extension. My herald. The leader of my cult."
The moment she stopped in front of him, the space around him vibrated. And then he felt it.
First, the weight. The heat. The density.
A body.
Before the invisible eyes of his consciousness, fingers began to form. Then arms, legs, a chest. He felt it all being molded, sewn together, as if he were being reborn.
"You would've died as a nobody," said Aurelia, watching closely as Ethan's lower half formed. "But I decided to give you a role. Something greater."
"Why me?"
She smiled, a smile that was both seductive and dangerous.
"You're far more special than you think, Ethan Blake."
Ethan smirked back at her, keeping his gaze fixed.
"Didn't you just call me a nobody?"
The glow in Aurelia's eyes intensified like two pulsing stars. She took a step forward, her body moving with supernatural grace.
Aurelia's voice was soft, almost a whisper.
"Ordinary souls," she began, gently turning her hand, making small golden particles appear in the air, "are like candles. They shine, they live, and eventually they go out. Even the strongest wear down with time, losing their essence, fragmenting slowly until they vanish into the eternal cycle."
She snapped her fingers, and the particles vanished like dust in the wind.
"But your soul…" She lifted her eyes to him, with an almost reverent intensity. "Is different. You don't wear down. You grow stronger. With each incarnation. Each world. Each death. You don't break. You evolve."
Ethan furrowed his brow. "So I've lived before?"
"Many times," Aurelia nodded. "But never with a body worthy of you. The limitations of human flesh never allowed your true potential to flourish. It was like trying to contain the ocean in a glass jar."
She touched Ethan's chest with the tip of her finger, and he felt it, truly. A warmth surged through his newly formed body, a shiver that wasn't from cold or fear.
"That's why I brought you here. To my domain. A divine plane where I can mold not only your flesh but also what it will be capable of containing."
"My body…" Ethan looked down at himself, now clearly visible. Strong. Stable. Almost vibrating with raw power. "Was it made from this place?"
"From my essence," she corrected, her tone seductive. "Your new body isn't just capable of drawing out your soul's potential. It now has full compatibility with my energy."
She moved even closer, her face just inches from his.
"Normal bodies decay when channeling divine energy, but not yours, Ethan."
Ethan lifted his chin, absorbing every word, relishing his newfound power, though he couldn't quite understand why a goddess would go to such lengths for him.
"Wouldn't a normal herald be enough for you?"
"And why would it be?" she replied, her smile softening. "A being like me needs a herald just as worthy. The greatest goddess requires the greatest herald."
Ethan closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the energy pulsing beneath his skin. It was unlike anything else. It wasn't just power, it was control.
"This world I'm going to… What's it like? And what exactly do you expect from me as your herald?"
Aurelia didn't answer right away. Instead, she smiled as if she had anticipated the question, the kind of smile that knew more than it revealed. Then, with a casual motion of her hand, an object appeared between them, slowly floating in the air.
A novel.
The title shimmered like molten gold: The Hero of the New Dawn.
Ethan's eyes widened as he stepped forward. "I know this…"
Aurelia watched him with a satisfied gleam in her eyes.
"Of course." He took the book in his hands, feeling the familiar texture of the cover. "I've read this novel at least three times. It's one of my favorites."
"I'm glad you liked it," said Aurelia, her tone teasing. "After all, it was prepared with you in mind."
Ethan blinked. "What?"
"I had already decided I would make you my herald several incarnations ago. But I needed the right pieces in place, and I knew I couldn't just throw you into a new world and expect you to thrive blindly."
She began pacing slowly around him, like a teacher admiring her most promising student.
"This book was modeled after various prophecies from my world. It didn't just teach you about that world, it contains several events that are about to unfold."
Ethan looked at the book again, this time with a different perspective. He remembered the plot. The characters. The secrets that world held.
He couldn't suppress the smile forming on his face.
"You mean… I know everything that's going to happen?"
"With a few differences," she replied, leaning casually against his back. "After all, your existence was never part of that world's original plan. A piece that didn't exist in the original version. An Extra."
Ethan inhaled deeply. The knowledge he had from reading that novel… he'd have to be careful not to let his presence destroy his only advantage.
Aurelia wrapped her arms around Ethan's neck. "You're more prepared than you think, Ethan Blake. I didn't choose you by accident. There's no one more qualified for this than you."
Ethan's body began to glow, golden particles drifting off of him like ash on the wind. First his fingertips, then his feet. Slowly, he began to disappear.
"It's happening…" he murmured, watching his hands dissolve into light. He could feel it. "I'm… going."
Aurelia's arms tightened around him, her ample chest pressed against Ethan's back. Her touch was warm, comforting, almost human.
"Fulfill your role, Ethan. And I… will be watching."
Still looking down at his fading body, Ethan asked,
"This trust you have in me… is it really just because of my soul?"
Aurelia smiled. A sad smile. Painful.
Ethan dissolved into small lights. He was now in the other world.
Aurelia remained still. From the corner of her eye, a single tear slipped out.
She didn't wipe it away.
"I ended up shaping his body too closely to the old one," she said softly, a whisper trapped in millennia of waiting. "He'll make it this time… his soul is stronger than ever."
The space around her returned to silence. Only Aurelia remained, alone, with empty arms and her gaze lost in the fading glow.
She looked toward the point where Ethan had vanished, as if she could still see him.
Slowly, Aurelia walked to the edge of the dimension. With a gesture, a small crystal mirror floated in front of her, revealing Ethan's image in the new world.
She touched the mirror with her fingertips. The reflection rippled, then cracked.
A single, thin fracture cut through Ethan's image, as if the world itself refused to let this story repeat without scars.
Aurelia took a step back. Her smile faltered.
Beside her, in the deepest corner of her domain… a sealed coffin bound by chains of light began to tremble.
Something, or someone, inside was beginning to awaken.