The two Goddess find themselves at the edge of the universe. By the large dead zone where Eta fought Chi, various formations of ice and rock now litter the area along with the original dead stars. A dim light illuminates all the objects, brought forth from the nearby galaxies.
"This barrier that surrounds your universe is very interesting." Genshi lightly nocks against it. "I'd go as far to say it is the single strongest defense I have ever encountered."
Eta approaches the barrier, the opaque surface turning translucent allowing whatever is out there to see the two. "Is it really? I've seen lost ones able to push against it with noticeable results. It deforms easily."
"True, but it doesn't break. I am sure hundreds of aspects had tried to break in over time and it survived them which is quite the feat. It even survived a flame breath from yours truly." Genshi chuckles letting a few flames escape her mouth. The fire surviving easily in the void of space, burning on for a good few seconds before snuffing out.
"Genshi, can you tell me about the Void? I only have conjecture to work with on knowing it." Eta pulls out a tapestry showing what she had thought when Chi had left.
"You're surprisingly close to being correct. So the Void is this being who existed before reality, we think. Very technically the first soul. But he cannot come into reality since he was not born of it. So, he whispers into the ears of those with a void-like soul to become his forces, aspects, and eventually, one will be his avatar. All of this in an effort to destroy reality and return it to nothingness."
Her soul sours for a moment, going from it's classic bright gold to a tarnished and marred gold.
"He is extremely annoying to me since there's a prophecy that states a dragon will fight the avatar or something along those lines. Whatever it was, it was kind of lost to time. Though when I met the Void through an aspect for the first time, he told me about it for some reason. Maybe overconfidence on his part, but since, I always interfere with anything the Void tries when I notice."
The black film on Eta's hand retreats up her arm very slightly as if sensing Genshi's animosity to the concept of nothingness.
"So you are it's natural enemy? The great destroyer of the Void loves to laze about has to be some kind of divine comedy right." Eta smirks.
"You have no idea."
As the two talk, a collection of lost ones notice the two through the barrier. They start pushing against it until it reaches Genshi, allowing her arm to phase through it. They grasp her arm and try to pull her out of the universe though she stays firm despite not even noticing their attempt.
Eta does see what is happening, calmly pointing to Genshi's arm being half out the barrier. "Do you not feel their grasp?"
"What grasp?" Genshi looks down seeing four different lost ones grabbing her. "I thought most of these would be gone for at least another century."
Her hand turns into a dragon claw and she swipes at the lost ones quickly. Their forms cut to ribbons, then becoming dust.
"A mild inconvenience I see. When I tried to push against a lost one, it felt like it would break my hand. And you just moved your hand slightly and destroyed them so easily." Eta pauses and looks out into the blackness of the abyss beyond. "What does it feel like out there? What is the feeling of being in a technical nothingness?"
"Would you like to see for yourself? You need to start doing as you desire more so we may figure out how you are to live properly. So I ask, do you want me to explain my thoughts, or would you like to see if for yourself?" Genshi moves closer to the barrier.
Eta looks within Genshi's soul for any deception, any ulterior motive, anything that would signify danger. Yet all her soul radiates is that of a confidence to do as she pleases, one that tells her to trust all that is the dragon. Her soul has no spot for deception, it has no ulterior motives, it has no danger to anything other than its enemies. Eta is not an enemy in any sense of the word. Genshi's soul brings her close, something akin to long time friends.
"I'd like to experience it myself."
Genshi smiles. "Give me a few moments, I will clear the area of unwanted things."
Genshi passes through the barrier, small wisps of fire escaping the corners of her mouth. They burn a bright orange, still surviving longer than should be conceivable in a vacuum, much less nothingness. Lost ones swarm around her, attempting to smother her in sheer numbers. They pile onto her body allowing not even a glimpse of the elder Goddess.
The lost ones attack with all they have, pounding into her torso with their fists, slashing at her arms with their claws, swiping at her legs with their wings. Yet despite the onslaught, the dragon's human body shows naught even a scrape.
A pale-purple light starts to escape the cluster of those lost to the abyss. Many start to turn to dust just by the sheer heat emanating off of Genshi revealing her form once again. Her torso glowing with the same pale-purple light. The dragon fire she makes illuminating even through her body as she condenses it further.
Genshi opens her mouth letting forth the fire that is building within her. The flames spread all throughout sight. The blackness of the abyss between universes once again alight with pale-purple. The dragon fire extending and billowing with speed thousands if not millions times faster than light itself. Anything and everything that would have been within two universal lengths reduced to nothing but ash.
"You may come out now." Genshi turns as the light from her fire dissipates, leaving only a slight glow remaining in her torso.
Eta touches the barrier and slowly phases through it. A sudden rush of something assails her senses. Though something is not the right word for it. Nothing is assailing her, the feeling of truly nothing. The usual cold of the vacuum of space, now a temperature that can only be described as uncomfortable. The pressure pushing in on her form, now no force pushes out or in. The very sight of it all is not black, it is looking into the abyss and it happily stares back. Her skin feels nothing interacting with it. By proxy, it makes her restless. Without stimulus, Eta thinks to herself, how is she supposed to tell if she is still existing.
Then a soft hand reaches out and gently pulls her. Genshi's hand, a feeling in the darkness snaps Eta out of the crisis.
Despite nothing to carry the sound waves out here, Genshi's voice resounds through the area. "This is the abyss. A place that is very easy to go mad in if you have no way of grounding yourself to something. Whether that be a person, object, or even feeling. I take it it may feel even worse for you since you are a portion of void."
Eta nods, to frightened to even speak. A whisper sounds through her mind, "Return to that which birthed you. Return to your veritable master. Return to-"
The whispers are cut of as Genshi swipes at a space towards the nothingness. "And that was the Void. Tell me once you have had your fill with this place." Genshi stays watching all around the two. Her very soul now a beacon of protection in this vast emptiness.
The two Goddesses stay just outside the universe for just a few minutes, but in such time, Eta learns more about this void than she could have ever hoped to staying within the universe. She learns the very nature of absence and that of existence. Two states that are forever intertwined with being of each vying for a nonexistent dominance. What is absence with out existence and what is reality without nothingness? Each needs the other lest they both cease to be entirely.
"You see the problem with this grand game I take it. Its something that has stumped all the gods, dragons, and mortals. How can there be existence without there also being places of nonexistence? The very space between particles, stars, dust, anything is nonexistence. What do you think is the solution Eta?" Genshi turns to Eta. Her red eyes focus solely on the not so young goddess.
"Your fight is not with nothingness itself, it is with one whom has made themselves the representative without authority. The Void is but an entity, he is not nonexistence itself, just a product of it just like we are a product of existence." Eta's bug like eyes finally disappearing for the first time in her existence. Now, one eye that of a starry night, one of color, vibrance, and art. The other eye, one of black, one devoid of reflection, warmth, color, yet still beautiful.
A harmony of her two halves. The art of souls and the chaos of void intertwined for the first time in all history.
Genshi gently pulls Eta back into the universe, the barrier letting the two by without effort. They leave the abyss, the pure silence returning to the beautiful black void.