Silence.
Not the kind that lingers in empty halls or the stillness between breaths—this was deeper. It was silence unbound, an eternal hush that pressed against existence itself.
Endless white stretched in all directions. No horizon. No sky. No ground. Nothing to anchor the senses, nothing to define the difference between up or down. It was a void stripped bare of reality, pure and merciless.
And yet… something stirred within it.
A faint gleam.
Suspended in the infinite whiteness was a small cocoon of golden light. It pulsed gently, its surface woven from delicate threads of radiance that shimmered like woven starlight. For a moment, it looked alive, as though breathing. Each flicker of gold seemed to cry out against the silence.
But the cocoon was weakening.
A pale energy—white as the void itself—gnawed at its surface. Like mist seeping into cracks, the void's energy pressed against the cocoon's glow, unraveling the threads one strand at a time. What was once a protective shell, radiant and strong, now quivered under the slow assault.
Inside, a figure lay dormant.
A soul. Human-shaped, fragile, curled within the golden shell. Though the features were hazy, indistinct, there was no mistaking the faint trace of who it was.
Jake Virell.
His essence. His very being.
The cocoon trembled again, light sputtering. The golden glow dimmed, shadows of the void's pale corrosion spreading across its surface like cracks in glass. Each second it endured, the weaker it became.
Here, in this hollow eternity, the soul of Jake Virell hovered between protection and oblivion.
The silence did not answer. The void did not stop.
The cocoon's light was failing.
---
His awareness stirred.
At first, it was nothing. Not darkness, not even light—simply nothing. Then, like a ripple spreading through still water, a sensation came.
…Eyes.
He tried to open them, though he had none. Yet somehow, he felt the act of opening, as though his very will was forcing his perception awake.
And with it, thoughts—broken, fragile.
W–who… am… I?
What… is… this…?
Where… am… I?
Each word echoed in silence, as though his mind was speaking into an empty void.
He became aware of something around him. A warmth, faint and fading, clinging to him like a blanket of light. A thin, golden layer of energy surrounded him, pulsing weakly. Beyond it—nothing. Only endless white.
It unsettled him.
This… feels strange… Why can't I… feel myself?
He willed his mouth to move, but there was no mouth. He tried to clench his hands, but there were no hands. There was no body—only awareness. A self without form.
What… am I?
Why can't I… remember… anything?
Silence. No answer came.
The void gave nothing back.
His attention drifted to the barrier encasing him. That golden glow… it flickered. He stared—or thought he stared—at the fragile shell of energy.
A whisper of recognition stirred inside him.
This golden light…
A pause.
I… have seen it… somewhere… before…
The cocoon quivered. The golden threads that wove its shell dimmed, thinning under invisible pressure. Little by little, the barrier was unraveling, fading into the endless white.
And with each flicker, a chilling certainty took root within him.
If… this light disappears… then… so will I.
A soundless crack.
The cocoon shuddered, and a thin fracture spread across its golden surface. From it, a pinprick of white bled through—pure, unfiltered. For the first time, Jake's perception reached beyond the protective veil.
And the moment it touched him, agony bloomed.
A searing pulse tore through his formless existence, like fire trying to burn something that had no flesh. He convulsed—or thought he did—writhing inside the fragile shell of light.
Then came the flood.
Images.
Shards of color.
Memories, broken and incomplete, rushed into him.
He saw faces without names, places that blurred like wet paint, voices echoing in fragments. They pierced through his mind, chaotic and relentless.
What… are these…? Memories?
He grasped for them, but they slipped through like sand. No matter how hard he tried to hold onto one, it shattered into nothingness.
What is… happening… to me?
And then, through the storm of broken recollections, a voice.
Clear. Resonant. Unyielding.
"The Thousand Worlds… need you."
The words carved themselves into his consciousness, undeniable, as if spoken not to his ears, but to the very essence of his soul.
Jake's awareness trembled.
Thousand… Worlds…? Need… me…?
The thought felt alien, impossible. Him? Needed? By whom? For what?
The golden cocoon pulsed weakly in response, but its light was unraveling faster now. The white void's energy seeped in, thinning the barrier. He could feel it—the creeping inevitability.
A cold dread spread through him.
This… barrier… it's failing. If it breaks… I'll be erased. Completely.
The thought was not just fear. It was instinct. A truth his very soul understood.
Yet the voice lingered in him, pressing against the hopelessness.
Why… would the Thousand Worlds… need a dead man…?
The golden barrier trembled.
Jake's scattered thoughts snapped back to the present as he noticed it—the white energy pressing harder, slipping through the cracks, invading from the outside. The cocoon's light sputtered like a dying flame.
No… no, no, no…
His awareness jolted, thrashing, trying to move—arms, legs, anything. But there was nothing to move. No body. No weight. Just a soul, helplessly squirming in place.
The white energy seeped deeper, devouring the glow from within. The cocoon groaned under the pressure. Hairline fractures spread across its golden surface like a spider's web.
Jake felt fear for the first time since awakening. Pure, primal fear.
It's breaking… it's really breaking…!
The cracks widened, splitting faster than his thoughts could follow. Golden light scattered like shattered glass, fragments dissolving into the void.
His terror spiraled.
I don't want to vanish. Not like this. Not without even knowing who I am!
Crack—
A soundless shatter.
The barrier exploded outward in a storm of broken radiance, golden shards dissolving instantly into the endless white. The protective cocoon that held him together was gone.
And as the void rushed in, smothering, inevitable, only one thought ripped through his consciousness—
Ohshit…!!!!