Eight-Eyed Evdeam's Epic – 001: Evdeam
"Inches—this distance between us..."
"Unwilling—oh, how I loathe it… (Oh, oh. Oh, oh.)"
"Inches—to meet, this sea our lips will have to cross..."
"Unflinching—my lips set sail to yours~~!"
The soft, melodious voice of a young lady echoed throughout a large bedchamber, originating from a black tabletop speaker placed safely in a corner. Its presence in the room stood in stark contrast to the twentieth-century clothes strewn across the marble floors, the stone walls devoid of electric sockets, the chandelier holding blue luminous crystals, and the small fireplace where a gentle fire burned without firewood, warding off the night's chill.
There were eight people in the room—all unclothed and unconscious. Upon closer inspection, one would discover that only one of these bodies did not belong to the fairer sex; it was easy to imagine what had transpired.
At some point, the man's eyelids fluttered open. Sitting up, he shoved aside one of the three ladies lying on the bed with him as if she were a sack of herbs.
His facial features were aesthetically 'above average,' but nothing extraordinary. However, his fair, flawless skin, rare bubblegum pink curly waist-length hair, and golden pupils made him memorable. Furthermore, his ears were as sharp as knives, and his sclera were pitch black rather than white.
An unnerving smile appeared on his lips as he stared into the empty air and spoke as if someone were there.
"What is my progress now? I should have gathered enough Soul Power to achieve godhood by now, right?"
He was not mentally challenged. The air before him wasn't actually empty; it was simply that no one but him could see, hear, or sense his companion.
"Host, you have indeed accumulated enough Soul Power to activate the Final Phase. Would you like to commence immediately?" A palm-sized, blue-furred lion that stood upright like a human hovered before him with its arms crossed. "Please remember that once we begin, you will depart from this realm. You will be unable to ever return or interact with anyone or anything related to it ever again."
"I know; you have nagged about this over and over for the past two months," the man said.
At the same time, in a gray void containing nothing but a fifty-square-meter island of white grass and gray soil, someone who looked identical to that twenty-something man frowned deeply.
Clad in a purple fur coat, a black waistcoat, and trousers, he clenched his white-gloved fists as he watched his 'twin' through an aqueous projection.
"Godhood… Godhood…" Gritting his teeth, he lamented, "How could this world be so unfair?"
Each of his words seemed to drown in unquantifiable grief and hatred. Memories clawed their way out of the ravines where he had buried them.
Two hundred-odd years ago, a three-year-old boy was led into a forest clearing by his parents—and abandoned. Lost and hungry, full of despair, he wandered the forest for five days, surviving on weeds and fallen fruit before stumbling upon a village.
Except, it was no ordinary village; it was a den of bandits.
Ultimately, he was given the name Evdeam, adopted, and raised by the bandit leader. At the age of ten, the leader urged Evdeam to be tested for "Transcendence potential." In the world of Zeraland, a lucky few could harness extraordinary energies to perform deeds relegated to dreams and imagination.
The Transcendent.
Because Evdeam had been a smart child from a young age, the entire bandit gang held high hopes for him. Alas, the test results showed that his destiny and Transcendence ran on parallel paths, never to meet. Although disappointed, the bandits did not cherish him any less.
Time marched on, and Evdeam became a twenty-two-year-old with a seven-figure bounty due to his long list of successive successful high-stake heists. During a certain robbery that involved foreign merchants, traitors within the bandits group allowed the nation's soldiers to successfully ambush him, leaving him severely injured. Fleeing the scene, he fell unconscious.
While in a coma, he awakened a special space—a gray void brimming with a peculiar energy called Astro. Upon stepping onto the white island, he received the knowledge of how to sense, absorb, and utilize this energy. Thus, he defied the common knowledge of Zeraland, Transcending without Transcendence Organs.
Losing himself in his training, he forgot the outside world until one day, a strange force within the void rejected him. He woke up to find himself in a huge mansion. Six weeks prior, he had been rescued by a noble lady who had been out hunting. To repay her life-saving grace, he promised to work for her for fifty years.
Demons generally had lifespans between three and five centuries even before transcending, so fifty years was a pittance. With the help of his secret space, he trained judiciously, eventually achieving the same level of Transcendence as the tyrannical ruler of the nation. With his help, his benefactor overthrew that man and rose to become the first Queen of that land.
During those years, he never forgot the bandits who raised him—after all, it wasn't everyone who had turned on him but a select few that had succumbed to greed and possibly envy. But, for some reason, he could not find them. Reports claimed the Red Shepherd Bandits had vanished into thin air the very day he was ambushed.
In his bid to find them, he helped his benefactor expand her territory, refusing to believe that if the Queendom became an Empire, his reach would remain unable to uncover them.
Except, that is exactly what happened: nothing.
Thirty years of searching... forty... a century... no leads.
Eventually, the Empress retired and urged him to roam the world with her.
He agreed.
A pink-haired man and a silver-haired woman, hand-in-hand, roamed from one empire to another for several decades.
At one point, they stumbled upon an ancient palace hidden beneath a mountain. After recuperating from a recent battle with some monsters, they explored the depths, finding rare treasures that could boost their Transcendence.
Unfortunately, there was no such thing as a free lunch. The palace was a tomb, and its Guardians were too powerful for the couple. In the end, the lady took a fatal blow for him. Her final words were a plea for him to escape and live; she did not draw breath long enough to proclaim her love one last time.
Unable to bear the weight of her death, Evdeam went berserk. His power skyrocketed, turning the Tomb Guardians to dust. But despite his frighteningly plentiful Astro, he could not bring her back to life.
Shedding tears, he screamed in despair and collapsed with her corpse in his arms.
However, Evdeam did not shut his eyes for the last time. He reopened them in that gray void within his mind.
However, before he could come to terms with what was happening, a projection appeared in the space, showing him how his "corpse" had come back to life!
There was a new consciousness in his body!