Clark raised his head toward the star-filled sky, then cast his gaze over the vast expanse of ground beneath him, which looked like an enormous mirror reflecting everything above it.
He remained silent for a few moments, his eyes wandering across the scene around him, as though his mind had yet to find words capable of matching such beauty.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
“Where’s the book?”
He turned around quickly and began searching the area around him.
“I had it with me…”
…
Deep within the Abyss, inside the strange room, a transparent crystalline energy began to form around the book.
It surrounded the book from every direction, and then the book vanished completely, as though it had never existed there in the first place.
And in another world…
That place was completely isolated from all observation, separated from every other world, as though it were a solitary point existing beyond existence itself.
There was nothing capable of seeing what was happening within it.
A strange squirrel approached the book that had appeared on the ground, then stopped in front of it.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Clark wandered among the plants and crystals, lingering over the beauty of the world stretching endlessly around him.
There was something strange about the way he felt toward this place.
He did not feel as though he were merely visiting it…
He felt as though he were its master.
As though the world itself acknowledged his existence in a way he could not understand.
He continued walking until he reached a quiet place surrounded on all sides by flowers.
There was a small area prepared for sitting, surrounded by countless colors, some of which Clark had never seen before.
He sat there for a few moments, then looked up at the sky and said:
“The book brought me to some mysterious space…”
He fell silent for a moment.
“I should leave the book here, since I’m a monitor.”
Then he looked at his hand.
“But I wish there were some way to keep the book connected to me.”
At that very moment, the squirrel approached the book.
It climbed onto it…
And suddenly, the book disappeared.
The squirrel froze in place for a moment.
Then its body began to change slightly, and a strange hat appeared on its head, one that had not been there moments ago.
It raised its head and looked around in confusion.
Then it spoke in a clear voice:
“How did I get here?”
Clark froze in place.
He stared at the squirrel as though he could not believe what his eyes were seeing.
Then he glanced toward the spot where the book had been only moments earlier.
The book had vanished completely.
Clark whispered:
“What…
happened?”
The squirrel remained motionless for a few moments, as though trying to process a tremendous flood of information that had suddenly surged into its mind, then raised its head toward Clark and said:
“You’re Clark…
the person who took the book.”
Clark’s eyes widened in astonishment, while the squirrel continued:
“The book merged with me.
And now I possess all the knowledge that was inside it.”
Clark remained silent for a few moments, then looked around him, at the sky crowded with stars and the waters reflecting them, and at the crystals scattered throughout the place.
Then he said:
“Then tell me…
where am I now?”
Silence fell for a few moments.
Confusion appeared on the squirrel’s face, and a hint of embarrassment crept into its expression.
It scratched its little head and said:
“Actually…
I don’t know.”
Clark looked at it with even greater confusion.
The squirrel continued:
“But I’m certain of one thing.”
Then it cast a cautious glance around them.
“This existence does not belong to anything I know within the Chaos.”
He paused for a moment, then said in a more serious voice:
“It seems to transcend it entirely.”
Clark stared toward the horizon, then looked at the water, which did not merely reflect the sky, but seemed to reflect something deeper than it.
He asked calmly:
“Transcend the Chaos?”
The squirrel nodded.
“Yes…
as though the Chaos itself cannot reach this place.”
Silence passed between them.
And in that moment, Clark realized that the world he had thought was merely a beautiful refuge was not simply another world.
It was something even the squirrel, which carried the knowledge of the book, did not know the nature of.
The squirrel climbed onto Clark’s shoulder and settled there, then raised its head slightly and said:
“I’m Frost.
It’s a pleasure to meet you, Clark.
From now on, I will be your loyal servant.”
Clark smiled and looked at him for a few moments, then said:
“All right, Frost…
do you know of any way for me to explore this place more easily instead of wandering around and seeing everything myself?”
Frost was silent for a moment, then said:
“Actually, I noticed something strange ever since we arrived.”
Clark looked at him with interest.
“Your words and your innermost desires possess a strange rhythm that affects this existence.”
Frost continued:
“When you whispered, wondering where the book was, it appeared before you.
And when you wished for the book to remain connected to you and not become separated from you, it merged with me.”
He fell silent for a moment, then raised his eyes toward Clark.
“And that can only mean one thing.”
“What is it?”
A small smile appeared on Frost’s face as he said:
“This place considers you its supreme master.”
Clark’s eyes widened slightly.
“Its supreme master?”
“Yes.
It seems that your will here is not merely a desire…
but an order to which existence itself responds.”
Clark remained silent for a few moments, then looked around him, toward the endless world.
A smile appeared on his face.
“This place is absolutely perfect.”
He paused for a moment, then continued:
“If I could build a secret organization or a castle that surpasses everything, summon followers from different worlds and recruit them…
then I could build an organization of my own.”
Suddenly…
Everything changed.
Clark did not feel himself move, nor did he see any transition between the two places.
And in a single instant, he and Frost found themselves in the sky, at an immeasurable height.
Their feet rested upon an enormous transparent ground, as though it were a platform made of flawless glass stretching endlessly into the distance.
Beneath it, the entire world came into view.
The luminous rivers.
The forests.
The colossal crystals.
The strange creatures.
And the entities moving throughout that enchanting existence, appearing like tiny specks from above.
Clark continued staring downward in astonishment.
Then the space before him trembled.
And something enormous began to appear.
At first, it looked like nothing more than a distant shadow.
Then its size began to grow.
Larger…
And larger…
Until an enormous castle appeared before him.
It was not a castle in the sense humans understood the word.
It was so vast that it transcended the scale of the world itself, its towers and halls stretching across an immense expanse, until it appeared larger than the stars surrounding it.
Its walls extended for distances Clark could not even estimate, while strange patterns and symbols glowed across their surface, constantly changing.
Clark stood speechless.
Then, deep within the castle, an immense hall appeared.
And at its center…
A throne appeared.
A colossal throne, silent and still, waiting at the far end of the hall.
Clark stared at it for a long time.
Then Frost said softly:
“It seems this place wasn’t waiting for you to build your organization…”
Clark raised his eyes toward the throne.
“…It had already built it for you.”
Clark sat upon the throne and continued staring silently at the sky, while the crystals around him reflected lights that belonged to no familiar color.
Suddenly…
Something began to appear in the sky.
Vast strings stretched from horizon to horizon, then continued beyond the limits of sight, infinite in number.
They intertwined into a complex and beautiful formation, crossing over one another without ever touching, like an enormous web suspended above the world.
From those strings, tiny particles of light began to fall.
Sparkling dust of different colors; some blue, some golden, green, red, and violet, while other particles shifted in colors Clark could not even describe.
But it was not merely light.
With every speck of dust that fell from the sky, Clark heard a voice.
The voice of an entity.
The voice of a human.
The voice of a creature.
Voices from countless worlds.
Laughter, screams, whispers, confessions, battles, and distant memories, as though the histories of an infinite number of beings had been transformed into tiny particles falling from the sky before him.
Clark slowly raised his head.
One of the particles drifted closer to him, and as it passed beside his face, he heard a strange voice recounting the life of a being he had never known.
Then the particle vanished.
Frost watched the scene in astonishment and said:
“Absolutely incredible…”
He continued staring at the sky in disbelief.
Then he continued:
“Every speck of this dust carries the history of one of the entities.”
He fell silent for a moment, then smiled in amazement.
“And you can observe it however you wish.”
Clark looked at another particle as it descended before him.
He slowly reached out toward it.
And the moment his fingertips touched it, a scene from another world opened before his eyes.
Clark stared at the glowing particle as the scene within it gradually became clearer before his eyes.
There was a mighty entity sitting atop an enormous tree whose branches stretched above the clouds, while gigantic tentacles coiled around its body in a strange manner.
Its eyes were a deep olive green, glowing with symbols Clark could not understand.
He watched it for a few moments, then said in confusion:
“Who is that entity?…
It looks strange.”
Only a few moments passed.
The entity raised its head.
Then it looked directly toward the place from which Clark was observing it.
Clark froze.
“What?”
Suddenly…
The scene began to distort.
The particle trembled between his fingers, and the image became tangled with flashes of light, then the particle exploded completely before him.
Clark stepped back slightly.
Frost said:
“It seems, my lord, that your external influence has limits compared to your own world.”
Then he looked toward the place where the particle had disappeared.
“As for that entity…
it appears terrifyingly powerful.”
Clark gave a faint smile and said:
“Don’t worry, Frost.
In the end, no one can reach this place or observe me.
I’m completely safe here.”
He paused for a moment.
Then he placed a hand against his chest.
“But there’s something strange…
I feel as though I’m constantly growing tired.”
Frost thought for a moment, then said:
“Perhaps your presence in this place is consuming your spiritual energy.”
Clark did not answer.
And suddenly…
A strange sound reached his ears.
Crying.
But it was not ordinary crying.
It carried a profound bitterness, as though whoever made it had endured enough fear and sorrow to shatter an entire existence.
Clark raised his head.
“What is that?”
He listened more carefully.
There was an entity crying, and it seemed as though its heart was drowning in a deep fear of nothingness.
Then another particle of dust appeared before him.
“What did that entity see to make it like this…
What is its history?”
He reached out toward it.
And the moment he touched it…
Its entire history opened before his eyes.
…
In a surreal world utterly unlike all the worlds Clark had ever known.
Darkness surrounded everything.
The entire world was black, unnaturally still, as though existence itself had lost the will to continue.
And at the center of that world…
A twenty-year-old young man was walking.
He was tall and powerfully built, his black hair falling around his face, while his clear silver eyes concealed something impossible to understand.
Adam walked beside his wife, their footsteps echoing through the silence of that strange world.
Diana was slightly shorter than him, wearing a hood over her head, her beautiful blonde hair falling from beneath it, while her sky-blue eyes watched their surroundings anxiously.
Adam turned toward her, then took her hand, kissed it, and pulled her into a tight embrace.
He said calmly, trying to reassure her:
“Don’t worry, Diana.
We’ll reach your father in a few hours.”
Diana looked around them, then moved closer to him.
Black buildings surrounded them on every side, stretching silently beneath a dark sky scattered with distant stars, while darkness enveloped the place until it seemed to have no end.
She said softly:
“Those black buildings…
the stars in the sky…
and this darkness surrounding us…”
She paused for a moment, then looked at Adam with eyes filled with fear.
“It’s terrifying, Adam.”
In a black, absurd, nihilistic world, it seemed as though everything within it had been condemned to perish from the very first moment of its existence.
And despite all the absurdity surrounding them, there was one thing the darkness could not take from them.
Love.
To Adam, Diana was his only paradise.
And to her, Adam was the paradise she had found within a world that knew nothing but darkness.
While everything around them seemed absurd and nihilistic, they walked side by side, clinging to one another, as though their love were the only thing that still proved their existence had meaning.
Diana looked at him, her eyes filled with tears and fear of the unknown.
She said in a trembling voice:
“I’m so scared.”
Adam stopped, then approached her and drew her head into his lap, holding her gently in his arms.
He said calmly:
“I’m scared too.”
He wiped her tears away with his fingers, then continued:
“Fear isn’t a flaw, Diana.
But what is wrong is surrendering to it and giving up our attempts to survive.”
He gently lifted her face, then wiped away a tear that had fallen down her cheek.
He smiled at her and kissed the top of her head tenderly.
“You’re my queen…
and I won’t let anything happen to my queen.”
Their attachment to one another resembled that dreamlike feeling that comes over a person when they find themselves inside a dream whose rules they do not understand, only to encounter a single person within that strange world who somehow feels familiar and real.
The entire world was a strange dream to them…
But the existence of the other was the only truth neither of them had ever doubted.
Their love was completely mutual, and it was not based solely on physical attraction, but on something far deeper than that.
It was a platonic love, founded upon the soul, understanding, and a profound emotional bond, in which neither saw the other merely as a partner, but each saw the other as a part of themselves.
Diana felt exhaustion weighing heavily upon her body, and Adam noticed it in her eyes and the slow rhythm of her movements.
She sat down on the ground, and Adam sat beside her, then pulled her into his arms and placed her in his lap, trying to give her some comfort within that bleak world.
He whispered to her:
“Everything will be fine in the morning…
morning is close.
Don’t worry.”
Then he rested his head beside hers and continued holding her as darkness surrounded them from every direction.
He said in a quiet voice:
“Even if existence is absurd, and even if love itself is meaningless…
you are the one who gave my life meaning.”
Diana smiled and let out a soft laugh, then looked at him with calm eyes and said:
“I can’t express it in words…
I just…
love you.”
Adam held her tightly, as though embracing her was the only way he knew to answer.
Then he smiled and said:
“Tomorrow, I’ll bring you some sweets when we reach your father’s house, all right?”
Diana smiled, then raised an eyebrow slightly and said:
“All right, but where are you going to get the money when you don’t have anything?”
Adam gently ran his hand over her head and said:
“Don’t worry…
I’ll figure something out.”
Then he looked at her tenderly.
“And you, come on, go to sleep…
so I can sleep too.”
Diana slowly closed her eyes and surrendered to her exhaustion while she remained in his arms.
A few moments later, Adam closed his eyes as well.
There was no sound.
No light.
No movement.
Only the endless darkness that had swallowed the world around them, while their bodies remained locked in an embrace within a world that seemed to have neither morning nor end.
And yet…
They both slept peacefully.
Because each of them carried the other with them into that darkness.