A chronicle of heroes. Book One: From the void

Once, there was silence... There was no time, no space and no substance. Not even the faintest whisper to indicate any sort of life. Nothing, except a stagnant, gray void. There it lay, undisturbed for countless millennia until, from within this vast, endless nothingness, emerged a speck. It was a strange, unfamiliar entity, this speck: a small, tenebrous blemish upon the seemingly empty space. A pitch-black shadow, forming a bottomless cloud that personified darkness itself-the sort of overwhelming darkness that made the blackest night akin to the brightest of days.

Even more intriguing than its dark, shadowy matter, was that this speck was conscious and aware. It possessed a curious sort of intelligence. It could perceive its surroundings, and it naturally started to embrace its dense, obscure nature. There it remained, in a conscious yet resting state within the stretching expanse of infinity. But this period of dormancy could not last forever, and eventually, the speck felt a powerful urge to fill the void around. So it willed its shadowy particles to forge ahead and instantly found the outer particle impossibly far away from where it had first emerged, leaving a streak of obsidian smoke in its wake; an ink staining this realm with impenetrable shadow. Marveling at its newfound ability, it continued to silently dissolve all the space it met. As the speck grew without facing any resistance it could now grasp the sensation of its own, materialistic form and deduced that it was made of something that overpowered this grey space. Its origin, which had developed into a pitch-black defined structure around its black smoky form, now emitted black waves of superiority over the space it engulfed. As it extended and swirled everywhere with these thoughts, an unexpected inkling developed from within the darkness's consciousness as it began to contemplate the extent of its existence. "If I am truly free to expand however and wherever I wish, then at what point is there a limit?" And so it stretched and dilated, continuously transforming the surrounding space into a dense, black hue, the deepest and darkest of black known to exist. After an uncountable era, this dark entity was no longer a speck; as it grew infinitely in every direction, the extending, suffocating darkness soon covered the entire plane with its murky particles, for its form had overtaken whatever emptiness there had once been. "It appears my expanse is infinite," the dark conscious thought. "I have spread endlessly in all directions. This space could not resist my existence!" The darkness had nothing else to compare itself to, and so it decided that it could shape this entire dimension to its own liking. Filled with determination from this new thought, the conscious emitted another dark wave. As the wave passed over, the darkness instructed the black particles to become denser, further shrouding this dimension in deeper shadows, forming primordial shapes. As it became more familiar with these abilities, the darkness learned to summon new surges of strength fueled by the desires of its consciousness, and managed to combine, twist, and vaguely outline every particle to its own will. Their movements were unusual, shooting from the darkness's core and disappearing further into the realm. The darkness basked in its own glory and took great pleasure in the idea that it had control not only of its own existence, but of its entire surroundings. After experimenting for an unquantifiable age, this gargantuan, intangible presence had become fully aware of each dark particle of its existence and thought of nothing but its own self. Whatever it had felt had been centered around its unimaginably expansive form. These self-centered feelings persisted, and the darkness reveled in the idea that it was the one and only thing that existed. This tranquil, seemingly eternal state was suddenly interrupted by a strange pull from the unknown. For the first time in its existence, the pitch-black consciousness felt curiosity–it had never felt anything other than its own, dark form and as the unknown force tugged once more, the darkness's curiosity was reinforced with irritation as its outermost dark particles shifted their position without instruction. This darkness was now fully determined to learn what this force was, and as it continued to follow this pull, it was shocked–for the first time, it could stretch out beyond the obstruction, which the darkness had always presumed was the bounds of its expansion. Dark swirls of annoyance and anger came out from the dark dimension's consciousness as it crossed into the unknown. Now, with emitting waves of frustration, the dark conscious thought again, "This is my domain! I overwhelmed all around me and reigned over the expanses of infinite nothingness. This all belongs to me." Along with feeling perplexed, the darkness naturally felt an unquenchable desire to overwhelm this new, unexplainable force, just like it had done to the void for what now seemed like an eternity ago. As these thoughts plagued the darkness, swirling around its core like a rushing vortex of ire and uncertainty. It perceived something far, far in the distance, glimmering faintly in this realm. With a thrilling sense of dread coursing through its form, the darkness waited, its shadows swirling and whispering in anticipation. However, the distant, mysterious phenomenon never approached. After a short while, the darkness could not tolerate being transfixed in such a way. And so, with an enormous surge of determination, the darkness summoned its whole existence towards the unknown phenomenon. It condensed into a deep, bottomless vortex of pitch black matter that roared and rushed around its center, ready to engulf and extinguish whatever this was and regain the dominance it had held for eternity. As this swarm of dark matter came close to this blur, it was overcome by the strangest sensation. It was a kind of different resonance, which it perceived as: "Cease your wrath." This feeling sent an endless, serene wave throughout the darkness's entire form. It wasn't something that could be explained, but the external instruction invoked a sense of wonder in the darkness. The darkness involuntarily approached the source of the disembodied instruction, moving faster and faster until it was abruptly halted from going any further. It seemed as if there was another obstruction shielding the mysterious force and despite the darkness's efforts, it could not pass through it. Struck with uncertainty, the darkness was at a loss and felt its particles vibrating faster with impatience, until the mysterious form slowly came into focus at last. It was a figure with wisps of a curious substance rippling around it. For quite the stretch, the darkness just focused upon this mystical, orb-like substance full of radiance. But for all its splendor, the figure was miniscule-it was smaller than when the darkness had first been a speck all those eternities ago. After such an expansive stretch of isolation, the darkness had almost forgotten what it was like to gaze upon something this small, this insignificant. No matter how enchanting it was, however, the darkness sensed that something about this entity's nature contradicted its own; the figure emanated an unnerving aura, as if it opposed the darknesses own fundamental nature of emptiness and isolation. This troubled the darkness, and its particles regained their bizarre motion and felt a desire to engulf the small entity. The darkness willed its gargantuan form to lash forward again, but it was impeded again by the unseen barrier. And again, the same sensation stirred and echoed, "Be still...lay in peace." This instruction was barely a whisper, a euphonic, almost inaudible murmur, but somehow it was powerful enough to soothe the outer dark particles that had been relentlessly hammering against the separation. Its shadows were no longer churning so violently; rather, they were stirring only slightly at the melodious sensation, dissipating the dense cloud of shadow. Ever since the beginning, these shadowy particles' nature had been aggressive and violent, but they were no longer vibrating so forcefully–they had been calmed by this entity. As its layers smoothed out, the darkness began to wonder if it could relay its thoughts to this mysterious entity. Just as it thought this, the tiny speck began to glow brightly, and the darkness sensed a layer of an obstruction beginning to fall away. Instinctively, the darkness knew it could now communicate its thoughts with this entity. "What are you?" it hissed experimentally, and a sinister, chilling shadow swept across the entire void. The space around itself seemed to grow colder, unsettled by this unnatural, menacing aura that seemed to linger, invading every particle that made up the realm. "I am the one...that praises The One," replied the bright speck. The darkness was amazed that it could, in fact, communicate with the being. Its astronomical extending structure remained still, uncomprehending this entity's mysterious introduction. "I am the opposite of you, the speck continued. My aura contradicts yours at the most fundamental levels: while I am warmth, you are cold; As I serve to illuminate and brighten what surrounds us, you serve to plunge it into shadow. I am the light."