Nafsan continued staring at Sirna.
An infinity of stories.
SAFSAN STORY.
????? STORY.
????? STORY.
????? STORY.
And somewhere among them...
something temporarily given a name.
Reality Door.
Nafsan finally spoke.
"So what's the plan?"
???????? answered with only two words.
"Nafsan."
"Go."
Nafsan disappeared.
There was no portal.
No movement.
No sensation of traveling from one place to another.
One moment, he was Beyond Void.
The next—
he wasn't.
But he wasn't inside Sirna either.
Nafsan looked around.
Behind him...
Beyond Void.
Ahead of him...
Sirna.
And between them...
nothing.
Not the nothingness of empty space.
Not darkness.
Not an empty universe.
This was the boundary between what belonged to Sirna...
and what did not.
VOID.
Nafsan stood there alone.
Then something appeared.
Not in front of him.
Not behind him.
It manifested around him.
Lines of information emerged from nothing.
Symbols.
Numbers.
Windows.
Rules.
Nafsan watched silently.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Something had been created.
An Origin.
But not an ordinary Origin.
An ORIGINAL ORIGIN.
And within it was something else.
A fragment.
A manifestation of the will belonging to—
????????.
That will needed a form Nafsan could interact with.
So the Original Origin manifested itself as something simple.
Something understandable.
A SYSTEM.
A transparent window appeared before Nafsan.
[ORIGINAL ORIGIN MANIFESTATION COMPLETE]
[INTERFACE CREATED]
[SYSTEM ACTIVE]
Nafsan raised an eyebrow.
Another window appeared.
[ANALYZING SUBJECT...]
[SUBJECT: NAFSAN]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
Then information began appearing.
His existence.
His abilities.
His physical capabilities.
His senses.
His resistance.
His destructive capacity.
His combat ability.
His techniques.
His authority.
Everything the System could measure about him appeared at once.
And beside almost every measurable category...
[MAX]
Then another.
[MAX]
Another.
[MAX]
Another.
[MAX]
The System continued searching for higher measurements.
It found none.
[WARNING]
[SUBJECT EXCEEDS STANDARD MEASUREMENT PARAMETERS]
[ATTEMPTING RECALCULATION...]
[...]
[RECALCULATION FAILED]
[MAXIMUM VALUES MAINTAINED]
Nafsan stared at it.
"That's it?"
The System did not respond.
A new window appeared.
[ENTRY INTO SIRNA AVAILABLE]
[SELECT A STORY]
Stories began appearing before him.
One after another.
Worlds.
Histories.
Possibilities.
Different rules.
Different civilizations.
Different forms of life.
Different ways Origin could manifest.
[SELECT STORY]
Nafsan looked through them.
Then the System displayed another message.
[UPON ENTRY:]
[CURRENT POWER WILL REMAIN INTACT]
[CURRENT ABILITIES WILL REMAIN INTACT]
[CURRENT MAXIMUM VALUES WILL REMAIN INTACT]
[SUBJECT WILL BE BORN INTO SELECTED STORY]
Nafsan stared at the words.
Then he laughed.
"No."
[...]
"What would be fun about that?"
The System waited.
Nafsan looked through the available stories again.
"I don't want one of these."
[CLARIFY REQUEST]
"I want my own."
[...]
[SEARCHING...]
The stories disappeared.
The System searched Sirna.
Seconds passed.
Then more.
Then longer.
[SEARCHING...]
[SEARCHING...]
[SEARCHING...]
Finally:
[REQUEST IMPOSSIBLE]
Nafsan smiled slightly.
"Why?"
[SUBJECT ORIGINATES OUTSIDE SIRNA]
[SUBJECT CANNOT GENERATE A NATIVE STORY THROUGH STANDARD ENTRY]
Nafsan said nothing.
Then another message appeared.
[HOWEVER...]
The System began searching again.
Farther.
Deeper.
Through possibilities that had almost nothing in common with the worlds it had shown before.
Then it stopped.
[ONE COMPATIBLE POSSIBILITY DETECTED]
A world appeared.
Nafsan looked at it.
No monsters.
No awakened humans.
No visible supernatural abilities.
No System.
No known Origin users displaying impossible powers.
Just people.
Cities.
Countries.
Wars.
Technology.
Families.
Politics.
Work.
Birth.
Death.
Ordinary human history.
A planet called Earth.
The System continued.
[WORLD CONDITION:]
[NO OBSERVABLE SUPERNATURAL PHENOMENA]
[NO ACTIVE SYSTEM]
[ORIGIN MANIFESTATION: UNDETECTED]
[HISTORY: NATURAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT]
Nafsan stared at Earth.
Of all the worlds the System had shown him...
this was the weakest.
The most ordinary.
The most familiar.
And perhaps because of that...
Nafsan smiled.
"I want to be born there."
The System responded immediately.
[WARNING]
[ENTRY CONDITIONS DIFFER]
[THIS WORLD CANNOT ACCEPT SUBJECT'S CURRENT STATE]
[IF SUBJECT IS BORN INTO THIS WORLD:]
[CURRENT MAXIMUM POWER WILL NOT REMAIN INTACT]
[CURRENT ABILITIES WILL NOT REMAIN FULLY ACCESSIBLE]
[SUBJECT WILL BEGIN FROM THE BEGINNING]
Nafsan's smile remained.
The System continued.
[POWER MUST BE REBUILT]
[STRENGTH MUST BE REGAINED]
[ABILITIES MUST BE REDEVELOPED]
[SUBJECT MUST GROW WITHIN THE RULES OF THE SELECTED WORLD]
[RETURN TO PREVIOUS MAXIMUM WILL REQUIRE DEVELOPMENT, TRAINING AND ADAPTATION]
Silence.
Nafsan looked at the warning.
Then at Earth.
"Interesting."
The System waited.
Nafsan thought for a moment.
Then:
"Before I'm born..."
[...]
"Create a natural catastrophe in that world."
[CLARIFY]
"Something large enough to change civilization."
The System processed the request.
Nafsan continued.
"Then bring monsters from Beyond Void."
For the first time...
the System paused longer than before.
[MONSTERS FROM BEYOND VOID CANNOT NATURALLY EXIST WITHIN SELECTED WORLD]
"I know."
Nafsan looked toward Sirna.
"Make them compatible."
[...]
"Let them enter."
"Let that world change."
"Let its Origin begin responding to what has entered it."
The System processed his words.
Nafsan continued.
"And when Origin begins manifesting there..."
He looked at the interface surrounding him.
"...let it manifest like this."
The System.
[REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED]
Nafsan smiled.
"The monsters will be my bridge."
[BRIDGE TO WHAT?]
Nafsan looked back toward Beyond Void.
Then toward the impossible distance of Sirna.
"To myself."
Silence.
"Every monster that comes from Beyond Void carries something from where I came from."
"I'll start from nothing."
"I'll grow."
"I'll train."
"I'll rebuild everything."
"And I'll use them to create a path back toward my maximum."
The System processed the plan.
[WARNING]
[THIS PROCESS MAY REQUIRE YEARS]
Nafsan's smile widened.
"Good."
[WARNING]
[SUBJECT MAY EXPERIENCE CONDITIONS NOT PRESENT IN CURRENT EXISTENCE]
"Better."
[WARNING]
[DEATH MAY BECOME POSSIBLE]
Nafsan stopped.
Then slowly...
he laughed.
"Now you're making it interesting."
The System began changing.
The world before him expanded.
Earth.
Humanity.
A world where the supernatural was impossible.
For now.
Nafsan looked toward it.
He had entered Void with enough power to enter Sirna as himself.
Instead...
he had chosen to surrender the advantage.
To be born.
To grow.
To rebuild.
And somewhere beyond that ordinary world...
waited the real objective.
The thing ???????? wanted.
The thing without a true name.
Reality Door.
Nafsan looked at Earth one final time.
"Prepare it."
[CONFIRMING WORLD SELECTION]
[EARTH]
[ENTRY METHOD: BIRTH]
[POWER STATUS: RESET]
[MAXIMUM STATE: LOCKED]
[RECONSTRUCTION: REQUIRED]
[BEYOND VOID BRIDGE: PENDING]
[ORIGIN MANIFESTATION INTERFACE: SYSTEM]
[...]
[PREPARING WORLD...]
Nafsan closed his eyes.
The real search had not begun.
First...
he would create the road that would allow him to walk it.
END.