Acedia POV:

I very rarely say this but my God is it great to be alive!

Such a horrible start of the day with waking up in that strange-ass fucking world and suffering through that shit, but thanks to it I might be able to solve one of the biggest mysteries that has plagued my life!

Thank you, strange abductors or whatever they were!

And also, thank you Emily!

I haven’t felt this great since forever, but still, I know that there is much to be done.

Although I’ve gotten an incredible insight, it is still but the tip of the iceberg.

But without seeing the tip, I wouldn’t have found the iceberg.

Anyway, I can barely contain myself!

I need to start soon- no, I need to start now!

Quickly creating a bridge and portal to the back garden, I immediately left the room, not bothering with Damien, Anna or Emily.

I arrived in the back garden for the first time but was too excited to bother sparing it a glance.

Instead, I immediately started summarizing my thoughts and calming myself down.

Throughout most of my life, especially after the Third Era, I have devoted myself – or tried to, although things often came in between – to three particular things.

The first was, of course, Energy.

After first noticing I had access to something people could only dream off, I tried figuring out about it and, when I found myself powerless to resist capture and stuff like that, I desperately began researching and experimenting everything about it.

Of course it took me an incredibly long time before I could even scrape the bottom of this seemingly vast barrel of knowledge, but I persisted and eventually succeeded.

Since this was a purely scientific phenomenon – apart from my control over it – there was an actual end to the knowledge about Energy, and I reached it.

I know what it is, how to use it, what it could do and what it couldn’t do.

The second was life, or rather, the meaning of it and why it exists.

Unfortunately, this is mostly an emotional, personal and spiritual subject and can never have a definitive answer or ending like Energy had.

Except, of course, if God exists, because then you could simply answer with ‘it’s God’s will’, but I doubt even that would end the discussion.

So, although not for lack of trying, I still haven’t reached a conclusion, and I doubt I ever will.

Now the third thing that has so far always baffled me: the soul.

For most of the lifespan of civilizations, people think the soul is purely spiritual.

Unless one reaches the highest heights of technology would they figure out it is an actual materiel thing.

But even then, people only speculated about what it was, me included.

The thing about the soul is, it is almost impossible to research.

As soon as a mortal soul gets damaged, they either go insane or die.

And when people die, there soul just seems to vanish into thin air.

This is also the reason I was popular amongst scientist; no matter how much they damage it or even destroy it, the soul would eventually return to my body in some way.

So during everything, even when researching upon myself, I could never truly reach any truths about the soul.

Not where it came from, what it is or why it’s needed to live.

But now, things have changed.

I was transported to an empty plane and in that plane my soul was stuck in some way or another.

There it was destroyed, just like the scientists did.

Now normally, my soul which, since I’m Immortal, is made out of Energy, tries to reassemble itself by gathering the Energy around, unlike a mortal’s soul whose simply vanishes.

Eventually, some Energy will form into the shape of my soul and my soul itself, which is not really Energy but only made out of Energy, would imprint itself on the blob of power and exist again.

Although I could not see this with my own eyes, seeing as I was basically ‘dead’ at that time, I did see it on recordings left behind after the experimenters’ deaths.

But in a plane where there is simply no Energy available, it is impossible for it to revive and thus, I should have died.

The fact that I didn’t means that not my soul but something else is responsible for my Immortality.

So, there were only two options available to bring me back to live:

Bring my soul back from the other plane;

Or create a new soul and somehow imprint my ‘existence’ on it.

And I swear to God if it is not the second option, I will travel back to the other plane and make those two beings experience a hell even I would have never seen before.

Having set my thoughts and calmed down, I cut off my elation and expectation and became as close to emotionless as possible.

Entering the grid of active or ‘free’ Energy, I dug deeper and entered the endless, omnipresent and all-powerful grid of inactive Energy which makes up reality.

Unfortunately, if I use the inactive Energy to make a ‘black star’, as Emily described it, it would have about the same effect as the purple sun at the time, which I do not want.

Instead, using this grid, I spanned my sense over entire galaxies.

If I focused on it I might know the location of every single atom in these galaxies, but that would break my mind.

I’ve experienced it before.

It is not enjoyable.

Instead, I focused on the network of free Energy and spread my consciousness over every single thread of it and forced it to gather in front of me.

This was already nearly destroying me, but there was much more I needed to do.

The more and more gathered in front of me, the Energy going an infinite amount of times faster than light throughout the universe to my position, I needed to ensnare it.

If not it would create a form of gravity well made out of Energy, possibly even tearing reality appeared as the purple sun did.

So, with the Energy converging on my position, I made a tiny box out of Energy in the same manner as inactive Energy made up reality.

Perhaps it could be called a ‘pocket dimension’, but seeing as it was still bound to the grid of inactive Energy, floating between the non-existence behind reality and reality itself, so it is not truly a separate plane of existence like I was previously in.

But it doesn’t matter.

As long there is a place where I could store the Energy.

It took mere minutes for me to drain entire galaxies of their supply of freely floating Energy and put it into the tiny ‘box’ in front of me.

The more and more Energy was forced into it, the harder it was to contain it.

At some point my brain began to tear and healing itself continuously and when the gathering was almost complete, it even felt as if my soul was lit on fire.

For such pain to appear twice a day!

It is unbearable…

But there is still much to do.

After everything was gathered inside the box I transformed it from a box drifting between the material and immaterial into a box inside the material world.

Immediately, the Energy inside it wanted to break out and expand, but I took control of everything and forced it to stay in place.

As my mind was being ravaged by the excessive amount of Energy I was sensing, its information endlessly flooding into my memory, I could see a small sparkle form.

For perhaps a millisecond it stayed floating in the air, but as more and more Energy came into the real world it rapidly began to flash in different colours, from a shining white to yellow, gold, orange, red, purple and black.

It was different than how Emily described it, but it had the same effect.

When I saw the black star forming right in front of me I quickly used the excessive Energy to form a powerful seal around it, forcing it to stay in place.

However, this was not enough.

Some of the Energy still remained free and, when I placed the soul, my mind, soul and body couldn’t bear the pressure anymore.

Immediately, the remaining Energy expanded like a balloon suddenly entering vacuum.

But it was not enough to cause severe damage and simply washed over my like a large tidal wave, sweeping me with it and throwing me to the ground metres away, but leaving me relatively unharmed.

Lying on the ground, I lifted my head and saw, in the distance, a radiant black star.

“Ha-ha, a success…”

I said hoarsely, my overburdened mind afterwards deciding I needed a rest.

If it is as I hoped, this might be it.

With this, I can create a soul.

With this, I can create a mortal, perhaps even an Immortal.

And with it, I will find a path leading to the truth of my existence.

What a great day it has been…

Emily POV:

Before I could even react, the fucker ran away!

And all the while with that stupid smile on his face, grinning like a fucking maniac!

What is this a hit-and-run?!

Kissing me and quickly running away like a twelve year old little brat?!

I sighed, both mentally and physically.

In my entire, apart from my parents, Damien and Anna, I’ve never been kissed.

Who would?

Ever since my birth I felt privileged, making everyone hate me and not long afterwards, people simply began hating me as soon as I met them.

I’ve already come to terms that something like romance or love-like affection would never come to me, even if I tried, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to be treated like this.

I sighed again, this time prompting a reaction.

"Umm... are you okay, mom?"

I heard Anna sweetly angelic voice ask worryingly.

I turned my head towards the door, noticing I had fallen onto the bed in shock.

“It’s… nothing. I’m just a bit… confused.”

I said wearily.

Anna nodded in response, but chose to stay silent, allowing an awkward silence to enter the room.

I looked at Damien and saw him awkwardly worrying over me, but again, the room remained silent.

But before I could even try to break the silence, a strange sensation came over me.

Again.

Immediately, I tried to enter the network of Energy but it seemed as if everything was being pulled away from me into a certain direction.

“ugh.. not again.”

I groaned pitifully.

There was absolutely no doubt,, seeing as the same thing happened just moments ago.

The Energy was pulled away into a vortex, and I just knew he was up to something again.

Who wouldn’t know that Acedia was behind this spectacle after showing such excitement after what I told him.

I slowly stood up, making it clear I was not in any haste and looked at the children.

“Come on, follow me.”

I really lack the strength to deal with this, but still.

If he’s going to destroy the world again, I’d rather be close to him than not.

Anna and Damien, not knowing what was going on, followed me without question.

Although they undoubtedly had questions, they saw I was tired and unwilling to bother answering them, so they didn’t ask.

Following the stream of Energy, we walked through corridors, hallways and venues until we reached the back garden.

What we saw didn’t surprise me, as I could sense the Energy, but Damien and Anna were filled with surprise.

In the middle of the garden stood Acedia, still soaked in blood from before, controlling purple flows of Energy into a certain location and then disappearing it.

The flow-rate was much slower compared to the vortex, but still, it was very impressive he could control such a large amount of Energy, seeing as it was incredibly mentally taxing to do.

Then, out of nowhere, a small white spark appeared and immediately transformed into the various colours, much faster than did the original black star.

As soon as it was formed however, something I didn’t expect happened.

It seemed as if he lost control of the Energy and was suddenly blasted backwards, flying in our direction before hitting the ground hard enough to break almost all his bones.

Luckily, the wave of Energy was spread too thin and could not possibly harm either me, Damien or Anna.

Still, we were slightly knocked off-balance and Damien even almost falling to the ground, just barely able to catch himself before actually reaching.

I saw him raise his head, mutter something presumably unintelligent and collapse again.

I looked warily at the black star, ready to confront another disaster even though I felt dead tired.

However, it simply hovered still in the air, not descending, not exploding… absolutely nothing happened.

For about a minute we watched silently at the radiating darkness, until we were certain nothing would happen.

By my sides, I heard two sighs of relief and saw Damien and Anna also standing ready to confront the whatever situation might pop up, but now they were relaxing their guard.

I, too, relaxed a little.

“Everyone alright?”

I asked, just in case.

“Yeah.”

“Yes.”

I heard Emily and Damien say.

In the distance, I saw the sun quickly began to set as dusk took over.

I walked towards Acedia, kicked him in the ribs a couple of times, making sure he was unconscious and as I did, heard the shuffling of shattered bones coming from his chest.

I then picked him up by the leg and decided to drag him back to his room like this after giving a final glance at the black star before, 'shining' in a way that seemed to suck the light out of the atmosphere.

The day began so good...

I thought, remembering the comfy chair and the relaxed reading.

...But what a shit ending.