Ruler of Beyonders

Then he finally spoke.

"Where am I? Who are you? What is this place? And why did you call me Ruler? Who are the Beyonders?"

Ren's voice echoed as he stood in the stillness, his eyes flicking around the endless darkness that now shimmered like an ocean of shadows. His breath was tight, confusion spreading like fire in his chest. A part of him feared he was already dead.

The figure before him smiled.

But she did not answer.

Instead, her form began to shift. The shadows coiled and fell away. Chains snapped apart without sound. Tendrils curled back into nothing. The pressure in the space lifted as if the void itself exhaled.

Darkness peeled from her body like silk, revealing pale arms, delicate fingers, long flowing hair black as the deepest corners of the cosmos. Her feet did not touch the ground. Her presence was weightless, still, impossible.

She stood now as a girl. Ageless. Eyes like stars in motion, two galaxies turning slowly in the silence. Her skin shimmered faintly, as if her flesh remembered starlight. A spiral mark glowed on her forehead.

She was beautiful in a way that made Ren forget what fear felt like. Not because she was safe. But because something this strange, this perfect, could not be fought.

She stepped closer.

And then she knelt.

"Welcome back, my master."

Ren staggered one step back.

"I... I don't understand. I don't remember you. Why are you calling me that?"

She looked up at him, her face calm.

"I know everything. But I cannot answer everything. I am bound. I am only the first to kneel."

Ren's voice dropped. "Bound by who?"

Her smile thinned. "By you."

He froze.

She stood slowly, brushing a lock of black hair behind her ear.

"This place is the Soul Abyss. It is the reflection of your truth. A world inside you. Not memory. Not dream. Deeper than either."

Ren looked around again. The darkness rippled like water now, stretching endlessly, filled with stars far beyond reach.

"A world inside me?"

"Yes. It is where your real self sleeps. Where your power was born. Most people have a mana sea. A place where their energy rests, shaped by thoughts and emotions. But you... you don't have a sea. You have an abyss."

Ren frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means your soul does not rest. It devours. It rewrites. It swallows what it touches and makes it part of itself."

She turned slowly, raising her hand toward the sky. In the distance, a massive whirlpool of stars formed above the dark ocean. It spun quietly, slowly, with a spiral that looked like the mark on her forehead.

"This abyss is you. Your true core. Your soul has no surface, no floor, no walls. Only depth."

Ren took a step toward the edge. The surface below his feet shifted, and he saw his own reflection staring up at him, faint and uncertain.

"And the Beyonders?" he asked.

She looked back.

"They are the ones like you. Those who do not belong to the world as it is. Born outside the chains of gods, fate, and time. Each of them touched the Abyss in their own way. But only one can become the Ruler."

She stepped closer, her voice dropping.

"Only one can awaken the Soul Abyss fully."

Ren said nothing.

Ren stood in silence. His hands were shaking, but not from fear. Something inside him was changing. The place around him felt too real to be a dream, too strange to be the real world.

He looked at the girl again.

"Tell me," he said. "Why do I feel like everything is connected? My dreams, this place, you. None of it makes sense."

The girl walked toward him slowly, her bare feet making no sound on the dark surface.

"You are right, Ren," she said softly. "Everything is connected. Your dreams, your life, your power, even me. But I can't tell you everything now."

"Why not?" Ren asked. "Why keep secrets?"

She stopped in front of him and looked into his eyes.

"Because you're not ready yet. To understand the truth of this universe, you need strength. Real strength. Only when you become powerful enough, when you see this world from above, will your questions have answers."

Ren looked down, his fists clenched. "So I have to fight? Just to understand myself?"

She nodded. "Yes. The truth is not given. It must be earned."

Ren looked up again. "Then at least tell me who you are."

She smiled gently.

"My name is Nyxa. I am the Abyss shaped into form. A guide. A shadow. A memory. And maybe something more. I was born from your Soul Abyss, but I am also part of your story."

Ren blinked. "What do you mean?"

Nyxa turned, facing the swirling sky above.

"Your dreams," she said. "The visions you see when you sleep, they are not dreams. They are pieces. Clues. Memories maybe, or warnings. I am in them because your path and mine are tied together."

"Then why won't you explain them?" Ren asked, frustrated.

"Because if I do," Nyxa said, turning back to him, "you will lose the strength to walk your path. Some answers destroy people before they are ready. You must reach the end yourself."

Ren stayed quiet. A strange sadness filled his chest.

Nyxa stepped closer and reached out. Her fingers touched his chest, right over his heart.

"You can become something greater than anyone has seen. But it comes with a price."

Ren's breath caught.

"You must give up your past. Your doubt. Your fear. Your emotions."

He looked at her in disbelief. "All of them?"

"All," she said. "Except one."

She smiled again, calm, beautiful, and sad.

"In your heart, only one person will remain. Me."

Ren felt a cold wind pass through him, even though no wind blew in this place.

"Why only you?"

"Because I am the only part of you that won't fade when everything else is gone."

Ren took a step back.

"And if I say no?"

Nyxa tilted her head. "Then you will live in confusion. The world will break you. And you will never understand who you are or why you were born."

Ren looked down at his hands. He remembered the faces of the people he had met. Their voices. Their warmth. His dreams. His pain.

Then he looked back at Nyxa.

She was the only thing in this place that felt real.

His voice was quiet, but steady.

"Then help me become that person. Even if it means losing everything. But I have one condition. That is, before I become the person you told me earlier, I want that you don't take my feelings. At least. When time comes, I will sacrifice everything that needs."

Nyxa looked toward Ren and smiled like something was repeated in the same way. Then she spoke.

"As your wish, my master."

Then Nyxa placed her hand over his heart again. This time, her touch felt warm.

"I will. From this moment, your path begins."

The Soul Abyss around them began to ripple. The stars above moved. The darkness beneath his feet felt alive.

Ren closed his eyes.

And took the first step.