Continent: The Celestial Age
Volume I: Chapter 1
Second Chance
In the depths of the cosmos, where not even stars, planets, or hope remained, drifted the final black hole — the silent sentinel of the end of all things.
The universe, once ablaze with billions of lights, was living its last moment.
It had passed through glory and ruin, through wars and golden ages… but nothing lasts forever.
Today was the day even its final spark would fade.
Upon the surface of an ancient meteorite, frozen near that black hole, sat a man.
His armor was the color of absolute night — black as the Void itself.
Beside him rested a sword — a two-meter crimson blade with a radiant hilt.
Perched upon that hilt was a small girl in white garments.
Her hair glowed with the hue of living blood, and her eyes…
they were deeper than infinity.
She looked like a fairy, but in her gaze dwelled a knowledge no being could ever grasp.
The man spoke, his gaze never leaving the dying black hole.
> "I suppose… my path ends here.
My life has been full of pain and sorrow, but I never gave up.
I was neither evil nor good.
I simply… was.
And now… I want to let it all go."
The girl looked at him, sorrow blooming in her eyes.
Her voice trembled, but within it flowed tenderness:
> "You gave hope to humanity.
You showed them a path through the darkness.
You destroyed… but you created again — making the Universe better.
And now… you just want to leave? Without a second chance?"
> "I'm tired," he replied, his voice hollow.
"In the beginning, I was just a puppet in someone else's hands...
But I found my own path.
My name is sealed into the very fabric of this Universe.
That's enough. My journey is over."
He stood.
His aura churned violently within him.
His gaze locked onto the heart of the vanishing black hole.
Lifting his hands, he opened his palms — and released all his power.
He severed every thread that bound him to this reality.
From beneath his helm, two blood-red eyes were visible.
They were losing their light, but within them flickered epochs, entire worlds, every agony, and every memory he had ever lived.
He dropped to his knees… and smiled.
He remembered everything.
Every tiny detail.
Every farewell.
The little girl — the spirit of the sword — cried for the first time in her entire existence.
Her voice shattered the void, but in the vacuum, no one could hear it.
Only the Universe… and it wept with her.
Space groaned.
It didn't want to let him go.
But it was already too late.
The final black hole began to fade.
And with it — the man.
He whispered his last words:
> "The path of a king… without a crown to—"
He didn't finish.
His soul vanished.
The little girl screamed.
She screamed into the void that would never answer.
And then… all began to contract.
The Universe folded in upon itself — turning into a tiny pearl, from which a new world was destined to be born.
And in that moment, a voice echoed:
> "I grant you… a second chance."
Creation began anew.
The rebirth of reality.
But in this new universe, the Seeker was no more.
The one who had once created everything… was gone.
…For now.
Across thousands of universes, a small sphere drifted.
It shimmered with blue light.
And in one of the infinite realities — one that dipped into the Higher Realms —
it was accepted.
It was there…
that a new journey would begin.