There existed a place where neither time nor distance possessed meaning.
No stars were born there.
No galaxies died.
No laws governed its endless expanse.
It was simply...
Nothing.
And yet within that nothing floated countless lights.
Stars drifted through the darkness not as burning spheres of gas, but like living creatures gliding through an endless black ocean.
They swam in impossible patterns, their silver trails rippling through the void before dissolving into silence.
Entire constellations twisted around one another like schools of fish, disappearing beneath invisible currents only to emerge millions of miles away.
The universe, vast beyond comprehension, seemed little more than a reflection upon an immeasurable sea.
Near its center floated a single golden light.
Small.
Brilliant.
Lonely.
The sphere flickered softly, as though breathing.
This was Bastard.
He no longer resembled the sarcastic voice that had accompanied Sebastian for so long.
