The moment the ten candidates stepped toward the ancient streams of power, the universe itself seemed to hold its breath.
No one spoke.
No one looked back.
After years of training, countless battles, unimaginable pain, and a journey that had taken them from ordinary beings to monsters capable of influencing the foundations of reality, they had finally arrived at the final door.
The bodies that had chosen them.
The origin of their powers.
The beings that had watched their growth since the very beginning.
These were not simple sources of energy.
They were conscious manifestations of concepts older than stars, civilizations, and even the current laws of the universe.
Each one waited for its candidate.
Each one would decide whether the person standing before it was worthy of carrying its name.
The ten candidates took their final steps.
Then—
the streams of power touched them.
The universe disappeared.
Vladimir — The World Beyond Burning
Vladimir opened his eyes.
There was nothing around him.
No stars.
No planets.
No dimensions.
No space.
No time.
Only fire.
Endless fire.
Flames stretching infinitely in every direction, burning without fuel and existing without reason.
It was a world where the concepts of beginning and end had no meaning.
A realm where destruction had consumed the framework necessary for existence itself.
Yet, strangely, the fire did not feel chaotic.
It was alive.
It watched him.
It judged him.
Every flame represented a possibility of destruction.
Every spark contained the ability to burn not only matter but the principles that allowed matter to exist.
Vladimir smiled.
For the first time in his life, he did not feel like the master of flames.
He felt like a child standing before the origin of fire itself.
Kashmir — The Dominion of Endless Shadows
Darkness.
That was the first and only thing Kashmir perceived.
A darkness so complete that even the idea of light felt foreign.
There was no star.
No reflection.
No source from which illumination could be born.
But this was not ordinary darkness.
This was the complete victory of the Shadow World over the Surface World.
The two realms existed together, but the world of light had been completely suppressed.
The shadows moved like oceans.
Infinite soldiers slept beneath them.
Ancient kingdoms made from darkness stood silently in the distance.
The entire realm was waiting for its king.
But Kashmir understood something immediately.
A king was not someone who commanded shadows.
A true ruler was someone who became the reason shadows existed.
Mark — The Realm of Eternal Light
Mark found himself standing in a massive chamber.
Its size could not be measured.
Its walls could not be reached.
The entire room was filled with a pure light beyond any star.
It was so intense that the concept of a shadow did not exist.
Even his own shadow had become light.
His body was illuminated from every possible direction.
There was nowhere to hide.
No darkness to escape into.
No secret left unseen.
The light revealed everything.
The truth of his body.
The flaws in his technique.
The limits of his speed.
Mark slowly closed his eyes.
For someone who had always moved faster than others could perceive, this was the first time he was forced to remain completely still and allow the light to observe him.
Merito — The Empty Domain of Rejection
Merito opened his eyes and found himself floating in a place that rejected existence.
There was no gravity.
There was no direction.
There was no time.
There was no law that could be relied upon.
Every concept that attempted to establish itself was immediately denied.
A universe where existence itself was considered a mistake.
A realm of absolute rejection.
Yet Merito did not feel fear.
Because this place was familiar.
His power had always been the power to say no.
No to matter.
No to energy.
No to distance.
No to perception.
No to the laws that every living being accepted without question.
But now, facing the true source of his ability, he realized something terrifying.
All this time, he had only been rejecting the surface.
The true meaning of nullification was something far beyond simple erasure.
Sarah — The Cycle of Nothingness
Sarah stood in absolute nothing.
There was no darkness.
There was no light.
There was not even an empty space.
Because emptiness itself was already something.
This was true nothingness.
Then—
a point appeared.
A single existence born from the impossible.
From nothing, something emerged.
It developed.
It gained structure.
It obtained laws.
It became a complete existence.
And then it was destroyed.
Everything returned to nothing.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Creation and destruction repeated endlessly.
Sarah watched silently.
For the first time, she understood that destruction was not the enemy of creation.
It was the reason creation had meaning.
Without an end, a beginning had no value.
Maria — The Living Universe
Maria arrived in a realm overflowing with laws.
Countless principles moved around her.
Gravity.
Energy.
Life.
Death.
Time.
Space.
Every rule of existence was present.
The world itself was alive.
It breathed.
It evolved.
It adapted.
Yet despite its perfection, something was wrong.
The laws did not communicate.
Each principle acted independently.
They collided with one another.
They contradicted each other.
The entire world stood on the edge of collapse.
Maria understood immediately.
A perfect universe was not one that possessed every law.
A perfect universe was one where every law existed in harmony.
Tiago — The Hunger Beyond Existence
Tiago stood before a black hole unlike anything he had ever imagined.
Around it was not merely darkness.
It was nothingness.
A void that consumed everything.
Matter was swallowed.
Light was swallowed.
Perception itself was swallowed.
Even understanding was drawn toward that impossible abyss.
The black hole did not move.
It did not attack.
It simply existed.
And because it existed—
everything else was forced to surrender.
Tiago felt his own gravity trembling.
For the first time, he understood the true arrogance of his previous battles.
He had tried to command gravity.
But the greatest gravity did not command.
It simply became an unavoidable truth.
Javier — The World of the Absolute Edge
Javier opened his eyes.
Immediately, pain covered his entire body.
Not because he had been attacked.
Because everything around him was cutting him.
The air was a blade.
The ground was a blade.
The distance between two points was a blade.
The very concept of existence had been divided into endless fragments.
A world of absolute sharpness.
A realm where everything possessed an edge capable of separating all things.
Javier did not draw his sword.
Instead, he smiled.
Because for the first time, he had arrived in a world where the sword was not a weapon.
It was reality itself.
Daniel — The Foundation of Reality
Daniel stood in a perfectly stable world.
Everything existed in harmony.
Space expanded with mathematical precision.
Time flowed with flawless rhythm.
The interaction between both created every possible law.
Matter.
Energy.
Life.
Death.
Cause.
Effect.
All of existence was a result of the dance between time and space.
Daniel looked around in silence.
He had always used space and time as tools.
A way to move.
A way to attack.
A way to defend.
But now he saw the truth.
Space and time were not weapons.
They were the foundation upon which all weapons, all worlds, and all realities were built.
William — The Broken Web of Existence
Finally—
William opened his eyes.
What he saw froze him.
Before him stretched an endless network of connections.
Threads beyond number.
Connections between all things.
The same threads he had spent years learning to see.
The same threads he had cut, manipulated, and repaired.
But something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
Many connections were severed.
Others were connected to things they should never touch.
The relationship between cause and effect was broken.
Life was connected to death.
Creation was tied to destruction.
Time was linked to things outside its domain.
The entire system was a wounded, corrupted web.
William's expression became serious.
This was not a world.
This was a mistake.
A universe where relationships had lost their proper places.
Then a voice emerged from every direction.
Ancient.
Calm.
Beyond emotion.
"You have spent years learning how to break and reconnect the threads of existence."
The voice paused.
"But tell me, candidate..."
Every damaged connection around him began to move.
"Do you truly understand what should be connected?"
William's eyes narrowed.
The true trial had begun.