Sera's sky-blue eyes widened at him in that cute, curious way only she could pull off. Then a mischievous smile slowly curled across her red lips, like she'd just figured out something very interesting.
"I never knew you were this sensitive about your hair," she said, shoving her fingers into it with a playful grin. "Makes me wonder how many different ways you'll curse if I decide to get a little serious." She tightened her grip and giggled.
"You little devil!" Elias shouted, prying her hands out of his hair and rubbing his scalp. "And what the hell do you mean by curse? I am a man of culture, in case you didn't know." He adjusted his glasses with a sniff. "Cursing is far beneath a prodigy like me."
Sera stared at him, one eyebrow slowly rising. "But you just called me a little devil seconds ago, idiot."
Elias snorted. "It's not a curse if it's true."
She sat up straight, her expression going completely flat as she glared at him.
The moment Elias saw that look, he tried to bolt.
Too late.
Sera grabbed his hand, pinned him down, and knelt on his chest, her eyes narrowing in a way that promised pain.
"Bastard!" she shouted, squeezing his nose and lightly punching his chest with her tiny fists. "Jerk! Ass wipe! Son of a—ugh!"
"Kick his butt, Sera!" Lizzy cheered from a few meters away, one hand raised, her eyes sparkling with pure excitement.
Elias desperately turned to his parents for help.
They both looked away.
His dad even tilted his head up toward the sky, squinting at the sun like he'd just discovered something fascinating.
"You've learned some really bad words, Sera," Elias said, genuine concern on his face as he tried not to wince under her assault. "Someone out there must be influencing you pretty badly."
"It's all you, darn it!" she shouted, punching him even harder.
"Fuck it—fine, you win, okay? This is starting to hurt like hell!"
She stopped immediately, blowing a strand of her glossy white hair out of her face before flopping down beside him, an annoyed pout on her lips.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
They just lay there, side by side, quietly savoring the moment. The silence wasn't awkward. It was comfortable… soothing.
Then Elias turned toward her. His face hesitated, like he wasn't sure he should say what was on his mind.
"Sera," he called.
Her sky-blue eyes met his, curious and attentive. "Yeah?"
"If I told you that I liked you," he said slowly, "how would you react?"
Her eyes widened. A second later, her cheeks turned scarlet as she quickly looked away.
"Aren't we too young to think about grown-up stuff like that?" she muttered.
"Right," Elias said, not looking away from her. "Then… say when we're older, and I end up dating someone else—"
"You're mine!"
The fierceness in her voice—and the possessiveness burning in her eyes—left Elias completely speechless.
"But what if we end up in separate worlds?" he pressed quietly. "What if you reach a place I can't… a place I don't deserve to—"
Sera placed her finger on his lips, cutting him off.
"Elias, I don't know why you're suddenly asking things like this," she said with a huff. "It's really irritating, you know."
She rolled her eyes, then turned to stare up at the sky, lifting a hand like she might catch the clouds.
"When daddy was still alive," she began, her eyes growing glassy, "he said separate worlds and hierarchies don't really exist. They're just words people made up to name their own inferiority."
She turned back to Elias with a smile, squeezing his cheeks playfully.
"Human is human, Elias," she said softly. "People are still people, no matter how powerful or different they become." Her smile widened. "Besides, you're far too hot-headed and crazy to ever end up ordinary."
Elias frowned immediately. "Hey—take that back. I am a cool boy with a noble temperament!"
Sera snorted. "Yeah, right. It's easier to believe the sun rises from the west."
Elias coughed, his face heating up in embarrassment.
Then he turned toward her, gently tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear.
"Sera," he said quietly, "thank you."
Her cheeks reddened at his sudden display of affection.
"Whatever you say, idiot," she muttered, quickly turning away to study a very interesting blade of grass.
Elias pushed himself to his feet, stretching his arms briefly. His eyes drifted to Lizzy and his parents, laughing and talking happily together.
Then he looked back at Sera.
Beautiful. Angelic. Cute-faced Sera.
Afraid his resolve might crumble if he stared even a second longer, he clenched his teeth and turned away, walking toward the distant horizon.
"Where are you going?" Sera called after him.
He didn't stop.
"To find you, Sera," Elias replied, forcing himself not to look back. "To cure my parents. To protect Lizzy."
Tears slipped free, blurring his vision as he kept walking.
"Fuck… why does this hurt like hell?"
"Big brother!" Lizzy cried, her footsteps pounding closer as she ran after him.
"Elias!" Sera shouted, her voice breaking.
"Son!" his parents screamed.
Elias broke into a run, tears streaming down his face.
And then—
The illusion shattered.
He was standing before the seventh staircase.
Behind him, the sixth staircase faded back into gold, its song dying into silence.
Elias clenched his fists, fighting the crushing ache tearing through his chest.
Ahead of him loomed the dark throne.
Up close, its presence was overwhelming—massive, domineering, enough to stir a primal fear deep within the soul. It felt like a void, a place where sound and light were swallowed whole.
Slowly, Elias turned his gaze to the seventh staircase.
The last one.
The final test that would decide the direction of his shitty life.
He took a deep breath.
Then Elias stepped onto the seventh staircase.
This time, there was no thunderstorm.
No trembling realm.
No grand spectacle announcing the weight of the moment.
There was silence.
Stone-cold. Terrifying silence.
The golden color of the staircase drained away, shifting into something colorless—completely transparent, as if color itself wasn't worthy enough to give it meaning.
It didn't sing.
In fact, its very presence seemed to erase the idea of sound altogether.
Elias stared at it, one eyebrow lifting.
"Hey… is this thing broken—"
He didn't get to finish.
A spiraling dark void burst open in front of him, swallowing him whole before he could even blink.
***
The moment Elias reappeared, he glanced around—
—and nearly peed himself.
Thousands of galaxies stretched endlessly around him. Burning stars. Worlds numbering in the millions, scattered like tiny dots in the distance.
Elias had never felt so small.
So humbled.
So utterly insignificant.
"You are finally here."
The voice came from a few meters away.
Elias jerked, terror shooting straight through him as he spun around.
A man sat leisurely atop a dark throne, one leg crossed over the other, lips faintly curled in amusement. He was dressed like a scholar, his face painfully ordinary—the kind you'd forget the moment you looked away.
If not for his eyes.
They were completely black.
Staring into them felt wrong. Like gazing into a void that slowly pulled you in the longer you looked.
"Who the fuck are you?" Elias asked, his voice tight despite himself.
"Who am I?" the man echoed, brows knitting together as if the question genuinely required thought. "To put it plainly, I am an avatar of the Silent God." He paused. "To put it metaphorically, understanding who I am is far beyond what a mortal brain like yours can comprehend."
Elias folded his arms, unimpressed.
"That's not that hard to understand, you know," he said. "An avatar's basically a clone, right?"
The man laughed, the darkness in his eyes deepening.
"Close," he said, amused. "But not close enough. You see, Elias, a god like me isn't a singular being. I am a concept. I exist to encompass all things—worlds, realms, galaxies." He spread his hands lazily. "Something as puny as a body cannot bind me."
Elias coughed and turned his face away. "Right. My mortal brain definitely can't comprehend that."
"Come closer, boy."
Before Elias could react, space folded.
Suddenly, he was standing right in front of the man, those obsidian-black eyes studying him with unnerving interest.
"Ambitious enough," the being murmured, sounding almost pleased.
"Has the right touch of madness."
A grin stretched across his face.
"A sadistic, narcissistic, selfish, petty child," he continued cheerfully, rubbing his hands together, "with an impressively long vocabulary of curse words."
Elias stiffened.
"Across the universe," the being said, his smile widening as his gaze turned predatory, "many may come close—but none appeal to me quite like you."
Goosebumps erupted across Elias's skin.
And then, horrifyingly, he realized something.
He was naked the whole time.
"Hey! I am not gay!" Elias shouted, covering his pride with both hands as a shudder ran through him.
The being scoffed. "Foolish."
He turned away, gazing at the distant galaxies with a tired sigh, his expression suddenly melancholic.
"It is only a matter of time before I am shattered into fragments," he said quietly. "I have lived long enough, and I possess very few regrets." He paused. "One of them being the loneliness that has always followed me."
He turned back to Elias, those dark eyes heavy.
"That even in my destruction… there will be no one to remain by my side."
Elias hesitated.
Was he supposed to comfort him? Say some cringe stuff? Sing him a song or—
"Your sympathy is meaningless, boy," the being cut in sharply. "I didn't live for billions of years just to be comforted by a child."
'Dammit!' Elias cursed internally. Couldn't even have privacy inside his own damn head.
"…So," Elias said after a moment, genuinely curious now, "what's strong enough to destroy someone like you anyway?"
The being smiled proudly. "Nothing, actually."
He leaned back on the throne.
"Those primordial sons of bitches had to gang up on me because they couldn't take me one-on-one. All that talk about honor and fairness—damn hypocrites."
Elias raised an eyebrow, a little impressed. "So… what caused the beef?"
The being glanced at his fingers, flicking them casually.
"Oh, I stole the greatest treasure of their tribe. And while I was at it, I—uh—accidentally killed their ancestor." He shrugged. "But really, who knew he was that weak? Couldn't even survive a single hit. All bark, no bite."
He scoffed.
"So yes, my annoyance is completely justified. That bastard's death sent his entire tribe after me—when it's clearly his fault for not being sturdy enough to survive one slap!"
Elias stared at the being, slack-jawed.
A sudden sense of crisis flooded his chest.
Getting slapped by mistake was something he definitely didn't want.
He took a few cautious steps backward, watching the god's amused expression, forcing himself not to grit his teeth when he remembered that the god could read his mind.
"What do you want from me?" Elias asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" the being replied, one eyebrow lifting. "I am going to make you the inheritor of all my power." His expression darkened. "In return for a single wish."
He clenched his teeth.
"Destroy those primordial bastards. Utterly annihilate their tribe. Leave nothing behind—not a single atom, not a shred of matter." His voice sharpened. "And make sure they know it was you. The inheritor of my legacy. The one who reduced their history to rubble and erased their name from the universe."
He leaned closer, staring Elias straight in the eyes.
"That last part is important," he said softly. "It scratches a very specific itch."
Elias swallowed hard, sucking in a deep breath.
Wait… there shouldn't even be oxygen in space.
He pushed the thought aside and looked back at the being.
"Why me?"
The man didn't answer right away.
His gaze drifted, distant—like he was staring across ages rather than space.
"Silence, Elias," he finally said, "is the end of all songs. A void that devours sound. It erases voices, dispels meaning." His eyes narrowed. "It is a power that inevitably leads to loneliness."
Then he looked back at Elias.
"Only someone like you—with a touch of madness and a hint of mental instability—could naturally overcome that weakness."
"Hey," Elias protested, "my mental health is perfectly fine!"
"That's enough."
The being stood from the throne.
In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of Elias, one hand pressing firmly onto his shoulder.
"I could give you all of my power here and now," he said, a grin slicing across his face. "But where would the fun be in that?"
His eyes gleamed.
"To make things interesting, I will scatter my fragments across the multiverse." He paused. "Perhaps a few in your home world as well."
Elias's heart began to pound.
"I'll give you enough power to ascend to the peak of your world," the being continued calmly. "Enough that no one there will be capable of standing against you."
Elias gulped, his throat dry as his pulse thundered in his ears.
"Elias, the power I am giving you is unlike any other," the being said calmly. "It predates the primordial songs—older even than time itself. Silence is a void that devours all songs. Beings like us do not create songs."
A smile touched his lips.
"We steal them. We claim them. We make them our own."
His body began to dissolve, breaking apart into a blue mist that shimmered like a swarm of glowing moths.
"Elias," his voice continued as the dissolution crept up to his face, "show the multiverse that silence is still alive. That it can never truly die."
His form faded further, his voice dropping to a final whisper.
"And of course… kick butts and have a lot of fun while you're at it, okay?"
The blue mist condensed into a single sphere of light right in front of Elias.
Before he could even blink—
It slammed into his chest.
The world tore away.
Elias was hurled back into the realm.
But he didn't notice.
Pain crashed into him in violent waves, ripping a scream from his throat as veins bulged across his forehead.
Bones cracked and shattered beneath his skin.
Flesh tore apart—only to knit itself back together moments later.
Again.
And again.
Blood poured from him like a river, his heart hammering relentlessly, forging new, vibrant blood as fast as it spilled.
A cocoon of light formed around him, sealing him inside a glowing sphere and cutting him off from the outside world.
Within it—
He was being reborn.
He was being reforged.
And the realm itself fell silent.
As if it, too, was holding its breath—
waiting for its king to be born.