A few hours before birth, the universe writhed in a motion no being had known since the beginning of time.
The stars did not go out, but they disappeared, as if they had never existed, leaving a pitch-black void that swallowed every ray, every speck of light. The sky itself trembled, its colors shifting suddenly between dark purple, ember-black, and light breaking in angles invisible to the eye. The air grew heavy, dense, pressing on the chest and suffocating every breath, as if the entire universe had decided to hold its breath for one moment.
The monsters that roamed the earth fled in terror, their cries breaking across a horizon without light. Trees shook to their roots, and mountains quivered with inner fractures as if the heart of the earth itself had weakened. The strong and the observers felt deep confusion; their hearts raced, their muscles trembled, as if the laws of nature were retreating before a power unlike any born since the dawn of worlds.
In the middle of this cosmic chaos, a woman was in pain.
Aeris's mother, her body strong, full of life, yet moaning under the weight of childbirth. She sweated, writhed on her bed in a secret place within the family clan, where ancient symbols were carved into the walls and floor, glowing faintly as if breathing with her heartbeat. Everything around her was saturated with mystery, as if the place itself shared her pain, as if time had stopped to witness a birth that would be immortalized in existence.
Reality began to shift gradually. Light slowed, mingled with shadows, sounds distorted, and the air trembled with every movement. Gravity fluctuated slightly, forcing her body to fight against the ground holding her. Time itself seemed to slow; each second moved with terrifying slowness, like a cosmic wonder at which everything halted.
The grandmother, the mother's mother, sat at the edge of the room, her eyes sharp, her voice calm but carrying the weight of centuries:
"For someone of your level… to suffer in birth like this… either the child is an unmatched talent… or a catastrophe never seen since the dawn of worlds."
Aeris's mother sighed heavily, her every movement pain:
"Everything… feels chaotic… I feel the weight… everything around me presses… everything… is breaking…"
Her voice scattered through the room, mixing with the faint echoes of the ancient symbols, as if speaking to an unseen force, to a future not yet born.
The entire universe, all of time and space, was preparing to receive something never born before. The air was charged with energy, the ground shook beneath her feet, and even the ancient walls seemed to breathe, as if they knew this newborn would change everything. Mystery seeped into every corner, deep magic surrounded the birth, making hearts tremble.
Aeris's mother closed her eyes for a moment, feeling something infiltrate her body, something eternal, indescribable in words, a feeling that combined pain, awe, and anticipation, all at once. Every second shattered, every heartbeat mirrored a star's explosion.
Then, in a terrifying quiet, the echo of pain mixed with the first tremor of new life…
The birth of something never before born in the universe…
The birth of the black hole.
A few seconds after the relative cosmic calm, the space around her began to change in unimaginable ways.
The air grew heavier, pressing on the lungs as if every breath defied the laws of physics. The light around Aeris's mother began to warp, twist, and writhe as if reality itself screamed and staggered under the weight of an impending event.
Then suddenly, three misty faces appeared from nowhere.
They were not passing ghosts but beings stretching across the room, unnaturally large, merging with shadows and fractured colors. Each face was blurred, unclear, yet radiated a cosmic power that made every hair on the body stand on edge. Sounds lagged, gravity fluctuated, and the air thickened around her as if they were the axis of the universe itself, the center of energy and fate.
The grandmother, the mother's mother, sat steadily on the ground, her voice cold and majestic:
"Ah… so the rest of the family came to watch…"
Her words cut the heavy silence like a sword, rising above the heartbeat of conflicting spacetime.
The misty faces began to move slowly, each movement deliberate, each glance reflecting wisdom and threat at the same time. Their voices merged with reality:
The grandmother, the father's mother, in a misty voice mixed with anger and sarcasm:
"Old woman, you are luckier than I am… to see my grandson before me. I envy you… all because of my foolish son."
The grandmother, the mother's mother, cautiously:
"Are you alright? Did you find him?"
The grandmother, the father's mother, with a heavy sigh, echoed by the walls:
"So far… I have no news…"
The remaining faces were silent but radiated threat, as if watching every detail in the room. Even the ground moved lightly beneath them, a reminder of the immense power surrounding them.
The grandfather, the mother's father, spoke, his voice majestic and heavy:
"And you, Majara… did you find any news?"
The grandfather, the father's father, after a long silence, added in a low voice that filled the space:
"The last I heard… he destroyed the Dark Dragon Star Field… and I received no further reports."
The grandmother, the father's mother, with sarcasm mixed with anger:
"That fool causes trouble… wants to oppose all dragon races? Fire dragons and Thunder dragons were not enough, now the Dark Dragon field too… what a nuisance!"
Aeris's mother, her voice calm despite the pain cutting her chest:
"It's alright… no need to worry… He told me he would come for his son's birth."
The misty faces breathed with every word, the space collapsing bit by bit under the weight of their presence. Light fractured, sound lagged, the ground trembled lightly, everything announced the presence of legendary, unimaginable power.
Suddenly, the grandfather, the father's father, appeared from the void as if emerging from nothingness. His voice pierced reality:
"This fool is coming. I must teach him a lesson."
"Send me your coordinates… I will punish you now."
The misty faces gradually turned into strange symbols, intertwined energy, the fabric of the universe itself. Then the grandfather tore two spatial rifts in these symbols. Dimensions tore like cloth, and from them, all the other grandparents emerged, their presence filling the space and pressing on every part of reality.
Aeris's mother, tense, whispered to herself:
"Where is that fool? His son is about to be born, and he hasn't arrived yet!"
Suddenly, the space around them began to crack again, as if the grip of a primordial monster had crushed reality. Then a man with unclear features appeared…
He raised his head toward everyone, his voice sharp as an arrow:
"Has my son been born?"
In that instant, an overwhelming murderous intent rained down on him, distorting reality itself. Yet he turned to the old mother with a calm smile:
"Is this how you welcome your son, Mother?"
The mother, with a sigh and a sly tone:
"Ah… you bundle of trouble… wait until your son is born, and I will show you how a welcome is done!"
All the grandparents laughed. The place collapsed cosmically under the weight of their presence, everything around them moving as if the earth itself staggered under the legendary weight of this moment.
Aeris's mother, breathing heavily, moving toward birth, whispered:
"Ah… it seems he will be born finally…"
Suddenly, total darkness engulfed the space.
Cosmic pressure increased, everything around them became unstable, but one thing remained clear to all: the child in the mother's womb, the center of all power, the focal point of the entire universe.
The space tightened unbearably, reality seemed compressed, and everyone thousands of kilometers away felt the disturbance, lifting their heads toward the sky.
Directly above the Aeris clan, a massive black hole appeared, still and terrifying, as if it wanted to devour all existence, consuming every ray of light and every heartbeat.
One of the grandparents whispered in a low but heavy voice:
"The black hole… is not born… it appears when a star collapses…"
Then he turned to the child, his gaze examining, calm, full of awe and fear at the same time:
"…So which star collapsed today?"
At that same moment, Aeris heard the system's voice in his consciousness:
"The host is in the state of birth."