HUMMM!!!!!!
The skies above Pantheos blazed with a breathtaking cascade of stars.
To the casual eye it might have appeared nothing more than a dazzling, otherworldly display.
But in truth, each of the billions upon billions of new stars bursting into existence in rapid succession—were all unique with their own deep meaning.
As magical as the sight appeared, it was no rare cosmic fluke.
Every hundred and fifty years, the world of Panthun replayed this exact phenomenon, tied to one extraordinary event: the mass birth of children across the world.
From the comfort of their territories, Clans and Sects broadcast the spectacle to every working screen, but the most powerful among them never settled for watching from afar.
Their top figures always attended in person.
For most of the gathered cultivators, it was just another episode of the long-running drama that was called Existential Crisis.
For the true apex beings, however, this display signaled the start of the God Pool's Culling Phase.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!!!"
The voice boomed across an impossible expanse.
Don stood at the precise center of what appeared, at first glance, to be a massive coliseum.
With tiers upon tiers of seats rising upward and outward until the very notion of perspective gave way.
Yet no crowd occupied those endless rows.
Instead, every surface was covered in incubator pods—trillions of softly glowing cylinders, each cradling an embryonic spark of new life.
Don looked surprisingly down-to-earth in his neat dark suit, easy smile, and perfectly parted hair. Beside him, a grapefruit-sized orb hovered near his shoulder, doubling as both camera and spotlight.
Moments after he spoke, light from every star began to pour down.
Brilliant lights of color swept across the endless field of pods, drenching them in waves of radiance.
Within each cylinder, a child stirred, reaching upward with newfound awareness, instinctively weaving the first unbreakable thread between Existence and Star.
Don threw his arms wide, a goofy grin lighting up his face.
"Check it out, folks! It's happening—hundreds of billions waking up all at once! These little ones are connecting with their destined Stars, getting their very first taste of what might someday be godlike power!"
He wandered in a slow circle, the orb trailing his every step as the light swelled, until the entire coliseum was awash in a shimmering, liquid aurora.
"Every hundred and fifty years, we find ourselves asking the same tantalizing question: will this batch give us the next Ineffable Tyrant? Or the next Ineffable Trio?" He chuckled, the sound warm and well-rehearsed.
As he continued talking to the viewers, the radiance reached its crescendo as every child that was ready, were now fully bathed in what was Divinity.
Then Don's eyes flicked—almost imperceptibly—toward a single point far down the ranked rows.
It was a lone pod, completely untouched by any divine influence.
As he narrowed his eyes at the child within, his heart nearly skipped a beat. Floating inside was indeed an infant, but one unlike any other.
Panthun was known for only a handful of races—Humans, Elves, Angels, Dragons, and Titans.
For any other race to be born here was not impossible, but extremely unlikely.
Yet this child had no eyes, no mouth, and no hint of skin tone—just a blank, humanoid canvas.
Just a featureless gray infant.
As the orb drifted toward the anomaly, Don's smile never wavered.
"A... and while our brand-new Awakened chat with their freshly bonded Stars—" he pivoted smoothly on his heel to face the invisible audience again,
"—let's cut to a short commercial break! Don't go anywhere, folks. We'll be right back with the Culling Phase!"
The orb zipped away, the lights dimmed just enough to cloak the untouched pod in shadow, and the feed faded to black.
HUMMMMM!!!!
The moment the show cut to commercial, all the true powerhouses appeared in the skies above the incubator pods.
Their eyes turned to projections hovering over each child, displaying all the information they needed.
These weren't just ordinary pods—they scanned each child from the instant they connected with their stars.
The projections listed each child's Constellation or God Stars, innate powers, ranks, and anything else they might have awakened.
"It says this thing is a human..." A woman with long black hair said as she looked at the child that could only be described as an abomination.
"Could it be malfunctioning? It also says he has... the Lesser, Blank God Star?" a man asked.
"But he has no awakened innate powers."
This caught many of them off guard, as they knew all too well...
These Stars were representations of the Constellations and the Gods' power system, with rankings that were supposed to be strict—or so they thought.
Stars, weapons, alchemy items, physiques, bloodlines and divine eyes all followed the same hierarchy: Lesser, Greater, Primordial, Origin, and Above Origin—each holding its own meaning in their respective fields.
Normally, everyone awakens at least one innate power tied to a Lesser-ranked Star, gaining another with each tier.
But this child... he had nothing except his race and a star.
"No need to worry about someone who won't live past two years," another woman remarked.
"And besides this batch has countless prospects." She turned to Don. "Let's go, start the next phase."
Don frowned, 'If the boss were still around, how could I have fallen so low?' he thought, nodding obediently as the cameras began to roll again.
What he said before however.... it wasn't an excuse—each of these children was speaking directly to their Stars, each Star a manifestation of its power, meant to guide the cultivator until they became one.
But the lonely, vacant child… he wasn't speaking to anyone. Instead, he was drifting in a completely different place… but he wasn't alone.
-----
In a realm of nothing but an endless sea, the water wasn't blue but perfectly split into black and white.
Floating above this strange expanse were two infants—one a blank reflection of the other, expressionless and empty, the other a black-and-white silhouette mirroring the sea below.
"Wake up!" the Black half said in a toneless voice.
"Stop yelling. I'm awake," the White replied in the same flat tone.
"Tsk, then why do we feel nothing at all?" Black asked, eyeing the blank figure before them.
"Because… nothing is what we are," White answered.
The realm fell silent, the two infants facing one another—until the Black half laughed.
"Haha, good. After all, nothing cannot be killed… nothing cannot be owned… it can only consume."
"Or be consumed…" White murmured, but the Black only laughed again.
"I'd like to see them try. They have no idea what will become our art."
In that moment, the blank infant's fingers twitched, then its arms, then its whole body—before the realm dissolved completely.