The excitement cut my rest short.

What would've normally send me into stasis for millions of years, was now easily dealt with in a couple of hours.

How fast things have changed recently.

From a pitiful, self-loathing, poor excuse for a living being into what I am now.

Once a sad being, now commander of Energy, lord over Souls, and most recently, master of Creation.

I stood up from the mattress lying on the floor, no doubt happily grinning as I did.

Beside me on the floor lay the thoroughly exhausted Emily, Anna and Damien.

It all changed thanks to her.

I noticed it while I was trying to handle the Furnace of Creation.

In my darkest hour, when despair and loss was close at hand, it was Emily that pulled me out.

A healing hand, fixing the not correctly sealed pathways, allowing me the window of opportunity to concentrate and, in the end, absorb the Core and claim mastery over Creation.

A reward is in order, and it’ll be the same as what she’s given me.

Walking up to her from behind, I crouched down and yanked her cross-shaped tail.

A small suppressed yelp and an angry glare later, she stood right in front of me.

“Fucker! What was that for?!”

She hissed, keeping her voice low as to not wake up Damien and Anna.

Despite the venomous tone of her voice and the angry glare, I could see, hidden deep within, she was relieved to see me well.

Even if I still had any doubts about her joining me by my side, this would’ve cleared them all up.

I trust this is the right decision.

Without so much as uttering a word, I walked out of the cabin and gestured her to follow me.

Although confused, she still followed me.

Outside the cabin darkness spread all over the world.

The once star-filled sky was not as starry as it once was.

Only a couple dozen or so stars still remained to fill the night’s sky.

However, even without the stars or a sun, the world was more clear than it could’ve ever been.

Everywhere around me, I could with barely any effort ‘see’ everything through both my power of Energy and Soul.

The white Souls of grass was spread all around me and even the air was filled with the Souls of little creatures, allowing me to view the scenery as if it was lit by hundreds of thousands of bright lamps.

Not only that, the Energy as well was present everywhere, allowing me to ‘know’ more than ‘see’ the shape of everything around me.

Every curve of every blade of grass, every grain of mud and sand, and every small pebble or large rock was instantly visible in my mind’s eye.

If I wanted to, I could expand this knowledge to contain everything in the universe, but right now, it was not needed.

Emily, however, could not see anything while I was walking to the edge of the radius of life.

“Acedia? Where are you?”

She said softly as she stepped outside the cabin’s door, her eyes darting around to spot me.

Immediately, I summoned a dozen or so orbs of light with my Energy and formed a path directly leading towards where I stood.

She followed the path, looking left and right at the orbs.

“What’s going on? You’re acting weird.”

She said as she arrived next to me.

Was I acting weird?

I might be.

After all, it is not often one would be given his chance for redemption, especially after so many billions of years.

“Acting weird, you say? If I am, it is all thanks to you.”

I said, smiling at her, visible only through the floating orbs besides us.

“What do you mean, ‘thanks to me’? I haven’t done anything.”

She said apprehensively.

“I’ll show you what you’ve done for me.”

Still smiling, I turned towards the empty wasteland and began.

Using the knowledge obtained instantly after absorbing and mastering Creation, I tried producing threads of both Energy and Souls

I felt immense heat rising from within me, but it did not feel uncomfortable.

I figured it out almost instantly.

Whenever I want, wherever I want, as long as I’m mentally present at that place, I could create anything I want!

Whether it was in my hand or somewhere high in the sky, somewhere inside the ground or somewhere inside space.

I can do whatever I want!

Inside my left hand, I created a clear-white ball of Soul-thread, still unoccupied by anything that has a conscious.

In my right, I created a purple ball, then condensed it and threw more Energy over it, condensed it once more and so forth, until I created a Black Star the size of a fist, throbbing with a familiar rhythm in my hand.

With simply a thought, I created something that required so much power that it once almost broke my mind!

A mad smile crept on my face.

“This... is what you have given me. This... is my power!”

Emily POV:

For a moment Acedia simply stood still.

What did he mean by ‘showing me’ what I’ve done for him?

All I did was return one of the many debts I have.

He was the one that saved me from that strange empty realm while constantly harming himself to protect me from that incredible power.

And, according to Anna and Damien, he also saved them from a wicked look-alike who set their Souls ablaze.

Not only that, if what my children told me was true, he was also the one that made them true and proper mortals, instead of the half-assed, constantly-tortured children I created.

And even before that, he rescued me from my own lies and deceit and spared me a life consumed by hatred.

And what have I done in return?

I used my children to lure him into a trap, ready to destroy him.

I blamed all my faults on him.

I broke his self-imposed shield of indifference towards the world, knowing fully that this was the only thing that allowed him to deal with this crazy world.

The only good thing I’ve done so for him, was the healing I did for the past three days.

And this was definitely not enough to settle my debt with him.

Not even my life would be enough.

And now, he’s saying he wants to reward me?

Because of what I did for him?

I’d feel to guilty to accept it.

Then, without as much as a warning, he looked at his left hand.

Within a second, a clearly visible white orb made out of Souls appeared.

He then looked at his right hand and, with a flash of purple barely visible for a second, a Black Star appeared.

“This... is what you have given me. This.. is my power!”

His voice had a tone similar to what he had inside the white, empty realm, but it carried with it much, much more force.

Out of his hands an enormous amount of threads shot forth into the wilderness.

Even though it was already impossible dark outside, the black threads coming out of the Black Star was clearly visible thanks to the bright white light coming off from the threads of Souls.

They rushed inside the vast, empty desert like lightning tendrils striking down towards a tree.

Then it stopped and gathered somewhere about a kilometre inwards.

More and more power was send to the place, heaping up and producing an incredibly loud, low-rumbling sound.

“Acedia, what are you planning?!”

I screamed, trying to overcome the thunderous roars of power coming from the wasteland.

As I shifted my gaze from the apocalyptic scene towards Acedia’s face, I was shocked to see him grinning madly.

It was the same as back then, when he created the Black Star.

He was so absorbed in his power, nothing else seemed to even remotely influence him.

However, he still answered.

“Why, expanding my realm, of course.”

His voice was as if the will of the heavens had come down to earth and embodied itself in this means words.

Without sounding as if he was shouting, his voice was more powerful, more prominent than any other sound on this world.

Suddenly, he let go of the two orbs and they fell down the cliff on which we stood.

The desert was now, as far as the eye could see, covered in a black-and-white layer of Energy and Souls, almost like a fog spreading over a field in the early morning.

I could see them going underneath the fog and saw them moving deeper inward, visible like two glowing lights underneath the sea.

Even the Black Star seemed to give off a strange, black-coloured light.

When they were about a kilometre in, at the place the power originally began gathering, they suddenly stopped.

The low-rumbling, thunderous sound of the tumultuous power suddenly quieted down.

For a small amount of time, the whole world seemed to be holding its breath as the two orbs emerged again from the mist, floating at most ten metres above the massive power-filled desert.

Even I stopped breathing for a moment, holding my breath and awaiting the next move.

Beneath me, the ground began to shake and the same incredible shrieking noise that was heard on the day we escaped was present here, its sound cutting into my eardrums and giving me severe headaches.

A moment later, I was blinded by a sudden light.

As my eyes stung and I felt hurricane-strength wind trying to push me off the cliff, but I managed to hold on.

When I could see again, I was stunned by the sight.

Pillars of Energy and Souls had suddenly risen op from everywhere, shining a bright purple-and-white mixture, leaving the compressed black variation of Energy and turning it into the original purple colour of Energy.

And it wasn’t just one pillar, there were dozens, if not hundreds of them!

All were spread about five kilometres from each other and each gave off the same blinding purple-and-white light.

Thanks to the sudden lighting, I found out that what I had been looking at, was just a small part of what was happening around me.

Not only was the wasteland in front of me covered in a black/white mist, it actually spread everywhere.

As far as the eye could see, the world seemed to be covered in it.

Not one patch of sand could be seen, aside from the small, grass-covered, half-eroded mountain we stood on.

I looked up into the sky and saw the pillars of Energy and Souls rising higher than the eye could see, penetrating deep into space seemingly without end.

“This is the power you’ve given me. And soon, you’ll be able to do the same.”

His mad grin had turned into a proud smile, while in his eyes there was something that surprised me.

Even though he had made it clear, it still came as a surprise.

What I saw was sincere gratitude.

Acedia POV:

My pillars covered they entire planet, numbering in the tens of thousands and all shooting deep into space.

Each of these pillars had two orbs; one of Energy and one of Souls.

Inside these orbs, I had placed something similar to the Core of Creation and gave them all the task to produce one of the two powers, allowing it to infinitely produce these and fill up my realm.

I temporarily closed my eyes and switched my planet-centric view into one that covered my entire realm.

I saw the pillars of power shooting through space, tearing through planets of different systems and galaxies until each and every one reached the outer edge of my realm.

There, they all begin to split off as if hitting a wall, and slowly travel along the outer net of Energy and Souls.

It not only strengthened it, it also began pushing to gain ground, at the cost of the realm of both Death and the Devil.

“What are you doing?!”

Screamed the powerful, vile-sounding yet also brat-like voice of Death.

“STOP THIS NONSENSE IMMEDIATELY!!”

The Devil’s sweet and tempting voice had turned into a powerful voice filled with extreme anger unlike I’ve heard before.

I could feel the both of them putting the war against each other on a low pitch and focus on absorbing the ever-increasing power of my realm, tearing away at both Energy and the Souls respectively.

“Or else what! I have the power here and although I’ve nothing to kill you yet, it is but a matter of time! There is nothing you can do to stop me! Hahahahaha!”

I yelled back at them.

Although my realm was expanding at the cost of theirs, it is not enough to defeat them.

They can easily absorb the power I throw at them and, although I do not know for certain since I can’t see outside my own realm and borders, they could expand into the vacuum behind their own realm.

At a certain point, probably in the near future, we will reach a momentary stalemate and after that, they could absorb my power and push back.

This is but a temporary solution to stop the making of any back-door deals or an alliance between themselves.

With this, I could by myself some more time to create something that can kill them.

I returned back to my own body, now knowing that the pillars did what they were supposed to day, and turned towards Emily.

Apparently, Damien and Anna had also ran out of the cabin as soon as they heard something was happening outside, yet Emily was still not aware.

“This is the power you’ve given me. And soon, you’ll be able to do the same.”

I said grateful from the bottom of my heart and meaning every word I said.

If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have been standing here right now.

Perhaps I wouldn’t even have been able to discover my ability, since everything that led to this had happened since I met her.

From the first unfortunate meeting, to the meeting with Anna and Damien and the trap they led me in.

From the trap to the fight with Emily that threw of my self-formed apathy and Anna forcing me to live again.

From the fight, to the discovery of the Black Star.

which lead to me meeting the Devil and him explaining what I truly am, while later discovering both him and Death were manipulating me.

Everything began with her, although she was a result of a much longer and ongoing plot to ruin my life.

Thank God Death failed to properly manage her.

It will cost him dearly.

I looked at Emily, Damien and Anna still staring at me in awe while the torrent of power spawned hurricane like winds.

For now, let’s take them away from here.

With a simple thought, I transferred us all through the grid of Energy towards a planet far, far away from here, as to not put them in danger.

It was a planet devoid of life but still suited enough to support it, if it had access to water.

They still stood frozen, staring at me while not knowing what to say.

If their mouths hung open in awe, the picture would’ve been complete.

I sighed.

I’ll probably need to explain some things.

Although I won’t make it too long.

Emily POV:

While my mind was in turmoil, Acedia had teleported me along with Anna and Damien towards another, seemingly abandoned planet.

His words still resounded through my mind.

This is the power you’ve given me.

When?

When did I give him such an unholy strength?

If I had known, I wouldn’t have given it to them.

That man isn’t right in his mind.

As soon as he gets a little bit of power, he becomes drunk with power and grins madly.

Did he really just summon those doomsday pillars just to show off?!

No, I don’t believe it.

Even if he isn’t completely sane, he’s still rather smart.

Or rather, he’s lived long enough to know better.

But he has to have a damn good reason to go that far.

However, the second thing he said surprised me even more.

And soon, you’ll be able to do the same.

How?

I previously thought we were the same, both Immortals doomed to wander the earth, hated by all.

But now, I’m not so sure.

I can’t help but get the feeling he’s ancient, dating from a time so far back, I could hardly imagine it.

Not only that, ever since he destroyed my ships, perhaps even since he killed my father or even before that, when he destroyed me in the desert, it seems his power is on a completely different level from mine.

“C’mon, I haven’t got all day.”

He said, faking annoyance.

His words shook me awake from my stupor.

Clearing my mind, I demanded an explanation.

“What the hell was that just now?!”

I said, feeling rather pissed.

Honestly, he’d better come with a good explanation, or else...

Well, I don’t know what else, but I’ll figure something out.

“Well, Death and the Devil were threatening my realm, so I decided to strengthen my borders a bit with my recently acquired mastery over Creation.”

He stated matter-of-factly.

Death?

Devil?

His ‘realm’?

Mastery over Creation?

If I wasn’t already stunned, I would’ve been right now.

I don’t understand a word of what he’s saying.

Looking to my sides, I saw Damien and Anna standing equally dumbfounded.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d get that, so let me just show you.”

He then turned towards Anna and Damien and thought for a second, before continuing.

"Let me show all three of you."