The entrance was an artistic marvel, made from a beautiful white marble covered by colorful roses. The gate leading into this mystical place was small and simplistic in design, but it was wrapped in an ancient magic, one that not even the Gods, or the Creation Gods, could break through.

Beyond the gate was a garden, a magnificent and stunning garden; At the side was an artificial circular fountain, surrounded by empty benches and shining multi-colored butterflies.

There was a clear path made of stone, and on the sides were small patches of cleanly-cut grass and beds of beautiful and mythological flowers and plants.

The place wasn’t particularly big, but its atmosphere brought serenity and ease of mind to any and all visitors, few as they might’ve been.

The place was a painting, a breath-taking display of nature in its purest form.

Historians, Archeologists, and Scholars often refer to this place as the Garden of Words or the Garden of Knowledge. A minuscule isolated dimension, hidden from all beings.

It held all the answers in existence, it was where the lucky and chosen few had the honor to come. Here, they asked anything they wanted and got the answers they desired.

There were no questions this place couldn’t answer, no piece of knowledge it couldn’t produce.

As it happened, it was also where one of the remaining Creation Gods, Quhea, lived for a long, long time.

Contrary to popular belief, the Creator of Knowledge was neither the owner nor the creator of this garden. Rather, she was a permanent residence, someone who had forsaken everything to stay here for all eternity.

However, even such a feat wasn’t achieved easily. Quhea, at the cost of her divine essence and powers, became a resident. She lived in this secluded place, ever-hungering for knowledge and, in a way, partially linked to the Garden of Words.

One of the Twelve Creation Gods, Quhea’s one and only form was that of a woman. A woman dressed in a light blue long dress decorated by fiery ornaments.

She had a big crown made of white marble, one which hid her hair and her ears.

She had a pair of unique eyes, which didn’t have a color but countless minuscule bright stars. Her skin’s color matched her dress and her lips were thin and luscious.

Quhea was standing atop a small pond, her slim hand open and stretched forward, acting as a ‘seat’ for one of the shiny butterflies.

Only when she heard loud footsteps along with the clanking of heavy armor did she snap out of it and turn around, her starlight eyes landing on the guest.

“You’re back.”

She faintly smiled, seemingly pleased that he had returned.

Wearing a set of jet-black armor that was riddled with tiny dentes and scar marks, the Nameless Knight removed his dreadful helmet and nodded back in greeting.

Quhea was amongst the handful of living beings that knew the appearance of the Nameless Knight, also known as the Dark Knight or the Night Adjudicator.

His skin was as pale as a corpse’s, his eyes were like coal, hollow and frightening to look at. His thin eyebrows were unnaturally long and arched upwards due to his constant and habitual frowning, and his expression was, as usual, sunken and gloomy.

The Nameless Knight, named Leiu, looked like a young man no older than 25.

Quhea walked out of the pond and welcomed the guest to a solitary round table.

“Wolfram visited a while ago. He seems to be looking for the Frog of Destiny.”

Upon hearing this, Leiu let out a mocking scoff, which made Quhea chuckle.

“I know. I told him that catching it was impossible, but he remained adamant. You know how he is.”

Before their conversation could continue, loud and unpleasant sounds of two arguing women echoed from beyond the garden. As Leiu and Quhea turned their heads, they saw two tall women cursing and pushing each other.

“Quhea! You gotta be honest!”

“Don’t listen to this idiot! Tell me, my boobs are bigger, righ-ah! Ehm… ca…cann…”

They crossed the small gate but suddenly halted their feet and stared at Leiu, seemingly petrified.

Leiu rolled his eyes and proceeded to ignore them, but Quhea seemed impressed as she congratulated them.

“You succeeded in creating female simulacrums? I’m impressed.”

In fact, the two women were Midolf and Radolf. They were one of the famed Mythical Creatures.

Radolf was a being that had mastered Death and the notorious Black Flames, and Midolf was a ginormous roc that controlled Wind and the aspect of Life.

They were the nemesis of each other, but the reality was that they were two inseparable friends. Since the beginning of time itself, these two were always with each other. Their eccentricity and comical characteristic notwithstanding, these two were outrageously strong, especially when they fought side by side.

However, when they noticed Leiu, they just stood there, fidgeting and anxious.

“W-we have… s-sssssomething to take care o-of. Sssee y-yyyou laa-”

They signaled each other and were about to leave but Quhea stopped them at the last second,

“There’s no need to leave. He didn’t come here for you two.”

“...”

Even then, they didn’t want to stay for a second longer. When Quhea reassuringly nodded, they slowly marched toward one of the benches and sat there in awkward silence. They kept their heads lowered and their mouths shut.

“Idiots.”

“I find them amusing, to be honest.” Remarked Quhea as her smile softened. “Unlike a certain person, they are humorous and a breath of fresh air.”

“That’s because they keep loitering around and being useless.”

“What do you want them to do, then?”

“...”

Having no argument, Leiu grunted and busied himself with cleaning his bloodied helmet.

Smelling the putrid stench of the sticky blood and the traces of Void emitting from the spiky helm, Quhea sighed.

“Maybe you should stop, Leiu. You’ve done enough.”

“Enough?” He furrowed his brows and looked at her starry eyes.

“There is no such thing as ‘stopping’ for me. I will keep killing the Void Overlords until they stop coming back.”

“You do know that it’s not just them, right?”

“So what?” He snorted in anger, “They will be the first.”

The Creator of Knowledge lowered her head, feeling a bit of guilt.

“It was all because of us. I’m sorry.”

“You are not to blame. It was Ventus’ fault. He started it by opening that rift.”

“Speaking of which…” She grabbed the helm from his hands and spilled glistening silver dust on it, which removed all the blood. “I heard you found a way to close it?”

“Not a direct way, no. A viable candidate for the task, more like. That’s for the distant future, though.”

“Maybe I could help?”

“No.” He resolutely shook his head.

A bout of silence flowed between the two before Leiu looked at the quiet Midolf and Radolf and beckoned them to come closer.

As they reluctantly dragged their feet towards him and stopped near the table, standing straight with their hands clasped forward and their eyes pointing to the ground, the youth spoke,

“I need you to track down Wolfram and tell him to join me.”

Midolf, the foul-mouthed one, wanted to respond ‘Why don’t you do it yourself’, but he held himself back and repeatedly nodded.

“S-sir… we can’t.”

Radolf squeezed those words as his current feminine form was shaking, making the disproportionately large breasts shake intensely.

“You can’t? Sure you can… and you will.”

“I can send someone, Leiu. You know how Wolfram is.”

“No. They’ll do it. Aren’t you Midolf and Radolf? The Lizard of Death and The Roc of Life? Why are you so scared of him?”

“B-because he’s sss-strong?”-Midolf

“At most, you’ll get beaten a little bit. If you fight bravely, he’ll even give you a generous gift. That’s how he does things.”

“S-sir… why us? Quhea said-”

“Because he might be in a dangerous place. You two are practically immortal, so might as well do something useful. On you go.”

He dismissively waved his hand at them, but they pleadingly looked at Quhea.

Alas, she bitterly smiled and averted her gaze, silently agreeing with the Nameless Knight.

The two women left the garden with slow and unsteady steps as if they were going to their doom, ironic as that might sound since one of them controlled Death and the others controlled Life.

A short while after the two left, Leiu put on his helmet and walked to a transparent door not far from the table.

Quhea followed him with her eyes but neither stopped him nor went after him.

His body flashed with a white light before being taken to the second part of the Garden of Knowledge.

His surroundings were replaced by a white and boundless world, utterly devoid of anything but a snow-white plant that reached his knee.

He looked down at the motionless plant and patiently waited.

“Ask and I shall answer, Leiu Black Sin.”

“I want to know the condition of the Crimson Rift and how long it will take for it to be fully festered by the Void.”

“Question acknowledged. Answer: the dimensional split, also known as the Crimson Rift, has been stable for 45,597 Divine Years. Approximately 23,8% of it has been corrupted by the Void. If it continues unabated, the Crimson Rift will be fully corrupted within 52 years.”

The youth massaged his temples as he carefully formulated his second question.

“Besides the Crimson Rift, are there any dimensional splits in existence. I want to know about those big enough for a Void Overlord to slip through.”

“Question acknowledged. Answer: the largest dimension split detected is in Hell. 25 meters in length, 5 meters in width. There is a 2.7% chance that a Void Overlord might safely slip into our reality through that dimension split. Additionally, an abnormality was noticed in Astria.”

“Abnormality? What kind?”

“Due to the suspension of the Laws of Time, Magic, Physics, and History, it is impossible to determine the origin or the type of abnormality. Even its location is shrouded by complete nothingness, rendering any forceful interference impossible.”

“That’s odd. You are unable to find out anything? Then it’s not from the Void… or the Binary Dimension.”

“Yes. The most logical assumption would be that it’s from beyond the second layer. So far, the abnormality has been non-expansive and harmless. As it hasn’t had any effect on the world itself, it is most likely hidden and small in ‘size’.”