lamesage

A man awakens in a pitch-black void, deprived of sensation, time, and meaning. Strangely, he does not starve, nor does he thirst—only his mind remains, restless and unrelenting. As the abyss threatens to consume his sanity, he spirals into madness, laughing, screaming, and rambling without end.

What begins as a desperate grasp at logic turns into a revelation. Numbers are not mere symbols; they are reflections of a hidden order that has always existed. Mathematics is not an invention—it is a discovery. The laws of the universe were never created, only uncovered.

The understanding that was forged by the void

"I accept," I replied, my voice steady—neither defiant nor resigned, merely acknowledging the inevitable.

"As expected from one who has glimpsed the totality of knowledge. You understand what must be done."

Its praise was hollow, less a compliment and more an observation—a truth woven into the fabric of reality itself.

"As if I had a choice." My gaze remained fixed on the shifting patterns around me. "A mind that has reached beyond your design—one capable of unraveling the balance you have constructed—could never be set free. This is not a mission, nor a gift... but a cage, veiled beneath the illusion of purpose."

"A cage that is necessary," the voice responded, resonating through the void with a weight beyond sound. "Not for confinement, but for something greater. Something only you can achieve."

The patterns of reality pulsed around me, shifting, twisting—a silent affirmation.

"What I have told you is no lie. Your existence is not an aberration to be erased, but a force upon which the multiverse itself is poised. Without you, its collapse is inevitable."

"Now that you have accepted your task... we begin."

The ever-shifting void around me stilled in an instant—an unnatural stillness, as if reality itself had paused. Then, the silence shattered. Ripples spread across the quantum realm, fluctuations cascading outward, each pulse stronger than the last.

Filaments of light flickered in and out of existence, not bound to a single position but existing in multiple states at once—superimposed across the fabric of space itself.

Light bent, curving in impossible trajectories, weaving through the very structure of reality. Space trembled, rippled, distorted—its surface stretching thin. And within those distortions, reflections appeared—glimpses of a universe not our own.

"Do not resist. Even the slightest deviation could collapse the bridge—a single failure may cascade into catastrophe, consuming both us and the universe we have reached."

"Okay," I replied, yielding to the voice's command.

The moment I let go, my body relaxed, and I felt the fabric of space shift around me. Reality itself seemed to thin, as if I were slipping through an invisible membrane—a barrier so delicate yet absolute.

The moment I regained consciousness, the first thing I noticed was the vast, endless sky—clear and unmarred, stretching infinitely above me. Towering mountains, draped in emerald green, reached toward the heavens as if striving to touch the divine.

"So… these are the colors I once knew before the void?"

The thought lingered, fragile yet profound.

"Just a different range of the electromagnetic spectrum… and yet, it's mesmerizing."

I hadn't realized the tears slipping down my face until they fell, vanishing into the grass below. I had thought myself beyond such things—believing all emotions had long faded into the abyss of my forgotten past.

And yet, this moment… it stirred something within me.

3 New world