Luna found herself surrounded by the expanse of dark space. The scenery had changed so quickly from the tower to the galaxy she was raised to fear all her life. She was surrounded by a myriad of beautiful colors of violet and blue. And beyond the many colors were small tiny objects that sparkled from a distance.

  “Stars?” Luna marveled at the beauty before her. She had never been to space, neither was she ever planning to. But this sight made her somehow forget the messy world around her for a brief moment.

  “Beautiful. Aren’t they?”

  Luna tensed at the sound of another voice. This triggered and emotions and everything was suddenly coming back to her. She recalled the fight, the tower, her friends, and Rita's actions that led to their victory.

  Yes. They had just defeated the devil before its eyes opened right in front of her and she was suddenly dragged to this place.

  She tried to search for her weapon. But to her luck, there wasn’t a sword in sight.

  “Calm down, Lunaris Feng. I’ve only invited you here so that we can talk.”

  Luna didn’t calm down. Instead, her dark eyes moved with panic etched into them. They moved left and right, searching for the owner of the voice, and stopped when they landed on a single golden tree growing in the center of space. It didn’t look healthy at all; its branches were thin and dry, and its gold leaves were slowly turning to golden dust.

  Seeing it in such a state immediately calmed her down as her concern shifted to the dying tree.

  Once that happened, she caught sight of the tall man staring at it with a solemn expression. He had bleached white skin and long beautiful white hair. He was dressed in one of those elegant ancient Chinese robs that were often won by royals in one of those dynasties she read about while reading about human history.

  He looked hopeless when he withdrew his hand from the dying tree and slowly turned to face Luna.

  Once his jade green eyes met with hers, Luna instantly felt the godlike presence coming from him. It demanded respect and beamed with authority that could crash an army of soldiers.

  She had no choice but to lower her head before asking the first that came to her mind.

  “Are you the one who dragged me to this place?”

  The man smiled and responded with a nod. He then raised his hand and waved it slowly.

  Suddenly, the small distance between her and the man was no more. Luna gasped when she realized she was standing in front of the man. He studied her for a moment.

  Surprisingly, Luna managed to keep her composure while face to face with a deity.

  “Welcome to my domain, Lunaris Feng. I am The former Keeper of Nothing and Servant of the god of Fate.” He chuckled. “To think that I would die at the hands of humans. Have humans of the mortal realm really grown that much since the gods died?”

  He sounded arrogant. But that was a commonality in all high beings. It would be surprising to fight one that isn’t.

  “I guess it's my lucky day.” Luna crossed her arms and sighed while trying to establish some form of dominance. “I get to talk to the keeper of Nothing. And by the way, what is Nothing?”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Nothing is my domain. You humans think of nothing as a word but nothing is an entire concept. The concept of imagination is the same as Nothing. It is what my Master gave me when I was born.”

  The celestial smiled wistfully as he stared at the stars and the rest of space. Even though it was an illusion, Oblivion could not help but feel nostalgic about this place. “But I’m not here to tell you about myself. I’m here to give you a choice, Lunaris.” He gave her an amused smile excited about something.

  Luna tensed and frowned. “What choice?”

  “No need to be serious…Lunaris. As you can see, I am already dead and this is what’s left of my life essence. You and I both want the same thing.”

  “The same thing?”

  “Yes. As you can already tell, the Mortal Realm is slowly breaking down as the Heavenly bleeds into it. The corruption is what destroyed this world. Sigh, It was a great weapon to use against the gods until the same weapon was used against us. This…Blood Tower…is something Everlight and her followers used to contain us who were a threat to her and the so-called True Celestials.”

  His complexion darkened at the mention of the Servant of Light. He said it with so much ease, proving once again that he was not on the same level as Luna. He didn’t have that strange fear humans felt for deities.

  “I created the darkness to protect her people you know. I went down to the rivers of death and gave her people stones to build her statues! And what do I get huh…? A cage. I get pushed into a cage…damn it!”

  For a moment, he lost his composure. While listening carefully to the deity’s ranting. Whether it was indirectly or not, he was giving her information about Everlight and the true celestials.

  The first thing he made obvious was that he became one of the beings that followed the servant of light after the death of the god of fate. He mentioned that the corruption was meant to be a weapon against the gods. However, that same weapon was later used against them. It seems Oblivion was one of the beings that were too powerful to just let wander around.

  He was a threat to Everlight.

  ‘Wait…so the undead king was just a guard?’

  The second thing she noted was that he was the creator of the darkness that protected Everlight’s people. This was the same darkness she encountered back at the shrine. This was meant to hide the humans' betrayal as they planned the rebellion against the gods.

  .

  And the third Luna noticed was that Everlight was probably the one who started all of this. The Servant of Light was not alone of course but she was one of the main pieces of the puzzle.

  “Is there a way I can save my world then?” Luna asked out of curiosity. He said they wanted the same thing. Which Luna highly doubted. She wanted answers, but jumping straight to the questions felt like unchartered territory and she didn’t want to test her luck in a place like this.

  “Of course there is!” Oblivion grinned and spread his arms. “By killing Everlight and the others. They’re the reason why your world and mine are slowly colliding. They're the root of all this mess I assure you.”

  Luna didn’t express anything or any emotion when she heard this. Letting out a sigh, she spoke. “I am guessing you’re trying to use me as a revenge plan against Everlight. Sigh. Unfortunately for the two of us, I do not have anything that puts me even close to the divine. I have no divinity in my blood, I can’t enchant, and I have no gates to open...

  “I cannot Ascend!”

  The celestial looked at her for a moment. Then, a quirky smile appeared on his not-so-handsome face as he pointed somewhere with his white finger.

  Luna followed the finger and noticed the aged tree growing in space.

  “This tree represents my life essence. Everything born under the five suns contains life energy,” he began to explain and Luna listened carefully. “Both the Divine and Mortals share this single quality. And through that similarity, divinity will always exist.”

  Suddenly, Luna’s eyes gaped. “So you’re saying there are other ways to ascend? Ways that we don’t know about?”

  The celestial nodded. “Domains are concepts that exist in both realms. Divine energy is the key that opens the door to those concepts. But if you can’t open the door with the house key…”

  “You break it down.” Luna’s eyes widened even more as ideas started flowing into her mind. Maybe Mira's crazy theories weren't all nonsense. All along, Luna hadn’t thought of qi as a divine energy. It was life energy but never did she think of it as something that could be controlled like zenshi.

  How does one even wield life essence?

  “Exactly. You’re quite smart for a mortal.” He complimented Luna after a gentle laugh. “You humans wield some form of divine energy that you continuously cultivate to grow stronger, am I right?”

  Luna nodded.

  “Us who aren’t gods cultivate life energy to develop the control we have over the domains our masters bestowed onto us. Unlike the gods, we weren’t born with the luxury of sharing direct connections with concepts.”

  Luna regained her composure and asked in a serious tone. “Do you later become gods after gaining full control over a domain?”

  Oblivion sighed and slowly shook his head.

  “No, It's impossible for us. We are already at the peak of our powers and can’t go any further than this. I don’t know how the others managed to do it…to surpass our nature and become something more than what we are. But I am confident to say that they never became gods from what I remember. And if they did over the past centuries, then the divine realm would’ve stopped collapsing….the Eternal Fire would still be burning.”

  “The Eternal Fire?” Luna knitted her brows as she tried to recall where she heard those words.

  Was it from a memory? Or something else.

  “Yes. The Eternal Fire is something the Ruler or Heavenly Supreme as you may call him, created a long time ago. As long as balance existed, the flame would always burn and keep the divine realm from growing.”

  He scoffed when he noticed the golden tree was finally coming to its end. This meant that his existence was soon coming to an end.

  “Unfortunately, the balance crumbled when the gods perished and new gods weren’t born after that. The consequences of our actions are finally here. It might have taken a few centuries but I guess the time has come…”

  “The time for what?” Luna gulped.

  Oblivion looked at her with certainty. The green in his was fading but for the first time in a long time, he felt some hope.

  “The End of Everything.”