Published at 1st of August 2026 7:55 am

Chapter 233: The. Beginning

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Chapter 233: The Beginning

It was a strange feeling.

Standing face to face with Charon, Seo-jin found himself puffing out his chest without realizing it. He felt awkward. For some reason, all he wanted in that moment was to tell Charon everything he'd accomplished since they last met.

"How'd you escape?"

The ferryman still stood a head taller than him. His presence dominated the battlefield, pressing against the air until it felt as though the entire world had stopped breathing.

"In truth, I remain within the heart of the Maw. What stands before you is only a shade."

Seo-jin glanced around the silent battlefield, feeling a faint pressure settle across his shoulders at those words. Only a shade. And he still possessed this much power...

"Sorry to hear that."

Tilting his head, the flame within Charon's lantern flickered softly before a quiet chuckle escaped him.

"It is a relief to see some things have not changed."

His voice remained calm.

"You have grown much since we parted. You have not disappointed me."

Warmth crept across Seo-jin's cheeks. He ran a hand through his hair before scratching at his jaw, turning away as though he were more interested in the sleeping Brood.

"You didn't come all this way just to chat. So what is it you want me to do? The timing's shit, but I owe you. I just ask we wait a couple"

Charon raised one long, thin hand.

"You misunderstand. The time to collect what you owe has not yet arrived. For now, my purpose is only to observe. Then guide."

[Don't like this. He's completely sealed the area. We're too exposed.]

Charon's lantern swayed.

"Do not be afraid, little spark. I bear no ill will."

[.......]

"......."

Seo-jin's jaw dropped.

It felt like his entire understanding of the world had just cracked.

"You can hear the voice?"

"I can."

[Holy shit... you can really hear me?]

Charon tilted his head once more, another quiet chuckle rumbling from somewhere beneath his robe.

"It seems you both possess suspicious natures. Hearing your voice is no more difficult than hearing the whispers of the dead... or the birth-song of a star. The voice of a Shard is no exception."

He paused.

"Though yours is...unique."

Seo-jin's brow slowly furrowed. Old suspicions he'd buried long ago suddenly stirred, prickling at the back of his mind.

"What do you mean, unique?"

"Have you not wondered how a demon came to possess a Shard?"

"Of course I have. But I have no way of discovering the truth, so I haven't really thought about it."

Seo-jin shrugged.

"Been too busy not dying."

Sarcasm bled through every word, but if the boatman minded, he gave no sign.

"Knowledge is a dangerous thing. That is why I came to observe. Your strength is finally enough, so I will tell you what you can afford to know."

Charon slowly lifted his lantern. Its pale flame brightened, and beside them the old wooden boat that had once ferried Seo-jin across the Blood Lake quietly drifted into existence, its weathered hull creaking as though it had always been waiting there.

Seo-jin blinked, and somehow Charon was already aboard, but the broodfather in him hesitated to join.

"Your children will be safe. If you wish to know the truth... you must trust me."

[Where are we going?]

"To the beginning."

A chill shot the length of Seo-jin's spine. He had no idea what Charon truly meant, but something in the way he'd said those words made the hairs on his arms stand up. Whatever came next was going to change everything.

Without another glance toward the sleeping Brood, Seo-jin sprang lightly onto the boat. His black suit coat flared behind him before settling onto the bow.

"Two things you must not do, little Ashkin."

Charon's lantern swayed and creaked in his hand.

"Do not reach beyond the sides of my boat. And do not speak. If you do either... the consequences will be unpredictable."

Carefully, Seo-jin folded his hands into his lap.

"Anything else?"

"If you need to vomit...swallow it."

"Swallow? What do you?"

Before he could finish, the lantern erupted, and a narrow beam of light shot forward and struck empty space, ripping it open like fabric. Beyond the tear, endless colors twisted and folded over one another. Strange scents poured through the opening, nothing like blood, rot, or earth. They coated Seo-jin's throat and tongue with a thick, waxy sensation that made his stomach tighten.

He barely had time to react before the boat surged forward. It launched like a bolt from a crossbow, reaching impossible speed in an instant. Wind tore at Seo-jin's clothes as he grabbed the board he sat on, knuckles whitening. The prow pierced the shimmering veil, and in the blink of an eye...

They were gone.

----

"In the beginning, it was quiet."

Seo-jin had no concept of time anymore. He couldn't tell if he'd stepped onto the boat seconds ago or eons in the past. All he knew was that he couldn't see a thing, and Charon's voice echoed through his head like a sledgehammer.

"We went millennia without speaking, my kin and I. We wandered the cosmos, pondering our existence and questioning our purpose. It was a peaceful time."

Light finally bloomed, and the universe unfolded before Seo-jin.

His breath caught.

His eyes began to sting as tears blurred his vision. It was too much to take in all at once. He didn't have enough eyes. No matter where he looked, there was more.

Color bled across endless darkness in rivers so large they swallowed entire galaxies. Clouds of violet, blue, crimson, and gold folded over one another, stretching farther than thought itself. Within them, stars sparked into existence like embers from a fire, only to swell, burn, and collapse before he could truly focus on a single one.

He watched worlds being born.

He watched worlds die.

Entire galaxies drifted past one another in slow, silent collisions, their spiraling arms tearing apart as billions of stars scattered into the void. Somewhere else, a black hole consumed the light around it, bending everything nearby until space itself twisted inward. Another answered farther away, the pair orbiting each other before finally crashing together.

The impact made no sound. Yet somehow...he heard it. A deep note rolled through the emptiness, so low it settled into his bones. Another followed. Then another. Every newborn star, every dying sun, every collapsing galaxy seemed to add its own voice until the universe became a single endless chorus.

It wasn't loud. It was everywhere.

Nothing stood still. Nothing stopped.

Creation and destruction, each feeding the other until Seo-jin couldn't tell where one ended and the next began. His chest tightened...compared to this, the Maw wasn't even a speck.

"I remember when it happened. The sound they made shattered the silence, ending an age of peace and ushering in an age of gods."

From one of the dying stars, its light suddenly condensed, growing brighter and brighter until Seo-jin's skin began to sting. Then, faster than thought, it collapsed into a single, impossible point. From that speck of concentrated starlight, a figure stepped out.

"He was the first. My sister found him."

The being radiated something Seo-jin had never experienced. The urge to kneel.

Worship. Perfection. Beauty. Power. Every instinct screamed that he stood before something beyond measure. His chest tightened as he fought the feeling, unable to look away.

The golden god stood in silence, long hair drifting through the astral currents of his birth. Then the space beside him rippled without a sound, and what looked like a simple humanoid child stepped through. She was small, her skin the color of shifting twilight, her hair trailing like strands of living, purple vapor. Beside the first god, she seemed almost fragile, yet the golden being immediately lowered himself to one knee and bowed his head.

"He was the first to bow and worship. In that moment, something settled across all of creation. Hierarchy. They were gods, yet they placed us above them, so we five became the Veiled."

The title settled over Seo-jin with the weight of a mountain.

The Veiled. That was what Charon was.

Something above a god.

Before the thought could fully take root, the universe erupted in a kaleidoscope of light. Everywhere he looked, from arm's reach to distances his mind couldn't measure, gods were being born across the cosmos. He wanted to reach out and touch one, but through all the wonder, Charon's warning still echoed in the back of his mind.

It was in that moment, when desire collided with restraint, that the awareness of self returned. Like waking from a dream, he felt the rough wood beneath him, the weight of his own body, and the steady beat of his pulse in his ears.

Horrible timing.

The universe flipped. Or perhaps the boat had, he couldn't tell.

Suddenly a blazing blue star stood before him, so close its radiance washed over his entire being. His mind tried to grasp its size, then simply gave up. The scale slipped through his thoughts the harder he tried to hold onto it.

He had never felt so small.

"When the age of birth ended, we gathered them. All of them."

Tearing his eyes away from the star took effort. His neck felt stiff Seo-jin forced himself to look where Charon wanted him to.

What he saw somehow was worse.

There were too many to count. He couldn't even guess at their number. The gods the Veiled gathered stretched farther than sight, filling the emptiness of space until there was no emptiness left.

Some looked human. Others barely resembled anything alive. One drifted past with skin made entirely of flowing water, stars swimming beneath its surface. Another was little more than a skeleton wrapped in white fire. A giant with four faces stood beside something no larger than a child, its body woven from blooming flowers and crystal branches.

One had no body at all, only a crown. Another was a pair of hands that floated together in silent prayer. Some wore armor forged from suns. Some were naked.

There were gods of impossible beauty. There were gods so wrong his eyes slid away from them on instinct. No two were alike. Yet every one of them stood in perfect silence. Heads lowered, and all facing the same direction...waiting.

Seo-jin followed their gaze...and for the first time since stepping onto Charon's boat, he felt fear.

"We were filled with pride."

The Veiled stood in their full glory. Before them, the endless multitude of gods bowed, each radiating colors Seo-jin couldn't begin to understand. The Veiled stood in stark contrast. No aura. No blinding light. Yet each of them carried something brighter.

Permanence.

He couldn't have explained it if he tried. Compared to the Veiled, the gods were like immense bonfires burning against the backdrop of the universe. Magnificent. Powerful. But every fire eventually burned out. The Veiled didn't feel like flames. They felt like the universe itself.

Endless.

The small girl with hair of living vapor. An old crone whose legs dissolved into writhing tendrils of endless void. A featureless humanoid with sweeping horns and a woman's frame, constellations drifting beneath translucent skin. A towering figure carved from flawless white stone, so smooth that light itself bent around its surface.

And standing at their center, Seo-jin knew immediately which one was Charon. Even though the being beside him looked nothing like what he was seeing.

With skin a simple pale blue, he drifted among the stars like the purest expression of beauty. Shoulder length black hair, nude, Charon stood a full torso taller than his siblings, his body perfectly defined without excess. His eyes seemed impossibly deep, as though creation itself swam behind them. Even from the safety of the boat, Seo-jin felt his breath catch. The respect he'd held for the ferryman deepened into something edged with worship.

"We taught them everything we knew. We shared our knowledge, and in doing so they assigned themselves their roles. Thus began the Age of Creation."

The boat lurched again, the wood creaking beneath Seo-jin's feet. Countless worlds drifted into view, circling them in an endless spiral like planets caught in a cosmic current.

"Using what we taught them, they began to sow life. Some worked together. Others chose to create alone. Before we knew it, the universe had become filled with intelligent life, and once again the hierarchy grew."

Scenes flashed by in a blur. Creatures Seo-jin recognized. Others his mind couldn't even classify. Oceans churned with impossible beasts. Forests spread across worlds beneath unfamiliar suns. Civilizations rose, hunted, fought, and endured.

No matter the form...

The struggle was always the same.

"Their children grew alongside them. Through worship, the gods began to change. Their power grew, their influence upon the fabric stabilized. For ages beyond counting, a new balance endured. Even we of the Veiled gradually found our purpose."

Towering temples rose before him, their stone worn smooth by countless feet. Endless stairways climbed into the heavens, vanishing into the clouds as chants rolled upward from the masses below. Seo-jin's neck strained as he followed the steps higher and higher until the boat finally reached the summit.

"We should have stayed with them. Perhaps then we could have prevented the war."

Atop the temple stood two beings, nearly identical, but alien to Seo-jin. One held a blade. The roar of the crowd echoed through the sky as the dagger plunged down.

Blood splashed across the ancient steps as the people cheered.

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