Chapter 1: The tower of Beginning
The void sang the myriad songs of a forgotten past, the lights of beginning moved towards an unknown future while in the moment present, the path to a new tomorrow was being pioneered.
Shattered fragments of once-great structures, towering monuments now reduced to cosmic ruins, battlegrounds where higher beings once clashed, their echoes still lingering as the last notes of a symphony all drifted around a certain chessboard platform.
All of it floated in a universe without a ceiling or floor, only stars, colors, and light. There was not much present in this realm to begin with. Everywhere the eyes went, one could only see shattered runes, aftermaths of countless battles, and energies of various elements of the world.
There was an emptiness present here and yet, here, in the eye of chaos, only one piece remained untouched: a single, pristine chessboard, suspended in timeless gravity.
And atop that board... a final showdown had taken place.
"Phew."
One figure stood tall, his eyes glowing with a symphony of colors. There was a kind of glee in those eyes that could never be explained with simple words.
A young man, maybe in his early twenties, his black hair ruffled by invisible winds, his red eyes shimmering like forged rubies beneath a cosmic sky.
His presence was effortless but absolute. Ancient relics adorned his body: robes inscribed with shifting constellations, gauntlets that pulsed with the rhythm of time, and ornaments that once held the powers of catastrophes. And in his hand... a weapon not made for mortals.
A whip-like sword, constantly shifting in form, part steel and part starlight, a blade of the old world. An [Archaic] relic, one of the few to ever emerge from the depths of the [Tower].
He was at the end of a journey that had spanned merely over half a decade in real-world time— but far more within the floors of this tower.