บท 7: The void beyond creation

In the dark expanse of an unknown space the Seed of the Universe, the star that swallowed Jalen eons ago exploded, painting vast swaths of the cosmos in superheated Cosmonar life force. The reaches of these cosmic phenomena spread for thousands of light years over an astronomical time frame. The energies released from this supernova surmounted the energy a million suns would release over their lifespan.

At the heart of the supernova, where the star once occupied, where the cosmic life force was at its densest and hottest, a humanoid form emerged, similar in size to the star. All the energies the dying star expelled in its glorious end converged into this new form. His rebirth had been a lengthy process, like the eons of time it took interstellar clouds to birth stars. But at last, the process was complete. A Cosmonar was born.

Jalen awoke.

The eerie quietness of the vacuum of space greeted him. Surveying his environment, he found his perception to be on a much higher plane. The dance of light particles as they hurtled across space revealed themselves to him. Concentrating even deeper, he perceived the quantum vibration of quarks and electrons.

Impressed with his newfound awareness, he turned his attention to himself. Jalen's body comprised cosmic matter, which was pitch-black because of his immense gravitational pull. It absorbed all light that touched him, rendering him invisible in the backdrop of space except for the pools of light orbiting his cosmic form. He flexed and moved his arms, finding the sensations he felt more potent than before. Now he could feel, taste, hear, and see all from the surface of his skin.

'Rebirth process complete.'

"The star? Is that you?" Jalen said. His voice was a mix of deep rumbling sounds and ethereal harmonics. "Woah! What is with this voice? Very cool."

'Yes, I was. However, that does not encompass all that I am. We are one being split into two people. You are the Host. I am the Life Force.'

"So like the Holy Trinity of God," Jalen said. "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That's wild."

'That is a fitting example.'

Jalen fell silent, barely containing himself. Then he gazed at the palm of his hand, marveling at the light orbiting it.

"What do we do now?" Jalen asked.

'As it stands now, our Life Force, though enormous, is finite in supply. We are to venture beyond creation itself. There, in the void, where even the emptiness of space doesn't exist, I will create a universe solely to contain and produce our Life Force.'

"Uh huh, okay. Lead the way then."

Jalen, in all his colossal size, departed. The expanse of seemingly endless space stretched out before him as he flew, the silence broken only by the droning hum of the light particles orbiting him. The star… or his Life Force… revealed to him he was reborn in a space beyond the reaches of universes. It simply baffled him that any of this existed. And that there were beings that traversed this space. How far was he from his home universe? He couldn't even imagine the distance.

That reminds me…

"What do I call you?" Jalen said. "Addressing you as the star or Life Force seems cumbersome."

'I do not possess a name.'

"Then we'll choose one for you. What name do you have in mind?"

Life Force went quiet, evidently deep in thought.

"No pressure," Jalen said. "You have until we reach our destination to come up with something."

Time passed differently where Jalen was. Even then, he knew he wasn't simply flying to a faraway location in three-dimensional space. His movements were conceptual, as his physical form slipped between different planes of existence; at times, even existing in multiple planes at once. He traversed vast distances, yet he wasn't moving at all. Utterly incomprehensive to his past self, eons ago.

'We have arrived.'

Jalen stopped and scanned his surroundings. "This is it? The place where even nothing doesn't exist."

'Affirmative.'

"Quite underwhelming. I expected… more, you know."

'You say that because you can exist here. Lesser beings would disintegrate into nothingness, their state of existence unable to be sustained in a place fundamentally incompatible with existence.'

Jalen fell silent, pondering her words. He spread his arms, heightening his senses. The light particles orbiting his body clung tightly to his skin because no vacuum existed to facilitate their movement. He could not see past himself, when there was nothing, not even the darkness of space, to see.

'I will call myself Yun,' Life Force interrupted the metaphysical concepts dwelling in his mind. 'It is Chinese for 'born in the heavens.' I will begin the process.'

From within Jalen erupted blinding light that willed creation into the void beyond the reaches of creation. A whole new universe, unlike anything Jalen had ever known, came into existence. Once Yun determined the creation was sufficient, it released his life force into the universe. In contrast to Jalen's home universe, which consisted of planets, asteroids, stars, black holes, and galaxies. This one was of his life force—a violent colossal mass of rampaging cosmic energy—rapidly expanding to the edges of his expanding universe.

'It is done,' Yun declared.

The newly born Cosmonar of the Host, Jalen, and Cosmonar of the Life Force, Yun, admired their universe before them. The golden oceans of their Life Force painted a beautiful picture.

After a while, Jalen spoke. "This is amazing and all. But I'd like to go back to Earth. It's been too long."

His options boiled down to two avenues; returning home or putting to work everything that Yun essentially taught him by birthing a cosmos where their full power, albeit much weaker than a Tanarion, would be realized. The issue with sticking around was the perishable manner of his loved ones back at home, namely Ella. If he spent any longer here, there was a chance they would be long gone by the time he reached home. Coupled with the fragile existence of Earth because of the resident Cosmonar's erratic life force, which was ultimately the reason he became who he now was, going back to Earth was the only feasible option. The creation of a cosmos, enticing as it is, would come later. His physiology awarded him eons of time to make that happen, after all.

Yun remained quiet. If not because they were one, its thoughts and expressions would have eluded him.

"You can come, you know?" Jalen said. "You don't have to remain here alone."

'I will think about it.' Then he felt a surge of disapproval from Yun. "Do you not see the potential of what we can accomplish? Planets, stars, entire universes… life; we can create it all. Why are you so insistent on being with those mortals? Going back means you will lose a significant amount of your power. Our age means you can not create in a creation influenced by another Cosmonar, especially one as old as Earth's."

Jalen scratched the back of his head. He found the act not nearly as rewarding in this form. "Because they are my family, Yun. All of that stuff is meaningless to me if I don't see my sister again. Besides, I can not condemn that entire planet to destruction if I stay my hand. You know that is the reason why Tanarion awarded me this power."

Yun went quiet. Jalen felt he had more to say but decided against it. It would be better to show Yun what he meant, rather than dialogue. He pondered ways to go home. If he appeared in his home solar system in his current form, the devastation would be immense due to the loss of his reality-warping powers, which allowed a Cosmonar in its true form to traverse in its creation without causing untold destruction. The gravitational pull from his Cosmonar form alone would pull all the planets into his influence, the sun included.

Tanarion! That's it.

"Yun, I will create a vessel now," he said. "Correct me if I make any mistakes."

He willed a minuscule portion of his life force to converge into a tiny point. There, he sculpted a vessel of flesh and blood, before it combusted into a burning pile. Jalen repeated this process many times, achieving the same result.

"Yun, what's going on?"

'Look around you, Jalen?' Yun sounded in his mind. 'The cosmic energies aren't conducive to supporting life in their raw, wild form. Especially life as weak as that.'

"Oh. That's right. It totally escaped me."

He willed his life force to converge again. This time, he created a bubble shielding the vessel from his toxic life force.

This must be the same reason Asasamumu's life force is deadly to humans in high doses, he thought.

After creating the vessel, Jalen designed the last details. He kept the same skin color, hair type, and facial structures from when he was human. The height of the vessel was bumped up, as well as the size of something below. He was a cosmic God now. He could do whatever he wanted. With the final touches complete, he backed up to view his work.

'Well done,' Yun said. 'For a first time, you did remarkably well.'

"Thank you. Whether that was a compliment or an insult. Thank you all the same."

'Are you descending into the mortal realm in such a weak vessel? I find that—'

"Relax, Yun," Jalen said. "After so long, I would like to feel what it is to be human again. Besides, I am not done."

By his will, more life force seeped into the human vessel. With this, Jalen granted his human vessel some abilities like regeneration and peak human physical characteristics. That was all he needed.

Beside the human vessel, he created another vessel. This one was exposed to his toxic Life Force because it needed much of it, anyway. The second vessel stood ten feet tall, with skin as black as coal and as coarse as stone. Heavy, chiseled muscles filled out its imposing stature. Its eyes were golden and burning with cosmic energies. Jalen granted it immense strength, flight, and control over a weaponized version of his life force. This vessel was specifically designed to traverse creations that were devoid of his influence, thus allowing him to wield his life force in many creative ways. While the human vessel used a minuscule amount, making the adverse effects to an opposing life force negligible. He wondered what to call this god form, but no suitable names sprang to mind.

"What do you think?" He asked.

'It is satisfactory.'

Jalen huffed. Then, he cosmic wielded the two forms, making them synonymous like the sides of a coin.

"Are you coming?" Jalen asked. "I'll be leaving soon."

'I will remain to make sure everything is in working order, plug any leaks, shore up our defenses, etcetera. Then, I will join you.'

Jalen was a tad apprehensive about leaving Yun alone in the universe that sustained him. Then he quenched those doubts. Yun was him and he was Yun.

'Exercise caution Jalen. Though we are a Cosmonar, we're only a newborn. Most of our powers haven't manifested and won't manifest for a long time.'

"I will." Jalen moved his consciousness into his human vessel. Then he switched between the two forms many times. "It feels about right. Goodbye, Yun."

'Farewell.'

❊ ❊ ❊

With little difficulty, he left his universe behind. All he had to do was create a portal similar to that of Tanarion. This time, though, he was in control, weaving through the many turns of the wormhole-like portal.

The destination of his portal was past the void, into the edge of creation, the same place where he had undergone rebirth. He had tried setting the exit point of his portal as Earth but quickly found out that he had no idea where his universe was, let alone finding Earth.

His god form beamed with incredible strength and power. Less so than his true body, but it was much smaller and nimble. He flew through the space beyond, relying on his Cosmonar mind to navigate. In the time insignificant to a Cosmonar, but lifetimes to humans, Jalen finally perceived glimpses of existence—waves of cosmic rays, atoms, dark matter.

At last.

Jalen felt a slight resistance, like a wall made of paper, that ruptured as he burst through. Immediately, massive amounts of cosmic particles bombarded him. He dialed down his senses, not willing to be notified anytime an atom came into his sphere of influence. Up ahead in the distance was an elliptical smudge of blue and orange light. Jalen theorized it was a galaxy, millions of light years away.

Wait. Thinking clearly, that could be a universe. I wonder how far it is.

To reach Earth, at speeds a few times the speed of light—what this god vessel was capable of—Jalen knew it would take him longer than the age of his universe. Now that he was inside creation, time was in play, so he couldn't do that. Jalen came up with an idea. He willed his universe to supply him the adequate Life Force needed…

He glanced around him, his senses pinging multiple lifeforms circling beyond visual range.

"Show yourselves," Jalen's god voice was deep with multiple resonances and rough textures, akin to a mountain speaking.

Thin glowing metal discs hurtled towards him from all directions. Jalen wanted to flee the trap but found no escape paths, so the glow of his golden eyes intensified and cosmic rays spilled forth. His beams easily destroyed the metal discs, but there were too many. Thousands, in fact.

Jalen soared away, his cosmic beams disintegrating any metal disc ahead of him. The discs swarmed around him like bees defending their nest. He bobbed and weaved, while his golden beams destroyed the discs. A futile attempt on his part, because many more discs replaced their dwindled numbers.

"Hold on! I mean you no harm."

His attackers did not respond.

Fuck. His arms started emitting pulsing waves of his cosmic life force. He unleashed an onslaught of cosmic rays, disintegrating wave after wave of metal discs.

A massive morning star slipped through the commotion, slammed into his back, and sent him spiraling away. His cosmic onslaught slowed considerably, giving the metal discs a window of opportunity. They slammed into his left arm, molding and fusing in place. Jalen ripped chunks of the fused metal, only for more to swoop in. Jalen fought desperately to free himself, to no avail. Soon, he was imprisoned in a statue of fused metal.

"Good job, everyone," a voice said.

"This was one of our cleanest apprehensions," a female voice said, her tone filled with satisfaction.

Jalen's anger soared to new heights. He would gut everyone responsible for this. In a last desperate attempt, he coated his body in cosmic life force and exerted his inhuman strength. The metal melted away.

"By Ymir's frost! Who the hell is this outsider?" a voice panicked.

"The Allont binding couldn't contain him!"

"Keep calm, Hrímgard Legion," a powerful voice boomed, "Use the Adamant chains to restrain him. I will handle the rest."

Jalen emerged from the confines of his fused prison. Circling around him, like vultures, were humans in dark blue fabric suits with glowing symbols. He tracked one of them, cosmic rays bursting from his eyes, cleaving clean through the man's torso. This jolted the other Hrímgard Legion into frenzied action.

A heavy chain with hooks wrapped around his arm and ripped into his flesh. The man on the other end of the chain pulled with all his strength. He was strong, but that strength paled in comparison to Jalen's, who easily overpowered the man, pulling him in.

Jalen grabbed the man by his head and squashed it. Then he flung the lifeless body away and turned his attention to the other attackers.

Undeterred, The Hrímgard Legion hurtled multiple chains at him in synchrony. The chains wrapped around his limbs, each limb hooked with 3 chains.

"Pull!" The Hrímgard Legion screamed in unison.

He tried to counteract their pulls, but the pain from the hooks that could surprisingly puncture his skin, and the force of three attackers pulling on each of his limbs, overwhelmed him. With grinding teeth, he managed to overcome the forces pulling on one arm. However, the immense tension his legs experienced deviated his attention.

Ahead, a man—the tallest and most built of the bunch—flew towards him with a morning star in hand, his speed increasing. He aimed cosmic beams at the man, who didn't flinch, using his morning star to shield himself. The man slammed, morning star first, into Jalen's head, instantly knocking him out.