✧ Chapter 1 ✧

✧ Chapter 1 ✧

Space is an interesting canvas from which all stories are made. In one of these stories, there is a mysterious being who at first knew nothing about themselves. By trying to discover the truth behind their true self, this would cost them everything.

Before what was considered the beginning, there is a blank, infinite, and omniscient space whose name is The First Creator. It was powered by a strange indestructible force that could create anything favorable to its desires. Within that silence, it knew peace yet yearned for a purpose. Therefore this want became its discovery of awareness in such ambitious attempts. For the first time, it constructed The Void: a confined dark ball of growing space where its ideas could flourish.

In a likeness to itself, The First Creator made Prism: a collective consciousness of an existence that, by being given a form, would govern The Void. Upon being born, Prism's mind sensed Color. These colors moved rapidly in all directions, starting chaos around what it called The Omniverse. A feeling of pain could be sensed from the surrounding exerted pressure. As a tool to balance this colorful spectacle, Prism gathered what it saw into sensational forms of constrained hues known as Light. From there, it was able to build what would soon be known as The Ten Eternal Lights by categorizing those blends of complexions to its liking. They would play an integral role, helping it rule by building pasts, presents, and futures for everything inside it. Seeing this potential come in the form of many realities, Prism also created nine special guardians from itself to wield and protect each one. The tenth Eternal Light remained intact in The Void with Prism.

All Ten Eternal Lights came into existence based on an order of importance. From there, every guardian could operate one from armor and weapons designated specifically for them by choice. Furthermore, they were able to travel and stay in any part of The Omniverse that they desired in their early years.

Although everything was under an impressionable stability, Prism seemed not to know anything about who created it when asked by its guardians about this particular topic. Nor did The First Creator want it to truly know. Free will and agency were what it wanted the entirety of its creation to have without depending on it in formal attribution.

To test this, The First Creator created Omnikra. Filled with mysterious creative power, it was designed as four white luminous blades (each one called a Kra Blade) that circulated gyroscopically to have a pivoting perpendicular appearance. By feeling each blade, Prism could hear them. Each one stating to either choose between being given the power to use all of the Eternal Lights at will without the need for assistance from the other guardians or, to commit to its own creation alone. Prism chose its guardians, who also became skeptical of the message and agreed with this perspective. The First Creator considered that according to their reaction, its test had been fulfilled. As a result, Omnikra would serve a different purpose anew from what it was once made for.

Since The First Creator could not destroy anything because it was only entitled to manifest creative power, it built The First Destroyer in itself to manifest destructive power against Omnikra. Prior to this happening however, Prism heard another mysterious voice come from the blades in place of the original message before this happened. In English translation, it said:

This is The New Guardian's lore.

Only one can wield the blades of four.

A being pure and humble at the core.

They will have its power for evermore.

Prism took interest in it, but by that time, Omnikra had disappeared from The Void. Such an event caused a mysteriously bright light in one previously made galaxy named GN-z15 to spit out what appeared to be a seventeen-year-old girl.

She had dark hair (which covered over her right eye), light skin, and her irises were a bright purple hue. She also wore fitting dark violet armor apparel, with a certain white diamond star design as its signature emblem that seemed to originate from the singularity itself. Lastly, there were blue boots, arm braces, a collar, and a special belt that surrounded her waistline to finish off its design.

For around ten billion years, she remained asleep and traveled far until landing on a large planet known as "Perenorbius" in the same galaxy. When she reached the atmosphere, her body changed in response as she landed gently on the ground with her feet. The touch shook the entire planet and every living thing in Perenorbius felt it. Her eyes finally opened to see for the first time.

She had awakened in Fantastele Forest, which was the largest regional landmass on that planet. The sight visually pleased her senses as every majestic scenery defined its fantastical nature. Upon arrival, she was like a silent child. Even though she did not know who she was, her curiosity and the way its creatures interacted with life itself shaped her new behavior. By observing it, she found a peaceful paradise filled with clean water, a clear breathable atmosphere, and many types of interesting creatures that fed only on a few plant-based species out of the many others that existed.

She roamed farther near the forest's coastlines where huge isles showed a variety of unique plants. Vellestalk, for example, had this large curling green stem with an endpoint that was really fun to sling around on. Then there were Rhomeras: flowers with thin jade stems, flashy magenta petals that glowed at night, and thick brown diamond florets. They held a prominent sweet scent closer to that of raspberries. The most interesting of them was a Trequadalm. Made of four flexible giant trunks; their tips crossed to form two huge teal leaves that grew out of it. The girl sat underneath one out of interest after running around a lot to stare at the mesmerizing view beyond the ocean.

Seeing what Perenorbius had to offer, she started to find a drive to care for the life that was around her. In doing so, she never seemed to age, feel hunger, thirst, tiredness, or have any serious physical pain from environmental mishaps. In spite of that, she would mimic the daily habits of these creatures to some degree anyway out of interest. This caught the eye of the most intelligent species born on Perenorbius, known as the Tripedyra. Standing at three feet tall, they stood on three puffy legs that connected to their round furry bodies. Their eyes were also a beady dark blue. As for fur color, they were distinctly vibrant and sometimes different from one another. The tripedyras communicated with their kind by squeaking in different tones that uttered close to alphabetical sounds.

There were two tripedyras named Syke and Jara who were the first to observe her. After arguing about what to do, they decided to introduce the girl to their family. Meeting her allowed them to learn that in time, she would also be able to understand their language quite a bit. After a few months of troublesome interactions and later found affections, they decided to name her "Styra" which meant "oversight" in their language. Her role as a protector and guardian was given an evident importance from this name.

After staying on the planet she called home for nearly five billion years, Styra grew a bit more accustomed to the generations of their kind. She had learned about death, which constantly stirred sorrow inside the soul every time she watched them pass on. There was an imminent fear about if this would happen to her as well, but she was more grieved by the fact that all of those fond moments would fade away and be replaced again and again. By the time she was starting to get used to this cycle's continuation, things began to change. Newborn tripedyras grew up and started becoming less dependent on her. While this part was good, there was a certain hostile reason behind it all.

The original relations that kept Styra and the Tripedyra together turned cold from most due to their rise in intelligence. She was still clueless about her origins which led to the conclusion that they could take advantage of how she thought to pamper their selfish desires. Her willingness to service any sort of assistance was never returned with the same mannerisms of the great ancestors who taught and practiced certain methods for every other species within their proximity to survive.

In the past, they gave her knowledge about how to grow many types of vegetation, build shelters, share the precautions of natural disasters with the offspring, and most importantly how to fight. Her capabilities required testing her reaction to dangerous situations. With what they were able to pull together at the time, she was able to train by herself as a guardian of Perenorbius to fend off other species that wanted to take all of the tripedyras' resources for themselves.

Now, she was reduced to working day and night alone with tedious demands that caused her to soak in old memories. That was until one fateful night when a giant asteroid nearly destroyed Perenorbius amid those years. During the frightening scenario, she had blacked out after the new generation of tripedyras only told her to fend it off with self-centered intentions.

Upon waking up, there was an abnormal feeling inside. She began to discover that she had gotten superhuman abilities a few days after, but the lack of knowing who she really was still made her a bit helpless. Being the only one alive amongst the dead wilderness that was gradually trying to grow again worried her. The generations of a family, which she had made connections with, had become extinct.

Many centuries passed and the world's herbs and resources were replenished by her, but by this time she started questioning her existence. Depression became common every time she pondered around an underground home (also known as a Yraden). Sometimes she would sing to herself to try and make it go away. Other times, she would start to have strange recurring visions. They consisted of, from what could be gathered, different deviating versions of herself that presented some similarities to her own life.

The most concerning one was when these figures that called themselves people told her she was a nurse that had died twice after being tied up by someone insane who had thrown her from a bridge into a river during a dangerous storm. It became apparent that these thoughts represented how she felt about death or her own guilt. While knowing that the Tripedyra were gone, this changed her perspective and outlook on life.

Then one particular day after walking across acres of forest for any signs of her family, she heard a loud droning noise above in the sky. For the first time, a futuristic spacecraft landed on a giant patch of meadow. She ran nearby until she was close enough to hide behind a tree to see what was going on.

A human figure wearing an oddly strange mask and a dark green cloak came off the ship, launching a few small drones to survey the world. As it was facing away from her, she decided to stalk the individual to discover its true intentions. Throughout the time this person had entered the forests, she had spied on them until the evening while being cautious enough to avoid being detected by the drones. When it had become nighttime, the figure was heading back to the ship to make a few repairs and then leave the world. Noticing this, she finally walked slowly out of hiding towards the ship to see what was inside it. However, the moment Styra was close, the mystery man was done repairing and crossed paths with her trying to enter. It took off its mask in awe. This was a young adult male who had light skin, hazel eyes, dark blue spiky hair, and was twenty-four years old.

"Hello. I don't know if you understand my language but I'm going to try anyway. My name is Flight Takeshi. I am currently one of the highest-ranked space pilot fighters from the planet StarSpace in StarSpace City. My mission is to explore newly discovered planets within the GN-z15 galaxy to ascertain whether or not they can sustain our civilization. Yours seems to be one of them."

Styra could understand his words. After years of dreaming, she was able to make out a certain language that she had studied often and decided to try and use it from memory to see if it would work. She was shy at first as her speech stuttered, sounding a bit disjointed.

"M-my fami-mily calls me S-Styra. I live in Per-ree-norb-i-us but yu-re home sounds intar-asting. I really want to vi-set it," she replied.

Despite Flight's wonder at her comprehension and the fact that he was capable of getting more information about the habitat regarding this, he was a little hesitant at the request.

"Styra, it's nice to meet you and your home looks beautiful. I'm sorry, unfortunately. StarSpace City's mayor, Mr. Nebules enforced a law that no one born outside of StarSpace is allowed to enter without meeting the proper requirements. I can't help you there unless you go through their trivial process and procedures. Believe me, it's not as easy as it sounds. They would have to check your DNA so it can be used to determine if you had cryostatic ancestors that lived in StarSpace but attempted moving to another inhabitable planet."

This made her more curious.

"Wh-why is yu-re home call Stara-Space?" she asked.

Flight suddenly froze a little and his mind ceased to chatter about what he was thinking. He then gestured her over as they went to sit down inside his ship. On one of the cockpit's controls was a special locket from when he asked this same question to his father. Inside, it had a specially coated mirror padding that looked to be etched with a mysterious symbol imprinted on it. Handing it to her as they sat down, he started to repeat what his father told him while reliving it in his thoughts.

"StarSpace has been the subject of our research for many years. When we first discovered our planet and became smarter, we learned it was a star when it first existed. Theories suggest that the star was able to form into a planet making it possible for us to live on it while many of our predecessors like brown dwarfs are somewhat stable, but not entirely."

In further explaining the history behind its name in his own words, Flight carefully addressed the importance of the locket.

"Civilization decided to give tribute to their discovery by naming it StarSpace over the course of around forty-five decades. The meaning was derived from a single star defying the odds of the cosmos; transforming into a planet inhabitable enough for anything to exist. That would essentially make it possible for utopia to happen. That symbol inside the locket that you are holding is supposed to represent that."

Styra was amazed, but this began to make her wonder about it being a said "utopia." There was a certain sadness in what that word portrayed. Her face started to sink.

"Is it really the utopia it lives up to be?"

The space pilot looked at Styra cautiously. He noticed her words stopped stuttering that time. She stared down at the locket as tears started to drop. They were not any normal tears though to his surprise.

Concerned, Flight gently stroked her shoulder with care.

"You can tell me. I promise."

Styra looked up at him with comfort from his reassuring words but still felt the guilt of what had happened. Finally, with enough courage, the girl asked with regret.

"Would you be mad if I didn't want your civilization to move to this planet and live here?"