Chapter Text
Darkness. A familiar sight.
Cold. A familiar feeling.
Agony. A familiar existence.
"I mean, It doesn't seem like he is dead."
"And he has kept his soul and mind... partially intact."
"So, all Gods agree?" The center figure asked, her long golden hair dropping down to the infinite cosmus behind her, making this long and endless road. She was the Eternal Road, the Goddess of Paths, Decisions, and Fate. Her pale white snow skin cracked as she touched the small soul that was thrown away from the endless black of the Void, where the Eldritch Abominations live. The poor soul had probably experienced unforgiving and destructing insanity, even more so because the poor soul was extremely fractured and there was nothing they could do that would 100% save the soul... There was something they could do, and that was to put the soul in the Wishing Well, where the Waters of Life could grant him the wish his soul desire the most.
And that's what they just decided on- who are they?
Meet the Three Keepers of the Veil. They are the three entities that keep the Veil safe, but they can also sometimes fail. Due to the evil influence of the Eldritch Abominations, there has been a very extreme need for a universal way to prevent them from corrupting and destroying the cosmus, which was why the Cosmic System was created by the Seven Sages of the Universe, the previous Keepers of the Veil. They were a powerful group, but under the careful plans and evil tricks of the Eldritch Abominations, the Cosmic System became some sort of a trap for the Gods that now foresee it. There were rules placed in this system that did not allow them to interfere directly and fight against the corruptions of the Eldritch Abominations, which then gave way to the necessity of granting the planet locals the power to combat and fight against the corruption and survive. Thus, these worlds were introduced into the Cosmic System, and under the rules of it, the Keepers of the Veil are able to influence the world and start the assimilation of the planet into what the locals will have to deal with once the corruption of the Eldritch Abominations spread.
Thus, the habitants of that world are introduced to Mana, the energy which is everywhere in the cosmus but hidden by the Veil most of the time, which makes many unable to wield it- The introduction of the Cosmic System removes the Veil, granting them the ability to wield Mana. Mana then becomes their weapon against the Eldritch Abominations. Some planets succumb to the corruption, which makes it a Dead Star. Dead Stars then are, under some flaws of the Cosmic System that the Keepers of the Veil can't change, technically able to enter the Cosmic Competitions, which is an interstellar competition between planets for prizes that make them able to grow in power.
The Seven Sages of the Universe were very keen on the belief that conflict made power grow, and sadly that is true. Some of the many planets under the Cosmic System are able to fight back the Corruption, and when they do, their planet ks safe- However, it doesn't mean that the cosmus itself is. Thus, they have introduced the Guardian job for those who live in Clean Stars (planets, in which, the Corruption has been defeated) to go to either Dead Stars of Newborn Stars (planets that have been recently introduced to the Cosmic System) to help the locals. However, there are restrictions and rules they have to follow until the "tutorial" is over and the corruption starts.
They can't share too much information, they can't kill anyone in the planet, and they need to follow the rules applied by the Cosmic System. There are even some parts that the Keepers of the Veil cannot access, those being locked away by the original Seven Sages of the Universe for reasons yet unknown to them- After all, they were consumed by the Void and the Eldritch Abominations and therefore do not exist anymore.
"Now... Poor soul-" Adavas, the God of Magic, Mayhem, and Oaths spoke: "-I hope you can receive what you wish for most." The Waters of Life, deep into the Wishing Well is the oldest thing and that which the Eldritch Abominations oh so deeply desire. No one can dip twice into the Waters of Life, for they know when one being steps upon it, no other like it can touch it ever again. However, the Waters of Life are a little bit... moody. They sometimes refuse to even acknowledge the one trying to reach it, and thus they never grant any wish. The Gods are never allowed to touch the Waters of Life because the Seven Sages of the Universe used it to create the Cosmic System, and thus no other Divine being shall touch these waters. "Blessed be, tiny one." Uthark, the Divine of Strength, Will, and Power blessed the small soul- It had shown Strength and Will beyond even what he could do, and that was the minimum he could grant the poor soul... Anything more, and it would be shattered to a thousand pieces.
As the small dark dot that was the soul fell into he endless abyss of the Wishing Well, the three remaining Gods couldn't help but weep for it. It had endured endless tortures that they would never be able to endure.
The soul touched an abyss, beneath him was water. There was no color, no light, just water and the endless feeling of being broken. His eyes opened and he saw words...
[...your deepest desire...]
Those words echoed in his mind, and he knew what it was immediately-
[-such a beautiful and selfless desire, from the few that have touched my waters, you are one of a kind. Your wish, is granted.]
And like that, Stiles opened his eyes.
He was disoriented, he felt... Goofy? No, he felt yellow. Maybe parmesean yellow? No, definitely bee butt yellow. "Huh, colors are weird." He looked all around himself, his eyes felt too small for his skull and his skull felt too big for his tongue, but he quickly got used to it. His fingers dangled forward, they felt too... straight. He considered breaking them to crook them the way they were supposed to be, but the shining light outside caught his eyes and made him forget that thought he had- he had many, after all. He walked- walked? Wasn't he supposed to float? His legs don't feel right. -to the window and looked outside. The streets were straight, the buildings weren't broken, there were people in walking and not some sort of amalgamations of pain and misery mixed with eyes and flesh. It all felt weird and unusual, but Stiles was adapted to weird and unusual!
His fingers touched the window and he felt the familiar presence of the void within his body, it all felt really familiar to him and he thought back about one of the things he was forced to do by-
Endless tendrils surrounded him, each and every single tendril had a thousand eyes, a thousand mouths, and a thousand teeth. They tore through his flesh and bones, never ending and relentless while a voice laughed. Pain, pain, pain-
-and the window shattered into a thousand little pieces. No... It didn't break, it turned to fine sand particles? But it was still glass, but ssand-like. Stiles hummed, unmaking things was way easier than making them!
[You have accessed Mana.]
"Ah, hello old friend." Stiles' finger passed through the screen that just floated there before him. It had the familiar pale white letters into a black background. "I see you're here now too."
[Planet Scanned...]
[Time till Corruption Event begins: 2 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes, and 2 seconds.]
[Time is not optimal]
[Delaying Tutorial...]
[Tutorial delayed by 3 months]
"Huh, that's kinda neat." Stiles hummed, his fingers twitching as he called back the sand, he was not making the windows again but rather undoing the destruction he did. The small glass particles lifted themselves up to the window once more, fitting in place, soon giving way to a new and completely perfect window. "There." Stiles said as his fingers tapped again at the window, the outside world looked perfectly fine except the endless small little cracks he saw all around, but that was normal for him. He could see the cracks of The Veil because of his time in the Void, which wasn't exactly fun. The Void has no concept of time, so he might have been there for 5 seconds to even thousands upon billions of years, who knows? He doesn't. "Mr. Stilinski-" Stiles turned to look at the nurse who spoke to him. He saw her face, but he also saw how deformed it could become, how he could twist her mortal form to resemble what perfection could become, but perfection was flawed, so why would he want her to become perfect? Perfection is stagnant, and Stiles seeks to progress forever. Also, her real personality sucks, he doesn't like her. "-it's time for your meds."
Ah, right.
He was in a Mental "Institution". Well, his father threw him here when he started developing the same "disease" his mother had. Well, "disease" because it wasn't really a disease- Those who are sensitive to the world around them sometimes can feel the change in Mana, and like his mother he could also feel the impeding doom of the Eldritch Abominations- Teeth pulls apart to reveal hair, hair grows out of the eyes and the eyes seem to be full of ulcers and pus, but they grin. Those aren't eyes, those are mouth that can see, ears that can talk, and eyes that can scream -and thus they could also feel a little of their influence, which withered their brains. Don't get me wrong, the disease was a real thing, it just happens that he and his mother don't really have it. He has been in this place for the last... 2 years? Not once has his father visited him, but Stiles doesn't really care about the man.
"-Mr. Stilinski, your medicine." Ah, right! He simply snatched it from her hand and threw it into his mouth, he chewed it and swallowed it without a care. His fingers twitched as he saw the true face of his nurse twist into a crackling clicking cricket of a face. A desolated face. A twisted and broken face. "..." She said nothing as she left, there was nothing for her to do here anyway. Stiles focused on his mana, he had no access to his status screen because the Cosmic System hasn't been integrated yet, so all he can do is play with Mana. He drew it out of him, this thin blue line that flowed like a river in his hands and twisted like a ribbon. He felt something deeper within, something that deeply resembled the Void too... He considered pulling it out, but he didn't think it'd be a good idea to do that here in a world where the Void hasn't yet done their shit. "Should I take a walk? Should I break someone's bones and try to heal them? Should I fuck their fuckity fucky fucking fucked brain?" He felt a little shiver of delight from a small part of him, a part that had been forever changed to be part of the Void.
Stiles soon left his room, he went around bothering the patients and fucking with them- What? He was having fun! He did break a few bones, mostly hands, but people were being stupid. He placed them back in place and healed them! Why should they feel fear? Fear only feeds him. "Oooh~!" Stiles was in awe at the guy he just found. Why? Because he fucking had a great amount of Void within his skull! How? He doesn't know exactly, but some people were chosen to be the descent of these Void Children. They were all children of the various Eldritch Abominations, but they were born from human hosts. "Yoink!" Bonking the man on the head, Stiles pulled out every single ounce of Void energy from his skull into himself, he knew the Void could not do anything worse than it already has, so why not eat it!? It tasted like ice. "..." The previously hazed man suddenly seemed very much present, his main mind must've been locked away the moment he was chosen as a host, but now that his status as a host was taken from him, he could now be free. "Knock knock~¿" Stiles knocked against the guy's head, tilting his head to make eye contact with the guy- His many eyes flashing as he grinned. Not that Stiles had many eyes, he could feel his soul, and there were many eyes on his soul.
"...what?" The man groaned, his mind coming back to him must've felt liberating: "...what did you do...?" It was believed that he would be catatonic for the rest of his life after this one weird incident where he was attacked while returning from his daughter's ballet recital. His daughter was fine, but he was sent into this coma for a month before waking up not responding to outside stimulus for a while before entering a rage filled state while mumbling nonsense. "What happened...?" Stiles just tapped the man's forehead, saying: "Took out the big bad Void egg within your head, big guy, you're welcome." Stiles did not explain further than that, choosing to simply walk away humming a song that the Voices of All Pain sang to him for the entirety of his stay at the void. The moment the melody left his lips, the patients around him covered their ears as they felt great pain, making him stop singing- Ah, that's kinda cool!
...what was he doin' again?
Peter Hale felt weird.
One moment he was in this perpetual haze, his thoughts were muddled like he was underwater, but suddenly he felt himself being pulled up- And he was awake. He blinked, there was this young guy beside him that looked... Weird? No, not exactly. He was skinny, tall, and particularly handsome. The only problem is that Peter felt this deep sense that this guy wasn't human. He didn't feel anything negative with that knowledge, he just felt like the guy in front of his just wasn't human, no matter how human he looked, he didn't feel human and a part of Peter's mind was very aware of that. He watched as the guy walked away, he felt serene, thoughts came and went, a never-ending cycle of peace that was different from the weird haze he was in for the last... Oh gods, he doesn't know how long he has been like this!
"Nurse?" He turned to look around himself, searching for a nurse or anyone that resembled a nurse- He found nobody like that, so he got up and wobbled his way around, this place was full of weird people doing weird things. There was this woman holding a doll, she was softly humming a melody while crying- Peter immediately knew that the loss of her daughter broke her mind and this was the only way she could keep grieving. He turned and looked at this guy pulling away pieces of his torn shirt- immediately he knew that he did not like the fabric, it had a weird texture. Every time he looked at someone, he knew what they were going through, and that was fucking weird. "...maybe?" He thought back about the boy, he looked at him but he didn't know what he was going through.
It took him half an hour to find where the nurses were. The moment one of them saw him, she looked really surprised: "Mr. Hale, you're awake?" She reached out for him, helping him sit down. Peter felt really weak, like his muscles were not able to hold his body for any loger: "I think I am." Peter gasped for air for a few seconds, once be caught his breath, he asked: "What happened? Why am I here? How long have I been here?" The nurse- Ms. McCall was her name, or that was what the words on her uniform said -looked at him with a grim expression, saying: "Well, I don't really know what happened to you- No one does. You had a mental breakdown one evening, it sent you to a coma for a whole month before you woke up... But when you woke up, your body never reacted to outside stimulus." She settled her hand on his shoulder, her words clear but soft, like she was trying to reassure him: "That was eight years ago."
Peter could feel his world falling apart. Eight years? His little girl- Emily -must be all grown up now, right? Did he lose every single day she cried? Did he lose her? Is she even alive-
"Your family comes to visit once every week." Peter blinked, he noticed then that there were tears coming down his face: "Your daughter, your niece, your nephew, your sister... They will be so happy to know you woke up." Peter sighed- Yeah, one thing at a time. "I can contact them for you-"
"Please." Peter nodded: "Do so."
He barely could wait for that.