In a large hall permeated by a strange silence, a young man sat with black hair and an eerily pale face. The faint glimmer in his eyes gave you an unnatural feeling, as if a dim hope still existed despite his miserable appearance. A poisonous hope that might one day lead him to ruin.
There, Valian sat on a chair in a small office between bookshelves bearing an old, classical character. He read his book with an air of indifference. In truth, he was completely immersed in reading, unaware of the man standing before him.
The man with piercing eyes and a formal uniform asked Valian calmly:
"Hello. Are you Valian, the one responsible for the literature section?"
Valian looked at him with eyes tired from reading for a few seconds, then replied:
"Yes. Do you need any help?"
"Yes. I want you to guide me to the English literature section."
Valian nodded for the man to follow him and began walking between the neatly arranged bookshelves. A gentle breeze brushed his hair as it traveled through the windows.
Valian walked home after an ordinary day at work in the library. Many thoughts swirled in his mind, leaving him distracted.
'Tomorrow is my day off. Maybe I'll rest after getting some rest…'
He continued walking beneath the shimmering moon and the beautiful stars adorning the night sky.
He arrived home, opened the door, and went inside. He headed to his room on the second floor. As he opened the door, his eyes fell upon his elegant telescope with its old, classical, almost primitive design. Behind it stood a simple wooden chair.
Valian stepped quietly into the room and sat on his bed, exhausted. He looked toward the window, a faint smile on his pale face that seemed almost sarcastic, then whispered to himself:
"Tonight is the full moon… thirty days passed quickly…"
He stood up, went to the bathroom, took a shower, changed out of his work clothes, and put on his home clothes.
After that, he went to his desk to fetch a notebook he used from time to time. Then he went to the window and sat on the wooden chair, looking through the lens of his old telescope, studying the full moon and jotting down notes. Notes that had no real benefit in his life. Yet there was something in his mind that made him unwilling to abandon this monthly habit, as if he would lose his humanity if he stopped.
He looked through the lens with regret and whispered to himself:
"Maybe… one day, I'll see what no one else has seen."
After finishing his monthly observation, he returned the notebook to his desk and sat on the study chair. He took another notebook from the nearby shelf and began writing:
"I am Valian. A young man of twenty-one years, working in an old library. I love books, reading, and the study of astronomy. I live alone after my parents were killed in an accident. Today, on the twenty-ninth of January, 1831, I will begin writing my diary regularly. Though I doubt my ability to continue, I will at least try.
I will begin by explaining what happened to me today…"
He closed the notebook after finishing his entry and went to bed to sleep. But something felt wrong. A strange feeling gripped his heart, as if something unusual was about to come and disrupt the routine of his repetitive days.
Valian was a boring person. Every day in his life was the same, without any change. He went to work, then returned home. Yet Valian hated this dull routine, because it made him feel, in some way, inhuman. He hated everything that was similar or repetitive in his life, yet he feared change. A change that might turn his life into hell. He feared the unknown and what fate might one day lead him to. Fate that would never allow things to remain as they were forever.
It was impossible for Valian to remain as he was forever, and he knew this all too well. That was why his life was already in one of its worst states. It might become worse after a day, or two. Who knows? Humans never know what disasters and catastrophes fate holds for them, capable of turning their lives into hell.
Valian lay on his bed in the room illuminated by the pure light of the moon. He felt as though the moon was watching him, not illuminating him. A terrifying question flooded his mind:
'What will happen tomorrow? This feeling isn't normal at all. All of this makes me doubt what might happen tomorrow… or in days! Damn it all. Curse everything…'
He closed his eyes, and it wasn't long before sleep embraced him.
Valian stood in the void, shocked, not knowing what was happening. A groaning sound echoed through the emptiness, shaking his body each time it rebounded. The sound felt familiar to his ears, accompanied by words he couldn't understand.
Then the sound grew louder and louder, joined by words that terrified him even more. His heart pounded violently as he heard the rising voice:
"…Valian… are you—are you here…?"
His body shuddered, trembling in fear as the sound grew louder.
Sweat poured from him in terror. He looked at his hand instinctively and found it shaking violently.
'Where am I? What's happening? Is this a nightmare?'
The sound continued to rise.
After a short while, a loud scream thundered through the void, its echo reverberating everywhere. It was not a cry for help, nor a cry of pain. It was simply a scream.
The sound shattered Valian's mind in an unnatural way. He couldn't think at all as his ears were assaulted by the deafening noise.
He clutched his ears in a futile attempt to block the sound, but it was useless. The sound pierced through his hands effortlessly, as if it wasn't an external noise but a manifestation entering his mind and throwing it into chaos.
After a long, uninterrupted scream, Valian remained terrified, the sound nearly bursting his eardrums.
Finally, the screaming stopped. Valian felt a slight sense of relief mixed with lingering tension. He didn't know where he was, who had brought him here, how long he would remain, or who had torn him from his warm bed while he slept to drag him here. He was surrounded by nothing but blackness.
Time passed, though Valian couldn't tell how much. Days? Hours? Perhaps minutes. He couldn't estimate due to the lingering confusion in his mind, which slowly faded as the sound vanished.
A voice broke the silence of the void, igniting fear and dread within him. It sounded like the rustling of millions of pages and hundreds of prayers, both beautiful and inhuman. The voice spoke, traveling through the endless black void:
[Welcome to the Void.]
Valian was stunned by what he saw. He stepped back instinctively, staring upward in shock.
Wait… is that…?
Moments earlier, a familiar object had appeared in the sky of the void.
"Is that the moon?!"
No words could truly describe the moon he saw, except that it floated in the darkness like a point of hope in a sea of despair. A light within suffocating darkness.
Terrified by what he saw and heard, Valian stood trembling before the unnatural events unfolding around him. First, his presence here. Second, a strange moon had just welcomed him.
The moon spoke again, its indescribable voice echoing through the void:
[The Eternal Moon was born of pure light that never fades, untouched by the ruin of darkness. After a long time, a bloodline was born, crimson with blood, bearing the Moon's supremacy. When its blood was completed beneath the moonlight, the heir was summoned into the void. The seal that had never been broken since eternity was shattered.
The newborn walked upon two edges. If he chose darkness, the silver flame of supremacy within him would be extinguished. If he chose light, his supremacy would grow, ascending to the Silver Flame.
When blood meets light and the gates of the void open, the heir shall be granted the eternal silver powers, bound to him until his return to the void.
The heir was not chosen to save the world, nor to destroy it, but to bear the burden alone, so the Moon may remain silent, and the world remain ignorant of what befalls it.]
Valian's wide eyes and silence spoke volumes of his shock. Yet there was a hint of confusion in them. He didn't fully understand what the Moon had said.
'Wait… what is this? Am I dreaming? Who does it mean by "the heir"? Is it me? How? Was I chosen as the Moon's heir among everyone?'
Then the Moon spoke again, its voice sending chills through Valian's body. Beautiful and flowing, yet utterly inhuman.
[Heir of the Moon, Valian. Light… or Darkness?]