Chapter 7: The First Spark
Chris glared at the Eye, its dark form still lazily floating by his head like a smug, eldritch balloon.
"You're not dumping dreams into me. I swear if this is another chosen-one—"
The Eye blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
[Accelerating Synchronization.]
[Progress: 23% → 24% → 25%]
[Threshold Reached.]
[Imprinting Memory Core…]
"Wai—what the—?! HEY—!"
The words barely escaped his lips before the world tilted.
[Entering Memory Imprint: Origin.]
His body went limp.
Chris slumped backwards onto the bed, the room pulsing once with a low thrum of unseen magic. Surveillance orbs flickered. Guards outside stumbled slightly as something shifted in the air around them.
Inside Chris's mind—
There was nothing.
"Wow... that thing really just…"
Chris's voice echoed out, though he wasn't sure if it was his actual voice or some mental version.
"...Anyway. Where the hell am I now?"
Darkness.
Infinite, soft, velvety darkness.
No stars.
No ground.
No air.
Just... void.
And then—
A pulse.
A tremble across the nothing. Like the first drop of water in a still pond.
A presence loomed.
Not a person.
Not a creature.
Not even a voice.
A concept.
"DESIRE."
It didn't speak. It existed. And in existing, it explained everything.
"In the beginning, there was nothing."
"Not the absence of things, but the absence of possibility."
"And then... a spark."
A tiny light in the infinite void.
Not fire. Not flame.
Will.
"The First."
It had no name. It had no body.
But it wanted.
And that want—was everything.
It was Desire.
From that Desire, others formed.
Time. Space. Motion. Thought. Death. Life.
But while the others flowed with rules, balance, harmony…
Desire craved.
It reached.
It took.
Desire did not shape things through order.
It shaped things through longing.
It created through need.
And in the spiral of existence, when mortals were born…
Something new emerged.
Emotion.
And from emotion, the purest fuel for Desire's existence.
"When humans felt — when they hungered, when they ached, when they dreamed — the concept of Desire changed."
"It grew. It became... limitless."
Chris floated in the void, watching the infinite movie unfold in the abstract.
Planets forming.
Civilizations rising.
Wishes being made.
Wars over wants.
Everything, driven by Desire.
And then—
An Eye.
Black as the abyss.
Boundless as hunger.
And ancient as the First Spark.
"All desire converges."
"All paths lead to the center."
"And the Eye watches all."
Chris gasped awake.
Cold sweat clung to his skin. His hands trembled.
The Eye floated closer, humming softly.
[Synchronization Complete: 30%]
[You have witnessed a Primordial Truth.]
[Your affinity with Concept: DESIRE has increased.]
Chris stared at it, deadpan.
"...So you're like, the big boss of emotional need?"
"Cool cool cool."
"So does this mean I can desire a nap without being dragged into another cosmic TED Talk?"
The Eye blinked again.
Chris sighed.
"Of course not."