He stood in a void.
Everything around him was darkness—vast, endless, consuming. A weightless sensation overtook him as his mind struggled to grasp what had just happened.
Then, the boy appeared again.
"Let's start the story over," the boy said.
Arsh stared at him, his voice tight with tension. "Who are you? Where am I? What have you done to me?"
He glanced down—his hand was glowing with a deep, unnatural purple light. His body, too, was shifting, shimmering with the same eerie glow. Panic surged in his chest as he looked back at the boy.
"You want to know who I am?" The boy chuckled, a sound that was manic—almost unhinged.
"Then listen carefully," he said, eyes gleaming with unsettling intensity. "I am you."
The laughter grew louder, echoing through the infinite void.
"I am you, Arsh. I am Ruh-ul-Arsh."
Arsh's breath caught. "What the hell are you saying? Send me back! I don't want to play your twisted game—just send me back!"
But before he could move, countless golden-purple lights erupted in the darkness, swirling like a cosmic storm. They rushed toward him, piercing into his body like shards of divinity. Arsh gasped, his muscles tensing as a force beyond comprehension surged through him.
He turned to the boy—no, the reflection of himself—his voice shaking. "What's happening?! What is all this?!"
The boy's expression had shifted—serene now, almost reverent.
"We are becoming you."
Arsh staggered back. "Becoming me? What the hell does that mean?!"
The boy smiled softly, his form beginning to dissolve into golden-purple radiance. "You will understand. There is only one of us—one true existence. And that existence… is you."
With those final words, the boy vanished, his essence merging with Arsh.
And in that moment—when their souls collided—reality itself bent, shattered, reformed. The fabric of existence rewrote itself around him.
And then, the story truly began...
---
What is this? Arsh thought, his consciousness spiraling. I can feel them—millions of them. No... billions... no—infinite.
Each one... is me.
Versions of me, from countless realities. They're all here, inside me. Merging. Becoming one. I can feel their memories, their rage, their dreams, their deaths. Every path I could've walked... I have walked. Every version of me... I am.
His thoughts spun faster.
Then why am I still here? Why am I not in my body? What happened to my world?
Is this still a dream...?
So many questions rose in his mind like a tidal wave, but no answers followed. Only the silence of the void.
And the unshakable truth growing within him:
He was no longer just Arsh.
He was all of them.
He was Ruh-ul-Arsh.
The beginning… had always been him.