December 14th, 2022

  Under the night sky, a young teenager sat in the comfort of his blankets as he stared out his open balcony. Cars were driving by as pedestrians moved about in the streets. The yellow, dim light of the street lamps cast a glow on the snow-covered trees, giving off a faint illusion of warmth.

  He took a deep breath, feeling the cold air entering in his orifices, and relaxed. Squinting at the glare of the car's headlights, he looked past everything - the vehicles, buildings, pedestrians, trees, etc. and admired the horizons. Today is one of those rare days when the clouds are clear. Although he couldn't see the stars due to the city’s light pollution, he caught a glimpse of a meteor streaking across the sky.

  After staring off into space for a long time, he finally sighed. Now that he thinks about it, life seems to flash by him. "It's been 15 years...have I… ever tried to achieve something meaningful?" Shaking his head, he furrowed his eyebrows in frustration.

  For some unknown reason, his brain seems to be slowly blocked by something these past few years. Inevitably, he appears to be dazed most of the time, as though there's a thin barrier between him and the world.

  Tonight seemed different. Not only did he drift off to sleep without the usual tossing and turning, but he also dreamed for the first time.

  Suddenly, he found himself in a beautiful library. Instead of being astonished, a peaceful atmosphere washed through him. Maybe it's the smell of the books. His mind, akin to fresh rain after a long drought, became active again.

  There wasn't much of a chance for him to admire the surroundings though, as footsteps approached and voices drew near him. Knowing things would escalate if they found a strange person in their house, he hid in an inconspicuous spot near the bookshelves.

  They didn't seem to notice him as they sat down around a person. Assuming that the person is a female due to the features he could observe from out afar, he quietly sat on the ground to not strain his legs and observed the surroundings as they settled down.

  The library itself isn't big, there are seven exquisite, wooden bookshelves. Surprisingly, they were all empty yet the air still contained the wonderful sensation of bibliosmia.

  The bookshelves were arranged in a pattern similar to a circle but not quite. They surround the center of the large room in a slightly spiral manner. The open ceiling reveals a starry night sky but none of the stars are recognizable. Well, he never studied constellations anyway.

  Shaking his head, he begins to ponder why he feels as though everything is familiar to him. A thought suddenly flashes in his mind, 'What if it's because this is a dream?' Pinching his arm, he still felt pain, and he only felt more confusion.

  Hazy light illuminates the library as the outside fills the surroundings with misty, refreshing air. He slightly shivered because he was only wearing underpants - another reason why he is hiding. It's already bad enough that he would be misunderstood as an intruder, he doesn't want to be labeled as a pervert on top of that.

  Two sets of stairs descend from the edge of one side of the ceiling, each curving along the walls. The beanbags up there can be vaguely seen from his position. He spotted a calendar up there, marking the day - December 14. Wednesday.

  Before he could observe further, the girl started talking to the group of children. He shifted his attention to them.

  "If a comparison was made to vaguely explain how souls work, then we can say: The soul is a canvas while the body is paint. When the "paint" run out, although souls can still have their personality, conscious thought, and awareness, they will never alter just like how the canvas never changes without applying more paint."

  The figure paused and let one of the kids surrounding her speak.

  "Elder sister, I thought we would be listening to stories?"

  "I just decided to change how we start. Do you have a problem by any chance?"

  At this moment, you can easily see the imaginary beads of sweat flowing down his face as he looks at her smile. Quickly shaking his head, he frantically replied, "N-no, please continue."

  Ignoring him, she casually shrouded the library in what looked to be... a hologram?

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "The void is infinite, and the universe inside is made of matter. Time, on the other hand, is a concept - the movement, the continuity of changes, and the sequential performance."

  As she went on, the surroundings changed to visually display what she was saying.

  "Let's say there was an unknown phenomenon in the void. It constantly changes its shape until it stabilizes as a sphere. The area around it is subtly changed throughout the long passage of time. Suddenly, a white light illuminated a part of the void."

  The surroundings were extremely bright for a few minutes and their eyes had tears as they recovered from it. They could only helplessly look at her as she smiled mischievously. One can only imagine how aggrieved they are when they can't complain even though she pranked them. A common thought flashed in their mind, “Ah, how I hate dictators.” She turned her head and laughed before continuing.

  "Along with the light, matter flew out in all directions. Upon touching the area around the sphere, unknown substances were created as the matter gets bounced away."

  "The substances awakened their consciousness after a while. Moving about, they came in contact with the matter that was scattered everywhere. There was an innate affinity between them and the chaotic matter. Sensing that they can do something with it, the entities let their feelings take over and create whatever. Quite a few of them even created inferior versions of themselves and they had control over the area they occupy within the universe."

  "They played around with the matter. Space twisted and warped. One area can have numerous copies of itself except there are some notable differences. As the beings stopped creating chaos ever so frequently, life appeared. Civilizations appeared, developed, and fell."

  Some went back into the unknown void and one of them found the bead. It tried to touch and examine the bead but got sucked in just like how you sip through a straw. Some substances were then expelled from the bead."

  "The other entities who saw the scene were shocked. Yet… for some unknown reason unbeknownst to them, the bead evoked a strong desire in them. A deep sense of longing… a yearning that makes them feel desperate."

  "Countless methods and experiments were tested on it but none were effective. Of course, they were very careful with it… as if something told them, any further would be considered blasphemous."

  "The intense sensations that they felt just by looking at the bead made it just about impossible for them to not start a conflict over it. A war raged during that period for a simple, yet incomprehensible reason. After countless years..."

  There was a long silence and the simulation also paused. Finally, one of the younglings broke the weird atmosphere as he wasn't able to suppress his curiosity.

  "Elder sister, what happened next?"

  The eyelids of the girl drooped as she pursed her lips and thought about how to continue.

  "One of them was knocked away from the battle and found a boy whose soul could only be described by one word. Pure. It was to a point where one would seriously question its origin. Why? It's because experiences are a sort of tempering for the soul but it also 'taints' the soul a little in the process. That's also why even babies don't have an 'untainted' soul since awareness is already developed as early as when they are still inside the womb. There’s an exception to that even if the boy didn’t exist and you will know later ~."

  The children pouted, fully knowing by experience that she always likes to make them very curious, though they don't mind since it keeps things interesting. After all, they never seen the world outside their home.

  "A sudden crazy idea appeared in that person's mind - ‘Such a pure soul… what if I feed him to it?’”

  “The more it thinks about it, the less it could suppress this thought and it let the thought take control."

  "Without wasting time, it extracted the soul before shattering the body into quarks. Dragging the soul with it, the entity went back into the unknown void where the bead is located and stuffed the soul in while cleverly avoiding the fighting nearby."

  "After a moment, the bead has lines on it as if it's going to split any moment and a sickening, cracking sound can be heard. Silence ushered across the void. Something inside lurched as they focused on the bead and the entity who did the deed."

  "How can we describe it? Using the perspective of a religious fanatic, it would be similar to someone who casually strolled in while you're having an argument, and defiled the statue of your beloved god. As for how they defiled it..."

  She leaned in and whispered, "I won't say much but it has something to do with down there."

  The kids instantly showed their disgust after they realized what she meant. She supported her face on her hand lazily as she narrated further.

  "Down to their very being, they felt what it did was outright sacrilegious. The culprit also felt that way as it began to feel severe guilt and regret. Their minds started collapsing from the extreme mix of emotions that they never experienced before, making them wipe their existence out in an attempt to end that mental anguish. If there was someone there, they would notice that the bead is nowhere to be seen."

  Slowly standing up with a soft grunt, the girl clapped her hands as the simulation disappeared.

  "We can have more stories later, it's time to sleep."

  They reluctantly complied and multiple pairs of short legs ran to their rooms.

  Before they entered their rooms, the children skillfully turned around and said in unison.

  "Goodnight and sweet dreams ~"

  The person had a slight smile as she closed the lights in the library.

  That was when he woke up from the dream... or did he?

  Truck-kun has been working too hard lately... so I decided not to hire it.

  There's a small reference. Any fellow readers of a certain book?