"Tsk tsk tsk, as expected, things at our level are hard to kill." Aha squatted next to Ryn, fiddling with the small knife in Ryn's body.
"Yeah, we're really hard to kill... but that doesn't mean you can just stab me whenever you want."
Ryn pulled the knife out of his abdomen and stabbed it into Aha's mask, carving a large hole in its forehead.
Aha's main body was pierced by Ryn. Its condensed humanoid illusion flickered for a moment, then re-solidified.
"Oh my, that one really almost did me in."
However, Aha wasn't angry about Ryn's attack. It didn't even heal its wound; instead, it simply placed a light bulb inside the hole Ryn had carved out.
Ryn, who was lying on the ground, sat up, wanting to pull himself up using Aha's body.
But when Ryn pulled hard, Aha's condensed humanoid illusion dissipated directly. This caused Ryn, who had just sat up, to fall backwards onto the ground due to his own force.
"Hehe, you can't blame me for that~ See, I don't have any arms." Aha looked at Ryn on the ground with a gloating expression.
Ryn simply floated up, then kicked Aha's mask, sending it flying and leaving a beautiful shooting star in the interstellar space.
"What a jinx." Ryn wiped his hands. Ryn felt disgusted for having just touched Aha's hand.
With Aha gone, the world suddenly became quiet.
Ryn sat on the illusory branch, trying to connect with the Imaginary Tree that existed within the realm of concepts below.
The tree accepted Ryn's energy but gave no response. This was within Ryn's expectations, as besides the Sea, the Tree didn't care about anything else.
"Bullsh*t 'Child of the Tree and Sea'." Ryn sat on the ground with a speechless expression. Weren't all creatures of the Imaginary side children of the Tree? He was almost fooled by the Sea.
The Imaginary Tree is tolerant of everything. You can branch off new leaves from it, opening up entirely new worlds... or you can just stand on its branches like Ryn and Aha were doing now...
The Tree would not object, because everything in this world is its child; all things are forever within its embrace.
It just watches silently, silently recording everything.
Ryn sat on the branch, looking at the outer space. Galaxies converged, then separated. Stars were born, then died. The birth and death of the universe, an endless cycle.
It's unknown how much time passed—a few hours, or a few days, or a few years.
In the vast universe, time itself seemed to lose its meaning.
Aha returned, but this time it wasn't laughing or crying. It was devoid of joy and sorrow, just sitting quietly with Ryn on the branches of the Imaginary Tree, watching the outer space.
The starry sky is a lonely place. That kind of utter silence, a solitude where heaven and earth are voiceless, can destroy a person's mind.
Ryn's hair gradually grew longer, extending until it draped across the nine heavens of the galaxy...
Ryn wasn't as strong as Kevin and the others, who could sit alone for ten thousand years... so after an unknown amount of time, Ryn, he became homesick...
"What, homesick?" Aha saw through Ryn's thoughts and asked.
"Yeah..." Ryn propped himself up with his hands behind him, looking up at the starry sky.
"I remember my first meeting with Kiana. She was super cute as a child... I also remember the first time I sent Kiana to school. She didn't listen to a single thing in class, but she didn't miss a single fight...
I also remember Kika, a girl who absolutely loved sweets. Whenever there were sweets, she couldn't take her eyes off them...
And Mei. She was a young lady from a rich family and even had the nickname 'Lightning Queen' at school. But in reality, she was a very gentle and considerate person..."
At this point, Ryn stopped talking and turned to look at the clown mask beside him.
"Aha, but now I'm starting to forget what they look like."
Aha didn't have any particular elegance either. The strange smile on its mask, at this moment, looked just as desolate as Ryn's.
"Yeah... forgetting what they looked like..."
Aha once again condensed that humanoid illusion and said with a loud laugh: "Do you know why I'm just an illusion? Because I've long forgotten what he, or she, looked like..."
"I really don't want to laugh...
We didn't even know what was happening when disaster struck from the heavens. A brilliant civilization shattered and dissipated like a bubble in an instant.
The survivors gathered together. Confusion, fear, anxiety, and all sorts of negative emotions spread among the people.
They couldn't see any hope of survival, nor could they see a future. Everyone gave up hope of living.
But one person picked up a discarded mask, became a clown, and tried to spread joy and hope to others.
That person succeeded. Laughter filled the shelter, but that person also knew that all of it was just a final carnival before death.
But the unrestrained, heartfelt smiles between people, between life and life, isn't that the most wonderful thing in the world?
Through smiles, they passed warmth to each other, passed hope, passed the greatness of life...
But in the end, they all died in despair... from lack of food, from cannibalism, from mental breakdowns under pressure..."
Aha took off the mask and gently stroked it in its hand, caressing the tearstain on it.
"Until that person died, and the world was completely destroyed, the traces of their existence were completely erased. And at the moment the world disappeared, that teardrop created this mask, created me..."
Aha placed the mask back on its chest and said to Ryn, both crying and laughing.
"See this tree beneath our feet? You call it the Imaginary Tree, but I think the Tree of Existence is a more fitting name for it... because all things in the world exist upon it. Its magnificence, its immortality, everything about it fascinates me so.
But I revere its benevolence even more, revere its love for life.
I was born at the moment the world was destroyed. I, who should have been annihilated along with that world, was brought out by the benevolent Tree.
The world exists on the tree in the form of leaves, and time flows in the form of branches.
To escape the world, to transcend the heavens—something countless beings dream of and pursue their entire lives, which is to leave the leaves and climb onto the trunk of the Tree of Existence—is something I was born with!"
After saying this, Aha looked at Ryn with pride and relief, hoping to get praise or... envy from Ryn?
"Oh." Ryn picked his ear and replied perfunctorily.
"Is that your only reaction?! Shouldn't you be shocked or envious, jealous, and hateful?"
"Sounds awesome, but what does it have to do with me? I just want to go home." Ryn flicked the earwax at Aha and said to it with disdain: "Idiot. Seeing you first ask if I was homesick, and then start talking so much, I thought you could take me home. Turns out it's just this and nothing more."