Silence.
Perfect. Endless. Eternal.
Kai floated weightlessly through a sea of endless black velvet stitched with impossible stars.
The Plane of Origins —
the space beyond life, beyond death, beyond time itself.
Here, no Systems ruled.
No laws bound.
No gods commanded.
Only pure existence.
And Kai Arashi drifted among it.
His body was not flesh.
It was thought.
Memory.
Hope given form.
He wore no crown now.
No armor.
No sigil.
Only a faint, swirling spiral of light and darkness coiling gently over his heart —
the mark of the world he gave his life to protect.
He drifted for what felt like eternities.
Or perhaps only seconds.
Time meant nothing here.
Only the weight of what had been.
And what could be.
In the distance, other beings stirred:
Ancient Titans that once shaped stars with a breath.
Forgotten Gods who whispered dreams into newborn worlds.
Forces older than even the Abyss itself.
They watched Kai with curious, awed silence.
For he was not like them.
He was something new.
A being born not from power,
but from choice.
Slowly, Kai felt himself pulled —
not by chains, not by duty —
but by purpose.
He touched the fabric of the Plane itself,
and the stars answered.
He spoke no words.
He didn't need to.
The very essence of his spirit became a vow, echoing across the infinite.
"I will watch over them."
"Not as their king."
"Not as their god."
"But as the whisper in their hearts that reminds them…"
"…freedom is worth every scar."
The Plane of Origins trembled —
not in rejection,
but in acceptance.
Kai's spirit shimmered,
rising higher,
burning brighter.
He was no longer merely a soul.
He was no longer a memory.
He became a Guardian.
A Sentinel of Freedom.
An immortal presence that would forever shield the dreams of those who dared to fight for themselves.
Far below, on the reborn earth,
in the dreams of a child yet unborn,
a boy sleeping in a sunlit village would someday awaken,
feeling a strength he couldn't explain.
The strength to stand.
The strength to choose.
The strength to be free.
And he would whisper, not knowing why:
"Thank you, Kai."
In the Plane of Origins,
Kai smiled.
He drifted higher.
Becoming part of the very weave of existence.
A new constellation formed in the sky above the reborn world —
a spiral of silver stars wrapping around a single burning heart.
It would have no name.
No shrine.
No worship.
Only a silent vow:
"You are free."
Kai Arashi was gone.
And yet…
He was everywhere.
And always would be.