After what felt like a trip through an eternity, Asher's eyes finally shot open, slamming into undefined darkness.
He wasn't sure what had happened. A moment ago, he was in the assembly hall of Evergreen Academy and the next minute, he was pulled into something unknown.
"Where am I?"
The only thing possible was his sense of feeling and he tried making up where he was, but the entire orbit he could feel seemed endless as if he were a speck of sweat in the wind.
"What has happened?" He asked again, uncertainty gnawing on him as he tried to make up where he was.
He wasn't sure if he was standing or floating, but one thing was sure; he still existed.
The sudden ripple of a substance gave him a subtle hint of where he might have been sucked into.
"What is this place?"
Suddenly, in the far distance, Asher could see a little light emanate from nothing. His chest tightened, not with fear but with curiosity as he sensed another presence.
He squinted his eyes to get a good look, but the absurdity of the distance between him and the light was appalling.
The light drew closer and closer with each blink of his eyes, falling into two fragments which he finally recognized as footprints.
As if that was a cue, the darkness surrounding the orbit began to shift as the footprints approached, revealing what was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Her extremely long hair which was in the form of liquid light was elegantly draped over her body like a shimmering gown, gracefully covering her bare form.
Her skin was smooth and well toned with silky delight and her warm face spoke many charms unheard.
Asher was at a loss for words as she marched towards him, but the closer she drew near, the sharper the flint of his instinct warned him to come back to his senses.
As she drew nearer, Asher spoke his first words to her.
"Who are you?"
She refused to respond, her eyes still closed which made his heart pound faster as he wasn't sure what to expect from her and eventually, five steps away from him, she stopped.
Her eyelids lifted up, unveiling her beautiful starry eyes like a moth growing its ethereal wings to freedom and death.
The moment she opened her eyes, the whole orbit was gushed with bright lights, revealing a gigantic castle-like construct whose beauty and vastness was immeasurable.
Filled with gold and unmatched allure, the once dark abyss was now a fragment of what heaven might be.
Thirteen statues of what seemed like gods and goddesses stood like towering constructs in the heart of the domain.
It was as if they had an ongoing meeting before they all turned into gigantic pillars of porcelain slabs.
On a normal day, Asher would have given it some time to make out the entire abyss and its hosts, but the paranormal events surrounding his sudden existence in that strange castle-like place made his mind numb.
His heart tightened against his chest as he watched the goddess who was calm and serene— a sharp contrast to his disturbed spirit.
"Welcome to the domain of celestials." She finally said,
Her voice was very sweet to the ear and could calm a tide that's on a raging attempt to wipe out humanity.
Asher pulled himself together, not entirely sure if he had heard her correctly.
"Domain of celestials? Is this heaven?"
"Not quite, Asher. This is the domain of gods and goddesses, but for a while now, only I exist while my other counterparts are locked in the depths of illusion."
"You mean you're a goddess?" He knew that was probably the dumbest question that had come out of his mouth in a while, but his natural instincts would kill for confirmation.
"Yes, I am, though I used to be human, just like you."
"And you know my name?"
"You should be more concerned about why you are here."
Asher took this in for a moment and his mind couldn't help but raise a suspicion.
The look in his eyes straightened into a sharp stare, threatening to put the goddess into a weave of uneasiness.
"I am sure I'm not dead, yet, I was at the school's assembly hall a while ago, so how am I suddenly in a realm meant for celestials?" Asher asked the goddess.
A warm smile glistened on the goddess' lips as she responded.
"Yes, you are right. You are not dead, yet. Your summoning into this realm is the beginning of your punishment of which offense will be made known to you after you have successfully brought balance into this world."
"Punishment? I am a boy of no sin. What absurd blasphemy is this?"
"This is a rather bittersweet punishment and I hold the power to withhold certain information from you for a while. Your purpose is to restore order to diverse dimensions which means you have to awaken all the sleeping gods and goddesses." She explained.
Asher was indeed confused. He couldn't makeshift of what information was being passed on to him. He needed more clarification as to why all of this was happening.
He was almost certain what had happened to Rylan back in the assembly hall was because of him. He had felt it, the sudden rush of adrenaline, the heat that had pooled through every veins in his body, the feeling that he could harness an ability to pull down the whole world into tiny bits.
It all had happened within the space of a minute, and that was all he probably needed to put an end to Rylan and his ridiculous taunt, but the boy had been saved just in time.
Maybe, just maybe the goddess will have an explanation as to why all of this had happened and why he had felt that way again.
Asher finally shifted his focus away from his thoughts to the goddess who was patiently waiting for him to speak. The look in her eyes was warm and welcoming, as if she had been waiting for him since the beginning of time.
"What would your first question be, Asher?" She asked, her tender hands wrapped in a delinquent harmony.
"What am I?" Asher finally asked.
"An anomaly." She responded.
"What?"
The goddess floated towards Asher, gently swirling around him before she began to talk.
"In diverse dimensions on par with time and existence, there are always five chosen, five bearers of light and the foundation to every single reality."
"Fourteen years ago, war broke out in my dimension and in the end, evil won, but the light I carried didn't fall into the hands of the demons that plunged and infested the reality I have come from."
She paused, resting her hand on Asher's shoulder. He didn't flinch at her touch and he could feel something burn within him. A sensation that dragged him to that present moment from the moment he took his first breath.
"My light traveled across diverse dimensions and came to exist in yours. And while I searched for a body to contain the starlight I bear, it happened to be the same day you were born…''
"And your starlight settled within me?" Asher said, picking up from where she would have stopped.
If that assumption was true, then it explains it all. The weird sensation he had always felt, the alarming rate at which he felt he could burst and consume things with fire and all that meant he had a power hidden within him.
He looked at his hands which were not trembling slightly, the weight and pressure this moment was dawning on him was overwhelming.
He wasn't sure if he was ready to accept this as himself or if he had accepted this change even before the existence of him being conscious of his power.
If this was true, then this was just the beginning.