"Well, this will perhaps take a few hours," the Author said as he moved to sit on a simple wooden stool that appeared beneath him with a casual wave of his hand.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a lighter, and lit his joint.
The small fla flickered in the endless white void, casting a brief, warm glow on his youthful face before he exhaled a slow plu of smoke that drifted upward and dissolved into nothingness.
Ash and Elysia watched in silence, the weight of the mont settling over them as they observed the man who had created their entire existence.
The Author took another drag, exhaling as he stared at the white boards in front of him, thinking aloud.
"The novel needs to have its own autonomy," he said, his voice carrying a mix of care and quiet determination.
"I hate when a story has a rigid plot and everything seems to work out for the protagonist just because the author says so. I want it to feel like Ash is just living his usual life... making choices, facing consequences.... if consequences can arise for him that is."
He paused, tapping ash from the cigarette as he paced a few steps, then continued.
"And isn’t the best way to do that... just make everything overwhelmingly overpowered? I will make his first ten draws all evolvable items that will give him the chance to grow beyond any plot I set."
At those words, Ash and Elysia exchanged a quick glance.
The realization struck them both instantly—sharp and undeniable.
Ash’s grudge against the Author had always co from his refusal to be controlled. But now, with this revelation, he understood...
Ash wasn’t created to be a normal Main Character.
He was designed to be boundless from the very beginning, to eventually operate on his own, to break free from the constraints of any fixed narrative.
Ash let out a quiet, genuine laugh, shaking his head as he took in the words from the man who had shaped his life.
"Maybe I overreacted, huh?" he murmured; his voice tinged with both amusent and quiet understanding.
"Mr. NovelGeek2 never ant for to stay inside the lines from the very start."
Elysia smiled softly beside him, though her golden eyes carried a deeper, more thoughtful glint.
"I think he’s rather ambitious... knowing how powerful you were from the start," she said, leaning against his arm.
"Your journey could’ve gotten stale pretty fast."
It was much like the Author had pondered when reading other novels, and Ash as well.
There was a common recurring the of a main character being gifted the most overpowered abilities, only to be nerfed and restricted again and again.
Ash, however—his entire existence was built on freedom, on never being bound by anything. Yet achieving such a thing was far harder than it seed.
The Author walked back to the fourth white board, still smoking as he began writing again, his marker scratching across the surface with focused strokes.
"Minx, you will be the First Transaction. But not just that... you are the First Absence..."
At that mont, the scene twisted and turned.
-----
The white void around Ash and Elysia warped violently, colors bleeding and folding until they found themselves floating at the very beginning of ti.
The void was split perfectly in half — one side a blinding, pure white that radiated infinite potential and creation, the other an absolute, devouring black that represented pure Nonexistence.
Between them lay a middle space — a true, neutral void that existed before either Existence or Nonexistence had taken form.
It was a place of perfect balance, silent and waiting, like the canvas before the first brushstroke.
And before their very eyes, a Treasury randomly appeared.
It materialized in the neutral middle void — a small, unassuming chest of dark wood and glowing golden filigree, simple yet radiating an ancient, undeniable power.
It simply was, as if it had always been there, waiting for the right mont to exist.
Before either Ash or Elysia could comnt, they were pulled inside of the Treasury.
And the inside was nothing like they expected.
----
There was no grand hall, no shelves of artifacts, no glowing treasures.
The Treasury was completely empty — an infinite, featureless white space that stretched endlessly in every direction.
It felt like standing inside a blank page, a void of pure potential with no form, no boundaries, no beginning or end.
The silence was absolute, yet not oppressive. It was the kind of quiet that made every small movent feel like a disturbance in the fabric of creation itself.
Ash and Elysia floated there, suspended in the emptiness, watching as ti lost all aning.
They simply watched.
"Well, this feels quite nostalgic," Ash muttered, pulling Elysia closer for so entertainnt while they waited.
And wait they did...
An imasurable span of ti passed—eons, perhaps, or maybe just a few rounds of sex.
Here, ti held no sway. There was only the still, patient waiting.
Then, sothing began to take shape.
After Ash and Elysia stopped their activites, they noticed a faint silhouette appeared in the center of the white void.
It was almost see-through, like a fleeting thought barely taking form.
The shape was that of a woman, grown and graceful, with long hair shifting between bronze and fiery hues.
At first, her features were hazy, like a dream slipping away, but bit by bit, with effort, they beca clear.
It was the true appearance of Minx, sothing no other being in the entire Novel had ever witnessed.
Her skin was pale, and her long bronze hair shimred with streaks of fiery hues.
Her eyes seed to hold everything and nothing at the sa ti, a paradox that pulled at the soul.
And yet, to any onlooker, they appeared only in stark shades of black and white.
This was the mont the birth of the embodint of the First Absence, but she was also a being who would only know herself as Minx, the First Transaction.
The Author’s voice filled the Treasury, calm and asured, like a narrator unveiling sothing destined to happen.
"You are Minx... the first Transaction... and the first Catalyst."
He spoke words she would never recall, only the purpose behind them, and without hesitation, Minx began to move.
She drifted toward the white side of the void — the side representing pure Existence.
Her transparent form shimred as she spoke words that seed to weave themselves into the fabric of reality itself.
Her voice was soft, almost lodic, imbued with the weight of creation.
"Let’s play a ga," she said. "One between two. And you will be... the beginning of everything, the birth of all."
From her words, the Mother began to take shape.
She erged from the white expanse like a sunrise given form — insanely beautiful, her long white hair flowing like rivers of newborn stars, her eyes containing countless realities being born and dying in the sa breath.
She was the embodint of Existence itself — graceful, infinite, and overwhelming in her radiance.
Before she even realized it, Minx was gone.
Yet a gentle, knowing smile curved her lips as she took form again, as though she already understood the role she was ant to play—to create, to nurture, to set the grand design in motion.
She reappeared within Nonexistence, her voice colder now, more final.
"You are the Silence... the conclusion... the end that waits... the void that claims all..."
And from the darkness, The Father erged.
He was the perfect counterpart — insanely beautiful in his own terrifying way, a silhouette of pure absence given elegant, haunting form.
Where he existed, light bent and died, and the very concept of "being" felt fragile.
His presence was the end of all things, the silence after the last breath, yet there was a strange, majestic beauty to him — cold, absolute, and eternal.
The two beings stood on opposite sides of the neutral void, gazing at each other across the emptiness — the Mother radiant and warm, the Father dark and final.
Ash and Elysia watched in complete silence, the weight of the mont pressing down on them like the birth of the universe itself.
Ash’s reddish-purple eyes were fixed on the two figures, a faint, intrigued smile forming on his lips as clarity settled over him.
"So, Minx... you are more interesting than I thought."
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