Trees blurred together as Jaden ran straight through the forest. The ruined copse of his home had long vanished behind him, yet still burned in the forefront of his mind. The state of his mother—the future of his people, the suffering that his blood, his creations, endured. All weighed heavily upon his mind as he blazed a new path. The blinding rage ensnared him finding vent as trees obstructing his path vaporized instantly. He ran right through them leaving the canopy to fall moments behind. The toppling trees turned rhythmic, creating a sorrowful drumbeat that heralded the traveling calamity.

  Who is it? Who warped my purpose here? My reincarnation was just another method to turn my hope into despair. My divine power was replaced by something cold, calculating, evil and above all, sentient.

  "Void of the Abyss," Jaden intoned and the words ravaged his vocal cords, warping his voice into something far removed from the world of man. A new vocalization born from the endless reaches beyond time and space. The warped sound of the undefined.

  Jaden stared blankly as one word at a time revealed an event a thousand years in the making.

  "Are you finished reminding me about my mistakes?"

  "And now I wield this power. Every bit the harbinger of doom I was feared to become." Jaden shook his head as even his body shivered in rejection of this revelation. He fell to his knees and wretched. A black glob of liquified mana hit the ground. Spreading and sinking into the dirt, it consumed what it touched.

  Jaden extended his arm into the hole and grasped the ravenous mana his body expelled, dissolving it with but a touch, "I should never have been reborn."

  "Everything that made me a god is gone. My creations have no hope I can see in any possible future. I should not have made the race. They suffered endlessly. Needlessly"

  The void within trembled, an agent of pure destruction readying itself to strike.

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  "The side effects are guesses?"

  "Sasha, I can't feel-" Vivian stopped there since that open-ended statement was indeed the truth. Her current 'body' consisted of only her core essence; a ball of primordial goop only capable of emitting colors. Any shift indicated she was trying to interact with a physical body she no longer possessed and after a moment of rest always reverted to her unique default state, white.

  "What?" Vivian sensed a headache of epic proportions forming, but there was no usual pain or discomfort. "I can't do anything like this, so may as well."

  "Where's my son? Where's Jaden?"

  "What have you done?"

  "Can you stop the process? I'll—I'll take on the role."

  "Do it."

  "I hope Emily won't be affected by this any further."

  "From APHAS to SASHA? What the hell...?" Vivian's consciousness twitched as the boxes faded from her vision.