His eyes opened to the brightness of a star-filled night sky; unlike before, he no longer felt any pain. (Although his head still had a certain heaviness to it.) Because of this, he gently ran his hand over his head and stood up, only to notice an odd imbalance in the ground beneath his feet at that moment.

He was in water, on a wooden boat; and what was stranger than all of this was the night sky above him that was spinning around in an amazing way. When he looked more closely around him, he realized this wasn't the sky at all. It was a kind of cave with a star-like glow that greatly resembled the night sky.

He glanced around him, forward and backward; the cave showed a tunnel-like shape in both directions. On the left side, the cave had a depth of darkness. But on the right side, it was bright and luminous with beautiful stars.

Suddenly a voice said to him...

"Darkness and light, neither will differentiate your future ahead. But it will be you who becomes the sacrifice by traversing either of these paths, Parzival... So it is yourself that you must build from within.

This voice? It was the voice of the God-King, he was completely sure of it. But what did it mean? Was this some kind of test? And if so, which side should he choose?

"Destruction or revival, you consider who to be... Yourself? Or one of these two?"

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choosing between two paths that always lead to the same end is difficult, the issue being which one of these paths is supposed to bring you to eternal salvation?

And what's important is that you're going to be satisfied with the choice of side from the path you've taken...

Darkness? Or light?

For me...?

This was the hardest choice of my life!

 

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Parzival sat on the boat, staring at the shining light of the cave in contemplation. "How could one choose between two paths when both sides could lead to the same destination?" The more he thought about it, the harder it became. "Damn it! What kind of test was this?!" He took a deep breath and maintained his calm. "Hmmmm..."

He revisited the words of the God-King in his mind; darkness...? Light...? It makes no difference in the future, and we will be the ones who become the sacrifice of one of these.

His eyes flickered with understanding. "Unless.... yourself.... you build it from within!" That's when he realized.

This place was, in fact, derived from his entire being.

A place where the soul and the energy of life had always been awake within him, and the path that existed on both sides showed the force between light and darkness from his power. Now the main issue was here; it wasn't about the path of darkness or light at all, but it was about himself.

More precisely, under the water...

Yes, the path that he had to create himself.

No, the path that he had to find himself.

A path that originated entirely from within him.

He looked down from the boat into the water and saw that there was light there. Not any kind of light that was like brightness. It was something purer.

But the depth of the water to the bottom of the cave was a lot. Parzival had never been a good swimmer, not that he couldn't swim... ((But it had been a long time since his feet had touched the water...)) Maybe this was also part of the test. But could he overcome it? (Overcoming the fear of drowning.)

Now that he was thinking about it, exactly how much time had passed since he first learned to swim? Memories of playing with his father in the open waters of the beach.

Tiny droplets of tears caught his eyes and trickled gently down his cheeks, showing a delightful wave of his own reflection in the water.

Yes, he is still here.

And he knew his father would always be by his side.

At that moment, he felt confident, held his breath completely, and dove off the boat into the water to start swimming downwards.

As Parzival got closer to that light, he felt he could see more of himself.

Although the risk of drowning was increasing, it was meaningless to him now.

As he went deeper, his heart pounded harder, but he didn't care.

The pressure of the water was pulling him up, but he resisted.

And when he arrived...

He saw that radiant branch under the rocks calling his soul.

With the last of his strength, while he had no more air left, Parzival pushed the rocks aside.

His eyes were slowly blurring.

"Just... a little more, and....." he managed to reach his hand to that radiant branch.

Suddenly, the shining branch split in his hand and covered everything with its halo.

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A Japanese scientist named Saburo Arasaka says: 'The real purpose originates from within the human heart... Without it, your life is reduced to nothingness or a cruel path, so grasp the path of reality.'

Now I understand that his words were true.

 

---

Parzival woke up from a severe headache with sweat.

His condition was completely opposite from when he was in a dream. His body was shivering a lot from the cold, he stood up slowly on his feet and saw in front of him; the God-King sitting on his great throne, staring at his state. (Deep down, Parzival felt a disappointing feeling when he looked at the luminous face of God.) Wondering if the God-King was disappointed in him?

Parzival, with sadness while his head was bowed down, tried to say something when suddenly the God-King interrupted him angrily. "What were you thinking to yourself?! You were about to kill yourself without my will! Your mind is still not ready for this kind of complex creation! How could you be so reckless in your ability?!"

Now Parzival felt bad about the subject; using skills that he was not yet ready for? Was he really close to dying? He didn't know exactly what to say?

He raised his head and while rubbing his eyes with his fingers, he asked the God-King. "I-I'm... What was happening to me?"

The God-King explained to him in doubt. "After you challenged your mind for creation, your body was disintegrating due to the nervous pressure that had been applied to it, along with your soul that was about to disappear... I had to put you in a cryogenic crystal for a very long time, until the health of your body and soul could maintain its stability again."

The words of the God-King could now explain why his body was cold. Although he still didn't know one thing. "God-King... I... I'm really sorry. I don't exactly know, but how long was I asleep? Because it seemed to me only a minimum of half an hour."

"Oh, child... You have been asleep for almost a year now!"

Parzival's eyes remained round without any feeling. "A-A year.....?" Parzival was almost silenced by any word. This, he didn't know exactly what was happening? Did he really spend a whole year completely asleep? One year? "M..." He didn't understand, why should he always fall to the ground when he gets to the answer? Does it mean that he is as reckless as the God-King says?

Parzival lowered his head again...

Now there was silence between God and mortal.

Neither of them had anything to say to each other. Parzival didn't know what to say? He always made mistakes in his training, but the God-King never got so angry with him. Suddenly, this issue occupied his mind. Why should the God-King be sensitive about such matters? He recklessly uses a power once and the God-King gets upset; No, he knew the issue was bigger than these words.

Parzival raised his head and said. "God-King, I know you taught me a lot... Swordsmanship, understanding the power of life, magic, creation, and many other things that have brought me to who I am now. I will always be grateful to you, and I will be." He took a firm look at himself. "But I still don't understand...? I don't understand what your word from these actions is? You take care of me a lot, and I feel like you are hiding something from me among all these... You mentioned in your story that you gave life to the world of Halo with your gods, but I still don't know why... Is this related to the energy of life?"

"Enough!"

The loud shout of the God-King even cracked the pillars of his strong throne.

Parzival took a few steps back in fear, as if he had hit the God-King's last point and knew he had overdone it. But he was surprised by the softening of the luminous face of God. He understood that the God-King had been a loving teacher for him, but at the same time very serious and strict in practice and teaching. And now, knowing that his words had crossed the line, but this time the God-King seemed softer than before.

"Parzival Prize... Do you really want to know the truth about us gods, Protoss?"

"Yes."

"And if I tell you everything, recount everything that has happened in our history... Can you understand us in the end, Parzival?"

Parzival thought for a moment, he understood that whatever it is, it is not supposed to be good. But he still wanted to hear. He had finally found this opportunity to uncover the secrets. (The God-King was considered a father to him, every son should know his father more.) And he could only give one answer.

"So let's see."

The God-King said: "Well, Parzival... This is where the history of the gods ends in the world they created."

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Author's Note: Finally, this part is over... Phew... Writing really has its own challenges. Anyway, I'm very thankful to everyone who has been following this story and for giving me likes and comments.

We are gradually approaching the end of the introduction and are about to start the main story... I have decided to finish the introduction in the next two parts so that I can move on to the main story. However, since my university is starting, I will try to complete the introductory parts soon so that I can start the main story next summer.

So, until the next part, goodbye......