A silent forest, too silent. Only the occasional creaking of the gigantic trees and the irregular hiss or roar of a suicidal soul could be heard. A dark world of its twilight only illuminated by the vast sky packed with a seemingly infinite amount of stars. Giant beings silently roaming the horizon, causing devastation and destruction with every step they take. 

 

In the middle of this world is a bubbling pond concealed by obsidian crystal structures shooting from the ground like flames out of a fire. In its depths flickered a spark, ignited by terror and fear. This spark birthed, the core of a soul. A fragile little thing, vulnerable and powerless as it laid at the bottom of a pool of darkness. 

 

Years fly by, without change. The world reminds in the dark, only the stars being the sole witness to the carnage below, as nightmarish beings fight, maim, kill and consume each other, to grow stronger, to survive, and to live another day in a world in which they can only adapt or die.

 

While time passed the soul thrived and grew. And after an unmeasurable amount of time past the soul grew two more layers around the core. These were the identity and experience, two closely bound and very similar yet different layers. 

 

As these layers formed another layer materialized in a matter of days, the awareness. And as the layer finished forming a newly born soul opened its "eyes" to a world of darkness.

 

'Dark.' It's first thought as it started to examine the surroundings. The first thought ignited the soul's lust for knowledge. So, now deep in thought, the little soul pondered. About where it was, why it's was, and the tearing... craving desire that screamed from the deepest part of its soul. It contemplated and investigated everything it could. Which wasn't much considering that it floated in a pool of endless darkness. So instead of focusing on the outside, the soul explored itself.

 

First, it focused on its outermost layer, inside it found nothing but its thoughts. 

 

'The aware'

'Consciousness'

'Self'

 

Voices spoke, no whispered, thousands of whispering voices, all in different pitches spoke as if to congratulate the little soul for its discovery and then quieted down, vanishing as fast as they appeared. Wanting to find out more, to hear the whispers again, the soul dug deeper into its very being.

 

Time passed, flowing by without change and after an eternity, the little soul found something. Another layer revealed itself. The soul was overjoyed. 

 

The layer it found was filled with darkness but also floating orbs. As the soul concentrated on them it recollected its thoughts, its first moments of existence. And everything that followed. For every orb, it concentrated on, it recalled, it recalled every moment of its existence. It was all dark, everything was dark and without time, trapped in eternal darkness with nothing but thoughts and a desire the soul did not... could not understand. But as it viewed the last orb the whispers spoke again.

 

'Memorys'

'Experiences'

 

It was only for a short time that the whispers spoke before they fell into silence once more. So the little soul did the only thing it knew would bring them back. The only new and interesting thing in the eternal darkness. 

 

As the soul kept searching and searching, it found a giant orb many times larger than the other orbs and as it concentrated on it, it noticed something inside. And after pushing and prodding at the orb with its concentration for a bit the soul found itself in a black space.

 

As the little soul looked through the weird black space, searching for anything it found... things. The soul felt them looking at it as if examining and analyzing it. Staring into its very being and beyond. 

 

'Eyes'

 

The whispers returned. Those things that filled the space were eyes. They were watching everything. But there was nothing except the gloomy dark, the eyes, and the little souls wandering consciousness.

 

The soul was at a loss what was it supposed to find here? The is nothing except darkness and these eyes. The eyes that looked at everything like it had. The eyes that examine everything as it had. Eyes that blaze with a desire for knowledge and experiences. 

 

The soul thought about this for a long time. And finally, it concluded. The eyes, represent it, they represent its thirst for more than the darkness and its curiosity for everything new, everything it can learn and experience.

 

'Personality'

'Ego'

'Identity'

 

The whispers again, with words affirmed its thoughts. That's when it hit it. Words... The whispers transmitted their answers in words but also in concepts. It only understood the concepts so far but now it understood the whisper's words... what words are, the concept of a language had manifested in its understanding.

 

And as this happened a giant wave of information hit it. It now knew it comprehended the whispers language, no, the whispers are teaching it their language. The little soul was overjoyed once again. 

 

But it didn't know what to use it for, it tried talking to the whispers, they would never answer. Turning its attention to something else the little soul once again started searching. And once again time passed by. 

 

The soul found itself in another black space thousands of little star-like shards floating around it together with two orbs, no, marbles floating inside.

 

'Core' 

 

One word, the whispers told it directly. But the little soul in its curiosity and thirst for something new still began to explore the orbs. In them, it found something different. No memories. No eyes.

 

In the first marble, it found a gigantic wilderness full of beasts of all sizes and shapes. It felt as if everything in this wilderness was under its command, so it experimented. With just a thought the vegetation changes and with but a wave of its will the beasts kneeled in submission. The soul felt that it could control every aspect of the plants and command every animal. It experimented for a long time, it was the first thing it could do that wasn't thinking. And after it felt it understood most of it, the whispers returned.

 

'Ability'

'Forest of Fear'

 

The whispers spoke with their familiar ethereal resounding voices. The soul understood fast. These marbles are its abilities and one of them is named [Forest of Fear]. When the soul noticed this, it became excited to see what the other ability is. So it started looking a the other marble. 

 

Inside the second marble, the little soul found itself overlooking a shadowy figure standing in the middle of a battlefield. The shadow was surrounded by an uncountable number of beings, some humanoid and some in the form of beasts. 

 

All those beings attacked the figure, charging at it while swinging objects and screaming war cries, the beasts did the same, bearing fangs and claws while roaring as they charged.

 

But with every attack, the shadow changed, shifting, restoring, and improving. Where claws hit, natural armor grew, eyes growing on its back when attacked from behind, limbs, and appendages being added when the enemy's numbers were too great, and when the enemy's defense was too strong, fangs and claws sharpened. The shadow was adapting to every attack, to every enemy. Battle and enemies were only fueling its advancement.

 

The soul admired the shadow, it adapted to and overcame every being it faced. And then a thought struck the soul, this was one of its abilities... That meant that shadow is it. 

 

'Ability'

'Rapid Adaptation'

 

The whispers congratulate. And the soul was pleased to see it was right. But what would it do now? After searching and searching and searching again and again it found that it had seen everything it could find inside of itself. In this realization, the soul became disappointed, furious, and very bored. 

 

'More, I want to see more, feel more, hear more. I want to experience more.' It cried for an eternity. And someone answered.

 

'Now aren't you a curious one.' The whispers, they all spoke simultaneously blending into one echoing sentence. 

'I guess, I can show you something... Interesting.' The voices spoke. 

 

Before the little soul could even answer, pictures started flooding into its consciousness. Pictures of vast landscapes, pictures of a world it didn't know, pictures of a world different from the dark. 

 

'How can I get there? I want to be there!' The soul screamed at the whispers, finally, it had found a use for the language of the whispers. It wanted to be free from the darkness, it wanted to witness that world it was shown.

 

And the whispers answered. They showed it. A way out. A way to freedom. A way for adventure.

 

A silent world, too silent. And hidden in its midst there is a black pond, concealed by obsidian crystal structures shooting from the ground like flames out of a fire. In a realm of darkness and fear, there was a pond and this pond began to boil.