Eternity, which just a few hours ago had been incomprehensible and chaotic, now pulsed like a living being, gradually coming to consciousness. Its essence remained uncertain, but it was already possible to feel how it was taking shape, moving in the direction determined by those who had created it—Melania, Endar, and Kairen. However, this new stage was the most dangerous. Eternity was not yet ready for the reality they intended to introduce it to.
Melania stood in the center of a vast square, the space around her filled with warm light. It was a place between worlds, where everything was observed and every choice was on the edge of possibility. She felt it: here, on this threshold, Eternity had to make its choice—how it would continue to exist.
“We’ve already made our decision,” Melania said, turning to her companions. “But Eternity must make its own choice. And that will define what happens next.”
“Is it ready for this?” Endar asked, not taking his eyes off the light emanating from the core of Eternity. “You said this isn’t just a reflection of our choice. This is a real transition.”
“Yes,” she replied, sighing. “This won’t just be a change of form; it’s a choice of path. Eternity must choose whether it will remain calm and stable or if it will embrace chaos, creating new possibilities, stepping into the unknown.”
Kairen moved closer. “It’s like choosing between two paths: one leads to stability, the other to endless growth—but also to danger.”
“Exactly,” Melania said. “We can create the opportunities, but Eternity must make that choice on its own. We can’t impose calm or chaos upon it.”
Her words seemed to disperse in the air, and for a moment, everything around them was still. Only the pulsing light of Eternity kept beating like the heart of the new world.
— The choice has been made, — a voice echoed from the darkness.
Melania turned, feeling her heart tighten at the familiar sound. Before them stood a figure—the same one that had appeared earlier when they encountered the remnants of the old world. This time, Astran, or his semblance, stood with a cold, piercing gaze, but he was different. More translucent, infinite, as though the very image of him had now become part of Eternity’s boundless essence.
“Do you think it’s over?” he said, smiling slightly. “Eternity is no longer what it was. It needs a different kind of leadership, a different path. Your attempts to keep it within boundaries, where there is nothing but you, will not lead to true evolution.”
“What do you mean?” Endar asked, stepping closer to him.
Astran laughed—a laugh that was dull, merciless, yet calm. “What you seek to create is nothing more than an artificial construct. You do not understand that what is most important for Eternity is not the choice between chaos and stability, but the ability to exist in an endless number of forms. Its nature is nothing but endless metamorphosis.”
Melania fell silent, realizing that this wasn’t just another encounter with the echo of Astran. This was a challenge to the very idea of Eternity, to its essence. Eternity could no longer remain in one place—it had to grow, change, become something greater than just a mechanism.
“If it cannot choose, it is doomed to remain only a reflection of itself,” Melania said, staring into the infinity. “We must help it go through this process. Not by our hands, but by its own.”
She raised her hand, and the light from the core of Eternity blazed brightly. It was like a challenge, like a call to new possibilities. Eternity began to change, no longer under the influence of their decisions, but from within itself—creating new strategies, new forms. No one knew what its choice would be, but this was the moment when everything could change.
“We’ve given it the possibility. Now it must choose for itself who it is,” Melania said, tightening her hand as a symbol of this process.
And at that moment, the light grew even brighter, and new energy began to swirl around them—it was not just a change, it was a true choice, shaping a new reality. Eternity was no longer a mere concept. It had become a living, breathing entity that could decide its future.