In a space without up or down, left or right—an endless void of nothingness stretching toward an unknowable horizon—there was once a single existence.
The moment that being gained self-awareness, the first thing it felt was an indescribable, gnawing isolation. It yearned for others, for a presence beside its own.
However, it lacked the power of a true almighty creator. To fashion land, life, and a world from this void, it had to offer up its own essence, carving away pieces of itself to give form to the world.
The existence used the majority of its power to create a world, but in doing so, it lost most of its strength. Most of the things it had once done naturally became impossible.
It didn't matter. If sacrifice could soothe the profound loneliness in its heart, the cost was worth it. Having exhausted nearly all its strength, the being drifted into a long slumber, hoping that when it finally woke, it would find the world teeming with life.
Eons passed before the being stirred. It rejoiced to see the world it had birthed was indeed full of life. Its loneliness would finally end. It had lost the ability to speak or project its will as the price of creation, but one power remained intact: the Authority to Connect One's Heart with Others. With this, it believed it could share its feelings with every living thing.
But there was a truth the being did not know, for it had never before touched another. Its magic was a specialized, tragic force—one that dyed the hearts of any it touched in a deep, suffocating despair.
While rejoicing at its liberation from solitude, the existence reached out to connect its heart with others, only to shroud the majority of the world in agony. It came to be branded the Great Evil God of Despair and was sealed away by the very children it had created.
Why? How? I only wanted to not be alone. I only wanted the warmth of another... Even if it had wanted to scream those words, it no longer had the ability to speak. The Great Evil God fell once more into a long slumber.
Eternity later, the Great Evil God's seal was broken. Consumed by a solitude that had grown unbearable, it reached out to every living soul in the world, drowning all of existence in despair.
Yet, hope did not vanish entirely. A single girl resisted the gloom, gathering the world's light unto herself to become the Hero of Hope. The Great Evil God was defeated.
Refusing to vanish in isolation and unwilling to leave empty-handed, the God used its final strength to cast its soul out of that world. It drifted through the void, unaware of where it would land or what would become of it, until it eventually encountered the Existence that is the End of the Story. There, the Great Evil God of Despair finally reached an end, and as a new existence, a new story began to unfold.
The place of its rebirth was a battlefield, a world of blood and corpses. Amidst a massive war in the Demon Realm where powerful races clashed, it manifested suddenly.
With skin and hair white as snow, eyes red as blood, and draped in an elegant dress, the figure commanded the field. The warriors stopped not out of admiration, but out of a primal, reflexive fear of its hideous, ominous aura.
Then, the figure released its magic power. It wasn't a spell, nor was it hostile; it was as natural as a yawn. In that single, mindless release, tens of thousands of lives were snuffed out.
Rising into the air on a faint blue light, the girl looked at the bodies, unaware she was the cause. Her features still held the innocence of a child as she whispered, "...Lonely."
It was the birth of the one who would later be known as the Death King, Isis Remnant—and those were the first words she ever spoke.
A girl in a blue dress floated through the lands of the Demon Realm, seeking company. She found a small monster and approached it with a smile, only for the creature to drop dead.
"...Why?" she asked, picking up the limp body. She saw the grass wither and the ground blacken. Even with her newborn intellect, it didn't take long to realize she was the source of the rot.
Years passed without her feeling a single touch of warmth. One day, exhausted and huddled in a wasteland, she fell into a deep sleep. In her dream, she stood in a world reflecting her heart: a sky of heavy clouds and a plain covered in falling black snow.
A shadow stood there—a figure in a tattered robe, roughly her size.
"...Who... are you?" Isis asked.
"...I am you," the shadow replied.
"...Me?"
"...We are incarnations of death. Existences that take life and spread despair. You don't need to seek warmth. Even if you seek it, you won't get it anyway."
Isis felt a jolt of shock. Using a voice exactly like her own, the shadow spoke the very thoughts she had harbored for years but never dared to voice.
"...No."
"It isn't 'no.' What we wrap ourselves in is the Magic Power of Death."
"...The magic power... of death?"
"Yes, we are the incarnations of death... Our magic is a mass of cold malice that takes lives and extinguishes the fire of the soul. Who could ever accept beings like us?"
Isis couldn't respond. The shadow continued to voice the darkness growing in her heart with terrifying accuracy.
"...That's... not true... I just... haven't... met them... yet."
"I see. If that's what you want to believe, then fine. But don't forget... there is no existence that will accept us in a true sense. If you expect something that doesn't exist, you'll only end up hurting yourself. Just don't forget that."
Isis woke from the dream, finding the world even colder and lonelier than before.
Ten years after her birth, the person appeared.
"Hello. Are you the child from the rumors?"
"...Who?"
"My name is Kuromueina. Nice to meet you."
It was Isis's first conversation. Joy and sadness struggled within her.
"...Don't... come any... closer."
"...Why?"
"...If you come closer... you'll... die."
Isis didn't want to kill the first person who had ever spoken to her. She voiced her warning, but Kuro approached without hesitation.
"...Don't... come."
"It's okay. I won't die... You can't kill me."
Kuro spoke gently and pulled the trembling, terrified girl into a warm hug. For the first time, Isis felt the warmth of another. Tears spilled.
"Now then, hello once again. If it's okay, could you tell me your name?"
"...Don't have... a name."
"Is that so? Then I'll give you one... Let's see, your name is Isis! Isis Remnant."
"...Isis... Remnant... My... name."
Isis whispered it back through her tears. Kuro offered to teach her how to control her magic. Isis grabbed her hand, certain her isolation was over. She completely forgot the shadow's warning.
At Kuro's house, Isis fell into another deep sleep. The shadow was waiting.
"So, you've come again."
"...The things you said... were lies... Kuromueina... accepted me... She... reached out... to me."
"...Really?"
The shadow's cold tone remained unchanged, as if Isis were merely mistaken.
"It's true she reached out to us. But does that really mean she 'accepted' us?"
"...She accepted me... Kuromueina is..."
"We cannot kill her. She is simply stronger than us. That's all this is."
"...What... are you saying!?"
Isis snapped at her. She didn't know why, but the words were terribly grating.
"If you haven't noticed, then it's fine for now. But don't forget... Kuromueina is not the existence we were seeking. It might be a small sense of wrongness at first, but the more time passes, the larger that wrongness will grow."
"What... do you know!?"
"...I know. You are me, and I am you... so I know. Surely one day, you too will notice. And when you do, you'll realize you were only happy because you were ignorant. Then, you will suffer even more."
"...I won't."
"...I see. If that's the case... that would be nice."
Isis woke from that lonely voice. Deep in her heart, a tiny, sharp thorn remained.
Serious-senpai: "So, it looks like a monologue for what seems to be the Great Evil God has been added to the beginning..."
???: "It seems the Great Evil God will play a crucial role in a certain scene in the current timeline of Part One."