THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BEFORE ZARHAE STARTED DEALING WITH ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

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Zarhae was walking in a field when he saw… something. It looked like a strange, black shape, and the air around it looked fuzzy, like it was distorted by heat. As he approached, he felt something in the air, a certain… wrongness, like there was something broken in reality itself. But at the same time, he was drawn to it, like a moth to a flame. When he got to the black thing, he found it was a strange mass, almost circular, looking like it had crashed and splintered. It also was truly black, a truly non-reflective, soul sucking black. He picked up a piece that looked to be chipped off, and tried to fit it into the object. He eventually found the place it went and put it there, it just… stuck. It melded into the mass, becoming a part of it. And so the day went by quickly, zarhae figuring out where new pieces went every so often. As he did this, he felt the wrongness feeling go away slowly, with every piece fitted in. When only one piece was left, zarhae had become very excited. He eagerly put it in, it melding just like the others. Then, he felt a change in the air, and the now sphere began to warp, a cone forming out of it, pointing right at him. He backed away, and the cone didn’t react. He stood still for a few minutes, soon coming back to it. He only had a second to comprehend what was happening, before it pierced his heart, killing him instantly.

When zarhae awoke, he remembered everything. His paws instantly flew to his chest, but everything was still there. It must have been a bad dream, though he had been sure it was real. When he opened his eyes, he saw just the black sky, and something blacker. He screamed. It wasn’t a dream. He looked at the strange, black sphere, warping space around it. He tried to push it away, but the moment he touched it, he saw. And he screamed again. He knew it was true, but it couldn’t be true. Death would be better than this feeling, of his world unraveling around him. He threw himself off a cliff, and he awoke. It was day. He did it again, and again, as what he thought was actually a month went by. Finally, he became too tired to do it any more, and curiosity took over. How did this power work, and what did it actually protect against? He became obsessed with death, killing himself over and over again, trying to find new ways every time. A year passed, and he became dulled to death. It wasn’t permanent. This mindset overtook him, so much that he forgot one important fact: the rebirthing was only towards him. And that was a big mistake.