The first thing that I noticed was that everything was gone. I was alone, and my senses were muffled.
I could barely sense the world around me, and from what I could sense, all I knew was that I was in an endless expanse, a white void. I had been curled up in a fetal position, and when I tried to move, my body ignored me, just like it did when I first came to this world.
I wasn't where I had been before I fell 'asleep', and based on the fact that I was floating, this was probably a dream. My mind felt slow and sluggish, yet even with all my senses muddled and my mind slowed, one thing stayed in focus, like a shining beacon of hope. The armbands.
The two former pieces of the throne that I had woken up on were glowing brilliantly, captivating my attention and emanating this sense of... correctness. Like they had been fractured this entire time, and now, they were whole. This sense of rightness also felt infectious, like it was permeating my very being, barely held back by the skin between the armbands and my arms.
I reached out to them, yearning to be one with them. I now knew that they were truly a part of me, not just an accessory, yet at the same time they were someone else's. Someone who I had a deep connection with.
As soon as I felt my mind connect to them, it was like lightning had been injected into my veins, and not in a good way. My body felt like it was burning from the inside out, my veins felt like they had frozen and shattered, and my skull felt like somebody had just detonated a nuke inside of it. Everything hurt.
Unable to form a mouth to scream, I was forced to stay silent, curled up in the ball as I was, floating. I had long retracted my connection to the armbands, and all I was feeling now were the aftereffects. I don't think I was even connected to them for long enough to have felt what it would have been like to be in contact with them because instinctively pulled back so quickly.
Still, this just felt like torture. I had no eyes to cry, no mouth to scream, no environment to distract myself with: All there was was pain.
Soon though, I felt the armbands grow warm. This time they seemed to be emitting a soothing feeling, almost as if trying to console me. Petrified, I barely noticed, but I soon felt something, my first feeling of almost physical touch since I had woken up in this void. I couldn't see it, and I could barely feel it, but its presence was there. A figure, wrapped around me, cradling me to its chest. with my fuzzy senses, I detected its mouth moving, whispering hushed words to me that I couldn't hear, but each time it opened its mouth the armbands filled me with more light.
Still, I was barely able to register it. The physical pain was rapidly diminishing, yet my head was still screaming at me. However as it slowed down, even though the pain didn't decrease, I was able to grow more aware of what was going on. Things were beginning to flicker like an old TV, rapidly butt slowing down. The figure that cradled me pulled me tighter into her bosom, and slowly, things began to come into focus.
Visions began to flicker through my senses, of a colossal creature with 4 arms rending a hole in the ground miles deep, of a man with a halo and bloodred wings, cutting a mountain in half with a single swing of their sword, of an unfathomably horrible eldritch, being ripping pieces in the fabric of reality, causing all who looked to crumble to dust. Each vision passed so quickly that most of them I wasn't able to comprehend even a fraction of it, but there were a few things that were transmitted to me.
Rage.
Sorrow.
Despair.
And then, the visions stopped flashing by, replaced by one singular scene.
I was looking down at all of the past scenes taking place, able to sense each and every one happening at the same time, though most were suppressed so that I wouldn't immediately pass out. And I felt despair. I was but a watcher, unable to protect what was mine to foster, unable to defend against the beings tearing apart my world.
I felt rage at all those outsiders who took my land as a playground and did unspeakable things, at the One Who Watched who had bound me to keep me from interfering, and at my helplessness.
I felt disappointment for my children who had invited these horrors forth from the abyss with open arms, their yearning for power overcoming their common sense, and at myself for having let them stray so far.
I felt sorrow for my children who had stayed the right course, living their lives with decency and passion only mortals could know until they had been taken from me.
And I despaired.
Reaching out, when I tried to touch the barrier that kept me from acting on these intense emotions, black chains materialized around my hand, my arm, and then all of my body, pulling me away from my children.
I was left with no choice.
I plunged my hand into my chest and pulled out the beating heart of the world. Damaged and tainted by corrosion, the light that made its home in the center of the sphere was dimming.
Hesitating for a moment, I resolved myself and plunged my hand into the flame, and I burned. I burned away all of my being until little was left, and with it, the flame sprung back to life, reinvigorated.
The world paused as if sensing what was occurring at this moment, and I felt fear, for He knew.
I quickly forged the flame into a barrier, flooding the world with that flame and forcing all of the invaders out, Pushing them back to whence they came, back to their worlds or to the abyss. The chains fell off me, but I no longer had the strength to push through the barrier.
The scene changed, and I found myself at a different time, staring through the barrier at the world.
I missed some.
I had slumbered for too long, and in my absence, they had taken root once more. The parasitic gods had burrowed their way into the hearts of my children, taking them into their deadly embrace. Some creatures had hidden themselves among mortals, Others had spread their invasive genetics among existing monsters and men, tainting my children and poisoning me in turn. The eldritch beings had reopened the pathway to my unfaithful children to reforge their vile bonds, using them as pathways back into my domain.
There was one common denominator. My children, who I had treasured so dearly, were the reason the world was once more on its path to destruction.
And so, with a heavy heart, I took the last of my power, pulling the flames of the Worldheart into my grasp, I forged it into a tool. No, they weren't just tools. I created my true children, made from myself and the flames of the Worldheart, untaintable and pure.
The Paragons.
I made each unique. They all had their purpose, their specialization, made to return the world to a new state, one without corruption. They were vastly varied in their forms, but each had the flame of the Worldheart inside them. They would be everlasting, and so long as the world remained, so would they, fighting against those I no longer could.
No longer having the strength to continue, I carefully pushed them into my world. I did not have the power to guide their journeys, and they would all arrive at different places at different times, but they would come into being safe and sound.
And so, I collapsed. All I could do now was watch.
...
The vision ended. My head hurt no longer, though I was struggling to comprehend the breadth of what had just occurred. I was lost in my mind, and the only comfort was the presence of the strangely familiar figure that held me tight.
Feebly, I turned my attention to her, and at once, I knew.
My mother smiled and pulled me closer. As her warmth continued to heal me, I could feel myself drifting away, returning to the land of the waking.
Desperately, I wanted to reach out, to connect with her once more, but I felt myself being gently pushed away.
Unable to keep my attention on her any longer, I let myself drift off as the white void turned black around me.