Kiara opened her eyes in infinite white.
Kiara blinked, No up, no down. No shadows. Just vast emptiness stretching beyond comprehension, like being trapped inside a pearl. The last thing she remembered was metal tearing, glass shattering, blood on her body pain and those impossible red eyes...
Finding herself in a strange, unfamiliar place, where everything around her felt frozen in time. As she looked around, she realised that nothing moved; everything was still. She touch her eyes and mutter to herself.
"WTF! Where am I? And what is this place"
"Am I dead? Is this heaven?" She started looking everywhere but no one was there.
Kiara laughed, the sound sharp and bitter.
"The great Kiara Kim, done in by a truck. Some joke this is."
"In this cruel world, I gave my all to survive, end the end, death was an I earned?"
Kiara was born in a society that never accepted a woman to lead a family, company, or country. Some accept her leadership, but her step-brothers neglect her.
**"And what if I say this is just A new beginning of your new life?"**
The voice resonated through my bones, ancient as creation itself. It comes from the air. Kiara was chasing the voice, where was the coming from? Light shimmered like oil on water, and suddenly there was a door – ornate, carved with symbols. she half-recognized from temples and forgotten texts. But That door was not in that place when she first looked.
"Where is that coming from this door?"
Kiara opened the door and led her to a place, the giant evergreen tree had.
"Welcome, The Child of Two Worlds."
A sudden voice came from in somewhere in that place. A calm voice.
"Gho…Ghost" with a trembling voice she said.
"No child"
"Who are you? and why don't you come in front of me?" Kiara stumbled back
Her voice trembles with uncertainty as she questions, unsure if she's in a realm between life and death.
"Ahh… I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry my child"
"I am what your people once called me, Divine Tree, or some Kalpavriksha – the wish-fulfilling tree. In other words, Yggdrasil. The World Tree. The Axis Mundi*. I stand at the crossroads of all realities."
Yggdrasil, the great tree from Norse mythology, connects the nine worlds, representing life, death, and destiny. Its roots reach deep into wells of wisdom and fate, while its branches spread across the heavens. Creatures like Nidhogg, a Dragon, and Ratatoskr, a mischievous squirrel, live on it, symbolizing the balance between creation and destruction. Yggdrasil holds all worlds together in a delicate balance.
[* this asterisk is to highlight some important information,]
The giant tree introduced itself with a calm and melting voice.
"Divine Tree, Eternity? You mean I'm stuck in life or death, right?"
"Yupp"
"Legends tell of the Ascended Peak, a place where time and space collapse into a single moment, where the sacred tree whispers the secrets of creation." Kiara Said.
Symbolizing the ultimate source of power and fulfilment.
"Yupp… you can say this child. But there are so many other universes where it was located. The one who created me was the creator of Universes."
"Universes? So there is another world too? Just like us?" Kiara spoke with a mix of curiosity. Her calm look was nothing like she was dead and she was stuck in that place.
"In one universe, yes," the voice carried the weight of ancient wisdom.
"Scholars have long spoken of bubble universes—realities coexisting like foam upon the cosmic sea. In some civilizations, this knowledge has been preserved for millennia. Their sages described a vast existence, where each world is but a ripple in an infinite ocean. "
"They spoke of cycles within cycles, wheels turning within wheels. The great spiral of time moves ever forward, yet it folds upon itself, ever repeating, ever changing."
The Sacred tree started explaining how she was born, and who created her. And what is this place?
"But why I'm stuck in here? Is there no way to go back to my world?"
She was talking freely as if she knew the tree was harmless. Kiara's voice started low she already knew that there was no way but, her heart refused to accept that cruel reality.
"No, and you can't go there. And that is not your world."
Sacred Tree gave her a piece of news that, like a bomb dropped in her life. And Kiara's uneasiness became reality.
"What nonsense are you mumbling? Where I lived my whole life before my death and worked hard to survive, that is not my world. Does that make sense"
"Hey, you. Take me back to my world?" She was frustrated and glaring at The Sacred Tree.
Without thinking Kiara spoke, she couldn't control her feelings, her whole life came in front of her eyes, as if once again wanted to live that life, maybe because attachments of to some precious things that led her wan to once again world where she wants to go.
"The life you lived, the body you inhabited – it wasn't yours. Long ago, your soul crossed dimensions."
"The woman who saved you tonight, Elara. She was the real owner of that body. And you... you are Elara Larousse, of the Thalassian Concord Empire."
"Real owner, body? Are you out of your mind? I'm sorry I don't want to play this game, there is my life, my business. Please send me back."
"Ohh… dear I didn't have much time to explain everything now," "The soul wears bodies like clothes, discarding old ones for new. It's time to wear your true form again."
Tree said in the same kind and calm tone as if she loved Kiara and wanted to return to her place, where she belonged.
"I'm Elara Larousse?"
Tears slid down Kiara's cheeks, each one containing a memory that suddenly felt like a lie. Her first business deal. The day she took control of the company. Every victory, every sacrifice...
"I understand what you feel, My child."
And with that, a sparkled magic comes from the tree. She blessed a Kiara or now A Real Elara Larousse.
"So, I'm Elara Larousse and this the parallel world but opposite?"
Kiara slowly understands what the tree says. But an uneasiness in her face betrayed her.
In our world, Earth, there are countless theories about parallel worlds and multiple dimensions, that exist, but none can truly justify what is real. What if another dimension exists—another world, just like us or perhaps they were different too?
All theories lead to a parallel world and another dimension.
Ahh.. this is ridiculous. I'm really going to experience that theory now. Seriously I'm unlucky!
"The world you live in now is a magical world, where magic is everything." The Tree continued "But the problem is that you didn't awaken your magic power"
"What? So, do I get to start over? Fight my way up again in a world I don't even understand?"
Of course, this was nothing to me, I already experienced it once, after all, but the new place where I am not used to be how I live?
"Ha..ha… you are the strongest child."
"….."
The sacred smile
"You know what My Child, while you're busy surviving in that place. Remember to live your life."
Light began to fill the void, reality-bending like a prism. But the Tree's final words cut through like destiny itself:
"And when the wheel turns again when betrayal comes... remember this moment. Remember who you truly are. Don't forgive & and forget those people."
"Wait—what betrayal? What do you—"
But the Tree was gone, and Kiara was falling through dimensions, through realities, through time itself...
*Elara Larousse Chamber*
"Hmph… this is the dream before I opened this unfamiliar place."
With sleepy eyes, Elara mumbled in bed, her fair complexion was darkened today.
"The week has passed, I locked myself. So much happened. I broke with that guy who is Crown Prince"
She woke in an elegant bed, where everything was put in perfect places. A week had passed since she'd opened her eyes to this world since she'd faced down the Crown Prince who'd come to break their engagement. She'd accepted the end of their relationship without a single protest – she had bigger battles ahead.
Elara – no longer Kiara, never again Kiara – walked to the window. The sea breeze carried the salt-sweet scent of the coast, and the setting sun painted the Larousse Estate's gardens in shades of gold and amber.
Kiara stepped forward to the Window. The air around her was wild, and the weather was clear, but The Larousse Estate was located on the south seaside of the Empire.
"This is the Empire Thalassian Concord, where from now on I'll live."