Naught to Null

The sound was closer to mercury ripples seeping into him rather than something he could hear. A suffocating sensation, as if the words weren't spoken but imposed directly onto his being.

"How can you hear me?!"

His voice erupted like an earthquake, repeating itself, "How… can you hear me?! Even the most advanced and powerful humans cannot perceive the frequencies of my voice… unless you… are not one of them!"

Iggy's voice was a mixture of anger and confusion. It wasn't just an interrogation; it was a cry blending distress with astonishment.

Nollis stood motionless in the impossible space around him, trying to understand what was happening. The angles twisted, shifted, devoured themselves, yet he neither fell nor floated.

He felt that his human body was a fragile illusion. When Iggy asked, "How do you hear me?"

His fingers trembled, not out of fear, but out of a collapsing frustration at his inability to answer a simple question. Who am I?

Iggy's many eyes pierced through him like X-rays, making him feel like an open book—but with blank pages.

"And where… are my kind? They have all vanished. Even their traces in time have been erased. What did you do?!"

Iggy continued, his voice growing sharper, but beneath it lay something else… a pain buried under layers of sorrow.

"Why can't I travel through time?! Did you do something to me?!"

The vibrations in the space around Nollis intensified, as if Iggy's words were slicing through this dimension. He didn't know how to respond; he didn't even understand the nature of these questions.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Nullus murmured, his voice sounding like it didn't entirely belong to him. "And I don't know who I am."

A strange silence followed—not quietness, but an abyss that devoured sound, as if time itself had paused for a single moment. Then, after what felt like an eternity, Iggy spoke again, his tone quieter but laced with caution.

His hesitant voice echoed through the void, growing weaker. "Time... time no longer bends to me. Even my ability to travel through its edges has been taken. Are you the cause?! Are you the one who shattered the Tindalos axes?!"

His voice stopped as if he was thinking of a solution. After a moment, he said, "I will give you a chance to explain."

Nollis took a breath—if air even existed in this place—then began speaking, trying to gather his fragmented thoughts.

"I was imprisoned in a book..." he said hesitantly. "Then I emerged. I don't know how, and I don't know who I am. I just… emerged."

Iggy watched him in silence for a few moments. There was no expression on his face—or perhaps there was, but it was something beyond human comprehension.

"So, you were imprisoned too," Iggy said, but his voice carried no sympathy, only a cold analysis. "That means you are like me… a stranger to this place."

Nollis said nothing. The truth was even more distant than that, yet it remained unclear

even to him.

"If you are telling the truth…" Iggy continued slowly, "then there is only one possible explanation."

He moved around Nollis, but rather than shifting through space, it seemed as though space itself was bending to allow his movement.

"You understand me," he said, his glowing eyes locking onto Nollis. "That is impossible for humans, because our language is not mere sound—it is a reflection of time itself."

He paused, as if the next words were too heavy even for him to utter.

"And this only happens if you are connected to angular time."

Nollis stared at him, not fully grasping the weight of what he had just heard.

"But there is a problem," Iggy said in a hushed voice, as though speaking to himself. "You are not one of my kind. You cannot be."

He slowly raised his head and stared at Nollis with eyes that were not truly eyes—but windows into somewhere else.

"Then there is only one conclusion."

Time shifted around them, or perhaps he was the one shifting through time. The angles in the horizon watched them, anticipating what would be said next.

"You are from the Primordial Time."

The words reverberated through the void, yet their echo did not come from the space around them—but from inside Nollis's mind itself.

"You are from the Primordial Time." The phrase ignited a fire of destructive curiosity within him. Even if the truth would annihilate him, he wanted it. He tried to grasp any thread—ashes, shattered memories…

"Primordial Time?" Nullus murmured.

"The time that contains all forms and types of time," Iggy explained. He stopped, then added with the weight of an undeniable truth: "Which means you are from outside."

Nullus felt a strange pressure creeping into his mind, as if the words themselves were too vast to be comprehended.

"From outside?"

Nollis's voice echoed back at him, but it wasn't a normal echo. It was a sound bouncing through unseen angles, breaking apart and reforming—not as something he had spoken, but as something being spoken to him.

"One of the Outer Entities..."

Iggy's voice sounded less like speech and more like a tear in the fabric of reality itself. It was not a mere statement; it was a revelation—an ancient truth that had always existed but waited for someone to recognize it.

"...that exist beyond this universe."

The angles around them felt. Or perhaps they had always been feeling. There were eyes—not truly eyes, but a presence observing, feeding off understanding. Nollis wasn't seeing, but he was being seen.

"Transcendent beings… indifferent to this small and fragile cosmos..."

The universe itself shuddered. The void was no longer empty, but a layered rupture where dimensions slipped and lost their meaning.

"And that means…" Iggy muttered, his words like a dagger slicing through time, opening a wound in something that should never be opened.

"You are from beyond the words."

Everything stilled. It wasn't silence—but absolute emptiness, a void where even thoughts made no sound. As if time itself had stopped—or had never existed at all.

And in that stillness, something else began to stir. Something that was not a thing.

Iggy muttered, "Which means… you are from beyond the words."

The space around them hushed, as if the universe itself awaited a response.

But Nullus had nothing to say.

After moments of silence, Iggy took a breath—or its equivalent for his kind—then spoke in a voice quieter but still carrying traces of unease.

"I don't know much about this… I am merely a pup compared to my kin… the greatest pack in the cosmos."

He studied Nullus intently, then added,

"But I do know one thing… if you help me find my kind, I might be able to find answers—for both of us."

The space around them stretched, filled with infinite possibilities.

Nullus didn't know if this was the right choice—but he had no other option.

"Alright…" he said softly, gazing at the angular void. "Let's search for them together… and for the Outer Ones as well."

The angles trembled around them, as if responding to his words.

And in that moment, something new began.