After some time, Helena finally woke up. She had a terrible headache, and her memories were still a bit confused. It felt as though her body didn't exist; she felt lighter, as if something was missing inside and around her. She felt as if she was in a world where didn't belong.

Then her mind finally understood... she wasn't in any world. She was just on a platform of glowing stones, in the middle of a vacuum. Helena remained horrified, seeing that. It didn't make sense—what had happened to everything? It was then that she remembered her companions; they were all lying on the ground, unconscious. The swordswoman checked each one, relieved that they were still alive.

With the tenderness of a mother, she grab the first one by the shoulder, who happened to be Pedro, and with the brutality of a bear, she shook him forcefully, making him wake up immediately.

"PEDRO! WAKE UP!" She yelled loudly in the man's ear, who had regained consciousness.

"I'M AWAKE, CRAZY WOMAN!" Helena then let him go and went to the next one, repeating the action until everyone was awake, except John, who still had a fever and lay on the ground.

"Where are we?" Clark asked, looking around. Everyone was confused as well. The children stayed close to each other, scared. Soon they gathered in a circle to talk.

"So... can anyone explain what's going on?" Stuart  asked, being the only one besides the children who was conscious and had no idea what was happening. "Who was that guy? What was that book? What happened? Where are we?"

"In space?" Lysa guessed, looking at the dark expanse around them while leaning on Emily, who was also scared. It was as if the previous situation no longer existed; Emily hadn't kept it in her heart, and Lysa was too confused to care about it now.

"AH NO, WE'RE GOING TO DIE WITHOUT AIR!" Pedro screamed at the thought of being in outer space. He placed his hand on his throat and acted as if he were actually suffocating. The two girls started crying, and a commotion began among the three, which Helena stopped by hitting the man.

"You're breathing fine, you idiot. Don't scare the girls like that."

"And it doesn't make sense for us to be in space." James commented, scratching his chin as a distraction. "I don't see any stars."

"Not just that." Clark continued while holding his knife and moving it from side to side. "Not only does the fact that we're above some kind of terrain prove that we're not purely in space, but if you notice, we can only see due to these stones here. There's no sun or moon, nothing like that. It's as if we are the only things that exist."

"More importantly, look at this..." Stuart swung his hammer forcefully towards Clark. The man felt nothing unusual and looked at the other one confused. Stuart sighed. "There's no breeze, no wind. It's as if there's no air at all."

"That doesn't make sense." Helena interrupted. "How are we breathing then? How are we talking?"

"Guys, what's that?" Emily pointed out. In the distance, something seemed to be approaching. It was hard to tell for sure due to the light coming only from the ground. Everyone stared at the unknown object, concentrating. Gradually, it became clear what it was. No one remained neutral about what appeared—it was a human.

But he looked to be over 100 years old. His skin was covered with wounds, spots, and blisters, as if it was infested with diseases. His mouth moved, but no sound was heard. Pedro picked up the two girls who were paralyzed with fear and took them close to the feverish archer.

Helena and Clark tried to grab the floating body, but it continued without them being able to interfere. It was as if they were in two different realities. It continued to float and drift until it was lost in the shadows again.

Soon after, another appeared—an old woman in the same condition, covered in wounds and diseases. She murmured silently, and more appeared—several people, all in the same condition, emerged and disappeared in the darkness. As if they wandered aimlessly, desolate souls in the darkness.

"What was that?" Stuart asked with his eyes wide open, and again, he repeated the previous question. "SOMEONE BETTER START EXPLAINING WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE!"

"Allow me." Again, a ninth voice appeared. This time everyone recognized it; the monk was floating behind Helena, giving her a fright.

"WILL YOU STOP APPEARING OUT OF NOWHERE?" However, the monk just ignored her as always, staring at each one of their frightened faces and continuing to analyze them deeply.

"You still don't have the strength to defeat them all, but with the right move..." The monk murmured, which only intensified the confusion and anxiety the group was already feeling. That was the last straw for Clark, who pointed his weapon at the unknown being.

" Listen, Chernobyl Buddha, enough with the riddles. You didn't make sense to Helena when you gave her that book, you didn't make sense to us a little while ago, and you certainly don't plan on making sense now. You better start explaining everything you know!"

"Or what?" He asked without even looking at Clark, until then giving a small glance and asking. "Are you going to try to force me with your power?"

"But what..." Immediately, all of Clark's bravado was lost, and he stood there confused.

"Power? What is you are talking about?" James inquired, looking at Clark, but the monk then decided to clarify things.

"All of you have powers; most just haven't awakened them yet. That's what I meant." The monk commented while keeping his eyes fixed on Clark, who returned with a confused and frightened look. "Anyway, you seek answers, right? Well, ask me your questions."

"Where are we?" Pedro asked without hesitation. The monk's answer caught them all off guard.

"Nowhere."

"What do you mean nowhere? We have to be somewhere."

"There are no more places to be. At this moment, you are in the literal nothing. There is no more Earth, or universe, or time, or reality. There is nothing left but you humans."

"That doesn't make any sense. We are breathing, we have a floor we're standing on, even gravity where we are." James reported, stomping on the ground to confirm that he was indeed on solid ground.

"The fact that you are breathing is thanks to me, as is the fact that you don't need to eat or drink while everything returns to normal. As for the ground and gravity, you should thank the deceived, those responsible for all this. They created a place where they could live, while you are protected by me, they are protected by the virtues they destroyed; they are kind of trapped inside them now."

"More talk about the deceived..." Helena grumbled. "... Who are they? What are these virtues you keep talking about? What is happening?"

"  Humans, always seeking an explanation for everything, it's better that the world is destroyed as long as you know how than it being saved if you can't explain why." The monk sighed once more, deeper than before, as if he was holding back and maintaining his patience to talk with them. 'Very well, I will give you a basic explanation of the origin of everything. Maybe that will be enough to give you an idea of things...

"Long ago, there was nothing, just darkness. But at some point in the middle of this darkness, spheres began to appear. How? It's not for us to know. They may have emerged because they needed to, or they may have formed little by little until they were born; perhaps they might had always existed. There are various ways to theorize, but it's a fact that they came into existence. For thousands and billions, trillions of  human's years, only they existed. So much time had passed that you could honestly say they had no beginning, because if they did, it's so far back that there's no trace of it. If there's no trace, it can be said it's as if it never existed.

"They wandered through the eternal nothing, with no direction, no stop, no gravity to guide them, so they just traversed the darkness, or whatever you want to call it. Until at a certain moment, something impossible happened, or rather, I won't say impossible since it happened, but I'll say statistically minuscule, a probability so small that the zeros in the number could be called infinite. It was like something that could only be the work of fate, something that was meant to happen despite so many improbabilities. What, exactly, you ask? Well, they collided. All of them, at different points in the vacuum, moving at thousands of miles per hour, ended up meeting at the same point. All the spheres collided at the same time, and well, they weren't just spheres; they contained magic, feelings, fantasy, science, everything. So when they collided, the universe was born.

These spheres represent the virtues; they are the very mystical essence originating from their respective names. For example, the virtue of love is the sphere responsible for the feeling of love across the Earth. When it collided with the others, that was when the feeling of love was born and spread, existing solely by feeding off it. The virtues themselves are love, life, justice, youth, knowledge, kindness, truth, luck, sound, will, dream, creativity, joy, animals, courage, nature, time, hope, death, and the dark virtue. The latter is responsible for everything humans consider bad.

Not only did everything you know come into being, but a certain goddess was also born. She never had a name, now that I think about it. I believe the only thing she was ever called throughout her life was "Mother." So that is her name. Mother had a big heart—so big that it was almost excessive. She was extremely loving, maternal, and protective, and she idolized the virtues, being magnificently interested in the power those spheres possessed.

Until one day, Mother encountered an... abomination, a disturbance of reality, something that should never have happened or been born, but was born. The abomination came and brought pain and suffering to Mother. Taunting and humiliating her, Mother tried to fight against it, but despite her power, her abilities were not suited for battle, and the abomination anticipated each of her actions.

In the end, she was wounded in the four regions: Physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Physically, where her destructive strength and unmatched courage resided, her abdomen was pierced. Emotionally, where she carried the most innocent of hearts, there was an enormous void because she lost everything to which she had dedicated her life, falling into despair. Mentally, where the most complex thoughts and rational processes occurred, she was humiliated, forgetting such simple things and losing to such flimsy arguments. Lastly, spiritually, where the woman carried the purest sense and the strongest faith, she had been deceived and no longer had confidence in what she believed.

Destroyed, weak, humiliated, depressed, and shaken, she managed to escape to Earth. She questioned how she could defeat the abomination, wondering what her plans should be now that she was out of the way...

Not that she could do much. She no longer had the strength to fight, no more hope that she could succeed, did not remember the knowledge she had gathered over the years, and had no faith that she could discern lies from truths.

Just like the virtues throughout history, she wandered aimlessly, and like the virtues, she also had an extremely unlikely encounter. Wandering the face of the Earth, Mother came across a play happening by the roadside. It was a reflection on angels and demons. The humans watching were poor and rich, sick and healthy; everyone loved the play. And the most applauded was the one who seemed to be the lead actor—a man dressed as an angel, his skin painted gold, with a halo on his head and fake wings on his back. He captivated everyone with his performance, including Mother herself.

The way he moved was enchanting. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Then suddenly, he left the scene, and a few moments later, another person entered, this time dressed as a demon and acting in such a grotesque and malevolent way that it was nauseating. It was then that Mother realized it was the same actor. The man had changed his face and demeanor as he changed his costume.

Amazed, Mother waited for the play to end and went to meet the man. The actor greeted her with a smile, and she quickly asked her question.

'How do you deceive like you did?'

'Deceive? No, I act. It's different. Why do you want to know? Do you intend to deceive someone?'

'No. Quite the opposite, actually. I don't want to be deceived. Not again...'

'Ah... I see... well... to deceive someone, you just need to be beautiful.'

'What?'

'People tend to shy away from something bad and move toward something good. A beautiful person has more ease in persuading and controlling others. But that's not what you want to know. You want to know how not to be deceived. People from all walks of life can try to deceive you, beautiful or ugly. However, it's up to you to decide whether you'll fall for the lie or not.'

'But how do I know when it's a lie?'

'There will be times when you will know, and there will be times when you will be in doubt. Those are the most dangerous, and honestly, there's nothing you can do except trust your instincts.'

'But I trusted, and I was deceived. And now I can't trust anymore...'

'Then that's up to you. I can't give you a recipe for trusting yourself without knowing you, but you know yourself. You have to trust. That's why it's called instinct. There are no clues, just decisions. That's why you need to have faith.'

Perhaps because he was as beautiful as he said, Mother accepted every argument he gave her. She trusted his words and left, thoughtful, holding them close to her heart. It was almost dusk, and she continued wandering along the road until she came across a small cabin in the middle of the path. There was an old man sitting in a chair. By the man's clothes and state, she concluded he was some kind of hermit who had withdrawn from society.

She asked him for some bread because she was hungry, and the man kindly gave her some but did not allow her into his home. She sat down to eat on a rock outside, eating while observing the stars as the old hermit watched her. He noticed that the woman closed her eyes tightly, as if trying to see better or think about something. It didn't take long for him to understand what was happening.

'Are you trying to remember the names of the stars?'

'I knew... the name of each one of them, but I forgot. It's so embarrassing, you know? You study, observe, read, and learn, only to forget again. What's the point?'

'It doesn't need to have a point.' Said the hermit. Then the man pointed out the stars one by one and began to tell Mother their names, at least the names of those he knew. He then turned to her and looked into her eyes. His eyes were as blue as the sky, and it was as if they observed everything. 'If you forget, just learn again. Knowledge is vast, and it's never embarrassing to learn, my young lady.'

'But I feel embarrassed. I should know so much, but I feel like I know nothing.'

'That feeling is what makes you seek to know more. A person who wants to learn everything will never be satisfied with knowing nothing.'

Just as with the angel, the woman sealed the hermit's words in her heart and continued her journey. This time, the goddess passed through a city where destiny would lead her to a third encounter. In a square, a sermon was taking place. Everyone was sitting attentively listening to the priest reciting and explaining the scroll. His sacerdotal robe was greenish, making him stand out even more in the crowd.

As she sat and listened to the man's words, Mother began to be moved when he spoke about hope, about how we should have the heart of a child and not succumb to extreme logic or despair. It reminded her of how she had been weak, of how, facing the abomination, she had felt the greatest fear she had ever experienced in her life. And she couldn't see any chance of victory, she had no confidence left. And it broke her. She started to cry in the midst of the people, many telling her to be quiet because she was interrupting the sermon, her suffering bothering everyone around her. Except one.

The priest then approached the crying woman and comforted her. He took her inside his temple, where they began to talk.

'What troubles you?'

'I am terrified. I faced my worst enemy and could do nothing... I felt so powerless, so scared. I have never felt such despair in my life. How should I not succumb to despair when I saw its face in front of me?'

'How does a child do?'

'It cries...'

'Yes, and often seeks help from those they trust, their parents, or guardians, friends, even the Lord. If despair comes to dominate, I recommend seeking help. And if you can't, then find a way to hold onto hope. The world is like a story; sometimes you just need to find a way to reach the end to understand how everything happened. If you can continue through this despair without giving up, at some point, you will find help, at some point, you will find hope. That in itself is hope.'

The priest had to return to his sermon but allowed Mother to rest for a while. A rest that made her reflect on many of her actions and attitudes, a rest that made her realize how alone she was, how there was no one to ask for help. But she decided for herself that she would still go on, confront, and try.

But she still had a problem. She didn't believe she was strong. She could study again, have faith in what she had learned, and maintain hope, but no, all that was substantial and emotional. She needed something concrete, proof that she could fight.

That's when the penultimate of her destined encounters happened. Mother was attacked by a group of armed raiders, and to her rescue came a woman with a knife, with long red hair. The woman fought bravely alone against the raiders, not trained but with the ferocity of a warrior. She managed to scare them away, at a price. She was severely injured, with a wound that would have been fatal if Mother hadn't healed her with her powers.

'Why did you do that? Why did you fight against people who would probably have killed you? How did you know you could win?'

'If I had done nothing, they would have done worse than just robbing you. I didn't know if I could win, but what I knew was that I COULD NOT lose. I couldn't let another woman be harmed in front of me.'

'How can you be so strong?'

'What makes you strong is not a reason to win, but a reason why you cannot lose. When you are determined not to fall or lose, there is no more concrete proof that you will win.'

After ensuring that her newest friend was safe, Mother departed. This time, she was determined to defeat the aberration. She had a reason not to lose, had faith in herself, and hope for the future, just as she had trained for that moment...

Yet still... she lost, for the same reasons. She forgot everything, fell into despair, was deceived, and was not strong enough. The difference this time was that Mother had no chance to escape; she was mortally wounded, and the aberration left her on the ground, abandoned to die.

But it was in her last moments of life that Mother had her final encounter with fate, for I appeared there.

'Help me, help me.' She pleaded, saying she was dying. I could have helped her, but she brought all that upon herself.

'You don't have a chance in defeating her.' I commented. 'You are not strong, wise, good or prudent enough to defeat something at her level.'

For a while, Mother lay on the ground, contemplating, as life drained from her eyes, until she said:

'But they are, those four. The beautiful yellow angel, the wise blue hermit, the good green priest, and the brave red warrior. They have those necessary characteristics. They can defeat her.'

'They are humans, woman.'

'But you can grant them powers, can't you? You who act over everything, bestow upon them gifts capable of defeating Lily.' After that, she died and I did as she asked."

The group was frozen, concentrating on the monk's incredible story. Some were still processing it while others had already processed it, and still didn't like it.

"Is that it?" Clark started. "Are we descendants of those four you mentioned? Is that why we are the chosen ones?"

"Yes, that's what I meant with the story." This time it was Helena who joined the conversation.

"But there are still many things that don't make sense: Who are the deceived? What happened to the world? What are the creatures? Who is this Lily?"

"Lily, as I said, is the aberration, an existence that should not have existed but was born. A product of blasphemy and the abnormal. The creatures are all creations of Lily, although I believe she will take a break from using them for now. The deceived are, largely, humans from various times and places in your world. Lily used them to destroy the virtues and bring about the end of everything. You were chosen to face Lily, but before confronting her, you need to save your universe."

"How exactly do we save the universe?" Stuart had some theories on how it might be improved, so he wasn't too surprised when the monk answered, something that impacted most of the others.

"You kill them! The deceived, or the generals, are like eggs, and the virtues are like gems. Remember what I said, when the virtues were broken, they got trapped inside them. To reach the gem, you break the egg, so to restore the virtues and everything else, you need to kill those who trapped it."

"Kill? But that's wrong." Lysa said, leaning more heavily on her friend. Her eyes were still swollen; the two of them had cried throughout their time there. For a fraction of a second, she thought she saw a sad expression on the celestial being, but soon his serious face returned.

"They are already dead; they are not the originals. Most of them are faithful reproductions of the originals that Lily created. They have the same memories and feelings but are not them."

"Most of them?" James highlighted the monk's choice of words.

"There are at least two there who are still alive, but not for the reason you think."

"Why did you bring us here?" Continued the eldest. "Helena, Pedro, Clark, and Emily are the chosen ones, but why did you bring the four of us too?"

" It doesn't matter, just as it doesn't matter who I am, just as it doesn't matter who you are. To save humanity, I did what I did."

"I have one last question." Pedro raised his hand as if he were a child in a classroom waiting for the teacher to call on him.

"Yes?"

"If all the virtues were destroyed... why does the human race still exist? Aren't we animals? Or part of nature?"

"You have something more that the rest doesn't have. But that doesn't matter now. Listen, the deceived don't know you exist, but if they find out, they will come to kill you, and I assure you that they are powerful. And be careful, nature, life, and youth must come before death. Good luck."

And before they knew it, the monk vanished. He had left, leaving a still-confused group. Even though they now had an explanation of what was happening, they still didn't know the goals of the deceived or of Lily. They only knew they had gotten involved in something extremely dangerous. They only knew that many problems were still to come.