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Inside a pitch-black space, a white formless goo was floating aimlessly. It was the only thing in the space and its colour was highlighted by the dark background.

The amount of time that had gone past since that day is beyond measure. It must have been billions of years, that lonely soul thought.

With nothing to do since the time it could remember, the helpless amorphous soul drifted away with no purpose. The space around it was mysteriously comforting and the soul made its best to utilise the time at hand.

It knew not its name. It knew not what or who it was. With the only awareness it had, the soul deduced that it is in fact sentient and can think and think and think limitlessly. The mundane emotions of life were non-existent to it.

Ever since the white goo could remember, incoherent words and indecipherable images were the only pieces of information it had. These memories served no use in deducing its origin and other details.

The images were too fragmented that they could be considered as worthless info fed into a machine. Eventually, the images faded from the memory, leaving the words behind alone.

Most of the voices were disconnected and muddled. This caused the extraction of information impossible. Not only that, the disordered words made the meaning of the entire sentences invalid.

However...

There was one particular sentence that was as clear as daylight.

"We might have failed, but we were not defeated."

This sentence was one of the only two sentences that could be comprehended. The other was one with severely jumbled and thoroughly disoriented words that when the soul reconstructed, made no sense!

After a lot of contemplation, the soul had to dump the sentence that made no sense.

Ever since then, the soul was left with one tiny info that led it nowhere. Day and night, the soul repeated the sentence inside it. The nine words were chanted, again and again, giving a sensation of an unfulfilled promise. Somehow, the words assured the soul of a certain victory that it was not able to have before.

This colourless routine went on for an inestimable amount of time until a bright light appeared in a distance. Slowly, the illumination came near the soul which floated with no intention.

Every second, the darkness of the space was being replaced by the blinding source of light. Since there was nothing to do, the soul decided to spectate what was happening.

Finally... the light engulfed the soul. The white amorphous spirit one with the light and all was then bright and one.

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It was not a comfortable sensation to have locked in a cage. Especially if the cage was tailored precisely to fit your dimensions, then your mobility would decrease substantially.

This was the exact condition for that soul. Within the human body, it tried to feel home but couldn't. The boundaries of the vessel and the limitations of being in flesh after a long period of liberation felt suffocating for it.

What is happening? Why am I feeling unrest?

The soul screamed out loud but there was no voice. No sound was produced from its throat. The attempt shrivelled in despair and agony.

Then...

The surroundings began to change. The whiteness began to fade and the soul was looking at something other than black and white after a long time!

What is that?

Staring straight ahead, the person lying on the ground was staring at the ceiling. Lying on the back, the person could clearly see the picture painted on the ceiling.

Beautiful.

Taking a few minutes to lie still, the person admired the detailed artwork. It was as if the God of painting had come down to produce this marvellous creation.

On the floor filled with dust and sand was a child lying down with admiration in his eyes. The sparkling in his eyes was beautiful and cute.

Almost 60 inches tall was the boy and he was completely naked. There was a layer of dust on him that accumulated over time. That indicated that this kid had been lying there for a while.

Lee Shen, now reborn, was devoid of all the memories he had held close to his heart. Every information about him and others he once knew had been struck off by an unknown force. His brain was figuratively empty.

How long am I expecting to lie like this?

The 12-year old boy jumped up and his naked body shook off the dust. The action threw a cloud of particles around him and it settled down without his concern.

With no idea of who he is, the boy shook his body vigorously as an act of dusting. With no idea of where he is, the boy stared at his surroundings cautiously.

Why does this place feel nostalgic?

Though devoid of memories, the soul had preserved Lee Shen's impulses and instincts. Unbeknownst to the kid, his previous self was sliced to death right where he was standing now.

Looking around, the sight of a ruined palace was unveiled in front of his sight. The walls had numerous cracks and vines have invaded the structure. The crumbled pieces of pillars and severely cracked floortiles signified that this place has been abandoned for many years.

Sharpening his senses, the silence looming in the atmosphere was welcomed by his awareness. The absence of wind enabled the silence to be creepy.

Where on earth-

As the boy was about to burden himself with questions, he invoked a particular word that froze his body like a statue. The surprise quadrupled as the boy realised that he just uttered a word that was not in his dictionary.

At the very moment, numerous images flashed in his mind. The images were that of a boy who was crying upon the loss of his parents. Following the images of funeral and agony was a series of frames conveying the impulsive and dynamic mood swings the boy suffered.

The hurtling images began to well up the eyes of the naked boy.