"The beings of spacetime are so trivial, wishing to define everything and themselves through their forms of expressions. May that be the Astnad Havear and their horrors, the Terahaen and their despair, the Humans and their beliefs theMuarat or the Caifyp. You come from Earth in the universe calling itself 'Reality' belonging to the world called 'Myth', do you not? For some reason my presence had decided to descend on that planet and now shall soon materialise into their demon form."

The six remained silent despite the thoughts in their minds.

"Your curiosity is easy to detect. Please speak."

If it weren't for the strong wave of urge passed by the entity, the silence may have remained for an eternity.

"Where are we?" Zindel's sound was mellow and yet powerful in the pursuit of knowledge, though what the entity really translated his thoughts were to a comforting realisation.

"In time."

Zindel found it interesting how the entity did not mention understanding, knowing, or perceiving, though he found that he really didn't care about such notions either, after a level of thoughts.

"Seeing your area of residence I shall speak to you about humans. You are aware that Shadow Beings exist wherever life and sentient beings are, right?"

The six sent a thought of agreement. The entity knew of all their questions even though its domain was feeling, not information.

"The Shadow Dimension exists forever and never. This is a concept you will come to understand soon enough. The first Shadow Beings were formed 4.6 billion years ago, connecting all the universes and worlds through the Seven Lands of Quintessence. What the lands are shall be left upon you to think on. Perceive it as you wish and know the truth one day."

The six knew that a statement of this sort was bound to come. But they weren't thirsty for knowledge. As the entity had said earlier, in time.

"What really is happening right now?" Confusion was evident in Zoey's thoughts.

"Nature."

The entity expected silence from the six though sensed that one of them understood what he meant by the word. An amusing aura reverberated around the Shadows for a considerable moment, vanishing as discretely as it had appeared.

"If evolution is the accumulation of traits, this is nothing but the result of increasing entropy. The emotional energy of the universe is in great disarray and with the increase of sentient beings this has only increased. Often, one species affects the birth of another, and I do not refer to speciation here."

"The Angelic and Demonic Creatures," Zindel thought, his aura moving ever so slightly and the yellow line remained calm. However, the blue fragment grew weak, sorrow in the Shadow's heart.

"Why did you kill them all?"

"One still survives." The entity's voice was dangerously callous but one Shadow sensed his true emotion.

"Thank you. What a great deed that you have performed."

"Would you rather wish for your universe to be destroyed and put everything else out of equilibrium?"

"How does one species affect the equilibrium of the universe? Do you plan on doing the same with Azrael?"

Kasia's thoughts were heavy in pain and her sense felt tired yet she remained firm, needing the answers to her question.

"The entity is correct, Kasia. The reason a single species affects the equilibrium so much, despite their less numbers is because they are born from the hopes and horrors of humans and thus comes from the Shadow Dimension.

"Look at us. We used to be free souls without the limits of five senses and abilities, our Techniques being our only but powerful gestures. Now we are so much like humans. That is not bad but, that isn't the true us. It is a bitter truth but we haven't changed for the better.

"Before asking any other question we must first understand the Shadow Dimension and Shadow Beings."

A sombre silence filled the void though the shadows felt the beating of the universes. So perfectly in sync, spreading an immense feeling of comfort and stability across their thoughts and emotions.

The entity certainly did not speak with selfish reasoning.

"Wise words from the Shadow of Oblivion. Your vessel is named Thet, is it not? Your consciousness is significantly high. All of you did shadows' is. I hope you remember who you are soon."

The entity's praise was unexpected and for a brief moment, the six were at pure ease.

"Thet is right, but it doesn't justify your action of genocide."

A wave of immense amusement was sensed by the six, the reaction angering Zoey, even if only a little.

"Genocide? For a species that should not exist?"

"How do you decide that? If a creator of the universe really exists, do you think they would've made the universe in a way that it reaches its present state?"

For the slightest moment Zoey thought she was right, assuming the entity's silence to be a contemplative one.

"First things first, dear. There is no 'present' in this dimension. No past, nor no future. If you exit from here without my guidance, there is a very high probability that you will reach the wrong timeline."

The entity's tone remained the same and it only further bewildered the Shadows. Rage and understanding mixed... something felt so very off.

"Second, I agree with your point, assuming a creator exists. They would not interfere in a universe's events that occurred on a physical level.

"Third, no such creator exists.

"Fourth. The increasing entropy of the Shadow Dimension would not be a problem if it did not pose the threat of altering the Truth, as you refer to it. The Truth is something you cannot ask me about."

The last statement of the entity left the Shadows in absolute confusion.

All except one.

"Do you imply that the concept of 'God' among humans is false?"

"That is not something I will comment on. It certainly is not false and it certainly is not the Truth. It is what the soul views it as. As I mentioned in the beginning, humans express themselves through their beliefs. This means that their beliefs have the most effect on the Shadow Dimension and also that their beliefs hold the strongest basis in the dimension of the mind. They do have a source, every expression does and that increases that somewhere their belief is true. Remember one thing: beliefs are not the same as ideals and especially opinions."

For the first time in the day... no. In that event, at that point Kasia was genuinely intrigued and fascinated.

She felt nice. Nice enough.

"Where is the Shadow Dimension?"

Zindel immediately knew that his question was odd. A dimension had no specific whereabouts but had a certain build, its fundamentals. Yet it felt right. His instincts said so. He already knew how the dimension was.

"Interesting."

The composure still remained. An ominous aura flooded the space, many wisps of smoke floating inside, all in the monotonous palette of black and white. The sound of silence made them recognise its nature even more so; an inexpressible haunt that was comforting.

Various rings of the mist took shape, a few interlinked with each other and the others beyond light years away. Some were parallel to each other, some overlapping certain points of what could be assumed as spacetime. Some were like fog scattered around the atmosphere, the subtle touch of cold a sensation of comfort. None of the five sensations actually recognised this, but being in their vessels, their consciousness would convert thoughts into expressions.

Suddenly all the fragments appeared to warp around the ripples from a single point, gradually being swallowed into the eye of that storm. Any mere individual would never be able to withstand such a sight; it would drive them mad. Yet the for the six it was a feeling of pure belonging and home.

They felt and abstruse emotion of... love? for the entity.

In the end nothing remained, all residing inside that one point. Its energy, its soul its... just it was unbelievable.

"Like a singularity..." Kasia began with soft awe in her thoughts.

"A no-dimensional point holding infinite energy." Zindel finished, sharing the same emotion.

"Not just any infinite energy. All energy. The energy of everything." Thet's quietude only made his thoughts more provoking.

"What is everything, though?" Ethelred asked. "From our previous stream of thoughts, everything is true and so is nothing. Then what is false?"

"All is true, and true is false."

The statement was simply bizarre.

"The Shadow Dimension contains all. Its fabric and its main contents are thoughts and emotions to put in the form of words. Thoughts do not imply ideas, knowledge or belief and emotions do not mean happiness, sorrow, anger or love. Thoughts in the raw form is nothing but information and emotions are sentient. The others are secondary and stem from these root elements.

"The Shadow Dimension really is non-dimensional as it is abstract and not physical. It has no point in spacetime. Nevertheless it defines existence and thus, all beings in the dimension can go to any point in spacetime, in any world and universe.

"The dimension is nowhere, but it is there. It is existence and thus doesn't 'exist', but it is present. It allows beings to perceive but is not something one can perceive. Only one thing, as you know from before."

Silence was the most obvious reaction.

"Thus comes the name 'Shadow Dimension'. A Shadow is seen in light but never in darkness. A Shadow is formed because of light and yet on that philosophical level, it is forever a human's sole partner. The Shadow is of the human but essentially, the human is a part of its Shadow. We are what remains of us and we really are our raw form.

"When there is no light on us we are nothing but a Shadow. Nevertheless Shadows can be powerful, especially those with sentients and information.

"Thus came Shadow Beings. You really were unseen, the beings of light. Never limited by the laws of physics, by any five senses, nothing. You six were the first of the Shadow Beings. Each of you was born in a land of Quintessence but you all came to universe of Earth. You saw its birth, you saw to the beginning of Shadow Beings on Earth. You are aware that your numbers are less, are you not? That is because your power is great and in the days of the beginning, it was infinitely more powerful than it now is. Even then in all of the other points in any dimension, there has never been as many Shadow Beings as there were and are on Earth. Such perfect unity, such graceful movements. The ultimate freedom.

"You were souls, beautiful souls. But now, you're humane."

The aura was dangerously dark.

"That is not bad. Nature regrets nothing."

Mildred now conveyed her thoughts for the first time, immense confidence in them. Its echoes were joined by the other five, and their three friends back home. No, it contained the strength of all of the Shadows back home and perhaps of the Angels and Demons, too. Perfect unity and their grace in thoughts remained.

"Finally, my dear. Finally your thoughts."

The entity was not angry. It wasn't provoked by trivial thoughts. It wasn't provoked by anything. And yet, it happened.

Rage broke out.