1 What is a Wisp?

The Universe was still in its primordial state. Stars exploded everywhere; new ones were formed, and galaxies collided on an almost daily basis. Yet, it was within this chaos that life thrived in some luckier locations of the Universe. After all, the abundance of energy made it possible for incredible races to take form over hundreds of millions of years.

Among these races, one particularly special one was the Wisp Race. This was a race of pure energy, born from heaven and earth when the conditions were just right... and in this primordial Universe, such conditions happened all the time.

However, the Wisp Race wasn't exactly a fortuitous one. Their energy was seized by many other races that absorbed these energies to live and get stronger. Any newborn wisp would usually not live past a day. They truly became a high commodity, especially for the intelligent races of this time.

These kinds of things continued to happen for a very long time... until the conditions that allowed the Wisps to be born began to get rare. The Wisps, who contributed so much with their own lives to the progression of all other races' development, soon became treasures. Yet, these treasures still had only one use: having their energy absorbed so others could evolve faster. Naturally, that was their destiny regardless of their much higher price.

Deep at the core of a certain planet, a certain being constructed a huge facility that harnessed that planet's internal energy. He selected this specific planet for a reason. It was barren, with absolutely no chance of life ever flourishing for millions or perhaps billions of years to come. Any other being that cast their eye on this planet would immediately ignore it, if they ever looked at all.

In that facility, the being constructed a chamber... or perhaps a capsule? A weird cocoon? It was hard to tell. The only thing that was certain was that it seemed to be the central piece of the entire place. The entire facility existed for this one container.

That being then finished his work on a few runes of an array, causing the entire facility to come to life. The 'capsule' connected to the facility also shone brightly, showing the success of the being's experiment.

"Finally..." The being murmured, satisfied. "I wonder how things will be later on." Yet, he quickly shook his head. "It matters not. I have pretty much no lifespan remaining, so this is my last effort."

After saying that, the being approached the capsule and brought with him a big box that seemed sealed. He touched the several runes of the box, causing it to open slowly. An extremely cold air came out of the box, almost freezing the being's hand. Yet, the being cared little about that.

Inside, he spotted a core, a core that emanated a feeble energy. If not for that, one might have thought it was nothing but a dead core that had long since lost all its uses. The being carefully took the core from the box and put it inside the capsule. As the capsule closed, the being commented with a sad tone. "My little friend, that's as much as I can do for you. I pray for the day that you can walk free in this Universe. Farewell."

As if it had heard the being's words, the core trembled slightly. However, it couldn't do much. That's because the capsule closed right after, causing all the runes of the facility to start to work. Time seemed to freeze, as did the temperature of that capsule. Outside, the being released the rest of the life energy it still had in its body, passing away on a chair not too far from the capsule itself. Judging by the look of satisfaction on his face, it seemed like he didn't regret anything.

No one knew about this place. No one would ever come to check this place. Even if anyone landed on this planet in the future, it would be almost impossible to think that they would waste their time examining the planet's core. The awareness of the existence of the facility was lost with the being's death. For all intents and purposes, this facility simply ceased to exist.

The Universe continued to change nonstop. The once primordial energies that gave birth to many wonders slowly disappeared. Races disappeared, and new ones took their place. Empires took form just to be destroyed by other stronger powers... or due to other reasons like internal strife, plagues, wars, natural disasters, etc...

However, it wasn't a bad thing. Thanks to that, life was able to flourish even more. After all, a stable Universe would have a better chance of giving the conditions necessary for new beings to take their first steps.

Just like that... over two billion years went by in a flash. As for the Wisp Race... it had long since disappeared. It was thanks to the primordial energies of the Universe, and the chaos caused by it, that the conditions necessary for their existence were possible. With both gone, Wisps were gone with them. All the hunting definitely didn't slow down this process, either.

At this date and age, let alone hunting Wisps, pretty much all the races of the Universe didn't even know Wisps once existed. Or perhaps truly not a single one knew about it anymore. Two billion years was truly a huge amount of time.

*Crack...*

The sound of a plate falling to the ground echoed in a small house, breaking into many pieces. The kid who dropped it looked at his mother with fear, knowing that a beating was assured. This was nothing but a simple family, just like billions of others around this planet.

Yet, deep beneath the earth, at the planet's core, a similar sound also echoed.

*Crack, crack, crack...*

A certain forgotten facility, which had been working with the help of its self-repairing ability for countless years, seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. All the runes responsible for keeping the facility intact were damaged, and even the self-repairing ability couldn't do anything about it.

The cracking of a certain rune, which was connected to a capsule, set everything in motion. The capsule then fell into a tube, being pulled away from the facility as the facility itself collapsed under the planet's gravity. One last burst of energy came out of the facility, and the capsule shot through the magma like a bullet.

When the facility shut down, time once again began to pass inside the capsule. The cold temperature also returned to normal as it made its way through the magma. As for the core that was frozen in time, it slowly began to release some energy again.

On the planet's surface, an undersea volcano spilled lava from time to time. It was also the lair for a few beasts that enjoyed the high temperatures of the place. Yet, something different also emerged without anyone knowing. It was a capsule, a capsule that started to float to the surface. One of the beasts saw it and began to chase after the capsule slowly. It had never seen anything like it, so it kept its guard up.

It took some minutes, but it finally reached the surface. It's just that by the time it finally emerged above the water, the capsule was pretty much done for. That's because the beast's patience didn't last long and began to bite it. If it lasted much longer, the capsule would definitely break and get swallowed by the beast.

*Boom!*

It was then that a burst of energy came from inside, blasting the capsule's lid a few meters away. As for the beast, it was scared by the sudden event and fled. Although it was powerful, it was also easily scared.

Saltwater began to enter the capsule, which quickly began to sink. But that didn't matter anymore. Now, a sphere of energy floated above the water. At the same time, it tried to make sense of what was happening around it. "W-where am... I?"

Its rainbow-colored energy that looked like a flame flickered, showing the obvious lack of energy to sustain the floating. If it were any other time over two billion years ago, it would have easily absorbed the energy of heaven and earth to replenish itself. Yet, it couldn't feel a single iota of the primordial energy of the past. "No energy... So hungry..."

*zonnnnnnnn...*

Suddenly, the sphere of rainbow-colored energy heard a sound coming from the distance. It was weird, something it had never heard before. Not long after, a boat appeared in its view. The sound was from its engine.

The figure controlling the boat had heard the sound of the explosion caused by the ball of energy when it blasted the capsule's lid off. He came here to verify what happened, thinking something had happened to another boat. Yet, when he arrived, all he saw was the ball of floating rainbow-colored flames. He stopped the boat near it before he came to check it. "What a weird thing..." Asked an old man, puzzled by his finding.

He didn't expect to get an answer, though. "Weird? Me? I'm not weird. I'm a Wisp." At the same time that the wisp said those words, it also cursed itself. 'Shit! That guy told me to never say I'm a Wisp! He is going to rob my energy!'

The man was quite astonished by the sudden answer. "You can talk?! And... A Wisp? What is a Wisp?"

The wisp was taken aback. "You know... a floating ball of primordial energy..." The wisp felt like killing itself, noticing his mistake once again. The question was so unexpected that it answered more or less on reflex. After all, who doesn't know what a Wisp is?

"Oh!" The man nodded.

'Shit!' The wisp mentally cursed.

"Never heard about it," the old man concluded, though.

"Fuck yeah!" The wisp... couldn't control his word reflexes very well...