A Path of Imagination and Fantasy

Elkan was the most powerful elf in his world by the time she'd finished writing his story. He controlled energy itself, and therefore could simply one-shot his opponents by taking all of their energy away from them. In fact, if he harnessed enough of his power, it was even possible for him to destroy his entire planet. But he hadn't been born that way. He'd scraped and clawed for that power, had rightfully earned it through a life filled with challenges and tragedies. Nothing could take him down, because he'd never let it before. In fact, the only reason he hadn't destroyed the world and everything else along with it was because of his lover inside the book... and now that she wasn't here to temper him, what exactly was Asaya supposed to do? She couldn't stand up to him! She was powerless! How was this even happening?

Looking at him, it was clear why he was such an utter heartthrob to his kingdom and subjects. Even though he had darker sides, he was still idolized by the mass population for his near perfect reputation. He'd raised the elven kingdom from the ground, built himself a dynasty of all races, won all the wars he entered with minimal casualties, never let a single of his soldier's deaths be for vain... even to his armies, who he was sending out to war, he appeared benevolent.

But of course, Asaya knew better than anyone that he wasn't as perfect as the people in his world thought he was. She knew all of his flaws, all of his intrusive thoughts, all of his violent tendencies... because she was the one who had created him to be that way. Sure, he was devoted and doting towards his love interest in the book, and would never betray or harm her no matter what it cost him, but… Asaya wasn't that love interest. She had based the love interest off herself, so they were basically copies of each other, but Elkan didn't know that. In fact, this only made her thoughts from earlier come full circle.

What is a creation to its creator? What is a creator to their creation? If a creation were to meet its creator, who had been the one to inflict so much pain onto it, how would it react? Because right now, Asaya was absolutely powerless, and here she was, facing an elf she had specifically designed to be an abnormally strong freak of nature.

His golden crown sat atop his head, a golden bar dipped down beneath his bangs to create a sharp diamond shape right between his brows. Elkan's silk robes were as extravagant as Asaya had created them to be, rich in taste and muted in color. The expensive fabrics were a pale green with small white flowers dotting nicely around the rims of his sleeves and dress, and it was designed to be generally easy to move in with a thick, dark green belt made out the finest leather wrapping around his thin yet sturdy torso. His face was flawless and perfect, with long, pale green eyelashes batting down at her as he gave her his signature smile, a type of smile that didn't truly reach his eyes.

“Do you think I'm going to kill you? For giving me such a tough life?” he offered easily, shifting in his stance as his bare feet didn't make a sound against the wooden floorboards. And he stuffed his soft dark hands into the large sleeves of his robe as he leaned over where she sat frozen on her bed, his eyes looking like mesmerizing, glassy emeralds as he gave a light chuckle, like her ongoing fright amused him. Which, knowing his character, it probably did. But when he noticed Asaya really didn't have the words to say anything, he merely lifted himself up, removing his hands from his sleeves to fiddle with the golden hoop attached to his ring finger. “You should really calm down, my lady. I'm not here to hurt you. You're the one who manifested me here, remember? I do urge you to recall.”

And Asaya froze as she gawked at him, briefly remembering the words she'd spoken on the off chance. It made her thoughts stumble, and her jaw stuttered up and down several times as she tried to meet Elkan's words. “I… I wished you were real,” she admitted slowly, soft lavender eyes blown wide as she came to a sudden realization. “I… I wished you were real, and then you appeared. Is that my…?”

“Oh wow, we've got a smart young lady right here! It looks like you've finally realized what your power is!” Elkan taunted, lightly clapping his hands in front of himself as Asaya frowned, perplexed.

There were a lot of unknowns taking place right now. For one, it was clear that Elkan knew she was the one who created him, but it was vague on whether or not he held any malice towards her or not. Then again, if he did hate her for it, he probably would have already killed her. Elkan wasn't the most patient of people. If he really didn't like someone, he wouldn't tolerate you without a good reason. Still, she should double check just in case.

“So you, um… you don't want to kill me, do you?” she quivered out, her weight nearly slipping from underneath her as she restabilized her hand, Elkan's smile not fading in the slightest as he gave a small shrug.

“Not really, no,” he told her, and Asaya noticed the signs that pointed to him being honest. His smile didn't look so forced, his facial features more subtly relaxed than they would be otherwise, and his eyes were completely open instead of that half-closed sly grin he gave when he lied. No, right now, he was looking directly at her, and he was telling the truth.

“You may be the person who wrote down my life detail for detail, but I don't mind that. You gave me my fair share of pain, but you also gave me my fair share of happiness. I believe you balanced my life well,” Elkan conceded, smile softening as he gazed at her, which made Asaya want to run away and hide.

“Not to mention, while I probably would've hated you and wanted you dead originally… the moment you manifested me into your reality, I was informed of everything about you. I know that you don't write your worlds with the intention of creating real people, and I know how hard life has been for you, and is for you right now. Honestly, any suffering I would've wished upon you for what you gave me has already been given by your own world's circumstances. I don't think I need to do much else,” he smiled with a bouncy shrug of his shoulders, like he was absolutely delighted to talk about her misfortune.

“And, if I may say so, you're a near exact copy of my lady,” he smiled wider, hand reaching over his mouth to hide his growing grin. “You're both the same type of cheeky. I'd love to help you achieve world dominance.”

“Oh… really?" Asaya blanked, having felt a mixture of emotions flash through her at that convincing speech. She'd been following along for the most part, and it made sense that if she knew everything about him, he'd probably know everything about her as well, like a fair trade off. And it was true that his love interest in the books she'd written had been designed as a self-insert, so Elkan really was created to love her, in a way. Everything made sense.

Until that last bit. It made Asaya squint at him, completely caught off guard as she blurted out, “World domination? Where'd you get that idea from?”

“Well, what else would you do with that power of yours?” Elkan frowned, his other hand lifting up to cover his mouth with his sleeves, demeaning eyes peeking out as he seemed to be evaluating her. “You did gather that your power is creation, right? Of course, I'll explain to you the details of it so we can get started with grinding through dungeons, but don't you see all the potential you have? Why didn't you wish me into existence sooner?” he chided, pointing a blaring finger in her face as Asaya scowled, swatting his hand away.

“Get out of my face! How was I supposed to know I could manifest you into existence?” she spat, glaring daggers at Elkan's smiling features that were starting to become annoying pretty fast. Although, her self-insert had the same initial reaction, so maybe that was just normal. And it was also beside the point!

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Asaya ended up dragging herself off the bed, circling around Elkan to stand firmly beside him, not willing to back down in the face of her own creation as she faced the powerful elf. “It's pretty clear here that you know how my power works. What is it, and how do you know more about it than I do when you just got here? Especially since you're only a figment of my imagination?” she questioned sternly, Elkan's smile never fading.

“Of course, it's right to be interested, and those are good questions,” he nodded reasonably, forest green eyes closing as he dove into an explanation. “The truth is, the moment I was summoned here, it felt like I knew everything I needed to know about you. I knew your childhood, your present, your worst fears, your desires, your strengths, your weaknesses… and of course, your powers. Though, in all honesty, I don't know why that is. The way I understand it is that it's just another function of your power, which is creation,” Elkan reiterated, Asaya's eyes narrowing slightly.

“And when I say creation, this is how it works. Whatever you write in a book… a full, finished, completed book… can be manifested into your life. You can manifest a character, or even objects. In other words, whatever you write down in a finished story format, you can bring into reality. Though, right now, it seems you only have enough mana to summon me. We'll have to go grinding for levels in the nearest dungeon to advance your skill set, but sadly, I don't know what any of your advancements will be like. I haven't the slightest clue where your power is destined to go. All I know is that even right now, at its base stage, it is incredibly powerful," he grinned, an almost sadistic twinkle shining in his emerald green eyes.

“I mean, you might only be able to summon one character at a time right now, and my powers are admittedly very limited at the moment, but I know for a fact I'm still fairly strong and more than capable of getting you on top. If you let me grind the experience you need, which will all be attributed to you, who knows how your creation ability will develop? And there's only two downsides!” he gleamed, clasping his hands together as Asaya stared at him, uncertain.

“I… do admit all of that sounds cool. I didn't think I'd gain a power like that,” she admitted nervously, fumbling with the sleeves of her pajamas, which she hadn't changed out of for who knows how long. “But, uh… I know you. And I know you're probably building this power up like that to hide the downsides. So you can just go ahead and tell me what they are. I'm ready,” she insisted, crossing her fingers in front of her to wish for good luck.

She really didn't want to have a power that sounded this impressive have such drastic downsides she couldn't even use it. That would be horrid. But Elkan merely smiled… a soft, genuine thing… as he reached down and gave Asaya's head a gentle ruffle. “Don't worry your pretty little head about it, my lady. The downsides aren't anything too bad,” he soothed, and Asaya couldn't help the way she completely froze the moment she was touched.

In her head, she knew it was something simple. A really basic form of contact that didn't breach much space at all... and yet the moment she felt it, it felt like the breath had been sucked away from her. She hadn't been touched in years. It made her stomach twist in knots, and she felt herself gagging on her own breath before Elkan pulled away, and she looked up at him in all her disorientation.

But he didn't make a big deal of it, thankfully, and serenely moved on with his words, careful not to comment on whatever had just overcome her to get back on topic. “As I said, there are only two downsides. One of them is that you and I can't go far away from the book you wrote me in. If you're too far away from the book, you can't summon me. And similarly, if I get too far away from you and the book, even if the book is on you, I'll be automatically teleported back to your side the moment I'm out of range. The max distance we can go from the book is ten miles, which is still a pretty wide area, but it does mean we'll have to take the book into dungeons with us. Which isn't too bad, yeah?” he offered, Asaya staring at him quizzically.

“Which means the second downside is worse, then.”

“Hah, who gave you permission to read me so well?” Elkan waved away, sly eyes traveling to the book his life had been written into, which laid innocently on her desk, on top of piles of forgotten papers covered in ink.

He was acutely aware of the fact he wasn't a real person. The moment he'd been manifested into Asaya's reality, he knew he was a fake, even if he still felt pretty real. But still, even if he was nothing more than a fake being of this new world he found himself in, he didn't want to disappear. So he turned back to Asaya, smiling at her adorably confused face as he gestured to the book on her bedside. “If the book that tells my story is ever destroyed, or becomes unreadable in any way, I will cease to exist. The book, in other words, is my lifeline. Which makes things a bit difficult, because you'll have to take it into a dungeon to summon me. It's all manageable, of course, but… I'm sure you see the dilemma,” he finished, Asaya's eyes brightening slightly, contrary to his expectations.

“Oh… that's it? That's not bad at all, actually,” she noted, smiling smally to herself as she gave it some thought. “We'll just have to get some fireproof and waterproof materials to put it in… I have enough money to buy that, thanks to my dad…” she muttered, Elkan's smile softening as he watched her.

This all seemed too perfect. Somehow, she'd made a character from one of her books real, and he'd been able to tell her exactly how her power worked. How often did people manage to get instruction manuals on how to use their magic? It happened sometimes, sure, but it wasn't often. And luckily, even though she hadn't given him the fairest hand, Elkan didn't want to kill her! That was a definite plus.

And right now, if she followed his lead and went into a dungeon with him, she might be able to gather enough experience to start manifesting more and more of her favorite characters into the real world! And she… she would no longer be alone. She'd be surrounded by a fantasy turned reality, something she'd created with her bare hands, with people who would love and understand her because of her power's conditions. If she grinded for all that power like Elkan wanted her to, she could create an entire army of people completely loyal to her.

She had to admit, she was very, very caught up in the idea of being surrounded by a harem she created from the ground up. Asaya wasn't entirely sure if she was polyamorous, since she'd always imagined herself settling down with one person who would love her and only her, but… there was no harm in trying it out for a little while, right? And if it didn't work, she would still have tons of friends! It was a win-win situation, it was!

Asaya was so giddy with her ideas that she nearly shrieked when Elkan gave a light tap to her shoulder, freaked out by the sly way his eyes gleamed as the powerful elf smiled down at her. “So, do you like my goal of world domination? It's pretty appealing, isn't it?”

…though, Asaya couldn't help but stare at him, a bit put off by that comment repeating itself as she gave him the look of a skeptic. “You have to be kidding. I don't want to rule the land. That sounds like way too much work.”

“Oh, come on, don't be like that,” Elkan huffed, circling around her the moment she tried to turn away. “Come now, my lady, please! I was king of the elves and multiple other races in the life you gave me! You wrote me to be power-hungry! You can't just not indulge me a little bit! I don't want to follow around some no-name nobody all day!” he jabbed, and Asaya couldn't help but whip around to face him at that disastrous comment.

“I'm not going to be some no-name nobody! Now that I have a power like this, I'm going to be the greatest magic user the world has ever seen!” she declared fiercely, her words coming out in a snappish growl as Elkan backed off, nodding approvingly.

“Yes, my lady, that's more like it.”

“Shut your face, elf boy,” Asaya stuck out her tongue, ignoring the fact Elkan had played her into getting the answer he wanted as she walked over to her desk, carefully picking up the book where Elkan had originated. The very place he'd been born, one of the books she held closest to her heart. It was a tragedy turned romance, filled with action and adventure and tales for the ages… and it was the book she'd tried to get published in a time that seemed so long ago, before Asaya had let her insecurities get the best of her and holed herself up in her home.

Could this possibly be how she recovered herself? Had wishing for one of her favorite characters to be real been the catalyst of a greater story for the ages? Would Asaya's tale be written down in a book of gold, her legend and story told to people all over the world? She really hoped it would. She wanted to break free of this dark and gloomy home. She wanted to be herself again. She wanted to be powerful, she wanted the world to see how special she was, and she wanted to be surrounded by people who loved her.

Could this… be her path? A path shaped by imagination and fantasy… a road built up from hopes and dreams… just where would it take her? Asaya couldn't wait to see.