Earth, with its majestic blue-green glow due to the vast body of water and the forests that covered its continents, was a jewel of the cosmos that all beings that had at least two variant color receptors in their observation organs could appreciate.
Of course, to truly see it in its full glory, one had to at least see that jewel from the outer sphere of its living zone.
Meaning one had to be in outer space to see it.
There were many ways to reach it. The current dominant species calling themselves Humans (basically smart naked monkeys) reached outer space on the technological route.
Sadly, for them to truly reach that point creates unintended consequences which could have been but have not been and continued to be ignored for quite a lot of time.
Currently, Humans have populated over 70% of the landmass if one ignored the uninhabitable places like deserts, canyons that are too rocky, pockets of land that were declared National Reserves for the wildlife that is on its last legs.
Or the last landmass that is still denying them their presence in large numbers with its icy tongues of cold wind and snow.
Still, even that place would lose in due time if one considered that their unintended consequences already rid them of one such place that was the North Pole.
Anyway, the point is that the current Earth is no longer a...
DING!!! DING!!! DING!!!
" Fuck. " Came out of my mouth in seconds in retaliation after the familiar visual and auditory notification appeared on the right side of my vHUD, and interrupted my artistic inspiration.
" Damn, it just had to happen when my inner artist finally came out. "
Sighing internally, I flicked mental levers in my head, and aside from the notification that just arrived, a whole slew of other things appeared and disappeared in my vision.
The holo keyboard on which I typed my inspiration, and the display that well… displayed my inspiration disappeared and a living room appeared in their place.
A thought came to me at that moment and once more I flicked a mental lever and a tiny piece of paper appeared in my vision. On it, I wrote a note for myself and placed it in a corner of the vHUD that was in my vision so that I would remember to check it out.
Did not actually need it if one considered my memory retention capacity, but no matter how one augmented a human mind, it will nevertheless remain a human mind and its attention span would however remain the same.
Done with that, I placed my attention on the notification that arrived. " Since it broke my ASP (Author Silence Protocol) it must be important. Let's see what this is about? "
With my attention on it, it magnified and displayed its important message.
!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; TYPE; CHAOS, SOUL, VARIANT; TRUCK. !!!
!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; LOCATION; ASIA/ CHINA. COORDINATES; ##. ## !!!
!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; ETA; 53 seconds. !!!
" FUCK, important indeed. OK, no time to dawdle away. " Immediately additional mental commands rattle my mind, but this time I ignore the vHUD, as it was just a fancy toy for me and completely unneeded in truth, and send commands directly into my brain to initiate a cascade of cocktails which accelerate my thoughts beyond the normal human spectrum.
In plain-spoken terms, I activated Bullet Time.
With the added internal time to process things, more commands flickered all over and a map of Earth appeared to me. Seconds later, I zoomed on China's mainland and the coordinates showed.
' Small town? But it's in the middle of nowhere important. If I consider the time frame, immediate physical body transfer is out of the option. That leaves me with an Avatar, but just in case let's pay it a visit, personally. ' Having decided on a plan of action, I split my Will in two.
Done with splitting myself, I instruct my System where my Avatar should be generated, and seconds later, half of my Will was gone.
Next, my physical body received its instructions. But for my body to actually participate in that event in question, it needed to be sent half the globe in so little time, that some would immediately say it was plainly impossible.
And they would be correct if one had no access to what normal people consider THE Impossible, THE Unthinkable, THE every boy's and girl's wet dream.
If one asked what that Impossible was, well 99% of people would say it is Magic and they would be right, mostly. There is other stuff aside from Magic out there after all.
Sadly for me, my area of expertise belongs to the opposite of Magic, and in that case, I have no ridiculous Teleports and Portals at my convenience.
At least I should not, but like everything else in life, if you don't have it you find somebody who does. With another mental command, I send a message.
~ Marcus, my best buddy. How are you doing? I hope I am not interrupting anything important, but I am in need of your mighty Space Magic. I need a Teleport from basically where I am currently, which is my sofa, to these coordinates ##. ##. Oh, and I need it pronto, and for the accuracy of my current need, here is another PRONTO. ~
For additional weight, I send the message with the same priority with which I received my notification, basically meaning I am guaranteed to interrupt anything he was doing.
Waiting for his reply, I spent a literal eternity since he did not possess my ridiculous mental acceleration. A second IRL the reply came.
~ Fuck you for that, almost had a heart attack. I am busy and whatever your hurry is, if it's not the end of the world, don't interrupt me. ~
' Huh, usually he's amicable if it's really important to me. Wonder what he is doing? ' Despite my pressing need to be somewhere, I accessed the System and traced his location.
' Hmm, he's home. What could he be… Oh! ' Just in case I check with more detail his location and essentially nod my mental head at my deduction.
~ Oh, I am sorry to interrupt. Continue your exercise. It's not THAT important. ~ Attached to it was a SNU SNU meme just to rile him a bit more.
' The long way it is, then. ' Canceling my bullet time took a few seconds and by the time I looked at the timer, there were barely 30 seconds left. Sighing internally, I flexed my power and fundamentally vanished from my home and Earth at the same time.
Where I appeared was my Realm, specifically a copy of my home in it. The next second I vanished from there too and found myself outside and behind the house where a small stone arch stood.
It was slightly bigger than me and just the right size to function as a makeshift metaphysical door that would connect to the spatial and temporal coordinates of my destination.
"Too bad you were not built with speed in mind, not that I would be able to do even if I wanted to. Anyway, let's do this."
Placing my hand on one side of the arch, it lit up. Specifically, on the inside, where usually a physical obstruction would represent a door, a miniature representation of my Realm appeared.
At the bottom was a field of white out of which rose tiny stars. The Stars congregated into tiny streams, which in turn congregated into vast rivers in various directions. Many of the rivers crossed each other at some point so it was hard to pinpoint where one truly ended and another began.
In the middle of the arch, the biggest of the rivers congregated into Galaxies and at the center of these Galaxies were singularities that consumed the Stars.
Out of each of the singularities arose nebulous pillars and around the pillars spiraled nebulous streams in a double helix form. At the top of the congregated nebulas of various forms and colors.
Finally, at the top and the very edge of the arch, the nebulas turned white and the clean white attached itself to the arch and used it as support to slowly trickle downwards, only to repeat the pattern once it was at the very bottom.
It was an exquisite representation of my Realm, which I named The Dreamscape.
When one looked at it, one would feel like it was a 3D image imprinted onto the space representing the doorway, or if a Magician saw it, a Grand miniature Illusion.
Frankly, it was both, but not that it mattered at the moment.
By the time it powered up, connected to the coordinates my Avatar was in, and generated the portal on the other side my countdown had long since passed the number 0. Passing through, it was as if I appeared in a different world and not Earth.
The simple reason for that was that the coordinates contained a temporal de-sync part. Meaning the place I arrived had a different temporal flow compared to normal Earth.
It was a small bubble roughly 3 meters in radius in which I arrived. Looking around, I saw the bubble was in the middle of the road, or better said, in the middle of a cross-section of a city road.
Outside the bubble, everything stood still. At least it appeared as it did and indeed, in some perspective, it did if only compared from the inside.
The truth of the fact was that messing with Time was very expensive Power-wise so if I truly stopped Time everywhere but here in the bubble, I would be a dry corpse in nanoseconds. So instead, the opposite happened. I accelerated Time inside the bubble and hallelujah had the cost bonked down to manageable levels.
Still hella expensive, though.
Anyway, looking outside, I searched for my target. Not seeing it at first glance, I turned around and saw it barely a meter in front of the bubble.
" We meet again, Truck-kun. Say, shall we have another bout and see who wins this time. So far it's 0-12 in your favor, but mark my words, thirteen shall be my lucky number, or at least I hope it will. I am seriously stumped at what I am doing wrong without actual data. " With my declaration done and receiving no reply, I rolled my eyes at the current iteration of him, in all his glory that only a trash truck could display.
" Stupid anomaly, can't you at least stay in the same form so that it's easier to classify you. " Again receiving no reply, I turn away from his majesty and look at the center of the bubble where my Avatar stood still, with one hand on the head of the boy that tried to cross the road but was never meant to finish it.
Walking to my Avatar, I spoke. " I take it I am in the presence of a genuine believer since he looks barely past 16? "
In reply, the Avatar nodded. " With all of his heart. Rare breed nowadays. " Acknowledging the opinion of my Avatar that contained the other half of my Will I looked at the boy closer.
" Tell me about him. Is there anything special about him? " I ask myself.
" Aside from the usual, No. " Nodding, I sighed to him and placed my hand on the Avatar, and integrated my Will back into the physical body while leaving the Power it had inhabited there.
Next, I had it assume the boys' form for a better connection, then by placing my left hand on the boy's real body, I mentally connected him to the Avatar to act as a replacement for his actual body.
Done with that, with a brief pulse, the boy's Will awakened. " Boy! Don't panic if you can't move your body. Focus on my voice and follow it. "
Having gone through this process many times before, I knew the best way to not have him panic. After some initial disorientation and the usual panic attack that happens right after, he followed my voice and soon found light in the body I made for him.
After that, the usual confusion followed, where I denied any connection to that imbecile of a God. Wanting to progress with the main part of the event, with my finger I pointed behind him and he turned around.
It didn't take him long to figure it all out, as he was an avid believer, after all. Seconds later he was on the ground kneeling to the almighty Truck-kun that had come to deliver him to his Destiny.
Seeing him, I had no choice but to sigh in my mind once more at his theatrics. He wasn't the only one who did it and probably won't be the last one either if one considers all the other scenarios and their variations that existed.
At first, I had found it funny, since I understood his " Religion " but like everything in life, once one is exposed to a lot of stuff, it just loses its appeal.
After finally exhausting all the religious zeal that only a zealot of anime and manga could possess, he came to himself and finally figured that he would be crushed by a trash truck of all the possible trucks in existence.
' Haha, now that's a face you don't see often. ' Laughing internally for a bit, I waited for him.
Seconds after that he figured an anomaly had appeared, making all this happen.
Which was me, of course.
Once I had his full attention, he spoke. " So who are you and why did you appear before me? Are you trying to steal my Glory? " Rolling my eyes to display the idiocy of his question, I initiate my play. " Listen to me boy, and listen to me well as I don't enjoy repeating myself. Right now you are finding yourself in an interesting situation. You will leave this world to wherever you will go and have a grand adventure as you are meant to. So you do not need to worry about me interfering with your Destiny. "
Tilting his head, he voiced his thoughts while pointing at himself. " But, there are some conditions from you, otherwise I would not be in this situation, am I right? "
' At least he's smart. Will live longer that way. Not that I care what he does, as long as this will work. ' I remarked in my head. " Not exactly a condition, more of an opportunity. You as an individual are not important to me and neither are you the only one I have given this opportunity to. What is important to me is how and where you're going. With that said, are you interested in listening to my proposal? "
" Go ahead. " He said immediately. Nodding to his decisiveness, I place my right hand before his Avatar eyes and open my right hand. Above it appeared a small golden ball.
" This is an egg. A spiritual egg, to be precise. It will be your reward and opportunity at the same time if you accept my offer. "
" Egg? " Immediately, his curiosity peaked. Of course, it did. After all, being a reader of everything, I knew what ticked his type.
" What will hatch out of it? Actually, how will I even hatch that? It won't eat me after it hatches? Oh, also what do you want from me in exchange? "
" You don't have to worry about the hatching part and no, it won't eat you literally. " I explained. " Once I give you the egg, somewhere along your journey it will hatch on its own, even without you doing anything. But if you want to accelerate the process, it's easy. The egg feeds on your Dreams and Nightmares and its favorite types are Dreams generated by Knowledge you will learn and utilize during your adventure. So the more exotic the Knowledge, the more it will like it. And before you ask as all the others did before you, NO, the feeding process won't harm you at all. You will instead benefit from its presence. As to how much, well, that will depend on your character. "
" What I want in exchange is simple. I want you to help it hatch, and grow, and once it has reached full maturity, I want you to not interfere with its decision to leave you and return to me to fulfill its purpose of creating the next generation of Spirits. I know, right now it doesn't sound that fair to you if one considers your effort in raising it, but if you treat it right, you will become good friends and it will return to you again, probably. Like I said before, it all will depend on your character. "
Done with my speech, I could see his gears grind and consider my offer. Too bad for him, I am cheating and can read him like a book since the body he is using is one created by my Power and I knew I had him hooked.
Of course, I still had to reel him in. " Oh, I should mention that if you accept my offer, you will have to sign a Contract to honor our agreement. After all, as their creator, I want them to be treated properly. "
Curiosity came to his face, but a second later he nodded as if he figured it all and that nothing comes free. " So, basically the spiritual creature goes to another World, steals Knowledge from them, and delivers it to you at some point. I am just a bystander that benefits from its presence, and if I don't befriend it, those benefits would vanish. "
' Smart kid, indeed. ' With a small nod, I confirm his musings.
" Ok, I will accept your offer. How do I sign that Contract? " Raising my left hand before him, a golden glow appeared above it. Inside the golden light appeared two items. One was a rolled-up golden scroll and the other a golden-black fountain pen.
" Take the pen and open the scroll. On it, you will find the terms of our agreement. Once you read it, you will notice that the terms are very simple. " Doing as told, he rolled open the scroll with lots of black-gold esthetics on the rim on the scroll, but the most important part was in the middle, for him at least.
The terms were simple as anything complicated would hinder the purpose of this moment, just like it did previously. Once he read my terms, he nodded but did not stop there.
Next, he looked all over the Contract and even brought it closer to his eyes to try and see if there was any fine print. " Oh, looks like you have some experience with contracts. Are you trying to look for the fine print? "
That did give him pause, and he faced me instead of the Contract. Studying me for a second, he replied. " My mother was a lawyer before she died. When I was younger, she always told me to look for the fine print as the Devil always hid in the fine print. "
" True. " I commented but said no more. Seeing nothing more come from me, he continued his search for the imaginary Devil. Once he found none, he took the pen, and just before he signed it, he took one last glance at me.
Flashing a little smile at him, I nodded, and he signed it.
With his name on it, the pen alongside the egg vanished into the scroll as they were part of the Contract and it rolled itself shut.
Next, it flew into his actual body, specifically his Soul and there it took root.
With that, my purpose here ended. I looked at the boy inhabiting my Avatar when a thought came to me. " You know, your mother wasn't wrong when she said the Devil is in the fine print. "
" But? " He inquired.
" But that only applies to normal people and not those with Powers at their disposal. When you have Powers you will find out that the Devil is not in the Contract but he is the Contract. " With the final advice, I prepared my right thumb and middle finger.
SNAP
The Avatar that he inhabited just a second ego collapsed and vanished into my body and he lost consciousness.
Ignoring the boy as he was no longer important to me, I looked back at the truck that was about to kill him.
" My part here is done, let's see if this will be another failure. "
Shaking my head, I sent my final command. " System, re-synch this place immediately once I am gone and start the timer. Let us see how long it will take this time for the feedback. "
~ Affirmative ~
A second later, I vanished from the little bubble of accelerated Time back into my Realm without the need of a Portal as nobody had the power to interfere with me returning to it, and seconds later the bubble vanished too.
What came next was of no surprise to me as I had observed it before.
The truck hit the boy, the boy then died instantly and his Soul left the body. But contrary to what usually happens to a Soul leaving a recently deceased body, it ignored the pull of the local Soul River but was instead picked up by a different current.
A current that would ignore all boundaries to be defined, bend any Laws that interfered with its flow, and carry its Destined One's across Creation to their rightful place and rightful Time.
A current that I named Chaos Flow, after all, aren't we the Destined One's the favorite children of Chaos if one considered the aftermath of our mere presence upon Creation?