"Haah, so this is the last supply of my whey protein, huh."

Placing his hand on top of the container, he turned on the switch and blended numerous types of berries, and his post workout supplements. For this occasion, he mixed his blend with a lot of salt.

A significant lot of salt.

The grinding blades within the container reverberated through the whole gym.

Aside from the swirling fan on the ceiling, the rigorous shrieking of the blender was the only sound that could be heard within that daylight.

There was not a single footstep on the mat. Not even the grunting of gym bros that could be heard before they shouted their warcry after a successful deadlift.

Even the entrance door was left open, and there was no traffic nor the loud trash talking of a truck driver that drove behind a learner driver.

It was serene.

Too serene.

With no emotion whatsoever, the man in his fifties behind the abandoned gym's counter began to unplug the plastic container from the spinner of the blender.

Beside him on the counter table was an expensive hazard gas mask. He was supposed to be still wearing it right now, but he didn't even have the urge to place his hand on that object again.

He chugged it entirely in a matter of seconds.

"Haaah, not enough salt."

His name was Kivas Chariot, a veteran soldier, and a veteran of life.

Despite the result of his healthy diet and workout schedule that could be seen from his masculine appearance—he suffered from the constant reminder of the death of his family by an accidental warhead retaliation from the opposing country when he was working in military service twenty years ago.

Till now, he never moved on. Instead of weeping in anguish, he decided to show his middle finger to life by working his best to make himself happier, to forget everything that had happened within that karmic day as he looked at the raging news about his hometown on all sorts of media.

What kind of attempt did he make to cleanse his pain?

He opened a gym after his service for the military ended, working with his health and confidence while also teaching and guiding others from the low of the life in the way of progressive self gain.

Of muscles, in most cases.

Not only that it was an honest and non-regretful action of his, he managed to remind people around him that life is somewhat fickle and short. Everyone needs to gaze away from their pain time to time, to see the opportunity to make their life worth remembering, if not by others, atleast for themselves.

Though, did he achieve his search for lost happiness?

Only Kivas himself knew the truth, and he never lied to himself.

After the post-chug's saltiness, he was fully refreshed.

The unenjoyable feeling of that saltiest protein shake reminded him that he was alive.

"T'was the tenth day streak of no customers and new membership for the Momentous Gym." Kivas chuckled. "A tad sad for my last moment, kinda miss the nagging old lady from the neighboring stall."

He leaned to the back of his swivel chair, paying all of his attention to the tickless watch on his right arm.

He did nothing but pay respect to his time for half an hour.

And then of a sudden.

A most loud and disastrous crackling of wind was heard in an instant before his life ended.

In the first millisecond, a ball of plasma hotter than the sun appeared and grew into a fireball a few kilometers across. Within this ball, everything was just gone.

Like water dripped into a very hot pan. A sizzle, and then there was nothing. The ground, the buildings, and everything had immediately evaporated.

Then, the flash. An instant tsunami of light washed over the messed up outskirts of the ghostly city and beyond in an instant. Any humans or animals who gazed upon the center of the explosion within this moment would have their vision rendered blind for a few hours.

The heat of this light produced a thermal pulse that was so energetic and hot, it burned everything around as far as 13 kilometers from the denotation site.

It was the equivalent of being struck by a miniature sun.

And then the second phase of the destruction began.

It only started in a few seconds.

If there were any people outside of the burning zone, they would mostly not notice that something had gone wrong, but even if they did, it was already too late. Because the flash was followed by a rigorous shockwave.

The heat and radiation of the fireball created a bubble of superheated and super-compressed air around it that expanded explosively. Faster than the speed of sound, creating winds that were stronger than the storms, tornadoes, and even the tribulation wrath from the myths of two gods fighting one and another.

The shockwave might have weakened as it traveled outward, but still, around 175 square kilometers of the civilization was already grounded, collapsing with no resistance as if they were made of feeble cards.

In comparison to this grand man-made disaster, Kivas' life was a joker card, a mere ant that was near the coincidentally exploding oil truck—just like how his former family was taken away from him, all by the whim of someone's cruel action.

Then, a mushroom cloud made from the remains of fireball, dust, and ash rose kilometers into the sky for the next few minutes, casting dark shadow to the ever ruined dangerous zone. The nuclear fungus then pulled in the air of the surrounding area, creating more destruction inward to the center.

If there were any living creatures up to 21 kilometers from the explosion, they would immediately notice the scenery of that devastating mushroom—it was just that they would be unaware that the shockwave was still coming at them.

After hours or days, this amount of nuclear contamination would affect the weather. An awful black rain would appear, with radioactive ash and dust descending to the remains of what one would once call a city.

Afterwards, the invisible and malicious radiation took its turn.

There was nothing but a silent horror left in its wake.

Turning ash to ash, molding hatred and fear to the heart of a nation in just a single push of a button.

None of Kivas' body parts remained.

For he was struck directly by the sun

'Finally,' Kivas thought to himself, 'I finally achieved peace.'

'That was, a very, very harsh life. I don't need to painfully breathe anymore. It ended now, and there wasn't a single regret that was left on that husk of self hate.'

'Well maybe I lied, maybe I did have many regrets. Maybe a person like me didn't really deserve to lead a normal and happy life with a warm family.'

'Maybe everything that happened within this short lifespan of mine has its own meaning. Well, maybe they are worth nothing.'

'Oh, how I want the opposite of my life to happen…'

'Seeing my son graduate, having one of my rebellious daughters take her crush into the house as my wife and I are arguing about that particular lucky man through constant streams of letters.'

'Clapping and wishing for the best within each and every wedding of my children.'

'Living my old age in retirement with the embrace of my wife.'

'Happiness.'

'The slightest, momentary happiness of satisfaction, as I watched everything that I worked for to finally bear its fruit.'

'Why does not a single seed of joy I've planted ever sprout?'

'Did such a thing even truly exist, to begin with?'

It was not before long until he reached a realization.

'... Wait, how am I still capable of thinking in the first place?'

There was nothing but his own soul in the vast darkness.

'Haah, am I going to be judged and sent to hell? Dear lord, all kinds of you, if you truly exist, please take haste to settle with my punishment.'

His consciousness was floating, yet the concept of a vessel for his mind didn't even exist.

'Huh, maybe the afterlife is reincarnation after all.'

He decided to wait patiently, for anything that would come.

He was extremely bored, obviously. Death would be the best kind of event in this situation, but he didn't even know if he was really dead or if death was actually a slow waiting game for everything to truly end.

If it even truly ends.

Just like a child that was counting a jumping sheep to sleep, he was counting the passing moment in his respective sense of his cognition of time.

One.

Two.

Three.

So on and on.

To twenty two.

To one hundred thirty four.

One could get the gist.

Within the darkest moment, he decided that he wanted some hope.

100 years had passed.

'I see, maybe at the end of everything, there is only a perpetual darkness awaiting us.'

'Maybe there is no such thing as reincarnation, nor even judgment from Yama. It doesn't matter if I ended up in hell. I just want something other than this silence and darkness…'

Albeit unnatural, Kivas didn't feel as much fatigue for waiting in that excruciatingly high amount of time.

As if his current state was set that way to preserve the cognitive process for a vesseless body in mind.

After a few more years, Kivas began to feel really pessimistic about his situation.

'Haah, maybe I'm already in hell after all, the kind of hell where I was put in eternal solitude, to cleanse all of my sins through the passing of time.'

The waiting game hurt him more than he could ever imagine.

1,000 years had passed.

Somehow, he still had his sanity.

Maybe it was not an exaggeration that a human could achieve anything if they set their mind on it.

Or Kivas was just an abomination full of willpower and determination.

The determination to believe that something might change.

He still kept counting, for example.

It might be a weird state to be in but he felt like his consciousness was different than that of a human, as he could always correct his counting if he made a mistake.

It was still stressful.

But not as stressful as when he was a normal human.

In Kivas' current state of preserved mind, he began to ponder on what would be happening on earth at this moment.

Maybe on earth at this moment in time, there won't be any weapon of mass destruction being thrown by countries to countries like a table tennis game without rackets to deflect it. In which, there were no turns, and everyone was selfishly serving their palm shot again and again.

If that weren't the case, then maybe humanity had reached its extinction. If they did manage to survive, Kivas could no longer even speculate what culture and technology looks like.

'An honorable accomplishment for humanity. Albeit I'm not even alive anymore, thinking about the possibility of space exploration might be a tad bit exciting.'

Even in his shallowest state, Kivas managed to find amusement with his own imagination, keeping himself mentally alive.

10,000 years had passed.

'If I remember clearly the science article that I read when I'm still alive, the star Antares would have gone supernova already, and would be visible from earth, even in daylight.'

With this far into the abyss, he somehow noticed that his memory didn't really corrode with the passing of time.

Either that, or he was actually in a simulation, and the processor of his chip, whatchamacallit thingies for his consciousness were somewhat broken.

'I guess I watched too many science theories on the internet…'

Thinking about such a possibility had dampened his will to preserve it as it struck a nasty cord against his existential dread.

Regardless, he felt like he might get used to it. Either with more hope, or in total despair.

He only hoped for the best.

100,000 years had passed.

Kivas didn't have much willpower left to keep his consciousness engaged. It was still active and sleepless as ever, but he decided to just keep counting and stayed silent, both mentally and spiritually.

With such a huge time passing by, the constellations would be altered by a little bit, but they would still be recognizable.

The hand of the Big Dipper got a little bit relaxed, for example.

He thought that the Big Dipper actually looked like a snail in his morning stretch.

Or it might be an unmotivated banana.

1,000,000,000 years had passed.

The Sun became 10% more luminous, meaning that the ocean of earth began to evaporate. Organic lives were unlikely to prevail.

4,000,000,000 years had passed.

His galaxy, the Milky Way, and the neighboring galaxy, Andromeda—collided, forming a Milkomeda.

10,000,000,000 years had passed.

The Sun was now 250 times bigger than its former size when Kivas was still alive. It had almost certainly swallowed Mercury, Venus, and Earth.

If humanity had reached the age of space exploration, then maybe there was a chance they were still somewhat alive, habiting the vast and ever expanding universe.

1,000,000,000,000 years had passed.

It was possible that an event called 'The Big Crunch' had begun, with the universe falling in on itself, reverting the continuous and accelerating expansion of the universe into a halt and reverting it all, accelerating in declination and diminishment.

Galactic clusters would begin to converge. Stars would collide. The resulting explosions were illuminating the heavens and the void in the distance.

Eventually the black holes of the universe would collide with one another, amassing into a single, super supermassive black hole, consuming itself.

1,000,000,000,000,000 years had passed.

It is also possible that no Big Crunch would occur, and the universe would continue to expand indefinitely.

In this scenario, the main point of interest for the next nigh unlimited period of time would be the decays of nucleons.

They were just protons and neutrons, beginning an era in which only black holes exist within the universe. Assuming that a new universe has not begun, the current universe achieves its final resting energy.

Uninhabited.

Uninhabitable.

Barren.

Perpetual, limitless darkness.

Despite the unimaginable passing of time, Kivas' subconsciousness was already programmed itself to keep counting.

And counting.

And counting.

And counting.

At this point, Kivas' soul was that of an empty shell. His consciousness was still awake, but his mind was dead, with the most painful kind of death within the concepts that had ever been founded by human knowledge.

An unbelievable amount of Ad Infinitum had passed. This time, his subconsciousness stopped caring about the passing of time.

Until at one moment, something could be perceived in the far and far distance.

A glint of hope, a glint of light that was slowly getting bigger and bigger. If only that happened one trillion years early, Kivas would rejoice with utter happiness.

After another incomprehensible amount of time, the source of that light was at a distance where Kivas could be perceiving it clearly if he could still muster his perception.

It was a torch, a flickering torch that shifted its hue and gradient color from blue, to red, and to yellow periodically. Holding the torch, was a beautiful petite woman with smooth porcelain skin, covered by an ancient dress of white kimono with red maple leaves patterns, converging with lines of golden unknown-symbol inscription all over the silky smooth surface of the dress.

With sharp eyelashes, this divine being had a peculiar but charming set of perpetually-elated yet sadistic half-lidded eyes, with the opened gap of sclera and its dark iris shaped similarly to a set of a mirrored yin that was separated from the yang. Gazing from those eye sockets were the pitch black pupils with two glowing-white concentric circles at the center.

Trailing and fluttering as she walked serenely with her bare feet, was her long and straight hair with the same color as her pupils—pitch black abyss.

Having thin dot-like eyebrows on her showcased forehead as her last prominent face feature, she wore a sinisterly enigmatic yet calm and elegant smile. Maybe it was a smile of reassurance to everything that was facing her, or maybe it was a smile of godly amusement. All details of her appearance exuded grandiose divinity and mystery, along with the possible eternal hope and eternal despair.

"Oya? Tis' another of those 'Disgraced', I wonder?"