In a marvelous realm beyond the reach of mere mortals, there was an incomprehensibly giant black sphere. Standing on the surface of it, a mortal would only see a pitch black ground that extended forever into the distance.
They would look up from the ground and see a dazzling sight.
A turbulently flowing multicolored sky, dotted by an assortment of differently colored stars. Some shone more brilliantly than others. Some were bigger than others. Some formed beautiful constellations of magnificent complexity, and others stood alone. Most stood stationary, but many would move across the sky, too.
On the pitch black ground, there was an unperturbed and serene silence. A gentle stillness that offered any weary travelers a place to comfortably relax, away from the chaos of the skies.
"FUCK!"
But of course, nothing lasts forever. The serene silence of the pitch black plain was broken by the sudden appearance of a man in his prime. His body was well-defined. It was toned and muscular.
His body was that of a worker, one that worked very hard.
And that body thrashed about violently! The man let out bone-chilling screams, and they were accompanied by the sounds of splashing water whenever he hit the ground. The screams and thrashing lasted for minutes, slowly dying down afterward.
The man's body shook and shuddered, drawing in shaky breaths as he opened his eyes.
His constricted pupils were greeted by the mesmerizing sky.
His mind, turbulent and stressed, calmed down as he continued to stare. His body, tense and sore, began to soothe as he slowly understood what was going on.
"So… There is an afterlife."
The man slowly sat up from the ground and noticed something peculiar. For one, he was naked. And second, was the mystical qualities his aspect had gained.
His tan skin seemed to let out silver flames here and there around the visible edges of his body, which seemed to become glittering sparkles instead of smoke as they rose into the air.
"Cool…"
After admiring the mystical view of the dancing silver flames, he got up, bearing witness to how white circles would ripple outwards from the places he touched the ground, dissipating a short while after.
He looked all around him, seeing for himself how the pitch-black plain stretched infinitely into the distance.
"...What now? Do I just walk around?"
He turned his head back up to the sky.
"I figured purgatory would be a lot more… gray. Like the barracks."
Before he could start to walk, a brilliant white light began to shine from a circular spot in the ground a few paces away from him. Glittering spots of white filled that circle, resembling a picture of the night sky he remembered so fondly.
And then, several pitch-black globs filled with those glittering white spots began to rise from the ground in that spot like the paraffin wax in a lava lamp. They all hovered in place ominously after rising into the air a fair bit, and soon, the last glob left the ground to join the formation.
"What the hell?"
"I think the better question to ask would be: who the hell?"
The voice of a wise old man resounded out from the matrix of blobs before they began to coalesce into a single sphere. The sphere then began to morph further, becoming the shape of an androgynous human.
It lacked any discernible features. There were no eyes, nor was there a mouth or even a nose. Its face was completely flat. And it was as tall as the man was, standing at six feet tall. It began to walk around the man, seemingly inspecting him.
The man was indifferent to its inspections, though he, too, was inspecting it.
The glittering spots within the mysterious entity's body remained stationary, and it seemed new ones would come into view as it moved. It reminded the man of a cartoon he had watched when he was a young, naive boy.
"Michael Arroyo, my child. Yours was a life of tragedy… You just couldn't catch a break. Tell me, how do you feel now?"
"Liberated. You should know as much, God."
The mysterious entity chuckled as he heard what its child had called it. "Silly thing. That concept of me you're thinking of… It is a remnant of an old philosopher's ramblings. You know, it was quite interesting how that game of telephone spiraled out of control…"
The man raised an eyebrow, a silent prompt for the mystical figure to continue.
"You see, his postulations, made in good faith, were spread to others. The idea changed and morphed gradually until it reached a, quite frankly, awful group of people. They sought to gain control of others, not only of their bodies, but their very souls… So, they commandeered the initial idea and worked together to concoct stories of grandeur to sway the minds of the uneducated."
The entity sighed.
"I remember it as if it were yesterday. They got those poor fools to spill their own blood for the advancement of their priest's interests, leaving behind their children, their wives, and their drives."
"They fought and died in wars that had nothing to do with them, smiling at the thought that this corrupted, hateful version of myself would be proud of them in their efforts to enlighten so-called savages."
"Uh-huh… Well, those preachy types never did sit right with me. I guess I understand why now. But what are you, if not God?"
"I am the light, and I am the darkness. I am the wind, the water, the ground, and the very fabric of spacetime itself. The subatomic particles that compose them all. I am the Will of the Cosmos itself!"
The Will of the Cosmos spread its arms out in a grandeur fashion, seemingly showing off its glory.
"Can I just call you Will for short? Calling you The Will of the Cosmos over and over again sounds like a pain in the ass."
Its pose stiffened, ruining its aura of grandeur. Its back slumped over, and its arms dangled down like noodles.
"That's fine, Michael," it said before straightening out its position again.
"Cool. Anyway, Will, what the hell happened? I was handling the maintenance of one of the chemical pipes when I suddenly heard the sound of rushing water. Was there a lock failure or something?"
Will snapped its fingers, and the scenery around them suddenly changed.