Niamh didn't know how much time had passed, but he was worried that his parents would ground him when he came back from this.
*Sigh*
"I understand that these visions are to help me understand the technique, but..." (Niamh Ashwin)
He hasn't succeeded even once.
He kept trying to understand the mechanics behind the collapse and creation of the universe, and although he had some results, that wasn't enough to let him out. Even worse, once he started seeing more closely into the universe as a whole, his eyes, mind, and body began to hurt to the point of unconsciousness.
He had collapsed six times already.
"Maybe I'm approaching this in the wrong way; what if instead of looking at the universe as a whole, I looked more closely, like into the galaxies?" (Niamh Ashwin)
On the next cycle, he started to try and focus only on the galaxies in the universe, but the quantity kept increasing.
"Ouch!, Ouch!, no, nop, stop..." (Niamh Ashwin) He began to squirm his body from the pain.
"If it is too hard, then in the next cycle I will focus only on one galaxy"(Niamh Ashwin), he encourages himself.
The result...
"Ouch!, fuck!, it hurts!" (Niamh Ashwin)
The quantity of planetary systems and stray planets was overwhelming to his consciousness.
*Haah* *haah*
"...then...I will focus on just one side of the different planetary systems on one galaxy that way..."(Niamh Ashwin)
Next cycle....
"Fucking, piece of shit!, ouch!" (Niamh Ashwin)
"Ok, this is it! On the next cycle, I will focus only on one fucking planetary system!"(Niamh Ashwin) He yelled into the void of space.
He waited until the big bang happened again. He didn't have to wait that long until...
*BANG*
...the great explosion happened, then he waited until some of the galaxies were formed. After a couple of minutes, the image in front of his eyes began to zoom in; he saw the galaxies; he chose one of the many ones and continued to zoom in; he saw the different types of planetary systems inside this galaxy; he chose the one that was most appealing to him; and for the last time, he zoomed in.
"Wow..." (Niamh Ashwin)
He saw only four planets orbiting around a neon blueish incandescent star in the middle, and he suddenly focused his attention on the third planet.
Strangely enough, he could feel something from this plannet.
"There's life on this plannet" (Niamh Ashwin), he said it as a matter of fact, but on his mind he was asking himself.
(How did I know that?)
He continued to observe this planet and, from time to time, the whole system. He saw that life on that planet began to evolve rapidly from a primitive type into an advanced civilization in the span of a couple of hours.
"This feels as if I'm a god looking at his creation, but I know that this won't last..."(Niamh Ashwin)
The living beings on the planet began to travel to the other planets, colonize them, and continue to prosper. After a couple more centuries, they put a giant, circular metal-like structure around their sun, which they used to harness infinite energy from, powering their whole civilization.
"They already are at this stage, but..." (Niamh Ashwin)
He could feel that time was running out; the expansion of the universe was already affecting several galaxies, and this one wasn't an exception.
Planets fell out of orbit, electromagnetic storms became more rampant, interplanetary travel was compromised... it was chaos.
They tried to fix it by moving their planets closer to their sun, but it was too late; the expansion ended, and now it was time for the contraction of the universe.
"No..." (Niamh Ashwin) He pleaded silently, but the phenomenon didn't stop.
Everything was swapped away by the contraction of the universe, and once again it expanded. This cycle repeated itself over and over again.
He was forced to understand the cycle of life and death, the neverending cycle of energy in the universe. To quote some great scientists, "Energy cannot be destroyed nor disappear; it just transforms.".
********
"Ugh, I'm hungry..."(Niamh Ashwin)
On a hospital bed, a young teen with white skin, short, smooth, dark brown hair, and blue eyes woke up. Besides him, a woman in what looked like her thirties was looking at him with fire in her green eyes.
"Do you have anything to say to me, young man?" (Kaiya Ashwin) Her tone was cold, as if a wrong answer would be the difference between life and death.
"I'm so sorry, mom(Niamh Ashwin), he could only apologize.
*Ting*
The automatic door of the hospital room was open.
"Oh, son, you're finally awake (Luke Ashwin)
His father wasn't that upset; after all, he understood the curiosity of a boy like him, but he needed to teach him that cultivation wasn't a thing that you can play with or mess up casually.
______________________
After the intensive and long scolding provided by his two parents, Niamh knew that one week had already passed.
After they brought him to the doctor last week, he told them that the state that he was in was normal if he accidentally started cultivating without the supervision of a teacher and that at least a week or two would be spent immersed in that state, and after that, he would be expelled on his own.
The downside is that it will take at least over a month to heal due to the mind and body damage caused by the rebound of the technique itself.
"Luckily, I learned the technique; if not, sigh."(Niamh Ashwin)
He was in his room now, but before he went to bed, his parents warned him not to cultivate on his own. Apparently, the school will teach him all about it.
"I'm looking forward to it"(Niamh Ashwin). With that in mind, he went to bed.
That night he had a dream. He saw a planetary system. It had four planets, and in the middle, a bluish sun was rotating on itself, and the four planets were rotating around it. After some time, this planetary system contracted on itself, creating an explosion. From this explosion, an identical planetary system was born. This cycle repeated itself over and over again.
In the real world, hundreds of starlights were gathering around his body; some of them entered his body to never leave, and others were just hovering around him.
**************
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
At seven o'clock in the morning, an alarm clock went off in his room.
*Click*
He slowly lifted his left hand and pushed the alarm clock, shutting it down.
"Aggh, five more minutes..." (Niamh Ashwin) He just changed positions and went back to sleep.
Before he fully went to sleep,.
*Bang* *bang* *bang*
A loud banging noise came from his door.
"Breakfast is in 30 minutes, young man!" (Kaiya Ashwin) She just yelled that and went back downstairs.
"Agggh, I hate Monday." (Niamh Ashwin)
After eating breakfast, he got on the bus and went to school. His school was relatively close by, and for him, it was a shame because this new world was fascinating to him.
It was a combination of his old world, but it had many more conveniences like flying cars, technology, advanced medical cures and treatments, and overall, it had a futuristic vibe all over the place.
"Tasha High School stop, I repeat Tasha High School stop (Bus A.I.)
*Ting*
The automatic doors of the bus opened, and then a couple dozen students came out of it.
Niamh stood at the entrance of his high school, looking at the four huge buildings in front of him.
He recalled the conversation he had with his past homeroom teacher.
"I heard that you are okay, Niamh"(teacher)
"Yes, sir, I'm sorry for bringing you trouble. (Niamh Ashwin) He offered an apology.
"Ha, ha, ha, don't be. I was a kid once too. It's good that you're ok. Now that you've been absent, I need to communicate this by phone. Your parents told me about your test results. So, from tomorrow forward, you will take classes on the first building..."(Teacher)
Back at the present...
"So first building, here we go!" (Niamh Ashwin)