(I reject a death that I do not accept)
Her voice affected him more deeply then he expected. He started to doubt his own life but then stopped. He had feelings about giving his body back to space, but then he decided he didn't want to. How nice was it to spend all of eternity with the girl in front of him, but it was better still to spend it experiencing the vicissitudes of life with her. He was hyperventilating with unwillingness, breathing in regret and breathing out determination. Black smoke came from the left and gray smoke from the right. He grabbed at the invisible chains in front of him and tugged at them.
The stars and planets shifted out of place causing disturbances in black holes. Gravitational boundaries were broken as meteors crashed onto planets teeming with life. The void waved back and forth as though a terrible monster had awaken from a deep slumber. The corpse in front of him faded somewhat, as though duplicates couldn't exist in the same world.
Her fingers applied pressure on his arm with all the strength she mustered. She was visibly shaken by what she was seeing. The scene exceeded the scope of her understanding of what Initiates, Magi, and even Warlock's were capable of. Nothing that she saw was within the bounds of logic or reality. It was like a dream where anything could happen. She was in a dream yet it wasn't a dream because it was reality yet it also wasn't reality. They were dead but not dead so it was but a dream but they were in fact stuck in reality.
He grabbed again and pulled harder.
Many massive rips in the distance caused a ripple effect that folded in towards them, disturbing everything from black holes to her consciousness. 'Wakefulness' faded into fatigue and tiredness. She yawned but also cried, not wanting to disappear but he didn't notice as he pulled with every fiber of his being. The cosmos was like a shattered mirror that could no longer hold its secret.
—
Alice Huxley was no longer crying because she was no longer holding the corpse of her brother. She was hugging a body full of warmth and hope. The first pulse came out of the blue. It came an hour after Adam Huxley died and his body had become blue and cold to the touch. Every expert on scene rushed to intercept the killer but it was fearsome, domineering, and impervious. It was too strong and shrugged off all their attacks the way an adult easily deals with a kid.
The city's strongest elites first noticed it a year ago and began an exhaustive monitoring campaign. They tracked it from space down to the water. Attempts to purify, retrieve, and extract it were futile at best, murderous at worst. Hundreds of people died with no known cause until the government dumped billions to find a cause. It quieted down after that. The entire power of humanity bearing down on its neck may have proved too much for it to handle.
Except this was false.
During the first examination, the entire group of examinees and proctors died. Despite all of humanity overwhelming it with attacks, it was unfazed and slaughtered everyone. It had already knew ahead of time, far before anyone even discovered it themselves, the strengths and weaknesses of every single technique that humanity would ever know. Slaughtering everyone after the fact was a piece of cake.
As if answering the most pressing question was trivial to it, it only revealed a single phrase. It took months to decode because it wasn't a native language.
"I allowed time to grow yet you all disappoint me. You cannot even predict your doom or foresee success despite all your math and tech. When you peak, I shall wipe you all to foster a more intellectual rebirth"
That answered nothing at all and put the entire world on edge. This invader could strike at any time and not a single expert was strong enough to even injure it. There was no second or third or tenth examination. Just people living in fear and unknowingly staving off their death.
Then Adam Huxley was born to Ryan and Carmen Huxley. The most devastating threat to the invader but absolutely no one had a clue how. Not even the invader. It happened on the morning after a summer shower with a rainbow appearing immediately after. The first rainbow in years. People were shocked then broke into a raucous applause. The leaders of humanity tried to quiet them down but to no avail. Within minutes, shadows and a mounting pressure ascended from below. It was outraged by the state of the world. The despair and hopelessness it had thrived on was suddenly shut off, starving it. Such meager emotions did nothing to satisfy or satiate it but the misery was a blessing to it.
It charged at the defenseless Adam but was wounded by something it hadn't expected. It did not expect it in fact, because it was responsible. The reflection nullified its own punch and created a massive tear in its body. It roared not in fury but in fear. It had never known an equal, had always assumed that an equal to itself was impossible, but staring right back it was an equal that was possibly stronger because the obstacle had backup. It retreated, intending to bide its time as it studied the baby and prepared a counterattack. The existence of such an impossible concept threatened its safety and it would not allow such a volatile thought.
Humanity rallied under a beacon of hope after that day. Experts and Elites prospered. They were about to turn over a new leaf through a celebratory examination titled 'New Chapter' when it attacked again.
—
Adam Huxley had been trained and taught by experts, elites, and a new generation of emerging powerhouses. He was part of a similar generation of new experts. There was a concept known as Inversion whereas every time humanity was on the brink of extinction, the time line would fork onto a different path. No one was aware of this. Not even Adam because the split was too subtle. He distinctly remembered being in a village, then he was in the city, then he was in the future, and now, he was in the future's future in an unfamiliar place. He remembered the familiar roar of an enemy that had chased him his entire life.
He remembered the girl who had been with him the whole time because she was holding onto him. Alice and Ryan and Carmen also stayed with him regardless. They were like an anchor that held him in place. However, everything had a source and he came from somewhere. As he became more and more familiar with himself, the blood in his body began to boil with excitement. He could feel home coming closer and closer. It was like he had been lost all this time and finally made his way back.
As he took a deep breath, the familiar black and white smoke appeared again. Punching out, the world did not shatter or tremble. He was home. Instead, the middle of an intersection with roads and streets appeared out of nowhere.
"Congratulations to Adam Huxley for being the first civilian to trigger the Infinite Illusion in hundreds of years YET breaking out of it in record time even amongst the Arcane Echelon. Eight minutes, thirty nine loops, and no defeats against the despair that creeps within everyone's heart. You have been blessed with the same method you used to beat an ancient puzzle. It is unheard of to realize Inversion. It is even more impossible to attain both Inversion and transform into a Warlock because the two ideas are similar to fire and oil. Both repel the other's existence"
A professorial yet gentle voice entered his ears. He recognized it as belonging to Arthur von Diersig, the President of the Arcane Association of Fellow Wizards, or AAFW. The bigger cities knew who he was but smaller outskirts like the one he lived in only knew that he eclipsed Elites. All of them wore Victorian style clothing but only Arthur researched what a Victorian wizard hat might look like. He had studied all the books in the cities libraries so he understood what Inversion and Warlocks were. He was just not privy to this in the trial. He would primarily use Inversion as a defensive and reactionary tool. It's intended usage was to shatter the opponent's doubt and make them fully believe the act. Warlocks were a sophisticated tool that few Wizards had the pleasure of using to understand the world. This would involve practical application of technique, theory crafting, and subverting traditional expectations of supernatural structures.
He stepped forward to retrieve his attire and that's when the girl he saw but didn't notice rushed forward and threw herself into his embrace. He was frozen in shock. This was the same girl that had accompanied him for most of eternity. But she wasn't real. He was even more confused when the crowd complimented him, saying it was hard for a girl to find such a reliable man.
"I told you we would be together for all of eternity. I will tell you more later. This isn't a good place. Bad things are coming soon and you have to be prepare in case your world is next"
Her voice, her appearance, her mannerisms, and her concern were all real and genuine, but she was definitely an illusion of his mind. He remembered that before this, he had no girlfriend. Only an orphan with no friends except the city government that saw value in his future.