Aric lay still in the hospital bed, the sterile smell of disinfectant heavy in the air. His eyes were closed, but his mind was restless. The hum of the machines around him faded, replaced by a strange stillness as he drifted into a deep, uneasy sleep. This sleep felt like it pulled him into another world.
He found himself standing in a vast, desolate field. The ground was cracked, and the soil beneath his feet was dry and barren, like a land scorched by a merciless sun.
The horizon stretched endlessly, swallowed by a sky churned with dark, roiling clouds. There was no wind, no sound, but the air felt thick, almost suffocating. Each breath was heavy, and the ground trembled beneath him like something immense stirred far below.
'This… this doesn't feel like a dream,' Aric thought, a chill running down his spine. His senses were too sharp, too clear. He could smell the acrid tang of burning ozone, feel the faint vibrations under his feet, and taste the metallic bitterness of fear at the back of his throat.
Something moved in the distance. Aric squinted, trying to make out the figure—a man standing alone in the middle of the field. A golden light radiated from his body, illuminating the darkness like a beacon.
It wasn't just light but warmth, a presence that seemed to fill the empty landscape.
'Who is that?' Aric's heart pounded in his chest. He took a hesitant step forward, compelled to approach, even as every instinct told him to keep his distance.
The man was unlike any Nova Aric had ever seen. His figure was imposing, yet he had an ethereal quality as if he were not entirely of this world.
The light that emanated from him wasn't blinding but fierce, steady, and unyielding, casting sharp shadows across the desolate land.
Then Aric saw them—the creatures. They emerged from the shadows, moving with an unnatural, predatory grace. Their bodies were vaguely human but twisted and elongated, with jagged, armor-like skin that glinted dully in the golden light.
Their eyes glowed with a cold, malevolent luminescence, and their twisted mouths curled into sneers of pure malice.
One creature, taller and more grotesque than the others, stepped forward. When it spoke, its voice was a deep, guttural growl reverberating through the ground.
"You think your light can save you, Galactic Conqueror?" it mocked. "You're nothing but a fleeting spark in the void."
The man—this Galactic Conqueror—stood his ground. His face was calm, his eyes burning with a light that matched the sun above, and he spoke with a quiet, unshakable confidence. "I am the light that consumes the darkness. The sun that burns away the shadows."
As his words echoed across the field, the sky above ignited. A massive sphere of light and fire roared above him, blinding the entire battlefield. The heat from the sphere was overwhelming, and Aric staggered back, instinctively raising an arm to shield his face.
He could feel the searing intensity of the light as if he were standing at the edge of a solar flare.
The lead creature hissed, recoiling slightly from the light, but then laughed—a mocking, chilling sound. "You think your fire will stop us?" it taunted, baring jagged teeth. "We've devoured stars, conquered galaxies. Your sun is but a flicker compared to the void."
With a single, deliberate motion, the Galactic Conqueror raised his hand, his gaze never wavering from the creatures. The sphere of light above him trembled, then shot downward like a comet, slamming into the earth with a cataclysmic explosion.
The ground shook violently, and a wave of searing heat and energy tore through the battlefield. Aric fell to his knees, struggling to stay upright as the shockwave rippled.
The creatures caught in the blast were incinerated, their bodies disintegrating into nothingness as the firestorm consumed them. But the victory was short-lived.
As the smoke cleared, more creatures emerged from the shadows—larger and grotesque, their eyes glowing with a darker, more sinister light.
They moved in unison, speaking in a chorus of overlapping voices that made Aric's skin crawl. "You are a fool to think you can stop us. We are eternal."
The Galactic Conqueror's face remained impassive, his eyes narrowing with determination. He was unfazed by their taunts, his body a living beacon of light that pushed back the encroaching darkness.
"Eternal?" he said, his voice a low rumble that carried a weight of certainty. "Nothing is eternal before the power of the sun."
The creatures charged, their movements fluid and unnervingly fast. Aric's heart skipped a beat as he watched them swarm toward the man. They should have overwhelmed and crushed him under their sheer numbers, but they didn't.
The ground beneath the creatures exploded, erupting into molten lava, and the air was filled with the sound of their agonized screams as the searing heat consumed them.
Aric stood frozen, unable to move or tear his eyes away. The air was thick with the smell of ash and charred earth, and the world seemed to blur at the edges as he struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.
'This is impossible,' Aric thought, his mind reeling. 'How is he doing this? Who is he?'
The creatures kept coming, undeterred by the molten death that awaited them. They moved with a terrifying, relentless determination, as if they were driven by a force far beyond hunger or malice.
The ground beneath them bubbled and cracked, yet they pressed on, their twisted forms glowing with a sickly light.
The Galactic Conqueror's glow intensified, the light radiating from his body almost blinding. Now a brilliant molten gold, his eyes locked onto the advancing horde.
With a roar that seemed to shake the very fabric of the world, he unleashed a wave of solar energy that rippled outward, obliterating everything in its path.
The creatures were torn apart, their forms dissolving into nothingness as the sun's fury washed over them. The sky above burned, and the earth below cracked and shattered, but the man stood amidst the destruction as if he were the eye of a raging storm.
Aric felt a surge of emotion inside him—fear, awe, and something else he couldn't quite name. He knew, somehow, that he was witnessing something that was both beautiful and terrible, a force beyond his understanding.
'This can't be real… but it feels so real.'
And then the Galactic Conqueror turned. His glowing eyes fixed on Aric, piercing through him with an intensity that made his breath catch. At that moment, it was as if the rest of the world had fallen away, leaving only the two in the vast, empty field.
"You are not ready," the man said, his voice echoing in Aric's mind, resonating with a power that made his very bones tremble. "But you will be."
Aric's chest tightened, his heart pounding against his ribs. 'Not ready? What does that mean? Ready for what?' he thought, panic rising in his throat. He tried to speak, to ask the questions that burned in his mind, but the words wouldn't come.
The man's gaze softened, almost as if he saw the turmoil inside Aric. There was a strange familiarity in his eyes, a sense of recognition that Aric couldn't explain.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the vision shattered.
Aric jolted awake, gasping for air. His hospital room was dark and silent; the only sound was the steady beeping of the monitor by his bedside.
Aric was drenched in sweat, his body trembling, but the unbearable heat of the dream—still lingered on his skin.
He sat up slowly, his mind spinning. 'What… what was that?' he thought, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. The image of the Galactic Conqueror standing amidst the flames burned into his mind.
The power he had witnessed—the raw, unstoppable force of the sun—was unlike anything he had ever imagined.
His thoughts raced, trying to make sense of the dream, but the more he tried to grasp it, the more it slipped away like sand falling through his fingers. He knew it had to mean something, that it couldn't have been just a dream. It was too vivid, too real. But what?
Then another thought hit him, sending a chill down his spine. 'Is that the power Loren told me about? The one in the ancient scroll?'
He had almost laughed off Loren's story when he first heard it—a tale about a power not from this world, something from the stars. It had sounded like a fairy tale, too absurd to be real.
But now, after what he had seen… could it be true?
Could that power really exist?
'The power of the sun,' he thought, his brow furrowing as he recalled Loren's words. 'A force of destruction and creation. A power beyond anything Earth has ever seen.'
He leaned back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling as the questions swirled around him. 'Why did I see that? Why did I dream about that power?'
It didn't make sense—none of it did. But Aric couldn't shake the feeling that it was important, that there was something he was supposed to understand, something he was supposed to do.
But what?
Aric sat in the darkness, the weight of the dream pressing down on him. Deep down, he knew that this wasn't the end. It was only the beginning—the beginning of something far bigger than himself, something that would change everything he thought he knew.
And as he lay there, his mind racing, the last words of the Galactic Conqueror echoed in his thoughts, a warning and a promise all at once.
"You are not ready… but you will be."
Aric shivered, not from the cold but from the certainty that whatever path lay before him would be unlike anything he had ever imagined.
This was only the beginning; somehow, he knew his life would never be the same again.