Under the veil of the starry sea, in a small planet far into the desolate outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy, Dre, his eyes fixated on a shimmering object moving across the sky, laid motionlessly on a subtle green field, captivated by the object's appearance.
Watching it's shimmering green body dim from afar, he couldn't help feeling his desire, to leave Calix and explore the universe, teem.
Ever since his parents, whom in a sense some argued loved exploration more than him_not Dre though, left for their lifetime adventure, Dre's yearning to do the exact ignited. And since then, adding to the small fortune they'd left him worked tirelessly day in and out for four years inorder to save up enough to travel to Orden_a planet where opportunity meet desire.
There he could do a bunch of odd jobs and unlike Calix, earn a fortune, enough to curve a path for his adventures.
"Finally, tomorrow I'll have enough credits" Rolling up his right hand sleeve to reveal a small screen, indicating 872 credits, on his back wrist, with a grin, he rose up and began trekking south towards the neon city that surrounded the deserted park ten times the size of a football field.
He needed proper rest for the big day..
His plan, simple and direct, was to leave the planet tomorrow after recieving his monthly payment and acquiring enough credits for a one way trip to Orden.
Steadily walking towards the city, his steps suddenly halted, his bright face abruptly falling into anguish as his left hand crutched his right shoulder, that felt like it was being curved with hot iron, tightly .
Resisting the urge to scream, he gritted his teeth and with no trace of thought forming in his mind, tried to forcefully reap open his shirt. But then all off a sudden, just as the pain had assaulted him, it recessed and not a second after, before he even got the chance to look into it, rhythmic sirens arose all across the city.
Confused he bolted towards the city, forgetting the strange pain seconds ago.
'I wonder what happened?'
In all his twenty years on this planet, he never heard the sirens go off, and although he'd heard that they only went off if something capable of affecting all of civilization known in the cosmos occurred, he still couldn't think of anything capable of such a feat.
Approaching, he rushly opened the gate that bordered the city and the park with the aid of a barbed fence encircling it and hurried to the square.
Passing by the towering glass buildings populating the city, he pushed past the masses that filled the walkway, some even hovering above with hoverboards as they all hurried to the square.
Forgetting that he could view the details of this whole event in his wrist device. Well not forgetting, like most people pushing throug the walkway, he wanted to know the cause behind all this and see the reaction of everyone else.
With screams arising from all corners and the terrified faces he cared to look at while jogging, Dre could tell that something dreadful had happened. This made his heartrate accelerate in fear and anxiety but not as fast as it did immediately after he walked in the city square and saw the headlines on the massive screens that floated around it.
'What the heck?' His hearing deafened, blocking every other sound except his ragged breathing and elevated heart that pondered to a point of breaking through his rib cage.
Staggering a bit, he stared blankly at the screen, a wave of fear washing over him.
'The Fifth Emperor, Nexus Murdered'
Seeing this, he dared not believe it as he knew, no one, no matter how dumb one was, could even remotely consider constructing a prank of this magnitude.
But how? He couldn't understand it. As far as it went Nexus was the strongest being known in the cosmos, not only that, but every guard stationed in the empire had the strength to reduce a planet to rubble, So how? How could one invade the empire and kill him? It was literally impossible, but the screen before him said otherwise.
Looking around, most people were downright on the ground screaming their hearts out with the exception of afew who remained standing with terrified faces, which Dre completely understood.
If their existed a person strong enough to kill the emperor, then they couldn't imagine what would happen to them. Though Dre knew, at least from his perspective, that this wasn't really the reason, well not entirely.
If an emperor died either naturally or unnaturally, the Throne Of Heaven automatically selected a few worthy beings to claim it_ and by a few I mean a billion from the quintillions in the Beltos. The chosen, in order not to experience a rebellion if one claimed the throne, were forced to fight and kill eachother until only one remained, and then, only then could they claim the throne and have access to all it's perks and abilities. Deemed worthy, most crowned emperors amassed troupes and when the war finally broke, it became one that affected and shook the universe in such a way that it took over a thousand years to rebuild. This war affected almost every part of the Beltos, killing more than a quarter of it's innocent population.
This was more of a reason most were terrified...
But this was far from what made Dre's face contort in fear and cold sweat to run down his spine.
Like everyone, Dre, knew how the emperor's seal appeared. At first he'd brushed the pain he felt back in the field, writing it off as an insect bite, yet now after finding everything out he couldn't help but think the worst.
Slowly turning away from the crowd, he quickly disappeared from the masses and ran.
Only after running for a few minutes in the inner city did he realise that the sirens had died down and now only a few screams and whimpers randomly rose.
The streets that would've been beaming with life at a time like this, were strangely quiet, devoid of any human. The skies were no exception, with no cars or trains in the tubes encircling the city, they were empty not even a hoverboard soared.
"They really loved him." He whispered after observing the route for a while which pulled him back to the reality of things.
Rushing back home, he hoped, prayed that the pain felt back then to have been an insect or something else other than the seal, although something told him it was as he feared.
It wasn't like he didn't wish to be an emperor _ I mean who wouldn't, but he knew it was very much an impossible feat for him. The seal never chose with equality in mind, and Dre knew if he were to get one then it would be game over for him.
From the spectrum, he was nothing, almost an ant. And then there were humans with evolution paths, Vexes with their might, Dragons with their magic and so many other species with strength beyond his wildest imagination. What could he really ever hope to do? Some nobody like him that couldn't even rally six people behind him even if he wanted.
A few minutes of running, finally came to a halt Infront of a glass building no different than the rest. Gasping for air, he lowered his head and walked in.
Upon sensing a presence the ground floor doors slid open to reveal a ravished hall with brown tiles adorned with blue flowers and one massive floating chandelier that slowly spun illuminating it.
Enclosed, the deserted hall only had the exit doors.
Walking to it's centre where a small black raised circle stood. Dre stepped on it before clearing his voice.
"4B"
With those two words a flash of light engulfed him and immediately after he disappeared almost instantly, leaving only specs to die down slowly.
...
In a small room with an identical raised black circle, light flashed following which Dre materialized.
Exiting, he walked towards a door that scanned him before cracking open, letting him in a bigger, more spacious room, a bit messy, that was illuminated by a smaller version of the chandelier from the ground floor. With a messy floating queen sized bed to the left and a desk with a simple computer and a few wrapping papers atop it.
Paying no mind to any of it though, Dre trekked towards the bathroom and stood in front a full sized body mirror.
Gazing back at him was a young man of small build, barely in his twenties, with black eyes and shoulder length black locs, in a grey shirt and black trousers.
With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and began unbuttoning his shirt, each button sending a chill throughout his body.
After about thirty seconds of feeling and unbuttoning, he took off the shirt and faced left then slowly began peeking through his side eye.
What he saw, although he somehow still expected it, made him experience both fear and despair. He didn't understand it, he couldn't. It felt so unfair to him. The moment he earned enough to really live, this happened. Why him? Of all the people in Calix, Why did it have to be him?
...
Intricately engraved on his shoulder, with two serpents coiling on it and forming an m shape upon contact, was a golden clown. The emperor's seal.