The redhead boy who was behind the announcement laughed maniacally after he had instructed his subordinate named Siri to begin the timer. From what he could see from his myriad of screens, it seemed the humans of this particular Earth did not yet understand the magnitude of what was about to befall them. They still had the liberty of blaming their governments for the impending doom that they were yet to face.
"If only they knew…" he muttered as he put his fingers together, observing the screens even more closely. After a few minutes of gluing his eyes to the screens, he raised a finger as if realising something. Siri, who was observing him closely, shook slightly as soon as she saw the finger.
"It won't be fair to have them fighting against different beings from other worlds, who are obviously stronger, without anything," the boy commented, snapping his fingers repeatedly. The way he looked right now was the exact representation of what a mad scientist would look like.
He turned to Siri again. "Don't you think so, Siri?"
Siri nodded.
"If Master Zony thinks it, then it is only right," Siri said, "no one knows better than you, Master Zony."
Zony, the redhead boy, scoffed lightly at the answer that Siri gave him. He knew she was only saying that to appease him. No one knew better than him? What a joke!
'What a robotic answer? Pfft!' Zony cursed inwardly and with gross disappointment in his subordinate. 'No one knows better than me? Now you just think I'm a fool, Siri. Everyone knows Neinstein, the God of Science, is smarter already, and that's just one god. Pfft!'
Zony exhaled and shook his head furiously, shaking the thoughts and images of other gods, especially the God of Science, off his mind as he focused on what he was doing. He needed to get everything right and done with now that he had activated the time. Even he couldn't turn it off because of how he designed it… the time could only come on and once for that matter.
"Give them spiritual energy. Mana, qi, chakra… whatever! You catch the drift, don't you Siri?"
Siri nodded again, saying nothing still. She perfectly understood what her master wanted and she was going to act accordingly and get it done.
"Don't worry about the abilities. I already distributed those at random and a few people would certainly be getting something special, muahahaha!"
Zony raised his arms in surrender seeing how Siri glared at him suspiciously as she wondered what exactly he had done.
"I only worked on the filter for distribution and nothing else. Relax, Siri," Zony said, his voice becoming a bit more serious than earlier. "I hope this Earth won't disappoint me this time. I need someone to reach that tower soon or else…"
******
'Just what is this bullshiting,' Dave wondered, unable to shake the thoughts off as he turned to the rest of the people in the gym.
"Can anyone see this shit?!" Phil asked loudly as he started stepping back with fear rising inside of him.
'It's not just me,' Dave asserted after some seconds of hearing Phil's statement. He looked around briefly and from their facial expressions, Dave could tell that they were all in the same dilemma. Dave took a deep breath in and out to calm his nerves.
If these things he was seeing outlined were indeed real, then they were fucked in the ass as humanity, but nothing was yet to happen. He quickly reached for his phone and searched online, only to see different posts about the very same thing that was happening to him.
"Outside…?" he muttered as he read through a post that wrote about a strange phenomenon happening outside. Dave looked at the rest and shook his head as they were all also searching for answers like he was.
"Guys! Outside!" he shouted. Drawing everyone's attention, they hurried to the nearest window to get a glimpse of what was happening out, and it was then that they realised that it was almost evening, even though the time was not even 11 a.m. yet in the morning.
Outside was dark and eerie, almost like the ending of the world was about to happen anytime from them. Dave swallowed hard and loudly and he was sure he was not the only one who felt this way. They have never experienced such a thing in the past. Just what the hell is going on!
As they still tried to swim out of the drowning thoughts of confusion, another message popped out.
[Preparing stage…]
[Time remaining: 00hrs : 00mins : 32secs]
[Try your best to survive]
This was crazy!
Nobody understood a thing about what was about to happen. Heck! They couldn't even guess what was meant by [Preparing stage…].
Preparing what stage? For who? And for what?
There were so many questions that needed answers but now was not the time for that. If everyone heard the same thing in their heads, then this was the real deal. The way Dave saw it, it was just like in those dystopian movies where the apocalypse just happened on what was initially a bright day at the start of the movie. If that was the case, he needed to be safe and most importantly, he needed to make sure his baby sister, Cassie, was safe as well.
The timer hit zero really fast and then it began. The first was an earthquake that rocked the ground which formed the foundation of their very world. All and sundry lost their balance and staggered as they tried to grab hold of something. Buildings and roads cracked and cars moved in different directions without any control.
This, however, did not last for so long. It was what happened after it that was shocking. Touching the sky above, as it started to clear out, was a gigantic edifice like nothing that existed in this world before. Everyone at every corner of the world could see it but no one could pinpoint its exact location. What they saw was only a part of the tower which Zony had told them about — the tower they were expected to climb.
[Time up!]
[The apocalypse begins]
[Survive]