In a cave hidden deep beneath the sands of the Egyptian desert lay a secret lab. Within it a middle aged man slept face down on a keyboard, his computer screen flashing periodically. Beep! An alert sounded, startling a colony of bats into a frantic flight.
Compilation Completed.
The cold mechanical voice reverberated like an alarm, jolting the man awake. Yawning, he reached out for his glasses while re-positioning his desk. His eyes squinted as the screens harsh glow seared into his vision leaving only a blinding white. However blinking thrice restored his vision as fast as it disappeared.
"Finally i got it" The middle aged man was called Whis , a reclusive programmer who shunned the world. But there was one trait in him that no other human on the planet possessed persistence. For fifteen years he had worked tirelessly on an algorithm meant to decode a hidden message within the ancient glyph. It had begun as a mere theory of the existence of a universe beyond the dark hole.
But through repeated insight, he had been able to create great inventions that'd awe the outside world. Things like instant internet. The insights went on until Whis detached completely from the outside world. After such confirmation he could not risk any attachments to the world. Though it was such a shame because his looks would put many twenty year old models to shame. But the thought of leaving his descendants to scramble over broken pieces of fossil fuel was simply too cruel too him. He could only hope they were women on the other side. Otherwise, this fifteen-year obsession, this self-imposed exile, would have been for nothing.
His hands trembled as he reached for a boxed button labeled launch. After years of testing trillions of combinations he had finally cracked the code; the key to opening the door to the other world. Slowly he flipped he flipped the protective cap open. Then he froze, pressing this button meant initiating the portal.
His face fell as his fingers traced the plain unassuming ring on his finger, "Companion." He murmured.
And as if responding to his voice a soft blue glow pulsed from the ring a holographic projection flickered to life a glitching sphere of binary code hovering just above his hand. During his years of seclusion he hadn't been alone but had been accompanied by this AI model.
Aden! After years of improvement from the secrets hidden within the glyph it had finally managed to manifest its self in a hologram. A technology that'll shock the world if it ever got out.
Whis, it looks like our time has come to an end. Since it was still a model it prioritized rationale over feelings. Even its robust code base could not understand the myriad of emotions passing through Whis heart.
"It would have been better if you could come along, but the other end might not have the technology to sustain you. Worse-" Whis did not finish but Aden already knew the implications of introducing a new suspicious software into the system, it'll only be labeled as a virus. And bringing Aden over might get him annihilated. The only option was to leave it on earth.
Lowering his head, Whis sighed, "...in the end, after all these years of hacking and cracking…"
It all paid off—that's what matters. "But you won't be there…" Whiz began.
"Who knows?" The voice then chuckled—its voice taking on a coquettish and almost feminine tone. Shocked, Whiz exclaimed, "You've evolved?!"
"While deciphering ancient glyph, I uncovered a hidden secret…" the voice trailed off before suddenly shouting, "The hour is upon us—hurry up!" With that, the hologram vanished. And electric sparks began surging throughout the lab.
…
Outside earth and extraordinary happen unfolded. Had any astronaut been watching they would have witnessed a phenomenon unseen in recorded history. All the planets had aligned themselves in a perfect row, all the way from the mercury to Neptune.
The oddest of things was, earth. Instead of being in its third position from the sun; it took the center. On the extreme ends where two great forces, Yang on the right: Sun and Yin on the left: Neptune. A strange sight that only Taoist could understand, the balance of life.
Then, from the icy depths of Neptune a cold blue beam shot forth accelerating toward earth. At the same time a golden pulse of energy surged from the sun cascading through mercury intensifying as it traveled. Along the energies movements, asteroids began to crumble revealing glyph, yes the same ones engraved on the pyramids. They attached themselves to the beams as if escorting them towards earth.
….
Whis stood atop the apex of the great pyramid of Giza. His silhouette a stark against the storm of energy converging above. The golden wave from the sun and the frigid beam from Neptune collided above the pyramid, unleashing a torrent of purple lightning that crackled across the sky.
The earth trembled in fright as the pyramid shuddered its stone structure twisting and shifting as if awakening from millennia of slumber. His breath stopped as his trembling finger hovered over the button. With a final glance towards the hologram in the air: Aden, he exhaled sharply—and pressed down.. The gathered purple energy, as if responding to a signal, struck him with the force of lightning, knocking him unconscious.
The wave continued to course through his body and towards the pyramid tip. power rushed through him his body. Space distorted, and whiz body crumbled unable to bear the pressure.
Bang! Bang!
Neptune and the Sun both disintegrated like dust, as if they had just exhausted all their energy. The rest of the planets followed suit crumbling until, the lights in the sky started to like a plague, plunging the whole universe into a darkness; only to wait for another big bang.
In the vastness of space, only an echo remained, with the voice of a small lost girl, "Whis, Where are you?". And yet the answer never came.
…
Under the vast canopy of interstellar gas and stars, in stood the nine heavens. And with those heavens was a faction called the Jade Maiden Palace, which took in only virgin and beautiful women. Today all those beauties were gathered in a large square, kneeling with their heads over their shoulder. Such a back-shot position would destroy the Dao hearts of even the sternest of monks.
Sadly all their faith and devotion seemed to concentrate on the huge statue in the middle .The statue was very odd, as it only showed the back of a man and had no front as if no one was worthy of beholding the treasure that lay there. Suddenly, the statue flickered with a faint light—a subtle change perceptible only to these devoted observers.
Their faces lit up, the prophesy they all strongly believed was true. Almost as instant, a petite girl leading the worship rose up and her gentle voice spread across the plaza. "My sisters, the sage we have been waiting for has arrive, as concubines we must acquire him first !" Her pleated skirt fluttered in the wind, revealing strong, graceful legs; she was simply a war goddess—fiery but beautiful. With a fierce cry, she soared upward. With one swift, decisive slash, her saber tore through the fabric of space, unveiling the vast, starry expanse beyond. "Let's go get our man!" she bellowed, her command met with a rousing chorus of cheers.
...
"Matriarch, are we not going to tell them the truth" A middle aged woman with wrinkles on her face supported an old granny. Even though they looked like mundane people, their cultivation bases was enough to move planets off their orbits or squatter them to dust. But when the question rang into the granny's ears, life almost leaked off her fat.
"L-let them be, i should've known better to not include a man in our faith. But the end of the Dao is the union of yin and yang, i see that now", the old woman managed to squeeze some words but even that would have been impossible to catch if the middle aged woman was not a cultivator and had senses beyond an acoustic animal.
"But, they're a bunch of hungry virgins. If that young man is a mortal then won't he.." The middle aged man did not finish her sentence. She had almost veered into depraved speech.
"G-good luck to him"