June 2021

Milky Way Galaxy

Few people could resist the temptation of being worshipped. And even fewer could resist the urge to rule them all. Even with their rarity, one could still find such people. And this old man was one of them.

This old man did not want to be idealized as a God, nor did he want to be a Saint. If someone were to give him the status of the Supreme, he would have humbly rejected that too.magic

The status he wanted and desired was just a simple word: RULER

A Ruler in all directions. A Ruler of all things.

"RECORD."

An ancient voice came out of this old man and a screen materialized in front of his eyes. If one could see this screen, it would appear as symbols imprinted in his eyes. On the right side of this screen was a 3-D image of the old man with a golden halo. It had even copied his long and heavy beard as it is. The left side of the screen showed various stats.

Now, this was not the time to look at those stats. This old man didn't even care about them, as his eyes moved downward and to the middle part of the screen.

[…

CLASS: Class Update in Progress

Update Status: 99.99%

Time Elapsed: 12,160 Years…]

There was a gold progress bar underneath this information. And there was a minuscule empty area devoid of golden color, almost equivalent to a line, was visible at the end.

This old man had not got up from his throne in a long time. The cold sensation of the armrest of the throne had already subsided a long time ago. But today this sensation returned by an inconsiderable amount. As he saw that progressing bar, a slight smile showed itself on his time-worn face. It seemed he has not smiled for a long time, for his lips were struggling to even turn the corners up.

This old man was content. A dream was coming to fruition.

Something indeed relaxed this old man. A new beginning to an old end was going to start.

But this old man was destined to be disappointed. The screen, which he was looking at, suddenly shook. It was like a glitch. The words, the image, the numbers, and the progress bar got blurred. Out of nowhere, in big, bold red letters, a message popped out on the screen.

[ERROR]

This old man had never shown such a silly face. His eyes were almost popping out of the sockets. His brows were at their highest point, and his mouth felt dry and cracked. The message flashed three times and then disappeared. It only left behind a sense of redness on the appearing screen. And all this baffling process had happened in the blink of an eye.

The image came back and so did the words, the numbers, and even the progress bar. But something was different.

[…

CLASS: Class update in progress

Update Status: 0.00 %

Time Elapsed: 0 years…]

The otherworldly grace, it used to own, had abandoned the image and the progress bar.

This old man had seen in the eyes of Death. Yet, his old body never shook to this extent ever before.

Sadness

Anxiety

Fear

Anger

Emotions he had forgotten came back to him like lost friends.

First, the throne shattered as the old man straightened his posture. Then the massive structure, which looked like an amalgam of a pyramid and castle, got blasted apart into hundreds of illusionary stars. A distant part within the Milky-Way Galaxy trembled. And only an inhuman scream of agony and wrath reverberated in the emptiness of space.

The cause of his misfortune, if this word could summarize what had happened to him, was a single person. Oblivious to everything, he did not know what kind of Karma his choices would bring back to him. Calling it a butterfly effect would not be wrong, but it would not be right either. Because in this case, the butterfly had slapped its wings on the face of that old man.

And one could trace the whole matter back 1 year to a time called–The Night of Awakening.

That was the moment when the hands of Darkness had reached the small but bright planet called Earth. That was the moment when Hell brought itself to Earth. And that was the moment when it all began.

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Author's Note: The symbol * would be used as a change of scene, or time, or place, or all at the same time.