In an interstellar backdrop of breathtaking beauty...
"Urrrgh" a voice grunted, the sound drifting lazily through the cosmic expanse. Suddenly, the voice's owner creased his forehead, quickly clapping his hand over his mouth.
Coldness flashed across his face as he looked around, scanning his surroundings with narrowed, vigilant eyes. When no one seemed to be perimeter, a trace of relief washed over him, only to be replaced by a jolt of shock as he truly took in the sights around him.
'Where am I?' The thought barely had time to form before a flood of memories crashed into his mind like a torrent of rain, overwhelming him.
Faces, battles, betrayals, all of it downloaded into his consciousness with ruthless clarity.
He buckled slightly, mildly groaning, from all his life experiences, every triumph and every pain. His eyes glazed over, staring blankly as his mind struggled to process his fragmented memories colliding within him.
Slowly the pain died down, and he fell over coughing and wheezing, until he regained his bearings.
"Curses" he growled.
A short silence followed as his gaze became slightly clouded.
_'It was pointless afterall...'_
The thought brought a cold, murderous light to his once-clouded eyes. Gone was the haphazard emotions, replaced by a cold ruthlessness.
He was encased in a capsule, sleek and transparent, that moved along what seemed to be a cosmic railway.
The light of stars flickered and danced along the track, painting the void in a pristine glow.
Other capsules, identical to his own, floated alongside his', each containing beings of various species. They all appeared incorporeal and translucent, their forms shimmering like ghosts. Yet, unlike Kallen, they were all unconscious, their souls in peaceful slumber.
'How am I here?' he wondered, the question echoing in his mind. He remembered the moment of his death vividly, the betrayal repeating itself in a loop as though his soul was unwilling to forget.
"Divine Odyssey!" He voiced apathetically...
Divine Odyssey a VR MMORPG, was his method of escaping reality, after he gave up a certain kind of lifestyle.
However, he had gotten careless, underestimating how far his enemies would go to get his head. They had succeeded, and now, he was here, wherever 'here' was, and not in hell like he had expected.
The shimmering cosmic railway led to what looked like a temple, so vast and incomprehensible in scale that Kallen couldn't see its end.
As they approached, the capsules around him began to rattle, their occupants stirring awake. Kallen's eyes darted to the other beings, noticing for the first time that many of them were not human.
Alien forms of all kinds filled the capsules, beings from planets that Earth had yet to discover, and even races from planets Earth had discovered. In total, there were 199 capsules, including his own.
'Why am I here?' Kallen's thoughts raced, but he had no answers.
'Is this some kind of limbo?' he wondered. Or perhaps he was in purgatory? Or maybe he was on his way to judgement?.
As the capsules reached the grand entrance of the temple, they hissed open, ejecting their occupants with a sudden jolt. Kallen barely had time to register the surreal structure towering before him when an invisible force seized him and the others, without warning.
The force was overwhelming, pulling them forward with a speed that made it impossible to take in the surroundings, let alone understand what was happening.
The temple, vast and incomprehensible, seemed to stretch into infinity, its intricacies lost in the blinding speed at which they were hurtling through.
'What the hell is going on?'
It was as if the very space had wrapped around them, dragging them towards an unknown fate.
Suddenly, the force released them as abruptly as it had taken hold, dropping all of them unceremoniously into what seemed to be the courtyard of the temple.
Kallen's body, or soul rather, landed roughly against the floor.
The floor gleamed as though it had never been touched by dirt or dust, and he felt a strange compulsion to clean it, as if his mere presence had sullied something sacred.
He looked around, taking in the vast expanse of the courtyard. It was surrounded by towering pillars that stretched into the heavens, each one etched with symbols and scripts that glowed faintly with otherworldly energy.
Despite having no memory of this place, a name surfaced in his mind, as if whispered by an unseen voice: SYNOD SANCTUM. The name resonated within him, stirring something deep in his soul, though he couldn't pinpoint why.
Before he could delve deeper into his thoughts, a voice echoed through the air, so pervasive that it felt as though the very particles were vibrating with its sound.
The voice was everywhere, yet it seemed to come from nowhere, each word reverberating with power. Hearing the voice, a hint of unknown hostility seemed to arouse within him.
"Welcome to the Synod Sanctum," the voice intoned, its tone both commanding and unsettling. "You are all privileged to enjoy a second chance at life, with all your memories intact, in another world... an awakened world. Fate has favoured you.
"The beings before you are apex lifeforms; you are to gain the favor of one of them, to contract with and become your sponsor. Their backing will be key to your ascension through the stages of power in your new world, so that when you are strong enough, you can become their representatives in your mortal dwellings."
Kallen's forehead creased in confusion. There was nothing sensible that voice has said.
'A second chance?' The idea was almost too much to comprehend. His mind flashed back to the moment of his death, the betrayal, the cold darkness that had consumed him, and now this.
He glanced at the others who had been ejected from their capsules; like him, they were struggling to make sense of the situation.
Before him, the beings called apex lifeforms sat in a semi-circle, their presence radiating a power that made the air feel heavy. They were beings of immense stature and strength, each one exuding an aura that hinted at their dominion over life, death, and everything in between.
'So We're to pick one of these guys for a sponsorship contract? There are a lot of loopholes in that statement,' Kallen thought.
More importantly, what or who were these apex lifeforms? The fact that they could resurrect the dead, and even give them a second chance at life, in a different world no less, was nothing short of terrifying... No, not marvelous it was terrifying.
It meant that if they could do that, they could as easily, destroy them, and maybe do even more horrendous things.
As the apex lifeforms continued to assess the mortals, they released a subtle yet insidious hint of their cosmic pressure. It slithered into the air, an almost imperceptible force that soon grew in intensity, making the very fabric of space tremble.
Kallen could feel it creeping into his existence, sinking into his soul, as if a mountain was pressing down on him.
The pressure increased steadily, and Kallen could hear the faint sounds of others succumbing to it, thuds as their incorporeal self fell, cracks lining their forms as though they'd disintegrate in any second, and the unmistakable sound of submission as foreheads met the ground in reverence.
Kallen trembled as he fought against the overwhelming urge to bow. The pressure was relentless, an invisible hand that sought to crush him under its weight.
His knees began to buckle, and for a moment, he thought of giving in, of letting the crushing force drive him to the ground like the others.
But something deep within him rebelled against the idea. A fire flickered in his chest, like a defiant spark that refused to be snuffed out.
The pressure bore down on him like a mountain, but Kallen fought back, pushing himself up against it, refusing to let it break him.
Just when he thought he could take no more, the pressure vanished as abruptly as it had come. And he fell to the ground looking to the sky.
The sky above was vast and endless, and for a moment, all Kallen could do was lie there, his chest heaving as he caught his breath.
It was in this slight moment of reprieve that he actually paid attention, and discovered that there was a sky in the temple. How that came to be, he couldn't tell.
_'I didn't bow...'_
The thought floated through his mind, bringing with it a small measure of satisfaction, though it was tempered by the realization of just how close he had come to breaking.
Even he himself didn't know why... at least not completely, the reason he resisted bowing with that much ferocity.
There was something at play here. Although he truly, wouldn't have liked to bow, his deep unwillingness... it all felt slightly external.
He felt like he was being influenced by something, and he didn't like it. But now wasn't the time to address that... He didn't even know how to.
As he slowly sat up, his gaze shifted to the apex lifeforms, who still observed them with those ancient, all-seeing eyes. He couldn't tell if they had noticed his defiance, but something told him they had. Whether that was good or bad though... he had no idea.