Chapter 3: End Of The World

A well-conditioned human would probably doubt what they were seeing; their minds would regard it as some sort of advanced prank, trying to solve the mysteries of the loud sound, the floating purple characters, and why they could understand them, as well as how a chilling voice was being transmitted straight into their very souls.

But Damon has never been well conditioned to begin with, more like too conditioned.

Just moments ago, he had gladly accepted the mind-boggling fact that his soul had somehow crossed realities and had come to possess the body of an alternate version of himself. As well as the fact that his chubby cat had somehow tagged along.

Damon had come to terms with this series of mind-bending events like it was just another Tuesday.

Now faced with yet another addition to the growing list of surreal occurrences, Damon wasn’t doubting the fact that whatever force was powerful enough to cause words to float before his very eyes and speak directly into his mind was capable of doing exactly what they said they would—

Rather, he was questioning the fairness of it all.

Damon wondered if he was being targeted by some unseen force intent on making his life in every reality a struggle, when he only wanted to nap and dream sweet dreams.

Was he being punished for being so lazy?.

But that wasn’t his fault to begin with. In both realities, he was born with a very weak constitution, and sleeping all the time was like breathing to him, a thing he couldn’t do without.

And now what?—The world was ending?

Right when he was about to begin living his best life?

"Ah—I should have known I couldn’t be so lucky."

Damon felt this was some type of cruel joke from the universe, and also considered that maybe he had, in fact, been in a hyper-realistic dream all this time, and he was actually still in his own reality, inside his small, impoverished room. Now that life didn’t seem all that dreary anymore, as compared to this one that was apparently coming to an end.

At times like this, his only friend comes to mind. She would probably blend well into this type of world with usual weird tales.

"Maybe if I just close my eyes and go to sleep—this thing will simply go away."

Damon climbed into the massive bed; it felt like he was lying into clouds. Gently, he closed his eyes, hoping to shut out the words before him, as well as the voice—but alas—the voice continued to pronounce humanity’s doom.

["THE ORIGIN IS MERCIFUL"]

["SHE OFFERS SALVATION TO ALL THOSE PROVEN TO BE WORTHY"]

"I guess that’s not working."

Damon muttered as he slowly sat back up; the voice and characters weren’t stopping, and the more he listened, the more delirious he became. He wondered how a voice and writing could be affecting him on such a fundamental level.

Even for Damon whose never really shaken by most external things, viewing everything around him like some passing trance, or maybe he was innately broken on the inside. Even for him, the weight he felt at this moment was more real than anything he’s ever experienced, and strangely familiar.

["THE FATE OF YOUR WORLD SHALL BE DECIDED WITH YOUR TRIALS"]

"Oh—so the world isn’t directly coming to an end, I see."

"But Trials?"

"That sounds even worse than this world simply ending."

Damon sighed, sitting up, trying to force his mind to concentrate and understand what was being said, so he wouldn’t miss any detail amid the invisible weight around him. Damon felt he probably hadn’t concentrated this much on anything before. And he didn’t like this.

But this voice did not care one bit. It almost felt like it was reciting a prepared declaration that had been announced countless times before, but the weight of every dissipating and reforming purple character, accompanied by that regal voice that seemed to regard its listeners as lesser than insects, packed so much punch that it was like everything had come to a standstill.

"Wait— I can’t be the only one seeing and hearing this, right?"

As this thought occurred to Damon, he rose from the bed with the remote in hand, walked towards the massive curtains—pressed one of the buttons— and as the curtains parted, hundreds of humans below were currently in a state of disarray.

Vehicles were in collision; hundreds of pedestrians were holding on to their heads, screaming, seemingly in pain, while others simply knelt or stood in varying degrees of shock, looking ahead of them like statues frozen in time.

And the sky—

The sky, which was previously bright blue—Was now crimson red.

"That can’t be good."

Damon murmured, watching from high up in his penthouse room. He could tell there must be a lot of noise down below, but since he was so high up and his room was soundproof, he couldn’t hear a thing.

However, it was safe to say he wasn’t the only one hearing this voice and seeing these messages.

From what he could make out below, while some simply appeared shaken and frozen, others appeared to be in real physical pain.

One could almost taste the fear in the air. If Damon had had any doubts before, now, seeing the sky and seeing the state of all these people, every doubt had vanished.

["ENDURE SEVEN TRIALS AND PROVE YOUR WOLRD’S WORTH"]

["STRUGGLE. RESIST. FIGHT. EVOLVE"]

["SUCCEED AND YOUR WORLD WOULD NOT JUST BE SPARED AND BROUGHT INTO THE ORIGIN’S EMBRACE—"]

["BUT AS A REWARD FOR YOUR RESILIENCE—"]

["THE ORIGIN SHALL OPEN BEFORE YOU A PATH "]

["A PATH THROUGH WHICH EVEN MORTALS CAN EVOLVE INTO GODS"]

"That all sounds horrible."

Damon murmured, his expression deadpan, with a hint of indiscernible frustration. The words which were being used were most disturbing to him. Words like endurance, struggle, or resilience were words that he had deleted from his vocabulary since birth.

["THE ORIGIN DECLARES THE START TO YOUR FIRST TRIAL—"]

["TRIAL THEME: FEAST FOR THE AGES"]

["COUNTDOWN INITIATED—"]

[10]

[9]

[8]

"What in the world type of theme is that?"

Damon remarked dazedly as he watched the timer tick down. The name of this apparent first of seven trials didn’t quite sit well with him.

[2]

[1]

[0]

["GOOD-LUCK..... AND REMEMBER—"]

["YOUR WORLD’S FATE IS INTRICATELY TIED TO YOURS"]

"what does that even mean ?"

SWOOSH

As the voice vanished, Damon felt an invisible wave sweep over him, as well as everything around him.

And it didn’t feel localized; it felt like something had just swept across the entire planet. As he looked below through his tempered glass and saw the startled reactions of all the tiny figures from his point of view, he knew everyone had felt the same thing he did.

"What was that ?"

Damon wondered; he felt like something had just merged into his physical self, and right on cue, a panel-like interface materialized before him, floating alongside his eye-line wherever he turned.

This one was quite different from the previous purple characters, as it was blue in color, and there was no voice this time.

It also lacked the sense of superior detachment the other one had; this one felt somehow more connected to his very essence.

[Congratulations On Your Successful Integration, Participant, Damon Einstein.]

[You Can Now Access The Trial Version Of The Origin System.]

"What’s all this now ?"

Damon’s question was partly rhetorical; his mind could already piece together what this meant. Since the trial had supposedly begun, and he was currently receiving a message for being successfully integrated- whatever that meant—

"What then happens to those who failed this so-called integration?"

Damon didn’t need to wonder too much, as his gaze fell to the world outside his glass window—

Planes were nosediving through the skies—

Cars were crashing into blazing explosions—

Buildings were collapsing from being rammed into by vehicles and combusting—

Corpses littered the streets as buildings and cars burned, explosions igniting the air like fireworks as people ran in masses, panicking in horror as they were tackled down by—Other people.

But these other people didn’t seem normal, even from the distance Damon was looking from.

And they were—

"Are people eating people right now?"

Damon stared down at the carnage that had once been a beautiful city.

Men, women, and even children were being transformed in real time into savage beasts, and going after others who were running in horrific panic. Tackling them to the ground with inhumane speed and strength, and feasting, sometimes in groups of many as they ran for their lives.

"So this is the end of the world."

Damon could roughly estimate that more than half of the masses below had been turned into these beastly savages who were viciously mauling every human around them.

It seemed these conversions didn’t discriminate, as men, women, and even children were sporadically acting out and then ravaging anyone next to them in a gory mess of flesh and blood.

Damon could only make out the general picture and imagine what it would sound like below, but inside his comfortable room, everything was as tranquil as can be. Except when he turned to his left, Damon’s heart skipped a bit at what he saw—

"LEO!"

Damon exclaimed as he fell to his knees, picking up his chubby cat, who appeared unconscious.