‘Why wait for salvation when you can save yourself
Why despair when you know your fate?
Why put your faith in others, in something, when you are enough?’
‘Why? You ask, our ontology has always been that way’
‘But not our Soul’
‘True, except our Soul’
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It was Christmas Eve, the wintry chill and the decorations on the streets of New York city made a statement, the bells would start jingling soon.
Somewhere in Alaska, a small town of less than two thousand residents but a size that could accommodate fifteen thousand people with enough space for farmland to spare.
What could be observed though was the opulence and extravagances in the size and construct of each building. Each residence was unique in its own way, owned by the one percent of the truly rich. But the truth is deeper than that, Northgate, a town owned by scientists and entrepreneurs, people who burn millions of dollars daily and make more daily. The security, although unobservable, was top of the line.
The perk of being able to purchase a residence here is the fact that even if the president of the United States came here, it would just be another casual event, arousing no interest of the populace.
Carrying a sleek leather backpack, Adam Croft walked at a brisk pace, hugging tight his thick woolen gray jacket to keep out the encroaching cold, he walked with a destination in mind, occasionally checking the watch strapped onto his left hand. Five minutes later, he arrived at a mansion secluded from the other residences in town, unlike the others, this one had no Christmas lights decorating it nor Christmas trees, there was no sign of people occupying it either. And it was so much bigger than the biggest building in town .
Opening its gates with an obsidian card, Adam stepped into the sprawling grounds of the mansion, headed to the main door.
Keying in a set of codes and swiping the card in a little slot by the huge opaque glass door, Adam entered as the door swung open and then it closed behind him.
It had been five minutes since he’d entered and he’d dropped his jacket on a sofa at the foyer then he had grabbed a wine bottle in the cellar and went to the office room.
Sipping wine slowly from a glass cup, he dumped his backpack on the massively classic chocolate table, scattering expensive decorations in the process. Plopping into the soft chair behind the table, he checked his watch, then he unzipped the bag occupying the table. Taking out an antiquated square box, he unlatched the clasps on either side, revealing the padded interior protecting a crystal helmet.
He dug out the elegantly crafted helmet, he turned it over in his hand observing the culmination of five years of work. The Psi Bridge he’d named it. The design was similar to Melania's helm in the popular game franchise released the previous year except instead of having wings, it had a semicircular crystal tube connecting one side of the helm to the other. The joint sported a mercury like liquid in it that assumed the color of light falling on it. Mesmerized by the changing color of the liquid, memories came to him, memories he clamped shut with a force of will.
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Checking the time again, he fitted the helm on his head and shut his eyes. But he wasn’t in darkness, on the contrary, he could see more than when he used his eyes, the exact measurement, spatial orientation, the dimension and exact location of every single item contained in the mansion and a little beyond it was reflected in his mind. But that was the least of what the Psi Bridge enabled him to do,
focusing on a particular location in the mansion, he examined a huge super computer server that at a glance had signs of upgrade. Mentally, he flipped on some switches and connected cables to the machine, all done in a few seconds. The machine hummed with a soft pitch frequency, five miles away, a similar machine located in an abandoned building came online in. At exactly every five kilometers, a similar machine came online until reaching the heart of New York City.
After activating the first machine, Adam dived deep into his mind for a while, it seemed he’d be
swallowed by the swirling darkness that led to the deep recess of his mind, and then suddenly, his consciousness saw it in the distance, a semitransparent bubble enclosing what he termed his mindscape. Extending from it into the deep darkness that was the major theme of this place was a cord of spindly light. The raw psychic manifestation of the Psi Bridge. It was what allowed him the feats that he was capable of, linking his physical mind to beyond the bubble prison, his mindscape or so he thought.
Willing his consciousness closer, he arrived near instantaneously mere inches before the bubble, His consciousness always manifested as an humanoid vapor like being, but this wasn’t his first time here and over the course of his visit, he had practiced and mastered condensing his form into a solid state that resembles his physical body. The first time he tried condensing his form, he was barely a meter tall but now, he towered five meters tall and his eyes blazed a molten gold.
Giant palm outstretched, he pushed it against the bubble, and straining with all his might, it deformed in a range of five hundred meters from the point of contact, compared to the bubble as large as ten kilometers in circumference, the deformation was miniscule. The moment his hand left it, it sprang back to its original form. Five years of practice had come a long way but it wasn’t enough. But all that wouldn’t matter after tonight. Then he waited.
9:59 pm
The huge machine somewhere in the mansion hummed louder at this moment, tiny arcs of electricity ran up and down the connected outlets. Its frequency increased in pitch until it exceeded the range of the human ear. The replica of this machine all over America mirrored its action and meanwhile, Adam’s body remained still but still breathing, his consciousness elsewhere.
10:00 pm
The machines all resonated as one, there was a tremble in the air all over the country, a shift in the natural other of things that didn’t go unnoticed by those conscious of what to look for and not missing aBoth AC and DC power went out as if snuffed out by God himself for humanities profanity of the forces beyond them. But it wasn’t God or any being of baleful strength that snuffed out power. It was all thanks to Adam croft that power died in three countries.
Following the blackout was a terrible sound like glass tearing apart except magnified several fold as reality shattered above the planet, the inhabitants of earth stared above them with mouth agape at the impossible sight above their heads, brain futilely trying to process what was going on, the sight of the beautiful yet deadly tear in reality seeping dread into their soul.
The entirety of three countries suffered a blackout yet the mansion occupied by Adam retained it’s light, although it flickered inconsistently, it wasn’t snuffed out like the rest.
Deep in his mind, the moment reality shattered, the membrane lost most of its luster and thickness. This was the moment he’d been anticipating, opening his shut eyes, he shaped his hands into a wickedly sharp pick ax and struck down on the membrane. With almost no resistance whatsoever, it cracked then broke into numerous shards that floated in the darkness.
Opening his eyes to behold what was imprisoned, he beheld light, light so bright they swallowed the shards of the bubble, unsatisfied with it’s trophy, it went on to claim the entirety of the darkness of his mindscape.
The last he saw was light.