(3rd-Person Narrator: Earth)
Many say that Jonathan Edwards was practical. Edwards’ strict way of living ensured a life empty of any trivial luxuries. Any additional fundings Edwards earned were put into research. Their groundbreaking study was done on the phenomenon that began during their last of years as a college student... It all began during the new year.
On January 1st, 2017, the start of a new year began with a rippled distortion that appeared over the center of the Pacific Ocean. Nations went into an uproar when curious scientists decided to probe the mystery, only for their drones to wink out of existence. This was troubling news as everyone globally began to panic.
What if the crack in the sky grows? Is this a punishment from God? What has Vishnu done to us? Will we die? What happens to what goes into the supernatural phenomenon? Questions of this caliber plagued the minds of the human masses.
Scores of scientists combined their fundings and created an investigation team. They then packed numerous scientific devices to measure and speculate upon the strange occurrence. Their efforts found the composition of the mystery could not be measured, as anything that touched it was quickly absorbed. Its dimensions were kept within a 50 by 50 by 50 meter cube, but it was slowly expanding about a centimeter every day.
Thus, every country, surprisingly for the first time in Earth’s history, stopped what they were doing to solve this mystery. Several fanatics already made wild speculations. Some thought it led to another world, like a wormhole or dimensional rift. Others thought the Rapture was beginning. A few prepared for Ragnarok. But there grew within the scared minds of humanity that the spatial distortion was an entity- a worldly devourer.
This ideology grew as time passed because the distortion rapidly increased in size. Soon, it solidified into a shape people identified as “Nidhoggr”. The Cult of the End Times began and their members routinely entered the distortion to become part of “Nidhoggr”. After all, the more material placed within the distortion, the more it increased in size.
The supporters of the Cult of the End Times manipulated the masses by promises of paradise: Jannah for Muslims, Pardes or return to the Garden of Eden for Jews and Heaven for Christians. This was apparently the Rapture or entity of Judgement for every follower of the Cult of the End Times.
The researching scientists already constructed a metallic Island built of interconnected ships underneath the distortion. They were forced to allow entrance to everyone: international treaties guaranteed everyone on the Island was under no law, except for the natural law that granted human rights.
Therefore, the cultists encountered no opposition. They began settling and expanding the Island by both public and private funding. This obviously caused many setbacks globally in nations, as people just left their positions. This also hurt the researching scientists, as they were pushed out of their facilities- usually without being able to keep their research.
It was in the late days of February that Edwards began findings that revealed the distortion had a giant collection of positrons on its outer surface. This discovery led Edwards to great praise in the scientific field. But the ceaseless experiments of trial and error revealed Edwards had no understanding of the impact of any research nor any idea of what was happening. To put it simply, Edwards was just screwing around.
Others carried on Edwards’ torch to research the distortion, despite some minor opposition from the Cult of the End Times. The logic was that it was blasphemous to judge judgement itself. That may not have made sense, but cultists kept pushing researchers away regardless.
Eventually, in August, it was theorized by many scientists that the distortion was a black hole that had somehow become contained. It was rapidly expanding its range of gravitational pull, and so increased its expansion more and more. The Cult of the End Times was at an all-time high of 3 billion members, with 1 million already sacrificed. “Nidhoggr” became miles wide and stretched far out into the sky. It also became difficult to keep any curious scientist from poking around with the distortion.
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The new year of 2018 brought about chaos when the Cult of the End Times sent 50 million people as a form of anniversary for “Nidhoggr”. Its size boomed, reaching far beyond the eye could see. Finally, chaos arose from the stubborn 4 billion left all alone by the Cult of the End Times. Apparently, cultists amassed their numbers underneath their divine judgement on their metal Island and so the common people were left alone.
Total anarchic mayhem was the result: looting, raping, and murder. Despite the billions who gave up their material belongings, humans were still as greedy and needy as ever. Gangs and cartels rose in dominance as governments fell apart because their credibility, officials, militaries, and dignitaries were gone.
And as the oppressed were once again crushed under the foot of their oppressive fellow man, people were forced to turn to their beliefs. What other religion could they turn to for assistance when the Cult of the End Times guaranteed complete safety and an afterlife of utter bliss? None. So the Cult of the End Times once again absorbed more of the human population and reached a peak of 5 billion strong.
When 2019 rolled around, all the destruction was complete. A billion became one with "Nidhoggr" this year. Gangs realized the fruitlessness of their endeavors. The Cult of the End Times captured those “interrupting” the judgement process. They united the "heretics" with “Nidhoggr” in their almighty, religious, and upright morality despite the crimes these "Faithless" committed.
Money lost its value as currency. It couldn't be exchanged for many daily necessities after all. Quality goods were near-impossible to obtain now. People lost hope in living in this new social hierarchy.
With little left, those not in the Cult of the End Times gathered to ensure their safety in numbers. They removed their inhibitions and lived with as few regrets as possible. It was not uncommon for crowds of people gather weekly to engage in orgasmic pleasures of the flesh. Porking, sleeping, or "wrestling" with each other, if you need to understand. Fucked around, so to speak more bluntly. They partied and discriminated no longer, as fear of being captured by the ever-present Cult of the End Times and the looming "Nidhoggr" in the sky kept them in check.
By November, a collection of top electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering produced a functional cryostasis and a variety of autonomous spaceships residing in orbit of Earth. Scientists planned this long ago. They gathered all the materials and means of production to develop their technology or to continue researching “Nidhoggr” before human societies fell apart.
At the end of the year, only four factions remained of humanity: those wanting to understand “Nidhoggr,” those wanting to be with “Nidhoggr,” those nihilists drowning in worldly pleasures, or those who didn’t want to live on this planet anymore. "Learners", "Cultists", "Pessimists", and "Escapists" were what these groups were known as, according to their interests.
When 2020 began, space ships were already filled to the brim with Earth’s natural resources. They left to inhabit other planets. Some went to stay in the solar system by living on nearby planets, like the harsh environment of Venus. In case the distortion disappeared, they wanted to be near home. Others drifted in autopilot and cryostasis to wait to find a new, habitable planet. New terrain was preferable to the absolutely unknown.
The Cult of the End Times finally gathered all its members and joined “Nidhoggr” at the same time. The darkness ballooned its already ginormous self. The nihilists continued about their business- some even in so much denial of reality that they descended into utter apathy. And the researchers? They were frustrated at the lack of progress in comprehending the basic mechanics behind this taunting phenomenon.
Jonathan Edwards, after all, stopped direct research on the distortion since the "Discovery". Edwards' focus was now on the more interesting field of microbiology dealing with bacterial infection. That is until the Cult of the End Times at the start of 2020 caused a certain facility to be sucked into “Nidhoggr” by their sacrifice.
...In the streets of New York, a Chinese child of about 8 years of age wandered about. He searched for his family.
(Chinese Boy) "Mom! Dad! Brother!"
He would cry out in Chinese, every day. His life would reveal the travesty of life: emptiness in the fullness of living. His purpose would serve none but his dedication would lead him far into the future...
And humanity was left to question again what little they had in understanding life all by themselves…