Alexander did not notice, but a teardrop fell on the paper. The paper, which did not get wet in the rain, began to moisten. But he did not notice this phenomenon as he cried, and more and more tear drops fell on the paper. Some of them even fell on the blood marks as the tears miraculously wiped the blood with ease.
Suddenly, there was a sound, as manly as possible, as authoritarian as possible. It was a voice of a ruler. No, not a ruler. It was the voice of a tyrant, no it was a voice of THE tyrant.
“TEARS, HA. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?”
The voice boomed, and it seemed to hold dominion over the elements themselves, quieting the sky, the rain, even the thunder, as if they cowered in fear before an incomprehensible force.
In the midst of this eerie stillness, only the sound of a boy weeping could be discerned. Alexander, sensing something amiss, looked up to witness a sight beyond belief. Rain halted above him, thunder froze mere inches away, and in the distance, other thunderbolts hung motionless. "Time slows down when you're about to die," he mused with a nervous chuckle.
Then he suddenly felt something as he looked at his hand and saw that the paper was glowing. It was warm and clean, there was no blood mark on the paper. And suddenly something occurred to him and he looked closely at the thunderbolt that was in front of him. As he looked at it for a few moments, he was completely flabbergasted. The thunderbolt did not slow down because of any time manipulation; it was trembling like crazy, as if it was afraid of something. And so was the rain, and then all the other thunderbolts far away. The thought sent a chill throughout Alexander's body. ‘How... how powerful do you need to be to make Mother Nature fear your presence?’ The sentence popped into Alexander's head.
“Is it for this?” Alexander murmured as he looked down at his hand, and noticed that even the air around the paper was vibrating and moving away as if it were afraid to come in contact with this tyrant.
A gentle force was keeping Alexander's hands from exploding in the void that was created by the moving away of the air. Alexander felt a blood connection with the gentle force, protecting him.
Like an invisible tsunami washing over, one by one the lights of the city's buildings went out, as if the city was enveloped by a dark blanket.
Lofty and powerful individuals were abruptly halted in their tracks, as multi-billion-dollar deals ground to a halt. The bustling traffic came to a standstill, bringing the city to a temporary pause. Michel, laden with bags and accompanied by his family, found themselves stranded at a makeshift station as transportation too came to a halt. Meanwhile, the lively after-party at the university was abruptly interrupted as darkness enveloped the surroundings, compelling Chase and Anna, who moments before were engrossed in teasing each other, to emerge alongside reluctant faces of the crowd. In short, all activity ceased, bringing about an unexpected pause in the flow of life.
At the center of the city rose the second tallest building, a towering structure that served as both a pillar and a heart. Branching tubes and roads extended from its base, reaching every corner of the metropolis. From a distance, it appeared as a sleek, modern monolith, devoid of any window, with a distinct red hue at its center. This iconic structure was known as the Citadel.
It was a heart of the city in both the literal and figurative sense. As it pumped the lifeblood of the city, every decision on this massive metropolis was approved or taken by this structure, and almost every powerhouse had a residence here with amenities that are hard to deny, even to the best of the best.
But at this moment, the entire building interior was bathed in pulsating red light, casting an eerie glow amidst the chaos of panicked employees. The flickering illumination threatened to extinguish at any given second.
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“What the hell is happening?”
“We cannot contact the capital.”
“What is this power source? It’s distorting everything.”
The full station was filled with panic and utter disarray. High atop the citadel, on one of the opened windows, a beautiful girl with a black slit dress and a veil on her face was looking down at the whole city as she read a book named "Whispers."
She was continuing her daily monotonous life when suddenly the electricity went out, then the entire sky burst into a breathtaking display of lights, captivating and bewitching. Yet, an inexplicable dread gripped her as she beheld the spectacle. It felt as though she was unwelcome in its presence, as if each intricate detail of the display was tainted with untold violence and unfathomable depths of crimson.
Abruptly, she spewed forth blood, and in the ensuing moment, the echoing chorus of coughing blood reverberated from the surrounding vicinity.
After coughing out blood, she gazed upon the scene before her with unadulterated horror etched into her eyes, and she found herself not alone in this dread-filled moment. Everyone in the city looked at the sky with horror in their eyes; it was as if the shrine of fear had descended upon the world with its mesmerizing beauty, terrorizing indiscriminately.
On the other hand, the culprit of it all was completely oblivious to his surroundings, as he slept and fell down after seeing the thunderbolt so close. But he was unaware of that fact as well, as in his mind, he saw something, maybe a memory of sorts. A boy, pretty much neglected by his family, always on his phone, watching some cartoon with spiky hair, and if not that, reading some form of picture book with no color or even reading books. He was fat, ugly, and pretty much useless.
Then he saw the boy once again, this time much older in his 20s, and his family running as planes flew overhead and people panicking all over, and surroundings on fire.
The scene shifted again, this time the boy was in a refuge cap of some sort but the father figure was missing.
Before he could make heads or tails of the situation, the scene changed once again. This time, there was no family. The boy found himself standing in the midst of a vast, desolate grassy field. In his arms, he cradled a woman who appeared to be his mother, her body bloodied and battered, half of it gruesomely missing.
The boy stood transfixed, his gaze fixed upon the ominous sky, tears in his eyes. The fat on his body was long gone, and in his hollow eyes only despair could be seen, as from the sky, atomic booms fell like rain, hundreds, no thousands of them.
In the next moment, the despair in the boy's eyes transformed into pure rage. Tears streamed down his cheeks as a radiant golden aura emanated from his body, encasing each atomic boom in a golden bubble. Then, they detonated.
Initially, the golden bubbles expanded as though on the brink of bursting, their radiant hues stretching outwards with impending energy. Inexplicably, they began to contract, shrinking with such rapidity that they seemed to implode into oblivion. It was as if their very existence had been erased from the fabric of reality.
The scene shifted once more, and several years passed as the boy matured into a man in his early thirties. He stood high on air, a map clasped firmly in his hand, studying a country shaped like a whale.
In the next moment, he brought his hand down as a colossal golden arrow, forged from the very essence of aura, descended upon the land below. In the next moment, a gigantic semi-circular explosion erupted, visible even from the depths of outer space, obliterating the country from existence. Water from the surrounding oceans gushed in like swirling whirlpools.
As the scene was about to conclude, it shifted again, but this time, the imagery was blurred, depicting an old man surrounded by shadows of enemies from every direction, each varied in size, stature, and armed with different weapons.
Before the weathered figure stood a silhouette so vast, it dwarfed entire galaxies, a behemoth of shadow and substance. Its form loomed, an enigma veiled in darkness, commanding awe that transcended the limits of mortal comprehension. Despite the blurry chaos, the old man's smug smirk was unmistakable, hinting at a confidence bordering on arrogance. As the thing and the old man clashed, everything turned into white. At the same moment, Alexander landed on the ground with a superhero landing, his eyes golden.
Simultaneously, the thunders fell as the rain returned, and the air regained its flow. From where he landed, a transparent, semi-circular air wave burst forth, shattering the windows and glass of the massive 901-story building. Then it clasped, falling sideways like the rumbling of thunder.
The booming crash gripped everyone’s heart in fear. It was as if the array with it brought chaos itself.
What Alexander and the people didn't know was that this array nor this kind of phenomenon wasn't limited to just their city. Beyond the city limits, spanning across forests, mountains, oceans, and even other cities, the influence of this phenomenon extended. It reached out to encompass the entire world, the solar system, galaxies, and even multiple galaxies. Although it didn't blanket the entire universe, its reach extended to cover more than half of it, and even beyond. In every location affected, powerful people coughed out blood. Those who understood the origin of the phenomenon were consumed by the purest form of fear, the essence of terror, some even went insane. Only a select few smiled, as if reuniting with an old acquaintance. Unbeknownst to Alexander, his seemingly insignificant act of crying had a profound effect, effectively shaking the very foundations of the universe and changing the motion of destiny and the constructs of so-called divinity.