Earth

Jewel of the Cosmos, with vast oceans and forests covering its continents.

At least, that was what it was before the current dominant species appeared on it.

Humans, as they called themselves, have deforested the continents, polluted the waters, and extinct a vast majority of the wildlife to fuel their incessant greed for development.

Still… that was what an Outsider saw, at first glance, after visiting Earth.

Everything said above was the Truth. Yet things were not as simple as they appeared at first glance.

A once famous Human intellectual of the past laid out his thoughts with a saying.

The more you seek to find the Rabbit, the deeper the Rabbit hole goes.

The Rabbits, in this case, represented the Humans, while the Rabbit hole was their Social Structure.

The complexity of the Human Social Structure is at once simple and complex.

Simply because of the inherent Hierarchical Structure they established and pursued.

Complex because of all the nuances they possessed when striving to reach the top of that Hierarchical Structure.

Thus, the Human Species was, is, and will be both hard and easy to manipulate.

Especially easy, if you possess an infiltrator unit to disguise as one of their own.

Especially hard, as the Human species possessed an inherent dislike for anything not Human. At least if you don't want to become a domesticated pet.

Why? Well, that was simple.

It was because everything existed on Earth. From foreign invading species to benign, whimsical, and evil Meta-Physical Beings. Every one of them vying to manipulate this new species of the Cosmos for their greedy schemes.

As a result, Earth became the battleground for an Epic War between the Forces of Good and Evil, while the Human Species became the living sacrifice fueling that Epic War.

However, because the Epic War of Good and Evil manifested in the shadows, the vast majority of Humans were unaware of their unwilling participation in this Epic War.

Thus invalidating the possibility of them realizing and uniting as one People to overthrow their Puppet Masters.

Thus, the Road to the Stars was barred for Humans.

As such, an unconscious resentment within the Humans existed. It fueled their inherent dislike of anything not Human unless designated a Pet.

That unconscious resentment manifested where it could. Yet, it had never found a proper outlet. Consequently, over the unnumbered millennia of being pawns in this Epic War of Good and Evil, the resentment bottled itself until it no longer could.

Therefore, a Being was born, bearing all that resentment within its Soul.

This… Being would be known as The Ap…

DING!!! DING!!! DING!!!

“Fuck!!!” My mouth cursed almost instantly.

The cursed word bore my resentment as the DING’s instantly broke my artistic inspiration.

An artistic inspiration that took many days to manifest.

In today’s case, in the form of a prologue for a new story of mine.

“Haaa…” Breathing in deeply, I exhaled once before focusing on the necessary part. After all, the DING’s interrupting me despite the Privacy Setting Engaged meant something significant transpired.

Once more, I sighed mentally before flicking mental levers in my head. Immediately the display and the keyboard vanished alongside the darkness serving as my Privacy Setting.

Few could imagine themselves enjoying the emptiness of the Void, even if it was fake, where all outside sensory feedback was gone. On the other hand, I enjoyed it from time to time. It gives me the solitude needed to temporarily leave a needy Reality pursuing my attention.

Either way. When the fake blackness vanished, left behind was a cozy living room any family would wish to have. Seeing nobody present, I shrugged my shoulders before noticing a cup on the table.

It was my favorite cup, filled with my favorite drink, hot chocolate.

Ignoring how long it stayed there yet remained warm, I instantly gulf it down with glee. I enjoyed the aftertaste for one single moment.

After that, additional mental levers got pushed. From the corner of my vision, on my vHUD, a tiny note manifested and magnified. Mentally, I wrote a reminder for myself to thank the person who put the drink there in the first place.

Did not actually need it with my Mental Capacity, yet… for some reason, I've been advised I don't give out enough thanks or appreciation.

Thus, the note was born to remind me of those matters.

Done with that, I finally placed my attention on the DING’s.

“Let’s see what this is about?”

With my attention on the DING’s in another corner of the vHUD, they magnified and delivered me the vital message.

!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; TYPE; CHAOS - SOUL - VARIANT; TRUCK !!!

!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; LOCATION; ASIA/CHINA. COORDINATES; ##. ## !!!

!!! ALERT; EVENT IN PROGRESS; ETA; 53 seconds. !!!

“FUCK… I diddle around too much.” Even speaking of my recognized folly needed a second, leaving me less to work with.

Immediately additional mental commands rattled my mind. This time I ignored the vHUD altogether. To me, it was just a fancy toy meant for regular people. It had its benefits, but everything it did, I could do on my own, only I never bothered actually doing so.

Either way, the sent commands directly interacted with my brain by initiating a cascade of cocktails. They had only one purpose. Acceleration of mental processing beyond the standard human spectrum.

Only my Power empowered said function even beyond the physical safety parameters.

In plain-spoken terms, bullet time arrived.

Thus, everything decelerated in my vision. The only thing missing? Bullets to dodge.

With the added internal time to process things, more commands flickered through my mind, and I accessed my System directly.

With no buffer between me and my System, a map of Earth manifested in my mind. Seconds later, I zoomed in on the coordinates given and reached China’s mainland. A bit more zooming action went on before I found the target.

Damn… a small town in the middle of nowhere, at least nowhere important?

Shaking my head at the realization, I had to throw my hands, mentally speaking, into the air in recognition of my limits.

Looks like I'm gonna need some help if I want to arrive on time.

Thus, a moment of my time got spent on forging my plea for help.

~Marcus, my buddy. How are you doing? I hope I am not interrupting anything important. However, I require your mighty Space Magic.~ Stopping there for a moment, I throw in a winking smiley emoticon before continuing my plea. ~I need a Teleport from… basically where I am currently, which is my couch, to these coordinates ##. ##.~ Again, I throw in a serious smiley face emoticon before adding in the last part of the message. ~Oh, and I need it pronto, and for the accuracy of my current need, here is another PRONTO.~

For additional weight, I sent the message with the same priority warning my notification was attached with. It basically meant guaranteed interruption of anything he might be doing.

That said, while the message was sent, it still would take a small eternity for the reply to come my way. My friend simply did not possess the same mentally accelerated processing. Thus, while waiting, my mind again frowned upon not having ridiculously fast manifesting Teleports or Portals at my disposal.

Shaking my mind, mentally that is, I remind myself of having accepted that fact long ago. Yet, the saying ‘My neighbor's grass appears to be greener than my own’ was born for a reason.

That jealousy had nudged me to seek alternatives. However, there was simply no beating Dimensional Magic when it came to going from place to place, much less globally, as I presently needed.

After a literal eon of waiting, which probably took maybe a few seconds, in Reality, the replay came.

~Fuck You… Almost had a heart attack.~ My friend replied. ~Can't help you. I am busy. Whatever your emergency is, if it’s not the end of the world, and I am pretty sure it is not ending for at least a few more years, so… DO…NOT… FUCKING… DISTURB ME.~

Huh… Usually, he’s amicable if it’s important to me. What could he be doing to deny his exemplary buddy his Mighty Magic?

Despite my pressing need to be somewhere, I took a second to investigate. Umm… he’s home. What could he be… Oh!

Just in case… I perused his location with a firmer comb. In the end, my first deduction turned out to be highly probable.

~Oh. Sorry to interrupt. Continue your exercise. It’s not THAT important.~ Attached to it was a SNU SNU meme just to rile him up a bit more.

The long way, it is.

With no other option delivered, it was time to dip into my own resources.

Instantly my awareness split into two halves. The first half stayed with my physical body. The other half, though? Got sent away when I activated the Avatar function built into my System.

With that done, I hoped my Avatar would manifest in time. Otherwise, I would have to dip into Time shenanigans.

I hated those.

Whether it worked or not, I still wanted to arrive there physically. As such, I canceled bullet time. It took a few moments for everything to flow uniformly, and when it did, one glance at the timer showed me 33 seconds.

Sighing internally, I flexed my Power.

After fundamentally vanishing from my Earth home, I came to another one.

This one looked exactly the same, only the location was completely different. The next second, I vanished from there too.

This time I found myself in the backyard.

Taking a moment, I glanced around the Realm, created from scratch, and saw nothing amiss.

Nodding, I made my way deeper into the said backyard. There I found an arching door made of white stone blocks. Only they weren't genuine stone blocks. Either way, the Archway was about three meters tall and two meters wide, and it had taken me years of research to finalize.

It couldn't compare to its big brother found elsewhere in my Realm. Nevertheless, this one was for personal use, so it did not have to.

Once in front of it, with a thought of mine, the Archway powered up. Instantly, the empty doorway manifested a miniature visual phenomenon representing my Realm.

At the bottom was a field of white clouds. From them arose tiny glinting stars. Not actual stars like the Suns out there in Reality, but the stars one saw every night in the night sky. All blinky and mesmerizing.

These stars congregated in tiny streams. Which, in turn, gathered into vast rivers flowing in various directions. Many of these rivers crossed each other at some point, so it was hard to pinpoint where one truly ended and another began.

In the middle of the Archway, the biggest of the rivers congregated into galaxy-like disk formations.

At the center of these galaxy-like disk formations, singularities existed. Once again, not actual singularities. All mine did was borrow their theory as the incoming stars were eaten and refined.

Out of each of the singularities arose nebulous pillars, and around these pillars spiraled nebulous streams in a double helix form. These nebulous pillars and streams assembled close to the top of the Archway into nebulas of diverse formations and colors.

Finally, at the top and very edge of the Archway, all nebulas lost their colors and returned to the clean white found at the bottom. That witness attached itself to the sides of the Archway and flowed down to the bottom only to repeat the pattern infinitely.

This 3D Grand Illusion, as was dubbed by a buddy of mine, was far more than just an illusion. Still, it was an exquisite representation of the innermost layer of my Realm.

This innermost layer of my Realm represented the current me and everything I strived for in my life.

Thus, it was termed The Forge of Dreams as Dreams led me to this point.

Even after so many years, I still marveled at this accomplishment made through ingenious intellect and luck.

More luck than ingenious intellect, but it is what it is.

Shrugging my shoulders, I focused on the illusion. Within moments it was gone. Left behind was darkness beyond the darkness.

A darkness that would consume you from sensory deprivation if you stayed too long inside.

If you survived long enough, that is.

After all, in the Void, there was no air to breathe. Nor food to eat.

For a moment, I observed the Void.

It beckoned me with a familiar touch, like a long lost friend you met long ago seeking to rekindle the friendship once more.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Shrugging away the feeling, I focused on myself.

Though it was separate, the Avatar was connected to me. Sensing that separated part of my awareness, I attached the sensation to the Archway. Thanks to its function and the way the Void operated, or better stated, did not operate, the Archway amplified the sensory feedback sent by my Avatar.

Then everything clicked into place. The darkness of the Void attained colors inside the Archway, and they began to shimmer as if they could not decide where they were meant to be.

Because my Power worked differently from Magic, I did not need precise measurements for the coordinates. All I needed was to find the right ‘Feelings’ associated with the place I wanted to go.

As such, I began to interact with the colors.

Since I did not need to touch anything, all I did was think, and the colors began to shift here and there. Unfortunately, it did not take long to figure out that probing for Spatial impressions was not enough to make the Portal lock onto the destination.

With the addition of Temporal impressions being the key, everything clicked into place once more. When it did, the shimmer attained clarity.

In that clarity, I observed a version of myself standing beside a boy.

Stepping through the Archway, I found myself in the middle of a street crossing. Yet, this crossing, and the world around it, looked slightly different from how one was used to.

A reddish tint enveloped this road crossing because a Time Bubble enveloped this road crossing. The bubble itself was about three meters in radius. That did not sound like much, but one better hope it was enough because messing with Time was damn expensive.

Thus, Time inside and Time outside the crossing behaved differently. Thus, the slightly reddish hue shimmered from the bubble walls, as Light behaved differently inside and outside the bubble.

Still, contrary to what most imagined, Time had not stopped or even slowed down. No, if my Avatar had attempted doing as such, I would have literally beaten it down for its stupidity.

Thankfully, my Avatar worked on a different scheme, so no absurdity would emerge from it.

Either way, with Time accelerating inside the bubble, I ignored my Avatar, the boy in question, and examined the outside.

Craning my neck left and right, I could not catch even a glimpse of the culprit. It took turning around to find the beast with its white, menacing, and blocky face. Its eyes glowed with purpose, and the black beard, in the form of front bumpers, showcased its mighty and terrifying prowess only a… trash truck could exhibit.

Grinning from joy at seeing my nemesis, I gave an eloquent bow of respect at the worthy foe, no matter which forms it took.

“We meet again, Truck-kun!” Not that I expected Truck-kun to reply, but I still declared it. “What do you think? Another bout between us? Let us see who shall win this time. I know… I know, so far, it’s 0-12 in your favor. But mark my words, thirteen shall be my lucky number.”

With the proclamation done with confidence, I turned around and displayed him my behind.

In the same moment, my confident smile lost its luster, and reluctance manifested. Giving up all hype, in favor of scratching the back of my head, my thoughts did a 180.

I do hope my declaration holds any sway this time.

A few steps later, I was in the center of the Time Bubble.

There I saw my Avatar touching the forehead of the boy attempting to cross the road.

At least, he had done so, only he would never finish the attempt. Neither was he meant to complete it here. No, he would conclude the crossing somewhere else. Where that was, I did not know. Still, that did not prevent me from dipping my fingers into this Meta-Physical Phenomenon known as ‘Reincarnation by Truck’.

By the boy's side, I gave an overall glance at the frozen boy. Midstep, at that. He wasn't frozen in Time or anything even closely resembling that. That would have been stupid. No, a simple application of Power on his brain had instantly knocked him out.

Another simple application kept him in his frozen physical state.

While examining his face, I addressed my Avatar. “I take it, I am in the presence of a genuine believer since he looks barely past 16?”

In reply, the Avatar nodded. “With all of his heart.”

With a nod, I acknowledged the opinion of my Avatar. After all, he was me, yet I was not him.

“Tell me about him. Anything special? ” I pose the possibility.

“Aside from the usual? No.” Shaking my head with vexation, I touched the Avatar’s forehead with my right forefinger.

Within moments, its split of my awareness returned to me, while the already formed Essence Body Construct stayed in place. Once I lightly parsed through the memories of the Avatar, I transformed the body construct into the image of the boy destined for Reincarnation.

Only, I made it more ghost-like in appearance.

An earlier experiment showcased that any actual physical interaction, bar freezing, would sentence any of my involvement as obsolete to my purpose.

Weird, but I worked with Weird stuff all the time. Hence, I made it more ghost-like by following the theme.

Once the form was adjusted, I had the Essence Body Construct touch the boy’s forehead. Moments later, the body construct became an extension of the boy’s Consciousness.

A brief and subtle touch on his Consciousness woke the boy. “Boy, don’t panic if you can’t feel or move your body. Focus on my voice and follow it.”

Having gone through this process before, I knew the best way to not have him panic. After some initial disorientation, the usual panic attack of experiencing an out-of-body phenomenon, plus everything else happening, came the time to dismiss another annoying experience.

At least, it was annoying for me. With extra effort, I denied any connection to that imbecile and tyrant of a God leading the current Pantheons on Earth.

Wanting to progress with the central part of the event, I pointed at the trash truck behind me with a thumb. It took a moment for the boy’s mind to connect the dots. But when he did, his religious attitude towards Truck-kun instantly dropped him to his knees into a feverish, zealous, and pious prayer.

Multiple times his forehead hit the asphalt. After all, his Destiny had come.

While observing it once again, I had no choice but to sigh in my mind.

He was not the only one to display this kind of theatrics. At least once aware of the big picture. The worst part was I could not blame them. Earth had become weird after I began meddling with everything.

Sigh.

At first, I found it funny.

Still, like everything in life, once one gets exposed to a lot of the same stuff, they just lose their appeal.

After exhausting all the religious zeal, gathered and bottled by being indoctrinated into anime and manga, he came to himself.

Once more, I began to grin when his face began to dance between the trash truck and me. Things clicked in his mind, and wariness manifested in his eyes.

Being the anomaly in his mind, I kept grinning for influence. Then, once the boy understood his place, I heard him ask the right question.

“Who are you? And why did you appear before me? Are you trying to steal my Glory? ”

Rolling my eyes to display the idiocy of his question, I chose the correct scenario from my mind.

“Listen to me, boy. And listen to me well, as I don’t enjoy repeating myself.” With the warning given, I began. “As of this moment, You find yourself in an interesting situation. You will leave Earth to wherever you were meant to. There, a Grand Adventure will await you. A Grand Adventure full of Mythical Beasts like Dragons, Phoenixes, and whatnot.” Pointing out the obvious, I continue my speech. “Considering your male, a harem will probably await you as well. Although, I would not recommend it. It's hard enough with one woman, much less a harem full of them.”

Shaking away any thoughts of a harem, I tell him my thoughts. ”Therefore, calm down. I will not be interfering with your Destiny. No… In truth, I want to fulfill your Destiny.”

Tilting his head to the right, I could imagine the gears in his head. Not that I needed to. The Essence Body Construct I had him inhabit made him an open book.

Thus, that became another justification for doing everything in this roundabout way.

“But… There are conditions? Right? Conditions for you to allow my Destiny to manifest? Right? Otherwise, I would not be in this situation. Right?”

At least he’s got a good head. Will live longer with it… if he reaches the World of his Destiny.

With a nod, my speech continued. “Not exactly a ‘Condition’. More like an… ‘Opportunity’.” Ceasing for a single moment to let the word opportunity sink in, I go on. “You as an individual are not important. Neither are you the only one being given this opportunity. However, what is important is where you are going.”

“With that said, are you interested in listening to my proposal?” I ask him with a smile.

Moments passed. His eyes shifted between me and the trash truck behind me. It was easy for him to infer a possibility, so I delivered the words to ease his conscience. “Even if you reject the ‘Opportunity’ provided, I will not interfere with your Destiny.”

Immediately, I saw his expression relax slightly. On the other hand, my mind thought in different terms.

Pfff, as if I'd let you go that easily.

There is a reason I made you inhabit that Essence Body Construct. One snap of my finger and your memory of this moment is wiped clean, like a Dream vanishing before your wakefulness manifests.

Then I’ll repeat the scenario till I get the correct result or run out of Time.

“Go ahead.” The boy acknowledged his situation.

Nodding and grinning, my right hand rose between us. Before his fake eyes, a golf ball sized golden orb manifested.

“This… is an Egg.”

“Egg?” Immediately, his thoughts peaked in a specific direction. Me being a reader of everything, I knew what tickled his type. And few things could beat a companion following them through their Grand Adventure.

“A Spiritual Egg, to be precise,” I explained before rolling my eyes as I knew where his thoughts led. “So don't expect some all-powerful Beast that will floor the ground with everybody. No, I am not that powerful. Still, if you accept my offer, this Spiritual Egg will become your reward and opportunity.”

“Right…” For a moment, I sensed disappointment, but it was gone the next moment. “What will hatch out of it? Actually, how will I even hatch that? It won’t eat me after it hatches? Right?”

“Oh. Also, what do you want from me in exchange?”

While nodding, I began answering one by one.

“You don’t have to worry about the hatching part, and no, it won’t eat you. Well… it won't eat you literally.” I loved this part. The boy's face was the perfect example of spontaneous fear. “Don't just jump to conclusions that are not there. My Domain is Dreams and Nightmares. So the Spiritual Egg will feed on your Dreams and Nightmares, with Dreams being the staple everyday food and Nightmares being the occasional delicacies.”

Then without giving him a chance to voice his concerns, I continue answering the rest of his laid-out questions.

“As for the hatching process. That one is even simpler.” I proclaimed. “Somewhere along your Grand Adventure, the Egg will hatch on its own even without you doing anything. On the other hand, if you want to accelerate the process, it’s easy. “ I explained. ”Yes, The Egg feeds on your Dreams and Nightmares, but there are properties to each Dream and Nightmare. In the case of this Egg, the favorite types are Dreams and Nightmares generated by Knowledge.”

“Knowledge?” The boy inquired as ideas bloomed in his mind.

“Yes, Knowledge learned and experienced during your Grand Adventure.” Nodding, I went into the specifics. ”Technically speaking, the more exotic the Knowledge you learn, the more it will like it.” Stopping one once, I raise my left forefinger as a warning. “Before you ask, as all the others did before you. Let me tell you about the benefits.”

With that said, I began weaving a little marketing story of benefits and detriments, especially after the Egg stage of his future companion.

After that was done, I came to the meaningful part.

“Now, what I want in exchange is simple,” I told him. ”I want you to help it hatch and grow to the best of your capability during your Grand Adventure. It will take a lot of Time and Knowledge. Nevertheless, once it has reached full Spiritual maturity, I want you to not interfere with its decision to return to me. So that it can fulfill its natural purpose of procreating the next generation.”

Shaking my head for a moment, I interrupt the forming thoughts in his mind. “I know how it sounds. Like it is not fair to You, who spent all that time and effort to raise it, but here is where your reward and opportunity manifests.” Placing more emphasis on this, I add a tiny bit of my Power to my voice to etch it that much deeper into his subconscious while laying it out for him. “If you treat it right and become best friends with your Spiritual Companion, it will return to you. Treat it like trash, and you will never see it again.”

“Thus, this reward and opportunity depend on your character.”

Done with my speech, I could almost hear the gears grind in his mind while processing everything. “Oh, I should mention one more thing. If you accept my offer, you will have to sign a Contract to ‘Honor’ our agreement.”

As if all I've done so far poofed into nothing, the boy found his steel spine. “No, I will not be signing any contract.”

Unfortunately for him, I could read him like a book. Thus, I knew he was very much tempted by my offer. As such, I switched the script slightly. “Don't be scared. The Contract will be simple. Think of it as an added security measure on my side. After all, I don't want my Creation to be treated poorly.”

With that said, silence ensued between us.

His mind went into overdrive because of the benefits laid out moments before. After all, who could turn down increased comprehension of any Knowledge, the Dream Spirit processed? That was pure cheating compared to those that did not have a Dream Spirit.

And that was without counting the other benefits the Dream Spirit will exhibit once it hatches. Hence, torn between desire and fear of signing a contract, the boy's mind ground down everything.

Eventually, it settled down, and a calm emerged inside him.

To be honest, it was a bit impressive. Very few dived deep into thinking this through.

A moment later, the boy finally nodded and spoke. “So… the Spirit goes to another World. Steals Knowledge from that World and delivers everything to you? Right? Without improving our friendship, I am just a bystander that benefits from its temporary presence.”

With a slight nod, I confirm his musings.

Smart kid, indeed.

“Ok… How do I sign that Contract?”

With relief, I tapped on the golden orb in my right hand. With golden lights for effects, the golden orb changed into three objects.

One smaller golden orb.

One golden parchment in the form of a scroll, with plenty of black flourishing to make everything look even fancier.

One black fountain pen with golden flourishing for even more fanciness.

“Take the pen, and open the parchment,” I instructed the boy. “On it, you will find the terms of our agreement. Read them and notice the simple terms inlaid within.”

Doing as told, the boy rolled open the parchment. Black flourishing aesthetics could be seen on the rim of the Contract.

Still, the most important part was in the middle, for him at least.

The terms were simple, as anything complicated would hinder the purpose of this moment. The previous experiments had showcased that for me plenty of times.

Once he read my terms, he nodded in understanding but did not stop there. Next, he looked all over the Contract. He even brought it closer to his eyes to try and see if there was any fine print.

Raising an eyebrow, I pointed out his behavior. “Looks like you have some experience with contracts. Are you trying to look for the fine print?“

That did give him pause, and he faced me instead of the Contract. Studying me for a second, he replied. “My mother was a Lawyer before she died. When I was younger, she always told me to look for the fine print, as the Devil always hid in the fine print.”

“Indeed.” I commented but said no more.

Seeing nothing more come from me, he continued his search for the imaginary Devil. Once he found none, he took the pen. Nonetheless, before he signed it, he took one last peek at me and the trash truck behind me.

Flashing a little smile at him, I nodded, and he signed the Contract with a bit of resignation as if he'd broken some promise of the past.

With his name on it, the pen, alongside the egg, vanished into the scroll. Then the Contract rolled itself shut and returned to being a golden orb the size of a golf ball.

Next, it flew into his actual body. Specifically, it flew into his Soul, and there it took root.

With that, my purpose here ended. I looked at the boy inhabiting my Avatar when a thought came to me.

Perhaps I took a liking to the boy? A possibility existed that his Main Character Aura finally affected me? At least a tiny bit. Or maybe it was that tiny bit of generosity exhibited to a stranger leaving Earth forever, as no Reincarnator struck by Truck-kun had returned so far.

At least not since I began my side project.

“You know. Your mother wasn’t wrong when she said the Devil hides in the fine print.” I said.

“But?” He inquired with a sour tone.

“But… that only applies to regular people.“ I pointed it out for his benefit. ”And not those with Powers at their disposal.” Shaking my head for a moment, I explained my experience. ”When you acquire Powers, you will find that the Devil is not hiding in the Contract.”

Prolonging my response for extra drama, I finally say it. “The Devil is the Contract.”

With the final piece of advice given, I prepared my right thumb and middle finger.

SNAP

The Avatar, the boy inhabited, just a second ego, collapsed and vanished into my body. While the boy’s awareness returned to his actual body, where only darkens awaited him now.

Ignoring the boy, as he was no longer vital, I looked back at the trash truck about to kill him.

“My part here is done. Let's see if this will become another failure.” I said to none in particular. Shaking my head, as everything from this point on depended on Luck, my mind issued one final command to my System.

I wonder? How long will it take for the failure feedback to reach me this time?

Moments later, I vanished from the little bubble of accelerated Time and returned to my Realm.

Moments later, the Time Bubble interfering with the Laws of Time also vanished.

What would come next was no surprise to me, as I had observed it many times before.

The truck hit the boy, and the boy died.

Maybe instantly, and maybe not. Not that it mattered. No, what mattered was the Soul leaving its physical anchor, as that was when the phenomena of Reincarnation began. Nevertheless, contrary to what usually happens to a Soul, leaving a recently deceased body, this boy's Soul ignored the pull of the Local Soul River.

Instead, this Soul got picked up by a different current.

A current that would ignore all boundaries to be defined, bend any Laws interfering with its flow, and carry its Destined One’s across Creation to their rightful Space and rightful Time.

A current I termed Chaos Flow.

After all, aren’t we the Destined Ones, the favorite children of Chaos?

At least if one considered the aftermath of our mere presence upon Creation.