Billions of years ago when the Universe came into existence, by law some beings were born with it automatically. It was like yin and yang.

Not only this time but from many, many universes before.

As one universe ended in a big-crunch, another started with a big-bang, these beings started and ended with them.

These being were cosmic entities. Tasked with duties beyond any mortal.

These beings were called Moderators.

And they had the most important job in the universe.

The job of establishing laws.

Laws that governs that universe. The laws were not just physical or the spiritual, but defined the interaction, establishment and existence of any and everything.

Their was one exception though. The one law that was out of the bounds for even these celestial beings.

It was the law of time. Even the Moderators were unable to govern time.

It seemed that time was made from the same fabric in the universe that formed these Moderators.

At the most they could bend it. But traversing to and fro through time was impossible even for them.

But being the Moderators, there were some pre-set rules that even they had to follow. These rules were strict to the bone. They could not be bended.

From a normal mortal’s perspective it seemed like a task that was impossible in the least. But for these beings it was a whole another story.

The Moderators for every iterations of the universe just followed the rules created by the previous ones, changed them a little to match their idea of the perfect world and leave it be. It was like entering a block of code and trying to find the output. Only the option of debugging was absent.

But why were doing this? Trying to create the perfect universe. And through the millions of iterations of the universe why did they change the rules every time? Why didn’t they just let the previous law flow and let their current universe take the route it is supposed to?

Well, the reason has something to do with an ancient prophecy that was declared when the first universe came into existence. The first big-bang ever.

Before it? There was nothingness. No space, no flow of time, no flow of energy, no rules, no knowledge and no Moderators.

Only Darkness.

So what was the prophecy? The reason for the continuous creation and continuous destruction of the universe. The reason for the existence of the Moderators.

It was fore told  “When the time comes that the current world attains perfect harmony, the complete ability to dispel Darkness, then and only then will the destruction of universe stop.”

Yes.... In order to create the perfect world the universe was in continuous state of creation and destruction.

Again... From a mortal being’s perspective this time between the creation and destruction was exponentially large. But for the Moderators it was a chance to prolong their lives and a chance to live on for all eternity. What we could call a true immortal.

The constant struggle amongst the Moderators had proved one thing though.

Even they feared death.

One would ask that, for these Celestial beings that had the life time of a universe.

Why would they want to live for all eternities.

Well their life was certainly equivalent to that of a universe.

But the flow of time for them was very different.

To these Moderators, it was not immortality but knowledge that interested them. As any mortal is, even they were curious. What would happen if they created the ‘Perfect Harmony’? What was the darkness that the prophecy foretold and how would it be dispelled. What would exist if darkness was dispelled?  

These Moderators though possessed superior intellect didn’t know that the universe when left as it is would not stablize, but would instead follow the path of destruction.

This story is about the current universe.

The constant alteration of laws from the Moderators.

The incident that involved one of the Moderators personally getting involved in the affairs of one of the worlds.

The change that happened due to it.

The Court of Moderators

The regular meeting that took place to decide the laws. It was very important for the moderators. Each and every decision that they took was consulted and approved by every-one. Generally the meetings turned out to be very intense. But it rarely got out of hand.

It seems today was one of those days. Two of them were specially at each other.

They seemed to have some sort of disagreement.

But what could it be? Could the new law change forever how the things worked in the universe? Could they have cracked the code? From the heated discussion it certainly looked so.

“Oi! You cheated!!!” cried Mephisto.

“I definitely saw you cheating, you definitely moved your Rook just when I was talking to Helen.”

“Calm down idiot. I did not cheat. In the first place why would I cheat when I clearly had you in check” replied Argus.

“You did too 100%. I was gonna checkmate you with a clever plan that I had devised. And just so you know check doesn’t mean shit in chess, its check-mate which is counted. I could have easily gotten out of it. But you....you saw what my plan was and figured out that you had no way out. So you waited till when I wasn’t paying attention and moved the piece.” Mephisto fired back.

“Oh yeah? Then tell me of the millions of times that we played chess how many times have you won?”

“Wha-.... It-...It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve won because today was the day I was gonna defeat you and rub it in your face. Just admit you cheated and admit your defeat.” Mephisto said.

“Yeah like I’m gonna admit it now. Now that I know what you plan on doing once you win. Just eat shit!!!” Argus taunted.

“How can I eat shit when shit doesn’t exist in our realm?” Mephisto shouted.

“I’m gonna prove it. Helen, did you see it? Did you see Gus move the piece. Just speak the truth.” Mephisto asked.

“I didn’t see anything idiot. Even if I did isn’t it your fault for not paying attention.” Helen replied.

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“Ooooiiiii!!! Don’t just call me an idiot. My name is M-E-P-H-I-S-T-O. Mephisto. Why do you all keep teasing me???” Mephisto asked angrily.

“Sorry idio- I mean Phisto. I didn’t mean to tease you. We all call you idiot out of love, you know.”  

One could almost hear the playfulness in her voice.

“You were gonna call me idiot again weren’t you? You just missed one letter. And love my ass, you just make fun of me because you have nothing better to do.” screamed Mephisto.

“Maybe you do really need to eat shit.” Helen whispered. She was controlling her laughter with great difficulty.”

“I heard that. You weren’t even whispering.” Mephisto shouted.

“I get it, I get it. But you know, its not like you are not worthy of your nickname. You did some idiotic things in the past.”

“Well think about it. Do you think I am that much capable of discovering your strategy and subtly moving the piece when you moved your head away for a second? On top of that knowing where to place my rook exactly where it is in that split second?” Argus all serious looked straight into Mephisto’s eyes.

Mephisto previously full of doubt and contempt started to cool down. After all this teasing was a daily routine. He couldn’t let himself be bothered by such trivial things. Although constantly calling him idiot did hurt his pride.

He thought that the less reaction he gave towards their teasing, the less they are gonna tease him. But when the time came for actually sucking it up, he ended up shouting at the others. Making sure that they tease him again.

“I guess you’re right. You couldn’t have. After all I am the greatest of the greatest. You can’t possibly hide any thing from me can you?” Mephisto calmed down.

Looking down on Argus acting like whatever happened just now did not happen and that no matter what the situation he is gonna beat Argus like a pro.

“Well then...I’m gonna enjoy it to the last moment. Right now I’m so happy that we bet on who is going to do the ‘Purge’ based on this match. Cause you know.....Check-mate.” Argus exclaimed.

Placing the rook beside the king. Right now Mephisto’s king was surrounded by rook from the side and queen from the front by two steps when Argus checked him before.

“Wha.....” Mephisto was gasping for words.

“How did you...?”

“Sorry but you loose you idiot” Argus was laughing now.

He got up and started dancing up and about. The chair he was sitting on vanished like clouds.

The chess board resetted and from it a voice came out. It was the voice of Atmos.

He was the leader of all Moderators. Although the Moderators did not have a hierarchy, but to they just randomly selected a person who could settle disputes like this.

“Victory to Argus. As the bet was the one who looses the game has to do the Purge. Mephisto is assigned the duty.”

Mephisto, knowing that he played right into Argus’s hand was loosing his calm.

But as he’d lost. He could do nothing but to obey the commands.

He thought, back then when he was acting all high and mighty when he thought Argus was cheating he should have complained to the administrator. It would have been his victory by default. But he was so full of himself that he got totally blindsided.

“Well you got what you deserved.” Argus said.

“What did you say?” Mephisto who was already fuming was now getting mocked. Spraying salt over the wounds.

“Think about it. You were given one task by Atmos. To govern the fabric of space and you messed up even that. Not only that.

The planets we were each given to cultivate, you couldn’t even do that right. You allowed mortals to almost achieve the speed of photons, even established spiritual energy, accidently allowed bending of space and what not. You mess up your planets, you fix them your self. Specially when it is a complex one as yours.” Replied Argus.

Even though his words were harsh. He was completely correct.

And so Mephisto knowing that the coming days were gonna suck as hell prepared for the Purge.

The Next Day

Mephisto was ready for departure. He didn’t do any thing different. He just woke up and came to the meeting to debrief.

"Well I hate to see one of my favorite creations go into turmoil. Such a beautiful planet."

“Well what did you think? Clever right? I created the perfect world. These mortals messed it up. It was not my fault though. You think so too right?” Mephisto exclaimed.

“Okay.....okay(sigh......) . Just be sure to remember that you will loose your Moderator powers while you’re on the planet. That’s the pledge of the Purge. Do you accept?” Atmos said.

“Do I have another choice??(sigh.....) I accept, might as well bask in the glory of my own creation.” Mephisto proudly replied.

“Very well. You may depart and remember........ I still believe you can achieve it. The ‘Perfect Harmony’. I believe in you.”Atmos said.

“Thanks. Well then...here I go.”

With that said Mephisto’s body started vibrating. It was like each and every particle of his body started to glow.

The vibration’s intensity increased until his body disintegrated into Photons.

At the speed of light Mephisto headed towards Earth.

The Moderators Court

“Do you think he can do it? As a mortal i mean.” Renitran asked Atmos.

“Of course. He’s not only the strongest but also the most intelligent among us. Remember?”

“How could I forget.”

“Yeah... Me too. No matter how much we tease him, its true that we would be in jeopardy if it weren't for him.” Argus admitted.

Away from all these conversation. Flying at the speed of light, Mephisto was heading towards Earth. He prefered not to use the teleportation through a worm hole in order to think his plan through, while he travelled.

After a while...he smiled.

“All right you brats. Here I come....”