[Welcome Host]

“Ugh, who- who are you?” A clearly masculine voice asked slowly, ‘Where is this?’ he thought to himself as he tried to look around – only to realise that he had no body so to speak, it was hard to describe but it was as if he was existing only in thought.

[The System]

The mechanically cold voice responded, its voice was neither loud nor quiet, yet it was as clear as if it was whispering directly into his ear.

“Then… who am I?” He asked again, his memories were foggy as if obstructed by an invisible force he could ‘feel’ their existence but anytime he tried to move closer to them he was pushed away no matter how many times he tried.

[The Host]

Again, it replied simply.

“Dammit, what the fuck is going on!” He shouted in annoyance, or tried, there was no such thing as ‘tone’ of communication in his current form, so everything came across just as calmly as before despite the contents of the message.

[You have been chosen]

“Chosen for what?” He asked, silently cursing whatever it was that he was speaking to at the back of his consciousness.

[Mission Objective: Destroy the Universe]

For a long time, he didn’t respond to it. He didn’t want to. His memories might be clouded but he still possessed enough basic intelligence to know what the universe was and just how many potentially intelligent lifeforms existed within it.

“Why… why would I do that?” He asked. There was no reason for him to do so after all, if he did that he’d embark on a path of no return – one of endless slaughter and murder. Although he couldn’t remember what type of person, he was he felt a natural aversion to the idea of destroying the Universe.

[Because if you do not someone else will]

“Then pick someone else! Kill me for all I care, I won’t do it.” He said stubbornly, ‘So what if someone else does it, go find a psychopath instead of me!’ He complained to himself.

[I cannot]

“Why not? You brought me here, just bring someone else.”

[I did not]

“Can’t you just explain yourself for once? These short sentences aren’t making you mysterious they’re just annoying.”

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[You are not the only one]

“So, you’ve already got others willing to do the job! So, you don’t need me at all, just let me die in peace.” He said without hesitation.

[No. Not me]

“Huh? There’re others like you then? What’s the point in that, why do you even need to act then – just sit back and let them do the work for you, ain’t that easier?” He was starting to get the feeling there was far more to the situation than he’d grasped.

[You will not understand]

“What’s there to understand? There’s multiple things like you out there that want to destroy the universe, if they’re willing to do it then aren’t I useless to begin with?” He asked, if he had a body there would most likely be a grin on his face at the thought of winning this argument.

[I do not wish for destruction]

“Then tell me what you want! If you can’t tell me, show me!” He wanted to scream at the thing, yet his voice was still serene as the words rang out which infuriated him further, “Fuck you, I’m not fucking calm stop this shit!”

Suddenly, the pitch-black space was filled with light, it wasn’t blindingly light but more of an eerie glow that illuminated his surroundings. He ‘looked’ around only to see a single star floating in space, it was a rippling ball of fire of an immeasurable size from his perspective.

[Watch. Don’t speak… foul-mouthed man]

He wanted to protest but considering it had obliged and was showing him ‘something’ he chose to remain silent for the time being.

He noticed that he seemed to be watching everything in an accelerated time as the star rippled only had minute changes the entire time he was staring at it – it was as if it was stationary but he could simply tell that it was moving at a speed too fast for him to comprehend.

Time passed and soon it began to happen – the star was collapsing in on itself as if it was being crushed under its own weight towards its core. Within moments the mass of the star had disappeared and in its place was the beginnings of a black hole, the black hole gradually began to expand as it sucked in everything in its surroundings.

He was unaffected of course, he even tried to ‘move’ forward to look at it more closely, but it was impossible.

He didn’t know how many millions, if not trillions, of years passed since then as the blackhole gradually became bigger and bigger – and while its devoured matter occasionally something strange would occur.

The atoms that it was pulling towards it would combine, then combine again with another atom and again and again. Until another star was born. Sometimes that star would then be devoured by the blackhole like a hungry wolf and then other times it would survive, it would be pushed off into the rest of the universe.

He watched as a black hole, the remains of a single star created thousands of new stars and more than a hundred planets before finally… nothing. There was nothing left for it to devour. He estimated that many, many, many trillions if not quadrillions of years passed in those instants but finally, he watched as the blackhole evaporated.

Just like that, it was gone.

[I do not know how old I am by the standards of time your race use for measurement, but I watched the journey of the star from beginning until end.]

“So, you started to question your own purpose because of it?” He asked, he already knew what exactly it had seen and what it wanted to do but he wanted to be certain.

[I was created to destroy this universe. But from destruction I saw creation.]

‘Creation…’ He thought silently, he thought of the birth of thousands of stars that he had just witnessed and how they had all been created due to the death of one. Yet there was still a single question he needed answered before he changed his mind.

“Why does this universe need to die?”

Silence.

A longer silence than he’d ever faced before in this space with no concept of time.

[The ones who created me will it. I do not know why.]

“Okay then…” He said slowly, “Let’s get started.”

[Beginning Host Initialization. This will be painful]