There is a version of this story where everyone lives happily ever after, where no tragedies ever happened, where all wishes were fulfilled no matter how contradictory they might be. That version exists only in my mind. This one, however, will tell the true story—mine.
Well then, where shall we start, dear observers?
Let's begin at the very beginning then.
The Sun. The fixed nuclear star of our solar system. The worship of the Sun was the earliest form of idolatry, hence the Sun is also considered the first God—maybe even humanity's only real God. After all, that wonderful ball of hydrogen and helium not only makes life on Earth possible but also allows us to get a decent suntan year-round. A truly divine multitasker.
The Sun, that dangerous, temperamental ball of light and heat—creator, sustainer, and inevitable executioner of life on this marvelous blue planet. A celestial overlord basking in its own grandeur, yet no different from countless other stars of its type scattered across the vast reaches of the universe. Its lifespan may stretch across billions of Earth years, a near-eternal reign by human standards. However, eternity is a fragile concept. Even the mightiest flames of a nuclear star must one day flicker out. It will die one day.
The Earth. The life bearer and the mother of all Earthlings. The Cradle of Humanity. The Pale Blue Dot. From its fiery, chaotic infancy, it nurtured the first stirrings of life. In the boiling volcanic seabeds, from the depths of its primordial soup, the first single-celled organisms emerged—fragile, insignificant, yet destined to reshape the world.
Essential substances—air, water, and land—form the foundation of life on this world. Water reigns as its lifeblood, covering 70% of the planet's surface, flowing as oceans, seas, and rivers. The remaining 30% is land—stage and battlefield for every species that has ever fought for survival. A world so carefully balanced, so nurturing, yet so merciless in its cycles.
Every war ever fought, every battle waged, every act of greed and desperation, all have been in pursuit of these very resources. Since its formation, countless trillions of beings have lived, toiled, and perished upon this floating rock. It came into existence billions of years ago, and it will persist for billions more.
But nothing is truly eternal. When our dear Sun swells into a ravenous red giant, Earth will be caught in its dying embrace—its long journey coming to an end, reclaimed by the very force that once breathed life into it.
Hence, it too will die one day.
The Human Civilization. The ultimate expression, crystallization, and refinement of intelligent life. All cultures, across all eras of time, form the bedrock of this grand construct. As long as humans endure, civilization, in some form, persists—a conscious, rational force shaping their destiny. Only through civilization can a species progress, dissecting the mysteries of the natural world and inching toward enlightenment.
And yet, a civilization is as fragile as a sandcastle before the tumultous tides of the ocean. From the fractured human psyche to the indifference of nature, even the smallest disruption—a crumbling supply chain, a misstep in governance, a little pandemic here, a little space debris there—can herald the steady decline of a once-prosperous empire. It is ironic, then, that civilization itself is merely a side effect of humanity's unconscious, collective pursuit of immortality.
At its core, civilization is nothing more than an intricate system of life-extension technologies: agriculture to secure food, clothing to stave off the cold, architecture to provide shelter and safety, weaponry for war and survival, medicine to defy injury and disease. Every innovation, every structure, every institution—born from the fundamental desire to outrun the inevitable.
And yet, like all things, civilization is bound by fate. Its death is predestined, entirely tethered to the existence of its creators. When humanity fades, so too will its greatest work.
It too will die one day.
***
Death. The one thing that human minds cannot imagine is that very state of nonexistence; it is literally inconceivable. Death therefore presents itself as both inevitable and impossible. This is what can be called the Mortality Paradox, and its resolution is what gives shape to the immortality narratives across different pockets of civilization. It too, however, will die one day. When there will be no life, there will be no death. When the day without tomorrow starts, death itself will be forgotten.
Just like I did. On a cold autumn morning, I felt the warm sun on my face and in the afternoon I was holding one. In my mortal frail hands, I held a sun for a non-negligible amount of time however small it may have been. Why would I do something so utterly nonsensical, you say? Well, the political climate in these few years has been very... charged. Exceptionally so. Nothing was done to remedy the problems and everyone ignored it to rot and fester like a minor wound would be until; it couldn't be ignored anymore, just like any other problem in our society. Many attempts were made to heal the wounds but the world had already boarded a burning chariot heading straight for the inferno.
As such, war began. World War. The third one in the modern history of my dear world. My dearest Earth's surface was ravaged, tossed, turned upside down, broken through and penetrated in quantities that were unfathomable to the human mind at a single glance. People have talked about possible World War 3 scenarios for decades continuously. It almost started in the 1960s, during the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but thankfully we managed to avoid that.
Conflict, however, was the best and worst trait of humanity, no matter the time period.
The particular actors in this conflict are irrelevant to our story, as are their motives. But the conflict itself is an undeniable part of human history and civilization. The embers of war were ignited in the Taiwan Strait when China's leadership, in their infinite wisdom and sheer desperation to prevent a looming civil war, decided that the best solution was, of course, to invade Taiwan. Why was a civil war about to breakout, you ask? Like all modern conflicts in modern history. For money, of course!
A few months ago, The "Super Chinese Housing Bubble" that had been brewing recklessly for decades through state led bailouts burst like a gigantic dam, flooding that part of the world and later the whole world in despair. The after effects of the previous two pandemics had left scars that were already about to be fully healed. But the collapse of "The Super Chinese Housing Bubble" immediately worsened the economy of an desperately ailing and ageing China. This time they really were on the verge of an actual proper revolution. The world was also on the cusp of the "Mother Of All Economics Crisis" in human history up until that point.
After the Chinese launched a punitive expedition towards Taiwan, the game was on. The US Of A was forced to intervene in order to avoid losing credibility among its allies. They sent their warships and one newly upgraded super carrier stationed in Guam, Okinawa and Busan Naval Bases in anticipation of a swift Chinese offensive. While NATO had already started discussing the possibility of ARTICLE 5 being invoked in case of war with a nuclear armed nation such as the Chinese.
A recent but barely recovered Russia was making moves in the shadows along the black sea, while India, ASEAN and other neutral nations such as them called for peace and calm on all sides, to absolutely no avail. They tried to appease, to reason and to threaten both sides, but like a peacock trying to stop speeding train it was again to no avail. Of course, war had not yet begun in earnest.
It would begin in proper fashion when I held a miniaturized tactical nuke in my hand on that cold autumn afternoon. The first prototype design for this miniaturized ball of flaming death was developed in the labs of the American military during the height of the cold war. It was very impractical back then while the development of ICBMs and rudimentary nuclear technologies hampered its progress, never letting it out of development hell. The particular one that I held in my hands, however, was stolen and then developed by the Chinese with better designs possible only in this decade, then gifted to the world's Terrorist Capital's deep state.
The 'Communist' Chinese always had a knack for stealing the military secrets and tactical technologies of the 'Imperialist' Americans. This was also one of the things they acquired in one of their famous data hacks. The Terrorist Capital's military operatives or maybe some state trained sleeper cell terrorist of the same origin in my neighborhood seemed to hate that particular outdoor coffee shop it seems. At least I think so. After all, who leaves such a thing at a place that they like. I certainly wouldn't.
As for me?
I found it in a package near the table where I had decided to have a blind date at. It was right on top of a flower pot too. How sweet.
Ah Yes, a blind date. I am like any other average person after all. One caveat though, I had suddenly become a bit too reclusive after a few failures in my "business ventures".
Though depression after such life altering events isn't uncommon.
Now, before the 'inciting incident' of origin story, however, I saw a very interesting drama unfold right across the street in a somewhat down trident cafe. There I saw a man and a woman, a couple obviously going by their agitated body language. Arguing and shouting at each other. Yup, a classic break-up, it seemed.
A very aggressive one too. I could almost hear the 'poor' guy whose face had gone a shade of red screaming "cheating whore" or "moral-less hoe' or even the staple "filthy slut" in his high pitched unhinged voice a few times before the woman probably had enough of the insults along with disgust filled glances of the passerbys and thus, bolted with her stuff in tow. While walking briskly down the busy streets she was, however, crushed by a speeding medium truck right after that. Almost like the punchline of an absurd comedy skit about karma and consequences of one's actions.
Seeing this tragedy, I had a ridiculous thought occur to me almost instantly:
'Is Truck-kun in the mood to isekai a cheating villainess today?'
People started screaming and scrambling being aghast at the sight of the freshly ground noon "tragedy". The man or rather her ex boyfriend was, however, very calm in the face of this sudden catastrophe. Better yet, he was smiling and nodding at the driver. Aha! What an unexpected twist!
I was very shocked and thought about calling the police after the driver who had already taken off after the act but got distracted by a barely audible long beep. I instinctively lowered my head to look around for a bit and crouched near my table and on the flower pot I found a plastic box... placed just there. A sudden, deafening blast ripped through the air, engulfing me in blinding light and searing heat. I barely had time to register the intensity of the explosion before darkness descended, leaving me disoriented and disbelieving. It blew up immediately three-four seconds after I picked it up in my hands and stood up to examine it!
Even as my retinas melted, as my flesh and bones were reduced to nothingness in an instant, I still saw it. A thing of beauty and awe—destruction made manifest, the purest expression of the universe's natural unyielding laws. A miniature fireball, a newborn sun cradled in the palms of my hands. Blinding radiance consumed everything, and in its wake came an abyss deeper than darkness itself. Then, silence.
Well, it's a bit sucky to be me I guess? After the recent string of failures in my business life, recently I had already got out of my most depressive state while meeting friends and seeking romance. Seems like I should have done it all a little sooner. Who knew, death would come so swiftly, with such familiar silence and blowing up in my literal face. And so that day my life on Earth ended.
But the machinations of fate were always unpredictable and sudden, while the gears of destiny are forever swiftly turning.
And by the gods and demons and every other holy and unholy beings out there in the Far Beyond, did the damn gears turn for far too many beings in that particular moment in time. The moment in which I held a Sun in my mortal palms.
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