Year 2030, December 10th.
In the heart of a vast city surrounded by the ocean on one side, the radiant and beautiful evening settled through the ocean and the dark night came. The streets and the skyline were bathed in hues of orange and yellow. The last light of the sun clung stubbornly to the rooftops. The silvery-white glowing moon had already risen over the faint mist of winter, and there, faint but unyielding, a small red dot shimmered in the night sky—Mars, watching from afar.
Sounds of cars, bikes, animals, people coming from work could be heard.
In the midst of all this.
The launch tower stood over the coast, a mountain of steel lit by floodlights. Steam hissed from valves, drifting into the night sky, footsteps of countless workers could be heard. Engines rumbled here and there, testing their strength, while hundreds of technicians scrambled across gantries with clipboards and radios, shouting into the noise.
Near the launch tower, there was no sign any of life as it was forbidden to comd near that area for that day only- for safety.
At the heart of the space organisation's base- simply in its launch pad, stood the rocket—Odyssey-7. Humanity's most ambitious vessel yet. Its frame gleamed white under the lights, tall enough to pierce the heavens.
Commander Sebastian Stormvale fastened the last seal of his suit as the crew around him fumbled with their gear. His movements were calm, steady. He had done this a hundred times in training, but even in the real thing, nothing shook his hands. White hair spilled against the collar of his helmet, unnatural under the glow of the spotlights, while his eyes—crimson as thick blood—burned with unreadable light.
People stared when they thought he wasn't looking. Most assumed it was vanity, that he bleached the hair, wore tinted contacts or some kind of rare disease . They whispered behind back. But Sebastian never corrected them. It was not worth his time.
"Commander." Carter Hayes, the youngest of the crew, jogged up with his helmet tucked under one arm. His grin was too wide, too fragile. "Biggest day in human history. First steps on Mars. How do you feel?"
Sebastian gave him a gentle yet serious glance at first. "I feel human and great", he answered jokingly
Carter cleared his throat. "I see. As expected from our captain."
Doctor Claudia jeans adjusted her straps with precise hands and shot Carter a look. "Save the chatter for later. This isn't a sightseeing trip.It would tale months to reach Mars"
The loudspeakers boomed overhead.
"Odyssey-7 crew. Final checks. Ten minutes to launch."
They got into the elevator, ascending the tower until the vast curve of the rocket's body filled their view. Metal groaned beneath their boots as they crossed the narrow bridge and entered the hatch.
Inside, the cabin shone with countless buttons and levers. They strapped into their seats, a low vibration shaking the walls.
The countdown began.
"Ten… nine… eight…"
Sebastian closed his eyes.
"Three… two… one."
Engines roared. The rocket leapt skyward, fire ripping through the dark night like a bright star. Earth fell away, shrinking to a glowing blue jewel against black infinity.
…
After nearly 7 months- year 2031, June 30.
Mars spread out below, a desert of rust and stone. A land of red and yellow.
The landing was rough, the cabin rattling until Carter cursed under his breath, but the ship steadied and silence returned. They had made it.
The hatch opened with a hissing sound as the gas leaped out. Sebastian was the first to step down, his boots sinking into reddish- orange dust. They wore a special astronaut suit. A low crunch echoed in his ears through the comms. For a heartbeat, no one spoke. Then Carter laughed, relief breaking tension.
"History is made," he whispered.
"Indeed, congratulations to all of us and the humanity", Claudia added with cheerful tone.
"Then lets proceed to our work as we enjoy the view and the moment", Sebastian Stormvale stated while he borrowed some special instruments from the cabin.
The crew scattered across the plain. Instruments unfolded, sensors blinked, samples were gathered into sealed containers. Their voices filled the channel with chatter, science mixing with awe.
The majestic moon which looked like a big chunk of rock from there summed to be hanging around the blue planet Earth.
Sebastian wandered farther than the rest. He always did. His gaze lingered on the horizon of Mars, where tall and sharp peaked reddish mountains stood proudly. He knelt, brushing red dust between his fingers, then noted readings in his log.
An hour seems to have passed since.
"Commander," Claudia's voice crackled. "We've gathered enough. Heading back to the Odyssey."
One by one, his companions returned. Their figures grew smaller in the distance, vanishing into the ship. Only Sebastian remained, wandering farther across the silent plain.
Then—
The stars shifted.
Sebastian froze. His breath caught inside the helmet. The space above the horizon rippled, stretching like rubber pulled too far. The stars bent. Light bent. The universe itself trembled.
A circle tore open in the air. Black. Deep. Its edges swallowed everything near it.
Something stepped out.
A man.
He looked human—black hair, eyes the color of deep oceans, a ribbon tied neatly at his throat equipping silver rimmed spectacles and a grey hat. A tailored grey suit clung to his tall frame, absurd against the white desert and grey trousers. He looked like a gentleman from medieval Europe.
He looked around, voice low, almost casual.
"So this is it, huh."
Then his gaze settled on Sebastian.
Sebastian's lungs locked. Many thoughts rushed into his mind. How can a person be here? Are Martians real? And what's with that outfit? But more importantly, How could he even breathe? There was no helmet, no oxygen tank, yet the man stood on Mars as if he belonged here.
The comms crackled in his ear. "Commander? Respond! We're waiting!"
No sound left his throat.
The man walked closer with hands on his pocket, footsteps silent on the dust. In a blur, his hand closed around Sebastian's neck. With a flick of his wrist, he tore open the helmet.
Air rushed out. Sebastian choked, clawing at the grip, lungs burning.
"Tell me," the man said, voice smooth as glass, "your origin."
Sebastian convulsed, vision darkening. He couldn't breathe.
The stranger raised his other hand. Space folded around them. A dome shimmered into being, invisible yet solid. Oxygen filled it.
Sebastian collapsed to his knees, gasping, dragging air into burning lungs.
The man's presence pressed against him like a mountain. Something greater than human. Something that should not exist.
Sebastian rasped, "Who… what are you?"
The man ignored the question. His eyes flicked toward the Odyssey, where faint lights pulsed in the distance.
"Report to the hq…Run" Sebastian croaked into his comm. "Leave me."
Confusion exploded in his earpiece. "Commander?! What—"
The stranger raised a hand. Fingers curled slowly.
The Odyssey screamed. Metal twisted with shrieks of agony, plates folding inward as if crushed by invisible hands which seemed to warp through the space itself. Sparks erupted, metal fragments crumbled. The ship shrank, compacting into a sphere the size of a fist.
The man caught it. Squeezed. Dust scattered between his fingers.
Sebastian's blood ran cold. His mind blank.
The man turned back. "Your origin."
Rage burned through fear. Sebastian's jaw clenched. His distinct crimson eyes glared with all the strength he had left.
"Damn you, Bastard." He was indeed feeling fear because of that man but something else at the moment replace that.
Agony and rage ripped through his body, tearing every nerve apart. His veins bulged, pumping blackened blood, and crimson streams leaked from his eyes like molten tears.
His mind shattered—then reformed.
Something impossible was being born.
Commander Sebastian rose, trembling at first, then unnaturally steady. His eyes darkened into endless red, a deep red "Cross" signed pupil forming at their center like a abyss against the star. Strange sigils spiraled within them, alive, shifting. In his snowy white hair grew a 6 centimetres thick black coloured streak made of many hair strands, though it was only at the side.
With a sound like rending silk, wings burst from his back. Vast, feathered shapes of shadow unfolded, their edges traced with glowing white veins, as if they carried galaxies in their span. They stretched wide, blotting out the world, blotting out even light itself.
The dust around him stopped falling. Stones, debris, even the faint pulse of Mars' air froze mid-motion, suspended. Existence itself seemed hesitant to move in his presence.
Sebastian did not breathe. He did not speak.
He simply floated above the ground, an aura of nothingness devouring all around him. The Martian plain bent and quaked beneath his presence.
He had become the embodiment of the Void.
But none of this was his will. Sebastian's mind had already gone dark, his body moving as if pulled by a power he had never known, a force that did not belong to him.
The things happening already seemed to be defying all logics of humanity and the universe.
The ground trembled violently.
"Is he perhaps… a—"
The stranger's face hardened. He removed his glasses.
A thick red aura burst outward, flooding the Martian plain like a rising tide. His hair grew longer, whipping in the surge, and his body stretched, muscles swelling until he was twice his former size. From his back, two massive crimson wings erupted—scaled and ridged like those of a dragon, their span reaching out more than the size of a normal human's body.
His tailored suit did not tear. It shifted with him, flowing like living cloth, reshaping into a dark veil that clung to his new frame.
He no longer looked like a man. He looked like an Angel. A winged sovereign carved from the essence of space itself—an emperor who ruled the stars, universe, nebula. Most of all, a deity whose very presence warped reality- of Space.
Void against Space.
They clashed.
The stranger raised his hand, and the Martian sky cracked. A thousand lances of space itself screamed forward, folding stars and light into spears sharper than thought.
Sebastian didn't move. His shadowed wings unfurled, blotting out the horizon. The spears touched the feathers—then ceased to exist. Not broken. Not blocked. Simply erased.
The man's eyes narrowed. He vanished many times here and here finding an angle to attack before appearing behind Sebastian, blade of warped space slashing him down.
Sebastian turned his head slightly. His crimson gaze caught the attack, and for an instant, space trembled as if ashamed. The blade stuttered, slowing, before carving into his chest. Blood spilled, but Sebastian did not flinch. His aura only grew heavier, like a storm swallowing the world.
He raised his hand lazily, and the stranger's shoulder vanished into nothingness—bone, flesh, and suit erased as if they had never been.
The man didn't scream. Instead, he ripped chunks of Martian ground into floating continents, folding them into impossible shapes. The sky filled with mountains.
Sebastian rose higher, wings stretching wider until they seemed to cage the heavens. He extended a single finger. The mountains unraveled into black dust, dissolving before they touched him.
Each motion of his body carried a dreadful inevitability. He wasn't fighting—he was declaring. His presence alone warped the battlefield, making it feel like he was a higher being entertaining a mortal.
The stranger roared, bending reality, dragging Sebastian into warped gravity. The weight crushed bones, bent air, and shattered the ground. But Sebastian only tilted his head, shadows flowing like a tide. The gravity fractured. The aura around him drowned it, as if Void refused to recognize Space's authority.
With every heartbeat, he seemed less like a man and more like a god who walked mortal lands in flesh.
Sebastian raised both of his arms to his neck. In his palm, darkness swirled into a cane of endless black, veins of white fire crawling across its length. He lifted it slowly, deliberately, like a judge preparing the final verdict. The very act made the air quake.
He slammed it down.
Space rippled like shattered glass. The sky tore open, whirlpools of cosmic light blooming above. Rivers of stars cascaded downward—brilliant, multicolored, divine. The sight stole breath, equal parts holy and horrifying.
"How can he!…"
The stranger screamed and tried to teleport elsewhere with a space door but soon he realised that he couldn't, so he made wings of galaxies folding and turning into a shield. For a heartbeat, he held, his figure burning bright. But cracks split the shield. The rivers pressed harder.
The deity like presence of Sebastian Stormvale dominated the heavens, forcing the world to acknowledge him.
The galaxies shattered. The stranger was consumed, body unraveling into nothingness, leaving only a star-shaped crystal drifting in silence.
The rivers of stars drowned the stranger, but the backlash tore through Sebastian as well. His right arm disintegrated in the storm, blood spraying into the void. He fell to one knee, wings trembling, his presence dim but unyielding—still standing when even gods would have fallen.
Mars quaked. Dust storms erupted across the surface. The ground formed a clean and hollow crater.
Sebastian barely moved forward by staggering, blood pouring from the stump where his arm had been. His breaths came ragged, chest heaving against the torn suit. The world around him was silent—no comms, no comrades, only the hiss of his failing oxygen supply.
He dropped to his knees, reddish dust clinging to his gloves. For the first time, the calm mask slipped. His lips trembled as he whispered, voice faint, carried only by the thin Martian air: "I just… wanted to see home one last time."
"forgive me. I couldn't keep my promise.
Mother… Father… little sister… forgive me."
His body collapsed sideways, lifeless eyes reflecting the shattered sky.
The world around fell silent.
It was Death.
But even in that final moment, Sebastian had no idea what power had carried him. The storm that awakened inside him was never truly his own.
Then the light came. Golden radiance burst from within his chest and then raging like blaze, spilling out through the wounds, searing through the broken suit. His figure lifted slowly into the air as if he was weightless. The glow grew brighter enveloping him completely, until the broken and torn body of Sebastian Stormvale was fully gone. The golden light moved in the space while it slowly replaced by a blazing comet of white and gold, streaking away from Mars toward the waiting Earth.
Inside the enveloping golden light, his body was still glowing. Golden light was spread and his wings were already folded. His crimson eyes closed.
Dead, he drifted in the outer space further more, drawn by some unseen force. The glow only brightened until he was a comet streaking across the atmosphere of Earth.
The blue dot, Earth waited below.
…
Alarms blared in the Space Center near the coast. Scientists shouted over one another, running between narrow alleys with multiple devices and consoles.
"We've lost contact!"
"The Odyssey-7 is gone!"
"Director, look at the readings—the moon's orbit is shaking!"
"No—it's Mars! Mars itself is trembling!"
The director barked orders, voice hoarse. "Stabilize the feed! I want every telescope as well as the satellites and reading meters on this now!"
A researcher leapt to his feet, pointing at the screen. "Something's falling! Bright object incoming…its probably coming from—from Mars!"
The entire command floor emptied into the night.
They looked up.
A golden falling star blazed across the sky, trailing fire and light.
…
Across the world, people raised their eyes.
Children pointed from city streets. Villagers prayed in silence. People took pictures. Watched the scenery with their family and loved ones.
News channels showed glowing trails burning across the heavens.
Phones recorded it, social feeds flooded with awe and panic. Some called it just a meteor. Others, a divine miracle.
All towards the light in the star filled dark night. With the moon looking majestic.
The light grew brighter than any falling star ever. Radiant. Divine.
The scenery was breathtaking.
…
In a quiet yet beautiful garden, a pretty little girl with unique crimson eyes and snow like hair clutched her father's hand as the golden light burned across the night. Her mother sat behind them on the porch, watching in silence.
The child whispered, "It's beautiful." Her voice trembled. "I wish brother could see this."
Her father's jaw tightened. He forced a smile, though his voice was low, heavy.
"…Maybe he can. Maybe they can see it from up there. You can tell him about it when he comes back".
The mother's eyes softened, her fingers curling tightly in her lap. "Don't worry dear…your brother is on a important mission right now. He'll come back soon. He promised, didn't he?"
The girl gave a cute smile and said nothing more. She only stared upward, eyes wide as the star painted the night in gold and white.
Unaware of what had truly happened, a quiet sadness lingered in the air.
The light dimmed, drifting lower, until at last it vanished into the dark.
Silence filled the garden.
And the world would never be the same again.