The afternoon was bright and unremarkable.
Inside a large building on the outskirts of Abuja, covering about a hundred square kilometres, a lecture was being held with about two hundred students in attendance. The atmosphere was heavy, and the heat made it difficult for anyone to stay fully focused. Somewhere in the middle rows, a girl had given up entirely and was using her textbook as a fan. The teacher's voice droned on steadily, unbothered by the lack of attention.
Then, suddenly, the clouds above the school turned dark.
At first, it seemed like a common phenomenon. well rain was not exactly a stranger in this part of the world. A few students near the windows glanced up briefly, then looked back down at their notes.
But it wasn't happening in just one place.
It was happening all over the world. Every sky. Every continent. Simultaneously, without warning. which made it impossible to dismiss as a mere coincidence.
And yet it was a phenomenon perceived and fully understood by only a single person.
At the back of the hall sat a teenage boy, about fifteen years old. His mouth hung slightly open, and his posture said he had long since stopped participating in the lesson. His pen had already dropped from his hand without him noticing.
Then he jerked his head upward.
His eyes glowed a piercing crystal blue. He stared through the ceiling as though it wasn't there, his gaze passing through the floors above and the gathering clouds, locking onto the true cause of the storm.
So it's beginning.
The girl with the textbook glanced at him, frowned at his expression, and decided it wasn't her problem.
High above, a figure floated in the sky. He was clad in deep crimson, with a crown of lightning resting on his head. He stared directly down at the boy with calm, patient focus with the look of someone who had been waiting a very long time for this specific moment and had finally arrived at it. A faint smirk rested on his face.
Time's up, boy.
The boy stared back through the ceiling, through the clouds, and said nothing for a long moment.
"Ahh…" he exhaled softly.
"It's time."
I never expected it to be so soon.
This time, his usual carefree self was gone, replaced by something that did not belong in a secondary school classroom. Something that did not belong in this decade, or this century, or anywhere near the ordinary afternoon that everyone else in the building was still having. His voice carried a tinge of sadness and melancholy, the specific weight of someone who had known this moment was coming and had spent a very long time deciding how to feel about it.
Deep within him, a seal began to crack.
Not all at once. It fractured slowly at first, then with gathering certainty. Through the cracks came weight, and through the weight came memory, countless forgotten truths and the full burden of his mission. They did not arrive gently. They struck all at once, memories, forgotten truths, and the full weight of his mission, flooding in without order his brain rearranging and processing it with the speed of light..
What he remembered was this:
Among the countless worlds in the void, every world had a guardian. These worlds, numbering in the billions, were ranked according to their power levels, their rate of regeneration, and the strength of their guardians. In the natural order of existence, millions of worlds together formed what was known as a Cosmic Expanse.
Over thousands, sometimes millions of years, a need for growth would arise, driven by the continuous influx of cosmic particles from the surrounding void. When the expanse grew, it pushed outward, creating a new void. A space that needed to be filled. This was where ascension came in. A world would be chosen to rise and gain access to the power within the expanse.
But there was a truth known across all worlds: every world that ascended became a colony. Or worse, absorbed by the most powerful worlds already within the expanse.
Today, Earth was about to become one of them.
In an instant, the boy vanished from his seat.
He reappeared in the sky, standing directly before the crimson-clad figure, nothing beneath his feet but open air. The wind at this altitude was strong and moved through him without ceremony.
The entity before him radiated overwhelming power, the kind that felt like both an ending and a beginning depending on which side of it you stood on. The lightning in his crown moved in slow arcs. He looked at the boy with calmly.
And then with certainty he spoke.
"I have come to complete my mission. Move out of the way."
The boy's glowing eyes remained steady.
"We are not ready."
"I have given you enough time," the entity replied. "This is a fate you and your world cannot escape. Do you intend to oppose the laws of nature?"
Below them, the city continued on, cars, people, ordinary life.
The boy's expression hardened.
"No… I cannot fight it." A pause. "But I can delay it."
"Ah, boy," the entity said, with a faint smile. "I know you have the power to try. But such actions come with consequences." His gaze moved briefly to the air around them. "And besides, I am not alone."
Space shifted.
A subtle distortion moved through the air, not visible exactly. A brief furrow crossed the entity's face, then vanished. He had not expected that. He let it pass and raised his hand.
Power gathered around his palm, drawn in steadily. The air around it darkened, then brightened, then became something between the two. He began to chant:
"By the power bestowed upon me by the Primarch of Chaos and Order, I hereby proclaim that Earth-234 shall now ascend and be under the law and jurisdiction of the Cosmic Expanse, Axica."
Silence followed.
The lightning in his crown stilled.
The declaration did nothing. It hung in the air, then simply ceased to hold, nullified cleanly, leaving no trace of itself behind.
Something shifted in the entity's expression.
The boy exhaled.
"As I said." His voice was quiet and certain. "Earth-234 is not ascending today."
The entity's gaze sharpened. The patience he had carried since his arrival slipped, just slightly, revealing something older underneath it.
"And I am fully aware," the boy added, "of who you brought with you."
A beat of silence.
Then a slow smile crossed the entity's face.
"Stubborn as usual," he said softly.
He stepped forward. The lightning resumed. The clouds darkened another degree. The wind between them changed.
One step more.
"Well then…"
"Let's dance."