Jack Smith was sipping a beer on his sofa, watching a football match after a long, tiring day of work. At twenty two years old, he was a recent college graduate with almost six figures in student debt, with a job that only paid half of that yearly- wondering if his expensive education had been worth it.

He was a man who liked to go about his business in silence, but standing at six feet three inches tall, it was a bit difficult to go around unnoticed- sure he wasn’t a giant, at least not by american standards, but he was definitely tall enough to stand out. With close-set green eyes, high cheekbones and a fairly long scar running across his forehead, if he ever ended up committing a crime, the cops would probably laugh their way to his doorstep. He was an attractive man, though perhaps some points could be docked for the scar- however in Jack’s personal experience, a lot of women found it attractive, oddly enough. They always ask for the story though, whether they find it attractive or a red flag- which always leaves him in an awkward spot.

You see, getting dropped by your parents in a cinema hall as a child and cutting yourself on the metal part of the seat in front of you isn’t exactly the kind of glorious or dark story they expect. It was an accident, and Jack was a shifty child back then- thankfully, there was no damage beyond the cosmetic scar.

Anyway, that’s beside the point. Simply put, Jack was the kind of man who got the job done. He wasn’t an introvert, he was just the kind of guy who clocked into the office, worked hard, and talked to whoever needed talking to if it meant putting food on the table (or more aptly, paying off student debt). He may not be the man that would sell everything he owned to open the next big billion dollar company, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to break under pressure trying to pay off his debts. For Jack, there was only the objective and the method. Maybe some might call that boring, but that was the way he was taught by his father.

The notification blip sound of his smartphone roused him from his thought process, causing him to reach for it. A quick glance showed that it was an email from work. Deciding that it was probably important if it was sent at night, he clicked on it.

As Jack scanned through the contents of the mail, the expression on his face went from relaxed to serious, and then angry. The beer bottle in his left hand accidentally slipped, falling to the ground and shattering, spilling all over the wooden floor.

“Well fuck!” Jack exclaimed with some anger, lightly chucking his phone onto the adjacent one seater sofa and falling back into his sofa without bothering to clean up the spill or the broken glass. His company had just filed for bankruptcy, and they had terminated his employment effective immediately with one month severance pay from what should be three months.

Jack just sat there for a few minutes, taking in the anger, pain and frustration and all the other negative emotions he felt, and then letting it flow through him, releasing it.

“Screw this, I need a vacation,” Jack spoke aloud to himself, deciding to take a few days off to re-center himself. He did have a month of severance pay, and there was nothing like a hiking and camping trip to soothe his soul. Jack has always been very passionate about spending time with, and respecting nature.

The purring of a cat echoed in the background, seemingly agreeing with him.

“Your ladyship seems to agree then?” Jack asked with a chuckle, as the cat approached him from the other side of the broken glass. Yes, he had named his cat Your Ladyship Luna, but he usually just called her Luna.

Jack lifted Luna from the floor, placing her onto his lap and gently stroking her fur. Honestly, if it were up to him he’d have a lot more animals than one cat, but he just didn’t have the funds to afford it.

“Meooow,” came the response, and Jack just smiled, giving her a few scratches on the back.

“As per your royal decree, let us be off tomorrow at the break of dawn,” Jack smiled, before grimacing when he remembered he had to clean up the mess he’d just made.

Jack breathed deeply as he took his first whiff of country air, surprised every time he visited the countryside at how pure and clean it felt. His cat was walking alongside him, attached to a collar that was tied to his waist to ensure she didn't get lost. Jack was usually against leashing animals, but he’d be heartbroken if Luna got lost and so he had to make a compromise- he’d spent a lot of money to buy the most comfortable collar he could find.

He’d pitched his tent early morning, alongside seven or eight other tents in one of the designated tent sites. Malanike National Park which was a famous camping and hiking spot, and Jack was familiar with the trail he’d chosen. Now, it was just a man and a cat out in the wilderness, enjoying nature’s’ great bounty, three hours into the trail.

Jack knew that there was a waterfall coming up ahead, with the trail leading right to the base of the waterfall, when he suddenly froze up for an instant. His left foot was still in the air, while his right acted as the base and allowed him to maintain balance- Jack realized that despite willing his left foot to stomp down, he couldn’t make it budge even the slightest. Even more so, he couldn’t even scream out loud for help, and his facial muscles were frozen solid. Eerily, he felt no muscle burn or pain from standing on one leg for what had been over a minute. The only mercy that he was afforded was that his face was angled in such a posture that he had a clear view of Luna. Confusion changed into horror when he realised that his cat seemed to be frozen in place as well.

Jack had no words for the phenomenon that occurred next- the best he could describe it was as embers of… ethereal blue fire exploding in a massive firestorm all around him, and engulfing every form of life in its wake. However, what was even stranger was that it awoke an instinct within Jack that he did not even know he possessed, that wished to embrace the fire. As if granting Jack’s wish, he, his clothes, and his entire body was ablaze the next second, by a fire that seemed to be solid for one moment and transient the next. He did not feel any pain or terror from that fire, only warmth and… growth?

It ended as soon as it began, lasting only for a few seconds. Even Jack, who could keep his composure in some tough circumstances, felt his resolve being shaken at the absurdity of it all.

The next moment, everything went dark.

Jack gasped out loud as if he’d just come back to life, looking around himself in a blur- adrenaline pumping through his veins. He found himself in a completely white 4x4 room with no exits, and only three pieces of furniture that were perfectly white as well, blending in so well with the room Jack had to do a double take: the chair he was sitting on, the table in front of him, and the empty chair directly opposite him on the other side of the table.

“Wait,” Jack spoke out loud in a panic, and focused on the opposite side of the table, squinting.

“What the fuck!?” Jack screamed, as he could make out a four and a half foot person sitting on the other side, draped in white cloth covering the entirety of his chest,legs and hands, with a hood and a face mask obscuring the rest of his features.

“Hello, Jack. I’d suggest you keep your voice down, I really wouldn’t want to mess with your vocal chords again,” The entity spoke in a gender neutral voice with an even pitch and sound, as he conjured a thick hardcover book out of thin air. The book had no words written on it, just a bright red hardcover that stung at Jack’s eyes due to the contrast with the white room.

Jack’s pupils dilated, and he was on the verge of hyperventilating. The only thing that stopped him from losing composure was his father’s teachings coming back to him, and so he did what he was taught. Focus the stress, anxiety and fear of the unknown into a ball near the heart, and then let it flow through himself. Use it as fuel to drive himself, to determine the situation and how to escape it. He had a job to do, an objective and as for the method, he’ll have to use what he has.

“Okay, okay, fine. So, first, who are you and what do you want? If this is not a dream in the first place?” Jack asked, consoling himself that this was most likely the result of a hyperactive imagination.

“Who am I? My dear boy, you know there are only two answers to that question: either I am what you think I am, or you are either hallucinating or dreaming,” The entity with an amused tone, as if he had encountered an entertaining specimen.

Jack felt his throat tightened, but he decided to continue to press on for results. Once he had decided to do something, he was relentless, and so he asked,” Fine. So what are you reading?”

“Oh this?” The entity’s voice changed from an amused one to that of interest. They answered after a pause, “The list of crimes the human race has committed against itself and other sentient species. I have to say, I’m impressed. Mass genocide of other species, crimes against humanity, destruction of the natural environment, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among a thousand other things. This deserves a D rating, no, maybe a C rating? Yeah, a C rating sounds good.”

Jack gulped, and responded defensively without thinking it through, “That has nothing to do with me.”

“If that helps you sleep at night Jack, sure. Anyway, it’s not really my business and to be honest? I don’t really care. Back to business, I-,” The entity spoke, but Jack cut him off before he could get any further.

“First, can you prove that this is not a dream?” It felt too real to be a dream, and the only other thing Jack could think of was that he’d hit his head hard and was currently in a coma.

“-I really don’t like getting interrupted, but I suppose you’ve had a rough day. There’s nothing within the rules that I can divulge that’ll make you believe this is real, even when your instincts clearly know the answer- but if you think your puny human brain can simulate the apocalypse, then your understanding of advanced biology is even weaker than I thought,” The entity replied in a slightly irritated tone.

“Uh…. I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Jack just stared blankly at the entity, unable to comprehend the scale and gravity of the statement.

“Don’t go into denial, Jack. It won’t help you prepare for what’s coming ahead. Anyway, it’s not quite as much an apocalypse as a trial. Most of Earth’s population will probably be wiped out, but when it comes to actual numbers, millions are expected to survive. If you want to be one of them, listen to what I have to say. The Cultivation Alliance does afford you certain rights,” The entity explained with some gravity leaking into his voice, though Jack was too lost in his own shock to care.

“Damn, this is why inferior species are so….,” The entity clicked his fingers, and the next instant a glass of what appeared to be water materialised in front of Jack. “Drink that, it’s temporary,” the entity spoke in a commanding tone, and Jack was too out of it to care. If an alien that could control his body wanted to do him harm, there was not a lot of room for resistance.

The moment the tasteless liquid went down his throat, Jack felt as if a burst of dopamine had been injected into his veins, just enough to counterbalance the influx of negative emotions brought on by the revelation- he could think clearly.

“Okay, go on,” Jack responded with a certain urgency, wanting to extract as much information as he could out of the alien entity.

“ I didn’t restrict your movement for fun back in the National Park, you know. I did it so I could let you see what I can. The blue flames,do you have any idea what those flames represent?” The entity asked rhetorically, though his voice was soft and respectful.

“I don’t,” Jack answered without hesitating or wasting any time.

“The remaining essence of our divinity, who perished thousands of years ago- that represents his divine power. Each new planet that the alliance discovers is baptised in the flames of the founder, the first and only being that ascended to the divinity within what is now called the three realms. Sentient life that has reached the required level of evolution to qualify is only found in every one out of hundred thousand planets, and after 14.6 billion years there are very few unconquered planets left. Every human who qualifies shall receive a small part of his divinity as a reward, and their potential to cultivate shall be unlocked. Cultivation is the path to supernatural power beyond your imagination, but it can only be unlocked under extreme duress and threat to one’s life,” The entity patiently explained, giving Jack some time to digest the information.

“Why tell me all this? Why do you give us this power we never asked for and then try to kill us? What are the details of this trial you speak of?” Jack asked the question with some anger seeping into his voice, but kept it professional.

“Hey, hey, hey, come on man? You think I’m the bad guy? Damn, I thought white rooms were supposed to be meditative and calming, that book on human psychology is complete bullshit!” The entity’s voice changed from solemnity to mild amusement, as he reached for the mask on his face and removed it. The scenery changed, and Jack found himself sitting in a plush sofa next to a fireplace, while in the sofa adjacent to him was a four feet five bearing resemblance to a humanoid female with light red skin, two pair of close set white eyes that stared at him with curiosity, with a third eye resting on the centre of their forehead that was shut, a set of jagged, sharp teeth and the rest of her features bearing resemblance to the physiology of a female woman that was in her mid twenties, on the stouter side.

“....,” Jack just stared at her, and she stared back. After a few seconds of silence, he said “You’ve got to be kidding me. Inferior human? Aren’t you just criticising yourself?”

“Hey!” a soft, squeaky voice that resembled that of a child, but sounded deeper, cried out in protest.

“Pffft… hahahahaha, okay I’m sorry please don’t kill me but, I- I just can’t-” Jack barely got to that sentence before he burst out in laughter till he was on the verge of tears. The situation was just too fucking weird for him to bother rationalizing anymore.

A sharp kick to the shin finally caused him to recoil in pain and shut up, only to stare at his demon kidnapper whose face was scrunched up in irritation as if this was the expected response.

“You-” She started out, but was interrupted

“In my defence, absurdism and laughter are a natural response for some people when confronted with grief,” Jack blurted out before she started throwing around accusations.

“Fine, but this is the last pass I’m giving you,” she reluctantly seemed to cede for now, while Jack was chanting the mantra ‘don’t laugh’ in his head continuously.

“So to answer your question, I have nothing to do with this invasion. I am much like you, Jack, a person who once went through the same cycle of grief and devastation. The only difference between us is that I survived, and now I am the one who decides the life and death of others,” She spoke in the same squeaky voice, but this time there was a gravity and tone of command in her voice that evaporated all notions of humour in Jack’s mind. At that moment, he felt like he understood why she called humans inferior species- she gave off an aura of bloodlust, and those sharp, shark-like teeth sent a chill down his spine- this… the only thing that came to his mind was an ‘apex predator’.

“So who does?” Jack asked, recovering quickly after being affected by her bloodlust- probably because of the liquid he’d been made to drink earlier.

“Our divinity, of course,” She replied nonchalantly,, and Jack much preferred it over that neutral, creepy voice earlier.

“I thought he perished thousands of years ago?” Jack questioned puzzledly at the apparent contradictions in her theory.

“If a divinity can die, is he really a true divinity? I did not lie to you, in fact, as your sponsor I cannot lie to you and it would be against my interest to do so. A divinity exists as long as time itself, but in the divine war twenty thousand years ago, our divinity chose to irreparably fracture his soul and merge with the last three realms under his protection- half his divine power was used to seal seal the three realms from the usurpers, and the other half was used to create the system in search of a successor. A mere fragmented soul forever severed from the divine path can regulate the affairs of countless billions of cultivators and mortals, that is a divinity Jack,” She spoke and Jack could almost feel the power surging through her words. For some reason, adrenaline surged through his veins as it resonated with the concepts she spoke of.

“Who is powerful enough to reduce a divinity to such a state?” Jack asked her, kind of terrified by the concept. If even the divine weren’t safe in this crazy alliance Earth was being forced into, then who was?

“You are not qualified to know that. But I will tell you of your own importance. A planet that contains sentient life that has reached the optimal stage of evolution only occurs in every hundred thousand planets, and since the death of our divinity the system has crazily expanded in all directions in hope for a suitable successor. Restricted to only three realms, or universes, that survived the divine war and Earth is one of the last few suitable planets left. The cultivators of the three realms fear the day when the protection seal is finally shattered, and they are exposed to the hungry predators, the source of their power seized and corrupted and their populations enslaved, their spirits broken,” Jack’s expression changed a few times when and as she explained, finally settling on a confused one.

“You’re that desperate and you’re just going to kill us off like barbarians in hopes that we awaken some voodoo mystical power? That doesn’t make any sense,” Jack questioned without malice, since it seemed unlikely that the short predator in front of him could influence the thinking of a divinity.

“Well, on the scale of three universes, a few means at least a thousand planets left. And I do have a bit of a penchant for exaggeration, think of it as, hmm, in Earth’s context, you know how you get rogue asteroids passing by and one of them could smash your planet to bits at any time. Do you live in constant fear of that happening? No right? By the way, notice how they seem to miss you all the time. Yep, that was us. Anyway, it’s like that, but each time a planet turns out to be a bust, we get just a little bit more skittish. And lastly, killing you off like barbarians is the only way to unlock the voodoo magical power- sorry, that’s just how it is. But, each of you will have a chance to survive and then thrive like me, as long as you’re brave enough to take it- the aim is not to kill you, but to hone you. Think of it as basic evolution theory, but in the compressed format- only the fittest shall survive,” Jack did appreciate the analogy, though he still found the reasoning absurder than a short red-skinned horned girl using darwinism as a justification for genocide. Truth can truly be stranger than fiction.

“Alright, so my two questions. What is a sponsor, and of all people why sponsor me?” Jack asked, quite puzzled about this aspect. Last he checked, he didn’t have any wilderness survival skills, or any military training that he knew of. He had a degree in animation for god’s sake, definitely not equipped to slay anything except his bank account considering how much it cost.

“A sponsor is someone who paid a lot in resources to be allowed to guide you, and in this edition, should be extremely powerful individuals on the scale of the three realms. There are only ninety eight thousand five hundred and twenty one allowed based on your planet and population and size, and I chose you as my first pick. As for why I believe I already told you. I am a lot like you Jack, or rather, you remind me of myself: a strong predator that hides himself under the mask of a meek civilian,” She spoke with a certainty that confused Jack, because he himself didn’t understand where it was coming from. Wouldn’t it be smarter to just choose some military trained professional or convict?

“So you hope that I’ll become a god, and remember you or something?”

“Or you become very powerful and become someone I can rely on. Or you become an ally as powerful as me. Perhaps I will take you as a student under my tutelage if you show enough promise. That is not up to me, Jack. That is up to you,” She replied with poise and grace that spoke of a being much older than her physical appearance.

“So tell me about the trial, or mass extinction event we’re going to face. Details, guide, anything that can help me survive and get back to my parents,” Jack asked her with a humble tone, a slight pang of sorrow washing over him as he thought about what lay ahead.

“I cannot. Anything that violates the integrity of the trial cannot be discussed, not before a certain time period otherwise the system might strike me down without mercy,” She answered with a grimace, as if she expected this question long ago.

“Are you fucking with me? What the hell is the point, then? Are you here just to mock me before the apocalypse starts?”

“No Jack, I am here to tell you that if you survive the first phase, I will be free to guide you as and where you require assistance. And the most important thing, before you go: A being that can reduce your planet to smithereens on her own believes you hold more value than most people on your planet, and you shall see why soon enough. And beings at my level of existence do not make frivolous or emotional decisions. The parameters that you look at from your perspective are just far too limited to see the entire picture. Survive, Jack, and we shall meet again,” She responded, and was about to wave her hands to dismiss Jack.

“Wait!” Jack interrupted her before she could do so.

“I told you, I cannot assist you any further without breaking the divinity’s rules,” She responded.

“Where’s my cat?” Jack asked bluntly, already resigned to not squeezing any more information out of his supposed mentor.

“That inferior being? You still have time to care about a being with such limited intelligence and emotional capacity?” She tilted her head as if she were looking at a particularly odd specimen, condescendingly.

Jack’s eyes hardened inadvertently, and he just stared coldly at his mentor. Maybe it was not the smart move, but odds were he’d be dead in the next twenty four hours anyway- he wasn’t going to start bending on his principles now.

“Wheres. My. Cat?” Jack asked again, with anger voluntarily leaking into his voice

“Oh intriguing. Are you angry? Maybe I killed it because it was going to be a distraction for you, ” One side looked on with apathy, while the other side looked on with a cold, burning rage that seemed to intensify every second, a cold rage Jack himself had not known he possessed the capability for.

Just when Jack felt like he couldn’t take it anymore and was about to do something supremely stupid, the woman in front of him grinned, with her terrifying teeth at full display. It was not a show of ferocity or a threat, but a brilliant smile that seemed satisfied by Jack’s response.

“That is the second reason I chose you, Jack. We are not all monsters lacking a sense of empathy. I fight and kill to end the fighting and killing, that is my chosen purpose. As bizzare and hypocritical that may sound, I believe that one day, you will understand what I mean. Your cat is fine, and I hope you like the gift I have prepared for you. Please, try and survive," She waved at Jack, still smiling as everything went dark for Jack.

The moment he teleported out though, her expression changed to a gloomy one as she muttered with a sigh, “Oh Jack, why’d you have to go and drive off for the wilderness…

System, what are the new odds of him surviving the first phase?”.

A blue screen materialised in front of her, causing her to cringe in response. The number written on a screen only visible to her was,

0.8532%

“I told you ma’am, gambling on civilians will result in a swift disappointment,” A respectful yet slightly chiding voice came from the shadows. The voice was thin, raspy and felt a bit strained, as if it was a struggle for the being to speak.

“Shut up Zephyr. And make yourself scarce, I wish to be alone,” She strictly reprimanded him, and smashed her fist down on the sofa she was sitting on, causing it to crumble to dust instantly.

“Impressive control as always, ma’am. I shall comply,” The shadows receded into nothingness, as if they had never been there to begin with.