Normally, you’d think that this whole thing was nothing more than a fever dream, but then you’d have to wonder how the whole thing came to be if you wake up without a fever the next morning. Meh... not like it’s important. I’ll be honest, this was a nightmare, but not in the traditional sense.

~Gato, son of Alexander, beginning dictating his life to his family and friends of the family

#

As Gato continued his trek, he realized he was in a large, open field that had become a massive graveyard. He groaned as he walked around another corpse. That he had to walk around multiple corpses was astonishing, but it was sadly the only recourse. Not only that, not all the corpses were humans; there were also dwarves, elves, and other species that were not human or humanoid. There were too many bodies in such a small space, some of them piled on top of each other. The corpse he walked around, like all the others, was barely recognizable because of the damage done to their bodies. This used to be a field where a lot of children played, himself included, but now it was nothing more than caked earth soaked in blood. How this had all come to be, he wasn’t sure.

He passed by a dilapidated castle wall, which was to his right about a hundred yards away. It hadn’t been that way even a week ago or even yesterday. Something connected the castle wall to the rest of the structure and appeared beautiful and well maintained. Whatever had caused this change had sped up the time needed dramatically to annihilate structures like the wall.

How unfortunate, he thought. Although this was not the castle of the royal family, I’m certain that all the enchantments applied to it made it of the same standing as that of the royal castle. Whatever destroyed it must have undone the blessings placed on it by the current High Priest of Sylvania… enough to curse the very land around it. He shook his head. Nobody’s going to want to settle down here again… maybe not for a thousand years…

It was unfortunate: this had been a castle handcrafted by over a thousand men. The High Priest had blessed it every fifty years and checked for outdated enchantments every ten. He could barely tell that enchantments and blessings had ever protected the castle because they were all gone and the castle was in ruins. What could have possibly caused this much damage in such a short time?

The field where he used to play wasn’t the only casualty of whatever had happened. He’d heard of devastation throughout the country of Sylvania, where he called home in the world of Terra but didn’t know if it was widespread all over the world. The surrounding damage appalled him, and he shuddered to think what the rest of Terra must now be like if the rest of Sylvania looked like this… after the destructive explosion that hit his region of the world itself.

He stepped over an arm—at least; he thought it had been an arm beforehand. Disbelief gripped his mind as he stumbled forward, trying, and somewhat succeeding, to avoid the gore on the scorched ground around him. A man, emerging from around a pile of bodies, collapsed in front of him, coughing up blood. Gato looked up at the heavens and cried, “Divine Spirits of Nature, what have we done to anger you?”

No response came forth.

He clutched his left arm, and he felt the blood he was trying to staunch drip around his fingers. He had not thought the damage was that bad, not at first. Debris had hit him from an explosion that triggered Hell on Terra, and it was enough to ruin his arm. Since he didn’t know how to heal injuries of this size without access to supernatural power like magic (which he didn’t have), his arm was useless.

Maybe I should have hidden behind the cover better. That way, I could have my left arm working again, darn it!

No one could blame him for ignoring what cover he found the first time. He didn’t understand that the damage could be so extensive! That was like saying that he could have avoided the damage by how he was handling things at the time —

A jolt of pain through his brain reminded him that what he was saying was a lie. It was as if he knew about this devastation beforehand. But how? He had never in his entire life experienced anything like this disaster.

Why the heck am I thinking like that? I need to fix the way my mind works sometimes. Well, at the very least, I will not die at all… I hope!

He heard a distant giant stomping noise ahead of him. He could not identify the cause of the noise, and it was not because of blood still flowing into his eyes. It was as if the source of the noise was invisible to the naked eye…

Why do I feel that I just walked right into my grave? He gave himself a mental facepalm. Okay, now, this time is the wrong time for that. I need to find a way around the source of these footsteps… somehow.

As he staggered onward to find other survivors, he sensed that beyond the surrounding devastation there was something wrong:

Why do I think I’ve been through this before? It should not be possible at all…

He walked on further, even as he passed a few spots where he could rest if needed. He already was on his last legs, so why should he rest? It was not like he could recover his health that fast at all. Still, with a considerable effort, he got to a clearing that looked cleaner than the rest of the surrounding area, where there were a few wounded survivors who needed treatment. “Is everyone… all right?” he asked them, even as he noticed the bleeding in his useless left arm had slowed.

“Yeah… yeah, we are,” said one survivor. “I don’t understand what is causing the Divine Spirits to destroy us all and none of us do…”

“I see…” Gato said, looking down at the ground. “Does anyone here have any clue how the disaster affected the world?”

“The explosion…” another survivor gasped before she began coughing up blood.

“Hey!” Gato cried out, looking up and trying to run to the survivor. “Hang in there!”

“I… I am fine,” she said, though the blood coming out of her mouth was not reassuring.

Gato thought to himself, No, you are not fine. Who would say they’re fine if they’re coughing up blood?

A third survivor spoke. “The explosion has destroyed our land, and we don’t know why. Survivors have grown extra flesh on their bodies, and they look like demons. It incinerated others beyond belief.” Shaking his head, he continued, “It’s the end of the world.”

“No need to say it like that,” a fourth survivor said. “The Divine Spirits clarified they will keep working to have a world around that will have our descendants living on it. I will hope for that one.”

“Do you not think they’re telling a lie, though?” a fifth survivor, wearing a hooded cloak that obscured their face and form, asked. “If the Divine Spirits are as magnanimous as you say they are, then they would not want us to die like this.”

Gato looked at the hooded survivor with a raised eyebrow. “What are you speaking about? I’m sure you know that they have a time and a place for everything—”

“Shut the hell up!” the fifth survivor yelled, punching Gato with a right hook that knocked him flat to the ground. “The Divine Spirits are liars! I know the truth behind their lies, that is for damn sure!”

Gato, in his weakened state, tried to get back up onto his feet using only his right hand. Some part of him wanted to know what ‘truth’ the survivor was talking about, so he gasped, “What… what are you talking—”

“Oh, so you want to know, huh?” the fifth survivor taunted Gato, pulling out a dagger from the sheathe on the small of his back. “Well, guess what? You need to prove yourself willing to spread the truth, by having this blade carve it into your—”

Just then, they heard thunder and a strange whizzing sound. The survivor with the dagger turned in the direction the sound came from… only for a projectile to strike him and blast him into many tiny pieces, the largest chunk being a pinky finger.

“Marcus!” the first survivor cried out in horror, before a smaller explosion hit the area, knocking the remaining four off their feet and a fair distance away.

Hurled to the ground, Gato winced in pain. Not another explosion… How did this happen? Is there any way to escape this alive?

The giant stomping sound happened again, only it was much closer than the last time. In fact, it seemed about fifteen yards away from his current position and… to… his… right…

There was a sick crunching noise, like something heavy crushed one survivor. Gato turned to look and felt the blood drain from his face. I’m going to be sick… he thought. The blood! And I see bones! He tried to escape the clearing, but bile built up in his throat, and he barfed.

After he finished puking his guts out, but before he could think of running again, a maniacal laugh tore through the air. “Now, time to end all resistance to the reformatting of the realm!” a god-like male voice boomed. “I will wipe all traces of native life off the face of this forsaken world, all for the honor of ruling this new colony—!”

A crashing noise came from behind Gato’s right, causing the potential ruler of the world to cry out in surprise. The giant stomping noises stopped dead in their tracks, replaced by a loud metallic screech, the earth being torn apart, and the roar of a blazing furnace. Through the smoke from the burning landscape, Gato could see what was tunneling and what was blazing like a furnace full of power: two metallic giants, both of which were twenty yards tall and resembling men. They had to be gods fighting in a brawl, unlike anything he had ever seen before, even as they crashed and struggled together!

Gato had no other choice but to stay where he was and watch it, what with his limited mobility. He had to make sure he would not die since he was likely to get damaged further because his injuries hurt and slowed him. First order of business: become as unnoticeable as possible and hope to live.

“Why, you little—do you not have any idea who you are messing with here?!” the ruler’s voice roared out from the first (and banged up) ’god’. It had a cyclopean appearance to it, though it lacked a mouth and a nose, something Gato thought was strange… nor was it normal for a cyclops of any sort to have an unblinking eye. Darkness was settling in, and Gato could not catch the ’skin’ of the ’deity’ for certain, but he could hazard a guess the skin was unpainted steel. “I am Patrick Dunkirk of the Ursa Confederacy! I’ve never lost a single piece of my unit in all eight hundred battles I’ve taken part in because I am just that special!” With another defiant roar, he pushed the other ’god’ away from him and drew a long sword from his left side, getting ready to swing the blade at a moment’s notice. “So don’t say I didn’t warn you!” With a loud noise, the long sword began vibrating, as if that would kill the other ’god’!

Gato tried to cover his ears, but a bolt of pain reminded him that his left arm was useless. He had few options, and it terrified him.

May the Divine Spirits, or anyone, help me! Why are those two giants fighting each other like this? He could not figure it out. I mean, they are emissaries of the Divine Spirits of Nature, right? Why are they doing battle?

At that point, the first god began swinging at the second one with his sword, though the second one dodged the swings by flying out of the line of fire with movements so minimal that Gato had to blink to catch them. In a swift manner, a blade-less hilt popped out from within the right wrist of the second god, forming a defense against the attacks of the first one. With a flurry of movement, the second god evaded any further attacks by the first, forcing that one to retreat a few yards for a few seconds…

What is happening here? Why is the second one not fighting back against his attacker?

Gato’s thoughts floated through the head of the god Patrick, as he roared out, “What’s wrong?! What happened to your blade, huh?! Don’t tell me you are nothing more than a coward who can’t even fight with a weapon of war and thus should not be in the cockpit of a Giga Armor?!”

What’s a Giga Armor? Is that what they call the gods that are fighting each other?

***

“Miharu of Fire, begin condensing AA Particles,” a male teenager within what had to be the cockpit of a war machine said. “Prepare the Flame Saber for operational capacity.”

***

With no response forthcoming from the other god, Patrick again yelled, “Well how about I drag you out of the cockpit and expose you for who you are to this entire world before I become its true monarch?!” In laughing triumph, he yelled out, “Get your just desserts! By decree of the new God of this world—huh?!”

The second ‘god’ gave off a melodious noise, showing something was going to happen, which came known to be true when it grew wings of what looked like flames out its back.

***

“Are you fit to complete the mission?” a female teenager asked from elsewhere, getting the pilot to nod.

“Miharu of Fire, ready for target elimination.”

***

A bright glow formed at the hole in the sword’s hilt, held by the second god, before a blade of pure flames grew to form the weapon that was a mighty one of war. It grew from less than an inch long to five and a half yards in a single second, and the heat emitted from it will injure the other god no matter what he tried to do to evade it. With a soundless motion, the second god charged at the first one, flying in the air as the first one tried to pull up a second weapon with his left hand. A single slicing motion later, and god Patrick lost his right hand… along with a good chunk of his right arm. To Gato’s amazement, there was no blood spilled… nor was there any flesh to spill blood, either. The arm, and what seemed to be most of the body, had to make up metal and… clockwork?

Gato couldn’t help it. He had seen the impossible happen… “What the hell?!” he cried in shock.

Patrick gasped in surprise, before yelling, “You bastard! You don’t get it, do you?!” He made a quick grab at what appeared to be an advanced flintlock pistol holstered behind him on his left side. The weapon had a long barrel and enough ammo to be more than a one-trick pony. He fired a shot of… something, only for the second ’god’ to dodge out of the way. “I’m—” ’Patrick’ fired a second round, only for the other being to dodge again. “—special!” A third shot fired and missed. “I’m the one who’s been—” The fourth round of ammo shot and missed again. “—chosen to be god here!”

Gato couldn’t take it anymore. “Oh, just shut up!” he yelled at ‘Patrick,’ the giant deity wannabe. “Like you can even handle the hard work that comes with being a deity here! Wait, is your purview as a god Death, Chaos, and Wanton Destruction?!”

‘Patrick’ growled before aiming his gun at the prone Gato. “That’s one big mouth for someone who can’t fight back, boy!” As he was about to pull the trigger on his gun, though, he soon found himself face to face with the other god. “What the—you again?!” Before he could pull the trigger, the sword from the second god carved into his frame and caused him to go up in flames… or so Gato understood it. To his fortune, there was no damage done to Gato from Patrick’s exploding demise, for the second being had shielded him from such an untimely end.

Whoa… how did that happen here? I was having trouble understanding what was taking place, and I was right there… With a great struggle, Gato lurched to his feet. I would ask the second god, but I don’t know how much he will tell me…

As if someone in the Heavens heard Gato’s thoughts, the second god turned to face him and began motioning him to come close, after shrinking the glowing blade. Gato saw the survivor looked akin to a traditional knight, with a plume of a sort atop his helmet. The plume, though, stood out upwards and straight… like a spike. The god didn’t seem to have anything protecting its eyes, and so Gato could see that they were bright green.

Well… I’m alive, that’s better than I expected to happen! Gato began walking closer to the surviving god and doing as it gestured him to do. I wonder what’s going to take place next?

Gato didn’t have to wait long for the answer to his question. He soon stopped, and he felt weightless… was he dreaming, or something? That was the only thing that made sense about this situation.

Wait, what’s even happening, anyway? I hope it’s nothing bad… but what could it even be? I mean, yes, this whole thing is rather strange… but what can I do about it now?

The deity spoke to him, but Gato couldn’t hear what they said. And then, a little thereafter, the voice faded into silence, for Gato had fainted with the sunrise…

#

“Thus concludes the simulation, boss,” Ricardo informed the Dimensional Overseer upon seeing Gato lose consciousness in the simulation. “I hope that the improved values will make this a better way of saving the realms.”

I hope so, too, the Dimensional Overseer thought, folding her arms under her voluptuous breasts. Otherwise, this will be a problem we need to resolve even more than before, what with the Enemy of All Souls being on the loose.

“Boss?” Elliot brought her out of her thoughts. “You never told us why you typically come in here wearing nothing more than a burgundy and white racing swimsuit and a lab coat. Why is that the case?”

“Oh, that?” the Dimensional Overseer blinked when she heard that question, looking at Elliot. “I thought that including the swimming pool in the labs was clue enough for you two.”

That brought Elliot up short. Of course, because of the swimming pool being installed on her orders, the facility had a lot of exercise classes for the different workers maintaining the balance of life, death, and the universes. Then again, since when was exercise even needed in their line of work, anyway?

“Well, I’d better get back to work on being in form for later,” the Dimensional Overseer said, walking over to the door with pep and a skip in her step.

“Boss, before you leave,” Ricardo called out as she was about to reach the door. “We need to look into what to adjust the values to for this experiment.”

“Eh?” she let out before she turned to look at the formula board for more than a second. “Oh, alright… let’s get this over with.” With that, she walked over to the formula board again. As soon as she got there, she looked at the formula as needed for the experiment, before she altered the x value. While she did that, her mind wandered again. Now I have to figure out what all we’re supposed to do. This is going to be problematic… how are we supposed to clean up the mess of the afterlives going away at this rate? All that I can do is make sure that the next simulation works as intended… or was the prior one we did the final one?

“Boss, is it just me, or were the prior simulations effectively loops for the people of that realm?” Elliot asked.

The Dimensional Overseer eyed Elliot from the corner of her left eye and said, “I was pretty sure you and Ricardo knew that tidbit already. Why did you ask now of all times?”

“Because we didn’t know about that, boss,” Ricardo said. “Why would we ask if we know the answer?”

The Dimensional Overseer facepalmed. “Oh, great…” she groaned. That sure explains why it feels like I’m surrounded by idiots in the workplace… it’s because I am. How come I never noticed it before? This is getting way out of hand —

“Boss?” Elliot waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you feeling alright? You don’t normally space out like that.”

“What are you talking about, Elliot?” the Dimensional Overseer asked, removing her palm from her face. “I’m perfectly fine, see?” She turned to face him and saw something out of the corner of her right eye. “Elliot, care to explain something to me?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Who was the moron to smuggle in a cleaning robot into this restricted area?”

Elliot turned to face the line of sight that the Dimensional Overseer was looking in before looking back at her. “I don’t see any cleaning robots, boss. Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Huh?” the Dimensional Overseer blinked twice, only for the object that she was looking at earlier to vanish. That’s odd… what was I even looking at earlier? I thought that someone had a cleaning robot in this restricted room… maybe my job’s getting to me even more than normal.

“Boss, I think it’s about time for you to take a break for the next eight hours minimum,” Ricardo said from his station in the lab. “When did you clock on for the day, anyway?”

The Dimensional Overseer turned to face Ricardo and said, “I clocked in about eleven hours ago. Why? Is there a problem with me being on the clock that long?”

“Well, in this case, it probably means that you’re so exhausted you need to go straight to bed,” Ricardo said. “I don’t think anyone here would like you to lessen your duties because you failed to get some sleep in for the next day.”

The Dimensional Overseer opened her mouth to retort but then paused.

“Ma’am?”

“Why?”

“I beg your pardon?” Ricardo asked.

“Why do you even care about how many hours I sleep in a twenty-four-hour cycle? I mean, this facility exists outside of time and space, so that means it’s an exercise in futility to get so exhausted it’s not even funny. Why do you think I need to go to bed at this rate?”

“Well, boss,” Elliot said, getting his boss’ attention. “I don’t know what Ricardo’s thinking, but it sure sounds like you need to get some beauty sleep. I mean, I dunno how true it is here, but women, where I come from, require beauty sleep regardless of the length of the day and when it is in that day. Then again, considering that days on that planet were at least 36 hours long, it’s not surprising.”

“Look, boss,” Ricardo picked up from there, “I’m not saying that you have to follow our orders about your sleep. In fact, you’re the boss, and it’s because you’re the boss that you need to set a standard for the rest of us to live by.”

The Dimensional Overseer turned her head to face both of her direct subordinates before she dropped it. Of all the times for them to make perfect sense, they chose now? It’s official. I hate my position in this lab. “Oh, alright, fine,” she groused. “I’ll go to bed now.” With that, she headed out of the lab, moving over to her bedroom.

A pregnant silence filled the air in the lab. Then, turning to face Ricardo, Elliot asked, “How much do you want to bet that the boss remembers to clock off before she hits the hay?”

“Shut up.”

“No, seriously, how much do you—”

“Yes, seriously, shut up! Do you want to be on the boss’s bad side over this from this point onward?!” Ricardo roared.

“Er… no?” Elliot asked.

“Then please keep that trap of yours shut.”

If only the Dimensional Overseer and her subordinates could see what was about to cause a lot of trouble…

#

“Well, that went perfectly according to plan,” a shadowy being mused as they read the reports that they gained from their minions. “First, I don’t have to adjust my set of variables soon. On the other point, I don’t have to worry about the so-called ‘Dimensional Supervisor’ causing as much of a mess on me. I just love it when a good plan comes together like this.”

Within their office space, there were many bookshelves that had books written in a language that no mortal should read, not if they wanted their sanity to even remain intact. The shadowy being was sitting in a leather swivel chair, with a back that went up past their head, behind a mahogany desk with a single laptop sitting in front of them. Next to the laptop, the shadowy being had a single tablet filled with information on it, which was what they considered crucial to the anti-experiment that was about to run.

“Still,” they stood up from their seat, walking over to the nearest bookshelf and pulling a book off of it. “I wonder what’s going to happen next? Will the idiots opposing me what I’m going to do?” They snorted. “Of course not. I don’t plan on letting them have it easy, not one bit.” There was a knock at the door. “Who is it?” they demanded.

“It’s Belphegor,” the person on the other side said. “May I come in, boss?”

The shadowy being blinked a few times before walking over to the oak door and opening it. “What’s the matter, Belphegor?” the being asked.

“I think you need to see something important, boss,” Belphegor, an imp that only came up to his boss’ knee, held up a thumb drive for the shadowy being. “Prepare for a shock, alright?”

Huh? What’s this all about? The shadowy being accepted the thumb drive. “I’ll prepare myself for just about anything, Belphegor,” he said. “Now, let’s get you ready for getting back to work, shall we?”

“Certainly, boss,” Belphegor said. “What’s on the agenda?”

“Could you tell Mammon that I appreciate the hard work put into the spy rings in the enemy camp?” the shadowy being asked. “Also, while about Mammon, please tell her I plan to give her a raise for this.”

“Roger that, boss,” Belphegor saluted the shadowy being. “Do you mind if I give her proof of this?”

Good grief… “No, I don’t mind,” the shadowy being shook its head. “I’ll hand it over to you soon. Just need to print it out for Mammon’s benefit.”

“Okay, boss,” Belphegor nodded. “Where will you print it out at?”

“I plan to have it printed in your office,” the shadowy being answered. “Please wait a few minutes after I peruse the files on the thumb drive you gave me.”

“Yes, boss,” Belphegor nodded as he walked over to his own office. “I’ll see you later.”

The shadowy being nodded, closing the door behind them as they walked over to their desk. “Now, let’s see what we have here, shall we?” they mused out loud, putting the thumb drive into their computer.

A few moments of waiting later, the laptop’s auto-play feature kicked in, showing the shadowy being a (mostly) blank video that had found its way onto the thumb drive. “To the one known as EAS, I have a proposition for you,” a person said through the video itself. The being in the video had the vague outline of a woman, though the actual gender was hard to discern based on the video quality so far, even if it was just a case of a darkened room obscuring the figure… and was that cloth in front of their face? “If you want to succeed in your plans of destroying the afterlives, please type in the code number for the word ‘virgin’ in the next ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight—”

The shadowy being blinked in shock when they heard this. Who is this person, anyway? What do they have in mind for this operation? The being typed in the code as they prompted it.

8, 4, 7, 4, 4, 6.

With that, the video file brightened. “Thank you, EAS, for taking my offer seriously,” the owner of the voice said, even as their face truly hid behind the cloth. They removed the cloth from in front of their face, going from the bottom up. “It’s a pleasure to know this will be beneficial for everyone.”

The Enemy of All Souls gaped when seeing this person. No, it can’t be… can it? After a few seconds of panic, he finally asked, “Are you… who I think you are?”

“You tell me.”