Everything was darkness and desolation. No matter which way you looked at the moment, the only things on the horizon were the wreckage of a once flourishing world and lifeless bodies. Desolation reigned supreme as the glow of the very last star faded. The universe that would later become known as the Anteverse was in its immediate decline.
This sad fate was the result of an unprecedented event. Long before this terrible nightmare occurred, the Anteverse was composed of different life forms living together more or less in harmony until one of them decided to attack the others for the most infamous reason possible: greed. Indeed, each of the planets that made up this universe had a more or less abundant quantity of magic or mana. The latter was part of their daily life and also allowed them to travel from one planet to another through ships specially designed for it.
The first major conflict for the monopoly of this precious resource took place among the Morrigans, beings with a morphology similar to that of the earthlings. On Maggnar, their planet slightly resembling Earth, but being several times larger, they caused hundreds of millions of deaths. One group largely dominated the others in terms of number and type of atrocities committed. Sparing only those in whom they had a morbid interest, they slaughtered everyone in their path regardless of age, gender, or social class. As soon as these people had full control of their planet, they began to exploit all the magic that their world had to offer.
After several dozen cycles of exploitation, the reserves of their planet reached a critical stage. Unable to wait for the magic to renew itself naturally due to their ever-increasing needs, they embarked on a vast conquest of neighboring worlds. Using the magical connections between each planet, solar system, or galaxy, they managed to find other areas overflowing with this precious resource without much difficulty. Technologically superior, they had no difficulty in exterminating or enslaving those they considered inferior. Several hundred cycles of bloody conquests and atrocious experiments forced the entity governing the Anteverse to intervene.
While bloody confrontations were taking place simultaneously on various planets, each more distant than the other, a strange point several tens of centimeters in diameter appeared on one of them, just above the main belligerents. Gradually, cracks originating from this point appeared and spread several meters in all directions. All of a sudden, as if the sky were just a huge glass, pieces of it started to fall towards the ground and then disappear before touching it.
The different camps stopped immediately to observe the strange phenomenon that was taking place above them. It was the first time they had seen this kind of thing happen, but each of them knew in their heart that it was not a good sign. Cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of those who still had normal human bodies as they all watched a humanoid form take shape in the portal. A young man in white armor, about five feet tall with three pairs of wings, emerged. He slowly descended towards the battlefield before landing in the middle of the two enemy camps.
No matter what angle each of the players in this conflict looked at him from, there was nothing ordinary about the young man standing in front of them. Not only was there a phenomenal amount of magic emanating from his entire being, but everyone on the battlefield had the impression that this strange individual was standing right in front of them. No matter which way they looked, he was always in front of them. It was as if they were all unable to look away. His completely white eyes, his smirk, and his whole being in general instilled a strong sense of terror in the hearts of those in his presence. Instinctively, they knew that this was not an entity they could face.
Of the ten blue crystals that floated in a circle behind him, one approached his right hand and turned into an exceedingly long sword with a purple blade and strange characters on it. The young man grabbed it and raised it high above his head. Having an awfully bad feeling about what was going to happen next, one of the generals of the invaders’ camp immediately warned his men.
“Deploy the shields!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
His soldiers obeyed him rather quickly and stretched their palms forward. This created a huge magical barrier several hundred centimeters thick.
Unfortunately for them, it was not enough. With a simple vertical movement, the long sword that was larger than its owner fell to the ground. A huge wave of concentrated energy was then sent forward. When it came into contact with the barrier, the latter was totally pulverized, as well as those who had the misfortune to be in its path. The damage was considerable. A huge chasm, whose origin was the point of the blade, had formed on several hundreds, even several thousand kilometers. In front of such a spectacle, a glimmer of hope grew in the hearts of the inhabitants of the planet. Cries of joy resounded among the defenders. However, this was before the one who was supposed to be their savior suddenly turned around to face them.
In a circular motion, he turned his weapon on those behind him. He did the same thing again and decimated all those within his range. Their hope of victory suddenly turned to despair deeper than the deepest of chasms. Fear reigned in the eyes of every soldier who watched this young man. Some of them could not even move because they were so stunned.
Huge fireballs suddenly fell on the young man. The impact caused powerful explosions. Just after that, the sky darkened. Large, black, threatening clouds appeared just above the location of the being coming from the sky. Without warning, several extremely powerful bolts of lightning struck the exact spot where the fireballs fell. The soldiers had taken advantage of the fact that his back was turned to throw everything they had at him in the way of offensive spells. One of the generals even ordered the ships in his fleet to fire without concern for collateral damage.
The battlefield turned into a living hell. Nothing could be seen but a dome of flames continuously struck by lightning and other huge magical and energetic projectiles. Everyone followed suit. Whether it was allies or enemies, everyone sent everything they had. Numerous attacks, each more powerful than the last, fell on the young man. A huge rock the size of a mountain was even thrown to ensure that this common opponent perished.
As events seemed to turn in the attackers’ favor, an unprecedented magical pressure suddenly appeared. It was so strong that it immediately paralyzed everyone. Several rays of energy emerged from the flames, shot out in all directions, and struck everyone in their wake. Cries of pain and agony rang out across the battlefield. Many men had just lost one or more limbs. One of the soldiers, who was looking in the direction of the flames, met his gaze with the one who was emitting all these attacks. He could not believe what he was seeing. This one, whose eyes were completely white, had a terrifying smile on his face and did not seem to have suffered any damage.
The young man raised his sword above him again. The sword, which had shrunk to a reasonable size, now had flames of the same color as the blade. At the same time, two strange glowing spheres had also appeared behind him. As everyone followed the movement of the weapon with eyes filled with despair and fear, the tip of the blade stopped a few millimeters from the ground. The young man stopped abruptly and began to look up. All the pressure he had been exerting until now also disappeared. Suddenly, he began to converse with someone.
“What’s up? Of course, I am going to do the job I have been given… No! I was just having a little fun… Okay, I’ll do it right away,” those were the words he spoke during this brief discussion.
After having finished speaking with his mysterious interlocutor, the young man once again turned his gaze to the observers who were watching his every move. He then dropped his sword which turned back into crystal before resuming its place in his back. He then brought his two hands together about ten centimeters from each other and concentrated momentarily. A sphere of red energy manifested itself just after. It then turned yellow before suddenly turning white. One of the generals, who had so far survived all the attacks of this alien being and was observing the strange ball in his hands, immediately understood what it was all about. He immediately ordered the immediate withdrawal of all his soldiers.
“Fall back! Everyone, fall back immediately!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
The soldiers did not have time to think about it and executed on the spot. The opposing side, which was also observing the movements of the young man and the invaders, did the same thing as the latter.
Everyone was running either towards the spaceships or as far away as possible from the dreaded thing that was coming. However, a strange and unfortunate phenomenon occurred. Without them understanding how, everyone ended up in front of the winged young man. They all turned around and ran back to their transportation or shelter, but once again found themselves in front of the being that had descended from the sky. All the soldiers sank deeper into despair. Some of them began to cry while others asked for forgiveness for the crimes they had committed in the past. But it was already too late for them.
On his side, the young man had just finished his preparations. He withdrew his hands, and the sphere began a slow descent to the ground. A few moments later, another portal opened a few meters behind him. He turned around, walked towards the gap, and stepped through it. The latter closed just after he had entered it.
Once the portal disappeared, the enemy soldiers, as well as those belonging to the defense forces, regained all their means. They ran back to their shelters and transportation. Meanwhile, the white ball continued to move towards the ground. The movement was so slow that many of the invaders had time to get to their ships and begin the takeoff phase. Unfortunately for everyone present, their fate was sealed as soon as the mysterious young man appeared.
As the sphere hit the ground, a huge shockwave occurred, and a wall of pure white light dispersed evenly in all directions. A soldier running for his life was caught in it and was totally disintegrated while uttering a final scream of pain and agony. The white energy continued to spread over the entire surface of the planet, destroying and killing men, women, children, animals, buildings, and even spaceships. Nothing survived, not even the planet itself. The phenomenon continued to spread exponentially throughout the solar system, destroying the rest of the fleet which unfortunately had not been warned.
Identical phenomena occurred on each planet invaded by these corrupted Morrigans. Each time, it was the same thing. A being with three pairs of wings appeared on the battlefield and destroyed everything without distinction. In the end, all the invaders and those who had been invaded were completely annihilated. When there was not a single living being left from this people, the entity governing the Anteverse made a radical decision.
In order to prevent another such event from happening, she decided to simply destroy the Anteverse. She ordered her ten envoys to withdraw before carrying out her plan. As they returned to their leader’s side, a huge surge of magical energy erupted from the center of the Anteverse. This energy spread at an unprecedented speed to the furthest reaches of this multiverse. All the different universes that constituted it were destroyed in its path, leaving only debris and a dying star. As soon as the star was extinguished, the cold of desolation and death fell, and the multiverse died.
Much time has passed since that tragic event that claimed the lives of all life forms in the Anteverse. Darkness and cold had imposed their reign. Suddenly, in the midst of the darkness, a spark shot out, followed by an explosion. A new Big Bang had just occurred and announced the birth of a new multiverse: the Alphaverse. This time, to ensure that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated, the regent decided to set up surveillance systems and special factions to intervene when necessary.
Hundreds of thousands of cycles later, in a town on the planet Exoduus, a teenager suddenly woke up after having a nightmare. It was the beginning of a new adventure that would impact many lives for better or for worse.
To be continued