"Where am I?" Michael opened his eyes to be welcomed by a blood-red sky. He was floating in the air but no matter how hard he tried to wiggle his body, he was unable to.
"System" he called out for the system yet there was no response. He couldn't feel the system in his soul anymore.
"Am I dreaming?" He took a deep breath, calming his mind. The last thing he remembers was kissing Gaya good night.
Booooooooooommmmmmm!
Suddenly an ear-piercing vibration reverberated the blood-red sky. Along with the vibrations, he was able to regain control over his body. Still floating in the middle of the sky, he looked around to see nothing but barren land filled with dark smoke. There were no life signs, the sky was blood red, the atmosphere was dark and gloomy. He felt like he stepped into a post-apocalyptic world.
While he was staring at his surroundings, he saw a woman and two little children. They looked exhausted beyond words as the woman seemed to be walking using her last bit of strength. The two children in her hand barely had any flesh, they were just skin and bones.
As he was watching them, they stumbled down on the ground. He tried to move his body but he couldn't. The very next moment, the scenery in front of him changed. After the scenery changed, he wasn't floating in the sky above a barren land. On the contrary, he was floating in a place that seemed to be a city.
The sky was still blood red and although he could see humans walking down on the streets, they weren't much better than the woman he saw earlier. They were all extremely skinny, in their eyes, there was no life. They seemed like zombies who had no desire to live anymore. Looking from above, these people resemble ants as they were obediently walking in a straight line.
After staring at the people for a while, he looked at all the buildings which seemed to be made of red cement. When he looked closer, he saw glimmering runes on the buildings. The more he observed the place, the more he doubted that this was just a dream.
He was about to call the system again when he noticed a couple of people walking in the line drop dead in a blink of an eye. He expected the people to react to the people before them dropping dead, yet they walked past the dead bodies as nothing happened. Michael was unable to find a logical explanation for everything he had seen in this weird place.
Surprisingly, Michael saw hooded figures covered in blue robes descending from the sky.
"Hey!" he shouted at them yet they didn't seem to hear or notice Michael. The hooded figures landed beside the dead bodies.
"Two thousand and five dead today so far"
"Yesterday I had burned four thousand bodies"
Their words made Michael frown, "this doesn't seem very dreamy to me" he mumbled. The two hooded figures then waved their hands as crimson red flames engulfed the dead bodies on the ground.
The scenery changed again as now he was floating in the sky above a large circular stage. The stage was occupied by more hooded figures he saw before, children of various ages and more skinny people. Except for the hooded figures, the others were chained and brought to their knees.
"Stealing is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death" Michael turned his head towards the voice's direction to see a hooded figure holding a long scythe. Before the chained man in front of the hooded figure could react, the scythe cleaved his head right off his shoulders.
"Skipping the line is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death" another voice followed by beheading.
"Praying to Sun God is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death"
"Attempting to cultivate is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death"
"Using Arch Energy is forbidden and it's a crime punishable by death"
….
Michael heard the hooded figures on the stage exclaim before they behead the people regardless of their gender. The hooded figures showed no mercy at all. Some crimes like stealing and skipping the line were hardly punishable by death, yet the hooded figures cleaved their heads off for these pitiful crimes.
The scenery changed again and again and again. One time, he saw a lifeless aerie forest, the other time, he saw people fight like animals for a water puddle. He also saw a 7ft hooded figure drop a nuke in a city.
Michael lost count of the sceneries he saw. After everything he had seen, he was sure this world had already turned into hell if it's not already the actual hell and the hooded figures were the demons.
The real question was why and how is he seeing all this?
Suddenly everything around him turned dark as someone switched off the lights around him.
"This is what's going to happen if you fail to conquer this world Michael" Suddenly a gentle soothing voice reverberated in the dark space.
"Who are you? And where am I?"
"What you've seen is the Elon Continent in four hundred years from your current time" the voice didn't answer Michael's first question but answered the latter.
"The future?" Michael was stunned as the voice continued,
"The events you saw are just some glimpses of the result of your failure"
The voice said. Although Michael wanted to stay calm and think rationally, what was happening to him was beyond rational.
"You have the ultimate power in your hand, use it to reshape the world before the world is engulfed by the evil"
By ultimate power, he felt like the voice was talking about the system.
"The thought of innocents dying in your war to conquer this world is holding you back from achieving your true potential and reaching your goals. After everything I showed you, it's time for you to shed all your hesitations. Be the Dark God you meant to be" after the voice spoke these words, the scenery once again changed.
"Human, are you alright?" Michael was standing straight up on his bed, sweating bullets. He turned to see Gaya's concerned face
"You were having nightmares," she said, gently wiping the sweat off his face with her nightgown. Instead of telling what just happened, Michael entered the system interface to question it,
"System, are you aware of what happened to me now?"
[what are you talking about?] Surprisingly, the system seemed to have zero clues.
"Something just took me four hundred years into the future and it also knew about you"
[what?!]
The system sounded completely shocked.
[The system cannot search the host's mind, something's preventing me] he heard the system after a few moments of silence.
[what else is the voice mentioned?] the system asked.
Michael sighed before telling everything that happened from the beginning. Since even the system didn't have any idea about what happened to him, he had to discuss this with the system to find some real answers or explanations.
[it can't be one of the omegas...]
"When the fuck are you going to tell me about the omegas and you?"
[not yet host. You're not even strong enough to face the guardians let alone omegas. If what you told me is true]
"It is true" he gritted his teeth as the system continued,
[You have to focus on taking over this world as it seems to be the crucial step in your journey towards Godhood]
"Are you telling me that I'm a god in the making?"
[Don't get cocky host. The future is not something set in stone, anything can change the future. For now, we have to focus on your goals] the system then kicked him out to the real world without a warning.
"Fuck" he cursed in his mind as Gaya was still wiping off the sweat on his face.
"We need to talk" Considering the system was no help to him, he decided to talk with Gaya. The two of them leaned back on the bed frame before Michael began to tell everything he saw.
***********************
"There's still a chance that what you saw was just a dream but what you said didn't seem like a dream to me" After listening to Michael in silence, Gaya spoke.
"What could be so powerful to show you the future? Some kind of god?"
"You're awfully calm about this' ' Michael couldn't help but comment on her calmness. Even he was slightly freaking out, she seemed to be less affected than he was.
"Since you are a freak of nature, everything linked to you is anything but normal. Getting a glimpse of the future is freaky yet we still have the chance to prevent everything from happening" he nodded to her words,
"Whatever dragged you to the future is not something we can understand or comprehend unless it allows us to. My question is, however, who were those hooded figures? The guardians? Or something else?"
Michael removed the warm quilt to leave the bed. He walked towards the windows. Just like his heart, the sea was also not calm. The storm was still ravishing the ocean violently with the company of the heavy downpour and thunderclaps.
"Whoever they are, I have a feeling that we'll meet them soon," he said looking at the dark stormy sky through the window. The flashes of lightning revealed a newly found resolution in his eyes. At this moment, Gaya could tell that something's changed within him.