The Ascension Age - Chapter 1: Ascension Age

Far away from Earth, around billions of light-years away. At what could be considered the center of the Universe, an infinitesimally small point of energy could be found. It had been here for over 13.8 billion years in silence. This was what remained after the first Big Bang.

Well, it would probably be better to say that the Big Bang happened for its sake, so calling it ‘remaining’ would be incorrect. It saw the Big Bang happen as it rapidly expanded until it finally calmed down again. At the moment, everything around it was dark, except for the point itself. The Universe’s matter had long since separated from it, and all that matter’s light was now too far to reach this place. That only made the site look even more empty and lonely.

However, little did the races of the Universe know that this small point had finally awoken. Inside, extremely powerful reactions, capable of destroying entire galaxies, were happening nonstop. To be more precise, just a fraction of those reactions would be more than enough to send a galaxy to its end, let alone every reaction occurring inside there.

Each reaction happened more and more frequently as time passed. It was as if something inside that infinitesimally small point was trying to break free. Eventually, the small point couldn’t endure it anymore. If there existed a microscope capable of seeing something of this size, one would have witnessed what looked like a crack appearing on a white shell.

It seemed like a lot of time had passed before it happened. However, for a human’s sense of time, all of it happened in less than a blink of an eye. At the same time that crack appeared, there was no coming back. The white shell was then pulverized as the energy inside it was released.

The impressive thing was that all the living beings in the entire Universe felt it when it happened. It didn’t matter whether they were intelligent or not. All of them looked in the same direction. For some intelligent life forms, it was quite weird since they ended up looking at the ground. Of course, that was because they were on the opposite side of their planets, considering the small explosion’s location. Hence, they thought something had happened in the ground instead.

That kind of thought didn’t last for long, though. That was because, following that strange sensation, a voice echoed in everyone’s minds. No, to be more precise, it was some kind of thought, or perhaps, a memory. Many intelligent living beings in the Universe didn’t have the human capability to ‘speak,’ or ways of creating a sound wave that humans called a voice. Of course, they still had their own methods of communication.

Leaving that aside, that thought was in some kind of language that none of the creatures in the Universe had ever interacted with before. Nevertheless, every single intelligent being in the Universe understood what it said. The thought materialized in their minds in different ways depending on each life form. For humans, it felt very ancient, transcending the limits of time.

“Come, my children. The time has arrived for you to leave your shells and follow me to a higher stage.”

Everyone was taken aback. In some way that no one could explain, everyone could tell this wasn’t a joke or anything. Something deep down in themselves told them that everything was real. It was not something their own races could ever hope to achieve.

Could it be a god? Do gods really exist? Was science wrong all this time? They could all feel the power of the one behind that archaic voice. For humans, even Earth’s existence was nothing more than a grain of sand compared to a desert, perhaps not even a thousandth of that.

All the humans and other races spread in the Universe paid attention, waiting for this ancient being to continue his or her words. However…

“Gigon, I think I forgot to turn on the speaker. Try it one more time,” said a feminine voice.

“What?! You’re kidding me, right? Do you know how long I practiced that sentence, Gigan? I had a full script ready! I was looking so cool!” Gigon could not help but say, though he quickly recovered. “Oh, well. I can just try it again. Tell me when I can start using the cool presentation.”

Everyone was at a loss for words. That God didn’t look very… godly…

“Are you an idiot? I told you to try it right now because I think I fixed it. That means the speaker should be working. Everyone received all that nonsense you just said.”

“You can’t be serious! What about my heavenly entrance speech?”

“Fuck your heavenly entrance speech! Stop wasting my time and continue,” said the feminine voice as she continued, “Sometimes, I don’t know why I work with you, Gigon.”

Gigon felt wronged but decided to leave it aside for now. “Oh, well. Whatever. Errr… Testing, testing. Can you hear me?”

That ‘thought’ went quiet for a moment before continuing, “Hey, Gigan. Is this thing really working? I couldn’t capture a single thought of answer coming from this incubator. Perhaps we should reset this Universe and start a new one.”

All of a sudden, an innumerable amount of thoughts reached whoever was communicating to them at the same time. They didn’t know what it was all about. Nevertheless, every creature in the Universe felt unprecedented danger when the word ‘reset the Universe’ appeared in their minds. It was like an extremely old fear, something that had been infused deep inside of each creature’s DNA, had alarmed them at the same time.

“Oh! So you did hear me. Why the hell did you all go silent? No, wait! With the number of intelligent life forms in this Universe, what are the chances that you all refused to answer simultaneously?”

Countless thoughts answered his question at the same time as well, with him soon responding, “What the hell do you mean by taking it more seriously?! I’m always serious! Huh?! Who the fuck said I’m a kid? What?! I dare you to send me such a thought again! The hell?! No, I’m not Elvis. First of all, who the hell is Elvis? I’m not Jesus either, for fuck’s sake!”

Of course, these were only a few of the thoughts he answered. Just the fact he could reply to such an uncountable number of thoughts was already heaven-defying itself.

“Fuck all of you!” Nonetheless, he lost his patience in the end. “Do you even know who I am? I might as well be called your God, you pieces of shit! No, I definitely am your God! I can wipe you out with a single command!”

The feminine voice intervened again, though. “Gigon, remember what we’ve discussed. No more wiping out universes just because you’re angry. Did you forget how much they cost? Now, stop wasting time and get into the main topic.”

Gigon, or what they thought the ‘god’ was called, lamented.

“Sigh… fine. I’ll just block their thoughts before I destroy this incubator. Listen up, ants! I’m giving you all one chance! Just one chance of escaping your Universe’s constraints. Soon, all of you will start to feel a new kind of energy appearing in your surroundings. Well, those closer to its source might have felt it already. As for what you call it, that’s up to you.”

Gigon continued, “It has been over 13.8 billion years since your Universe was created.”

Although the ‘god’ said 13.8 billion years, that was only the case for humans. All the other intelligent lifeforms in the Universe heard that remark with a time unit specific to their races. After all, years, months, days, hours, and so on were things made using Earth’s rotation around itself and the sun as a base. Other races would obviously have different time counting methods.

“Well, for me, it was just a few days. Haha!”

“Gigon, no one cares how long it felt for you. Stop blabbering and continue your explanation.”

“Fine, fine…sometimes, you’re too boring, Gigan.”

No one knew what to say about it. This event was life-changing for all intelligent living beings in the Universe. But why was the ‘god’ so…immature?

“Ahem…it has been over 13.8 billion years since we’ve created this Universe of yours. This also happened to be the time necessary to nurture your Universe’s Special Energy. Once again, you can call it whatever you want since each Universe is different. Now that it’s ready, we have released it. Don’t worry. It doesn’t present any danger to any of the life forms in the Universe. In fact, this is the key to the evolution of your races. Be it yourselves or technology, everything will depend on it.”

Gigon then continued.

“And with that, let me declare the start of the Ascension Age! Which one of your races will come out on top? I’m looking forward to it!”