"Ma’am, thank you for the rating. Have a good meal."
A young man handed a food package to the woman while she completed the payment.
After the woman said goodbye, the young man returned to his motorcycle. Looking at his phone, he let out a sigh.
"Haaaa..."
’I’m having some serious problems this month. I’m nowhere near reaching my delivery quota. Maybe I should look for another job on the side.’
The young man muttered resignedly as he put on his helmet.
Getting on his motorcycle, he adjusted his backpack. Once he was done, the phone mounted on its holder beeped.
"Well... another delivery. Let’s hope tonight gets better."
He spoke as he confirmed the order. Starting his motorcycle, he headed toward his destination.
Along the way, his attention was divided between the traffic and the calculations running through his head, going over his bills and expenses for the month.
After passing through an intersection, his slightly distracted attention was abruptly interrupted by a powerful tremor.
"TRUUUUUUUM!"
His motorcycle began to lose control and sway from side to side as he struggled to maintain his balance. The tremor continued.
It felt as though the ground itself was splitting apart.
"What the fuck is this?!"
People in the streets ran desperately in search of shelter. Vehicles crashed into poles while others skidded across the road.
A truck behind the young man overturned on the road, and the vehicles following it began crashing into it.
After considerable effort, he managed to stop his motorcycle and began paying attention to what was happening around him.
The powerful tremors shattered the windows of buildings. Older buildings began collapsing onto cars and people.
Aster’s heart pounded violently against his ribs.
"My God... what’s happening?"
His voice came out weak and trembling.
"The world is ending..."
He stammered.
Suddenly, a series of sources of light illuminated the night sky.
Aster looked up toward the lights.
His heart stopped.
His face turned pale as disbelief and reality became tangled within his mind. What he was seeing looked like a nightmare.
"It’s over..."
He spoke as his knees buckled and he stared at the hell forming above his head.
The sky, where the stars had once shone beautifully, was now engulfed by a sea of colossal flames surrounding enormous rocks, each one large enough to easily cover an entire city.
Something spoken in an unidentified language echoed throughout the area.
[??? ? ????...]
Like everyone else, Aster obviously heard it as well.
But at that moment, it didn’t matter in the slightest.
As hell drew closer, Aster forgot to breathe. The temperature of the atmosphere was rising to alarming levels.
Soon, everything and everyone began to disintegrate.
Naturally, the first to go were the humans and every form of biological life on Earth.
The oceans began to dry up.
The forests began to wither and catch fire.
People’s skin began to char.
Aster soon began to be incinerated by the infernal heat, and those flaming rocks were still kilometers away.
"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
Aster let out an inhuman scream as he disintegrated until nothing remained.
Everything was vaporized.
Until, finally, the collision came.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
Nothing and no one was spared.
That voice spoke again, but this time it was filled with sadness and sorrow.
[The last sector of Cosmos #1.6340 has been extinguished...]
The voice echoed through the emptiness of the solar system, where only fragments of what had once been planets now flew through the darkness, engulfed in flames.
The voice remained silent for a while before speaking softly into the void.
[I’m sorry...]
........
Everything was dark.
There was no sensation of heat or cold.
Aster’s mind drifted through the infinite void while his consciousness remained adrift.
He didn’t think.
He didn’t speak.
He didn’t smile.
He didn’t feel.
He was completely adrift.
There was no way to know whether a minute, a day, a year, millennia, eras, or eons had passed.
In truth, none of it mattered.
In that void, the very concept of time did not exist.
As he drifted through the void, something watched Aster with interest.
[Hmmmm... interesting.]
A sweet yet cold voice, devoid of any warmth, echoed through the darkness.
[Yes... this soul... is filled with potential. Fufufufuf.]
The voice let out an amused laugh.
For a while, it remained silent, seemingly deep in thought.
[This might work... I still have plenty of vacancies available for the %#$% #$#%%. Would it be right to give one of them to this child? Well... whatever.]
[I’ll give you another chance, child.]
[I’ll grant you one of the Thrones.]
[Now, whether you can remain upon that throne or not... that will be up to you.]
[May fate and luck accompany you.]
[Child...]