Prologue

It starts with God. As he is lounging on his throne with one leg over the armrest, scratching at his suit pants with a feathered pen. The ink steeps into the fabric creating perfect circles, until the auto-clean function resets and it disappears; again and again. He lazily eyes the room.

Heaven is a quiet place. There are little feathered eyeballs carrying around books and papers, fluttering about God's palace. On the ground floor, overlooking mortals who go about their mundane lives, lower-class angels work in relative silence. Without mouths, they cannot speak. But that doesn't make communication impossible.

Coming through a side door of the throne room, an angel had flown over to God with a message in its clawed feet. The pristine sheet of gold had written on it with bold cursive:

"Dear All Mighty One,

Please check on the prayers of your followers. There has been another backlog in the system from being overloaded with data. Otherwise, we will have to clear the inbox again for maintenance.

On another note, your son has turned one of the holy rivers into wine. The angels in Section R-9345 have fainted from excessive alcohol consumption, which has significantly reduced our progress on dream prophecies. I would recommend for you to have a conversation with him as he seems to be having a rebellious streak.

Your Humble Servant,

Michael"

God sighed in exasperation and looked up to his ceiling. An intricately painted mural of his likeness along with his son hovered over him.

"Is there anything new to do?"

A shadow had appeared in his peripheral vision.

"Perhaps the All Mighty One can reset the world and create a new Apex species, then we, your humble servants, could get a vacation."

God looked at his archangel who suddenly appeared. She had long, flowy hair which was tied back loosely and framed her round face. Her green eyes had matched the jade adorning her figure that was hugged by a traditional Eastern styled dress. It was backless to accommodate the six large wings which were currently folded.

"Gabriel there is nothing that would destroy me more than having to separate you, and of course Michael, from your beloved paperwork."

As he spoke in a nauseating tone and twirled his pen towards the archangel, Gabriel had shook her head in defeat.

"My Lord, I will never understand why you still hold on to the mortals' lives down there, especially since you refuse to manage the world properly."

"Of course, you wouldn't understand Gabriel. Sometimes you create a world and all the little creatures that live in it. And it starts off great, but as time goes on it gets progressively worse and worse. Later on, it seems to get better, but then it doesn't. And after all that you know you should probably give up, but you've grown too attached to it..."

Gabriel politely nodded, every now and again when her God was rambling on. However, her unchanging expressions gave way to deaf ears. A mind that floated off, dreaming of spiced drinks and swimming and binge-reading, completely gone from this realm or the one below.

"...The point is fixing it now would be like rewriting the world entirely. Either way, it's a dead-end."

He huffed. Now, sitting straight with his elbows on his knees. The red cloak on his shoulders hung crookedly on his casual grey suit. Under which the shirt had the image of a bow tie printed on the front. He stepped on his white untied shoelaces, knowing that they could never really get dirty.

"Perhaps now is the right time to write this world's ending. A grand one that would give closure to us all. Then the Great and Righteous One can be free to create something brand new."

The archangel then summoned a tablet in her hands. Then tapped on a few things before it faded away.

The shiny tiled floor from beyond the steps of the platform had transformed into glass. Behind the glass was an image of the world; orbiting in space. God waved his pen and the image was zoomed into a scene.

The screen was focused on a palace made of concrete and glass. Bustling through the city, tiny creatures all travelled to some trivial destination. Scrolling past the scenes kept changing one after the other; the overlord in a meeting room, a little girl eating cake, a homeless person being set on fire and a pregnant man that just gave birth.

"Hold on"

God had paused the screen and zoomed in on the newborn. His eyes glittered in a way that made Gabriel sweat.

"I have an idea!"

He looked at the archangel in anticipation, leaning towards her waiting for a response. Gabriel hesitated before asking a question.

"What is on the Lord's mind?"

"I'm glad you asked. If I am going to end this world anyways, why not show the humans something fun."

"What could that possibly be?" A sinking weight formed in her chest.

"I will create more Perfect Beings!"

The angels that were hurrying about all stopped and turned to stare at their creator.

"I implore you to refrain from doing so. Your son is already enough for Heaven to handle, my Lord. It would not be the best course of action to bless the world with so much power. It may be completely destroyed faster than planned."

He deflated in sadness.

"Well, that wouldn't be a satisfying ending."

God slumped in his throne; half of his holy body was sliding to the floor.

"What would you suggest I do?"

This was it. This was the moment that the archangel can do to finally end it all. To get that sweet, sweet vacation.

"How about instead of producing entirely beings made of your Perfect Blessing, new souls can be gifted a small fraction of its power. That way the ending would slow down, develop the way it was intended to. "

He perked up and smiled. Then he vanished leaving Gabriel alone beside an empty throne. Manifesting in a new room, new souls are being processed to be dropped into the world. Surrounding his white sneakers were blue wisps that gently bounced off to travel towards the teleportation circle. He picked up one and carried it in his palms.

The wisp continued to float towards the circle in his hands, unaware of the fate God had planned for them. He withdrew one hand and bit his finger. A single drop of blood had fallen onto the soul. The blue flame mixed with red until the wisp was a clear purple hue.

He let the soul free as it floated off his palm; earnestly heading towards a world fated to end.