1 Apotheosis

The legend of Adam and Eve, one of the most widely accepted stories to explain the origin of mankind. Where God breathed life to the empty clay husk who would then become Adam, the first man. Before Adam was born, God had predetermined his authority, man's authority over this world. He shall be the lord of all things on the earth.

He shall subdue and tame all things that fly, swim and creep upon the earth. All things with feathers, scales and leather, whether large or small, man is destined to conquer them. No beast shall triumph over man and nature shall bless him by bearing fruits of her labor. However, sin came.

The day man fell from grace, man lost his paradise and was confined to the young world. Man toiled and suffered, nature no longer blessed him and beasts attacked him with no mercy. Then, his own children slaughtered each other, the death of Abel by his brother Cain marked the first human murder and death in all of history.

From there, man's suffering only multiplied as they did. Wars were waged, kin were slaughtered, daughters were raped, the sins and suffering of mankind only grew along with them. Despite all their misery, mankind move forward and reclaimed his birthright. The lands surrendered to mankind's will, the beasts learned to submit beneath his will and even the mountains fear his might.

All would be good, if not for man betraying his purpose. He was no longer a guardian or a lord, he became a tyrant. The earth died from his poison, the forests were burnt to ashes for his advances and even the winds grow restless as death evaporated from their cities. The beasts died in droves, succumbing to the poison that eats the earth or man's urge to kill for his entertainment.

And now, the earth is dying and her death throes threaten to slay mankind to the last. His ingenuity may save him and restore his world, but the corruption has gone too deep, the light is vanishing, growing silent. Many noticed this and tried to awaken their blind and deaf brethren but only a few would truly listen, the rest simply for their own corrupt gains that doomed the world in the first place.

One day, a child was born, the one was rejected for being different, was wounded by the pride of the apes that lorded over it. It saw the hubris they wore, and their meaningless goals that only served to their dominance and the oppression of others. It wanted to know more about this world, but found the apes persecuting its curiosity and imprisoning it in loneliness and despair.

It was confused, confused that its innocence had been misinterpreted and stepped on. It wanted revenge but discarded it, for it was the way of the very apes he despised. It saw that the world was dying and too few listened to its call for help, too few to save and restore it. It saw the culture of man being swallowed and erased, it saw the death of all things on the Earth within its lifespan.

It fell into darkness for a short while, but then released itself from it, finding its sadness to be irrelevant in the eyes of the corrupt. It realised that the fate of man is sealed unless its creator came and ended it early, so it prayed for His return, for a new dawn, a new age. But over time, it doubted whether man deserves its salvation and resigned his fate to death, it preparing to be saved amongst others who were willing to try and remove their taint than the rest who indulged and prided in their taint.

Then, the third world war came as death rained from the sky and saw the shattering of the powers of the world. Thermonuclear blasts erupted in a cloud of death and destruction, rendering entire cities of steel and concrete to a pile of poisonous ashes. It saw the end of days as the weapons of man finally turned against him, their taint rewarding them with treachery of the highest order after several thousand years of servitude.

In the midst of all that destruction and despair, something awakened in it. It had survived the hellfire and radioactive ash clouds, its home safely at the edge of the destruction of that day. It felt a presence of light and power within it, a presence of peace and warmth. A light unlike anything of this world or beyond enveloped it and a titan of light emerged from the ruins of its home.

The titan was faceless for its identity is all and nothing at the same time. It was shaped like man but it was of neither gender and twelve diaphanous wings of light sprouted from its back. The light of its presence illuminated the gloomy land and brought peace to the survivors of the Great Rending. It instinctively flapped its wings of heavenly light once and the miasma scattered.

The ash clouds returned to normal as the ionizing radiation was converted to thermal and kinetic energy. The hot and cold winds converged, bringing about storms of great magnitude that rained clean, purified water to the lands but did not harm even a single living creature. The plastics in the sea decomposed into its elements, harmlessly dissolving into the currents.

The energies from the instant degradation of plastics combined with the energy from radioactive miasma in the soil, the ice caps were restored and the sea levels returned to normal. Excess carbon dioxide and methane in the air is collapsed into carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, its bond energies combined with newfound power used the energies to catalyze the formation of biomolecules.

Beneficial microbes are synthesized, placed in barren and once poisoned land to restore its former glory. Invasive species were halved, the harvested biomass transformed into extinct animals designed to compete with the invasive species and restore balance in the ecosystem. The last of the biomolecules was used to restore the starving, sick and dying to their prime, the ravages of time undone and power flowing inside of them.

Then, the titan summoned a storm of power and energy, entering into its eye and vanishing from the earth, its intention clear. It travelled through the rivers of time and the forests of space, beyond the confines of the universe or its laws, beyond the darkness before all. There, it found the nothingness, the emptiness it needed, far from the universe. Beyond infinity, it was there, it rested first, and it slept for time immemorial.