Blinding light, and nothingness that stretches itself into infinity. No life, no signs of human life anywhere near sight. That was, in short summary, my current predicament...
In order to accurately summarize and explain my situation, I suppose I should backtrack a little bit.
I am Benjamin Coulson, Swiss/British citizen, 28 years old. I have lived my entire life in switzerland before... this... and grew up in a priviledged and peaceful environment where my biggest challenge was forcing myself up in the morning to go to work.
It was one such typical day where things... changed. I awoke to utter chaos: An earthquake had erupted, its magnitude unknown, but it was devastating. This should have been a red flag in and of itself because Switzerland does not have earthquakes. But that wasn't the end of it, not by a longshot.
When I raced out of my home, it collapsed barely a minute later, the beams and structural support of it all devastated by the rumbling of mother nature. But... that was by far not the worst of it all.
The Earthquake was only the beginning.
The seas inexplicably rose several meters high, flooding a good portion of the country. Mountains spontaneously exploded in what can only be described as a volcanic eruption... which was another major red flag because Switzerland has no volcanoes, and water doesn't just... multiply out of nowhere.
It was then that I knew... this wasn't some natural disaster, this was the link to something far, far worse. In the few minutes I had between my home collapsing and the mountains erupting, I checked my phone for any news and what I saw was pretty devastating. Switzerland was not an isolated incident. These sudden, inexplicable catastrophies were occuring globally.
It was the end of the world in its most biblical scale.
When the mountains exploded, I closed my eyes and just... accepted death. Right on time, as one of the millions of boulders cannoneered in all directions was hurling straight for me. Not past me, not near me, at me, dead center.
But the prophetic yet gruesome death never came. One second passed, then two, then three, and still, nothing.
I opened my eyes and... well, here I am, in this infinite room of white nothingness.
I could, given all that has happened, only come to one logical conclusion: I was dead. Hell, all of Humanity probably is.
But the question that gnawed on me was... if this is the afterlife, why was I alone? Where was everyone else? Where is everyTHING else?
So I spent my time waiting... and waiting... and waiting. Since there was no way to observe time at all, I had no idea at all how much time had passed. My internal clock was unreliable and horrible, so bad in fact I couldn't tell you the difference between hours and days. All I can tell with certainty is that I was bored beyond sanity. I tried everything to pass the time, including sleep, but apparently you can't fall asleep in the afterlife at all. So every gruesomely slow and empty second I spent completely awake and aware.
Suddenly...
"Sorry for the wait" Came a voice. A deep, calm, compassionate voice. And one that sounded eerily familiar to my ears... "Usually I don't let souls marinade like this but I had a bit of a crisis on my hands, so you will have to forgive my tardiness."
I glanced up from my laying? position and saw...
Morgan Fucking Freeman.
"Yeah, I know, I know..." He said as if reading my mind and lifted his hands defensively. "Many people find some form of comfort seeing me like this. Can't complain though, handsome feller, that one." He said, his tone of voice full of light humor, clearly jesting with me.
"You... you're... you're..."
"Yeah..." He answered me with a much lighter, more patient expression. "I'm him, son. Normally, I'd just give a few pretty words and send you off to the pearly gates, but I'm afraid that my current situation calls for work..."
I was flabbergasted, completely stunlocked and confused. I was talking to the Big Man, Capital G, The Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, Alpha and Omega... and he was explaining to me that something was wrong.
"Your world is gone, son. Your people, your planet, your entire universe as a matter of fact, gone."
...Well that was fucked up to hear. Literal God was telling me that my entire universe, not just my nation, not just my planet, the whole universe was just... gone...
"How... why?"
"Lemme see if I can explain it to you, son" He stated and snapped his fingers, and when he did, countless copies of himself manifested. "You see... Every single universe has its own God. Multiverse, Omniverse, everything really. To understand what happened, I need to give you a little exposition" He continued and with a second snap of his fingers, a holographic replica of Earth appeared before us. "Every world you can envision, every universe, parallel, higher or lesser dimension, fictional and make-belief... all of it exists. And all of it has a governing Deity, a God. Well one such God went rogue, got bored with the status quo and all and caused untold damages to... everything, really. He upheaved the natural order of many different universes, yours included, causing their complete and irreversible collapse. Millions of worlds have fallen already, and many more are on the precipice of disappearing forever."
I gulped loudly... this was way, way above my paygrade. I couldn't make sense out of half of it, because why me? Why was he telling me this?
"You know this would be easier if I didn't have to use my omniscience to read your thoughts... as for why I am telling you this... because me and my counterparts are trying to save as many worlds as we can, worlds that were compromised by cosmic influence." He explained and created a hologram of a... chess board? "The worlds created all have rules, Son. Rules that cannot be violated, that cannot be circumvened. If one such rule is broken, the entire structure collapses in on itself. You were carefully selected to become a replacement to one such rule in one such world. See, some worlds have fixed lynchpins, a... Protagonist, to put it in simple words. Many of these worlds cannot exist without one, and if there is no protagonist then there is no story. And without a story, the whole book burns."
My mind was completely short-circuited. I think I can confidently say there is no such thing as a calm reaction to a revelation like this. No human being, not even someone clinically sociopathic, would fail at being anything less than completely stunlocked by what was just told.
This was an inter-cosmic crisis and I was supposed to be... what, part of the solution? A hire to fix a problem that threatens an entire universe?
"I understand your apprehension, Son. But you weren't picked for no reason. You are diligent, you are sophisticated, careful, and above all, thorough. I should know, I made you. You have the mindset of a soldier, so consider this your mission." He spoke, donning a more melancholic and serious expression. "I need you to become the protagonist of a world, son. Be its driving force, its primary hero, its... whatever it needs, really."
I gulped again, and he seems to have noticed because he eyed me for a still second before placing his arm around my shoulders in a comforting gesture. "It is a heavy burden. But it is a necessity. I need my strong soldiers to fulfill their duty. I'm not simply off-shoring this task into your hands and sending you off on your merry way. I trust in my creation, Son. I trust in you."
That was... mildly comforting. Not as much as I think he meant for it to be, but it had a positive effect none-the-less. I visibly calmed down, shoulders relaxing a little, my breath, if I even had one, steadying itself.
"Besides, you're not going empty-handed. Given the unnatural situation, each dispatched agent is permitted special priviledges. Powers, abilities corresponding the world they are sent off to."
Oh so this was gonna be an Isekai adventure after all... I wasn't very cultured on the aspect, i wasn't all that big on the whole anime schtick, but I knew some of them, watched a show here and there, read a manga or two. I was, by all means and measures, a casual, a tourist. BUT I knew the term Isekai and what it TYPICALLY encompasses.
"To smooth things out, you will be sent to a world you are actually familiar with." God explained to me and pat my shoulder lightly. "You remember My Hero Academia?"
I... did, surprisingly. It was one of the sparse amounts of fictional Media I consumed that wasn't live action.
"Well, its world is one such endangered universe. The cosmic cataclysm has shifted its world structure. Some things have changed in it... one such thing is that its promised protagonist, Izuku, was never born because his parents never came together. Without the promised protagonist, the world loses one of its lynchpins and threatens complete universal implosion. You will be sent there as a replacement. You will be born to his mother, immaculate conception, so there will be no father. You will live with his neighbours, grow up within his environment."
That was... deeply concerning. I'm essentially gonna live another persons life like a complete cosmic highjacking. But... it would save the world, no?
"I'll do it..."
"I knew you would, Son" God spoke and, with the flick of his hand, an object appeared in his grasp. It was a helmet, completely golden, with fine scriptures on its sides. A helmet I recognized all too well...
The Helm of Fate, the defining object of one Doctor Fate.
"I am at Liberty to send you off with whatever Ability I choose, and I figured something like this would make do. However, the rules will be modified. Unlike his original, this one won't be possessed by a Lord of Order. When you wear it, its just you. Secondarily, on a conceptual basis, Magic does not exist in this world, with you as its one exception. You will be the progenitor of the Mystic Arts. You can choose to teach others about it or keep those secrets to yourself. And lastly... your powers will awaken with your birth, but will gradually unlock themselves as you progress your life. If you had access to all your powers right away, your body would pop like a balloon. Trust me, you don't wanna scare the hospital staff or your laboring mother like that."
I... that made sense... an awful lot of sense... too much sense in fact. "Did..."
"Yeah it happened before. Gruesome, start to finish, that ordeal was. Well... I know you have a lot of questions, but we are a bit pressed on time. I need to process an entire universe's amount of sentient life and make many more selections for other worlds to be saved. So I have to send you off now, son. Good luck."
Before I could say another word, he snapped his fingers and everything turned black.
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Hello everyone. I want to thank anyone who has given this a chance.
I am a very self-conscious and finnicky writer, so right away I want to say that there is a good chance this will lead nowhere. So please, if you liked the idea, the initial premise, the setup, be vocal about it. Your supporting voices will go a long way in motivating me to actually keep writing about this.
Thank you in advance, and I hope to see you guys in the future.