The Earth After Rebirth

Now he could see that, it wasn't just a graveyard for stars, some were being born amongst the chaos that ravaged what seemed to be another universe.

The death and the birth seemed to have been divided by an invisible line. Neither bothered the other, or attempted to cross it. Even though the other side was pure chaos with all the rubble flying around.

"This all looks really interesting." He exclaimed, excitedly.

Kiro tiptoed, afraid to set off imaginary minefields. For him, this experience wasn't just in his head, it felt too real. He took a step forward and entered cautiously, he was prepared to fall but even though there was no ground to stand on, he could walk and stand on nothingness.

Even though the nothingness he was walking on felt sturdy, he was still creeping like he was walking on egg shells, afraid he would break it completely. Or it was a bridge, and it'd shake violently, tossing him to the pits of this strange world.

The chaos ensued as far as his eyes could see. He walked amongst millions of lifeless planets, as he walked he touched some and they crumbled at his touch. As childish as it was, that made him feel like an invincible god that could destroy worlds with a simple touch.

"I wonder what happened here..."

He remembered the stories of his world, of how it was reduced to a single continent. Even though his world didn't know which of it was the truth, gods or human greed. Both were plausible but Kiro had his suspicions. He wondered whether this was a battlefield for gods.

"Maybe, the battle of the gods isn't just a legend even in my world?"

He couldn't think of anything that could've caused such destruction, humans were chaotic but not at the level he was witnessing.

Some planets were ground to dust, while he knew he was just in a game, the atmosphere beyond the door was somehow different. Which is why his brain immediately fell on gods, instead of a code mods made.

He initially felt a great energy coming from this door back when his chest was almost caved in, but it was dissipating just like the stars were.

It didn't feel like magic or kaos, but it was also not anything he could harness so he didn't even try. It was something divine, that was out of his reach even he wanted it. Absolutely the opposite of the aura the beetle queen gave off.

Even though the planets were destroyed beyond recognition, Kiro swore that, the planet that was in the midst of the millions of shards of rocks was his earth. Of course he couldn't be sure because it was almost entirely mantle.

It wasn't what he saw, it was what he felt coming face to face with the planet that was reduced to rubble. It felt like, home. His heart was warm, peaceful and then sore, at the loss of it.

He was afraid to even touch it, because everything he touched crumbled as if it was made out of dust instead of space rocks. He didn't want to be accompliced in destroying his home, even if it were not real.

The destroyed side depressed him a little, he had no idea why he felt sad for worlds he didn't even know. So he decided to turn to the one side that was full of hope, there was nothing he could do for the dead stars anyway.

The little lights were growing, right before his eyes, the process took a second but also eternity. Planets were forming in the blink of an eye, but also took billions of years for them to form and sustain some kind of life.

It was a peculiar feeling, it made his head disoriented a bit. He felt like he was travelling back and forth in time, between and after the stars' conception.

"What the hell?" The time dilation wasn't so kind to his puny brain that couldn't fully fathom what it was witnessing.

He walked further into the starlit path, it felt warmer as he went. He never paid attention to cosmology, but he thought space would be cold. He concluded that this one was warm because it was a fake one and ontop of that, this was all happening in his head.

Then he saw it, the Earth, not his own but the old one. The one that had all 7 of its continents. It was bewitching to look at, all those lights across the imperfect sphere took his breath away.

Back when the world had billions of humans alive at the same time. Yes it was an imperfect world, as some history had shown them, but it was a world Kiro wished to see nonetheless. For without it, he wouldn't have existed.

His Earth was just one continent, so the lights were only limited to the part with active electricity and humans. The rest of the planet was shrouded in darkness, he'd never seen something quite as gracious as this.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of it. He tried touching it thinking maybe he'd be transported there, but it couldn't be touched, as if it were a hologram.

He was still watching a world he lived in but was also estranged to, when every light went out and huge clouds of smoke appeared on some of the continents. This was also when he was jerked out the door by an invisible force.

"No, wait, that's the war isn't it, wait, I wanna see. Wait!"

He fell on the other side of the door, he got up quickly to enter again but the door closed shut with a loud bang, which surprised him so much that he woke up from this coma.