1 The Awakening

Ethan is an ordinary programmer working from nine to five in a multi-billion dollar software corporation, he is a senior developer not earning as much as he wants to. His days consisting of long hours sitting writing code and debugging it to seemingly no end in sight.

Not much of social life, the only thing he showed interest in was video games and programming. Eat-Work-Game-Sleep-Repeat, he was caught up in the bowels of capitalism in its truest sense a free man but not really.

During his commute to work, it seemed as every other day did. Blind to what was going to happen to him. Looking out of the window on the train, seemingly out of nowhere an explosion erupted, the bridge the train was skating along on started to collapse as if the pillars that held it up from the water were dominoes falling one by one, Ethan could not believe his eyes he realized that this was the end of his days, as the bridge fully collapses and it sinks to the sea drowning everyone occupying the train.

Ethan quickly awoke in another world unbeknownst to what he is about to encounter, he opened his eyes and saw hooded men holding daggers in their hands chanting in an unknown language about to kill him.

During this awakening and his realization that he is about to suffer death yet again so soon after he already experienced it in his previous world, in this extraordinary situation something awakens inside him willing his body to move almost by itself killing everyone in the room, I guess you could call it a survival instinct of sorts, or at least that's what he thought that was in the aftermath of it all.

Coming back to his senses and realizing what just transpired, coldness takes over his body as his brain has finished processing the events, falling to his knees realizing he had committed murder, not once, but multiple times in mere seconds.

Thinking he is still back on Earth where murder is frowned upon and laws strictly enforced upon murderers, he felt almost as if his soul is leaving his body, due to the fear of being charged with murder and spending his life in a two by two jail cell for the rest of his life or even getting the death sentence due to the weight of his crimes.

Suddenly it felt as if time stopped, a very bright golden light shining from where the entrance of the cave was illuminated it, he looked towards it in awe as he saw a figure of a woman approaching him slowly, each step that she took towards him the more detail of her face and body were being revealed to him.

He could not understand that such beauty could exist, even if he tried to explain to someone the way the woman looked he would be incapable to do so, it truly was an otherworldly existence.

As the woman approached him now standing in front of him she reached out a hand to him. The woman's presence somewhat calming down his emotional part of the brain, he slowly turned his head to look around the cave, at that moment realizing that time has stopped as the droplets of water falling from the roof of the cave on the ground were stuck in freefall.

At that moment the woman spoke to him "That was impressive, you have my attention, take my hand and I will give you my power to conquer what no man thought possible of conquering, don't take my hand and suffer a life of misery and poverty in this forsaken world!".

Hearing that Ethan replied to her "Is it not wrong to conquer and destroy?"

This surprised the woman as she expected he would take such power no questions asked like most men and women would in his situation. Pulling her hand back from Ethan she asked him "Do you want to know?".

Ethan looking clearly confused at that question, ready to ask what that meant when she interrupted him before he could speak "I will show you.".

Suddenly Ethan felt as if he was entering a psychedelic state, remembering back to the day when he tried DMT it felt very similar but not quite the same.

Suddenly he felt as if his life flashed before his eyes, but it wasn't his life it was a life of the entity that was in his presence. He saw her memories and he now knew that in essence, everyone could be enlightened and ascend many realms above the mortal one if they were lucky and dedicated enough, this made him subconsciously change his morals somewhat.

After the trance-like state ended he spoke to her "I know now what I knew was only put in place by the weaklings of humanity to have a chance in this harsh world against the naturally stronger and gifted ones". After a short pause, he continued "God is us, God is me".

Now he was determined to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, daring anyone to step in his way even though he thought he was currently weak he vowed to destroy anyone on his path, now he will set out into the world and truly live for once.

After that thought, the female entity spoke to him, almost as if she knew what he was thinking. She said "World? Humans?" saying in a confused voice and then continuing on with

"My beloved child, this is not the world where you originally are from, this is a world of many mysteries, not one of technological advancement, you have been reincarnated into this world with my blessing, I can't wait to see what you will make of it in the future"

Ethan finally realized the weight of the situation and that it wasn't going to be too hard to get away with the massacre he committed in the cave, somewhat smiling inside himself because he realized that this is the chance he will never get again in this or any other lifetime.

The female entity once again reached out her hand to Ethan and asked "Take my hand and have everything, or do you prefer the second option?"

Ethan gladly took her hand, and at this moment it seemed as if the female entity merged with Ethan almost as if her existence got sucked into him, he felt as if he was reborn.

The time finally started flowing again, and Ethan noticed it, the droplets of water in the air were no longer stuck in place, but actually obeyed the laws of physics. Ethan looking around the cave seeing all the hooded men lying in pools of blood created by his own two hands, he felt as if this is the first time that he succeeded in changing his fate.

A voice spoke inside Ethan's head and said "I have given you the power to manipulate time, use it however you please." "I have also given you great knowledge, but it's locked away. This will enable you to learn anything in the universe instantly, as long as you find that knowledge in the world, it will unlock all its known and unknown secrets to you"

Ethan thrilled to have received powers of what he thought were near God-like, finally decided to set out of the cave; fully ready to experience its many mysteries and truly live life freely.