1 A world of Gods

Jan 31st, 2023

"To talk further on this matter we have invited Mr. Allen Carter, leading expert at the UNRM." The caster and the camera both slightly turned to face the man wearing glasses who seemed to be in his forties.

"Mr. Carter, what has humanity known so far about this phenomenon that has taken the world by storm?"

Kael turned up the volume as his mother started the vacuum cleaner in the next room. Then he leaned forward on the sofa, he had been there for three hours watching random things on tv and aimlessly switching channels.

Mr. Carter slightly lifted his glasses up, cleared his throat, and began speaking, "well, before I say anything about the phenomenon, I feel like I must tell people this, our knowledge is not very conclusive and we are still at the phase of discovering new facts and forming new assumptions about this-",

He looked at the caster and continued as the caster gave him a nod, "given the sample spaces collected so far what we are certain is that, we can classify an awakened individual into one of the three categories and this classification is actually hierarchical."

The caster suddenly became curious as something crossed his mind and asked before Mr. Carter could continue, "I heard that UNRM has built a device that can identify these individuals-".

"yes"

Mr. Carter said excitedly, "We have come across appropriate transducers to detect the energies from these individuals or may I say Gods as the world has started calling them. while the mass production of these devices is not possible as that can be quite expensive but it definitely brings us a step closer to understanding what is happening."

"So how many so far? do we have the numbers?" the caster asked raising his eyebrows and showing evident curiosity.

"Ah, the Manameter, I'm sorry that's what we are calling the device for now. it identifies new Gods and saves their energy signature in our database and since their energy signature does not change over time we can detect their presence and hence identify who it is once their energy signature has been recorded in our database. so far 327 Gods from all over the world have volunteered themselves to this discovery, I believe there are more that will be added as time passes, and also new Gods might be awakening as we speak so we cannot be sure of the numbers without knowing if its a one-time event or will continue growing towards the future and most importantl-".

Kael found himself looking back at his own reflection. his mom had plugged the tv off.

"Go eat your lunch, you have been sitting there for hours", she said with a hint of a little bit of anger in her tone.

"wait..." she stopped cleaning to look at him and continued, "we are out of eggs, go buy some."

Kael sighed as he picked himself up from the sofa, just getting up took away half of his energy and he instantly felt tired as he finally stood up. His mom handed him the money and then he headed out.

Kael Rai,21 had just finished university, A typical graduate with no laid out plans for the future and unemployed. he had every problem any young man in his 20's would have. He was also a self-proclaimed world-class procrastinator if that could even be a thing. he was aware of everything he wasn't but he was not sure what he wanted to be nor he had the slightest idea of what he could be.

he was dull.

But was that all of his problems? Did he have any problems at all?

He had typical, common problems, maybe that was one of his greatest problems.

As he walked under the blazing rays of the sun making it to the alleys, he took out his phone and played his favorite playlist. Ivanna, A global star and his favorite singer. ever since he heard her voice for the first time, he always found it soothing to his heart. She was a musical prodigy with beauty to die for. Her fanbase called her a Goddess. And even if Kael was repulsive to such cliché idol-worshiping, He did not really have a problem with it.

He was actually a fanboy.

He looked up towards the sky bearing the discomfort in his eyes because of the sunrays as Ivanna hit her high pitch note in the chorus.

"Let me stare at the sun and see if it hurts

it does, but it doesn't.

it does but it doesn't."

He walked at a slow pace because he was always lost in his thoughts. most of the time he wasn't the driver of his own movements. He would be deep in his thoughts or some child-like fantasy, minor acts like walking would be left for auto-pilot. That was also the reason sometimes he would walk past his destinations and come back a few minutes later. sometimes he would walk into a wall and to be honest it was the work of the gods that he hadn't been in any accidents till now.

He walked past two teenage boys. one of them was levitating, five to six people were watching him along with his friend.

"Whoa, You're definitely a god, aren't you?", the friend asked excitedly.

The boy who was floating was too immersed in the joy of being afloat that he couldn't even respond to his friend.

"well have they shown any gods who can fly on tv?" He asked his friend, the obvious grin still not leaving his face.

"Contact someone from the UNRM, get yourself identified. Everyone who awakens is doing it. You will get government recognition and sent to your god if you aren't a God yourself." someone from the crowd suggested. the boy was still floating about 3 meters above the ground.

Kael slowed his pace while looking at the boy but he did not stop. This was not the first time he had seen an awakened person. This was probably the ninth person he saw suddenly unlocking superpowers. The first person he saw was a girl from his neighborhood whose body suddenly caught fire but was fine. that was 3 days after the first report of the occurrence of an awakened was globally broadcast. The Girl turned out to be a follower of a God that awakened about a hundred miles away.

The world was in turmoil for the first few weeks, many religious activists and scientific organizations tried looking for answers. But after six months people stopped being shocked at least. Now, this had become a matter of amusement as long as no disastrous accidents occurred but of course, sometimes they did.

These occurrences grew in frequency as time passed. By now at least one out of a thousand people in the world was a follower or an awakened. someone would suddenly start seeing as clear as day at night. someone would suddenly start breathing underwater. These abilities were of all kinds, some interesting and some pretty common like real-world talents. However, all awakened shared one thing in common; increased physical stats. They were stronger than normal humans.

And that was just the followers, Gods were on a different level. People started calling them gods because some of them actually had qualities resembling Gods from the actual myths. One guy in china actually grew furs and tails and was strong enough to put gigantic cracks on rocky mountains. he had been named Wukong(The mythical Monkey king). According to the news A world-famous businessman had awakened as Zeus, the king of Greek gods.

The naming seemed ridiculous to Kael, "just name them like mutants or superheroes". He thought naming them as gods was going a bit overboard.

He did not think gods actually existed. And even if they did they would not awaken inside humans.

Humans are petty, they needlessly create conflicts, they become nothing but creatures of sadness, suffering, and needs throughout their entire life. These people were humans just like us before the awakening, they had needs, they had greed, and lust. unless their entirety had changed from within with the awakening, they definitely couldn't be Gods. Imagine being a God and still feeling sad. Sadness co-relates to feeling insufficiency, what would gods be lacking in? That's what he understood gods as.

That was also how he viewed humans, flawed beings, slave to their temptations, puppets to an uncomprehensive universal rule. pathetic existence.

That was what he thought of himself too.

As he was dawdling thinking about it, he stopped to look where he was.

"Shit! I already crossed the store."

As he returned from the store, he noticed the boy from earlier in an alley on his right. however, this time he was pinned against the wall by a man. He was clearly choking him while lifting him with one hand.

"another awakened", Kael thought to himself.

He wanted to pass by unnoticed so he walked quickly, however, the eyes of that man found his as Kael passed by.

"I should mind my own business ." He thought to himself as fear suddenly crept into him. His heart suddenly felt stuffed as if the blood rushing in just got heavier and it went colder with each step he took away from the scene.

"That guy is an awakened. besides, they could be friends and might just be messing around with each other."

He took a heavy breath and looked at the sky. Ivanna's song still playing through his earphones.

"It would not make much difference even if I went there anyway. awakened are supposed to be strong enough to punch cars meters away."

He took another deep breath and looked at a store sign ahead.

The boy's face entered his mind. He was gasping for air. That man had fairly large and strong hands, on top of that He was superhuman. He could not help but imagine what the boy was going through. suddenly he felt pressure around his throat, he felt his veins about to pop, his windpipe about to be crushed.

"Damn!! just how weak is my mind, that boy is actually going through the real pain and here I am. scared just thinking about it. pathetic."

As the song got louder through his earphones, His steps gradually got slower and stopped at a point.

"Where do I stand in my own eyes

how long do I feed myself with these lies."

He took off the earphones from his ears as Ivanna's voice slowly faded into his pocket.

he clenched his fists.

"whatever damn it!!."

He turned around and ran towards the alley where he saw them.

"stop, you are going to get killed." his inner voice was shouting at him in an infinite loop.

He closed his eyes as he ran and ignored his mind as hard as he could.

"How awfully quiet is this alley today?"

"why is there not a single person around?"

He cursed the unfavorable turn of events and everything that led to this point.

"Why did we have to run out of eggs right at this moment?"

"WHY AM I BLAMING THE EGGS?"

He reached the alley, did not even bother to take a breath, and screamed," umm.. is there a problem?"

The boy was writhing in pain trying to break free by now, he looked at Kael after hearing the voice, His eyes said nothing but a loud "it hurts".

"No problem. I'm about to die. that's all, you idiot."

That's what I would have said if I was the boy, Kael thought, agreeing to himself that it was the most stupid thing to say after entering such a scene.

"Who are you, twerp?" the man let go of the boy but clearly the shift of attention was not in Kael's favor.

Kael did not like his tone.

"Ok...…NOW WHAT?"

This wasn't a movie, he was not a hero, and possibly no one was going to come to salvage the situation for him.

"maybe distracting him with a conversation would work."

Kael looked at the boy who showed signs of life and was breathing in every bit of air he could as he finally had the freedom to.

"good for you mate but maybe thank me or something so I regret doing this at least a bit lesser than I would." he knew he should be focusing on running but He had no plans as to how he would outrun a superhuman.

"Why did you attack that boy?" He asked but his voice did not sound as manly and demanding as he was trying to make it.

it sounded pathetic. As if he was crying.

"He thought he was special just because he can float a little." the man looked at the boy and let out a smile.

"so I just showed him his place,".

"Looks like there is another guy who considers himself even more special walking in like that." He looked at Kael dead in the eye.

This man was tall and had a scary build. he had scary eyes. everything was scary about him as if an evil villain was picked right off a movie and sent out here. They said not to judge a book by its cover but this cover seemed like utter trash.

"I'm sorry I gave you such an impression, I don't think of myself as special." Kael wondered why he was being talkative with a bad guy, Kael was a textbook introvert, he avoided conversations with strangers. and yet he felt like he could run his mouth with this guy who could potentially beat him to a pulp.

"Special my foot."

"Even now I'm trembling with fear, why did I even come here?"

As he kept staring at the man as he felt mixed emotions.

"This guy is looking down on me.".

Kael wondered about what he was feeling at that moment.

was he angry? did he feel humiliated? He couldn't tell.

he knew he was weak. he was aware of where he stood. and he did not have complaints. or did he? He always had trouble identifying emotions, if something good happened he considered what he was feeling was happiness. if something bad happened he considered himself frustrated or sad. but he was never sure. He was never sure if it was okay to lose. he was never sure if it was cowardice that he accepted loss and unfairness so easily. but that was indeed the best explanation.

That he was a coward.

He found himself in the same situation. This guy was definitely going to beat him up. what could he do? should he fight back? but that man was stronger, It would only be fair that he would win. it would only be logically correct that he is to get beaten up by someone stronger. that was the rule of the universe.

As always he was not sure if there was any possibility to change the outcome he had already made up in his mind.

The man came closer as Kael felt unable to step forward nor backward.

Before he could muster any thoughts, he was grabbed by his collar and in a few seconds, he was staring at the ground from the clouds.

"Let me show you the difference between us." The man's voice was louder than the wind caused by him flying. Kael was taken up in the sky in a matter of seconds.

"This guy is no mere awakened person" Kael realized as his heart skipped a beat. It was horrifying, they were moving as fast as a plane. The clouds around them were moving in a weird way. The power to influence nature to such an extent. This guy was a god. God of wind probably. Kael managed to deduce that much.

Suddenly the man stopped mid-air amidst clouds in the pure white. As they were floating in the sky Kael remembered that the boy from earlier had powers to levitate. Gods and their followers share similarities in powers in most cases.

why was he beating him up? He was most likely his follower. Kael regretted getting into this even more.

Kael suddenly gasped and lost his train of thought as he was let go by the man, he started falling. He looked above at the man who stared at Kael and laughed, the most insidious expression you could imagine coming from a human. As Kael fell, he could not keep his body steady, his body tumbled and he found himself constantly cursing the fact this was happening.

As he fell, he closed his eyes and collected his thoughts, but it was a mess. he did not even realize that he was crying. Tears instantly dried up because the strong wind struck his cornea, it hurt like hell so he gave up and kept his eyes closed.

"Am I this scared of death?" He thought as his life started flashing before his eyes.

"Did I drop the eggs? what happened to them? why am I even thinking about the eggs?"

"Mom must be waiting."

He pictured his mom crying next to his body or what would be left of it.

"So it's this easy to end my life? I can't even defend my own life. how come someone else has control over how it ends?"

"what an insignificant existence."

Meanwhile, a local news channel was displaying an emergency broadcast with a picture of the man that Kael was staring at just a few seconds ago.

"Citizens please beware, A mental patient with Heinous criminal records has escaped from the facilities of Kathmandu hospital psychiatric department. It is notified to the citizens that the escapee named Jahat Anan is extremely harmful. According to a recent update, He has awakened as a god just before escaping and possesses powers to manipulate wind. Citizens are warned not to approach a reasonable distance of him as he can cause a wide range of destruction, The UN task force has been dispatched to handle the situation. citizens are to maintain extreme caution until the further update."

Kael had already lost sense of touch, He could not feel the resistance of wind on his body anymore.

10,000 feet before he hit the ground.

"it's good that I'm feeling numb, maybe it will hurt less."

"is my mind clear? or am I just unable to think anything?"

"Am I accepting death?"

"can I do anything to prevent it?"

"do I have regrets?"

"Am I ready to cease to exist?"

"wait....what's after death?"

7,000 feet before He hit the ground.

His breath was steady but heavy. He wasn't struggling anymore but he was confused. Was it acceptance? or was it denial? was he ready to die or did he believe that he would survive somehow?

5,000 feet.

He suddenly felt a hand grab his collar at his back again, the momentum of fall slowly decreased.

10 feet above the ground.

Kael was trembling, violently. As he kept staring at the ground. He was still being held by his collar it looked as if he was hanging like a cub of the tiger when it is being carried. As he kept trembling, He heard a sinister laugh coming from the man who was holding him. He did not bother to look and kept his head down.

"look at you shaking hahaha"

"good, it's very satisfying to watch"

"I'm going to play with you more before killing you. that look of fear at the face of death. I want more of -"

suddenly he stopped speaking because it looked like he heard a chuckle. At first, he thought he had imagined it. Then again, there was another.

He lifted Kael up to face him. his eyes widened. he met a pair of eyes that looked scarier than his own. Kael had a grin that seemed to be ripping his face off. he let out another chuckle but this time he stared into Jahat's Eyes. Jahat let go of Kael as he was shocked to his entirety. Kael dropped on the ground with a large thud. His knees had gone weak, His right knee dislocated as he dropped on his right foot first then he hit his head on the ground. Battling the pain in silence, He lied on his back on the ground and stared at Jahat again. who was still carefully observing him with a shocked expression.

As Kael stared back at Jahat with a face that had no definitive expression, He spoke slowly.

"I know how you felt."

Then laughed again, this time uncontrollably. He laughed so hard that he looked like he was having a muscle spasm.

He stopped laughing again.

"I never knew life was this precious."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Isn't it amazing how only death can show you how amazing life actually is?"

Kael still had a mild grin on his face, but now he was staring past Jahat, straight at the blue sky.

"what are you talking about? did you break down because of fear? are you in shock?"

Jahat asked, calming himself.

"I told you, I know how you felt when you saw me falling."

"I think I also know what's going on in your head, I don't know how but I just do."

This infuriated Jahat.

"You know what I felt? you?"

"You are just a kid living a normal life of a sheep of the norms."

"This was probably the first time you ever experienced a moment of death. I have had countless moments like these. You have experienced nothing compared to what I have. you could not even begin to imagine what's inside my head."

Jahat's voice faltered at the end as he went down memory lane.

"Moments of death? Yes but you definitely never got to embrace those moments right?"

"you were too busy running, You never stopped to wonder why you were so scared. You were too busy to even know that you were scared. you are just scared of death. That's why you like to watch people in the face of their death. you want to console yourself that it's ok. You hate your own fear, you even fear that fear. You give horrible deaths to people and tell yourself that these people are humans with fewer guts than you and if they made it through such horrible death so can you. You do not actually fear death, You don't even comprehend what death is, You just fear that moment of pain, the moment your life ends. That's why you kill one more person to console yourself. but it's never enough. you can never get over your fear, right? how pathetic is that?"

Then he burst out laughing once more. Jahat was silent. everything Kael said hit spot on. He could not form any speech.

Jahat was abused as a teenager by the man he worked for. He saw His boss kill many people right before his eyes and he was always afraid that he would end up dead too. He would be beaten, left to starve, the fear of death was nailed into his very being. One day he killed his boss and ran away. However, he could never run away from his fears and so he continued killing. He would torture his victims and observe them till their last breath while giving them excruciating pain.

"Shut Up" he went hysterical. the wind around him started howling, going violent in all directions. trees fell down and the sky above them became darker. The wind became so strong that pebbles on the ground began to float hitting Kael's body. they were strong enough to leave scratches.

As he looked at Kael with extreme animosity, he decided that he would make him beg for his life. he would make him eat his own words.

"Then let's see how well you do with fear of death" He shouted as he created a vortex of wind around his fists. The wind was so strong that it became visible to the eyes. An ominous aura started forming around Jahat. The mysterious energies of the gods.

"This is a god?", Kael wondered to himself.

"How laughable that a psychotic human with such a pathetic existence awakened as a God. How doomed are we if more people like this awaken with powers."

"Wait, why have I not awakened? let alone a God, am I not even worth being a follower? Why does this guy have such powers and not me? who is deciding all this? what rules are making this happen? what parameters to a living being's worth? Am I only worth dying as per someone else's will? at the mercy of this piece of shit?"

Kael found himself getting angrier and angrier as he dove into his thoughts.

"I'm going to give him so much pain that he will regret crossing paths with me, how dare he act like he knows better?" Jahat shot a sharp gust of wind that slowly cut through some of Kael's skin. Yet he did not flinch, did not move, and kept staring at the sky.

"Once he stoops to beg for his life, I will finally end him." Jahat kept charging the wind vortex in his right fist. He manipulated air pressure in the area where Kael was lying, slowly decreasing the amount of air to breathe..

"you want to see me being scared?" Kael inquired, still not moving an inch from where he lied.

The fact that Kael was still talking back to him infuriated Jahat.

"Of course I am afraid. I am afraid it seems. I just got to know myself. You see, it looks like you can do whatever you want to me. you are strong. there is no one here, you can do whatever the hell you want."

He tried getting up, he picked up his upper body and sat, still not being able to lift his head because of asphyxiation. He kept taking heavy breaths then he tried getting up on the knee that wasn't broken. As Jahat watched in awe, he kept telling himself to not let the annoying guy get up.

"I don't like it. why should I let you kill me? what kind of logic is that? who gave you the right to think that you are above me? On what basis? what reason justifies that I should just die? because you have a strong body? because you overpower me? isn't the ways of the world unfair? why should one just fall beneath the other? we are all humans....we are all.."

He finally stood up while still talking gibberish. Jahat was sure that Kael had gone crazy.

He lifted his head up and stared at Jahat standing at the center of now a perfectly shaped hurricane created by Jahat, under the darkest sky of the day, He stood and looked through Jahat.

"what was that?", The leader of the UN special task force unit 5 shouted.

"Sir, it sounded like an explosion at 4 o'clock. it's a small forest. We are picking up Jahat's energy signature in the Manameter." a soldier explained.

"Quick, get there", He commanded and started running towards the forest.

The group of 20 soldiers finally arrived at the scene. Something big had happened there. there was a big opening in the forest and a trail on the ground about 4 meters wide, extending to 18 meters with several broken trees on the path. As they headed towards the end of the trail, they saw Jahat kneeling next to a roughed-up body.

Three men quickly went to Jahat and apprehend him. "Keep yourself down or we will shoot", shouted one man aiming a gun at him.

However, Jahat did not resist, he just kept shaking uncontrollably. He looked at the captain who was checking the pulse of the now fully limp body of Kael.

"ju-"

Jahat stammered as he couldn't stop shaking.

"just make sure that he is dead." He gathered himself to complete the sentence.

The captain looked at Jahat, he observed that his eyes were different from when he was at the holding facility. He was shaking with fear, and as he looked even closer he noticed that it was not mere fear, Jahat looked terrorized. but why? The guy on the ground was clearly a civilian and a victim. so why was it the serial killing maniac that was trembling with dread in his eyes?

"quick, take the civilian, he might make it if we get him to the hospital fast enough." The captain ordered.

Jahat lost himself after he heard that. The wind started growling around them.

"NOOOOO"

"Don't let that guy live". he shouted trying to break free from the clutches of the soldiers.

"He should not live, you did not see his eyes. "

"You did not see it, had you seen it, you would have wanted him dead too."

He grew more violent in his attempts to break free and the wind got stronger around them.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzttttttttttttzzzzz

The captain shot the taser gun at him, "This should not normally work on an awakened but, he does not seem to be in his right mind right now."

He looked to confirm and reassured himself as Jahat began to pass out while the winds got calmer.

As Jahat's consciousness began to fade away, he started crying, "at least don't let him come for m-" and passed out flat on the ground with tears still dripping from his eyes.

The captain watched a man take him into the vehicle and turned the other way to watch Kael's body being taken away on a stretcher.

"what the hell happened here?"

"It looked as if-", The captain pictured Jahat's expression in his mind once again,

"-as if Jahat had seen the Devil himself."