World Rebirth

Under the massive rain storm, Alex stood calmly before the window of his massive penthouse. Overlooking the chaotic rain-drenched city nightscape, his eyes were cold reflecting off the window glass with such intensity, that it caused the illusion of your soul freezing. It had been 48 hours since Sara's death. Distraught by the sudden and painful loss, the last 48 hours had been a complete haze for him.

He had gone through the motions to arrange for her cremation and burial ceremony as soon as possible, and due to her near nonexistence in the public eye, the news was hidden. It was not until about 8 hours ago that Alex returned to their home with her ashes. The mental and emotional exhaustion finally wore him away as he collapsed onto their bed.

Falling into a deep sleep for the first time in his recent memory he dreamt. His soul in turmoil over Sara's death had breached the powerful barrier of the trial realm instantly recovering his memories. He now knew the full story.

Standing and overlooking the 21st-century city nightscape, his soul could not find any beauty in it. Still hung up on the cruelty of the trial. To set up such a brutal soul-destroying trial he began thinking about the various methods he could use to end this farce once and for all, and free his soul from this unnecessary torture.

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Within the Temple of Origin, Alex stood before the white gateway, his body still pulsating in rhythm to the massive white gateway. When suddenly a tiny sky-blue flame appeared where his heart should be. Although weak the flame was an existence that could not be ignored even by the esteemed Temple Guard watching from within the Hall.

"Hahaha, how unexpected truly a prodigy of his generation. So young but his potential is immense. Being able to awaken such a grade of soul flames at his age is truly unique....."

However, the voice seemed to be shocked in mid-speech as the tiny flame began to behave erratically, pulsating irregularly and showing signs of instability. It appeared to be growing darker in colour at a gradual pace.

"What how could this be possible? It's amazing enough to awaken a sky-blue soul flame at this stage but he intends to upgrade it again! That is simply biting off far more than you can chew." the shadow within the starlight said as he continued to watch attentively, the changes happening to this strange challenger.

From outside the Temple, the sibling pair continued to watch closely for any changes. Hence they immediately noticed when there was one.

"Big brother, what is that blue flame?" The woman asked turning to look at her brother beside her who had an expression of puzzlement before a look of realization appeared on his face.

"What that flame is I can't say for sure. But looking at its aura, it seemed to be a form of Soul Flame. However, typical humans only have the lowest grade bright red soul flame and that is only typically seen from powerhouses in the Grade 7 Divine Will realm. Not on guys like Alex who have not even awakened an ability so I still can't be entirely sure what it is."

"Is it a good or a bad thing for him to awaken a soul flame at such an early stage? Isn't that like burning his potential?" she questioned.

"I still can't say for sure because this is the first time I have seen someone awaken their soul flame without having an ability. However, I do know that the potential of humans depends on the core principle of their ability. And once that principle is formed, none of their later abilities can be freed from it.

So seeing as Alex had awakened his soul flame before that principle was set it's clear that the soul flame would be made independent of that principle, whatever it may be." Felix said stoically.

"But all that would not matter if he couldn't make it out of the trial realm in time," he added as he turned back. Looking worriedly at the massive gateway, which regardless of the changes within Alex was still dimming rapidly.

Probably due to their distance from Alex, they were unable to notice the changes in the flame's hue and continued to watch on worriedly.

Meanwhile, several days had passed within the trial realm, and Alex had tried several methods to try and break the trial. Almost killing himself by slitting his wrists in a bathtub. But nothing seemed to be working. He could feel the Noose of Despair creeping up on him from the distance. He knew that the stakes at this moment could not be higher.

Seeing that nothing seemed to be working he spent days locked up in his office as the newly inaugurated CEO. Drawing up the company's next move in the wake of the tragic events.

Alex pieced together all the clues he could gather from his memories of the occurrences in the trial and came up with a new plan. A plan that would inevitably end this trial once and for all.

Calling together all the regional managers, he began the meeting of these international conglomerates higher-ups. Presenting them with a ten-year timeline with which the company was to develop a new sustainable, renewable energy source and implement it in every geographical region within their jurisdiction.

With all the resources and assets of the company pooled together, utilizing a myriad of owed favours, and amassing funds of such proportions the world had never seen done Alex began his project. With various governments falling into line, politicians who out of caution and reluctance failed to fall into line, either suddenly changed their stance or disappeared from public eyes.

Alex held the world from the Underworld to the Peak of world power, within his palm. Within a span of three years, he became the most prominent man in the world.

Foes and adversaries were shocked at the sudden change, and with none of them willing to be the test subjects of the others, they avoided Alex's project like a plague doing nothing to help but nothing to hinder as well.

The project was strangely titled World Rebirth, and it progressed at lightning speed. Soon 8 years had passed since the project commission, and the international press were sinking their teeth into the project, hosting various interviews with what the popular media called the ice-cold Global FILF of women worldwide. Several hosts in interviews had commented that they had never seen such an ice-cold look on a man in his Fifties. Some streamers were even more explicit stating that just spending a little time in his presence made them so horny. One even confessed to attempting to have sex while role-playing Alex.

The traction built up in heat, with the whole world watching with bated breath as the countdown to the launch drew closer with every passing day. In a bid to bring the entire world populace along, several teams of reputable scientists from various countries were invited to go into the power plants to inspect them.

During investigations, it was discovered that the plants each used a different method of utilizing ultraviolet radiation as catalysts to interact with a unique strain of energy obtained from a secret reaction sequence of a common reagent, atmospheric hydrogen.

The reactions were made in such a unique way to generate clean energy that the presence of the plants had a nearly 0 per cent harmful effect on the environment, with some plants aiding in managing the harmful effects of climate change in the region.

Alex watched all this happening daily. The coldness in his eyes never abated for a moment. He could feel the Noose of Despair creeping up to his neck day by day. The feeling became increasingly clear as the day went by. At times, Alex hallucinated that the noose had already hung him and the phenomenon became even more unbearable when he fell asleep.

Forced by this condition Alex had to refrain from sleeping for days. Maintaining his normal mental state through constant meditation exercises. By this point, it was remaining 28 days until the launch date of the World Rebirth plan.

These few days Alex made no public appearances, stating via his assistant that he would release a worldwide broadcast at the moment of the project launch.

Finally, the day arrived and Alex disguised himself and snuck into the home of his half-brother. Alex discovered that his seemingly harmless half-brother of his had plotted for over 20 years to take possession of his father-in-law's firm and personally arrange for the death of his wife and her entire family with the aid of his son.

Alex still could not believe that such a greedy and despicable person could exist in this world where everyone seemed so simple and gullible in retrospect.

Infiltrating the house he observed that except for a single bodyguard stationed outside the all-in-one suite, there was no one within the building.

Alex skillfully snuck into the suite and found his half-brother watching the countdown to the project from his study room.

Walking out of the shadows he said. Hate dripped from his very being.

"I see you have not changed a bit in all these years, Travis." I wouldn't want you to ruin this reunion of ours Big Brother, by wasting precious time calling for guards."

The look in Alex's eyes caused Travis to freeze up on the spot

"Are you here for revenge, or are you just here to gloat?" Travis retorted trying in vain to stop his heart from beating like a runaway train.

Alex paid him no mind and didn't reply but continued his monologue

"From all my years in this world, it's your name Travis and that of my wife Sara that could elicit a reaction from my soul that alone is an honour for you."

As Alex was saying this his prerecorded broadcast started and his voice came out of the speakers, as though completing his words from earlier and giving them context.

"My name in this world is Alex Telmar. After years of suffering and despair, stuck in this forsaken realm facing cycle after cycle of disasters, I believe it is time for this to come to an end. I don't resent anyone and neither do I think this was the best outcome however it was nice knowing you all. Till we meet again."

The broadcast message was astonishingly brief.

"Goodbye, then Travis. Until we meet again." Alex said to his half-brother, who was still trying to process what was going on. Turning to look at Alex he saw the man pressing a strange green button. His blue eyes glowed a deeper shade of blue almost going navy blue.

Strangely the moment he pressed the button, Alex's hair began to form cracks. Like a piece of glass exposed to temperatures far above its tolerance level, the cracks spread throughout Alex's body straining to keep the blue glow within it. Unable to bear it any more the sound of glass exploding echoed in the silent room, and at that very moment, a white glow spread all over the planet wiping it from existence in a single shock wave.