webnovel

Chapter 1: Prologue

On a November evening, I was walking down the street near my home. The cold air is making my nose numb, and I tried to rub it to decrease the numbness of it. It was getting dark, the sky had an orange tint, and cars drove by as people were getting home from work.

Not me though.

I just watched the latest Marvel Movie, Eternals.

It was a disappointing movie to say the least, the movie had good potential, but it was executed so poorly. It should've been a miniseries in my opinion. When I watched it, it was frustrating to see the characters that have an interesting event that happened to him or her, but it wasn't explored by the filmmakers, even though it should've been explored, to make the watchers care more about the characters.

Take Phastos for example, it would be interesting to see his believe in humanity slowly diminishing because of his technologies used the wrong way and not just seeing him cry after the bomb dropped, or seeing Sprite actually craving for adult activities and slowly falling in love, not just Kingo saying that she fell in love with Ikaris all of a sudden.

I sighed at the thought of it. I will probably never going to see it.

Suddenly, I can feel a vibration from my pocket. It's my phone ringing.

I took out the phone, as I saw that it was my mom calling me, and I picked it up.

"Hello? Mom?" I answered the call.

"Hello honey, where are you?" she asked me.

"I'm almost at home mom." I answered her question. "Do you need me to buy anything?"

"Yeah, can you buy me some milk on the way?"

"Sure thing mo-" before I could answer her question, a sudden jolt of pain appeared in my chest, and I clutched the area of my heart instantly, desperately trying to ease the pain, but it wasn't working.

My phone fell out of my grasp and onto the ground, and I fell to the ground too, I could tell that my mom was panicking behind the phone as she could probably hear me gasping for air, trying to numb the pain in my chest.

I continued to hold my chest tightly to stop the pain, but it was no use. I looked around, no one was there, and at that moment I knew that I would die. I am accepting it at this point, my life was boring anyway, the only thing I'm worried about is my mom's reaction to my death, it would hurt her for sure, but I can't do anything, as I'm literally dying right now.

"It's painful, isn't it?" someone suddenly stated, I looked around, and saw no one. "Don't worry though, it will all be over soon."

"Who-" I tried to form a word to ask the voice, but the voice just repeated:

"It will all be over soon."

My vision started to darken as the pain in my chest kept increasing, and now, I can see an outline of a man. The man had no body except black, and it was staring at me intently as I was dying.

Then, as I feel my soul disappear from my body, I feel nothing. Nothing at all. No pain, only infinite nothingness.

But soon, I could see again, and I looked around, and again, I only saw nothingness, my vision was covered with the color black.

"See? That wasn't so bad…" someone suddenly spoke, startling me.

"Wha-?" I looked around frantically trying to see the person who was talking, and there he was, the same man who looked at me while I was dying on the ground. "Who are you?!"

"Me? I'm nobody." He said, then, his 'face' suddenly cracked a smile, it just looked like a conveniently placed golden line though, as the 'mouth' was shining brightly, unlike the surroundings, which is entirely back.

I narrowed my eyes as he said that. "Then how come you are here? I'm dead right?"

"You are." The man answered with a nod, his face still showing that golden smile.

"Then where is this?" I asked.

"You are in my domain."

"What domain?"

"Where I live, I guess." He answered, and suddenly, the entire dimension turned to a tropical island, and now I was standing in front of a fireplace. I was surprised to say the least, this is real magic shit! And then I looked back at the man, and now he looked like a stranded man who hasn't bathed in weeks.

"Then… why am I here?" I asked the man, he's definitely not a 'nobody'.

"I chose you for something." He stated.

"Me? Chosen?"

"Yes."

"For what?" I asked, I am so confused right now.

"I want to see if an unknown variable can change something drastically." He continued.

"Change? Unknown variable? What is happening right now?!" I questioned rather loudly.

"To simply put-" He then stood up, and suddenly, his body glowed bright, showing a golden color all over his body. "You will be reborn."

"Re-Reborn?" I asked nervously. "Like reincarnated?"

"More like transmigrated." He spoke. "To the body of an Eternal."

"Wait what?" I am so confused right now. "Eternal? As in the movie I just watched?"

"Yes." He simply answered, making me freaked out. "That eternal."

"Who are you again?" I asked, or rather demanded.

The man just smiled. "You can call me whatever you want."

"That doesn't answer the question." I stated.

The man chuckled. "I am god in that world I guess."

"Wait… one above all?!" I exclaimed as I figured out his identity.

"Well, well, even though you didn't read the comics, you still know a bit about me." The man chuckled. And I freaked out as he knew that I didn't read comics, which meant that he knew all about me. "You don't have to worry about the comics though, you will be in the movie version."

"T-That's good I guess…" I mumbled. "But… Why me?"

The man shrugged. "No reason."

"What?"

"I just picked randomly." He continued. "So don't get your hopes up like you are the chosen one or something."

"But you said you chose me?"

"Randomly." He pointed out. "Right, it's time to go I guess, it'll be a long time till we meet again, so if you want to ask something, ask now."

"Oh…" I simply said. "What about my mom?"

The man smiled. "She'll be fine, you don't have to worry about her."

"Can I know what happened to her?"

"I'd rather not tell you." He spoke. "You need to get rid of your attachment to your previous life."

"But… she's my mom."

"Like I said, she'll be fine." He said rather sternly now. "You don't have to worry about her, she'll live a good life."

"I hope so…" I mumbled. "Who will I be reborn into? Gilgamesh? Kingo?"

"Oh, you will be an original Eternal that I made up." He said, making me surprised. "Your name will be Pluto."

"Powers?"

The man smiled rather strangely. "You'll see."

I sighed at this. "So, this is it huh… from a human to a synthetic being…"

"Is it so bad though? You will still look like a human." the man questioned.

"Well, I won't age… I don't know how I feel about that."

"I don't age too." He pointed out. "It has its ups and downs, but you'll manage."

I stared at the man intently for a second. "What exactly do you want me to do?"

"Hmmm…." The man thought for a second, making me look at him weirdly. "For now, just watch."

"Watch?"

"Yes, blend in with the rest of the eternals." He spoke. "I will give you a task once I feel like it."

"Once you feel like it?" I scoffed. "What are you trying to do here man?"

"Think of yourself as a… bug that will activate once it is the right time."

"So I'm an insect?"

"In my eyes, all of you are insects." He sharply stated, which made me gulp.

"Can I refuse this?" I asked the man.

The man stared at me for a second before answering it. "You can, but you'll regret it."

"But I'll just be a pawn in your games." I pointed out.

He chuckled. "Is that how you view it?" he said. "You're not a pawn, you're an experiment."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is that you can act freely according to the constraint of the experiment, while being a pawn means that I will control every single aspect of your life."

"What are the 'constraints' then?"

"You will be an eternal, so at least act like it."

"So, am I supposed to agree with the Celestial? Or rebel with Sersi?"

The man shrugged. "It's up to you, you have a long time to think about it, 7000 years is a long time for you at least."

I sighed. "You're not making this easier, I'm still confused on what I'm supposed to do…"

"I understand what you are thinking." The man said. "But you must follow your instinct once you've been reborn, you need to forget all your previous attachments. Your family before, your name, your age, your friends, everything, and start anew."

"So I need to… live?"

"If that's what you want to call it, then that's fine, you need to live."

"Well… okay…" I mumbled. "But I'm still doubtful about this…"

The man rolled his eyes at my words. "What are you worried about? That you will have your original appearance?"

"I mean… I'm ugly before…" I shrugged as I spoke the truth.

"Beauty is relative." He stated.

"But most people's perception of beauty is mostly the same." I countered.

"That's true." The man continued. "Don't worry, you'll be reborn in a different body."

"Then I'm in." I excitedly said. "As long as I have free will."

"Technically you're an Eternal, you have limited free will."

"But I can work on getting free will." I stated. "Right?"

The man just hummed. "Fine, I'll give you something so you can be free from my servants' control."

"Servants?" I questioned.

"Oh right, you don't read many comics." He spoke. "The celestials are my servants."

"Oh…" I simply said. "That's… not surprising at all."

"It's part of your mission really." He said. "To see how they work."

"But… you're god… you know everything?"

"True… but it's more fun to command people to do it right?" he said while smiling, making me groan.

"I'm seriously confused right now to be honest, are you a good entity? Or are you a bad entity?"

He finally laughed at my question. "Soon you will learn that morality is a relatively young one." He stated. "So, ready?"

"Fine…" I sighed.

The man smiled. "Excellent." The man then floated in front of me and spoke. "Then may we meet again, Pluto."

The man then snapped his finger, and suddenly, the world turned black, and it looked like I passed out.

And then I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. But nothing. I didn't wake up whatsoever, I felt only darkness around me.

I sighed internally at this. It looks like the man fooled me.

But then, suddenly, I saw a tall and skinny man in front of me. He has a pale white skin, hair as black as the night, Deep violet eyes, and his stares creeped me out a bit, it's as if he's looking into my very soul.

"Who are you?" I asked nervously.

The man then kept staring at me, which is really creepy, it makes my body shiver for some reason. The man was silent, but then he raised his hand, making me grow alert.

The man then pointed at me, making me confused, then, he pointed at himself, signaling something.

"You… are me?" I stated.

The man was silent once again, but then he walked closer to me, which made me freaked out, I stepped back a bit, but he kept walking. As he stood right in front of me, he raised his arm once again, and this time, tapped my forehead.

When he tapped my forehead, I felt a jolt of electricity, and felt like something was transferred to my brain, and as I looked at his deep violet eyes one last time, I passed out once again.

I feel like my brain is exploding. A lot of information has transferred to my head in one go, it was probably the man's 'scattered' memories. I know his name that now becomes my name, the false memories that the Celestial has given him, the muscle memories of fighting, language, basic courtesies, everything.

And of course, my powers.

Which is a problem.

It doesn't look like it is an Eternal's power. It is totally different from the rest of my 'family'. I don't even know how it works, I just know I can use it.

Where does the eternal's powers come from anyway? Cosmic energy? But how do the eternals have different powers if it comes from the same energy?

We are synthetic beings, but how come my powers are like this? It's strange and terrifying at the same time. I don't know how to deal with this…

And there is also another problem. Aside from Ajak, I also know the original mission from the start, and I also have an additional mission from Arishem, but I thought One Above All gave me a chance to have free will? Or is this the chance?

Then, suddenly, I heard a voice from the surrounding area. "It is time."

Chapitre suivant