A celebration for the universe

Celebrations can be heard from every corner of the city. firework continuesly shoots out into the sky, depicting many of the universe's grandest entities: the cosmic web, the current formation of our solar system cluster, the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, a supernova and numerous more wonders of the infinite. An uncountable number of drones also float through the sky rivaling the spectacle created by the fireworks, depicting things such as the cosmic sword and the great fleet of Oviel.

It's currently, according to this planet's standards, the 22th of may, which means it has been about three hundred years since humanity has occupied this solar system cluster, or in other words, its been three hundred years since the will of the universe has send humanity to this corner of the universe. For a religious group that worships the will of the universe this of course is one of its greatest holidays and on Buldigst, the place where its biggest church is located, a celebration which can no doubt still be observed from the other side of the universe is to be expected. What a baffled face astronomers billions of light years from here must think when they'll see such a tiny speck shine so brightly.

From what Luca told me, the current festivity that is taking place all over the world, be it night or day, is even grander than last year. It gets grander year by year. This is of course not a surprise on a planet where the richest people of the country reside. The people of this planet only get richer and richer, even after all of these years. Their wealth can no longer be compared to the grains of sand on the planet and can only truly meet its match with the stars in the sky. With the growth of peoples wealth to the point of which no man could ever deplete it, a need to deplete it has started to rise amongst them, which brings us to extravagant celebrations like these.

Currently Luca, Anna and me are in the backseat of a car towards our new home, it seems that none of us can drive, so someone under Luca's employment is driving the car. We are, as expected, stuck in traffic, forced to watch everyone celebrate for hours on end. As the hours go by Anna has fallen asleep, Luca is doing who-knows-what on his phone and I just keep watching the people outside. It makes my skin crawl seeing them all happy. They aren't allowed to. Is there truly anything to be happy about? This all reminds me of the past, no, it reminds me of my lack of a past.

"…"

My mind goes blank, I can hear voices in the background, but like a beast hunting its prey, I focus on one thing only. These people should all just die.

Nothing happens however.

I all of a sudden notice a sharp feeling at the side of my head, interrupting my thoughts.

The familiar iron-like smell starts filling my nostrils, a red substance that can never be mistaken for anything else starts bursting from my head, it even starts leaking from my eyes. It looks like a knife to your head isn't the most suitable thing for the body.

"Anna! Look at what your doing! You know how difficult it is remove all this blood?! These seats are made from real leather you know!"

"Well maybe you should have woken me up earlier! Who knows what he would have done if that episode went on any longer!" Anna seems to be genuinely mad at Luca, he however only responds with a light blush, seemingly forgetting all about his anger from seconds ago.

"Haha, I was interested in what he was gonna do, it seemed fun. But it eventually started feeling a bit too dangerous for something so early in this grand opera, so I woke you up to deal with him." Luca scratches his head with the light blush still remaining, like a brother trying to apologize after pulling a prank on one of his siblings.

"It seems you two are having fun." The blood rushing from my head quickly started to dissipate after the initial stab, with the wound being almost enterily Healed up at the end of their discussion. "I do have to disappoint you two though, you were about ten seconds too late. It seems however they didn't respond, it's a weird case, nothing like that has ever happened before."

"what? Were they to busy eating up a planet? Wait.." Luca makes his quip, but immediately after goes into deep thought. "So.." within a flash, a sword, taking on the color of the darkest hue in the universe; putting a great pressure on everything in its surrounding, appears at my neck. "If those things aren't responding.. if I kill you here.. what would happen?" It seems he has found something to entertain himself again, but this joke doesn't fall well with Anna unfortunately.

"Luca, I allow a lot of things, but you've crossed the line. You harm a hair on his head and I'll kill you." It seems this has become some kind of stand off, as currently Anna is holding a sword to Luca's neck in return to his impulsive threat. This threat however only seems to broaden Luca's smile.

"You two.. how about we let go of the threats and leave the car? it looks like we've arrived at our destination." As I say this, two round monsters around as big as my hand; with eyes all over their bodies and plenty of sharp teeth, eat up the swords threatening the lives of Luca and me. "See? Nothing to fight about, right?" I say with a smile.

"Hey! You said you couldn't summon those things!"

"Well yeah, when I tried it before, I tried to call forth one of the bigger ones. you know? Those currently in other Galaxies, for those everything I said still holds true, but the ones that are still here with me I can in fact still recall." All while I say this a monster a bit bigger than the other two, around the size of a basketball, floats above the palm of my left hand while I pet it with the other.

Luca takes a big sigh, it looks like he has given up on his endeavor. He throws a set of keys our way with a somewhat bored face. "For the new house. I won't be coming with you, I'm tired and I have homework to do. Newlyweds should have their alone time anyway." He of course is lying, it's an international holiday, which school would ever give you homework today? He probably just doesn't want to go along with us if it either isn't absolutely necessary or if he doesn't see anything interesting happening.

"We'll then, bye bye!" Anna quickly leaves the car, using only a wave to see Luca off. She's probably still somewhat mad at him.

"Do try and visit us before we somehow blow our cover, okay? Anna would appreciate it a lot." With those words I leave the car and not soon after it speeds off.

In front of us stands a house much bigger than any other house we've lived in together. It's not surprising considering the standard of living on this planet is of a much higher quality than on any other planet we've lived on. The orange glow from the sun alerting us of the rise of the moon shines all over the building, making it even more beautiful. Luca must have had some excess money to spend.

"Beautiful house isn't it? How about we get inside and see what the interior is like?" Anna says with a soft smile while dangling the set of keys around.

Unfortunately the inside of the house is almost completely empty. Only things brought in here while the house was being built, like a kitchen and things left behind by its previous owner, like a bed are here to fill up the empty space of the house. This is to be expected of course, no moving company would operate in a period as festive like this.

As I calmly explore the house I eventually arrive at the living room, Anna seems to have arrived here before me. Within the empty living room — so big some might even call it an apartment in its own right — Anna seems so small and yet her just standing there doing nothing makes her shine so bright. She seems to be staring at something presumably left behind by the house's previous owners, a record player with a record still resting on its center. She is looking so melancholically at it, I desperately wish to know what it is behind those beautiful eyes that is making her look so sad.

"Aah.. Zer." She fixes her gaze towards my direction, I don't know what to say, I can't move. We stand there for a minute just looking at eachother. Not soon after she sheds her somber face and puts on a smile (as always). "Do you want to dance with me? We have enough space in this empty living room and we even have some music we can play." She puts the needle on the record and music fills the room. Anna reaches a hand out towards me and after a second of hesitation I accept her invitation.

Now comes the reason for my hesitation: I can't dance, but it seems that Anna is taking the lead here. We float through the living room as the music keeps playing.

The record currently being played is an orchestral piece composed by Jeanne Lydard, he is from an era before the establishment of Oviel or the interstellar connection between the human inhabited planets. It has been said that he could see sounds, with this talent those of his time say he was able to make music that transcended everything created before and after his death. As far as we know he is the only person ever to be born with this talent, so even to this very day, to those remaining people who are interested in 'art' he is seen as the best of the best.

As we continue to dance to Jeanne's life put to paper, the rampant sounds of the world are drowned out. Time has started to lose its meaning, we could have very well been doing this for a millennium and I would not be suprised, all I want is for this to continue even longer. I can feel the delicateness in her hands, its soft touch has become my raison d'être and yet it's still not enough to warm my heart. Even so, I continue to dance, hoping that with just a little more time she might be able to achieve the impossible, that's what a hero is supposed to do right?

At this instant everything in the universe is merely here to elevate this one moment. I slowly start to forget about the past and present: the cries and bloodshed by the innocent are turning into vague hazes.

Aah.. but I must not forget. And yet I can't stop dancing. I simply wish for this to go on for an eternity. Until The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the tombs of the regions, will summon all before the throne. Until the Judge will sit with the all-knowing book in hand, from which the planet will be judged. whatever lies hidden, will appear: nothing will remain unpunished.

Yet that period has long been dead, we've spread our existence past our old world, not even he can be our judge now. And so, I must let go now.

*thud!* Our dance gets interrupted by a sudden loud noise originating from the backyard. The music can still be heard, but it has lost its ephemeral effect. Anna and I separate our hands. Only now do I notice the sweat covering my entire body.

"That didn't sound good did it?" Even now her smile (always the same) continuous. "I had a lot fun dancing Zer! We must do it again (we won't). Shall we see where that sound came from?"

Aside from the grand house, there seems to be something I haven't talked about. There is also a huge backyard, enough to fit a plethora of football fields, so when a loud sound originates from it, finding its origin isn't as easy as simply taking a look out the window, especially considering how many trees there are, it basically makes it a mini-forest.

Searching and searching we don't find anything abnormal within the backyard, until we arrive at its border. Laying there is a young man wounded beyond belief. The moonlight seems to be shining all its light on him, as if it wanted us to find him.

It looks like it didn't take long for Anna and me to find trouble.