1. 'Om', 'Od' & 'Ki'

A bucket of icy water doused the sleeping young man, jolting him from slumber.

"Wake up, bastard! We're already late!" The young man who'd thrown the water kicked at Arya's legs.

Arya sat up on the soaked bed, wiping his face. He looked at the other man, Ray, with a hint of amusement. "How long will you stay angry at me?"

Ray, poised to leave, paused at the door. He turned, his gaze colder than the water now chilling Arya, and left without a word.

"This is going to be a long year," Arya mumbled, glancing at the calendar: January 5th. He checked the clock – the hour hand pointed at 10. He sprang to his feet and rushed to the bathroom.

Minutes later, a towel around his waist, his hair still dripping, he emerged from the bathroom. In the mirror, he saw a man in his mid-twenties. Average features, the kind easily forgotten in a crowd. Yet, his black eyes were mesmerizing pools; it was difficult to look away, even as a sense of unease grew within you. There was a strange disconnect between his kind smile and the deadness in his gaze, like it seemed practiced, as if he'd learned the shape of it but never understood its true meaning.

He dressed quickly, then shoved his laptop into his bag. A final sweep of the room, as if searching for something forgotten... his gaze settled on a small white pebble resting on the pillow.

Snatching it up, he pocketed the pebble and mumbled, "All set."

Descending the stairs, he spotted a sandwich on the dining table with a note: 'I will not allow you to starve to death'.

'How did I get these devils? One of them straight away bullies me and the other one threatens while feeding me.' Arya ate the sandwich and scribbled a retort on the note: 'Awaiting my death in your hands :)'

Leaving the flat, he booked a cab. Down the street, he glimpsed a young woman entering another cab. Their eyes met; he smiled. She hastily shut the window, turning away. Anyone inside the car would have seen the blush spreading across her cheeks.

'Three new enemies in a week. Could be a personal best,' Arya thought as he climbed into his own cab.

Soon, the cab stopped before a towering glass-paneled building. Arya went inside, displaying his ID from his bag. He silently took the stairs instead of the empty elevator. Finally, he reached the 7th floor – the top level, and his current office. Inside the room marked 'Assistant Manager', he avoided eye contact with colleagues in the corridor and sat at his desk.

Hours drifted by, punctuated by the tapping of laptop keys. Past 1 PM, the office door opened. There stood Ray, and beside him, a new face. A man the same age as Arya and Ray, but where they were fit, he was obese. The bag of snacks in his hand was proof enough that this wasn't the kind of body inherited through genes.

The new person coldly said, "We are going to the canteen for lunch," and started leaving. He stopped abruptly when Arya spoke, "The sandwich was a little spicy, Ganesh." Ganesh smirked and left, dragging Ray with him.

After a while, Arya closed his laptop and walked straight to the stairwell door. He opened it, climbed down a couple of floors, and then returned to his own. Taking out the small pebble in his pocket, he clenched it in his palm and mumbled, "Five years."

He walked to the canteen and sat with his roommates. The trio ate in silence for a while until Arya broke it by saying, "Sorry."

Ganesh continued eating as if he hadn't heard Arya's apology. Looking at both of them, Ray sighed. "What are you going to do with Sam now?"

"Nothing. She is awkward with me now, but she will become normal soon," Arya replied.

Ray quickly corrected him, "Not about that. Are you still not going to date her?"

"Yes, I will not date anyone."

Ganesh angrily snarled at him and picked up his tray to leave. Ray followed suit.

After a few minutes, as Arya was about to leave, a sweet voice called out, "Arya." Before he could turn around, the girl standing behind him asked, "Are my brothers still mad at you?"

Arya chuckled and turned to her. "We will be like this for a long time, I guess... but why are you mad at me?"

Sam didn't reply and walked past him without saying anything.

Staring at her receding back, he thought, 'Three close childhood friends – one brother-sister duo and one best friend. The best friend loves the sister, but she doesn't realize she loves him yet... these three might be the MCs of a romance novel, and I might be the villain who is ruining it.'

Ring* Ring*

Arya's mobile rang continuously, interrupting his thoughts.

"Hello, Alex... you are already here? ... Okay, I'm coming to pick you up."

He cut the call and walked to the stairs. As soon as he opened the stairwell door, he saw a couple kissing and immediately closed it.

'Who are these new spicy colleagues? Should I punish them now as the acting manager? This is definitely above my pay grade. I'll just ignore them. Maybe the manager will find them when he's back and handle it.'

He quickly walked to the elevator and stepped in. 'This is the first time I'm taking the elevator in the office.'

As soon as the elevator started, his pocket glowed for a second. If someone saw it clearly, they would recognize the silhouette of the glow as similar to the small pebble Arya was carrying.

As if the glow had triggered something, all the lights inside turned off, and the elevator sped up, making Arya stumble and fall.

'Is the elevator falling? What did that TikTok say about surviving a falling elevator? Did it say to stay low or jump? I think it said to ju-'

Before he could complete his thought, the elevator hit the ground. The impact crushed some of his bones. Arya slowly opened his eyes, coughing blood and groaning. His head was bleeding, and shards of glass from the elevator door were embedded all around him.

'Am I going to die? Do I have any regrets? Not really. I never wished for anything, never had hopes for the future. Ah, one regret… sleeping with Sam. Maybe my death will open her heart to Ray... give him a chance at that happy ending they deserve. I'm rooting for you, Ray... the villain in their story. No surprise there. I was a villain throughout my 25 years. Didn't care about my parents, no close friends, never cared about anything. Never loved anyone. My exes all broke up with me, saying the same thing: "You don't love me." They loved me, and I never gave anything back... Maybe... maybe I envied those three. Always close, looking out for each other. That's why I kept rejecting Sam. Didn't want to hurt her, break that bond... yet I did the worst thing possible. Sure, it was a party, everyone was drunk, but alcohol doesn't affect me. I gave in to her anyway. I'm truly the worst. Thought I could use her to feel that warmth everyone talks about, the love everyone wishes for... Just treated her as a tool. When it didn't work, I left her without a care. Maybe this is my karma... dying a horrible death, alone.'

After bearing the pain for a few more minutes, Arya closed his eyes and slowly lost his life.

Just as his soul was about to depart, the white pebble glowed again. But this time, more than a glow, the pebble's white shell disintegrated. What remained was a small bead of translucent blue light, no bigger than the tip of a nail. The light shot towards his departing soul and disappeared within its translucent blue form.

As soon as the bead vanished, the soul flared brighter. Had it been visible not as a flicker of flame, but in Arya's true form, anyone who knew him would be shocked. The expression now etched across his soul might make his parents, his friends, his exes and even the trio ask the same question, "Can Arya smile like that as well?"

—-

In a vast, boundless white room, a blue flame flickered into existence – the same color as Arya's soul. Before it, another flame blazed like a sun, seemingly always present but now starkly visible against the white backdrop.

"Meet you again, Om," a voice echoed.

The blue flame wavered in response, a voice echoing, similar to Arya's, "Om? Who is Om?"

The white flame flickered. "You again, Om... sigh. Are you in your human shell? Then tell me your human name."

Arya's flame wavered again. "I don't understand. My name is Arya... not Om."

"Hmm, the records agree. Arya Raj."

"Records? What do you mean?"

The white flame dimmed, the voice tinged with sadness. "You erased your memories yet again."

Moments later, it brightened. "No worries, let's do this." As the words faded, the flame grew and morphed into a human silhouette, materializing into a naked man. Tall and muscular, his features were impossibly handsome, like a sculpture come to life. His white hair glowed, and a kind smile radiated an almost divine presence.

Just as the man materialized, the blue flame transformed into Arya. He instinctively shielded his closed eyes from the man's intense light, but quickly lowered his hands as the brightness seemed to fade.

The man studied his pale hands. "This form worked the fastest last time." He raised his eyes to meet Arya's. "I'm what you called the Creator. The sovereign who created everything."

Arya's expression remained unchanged. The sovereign continued, "You are the supreme soul of Orb 7, the 7th of the 118 Orbs I created. Your soul name is Om, your signature '7', matching your Orb."

He extended his hand. Above them materialized 117 football-sized Orbs, arranged in rows of nine. As Arya—now Om—looked up, another Orb appeared above his eyes.

Within this final Orb, Om saw a black expanse dotted with shimmering lights. Focusing on one, it expanded, revealing a galaxy resembling the Milky Way, yet subtly different.

Sensing Om's confusion, the sovereign stepped closer. "That's not your home." He glanced at the Orb, the galaxy zooming out, replaced by another tiny flicker which grew larger. "This is yours: the Milky Way." It zoomed further, focusing on the solar system until only Earth filled the Orb. "Your home."

Om glanced back at the blue planet. "Why am I here?"

"Because you died," the sovereign answered casually.

The sovereign stepped closer, a puzzled expression on his face. He placed a hand on Om's abdomen. "You erased your entire time fragment... why? Before, you'd remove memories of your human lives, but keep your evolution history intact. Why erase everything this time? What happened in the past few centuries?"

He removed his hand, speaking as if reading something unseen. "Last time we met, you died as a barbaric king who ruled half of Earth. You said you might erase your memories, but never mentioned removing your time fragment."

Om said nothing, staring at the spot where the sovereign's hand had touched. A faint green glow had lingered there briefly, now vanished.

The sovereign sighed. "Sigh, you are as troublesome as ever." He stepped back. "Perhaps you erased your time fragment for another of your… experiments."

Seeing Om's confusion, he continued, "Let me refresh your memory about my creation, since you've forgotten."

He extended both hands. A translucent blue flame, mirroring Om's soul form, appeared in his left palm. A small, white sphere materialized in his right.

Eyes fixed on the blue flame, he said, "This is a soul fragment. The essence of all life in my creation. You are one such fragment, as are the other 117 supreme souls. I created you from part of my own essence, placing each of you in one of the 118 Orbs, where you have the power to create more life."

"The Orbs are your domains. Every living being inside belongs to you, the supreme souls, as you create all other souls."

He shifted focus to the white sphere. "This is 'Ki', what you humans call matter or the cosmos. Unlike soul fragments, I can create 'Ki' with a mere thought, in limitless quantities. It's the building block of my creation – every pebble, every galaxy, even the Orbs themselves, are formed from it."

He glanced at Om. "All the soul fragments I created, and all souls made by those fragments, I call 'Od'. For any 'Od' to become 'life', it needs a shell to contain it – and that's where my 'Ki' comes in." As he spoke, he brought his hands together. The moment the blue flame touched the white sphere, it vanished, leaving a shape resembling an eyeball. It rotated slowly in his palm, as if observing the room.

"This is life."

His gaze shifted to the expanded Orb containing Earth hovering above them. Now, it filled their entire view. The thin, transparent boundary separating their white world from the dark universe within blurred, creating what appeared to be two halves of a single, divided space.

He stared at the Earth sphere. "Each Orb represents the maximum size my 'Ki' can take form at once." It shrank back, Earth filling its space again. "I created 118 Orbs, one for each soul fragment, then added a small amount of 'Ki' as a shell for the fragments. Even this is more 'Ki' than any fragment can use individually for forming life."

"To fill these empty Orbs, to use the 'Ki' I created, I made it so that lifeforms born from the soul fragments – the 118 Supreme Souls – give birth to more souls. These new souls then utilize more 'Ki' as their shells, filling the Orbs."

The other 117 Orbs materialized above them. "This is my creation."

He turned to Om. "As Orb 7's Supreme Soul, all the 'Od' within it originates from you. You took your first shell as a single cell, then gave birth to more. When your shell could no longer contain your evolved soul, it collapsed, and you were reborn into a new form you believed would hold longer. You continuously evolve, giving birth to more life, and for millennia you've settled on the human shell, experimenting to find the best possible next evolution."

Om finally spoke, his words jarringly different from the direction of the conversation. "Still, you haven't answered my question: Why am I here?"

He looked directly into the sovereign's eyes, seeming tired of the explanations. "Soon after I died – I don't know how long passed, minutes, years maybe – I felt two forces pulling me. One felt familiar, like my past self was used to it. Similar to the one I felt from the green light when you touched me."

"And there was another, forced, like being dragged against my will. Since I'm here, I assume you're the stronger one. But my past self seemed drawn to the other feeling. So if that's the path my past self wanted me to take, why did you stop me?"

The sovereign chuckled. "Your time fragment's erased, yet you remain emotionless, focused only on the task. Very well, I'll address your question since I was planning to do that if you didn't erase your memories."

He held out his hand. A new Orb appeared, vastly different from the others. Instead of stars or galaxies, it contained seven stacked tiles. "This is Orb 116, the third youngest. It's unlike yours. Its Supreme, 'Sri', can control the Ki within. I gave her this ability to see if she could expand life faster. At first, it seemed successful."

"However, in recent millennia, I've lost contact, and the 'Od' within the Orb is decreasing rapidly. Since Orbs can't hold my essence, I can't enter to investigate. I brought you here to find 'Sri'. Once you locate her, consume her soul fragment and return. I can then fix what's gone wrong and save Orb 116 before all its life perishes."