Numb. Cold. Darkness.
These were the first sensations that assaulted Elias Thorne as consciousness seeped back into a body he instinctively knew wasn't his own. After some struggle, his eyes flickered and snapped open to reveal a metallic ceiling mere inches above his face. A chill emanated from the cold metallic ceiling, seeping into his skin and invading his body through his pores.
Assessing his condition, Elias discovered that he couldn't move his body. The relentless chill permeated his body, eliciting an incessant shiver as he lay on the frigid metallic surface. Discomfort wracked his entire being. It had been ages since he had experienced such raw physical sensation, but it was nothing he couldn't endure.
As he bore the torturous, deathly chill, a pungent stench of preservative herbs mingled with fleshly decay suddenly filled his nostrils, making Elias recoil in disgust.
What's that smell? Where am I? What happened to me?
The last thing Elias remembered was inadvertently engaging in a battle against a Singularity Stage overlord from an enemy camp. As a Quantum Seeker with a Quantum Resonance at the Unified Field Stage, a full stage below the Singularity Stage overlord, he had been helpless against the destructive force unleashed by the cunning alien overlord.
Tracing his memories further back…
On that fateful day, an army of alien invaders from a foreign multiverse descended upon their Quantum Multiverse with conquest as their aim. The invasion force was led by an entity possessing combat power equivalent to a Singularity Stage overlord of their Quantum Multiverse.
There was only one Singularity Stage overlord in the Quantum Multiverse, serving as the commander and defender against multiversal threats. Thus, the two Singularity Stage overlords—one from the Quantum Multiverse and the other from the invading multiverse—confronted each other in a clash of titanic proportions, their cosmic aura manifestations distorting the surrounding space-time.
Without preamble, the leader and strongest combatant of Elias's home multiverse, the Quantum Multiverse, engaged in a heated battle with the strongest among the invaders. Elias, too, had volunteered, commanding an army of his own, intending to take down the enemy vanguard combatants, who possessed combat power equivalent to the Unified Field Stage, the same level as himself.
Unexpectedly, the opponent he confronted turned out to be a Singularity Stage overlord disguised as a Unified Field Stage combatant. Caught off guard, Elias was sent spiraling through a chaotic Temporal Vortex that hurled him outside of time and space.
Mobilizing every ounce of his strength, Elias barely managed to survive the ordeal and clawed his way back to their space-time continuum. Shockingly, when he arrived at the interdimensional space where the battle had taken place, chaotic spatial distortions reigned, but no one was in sight. Neither the army of invaders nor the defenders of his multiverse were present, as if the battle had concluded long ago.
Had time moved differently while I was trapped?
Elias considered the possibility that, although he might have only spent moments in the chaotic Temporal Vortex, a significant amount of time might have elapsed on the interdimensional battlefield. If that were the case, the battle had likely concluded during his absence.
As for whether they had lost or achieved victory, Elias couldn't ascertain the outcome with no existence in sight to ask. However, judging by the continuous existence of the Quantum Multiverse, it was safe to assume that they might have at least fended off the enemy invaders.
Before jumping to any assumptions, I should check on my home universe and planet.
Ignoring the severe injuries he had sustained to his Quantum Physique, a form that could withstand the destruction of multiple universes, Elias intended to check on his birthplace before anything else. He hastily warped to his home universe, Infinity, which was nestled among the cluster of universes within their Quantum Multiverse.
Upon arriving on Earth, his home planet, Elias discovered that it had also been ravaged and destroyed in the chaos, along with other planets in the galaxy. Countless black holes, born from the explosion of stars, continuously absorbed surrounding matter, twisting space-time. His universe, Infinity, located at the periphery of the Quantum Multiverse, had been subjected to annihilatory forces and was nearly destroyed.
His planet, Earth, which was also situated at the periphery of Universe Infinity, had been affected by the partial destruction of the universe. The only thing that remained somewhat intact was the technological artifact that facilitated Earth's revolution throughout his universe and beyond.
The Quantum Bridge.
The Quantum Bridge was an ancient technological creation by humans during the awakening era. This was when all humans on Earth first experienced the Cosmic Ablution, the event that had imbued every human with the potential to walk the path of Quantum Ascension. By resonating with the source of the Quantum Multiverse, they became Quantum Seekers with the potential to resonate with the laws of their universe to execute many unscientific effects on reality.
While watching the destruction in a daze, a series of memories from his time on the small, once-insignificant planet played in Elias's mind, filling him with a mix of nostalgia and melancholy. Lost in his reverie, Elias was abruptly jolted back to reality as a sudden twist in space exerted a turbulent force, pulling him with irresistible momentum.
No matter what Elias tried, it was useless. He couldn't resist the force exerted on him. Eventually, he collided with the portal generated at the center of the Quantum Bridge, the technological artifact connecting multiple universes within the Quantum Multiverse.
Instead of being transported to another universe within the Quantum Multiverse, as the Quantum Bridge was designed to do, Elias found himself ejected once again into a chaotic Temporal Vortex, similar to the one he had entered earlier. This time, however, there was no escaping the ravages of the chaotic laws within.
With his Quantum Physique already severely damaged, Elias could muster no resistance against the savage, lawless forces churning within the Temporal Vortex. He could only watch helplessly as his Quantum Physique was systematically destroyed, piece by piece, until nothing remained.
However…
Why did the Quantum Bridge activate on its own? Why did it target me?
Elias harbored a suspicion about how the nearly shattered Quantum Bridge had generated a suction force powerful enough to forcibly pull a being of his caliber into its threshold. He couldn't determine if it was a coincidental occurrence or the calculated machinations of his assailant, the Singularity Stage overlord, who might have foreseen his return to the normal space-time continuum and decided to set a trap in advance to ensure his death.
As a Quantum Seeker who had reached the supreme Unified Field Stage, witnessing possibilities that result from an action and its implications in the grand scheme of things, Elias knew that coincidences were almost non-existent. Stating that coincidences did not exist or were merely illusions conjured by the conflated patterns of life experiences wasn't far from the truth.
Before Elias approached his home planet, Earth, he had perceived multiple future possibilities, but none had foretold his demise. Yet, against all odds, the Quantum Bridge had activated on its own and, even more shockingly, forcefully pulled him, a Unified Field Stage combatant, into the transuniversal portal it generated.
Even in his weakened state, Elias was still a formidable force. It seemed ridiculous that a mere transuniversal portal could overpower him.
Elias could think of only one explanation for this bizarre occurrence.
—Intervention by the Singularity Stage overlord.
From Elias's knowledge, Singularity Stage overlords were far more advanced in manipulating the fundamental laws and forces that governed universes. Observing the precise, nearly infinite possibilities of the future was well within their capabilities, and while not surprising, it was nonetheless terrifying.
Although Elias possessed a similar ability, his was a lesser version compared to that of the Singularity Stage overlords. He could glimpse some future possibilities, but this foresight became useless when the future involved a Singularity Stage overlord.
Elias believed that some entity had ensured his ultimate death by methodically eliminating any possibility of his survival across all future timelines. Such large-scale reality distortion was a feat only Singularity Stage overlords could achieve.
This was why Elias had been caught off guard during his battle with the disguised Singularity Stage invader. He hadn't foreseen his death when he confronted them, assuming he had a chance of survival as long as they fought and created variables amidst combat. However, he had been gravely mistaken; his opponent had already distorted his perception of reality before they clashed.
However, Elias was bewildered by the Singularity Stage invader's actions.
If his conjecture about the Quantum Bridge trap was true, something didn't add up. Why hadn't the Singularity Stage invader directly killed him, employing their overwhelming power? Why send him into the chaotic Temporal Vortex? Employing such an elaborate method to end his life was gratuitous for a Singularity Stage overlord.
Had Elias not felt the overwhelming power exuded by the Singularity Stage invader, who had taken him by surprise, he might have concluded the indirect method employed against him was the only way to ensure his death. However, he knew that was absurd. He was merely a Unified Field Stage Quantum Seeker, and the enemy was a full stage ahead of him, making it easy for them to erase his existence, even in fair combat.
Elias didn't have time to dwell on these inconsistencies for long.
In the fathomless void of the endlessly chaotic Temporal Vortex, the sensation of falling through an infinite swirl of pitch-black darkness consumed Elias's other senses. His final memories were desperate, struggling to survive in the chaotic Temporal Vortex that gradually disintegrated his body, fragment by fragment.
As a last resort, Elias channeled all his remaining power to attempt a theoretical method that could preserve some fragment of his being. As it was the first time Elias had attempted such a theoretical method, he wasn't confident in its success, but he was willing to bet everything on it.
That was all Elias remembered before finding himself in his current predicament.