The sky was red.
Not the red of sunset. Not the red of dawn.
The red of something that should never have been allowed to hang over a living world.
Smoke didn't rise here anymore. It simply hung, motionless, as if even the wind had given up and gone elsewhere to die. Ash covered what had once been a kingdom, then a battlefield, then a graveyard. Now it was only an ending.
One man stood in the middle of it.
His armor was cracked down the left side, one plate hanging by a single strap. Blood had dried into the lines of his face like old rivers on a dead map. Some of his wounds should have killed him twice over.
They hadn't.
Before him: an army with no horizon. Not a battalion. Not a legion. Creatures packed shoulder to shoulder until the ground itself seemed to breathe with them, waiting for a single word to become an ocean.
He didn't look back at what he'd left behind him in the ash. He'd already said goodbye to it, a long time ago, in a hundred small mornings he hadn't known to treasure until they were gone.
He closed his eyes. Breathed in, slow, even. The breath of a man with nothing left to lose, and therefore nothing left to fear.
When he opened them again, there was no hesitation in them. Only the quiet, terrible calm of someone who had already made peace with what came next.
He raised his blade. Not high. Not dramatic. Just enough.
-I am the King.... The King of the Megaverse.
His voice didn't shake.
The wind finally moved, carrying his words out over that endless red field,past the first rows of creatures, past the ones behind them, until they vanished into the sheer size of what he was facing.
-Thus the fortune of this Megaverse... belongs to me.
For one heartbeat, the entire battlefield held its breath.
Then the army moved,a tide with teeth, a single screaming wall of claw and steel and hunger, closing the distance in seconds that felt like the last seconds of the world.
He didn't wait for it to arrive.
He ran to meet it.
This is not where that story ends. It's not even where it begins. To understand how one man came to stand alone against an army that should never have had to face just one man at all, you have to go back. Not to that battlefield. To an office building on a hot afternoon, a hundred years after the world first learned it wasn't alone.
Space is bigger than anyone on Earth ever guessed.
Not one universe. Countless. And somewhere in that expanse, sixty-three of them had found each other and built something together, an alliance they called the Megaverse.
Earth knew none of it. Not until the day the Megaverse found them.
That was a hundred years ago. Back then, humanity had just entered what it proudly called the age of super science and had started to believe there was nothing it couldn't do. Then the creatures came through; nobody knew from where, nobody understood what they wanted, and it turned out humanity could do almost nothing at all. Armies fell. Weapons that had taken decades to build proved useless in an afternoon.
And then he appeared. Too large to be a man, too strong to be anything humanity had a word for. He fought. He won. The invaders were forced into an agreement, and Earth got to keep existing.
He stayed for thirty years. Then, one day, without explanation, he was gone.
History remembers him as the Mystery Man. Nobody knows if he's alive. Nobody knows if he's still out there somewhere, in some universe humanity can't even name.
But he left behind a lesson more useful than gratitude: humanity wasn't the strongest thing in existence. It wasn't close. So Earth built something to close the gap,Project SS, soldiers rebuilt through genetic engineering and technology into something new. Super Soldiers. And to command them, an organisation with no flag and no borders: OPESTM, the Organisation for Protection of External Space Threats and Matters.
For a hundred years, OPESTM had nothing to protect against. No second invasion. No war. Just soldiers who trained for a fight that never came, and a portal,the same gateway the invaders had first come through, that scientists had spent a century watching and still didn't understand.
They'd learned one thing about it, though. Whenever something passed through, it screamed radiation into the sky.
And today, it was screaming.
Mpho didn't know that yet. Right now, all he knew was that his orange juice was cold and his afternoon was quiet, and that was rarer than it used to be.
He took another sip, savoring it- pure, organic, the kind of thing that was getting harder to find every year,and noticed someone approaching.
Paulverizer.
Mpho raised an eyebrow.
-So. How was your holiday?
-The same as always.
-Nothing interesting?
-Nothing new.
Mpho sighed and leaned back against the wall.
-Man, I think we're wasting our time here.
Paul glanced up at the enormous headquarters looming over them both.
-You're just figuring that out?
-We could serve our countries individually. At least we'd actually be doing something.
A faint smile.
-Don't know, Bud. OPESTM is becoming worthless.
A pause.
-So are we.
Mpho took another sip.
-Then what brings you here?
-Mr. Corlowall called an annual meeting.
Mpho frowned.
-Then why wasn't I invited?
-Only Board Directors and Grand Super Soldiers.
Something shifted in Mpho's expression, and then a grin broke through, entirely too pleased with itself.
-So you're going to have a nice little reunion with your ex-wife?
Paul stopped walking.
-What?
-Veronica.
-We're not divorced.
Mpho blinked.
-Wait. Seriously?
-We never filed.
-Paul….
-What?
-Don't you think you should clear this mess up?
-What mess?
-Your marriage.
Paul looked away, toward nothing in particular.
-Either get back together or get divorced.
-Don't keep living in this weird middle ground.
Silence.
Mpho's voice softened.
-Look, man. Losing a child isn't easy.
He watched something flicker across Paul's face before he kept going.
-You both made mistakes. But you blamed everything on her. That wasn't fair.
Paul let out a slow breath.
-I know.
-Then talk to her.
-I don't know.
-Oh, you do know.
An uncomfortable look.
-We barely talk anymore.
-Then start.
-When we do talk, it's usually professional.
A pause, quieter.
-She doesn't even look me in the eye.
Neither of them said anything for a moment. Then Mpho glanced past him, toward the entrance.
-Wait.
He straightened.
-Shouldn't you be in the meeting already?
Paul's eyes widened.
-Oh, shit.
Mpho laughed.
-Go.
-See you later.
-Don't worry. I'll survive.
Paul jogged toward the entrance and disappeared inside. Mpho watched the doors swing shut, then lifted his bottle again.
-Finally...
He smiled.
-Some peace.
Thirty nautical miles away, at the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, peace was already over.
Inside the control room, nobody had noticed yet. A hundred years of silence from the portal does something to a person; it teaches them not to watch too closely. Meramorre sat slouched in his chair, half-watching a monitor he'd stopped really seeing weeks ago.
Then…
Beep.
He almost didn't look. And then he did, and his whole posture changed.
-Sir!
The supervisor was at his side in seconds.
-What happened?
Meramorre pointed. The supervisor's face drained of color.
-What the...
He straightened fast.
-Contact the soldiers.
Every head in the room turned toward him.
-And get OPESTM on the line. NOW!!!
Back at headquarters, Paul slipped into the meeting room and immediately found Veronica across the table, speaking quietly with Fiana. She looked up. Their eyes met for exactly one second before she looked away again.
Okay, Paul thought. Not having that conversation today.
He took his seat. Moments later, Corlowall entered, and the room fell silent on instinct.
-Gentlemen.
He stood at the head of the table.
-I called this year's annual reporting meeting.
A pause.
-But this year won't be the same.
Jeff frowned.
-What do you mean?
-Don't you think we're wasting our lives here?
Corlowall looked around the table, daring anyone to disagree.
-Most countries and organisations believe OPESTM is no longer necessary. So there's only one conclusion.
He let the silence stretch.
-OPESTM is going to shut down.
Nobody looked surprised. Paul leaned back in his chair.
-Wasn't that obvious? What exactly have we been doing all these years?
He shrugged. -Literally nothing.
Corlowall ignored him and scanned the table again.
-I don't see De Nemo.
He turned to Fiana.
-Still out of reach?
-Yes, sir.
-Last confirmed sighting?
-Four years ago. Bahamas.
His jaw tightened.
-And since then?
-Nothing.
-How does someone stay missing for four years?
His voice rose, and he slammed a hand against the table.
-What kind of organisation are we? A joke?
-Sir, we don't even know if he's alive.
-Keep searching. Find him. Even if he's dead.
A beat.
-His body is valuable to us.
Paul gave a mocking smile.
-At least he's smarter than us. Figured out OPESTM was worthless before the rest of us did.
Corlowall didn't dignify it with a response.
-We have several high-ranking personnel here today. Soldier Prime is absent, and one of our Grand Super Soldiers is currently unreachable.
He folded his hands.
-Does anyone have an objection?
One by one, around the table:
-No.
-No.
-No.
Veronica, quietly:
-No.
Corlowall's eyes landed on Paul last.
Paul shrugged.
-No opinion.
Then…..
Ring.
Jeff's phone buzzed against the table. He glanced down, and whatever he saw there changed his face completely. He grabbed his laptop with both hands.
-Sir...
Corlowall turned.
-What is it?
Jeff stared at the screen like it might change if he looked away.
-I don't think I can agree with the decision.
-Why?
-The scientists at the portal just sent an emergency report.
He swallowed.
-The radiation level... has increased. Abnormally.
The room went still. Paul sat up straight, all the amusement gone from his face in an instant.
-That means...
Jeff looked around at the others.
-Someone is coming.
A beat of silence stretched long enough to hurt.
-Someone is coming...
Quieter now.
-...from the Infinity.
For the first time in a hundred years, OPESTM had a reason to exist again.
To be continued.