PROLOGUE

                                    ⚠️WARNING⚠️

The following literal set may contain depictions of graphic violence, gore, mild use of adult language and other graphic notation at some point. Reader discretion is therefore advised.

***

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

~Arthur C. Clarke

***

                                       PROLOGUE

. . . I N   T H E   B E G I N N I N G, there was nothing but nothingness itself, with no time. No reality. No matter; except for the pre-existing primordial state of the blank universe. No light. An endless void of total darkness.

This changed when there was a sudden explosion. An explosion that cast a bright light illuminating all through the vast emptiness as if a massive light bulb had been turned on. The primordial state of pre-existence had grown weary of its long-term inactivity which had then resulted into the ignition of what was but a tiny little spark. A spark that would unfold into a chain of multiple cosmic reactions and hence . . .The Big Bang itself!

From deep within the explosion, the first of the debris split into three, forming the first objects to ever exist in the cosmos and with the energy from the huge explosion, each of the three pieces acquired a different power with which bonded to create the first world— the Celestial Realm where beings with unspeakable power roamed.

The beings went on to become the Celestials and had grown weary of living in emptiness which prompted them to forge more worlds, harnessing the power of the three pre-existent entities that had brought them into their world—the Darkforce, the Okulus and Reign.

They were the three Heralds that the Celestials used to create new worlds spanning from galaxies, universes and down to other worlds like the Earth.

Too much of anything is indeed toxic and the Celestials, as powerful as they were, paid homage to this adage as they began to conflict with each other on who would get to be custodian of the three Heralds and thus a great cosmic battle ensued.

Blinded by greed, the Celestials lost track of the Heralds that ended up getting dispersed throughout the universe and only two would be found after one of the Celestials—one that had the power to summon lightning and powered the realm—found the Darkforce, the most corrupt of the three Heralds and was turned to the dark side, becoming all the more powerful and reshaping the Celestial Realm into the Speedverse, by using the Okulus.

Powerful enough to find the Okulus—an entity that controlled time and reality itself but even with those two, the Celestial was still unable to find the last and the most potent of the three—Reign.

The Celestial was soon overthrown by others and it became a cycle of chaos and destruction until they had almost wiped themselves out, leaving behind the lesser ones who shed off the term 'Celestial' and took on a newer and much simpler term—god.

These new beings called gods had tried to be a little more 'civilized' but then again the apple never fell far from the tree and they too waged war upon each other, reigniting the Herald drama once more.

This had started when an Orakle (a seer) had caught whispers of a prophecy about the gods having an heir who would finally find the last Herald and use it to unite the other two, becoming ruler of the Ultimate Speedverse—the eternal rewriting of the multiverse by will—meaning there were two sides to this: the will to unite and restore order to all universes or the will to destroy them.

A great slaughter followed in the Speedverse after almost all of the gods had been wiped out, leaving one goddess by the name Elektris still standing, who, driven by the prophecy, created an army of her own, destroying or keeping prisoner anyone who went against her will as most of them would. If anyone was going to wield all three Heralds, it was going to be her. The war and death goddess did not care how many worlds she would have to vanquish in order to have them all.

“In certain accounts told across different universes, these battles have been jotted down in history and mythological books as a Titanomachy. A battle of the gods against the Titans, hence the name. In this Titanomachy, the gods are believed to have defeated the Titans but all that takes a turn in this story. In this universe. The righteous gods lose the war.”

There was one god, however, who managed to escape from the realm but with severe injuries from the war. His signatory appearance being marked by the golden metallic wings on either side of his head as well as on his ankles and possessing a kind of power. The power that would ensure his survival. The power of. . .speed.

He was lost in the cosmos, recuperating; healing; when he found himself on an endless quest to find the one thing that would restore order in all of the universes, only little did he know that he was setting off the fulfilment of the prophecy by doing just that. . .