Momentary Insanity | Zbiór Opowiadań

Demigods [ENG]

 Cold.

What awakens them is the cold. That's what they feel first, at least. There is a thousand other things that could have awakened them, though. No breath in their lungs. A strange sensation, a sense of emptiness inside, an emptiness that's rapidly expanding throughout their entire bodies. But what awakens them is the cold. Cold is what they know. It's the only thing they know here.

A flash of red and white is spreading all around them. It's swallowed some, it's going to swallow others. Chasing them across the dark nothing, as they're floating further and further away from it. Some of them, in the deepest corners of their minds, know that the white flash is rushing after them with the speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour... But right now, it feels like its taking forever.

They don't have a chance to look around. Only some are fortunate enough to be staring into anything other than the blazes. But what they are staring at... They only have a fraction of a moment. But even if they had a thousand years, they wouldn't understand it.

There is a lot of wonderful sights amongst the stars. Nebulas are beautiful. What they're looking at could be taken for a nebula. But a nebula is, in fact, a swarm of dust and gas, swirling around in zero gravity. If a human found themselves inside a nebula, they'd just see some reflecting light, and they'd soon be consumed by the near-nothing they'd find there. Now, all of them are so close by to... this, and it only seems like something denser and more familiar than before. They see figures rising from the shiny clouds of dust and gas. Glittering particles are woven together with the vacuum to create...

The giants aren't moving. Just like the humans, those creatures are stuck as they were created in what feels like an eternity. The only thing around that's changing, progressing in any way, is their creation. Every second feels like millions of years, and yet they're appearing in an instant. The clouds of colour and light they had thought were millions of light years away are close by and each of them is spitting out a new... A new what? What are they?

They don't know. What's more, the giants might not know either. All are created in one pose - they're raising their hands, as if they're trying to defend themselves, as if they're not titans the size of galaxies, and they're shielding themselves from the blow. The blow that's chasing after everything in its path. How long before it dies out? How much will it consume?

Only few people have been thrown away far enough to see beyond those hands risen in defence. They can see one thing, one more thing, different than the others. But they're the only ones who will understand. In the fraction of a second that they have, they will understand.

They see the titans' eyes.

In those eyes, there is more than they had ever seen. There are galaxies in those eyes. Universes. There's beginning and end, life and death, there's stars and there's black holes, and Earths, and comets, and nebulas of nebulas creating thousands of thousands of worlds. And there's also fear. There's uncertainty. Among all the dazzling stars and worlds, there's a simple sparkle of curiosity. Those eyes aren't just open - they're widened, consuming every detail around them, hungry, but hungry simply for knowledge. Those eyes are new to this world.

Nebulas only give birth to stars.

Those who had been thrown the furthest by the spaceship explosion knew that whatever they had just seen gives birth to gods.

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Author's Note:

I opened an old file to write something else and found this little thing I wrote once in an attempt (failed) to fight the ever-returning writer's block. Decided to post it after some editing, because I liked it! It's heavily inspired by both the musical piece linked to this chapter and its cover art (low-key by the entire album, to be honest).
Hope you enjoyed!