The human species never escaped their drive for survival. Not a lot of them like to admit it, but they are like any animal. Desperate to pass on their genes for the sake of their species’ survival. Their planet ingrained that will to live at all costs the moment they were born and the first time they drew breath.

  Alone, they were unremarkable, but together they were unbeatable. It was what made humanity such resilient creatures. They were never destined to inherit the Earth, nor were they brought into this world to be masters of their own destiny. Yet, it was their willingness to keep pushing on that made them seize the thrones of their hostile world. The Earth birthed monsters to terrorise, divide, and slaughter them. Its environment was hostile, as it was uncaring. Yet despite it all, humanity thrived either way.

  However, regardless of the remarkable nature of humanity. They were frail, and the looming threat of mass extinction would always be a possibility. They needed a leg up. An early warning system so they could take the first steps to prevent annihilation. There were multiple ways to measure the probabilities of humanity’s demise. But none was as good as the realm the Order had control over. Death World.

  The Order had no idea who created the realm, but they knew exactly what its purpose was. The realm was a calculator, a plane of reality that analysed the world from outside of its control and determined the likeliest scenario for the end of the human race. Though it had limitations and couldn’t calculate factors outside of Earth like the realms of Heaven or Hell. It would provide information about threats to the world that were present on Earth at that moment of time.

  But there was a problem. For the Order Discovery to gather information, they would need to enter the realm which foretold the death of their species. Once every five years, a small team of specialists would make the dangerous journey into the realm to gather data and make an educated guess as to what would doom them. On the 3rd of March, 2015. One expedition would forever alter the realm’s variables.

  All of that change started with a single man named. Alek.

  He hung there by his right leg. Vines wrapped around his ankle as he swayed side to side. His eyes fluttered open, his blurred vision refocused once his mind regained its composure. With a slight movement of his right leg, he grunted in pain. ‘Shit!’ He mumbled to himself as he began to recognise his predicament. He was stuck.

  Alek patted the back but retreated his hand as soon as he felt the crunch of dried blood on his hair. He reached for his earpiece to ask for help, but he got in return was static. If he had to survive, he needed to do it alone.

  After taking a few breaths and counting to three, he reached for his knife that dangled from his pocket. The first step of his escape. Fighting against that sharp pain that built up the more he bent his back. He reached for the vine that wrapped around his right foot and wedged his blade between the root and his boot.

  As he worked away, Alek slammed into the ground as the vine snapped without warning. He coughed and wheezed as he lay there while his back sang in agony.

  He was with a team. They were gathering samples to determine what the realm thought would be the end of humanity. Yet he was alone. In a building that seemed to be a replica of a dark and abandoned underground grocery store. Did they think he was dead? Were they even bothered checking if he was alive? He wasn’t sure which was the likely answer.

  There was no point in complaining. If anything, Alek knew he had to get moving. He faced upwards at where he came from. The concrete was thinner than it should be, perhaps either worn down by the realm’s understanding of erosion or another one of those misunderstandings. ‘I must’ve fallen through there.’

  He said to himself in an annoyed tone. An armature mistake, he should’ve checked the structure before walking on it.

  Alek tried to stand up but tumbled to the ground as his right foot buckled in. Time was short. He couldn’t give up when he still had a chance. Placing all of his weight on his left leg, he clumsily hoisted himself back onto his feet. Alek stuck to the walls of the store, pressing his weight against it to give himself some balance as he limped his way out. The stairs to the surface gave him the most grief. As he had to put all of his strength to lift his injured and tired body.

  Yet through the pain and struggle, he emerged onto the surface. The warm artificial sun kissed his glistened skin of sweat and dried blood. Around him was what seemed to be a cityscape of impressive highrises that touched the heavens. Though Alek knew better than to call it that.

  Death World, while a somewhat reliable source. Was a small realm, no bigger than the island of Manhattan. Because of its size and the scale of its calculations, it made shortcuts. The architecture was an amalgamation of multiple cities combined. Be it the sidewalks of New York, the buildings of London, or the signage of Shanghai. It would have multiple parts of every city slammed together to make a chimeric monstrosity. Some buildings of different designs and shapes were fused together to accommodate the diverse nature of humanity. In short, it had imperfections.

  However, despite the hideous nature of the city of concrete and glass. It was touched by nature. Trees and vines claimed the brutalist world of concrete and glass. Replacing the dull and structured colours of black and grey with shades of green and patterns of yellow. A world that seemed to be one of order was replaced with something chaotic. Yet it wasn’t a powerful force, but slow and caring. The vegetation of the realm wrapped around the structures of man with a loving embrace, like it mourns the loss of a species.

  Alek knew all of it was fake. The plants and any life birthed from the realm were just a byproduct of magical energies which made them no different from plastic ornaments one could get from a gift shop. However, even as a biologist, he could appreciate the effort the realm took. Nonsensical and illogical it may be. It knew how to conjure beauty from death.

  If he would have to make an educated guess on what could end humanity. He, and many others would agree that environmental collapse and catastrophes would be the answer. The Order was aware and determined to tackle the issues climate change posed to the world. While they had the answers, the problem lies with the implementation and the refusal of capital forces.

  Alek journeyed south, navigating through a strange city of concrete decay with a flowery bloom. After he checked his watch, he knew he only had a few minutes before he could evacuate. If there was something risky about the realm, it would be the structural integrity of its buildings it made. He wouldn’t need to worry about creatures or monsters. Alek couldn’t understand why, but he believed that the realm didn’t have enough magical energies to conjure any complex creatures besides bacteria and plant life. Or perhaps it just didn’t feel like it. He wasn’t too sure himself on how the realm worked in its entirety.

  Yet as he kept limping, he couldn’t help but feel the place was… familiar. He stopped at the entrance of a Victoria's Secret shop. Though the sign was half-destroyed, only the first word was visible. Victoria.

  There was something about that name, a sign that itched the back of his bloodied head. A familiar feeling he couldn’t shake off. Like that name was of someone he knew, yet at the same time couldn’t recall.

  ‘I should keep going.’ Alex shook his head as he walked away from the deteriorated shop. Only to stop in his tracks as a stop sign flickered, jumping in and out of reality. He blinked a few times, believing that his head was playing tricks on him. But it flickered again to be replaced with the black silhouette of where it once was. ‘No!’ Alek panicked as he picked up the pace. Not looking back as the world around him flickered.

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  It started small. First it was small rubble and signs. Then entire buildings and even the sky itself. The realm was rebooting, tearing itself apart so it could begin a new set of calculations. Chunk by chunk. Atom but atom. Everything caught in the process was lost to the void. Consumed and destroyed as to be recycled into something the realm desired. A fate Alek wanted to avoid at all costs.

  As the sky turned black, the only thing illuminating Alek’s path was the sun that still remained. Then, he found it. He found his escape. The door that would lead him out of the realm and into his home of Olympus. A smile etched onto his face as he reached for the handle. However, it refused to budge. The door was locked shut from the other side, and he didn’t have a key to open it. No one in his team was ever provided one in case there was something malicious hidden in the realm. A fail safe to defend the world.

  Dread kicked in. His shoulders became heavy, he loomed his head down and against the cold door that was his only escape. He had no means to escape, no means to survive. All he could do was stay and accept his fate. As the world flickered away into darkness. Alek stood in one spot to watch it all crumble.

  First the door behind him disappeared, then the world around became engulfed in darkness. With the sun being the last to go. Blinded and afraid, he gave himself a silent prayer to calm his soul. There was nothing in the world of darkness besides his thoughts and the ground he stood on. He was alone.

  Yet the darkness wasn’t meant to last long. All around him, with a flash. Swirls of colours burst to life and moved in a visual symphony. Pink hues and purple sparks smashed against each other to create explosions of red with blue fiery trails. Below him, teal streaks danced around yellow flowers while above him blends of violet mixed with meteors of white.

  He stood in awe as the realm that pictured the death of humanity rebooted. Considering the smallest variables that make up its incomprehensible formula. It was a dance of magic, a display of power no human had ever witnessed besides him. The scale of it all moved Alek’s heart, which caused him to shed a tear. A beautiful show to watch before he died.

  Then it ended.

  It had no conclusion. It had no further grand display. All it did was suddenly and without warning, end. Returning Alek to a world of darkness, however, he was able to see. While his visual range was limited to a few metres, the only thing around was the road he stood on.

  He blinked, and what appeared was a scarred old man staring at Alek in confusion with a slight hunch. Like he was trying to examine him. Alek shook his head, thinking it was a trick. Yet the figure remained ever present. The scarred man had a missing eye, his clothing worn and patched together. Alek was about to raise his voice but stopped when he realised the finer details. He knew that look. Those eyes. He saw an anger that was too close to home, and a sadness revealed to him the truth.

  While the man looked at Alek with grief, Alek looked back in horror. The old man was not just any person. Instead, he was an image of what Alek would become. A path that Alek could follow, the image of something he dreaded to become.

  As the old man took a step towards Alex, the man looked upset as Alek limped one step back. He saw something horrible in his older self, a nightmare he refused to become. He saw pain, misery, the worse version of himself if he made the choices the older version had made. They didn’t need to exchange words to convey what they felt about one another. One had regret, while the other refused to acknowledge them.

  Alek blinked, and the scarred man was gone. Alek sighed in relief, thankful he didn’t have to lay eyes on his alternate self. He reasoned that what he saw was a theoretical idea of what he would become if he made the wrong choices or took the wrong path. He couldn’t tell what the old man was. A survivor, a killer, or a monster. Whatever he saw, he hated it.

  He looked around, trying to think about what he could do to escape. Still shaken after what he witnessed. But as he turned around, he noticed the decomposed body of a headless young boy. Standing hundred metres away from him. In his arms was a mechanical dog with its guts of wire and circuitry spilling out from its belly.

  The boy’s shoulders parted, bone snapped and broke to make room for something larger. Slowly snaking out of his chest was a spine made from conjoined hands of bone.Then, the skull of a bird emerged. As it came fully out of the boy’s body, the decomposed corpse collapsed to the ground like a wet puppet while the bird skull remained upright and in the air. The neck moved around as it slithered in the air to the direction of Alek, spanning hundreds of metres long till it slammed the tip of its black beak in front of Alek.

  Alek didn’t know or understood its intentions. But he understood that he was looking at the master of the realm. The architect that was trapped to only dream of the end of the world. A ruler with no kingdom, a king with no subjects to torment. Until now.

  Alek tried to move, yet was powerless to do anything. He wanted to look away only for the architect to lock his head in place. It wanted him to see.

  Its eye sockets revealed Alek's paths. A world of endless possibilities of death and pain. It revealed glimpses. Worlds that could and couldn’t happen. Over and over, it forced Alek to watch what he could do and why. Every choice! Good to bad, virtuous to totally evil. A play that had no heroes, instead it made a cruel joke. A joke it showed Alek in the most heartless way possible that no matter what he would do, he was weak and powerless to change anything. A victim of his own destiny.

  In one vision, he was in a tunnel after the world had gone mad. A woman had been injured. Someone he would grow to care for. Yet besides heading left, he turned right and left her for dead. He would be alone, miserable, a shell of a man of what he could’ve been and would have become.

  Or before the world was driven to madness. It wouldn’t be his best friend to fall ill from the virus. No, he would be the one to die a horrible death in front of his loved ones. Being left to rot with no one to save him.

  Another vision showed him staying with the woman he loved. Someone he stuck with while the world decayed. But as the years grew cold, supplies had dwindled. He would consume her flesh, bit by bit to stay alive. Driven mad by his own stomach.

  The creature showed him those visions, over and over again. Without pause, without mercy. The architect of the realm suffered from its isolation for centuries. It had a plaything, a toy to pacify and use as it saw fit. To use and abuse like how a spoiled child would destroy their priced gifts to demand for more.

  It was then Alek realised the truth of the realm. Death World wasn’t meant to be used to foreshadow the end of the world. It was meant to cage a horror that only dreamed of humanity’s demise. Its likely predictions were just its way of visualising what it desired. Its mistakes and misunderstandings were all just a way to mock humanity.

  Now it had Alek under its iron grip. Alek had knowledge of the world that the creature lacked. Answers of a world beyond Earth and its secrets.