Cosmic Dominion: Rise Beyond Realms

A faint, rhythmic hum reverberated through the darkness. That reverberation was enough to pull me from the depths of unconsciousness. My eyes fluttered open, and for a moment, everything was a blur. I could see the shadows and lights dancing together in a chaotic harmony.

The hum grew louder, more distinct, almost like the beating of a massive heart. My chest rose as I took in a sudden gasp. My hands shot to my throat. I was alive.

"What... what is going on?"

I croaked, my voice a raspy echo swallowed by the vast silence. The sheer terror of the unknown gripped me, making my heart race in my chest. I was disoriented, struggling to understand my situation.

A soft, silver glow began to filter through the darkness. It was faint and delicate. As my vision cleared, I saw it... The light of distant stars scattered across the infinite black.

I raised my trembling hand, the light slipping between my fingers like liquid silk. It painted my skin in shades of silver and shadow, illuminating the fine lines of my palm.

The stars were so big that it made me feel so insignificant, like a grain of dust adrift in an endless sea…

"What is this? Where... am I?"

I whispered, my voice barely audible.

I struggled to move; my body felt sluggish, like I had been asleep for years. I turned my head slowly, trying to make sense of my surroundings. There was no ground beneath me, no sky above me- only the unbroken void, a silent abyss stretching infinitely in every direction.

The realisation hit me hard, and my chest tightened as I clung to the fleeting calm sensation. 

"Am I dead?! Am I in the afterlife!!!" I muttered, my voice trembling. 

"No… it feels too real. Too vivid…"

I tried moving my fingers, moving my limbs, and touching every part of my body.

"I am not dead, I think...probably..." my voice rising with frustration.

"Last thing I remember... I was on Kepler. There was the box. And then..."

My voice trailed off as flashes of memory clawed their way to the surface: the searing pain, the blinding light, the energy that tore through me.

I clutched my head, shaking it violently.

"No, no, no... this isn't real. It can't be real...Right?!"

I fought against the creeping sense of dread and refused to accept the reality I found myself in.

"Focus, Shin...Focus..."

I said to myself, my voice trembling but firm.

"You're alive. Somehow. Figure out where the hell you are."

I twisted slightly and looked around for anything... anything... that could make sense of this bizarre place. But there was nothing. Just the oppressive silence and the eternal, unbroken darkness…

There was no ground beneath me, no horizon to anchor my gaze, just an infinite black canvas dotted with the faint of distant stars and galaxies. The light of the distant stars was soft, almost timid. Planets hung far in the distance.

"Is anyone out there?"

Inside, I knew there was no one out there, but I still shouted, maybe out of hope or maybe just to keep myself sane in this situation.

"Joseph? Zhang? Anyone?"

The silence swallowed my words, its indifference a slap in the face.

"Great!!!" I muttered bitterly, running a hand through my hair.

"Not only am I stranded in...but I'm also completely alone. Just perfect..."

My hands clenched into fists as a surge of frustration and fear bubbled to the surface.

"This has to be a bad dream. It's the only explanation..."

I said while nodding as though to convince myself.

"Any second now, I'll wake up. I'll be back on the ship. Zhang will yell at me for oversleeping. Joseph will make some dumb joke..."

I clung to this rationalisation, desperate for it to be true.

I closed my eyes tightly and prayed for the nightmare to end.

"Just wake up, Shin. Wake up... You motherfucker..."

But I was still there when I opened my eyes, drifting in the black. "Damn it!" I shouted, my voice filled with rage.

I pressed my hands to my temples, my breathing uneven. "Okay, okay... maybe I'm not dreaming after all..."

I raised my trembling hands, turned them over and inspected them. They were just as I remembered—scarred, calloused from years of work, entirely human. Nothing had changed. Nothing felt different.

"Okay... nothing's wrong with me... physically, at least..."

A sense of vertigo gripped me, and I felt like I was falling, though I wasn't moving at all... Or I was slowly moving... I don't know...

I asked aloud, my voice shaking, "Is this a fucking joke?!"

The silence offered no answer.

The last thing I remembered was the planet Kepler and the box.

"What the hell happened back there?" I asked myself, my voice rising with frustration. 

I clenched my teeth and tried to force myself to think. "Okay, Shin. You survived the planet's destruction somehow..."

I looked around again, my gaze sweeping the endless void.

"But what is this place? Is this space... that's the only logical explanation right now..."

I floated aimlessly, staring out into the vastness. I ran a hand through my hair, gripping it tightly, "What do I do now?"

The question hung in the air, unanswered, as I drifted into the endless abyss and my mind racing to make sense of the impossible. Then, suddenly, the realisation hit me like a jolt of electricity.

 "Humans need air to survive… Right?!..."

I froze, my chest tightening as the thought unravelled in my mind, "There's no air in space…."

I muttered, my voice trembling. My hand instinctively moved to my chest, feeling the steady rise and fall. My breathing was calm, smooth, and normal.

"But... how?!"

"Am I hallucinating or something?" I whispered. 

The thought made my stomach twist, and fear clawed at the edges of my sanity. I placed a hand over my mouth to test for the warm rush of breath against my palm. It was there.

"No, I'm breathing…" I said, shaking my head.

"I'm breathing, but... I shouldn't be. There's no air here. No oxygen. Nothing..."

I stared at my hands.

"This doesn't make any sense. This isn't possible…" I muttered. "I should've suffocated and frozen solid the moment I got here..."

My thoughts raced as I tried to piece together an explanation. Was it the box? Did it change me somehow?

"No way, right!!!" I said while shaking my head rapidly.

I exhaled slowly. Despite the panic, my breath was steady.

"I'm alive," I murmured, the words feeling foreign on my tongue. "Somehow, I'm alive, that's all."

The thought comforted and terrified me all at once. I wasn't dead, but neither was I safe. Whatever had brought me here, whatever had kept me breathing in the vacuum of space…it wasn't normal.

I floated, unable to move or push myself toward anything, just floating. My body was hung in the void. I only had my pants, which were reduced to tatters. Every inch of skin was exposed to the cold vacuum, yet I didn't freeze. I felt the sharp, relentless cold, but I didn't get consumed.

Then suddenly, I felt a dull ache in my stomach, and I thought I could ignore it. But as the days turned into weeks and the weeks blurred into months, the ache became sharper and fiercer, trying to consume every part of me…

I clutched my stomach, my fingers digging into my skin.

"Damn it!" I yelled into the void, my voice hoarse and cracked.

"Damn it all! Just let me eat something!!!"

Soon, I also started to feel trusty. I pressed my hands to my dry throat, my voice trembling as I whispered, "Water... just a drop... anything…"

Images of cool, clear streams filled my mind—water cascading over rocks, shimmering in the sunlight. My tongue moved instinctively, but my mouth was dry. The intense thirst started to make me hallucinate.

People can't live without water. I should be dead by now. But I wasn't dead.

Even though I wasn't dead, the pain was still there.

I clenched my teeth, my voice rising in frustration.

"What the hell is wrong with me? Why won't my body give up? Why won't it end?"

The hunger clawed at me. It was relentless. I pressed my palms against my ears, trying to block out the growling of my own stomach, but it was useless.

"Shut up," I muttered, half-delirious. "Just shut up!!!"

My throat burned as I screamed into the void,

"IS THIS A PUNISHMENT? HUH? IS THIS SOME KIND OF SICK GAME? IT'S BEEN ALREADY A MONTH PROBABLY....."

My voice echoed into the emptiness, swallowed up by the silence. I laughed bitterly, my chest heaving, "Right. Of course. No answers. Just me and my stupid, growling stomach..."

Time stretched endlessly, and the pain never stopped. My hands trembled as I pressed them to my stomach.

"I'll die of hunger for sure," I whispered to myself, my voice cracked. "I'll starve to death. Any second now. Just... let it happen...I can't take any more of this shit..."

But I didn't die. The ache remained and burned like a fire that couldn't be extinguished. My body didn't grow weaker, didn't waste away. It simply endured. It felt like my own body was mocking me with its unnatural resilience.

"Why am I still alive?" I asked the void, my voice breaking. "What's the point? What's the point of this... this torture?"

The silence offered no answers, but I kept talking only to hear my own voice. "You know what I miss?" I said to the nothingness, a hollow laugh escaping my lips. "Pizza. A big, cheesy slice. Maybe some pepperoni. Or hell, even ramen. Just... anything..."

My stomach growled louder. I curled into myself, my arms wrapped tightly around my knees as I floated in the endless void.

"I don't know how long I can take this," I whispered. "I'm losing my mind. I'm talking to myself. To nothing…"

A bitter laugh escaped me, followed by a choked sob.

"Five months. It's already been five fucking months. Floating like some... some cursed ghost."

My throat burned, and my voice grew quieter.

"Please... someone. Anyone. Just let me go. Let me rest… Let me die…"

But the pain didn't kill me. The thirst didn't end me. I was left alone, my body trapped in an endless cycle of hunger, thirst, and survival.

And the loneliness was almost worse than the hunger. I hadn't spoken to another soul in five months. My own voice became foreign to me, a phantom sound that seemed to belong to someone else. I closed my eyes, trying to remember the faces of those I loved—Joseph, Zhang, Maki. But even their features began to blur, slipping away like sand through my fingers.

"Don't forget them," I whispered to myself. "Don't you dare forget them…"

The ache in my chest differed from the hunger, sharper and more profound. It was the pain of losing everything, of being wholly and utterly alone. But even in the depths of my despair, a small, stubborn part of me refused to give up. Somehow, I was alive. Somehow, I was still enduring everything.

"Maybe..." I murmured, staring at the distant stars. "Maybe I'm still alive for a reason… I might actually have a purpose…."

The thought was faint, barely more than a whisper in my mind. But it was enough to keep me going, to push me through the endless void.

The hunger, thirst, and pain couldn't kill me. And so, I drifted on, clinging to the fragile hope that somewhere, somehow, I would find my way out of this hell.

TO BE CONTINUED