A man was trudging down the quiet street, shoulders hunched and eyes half-lidded from exhaustion, with a bag in his hands.
His steps were heavy, each step echoing lazily against the pavement.
The glow of dim street lamps cast a sickly yellow hue over everything.
"What a busy day. I can't wait to get home." He muttered under his breath, grumbling about the endless grind, the late hours, and the mountain of work he'd left behind.
Yet, despite his fatigue, a flicker of urgency pulsed in his mind.
'Anya will kill me when I get home.' Anya's birthday was tonight, and he knew she wouldn't let him forget how late he already was today, even if she would pretend to be gracious in front of her friends.
'I could say I was late buying everything for this special day after work.' He had bought gifts, cards and a cake. She'd forgive him for being this late, right?
As his footsteps quickened as he weaved through the near-empty street that seemed oddly silent tonight, a slight shiver ran down his spine, but he brushed it off as cold fatigue.
Suddenly, everything around him plunged into an eerie darkness.
The familiar glow of street lamps, the distant hum of city life—all vanished in an instant, leaving him in pitch black darkness.
Before he could process what was happening, a sudden violent force struck him from above.
An unseen massive object hurtled through the void, travelling at incomprehensible speeds.
Its impact was absolute and instant—no warning, no sound, no chance to react.
In that moment, everything ceased—his breath, his heartbeat, his hopes for tonight's celebration.
His entire body was completely obliterated, vanishing from existence. But he wasn't the only one affected by this impact.
The surrounding area was completely devastated by the impact brought about by this collision.
However, a phenomenon completely invisible to the normal naked eye began to take place.
Millions of colorless illusory orbs rose into the starry sky, pulled by a strange force, guided across space at incredible speeds.
But among these orbs, there was one that stood out. Unlike, the others which had no color, this one was green.
And it was being pulled at a speed much faster than the others, as it moved across the starry sky.
It was only after all this had transpired that a figure appeared within the vicinity of the impact—seemingly out of nowhere, observing the root cause of all the devastation around her.
She then stared at the dark sky, looking at the near-invisible orbs with some panic, before smiling slightly, "He was not here."
The woman had a presence radiating an otherworldly allure rooted in divine majesty.
She had long purple hair that cascaded in shimmering silken waves, framing her face and shoulders with an almost ethereal glow.
Her features are perfectly balanced—high cheekbones, a luminous complexion that seems to shimmer with an inner glow, and eyes that hold the wisdom of ages, sparkling with a hint of celestial light.
Her gaze is both penetrating and gentle, as if she sees through the fabric of reality itself.
She wears contemporary fashion—a sleek satin blouse that shimmers softly like a starry night, paired with tailored high-waisted trousers that hug her form perfectly.
Despite wearing such mortal attire, her aura is unmistakably divine.
If the man who died here earlier saw this woman, he would have been shocked.
"Great! I awaken a few minutes ago, and something hits the city where I am at, destroying everything." It was really an unexpected coincidence—maybe the work of fate.
As she observed the massive object in front of her, she couldn't help but frown. 'How strange. I'm standing so close to it, yet its presence is incredibly faint to the point that it feels as if it doesn't exist.'
The giant object looked like a giant rock.
It was only when she extended her hand out, did something within her resonate deeply with the weirdly shaped object in front of her.
As she channeled her energy into the object, an extremely strong suction force quickly devoured her energy.
In only a few seconds her entire energy reserves were depleted.
She then had a thoughtful expression. "A devouring type material?"
But the rock like object wasn't satisfied with just her energy alone, it also started absorbing her essence and her soul as well.
She started to panic feeling her very existence at danger now realizing that this material was not what she thought it was.
But it was too late to do anything. Just like the man earlier, she soon died as well, seemingly devoured by the strange rock.
It was only after she was completely gone did the massive object vanish as well along with both of their traces.
Not long after, two new figures appeared on the scene—a bearded old man with a sagely aura and a bald man with slightly elongated earlobe as a symbol of wisdom and enlightenment.
They frowned as they observed the city from the atmosphere of the planet.
Their senses soon covered the entirety of planet Earth.
"Don't you find that aura similar?" The bearded man asked, expressing that he found it familiar, but he couldn't be sure.
"Yes, it is her. Her aura is unmistakable to us who deal with existence. The Soul Reign Empress was here. She must have awakened in our world this cycle." The bald man confirmed the old man's suspicions with a solemn expression.
The bearded man looked at the scene and his eyes glowed as he started to watch the events flow in reverse.
He witnessed everything that had occurred and his face changed as he watched everything play out. When he finished, he said, "This wasn't caused by her. Even I can't tell what caused this."
When he had looked into the past, there was a moment when everything became blurry until the moment before the object came into Earth's vicinity did it suddenly become clear again.
The bearded man explained this to the bald man hoping he would know something about this. But he was disappointed to learn that even the wise bald man didn't have a clue about this type of situation.
He then suggested, "I think we need to let the rest of the court know about this. She has seemingly already left the planet, so it is not in any danger at the time. This matter is too strange if even you can't fathom it."
They both flew away from the Earth, flying back the way they came, left in the dark about what had truly happened.
The people of Earth would claim that the city was destroyed by an asteroid.
There would be many other absurd claims like it was heavenly punishment which sounded quite reasonable.
Because how else could something that could destroy an entire city go completely unnoticed by the entire world until after its impact.
Groups rose claiming the end of the world was near, while countries took this matter seriously.
Who knows, maybe their country would be hit again by an invisible asteroid in the future.
Earth began to develop quickly as a result. But that is a story for another time.