IMPORTANT: The first 9 chapters currently are rewritten from the original to be in line with the comic Webtoon. They do better reflect the quality of later chapters, but I apologize in advance for when you go from new, to a few years old writing with chapter 10 and beyond. Please bear with it, it gets better the farther you read <3
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09:30 AM - February 1st, 2026 : Arlington, Virginia | United States
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"Ugh…" I let out a groan as I lethargically opened my eyes. -Is today the day?-
My name was Jack, Jack Notorrea. Or at least that's what my ID said.
I worked for DARPA, a scientific research company that generally specialized in advancing science, and using new breakthroughs to develop weapons for the United States military that only occasionally had to follow the Geneva Convention.
Similar to upper-level CIA agents, everything was confidential and controlled to an unbelievable degree. There were even some rumors passing through the lab that the president tried to get information on our new developments and was denied.
Although I never did verify whether it was true or not.
At the time, I was a lead development programmer: the person in charge of everything software-related during experiments. Typically, I was the one to make the initial programs for experiments, and once some test experiments were done, I would hand it to another software engineering team, and move to the next new experiment.
It was an incredibly important position, an irreplaceable part of the puzzle that made DARPA what it was.
However, at twenty-six years old, I was the youngest in the entire lab by several years, and it gave me more trouble than I would have liked.
*tap-Rush* Filling up a cup of freezing water through a dispenser next to my bed, I quickly woke up and started getting ready.
That morning was an important one. Over the last few weeks, I had been lifelessly working on a program for a new experiment that was touching on a realm of science most of the engineers had never heard of known as dimensional science.
Although I always did my part in studying topics prior to creating the software for the experiment, it was the first one to truly go over my head. -If they came out and said we got the method for this experiment from aliens, I'd believe them…-
But it wasn't like I could halt the experiment until I understood the details I didn't explicitly need to know. -I just wish they'd give us a purpose for the experiment besides ripping a hole in space…-
Quickly getting ready, I threw on some comfy clothes and slippers before grabbing my essentials and walking out into the plain, dark blue hallway.
"Haah…" -Sometimes I wish I just became a game developer…-
It was going to be a long day…
With the experiment needing to happen in the next 36 hours, we were on a time crunch.
Sleeping was no longer a luxury we could enjoy.
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05:00 AM - The Next Day
- Kevin J. ~
*Siip* Sipping on my steaming, dark morning coffee, I looked over several rows of computers filled with engineers and scientists before raising my gaze up to a room separated by several feet of glass, containing a single, levitating steel ball in it.
It was the subject of an experiment we were about to conduct outside the gaze of humanity, five miles underground, in one of DARPA's most secure and isolated laboratories.
As things were, it was an experiment the world would never hear about. Even if it were successful, outside of the laboratory, our names would be never mentioned.
After all, to the outside world, we didn't exist.
"How long until it's ready?" Looking down at our lead programmer, Jack, I took another sip of my coffee.
"Everything is ready except for the capacitors." He paused as he quickly flipped through menus. "They still have five hours and fifty minutes until they're fully charged, sir." He was a young man, only 26 years old, but an unrivaled prodigy we wouldn't have gotten this far without.
To keep things short, his program was what controlled the entire experiment, and while it meant the entire thing hinged on him, I had complete faith that it would work flawlessly.
*Sip* Looking back up at the metal ball, I felt my chest clench. -The time has finally come for humanity to make its next leap!-
The plan was simple, rip a hole in the fabric of space at the epicenter of the floating sphere and use the countless sensors on board to gather as much information as we could about the realm beyond.
According to math, it was a black hole, and according to physics, it was a gate to the 4th dimension.
However, both the physicists and mathematicians agreed on what to call the experiment: [Pandora's Box]
The only objection was me, because I could only compare the experiment to Niel Armstrong's first step on the moon… A necessary step for the growth of humanity.
-It's finally time...- A slightly crazed expression found its way to my face as my heart pounded, spreading adrenaline through my body. -It's time humanity greets the realm of the gods!-
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11:00 AM - Six Hours Later
- Jack N. ~
"Sir, three minutes remaining on the capacitors." I glanced up at Kevin, standing on the raised platform behind me as I spoke.
He was still wearing a wide smile that had yet to leave his face since the morning, with his unwavering gaze aimed at the sphere in the testing chamber. "Good, good."
His tone, containing a hint of insanity instantly sent a wave of anxiety over me. It twisted my stomach in a knot and made it ache as if I was going to vomit.
Over the last few hours, I had brawled with the sensation, trying to ignore it with every fiber of my being, but it had progressively eaten at me. -Is this experiment really something we should proceed with..?-
Slowly turning back to my computer, my eyes settled on the slowly ticking timer.
'2:05' *tick* '2:04' *tick* '2:03' *tick*
My gut was yelling at me. Although hard to describe, I felt like something would go horribly wrong if continued the experiment as things were. -Maybe we should redo the calculations...-
"Hahaha..." A muffled, psychotic chuckle pierced my thoughts before I glanced back up at Kevin, still staring at the sphere while the sanity continually drained from his eyes.
-It's like he's possessed...- I felt sick looking at him.
But seeing the putrid expression he wore was what made the switch in my mind finally flip. -No… My gut is never wrong.-
Steeling my resolve, I decided to stop the experiment. -But I can't just delay it… I need it to go wrong…- *Cl-Cl-Click* Quickly jumping through windows on my computer, I pulled up a wall of code before searching for a variable name and jumping to it.
*Beep* As I rushed to edit several variables and formulas, a robotic voice echoed out with a beep, "One Minute until Experiment #4021 commences."
"HAHAHAHAHA, if this experiment works, we may be able to make contact with higher beings! With GODS!" Kevin's maniacal laugh made everyone in the room suddenly tense.
Countless thoughts rushed to the minds of those who could hear him, with some considering abandoning the experiment like me, while others were simply consumed by their curiosity.
But while many wanted to do something to stop it, they couldn't.. they could only watch on as the countdown began.
*Beep* "Commencing experiment in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1.." *Click*
The silence that followed was indescribably deafening. -Did my changes.. populate in time?-
We all stared at the test chamber with bated breaths, but after a few seconds, Kevin spoke while tightly gripping the railing of the platform above us with a serious expression resulting from deep thought. "Did it.. work-" *RUMBLEEEEEEE*
A massive earthquake-like shaking instantly cut him off, shaking ceiling tiles lose, throwing people onto the ground, and tossing computers across the desks.
When it stopped after just a few seconds, we all opened our eyes, and rushed to stand up, looking through the thick wall of glass to see what had happened.
But no one felt anything but confusion. "Huh?"
Beyond the glass, there was a black mist that had begun leaking out of the space where the ball was, slowly filling the testing chamber and liquifying everything it happened to touch before beginning to bore through the reinforced glass.
-What.. the…- It was simply indescribable, it felt as if I was staring into the endless night sky, only lit by the glimmer of distant stars, but instead of comfort, I felt fear. Every fiber of my body told me to run, but I simply couldn't. I was stuck in place as if my feet had been glued to the ground.
"AHHHHH!!!" A female colleague was the first to break out of the trance that was cast on us as she ran across the lab toward the door, knocking over everything in her path.
And it wasn't long before others followed. "R-RUUNN!!" Descending into panic, everyone ran to the door, not caring what equipment they broke or what cable snapped in the process.
I was certainly no exception, but as I ran toward the door, I looked up and saw Kevin staring into the mist, gripping the metal railing in front of him so hard that blood oozed out from under his nails.
"That must be our GOD." He had completely lost his sanity, staring into the mist with his bloodshot eyes as wide as could be. "We are the first to lay eyes on the divine!"
-Fucking psycho!- But while I wanted to leave, regardless of how hard we tugged on the door, it refused to budge. The quake we felt had jammed it from the other side.
""AAAHHHH!!!"" The deafening screams of my colleagues wrecked my mind as I finally turned around to see the mist eat through the glass and spread through the room like a blaze that couldn't be extinguished.
It seemed to devour everything in its path, instantaneously melting steel and consuming everything, even sound as if it were a vacuum before finally reaching Kevin.
"This is our Savior! Our Salvati-" His crazed voice was suddenly cut short as the mist engulfed him, melting away his body like it was made of wax before finally reaching us and doing the same.
I felt nothing but fear as my vision blurred, and the world went silent.
As memories rushed to surface in my brain, I looked down and watched as layers of my hands were simply erased as if being consumed, layer by layer.
But somehow, my mind was calm. I felt nothing. As if I was just listlessly floating in space, observing my own demise.
However, as I stood there, staring into the mist as my colleagues were melted into nothingness around me, time seemed to slow. I couldn't move my eyes, tense my muscles, or even breathe.
By the time my mind registered it, however, it was too late.
Before I had a chance to react, a colossal, abyssally dark sphere engulfed me, removing the rest of my little remaining senses in their entirety, and leaving nothing, not even the sensation of my own body in my mind.
The only way to describe it was as if my body was removed from the world, only leaving my inner-consciousness intact. It was as if I became a floating bundle of thought.
But just as a thought began to flow, an unfathomable pulse of heat ripped through me, bringing with it a sensation so excruciating that it couldn't be associated with something as trivial as pain.
It only continued for a moment, but in that time, the grip I had on my sanity began to loosen, to the point it was held by a thread. I desperately reached for anything I could find to strengthen my grip on it, a sensation, a memory, or even a formula or theory, but rather than grabbing something, I found that I had nothing to grab with.
In a mix of panic and fear, my consciousness refused to budge. I had lost the ability to think, as if the river of thought had turned into a glacier.
But just as the final thread holding my sanity was going to snap, the pain-like sensation disappeared, being replaced by a soothing, smooth, and soft one.
It was only then that my consciousness caught up, flooding my mind with the memories and sensations of what I just experienced, and allowing for a single thought to form. -W..what.. happened to me…-
My mind didn't give me a chance to think of answering that question, however.
After just a moment, something surfaced in my consciousness, something akin to a memory.
It was the view of a huge dragon covered with frosty, snow-white scales, ice-covered white horns, huge, spanning wings, and stunning, sky-blue eyes.
It was an indescribable beautiful creature, carrying an air of majesty as if I were looking upon some ancient royalty.
I was irresistably entranced by it before a warmth flooded my chest and a calm and soothing voice appeared in my mind. "Vasilias Ragnarok."
The voice spoke a name, my name. Although I still can't describe how, I recognized it in an instant.
But the moment I accepted it, an indescribable, pulsating pressure squeezed my head, and seemingly random knowledge was forcefully shoved into my brain.
It was such a huge volume of information that it blotted out all thought, but as if it was being guided by an external force, it forced its way into my mind regardless.
The next thing I knew, I was unconscious.
When I finally awoke, my senses had returned. I was floating in a pool of liquid, but the temperature was so perfect I couldn't feel where it touched my skin.
Trying my best to regain control of myself, I tried moving around but was immediately met with a wall restricting my movements. -Huh?-
Pushing my legs into it, I used all the strength I could muster to try and break out. *Crack* But as I heard a crack I felt myself fall over and begin to roll. -Uh oh!-
In an instinctual panic, I flexed my limbs to hold myself in place, filling the egg-shaped space I was trapped in.
But rather than questioning if or why I was in some kind of egg, my mind was dominated by unfamiliar sensations I felt in places other than my arms and legs.
I had a tail, and.. wings?