''Understood''
The voice called out, Marion found himself in a white chair,
''for the safety of the vessel it is advised to stay seated throughout the journey outside the perimeter of the explosion,
Also be advised that your decision has been recorded in the swarm, any and all decisions taken independently will be judged accordingly by the hive, until you receive judgement this shard will do its best to keep you alive''
'judgement? first let's get out of here in one piece then we can see about that'
Marion was sitting down in his chair staring at nothing but the white expanse,
''HEY! are we moving? i can't tell, and i can't move i'm stuck here''
''No, the shard is preparing to move, if you wish i could make the shard transparent to your sensory systems so that the vessel can ascertain that we are indeed on the move, additionally the vessel isn't moving because it would be a danger to the vessel's life if it did move''
Marion shook his head, ''show me the outside''
All around Marion, the sphere turned transparent, he could see, smell, even feel the wind on his skin, it was surreal, all the while he was floating above the ground, still unable to move yet not attached to anything.
Floating above ground, looking around at still surrounding, yet he was rising ever so slightly with each passing second,
Time passed and still slowly he was rising, pebbles started shaking around Marion, the wind started picking up, and he rose higher a little faster,
It was surreal, an almost out of body experience, to be floating in midair, meters above the ground, nothing suspending you in the air.
'I wouldn't die from a fall from this height' Marion thought,
Still he wasn't ready to try his luck,
Then he stopped ascending,
''hey, why did we stop?''
''Do not worry vessel, this is just standard procedure, your safety is assured'' The voice said as smoothly as ever,
Marion waited, and just as he had started to calm down, he felt it,
His hairs stood on end, unconsciously he gulped, his throat ran dry,
He felt it before it came, it was a weird feeling, how would he know if something was coming, but when something of this scale was happening its waves radiated out even before it did, instinctual fear kicking in even though he didn't know what to fear.
The earth shook, it started off slow, then ramped up, at first only pebbles moved, then cars shook, after a couple seconds buildings moved slightly,
''jesus christ, it really is the end of the world''
Marion couldn't believe his eyes, one hardly could when the world was tumbling down in front of his eyes,
Buildings shook harder, then fell, one after the other, tumbling down like dominoes into each other,
The sound, the smoke, the rubble, the dirt flying everywhere, blinding, deafening, and filling his nose, he could feel all of the destruction,
''GET ME OUT OF HERE, YOU WEIRD SENTIENT VOICE'' Marion yelled out, losing his cool.
''Do not worry vessel, your safety is guarranteed according to our calculations''
''WELL IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT WAY TO ME'' Marion squirmed about
''We can assure you it is that way, if you would like we could show you our calculations, they are infallible, i will pull up the calculations to ascertain the vessel, the vessel seems to be-''
''DON'T BRING UP CALCULATIONS JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE'' Marion panicked more and more,
With each passing second the earth rumbled and cracked,
''Understood vessel''
The air around Marion suddenly stopped moving, tens of meters in the air everything stood still,
No speck of dust or dirt coming close anymore, a perimeter formed around Marion,
The earth crackled, splitting, huge rifts had appeared.
''Mother of god...''
Marion couldn't believe his eyes,
A rift the size of a highway split the city in half, growing bigger and bigger with each passing second, swallowing cars, buildings, everything it came across and growing bigger,
It was impossible to comprehend for Marion, everything he had learned to know, that office he had spent half of every waking moment for the last few years in was gone, reduced to a pile of stone and steel, that apartment he was renting where he had spent so long, the grocery store he was just in, the ground he had just stood on, what was happening was simply... unfathomable, that was the only way to describe it.
Destruction of the highest order. Perfect uninhibited destruction.
''moving through space in 3, 2,-''
Marion's breath got stuck in his throat,
''1... launch''
it was unprecedented speed, speed the likes humans couldn't have achieved in centuries,
Marion saw rifts, destructions, buildings toppling, and then he saw dots moving around, it was near instantaneous,
Like he was thrown out into space by a slingshot, he passed by the clouds, and before he could even notice it the sky was dark, and the earth seemed to curve,
To Marion it still seemed like he was floating in space, but this time in literal space,
Before he could even fathom where he was, before the panic could set in, before the sphere could even start to slow down,
He was suddenly enveloped in light from all directions,
He was moving away and away yet he was still enveloped in light, blinding light, he had no choice but to close his eyes,
Everything was happening so fast, Marion couldn't even react, he couldn't even move if he wanted to, he was just a forced spectator in this extraterrestrial experience.
Marion got farther and farther and soon the light subsided, and he could see what it was that had happened,
Earth, The earth, where it was supposed to be,
There was nothing, nothing that resembled a planet
Rubble, debris, pieces of earth, that was all that was left, nothing to call home or Earth,
''i can't believe it...''
Marion had survived, alone, stranded in space, his planet, his whole world, nothing, nothing was what he had.
The sphere stopped moving,
''disengaging safety locks''
Marion could finally move, even though he was in space he could still walk as if on ground, yet there was no ground to walk on, it was all transparent.
Marion didn't care,
He stood there, motionless, staring into space, looking where his world should have been, and he felt small, for the first time he felt truly insignificant,
'why did i ever try so much? we're nothing..'
He stared into the abyss, and it stared back,
The dark abyss of space, it reminded him of how small he was, why was he so small, could he not be? could he be bigger? higher? like those creatures, the angels?
''Sphere, or shard whatever you call yourself, what were these creatures that invaded earth?''
''we go by many names, none which you can comprehend, but i'll translate, we are called the plague, the swarm, the hive, and many other names, we are a being on the path to perfection''
''the path to perfection'' Marion asked
''yes, all beings follow the path to perfection, for it is the most noble of paths, to seek to be one with him''
''can i be bigger, better, more perfect so that this never happens again? like the hive, like 'him'?'' Marion didn't know what to expect,
''all beings have the potential, for we are all a part of 'him' but no one has ever been able, not even us,''
''good enough''