Return Of The Cosmic God

The deafening boom of my impact still echoed in the landscape around me, but I couldn't hear it anymore. The only sound that I could only hear was my ragged breathing—and my screams…

"ARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The pain tore through me. It was relentless. My body…. or what was left of it… was a wreck. Skin?

My skin… it was gone. It peeled away by the heat of reentry. My muscle was totally exposed. My bones? Every single one of them shattered, grinding against each other like shards of broken glass. Even the faintest twitch sent waves of excruciating agony through me…

I lay motionless at the bottom of the crater. I opened my eyes, and the steep, jagged walls of the crater rose like a cage around me. The ground beneath me was hard and cracked. I could also see faint lines of alien grass sprouting here and there, and the soil was totally dry.

The air was stifling. The heat pressed down on me, relentless. I couldn't see the horizon or the vastness of the alien world outside… The only thing I could see was the jagged lip of the crater above, silhouetted against the massive, fiery sun that loomed in the burnt orange sky…

My breathing was shallow, and each inhale tasted like hot dust…

"What now?" I muttered, my voice dry and hoarse. I looked up at the sheer walls surrounding me, their edges sharp and unforgiving. "Great. Just great. I survived the fall, only to die in this damn hole…"

My thoughts were quickly drowned out by the pain. It clawed at me from every angle.

"ARGHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed, my voice echoing in the crater wall. "It hurts!!!! Every part of my body hurts!!!!"

I slowly tried to lift my arm to check the damage, but even the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain throughout the body…

"My skin...!!!" I gasped. "There's... nothing left!!"

I could see my raw muscle fibres and tissues. The sight of my raw, blistered muscles exposed to the open air made me kind of feel dizzy.

Blood came from every inch of my body and pooled around me in thick, dark puddles...

"Why am I still alive?!!!" I screamed into the emptiness, the raw desperation in my voice cutting through the silence.

The alien landscape offered no answers. The only sound was the soft rustle of the red grass and the occasional groan of the wind.

I laughed bitterly, my voice cracking. "Five years of nothingness... and now this? A perfect little wasteland to die in?"

The laugh turned to a cough, then a choked sob. "Maki..." I whispered, my voice trembling. "I'm sorry. I don't think... I don't think I can keep going."

"WHY?!" I screamed, my voice raw and broken. "WHY WON'T IT END?! JUST LET ME DIE!!!"

I lay in the middle of the crater, unable to move a single inch. The heat of the sun overhead baked the air around me, and the hard, cracked earth beneath me offered no comfort. It was as though the planet itself was trying to finish the job that the crash had started…

I gritted my teeth, and my lips cracked with the effort as I tried to speak. "Is this it?" I croaked, my voice hoarse and barely audible. "Is this... how I go out? Not in battle, not saving anyone—just... here?"

Time passed very slowly. Each second was agonizing. The sun blazed overhead, and the intensity of it sucked every drop of moisture out of my body. Every breath was a struggle. It felt like I was breathing on fire…

"Arghhhhhhh!" I screamed. My voice was ragged and broken, tearing from my throat as if it might release the pain. But it didn't. It never did...

I glanced at the jagged walls of the crater, my vision swimming. "You win, alright?!" I shouted at the planet, my voice cracking. "I give up! Just... kill me already!"

The echoes of my voice faded into the suffocating silence. Nothing answered—not the planet, not the void, not even the darkness that I begged to take me.

The days blurred together. The sun rose and set, the relentless heat never wavering. My body refused to give in, clinging to life despite the. My mind, however, wasn't as strong…

I began to hear voices—whispers on the scorching wind, faint and indistinct. They called my name, mocked me, taunted me…

"Shin... you survived five years of nothing... just to end up here?"

"Some hero…" the voice sneered, its tone cruel and cutting. "You can't even move. You're pathetic..."

"Shut up," I whispered, clutching at the ground with trembling fingers. "Just... shut up..."

The voices only laughed, their mocking tone echoing in my mind.

By the end of the first week, I was totally broken. My sanity teetered on the edge. The weight of the pain and isolation dragged me deeper into despair…

"Please…" I whispered, my voice heavy with unbearable grief and pain. Tears streamed down my face, each drop stinging my wounds. "Please... just let me die..."

I gazed up at the swirling, burnt-orange sky, my vision blurring from tears and exhaustion. "I can't take this anymore..." I murmured, my voice cracking. "I don't want to do this... I don't want to be here..."

I tried to scream again, but I couldn't. It felt like my voice got stuck in my throat; my voice was nothing more than a rasping whisper. "Kill me..." I begged, my words barely audible. "I'm done... I'm done..."

But no release came. The planet remained silent, indifferent to my suffering. My body refused to give in, stubbornly clinging to life despite the torment…

"Why?!" I shouted weakly and pounded my fist against the dry earth beneath me. "Why won't you just let me go?! What's the point of this?! What do you want from me?!"

The only response was the soft rustle of the alien grass swaying in the heated breeze…

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my blistered palms. "Fine..." I muttered. My voice filled with anger and despair. "If you don't end this, then I'll... I'll..."

The words faltered as I realized I had no way out. No strength left to fight, no escape from this hell…

I closed my eyes, and tears streamed down my face. "Maki..." I whispered her name. The memories of her were a lifeline and a curse at the same time. "I'm sorry... I couldn't keep my promise... I'm sorry..."

"Get up…" a voice whispered—not the mocking tone of my hallucinations, but my own voice. It was quiet but firm.

I blinked, my tears drying in the oppressive heat. "Why?" I muttered, the question directed at myself. "Why bother?"

"Because you're still here…" the voice replied. "Because you survived this long. Because giving up isn't an option."

The pain was unbearable, but I was not planning to back down without a fight. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to push through it...

"it..." I growled, the words directed at the void.

"You want me to keep going? Then I'll keep going. But this planet better be ready because I'm not going down without a fight."

Time had lost all meaning. For about a month, I had laid in the crater. My body was broken, and my mind was teetering on the edge of collapse. Every passing moment was a struggle, and the pain unyielding and cruel…

After about a month the intense pain had begun to dull. My skin, once stripped away to raw muscle and bone, had started to mend, the blistered patches smoothing over, though still tender to the touch. My shattered bones, somehow, had knitted themselves back together…

I blinked against the harsh light of the massive sun overhead, its rays an unrelenting force baking the ground around me...

I raised my arm weakly, expecting to see the charred remains of my skin, the scars of my torment. Instead, what greeted me was... normalcy.

I stared at my hand, flipping it over slowly, my fingers trembling. The skin was smooth and whole. Not a single blister, burn, or gash remained…

"What...?" I whispered, my voice cracking. My other hand shot up to touch my face, my chest, and my sides. The pain was still there, but the injuries... they were gone…

"This... can't be real…" I muttered, running my hands over my arms and legs. "No way, I just... healed. Not after everything..."

My fingers brushed my ribs, expecting jagged edges where bones had once been shattered, but all I felt was solid, unbroken bone beneath unscarred skin.

"What the hell is going on?" I exclaimed in shock, my voice echoing off the walls of the crater. "Did I... dream the pain? No. No way. That was too real... too much."

I sat up slowly, my body stiff but obedient. The walls of the crater loomed above me. It was jagged and steep. But now they didn't feel as imposing as before…

I braced my hands against the dry earth and took a deep breath to prepare myself. "Alright, Shin…" I muttered to myself. "Time to move. You've survived reentry, a crash, and... whatever this is. You're not dying in some random hole on an alien planet..."

With a grunt, I pushed myself to my knees. My legs wobbled beneath me. After laying in the crater motionlessly for so long my legs became unsteady, but I forced them to hold. One shaky step, then another, and I was upright…

"Okay…" I said while looking up at the steep incline before me. "One step at a time. You got this..."

The climb was grueling. Every pull on the jagged rocks scraped against my palms. Sweat poured down my face, and the sun's heat bore down mercilessly…

"Come on…" I growled, my muscles straining as I dragged myself upward. "Just a little further..."

My fingers slipped on a loose rock, and I slid back a few feet. "Damn it!" I shouted. In anger I slammed my fist against the wall...

For a moment, I wanted to stop, to give up and let the heat and exhaustion consume me. But the flicker of determination inside me flared brighter…

"No..." I said with gritted teeth. "Not today. Not like this...."

With one final push, I threw myself over the lip of the crater and onto the dry land above. I laid there motionlessly for a moment while gasping for breath. The heat outside was intense. The oppressive heat wrapped around me like a smothering blanket…

When I finally found the strength to sit up, I glanced down at myself—and froze…

My entire body was whole. Every gash, every burn, every broken bone... all gone... My skin was smooth and spotless, as if the torture of the past month had never happened...

"This... this isn't possible," I said, my voice trembling slightly. "How am I... healed? After everything?"

I stood slowly, my legs no longer trembling. The oppressive weight I had carried for so long felt... lighter.

"What is this place? Where am I?" I muttered while staring at the barren landscape in front of me. "What the hell is going on here?"

I stood at the edge of the crater. Although my body was healed from the outside but, I could still feel immense pain. The landscape before me was alien and harsh. It was a desolate expanse of cracked, sun-scorched earth that stretched endlessly in every direction. The air shimmered with heat, the distant horizon rippling like water in a mirage…

The sun above was massive and unforgiving, its searing orange glow dominating the burnt sky. It hung low, its rays baking the land with a relentless intensity that made every breath feel like inhaling molten air. Sweat poured down my face, soaking my shirtless torso and stinging the tender skin that had only just healed…

I muttered while wiping the sweat from my brow, "Seventy degrees Celsius, at least…. Hell isn't supposed to be this dry, is it?!!"

I scanned the horizon in search of any sign of shade or shelter, but I found none. The fields were barren... The patches of alien grass offered no rest from the oppressive heat. The grass was a deep crimson, swaying faintly in the heated breeze, its eerie colour adding to the otherworldly atmosphere…

"Of offered, no trees…" I said bitterly as I shielded my eyes from the heat with a trembling hand. "No caves. No freaking umbrellas. Just wide-open nothingness and a sun that wants to turn me into barbecue…"

TO BE CONTINUED