“Aww, don't you wanna drink with your bestest friend?”

  Will looked at Ralph with tired, heavy eyes and blinked, dumbfounded by his insistence.

  “Dude,” Will said dejectedly, “I haven’t slept in two days.”

  Ralph hunched to Will’s eye level, preparing his best well-known signature move: his puppy dog eyes.

  “Pleaaaaase?” Ralph’s voice dipped into a soft whine.

  Will stared at the 6’3 feet hulking wall of muscle with a beard attempting to look like a kicked puppy. He put his hand on his face and pushed him back, making Ralph stumble while letting out a chuckle.

  “Sorry to say, your face expired after high school. Now you just look like a wet dog.”

  Ralph clutched his chest. “Oh… you’ll let this mutt go off without his favorite owner?” he said in an increasingly exaggerated sad tone.

  Will blinked. Ralph just pushed his face more.

  “Shoo. Just go bother Jeremy instead.”

  “But… It’s no fun when you’re not there!”

  Ralphs smile widened, revealing his teeth that just looked a little sharp for comfort. Will sighed, “You know, atleast dogs actually look cute when they do that.”

  Will had known Ralph since middle school, when they’d bonded over cracked Minecraft on their phones. Ralph stuck with him ever since, being a more rowdy and loud man while Will tended to keep to himself more. They were basically glued to the hip, which to Will’s dismay, was sometimes too much for his low energy. But even if Ralph sometimes got on his nerves, he was somehow just impossible to hate.

  They were also, well, the nerdier sort, which carried all towards college, where they both joined the same college and course taking Computer Science. Though between the two, puberty seemed to have a favorite. Where Will stayed more lanky, Ralph just grew into this beast of a man.

  This man really loves to annoy Will, though looking at him now, maybe he is a bit endearing…

  “Did you just smile?” Ralph suddenly blurted out, jolting Will awake.

  “What.”

  “...Did you just sm-”

  Will immediately launched a right hook towards Ralphs torso, which he blocked with ease. Laughing at Will’s pathetic attempts at coming back, he resorted to just tickling his neck.

  Another loud, chaotic day with Ralph. In moments like this, Will fills with a swell of satisfaction with his life. He wouldn’t have it in any other way.

  Slowly stopping his belly laugh, he pats Ralphs back with a smile.

  “Okay, okay, fine! Just don’t wake me if I ever pass out. I want all the sleep that I could get.”

  With a beaming smile, Ralph straightens and salutes. “Sir yes sir! Now let’s go to th-”

  Suddenly, a primal alarm blared within Will. A cold chill ran through his back while every hair on his body straightened up. Before he could stretch out to grab Ralph, everything just stopped.

  On the corner of his eye was Ralph’s face mid-laugh, his sweat seemingly floating in mid-air. His bright expression betrays what his eyes convey, shaking at what he’s seeing above. He followed his eye, and what he saw confused him.

  A white line stretched all across the sky, space stretched like fabric splitting at its seams. And then, with a breath— it finally burst..

  Space around it seemed to break and tear, bending and pulling open like a piece of cloth. The crack only grew bigger, and bigger, until it broke enough that he finally saw what stood behind it. A face of a woman peeked through the opening, covered in white and gold cloth, fluttering against the gust of wind entering the void. Behind her was a mosaic of golden rectangles spead out like majestic wings. The sky seem to gleam as she came forwards, greeting her with rays of light pouring out of the tear.

  The only thing that moved was her frail hands, grasping a long golden trumpet beneath her. She pointed it towards the earth, and blew.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  With it, an angelic voice boomed loudly in the mind:

  “Rejoice, mortals! The Machina has selected your species

  To experience the joy of Ascension!”

  And in front of him, a pale blue box floats in front of his face. On it, written boldly in a blinding white color, is a statement that has marked their fate;

  YOU ARE CHOSEN.

  Another horn blares through.

  High above, a single bird twitched, then another, and then the sky seemed to explode with the sudden flapping of thousands of wings as they sensed the alien danger of the entity above. A jolt ran through Will’s body when he realized that his right foot finally descended to the ground. Ralph and Will stared at each other for a moment and looked above.

  “Hear now, children of Earth:

  You have been granted the gift of flight—yet no wings shall carry you.

  For it is not by His will alone that you rise, but by your strength.

  Let your gratitude be boundless, as His generosity is without end.

  Let your devotion be absolute, as His judgment is without flaw.

  Thus it is decreed. Thus it begins.”

  In that moment, it seemed like the world paused for a second, digesting what was said.

  Ralph stared at the sight above, completely lost, looking like the scared kid that Will had protected all these years. A frigid breeze seemed to creep at Will’s back.

  “Dude… dude.”

  Will grabbed his arm and yanked it, making Ralph stupidly blink at him. His eyes seem to shake.

  “Ralph!” he gripped his hand and motioned towards an alleyway, “We need to run, now!”

  Unfortunately, they should’ve ran minutes ago.

  And, well, honestly, I should've trusted my gut to just immediately run away.

  What we didn’t know at the time was while we were stupidly standing there, a portal was silently manifesting behind us. Looking back, I don't remember hearing any warning sounds at all. Really, like really, out of all places, that portal spawned behind us?

  Of all things that shat out of that portal, it was a goddamn goblin. No knock. No warning. Just an explosion of green rage.

  On me.

  I died spectacularly stupid that day.

  Looking back now, I realize that Ralph was beside me. He looked like that scared kid again, completely lost, and maybe... maybe I was just as lost for a split second too. Because instead of acting, instead of bringing him to safety, I just… yelled his name. Waited for him to move, like I always do. Gragh, that sensitive, stupid oaf. I wish I had the muscles to carry his ass princess-style and sprint away.

  Well, none of that matters anymore. Because I can change everything.

  A golden glow enveloped my soul, radiating from a familiar screen. In front of me was a golden window, the light within it soft and inviting, and there, etched in glowing script like a savior's promise, was a poem written in pure white:

  “You were Earth's first fallen,

  No final stand,

  No battle fought—

  Just a thread cut short.

  Yet now you're offered a merciful hand.

  Will you accept? [Y/N]”

  A slow smile of hopeful relief spread across Will’s face

  ‘Hell yeah, I’ll take it!’

  White light, pure and encompassing, filled his being as the System embraced his soul, pulling him gently towards the void. His teal-colored soul is pulled, and pulled, sending him off to his past vessel.

  At the very end, he felt a familiar warm voice.

  “Goodluck to your endeavors, Playey?????e???r???? a?????e???r????a?????e???

  e???r????r???? e???r????

  r????r???? e??? r????r???? e???r????r????

  r????r???

  Error. Cannot find data of Ascendant E24q5t. Error. Cannot fin-”

  Wait, wait hold on-

  The angelic voice continued to sputter, looping back and back again. The sound became increasingly strained and artificial, losing the soft voice with a sharp artificial noise. And then, something sounded like it cracked, morphing it into an unintelligible mechanical whir, like a corrupted file struggling to play.

  Then—silence. Static.

  “W wWe wELCOME BACK, a?????e???r????a?????e???r????r????r rrrr-”

  When Will opened his eyes, instead of the smell of the smoke and trash that he had grown fond of in the city, a strong smell of the earth hit his nose,

  And all that he saw was green.