Chapter 6: A Prophetic Dream

Odin started unsealing the box after hearing the ancient voice's command. With great care, he unclipped the lock on the purple jade box and then slowly lifted the cover.

The next instant, he couldn't help but gasp in shock as he felt the frigid and stifling wave of aura spilling out of the jade box. It was a suffocating sensation so ancient and with a demonic feel. But with great determination, he resisted the uncomfortable feeling before focusing on the object placed at the very center of the box.

It was a grey eyeball, the size of an average adult fist, that occasionally flickered with traces of transient purple lights. At its center was a deep red iris, so sinister and smothering, just like a drop of roiling blood from an evil demon. Just by looking at it, Odin could feel his head hurting due to its mind-numbing aura.

"Is this really a prophecy stone, or is it some weird eyeball?" Odin asked after shifting his sight away from the supposed prophecy stone.

"Of course, you're looking at a prophecy stone," the golden book entity replied. "However, you're also half right calling it an eyeball."

"Why?" Odin asked, his curiosity greatly piqued.

"The reason is simple," the ancient voice said. "A prophecy stone is a treasure originating from the ten-eyed fate beast. The creature looks like a large round ball and often hides in the middle of what you Earthlings call black holes. Moreover, the ten-eyed fate beast is just a juvenile with nine small eyes surrounding a large one in the middle. The large eye in the middle has the power to peer into the fate of nearby creatures and worlds. So, when the beast dies, all its essence will congregate in that main eye. And that's how the prophecy stone occasionally comes into existence."

"Oh!" Odin exclaimed, letting his imagination run wild. "You just said the ten-eyed beast is just a juvenile. Does that mean that the beast will grow more eyes when it matures? Could there be a hundred-eyed or even a thousand-eyed fate beast?"

"You're on point, young man," the voice replied with a resounding chuckle. "A level-1 prophecy stone is what we acquire after the death of a ten-eyed fate beast. But there's also a level-2 prophecy stone, which we can only obtain from a hundred-eyed fate beast. With a level-2 prophecy stone, a person can observe some of the details of the events that'll transpire within the next one hundred years. There's also the level-3 prophecy stone from a thousand-eyed fate beat."

"Oh, my God!" Odin exclaimed, his heart beating hard with both excitement and trepidation. "This world is truly incredible."

"I'm glad that you understand that simple fact, young man," the ancient voice said. "All the creatures in your world are just frogs at the bottom of the well. So, you have to tread carefully in whatever you do over the next few years. Otherwise, you won't even know how you died."

"Thank you for the advice, golden book entity," Odin said, his tone humble. "I'll surely follow your advice as long as I'm alive. But how do I activate this prophecy stone?"

"That's simple," the ancient voice replied. "Just place your hand on the prophecy stone, and I'll help you complete the rest."

"It's that simple!" Odin was a bit surprised.

"Yes, it's that simple. Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready."

"Okay, then. Place your hand on top of the prophecy stone and brace yourself."

"Okay," Odin replied. He then extended his arm and placed his left hand on the weird-looking eyeball in the jade box.

BOOM!

A tremor went off in his mind when he made contact with the eyeball. A stream of blinding purple light soon leaked from between his fingers before covering the rest of his actualized body. And then the pain came next, causing his consciousness to tremble with agony. It was as if his brain was being slashed into pieces by thousands of knives. But just as he was about to surrender to the mind-numbing torture, an ancient voice started reverberating like thunder within his ears.

"Prajñāpāramitāh...."

The words sung by the archaic voice were like music to Odin's soul. They were like components of the most age-old heart-warming Sanskrit that soothed his entire being to the very core. With every sentence pronounced by the ancient voice, his pain lessened. Before long, he felt himself sinking into a state of emptiness as the endless dark space totally disappeared before his eyes. The whole sensation at that moment was like nothing he had ever experienced throughout his entire life.

"Young man," the ancient voice sounded again after completing the recitation of the ancient sutra. "I have helped you stabilize your mind so that you can withstand the power of the prophetic stone for a short time. You are now about to descend into a prophetic dream where you'll be able to see some details of the fate of your world. But please remember that fate is not the definite future, and what is destined to occur does not always occur. Are you ready, young man?"

Odin only nodded in response as he didn't want to exit from his incredible state of mind by speaking.

"If you're ready, you can go ahead and see what fate has in store for you," the ancient voice declared.

BOOM!

Another tremor went through Odin's mind as the emptiness in his mind gradually filled up with colorful images. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and found himself lying on a hospital bed. His adoptive mother, younger sister, and Nicole were by his bedside, looking at him with both shock and excitement.

Odin's eyes shone at this prophetic vision. He was happy to see the people close to him after spending a lot of time in the jungles of Yellowstone. At that moment, he yearned to talk to them and even hug them. However, the future flowed on, flickering forward in faster and faster images.

That time around, Odin found himself standing before a large dark brown structure. It was Montana State University's Animal Bioscience Building. At that juncture, Odin was engrossed in conversation with Professor Evelyn Monroe, a stunning woman who had employed him as a research assistant for the past six months.

But just suddenly, a few rifts, radiating a menacing aura, appeared in the sky above. Before Odin could react, pitch-black darkness descended upon the place, covering the sky and land. For the next few minutes, he could neither see nor hear anything. It was as if all his senses had been muted by some extraordinary power.

However, just as abruptly as it had disappeared, the light returned to the world. Odin's senses recovered, and it was then that he noticed a lot of abnormalities within his surroundings.

"Save me!"

A shrill scream sounded from a distance, attracting Odin's attention. He turned around and looked in the direction of the disturbance. He couldn't help but step back in fright as he witnessed utter horror.

There were three men, including a professor, surrounding a young girl. They were like rabid dogs as they bit and gnawed at the slim waist of the formerly gorgeous girl with their deformed maws. Before long, fresh blood spewed out like a fountain as the girl screamed and struggled to escape from her attackers. But all her attempts were futile, and she soon succumbed to the savageness of the men. However, that was just the start of the chaos. More scenes of intense brutality spread out all over the campus, frightening Odin to the very core.

"What's happening?"

Odin's ears soon picked out the trembling voice of Professor Evelyn Monroe through the chaos. He wanted to answer, but it was then that the prophetic vision flickered forward once again.

Odin continued observing various scenes of the future in bits and pieces. Man-eating zombies and savage beasts soon became the true kings of Earth after destroying most of the human cities. Not even the famed nuclear weapons could curb the brutality of those two kinds of ferocious creatures. Instead, the radiation fueled their evolution, making them fiercer and almost undefeatable within the first year of the apocalypse.

More months silently slid by in the vision, and the living conditions continued declining. Lush green forests replaced the formerly fertile agricultural land while the infrastructure, like roads and power grids, broke down and confined people to limited spaces. Even worse was that the micro-organisms evolved much faster and caused many incurable diseases that wiped out almost three-quarters of the world's human population.

Odin's heart sunk into the abyss of desperation at that juncture. His mood soured when he comprehended that humans would be on the brink of extinction by the end of the first year of the apocalypse. However, an unexpected favorable change happened as the visions continued moving forward.

Odin saw himself growing immensely powerful in the second year of the apocalypse. He witnessed his evolution to become a true powerhouse in the age of chaos. And together with a few others, they led the powers on Earth to launch counterattacks on the man-eating zombies and the savage beasts.

The war raged on for months until the third year of the apocalypse. Many more human lives were lost as they fought desperately against the monsters. But in the end, the humans came out on top. By relying on their wisdom for warfare accumulated over a scale of centuries, they massacred several of the strongest savage monsters and scared off the weaker ones.

Humanity's future seemed well assured after winning the war. There were a few months of serenity as humans rebuilt their cities and even started hunting the monsters in the wild. They even invented new technologies and vaccines on a daily basis to fight the troubles and emerging diseases of the new era.

Moreover, with the continued manifestation of superpowers within humans, it was evidently the dawn of a new prosperous generation that could even explore the stars. And then, just as civilization on Earth showed the first signs of recovery, a new enemy appeared.

An enormous spatial rift, reeking of an evil aura, opened up in the sky, causing a shadow to descend upon Earth. Before Odin could understand what was happening, a gigantic pitch-black claw, built on a scale of a small celestial body, emerged out of the rift. Slowly by slowly, it tore at the fabric of reality before piercing forward and laying waste to the entire planet.

No human powerhouse or ferocious monsters could stop the claw from decimating the continents, oceans, and atmosphere into oblivion. Everything that Odin had come to know as his reality was wiped out instantly. It was as if all the things on Earth had never existed.

"What the fuck was up with that claw?"

Odin's mind was in a mess as he tried to make sense of the last moments of the dream. But before he could comprehend what had happened, he felt another tremor go through his mind as the entire space crumbled before him.

He then abruptly woke up with a start and realized that he was lying on a hospital bed. His nose could even pick out the potent odor of disinfectant permeating the air. The whole moment seemed so unsettling and surreal since he'd just experienced it in a dream. But an even more bizarre fact was that his adoptive mother, younger sister, and Nicole were all by his bedside, looking at him with a blend of both shock and excitement. Their seating positions and facial expressions at that moment were just like they'd been in his prophetic vision.

"Incredible! Truly incredible!" Odin couldn't help but mutter under his breath after taking in the surroundings.