Master of Time

In this moment, it is no longer a dream, and I am no longer asleep.

I slowly open my eyes and greet the beautiful dawn of a new day. Sunshine emerges from the edge of the world, slowing making it ways into the cloudless heaven above.

Golden light wraps and streams around the unyielding form of a man as he stands unmoving, bathing within the blinding luminescence while staring into the distance.

He always does, every morning of every day, even if I am not with him.

The warm light also streaks through the flustering purple drapes, which are framed so majestically on each side of the massive glass doors, leading into the vast balcony, towering over the world.

And like those dreams that I have so many months ago, I pull myself out of bed slowly and carefully, a leg and a foot at a time.

The cold marble floors beneath press against my weight and spread lightly over my skin, giving me this tingling sensation as I stand upright, letting the white sheets of the bedding to slide off my naked form.

Once I am completely out of bed, I begin my approach towards the balcony, slowly but confidently.

And as I did so, the white bedsheets that had covered me throughout the night while I had slept quite peacefully with a dreamless sleep immediately swirl into the air and morph into a cloud of glimmering silvery dust.

They always do.

The twinkling participles surge along the air, riding the gentle breeze that constantly invades the room from beyond the opened glass doors.

They soon spiral all around me, smoothly enveloping my nakedness and covering my entire body from the chest downloads, binding all of my assets before shifting into a long white gown, which glitters in the golden light and trails my every step.

The nanomachines did not more than protect my modesty, they protect my person, even if it is quite unnecessary in his presence.

I am perfectly safe here, as he would never allow anything to harm as long as he lives.

As long as he is with me.

And I would never part from him, no matter what happens, now and forever.

It feels like a wishful thinking as love, like every emotion, cannot truly be eternal.

But for now, it is the truth. My only truth even if the worlds fall apart around me.

The warm and soft bed behind me crumples apart as if it was constructed and then glued together by indiscernible tiny grains of sand. It is made of the same materials to that of my dress. Nanomachines.

In fact, everything is.

The nanomachines get absorbed into the unmarkable floor, returning the room into perfect emptiness just like it has been yesterday and the day before. That is to say excluding all the statues, decorations and countless portrait along the walls and around the entrances.

The room obviously isn\'t a bedroom.

And this place isn\'t our home in a sense.

Our home is where our hearts are, hopefully together.

This place is actually a temple, the Temple of Origin, where countless worshipers and followers across the globe have come and go.

Many never left, as they seek the path towards enlightenment, becoming one with the Ori.

It is the Ori who has erected this place of worship through my beloved, fully enclosing the holy temple around the red obelisk on the day of the great awakening. The day that the world finally opens its eyes to its destiny, allowing everyone to step onto the path towards enlightenment regardless of whatever happened during the burning trials.

The world has learned so much on that day.

We have learned so much about the Ori, the Flood and what is to come in the far future, for we have been given a second chance to live and make preparation.

Sadly, most people are squandering this chance, the chance to reach true salvation.

"Max."

I speak the name of my world as soon as I stand by his side and follow his eyes to watch the world that I used to be a part of, completely filled with glass buildings reaching towards the sky while glimmering in the sunlight.

But as beautiful as those structures are on the outside, great darkness is dwelling with them.

Great darkness is dwelling within the people within those buildings, even if it is not visible to the naked eyes. It is there. It is always there.

Max smiles faintly at me before exhaling deeply and staring at the sky above. He is looking beyond the sky and at the deep vastness of space. A megastructure had once existed there, protecting the planet and shielding us from the unfathomable danger of the cosmos.

We are so small in the infinite universe, as the Ori has demonstrated.

I do not fully understand why the megastructure was removed since it has protected the world for so many years, but I suppose it must have something to do with the people petitioning for their real and natural sky back as well as the sun and moon.

And it isn\'t the only thing that the people are petitioning for. No. Demanding for. That is more correct from my own understand and observation.

Their desires are truly unending, after all.

People will never be contended and satisfied with what they have already given, especially when they are fully aware that they could have so much more.

And so much, much more.

"I wish the Ori are still here, Steph. I wish that they could tell me what to do, because I am at a loss to what to do. I truly am. And if this continues, there won\'t be anyone left to face the Flood in thousands of years from now. No. Hundreds of thousands of years."

Max speaks up as his eyes avert from the sky and cast upon the world that he has helped created with his vast power and knowledge.

The vast power and knowledge that the Ori has given him as their apostle on earth.

Their only apostle on earth.

The old world has changed greatly thanks to the technology and power bestowed to the human race through Max and will of the Ori, but the nature of people remains the same.

As a matter of fact, the people have really become much worse than before, for absolute comfort is a sin.

The Sin of Sloth.

It is having everything that anyone ever wanted without putting in the hard work necessary to have it in the first place. And if it is this bad now, it will be much worse in future generations.

That is to assume if there is a future generation.

"Not everyone is like that, Max. Not everyone is drowning themselves in indulgent and pleasures with such an uncaring mindset. Not everyone thinks that the desolate future is too far away to even concern about right now."

I assure Max, trying to give him some confidences.

It is the only thing that I could do by his side, even as a Goddess according to the Book of Origin.

The Book of Origin was derived from Bible, for God must be one of or with the Ori. He is perhaps also an Ori, the one and only Ori, as the Vatican claims.

There is much to be debated about this from a religious standpoint.

Max did not contest to this since he does not know himself, for the Ori never truly reveal who exactly they are. They only revealed what they are, and that is they are unimaginable power.

Powerful enough to ignore the cycle of life and death altogether. That did not mean heaven or hell do not exist. It just means that they are beyond heaven and hell.

Max chuckles weakly at my encouragement and shakes his head.

His hands also grip the stone railing until it cracks, but the crack did not last.

It is made of the same material as my dress, as everything in the world now.

Nanomachines.

A gift from the Ori to the human race.

Max calls them micromachines even if he is unsure the real reason why. It is very strange that he didn\'t remember the real reason why it is called that despite the correct scientific term is nanomachines, for they are machines on the nanoscales.

This just shows that he is not all-powerful and all-knowing like the Ori is.

But Max is the closest person to attain enlightenment due to the powers that he wielded.

And there is different level of enlightenment. The higher the more powerful one will become.

It is all very complicated.

"I shouldn\'t have compromised, Steph. I shouldn\'t have. I should have done what must be done from the start. It is for the best. It is for the future and prosperity of the human race. The Ori has given us a million year to prepare, and what have we been doing all this time?"

Max responses.

The Ori did give the human race a million years of preparation.

They did so by rewinding the universe a million years into the past, as the Flood cannot be stopped even with their mastery over time.

It can only be delayed.

Delayed long enough for humanity to find ways to prevent our own extinction and continue to prosper throughout the universe.

At least that is the theory.

No one can truly understand Ori.

But Max believes now that it has been delayed too much. Delayed so much that everyone decides that there is no need to hurry. Not everyone, but every country on earth.

It is hard to prepare or prevent something that will happen in a million years. This is especially true as there are still so many things to prepare for and prevent right now, such as world hunger and poverty.

Those arguments are logically sounded, and Max agrees wholeheartedly with the world leaders.

And he has used the power that bestowed to him by the Ori to make those problems go away.

No one has to go hungry if foods can be fabricated with very little effort, bypassing the necessary need to cultivate the land and grow the produces.

No one need to live in poverty if all structures can be built in an instant with nanotechnologies.

In fact, anything can be constructed in an instant with nanotechnologies, including missing body parts.

Energy crisis no longer become a problem when Max can harness the full might and power of a star in the form of a Stellar Reactor.

And as I understand it, a single Stellar Reactor outputs more energy than the sun itself each and every second, and he can create as many as he needs. It is also very safe and clean.

While every physical problem can be solved effortlessly by Max, it brings a whole host more problems that cannot easily be solved as easily.

It also reveals the greedy nature in everyone, wanting more and more until they have everything, but they still want more.

How do you truly make someone remain proactive, continuously striving hard to earn all that they can possibly have in life when they already have everything they ever wanted and will ever want?

This is why my beloved is contemplating.

He truly believes that he has failed the mission that was given to him by the Ori. He truly believes that he has failed humanity, when the actual fact is, we have failed him with our greedy nature.

I am also at fault, for wanting to spend more time with him, every waking moment of every day. I only care about Max, for the world has never done anything for me.

"When everything is given, nothing is precious, Max. Only through pain and suffering that people truly cherish what they have."

I point out, but I am sure that he already knows that. He already knows that from the very beginning, but he fails to do what is necessary due to compassion.

Compassion for me, most likely.

If I was to be truly honest with myself, there is something very different about Max. If it was really the old him, the one that I know so well, he would do whatever he must to accomplish his goal regardless of whatever I feel.

I love that side of him, and because of that, I love everything about him, including his flaws.

His twisted sense of love for his dead mother should have alienated me since deep down, he is actually using me as a replacement for someone who he truly loves, but it didn\'t because everything is greatly overshadowed by my love for him in every sense of the world.

I love him even if he does not love me as much as he loves his mother.

As long as he has me in his heart, I think it is enough.

And to see him happy and cheerful means more than the world to me.

Max was really happy when he believes that I am his mother.

I honestly wish I was, because he would always be happy.

Sadly, we have never role-played as mother and son again, not since that day, the day that he revealed to me that there is so much more to him than meets the eyes.

His guilts. His dreams. His wishes.

And even if those things appalled me at first, they do allow me to understand my beloved in ways that just not possible.

Hearing what I have just recited from memory, Max looks at me before smiling.

His hands quickly wrap around mine as I reciprocate in kind.

I soon lean against his body and feel his warmness.

It is not quite the same in my dream, but it is still as perfect as I have hoped it to be.

Most people would have grown bored of this already as they beginning to do so with life in general. It is the result of having everything you ever wanted without any effort.

"I love you, Max, with all my heart and body and soul. Whatever you choose, I will stand by you every step of the way, even if the world turns completely against us."

I speak up, and he takes me into his arms, embracing me tightly.

I could feel his heart beating rapidly, but his mind is preoccupied with something else.

It is always preoccupied with something else.

I wish that it didn\'t, but I understand that his responsibility is not only to me. No. Never only me. And I do want to return to that day when we are the only people left remaining on earth.

It was so blissful and so surreal. Thinking about it makes my heart flusters.

While I believe that Max will always have the time for me, it feels like he is actually compromising just like he has been compromising so much in the past years.

I fear how much more he will compromised in the future.

Our embrace is interrupted by a priest, standing at the doorway.

The priest does not speak up or even make himself known since doing so would be blasphemy.

"Speak."

Max request as he pulls himself away from me. I smile faintly before turning away from him and look out towards the city, still glimmering magnificently in the morning light.

I didn\'t care much for what the priest has to say to Max. I never did. Nor I care about the people living in the city below, drowning in their own pleasure or happiness.

In more than one way, I am just like them, caring only about the now instead of the future. Will saving the future brings me my happiness?

"I…"

Max begins. And I nod.

His eyes sadden as he teleports away with flames.

I want to cry. I really do.

But crying will not solve anything.

I am living the dream, but once I have it, I want more. I always want more.

This is my sin. Our sin. The sin of the world.

Like Max has said, if this continues, humanity would perish by their own greed and desire. They would become extinct by their very own nature, not through wrathful violence, but through uncaring sloth.

And after letting out a sigh, flames swirl around me and teleports me directly home.

The home that I have shared with one other person, for Max never has the time to be here for more than a day. Even so, that person is our world and joy.

The little girl siting by the kitchen table greets me with a bright smile. Her eyes are reddish-yellow, full of maturity despite her young age.

She is my daughter, Adria. And she was conceived on that faithful day.

"Hello, mother."