The Top 13 Beings

Sitting under a noctoto tree was a young man. He wore thick, round glasses—of his own design—that accelerated his reading and comprehension speed to a ridiculously fast rate. His head was buried in a book whose cover made it clear that this was no ordinary tome; it was a very special and important book, insanely huge—so enormous that it towered even above the noctoto tree, which itself spanned as high as the heavens could ever hope to reach and wider than the eye could see and comprehend. And yet, the man held the oversized book with the utmost ease.

Suddenly, another man landed beside him. With a sly grin, the newcomer said,

"T.K., have you memorized all the words in that oversized thing yet? I mean, why don't you just reduce its size? It looks hilarious in your tiny hands. How can you even see the top of that thing? HaHaHaHa!"

T.K. didn't look up from his reading, but his irritation was palpable. "Shut up and go away! You're always annoying. This language is incredibly hard to decipher—it's taking me much longer than usual, and yet you come in every two seconds asking if I'm done. At this rate, I'll never finish!" His voice rose steadily until it triggered violent disasters in the water realm.

"Yeah, I know, I know," the other man teased in a slightly mocking tone. "The biggest brainiac in the realm struggles with one language. What a pity," he said while shaking his head. "And he can't even reduce the size of a simple book. HaHaHa!" He burst into laughter again.

By now, T.K. was fuming. "Get ready for another beating, you dumb psycho!" he warned.

"Let's see what you can do to this man," Jack, as he was known, declared while assuming a battle-ready position.

At that moment, many universes had already been destroyed by the two of them quarreling. Fortunately, they had a trump card to reverse all the damage, so neither seemed too worried.

Then, a beautiful, melodious, heart-melting voice resonated from above. "Jack, you know what happens every time you start this, right? We have just 101 years, 2 days, 3 hours, and 47 minutes left. Please, leave him alone so he can concentrate. This might be our only chance—or all our efforts will be in vain."

Jack nodded and, without another word, left T.K. alone to resume his studies. T.K. sighed, silently praising his luck, and went back to work.

T.K., Jack, and the rest of their group were far from ordinary. All thirteen of them radiated powerful auras strong enough to kill an immortal—if they so wished. Even immortals would fall to the sheer force of their presence, not to mention gods and demigods. They were the top dogs in their realm. These thirteen had embarked on their journey to become the strongest beings since time immemorial, defeating every foe and anyone who dared cross their path. And now, they were seriously bored. They had long surpassed the limits of this realm, having done everything they needed or wanted to do here: traveling from universe to universe, from galaxy to galaxy, creating suns and crafting solar systems—everything imaginable, from the grand to the minute.

But of course, there is a solution to every problem. They had learned of a certain mirror—its origins unknown—that could transport them to a parallel universe governed by entirely different laws of nature. Millions of years ago, when they first discovered hints of this mirror, they tried to track it down (generations may have passed since then). Even for beings of their caliber, it had proven difficult. However, they eventually found it—and, along with it, a book (the one T.K. is currently reading) that provided a brief insight into the mirror. Since that time, they have waited for the day it would finally appear—exactly 101 years, 2 days, 3 hours, and 45 minutes later.

MEMBERS OF THE GROUP:

T.K./ James /Cain /Amira /Naama /Jack /Deena /Alkine /Damion /Tiblicpu/ Gowgu Meg /Affeera