Chapter 1: Rebirth of the Cosmic Being

The last thing I can recall is pain a jagged, relentless pain. It was like the very fabric of me was being ripped asunder, not only my body, but my soul. Then, it was gone. There was nothing. No light, no sound, no weight. Just emptiness.

But that emptiness did not endure for long. The next instant, I was awake.

The air was charged with energy, crackling in the very air. It wasn't air it was alive. The feeling coursed through me, a wave of raw power that struck me like a shockwave. Every inch of my body vibrated, resonating with it, and for the shortest of moments, I questioned whether I had been born again or had merely changed into another life entirely.

I was standing, or so I would have sworn. My vision was blurry at first. The surroundings were strange alien. Under my feet, the ground was firm, but it wasn't like the ground I had been used to. It was a metallic surface that glowed in the dim light. The air was thinner, electric, and the sky above a maelstrom of colors deep purples, blues, and reds, rippling like a celestial storm. It was as if I stood at the very center of the universe.

My head was still confused. I instinctively reached up to rub my eyes, but that was when I became aware that my body was. different. Not in the way I was accustomed. This was as if I was something else. My body was more powerful, much more powerful than it had ever been before. The energy coursing through me was limitless, immense, like a fiery star blazing in the core of my being. I could sense each molecule of power, each movement of reality. This was not normal.

I curled my fingers. There was a tiny throb of energy, a primal surge, and the air itself around my hands writhed, as if attracted to me. The earth under my feet cracked and swirled, as if they were bending to my command.

"What is this?" My own voice low and resonant rang in my ears, magnified by the power flowing through my body.

A soft but authoritative voice replied in my mind.

"You have been chosen."

I came to a stop. The voice wasn't out there, not in any sense that I could hear with my body. It was a presence, a thought, pushing into my head, vibrating in my very existence. My heart slammed in my chest, my pulse vibrating with sheer force.

"Chosen? Chosen for what?"

"Become master of the powers of the cosmos," replied the voice, sounding as though it originated in the very center of my own soul. "You are reborn as cosmic, an immortal being of god-like potential. You were human, but are no longer so. Your soul has been redesigned. Your flesh is a conduit for the universe's ancient energies. You will mold reality itself."

Cosmic? Divine? The words struck me like a chill wave of fear. I could sense the power within me building. It wasn't a gift it was an order. A force, an instinct, urging me to comprehend. To dominate.

The emptiness I had awakened in started to change around me, reconfiguring itself. I could sense it. The fabric of space and time itself started to bend to my will, as if the universe was responding to my presence. I could control it. Mold it. I could sense the current of time itself, stretching and snapping, bending to my whim. I could command it. I could command everything.

I breathed slowly. The burden of what had been shown to me weighed like a stone. Not just alive, I was. I was reborn into a power beyond the mortal world.

"You have to learn control," the voice insisted, sounding graver. "Or else you will kill yourself."

"Control?" I groaned. "This is too much."

Too much is a state of mind. The power that you now hold is immense. You are the hub of creation. You can warp reality to your desire, but with great power comes great danger.

I bunched my hands into fists, fighting to concentrate. But the energy inside me increased. A twinge of idea, and reality around me flexed again. I could sense everything. I could sense the fabric of the universe its rules, its boundaries, its tenuous equilibrium. And I knew I was no longer a component within it. I was it.

No turning back.

The voice began to speak once more, now quieter, as if reassuring me. "You are no longer bound by space or time, nor by the limitations of mortality. You are the rebirth. You are the bringer of change."

I shut my eyes, struggling to keep myself level. This was too much. A power of nature had been put inside me, and I was still only just clinging on. But somewhere deep within the fear, deep within the power, was a sense of purpose.

The world around me changed once more. The vortex of colors in the sky separated, and I saw a world far away Earth. The DC Universe.

I wasn't merely brought back to life. I was here, within this universe. And I had a mission.

I didn't know what it was yet, but I was about to find out.

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**End of Chapter 1**