“…For The Fifth will reveal itself when the darkest of moons is visible”

Hayden stood at the edge, gazing down and saw the people crawling in the streets. His heart was racing; he felt excitement throughout his whole body…
This day would change everything. This was the last day. He was the last one.
Umbriel would show itself tonight.
Every single person in the Universe would finally figure out what the meaning of all this is.
In a couple of minutes it would all be over. Or it would start. Depending on how you look at it. Anyway, tonight the Big Change is bound to happen.
January 26th, the year 2084. The Year of the Resurrecting Five.

The First, Keyah, resurrected last Saturday at midnight.
The sky turned gold that morning.
The suns were bright, but it was different from any other morning sky. Hayden had seen it. And he knew the others had seen it too. It was the first sign for him. For them. He needed to get ready, there were only four days left to prepare himself. Actually, this was more than enough, considering the other ones had even less days… But he had to calculate.
Keyah would appear in the sky that night. Not many would see. Not many would notice.
Only the chosen ones would be able to see her and yes, Hayden was one of them.
He saw Keyah at midnight in all her glory. The First. The Golden. Goddess of the Kings.
She was breathtaking… The most beautiful thing Hayden had ever seen. Her gigantic wings spread across the night sky, her satin dress waving in the wind, the neon lights of the city reflecting on her body. It was breath-taking. Hayden had fallen to his knees, he had thrown his hands up to the sky and cried of happiness. It was finally starting. The moment was near.

He looked at his watch until it was exactly 11:03.
His arm went down. Hayden raised his head up at the sky. Right above the Patrons Tower, he could see a Pallbearer chasing a Zextull 407.  The  big Pallbearer Alliance ship was incredibly fast. Far too quick for the small, pitch-black Zextull 407 to stand a chance. In a matter of seconds the little runner was taken in by the Alliance. The Zextull disappeared into the Pallbearer and no one would ever hear of, or see it again. This is how it was… You screw up, the Pallbearers come for you. You can flee, but only so far. You screw up and you’re doomed. God knows what they would do to you, no one’s ever come back to tell.., and no one was ever able to get out of the Pallbearer. Not a living soul had survived.
The Alliance had declared war on every form of injustice, any form of disobedience. You don’t do what they say, you’re going to be fucked… And certainly not in a good way.
There was only one person, about 34 years ago, who was believed to have seen what a Pallbearer had spat out…
The man ended up in a mental hospital because his brains could not handle what his eyes had seen…
It was hard to believe that those remains used to be human. You couldn’t see where the head was or maybe even used to be. The flesh was ripped apart, burnt at places. Limbs torn off, no clean cuts—just strange bite marks… in the little pieces of skin that was still on it and you could see the heart through a gaping wound. And it was still beating… Not for long, I guess, but apparently it was still beating, in a pool of mangled flesh and blood… Like it was trying to keep its head above the mushy, pink substance, trying not to drown. Shhlup-dub… Shhlup-dub…

Sunday marked the Second Resurrection.
Ruhn‘a, Goddess of Love, tainted the sky pink, like a rising sun on a cold December morning.
At midnight she would rise. Rise above the world. Watching over it, together with Keyah, side by side. As the first two.
Hayden watched them that night, from the rooftop of his apartment building and he could feel the love. He could feel it flowing into his body. He knew the others would too.
The others throughout the city. Wherever they were… The Chosen Ones. He could feel it.

Today, Hayden was standing on the rooftop of the tallest building in the city of Demonasth.
This dark city would be bathed in light once more. So would the world.
There was a flare in the distance. It was blinding him for a second and as he turned away and raised his arms to protect him from the bright light, his right foot slid forward and Hayden lost his balance. Gravel scattered over the edge as he fought to keep his balance on his left foot. This little mishap almost cost him his life. His heart was pounding in his chest as he cursed out loud.
He squinted his eyes and stared in the direction from where the flare came, but could not see a thing. His eyes were burning and his sight was filled with green, red and yellow dots. He blinked his eyes a few times and saw something moving between two buildings.
In the distance he could see a Predator. Those machines were the ground version of the Pallbearer. A little less mysterious, but just as terrifying, though. And messy… yuck…
Predators would follow you around on their two brutal, metal, stomping feet until they crushed you. They could crush tanks in a heartbeat, just think what they would do to a person… There’s not much left when you get hit by a thing like that.
The new models could jump. Attack you from a distance when you least expect it. My God—the goo they leave behind is enough to make you sick to your stomach. Good thing they are usually followed by Cleaners. You don’t want to know what a puddle of human reeks like after a few days on the asphalt in the burning suns of Lah’dunn. No thank you…

On Monday morning, January 22nd, at his desk, Hayden glanced at the clock. It was time. He rose without hesitation. His eyes found the glass door of the manager´s office as he looked over the cubicles. He could see outside the sky had turned green. Soon the God of Wealth, Shraa’h, would join the others.

It was 11:07. Time passed by slowly. But it was good. It was very good. Hayden felt peacefully and calm again. A cool breeze escaped the very few clouds that had appeared today.
The breeze flowed through his hair and he smiled. The feeling was unexpectedly euphoric. A simple breeze could do so much—lifting a feather from the ground… Flying it past skyscrapers, higher and higher. No one would even notice this journey that little feather would take. No one would see. All the people down there were in some kind of rush. Going to work, going to meetings. Passing strangers for miles and miles, no one even looks at the other, let alone at a flying feather on its journey. No one cares about the person in front of them. No one cares about the ones they bump into. They’re not looking over their shoulder to say sorry or to see if the other one is alright. So, how would they notice a passing feather?
Hayden looks down at it all and realizes he should have been standing here much earlier, to see life from a distance. Look at this. Just look at this.
Everybody should take a day off and climb on top of a tall building, just to watch life goes by like this. It makes you think. It makes you realize how small we are. How ant-like we are. Busy as hell, running around without a clue.
Cars are lining up and wait for the red lights to turn green. But when it finally is turning green, they can’t even drive off at an acceptable speed, because it’s just too crowed. Metal scrap heaps on the roads, grunting at each other.
They’re honking their tiny horns as if the one in front of them would actually find a spot and move over. That just doesn’t happen… Hayden feels sad for them. But tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow will be better…

A deep, dark red morning sky forecasted the coming of Yriah’n, God of Moon and Fire.
On the fourth day, a sacrifice was made. That night, yet another god would rise.
Hayden wished he could have seen the coming of Yriah´n that night, but he was too busy with preparations for the next day. The next morning it would be his turn. It would be his contribution to a better world. But for that to happen hhe had to prepare, recalculate, perfect every detail—because nothing, absolutely nothing, could go wrong. It´s a tremendous amount of work that has to be done and the stress… oh… the tension it brings… this can only happen once in so many years, so it has to be perfect.

Hayden checks his watch again. 11:09:43. It‘s almost time. Almost time to start the transcending.
This morning the sky will turn black and it will stay black until the night will follow.
And tonight will be the Rise of the Last God. Hl’orah will stand up from his burial grounds. The earth will shake and the skies will roar. His wings will cover the world.
He will make the circle complete. As the dark, iced moon of Uranus will be as close to the earth as it will ever be, it will be visible. It will be visible to the naked eye. It happens only once in 29.000 years. And then the God of War will rise as the last of the remaining gods.

But, to be reborn a God, your human body must first die.
This morning was his morning. This day was his day. Tonight would be his night!
All of this was calculated very carefully. He had to do it at the exact time. Not even a second off. No. This had to be perfect.
He checked his watch one final time.
Hayden looked up and whispered, “It’s time…”
He was The Fifth. He would rise at midnight, transformed a God. The world would finally be at peace as the Five Gods have risen and stand around the earth, side by side, hand in hand, ruling the world like they did ages ago.
He looked at the horizon for one last time, turned around with his back towards the edge. He spread his arms wide, closed his eyes and smiled as he let himself fall backwards into the deep…

“Are you done here, sir?”
The forensic expert looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. He looks at the L.A. police officer, who was just addressing to him and says: “Very peculiar…Time of death…” as he stares back at the broken watch on the poor boy’s wrist, or what was left of it, “11:11”.