Long ago, the mighty Grilgax Empire was the terror of the known universe. The God-king of Grilgax Prime ruled countless trillions with an iron fist. Any that dared oppose his authority were swiftly and brutally crushed. For all who lived beneath his banner, it was a life of hardship, suffering, and war. As the God-king’s forces swept across system after system, it seemed that nothing could stand in the face of his relentless assault. Until, that is, the day that The Great Calamity began.
Grilgaxxi scientists began to notice a strange disturbance in the very folds of spacetime. Faster than any known natural phenomenon, faster than their swiftest exterminator-warships, it flowed from one side of the universe to the other. Gargantuan spatial anomalies, gigaparsecs in diameter, emerged from seemingly nowhere and ripped through space at impossibly fast speeds. Anything caught in the wake of these Calamitous Voids, as they soon were called, was forever altered. Entire galaxies simply ceased to exist, seemingly brought along inside the Voids as they continued their sojourn across existence. Nobody could tell for certain, however, as even the most advanced of sensor technology could not hope to penetrate the horizons of the Voids. What was left behind was barren, toxic space that tore apart any vessel that dared approach in seconds.
Some thought they were enormous black holes, devouring all of creation in a general collapse of all known laws of physics. Others believed it was the result of some sort of doomsday weapon, eradicating life in some grand murder-suicide. Others still believed that this was all some sort of divine wrath, a final result of the enmity of the Old Gods, dooming all who abandoned them in worship of the God-king. Such were the cries of the God-king’s advisors as he could only watch on in horror as one of the Voids approached Grilgax Prime. It was slower than some of the others, the Empire’s seat of power had years to ready the God-king’s forces and shore up defenses.
A mighty fleet, enough to annihilate entire galaxies, was mustered and sent to attack the Void in some futile attempt to stem the tide. To no avail as the ships were enveloped and millions of soldiers dissappeared in an instant. The Void continued unabated. Scientists theorized ways to move the capital’s entire star system out of the way of impending calamity, but in the end it didn’t matter.
The stars had dissappeared from the sky, all that was visible was the inky black ripple of the Void. Even the light of Grilgax Prime’s own star seemed to take on a different tone, the color seemed to drain from the very world itself. Atop the highest spire of the tallest building, the God-king could only watch as chaos descended across the heart of his Empire. Fires broke out as every one of his subjects lost themselves to fear or madness. He saw his Empire crumble before his very eyes and the God-king wept, and then the Void absorbed the world.
Those who had theorized that the voids were black holes were quickly proven wrong, as the inside of the void was not a singularity of compressed matter but rather seemingly regular space. But only as the seconds turned into minutes did the Grilgaxxi people realize how things had changed. An acrid smell surrounded everything, impossible to escape from. Time seemed to work differently, at points feeling like a standstill, at others moving by in an instant. Everyone seemed to have entered an altered state of mind.
Space travel seemed to be affected as well, while the battle fleet had seemingly disappeared with no trace, what spaceships remained found that a sort of aether permeated the void, slowing any moving object to a standstill. And then, as soon as it had began, the bubble popped, and the enormity of the situation was made clear.
Incomprehensibly far above, Gabriella prepared to take another pull from her bong. She stared lazily at the bubbles that made their way through the glittery liquid and smiled to herself. It wasn’t liquid, of course, it was a universe. One of those grimdark ‘oh things suck and everyone’s miserable’ kinda places that she liked to keep around whenever she needed a reality to use in a disposable manner. Today, that meant this was her bong water. She carefully lit the bowl of weed before reinserting it into the glass vessel, taking a moment to gaze at the swirling reality inside. Not wanting to let the red-hot cherry she’d lit go out, she placed her lips around the bong’s opening, and inhaled.
The rupture of the Void’s outer shell brought with it a full view of the universe outside, or rather a view from outside the universe. All any of the billions on the planet could do was gaze up in horror as the planet itself was lifted up the neck of the bong and right into the mouth of what could only be one of the Old Gods, a being of such incomprehensible size and power that the very thought of them was enough to fry the brains of most Gilgaxxi. Before they could even process what had happened however, the entire solar system was dashed upon the surface of one of Gabriella’s taste buds, and instantly obliterated.
Gabriella set down the bong and let out a contented sigh. She’d pour out the used water later, for now she felt like relaxing and watching a show. One of the perks of being a technically omniscient being was having every streaming service from every world in every conceivable reality at your fingertips. She found something to watch and settled in, only for her stomach to remind her how long it had been since she last ate and how hungry the weed had made her. Stricken with the munchies, she grabbed a nearby bag of chips and started eating. What remains may have been left of Gilgax Prime, the Gem of a Million Worlds, was quickly washed away with galaxy-sized chip crumbs down the gullet of the true God as she took a swig from a flat bottle of soda she’d been keeping on her desk for the past week.