Jackson came to his senses standing in between two battalions clashing around him. He knew them as soldiers as the tabards they wore depicted the factions they championed. On one side stood lizard men, scaled anthropomorphic yet men all the same. The other humans of all shades green, white, black, and the occasional fire red skinned person…..

  ‘GREEN people?’ He didn't know why he knew they were all humans but he knew they were. ‘I guess it’s one of those dream logic things where you just know something.’ He looked around him to see dying warriors, human and lizard. Yet the blood and viscera never reached him. Where he stood, there was a perfect circle lacking any gore. The circle ended five feet in any given direction

  He stood in the center of the ever raging battlefield for what felt like seconds, yet saw eras pass. The battle started with clubs and spears then flowed ever onward in the stream of time. As the people reached what he could only assume to be the bronze age, something changed. Magic, that was all it could be as the warriors harnessed the elements to slay their foes. Time seemed to speed to a fever pitch soon after as the battles became truly destructive.

  That’s when it appeared no matter where he looked, it was there approaching him, floating through the battle unimpeded. A mass of swirling rings covered in eyes, like a gyroscope from hell. Floating behind it were three pairs of wings set against a tapestry of light. The tapestry was knit from pure memory each showing epic battles and armies of angels all arranged with a set of scales as the focus. The memory of the scales was simple, yet its defining concept burned its message into his psyche...Balance. In all things there is balance. For everything there is an opposite. At the center of the rings lay a ball of light that shown with the intensity of the sun, casting shadows upon Jackson, as it was trapped inside a twisting cage made of nightmares.. It finally stopped around 15ft in front of him and just floated there, menacingly.

  “Hello there Mr. Nightmare orb.” Jackson said, nonchalantly. “If you don’t mind, I think it’s time I wake up before whatever you are gives me a permanent fear of circles.” As he closed his eyes to try and will himself awake, the thing spoke. It did not speak in the traditional sense, it made no sound, its message forced its way into his mind.

  “Be not afraid small human, I have been sent to give you a quest. You will save all of humanity from a mistake of cosmic proportions.” The command rumbled through his consciousness, shaking him to his core. The feeling of the voice, the closest descriptor to how it felt, was like two tectonic plates rolling over each other yet, smooth and cultured. The true depth and magnitude of the voice was resounding, cutting into the core of what Jackson… rather WHO Jackson was.

  “Hey, no cosmic hell sphere is giving me any quests, also “save” humanity? Have you met humans? To paraphrase a psycho robot senator "we pull them out by the roots, wipe the slate clean, burn them out. And from the ashes, a new world will be born." Also, I’ve asked around; and a few others agree and a few others agree with me. Humanity in general was a mistake. I say dinosaurs were supposed to become sapient first, the whole asteroid thing however kinda skipped a couple steps.” Jackson’s dinosaur theory was universally ignored by his friends, yet he believed it. As firmly as anyone would believe in a joke. ‘This is getting a little wild even for one of my dreams.’

  “I am not a being of the Hells. I am Michael, the Angel of the Scales, Bringer of Balance, Defender of the Weak; I am an Archangel from the ‘Eyes of Heaven’ guild sent to help rectify a small mistake that was set into motion long ago. You are my chosen instrument by which I will do this. I have been allowed a boon for you”

  “If you do that nauseatingly loud telepathy one more time I’m gonna have a migraine and we’ll get absolutely nowhere. Another thing, if you think I’ma be your ‘instrument’ you got another thing coming, you massive toolbag. I don’t do things for great cosmic beings I meet in a dream about eternal war. Finally, if you aren’t from Hell then you are nightmare fuel. Which explains the eternal war….. and the eyes”

  Suddenly a blinding flash of light came from directly overhead. A white hot ball of fire emitted the light, Jackson knew in his core tha the light should have blinded him. The ball had come from the hands of a red tinged human made of fire from the hips down. This looked and felt like the ultimate attack of the Djinn looking man. Across from him floated one of the lizard men, he had one feathered wing extending from his back. With one Imperious flick of his hand the lizard man plucked it from the air and absorbed it into his being, much to the human’s horror. The lizard man began howling in horror, flames erupted from within his body as it began turning to ash in an ever encroaching wave. Finally all was silent as he blew away in the wind. Nothing was left, except a charred, smoking pile of armor.

  Jackson looked back at Michael to see the creature frozen in…. shock, confusion, thought? It’s hard to attribute emotion to a ball of floating rings, mainly due to the lack of facial features. The rings haltingly grinded back into motion attaining their original speed.

  “I will ?peak to you in your human tongue, now that I’ve gained under?tanding of your language from your memorie?. As I have done this as a kindne?? to you I would reque?t the bare minimum of re?pect from you.” Michael’s voice was smooth and elegant. It was also distinctly feminine.

  “Okay Michael, I’ll humor you, what do you want me to save humanity from? Global warming? Pollution? Did we drop the nukes while I was asleep? You realize I’m a college student right? I can’t do shit to help save the world from any of that.” The disjointed nature of Michael’s speech was confusing to Jackson. The change came when Michael changed languages.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “There i? a war coming and it wa? created by human?' rampant greed and de?truction but that i? not what you will be fighting again?t. You will be ?aving humanity from mana.”

  “First mana doesn‘t exist. Second, how would mana cause pollution to kill us.” This is where Jackson no longer believed this to be an ordinary dream, or even a nightmare, it was somehow both and real all at the same time.

  “Mana doe? exi?t, it ha? cau?ed Earth to reawaken from a long ?lumber and allowed for me to contact you. The Earth ha? ?lept for thou?and? of year? as mana ha? been voided from all but the edge? of your galaxy. With it? return the Earth has ?een what ha? become of humanity and their treatment of it.”

  “Wait, the earth is alive? Is it Gaia? or Sif? So the earth is gonna punish all of us for the acts of a few!?...that sucks.” responded Jackson in confusion. Jakcson had the singular belief that the easiest way to challenge a lie was to ask questions. Since dreams are generally stories made by the subconscious, dreams are stories, stories aren’t necessarily true, this should collapse like any other lie. This was the logic that was fuelling Jackson.

  “The Earth has no cho?en name; it take? the name it ha? at the time from the people who live on it. Gaea is long dead a? i? ?if, they embodied the Earth, ‘the ?oil’. They were not the planet it?elf. As for the Earth’? puni?hment… it is le?? of a puni?hment and more of a mi?take cau?ed by the haze before wakefulne?? and data older than the landma?? you ?leep upon.”

  “A rounding error will be the doom of humanity and you chose me to try and fix it? Seems like you need better calculators.”

  “I cannot ?ee the future yet I can divine Fate. A? thi? ta?k i? under my purview in the guild I began divining and you were the an?wer. The que?tion that returned your name wa? ‘Who will ?ave humanity?’ You mu?t under?tand I am not choo?ing you. I found you were the an?wer before the boon. The boon will ?imply ?peed thing? up.”

  “What makes you think you're right? What if you cast your spell wrong? What if I save humanity by dying? What if I don’t want to be your tragic hero, dying for some cause I never chose.”

  “I know I am right. It i? not a ?pell but… an under?tanding. You will ?ave humanity a? a whole whether I intervene or not. If your death ?ave? humanity, then you ?halldie.”

  At this revelation, Jackson looked away from Michael towards the infinite war and saw….death. All were dead, there were no soldiers, no flying god-like creatures, not even a scavenger, just ruination. There were no corpses,all that remained was the blood, viscera, and husk-like armor, devoid of its wearer. At the center of it all, Jackson stood with Michael. It was at that moment that he decided he was done with this dream and whatever message his subconscious had for him. Before he could speak Michael said,

  “Thi? battlefield wa? known a? the Eternal ?truggle. It raged for a millenia on a long di?tant planet from here at the edge of thi? galaxy; it wa? between two ?eparate guild? a? the battle to rule the planet. They had made a deal that whoever ended the battle with the mo?t troop? would own the planet in it? entirety. It wa? a high level at ?eventy-?ix, ?adly the planet died when the mana di?appeared. The war ended when the galaxy lo?t all its mana, thankfully the natural boundary of the galaxy was ?trong enough to ?top whatever took the mana from reaching out?ide it.”

  “You know what Michelle,”Jackson said mockingly, “I’m done with this dream. I’m done with you and I’m done with magic. I want no portents of doom or hero work. I have class at 8am," Jackson began walking away from Michael. Yet Michael was always in front of Jackson floating fifteen feet away. No matter how Jackson moved Michael remained fifteen feet in front of him unwavering even as the landscape moved and changed around them. As Jackson spun, Michael spun in kind to remain in front of him.

  “Child I am more an?ient than you could imagine. I have de?troyed galaxie? for insult? le?? ?ignificant than trying to call me a lady. You will ?how me re?pect or there will be repercu??ion?.” Michael stated in his feminine voice.

  “Children are allowed to be petulant, you overgrown bird. Also ‘repercussions’, you need me to save humanity without me you fail in your role. So let me out of here before I start acting out.”

  “I will not be talked down to by a being not even out of it? first ?entury. Just becau?e you are the tool to complete my ta?k doe? not mean I can’t puni?h you. There are awful thing? happening out there a? we ?peak in thi? realm, thing? you need to be warned of ?o you may prepare.”

  Jackson began spinning in place as fast as he could. Being this was a dream he could go fairly fast. Yet the nausea and vertigo were still present. As Jackson did this Michael started to slowly slide further away from him as the speed Jackson was spinning at was destabilizing Michael, making him lose focus on the spell allowing him to be there. All of a sudden Jackson froze.

  “You petulant little ?HIT! I have not experien?ed nau?ea ?in?e before dinosau? exi?ted on your planet. The ?imple fact that you wanted me to be nau?eou? made it possible.”

  “I keep wishing to leave, or for you to disappear and yet, here we are. You're talking, I'm spinning, and not leaving. So if you haven’t felt that, why would you feel nauseous? Well!? You ball of ass!” Whatever caused Jackson to stop spinning was less like a crushing force and more like seeping water. Whatever was holding him in place was slowly entering his consciousness. Pushing in from the sides of his thoughts. It hurt.

  “You wi?hed me to experien?e ?omething I have not, why would I think to block it?” Michael was clearly still getting over the spinning as his hoops were off kilter, almost hitting each other while he tried to right himself. The force holding Jackson lessened, as Jackson didn’t try to spin again the force continued to lessen till it was gone.

  As Michael set himself to rights, Jackson reached down and picked up a sword. Looking directly at the glowing ball at the center of Michael, Jackson raised the sword with a single hand readying it to strike off his own arm.

  “You know you can’t die in a dream? I heard the brain can’t simulate it and ends the dream there.” As Jackson finished the sentence he brought the sword down, disappearing from the space entirely.

  “That moron nearly removed the memory of hi? hand.”