It Was 2020
Phase II

Overlord hoisted himself to his feet, placed his palms together in front of his chest, and bowed to Kay.

“I am pleased you asked. Phase Two is when the Creator arrives. With it comes the full force of our race. Until now, we have only been a few thousand, scattered across the globe as we gave and followed orders regarding the culling of your species. Surely you noticed that we have not targeted any land, air, or sea creatures. We have only sought to cull the problem that is homo sapien.”

While Kay stares at him with wide eyes and a slack jaw, he continues on.

“Your people have become complacent. They believe things are returning to normal. They remove their masks and disregard your leader's advice. They know the virus is airborne and can affect anyone, yet they do not care for the lives of those that could die. Some will remain unaffected. Those will be the ones you call on to join the war. You will need many more warriors, and they will be all that is left. They will fight, but they will not survive. One can not survive the Creator's presence once it is established and bent on destruction.”

Kay composes herself long enough to blurt out, “But why? Everyone will not join in the fight. A lot of them will be too scared, too old, or too young. Regular people like me don’t just fight in a war. They’ll hide. What happens if we lose?”

Overlord laughs. At least that’s what Kay assumes he’s doing. He makes an arr, arr, arr sound. Similar to a barking dog or Robin Williams in the old television show ‘Mork and Mindy’. He wipes his brow, recomposes himself, and continues.

“You say ‘if you lose’, like there is a chance you may win. You truly do not know what you are going to be up against. Perhaps I can show you; but only if you trust me.” He looks at Kay quizzically, as if he expects her to say no, yet he extends his hand for her to grasp.

“I don’t trust you; but if you can show me why we’ll lose, go ahead.” She places her hand on his outstretched palm. He immediately closes his fingers over her hand tightly. So tightly it hurts. Kay starts to tell him to let go, but she’s caught by surprise when he places his other hand on the top of her head. He closes his eyes and instructs her to do the same.

“Close your eyes and open your mind. You will feel a brief moment of cold as I push my memories of past cullings into your head. Once the transition is complete, you will understand why your people can not win.”

Kay waits for pain, but none comes. She feels a bitter, freezing cold that is all but forgotten as soon as the memories flood her mind and overload her synapses. She sees a very large bright light. She knows it's the Creator, but only because these memories are coming from the Overlord. If she had seen this light in person, she would have likely assumed it was a very large asteroid. A cataclysmic event, for sure, but an invasion of the foreign persuasion would never have crossed her mind.

As Kay is forced to refocus on the memories, she sees millions of smaller lights that separate from the Creator and descend upon the planet. The species that’s being decimated is humanoid in appearance, yet is obviously very alien to Kay. Kay thinks, “If this is a real memory, and the Creator is truly this powerful, then there’s definitely a lot more life out there than just us puny humans and all of them should be very afraid!”

The memories keep coming. The humanoid aliens number in the billions. They may, in fact, outnumber the population on Earth . They have lasers, armor, helmets, and gigantic vehicles that crush everything in their paths. Everything except the Light Army of Darkness that is.

Kay has decided to give the invading army this name, Light Army of Darkness. It has the feel of an oxymoron, yet the description rings true.

As the fighting progresses, the humanoid aliens are mown down with an almost surgical precision. The Light Army of Darkness doesn't bother with taking on a bipedal form. They stay as scorching hot rays of light and burn through the bodies of the planet's inhabitants like a hot knife through butter.

In a blink, Kay realizes, “They didn’t have to look like us. They could have killed us all outright, but they didn’t. They only took a few million lives. Maybe there’s still a chance.”

As the flood of memories continues, Kay sees that there is precious little blood on this battlefield since the vast majority of wounds are instantly cauterized. Body parts are strewn about with reckless abandon. Legs, arms, heads, torsos, they all litter the ground like so many leaves in the fall. Kay thinks she understands. The Creator thrives on war and destruction. There is enjoyment in killing off an entire species and taking their planet. They are going to kill everyone on Earth the same way they have killed beings on other planets. Covid evolved from their damnable leaves and helped them cull the human race. Now that Covid is mutating and no longer killing people, Theoth-E.R.S. are going to finish the job while the Creator oversees the action.

More planets are shown. More intelligent life forms are ruthlessly murdered. The one thing that all of these war memories have in common is the utter decimation of every single being that surpassed the evolution of other creatures on the planet.

When the memories have been uploaded, and Overlord has released his grip, it takes all of the gumption Kay has in her to stay standing and ask, “Why?”

Overlord bows his head in disappointment and addresses Kay. "This is what we do. When evolution creates a species that refuses to keep their world functional and the lesser beings alive, we intervene. We…how would you say it? Ah yes. We push the reset button. It is well past time the Earth was reset."

“Wait. What do you mean by ‘well past time’? Are you saying the Earth should have been reset sooner?” Kay looks at the self-proclaimed Overlord in astonishment.

Thus the Overlord explained, “You see, your planet has been on our radar for quite some time now. We thought about intervening in the 16th and 17th centuries during the Catholic persecution, but since there were less than 1,000 deaths and it was mainly concentrated on one continent, we left Earth alone. You all did not do yourselves any justice with the Thirty Years War either. The Creator wanted to see if humans would replace a solution and, even though there were many civil wars, it seemed you did…for a time. Once your people concluded World War I, we decided it was time to conduct a trial run on your planet. Thus we instituted the Spanish Flu in 1918 and 1919. Call that a soft reset if you will. There were between 20 and 50 million deaths back then. Approximately half of the current numbers from our current culling once you factor in population differences, inadequate medical technology, and most doctors having no idea what medicines to give the patients. World War II was by far the most atrocious act that any of my people had ever seen on any planet, and that’s saying a lot. The main areas of Germany and Japan were leveled. You humans used guns, grenades, mines, tanks, flamethrowers, mortars and artillery on each other. All because one man invaded another country. Not only that, but you also used nuclear weapons and fire bombs. You can not believe that we would burn through a species, yet you dropped napalm and petroleum jelly incendiaries indiscriminately on civilians and enemies alike. Wooden houses caught fire, charred bodies littered the streets, and over 100,000 civilians were burned in one night, and over 1 million maimed!”

Kay could tell he was angry. Hell, she herself was angry. She knew about a few of these wars, but the extent of the past violence of the human race had apparently been left for individuals to replace out on their own instead of being taught about them in school or at universities. Perhaps it wasn’t wanton destruction the Creator sought, but rather the lessening of senseless deaths on other planets. Maybe they hadn't thought to come up with an alternative solution to stopping murder and carnage with anything other than more murder and carnage. An eye for an eye mentality if you will.

The Overlord was seething with outrage. These humans had always thought they were the only beings in the solar system, yet they refused to take care of their own. Between the absurd number of wars and skirmishes and the unimaginable number of homeless and starving beings, it was a wonder they hadn’t managed to kill themselves off without any help from another species!

Overlord continued his rant, “Throughout the years you have forced people off their lands and into homelessness, starvation, and death. The Native Americans, Scottish, Irish, African Americans, Chinese, Indians, and Afghan’s; just to name a few. You steal land from one another. You force other humans to work for you. You kill them when they fight back for their freedoms. Even after World War II, you still fought. The Chinese Civil War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Greek Civil War, Cuban Revolution, Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Iran-Iraq War, the Cold War, and so many more that you, dear Kay, do not know about. All of the countries on Earth are only concerned with teaching you humans about their own particular wars so you never truly understand how much bloodshed this planet has brought upon itself. None of you understand how truly ignorant you are, nor how inferior you look to other beings. The Creator, with his vast knowledge of the solar system and its inhabitants, has found that human beings have evolved to be much more violent than other mammals that you consider less intelligent than yourselves.”

As Kay sneaks a look at her office clock, noticing it is 8:45am, the Overlord sits down, folding himself much like an accordion would, and heaves a great sigh of despair before continuing.

“Do you understand? The Creator has given Earth millions of years to right itself, yet the more humans evolved the more violent you became. Even if you did not have the intelligence to create weapons of mass destruction, your brains would have still developed into the malicious and vile creatures that many of you are.”

Kay thinks about this before replying. She knows what he says is true. University research has suggested that a tendency towards violence has shaped our anatomy. She remembers reading how evolved humans can make a fist with their thumb over their first and second fingers, thus making it safer to hit with more force and less damage. None of our primate cousins have this ability. Even our upright posture is a fighting attribute. Though many humans desire world peace, it would seem that many sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists believe violence is genetically determined. What could she possibly say to dissuade the Overlord and The Creator from their current path? She would have to be very careful with what she planned on suggesting or she may not live to have The Creator kill her.

“I would like to ask a question of you, but you have to give me your word that you will not harm me, get angry, or call me ignorant. You have to remember that I don’t know about your race or your Creator, so I would appreciate some patience.” Kay spoke these words without showing an ounce of trepidation. She hoped Mr. Overlord dude would notice and appreciate it.

The Overlord looked at her with mild amusement and said, “Normally I would not justify such a request. Normally I would leave and let your planet perish as The Creator sees fit. Normally I would kill you myself for your perceived insolence. Today, however, I am feeling generous. You have trusted me, so I shall listen to you. You may speak freely.”

“Thank you. First I would like to know if it is possible to see, or even get a request to, The Creator?” Kay could see that the Overlord was about to interrupt, so she proceeded quickly. “I understand you will likely say no. However, before you deny my request, will you let me finish? You did say I could speak freely.”

Heaving a heavy sigh, the Overlord replied, “Yes. Go on.”

“Thank you. So, I assume where you come from is a fair distance away from Earth. I also realize that you all have seen the numerous wars, murders, and other terrible things we have done here on Earth. Have you ever looked at the good, kind, peaceful things that humans have done? The things we do to try and make someone else's life better, improve the environment, or try to save a species from extinction?”

“Rarely do we pay attention to the ‘good’, as you call it, since there are readily so many worse undertakings occurring.” says the Overlord.

“Fair enough.” says Kay, “Please allow me to enlighten you as to the more pleasing aspects of the human race. Then I will make my proposal to you.”

“Proceed.” The Overlord interlaces his fingers and crosses his legs as he listens.