When used right, it can be the most overpowered skill imaginable.
The ability to see what will happen in the future, analyze it, and come up with a way to change it.
Imagine knowing that you're gonna die on a specific date for a specific reason. All you have to do is avoid it or make a new scenario where you don't die.
Imagine knowing that someone close to you, the one who you least expected, betrays you in the future. They steal your work and deserved glory, your money, family, honour, everything, leaving you with nothing.
Wouldn't you want to prevent that from happening?
You do so and succeed. People praise you for your wit, guts, and accomplishments, all without knowing that you secretly have the most powerful skill imaginable.
They don't know that you did all that for yourself and get the wrong idea.
One misunderstanding after another, they begin to depend on you. They see you as someone dependable and strong, smart and efficient. They think you care about them.
Little do they know, that you're selfish. But you don't care what they think about you. There's no point. You know they're just going to sing your praises.
As you continue being right, you realize that not all is as it seems. Day after day, you correct a wrong future. Or at least, a future that you think is wrong.
After days of figuring out what it is that's wrong, you finally discover it.
Foresight isn't all powerful after all.
Although seeing the future sounds op, everything has its limitations.
Sure the skill lets you see the future, but the thing is, you don't really quite see the current future. Sounds weird, doesn't it?
In this world, when a person gains that skill for the first time, that's the only time that they get to see the future. From then on its just a side effect of the skill; a very, very good memory.
You don't get to use it again and again, it's just unfair. That means that you can't see a different kind a future. One where it changes because of your actions.
You don't get to see possibilities, or just, again in general. Luckily, no matter what you do, the future doesn't always change. It has a way of staying original.
If you prevent someone from betraying you and making you lose all that you have, you simply get robbed. You stop an accident from happening to you that made you lose a limb. You'll simply experience something else with the same result. Whether from another accident, or a monster attack, or a psychopath. The same thing will happen.
You prevent someone from killing you. Now you know that you'll live, right?
Nope.
You'll still die. And it'll still happen at the same exact time that your foresaw.
You've made this revelation. Now what do you do? Will you stop relying on it? If so, then nothing will change.
Will you continue trying? Would you risk it? Wasting the last days of your life trying to figure out a way to prevent your demise, only for you to fail?
Imagine you, having a skill that's considered one of the most powerful, telling yourself that you're in a loose loose situation.
You're not old enough to die. In fact, your child isn't even a teenager. Do you spend the last days of your youth figuring out how to live longer, or will you just live it the way you want?
It's a tough choice, huh.
That's not what empress Esther of the Reunen empire thought.
She knew that the obvious answer was to figure out a way to live longer. For her, dying in her thirties was not an option.
After years of meticulous planning, the day had finally come. She was ready to live, even if it meant sacrificing everything else.
"This conversation is over." Were the last words she heard.
It failed.
She spent her lasts days trying to increase them. Yet she failed.
Unfortunate, isn't it?
Would you say she was lucky to die once you learn that what she saw next was the dark valley? Because that's exactly what she was standing before.
She didn't expect that, so naturally she got scared.
A completely new environment, never before mentioned in any data that she had access to as the empress. Her conclusion was that she was in the afterlife.
A message appeared before her, on what looked like a screen. Something that she has never seen before.
"Would you like to become a god?"
"Place your finger on the answer."
"Yes."
"No."
Her face was littered with confusion.
"A god? Like, the almighty goddess herself?"
What was going through her mind? She was tough to read. Her face was stone cold, clearly thinking about something.
She never saw this using her skill. It's the first time something actually new happened to her life.
Could she have been tempted? Maybe she felt like she was going against her religious teachings. We don't know if she actually followed them.
Maybe she was still contemplating the fact she died. Who knows.
It seemed like her finger moved on its own. The entirety of her body didn't have a reaction except for it.
Yes.
The screen disappeared and another showed up.
"Only those who can walk over the darkness will become light."
"The darkness?"
She assumed that it was referring to the valley. How was she supposed to walk over that?
Then she noticed the distorted light on the surface. She was smart to immediately know that it must've been a barrier.
So all she had to do was walk over it. It didn't make sense. What did it have to do with becoming a deity?
Also, there must be a catch. Walking over a barrier that covered, whatever it was underneath. Was she really supposed to trust, well, anything?
But it didn't seem like there were anymore options since she wasn't sure where she was. So she did it.
She took a step onto the barrier with almost zero confidence. But before her foot came into contact with the barrier, she realized that it might be a test.
Maybe she was supposed to do it with confidence. Since she ended up there, a place where she couldn't see anyone else, maybe she was special. Maybe now she was being tested to see if she is worthy.
I hate delusional people.
Now, with a little more confidence, she took a step forward. What do you know. To her, it felt like normal solid ground.
So she put both feet on the barrier and slowly walked across.
Though she tried her best not to look down, her mind couldn't be thrown away from wondering what filled the land below her.
Still, the thought of having the same kind of power that the goddess has. Just thinking about it made her feel incredible.
Her emotions had now gotten the better of her. She became impatient.
Without knowing it, she was sprinting to the other side.
What would she do after becoming a deity? All that power and authority. It has to feel good.
By that point, she was already too far gone.
Then she was brought back when she suddenly began to fall. The feeling of the barrier slowly rising up her body. She did not expect it.
She didn't even have time to react anyhow. Her vision slowly got covered in darkness.
Then she hit the ground. Hard. Her back broke. Blood came from her mouth. But somehow, she was still conscious.
She could feel every ounce of pain from the fall. Not only that, but she felt like her body was on fire. No. Rather, like her limbs were torn off her body.
Something like a shadow was covering her body, spreading towards her head and torso from her hands and legs.
She couldn't scream, move or even breath. In a short while, her entire body was covered with the shadow. She laid still on the ground. Her mouth wide open trying to gasp for air.
She struggled to move. No change. And after a while, she gave up.
Now she began to think about how she will spend the rest of her afterlife there. Why was she there in the beginning anyway.
What if she was able to change her future. If she didn't go to meet me at the Holy Kingdom, could she have survived?
She causes her own demise. Her best option would have been to just stay at her palace. What was she thinking?
To her, it felt like she was there for years. She didn't know that it had only been one day, when suddenly, she saw light again.
All the darkness that looked like neverending night, it all vanished, almost in an instant.
She saw all the other people that looked like her, covered in darkness and still as a statue. Now she learnt that she wasn't the only one.
Then she felt the force of a huge blast. She was confused. But finally, after what felt like forever, she saw the top of the valley, and the sky.
But she still couldn't move.
Then, she saw the last person she expected to see. Mine.
She couldn't figure out how I was there, or why. But seeing me made her furious, knowing that I'm the one who killed her. She was angry.
In the fit of anger, she heard a voice that almost sounded like hers.
"Kill."
But she didn't pay attention to it.
"Kill him."
Then the ground below began to collapse. And she was slipping into a hole that appeared below her.
It scared her, a lot. But there was nothing she could do, and her body fell in, together with all the other ones.
Everything fell in, leaving absolutely nothing. No land, air, sky, light. Only a dark empty space.
And in a place, where a very small amount of light shone through, all the bodies where piled up there, and Esther was at the top.
Then just for a moment, being barely caught by the little amount of light, her finger twitched.