When the Soviets threatened nuclear strikes against every major city in the United States, we did not build a defense system. We did not attack or negotiate. We didn’t even build an arsenal. We built a single bomb – aimed at the core of the Earth.

The press of a button would initiate a chain reaction in the planet’s core, leading to the devastation of all life on Earth within a year. In an attempt to deter nuclear war, we would place all our trust in a single individual. Who would dare press such a button?

The assignment was given to a man without devotion for mankind. He had seen the worst of humanity as a prisoner of war in the second World War and became a four star general in the years that followed – no doubt a competent man. But when he was handed the button, the world changed in an instant. A man without love for life was instantly made the most powerful person in all of human history.

He became the Mahadeva: the Great God. And the Destroyer, should his third eye open.

In a twisted inversion of power, a helpless prisoner became a global dictator, commanding unprecedented military fleets, shifting economies at his whim, and conducting fraudulent elections to extend his influence, all from the confines of a bunker one hundred meters below the surface. The Soviets did not dare challenge him.

After just ten months, he was assassinated in secret, his post left empty for nine days, and America left defenseless and vulnerable. The committee understood that the next Mahadeva must contend with an impossible paradox: she must willingly destroy life itself while simultaneously resisting the draw of immense power.

By all accounts, she was the perfect candidate. She was once an accomplished businesswoman, but when she lost her daughter in a car accident five years ago – and with that her last close relationship – she gave up her wealth and adopted an ascetic lifestyle.

Once the news of her election was leaked to the world, the Soviets dug into her past and discovered a tragic mosaic of love and hope, but above all, forgiveness. They calculated a less than one percent chance that she would press the button in retaliation to their attack. The nuclear strike is now headed our way.

Her job is to destroy the world. But it’s too late: she has already made her choice.

As her last moments creep by, she thanks her liberators with tears in her eyes. She knows she will see her daughter again.