I feel it...

I feel my end coming...

Weather it is in a day, in an hour or in a minute matters little.

I already hear Death whispering to me.

"Come to me" I hear.

"Your time has come" It says.

But I am not worried, I have never been worried about this fabled date, the day I was born was also the day the clock started ticking.

Death... is something I am rather familiar with. After all, all that dies will eventually return to the ground it once came from.

How would I, a planet, not be familiar with Death.

Every plant, every tree, every land creature, every sea creature, they return to me, for I am Earth...

For I was Earth. What is a planet that doesn't sustain life ? What is a planet that doesn't allow its inhabitants to live as they should ? What am I if not a failure ?

Dying... is not a bother to me, after Eons of claiming the lives of my children for the sake of nutrition, death is simply expected.

But what of those still alive ? They are weak, fragile, they are not blessed by mana, their chances of survival in the cold of space is...null. Not even worth considering.

I cannot let them die a slow death, slowly but surely letting them kill themselves over dwindling resources, I could never allow this needless suffering.

A gamble to be sure, to extinguish life, without pain, without warning, making sure every single soul gets to sleep peacefully. Were it another time, another me, I would think this foolish. It would surely kill me, though it does not make a great difference from my current situation.

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This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

No, not yet, I was too hasty. The Gods, those Divine bastards, negligent fucks that they are, will notice a planet's death. Nothing good will come of it I'm sure. I would much rather their souls be forever lost to the ether than to let the Gods play with them, it would be a greater mercy.

I doubt they would let my death be unexploited though.

If I truly want peace for my children, then the best solution is to bless them all... but then they will have to suffer through millennias of fighting and starving.

Should I only bless one, leaving enough mana to put them all to sleep ? But will one be be enough? What being should I bless? How much energy should I expend on that blessing? So many questions and so little answers...

"Your time has-"

"Shut up"

"..."

This is not the time to bother me, I'll die later anyways.

Blessing just one individual to guarantee the safety of my children is a gamble that might not pay off, but the other alternative is not worthwhile at all.

Who should I bless then ?

No insect can handle a blessing.

Snake do not have the limbs to build, they can only destroy.

Canines are too ferocious, Felines too selfish, Ursines too unmanageable and Vulpines too cunning

I wouldn't gamble on bird of prey.

Creatures of water, I wouldn't gamble on, especially dolphins and orcas, I'm trying to preserve life here, not destroy it

Herbivores only defend themselves, they wouldn't care for an outside threat until it attacked them.

That leaves...Humans.

I should have been dying in the 1800s, humans were way more reliable then. Humans today are...ugh.

I guess I don't have any better options though.

Now to find someone that fits the bill...

They should be brave, can't leave the fate of my children to a coward.

They should have compassion and generosity in their heart, can't have them not putting the people first.

They should have arrogance in droves, can't have them submitting to the Will of the Gods

They should... never mind I found a guy .

Now then, 12,143625789 % of my mana should be enough to make him a good defender, the rest will go to the extinction spell.

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Planet Earth has died.

What little mana it could have used to fuel itself, gone, never to be recovered again.

Its inhabitant's cold, dead bodies, floating through the infinite cosmos as if to seek a home they will never reach.

Their souls, forever lost to the ether, their only relief being that this all-encompassing story that was Earth's had ended quickly...peacefully even.

But the Gods, Divine bastards that they were, always looking for entertainment, could not let such an end be:

They harvested and mangled the carcasses of many dead planets, stitching them together to create this unholy abomination, a chimera of sorts, a playground existing solely for their whims.

They recovered the souls of the dead, restored their bodies and gave them deadlier and deadlier trials, promising them a freedom that doesn't exist and a new home that wants nothing more than to sent them back to their graves.

All was as Earth expected

This is the story of a blessed earthling, trying his best to save humanity from extinction. It is also the story of more unfortunate earthlings, conquering the Gods' trials trough sheer will, cruelty, cunning, intellect and most importantly, spite.