Although Gaia now had receptors for information, it wasn't what he was familiar with. He did not have any eyes; he was also unable to control the movement of his limbs as he only had some branches. He could feel that the wood inside of him wasn't really himself, but a structure his body made to keep him stable. Gaia having deliberated a bit, decided to change his course of action. The same instinct he had to scan information was causing his roots to squirm their way all throughout the ground. Many years were going by and he was becoming quite the large tree. How large exactly he didn't know. But he wanted to keep his body protected, and felt having too of an eye-catching appearance wouldn't be beneficial for him. There unfortunately wasn't much he was able to do regarding this, he merely had to endure and consume, it was an instinct he couldn't ignore for now.

Gaia was unbothered by small matters such as millions of years going by; before he knew he had grown to be a little over 2 kilometers tall! 500 meters wide! He still was unaware of the scope of his growth. Originally the planet he was on was quite barren. While there was some water deep underground... a lot of the surface had been quite dry, dust storms raged the lands in some parts of the world. But a change had been sparked throughout time from his growth. The world he grew up in also was one that had deep within it, a world will. It was dormant, it had shut down after running out of energy long ago. It had awoken and also grew up with him, establishing rules from his presence... it wanted his approval for whatever reason, its thought processes weren't too complex yet, it was trying to pay its debt from a certain wave that had originated from him. When asked 'Just what am I?', it had acknowledged for the first time in its life it was a world will. It was willing to pay any price for that revelation, but he remained unaware of its influence or help.

Seasons did pass on that world, but it mostly ranged from extreme heat to extreme cold depending on where and when. When it became too cold he would partially shut down to conserve energy in that area of the world. Initially, there hadn't been many nutrients in the ground that he was able to absorb. There was nearly nothing at all for him, he was no longer divine, so he needed an energy source. Through Photosynthesis he was able to create energy when the world wasn't completely frozen. But certain key components were still missing so he still had to mix spirit with the little water and nutrients he found to produce power.

Gaia found it too much of a waste to continue operating in winter, he would lose his leaves and be unable to be able to process energy from the closest star. This cycle went on for a very long time, he created his own form of bacteria that contained within it some of his essence, his leaves had this bacteria on them. They mingled and mixed, interacting with the early lifeforms of the planet causing evolution to take a certain turn. The programming of their genome had within it certain key components. This bacteria wasn't entirely made from him, it was a joint effort between him and the world will.

Some of the lifeforms were able to emit carbon dioxide into the air while consuming oxygen. All oxygen on the planet came from Gaia in order to power his growth he used very small actions to mess with the evolution of the world. He had even found quite a few big water sources around the planet. There were a few he didn't like to touch at all though... the ones that caused his roots to dry out. He still found such large areas of water that took up so much space to be a waste. But he left it alone, deciding to optimize his evolution on the mainland of the planet.

Things never evolved past insects/plant life on the mainland. Unbeknownst to him though, his leaves had found their way into the oceans, his bacteria influencing change there as well, causing algae and other forms of life to form. It was an even better incubator than the once dry mainland. He had reached a point where he no longer needed to use any spirit as a substitute for his nutrients or existence. The lands were covered in fertile land, lush forest covered almost everywhere as long as the climate allowed it. All of these trees were, of course, gaias. But they were not run on separate threads, he also found that the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels were even more abundant! The oceans had become a huge producer of various components, but he was sadly unable to tell how such a thing was possible.

The trees other then his main body didn't grow to be nearly as tall as he was, only a few meters usually, although there were some outliers. After making billions of seeds, every few million there would be an error or so in the process of recreating his DNA. These very small errors would cause variations, causing the tree to grow weirdly, or sometimes not to grow at all. He would feel a certain disconnect when it came to these trees, he still felt connected to them, but that connection was weaker. All of these trees produced their own seeds as well, spreading far and wide across the land. They too participated in this cycle, converting materials and shedding leaves.

Sadly some trees were smothered to death by the vast amount of rotting and old leaves, unable to even grow up to their full potential. Luckily some insects and decomposers arose to eat them, creating waste products. That contained boatloads of nutrients. Even if they didn't arise it would have been a non-issue, random fires from the heat or lightning strikes had led to entire forest being burnt down. This was sad as many billions of lives were lost and systems destroyed. But it provided nutrients and growth for all gaias and the other trees.

Gaia had imparted a few keywords into his special bacteria, those being 'survive', 'multiply', 'divide'. The bacteria themselves had divided many trillions of times, they were not exempt from the various errors. While Gaia was quite proficient in scanning and was able to carry out many complex tasks, managing many things at once, he was not perfect... other types of bacteria had started to rise. His intent to survive placed a deep longing for survival in all his creations. His intent to multiply made almost everything have the desire to pass on its genes. His intent to divide, caused the bacteria to want to split and create more of themselves.

One in the trillions and trillions of bacteria had seemingly only gotten some DNA and the intent to multiply. It didn't have any of its systems at all to be able to do so. This was the first virus. Gaia had felt completely disconnected from it but approved of its actions. He felt it was living a good life, although mechanical as it was... it resonated with him. He had long lost his desire for sight and to be able to see the world around him. But he noticed how the virus would invade other systems and hijack them to produce copies of itself. It even tried to invade his main body, but they weren't really able to get past the wall of his cells or most of his plants. It mainly only affected non-plant life.

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There was a very weak tree that grew from a variation of a variation of a seed not from Gaia, but from one of the mutated seeds from one of his trees. It was still in the process of being a sapling. But it had a critical error, the cell wall which guarded the membrane of each cell... was unstable and had gaps in it. The virus being much smaller than a cell was able to sneak right in and hijack it. Due to the special nature of the sapling, it actually worked well together with this virus. It was slowly dying, but it began to fuzz over. The DNA in the virus mixed with the sapling to create something of a monster in terms of DNA, it was chaotic... it made no sense.

Gaia being almost everywhere on this planet and knowing everything without being able to actually see what was happening was baffled at such a development. Nothing had caught his attention quite like this. The body of the dead sapling burst opened long after its death. Spores flew out everywhere... it was at that moment that Gaia witnessed it. It was tiny and weak, but in that instant, there was a release of spirit... there were many spores flying about... even invading the trees that bordered the dead sapling. He didn't really care, approving of the variation. Gaia wondered just what type of evolution this would bring about.

Gaia put those types of thoughts to the back of his mind though. There was something far more interesting that was happening. All of the spores seemed connected to a single point. That point was within the dead sapling... something far more intelligent than the insects and other plant life he had seen. It moved with purpose... Gaia found it beautiful. That wasn't it though, for in the dead sapling... there was a soul!

He analyzed it... hard to grasp, yes. How it worked completely confused him, elusive, yes. Gaia could see, there were things in it. There were thoughts in it, he couldn't understand its actions. There were emotions radiating inside of it, hope, fear, passion. This reminded him of what he was, of what all of this was. He once had these emotions, he still did. He even had a soul as well... but he knew that he still could be intelligent without one...but he wanted something different, he wanted a means for action.

All of the life that filled the planet... at the very least life in the mainland did not have souls. The actions of the plant life and the insects followed a very specific set of programming. This was also why he was unable to assimilate it, there was simply nothing there for him to take over in the first place. It would only follow its programming, until death. He had felt that deep within the oceans... souls lied there, but he was unable to get to it. As he tried to move his roots below... he was blocked by bedrock. If he tried to grow his roots through the water, even forcibly using spirit... they would wither and die even while being in the water.

What he saw now though... it still had the intent to 'multiply'. It still had actions it needed to carry out. It wanted to follow its programming, it truly did. But it also had a choice, it had the beginning of true consciousness, it had a will it could force down on its body. Gaia was extremely fascinated by it... he was experiencing love for the first time.

He had begun to battle with its soul...but stopped.

It was so weak, he could easily take it over and make it a part of himself. This was something he couldn't even do to the insects that ran entire colonies in his world. He'd be able to actually feel what it felt, see the world how it saw things. He had only been able to do this with his particular set of trees until now, even being unable to see through the perspective of the variations that came about. It left him almost sad... yet this opportunity had come up.

But he experienced hesitation. This was the first life he felt like he had truly created... a freak accident. Just this once... he wanted to honor it. He was going to make it a part of himself. He still had a huge temptation run over him... he knew what had to be done. He thought over his options for a second... running simulations; thinking of the best course of action.

He wanted to find a middle ground... he remembered. There was a memory fragment... Moltzrar. Gaia checked for the fragment... but found not only did he not have it, but he also didn't have the ability to sacrifice 'avatar' or 'revival' or 'G77' for GR. He came to the conclusion that such ability is reserved for his body outside of existence... he thought that restriction was quite amusing. He then thought back to the odd existence that was Moltzrar and how he was just a memory fragment without a soul.

Gaia dismissed the idea of making its existence be only a memory fragment. It had yet to experience the world... Gaia didn't think turning it into a memory fragment would honor it at all. He then used characteristics of the soulsplitting technique, forcibly ripping some of the essence of its existence... similar to what he had done before, with the exception being no manifestation of a physical form. It also lied dormant waiting to awaken. The soul did put up some natural resistance... but it was like a baby trying to fight off a lion, nearly impossible to resist in every situation. Gaia decided to name this process and manifestation produced 'soul fragment'. What he felt while creating this soul fragment was not the disappointment of his lost ability create, it was a certain pride. The etching of his manifest was beginning to form, a very mysterious ability.

He collected its soul fragment in his sea of consciousness... the only thing left was an empty soul. He no longer felt such conflicting emotions and quickly assimilated it. Promising to one day give it a proper life.

While all of this was happening, he had started to have certain ideas about himself, certain ideals. He had come to call the large tree from which he originated the 'World Tree'. He knew he was a gaia, a lone thread split off from his brethren. He had tried recreating more threads, but he was unable without great cost. This entire world was a single thread, one at which he had only been able to nudge. He wasn't truly able to interact with it. He was a part of a Hivemind, but he wasn't one truly. He was notified by Echo that both his spirit and soul had increased.

His species had been updated...

He now had complete control of the fungi.

He had become what he had been in the abyss. What he was outside of existence.

He looked forward to meeting himself once more

His sea of consciousness had then begun repairing itself

The endless stone maze

This time an island covered in green grass floated far above

There weren't very many roots

There weren't very many threads

He sat atop a throne of wood

His entity like that of an old tree

His shape like that of a man

As if a golem

The soul fragment appeared in the form of mushrooms on the back of his chair

This 'gaia' had also now become a Hivemind

He now knew it was time to carry out 'his' plan!

Spoce

Ocejbt

Gaboll

A plan that was bigger than him... at least bigger than him for now. One which was hidden from both the readers and the writer, what he referred to as 'outsiders'. A consequence which originated from his experience in the abyss...

He hoped he could pull it off smoothly!