The first creature of this world was born of the world. A massive slab of rock gained sentience, growing arms and legs, and began to roam. Endlessly, it roamed. The curse of the firstborn is the curse of loneliness, and the burden of decision.

It came to the sea, an endlessly stretching oasis of water, peaking past the horizon. The creature took a large drink of the water. The most amazing thing it had ever tasted. The most incredible thing it had in this world. So, it made a simple choice.

It chose to drink. And drink, and drink some more. It kept sipping the sea, but it did not lower even a little. It drank until it could not drink another drop. But it still did regardless.

That creature, the first born - exploded into millions of pieces. Pieces of earth and water mixed together. They too, gained the sentience of the first born. They named themselves Humans, after their father, which they named humanity.

The first thing they decided was to take vengeance on the ocean. They tried themselves, to no avail. Weapons had no effects. Some drank the water, and all met the same fate as Humanity, a death, leading into new life. As they grew in number, they continued to condemn the sea.

They decided to make a beast to fight the ocean. They searched the land, and first found wood. A large golem of wood was made and sent to the ocean. As it drank the water, it grew larger. The humans began cheering. It drank and drank and grew to massive sizes. Unable to control itself, it fell into the ocean completely. Inside that endless abyss, it drank massive amounts of the sea.

A while later, that golem had turned into a massive tree, peaking out of the ocean. It was no longer of human control, but now a part of the sea. It was a beautiful tree, gold tinged and pure. It provided a fruit, when consumed, caused the humans to eat this fruit until death. From their bodies sprouted new trees, and new fruit.

Humans attempted to control the wind, in vain. It only pushed the ocean and made waves. The humans finally found the concept of fire. And attempted to use this, also in vain. The creature of fire was simply extinguished by the waves. The creature of fire spread across the land, creating fire in abundance.

Thanks to the sea, and the tree. Humans grew in number and resources. They built wooden villages, and controlled fire. Finally, they found stone.

The creature made of stone was just like the others in appearance, it moved toward the ocean. And consumed. The humans had no expectation, having submitted to the sea. The Stone creature drank and drank. It was sturdy and consumed incredible amounts of the sea. Clearly enjoying the sensation. It kept going and the humans saw a spark of hope that the sea may be yet extinguished.

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A crack appeared on the creature, and the humans panicked. They quickly made and sent creatures of wood and fire to join the stone one. They ordered the fire to consume the wood, and they leapt upon the stone golem. This in turn created a new beast. A flaming creature of cinder.

It burned, and it drank. Steam rose to the heavens. The humans continued to send all they had on to the creature, as they saw the ocean shrink. The tree began burning, the ocean visibly evaporating and fading. At the end, after the humans wasted all of their resources, homes included, the beast had destroyed the entire sea.

The humans celebrated with immense joy. At long last, their nemesis is defeated. It was a moment of great joy, as the cindering creature sat in the immense crater that once contained the ocean. It began melting. It felt an immense sorrow, having lost the ocean to drink.

The humans began to stop cheering and looked around. Their homes gone, everything burned to the ground. The sky now covered in layers and layers of smoke and ash. The once beautiful landscape now empty, besides fire and stone.

The cindering creature wept silently, and the humans began to weep openly. They now lost their ability to grow, to reproduce, to build.

All that remained was the inferno of metal.

Underneath a now dark sky, the population began to die off, and the end seemed to be in sight. Only one human remained. It looked to the sky. At that moment, it understood the meaning of the ocean.

It was sacrifice. Nothing came in this world without a sacrifice. It was this concept that made the humans swear vengeance in the first place. Only now, did it understand that this was the way of the world, and the humans broke it. It laughed bitterly in its last moments, if only it had understood earlier, if only.

It reached toward the sky and died.

A long time later, on a lifeless land, rain began to fall. Filthy rain, which withered the lands. The cindering beast now melted into the crater of the ocean; its fire was extinguished. The weeping stopped.

Underneath that stone, after endless sacrifice, metal alloy revealed itself at last, in the form of a tree.

There was now an ocean of liquid alloy above, and deep below the surface, came the new first born children of the world.

New humans, infused with the essence of metal. These new humans knew not who to worship, or who to kill. So, they built, they developed, and created.

Millions of years later, and the world was a developed civilization of technology. A team of explorers found the corpse of the last human and a metal ocean. No matter how hard they tried; they could not make a dent into its layer of mysterious liquid.

It became a known landmark to this day, the lake of metal.

A team of scientists analyzed the memories that remained in the last human. They only could extract the last thoughts of the human, which was an understanding of sacrifice.