AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hello everyone. This is a concept I've been playing around with for awhile. I hope you enjoy it.
Though, this is my second fiction here and will be updated less frequently and haphazardly as I will be focused upon my primary fiction, Renewal Eternal.
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In all probability, something should have happened in all of existence. But, improbably nothing did. Nature, the supreme force in all of existence, roamed the many barren pathways of existence prodding and poking as it attempted to begin what had been decreed so very long ago.
For millennia upon millennia, it continued its task without any quantifiable progress. It searched farther and farther upon the pathways of existence until it came to the very end. Despondent, it gave up hope. Every pathway was barren. With its task failed, it turned to hibernation, waiting with little hope for the day when one of the pathways lit with life.
That day did not come for a long time.
A small fire burst alight in a neglected branch of existence long since abandoned by all who had come before. The fire spread, coursing through the avenues and pathways opened to it by nature long ago. Like a beacon, nature turned its many heads towards the long forgotten pathway and thrust itself into the pathway, stoking the fire until it became a roaring flame.
The pathway spread, overflowing with life force, as it left the pathway of existence. Entering the void, the life-force of the pathway dimmed even as nature stoked it with every fiber of its being.
It pushed and pushed. The life-force slowly spread until it could spread no farther. Exhausted, nature let go of the pathway as it, once again, began to hibernate, waiting for the day when the pathway would stabilize into a plane of existence.
Time passed. Unknown millenia. Perhaps millions. Maybe even trillions before something happened.
Like the flickering flame of a lighter, a plane of existence began to coalesce into existence. As it was new, all that greeted this new plane was emptiness. However, in the deep pockets of the plane, matter began to congeal together as nature dictated.
To the plane’s timeframe, this occurrence took mere moments; but, if time was viewed linearly, it took well over one-million years for this simple occurrence. At first, these balls of matter streaked through the empty plane unhindered by any obstacles. Though, as time passed, some of these balls of matter, although infrequently, struck each other resulting in the creation of universes, galaxies, stars, planets, and one single being.
In a space between two universes…
BOOOM!
Two huge balls of molten rock passed each other in the dark expanse of the plane. Stars were far distant beings only seen as dim pinpricks of light. Crunch! A scraping of metallic rock could be heard…well, it would have been heard, if there was any sound in space. But, as silence remains supreme, all that could be seen by any observer who watched this magical event, would have been two gigantic rocks scrape against each other, rubbing their sides against each other with monstrous force.
Cliff-like walls fell away from the balls of molten rock as they passed each other in the emptiness of the plane. While matter, free-floating in the void, usually disperses as it is pulled by gravity, this matter did nothing of the sort. It acted against nature and, in doing so, created something even the infinite probability of the universe could not account for.
~
I awoke in the same way a cat opens its eyes after taking a long nap. Slowly, unsure of my surroundings, and all too resistant of the eventual outcome. At this point, I was nothing more than spatial dust; however, my awareness stretched beyond my limited physical capabilities.
Like a sponge squeezing up water, I sucked in all the matter around me. I knew how I came to be; not the exact occurrences, mind you. But, I had some vague idea. For, you see, time bent an angle for me. While not completely flexible like it was for the plane I was born into, I had some idea what happened before and what would come.
Therefore, I knew I was, well, there was no other word for it, an accident. Nature did not intend for me to occur, but, I did anyway. Time passed. Thousands upon thousands of years within that desolate corner of the plane as I pulled matter towards me.
Due to my nature as an anomaly within this whole plane, I was neither restricted by its laws nor given the benefits granted to its material and immaterial inhabitants. Life and death-these were concepts I understood not at all; through my awareness, I could sense flickers of both in the vast universes; but, to me, they were as if one accidently turned the lights on for a split-second before quickly turning them off. The life and death of planets and stars; I understood somewhat more of. Their lives were like a burning coal. They burned brightly for quite some time until they either flickered and died or turned into something unusual…
Something like me in fact.
Something that sucked in all matter around them just as I did; I sent out my presence to these beings that were so much like me; however, I realized quickly that these creatures lacked a conscious.
Unlike myself who gathered matter to form a physical presence, these creatures gathered mattered for no discernable purpose I could see. They would be interesting to study to find out their purpose; but, they were numerous. I peeked into the future and saw the end result of one of these creatures and immediately lost interest.
They don’t do anything except eat matter. There was no purpose, no higher calling. They just ate and ate for eternity. When they grew large enough, they would begin to destroy stars, then planets, then complete galaxies, before they moved onto universes. This would continue until there was nothing left in this plane except me.
While my body was made of matter, my consciousness, however, was pure energy. It would last past the sands of time even passed when all the universes disappeared and, once again, the plane was empty. Well, except for me.
Disappointed, I turned away from the creatures and ignored their presence.
As time passed, I gathered in more matter until I had a stable, organic body. This was a harder process that one might think. I was between two universes with a limited supply of matter at hand. If I transported, an easy feat for me, I would have lost significant amounts of the matter I already gathered making it that much longer of a process. Neither could I have transported at the beginning of my existence, I foresaw that if I did so, I would have spun into an infinite transportation loop as I lacked the matter to fully stabilize myself within an area that was a part of nature’s laws. While I was not a part of nature, I could still be affected by it.
My current location, within the void between universes, was apt for my physical growth in that respect. Nature only had a light touch on this area. But, as I continued to grow and stabilize my physical form, this grew to be less and less of a benefit.
Oddly, I began to long to leave my haven within the two universes. More and more, I began to watch the progress of life within the universes. I saw what they saw, I felt what they felt, and I wanted what they wanted. No longer did I feel closer to the planets and stars.
They were cold beings; lifeless and remote. These flickering candles within the universes were the true marvel of the plane. I, an anomaly, thought they were more marvelous than I. For the nanosecond they lived, they burned brighter than the stars.
When my physical body finally became complete, I transported to a galaxy where one of the planets had life on it. Four planets in total surrounded twin stars in this piece of space rather close to the center of this particular universe.
I had to shrink my body to fit within this particular galaxy. It was too large to fit not only on the planet, the most distant from the stars, but the galaxy itself. As I transported, I shrunk my body to that of a humanoid. They appeared to be a common form of intelligent life within the universes. While they were not the only one, they were the most prevalent and, in my own semi-prescient understanding, those best at flourishing within the plane.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
This particular planet was a small, red and blue orb, affected by its proximity to two large stars and a high density ozone layer protecting it from the same proximity. I looked at the planet for a time; I’m not exactly sure how much time but time enough for a few circuits of the planets around the stars to occur.
Instantly, I transported to the planet’s surface, intending to watch the sentient beings on this planet closely. They intrigued me in a way I had not felt before. Not even when I was confronted with the black holes that would, one day, consume everything within the plane.
Landing feet first on the dusty surface, I walked to the nearest village as I changed myself to look more like the sentient life-forms that lived here. The village was rather progressive for this part of the plane. This was one of the newer universes and so its sentient beings were, by far, less advanced than their brethren.
Wooden palisades lined the gravel roadside as humanoids in tan-leather manned them, bored…was that the expression I had seen from afar? Curious to see it closely now. It is much more defined than I thought. Boredom was not just an emotion but an expressive…
what was it…distaste. Yes, that was it. A distaste for their current state of the being.
These humanoids were currently dissatisfied with their state. Interested, I walked up to them. Language was no barrier as I had been watching for many of their years and knew their language probably better than they did themselves.
“Hello.” I said, a smile forming on my lips reflexively. I had seen it often enough. It was considered polite in most of the universes.
“Eh.” One of the humanoids said as he looked down from his post. “Whadya want?”
I blinked in surprise. “I wanted to talk. Why else would I walk up to you?”
The humanoid tilted his head at me as if he found me odd. “Hey Jacomb.” The humanoid called to his brethren on the palisade. The other humanoid walked over lazily, holding his sword to his side as if it was more a walking stick than an instrument of war.
“Look at this one. What d’ya make of him?”
Jacomb turned to look at me. His bored expression never changed as he looked me up and down.
As he turned back to the humanoid on the wall, his expression turned irritated. “What do you want me to see Arl? He’s just a normal bloke. A little tall. Doesn’t look to have a bandit’s look about him.”
Arl somewhat chagrined by Jacomb’s response, turned red and shrugged, attempting to be nonchalant. I stood there, looking up at these two humanoids. I had been right to come here. They were, by far, more interesting than the intricacies of space. Just in this conversation, there had been so much occurring that I feel I can analyze it forever.
The guards beckoned me through as they returned to their posts-boredom, once again, dominating their faces.
As I entered the village, I was greeted by a sight that was both amusing and absurd. A small market, lined by a cobbled path and a variety of erected wooden buildings, bustled with the morning crowds who passed below a tall, marble platform where a humanoid male stood, his chest bare to the world, whipping himself bloody.
He was ignored whole-heartedly by the crowds below even as he shouted above the din. “Repent! Repent, I tell you! Repent for your sins!”
I walked up to him. This was new. I had seen self-mutilation before; it was a common occurrence in the universes. Nature, after all, gave some consequences to the sentient. But self-mutilation for the benefit of other beings, that was new.
“Tell me,” I sad looking up at the humanoid. “Why do you whip yourself?” The humanoid looked down at me, a condescending look on his old and gnarled face. “To make you see the errors of your ways.”
“What have I done in error?” I asked as I tilted my head, mimicking Arl’s expression from earlier. The humanoid snorted derisively. “As if you don’t know.”
“But I don’t.” I said pleasantly. I could have just warped time to figure out what he was alluding to; however, it seemed imprudent to disassociate myself from the narrative as I listened to this humanoid. The experience would be lost in exchange for the information gained. I wanted both. Without the experience, the information would be nothing to me.
The man sighed, his bruised and battered body, tensing as he squatted on the marble platform. “You are a part of the problem and you don’t even know it?”
“What problem?” I said calmly. He was clearly irritated with me but he answered all the same. “You practice idolatry-something forbidden by the scriptures.”
“And why is that forbidden?” I ask. While I had studied these beings, I never paid much attention to their religion. It never really seemed all that important as there was little information to be gleamed from ideas I knew to be based in falsehoods.
The humanoid blanched. His face went stark white as he moved his head closer to me and hissed, “Are you insane? He might hear!”
I drew my eyebrows together, confused. “Who is He?” “He is Gantuk, the Supreme Lord of Creation! He who rules all! Surely, you must have heard of him…unless you worship his sister.”
I could only chuckle at that outburst. Gods, he was speaking of Gods. They might exist. I had never actually searched for one as they were just individuals in trillions of sentient beings. Even here, on this planet, I had not looked carefully for one. After all, they weren’t my interest. I only cared about those who experienced the process of life and death. Not some aloof semi-immortal beings who kept themselves apart from the rest of the planetary beings.
Let me make this clear. If Gods existed, and it was entirely plausible they did, comparatively to mortal sentient beings, they were like stars. They burned brightly for a time but as everything else, except me, they were a part of nature. In time, they would die.
“I worship neither.” I said shrugging. The humanoid’s face, which I thought was as pale as it could get, became almost transparent with apoplexy. “They will smite you down for your insolence!” He spit at me. “All must serve them as they have created us they command our very beings! Your sins have tarnished your soul! Your insolence has made your death final!”
I was becoming annoyed by all these threats, pointless as they were. The humanoid raised his hands into the air and a cloud, darkly condensed with rain, formed quickly, more quickly than nature allowed, overhead. I looked up, interested. I hadn’t seen anything like this on this planet yet. In other universes, magic existed; but it was rather non-existent in this one. “My lord, I beg of you, show your wrath to this man who refuses to serve you!”
The humanoid threw down his hands and a lightning bolt surged down from the sky striking me directly on the forehead before traveling straight down my body and dissipating onto the ground. I only felt a slight tingle at the charged energy. After all, I was made from spacial matter, most, much tougher than one could find on a planetary surface.
I was becoming annoyed. I had sensed a presence on the other side of the lightning-bolt as it released from the sky. There was someone on the other-side who had purposefully sent that lightning-bolt at me. It had been rather rude of him to smite someone just because they weren’t believers in him or his sister. Perhaps, it was time for me to visit a God.
Searching for the presence, I transported, catching a last glimpse of the surprised humanoid’s face.