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CHAPTER 2: THE GOD-MARBLE
Elias floated in the void.
No—not floated. That would imply he had a body. That there was an "up" or "down" in this place beyond places. He simply was, a consciousness suspended in absolute darkness.
For what might have been seconds or centuries, he did nothing. He thought nothing. The enormity of his situation was too vast to process.
I was shot. I died. And now...
Now, he was something else.
Slowly, sensation returned—not of flesh, but of presence. He could feel the emptiness around him, not as absence, but as potential. A canvas waiting for its first stroke.
Then came the awareness.
He wasn't just in the darkness.
He was the darkness.
And within him—no, within it, this expanse that was somehow himself—swirled something vast and humming and alive with possibility. Energy. Pure, unshaped potential.
This is my universe.
The realization should have shattered him. Should have sent him screaming into madness. But Elias Veyne had spent his life studying the impossible. The only difference now was scale.
He focused inward, and the System answered.
A pulse of golden light flared before his awareness, resolving into lines of shimmering text:
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[WORLD SYSTEM INITIALIZED]
[USER: ELIAS VEYNE]
[WORLD SIZE: 1.5 QUADRILLION LIGHT-YEARS]
[ENERGY DENSITY: ∞ (LOCALIZED)]
[TIME REMAINING: 999,999,999,999,999 UNIVERSAL YEARS (NEWBIE PROTECTION)]
[DIVINE POINTS: 100]
---
The numbers hung in the void, immutable. Elias studied them with the same detachment he'd once reserved for telescope data.
1.5 quadrillion light-years.
Finite, then. Not infinite—but so vast that any human mind would break trying to comprehend it. The observable universe of his old world had been a mere 93 billion light-years across. This was... more.
And the energy.
His awareness brushed against the swirling mass within him. It was like staring into the heart of a billion supernovas, all contained, all his to command.
Why would a universe need this much energy?
The answer came instantly, cold and certain:
Because it's not just a universe. It's a weapon.
Time passed—or didn't. There was no way to measure it here. Elias lingered in the void, letting the truth settle. He had died. He had been given this. There would be no waking up.
Eventually, the scientist in him won out over the shock.
If this is real... then I can test it.
He reached for the System, and it responded. Icons shimmered into existence:
Time Acceleration
Laws of Physics
Energy Conversion
World Shield
One icon remained grayed out, its function hidden:
Divine Ascension (LOCKED)
The multiverse is gone, Elias realized. Shattered. There are no gates because there's nowhere to go.
He focused on the energy again. Raw, unformed. Waiting.
He knew what came next. Knew it in his bones. The math was clear, the physics unambiguous. There was only one way to begin.
But first, he planned. Carefully. Every variable, every constant, mapped and balanced. Gravity. Expansion rates. Matter distribution. He was an astrophysicist. This was his element.
Then—he willed the singularity into being.
A single, infinitely dense point at the heart of his marble universe. For another immeasurable moment, he held it there, perfect and still.
Then he let it go.
The Big Bang tore through the void.
Light. Heat. Expansion. Elias watched, mesmerized, as particles erupted from the chaos, cooling into hydrogen, helium, the first building blocks of existence.
It was beautiful.
And wrong.
The cosmic microwave background formed too evenly. The hydrogen clouds clustered in perfect fractal patterns. No randomness. No natural imperfections.
Because I didn't allow for chaos.
He adjusted the parameters, introducing quantum fluctuations. The universe shuddered, then stabilized, this time with the familiar, beautiful disorder of real physics.
A chime sounded in his awareness:
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[STAR-FORMING REGIONS DETECTED]
[INITIATE STELLAR IGNITION?]
---
Elias hesitated.
The System was offering him a shortcut, but he wanted to understand the mechanics. He focused on a particularly dense hydrogen cloud and began the work himself, compressing it with his will.
Heat built. Pressure soared.
Then—light.
A star ignited, its nuclear heart roaring to life.
The System chimed again:
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[STAR CREATED]
[ENERGY USAGE: 0.1%]
[DIVINE POINTS DEDUCTED: 0.1]
[CURRENT DP: 99.9]
---
Elias observed the fusion reactions, the delicate balance of forces.
It was perfect.
Until the star spoke.
"Creator."
The voice was not sound. It was gravity itself, vibrating in the fabric of space-time.
Elias recoiled. A sentient star?
The concept wasn't entirely alien to him. In his old world, theories had existed about consciousness emerging from sufficiently complex systems. A star was certainly complex enough—a self-regulating fusion reactor with its own electromagnetic fields and gravitational pulses.
Given the right conditions, perhaps even a form of awareness could arise.
But this was different.
This star wasn't just complex—it was awake. And it recognized him.
The star pulsed, its light shifting into patterns—the same geometric anomalies he'd seen in his old universe.
"You are being watched."
The words echoed through Elias's being.
He turned his attention outward, beyond the boundaries of his newborn universe.
The System's timer ticked down:
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[NEWBIE PROTECTION: 999,999,999,999,998 UNIVERSAL YEARS]
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A safety net. A grace period.
But from what?
He checked the World Shield option.
Activating it would cost 20 DP—a fifth of his total.
Worth it.
He enabled it.
The universe shuddered as an invisible barrier snapped into place. The star's warning faded.
For now, he was safe.
But the grayed-out icon taunted him.
Divine Ascension.
A key to power.
Or to ruin.
He turned back to the star. Its light danced playfully now, voice softer—childlike.
"Will you make more like me?"
Elias blinked.
It wasn't just sentient.
It was... young.
The System pinged a status:
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[CHILD-STAR ENTITY: LIFESPAN – 100 UNIVERSAL YEARS]
---
He smiled faintly.
"Yes," he said aloud. "I think I will."
Elias turned his attention back to his creation.
There was much to do, and time—however much he had—was ticking.
The rules were clear:
Energy was finite.
Time was limited.
The strong devoured the weak.
He was a god now.
And gods, it seemed, had predators..