The Prime Universe.
It is the first, and for now, the only universe in all of the White Void.
It floats in the greater emptiness as a perfect luminous sphere, its curving surface alive with galaxies that burn in countless distinct, saturated hues.
These includes, but is not limited to, colors such as sapphire arms curling through velvet dark, molten amber storms, violet teardrops suspended like ink in water, as well as many more.
Across the whole glittering countless motes, most of them were stars while some of them are entire far-flung galaxies reduced by distance to trembling points of different colors.
IT had shaped this totality, consciously or unconsciously, to carry an echo of the first vessel that IT had once wore. It was a faint, almost private resemblance that satisfied some small, unnamed sentiment that IT harbored.
Where IT had once multiplied planets and galaxies in eager cascades, here restraint had prevailed.
"Because of certain, ahem... plot, ahem... reasons."
One universe, one ongoing experiment, was enough for now.
"Yeah, sure it is. I don't know if you can tell, but I'm rolling my eyes right now. And I don't even have any yet! That only tells you how much bull... Never mind, please continue."
IT would refine it, perhaps forever, before permitting any siblings into being. Perfection, if such a thing were even reachable, would come first. At the very least, the concept would be explored.
To bind it, the universe, IT wove the deep concepts of time threading forward like an invisible river, space unfolding in all directions, as well as speed and distance as the measures of motion across the entire expanse.
Every law shared one underlying grammar, elegant, consistent, yet each bore a deliberate, subtle mutation. Variation within unity. That in and of itself, was the texture of interest.
"I'll give some of the beings the same kind of powers that the old Entities once had." IT decided.
There was no particular reason for IT to do this, such as sentiment or anything like that.
"I want to compare their trajectories, those who are gifted versus those who are denied. And while I'm at it, others will receive entirely new powers. I want to see what shapes they create with unfamiliar tools. Or better yet, how much they destroy with them." IT mused with a mischievous tone.
The division, the powered and the unpowered, was nothing more than a parameter in IT's private game. Novel powers, too, also served the same end.
How the beings wielded their gifts, for noble cause or ruin, no longer carried moral weight for IT. There was only one criterion mattered for IT, did the outcome amuse?
Entertainment had long since eclipsed every other priority. In fact, this has been the case since forever, even during situations were it didn't seem that way.
"Watching all of them, as well as seeing what they do and how they do it, should be quite fun." IT mused. "That said, how to best go about doing it?"
Omniscience was trivial. Perhaps not always, but in most cases, without even a shadow of a doubt, it was. And as things were right now, it seems as though it would continue to be that way.
At least, for the most part.
That said, why was that the case?
Surely, knowing everything that's happening everywhere all at once is a good thing, right?
Well, no. For IT, that wasn't the case at all. As for why...
Put simply, it's precisely becauseIT can inhabit every world simultaneously, every instant, as well as every particle.
Because of that, total awareness lay within IT's reach as if it were nothing remarkable. For IT, this feat was like how a normal human could breathe without actively trying to.
However, the prospect itself bored IT instantly. For IT, it was simply too flat, too complete, and most of all, it was devoid of focus or surprise. At least, in the truest sense of the concepts.
No.
That word, its meaning, represented IT's denial in its simplest form.
It was much better to choose immersion instead. That's the decision IT eventually reached after a moment's contemplation.
One world, one story. That alone would safice. At the very least, this method would serve as an experiment, to see how best to observe the creations.
IT would sink in to it until IT's curiosity eventually fades, then drift on to the next one.
And even when sequential novelty grew stale, all IT would need to do is simply invent a fresh vantage. The method was elegant precisely because it could be discarded and remade at a mere whim.
So IT continued polishing the creation, the first universe.
IT adjusted constants, seeded asymmetries, as well as layered fine detail. That said, IT didn't work endlessly without any breaks. Of course, IT could do exactly just that, but simply choose not to.
For IT, there was simply no point in doing that.
And so, IT paused, here and there, from refining the universe whenever a single planet flared with promise. Each observation fed back into the work, refinements for unborn worlds, quiet corrections to the already existing ones.
"It seems as though this one failed as well." IT noted of a particular orb. "That said, it still has some salvageable charm."
In the beginning, failure meant total erasure.
There was no hesitation, nor were there any second thoughts. It was just cold, unfeeling, immediate annihilation of the mistake.
All with a mere thought, the mistake would be disintegrated. And the raw energy released from the process would be harvested and poured into fresher attempts. Sometimes even not, as the mistake would be totally erased, leaving completely nothing behind.
The method was clean and efficient. Furthermore, it was far quicker and thus, easier to implement. One thought, and the mistake ceases to exist entirely.
And then, at some point, another method was borne after the endless annihilations and erasures.
Now, mistakes triggered not just destruction, but a potential rewriting instead.
The change would be absolute and instantaneous, such that history itself would be bent entirely. The altered world had always been this way. No memory of before survived in records, minds, matter, or anything other than IT.
A lone species became a riot of dozens.
A dead crust bloomed oceans.
A collapsing star rekindled its youth.
And many more changes would occur, based simply on IT's whims.
The inhabitants lived inside a flawless continuity that they would never question. The revision rippled outward, touching every mind in the galaxy, erasing any hint of discrepancy.
Planet Puff had received such mercy.
It resembles a soft ball of spun cotton, with a pale peach color blushed with a rose at the crown. It was tiny, almost insultingly small beside its galactic kin, and appeared more like a dust mote than a world.
Yet accelerated, beyond its original solitary species, had fractured and flourished into nearly a hundred distinct lineages, each one exquisitely adapted to the pastel fluff of its home.
Satisfied, IT withdrew. "This will suffice, for now. I will leave the rest up to them."
Eons slipped past.
Planets waxed and waned as civilizations rose in brilliance and crumbled into silence. Biospheres collapsed under their own weight or bloomed into improbable stability. A rare few endured almost unchanged. They were quiet anomalies amid the churn.
Galaxies pulsed with the signature light of their central stars, bathing neighboring space in overlapping veils of color such as slow cosmic auroras stitched with endless twinkling points.
The sphere as a whole shimmered like living radiation. It was beautiful, indifferent, and vast.
"What a spectacle." IT murmured, taking in the entire form.
A memory stirred, of Cubix, as well as the first Entities. Their geometric fervor filling the Void before everything was pared back.
"I'm sure that they would have appreciated this view." IT continue, though IT's tone didn't even sound remotely regretful.
Resurrection was trivial. After all, IT could summon them back, reimagined, or exactly the same as they were before. If IT wanted to, IT could indeed do exactly just that.
Yet that impulse passed quickly, as if it never even formed at all.
They had fulfilled their arc with dignity. They had met erasure without protest. To drag them back now would diminish that ending, profane the quiet grace of their departure.
"It was a necessary sacrifice." IT said aloud, the words hanging a moment before dissolving. "Besides, the plot needs to move forward, toward other things."
And with that, IT let the topic fall away as IT continued to regard the massive sphere pusling with different hues as if it were alive.
A pause felt appropriate. After all, no deadline pressed.
The universe could mature slowly. During these respites, IT simply drifted, watching and savoring the small tragedies and improbable triumphs playing out across countless fragile stages.
And then, as if on cue...
One of the many deliberate outliers had finally ripened.
IT had scattered such anomalies around the universe on purpose. They were wild cards, chaos vectors, as well as sources of genuine unpredictability.
Put simply, they were the quickest and surest antidote to boredom.
And one of them pulsed nearby, worthy of a closer look.
Teleportation would have been instantaneous. That said, IT chose to fly across space instead.
No practical motive existed, none was needed.
IT could violate every limit at once. Flying was caprice, merely a pure aesthetic preference. Also, the journey offered time to admire the passing galaxies, their colors bleeding and recombining like wet pigment.
IT accelerated forward, far beyond sound, far beyond light, and far beyond sensible measure.
Behind the passage, galaxies shredded and instantly reknit themselves, wounds and restorations so perfectly synchronous that they left no trace. It was as if nothing had happened.
This was merely a casual side effect of IT flying. In fact, reality itself simply couldn't handle IT's presence, even though IT had restricted said presence to IT's current vessel.
"Maybe I should restrict the energy I release even further..." IT considered, glancing back at the flickering reconstruction trail while still flying. Then again... "There seems to be no need for that. They'll just recover all on their own. They always recover, and it's not like the lifeforms themselves even realize it." IT shrugged.
Indeed, reality itself was actively obeying IT's will of mending itself, as if it knew that its creator didn't want to be bothered having to repair the destruction that occurred, or the destruction that was occurring.
The streak sealed itself like healing flesh. Arrival and departure were functionally identical, only the style differed. Essentially, no time passed between the destruction and the repair.
Next time, I'll try flying slower, or just teleport instead.IT decided. Not like it makes much of a difference anyways.
Even at this speed, which could only be described as infinite if not greater, the details remained razor-sharp with every planet and moon, every fragile city, being visible in perfect clarity.
For now, the destination was a priority. So IT chose not to spend any time viewing them, even though they were a majestic sight.
And then, IT arrived at IT's destination.
"Look's like I'm finally here." IT let out a chuckle. "Technically, I can't even say finally, given how long it took me to get here."
Although IT had flew there, the time IT took to reach the planet was no later than an instant, and that was because IT was distracted, looking back at the destruction IT had made while flying.
If not for that, then the time taken would've been less than an instant.
"Yes, I'm that fast. At least when I'm actually trying to be."
Indeed IT is. After all, IT could travel so fast that the concept of time, speed, space, and even distance becomes irrelevant. In fact, reality, or any and all concepts become irrelevant for IT.
Essentially, flying for IT is no different than teleporting. At least, in terms of the time IT will take to reach IT's destination.
"If my memory serves me," IT said with faint amusement, "this is the planet in which those inhabitants call me… What was it again? A God." IT scoffed.
IT was more amused by the title, rather than mocking it.
In any case, IT had brushed past this planet once while planting the seed. A few natives glimpsed the vast form moving among the stars. That glimpse metastasized them, to the point where temples rose, doctrines hardened, and rituals multiplied.
And then, soon after or rather, during all of that, chaos had followed.
Sweet, delicious chaos. Delicious in the sense that simply hearing it is enough to immediately grab your attention. "At least, for me."
"Now then, here's a bit of a lore drop. It's very important for the next volume, so pay close attention to this next part, alright? Alright."
Every being across the Prime Universe possesses a core. It is a luminous seed the size of a small dot one would make with a pen, which is seated at the middle dantian. It is essence made tangible, the irreducible self.
"It's like a soul. But since we're not dealing with souls yet, this will be a sort of placeholder."
Every being is born with it, and bound to it. When flesh fails catastrophically, the core endures as a final anchor. Hearts regrow, and brains reform. But of course, limitations exist, species-specific, injury-specific, but the core is tenacious still.
"To sum up this paragraph, if you get stabbed in the heart, but your core is still in tact, then you can still survive the attack. This is more apparent in worlds like this one, in which magic exists. Like I said before, it's like a soul."
IT had come for one specimen in particular.
A being whose makeup defied statistical likelihood. A nexus. In the sense that most of the planet's major upheavals spiraled around this single life like iron filings around a magnet.
This time, IT chose to remain unseen by the inhabitants.
No descent, no voice from the heavens, and no avatar. IT's presence would only contaminate the data.
"I hope you prove to be worth the attention I'm giving you." IT said softly, gazing down at the blue-green marble with quiet, predatory anticipation.
End of Volume 1