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Light flared.
In a million galaxies
In a billion realities
In countless possibilities that will never be
there was light.
And perhaps it was light, or what
light was then, in the dawning moment of the universe. Or perhaps
it was what became light, or perhaps the form it took was derived
from light.
Nonetheless, it was light, and it was a beginning.
The light which-might-have-been flared for a fraction of time
so minute that it's length defied comprehension by linear minds
and mortal creatures.
And when it was gone, the Entity Became.
Emptiness, it registered. Nothingness.
Then, I.
I am.
Emptiness.
And it filled the emptiness.
Light, it declared, almost contemplatively,
Lightlightlightlightlightlightlight.
Balls of superheated gas, burning in the hollow, airless, empty
void appeared, spun out of nothingness with no more then that
momentarily contemplation as a trigger. The Entity created them,
filling the boundless Emptiness with their light. It sent them
gently turning upon a central axis which penetrated the Emptiness
through the point in which the Entity currently located itself.
It drifted amongst them, drinking in the light as if it was something
physical that it could hold and grasp and clutch.
Light.
Indeed, noted the Entity.
A moment of silence passed.
A single, agonizingly long second had passed since the creation
of the Universe and the dawn of time.
I are two, the Entity stated, confused. This is highly
anomalous.
I had decided as much, the Entity affirmed. Perhaps
further investigation would be warranted.
Perhaps. Duality is something I had never considered a possibility.
It could be interesting for I to experiment more with this new
sensation.
I concur. What do I suggest?
I suggest that I remain separate from I until I can determine
whether this duality is beneficial or harmful to I. There
was a pause. I have created much light.
I believe that I successfully achieved the goal which I set
out to accomplish. There is no longer emptiness.
What purpose serves this light?
Must all things have clear purpose?
If it is to be employed to the advantage of I. There
is great possibility for I here, if I choose to make use of it.
I believe that I have found a purpose for this light I have created.
A new creation. A ball of dirt and ice and air. Molten core,
heating the surface, and warmed by the nurturing light of the
Entity's creation. The Entity set it about one of the gaseous
balls, allowing the force they created to clutch this new orb
and draw it into a circuit about the light source. The orb itself
spun gently upon it's axis, allowing every fraction of it's surface
to be exposed to the light of the Entity.
Fascinating.
I am well pleased. I shall go observe this creation closely.
I have yet more Purpose.
Then the Entity was on the outer surface of the orb, where the
force exerted by the orb itself, mirroring the force exerted upon
the orb by the light source, held all objects close against it.
Three seconds after the creation of the Universe, the Entity
created a planet.
There is much light here.
And come, I have done yet more. The Entity shot along
the surface of this new orb, taking everything, missing nothing,
processing and understanding everything this new creation had
to offer. The Entity stopped after the briefest fraction of time,
on the side of the orb which was most distant from the light source.
See what I have made, the Entity exulted. It is called
Darkness.
Emptiness.
The absence of light.
There is no appreciable difference.
Not so. I would be foolish to define that which is empty as
that which lacks light. Instead, let I define emptiness as that
void which exists beyond this frail orb, for now, when there is
not light, I have created something which means it shall not be
empty.
This Darkness I have created is very much like the Emptiness
I sought to dispel. It has no substance, it exists merely to fill
that which is Empty. It has none of the Purpose I sought so recently.
As the light nurtures, the Darkness will sustain when light
is absent.
I believed that I sought Purpose. What Purpose holds this
orb of Darkness and light?
I have yet done much. Observe carefully that which I have made.
Four seconds after the creation of the Universe, the Entity made
Life.
A single cell, unaware, unknowing, unseeing, uncomprehending.
Yet, to the Entity, it was boundlessly fascinating, more even
then the light had been. From a distance it watched the creature,
observing it's movements and it's amorphous form, gently probing
and learning from the new creation.
Fascinating.
Truly. Yet it serves no purpose which
I can ordain. It is meaningless. The Entity reached out and
obliterated the light source, drawing away the light and shattering
the orb. And in that brief moment when the Entity tore the fabric
of the light source away from the Emptiness, it found something
akin to it's Darkness. It examined this newfound force for a second
and then obliterated more of the Emptiness, tearing more of this
new force out into it.
I have found something, the Entity noted, approaching
the Force. Perhaps I can ordain it's Purpose.
What have I done?
I merely obliterated that which was meaningless. It served
no purpose. Bolts of light, yet not light, played at the edges
of the Force the Entity now approached. This force is amazing.
So much raw power-what Purpose I could forge with a Force such
as this. It is…profound.
It had much Purpose. There was much I could have learned from
it's existence.
Existence is not a Purpose, it is a state of being. It does
not warrant existence. Existence is only warranted when a Purpose
is inherent. Come examine this new Force with me. I am sure you
will find it fascinating.
What am I saying? I do not understand the meaning.
Come and observe. It is Darkness and yet it is not. I can
feel it's Purpose stretching to all corners of your Emptiness.
That which has no Purpose has no right to exist?
Existence is only warranted when Purpose is inherent! I ask
only that you abandon your light for a moment and come examine
this new Darkness with me. When I am finished here I shall create
you more Life if it will make you happy.
I do not understand that which I say.
Very well, the Entity said, abandoning the new Darkness
for a moment. If you will not examine this new Force with me
I will not have you distracting me from ordaining it's Purpose.
Be gone.
The light at the edge of the Emptiness flickered
for a moment, and then, to the surprise of the Entity, the light
sources it had crafted began to collapse in on themselves with
astounding speed. The Entity shot through the Emptiness, helplessly
recreating the suddenly vanishing light sources as fast as the
old ones died.
Eight seconds had passed since the Universe came into being.
The power inherent in this Force is…profound. Yes. Profound.
See what I can do with it!
The light was dying faster, and now at the edge of the new Darkness
the bolts of dark light began to stretch out and draw in the light,
eating away at the Emptiness from within. Surrendering to this
unstoppable force, the Entity returned to the new Darkness.
And suddenly there was another.
The Entity faced itself across the rift where the star had once
been. The bolts of dark light curved about them and continued
to devour the light. No longer dual but wholly separate, they
faced each other.
What is happening?
This is amazing! The new Entity shifted it's place in
time and space and then hung suspended above the rift. This
Darkness is far superior to mine. See how it consumes and grows
and makes all over in it's image!
The Entity paused.
Ten seconds.
What has happened?
We are no longer alike. Now where the universe was but one
it is two.
I had never considered this possibility.
Nor had I, the other conceded. Nonetheless it
is a situation I intend to rectify. Do you not see the Purpose
of this Darkness I have found? It makes all else perfect by consuming
everything that is not itself. It makes all it touches over in
it's image.
You. Not a retort but a statement of fact. I.
Yes. Come, join me and we will fuse ourselves together with
this Darkness. We will be whole again, and joined with the only
thing in your Emptiness which is perfect.
My light?
Will be consumed by that which is greater then itself. Let
it go. It serves no purpose other then to nurture that which,
in and of itself, is meaningless.
Existence is a purpose.
So be it.
Twelve seconds after the creation of the universe, the two Entities
clashed.
The struggle lasted seconds that seemed infinite. The Darkness
spread to engulf the last of the light and began to devour the
Emptiness. The Entity stretched out helplessly as the Darkness
struck at it and tried to create more light. Faster and faster
it drew from what Emptiness remained more light then it had thought
it would ever need. The Darkness withdrew from this strong light,
and, even through the assaults of other Entity, it created more
light, trapping the Darkness in the rift where the first light
had once been.
No!
The Entity and the darkness fused and became one as the Darkness
withdrew. The second Entity plunged itself fully into it's Force,
surrendering it's being and allowing himself to be completely
remade. It surged from the rift again, battering at the light.
See now what you have denied? With one great sweep of
it's fist, the Entity of Darkness obliterated thousands of the
light sources, tearing away huge chunks of the other's creations.
Those who deny perfection and it's Purpose will fail.
The Entity lashed out at the Darkness with it's light,
hurling light sources into the center of it's being. The Dark
One howled and withdrew. Bit by bit, the Entity forced it backwards
into the rift it had created.
The Entity drove the Dark One as deeply into the rift as it could,
binding the rift with a seal of energy and then fleeing the farthest
reaches of the Emptiness. It was, at best, a temporary solution.
It began to craft it's light, it's strength, the weapon from which
the Darkness fled.
Then it heard the Dark One.
It had easily shattered the bonds the Entity had hastily wrapped
about it, and now the Dark One howled across the intervening Emptiness
towards him, screaming in rage. The Entity slowed the Dark One
as best it could, hurling the light sources in it's path, then,
struggling to keep it's other away, collapsing them into themselves
and casting the resultant force into it's path. Nothing slowed
it and the Entity fled with the Dark One snapping at it and devouring
the light.
The Entity lashed out at the Dark One with the light, slowing
it, and the Entity began to work backwards through the Emptiness,
to the gaping rift from which Darkness still leaked. And then
the Entity cast itself into the Rift, forging as it did so a light
source and one of the Dark One's orbs.
Within the rift it was hard to maintain it's identity. How seductive
the Darkness was, the swirling nothingness that hovered just at
the edge of the Emptiness. How easy it would be to succumb. The
Entity struggled against it as it drove itself farther into the
rift, deeper into the chaos of the places where reality did not
exist.
It heard the Dark One follow it in.
The Entity halted, suspended in the swirling chaos and then,
as the Dark One approached, it struck back, lashing at the Dark
One with the light source, driving away the chaos and it's other.
The Entity forced the Dark One further and further down into the
chaos, and then cast the light source into the center of the Dark
One's being.
The Dark One screamed and pulled away from the light source,
withdrawing deeper into the chaos, and the Entity fled. It tore
free of the rift, and the dark light clung to it, but it shrugged
it off.
The Dark One approached again, racing towards the maw of the
rift, struggling through the lazily eddying chaos to where the
Entity lay in wait.
And then the Entity placed a light source at the center of the
rift's opening. And into this light it poured all of the light
of a hundred thousand light sources so that it flared more brightly
then all else.
Stars.
The Darkness seemed to shudder and withdraw from the star, and
the rift slammed itself shut, drawing itself as far away from
this new star as it could. The screams of the Dark One faded away
to nothingness.
Looking at the star, the Entity recalled, so many seconds ago,
how there had been an orb here, and a single life upon it. Yes.
Life. The Dark One had called it life.
Three of the Dark One's orbs, subtly crafted and wholly different,
bound by the blessings the Entity lay upon each of them. It carefully
forged each, the core and the skin of the orb and lay them about
the brightest star.
Thirty seconds.
And then the last orb it crafted with the greatest care, not
out of dirt and ice and sand, but of a fraction of itself, coalesced
into a living crystal formation. Into that formation it gave life
such as the Dark One could not comprehend.
A life who's very existence fulfilled it's Purpose.
The Entity shifted space and was on the surface of the orb. The
life, an amorphous mass of crystal of the same kind as the orb
was forged, it's shape never constant, ever changing.
You are Life.
"I am."
Do you know your Purpose?
"I do. I am to be the last defender of the Dark One's seal.
I am the one who will stand between chaos and order when you cannot.
I am your soldier."
Le Roof.
"As you wish."
Then the Entity was gone again and it brought the Life, this
Le Roof with it, shifting space so that it was once again amongst
the emptiness. It hung there, suspended, for quite some time,
staring at what it had created. It could already sense the first
stirrings of the life it had impregnated the orbs with. Soon,
soon.
Fifty seconds.
"What is it, master?"
It is the seal you are to guard.
"I see."
You are it's last defender. Keeper of the seal.
"What lies beyond the seal?"
Profound Darkness.
"What is Darkness, master?"
It is the absence of light.
"I see." The Le Roof was silent. "What am I to
do?"
Whatever you deem appropriate when the time is right.
"I understand. What is it to be called, Master?"
Parma. Motavia. Dezolis. Rykros. It is the seal. I shall call
it Algo.
One minute.
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