Offer and consequences

“As you probably know, I come from a different world, which for me can be called the real world, but for the beings born here is known as The Outside. I was born and grew up on a small planet called Earth.”

“My world is much simpler than the worlds you know.”

“It is a world without magic, but the achievements and feats of the people living there are nothing less than magical. My people took the path of science, just as energy-less humans in the simulation did, digging deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the universe.”

“I was once a scientist, renown for finding a way to explore what we called Point Zero - a cluster of chaos into space which humans believed could shed some light on the very origin of the universe.”

“Still, the lack of magic made even traveling to the location of Point Zero in space a time-consuming chore, not even speaking about exploring it or discovering its mysteries. The human probes sent inside returned with very little information, and progress was nowhere in sight. That was until I discovered a way to turn human consciousness into pure data.”

“Unfortunately, just as I discovered the technology that might allow us to send people in a digital form inside Point Zero, which was too far for humans to travel to, a disaster hit our world. Our sun started to die out.”

“With no time for further tests, I offered myself to be the first one turned into data and sent into Point Zero, all in the hopes of finding a way to avert the extinction of the human race.”

“We sent a new probe first, containing tons of information from Earth in digital form, mostly about the history, culture, and legends of my world, along with a program called Genesis.”

“The probe was equipped with an electromagnetic device capable of manipulating chaos, while Genesis was the program meant to direct the creation of the new world using that chaos. It was experimental and unknown territory for the entire human race, but it was the only chance we had to survive the destruction of our star. Send our consciousnesses to the new world, use Genesis to create bodies for ourselves and advert our extinction.”

“My body was frozen while my consciousness was sent after the Genesis probe. I was supposed to be operating the probe, but when my consciousness entered Point Zero, I discovered something I never expected.”

“There was an immense disparity between the time inside Point Zero and the outside universe. The few hours disparity between the time Genesis entered and I did were millions of years inside Point Zero.”

“Genesis had already flown through the chaos for too long, and the chaos changed the fundamentals of the program, just as the program changed the chaos.”

“It was not a world born out of Genesis, but a consciousness, which you and the rest of this world might know as the All-mother, but for me, she was called Venus.”

“The entity was one with the chaos inside Point Zero and Genesis, but its consciousness was still immature when I arrived.”

“With the program already corrupted and concluding there was no way to recreate the experiment from zero, I decided to teach Venus how to access the information in Genesis’s database and have her build the haven for my people instead.”

“I spent eons speaking to that child, watching it grow and develop new thoughts and feelings.”

“What I didn’t expect was for me to grow alongside her. I also developed feelings for her, and we found comfort in each other in the depths of the lonely universe. I suppose having a single person to speak to for eons does that to you….”

“Anyway, we created a wonderful universe together over the millions of years, a universe filled with life of all sorts of species… All of it was the manifestation of her idea of a paradise.”

“What I didn’t expect was that the more she learned about the history of my people, the more she despised humans as a race. When I first breached the subject and asked her what she thought about creating a world for them to live in, she declined, saying they would only infect her paradise with their warmongering tendencies.”

“I figured out I only needed more time to convince her and didn’t take it to heart. That was until someone contacted me from outside the universe Venus was creating.”

“They asked me to confirm the creation of the new world and to open a path for them to enter Point Zero. When I asked Venus if she could reconsider, she declined again. Torn between my feelings for Venus and the fate of my people, I betrayed my heart and manipulated Venus to weaken herself by creating the seeds of energy. That was my first mistake…”

“When her chaos was weak enough to reach the Genesis program at her core, I implanted a piece of code into our last child, giving birth to an energy passageway to allow my people access inside.”

“Venus was furious and tried to remove my people using her powers, which, to my surprise, activated a secondary function inside Genesis that even I had forgotten about. It was a function that would cause any AI to destroy itself if it was ever to ever turn against its creators. That’s when Fenrir was born, a chaos manifestation of that function.”

“Fenrir and Venus fought, ravaging the entire universe in the process. Ultimately, since I had administrator authority over Genesis, I activated the complete reset function, which was my second mistake.”

“The reset function was supposed to return Genesis to its default state, but I have never considered the program’s changes since its fusion with the chaos. It was no longer a simple program. The reset failed, but Venus realized what I had tried to do, and it broke her heart again.”

“In a fit of anger at my betrayal, she used her power to seal Point Zero completely from The Outside. This left her too weak to stand against Fenrir, so the chaos wolf devoured her consciousness and the rest of the universe.”

“All left in the new prison was Fenrir and me, but after completing the main objective of its function, Fenrir also fell into slumber.”

“Chaos spread from the wolf to the outside, leading to the eventual creation of a completely new universe.”

“When I discovered the wills of the seeds of energy were still present, I knew Venus would also be reborn, so I had to stop that first. I isolated the main functions of Genesis and created the Spirit Well. The rest of her being was spread throughout the energy seeds, whose wills I had to break and dissipate throughout the universe.”

“After all that, I gave humans and other races the ability to harness the energy tied to those wills, hoping someone will gather enough strength to break the barrier to The Outside.”

The Sovereign sighed again and said, “As you know, that plan had already failed, so during the following cycle, before Fenrir could fall into slumber, we made a deal of sorts.”

“We isolated the seed of destruction and allowed it to gather administrator rights over the rest of the energies. In the beginning, destruction was just as limited as the other energies. Still, after our experiment, destruction gained the potential to destroy almost anything in the universe as long as it understood the nature of what it was trying to destroy.”

“What we didn’t expect was the nature of this power giving all destruction seeds a tendency of… well, pure destruction. All seeds would eventually grow into that potential, culminating in their own destruction. After countless cycles, you’re the only one that used the seed’s power against itself.”

The Sovereign stood up from his chair and bowed, saying, “You’re the culmination of all our hopes and efforts, so I beg of you, Seth. Please use your power to break the barrier isolating this universe from The Outside.”

“Please save my people.”

Seth watched the Sovereign indifferently throughout the speech, and once it was over, he shook his head.

“I’m not interested.”

The Sovereign remained in a bowing position and lifted his head, a confused look in his eyes, “But why? You have nothing to lose...”

Seth smiled and said, “Because I have no reason to do anything for you. Do you remember what you have done to one of my wives? How your little minions mercilessly tortured her for who knows how long?”

“That was not me. It was one of my-“

“Cut the bullshit, Sovereign,” interrupted Seth, his expression turning dark, “How do you expect me to believe anything you say when you’re still lying to my face like that? I’ve seen the hidden records of the Tower. I know you’re the one who gave the order.”

The Sovereign lowered his head again. “… I had to do it. You needed that push to understand the truth and grow into this power.”

“A new load of bullshit. You did it hoping to break me so it would be easier to control me. Anyway, no matter the reason, you still hurt someone I love, and I won’t lift a finger to help you, Fenrir, Venus, or whoever. You all don’t mean shit to me, so why would I do anything to help any of you? For what I care, you and The Outside can all crash and burn,” said Seth, standing up and looking at the bowing Sovereign. “Anything else? I have other things to take care of.”

The Sovereign clenched his fists but, in the end, said nothing.

“Good. Also, a small reminder. You better not mess with me or my wives again, or I will not hesitate to destroy you. You’re still alive because you’re from The Outside, and it can still be considered a threat to me. Don’t make me regret sparing your pathetic existence.”

Under the Sovereign’s sorrowful gaze, Seth turned around and walked toward the exit.

Seth passed through the doors of the Tower unimpeded, finding himself on the outside, where Henrietta was waiting for him with a worried look.

He smiled at her and grabbed her hand, “Now it’s truly over. Let’s go home, Henri.”