Year: Unknown. Location: Unknown.
A soul sat there, meandering in an open plane within a large monolithic corridor split. It is Heath, and he is stressed. To destress, he finds the best way to calm himself down.
He counts the number of corridors there are. There is no floor, there are only paths. The number of paths feels as many as the number of atoms you could perceive in one's own vision if it had the best resolution. It is nearly uncountable, yet Heath tried continuously.
"2 billion, 147 million, 482 thousand, 998-" That droning sound played out, if there were any other visible inhabitants, they would've heard it for possibly centuries. That was how big a shock it was for him, he misses his friends dearly, clinging to the remnant memories of his time on Earth. Weirdly, his recollections that he thought he'd forgotten by now were turned photographic, no longer mentally biased, as if the limit placed when he had in a mortal body were now moot. "-2 billion, 147 million, 482 thousand, 999-" Heath reached the 3rd 483rd thousand mark.
He got ever closer to the Integer Bit limit by counting the number of visible pathways he could view. He became more engrossed in this counting. "2 billion, 147 million, 483 thousand, 646-" Heath is one away from the Bit limit. "2 billion, 147 million, 483 thousand, 647-" Heath waited to see if anything happened. . . Nothing did. He continued counting. Into the trillions, into the quadrillions.
Into the quintillions. He now got closer to a value that if it was translated into a cluster of Iron Atoms, it would allow us to see a grain of dust. "22 quintillion, 493 quadrillion, 999 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 998-" Heath has been counting for so long now. Yet, he never made a mistake, his memory was perfect in all regards in this spiritual form. Over time, he inadvertently relived through much of his forgotten time on Earth. It aided his sanity, which kept him conscious. "22 Quintillion, 493- ?" Then suddenly, something happened.
A light not blue-shifting through any of the pathways, but from something
A head formed, with that same Cheshire Smirk appeared. "*AH* The shithead." A quiet voice from Heath's soul reverberates against reality once externalised, shaking all nearby 'fluctuations' in this space of pure consciousness. The bodyless head spoke without moving its mouth, matching last time. "Continue counting, I want to hear you reach the value I found a long time ago." It spoke with a calm voice that grated him further. The once-retired man's soul leapt from position and went to attack this 'thing' that tore him away! His soul twists in jagged, unnatural edges. If there is even a natural shape for consciousness incarnate.
The outer God ignores it, simply continuing to talk now that he noticed he shan't stop. What he was doing was best compared to a hair swooshing in front of his face. "-You know, your friends have missed you. I brought you here because I felt you could be much more."
"*?!*YOU
"Your planet was developed to my standards. I gave the best candidates of your solar system a chance and made them into Gods, as I am. I could only give a portion of my power, but they will grow self-sufficient in time." An ecumenopolis, unknown to Heath, appeared in his mind.
It had similar continents, but they were more patterned and designed with a focused purpose. "Your world became a terraformed ground for people to become greater than they ever could. I provided them with greater technology, systems of work, and an automated centralised world government while allowing them to select qualified world leaders of multi-species systems. Many species of your world that were capable were uplifted and became sapient. They became a space-faring race quite swiftly compared to others."
This world was greater than Earth in every aspect, in part by this outer God in front of Heath. With hyperpolistic buildings covering both land and sea, then self-sufficiently made to provide energy to matter systems for feeding and commerce, this new Earth could house trillions. In 'sacrifice' of a few million.
And it even appeared they were making a Dyson Swarm. What felt close to millennia of information through visions made Heath slow down his attacks. "Why did you choose us!?" Heath asked. "Because you all were the best choice among many others, traits that fit into a complete package. There are some minor tweaks for a soon-to-be immortal. But you will learn, hopefully, you won't become somebody who steals people from their homes out of impulsiveness." The being states with a rueful smile. With orchestral guilt in its voice.
Heath's attacks were without ferocity at this point. "What, is your name." His shout was muted, as if there was a limit to the energy left over from such a one-sided battle. He felt drained emotionally and spiritually. Heath soon silently self-reflected and sulked to himself.
"I'm Brijga (Brey / gee / ga), the first of my kind. And soon to be your older brother too." Brijga states nonchalantly, though with a more grounded nature than his 'uncaring' attitude on Earth. "What do you mean 'I' will be your brother?!" Heath gave out a final strike, causing the first tiny, past-sub-atomic chip to appear off of Brijga's cheek. Which soon self-regenerated. That flake that left would soon go to another world and sprout intelligent life. "I need your help, please." Brijga says, with honesty in his voice.
"All capable people in this local universe are to centralise Real-Space under my instruction, and those with a greater purpose are to be interred. When we are in this dilated non-energetic fielding, it slows time down enough that it allows us to speak as we are now. I had no choice but to take you and the candidates quickly." Brijga continued his sentence.
Heath's anger was not so easily assuaged, the time spent stewing in his roiling emotions leading him to be a spoon in a microwave in terms of reactive explosivity. Brijga knew that it was his fault, and while Heath may never know, he does feel sorry for having to do this measure for 'cases' of those who have mind-reading or mind-manipulation. For the excess memories that would be read by a mentally powerful or a grown Divinity would then be stuck in that same void to work with a feature he hopes Heath will never be put through.
It was timeless, the 'beating' that was more resemblant to an overexcited worm upon the multi-dimensional humanoid's face, Heath began understanding that his attacks were meaningless, and that the one in front of him would not react in any way, shape or form.
He now stops. "Why not just ask?" Heath was genuinely disconcerted, still with hidden anger in his voice. "I'll get to that, it has only been Yottaseconds since you first came, there are no fundamental elements: No Planck scale fluctuations or a form of background energy that is used to determine time. There's only you, me and the distance between other people like yourself getting this same conversation from my 'clones.' Even a second of talking in your reality would impede my quota, no matter how cold it sounds." Brijga sounded fearful.
A concept he heard once from V-Sauce propped up, both the infinite versions of Infinity and the process of entropy in development through supertasks. All the knowledge he ever learned on that topic would, of course, put such great fear into a Godly being as the one in front of him.
"Is it about entropy?" Heath asks, hopeful that it is not this topic he could never fathom beforehand. "Yes, the reality we exist in is slowly spreading itself too thin. Every branch of the omniverse and its infinitesimal power of the multiverses. The energy of the manifolding universal variants is spreading beyond the confines of reality. At the rate we're going, everything will reach a true heat death in about an Aleph⌄(1) years. That may seem a time beyond infinity to you, but for us. That is too short." Brijga said.
That didn't make sense to Heath, as such a value would be impossible from the knowledge provided by Michael. Though what of it? His knowledge was not even at the foundational level in this topic. He let it slide. "How in the hell is that too short?"
"Because we are beyond energy. We are not even a concept, we are abstract beyond all reasoning." The mouth starts to open, only at the atomic level, though. "You've got to sort out your face, man." Heath silently grunts, turning himself more pragmatic in enfoldment.
"Huh, thought I had my facial expressions down, I accidentally set it to the average value of all of my faces talking at the same time. *Whoops*" His face suddenly acts as a globular static, almost appearing in analogy to Perlin noise, soon correcting itself. The face reacts by blinking, it still has that uncanny feeling, but at least there's variability now. "Is that better?" Brijga responds with proper facial-muscular range now. "Much better." Heath responded, still not trusting him and believing this was still another trick to be 'humanised.'
"Out of all the people I've been talking with, you're the first person who told me that. Surprised nobody thought to tell me, am I really that scary?" Brijga asks. "Well, if a being suddenly rips you away from your home and the very concept of my reality broke down. . ."
Those words were left unsaid, but Brijga understood. At least he had the decency to look embarrassed and culpable. "I had no choice, all people deserve a chance to be beyond the infinite. All time frames, all scales, every soul that is classed as unique deserves a chance to feel total unity with their local reality. It's an experience one cannot miss." Brijga reasons. "Let me guess, beyond euphoric?" Heath asks. "Definitely. If I had more precision, I could've taken less time to break the multiversal barriers between branches." Brijga says tacitly.
"Similar to in comic books, there's a universal barrier, but instead of it forming some great wall on a 'smaller scale.' It's some unstoppable form of energy that permeates the background. Beyond any form of radiation we could've detected?" Heath connotes in theologising a theory.
"Close to exactly, it's a near-perfect, reflective barrier that would act much like your theoretical white hole. You simply shift your axis to face the opposite direction. Back into that portion of that omniverse. The only thing that was holding reality together was its being a cluster with the other portions of the omniverse. And I am one of the many attempting to harvest the potential energy of what will become greater. Making reality larger, thus allowing for more life to exist in more Real-Space." Brijga posits.
"Because then you can create a feedback loop for more that can reel in this energy that is slowly 'radiating' if that is still even a concept beyond the boundaries of reality! Like the fact our supercluster, if it was theoretically not affected by decay-" Heath pauses, giving turn.
"It would become one larger hyper-reality, with all other matter staying. You get it! So by following your example, the barrier between portions of reality would become transient and could stay together. Not flowing away like the other superclusters from yours in your old reality if it weren't for a portion of my intervention. To create an ideal living space for more potentially living beings that are stable in existence." Brijga says with a look of delight.
"You had it all figured out, didn't you? And if you're powerful enough to stop the separation of multiversal sets in what I guess is multiple omniversal portions. How are you not strong enough already to help slow or even nullify entropy? Are you all overwhelmed?" Heath asks.
Brijga says with understanding. "Because that is a factor of multiple powers. For your potential limit, you could not hurt a fly by grabbing its wings. For me, that's like grasping a supercluster without overloading it with energy. . . That still allows near infinite energy to escape as Hawking Radiation." Brijga finished explaining. "If you accidentally overloaded it with energy?" Heath asks. "Boom." Was a simple reply from Brijga. Heath looks horrified now in realising his reaction, if it were taken more seriously, could have made him blink out of existence.
"Don't worry, I know, as I once tried that with a dead supercluster. I only used that power when necessary." Brijga says. "And when is it necessary?" Heath asks. "When somebody wishes to absorb the power rather than distribute it." Brijga says seriously.
"How do you even kill someone even remotely close to you?" Heath says, not expecting a response. "You target the weakest point of their soul and break them from the inside with their most disliked memories, or implant new, incredibly painful memories. Chipping it away slowly, it can break down their personality and crack their soul over time. The more it is cracked, the greater the chance of breakage." Brijga tells him. Heath is surprised he responded. "You would've known soon enough from my time scale, so of course I'd say it now." Brijga says it chalantly.
"And I 'diffuse' them because distributing energy allows for more people to collect near-infinite levels at the same time. Pretty much creating a bigger slice of the cake for us to eat, allowing for faster growth. Making a greater developmental pace. A Gini Coefficient." Brijga responds.
"Okay- Okay. I believe I understand. What will I do, a trial run to see how I can deal with my 'potential' in becoming a God such as you? Is there a tutorial on a single universe before moving ahead?" Heath asks, almost to himself. "I think it is closer to a universal cluster, so about 5 or 6 universes, but yes." Brijga finishes Heath's train of thought for him. Happy they've agreed. "You'll probably start on a random planet in the unknown portion of an omniversal section. Can't put you where others will intersect with you after all!" Brijga says informally.
"Should be good practice, is it okay if I follow your lead? I still don't fully trust you, though." Heath asks, hoping for some guidance. "Sure, and that's fine, now. I gotta give you the necessary power to do this. Here." A light shines on Brijga's nose, soon poking his chest.
This stirs some of Heath's memories from Earth, where he got poked in that same spot, he thought for a moment before being blinded by pain again that the image of Elias overlapped with Brijga. In an unexpectedly short 'time,' the pain fades away. Leaving Heath as a shaking mass in the void that is coalescing into the shape of a head. It creates the old face down to a T, except with the same issues with Brijga, no wrinkles or pores, not even without hair this time, matching his old baldness, only leaving facial hair. He gets up, and he thinks of a mirror.
A mirror appears in front of him, showing his new 'perfected' look. He appears aghast. "I look horrifying!? Holy shit. . ." He never wanted something even remotely as this. He wills himself to appear less synthetic. "*HUFF*Now I look marginally human again." Heath comments.
"I enjoyed you better in the other look, it was more structurally stable in Real-Space. But come, we gotta go to your new home for a gigayear." Brijga moves Heath to his learning spot. During the start of the travel, Heath kept on asking continuous questions towards Brijga. "Will my friends also become these beings?" was answered with a 'yes.' "How much time will it take for me to meet them again?" A long time, Brijga would say. And on and on and on over the next few 'minutes' of travel. I am personally surprised Brijga could deal with it.
Brijga kept on pausing or looking as if they were concentrating on other tasks, obvious that they were hard at work, Heath stopped asking questions. Much to Brijga's confusion. "It's fine for you to ask questions, I can multitask." Which intensified Heath's resolve.
From there, a few other esoteric topics are emboldened: Magics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Developmental sciences, Mythology and Xenobiology were covered. Heath's new world was visible after the 203rd question or so, with the same continents as Earth, except with a few differences of note from its development, there were a few unrecognisable landmasses from the perfectly remembered geographical maps of his home realm, and there were some ginormous 'forms' below the waters that could be spotted, unknown whether it was land, or if they were monsters.
"Well, that is not ominous at all." Heath would gentricate in seeing one near where the Philippines would be thrash below the water, more than likely the ancient serpent ᜊᜃᜓᜈᜏ (Bakunawa,) trapped below the sea from its myth in trying to consume all earthly moons.
"Don't worry, you'll be safe." A sense as if he got patted on his nonexistent shoulder was felt by Heath, them now going towards the direction of the northlands, specifically Sweden.