I floated in the white void, knowing not what was going on.
The last thing I remember is following the construct into the Core.
"Once upon a time, long, long ago."
The construct's words rang out in the void as the area shifted, changing from a white void into a strange realm of exotic energies that I could not even name.
"There existed a being of pure Light and Creation."
A faceless being of pure light and holy energy moved in this realm of exotic energies.
He moved through the space that was hard to describe, as if trying to see music or listen to color. Literally impossible to define with words alone.
"He who was born with power and concepts already his own, along with many of his kind, existed without purpose. Without any motivation."
This being, this young god, moved without purpose in this realm of exotic energies. Until he stumbled upon a rift in the fabric of reality.
"Then, this being found it. A realm that separates realms. A place that goes by many names. The Norse call it the Ginnungagap, the yawning void."
"The Greeks call it, Χάος. Chaos."
"The Hindus call it The Mahasunya. The Absolute Void."
"Many are its names, but the most common name it is called with is-"
"The Dimensional Gap."
I watched as the God looked behind himself, contemplating his choice, before plunging headfirst into the Dimensional Gap, using his vast and unfathomable power to navigate its chaos until he found another tear in reality, leading to a world overrun with wilderness and mortal life.
A world where lesser divinities ran rampant, while older divinities fought each other in the heavens and the metaphysical realms.
"For the first time, he felt free. As if his existence was not just one among countless others, born without purpose or reason."
"For once, he felt emotions of his own."
"Joy, Curiosity, Wonder, Thirst for Knowledge, many were the emotions he felt."
I watched as the being descended to the mortal realm. Earth.
I watched as he moved among its flora and fauna, taking in its beauty that, despite its fragile and limited existence, especially so when compared to what he was used to in his own realm, felt far superior to the dull, monotonic, and eldritch lifeforms of his original home.
"So, he did what he wanted to do."
"He learned."
I saw him move across the world. Changing his shape and form to fit every different kind of creature in existence, becoming a part of them to observe how they lived and learn from them.
I saw him become one of the countless trees that stretched as far as the eye could see.
I saw him turn into a microorganism, living alongside these tiny lifeforms and learning the importance of their existence.
I saw him turn into the primordial ancestors of modern marine life, learning to live as they do.
"And in his thirst for knowledge, his pursuit of understanding this new world, he saw everything that this world had to offer, as eras started to pass."
Time moved as if I was watching a movie set in fast forward. Watching the young god mature as time went by, his inexperience was tempered with wisdom and knowledge that he started to accumulate.
"Then came the first anomaly."
I watched as the young god was immersed in studying the metaphysical realms connected to this world, when suddenly, the sky above him tore open, throwing out a horrific entity that reeked of evil energies.
The moment it touched the land, all life started to die as the shapeless mass of concepts screeched in an unholy voice. A screech that reverberated across all realms through the fabric of space and time.
"As the one supposed to guard the Dimensional Gap, the Serpent of Infinity, had left its home, and the Dragon of Dreams had yet to occupy said space, it was fairly common for strange and exotic entities from other realms to manifest on Earth, similar to how this young god had arrived on Earth. Entities that were most of the time dealt with rather easily by the native divinities."
"Yet, this was the first time that a being that was comparable to divinities, even if only to the lower ranks, had appeared on Earth."
The formless mass of concepts was the antithesis of all life on earth. Not because it was inherently evil, but because its very existence rejected the very concept of 'Life'. A result of its original home, perhaps.
The young god watched as the being's very existence ate away at the very concept of life, and for the first time, he felt a new emotion.
Anger.
His energy, so utterly alien to this realm, both in its intensity and its purity, erupted from him like a volcano, catching the attention of the formless entity who moved on instinct, trying to get away from the holy light that would burn all that is wicked.
Yet, its effort would be futile, as the young god merely waved his hand, and the being was annihilated on a conceptual level.
Unfortunately, this action also gained him unwanted attention as various native deities sensed his energy signature, realizing that a new player had joined the game.
With a sigh, the young god vanished, reappearing in one of the many empty bubbles of space connected to this realm, one of the countless others that were constantly being born and torn apart as the Dimensional Gap churned without a 'god' stabilizing its existence.
"For a time, this young god stayed away from the mortal world. Simply observing it and learning from it as usual. Only ever descending when an unusually powerful entity from the beyond came through."
"But, one day, something else caught his eye."
I saw as the young god came out of his bubble of space that he had claimed as his own realm. Sensing the emergence of another being from beyond the Dimensional Gap.
But what he found was not some eldritch creature from beyond.
It was a soul. A single, human soul.
An impossibility in this time period, where the most complex lifeforms were plant life and tiny creatures at the bottom of the oceans.
"It was a soul. A lonely existence that was caught between two tears in reality that the young god could not trace or identify. Realms that were tearing the soul apart at the seams."
"If it were not for the unnatural energies beyond his grasp that were mixed into this soul, he had no doubt that it would have long since been torn apart long ago."
"Now knowing that this soul was not some kind of threat to life on earth, the young god made a choice. One that would change everything from here on out."
I saw the young god gently envelop the lonely, but strangely powerful, human soul with his light and move it away from the two rifts where it was caught in between, making the rifts vanish the moment the soul was moved.
Cradling the soul in a way similar to how a parent would cradle a newborn, the young god moved back to his realm.
"The young god had saved that strange soul. But now, he had a problem on his hands."
"He did not know what to do with it."
"But being the young god he was, he did not think long before he chose one of the many options available to him."
I watched as the young god poured his energy into a point in space in front of him, creating a mix of lifeforce and many other energies that I could not name, which materialized as an orb of energy.
Into this mix of energies, he inserted the soul, prompting an immediate reaction as the orb changed shape, taking on a humanoid shape.
"Being a deity of creation, he was no stranger to creating matter from energy, but this would be the first time he would create a living being that would not have a soul of its own, but a vacant body, a blank slate, that the soul could adapt and change to fit itself into."
"Unfortunately, just like with any other prototype, the young god's first creation was only a partial success."
I felt my heart skip a beat as a strange emotion filled my mind.
The humanoid form of pure energy solidified, becoming flesh and blood.
Long blond hair fell behind him as his eyes remained shut. Yet, I knew that behind those eyelids were cobalt blue orbs.
His four wings spread behind him and hung lifelessly.
The Angel that I had seen in the memories of Gabriel and in the magic circle that I read the history of with my spell in the underworld.
The Angel known as Arael.
"The young god's creation had not accounted for the alien nature of the soul, nor did it account for his inherent power. So the body was incomplete, making it so that the soul could only harness a fraction of the soul's true powers."
"Worse yet, the soul had been left hanging between the two rifts for too long, damaging it to such an extent that it would probably not remember its true identity or power. Not to mention that it would probably remain in slumber for who knows how long."
The young god radiated disappointment and pity as he looked at the limp body floating in his bubble of space, but soon cheered up and waved his hand, changing the space around him to a comfortable landscape of rolling hills and verdant life, leaving the body to gently fall to the soft grass and slumber for as many eons as it takes.
"For a time, things were peaceful."
"The young god would continue his study and slowly increase his understanding of the world. Gradually falling in love with what the Earth and what it represented."
"He fell in love with the very concept of 'Life'"
"In the meantime, he would also check up on his very first creation. His very first 'son', so to speak. Taking note of how the soul was gradually recovering."
"Yet, as with all things, his peaceful time came to an end."
Once again, another rift opened up in the Dimensional Gap from which a strange creature made it into Earth's dimension.
Its power caught the attention of the nearest divinities, which happened to be the Olympians known as Zeus.
The ruler of the Greek Pantheon had been engaging a monstrous beast with twin serpentine tails that were its lower body, and a hundred-headed upper body, with each serpentine maw spewing unholy flames that could harm even the gods.
The Typhon. The child of two primordials, Gaia and Tartarus.
The moment this strange creature emerged from the dimensional gap, the young god had also caught its energy signature and had arrived swiftly, only to find that it had been devoured by the serpent that was battling Zeus, greatly boosting its power. But it was still no match for the King of Gods, whose battle the young nameless god observed from afar.
But the moment this serpent was killed, five more rifts appeared from the dimensional gap and spewed forth powerful entities.
In the end, the King of Olympus had no choice but to accept the young god's help to defeat these creatures. After that incident, the two chose to go their separate ways without another word.
"The day was saved as the King of Gods slew the beast born to defeat him and his kin. And then accepted the help of the young god to defeat the other entities. Yet, this incident made the young god realize something."
"There would be times when he would not be able to track down every beast that would emerge from the beyond. Especially if they came out in huge numbers."
"While he could split his essence and try to be everywhere at once, it would not be optimal as his power would be drastically reduced in such a situation."
"So, he took inspiration from the other pantheons across the world."
"He chose to give birth to 'sons' and 'daughters' that would fight alongside him to protect this beautiful world from the eldritch."
"And the template he chose for this new generation of his 'children' was none other than his first 'child'."
Awe is not a good enough word to describe what I am feeling right now as I saw the beauty of creation that was taking place in front of me.
I saw the young god use the template of my body as the blueprint to create the first Angels.
Helel, Samael, and Michael were the first to come into existence, already filled with knowledge already implanted in their minds.
Then came Uriel, Gabriel, and Raphael.
And then came the rest of the first-generation angels.
One after another, I watched the young god, the very God of the Bible, create life out of his own energy, his very essence, and based on my body template.
"And then came the last miracle that brought the greatest of joy and the deepest of sorrow to the young God."
The moment the first angels were born, it was as if something within their very existence resonated with Arael's body.
Because the Soul had been dormant for countless years awakened.
Yet, the damage done was not fully healed, and what God feared had really happened.
The soul had forgotten its identity.
"Lost and confused, his first creation, his first 'son' was scared and questioned his own existence."
"So, being who he was, the young god took him in without any hesitation."
"Thus was born, Arael. Officially, one of the first children of God. Yet secretly, his very first son."
I could not speak nor comprehend what I was seeing, as time went by.
I saw Arael's life in the bubble of space that God reshaped into what is now the Heavens.
I saw his interactions with Michael, Gabriel, Helel, Samael, and many other Angels.
I saw his battles against the extradimensional entities.
I saw him unconsciously use one of my own powers, the Pantheon spell, to summon the Gatekeepers, who looked completely different compared to how they look now with their power diminished by nealy 95%.
I saw his behaviour, instincts, thirst for knowledge, and love for life. Each and every action was a perfect match for my own true personality. One that I buried deep within me long, long ago, and replaced it with a calculating and logical personality to survive on my Earth.
I saw him and his siblings standing by God's side as the heavens first discovered the realm that would be known as the Underworld.
I saw the resulting clash between heaven's armies and the natives of the Underworld, the original monsters that called it home, the Demons of old.
I saw how a cosmic fluke tied the destinies of the Heavens and the Underworld together, making them a part of the same faction on a conceptual level.
I saw everything.
Until the time finally came for the end.
The fall of Lucifer, the imprisonment of Samael. Azazel and the rest of the rebellious angels' fall. The birth of Grigori.
I saw the Great War. The devastating battles, the cruelty that spanned thousands of years.
And finally, I saw the end of Arael, exactly how the magic circle in the Underworld showed me.
Soon, the images faded, and the white void came back with the construct of God.
"...Now, you know everything, my child. My first son. My Arael."
If I were on solid ground, I would have long since collapsed after witnessing what I did. But I cannot afford to do anything like that. At least, not now.
So, with great difficulty, I gathered my wit and asked the one thing that still did not make sense.
"....If this is the origin of Arael. Of me. Then why are my memories of that time gone?"
I felt a palm on my head. Its gentle warmth reminded me of my parents back on my earth, as his soft voice resounded in my mind.
"As you have already seen. Your memories were lost because of the damage done to your soul when I found you."
"Later on, when I made my way into the Underworld to find you and the other angels that were imprisoned by my rebellious son. It was already too late."
I remember the last images that I saw.
God had been furious when he learned of how Lucifer and the other satans had captured his children and were torturing them for information. So much so that he personally went to the underworld to retrieve them, even abandoning his eternal vigil over the Heavens and the Underworld to keep the other pantheons from interfering in their affairs.
But, by then, it was already too late.
Most of the captured angels had fallen, either from their own hatred and rage or after they were tortured in various ways by the devils.
As for Arael, he was already being tortured by the magic circle.
It tore God's heart apart to leave his first child in that place, because he had no way to save him.
The circle was specifically desinged in such a way that if it was so much as touched by anyone that was not its creation, it would immediately shunt Arael into the deepest reaches of the Dimensional Gap, ring into the path of Great Red who had taken up residence in the Dimensional Gap and was now serving as the anchor of that realm, stopping entities form other realms from slipping into Earth's dimensions.
And knowing Great Red, he would have instantly devoured Arael the moment he appeared in the dimensional gap.
So, all God could do was try and dull the pain felt by his son and leave the Underworld, vowing to find a solution to his predicament as soon as possible.
An oath that would never come, unfortunately, as the Beast of Apocalypse would soon appear in the world from beyond the Dimensional Gap, forcing God to seal it away and then subsequently perish alongside the four satans.
It is also unfortunate that God never told anyone else about Arael's predicament since he did not want to make his other children sad by learning about their brother's torture.
The Construct sighed as he read my thoughts again.
"Based on what you saw from that magic circle, and based on what I know, i think that the strain of using your sheer will power to hold on in the chaos of the Dimensional Gap consumed all of your memories until that point, converting it to pure light and holy energy which your soul instinctively used to heal itself completely and recreate its original body."
I gave him a surprised look at that bombshell of information.
"Such a technique exists?"
He chuckled at my words.
"It does. I created that spell myself. But never taught any of your siblings about it."
Then he gave me an exasperated glare.
"Of course, that never stopped you, so you tried to reverse engineer that spell based on what you saw while I was working on it."
He sighed with melancholy and sadness.
"You always were a genius like that. Learning spells and abilities as if they were second nature. Not to mention your endless thirst for knowledge and unstoppable curiosity, which put you in many a dangerous position."
"...Can you tell me more? About what kind of person I was?"
The construct waved his hand, making two chairs and a table materialize beside us.
"Of course, my dear child."
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