[2nd Origin, 52 billion years ago. Holy Trinity Galaxy Cluster]
Every time the universe is destroyed, it births itself anew, and all life is supposed to be reset. This is called the Origin, and the universe is currently in its fourth Origin.
In the first Origin, all races were unified into one called Annokale, The Spirits. They prospered for over one hundred billion years until they fully reached enlightenment and oneness with the universe.
The Annokale transcended beyond the planes of the physical mortal and crossed into the realm of energy-based beings. They all collectively decided to restart the universe, but the choice of what their new purpose was not singular, but they accepted this.
Because of this slight division before the second Origin started, the oneness became two sides. Knowing this, Star Child, leader of the Annokale, created The Holy Trinity, a cluster of three galaxies with a planet in the center known as Eden.
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Because of the division, Star Child locked the ability to transcend into beings such as himself into the Forbidden Astral Fruit. If the races could reach oneness, they could enter the Temple that Star Child slept in, or that was what Star Child had planned.
Unfortunately, the universe doesn't follow the rules or laws, which are limits people place on it. Nor does it care about the happenings within itself.
In the second Origin, each Annokale became planets born in habitable zones around stars. Each of them raised their new races of children, helping them cultivate their planets and slowly teaching them the knowledge of the stars.
Two races grew rapidly, and within four billion years, they had started a war with each other. The Annokale were locked to their planets, unable to convince the races to live peacefully, and the conflict only worsened.
Then Alphose, leader of the Gideons, discovered the Holy Trinity Galaxy Cluster. He tried to enter the temple on Eden, only to be refused, blocked by an unbreakable force.
The leader of the Gideons did not give up and studied Eden for over seven thousand years before he could fully decipher how to access the temple.
Both leaders of the Gideons and Drakar had extended their lives far past what should have been allowed. Even with all this extra time, neither was closer to winning or resolving the war.
In a bid for more power, Alphose offered Tiama a peace offering in the form of Eden and the knowledge he had gathered. The talks took a very long time before Tiama finally agreed to join Alphose, and when she did, the two were able to enter Eden.
Star Child had been awakened the moment they entered and had been thrilled to see that after only four billion years, the races could reach oneness. This was a lie that was fabricated by Alphose, and secretly he was just waiting to restart the war and try to take dominance once again.
Tiama was not aware of this, nor was Star Child, until the two touched the Forbidden Astral Fruit, but it was too late. Both beings began to transcend, but Star Child was furious like never before and tore the hearts from both chests, but this did not kill them.
Instead of fully transcending, Alphose and Tiama became Astral Gods, but still on the physical mortal plane. Neither would even be able to transcend for tricking Star Child, and he hid their hearts from them, locking them to this plane forever.
From there, the Astral Gods killed each other and caused the universe to reset itself in a cataclysmic event. Because the two races were now locked in this plane, the universe restarted from the second Origin repeating the same cycle.
The difference was that the Astral God's bodies had created two new elements, which were now mixed in with the universe. The Dragon Goddess, Tiamat, created systeminium, and The Demon God, Alpha, created Mutainium, spreading their bodies across the known universe.
In the Astral Gods furry at what the Star Child had done to them, they locked every Annokale inside of their planet's core, at creation. They used the spirits as energy sources to give their people god-like powers to dominate and enslave all other races using these new elements.
Then the race began in the third Origin as the two Gods drove their people to collect their astral bodies while still warring with each other. The Gideons were the ones to complete Alpha first, but even after winning, Alpha was still destroyed again.
This time his body was spread outside of what is considered the known and visible universe, starting the Forth Origin. Again, history started to repeat itself, but Star Child was done watching.
Using the two hearts, Star Child created and connected them to his two closest partners, Omega and Crytion. The Leader of the Annokale had spent over one hundred and forty billion years with them, but as beings of another plane, there was only so much Star Child could affect.
No matter what he tried, the Drakar and Gideons still thrived, and after thirteen billion years, Star Child disappeared.
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I had been in the background watching the timeline of everything rolling out before me, but I didn't know what to feel after seeing it all. Even the Star Child was partially to blame for everything happening, but he was trying to fix it somehow.
The next thing that boiled my brain as I snapped back to stand atop the pyramid with Tiamat was her. Even after seeing everything, I couldn't for sure say that she was evil.
The creature had been tricked, but I still didn't know why the war started in the first place.
"Now you know," Tiamat said, and I shook my head.
"No, I don't, really. The only thing that I know is that you and Alpha are two idiots that have destroyed the universe twice, and it looks like you are shooting for a third time. Yet, I have no idea why the war started or what you want in all of this. Can you at least answer that?" I asked the beautiful creature, and she nodded.
"One could say that I kicked the nest to start it, but they came into a solar system that I had colonized and started cannibalizing the planets. I asked them to stop, and Aphose refused, saying he was the universe's owner. I was quite young at the time, only a few thousand years on my feet, so to speak," Tiamat said with a small smile, and I couldn't hold back a small laugh.
"I am sure you take shits longer than I have been alive!" I laughed, and Tiamat gave me a perturbed look.
"I am a female Dragon. I don't produce waste; my body is a holy temple that converts all mass into energy that I use. I no longer need to eat, sleep, or any of that. As I was saying, Alphose refused to leave the system, so I attacked and destroyed his fleet. Unfortunately, I have no idea that his empire was a twin in size to my own, and that sparked a nearly fifty billion-year war," Tiamat explained, and I hummed.
This still didn't mean she was good, but maybe better than the Gideons, or worse? I really didn't know.
"What is your goal?" I asked, being the simplest way to determine something like this.
"To rid the Universe of the Gideons."
"That's all?"
"Yes."
"And what about after?"
"After?" Tiamat asked.
She almost looked like she hadn't thought that far, but that would be absurd. There is no way a being this old hadn't considered what she would do afterward, was there?
"Yeah, after you defeat the Gideons, what next? Will you free all the slaves you have that are collecting your body for you? They won't be needed anymore, right?" I asked hopefully, but Tiamat giggled at me.
"Free them? Why? They are lower lifeforms and will always serve me. I suppose we could just get rid of them, use the biological waste to fertilize beautiful planets, and replace the workers with robots, but that has its problems. Look at the Cleaners, created by a race, and then they killed their creators. Now they are hell-bent on even trying to clean up our planets! I have destroyed them more times than I care to count, but they always seem to survive and rebuild!" Tiamat snapped, and I nodded with a sigh.
Yup, just as bad as the other. Maybe on a slightly lesser scale, and I had yet to talk to this Alpha.
Still, I had made my choice, and this trip had been incredibly insightful.
"Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me, Tiamat. I am sure you don't grant this privilege to many, but I think I should be getting back now. I have decided what I will do about your daughter, Calishora," I said as Tiamat looked to be about to speak, but this made her eyes narrow.
"What did you just say? What are you going to do with my daughter?! She is not even on your world yet! She is just controlling that Annokale!" Tiamat declared.
Suddenly, Tiamat's monolithic Astral Dragon form took the place of the human-like one, dwarfing me. I didn't flinch because I knew she couldn't hurt me here, or she would have killed me already.
"Yet is the keyword. I will be leaving and taking Earth with me, and now that will include your daughter. I promise you that I will not be letting her go, and you will be forced to watch me teach her what it is like to be one of the lesser races," I said, and Tiamat roared at me.
The force should have blown me away, tore me apart at the subatomic level, but it didn't. I declared in my mind that the sound and force behind it didn't exist.
Just like this place, it was all just a construct of our minds, and it didn't exist in the mortal plane of existence. If I have learned one thing from my experience so far, it was that there was nothing that was out of my reach.
Instantly, I became the same size as Tiamat, and I grabbed her by the neck because I was real, and this was my mind she had invited in. Tiamat struggled against me, but I was the one in control now.
"How is this possible?! What kind of being are you?!" Tiamat raged as she fought to break my grip, but I knew she could never do that unless I chose to let her go.
"All this time, and you have not tried to learn anything or move past your own selfish goals. I refuse to let you destroy us again because that is the only result that can come of this! You have only two choices now. One, you believe that your daughter is stronger enough to defeat me, and you get your heart back," I growled.
"What is the other choice? Even if you can threaten me, you can not kill me anymore, then I can kill you!" Tiamat screamed at me.
"No, I can't, but nor do I want to," I said, letting go of the Dragon's neck. "This is a warning to you and your kind. Mess with the bull, and you get the horns. Leave the Annokale and me alone. If you don't, I will siphon every drop of systeminium out of the universe until I can shove you back into the Forbidden Astral Fruit!"
"You think that I care about one single daughter that forgets to praise me? Her creator? I will tell her to fight until she dies, so you can't torture her! Your talk is big for one so pathetic! Enjoy looking down on me, mortal; I will never stop hunting you!" Tiamat laughed, and I slapped her big ass Dragon face.
"Send me home, you oversized Astral Worm! I will slap you again if you talk back. Lord, you almost had me believe you might actually be good!" I grinned, hand raised, and I was back inside the crystal ring with Calishora in front of me.
"I will let this child fight you, and then she will give her life to kill you when she arrives on the planet. She deserves nothing less," The Dragon said, and then the astral background bled out of the eye, and it became yellow with a slitted pupil again.