// Feat accomplished: The First of Many. You have successfully created your first world and taken your first steps as a Cosmic Entity! Reward: +10,000 Creator Points. \\
"Congratulations, Jay. This is your first feat!" Venus exclaimed beside me while we sat on the couch.
There was a message box floating in front of me about the feat, and Venus could see the message as well. I looked at it with a smile, glad to receive the reward of 10,000 creator points. The more help I got the better.
"Thanks, it was your tutorial that got me here." I turned to Venus who was just as happy as I was.
"Just doing my job, now let me give you a quick rundown about feats. Feats can be achieved for just about anything, whether it be carrying out specific tasks or reaching certain milestones. Whenever you accomplish a feat you'll be greeted with a message like this one, but only you and I can see it. Every feat comes with rewards, the more difficult feats grant better prizes though."
"So feats will be quite useful to my growth as a Cosmic Entity, that's what you're getting at?" I asked, quite intrigued by the complexity of this system Bob put in place. This seemed more like a game than anything else thus far.
"Yep, you can't see it now, but feats are one of many ways to better your situation. Collecting as many as you can will be important to establishing yourself." Venus replied with her finger in the air and her eyes closed. She was trying to act like a wise hermit or something which made me laugh.
"Whatever you say. Now what's up with Earth?" I pointed at the TV where a map of the world appeared, looking exactly like that of modern Earth. There was one massive difference though, the absolute lack of life. Every continent was barren rock and dirt, completely devoid of green. Only physical features like mountains, oceans, and rivers could be seen.
"Welcome to Earth, year zero. As you can see there aren't any animals or plant life that exists at the moment. We're going to change that soon enough." Venus spoke a little faster than before, her eagerness being obvious.
"Seeing as how you are the Cosmic Entity that oversees this planet, you have access to a wide array of tools that will allow you to change the world as you see fit. Perhaps the most important tool is the time clock."
Venus gestured to the top right of my TV where there were a series of symbols representing the ability to fast forward, play, slow down, and pause time on Earth. There was even a marker for the current date. When moving through time I could change the increments in which I went forward, not just the speed. If I wanted to I could fast forward and have it stop in a day, two weeks, seven months, six years, or even a century.
"It's important to note that there are triggers that can be implemented to work alongside the time tools. These have various functions such as pausing the world if an apocalyptic disaster is about to happen or slowing down a fast forward upon a designated benchmark being reached. Go ahead and set up a fast forward sequence at 10,000 times speed, but create a trigger that will pause the world and notify you when Earth is ready for life to be introduced."
I gave a simple nod and focused on the fast forward button, but then included the trigger Venus mentioned when starting the time skip. From there Venus and I watched for a while as Earth began undergoing rapid changes.
The originally barren wasteland began sprouting plant life all over the place and changing its features. Oceans of sand swept over rock, fish began swimming throughout the seven seas, rainforests erupted from the Earth like a tidal wave of green, and animals began populating the land at an astonishing speed.
When Earth reached the year 4,978 my fast forward suddenly stopped and the world paused. A yellow and white flashing message then appeared on my TV screen.
// [Trigger Activated] Planet Earth is now capable of sustaining life. The world has been paused. \\
Now, the Earth I looked at was exactly like my own, but without the presence of humans. Animals ruled the land, birds ruled the sky, and fish ruled the sea. It was quite stunning to see the beauty of an untouched Earth, full of health and wild spirit. During the fast forward, however, I was astonished by the speed at which Earth's species evolved. From year zero to year 4,978 there were more than 65 million years of evolution packed into such a small chunk of time. From species predating the dinosaurs to the ice age, all of it happened on an accelerated timer that fascinated me.
Perhaps on cue with my thoughts, Venus chimed in about Earth which was totally unrecognizable compared to when I first saw it.
"Evolution is accelerated on new worlds so that they can become suitable for life quickly. Otherwise, changes like these would take far longer to occur…" Venus slightly paused, thinking to herself about whether or not to talk about another point. "I guess this is also a good time to explain how time works now that you're on the Infinity Plane. For us time moves extremely fast, so we use the cosmic scale. A single minute on the cosmic scale (which is time on the Infinity Plane) equates to three planetary days or days on your world. This means an hour is 180 planetary days, a day is 4,320 planetary days, and so on so forth. It may seem like a lot right now, but to be frank with you time isn't a big deal anymore, at least for us who are unique existences. You'll come to find this out for yourself soon enough though."
Again I nodded at Venus, but my mind was still processing her words. As a human on Earth time could be seen as the ultimate power. It dictated every single aspect of life from sleep to expiration dates to school. We cared about our time more than anything else, and now all of that was out the window.
"That'll take some getting used to considering I was a human...however long ago." I couldn't really piece together the amount of time it had been since I arrived on the Infinity Plane so this is all I could come up with. "It shouldn't be a problem though, let's continue."
"Great! Moving along then, it's finally time to start adding your sentient beings to Earth. All you have to do is think about which group you want to spawn, then select a location. Once you select a location the system will generate a random number of people in that exact spot. This will cost you points, exactly 100 per placement. I recommend not placing too many, as your purpose as a Cosmic Entity is to encourage development. You could imagine how terrible things would be if millions of uncultured, uninformed people just began running around the wild."
"That would be nothing but chaos," I responded with a low tone, the thought of such a thing was truly unsettling. Barbaric even to say the least.
"Exactly." Venus nodded, trying to prevent me from making a dire mistake. She quickly returned to being serious though and stared right into my eyes.
"Jay, there's also one other thing that you absolutely MUST understand. That world on your TV right now? It's 100% real. The plants, animals, soon to be people, all of them are alive and breathing. They have their own thoughts, families, and lives. Don't get to thinking this is some video game because of the system Bob set in place for you. Just like the people you're about to create, you come from similar origins. Keep that in your mind while carrying out your duties."
I wasn't sure if Venus had a hidden message in her words, but the part about me coming from "similar origins" was thought-provoking. Did Bob create my Earth in the same way I was creating this one? Even though I wanted to ask I knew the time was not right, not now at least.
"Don't worry, Venus. Just because I'm God now, which is still weird yet pleasing to say, doesn't mean I'll let it all go to my head. Other people have their own definitions for God, but I don't. I've never really been the religious type." I sighed, leaning forward from the couch and looking down. The revelation that God existed was mind-opening, and now I was pretty much it's equivalent. I may have been super willing to become a Cosmic Entity, but that didn't mean I wasn't shocked and overwhelmed by everything going on.
"That doesn't matter though." I sat up with a renewed spirit. "Now that I'm the God of my own universe I can be the God that I want to be…"
Venus' mouth slightly opened and her eyes round like flying saucers. "Jay, that was...amazing." She was stunned that I made such a mature statement given my human age and poor understanding of the universe.
"Thank you...Think of it as a sneaker collab! Nike x Air Jordan, but Jay x God! You'll have all the power and seriousness of God, but the fun creativity and personality of Jay!"
"I stand corrected. It was mature for ten seconds…" Venus huffed and rolled her eyes.
"What do you mean!? Come on, my analogy makes sense, does it not?" I nudged her with my elbow and looked at her with my eyebrows up.
"Ugh...I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes I get what you mean. I'm just lost as to why you would compare being God to a shoe collaboration...and why it worked." Venus massaged her temples before bursting into laughter. She was happy that I understood the significance of everything happening to me.
I turned my attention back to Earth, where the planet awaited its people.
"Hmm, now where to place each group?" The placement of every group would be important in their survival. For instance, with humans, I could place them really anywhere since they had shown the ability to live widespread on Earth. As for races like the Shikar, the only logical place to put them were deserts.
Looking at Earth I began placing groups of beings race by race, starting with humans due to my natural bias. When placing the groups I made sure to put them in areas that would keep them somewhat secluded for the time being, like between mountain ranges and in thick forests.
For humans, I decided to place several groups in modern-day Kenya. There was an active theory on my Earth that humans originated from this part of the world, and many years of archeological evidence pointed toward such beliefs. After placing a group of humans in Kenya an icon with a human on it appeared on the world map.
Aside from Kenya, I placed groups in southeast Asia, western Russia, central Europe, and eastern North America. Each region had three groups placed, all varying in size.
Next came elves which I obviously wanted to place in forests. My choices for their placement were the Amazon Rainforest in South America, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as modern-day Nigeria. Again I went with three groups for each region, this would be my baseline for all the races. Just like the humans, elf icons appeared on the world map in every location I placed a group of elves.
With the dwarves, I decided on placing them in mountainous regions where they'd have easier access to raw minerals. Groups appeared in the Alps, Himalayas, Rockies, and Andes.
The Shikar were easy to place since their best option was the desert. I placed groups in the Sahara desert, along the Nile River, modern-day Saudia Arabia, southeast North America and modern-day Mexico, as well as Australia.
The Zamboo were a nomadic people who would travel often, placing them in grasslands and plains was the best option. I placed groups in modern-day Mongolia, the English Isles, the plains of North America, and even a group in Australia to exist with the Shikar.
Lastly on the list for Earth's sentient beings were the Atlanteans. Choosing their placement locations was quite difficult because I wasn't sure what an Atlantean civilization would need to take root. In the end I decided to ask Venus for recommendations.
"Venus, where do you think would be best to place the Atlanteans? I'm not sure where they'd be suited to living."
The story of Atlantis was a fairytale told on my Earth, how would I know anything about their actual civilization?
"I'm not sure either since Atlanteans did not exist on Earth, and most of my knowledge is based on your planet. The only option I can think of would be allowing the system to randomly place them, giving them optimal starting positions."
"It can do that too? Perfect, problem solved."
With random placement in mind, I allowed the system to place groups of Atlanteans all around the world. Seconds later I watched as icons appeared for Atlanteans on the map in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Japan, in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Indian Ocean.
"Now that Earth has its first inhabitants you'll need to introduce your weakest monsters to the world by selecting the goblin figurine you received earlier. The figurine will make 100 power level the current maximum anyone or anything can reach until you decide to change it. Thankfully there's no need to hand place monsters as the system will handle monster spawning on its own. Monsters will appear all around the world just like animals would. However, as we discussed while creating your Soul Powered Monster Law, you can create dens for monsters by spending points."
Venus went on about how I could use monster dens to direct the flow of population, temporarily isolate regions, and much more. Their uses were far more than I had originally planned for!
There were however two dangerous aspects to them. For one they greatly benefitted the monsters that inhabited them, allowing those monsters to grow far faster than normal. And secondly, monster dens could appear even without me placing them due to natural causes. The elemental power of my law could cause physical changes to Earth, allowing for magical environments to be made. Monsters fed off this same power and were even given ideal places to form dens in, giving them massive advantages. This did however help the people of Earth too, as the creation of magical environments would give them better places to develop in too.
"I have a few areas to place monster dens in. It should help with keeping people separate for a while." My goal with these early beings was to allow them to remain spread across the world and isolated for quite some time. That way they could establish themselves before branching out and connecting with one another.
After using the goblin figurine it disappeared from my inventory. The figurine appeared above Earth and began pulsating with purple energy. As the pulses got stronger the figurine began shaking and cracking piece by piece until it finally blew apart, sending a shockwave around the world. Once the shockwave dissipated the system sent me a message.
// Thanks to the monster figurine monsters will now appear all over the globe. Current power restriction: 100 power level. \\
The goblin figurine���s show took me by surprise, but it was much more entertaining than if the figurine had just disappeared to create the same effect.
With monsters now appearing I proceeded to buy monster dens to block off certain land routes. Each den cost 500 points, but it was well worth it. When I finished there were three dens in Central America near the Panama Canal, twelve on mainland Japan, one on both sides of the Suez Canal, 20 spread across the Nordic region, and 87 spread across various islands all over the world.
In Central America I wanted to separate the north from the south by land, forcing the people to explore the ocean or grow stronger to fight through the den. The same logic went for the Suez canal which separated Africa from the Middle East. As for Japan and the Nordic region, I planned to make them monster-infested zones. These areas would be key places for Earth's people to travel to and train in. They could also collect countless high-quality materials and monsters that had been nurtured by the abundant soul power.
Next were dens to block ocean routes. I placed four dens across the Black Sea, three to block the entrance into the Mediterranean, two in the Red Sea, and an additional 40 around the rest of the world.
When it was all said and done I was down to 82,200 Creator Points. My last duty now was to add Valkyries to Valhalla, then my preparations would be complete.
"Earth is ready to go, so to view Valhalla do I just think about the map changing?" My thought process turned out to be right as Venus confirmed with a nod.
I quickly changed the map over to Valhalla, and to my surprise, the afterlife was even more boring than year zero Earth! The entire afterlife was nothing more than a black nothingness!
"Hey Venus, I thought Valhalla would be some giant palace or mountainous nordic city. Why is it a black void?" I asked, a bit down.
"The answer is pretty simple actually. Valhalla is the afterlife, a realm formed from energy without the help of nature. Natural rules do not apply there unless you want them to. For Valhalla to take shape into whatever you want you'll either have to design it yourself or assign a God to oversee it. Designing it yourself will require points, but a God whose domain is made to be Valhalla can change it freely using divinity."
Assigning a god to the afterlife was my preferred choice since it meant I didn't have to spend Creator Points on every single detail. My only worry was that the god would end up like Hades, totally hating the fact that they oversaw the afterlife. It would be better if they saw the honor in doing such a thing, after all, being in charge of the resting place for all living creatures was a monumental duty!
"If that's the case then let's make a god to oversee the afterlife. Once that god has filled Valhalla with actual...substance, we'll introduce the Valkyrie. That'll make our plan for introducing them way more cool."
Venus thought hard to herself for a few moments before replying. She wanted to figure out the best possible way to assist me in my goals.
"It's probably best that way. The Valkyrie will be subordinates of the god that oversees Valhalla, if the Valkyrie appear now without a leader or even a physical world for them to inhabit, then things would be difficult for them. However, I recommend creating a god for the afterlife as soon as possible. Without Valkyries to ferry spirits into Valhalla there will be ghosts all over the world, so someone has to do it until the Valkyrie are born."
Ghosts wandering the world might actually be kind of cool, but it would totally scare the inhabitants of the world who knew nothing about their new home. Fixing the afterlife problem would be a necessity.
With a plan formed I proceeded to open the god creation menu with a simple thought. I was actually getting kind of good at this stuff!
// Welcome to the God creation menu. Please design the God you want below.
Name: _________
Godhood(s): [↗] (A God's first godhood is free, after that every additional godhood must be adopted in other ways or purchased for 10,000 creator points.)
Domain(s): [↗]
Physical Appearance: [↗]
Gender: [↗]
Powers and Abilities: [↗]
Personality: [↗]
\\
After seeing each of the options available for me to edit I had Venus give me the rundown on each of them. My biggest question involved the powers and abilities option.
"Hey Venus, if I give a God the ability to wield soul power at a godly level, then will they be able to display those powers right away?"
The basis of my question centered around whether or not the god I made would have to train the powers I gave him first or if he would instantly be born with them.
"It's a little complicated...For starters, all beings, even gods, have to learn how to use the powers given to them. Say you made a god of blacksmithing, that god would have godly talent as a blacksmith, but would still have to learn everything on their own."
"When using the god creation menu anything you give a god under powers and abilities will be their minimum potential. So if this god you're making now were given 'godly skills with wielding soul power,' then in the future it could do so easily and could even grow further. Additionally, like anybody else, gods can acquire new skills and powers. They will not be limited to the ones you give them from the beginning."
I sat on Venus' words for a little bit before grasping everything she was saying. "Alright, that makes sense. It wouldn't be logical for somebody to have total mastery of soul power if no one even knows what soul power is yet. It'd be like introducing the internet to cavemen, which is pointless since the cavemen wouldn't have the skills or knowledge to keep it running, let alone power it."
Venus nodded with a smile, happy that I pieced it together without much hassle.
"Trust me, this is something put in place by Bob for specific reasons. In the future it will no longer limit you, but for now it's necessary. The plus side of the situation is that your gods have divinity. Godly divinity is a special energy that allows its wielder to do anything relating to their godhoods relatively easily. All they have to do is explore their power. Furthermore, gods are peak level existences. Their training is exponentially faster than that of mortals. This means the God you create will be able to grow in strength quite easily."
"This function was created by Bob? But Why?" I couldn't help but ask. If I was the ultimate creator of this universe, then why did a power limiter matter? Anything I want could happen, so why set such a feature in place? As for the divinity stuff, it wasn't hard to comprehend after her explanation.
"I know you have a lot of questions, but some of them can't be answered right now. You'll have to wait until Bob starts bringing more Cosmic Entities to the Infinity Plane to get those answers."
I sighed out of annoyance and agreement. It wasn't Venus' fault that Bob had left out information. All I could do now was wait to see what was going on with all of this Cosmic Entity stuff.
"Thanks for telling me everything you can. Don't worry about the rest." I wasn't overly bothered by it all, but it made me nervous not knowing all of the details. "Let's get back to making a god then." To be honest I enjoyed saying that way more than I should have!
For the name of the God I decided on Kravish and his gender was male, meanwhile, his godhoods would be the Afterlife and Death which cost me 10,000 points for the extra one. As for his domain, I went with Valhalla so that he would be able to freely change the environment of it.
His physical appearance was that of a human. He had brown curly hair, emerald green eyes, tan skin, and a muscular body. Most importantly though, he was five meters tall while in his true form!
Next was clothing, which was a bit weird. According to Venus I could give Kravish armor, but it would be purely cosmetic. The reasoning behind this was because gods could only be equipped with armor, tools, weapons, or anything else of the sort if they were physically created by me or someone in the world.
Since I couldn't give Kravish a godly set of armor I decided to give him simple leather "armor" with a sleeveless vest. In the future, I would get him a set of armor that could go with his godly status.
The powers Kravish could control included things like spirit domination, which allowed him to excerpt his will over spirits, and mastery of the soul so that he could harness soul power to use the dark, light, soul, and undead elements. On top of those, I included godly strength, speed, endurance, and other "god-level" skills.
"He sounds pretty awesome, what will his personality be?" Venus gazed at Kravish who was standing idly on the god creation menu.
"I'm not sure. Do you think it would be better for him to be a serious person since he oversees the afterlife? Or would it be better to have him act like a viking warrior since the afterlife is Valhalla?"
Both seemed quite fitting for the God of the Afterlife and Death, Overseer of Valhalla. But which would be better suited for him? After intense deliberation, Venus and I decided on making him a combination of the two.
Kravish would be a mighty warrior god serving under me. His passion for fighting was equally matched by his passion for structure and stability in the universe, making him both bold and serious. In this way, he could take his job as the overseer with a strong mind, but also have a suitable personality for an afterlife designed for warriors.
With all the details filled in I confirmed Kravish's creation. Immediately I was asked whether or not I wished to purchase Kravish for the small fee of 15,000 creator points, to which I obviously picked yes. The base price of Kravish was only 5,000 points, but the additional domain made it 15,000.
Kravish was then saved in my inventory as a five-centimeter tall figurine and came with an additional "God Blueprint" item. After asking Venus about the difference between both items I learned that the God Blueprint allowed me to purchase more Kravishes at a discounted price or even sell his template in the Creator Store. As for the small figurine, that was an actual Kravish I had purchased and could be used. All I needed to do now was travel to Valhalla and have him materialize thereby using the figurine.
"Everything's ready, now we have to go to Valhalla and introduce him to the world. Once he materializes you can fill him in on his duties."
"This is our first descent, it's gonna be so awesome!" My body was teeming with joy, ready to experience this for the first time. I rocketed up from the couch, stretched my arms out, then opened a portal in the floor again. This time it led straight to Valhalla.
...
On the other side of the portal stood the empty Valhalla, at least it was empty until Venus and I showed up. We arrived in Valhalla suspended in the air as if floating in outer space.
When we appeared I noticed a strange feeling all over my body. The sensation was fuzzy but powerful. At first the feeling was just weird, but soon all of the energy in my body causing the fuzzy feeling went silent. I was confused but then sent into a state of shock.
I began writhing out in pain, screaming at the top of my lungs. It felt like my body was getting broken down on an atomic level and then being rebuilt. Every piece of my very being was burning in agony. This went on for several minutes before it finally stopped, my mind just barely enduring the process without going unconscious. The whole time Venus sat there with a worried look on her face. She was relieved when my body returned to normal and the color rushed back to my face.
"That...felt...terrible. No...terrible is an understatement. What...just...happened?" I was breathing heavily between each word, barely able to speak a full sentence.
"Your body just underwent another metamorphosis. Similar to when you first arrived in the Infinity Plane with the mental half of things. This was the physical half, and since you were awake to experience it this time things were worse." Venus drifted toward me and put her hand on my back to comfort me.
"The good news is that this shouldn't happen again unless under special circumstances. Your body has never been exposed to any sort of magical energy within it, so this first experience must have been excruciating. Your very being was just filled with Cosmic Divinity which is many steps above Godly Divinity. Had your mind not undergone those changes when you first arrived then it would've been impossible for you to survive the physical half of things."
I took a few minutes to let my body relax while Venus gently ran her hand over my upper back. Eventually I recovered enough to continue on with our plans. In my inventory, I selected Kravish and brought him out into the world. He began materializing right in front of me while the figurine slowly crumbled out of existence.
Kravish's body materialized like a hanging puppet until it reached his head. Once his full body was created his eyes suddenly opened as he began scanning the area around him. Then his dangling arms and legs began to sway until he gained full control of them. It took about thirteen seconds before he was fully in control of his body and thinking straight.
Kravish looked to his left, then his right, and then back at Venus and me.
"Hello, father. I Kravish, God of the Afterlife and Death, Overseer of Valhalla, await your command." Kravish saluted me with his left arm at his side and his right fist balled up over his chest. His voice was deep and powerful, echoing out into the void. Afterward, he dropped to one knee and lowered his head.
Wait a minute...FATHER? My mind froze and my mouth sat agape. How could I be a father? Who was his mother? How do you even raise a god, I don't think I'd be equipped to raise a human baby right now, let alone a full-blown god!
"Shocked that he called you father?" Venus' voice entered my mind giggling. My face returned to normal and I looked at her, wondering how she was in my head.
"I'm your guide, of course I can speak to you telepathically. Even if I weren't, you're a Cosmic Entity now! People can pray to you at any time and you'll hear them in your head. Once you get used to it you'll be able to flush out the prayers whenever you want, but since you plan to go under the radar for now there shouldn't be a problem."
"Ugh, that sounds like a pain." My mental voice communicated back to her within my brain. "Am I really his father?" I asked with a hoarse voice.
"Jay Thomas...you...are the father!" She spoke like this was an episode of Maury or something. "You're God and you just CREATED him, you're definitely his dad. You could even be his mom or his whatever else you want." Venus was teasing me but being equally serious. And it didn't help that she was grinning at me deviously.
"I'll pass, I guess father is fine." I looked up and floated above Kravish who was still saluting. Venus followed closely behind.
"Um, hello...son." I couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth, but this was reality now. "Ehem." I coughed to adopt a more serious poise. "You may rise."
Kravish stood up from his bowing position and met me at eye level, which was floating level for me. "Thank you, father. May I ask your name?"
"My name? It's Jay-" I paused in the middle of speaking. This would be a new beginning for me. I was no longer a human boy from Earth named Jay, so why would I have Kravish call me that? If I wanted to then I could use any name in the universe for my name as a Cosmic Entity, then my real name could be used between people I'm close with.
It took a moment, but eventually I got it out. "Feel free to call me Judai, or father is fine too." I decided on using this name since it would be the name that other Cosmic Entities referred to me as. It was quite fitting for the name of a supreme being as well. Being called father might be a little weird, but that would only be in the short term. I'd get used to it sooner or later.
"Judai," Kravish spoke my name proudly. "Thank you, father. Now, what do you command of me?" Kravish was straight back to business, something I should have expected given his personality. I couldn't help but sigh a little, hoping he would ease up a bit in the future.
"Pretty soon there will be souls on Earth that need your guidance into Valhalla. This place will need to be filled with the spirits of the dead, all ready to be judged and live a new life here."
Kravish held a serious expression on his face as I spoke to him, but he instantly asked me a question when I finished speaking.
"I am aware of the purpose of Valhalla, but I am unsure how you wish for me to judge the intelligent spirits that come here. Please instruct me on how to do so."
I looked over at Venus, unsure of what to respond with. Originally I thought Kravish would just know what to do, but it looked as if some extra work was needed.
"The easiest thing to do would be transferring your morals to Kravish's mind, that way he can judge spirits according to your liking. You can also give him the information you know about Valhalla, which will make it easier for him to create everything. All you have to do is touch his forehead and share your thoughts with him."
"Thanks for that." I smiled at Venus before turning to Kravish and placing my hand on his head. Our thoughts became one as if a bridge had been built between our brains. After several minutes of giving Kravish my knowledge of Valhalla and my morals, I finally pulled my hand away while he nodded.
"You are a good man, as expected of the creator, my father. Many of these actions are despicable sins that cannot be forgiven. I assure you judgment shall be carried out fairly and reasonably. Is there anything else you need of me?"
"Very good, Kravish. You will do many great things here. And there are two things actually. First, I'd like for you to build Valhalla into a massive world for the dead. I imagine floating islands, forests, waterfalls, and all sorts of cities and villages that rest upon them. Valhalla should be a resting place where people can live on in peace until reincarnating, and the respected warriors that come should be able to enjoy themselves until needed in battle. As for souls that you deem evil or unfit to live a good life here, their punishment is up to you. Once you complete this task I shall reward you with the Valkyrie, a people that will live in the afterlife and need your guidance. They will act as your foot soldiers, going to Earth and bringing spirits back to Valhalla."
Kravish slightly grinned when I told him about the Valkyrie. Surely he was happy to not be alone in the afterlife, plus he'd get to lead an entire race of warriors.
"It shall be done. I'll begin work immediately after you leave. As for the second thing?" Kravish asked, ready to carry out any task assigned to the best of his ability.
"Secondly, well- I'd like you to keep me a secret for now. I have my reasons, but just know that you and your siblings that I plan to create will be in charge while I work unseen. In the future my presence will be made known, but not until I am ready."
The look on Kravish's face was somewhat sour, he didn't feel worthy enough to be praised over his father, who created the entire universe. He was a good son though, and an even better leader, so he agreed to his father's requests.
"As you say, father. I admit that I do not agree with this, but your will is my command." Kravish dropped down and knelt before me, traces of guilt present in his voice.
"It'll be okay Kravish, don't worry. Now get going, and remember that I'm a prayer away if you need anything." Venus told me that anyone in existence could pray to me and their prayer would appear in my head like a thought, even gods could send me prayers. This would be the best communication system for Kravish and me should he need something.
"Yes, father. I look forward to seeing you once Valhalla is completed, goodbye for now." Kravish stood and flew off from his original spot, disappearing into the black expanse in a flash.
I continued looking into the direction that Kravish disappeared into for a couple of minutes, my emotions all over the place.
"Hey Venus, is it possible for gods to go rogue or cause any problems for me?" I didn't fear Kravish doing such a thing considering his loyalty and love towards me as a father, it was just a general question. What if another, less professional god, were to get angry with me one day and try betraying me?
"It's very possible considering they're conscious, living beings as well. That's all situational though. So long as you keep imprinting their personalities with loyalty that won't be a problem. Even if they did, you're still a Cosmic Entity, you could kill them yourself or erase them from existence."
I didn't plan to force all of the gods to be loyal towards me, as I wanted free will to reign supreme in my universes, my choice with Kravish was just a core focus of his personality. After being assured that my worries were pointless I opened a portal back to my new god seat. Yes, that's what I was calling the couch where I watched Earth from. I couldn't help myself alright?
Back at the god seat I looked at the TV and saw that Earth was still paused. Before pressing play there were a few things that Venus wanted to brief me on with world management.
"Once you press play and allow the world to progress I recommend keeping time skips to a limit. Don't just fast forward far into the future to see how things play out. Your job is to watch as the world grows and interact with it, not just sit around idly. This doesn't mean you can't fast forward or skip through time though, in fact that'll be necessary. All I'm saying is don't go forward too fast. Trust me, this is important to know for your future on the Infinity Plane."
Venus had been dropping hints like that one every once in a while which got me thinking about my new life. Maybe Bob withheld information during his explanation about being a Cosmic Entity, and Venus was trying to help me figure out what that information was.
"Got it, no problem." All of her advice was welcome and accepted.
"Next up is something pretty simple, more basic tools that will make your job easier. You'll be able to view Earth from any angle or location you'd like as if an invisible camera were flying around the planet to record for you. This overall map view is just so you can see the big picture. Additionally, you can use the search feature to find anything you want. You can look up populations of people, established groups, find certain people, or anything else you may want to see. Pretty much any information regarding your world is at your disposal with one thought."
"Nice, makes things pretty easy to access." I gave an affirmative nod, showing her I was following along.
"Perfect, now let me explain ways for you to interact with the world. In essence, there's no real limit to what you can do. You can create a holy treasure and hide it somewhere, add dungeons that test the limits of your sentient beings, create a demonic invasion, or anything else you can think of. Your main goal should be to create balance though. Should your world end or even be destroyed then things will get messy. There is a reset button available, but that'll cost you 250,000 points to use. This system is in place so that Cosmic Entities actually work attentively on their worlds rather than just messing around and causing apocalypses for fun just to click reset and do it all over again."
I could only imagine what my life would have been like if Bob had a bad day and decided to disable gravity or attack us with bullet immune magical monsters. "Good thing I'm not a psychopath, is there anything else you need to tell me before pressing play?"
Venus laughed. "Duh, silly. You haven't even noticed yet. If you look at Valhalla and Earth you'll see that time on Earth is paused, while time on Valhalla is still progressing."
Confusion filled my brain, and sure enough, I saw the time flow difference between the two places. "How does that work? What did you do?"
"It's simple. The time functions work on all levels. You can use them on one or multiple locations and affect the way time flows there. In this scenario I paused Earth while leaving Valhalla to continue playing." From the sound of her voice I could tell that Venus enjoyed helping me with her knowledge. It was pretty cool seeing her dedication to teaching me.
"That's awesome! All of this is beyond what I expected, it's pretty amazing. I can't wait to see what we do in the future." My eyes were filled with determination as I spoke. Being a cosmic entity was literally the coolest thing in the universe, the more I learned about it the better it was. Every fiber of my being was dedicated to accomplishing great things in my new life.
Venus and I talked for nearly an hour before she saw that Kravish was done with Valhalla. Upon his completion she resumed time on Earth and we watched as the people began their lives. We also decided to not look at Valhalla and leave its appearance as a surprise for when we created the Valkyrie.
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On Earth. Year 4,978 since creation, but year one for the new beings on planet Earth.
Across the world animal species were shocked at the sudden appearance of new creatures that broke the natural world as they knew it. Whether it be the monsters that could eat apex predators without putting up a fight or the bipedal creatures that were surprisingly smart, both were leagues ahead in evolution when compared to normal animals.
During the early years after appearing on Earth the people quickly came to learn of the dangers in their new world. In the case of humans, they chose to stay on the move and hide in caves at night to avoid being eaten. This same idea was shared between the atlanteans who hid in underwater caverns and the dwarves who went into cave systems within the mountains.
Things went a little differently for the elves, shikar, and zamboo though. The elven people would explore the forest during the day, but hide in the trees at night. Sleeping in the canopy was still dangerous, but it proved better than lying in wait of death on the forest floor.
Next were the shikar who lived in deserts that had little protection from anything. They chose to keep on the move constantly, only stopping for breaks or when they came across water. Similar to the shikar were the Zamboo who had a better environment, but equally less protection.
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I watched the TV screen with a depressed look on my face. We sat there watching for what felt like hours and little progress had been made despite the year reaching 4,988. We had even sped up time slightly so that we wouldn't have to wait too long. It was kind of sad to watch as the people of Earth struggled to survive this harsh environment.
"When will they begin using tools and settling down?" I couldn't help but ask Venus the question stuck on my mind. There were already cases of humans using rocks as tools, same with the dwarves. However, neither had progressed past picking up and using the rocks. They simply threw them as projectiles or used them to break objects. Some of the other races did the same thing, but overall they were quite lacking. Thus far the only major discovery made was fire, and that helped them out tremendously.
"It'll take a bit of time and luck, be patient. Right now there isn't much to do aside from watch, so if you want go ahead and increase the speed of the fast forward. I'd recommend checking on Valhalla first though to see if Kravish is ready for the Valkyrie. If the spirits of the dead roam Earth for too long then problems will start to occur. He's been handling them himself for a while now and could use the help before the world's population starts to rapidly increase."
I remembered Venus' warning of evil spirits appearing and souls fading from existence, the thought of this sent a chill down my spine.
"Before we go I need you to hide your aura first, assuming you want to go unnoticed. Of course, you can leak some of your power though if you wish to spread your image as the supreme one."
Venus gave me a playful look when telling me about the "god image" thing. Inside I didn't want to be worshipped as a god, although appealing it would be even more work than I already had cut out for me. For the time being at least, staying in the shadows would be my plan of action. When the time was right I would step out and make myself known as the world's creator. I just needed to get the hang of things first.
"I'd rather just hide it all for now, can you teach me how to do it?" I asked.
"Of course, it's super easy actually. All you have to do is feel the energies that flow through your body, once you can feel them the hardest part is over. From there you just reach out with your will and grab ahold of that energy, allowing you to control it. Meditating will be the easiest way for a beginner like you to get a hold of the ropes. Go ahead and give it a try." Venus gestured toward the ground next to the coffee table where a yoga mat appeared for me to sit on.
"Easy enough for you to say. Back on Earth energies like soul power and divinity didn't exist. The mere idea of "willing energy within my body" is difficult enough to comprehend on its own." I slightly protested Venus' words as her word choice and tone made the process seem easier than it really was. Nonetheless, I stood up and walked over to the mat to give it a try.
"Don't be so hard-headed. When you were on Earth you were just a human, now you're a Cosmic Entity. Energy manipulation is one of the easiest powers for you to learn! Just listen to my instructions and give it a try. You'll see how simple it is. If this is hard for you then as your power grows life will get extremely complicated, you'd better get the ball rolling."
Venus and I exchanged glances before I shook my head. "If you say so."
I had never once meditated before in my life, so I decided on going with the pose commonly seen in media. I sat down on the mat and put one leg over the other. Both of my eyes closed as I focused on my breathing, allowing the energy that had previously hurt me when first visiting Valhalla to flow freely throughout my body.
It took me about eight minutes to finally feel the energy in my body and discern the divinity from the soul power. After that, it was another four minutes to grab on to that energy and move it around my body rather than let it flow. Once that was achieved I focused on slowing the flow of energy and locking it down, allowing me to hide my power. This second part took another ten or so minutes before I finally grasped the hang of it.
My eyes finally opened and Venus was sitting next to me, watching my every move. "I think I'm ready to go." I casually stated, trying to suppress my excitement.
Chapter End.