The moon was reflected like a silver disc in the pond. I looked down at the pond, expecting to see a reflection, but of course, there was nothing. I was like a phantom, traveling backwards through time while walking through limbo. I would not have a disc behind my reflection as if it was a halo. Yet, I had been expecting to see it because this place was familiar. It looked exactly like the pond I had been dropped into when I first came to this world.
That shouldn't have been possible. I had gone back by hundreds of millions of years. The climate, the plate tectonics, the flora and fauna of this world must have changed incredibly over such a large period of time. On my old Earth, such a large period of time would've seen multiple ice ages, geological eras, and the supremacy of different species and types of mega fauna on the planet. There weren't even any elves, humans, demons, fairies, spirits in this world yet! In fact, there weren't even any semi-sentient species on this planet, which made me think sentience really had come to this world from the Immortals after all.
"You leave me no choice," said the Simurgh right before it launched the three Immortals into the battle inside the Nothingness that I had just witnessed.
Madness stood in the sky with the full moon at his back. The Evil Eye hovered even higher up, with the red star lined up with its single eye to make it look like he had two eyes after all. The Simurgh was standing atop the canopy with its two legs holding onto a thick branch that did not budge at all despite the immensity of the Simurgh's united body.
"I must have Annihilation," said Madness. "It was why I first came to this world. To be Annihilated within you, my beloved, is my one and only desire, Desire."
"I must remain true to the purpose of my creation," said the Evil Eye. "I must have all the domains in my possession. I must be worshiped, feared, loved, and respected by all. And I will supplant you as the demiurge of this world."
My ears pricked up. The demiurge of this world? A 'demiurge' was a complicated and controversial topic in ancient theology in my previous world. For Plato, the demiurge was the fashioner of the material world, that is, it was the creator of the material world. For neoplatonists, the demiurge was the consciousness of the Monad that gave shape to the material world through the power of the mind. Or, to put it simply, the ancients in this tradition thought that there was a conscious mind below the unconscious true origin of the world, and this conscious mind could then give shape to the material world as we experienced it.
But there was another thread of theological thought that made the demiurge truly famous. The followers of this thread asked: what if the god that we followed was not actually the supreme deity? What if he did create us and all that we knew in the material realm, but he did not give us the spark of sentience or consciousness that made us truly alive?
There were different traditions that followed different chronologies and theologies, but a simple and popular one that came to my mind was this one:
There existed a being named Sophia or Wisdom. Wisdom wished to create something outside of the divine realm, something that was made without the permission of the supreme divinity. Thus, she created the Demiurge, a monstrous being without the goodness of the divine realm.
But Wisdom was ashamed of what she had done. She sent the Demiurge away and isolated him from the rest of the universe. In his isolation, the Demiurge did not know about his mother or the rest of divinity. He thought he was the only thing in existence and did not know that the source of his power came not from him, but from his mother.
He used his mother's power to unconsciously mimic the true divine realm. Except, since he was not a divine being, he had no connection to the spiritual realm. Everything that he made was base and material. It was animalistic, and did not possess true sentience, rationality, or spirituality.
And then there were two further thoughts about the divinity of man. Perhaps the power of Wisdom was enclosed within humanity, giving them access to the true spiritual realm if they could escape the Demiurge's material realm. Or perhaps a ray of light came from the heavens, gifting humanity with the spark of sentience or divinity which would allow them to escape from the Demiurge's imitation of reality.
Needless to say, the Gnostics who followed this line of thinking had long since been defeated by other religious forces in my old world. The Christian church, in particular, considered this line of thinking heretical, and developed a doctrine closer to the earlier definition of demiurge as defined by Plato. Some say this is where the concept of the 'Holy Spirit' came to be.
But that is neither here nor there. These thoughts were racing through my mind because of two reasons. First, the term 'demiurge' was incredibly specific and the Immortals were not speaking in a language that I could recognize. My translation magic had chosen to translate this incredibly specific word instead of something generic like 'false creator.' It also did not choose a more common analogy like 'holy spirit' or 'angel of creation,' which some might have preferred over demiurge anyway. This meant the use of the word demiurge had been very relevant. It might even have been defined exactly as it had been in my world.
Second, the use of the word reminded me of something the Simurgh had said a long time ago. The Simurgh had insisted that there were no gods in this world, only Immortals. And yet, in the Nothingness, the Simurgh had claimed to have created this world. For my modern sensibilities, where the creator deity was also the supreme deity, these two descriptions did not make sense together. But if the concept of a 'demiurge' was invoked, things would finally make sense.
The Simurgh might well have shaped and formed this world, but it was not the god of this world. There was something or many things above it. Whether that 'something' had sentience or was some form of primordial, physical force, some collection of energy or unconscious will, I did not know. But the Immortals of this world did not claim to be true deities, which was very important. It would be difficult to fight Immortals, but it would have been nigh impossible to defeat gods. If the source of their power lay outside their selves, perhaps I could take some of the power straight from the source, instead of trying to steal it from the Immortals themselves.
But then why weren't Madness or the Evil Eye trying to do the same? Why bother fighting the Simurgh if they could get a slice of power straight from the source? It must be because fighting the Simurgh was either easier or the only option. Perhaps the Simurgh had already taken all the power that there was to be taken from the original source.
This made sense. After all, I was sure it was no coincidence that the demiurge from the ancient theology received its power from Wisdom. Wisdom was one of the foundations of magic in this world, with the other being knowledge.
I had created my magic straight from wisdom and knowledge. Perhaps this meant my magic system tapped directly into the origin, just like the domains that gave the Simurgh, the Evil Eye, and Madness their powers.
As I listened to the conversations of the Immortals, I began to realize that my hypothesis was correct. These Immortals were not the true source of power in this world. Wisdom and Knowledge were more important than I had realized. They were intermediaries between me and the source of magic. But if that was true it meant something amazing.
Magic was not merely the power to cast spells and stuff. Magic was the true source and origin of this world. Magic was the primordial force with which the Simurgh had given this world its shape. Magic was the force that created the Evil Eye. Magic was the energy that let Madness enter this reality and let him take control of many domains from the Simurgh.
Magic was above the Immortals, the material world, and everything else that I had ever encountered. To put it into stark, simple, and unquestionable terms:
Magic was the true god of this world.