"Ado is a very smart child. As long as I'm here, she will want for nothing. She already has a good education. What more could we ask for?" her father replied.
He then turned to his daughter: "By the way, you said you didn't want to go to school anymore? Fine, but on one condition!"
"What condition?" Ado asked, suddenly cheerful.
"That you take homeschooling."
The memories blurred for Ado, as if she were reliving them through a fog. She suddenly became aware of her current situation. She was on the roof of a building, a building that belonged to her. On this roof was her studio.
The door of the house exuded a strange incongruity, as if something was waiting for her inside.
…
Katharsis gazed into the infinite and finally decided to take action. He knew that what he was undertaking would be a source of growth for him.
Having glimpsed the beginning and the end of his project, he began to shape his will, transforming it into creative potential, a pure and limitless energy.
As a consciousness floating in the void, he began to dream. And with that dream, the process of creation was set in motion. He drew an infinite line, a purely one-dimensional expanse.
To him, this was the foundation of everything that would follow, the base upon which the laws of his universe would be built. This line was not a simple stroke, but a rift in the nothingness, pure and representing countless creative possibilities. It was the first dimension.
This line could be perceived as an infinity of points, each segment containing an infinite number of divisions. But in this infinity, one point especially caught his attention, a point that had manifested within this first dimension.
Although this infinitesimal point had neither mass nor form, it existed, and it was conscious from the very beginning.
The point was aware of its own existence. Katharsis was not surprised, as though he had been expecting this moment. The point broke free from its condition, becoming a wavelength. However, in this void, such a thing could neither exist nor propagate. So Katharsis grasped this singularity, this brilliant consciousness: Ado.
With Ado escaping her condition, Katharsis knew what had to be done on this infinite line. He created a law stating that each point on this line would be connected to the next without any rupture or jump.
This was the beginning of a series of laws designed to ensure the harmony of the first dimension. The first law issued by Katharsis was crucial, as it ensured that everything that followed would be anchored in a coherent and ordered structure.
Now, the line was dull. If it remained like this, his project could not progress. He desired something evolving, something that would endure even without his intervention.
From this simple thought, other consciousnesses emerged, in addition to Ado, taking their place at various points along the line. Each point and segment felt its proximity, extending infinitely in both directions. Just like Ado, these points became aware of their own state, their own expanse, their own realm.
Katharsis equipped these points and lines with a way to interact with their environment. One of the points moved, pushing the nearby one in the opposite direction.
Bound by the laws introduced by Katharsis, the points began to move. Motion had just been introduced.
This motion, although simple and limited to one direction, marked a crucial event. At each moment, these points moved, drawing closer or moving apart, creating a rhythm, a dynamic in the infinite linearity.
Of course, these points were not aware of their own movement. They could only explore the infinite length. But through their interaction, future creation would be influenced, defining change in time, even though time was still nonexistent.
The movement of these points then became their only proof of life.
Finally, defying all reason, a voice spoke to Katharsis.
"Father, why this pause in the process?"
It was unclear when Katharsis had taken a pause, but this event had displeased the entity speaking to him. In this void, a new entity had emerged: time.
Katharsis answered without surprise, "You know very well. Besides, I have modified the process and structure so that they resemble their habitat."
"But I would rather know why you're here. It's not time yet."
At that moment, Katharsis had not yet created time.
An interrelationship between time and its own origin was being generated, a causal loop where time was waiting to be created.
"I came to observe. And besides, don't you find it boring to be alone?"
Katharsis didn't respond, leaving time the freedom to do what it wanted. He refocused his attention on Ado's consciousness, turning away from the first dimension he had just created, eager to interact with her, which had led to the current situation.
...
In what now resembled Ado's studio, Katharsis, taking the appearance of her father, and Mu were sitting as if it were the most natural thing, their feet under the kotatsu.
Unsurprisingly, Ado had no shortage of money. She remembered having ordered this kotatsu after seeing a certain anime. It was one of her extravagances.
But the situation before her didn't make sense. What had happened earlier seemed like a dream from which she had just awoken, with strangers in her home.
She still remembered talking to an incomprehensible entity, understanding her condition, and attempting to surpass it. The result had been a return to square one, or at least that's what she would have wanted it to be. The shock quickly turned into fear.
"Who are you?"
"Are you? Some kind of deus ex machina?"she asked, aware that the man in his thirties was not her father. Moreover, if he had been alive up until now, he would have been older.
No, the other person was not her father.
And yet, he looked like her father.
Katharsis, with his indifferent, cold, and calm demeanor, gave the impression of a divine entity. Ado had never seen anyone like him.
"I am Katharsis." A silence fell over the studio, like in a gathering of introverts where everyone waited for the other to speak or start the main topic. Not that Katharsis actually had thoughts on the matter.
Ado was stunned.