A Perfect Solution

Entering the atmosphere of a blue planet, several meteors fell in slow motion, clearly showing how the friction created sparks on their rough surface and gradually burned them up as they fell towards the deep waters, creating large waves that travelled into the distance slowly.

Then, the next wave of meteors came and fell quickly like the speed of light, not giving anyone the chance to even see them coming. The only thing that marked their existence was the giant splashes in the ocean where they fell.

Above the planet, floating in space, Ymir watched this all happen and gave himself a satisfied nod.

It worked well.

After several days of hard work, he finally managed to find a way to control time in the mysterious space.

Though, while he was still far off from being able to control it precisely down to each second, he could now control whether time would pass faster or slower.

Now, he normally still allowed time to move much faster when he was inside the space but, during the times he was outside, he controlled the passage of time to be only three times faster than on Earth.

But, that was only because there still wasn't anything important to keep track of in Gaia. Though, once life was once again added in it, he'd probably make some changes on the passage of time depending on the situation.

For now though, he'd hold off from adding lifeforms just yet. Atleast up until Gaia was completely built to his satisfaction.

After all, the main reason why Terra failed was because he allowed things to just happen without controlling it, blindly expecting things to somehow turn out alright no matter what.

Still, that wasn't all. After mulling about it for several days, he realized that he might have to look for help regarding the situation of Gaia.

Even if the time problem was fixed, overseeing the creation of a new world alone, while ideal, was impossible.

He cannot do it alone. That is the truth.

There were many things he didn't know how to do, and even creating saltwater oceans was enough to consume his mind for days. What more when it was time to create land? There were continents, mountains, valleys, islands, volcanoes. Then, what about rivers, lakes, springs, and lagoons?

After that, there were plant life, animal life, ecological relationships, and ecosystems. Then, there were the birth of intelligent life and the beginnings of societies.

He cannot oversee all that alone.

But, while he accepted this fact, it is also impossible for him to recruit help outright. Doing so was incredibly stupid and dangerous. It was practically asking people to come and study his body to see just what caused it to happen.

Yeah, no.

So, what he had to do now was to figure out a way to have people help him build the foundations of Gaia without actually knowing the full extent of what they were doing. Somewhat like that game they played.

And that's where it clicked.

"A game..."

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The flames of death flickered red, emitting the the unheard dying screams of a celestial body at it's end.

Red of roses, red of blood. Red like passion and agony.

The beauty so verdant and ripe, like a bite of god's flesh in the night.

Do you hear it yet?

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He was hesitant at first.

Ever since the first incident which started this all, he'd been avoiding touching them again.

But, here we was, with one on each hand, looking upon passages of mysterious words from a language he'd never learned before but somehow understood.

The Secrets of the Cosmos on his left, and The Mindscapes on his right.

Both books containing information that no human had ever held before.

Well, no sane human.

For just a single look upon the pages of these books is enough to completely break the mind, but, currently, Ymir was in possession of 55 such books.

Only when given permission by the watching eyes of the otherworld may one view them safely.

And, fortunately for Ymir, he just happened to be their current favorite. Though, he did not know it yet.

Now, with both books opened before him, the whispers, which have always followed him since that fateful day three years ago, suddenly became more prominent in his ears.

The ever-expanding universe. The long-lived stars. The gluttonous black holes far away.

The truths in their barest form, without the needless misconceptions and misunderstandings brought by language.

It was something to be felt, sensed, and experienced. What the eyes see may not necessarily be the truth. What the ears hear may not necessarily be the truth.

They told him stories of their birth, their last calls as they died. The civilizations and life that were created and killed alongside them.

Legends passed through word of mouth. History of a forgotten empire. Great beginnings, and sudden ends.

In a planet far away, in a distant time long passed, a ruler of a powerful kingdom, who once brought light to his people, became the very reason the kingdom fell.

There is no true beginning, just like there is no true end. The thing closest to the image of life, is a perfect ring. It has no head and no tail.

Births of societies, the minds of philosophers. Inheritances of intelligent lifeforms long lost with the passage of time.

All these knowledge, crammed straight to his mind at once.

If anyone else were in his position, it would be no surprise if they immediately went mad.

But, he was Ymir.

And the eyes looked after their favored.

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August 15, 1991

02-Gaia

Observation Entry #10

After many days of raining many meteors and asteroids upon Gaia, here, I am proud to say, that my hard work has finally paid off.

The waters had successfully turned into an ocean. With salt!

Granted, it may have taken longer to produce results since I controlled time to be slower when I was outside the space.

I could have just allowed time to move at it's default state since the planet was still empty at the moment, but I didn't.

And that was because of asteroids, comets, and meteors. What if they crashed into Gaia and destroy everything I worked hard for while I was unaware?

Maybe I was being paranoid, but after the failure of Terra, I wasn't taking any chances.

There's always a what if scenario that can happen at any given moment.

Now, back to Gaia.

Another good news to be added!

There are now islands scattered around in the ocean!

Tiny islands, mind you. But, islands nonetheless!

Some of them were quite unstable and might sink at any moment, but most of them were actually quite durable and were able to withstand considerably powerful waves.

Now, with the creation of the ocean finished, and with the islands as the foundation, it was now time to finally begin creating land.

Which means...

More meteors to kidnap.

Entry End

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"Bleeding Weeds... 62 inches." Muttering as he scribbled, Ymir bent down with a measuring tape floating beside what looked to be a mini tree... that was leaking. Or peeing.

But, that wasn't actually tree pee. It was it's unique sap which was just beginning to come out from it's juvenile bark.

Right now, since this Bleeding Weed was still young, the sap it produced was still watery, but, it would gradually become more viscous and sticky the older the tree grows.

Bleeding Weeds which have grown especially old even ended up creating sap that were as hard as stone! These ones were particularly favored by the Sickled Grasshoppers. Rest in peace.

"Eyeball Beans... 78 inches, and- 2, 4, 6..." Crouching under the oversized leaves, Ymir began counting it's pods. "17 Eye pods in total."

These particular Eyeball Beans, were Blinking Eyeball Beans to be exact, and they were always fun to work with.

Everytime he would pass by them, their eyes would always open wide to look at him, following him around wherever he went in the garden, and always tried to keep him in their 'sight'. He was still unsure if they could really see him or if they have another way to detect his movements.

Whenever he touched their eyes, they would would either squint at him or blink rapidly. Quite similar to how a person would react when something got in their eye. It was really amusing to watch.

"This one's ripe enough, I suppose." Having decided on a single eye, he set down his journal on a clean stone and grabbed a scissor from a wicker basket.

And, snip.

An eye was quickly cut off from it's stalk and placed gently in the basket beside the jars of Bleeding Weed sap.

Seeming to have just realized what happened, the eye began blinking rapidly, with the iris darting to every direction in panic.

"..." Curiously, Ymir poked at it and smiled when the pupils on the eye shrunk in fear. "Cute."

Ribbit! Ribbit!

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the pond, with frogs hopping around in disarray. He didn't even have to take a look to know what caused it. Instead, he just sighed and shook his head.

"If you keep eating those, you might end up eating something that makes you sick, Noir." Ymir said, glancing at the Adumbrali cat from the corner of his eyes, and like he expected, the shadowy cat figure had half a frog sticking out of its mouth. "And when you do, there won't be any monster healer to cure you."

The Adumbrali paused, contemplating whether to swallow the frog or to spit it out.

In the end, what it did made Ymir's brows twitch.

It sat in front of him and slowly swallowed the frog. Then it began bloating up.

Instantly, Ymir knew what it was about to do.

"No, please don't spit it out in front of me." He reeled back, faced scrunched in obvious disgust. "I don't want to see it."

But, unfortunately, it was too late.

Green and red goop that were the partially digested remains of many frogs, along with unknown black chunks. All laid out in one steaming pile that nearly touched his shoes

"Ugh! Disgusting." Ymir quickly jumped back, torn between wanting to run away immediately and killing the Adumbrali. "Why did I ever think keeping you was a good idea?"

Why? Just... why?

"Azathoth! It's still moving!"

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The vast cosmos was home to many celestial bodies.

Purple space dust, clumps of gas clouds, and bright supernovas.

When you think of space, you might envision a dark and empty place. But if you'd look closely, you'll realize that it was actually filled with the most beautiful colors you could ever see.

For each star, there are white, blue, yellow, orange, and red. Dwarf stars, Neutron stars, Giant stars, and Supergiants.

And here, just some short light-years outside of the Pueri Solar System, was it's close neighbor, a dying Red Supergiant.

Violent solar flares and immense heat waves.

Constantly emitting unstable electro-magnetic waves, this Red Supergiant was releasing it's last dying struggle before it would inevitably explode into a Supernova.

With each passing moment, more dark patches appeared on its surface, marking how close it's end was.

Around this dying star, the planets that orbited it were silent.

Ah, it is here, their end.

The surrounding stars glimmered in the distance, mourning.

But, what they mourn for was not to come.

Brilliant silver eyes gazed upon the dying star, so close that he appeared smaller than a particle of dust against it's immense size. Yet he was undeterred.

With a book floating before him unguided, he raised both hands and chanted.

Little by little, as the words escaped from his lips, pieces of his skin began to peel away, revealing the red flesh beneath.

Blood gushed out from severed veins, falling towards the dying star. And soon, bits of his flesh were torn off, joining the blood on the fires below.

Gradually, the white bones hidden beneath were revealed, but still, he didn't stop chanting.

As though knowing no pain, the words continued uninterrupted.

And when all his flesh and organs were sacrificed to the star and his body was left with nothing but clean bones, the moment that he had been waiting for finally arrived.

The dying star trembled, it's light dimming for a moment, before suddenly bursting out in astounding brilliance.

From the brink of death, it had suddenly resurrected like an old man regaining his youth.

The surrounding stars glimmered from far away, spreading the message, and the planets around it celebrated.

Only the hollow eye sockets on the skull were quiet. Waiting.

Fortunately, the wait wasn't too long as soon after the star stabilized it's condition, a large colorless crystal emerged from within the depths of the star's surface and floated towards his outstretched arms.

Here it was. His reward.

An equivalent exchange between a human and a star.

For his flesh, blood, and organs.

It offered its heart.

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On the leather couch in his study room, Ymir snapped his eyes open, immediately examining his unscathed skin and intact flesh.

Displayed on his bookshelf, a large crystal glimmered.