The First Extinction

A warm glass of milk and cookies, accompanied by stars and asteroids, and enjoying the simplicity of life while floating in space.

Off in the distance, just over the Glacies Belt, a large shadow loomed, reflecting a cold blue light.

Around three times the size of Earth and completely covered in ice. It's gravitational pull was roughly 1.5 times that of earth, which meant, despite its size, its total mass wasn't actually much higher than Earth's.

This newly discovered planet was something Ymir found accidentally while recording his observations on the Glacies Belt.

Initially, he was content with just developing Terra, the dwarf planet around the size of the moon, since he didn't think there were bigger planets in this newly formed Solar System.

But now that he did find it, the spark of ambition which he never knew he had, was directly lit up.

After all, why must one be content with just the citrine when he can also have the diamond?

Thus, came the birth of 02-Gaia.

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Blue of the past.

Red of the present.

Silver of the future.

All with the same aim, but different methods.

Two chose to eliminate, the last chose to deflect.

Is it really running away, if there wasn't even a confrontation in the first place?

❄️❄️❄️

Rubbing his forehead, Ymir rummaged through his drawer in search of a blank journal.

The aftershocks of a sudden influx of images was giving him a headache. Literally.

And this time, it wasn't even one of his strange dreams. If anything, it felt more like a garbled prophecy that no one can understand.

So now, he was in need of another journal. Fortunately, he had made sure to stock up on them, with more being added regularly.

He was quite sure that the Schreibers weren't Seers though, so what exactly was happening? Or did it have something to do with his nonexistent mother?

Finding a blank white journal from the depths of his drawer, Ymir grabbed his self inking quill and began writing all that he could remember.

Which wasn't much, really.

Pa!

From his bookshelf, the Book of Revelations suddenly fell to the floor, and shook a few times as though it was trying to get his attention.

"Noir, put the book back in the shelf." He said without even looking up from his journal.

'Chii!' Came the shocked response from the tiny Adumbrali hiding within the shadows of the bookshelf, with it's tentacles stiff in surprise that it looked like it was trying to mimic the appearance of a sea urchin.

Oh, how cute. If only it would stop making a mess of his room every now and then.

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Atop the planet, he gazed down. Silver eyes, cold and unwavering.

The soil of life, and the waters of death.

All celestial bodies paused to watch.

He lifted his arms and spread his fingers, bestowing the first blessing upon the world.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

His blood spilled down. And the planet drank greedily.

❄️❄️❄️

Another dream that he couldn't remember.

Ymir sighed as he stared at the ceiling of his room.

Why was it that he could remember every detail of a stranger's face that he saw years ago, but couldn't remember a dream he had last night?

"The schedule for today, sir, begins with breakfast at 8:30 AM. Which Anise has prepared Netzmelone, Haferflocken, Bacon, and Kreolen Pfannkuchen for. Would you like Chocolate, Strawberry, or Maple Syrup for the Pfannkuchen?"

"Maple Syrup."

Ymir squinted his eyes, trying to rid himself of the urge to continue sleeping. Today is not the day to indulge in laziness.

"After breakfast, we must depart to Diagon Alley at 9:15 AM, and head to Gringotts to transfer money from Germany and open a new account solely for your seven years of study in Hogwarts."

As he listened absent mindedly to Glas droning on about the day's schedule, Ymir gradually sat up from his bed reluctantly and stretched his back.

"Once money has been procured, I will send the Young Lord to acquire his wand at Ollivander's Shop, while I, myself, will go ahead to buy the rest of the items in the list given by the Hogwarts board."

"Mmh." Suddenly, while he was pushing off his warm blankets, he felt a slight stinging pain from his fingers.

"Lastly, comes the taking of measurements and ordering of the Hogwarts uniform. It is also recommended that the Young Lord also have other new garments and robes be made for the whole year." And, thus, marked the end of the schedule.

"I see. If that is all, you may go, Glas." Heading straight for his bathroom, he idly waved the house elf away.

"Understood, Young Lord." Glas bowed deeply and disappeared, as ordered.

Inside the bathroom, Ymir frowned, looking at his fingers thoughtfully.

Why were his hands covered in tiny papercuts?

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July 31, 1991

01-Terra

Observation Entry #7

After consulting various books procured in the muggle world, it has come to my understanding that the yellow mist which had previously covered the entirety of Terra was actually a substance called Sulfur Dioxide.

As for how it appeared, it was very likely that Sulfur, which was brought to the surface of Terra due to the continuous volcanic eruptions, reacted to the oxygen particles in the air and formed the Sulfur Dioxide under the rapid changes in temperature.

That was also part of the reason why Oxygen was insufficient during that time.

Then, the reason why the yellow mist receded when it rained was caused by Sulfur Dioxide's reaction upon making contact with water.

It was turned to Sulfurous Acid, a common material used by muggles as a disinfectant, or a gentler substitute for bleach, but it is also used in the production of fertilizer.

Note that Sulfurous Acid is not the same as Sulfuric Acid. While Sulfuric Acid is a strong and dangerous acid, Sulfurous Acid is relatively weak.

But, Sulfurous Acid can produce Sulfuric Acid upon contact with air.

So, it is understandable that Terra now holds pools of metal corroding liquid that stank of rotten eggs.

The good news was that the soil was incredibly fertile.

So, after selecting various common plants in the Manor's garden, I went back to planting on Terra. Hopefully, this batch will turn out a bit more normally.

Though, after watching for several revolutions, there was something else that troubled me more than the plants.

And that was a stray worm which somehow managed to hijack into one of the plants I transferred to Terra.

It grew rapidly and managed to reach the length of 50 meters within two revolutions. After another revolution, it began growing barbed exoskeleton and thousands of serrated teeth in rows inside of it's mouth.

Fortunately, because of the lack of any other lifeforms in Terra, this giant worm, while scary, actually only ate rocks and metal.

Thus, this hijacker worm, was appropriately named Rock Eater.

Going back to the plants, during the time which I spent studying the Rock Eater, they had managed to grow well on their own.

Though, like the plants before them, were a tad bit abnormal, with the common fern having developed the ability to move around on its own and ran straight for the acid pools and rooted themselves there, cosplaying as overgrown mangroves.

Meanwhile, the berry bushes took over the rocky mountains, turning their surroundings into an inaccessible fortress with the poisonous thorns they managed to grow.

I made a mistake of planting the berries near one of the acid pools, and somehow, they managed to process the acid into a poison which now coated their giant thorns.

The way plants evolve to fit their surroundings is strange.

Speaking of evolution, I went to check back on the Bleeding Weeds, Eyeball Beans, and Fruit Grass, and found out that they actually went and made more copies of themselves and some even went on to create different sub species.

So now, there were Golden and Red Bleeding Weeds, Blinking Eyeball Beans, Crying Eyeball Beans, Rolling Eyeball Beans, Stiff Fruit Grass, and Dancing Fruit Grass.

Henceforth, with all the plants and one worm in Gaia accounted for, it was finally time to conduct the next big step for Terra.

Introducing animal life.

Thus, I, armed with several jars of specimens, introduced the first animals to Terra.

20 Grasshoppers, 5 pairs of different kinds of fish, 5 tadpoles, and-

An entire ant colony.

And, all that's left to do now was wait. But, it didn't take long to see results.

Just like with the plants before, the animals were quick to show signs of evolution, though with them, it showed with each progressive generation.

With the grasshoppers, the first generation lived through a total of three revolutions, outliving their expected lifespan of only one revolution. Though, no changes were seen on their physical appearances aside from a slightly harder exoskeleton.

During their lifespan, two females managed to each lay a pod of eggs which, in total contained 244 eggs. Note that grasshoppers on Earth are known to lay 4-100 eggs per pod.

These 244 eggs later hatched and produced 213 new grasshoppers, making them the second generation. Unfortunately, 31 eggs didn't manage to hatch. But, it was fine. 213 was enough.

With the second generation, it could be clearly seen that these grasshoppers have undergone evolution. Or a mutation.

Rather than grasshoppers, they actually started looking more like preying mantises. Just... much larger. Around the size of a human head, and equiped with sickle-like forelegs.

And to make it worse, they grew bigger and scarier with each generation.

Up until the 13th generation, where they have grown to be the size of a horse and have sickles that reached 4 feet long. They also retained their incredible jumping ability and speed, reaching heights of 120 meters when jumping vertically, and speed of over 60 kmph.

I also noticed that they seemed to feed entirely on the sap of the Bleeding Weeds and refused to touch anything else.

By the end of it, their population has grown to an astounding 71,455 individuals.

But their changes, compared to the other specimens, was actually the mildest.

Now, with the fishes, there came a situation.

Yeah, those are mutations, no doubt.

What else would you call it when you see a supposed Koi fish with six eyes, beta fishes with horns, guppies with spikes, angelfishes with literal wings, and goldfishes the ate mud and pooped out gold?

Mutants, the lot of them.

But, if anyone saw me bringing home those gold pooping goldfishes... That was for scientific purposes.

Now, with the tadpoles...

In a mischievous mood, I actually placed them in a pond which was a little too close for comfort to a pool of sulfuric acid.

I shouldn't have done that. That was a mistake.

They turned into goopy frogmen. And by that, I mean, they walk on two legs and dripped slime everywhere. And the slime was another problem, because it was somehow sentient in a way that it could move on its own.

It didn't really have the ability to think on its own, since it obviously lacked a brain, but it had the capability to move around unassisted. Which was really strange. I have no idea how this happened.

Back to the frogmen.

... They multiply quickly.

Very quickly.

Before I realized it, they had already managed to spread all over Terra and have taken over all the water pools in the planet, living within the roots of the Walking Mangrove Ferns.

I didn't have the patience to count them all one by one since they multiplied too quickly to keep track of. Just know that they have more than one hundred thousand individuals.

And, finally.

The ant colony.

The initial population of the colony was actually something I didn't know of. But, it is confirmed that there is only one queen in it that's actively laying eggs.

Now, with this ant colony, unlike the Sickled Grasshoppers, chose to feed on anything edible they could find.

Like the eyeballs of the Eyeball Beans, the berries that fell from the Thorny Bushes, fruits of the Fruit Grass, and, of course, the corpses of the dead.

Now, these ants, are voracious. The amount of food they consumed daily was immense. So, it is also understandable when they suddenly grew. Both in individual size and population.

Particularly, their queen, which grew to be as large as an elephant upon the 6th revolution.

With these ants, unlike the other specimens which evolved in a singular direction per specie, they actually evolved in separate directions.

Some ants developed stockier frames, harder armor, and overall, greater defensive and load bearing capacities.

Others, grew wings, had better eyesight, longer antennae, and developed a poisoned stinger.

The rest of the worker ants just grew bigger and didn't have much changes. Although they did learn how to build tunnels that reached upwards instead of going underground. Perhaps because the area they were in was prone to earthquakes, most likely because their closest neighbor was the Giant Rock Eater.

And it just happened that the Giant Rock Eater had recently laid eggs and was feeling moody.

By the way, I do not know how that overgrown worm managed to lay eggs without a partner.

Asexual reproduction...?

That's a form of evolution I didn't think of...

And, that seems to be the end of the observation for today. Next observation to be done; Procuring samples of the plants and seeing which are safe for human consumption.

Entry End

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Ymir didn't like Diagon Alley.

It was noisy, messy, and had a strange smell.

Children could be heard screaming for their parents to buy this or that, the stores looked like they were about to topple over at any moment, and the obvious muggleborns could be seen gawking in awe at everything, not even apologizing to the people they bumped into because they were so distracted by the half-giant walking over there.

He didn't like it. Not the crowds, not the noise, and not even that Half-giant.

So, with his aim being to get back home as soon as possible, he quickly ducked into the most run-down store in the alley, Ollivander's Wand Shop.

The sight that greeted him was horrendous.

It was narrow, dusty, and filled with boxes scattered everywhere.

The corner of his eye twitched and distaste was clearly printed on his face. It was so obvious that the shop owner immediately took notice of it.

"Apologies. A particularly tricky customer was just here moments ago." An old man with milky white eyes popped out from behind a tower of boxes, bringing with him a cloud of dust as he scuttled over to him. "Didn't have time to clean up before you came in."

"Oh." Ymir replied blandly, discretely stepping back to avoid the oncoming dust man.

"Don't mind that, just step over those boxes and- here!" Seemingly unaware of his small actions, Ollivander waved him over, pushing a stack of boxes with his foot. "Ah, yes! I don't believe I've gotten your name-?"

And suddenly, he was now nose to nose with a dusty face.

"Ymir Schreiber." He answered monotonously, taking a big step back. If Ollivander still didn't notice, he was blind.

"Schreiber! I've never gotten a visit from the Schreiber family after Maximilian Schreiber broke his wand in a duel in 1968! Ash wood, 12 inches, stubborn and exceedingly loyal, paired with unicorn tail hair." This old man sure talked a lot. "How nostalgic."

Stubborn and exceedingly loyal? That, his grandfather was. Ymir sighed, remembering how the man had ended.

"Now, which is your preferred wand hand?" Suddenly, Ymir found himself being measured in all sorts of ways; from the length of his foot, to the distance between his eyes.

"Left." He said, mildly uncomfortable.

"Hmm, how about this?" Leaving his measuring tape to keep measuring for him, Ollivander went to rummage through his stacks of boxes. "Black walnut, 11 inches, Dragon Heartstring core. Loyal and unyielding. Give it a wave."

Ymir reached to take the wand, but the moment his fingers made contact with Ollivander's hand, a flash of images suddenly forced themselves into his mind.

[-have your mother's eyes-]

The smell of wood and saw dust.

[-gave you that scar... I remember, yes-]

Varnish upon fingertips.

[Holly and Phoenix Feather, nice and supple.]

A Phoenix's cry of joy.

[The wand chooses the wizard.]

Mind dazed and muddled, Ymir's fingers twitched, causing a violent gust of wind to be released from the wand in his hand, which was immediately snatched away by Ollivander.

"Not much like your grandfather, are you?" Ollivander muttered, completely unaware of what his customer had just experienced in the past few seconds. "Blackthorn and Dragon Heartstring, 13 inches. Quick and precise."

Before he could react, another wand was quickly placed on his hand, and then came another round of unwelcomed images.

[-brother wands-]

A half giant sitting in the corner.

[Yew and Phoenix-]

"No, no. Not that one either." Another wand was snatched from his hand. "Beech and Dragon Heartstring, 11 and a half inches. Quite springy."

This time, before the wand was stuffed in his hand, he managed to react quickly and tucked his fingers into his sleeves.

He blinked slowly, trying to ease his mind of the dizziness.

Well... That was quite a mind boggling experience.

He'd have to add more gloves for daily use in the list of things to buy, for sure.

Then, under Ollivander's patient eyes, he carefully took the wand while avoiding making physical contact with him, and gave the wand a quick wave, which did nothing at all.

"Maybe the Dragon Heartstring wasn't right..." With the wand snatched once again, Ollivander went back to rummaging through the boxes. "Now, this. Ebony and Phoenix Feather, 12 inches. Flexible and fluid."

Carefully taking the wand again and giving it a wave, Ymir was slowly growing impatient as a ring of fire formed around him.

"A good reaction, but not it, I'm afraid." Ollivander took away the wand as soon as the fire disappeared.

This is the last wand. This is the last wand. If this isn't the last wand, he'll floo over to Russia to bother Gregorovich.

"Here. An interesting combination." Finally, the wand was presented. An off-white color that resembled ivory. "Aspen and Phoenix Feather, 12 and a half inches. Firm and Unwavering."

The moment it was in his hand, Ymir knew that it was the one. The warmth in his fingers and the joyful melody that only he seemed to be able to hear. And the sight that appeared when he gave it a wave just confirmed it.

"Ah, a perfect fit!" Ollivander exclaimed as golden feathers began to rain down upon them. "How remarkable."

"Remarkable?" Ymir asked curiously. Yes, the sight was beautiful, but, surely, Ollivander was already used to seeing it happen, right? With him being the owner to a wand shop and all.

"Indeed, remarkable!" Ollivander drew his face closer as though to emphasize. "For you see, I have rarely seen such a perfect fit with those of Aspen wands. As only destined great duelists can be chosen by the Aspen wands, and paired with a Phoenix Feather, you must be prepared to be reborn through challenges and battles."

Ymir, once again, took a big step backwards.

"... I see." Now wasn't that ominous.

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The vast universe was silent, and the sleeping god dreamt peacefully.

In a young planet called Terra, a great earthquake just occurred, causing various red crystals to be pushed to the surface.

All life on Terra paused to marvel at these crystals. Mouths salivating, and blood boiling.

Their instincts cried out.

[Eat it.]

While Ymir was busying himself with preparations for school, unknown to him, the first calamity of Terra had begun.

The first Great Extinction.