Tourist

What… the hell is going on here?!

I'd teleported just outside of the viewport of a ship I'd found nearby, arriving just in time to witness a brawl between a bunch of… bird people? And I say brawl, but it was more of a pile-on with everyone trying to restrain a larger golden figure.

A quick reading of everyone's mind and I figured out what was happening. The golden one was ironically their leader, part of a group of royals who had led their people for thousands of years, and who were thought to be the chosen of their god… me.

There was even a creation myth surrounding me- of the world being part of a cycle of death and rebirth spanning millions of years, with every time that I awoke leading to death and destruction, yet while asleep it led to the growth and rise of life once more, It was even backed up by their own archaeological findings. So ingrained in their society was this idea, that during meals they would even give thanks to me for the life I had given them to consume before going to rest, and during birth, give thanks for the life I had allowed to be born.

This also played a part in the golden royals current predicament…

They, by which I mean the bird people, had created a means of faster than light travel… fast enough to get between planets in the solar system within minutes at most… yet far from enough to leave and reach other systems without years of travel. Now, with me presumably awakening, they were very aware of the repercussions that me leaving would cause… that being the death of the majority of life in the solar system. And while they had advanced enough to survive without my presence, it wasn't like they just had a dome around their cities in preparation for it, or that they could even hope to stop me… 

Billions would die without my presence, even if they had the technology, they didn't have the time to prepare. Once the planet fell, so would their population, their production and their morale… leaving nothing but a shell of their former might… before that too was snuffed out with a little time.

Back to the royal…

There was a prophecy of sorts about my awakening… because of course there was. To give the cliff notes version- upon my slumber coming to an end, I could only be appeased and brought back to slumber through the consumption of a life of high enough quality befitting a god. And have a guess who was the only group considered mighty enough for such a role? Perhaps the royalty who was akin to a demigod in the people's minds?

It's not like many actually believed I would wake any time soon, not only did most see it as a distant problem for the generations several thousand years down the line, and in the wake of the recent scientific resurgence I was slowly being seen as just a very powerful and ancient creature, and not an almighty god.

But… the prophecy was still spread far and wide, and far from unknown. Seeing me wake now, no matter who it was (besides the royalty), everyone began panicking while thinking about their loved ones and homes. All it took was a single spark for the fire of rebellion and mutiny to flare up… I mean, if you called me waking up a spark. A more apt terminology would be pouring gasoline on a giant pile of kindling during a lightning storm.

…While I don't mind being seen as a god… I'm not exactly fond of blood sacrifice. 

I tore a hole in the side of the ship, simultaneously creating a livable atmosphere around me and blocking out anything that would harm the group before me. The mob froze at the sound, as they all stopped trying to restrain the queen in favor of turning back to see what had caused the destructive sounds. Spotting me (I mean how could they not?) They let her go immediately in favor of prostrating themselves on the deck, and the queen finally was able to get up and look past everyone to see my silhouette blocking the hole out into space.

I'd made myself small enough to enter the ship while still towering over them, as the light released from my golden body bounced off of the lavish rooms' marble walls. The queen was looking rather pale, as a quick look into her mind made me aware that she assumed I was here to eat her… I mean, I was curious about her mutations that had led to becoming gold, but not enough that she was worth eating. From what I could tell, she was just taking on more traits from me… not that she was related, but like how the Flora changed for Godzilla Earth. Hell… given enough time, her entire species would become golden and stronger too.

During my telepathic scan, I'd gotten a relatively good read on everyone's personalities, with the crew all being scared and panicked… and the queen feeling a heavy dose of despair, not towards her own death, yet actually for her twin son and daughter that had been attacked on the lower decks. Luckily for her, I'd found them both before anything bad had happened, and in an effort to calm her down, dropped them both through a portal before lowering them into her arms.

…Which may have been a miscalculation as she instantly thought I had brought them here to consume them too. She grabbed them both with a blank look, before breaking down in tears while clutching them both close to herself… and then whispering apologies and assurances.

Having instantly figured out their language, I sent a telepathic message to everyone within the room, while also lowering my head to look her in the eye.

"ENOUGH! I DO NOT HUNGER FOR YOUR PATHETIC FLESH, BUT TEST ME AGAIN AND I SHALL CONSUME THIS ENTIRE SHIP!" In my anger I'd released a snort which had instantly melted a hole in the deck underneath me. The queen had gotten frightened from me closing the distance, only to be relieved at what I'd said… and back to afraid at the deck before her melting to slag.

"Your myths around me are of your own creation, to think that you? YOU? Would be capable of influencing me? Laughable!" I actually reared back and chuckled a little at the very thought, sending a rumble throughout the entire ship.

I looked back down at the queen. "You all called me your god, yet assumed me to be as stupid as an animal, you call yourself my chosen, yet are simply the next step of your species… which is still a million steps below me. You presume to know and understand me, yet are as ignorant as you are arrogant!"

I spoke while talking to everyone "I will give this solar system light, life and prosperity… but I am not a beast to be controlled or appeased. Do what you will, but make no mistake-"

I made sure to slowly make eye contact with each and every one of them in the room before continuing "-I do as I please. Pray to me and you shall receive boons, but what you do with your free will is ultimately your own choice… I did not seed life on that dead world just so that you may regress back into idiotic practices like blood sacrifice on my behalf. If you're to commit such acts, let the consequences and reasons fall upon your own head, not be thrust upon me due to your own ignorance."

During my rant I'd fully figured out the how and the why behind the royals golden, uh… goldenness? Wow they like keeping the bloodline pure… gross. No wonder the rest of them hadn't advanced to this point yet, especially considering any child born from a golden royal would also be a golden royal.

If it wasn't for the effects I'd had on their species, they'd have long since faded into history. Well… enough of that. With a thought, I made my main body alter the energy it was releasing, and almost instantly I was able to see as the regular bird people on the ship began losing all of their feathers and growing in size… before new, golden feathers sprouted as they looked on in amazement.

Not wanting to interact with them further, I teleported the entire ship onto a random field on Mars- "Your world will not end… but there shall be no more royals. Go. Spread what I have told you. I will return soon." 

-And like that I portalled away and into the upper atmosphere of Mercury. Now… How have you developed?

Flying over the planet, I was rather happy to see the thriving state that the planet had become- with the now country-sized beetles carrying giant forests of black flowers upon their backs, and a thriving ecosystem just beneath the canopy.

I was even rather amazed to find a modern city hanging from beneath the thickest flower stems- made seemingly without metal or concrete, yet utilizing glass, organic polymers and what was presumably a black type of wood harvested from the flowers.

The city was bustling with a type of humanoid moth people, and I was rather amused to discover that they were actually being watched by not just me, but by multiple satellites from above. I didn't reveal myself to them, instead I transformed myself into one of them and spent a few hours enjoying the culture, food and entertainment. 

They were exceptionally smart people, yet were hindered from advancing further due to the environment of their world. A bit hard to have a larger population when your main source of food also doubled (Tripled?) as your main source of shelter and building material, it was also harder to set up supply lines and external underground mines when the beetles moved around and attacked anything that flew nearby.

I made sure to solve both of these problems by: 

1 - Altering the type and amount of energy reaching the planet to make sure that it was both incredibly nutritious for the flowers, while being relatively non-harmful to other types of life.

2 - Creating and making a type of organic metallic vine that could be harvested and refined grow upon the beetles back.

Hopefully this would grant them the opportunity they needed to reach the stars… they were certainly smart enough that with better circumstances they'd have likely been the strongest space-faring species. Well, off to Venus.

Portalling to Venus was… wonderful! Lovely seas of lava under a brutally hot atmosphere… It was like a giant sauna! I didn't even contact the nearby sapient species, just spent my time relaxing and submerging myself while fighting off the occasional draconic-looking worms.

There were some tribalistic societies with a different sort of worm as well, and despite their looks actually reminded me of dwarves from fantasy- what with building giant underground fortresses that housed absolutely enormous furnaces and smithing stations, as well as their love of gold, what passed for alcohol, and their long beards made of tentacles dangling from… what might be a chin?

While I didn't contact them, they did immediately jump up to the top spot in my heart of the races I'd met so far. Everything about them just seemed… strong and proud. They had the capability to leave the planet, yet had decided to stay so that they could instead build bigger and greater underground cities, despite advancing to the point of wildlife on the planet no longer being a credible threat, they still engaged in old-school hunts and fights to prove themselves worthy, and they had actual respect for what they killed by not over hunting or killing a fleeing or pregnant opponent.

Perhaps they were more like a mix between dwarves and the Yuatja from Alien vs Predator. Regardless, they were content with their lives, and I didn't see a reason to intrude and possibly change their culture… I still disguised myself to look like them and enjoy myself for a bit.

Next on the list, Earth… hope it didn't get too fucked up.

6 Seconds later~

Well… this is fucked up…

Earth had died. No two ways about it, the heart, soul, core… whatever you'd call it, had died during my fight with Shin. But… due to my intervention afterwards, I'd seemingly revived Earth, and… it (she?) was furious. The general dreadfulness of the planet could all be attributed to this fact, Earth… hated the life upon its surface.

It had handled many mass extinctions before its death, it had handled the pollution and exploitation, it had handled weapons marring its surface and wreaking havoc. It had handled ice ages, times of volcanic upheaval and cataclysmic meteoric impacts… yet it was the actions of one of the youngest species through which it had suffered a meeting with the reaper.

It had been their actions which had led to the birth of Shin. And in an effort to never suffer like this again, had turned itself into the most toxic, destructive and dangerous planet around. Life only persisted for a single reason… as antibodies against foreign invaders. It didn't want another sapient species to ever set foot upon the surface, nor did it want them to ever think they could.

I was at least relieved to see that the planet still welcomed me, as everywhere I went would be, well not peaceful, but far less brutal and chaotic than anywhere else on the planet. I didn't stay for long, just spent a few hours getting a good look at the local wildlife both on land (weak), and in the ocean (Jesus Christ).

Well, uh… see you round Earth. Hmm, the sun my main body is creating should be finished in a few hours, so let's speed this up. 

Jupiter? That's… a big worm. More terrifying… I can tell that while it did get bigger and stronger from my influence… it may have actually existed prior to me arriving in this universe. It seemed to actually be connected to the core of Jupiter, and was slowly but surely getting stronger and may eventually disconnect and go on to just eat every other planet nearby.

Now… Do I remove this threat… or allow it to grow? I can see multiple civilizations nearby that (despite their rapid advancement and preparations) wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against it. 

Hmmm… well…

If they (by which I mean multiple of the sapient species in the solar system) combined forces and worked together… then they should be able to overcome the worm's power, and grow stronger through this powerful opponent. 

Also… I see no reason to value the lives of sapient species over that of the worm. Honestly I actually find it more interesting, what with how it seems to have existed before I got here and how it also seems to be a natural (if less cancerous and horrific) planet eater like Shin.

Yeah… I'll leave it be. If they can't stop it, then so be it… From what I can tell, the nearby civilizations would immediately start a war with each other if it were removed anyway.

Onto Saturn…

…Appearing nearby, I was rather unhappy at its seeming lack of progress.

What a disappointment, despite life being found in the upper atmosphere in the form of transparent jellyfish-esque creatures, it doesn't seem to have created much else. At least the moons never seem to disappoint… aside from THE moon of course… I still have no idea why it stayed dead.

Anyway… the moons of Saturn are thriving, a large watery one with dolphin people in particular being leaps and bounds beyond the rest. They've already established a presence on the other nearby moons, yet have clearly been indoctrinated by the bird people to worship me… not that it was hard when they were doing so before they arrived, it just made them more zealous.

Much like the bird people, I spend a few minutes figuring out how to upgrade their species to be better overall, before activating it and watching their blue bodies shift into gold. Despite their zealotry, I have to admit they've garnered my respect- what with offering sanctuary to those near Jupiter, and turning out to not only look cute but act it… unlike the real dolphins that look the part but act downright horrific.

Moving on once again… Uranus, the pun planet.

Scouring the planets pressurized icy depths, I was slightly (and I do mean slightly) less disappointed than when I'd seen Saturn. The only living creature this planet had created was a type of urchin that bumbled from one location to the next like an alien version of a tumbleweed.

Checking its moons… yielded much the same. Life… yet of the simple variety. Well… better than nothing… I hope Neptune has something better than an icy urchin.

Speaking of, I appeared on Neptune to the scene of a kaleidoscope of color- That of giant slimes whose size equaled that of mountains, as they moved around and sucked up water to convert into steam. There were forests of crystal coral reaching the sky, making large palaces of glass that caused rainbows to scatter off of their reflective forms…

Below, above and throughout, there were thousands of species of primitive and strange life filling just as many niches in the ecosystem.

Holy… you were certainly more active than your twin weren't you Neptune? I was short on time, but it really was the most beautiful of the planets I'd seen so far. There weren't any sapient species so far as I could tell, but the planet was just exploding with life at every corner- almost literally as I came to see. 

The crystal coral that towered around the place seemed to be slowly but surely making landmasses out of their intertwined bodies, and had chutes near the top which exploded with something similar to pollen, which would grow new ones and restart the process. Likewise the slimes would occasionally undergo a form of mitosis and create millions of smaller versions of themselves, and begin the process anew.

Overall a rather wonderful life-filled planet, and looking up reflected a similar (if lesser) version of events occurring upon Neptune's moons.

I'll leave this clone here to observe things… but I think I'm mostly done with this reality. The star my main body was constructing and modifying was finally done, and I'd left the bird people stewing for long enough. 

My clone body dove into the crushing depths of Neptune… while my true body opened its eyes to see a golden star sitting before me. I've spent long enough here.

Let's wrap this up.