1 Prologue - 1

Prologue - 1: The Great One

-----

Life, for as long as he could remember, was simple. Exactly how long, he could not know. He could not remember when it all started, nor did he know of any stable cycles for the measurement. The rotation of stars and planets were too insignificant, as they themselves are mere specks on the cosmic background.

It didn't matter, however, as he didn't care. Life, after all, was consuming and digesting and growing. Driven by hunger, he swam around aimlessly in the dark void, and devoured all the smaller meaty things he encountered. He fought and won and gradually became bigger. Eventually, he grew so huge that for as far as his many eyes could see, there were only beings smaller than him. Eventually, he found a great abyss and nested there. A breeding ground where the tiny entities spawned and died and were born again.

Life was simple, and he was contented. He became less hungry, as food was plenty. He no longer had to hunt things down with great effort. All he needed to do was to open his countless mouths and those meaty things, newly-born, blind and dumb, would swarm in, mistaking them as sanctuaries. He was just like them, but much larger. He did not consider this, however. He only relished the taste of the withering flesh in his mouths, and longed for more.

But one day, he found something else. He didn't understand it at first, as he bit into the being's body and found it tasteless and solid. He released it, as he was not interested in tasteless things. Then, with his many eyes, he registered that the being was almost as gigantic as him, but quite different.

Different how, he could not describe. He only understood that the other giant being was tasteless and not flesh. The being, unlike all the other living things he had seen, had a regular shape, and a smooth, reflecting surface. The being — she turned and took a quick glance at him. In that moment, she examined him briefly, with a sort of curiosity. Then, she simply looked away, and left.

He too, looked away and left. He had food to consume and taste to relish, and wished no quarrel with tasteless non-flesh. They crossed their paths many times after, only briefly each time, and he understood that the abyss was her home too.

Unlike him, life didn't seem simple for her. She was always busy, engaged in her task. He didn't understand what her task was, until he found that wherever she went, the tiny beings were trapped and helpless, unable to move. Tiny barriers she had put up, an insane effort to patch up the great abyss, the abyss many times bigger than both of them combined.

He was happy to see this however, as his hunt for more flesh was made even easier. The hunger was almost negligible. The barriers wouldn't even hinder his steps, but made his prey completely helpless. So he followed her around, consumed the packed meat she had left behind, and was able to observe her more.

She registered his existence, of course. Cautious at first, but gradually got accustomed to it. She needed not be cautious though, he contemplated, as he would not eat things that are not flesh. In the end, she allowed him to take the tiny things she had trapped, and observed him in return.

Unlike him, she didn't consume, but instead, created things. Eerie structures, intricate webs, that would spin and hum and tick and move in cycles. But eventually, they all succumbed to the pull of the great abyss, and broke apart. She built these things again and again, every time more intricate and elegant. But each time, her work was rendered useless. He could not understand why she did this, yet, she continued. An endless cycle of futility.

One day, the things she built, the machines, as she would call them, broke once more, and were never built again. The small meaty things roamed free, and she was nowhere to be found. Life was suddenly no longer simple and free, and he was not happy. He sought her out, and found her at the deep end of the abyss. She said things to him, things intricate as the machines she made that he could not understand. But he didn't need to, as he pulled her out of the dead center of the void.

He told her about the life, the hunger, and other things he knew. She listened, but there was only so much she could understand. They were so different, after all. But she contemplated, and then cut a piece of flesh off him. It hurt him, as he had not fought and been hurt in a long long time, but he withstood it. He understood that unlike the creatures of meat, she had no need to eat him, and he had no need to hurt her.

Again, she began to create. Not out of the shiny or intangible things she was so used to, but with the piece of flesh, that small part of him. Six small creatures were born, and they were not like things out of the abyss, as they were part of him. Their minds connected with his, and they communicated, whispering words so intricate that only she would know. They discussed and calculated, and led him to wherever prey was the most abundant .

Life was simple again. All he needed to do was to listen to the six machines she crafted out of his flesh. He did not cross her path until much later, and found that she was attending to the tiny stars, and the smaller rocks around them. She again built many different things, but no longer around the abyss, but around these spheres. This time, her creation was somewhat stable. He was happy for her, as she no longer had to engage in futility and that her life could be simple as well. Their path crossed less and less, but they would often nod in regard to each other when they do. He was happy with his new life, and so was she.

But it all changed. As he one day passed by some of the spheres, she attacked him. She cut him and it was not friendly, and the machines all spun wild and ticked loudly. In confusion and fury, he fought back, but she was only trying to force him away.

She screamed and begged but he didn't know what she was asking, and didn't know what he had done wrong. He knew of her creations, and would never attempt to damage them. And he knew that she always built them tough and solid, so that his passing by wouldn't disturb them.

He felt confused and angry. It was unfair that she attacked him, when he wanted no quarrel with her. So he attacked, and she could not stand against him. After all, he was much larger now, and ages of creating exhausted her.

She looked at him, and begged for one last time, which he could not know the meaning of, before suddenly, breaking apart. And suddenly, the world swirled around him, and the dark void was gone, the abyss was gone, and the spheres were gone. He did not recognize this new place.

She was all around him now, but not all of her, just one large piece. He could not understand this. He called out her but she didn't respond, he shook her but she would not let him go. She seemed very much like the things she had created now, but more silent and still.

Life was suddenly complicated, so he asked his six advisors, his archons. They informed him that the spheres were important to her, and that she was angry at what he would have wrought. He didn't fully understand, and had less of a clue of what happened to her. Finally, he decided that like her machines, she was merely broken. And machines, unlike the things of flesh, can be built again. He would wait here, until she was no longer angry with him, and decided let to him go.

He left the decisions to his archons, as they know better than him. They linked him to one of the spheres, a blue one, and passed out pieces of him. They brought tiny creatures from the spheres, even smaller than those of the abyss, so that they may one day serve as bridges and tools. They lived on his back, and he tolerated this, as the archons promised that he would be out of here, and things would be fine again. He always trusted them.

And so The God-Eater slept in the Great Brass Cage and dreamed of a time when life was simple.