Neverending Cycle (Entity SI Multicross) by DoorAlarm known as FendOffLight in spacebattles

Words: 20k

Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/neverending-cycle-entity-si-multicross.97300/

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/neverending-cycle-entity-si-multicross.1010922/

Chp1

The Cycle.

Such a mundane name, for something so intrinsically atrocious. A beginning, a middle, an end.

A trillion trillions planets shattered, and an uncountable number of living beings butchered for a goal that was almost as vile as the entities themselves were.

That is the reality of being what would, one day, be called an Entity.

... Or at least, it would have been, had I not been reborn very early on in our kind's history.

See, when I'd first awoken as what was essentially a multidimensional, continent-sized, parasitic whale-virus shaped like a worm, it hadn't taken me long to understand my situation.

And what a situation it was indeed, as I was forced to fight, kill, and consume, lest I be the one devoured instead. I was not the strongest entity around, but I was the most creative, and arguably, most intelligent one.

For tens of thousands of years, and through the 80 planetary 'cycles' which occurred during that time, I survived. Perhaps I didn't thrive, and perhaps I didn't always succeed, but those things ultimately mattered little, for out of the trillions of mini-entities living there, I was the one who grew the fastest.

Thus, when the time came that we entities had stripped every instance of our homeworld bare, when our mass was such that we'd reached a critical point... Well, instead of two super-powered entities, there was only one remaining: me.

My body shifted constantly, billions of shards singing a song of writhing eldrich limbs in symphony with myself. The original Entities would've, at this point in time, first invented their goal for the cycle, and then would have proceeded to explode and scatter themselves like dandelions, infecting the wider universe like the viruses we are.

I, however, had absolutely no intention of doing that. Part of that was a concern for the uncountable lives that would be lost should I choose to follow the original plot, but I'll admit, the biggest reason why was that I didn't want the competition.

After all, I'd just spent tens of thousands of years fighting constantly against monsters borderline unimaginable to the average person. I'd seen firsthand just how deadly our kind could be, you see.

... What? Does that sound like a selfish reason? Well, of course it is! Even today, I know of very, very few people who would be able to maintain themselves in the face of such pressure, and unfortunately, I was not one of them. Luckily for you, however, I had not completely fallen apart, still holding onto shadowy remnants of the pesky thing humans call 'morals'.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes. I believe I must've spent around a thousand more years as the sole living being on my home planets, gathering all the energy necessary. Radiation, sunlight, fission, fusion... Not to brag, but even all the way back then, I had a lot of techniques in my arsenal.

Luckily, boredom wasn't really a thing that I experienced anymore, not in the human sense at least. My perception of time had been altered quite heavily, and even a hundred years could pass in the blink of an eye should I wish them to.

Thus, when the time came, and I had all the energy needed... I exploded my home planets.

I know, I know. I did just claim that I wasn't like the other Entities, didn't I? I suppose I lied, at least a little. My planets had long since become completely inhospitable to life not my own, thus, I didn't really care about their fate.

The energy I gathered from that blast was... immense. Almost too much, really. I was still young, back then. Still, I was able to safely propel myself towards the distant stars, my destination unknown to me at the time.

I suppose that is where my story truly starts. Blasting off, as a certain team would have liked to say. I'd saved the universe from a species of ever-multiplying eldritch horrors, so as far as I was, and more or less still am, concerned, my duties to the wider universe were over.

... Oh? Do you want to hear the rest of the story? I suppose I have the time to tell you. It's not a very pretty tale, mind you. Godhood sounds much nicer on paper than in reality.

... You still want to hear it? Oh well, I warned you. Come, do sit down, for this will not be a short story. Now then, my story first began when I was caught in a planet's orbit...