An Unseen World

"So, even though she imagined me into existence, I decided to become my own person. That and a bit of elbow grease allowed me to transcend her imaginary reality, and now I'm here. The rest you already know."

"I was attacked by the being you call The Phantasm, and blah blah blah, now we're here."

"So, can someone explain the wonder corn to me now?"

Gilgamesh sat with folded arms, staring interchangeably at the Great Elders and Mariam.

"Before we get into that," Carael folded his arms, "we need to explain a few things to you."

The Great Elders nodded; Mariam lifted her chin.

"Firstly," Pontius started, "the person you know as the 'Mother of Scriptures' is most likely a God of Creation."

Gilgamesh gave a knowing smile, "I could have surmised that much."

"But do you know what a God of Creation actually is," Mariam asked, already knowing what his answer would be.

After all, there was no way Gilgamesh would know the whole truth.

As she expected, he shook his head.

"I can guess just based on the title, but I don't really understand what a God of Creation really is."

"Is it related to real-world cultivation somehow?" Gilgamesh asked this because it was something he had already thought about- what level of power the Mother of Scriptures would be at.

Now that he knew she was a God of Creation, he instantly linked it to her level of cultivation.

"To put it simply... yes." Earl answered while looking at the others. "God of Creation is just a level of cultivation, however only those people that walked the right path can ever hope to reach it."

Darla added to this.

"The God of Creation stage is one of many branches. Once you get to the Way-Maker stage, and your Way begins to manifest as a true part of you, your path forward will come down to how you decide to branch off from there."

"Some people become Gods of Creation, others Gods of Destruction, Demon Kings, Overlords, Sovereigns and so on," Carael adjusted his glasses.

As Gilgamesh digested the information, the Great Elders looked to Mariam after hearing her clear her throat.

"The last known person that became a God of Creation was Eldritch Kane. After that, Heaven severed the very path that once facilitated the birth of Gods of Creation." Mariam stared straight at Gilgamesh while she spoke.

"It is no longer possible for a God of Creation to be born in this Sphere, but you say the 'Mother of Scriptures' has a daughter, whom she went above and beyond to train and teach."

Carael made a sound, "I considered that as well. It is a most curious case."

Mariam huffed, "There's nothing curious about it. Gods of Creation are now a dying breed. Any one of them with a brain would try to prolong their existence."

"Ah," Darla sat back, "and having children to succeed them is one of the best ways to do that."

Mariam gave a slow nod, to which the other Elders all showed mixed emotions. They seemed sympathetic, if a bit confused.

Seeing that the Elders seemed to all know something he did not, Gilgamesh took a small step forward. "Is it different for the child of a God of Creation? Can they somehow bypass Heaven's restriction?"

Mariam sucked her teeth, "Not exactly, but it also isn't entirely impossible."

Carael continued while taking off his glasses to wipe them, "The child of a God of Creation has a 50% chance of inheriting their parent's ability once they get to the Way-Maker stage. However, that is only the case if either of the child's parents is a mortal."

"Then.... if two Gods of Creation have a child..." Gilgamesh paused, looking to each of the Great Elders and Mariam.

"That child has a huge chance of advancing to the God of Creation stage straightaway, all laws of cultivation be damned." Carael sighed.

Mariam chuckled at Carael's expression.

"In a lot of cases, they also seem to inherit both Ways of power, making them terrifying anomalies as far as Gods of Creation are concerned."

Gilgamesh was stumped. That just wasn't fair.

Pontius seemed to want to add something, and he cleared his throat in a windy hum.

"Fortunately, Gods of Creation were scarce long before Heaven decided it wouldn't support their existence any longer. So the chances of two of them meeting and deciding to have a child are slim to none, but not impossible."

Hearing this, Mariam and the others fell into thought for a brief moment.

"Now, getting that out of the way," Mariam shifted, "we have to talk about something else."

"Something far more important."

Gilgamesh gulped. "What would that be."

Carael put his glasses back on and flashed a smile. "That would be... the event of your ascension. The process by which you became a real, living breathing person."

All eyes were on Gilgamesh at that moment. Mariam scratched the back of her head before she started with her explanation.

"Ideas are, for lack of a better word, sources of power. Because they exist- in a place known only as All-Matter- the world as we know can function, possessing all the elements that make it up."

"Yet, Ideas are not the only sources. Sometimes, the thinking mind can become the source of an idea."

"We call them 'Lesser Ideas,' because they were created, and thus have no real power or influence in the world." Carael interjected, then let Mariam continue.

"When that God of Creation wrote you into her little imaginary world, you and everything else like you were all Lesser Ideas. You existed in All-Matter, that strange place that only ideas can inhabit."

"So... All-Matter is in the imagination?" Gilgamesh asked, trying to understand the concept better.

"No, but when you imagine something, everything that you imagine exists in All-Matter until you either stop imagining it or forget it. You create a temporary kind of Lesser Idea every time you do so." Mariam answered.

Pontius spoke again, sounding just as mystical as always with his eerie voice, "Anyone can access All-Matter in such a way, yet it is still a place we can never see."

"Right," Carael licked his lips. "Even though you technicallly existed in All-Matter, you still have not seen it. All you saw was what the God of Creation made-- her little world of Lesser Ideas in an insignificant corner of All-Matter."

Mariam closed her eyes for a moment, "In truth, no one knows what All-Matter is like. Lesser Ideas are the only part of that place that we can see, because they exist in our imagination, and not the other way around."

When Gilgamesh heard this, he gasped and his crimson eyes went wide. He looked at Mariam as though she had just spoken the most outrageous words, but found that she seemed to expect his reaction.

She grinned at him, and shook her head in amusement. "That's right, Gilly-Mesh. Just like Lesser Ideas are imagined by us, which allows us to have some minimal influence in All-Matter, we are imagined by the true Ideas. That is how our world came to be, piece by piece."

"Sounds like some religious drivel," Gilgamesh massaged his face and laid back.

"So you think, at some point, a true Idea snuck its way into the Library, and attached itself to me."

When Gilgamesh asked this question, the Elders did not immediately answer. The very concept of such a thing was absurd, yet it was the only explanation that could possibly make any sense.

Mariam was the first to speak up.

"Yes. You would not have become real if that were not the case. Something from that Unseen World chose to latch onto you, and it allowed you to become real."

"But why would a true Idea do something like that?" Gilgamesh rose up, propping himself up with his elbows.

The silence that followed was answer enough, but Mariam still answered. "I do not know. In truth, no one does. Only the Idea that acted on your behalf knows why it did what it did."

"That's what I was trying to expose with my Way. It is a Way of power born of the Idea of Truth, and is directly related to my crop. Any plant that I touch attains an attribute of truth."

"Whoever then proceeds to plant it, will have a truth exposed- whatever I want to see. It manifests in the fruit of the plant, and is revealed for all who can see."

Hearing this, Gilgamesh sat up straight and looked Mariam dead in the eyes.

"So you saw a truth about me?"

Mariam and the Great Elders exchanged weird looks before Mariam sighed, "I guess I did, I guess I didn't."

"Huh?" Gilgamesh frowned.

Returning his piercing gaze, Mariam looked into Gilgamesh's eyes and spoke the words clearly.

"When you planted the corn, it became a spiritual representation of you. If it had produced corn, then it would be because a truth of you was being exposed."

Gilgamesh swallowed, because he clearly remembered that his plant produced a lot of things- but corn was not one of them.

"What this means is that... whatever truth was being revealed in that moment... did not belong to you."

"It was not your truth that we saw, but the truth of whatever Idea is now attached to you."