Chapter XIII: From the Beginning

Like the others, Trik was speechless as he stared at the face present on the screen. He averted his eyes from the screen and looked at Alissia.

"Lisa, what's going on? Who is this," he inquired as his eyes darted from Alissia to the screen.

"I am Viraa," the voice stated, looking directly at Trik.

Trik began to ease away from the screen.

"Do not fear me, Trik. I am here to answer your questions now."

"How does she know my name?" Trik thought to himself. "Did Lisa tell her?"

Trik looked at the others. Mr. and Mrs. Heart watched the screen, clearly prepared to hang on Viraa's every word.

Tymon, however, was no longer in his seat; he'd moved to watch from a distance.

Trik was thankful he wasn't the only one who found this experience unsettling.

"First and foremost, as stated before, my name is Viraa. I am the First Primordial." Viraa declared.

"The first Primordial?" Tymon asked.

"That's nine now, isn't it?" Trik clarified.

"I thought there were only eight Primordials. And how did you get inside me? Ugh, that sounded weird," Alissia said as she rubbed her temples.

"Calm down, everyone," Mr. Heart spoke.

"We should let her explain," Mrs. Heart said calmly. She gestured toward the screen. "Viraa, please continue."

If this entity was another Primordial, Trik thought it necessary to inform Za'Fia of what this "Viraa" had to say. So, he sent a live recording of everything to her c-chip.

"Each Primordial was created by me long ago, but to properly explain things, I must go back to when I first arrived on Earth," Viraa stated.

Trik's eyes widened. He knew that everyone must've been shocked at the implications of that statement, yet no one, including himself, dared to make a sound. They all eagerly wanted to learn the truth; where did the Primordials come from?

The screen switched and began to play a video.

"This truly is a magnificent device that you humans have created. It will allow me to share my memories as I explain the connections between myself, the Heart family, and the Primordials," Viraa stated.

The video shows a view of Earth from somewhere off-planet.

"Over three million years ago, I arrived here. There were no humans at the time, but there were many other creatures, each possessing power less than a fraction of my own."

The screen then showed a memory from Viraa's point of view seeing the world's many different energies all at once and seeing the creatures she came across as energy instead of their physical forms.

"Is this how Mr. Kage saw us when he first used omni-vision?" Trik asked himself.

"Seeing the planet's weak inhabitants made me want to help them evolve. However, that required me to understand the new world I was in, so I spent the next two million years learning and familiarizing myself with Earth and its life forms. Due to the nature of my species, I lacked a physical form. My body was completely devised of energy, and when one of my kind spends that kind of time in a world without leaving, our energy sync with the planet's. That is exactly what happened with Earth, and I became anchored to its life forms, thus taking on the existential energies required for them to live. After learning all I could about the inhabitants, I could change my form into any of them, which I used to fit in amongst them."

The memory changed to Viraa witnessing more of Earth's inhabitants change and evolve throughout time and stopping at a beautiful woman smiling at Viraa.

"For over a million years, I continued to roam the Earth and watch as its inhabitants thrived from my presence," Viraa commented. She paused for a moment and sighed before continuing.

"Then, over eight thousand years ago, I came across a woman and fell in love with her. Due to her interests, I assumed the male gender. She had such a warm personality that I immediately knew I could trust her. After some time, I told her I wasn't from Earth and what my purpose for coming here was. Later, we eventually married and conceived a child together. I ran into complications with the pregnancy at first. Still, I quickly learned that as long as I continued supplying her body with some of my energy, she was strong enough to support the baby's inhuman nature. Eventually, my child was born in her village, where I was revered as a god."

"Wait, you helped give birth to a half-alien," Trik asked interruptedly.

"Well, to be fair, all humans are part alien, albeit less than one percent. By the time humans came to be, I had already been here long enough to influence life on Earth greatly. My spirit energy constantly covered the entire planet, nurturing it and strengthening its life forms. So, when a new species like humans came into existence, their DNA makeup mixed with some of my abundant spirit energy. It's only a small amount and hardly noticeable, but sometimes the smallest changes can make the biggest differences." Viraa said that last part cryptically, which made Trik think she was talking about something else entirely.

"Continuing," Viraa stated. The screen showed a memory of a baby girl with more energy coming from her than any human Trik's ever seen.

"Being only half human, my daughter grew to possess a larger spirit energy than other humans, so I taught her how to control it, making her the first human to manipulate their spirit energy. Just as each Primordial has special abilities, I also had my own special abilities. One of which allowed me to view into the future. Using this ability, I knew the day my love would die and knew I'd never meet another soul quite like her, so having no interest in continuing to live forever without her and having achieved my main goal already, I concocted a way to pseudo kill myself while still maintaining balance for life on Earth. I decided to split my very essence into eight beings who'd be incarnates of the aspects that governed this world."

"The Primordials," Trik and Alissia said in unison.

"Correct," Viraa concurred.

"Before I could do that, though, I needed to prepare those of the village for the generational task I had in store for them. So, I spent the next six decades teaching and training the three families of the village everything they should know about the soon-to-be new gods and their influences on the world," she continued.

The next memory was of two elderly women and a middle-aged woman kneeling before Viraa.

"After witnessing their mastery of the art and knowledge I bestowed, I christened them Watchers meant to teach and guide the new gods who'd take my place. Thus, beginning the Heart, Sadio, and Russo families' legacies."

The screen focused on the middle-aged woman.

"Due to the DNA she inherited from me, my daughter remained younger much longer than the others. I also foresaw that the Watchers of my bloodline – especially the women –would grow stronger than the others, so naturally, they became the head branch."

The screen then showed a memory of Viraa and the rest of the village standing by a grave. Most were crying while Viraa rubbed the stones on the grave. They were arranged into letters unrecognizable to Trik.

"Before marrying my wife, I foresaw some of the new gods one day becoming a threat to humanity. I also saw my descendants one day inheriting more than just energy from me but also a little of my stronger genes. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to return someday and aid that descendant and the new gods present. With this in mind long before meeting my wife, I embedded a dormant copy of my conscience inside my DNA that would pass through the generations until it reached that specific descendant."

"Which was Lisa," Trik inputted.

"Correct," Viraa stated.

The next memory showed a line-up of eight babies lying side-by-side.

"A few days after my wife died, I began my fission plan. Throughout the six decades prior, I had been slowly using another of my abilities to create eight lifeless infant bodies that would eventually grow to be stronger and more powerful than anything in this world. Where I am from, their species are called klevonians. I felt it was an unnecessary detail then, so no one knew this fact about them."

A memory of a cute, innocent baby boy with a vast amount of golden energy emitting from him was playing on the screen.

"The first child I gave life to was the one to be named Avarice," Viraa began. "I remember being so enthralled with him. I was astonished at the level of curiosity I could see in his eyes as he peered into my own. At that moment, I had never felt prouder about my creations than I did then. Then I gave life and power to the others; each was just as amazing as the first."

Trik and the others watched the screen as it displayed a large mass of crystals melded into a dark metallic stone.

"I knew that the Watchers would have trouble with the children's spirit energies as they grew, so with my last bit of power, I created crystals that, when used properly, would protect them. I believe you now refer to them as pure rupture prisms. After that, my body began to dissipate slowly. I spent my final days teaching the Watchers how to use the PRP before vanishing, leaving the children in their hands. That's where my memories stop before regaining consciousness within Alissia."

Viraa concluded and allowed all of it to sink in.

"That was truly incredible!" Mr. Heart said, rising from his seat.

"This changes so much," he continued. He thanked Viraa for sharing this information and rushed over to his desk while muttering about there being so much to do.

Mrs. Heart rose from her seat. She looked at Alissia and smiled her motherly smile.

"Thank you, dear," she turned toward Trik too. "The both of you have done your family very proud tonight. Being the first in over two centuries to return with Death and being so special to be born with the one person who can explain the mysteries about the Primordials. Your father and I couldn't be prouder."

She turned her attention to Viraa.

"And thank you for deciding to be here to help us in this dire situation. Your memories have helped us immensely today, and your knowledge will certainly prove invaluable in the coming times. As I'm sure you already know, none of the information you share with us will be used maliciously. We'll only use it to help others," she said.

Although still dignified, her words were filled with sincere gratitude and respect for Viraa. Trik had never seen her display this much respect for someone. That's not to say she was ever insolent toward others, but he'd never seen her revere someone.

"You have my complete trust," Viraa responded with a smile.

With that, Mrs. Heart left them to prepare Tymon's registration.

Trik ended the live feed and hoped Za'Fia had received it.

"This mission keeps getting more complicated," Trik said sarcastically.

He glanced over at Alissia. She was sitting there, probably asking Viraa a million questions. He remembered when she was a kid, and they were first introduced to each other. Now, she was an adult and at the center of the most important discovery in human history.

As he thought about that, he couldn't shake this feeling that their entire world would soon be shaken to its core.