It was a unilateral massacre unprecedented in history. An absurd amount of gods were eliminated in just a few seconds. The rest couldn’t even move, feeling like mortals before a god. They hadn’t felt this pathetic in hundreds of millions of years.
"The big ones will notify the remaining small organizations about how space and resources will be partitioned in the new universe," declared Pai, ending the meeting with that sentence.
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The cold was the only thing that existed, at least for a long and infinite time. But then, something new emerged: heat. The sphere felt heat coming from its center, which spread throughout its shape.
This heat made him feel alive. He just needed to try to breathe. The sphere didn’t know exactly what it was like to breathe, but its shape tried to imitate that, and with each cycle, it warmed up a little more.
"Kayden" – that was the name of the sphere. He was sure of that after warming up for so long. Some memories were beginning to return but at an absurdly slow pace. It was all about heat.
Breathe.
Heat.
Breathe.
Heat.
Breathe.
Heat.
Breathe.
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This was a never-ending cycle, where Kayden didn’t hesitate for a moment. For some reason, he couldn’t get enough. His mind did not harbor any thoughts of giving up in the face of the cold. Every moment was the same.
His mind was tireless, his will greater than the cold and time. What moved him? Kayden didn’t know. He had no memories, no knowledge, just a strange, meaningless will.
The cold remained constant, its intensity unchanged, always present. At that moment, Kayden began to remember some actions and things whose origin he did not know.
Words that he didn’t know where they came from appeared in his mind. He did not know the origin of any words in his mind, nor how his thoughts were being organized.
What exactly was a name? Kayden had no idea. What was it for? His name generated no heat, and only heat mattered in his life. What was the point of words if they didn’t generate heat?
The only thing Kayden understood at that moment was the heat. Anything else was of no value in his view. But he also didn’t know exactly why heat was his goal or represented something valuable.
************
"Right now, we only have 50% of the universe; the rest has been broken down into mana for Father to use," said one of the remaining gods at a council organized to decide the fate of the universe.
On this council, each large organization had an equal seat and vote. Small organizations were slowly incorporated into large ones through agreements or veiled threats. In the end, only the big ten remained.
The universe was being purified of many life forms and existences. Some insane gods tried to enter directly into the area that Pai consumed, but there was never any news of them again.
"How much left?" asked one of the representatives. None of the great gods personally attended these meetings.
Even with the universe changing rapidly, most of them had no desire to leave their cultivation and private worlds to make decisions for their organizations.
The truth is that they hadn’t participated in them for a long time. They had reached a level where they no longer had a social circle other than people of their level, nor even the resources that were necessary for their existence.
They had reached a level of strength where there was nowhere else to go, and they just tried to advance beyond divinity, day after day, without success. It was an infinite search of an infinite will.
Family and friends were something elusive at this level of strength, at least with people who weren’t on the same level. Four of the great gods were couples with each other, and a trio also seemed to be in a union of sorts.
While on the surface all organizations were hostile and fought wars over the minimum amount of resources, on the inside, their leaders treated each other as equals and ate at the same table if the opportunity arose.
"Between 10% to 20%, according to the false gods. The mana in the universe has already increased to a large extent, and we have seen many new geniuses emerging in these centuries." In just a short period, dozens of people with eight rays appeared on all sides.
"The lands are already perfectly divided, with a central region remaining with the false gods at its center. We are expecting a great increase in the overall strength of all members and the birth of many natural treasures."
Each god was commenting on what had been studied by their organization and how much they had learned during this period about increasing mana density. There seemed to be a direct relationship with the number of geniuses being born.
"We are not going to build many planets. We are thinking of creating just a hundred, each with a few trillion people, classified by strength and capacity," revealed one of the organizations, presenting a simple and practical system.
"And how are you dealing with those with less than five rays?"
"We left out the weaker planets and only rescued the high-level ones. It will take a little longer, but in a few millennia we will have all these densely populated planets."
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"Collective psyche." This was the name Kayden gave to his thoughts and knowledge that did not come directly from him.
There was still not enough time for him to recover his memories, but he was able to develop more critical thinking and recognize all this knowledge that seemed to be innate in his mind.
He dubbed it "unconscious knowledge." All his actions were governed by him. His unconscious was his true self, but it was also a shadow in his conscious, which was still cloudy to Kayden.
This knowledge seemed to be something innate to their race, something that transcended their own life and existence, almost behaving like primitive instincts. Where exactly they came from was something he couldn’t yet recognize.
Author’s note: If you enjoy psychology and have read the classics, you will understand the references.