Chapter 1: Meeting the WORLD

Huh…you know even after being a legal adult for at least a while…you would think my life would be rather peaceful.

But here I was…watching what looked like a rift in the very fabric of reality. An infinite array of colors and shapes flew from its maw, and it hurt to even look at the thing.

I couldn't really move my body for several reason.

Fear…

Curiosity…

And confusion…mainly on why no one else could see the rift. Around me the small crowd of people parted in a circular radius of about 2 meters. Hell I saw people look straight at me without even a hint of a reaction.

In fact…they couldn't see me either.

A part of me thought I had finally cracked and gone mad. Another raced to various possible theories and conclusions.

Possibly the work of an advanced alien civilization…or some government project…though I doubt the last thing. Or maybe a wizard did it? Or…something else…?

I'm sure many would ask why I…like a normal person didn't flee from the clearly dangerous object in front me.

Well…

I couldn't, the Barrier prevented me from leaving and I was left in the space here…at least I had kept my food I had bought in the mall food court.

No table though…so I would have to hold onto it for now.

The portal pulsed and I screamed like a little girl, cringing as my back met with the rock hard light barrier.

"…" I froze as I heard a whisper come from the portal. I couldn't make heads or tails out it and it only grew worse…

"Marhaba!" I blinked at the words and held my bag of food to my chest.

The…hell?

Mutterings came freely and it continued. "Namaskar! Grüß Gott? Zdraveite?"

I shook my head in confusion and mind terror, of wanting to alarm the entity. I barely even breathed…

"Hafa adai? Guten tag? Hallo?" I jumped at the last two words.

Oh…I guess I know what…it's trying to do? So let's…relax…and answer back.

"Ahh…English is fine." The muttering stopped and I shivered as the…world shimmered.

"Thank…you." A voice that reminded me of a my own mother answered back, and it was like all my fears and worries went away. For at least the moment…and it helped. I had questions.

"What…do you want…? And what are you?" The voice giggled with a teasing tone and I frowned.

"I wished to speak with you Brandon."

It…knew my name.

"Why…?" I asked warily. They laughed again.

"You would have to step into the portal to find out."

I looked at it like it was an idiot. I hoped my face screamed "really?" To whoever I was speaking followed, and I tapped the barrier with not even a hint of luck.

"I don't have much of a choice do I?" I replied back with snark and approached the portal with caution. Despite my worries…it was an interesting phenomena…unlike anything I had seen on this earth.

I lifted a shaking leg, ready to take the plunge…

Just like jumping in the pool, jump in and go with the f—oh shit!

I tripped on nothing and all I saw was light.

"Hey…wake up…we need to talk?"

Oh…god why?

I groaned at the voice interrupting my precious nap. I looked for a pillow ready to smother that enemy. But found none…not even a blanket…

…

I never sleep without a blanket.

I opened my eyes, cringing at the harsh sunlight I was exposed to. Around me, was what looked like an infinite expanse of city and nature alike.

For every house there were fields of grass and forest clearing.

For every road, a riverine bounty and a mountain path.

For every skyscraper and factory a forest, a jungle, or beatific carved canyon.

A balance of nature and man…

"Beautiful isn't it?" I yelped at the voice, whirling to meet its maker.

I was caught flat footed at the…woman standing only several feet away from me.

She…was about my height, and her features were hard to describe. One moment she had blue and green hair, the next dark brown, cherry red, or deepest black. Her eyes changing in shape and color. Her height remained the same…but her body certainly shifted constantly…

It…wasn't something I would forget any time soon.

I swallowed the saliva stuck in my throat and nodded. She gestured to a lovely little glass table under a solid oak tree.

We're standing on a hill apparently…

I followed reluctantly, eying the sight with a longing I didn't know I had in me. Soon the two of us were sitting together, and I took a double take as I realized my lunch had been placed on the table and opened.

Within a tin foil container I could see the spaghetti I had purchased form Sbarro with my drink daintily placed to its left.

How would I know it was daintily placed?

She…passed me the plastic fork and smiled with a strange kindness I rarely saw in random strangers. Not that I was one to talk…

I remembered what she wanted.

"You wanted to talk with me…?" She nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course I did! And you have questions of course!" I nodded and she beamed.

"Will you answer them?" She smiled and I had my answer.

"You wanted to know what I was correct?" She crossed her legs in the way I had seen women do and I nodded.

"That would be a big help…" she smirked…

And with that knowing smirk she responded. "Tell me child. What do you know of Mystery."

…

Mystery…is that some type of joke…?

She grinned wider, and crossed her arms over her chest. "I suppose you do not…perhaps this will jog your memories."

She moved faster than humanly possible, and a hand brushed against my head befo—!?

An image flashed before me…two men on the verge of battle and conflict…and it was shockingly and terrifyingly familiar.

One man…a golden being that I had utter contempt and distaste for…the other a broken child with dreams of grandeur and hope…and I could feel the power between the two of them.

The orange haired boy started a chant, blue lightning coming off his body. Swirls of energy painfully activating within his body.

"My body is made of swords!"

With those words…I understood.

I nearly fell from my seat, taking the deepest and clearest breath of fresh air in my life. The strange inhuman woman giggled once more, and I felt frustration at her…bothersome attitude.

"You're…some…type of mage then? Something that shouldn't exist in this world?" I was taken aback as she doubled over, muffling the amusement she clearly felt.

"Oh child I am no mage," I shrunk as a sensation of being surrounded by a crowd of millions hit me. I stared into those eyes of hers, and felt like a billion more were looking back at me. "I am the World."

What the hell does that…

I leaned back as the implications instantly came to mind about what she had meant. In all the time I had spent reading about a certain series, only two beings would call themselves such a thing…and that was…not a good thing.

This…entity could be only two things…either Gaia…the intrinsic will of the very planet. Or Alayakishi the collective unconsciousness of mankind and its need to avoid extinction.

I took a hesitant and frightened bite of delicious spaghetti

"Well…fuck."

"So…which one are you then?" The…ultimate one perked up with a raised eyebrow at the question. I almost felt like growling but didn't out of a need to preserve my own tiny life.

She pressed her right hand against her chin, cheekily grinning. "Alaya would be my closest counterpart, though the difference myself and the World is…negligible. However there are some differences between us…ones that proves fortunate for mankind."

That's…good isn't it? The Nasuverse…version would prove inimical to my will to live.

"So you're here for me? And why…?" I needed my answers…I just hoped she wouldn't kill me for them.

"You have no need to worry about such things…I will not harm one of my own. I doubt I am even capable of such things…I have power…but it's not useful in this circumstance."

That's interesting really, truly but…

"If you want to know the differences between them and I. Let me show you." To my amazement the landscape around me vanished into a sea of molten rubble and boiling rock.

Around me, I could see continent sized chunks of material come together with titanic nearly world shattering impacts. Millions of smaller masses with the weight of mountains orbited haphazardly. Slowly being absorbed into the molten core of a world being born

In the night sky above, other glimmering lights boiled. Eight…nine…no more worlds. Ones that had been lost to time and fusion…

"The birth of the solar system." She sparkled briefly, an alien nostalgia in her eyes as worlds were born from ash and brimstone. I cleared my throat and she refocused in the present. "So what's so different about you…? Gaia…hates humanity, hates Mystery and Magecraft. So why?"

Her fists tensed and there was visible strain on her. "Probably because I am not as…ancient as she is. Not in the same way."

"How does that work?" It was something I needed to know, and I liked to learn.

"When I was born I did not have a true conscience. I was simply a construct, the metaphysical embodiment of this planet. So I slept…for millions of years…until it was born."

The world shifted, tens of millions of years passing in the blink of an eye. Now instead of magma and vacuum, the surface was covered in a vast global ocean, with an almost greenish tint and an orange shade shrouding must of it…

"Over 4 billion years ago…life came to be. And I began to wake up…slowly but surely." I looked closely, and noticed a small microscopic figure floating in the darkness of space. A small ball of light…with little intelligence behind it. A cosmic embryo not yet ready for prime time. "As life evolved…as it became more complex, so did I."

Billions of years passed, and in the early muck primitive creatures swam through its depths. No brains…mostly… Just a tiny little fish…smaller than my thumb, makings it's way through life.

I blinked, and I saw a salamander like creature pull itself from a muddy river with a loud belch.

"With each iteration…I grew stronger and more awake…"

The world changed once again and it was now a world of giant insects, a small lizard biting at the heels of its superiors.

"With each extinction, came a rebirth of rejuvenation. Feeding my awakening…" I flinched as I was shaken by a thrumming like no other.

I felt and tasted and smelled the rocking of an entire continent, my skin almost searing as an ocean of molten rock escaped from the confines of the earth.

As the great supercontinent ripped itself apart, throwing trillions of tons of greenhouse gases and poisonous death into the air. As nearly all life was brought to the brink…so very few surviving the end of everything.

And survive they did…

Around us titans of scales and hollow bones, fed on the land with furry critters dancing between their one ton footsteps.

From up above a burning comet rung the bell of death and entropy.

"After four and a half billion years. Everything had come together…everything…became smarter, more complex and interesting." Several species were illustrated…in flashes of planetary memory.

Feathery flyers, the last remnants of that bygone age of ancient titans. Ocean dwelling leviathans, swimming mammals more unique than anything else in the world.

And finally…a foolish race of hairless apes…

"But even then it wasn't instant. It is only now when I can speak to you like this. Only now, when we are on the brink."

"On the brink of what?" An undercurrent of fear was in my voice as the scene returned to the hill on an endless city.

"A new beginning…or the end of everything…" I understood in an instant what she wanted, and what she meant.

"Humanity will destroy itself." There was a hint of sad bitterness on her face.

"It's a possible future…and unfortunately as things are. The most likely one…and when they die, so will my consciousness. I will regress to the time before Man. A mindless Ultimate One." It was clear this was not something she wanted.

"And even if a new species rises up to replace us…they won't last will they?"

She…shook her head. "Your kind has burned away most of my easily accessible resources. Without that, industrialization will wipe them out. A continuous cycle of collapse until Mother swallows us in her death rattles."

Ahh…the sun…having a star as a mother is rather odd outlook on life. Then again this situation isn't normal whatsoever.

"So you want to live…and you want to use me to do that? To save humanity." I didn't feel particularly special. The…projections I received from her made me guess I was simply the first of many.

"You'd be right on that! You were lucky to be on the right spot, at the right time and place. The very moment of my full awakening." She leaned forward, and I got an uncomfortable eyeful of the apparent goddess in front of me. The goddess cocked her head with confusion and I groaned. I muffled a scream as her hand came down on my shoulder, like I had been smacked with pure iron.

"That's fantastic…which makes me ask…if I'm going to help you in your little plan to save humanity. What should I call you? Despite the similarities you're not Alaya…yet anyway." I muttered the last bit under my breath and she looked affronted.

"Ahh yes…it would be good to introduce myself…wouldn't it?"

"Well?" I quirked an eyebrow at the goddess. And she smiled.

"Oh you're a feisty one…as for a name?" the ancient goddess trailed off dramatically, and I wondered if she had inherited this from the billions of humans that allowed for her mind to exist.

"Kishar suits me just fine.

Author's Note:

I have been struck with a little bit of creative spirit in the last week or two. So I have this little fic now.