Prologue: Faraway Days

Prologue:
Faraway Days

In the midst of my deep, endless solitude, I once again think back on a past time.

I think back on the fierce, painful, thousand year battle against “it.”

It began without warning. From deep within the planet, deeper even than the deepest depths that “Green” knew all too well, “it” appeared.

“It” was a strange being made up of all sorts of colors yet lacked a single true form. This being melted down and absorbed all the living creatures it touched, becoming one with them.

Long, long ago, “it” arose from deep within the planet, devoured all living things, and promptly gave birth to brand new ones before vanishing once more.

Everything that exists on the planet exists to serve as food for “it.”

“Gold” told me that is the truth of this cursed world we live upon.

“‘It’ has no sentience, no consciousness to speak of. It simply eats and sleeps, almost like a slime or some kind of lesser being.

“I guess the most powerful creature on this planet doesn’t need true intelligence.”

Gold had managed to survive the world’s previous destruction, fleeing to the ends of the sky and biding their time until all had been devoured.

The beings stronger than Gold were unable to defeat the endlessly regenerating existence, and eventually either fled to a different world altogether or were devoured by “it.”

***

“In order to truly defeat ‘it,’ I realized that someone like you, death itself, would need to work together with powerful beings like ourselves.”

This was the answer that Gold had arrived upon. So after “it” reappeared, they traveled the world and gathered us together.

“Red,” a fighter braver than all others, capable of burning the world down with their flames.

“Blue,” the very opposite of Red. Calm and collected, capable of manipulating both water and ice. The very form of the ocean itself.

“Gold,” the cunning being that feared death more than any other and managed to survive, and master of the skies.

“Green,” the being that had planted its very roots into the planet itself, capable of drawing out its power.

“White,” my polar opposite, and a being capable of controlling the growth of all living things as well as the power of light itself.

…And then me, a being capable of granting death to all.

Together, we were the Ancient Six, and in order to prevent ourselves from being devoured, we combined our powers and fought against “it.”

It was a terrible battle.

Countless times we found ourselves on the edge of defeat, nearly eaten alive. Countless times we fled from the battlefield. It took us 1,000 years to finally destroy “it.”

After having burned it, frozen it, electrocuted it, showered it in light, and bound it to the earth over and over again, “it” had finally been weakened. It was my “death” that ended “it.”

After repeating this process 384,692 times, we confirmed that each and every piece of “it” had ceased functioning. We had won.

That was 34,684 years ago.

***

With the battle against “it” over, the world changed.

All the creatures born after “its” destruction were significantly weaker than those born before.

“‘It’ was simultaneously a creature that existed to devour the world and a creature that existed to breathe new life into it. By destroying ‘it,’ the world has lost its ability to give birth to new, strong beings.”

That was Gold’s hypothesis. It didn’t take very long for us to understand the truth of their words.

The creatures born following the death of “it” were all incredibly weak. The weak particles of death I dispersed just by being present were enough to kill them.

If they happened to be my enemy, I thought nothing of it. Enemies existed to be killed in battle.

But I couldn’t stand the idea of killing innocent living creatures just by simply being.

…What I hated most of all was that it felt like I had become the same kind of existence that “it” was.

And so not long after our battle concluded, when we were deciding upon our own personal territories, I chose the end of the sky filled with naught but magical energies. If there were no living beings present, there could be no death.

I was used to keeping to myself, after all.

***

And so today I do just that, lost in thought…as I have and will continue to do for all eternity.