{A/N: The events of this chapter take place after the events of chapter 6: Conclusion. Please familiarize yourself with it before reading this chapter in order to avoid being confused. Otherwise, you may continue on reading.}
"Also, I may have spoiled some things here and there, sorry. With all that said, let's begin with the chapter."
The barrier was simple enough to forge.
IT would merely excise the outermost fringe of existence from all that lay beyond it. The boundary itself would remain pristine and untouched, eternally serving as the barrier, while the interior became clay in IT's hands once more.
Even without listeners, IT continued to speak aloud. The habit had persisted and became unbroken.
No one remained to hear the words IT spoke echo into the white infinity, yet silence wasn't troubling IT at all. After all, if companions were desired, then new voices could simply be conjured in an instant.
The fact that IT refrained from doing so in the first place, just proved the point that solitude suited IT perfectly well, at least in this current moment.
IT, enjoying ITs own solitude in this situation, felt different from before, when IT was the only being present within the endless Void. This time, it was a choice that IT, rather than an inevitability that IT had to reluctantly accept.
For once, impulse no longer reigned unchallenged. IT planned, deliberated and even sequenced actions, before reaching into the void. The change had crept in quietly, and IT noticed said change only in retrospect.
Still, old habits die hard. And for IT, this was especially true.
There was still a flicker of whim here, and a sudden flourish there. That said, IT permitted these small rebellions. After all, perfection without spontaneity would be sterile for IT.
This was a fact IT knew all too well, even without having any prior experience with said perfection.
The barrier's nature diverged so profoundly from the rest of existence that passage would become nearly unthinkable. Beings might strain against it forever and never even breach the divide. [1]
Such was the barrier's intended role, and one that no mere being could do anything about.
Entering and exiting were both reduced to nothing more than fantasy. Far more impossible still, would be any contact between the outer Void and the luminous White Void within.
So IT reasoned, so IT intended, and so it was.
Alright then, it's time to begin. IT mused, anticipation building up from the work that lay ahead.
Space itself responded to IT's will. No, it want just space, but reality itself. It didn't reject being used in this manner, but willingly accepted instead.
It was as if reality itself felt that this was the very reason for its creation, its purpose for being, to be used by IT for whatever IT wanted, whenever IT wanted, and however IT wanted.
After all, it was created by IT, so it only made sense to adhere to the command of its creator.
Thus, reality stretched, warped, folded inward and outward in the same breath. This happened over and over again, until a new skin formed over the boundless White Void.
It was a seemingly delicate membrane, gossamer-thin against the infinite expanse it enclosed.
Yet like existence before it, this layer had been wrought by the same principle of having an infinite volume disguised as a fragile surface.
In its simplicity, the structure itself resembled an invisible veil draped across a large crystal ball that shone white in its purest.
"Alright, that should do it. As for this..." IT regarded the infinite white expanse. "What can I place within this emptiness to make it... less overwhelming?"
The problem was stark.
There was a vast blankness of space just begging to be filled.
But unlike the raw, unthinking sprawl of before, structure mattered now. Order would anchor the creation, and judicious chaos would keep it alive. It would be unpredictable, fresh, and most of all, endlessly diverting.
After all, entertainment nothing less than all of that, if not more.
"But, more would need to come on a later date. Mhm."
The entire endeavor circled one purpose, a self-sustaining engine of novelty. Chaos supplied the surprise, the deviation, the thrill of the unforeseen.
However, too much of that chaos would irritate IT, prompting swift correction, and if necessary, perhaps even total erasure of the disorder.
And if every wild thread were snipped, repetition would follow soon after. After which, monotony would settle again like dust. That was simply unacceptable.
IT gathered ambient energy once again, compressing it into a colossal sphere. With a thought, the sphere hardened until it became stable, radiant, as well as foundational.
Smaller forms followed soon after, varied geometries sculpted and affixed across the surface like deliberate ornaments.
Among them, appeared shapes borrowed from the vanished Entities, crystalline lattices, impossible polyhedra, and fractal lattices they had once spun in their given task.
IT had encouraged those Entities to evolve and to create objects partly for this very reason. It was all too harvest their foreign imaginations, and use them among IT's new creations.
This was not done from having a lack of ideas, not in the least. In fact, IT brimmed with them, so much so that they were never ending. Simply put, this was all borne from IT's curiosity, like most things are.
How would other minds carve form from nothing?
What strange beauty might they birth that IT would never be bothered to do so?
And how will IT react to all of those creations that they made?
Such questions were a few among the many that kept roaming IT's boundless mind, always demanding to be answered.
After all, surprise only comes when one is unaware of something, or simply unprepared for it. Regardless of whether that unawareness is intentional, or unintentional, derived from ignorance.
From a distance, the sphere now glowed with a single, harmonious color. That said, close inspection revealed countless hues swirling and blending together across its face.
And for the cherry on too, a shallow, habitable envelope shimmered just above the crust, ready to cradle life, should that life arrive anytime soon.
"Ah," IT mused, as if IT had just realized something. "Looking at it like this, it looks like a massive ball simply drifting in an endless space… That said, it now holds promise. The potential for something greater."
Enlarging this single body, to accommodate the eventuality of a growing population, would suffice for a time, but multiplication promised greater efficiency. It was also a chance to populate the surrounding emptiness.
Besides, variety pleased IT, regardless of how major or minor said variety was.
"Yeah, making more of them sounds better than simply increasing this one whenever it gets overcrowded. Alright, then I'll go with that. Oh right, I guess I should come up with a name for it before making more."
Names would be required as "Massive balls" seemed to lack in poetry. Then again, IT didn't particularly care for naming things, at least not yet.
"I mean, I'm literally the only one here."
And so, one became two. Then two became ten. After which, the ten became thousands. It continued on in that manner. Still, the vastness yawned around them, barely marked.
"Celestial Bodies… not bad if I do say so myself. Well done me." IT praised itself. "I said that, but it's a bit of a mouthful. I'll just keep it as a placeholder for now." IT shrugged.
Smaller companions were set in attendance. They were close-orbiting attendants tethered by invisible gravitational influence. IT named these smaller ones moons, satisfied with the simplicity of a singular name.
Color bloomed across the collection with deep indigos, molten golds, emerald storms, and many more. Some were even blending into entirely new shades when viewed from afar, or from certain angles.
Within this first region, uniformity reigned with all the bodies being spherical, and harmonious in silhouette.
IT had experimented briefly with dissonance by making a cubic moon beside a spherical planet, as well as pyramidal attendants. But the discord had grated IT. After that, a quiet adjustment followed instantly. Sameness within clusters felt right, "Inevitable, even." IT voiced.
That said, the concepts itself did have potential. It only needed to be refined and executed well.
With that in mind, IT planned on how exactly IT needed to accomplish this. And when the idea finally formed, IT wasted no time in implementing it.
Other regions received different edicts.
There, planets took on cubes, icosahedra, tori, irregular stellations and many more shapes and sizes. Each morphological family claimed its own volume of space, distinct yet kin under the same deep rules.
"A gathering of planets… I think I'll call it a Celestial Foundation. Once again, it seems like the name is too long."
Another word arrived swiftly.
Galaxy perhaps? Yeah, let's just go with that.
Each galaxy became a container, grouping worlds and threading them with gravitational song. At the heart of every one of them, IT placed something new.
This time, it was not a solid object, but a vast and luminous, churning sphere of incandescent gas.
Larger than all the planets combined, it commanded the center. IT threaded a mechanism through the structure so that the worlds would circle it in ordered procession, never colliding, or ever escaping.
I'll call it a star.IT decided.
The name felt arbitrary and therefore perfect. No deeper logic was required. "Why not?" answered most questionst that IT cared to ask.
Other stars, the ones comparable to galaxies in size, where also made and placed outside galaxies in a much further, safer distance. These were named Celestial Stars.
Again with the lengthy name.Maybe I'm just bad at naming things. Well, it's whatever. I mean, who's gonna complain? The readers? Yeah right.
With no one but IT around, the only thing that could possibly answer IT's questions was IT.
"That's not true. You can answer them, author. But I won't get into all that right now. I don't want to spoil anything. Wait, would me saying this considered spoiling? Ah, I did just spoil it right now, didn't I? Actually, no. What I did was technically give a hint, a taste of what's to come. Well, it's whatever. let's just continue on with the chapter for now."
Galaxies varied wildly in form. There were graceful spiral ovals, flattened disks like scattered parchment, tight coils, ragged cloth, sheets of paper, and many more varying in shapes, sizes, and even colors.
Each of then obeyed slightly different internal principles such as subtle shifts in force, decay, and even resonance. It was enough to prevent uniformity across the whole, but also enough to keep boredom at bay.
Gazing across the growing tapestry, IT felt the familiar pull toward scale.
"A collection of galaxies… why not?"
Space still yawned, as it was still mostly empty. There was definitely room for many more. "I mean, it's infinite in size, so that makes sense."
Celestial Platter crossed IT's mind, half jokingly, and half serious.
"What is up with these names?Actually, I should be glad that the names are unique and creative. At least I think that they are. Anyways, let's move on..."
Provisional, better names could emerge later. But for now, momentum mattered more than nomenclature.
And so the first universe coalesced.
"If I'm gonna rename these objects into a simpler, much shorter name, then why bother with the long names in the first place? Ah, that's right... you won't talk to me. Alright, I get it. I'll just wait until the next volume then."
There was still much that remained unfinished. After all, the cosmos demanded intricacy, internal consistency, as well as layered rules.
"I'll focus on all of that later. Or better yet, just make most of that of screen. Wait, is it still considered a screen, or text. Well, technically, I guess it's both. In any case, we can just say I did all that at some point, so that we can move on with the plot, not like most of it is gonna matter anyways. Oh right, that was a spoiler, my bad."
IT resolved to perfect this one before spawning others like it. An unfinished template would only make replication of it trivial.
"Well, that's just the excuse at least. Then again, it can't be helped. After all, it's for the sake of the plot, so I'm fine with it."
Creating more universes prematurely would only squander focus. As such, it was better to hone this singular work and observe its unfolding.
"Yeah... I don't think explaining it like that would make it anymore convincing. Actually, I don't think that there's a way to make it remotely convincing at all. As such, wouldn't it be better to move on instead?"
...
Next came the inhabitants.
This generation bore no resemblance to the old entities. They had no stark geometries and no crystalline speech.
The forms were fluid, their voices varied, and thoughts labyrinthine. IT sought novelty. It wasn't erasure of the past, but deliberate departure from it.
They would need a new designation. Something distinct from "Entities". That however, IT would decide later. For now, urgency lay elsewhere.
Across planets and galaxies, life stirred in extravagant scales.
Some beings swelled to lunar size, drifting through gas envelopes like living nebulae. Others shrank smaller than dust motes, swarming in unseen trillions. Proportion governed all as inhabitants matched their worlds, and worlds matched their galaxies.
IT paused, regarding the entire luminous sphere that contained countless galaxies.
"Since this is the first universe of its kind, I should give it a name apart from the usual classification. Something singular, and personal."
IT considered, amused by the formality of the act.
"Got it. I'll call it…"
[1] Maybe, maybe not.