Arsere's fingers trembled as she tapped the glowing [Messages] icon. The moment it opened, her breath caught in her throat.
Every message was from her family.
Her father. Her mother. Her two sisters. Her three brothers.
They had all written to her.
One by one, she opened the messages carefully, almost afraid the words might vanish if she blinked. Each message carried warmth she hadn't felt since she had awakened alone in the vast void. She could feel their worry, their love, their confusion — every line was filled with the emotion she thought she might never experience again.
Her mother had written:
"Arsere, my daughter… why aren't you replying? Please don't scare your mother. Call us, please."
Arsere's vision blurred.
She wiped her eyes, but the tears kept coming — warm, unstoppable, overwhelming.
She pressed [Call] before she could overthink it.
The screen lit up.
Connecting…
A second later, voices exploded from the interface.
"ARSERE!?"
Her entire family appeared together inside one system window — not just her mother. Every single one of them had answered at the same time, shouting her name, crying, laughing, relieved.
She froze.
Then she started crying harder — the messy, helpless kind that comes straight from the heart.
Her mother immediately leaned forward.
"My baby! Are you okay? Where are you? What happened?"
Her father's voice followed, frustrated but soft.
"We thought something happened to you. Why didn't you answer sooner?"
Her siblings all spoke at once:
"Are you safe?"
"Do you have food?"
"Are there monsters?"
"Is the system treating you right?"
"Do you need help?"
Arsere listened, overwhelmed, her heart finally feeling whole again.
And then — another realization struck her.
The system had transported almost every family together, placing each family group in the same starting location…
Except her
She was the only one who had been separated from her family. No there is lots of people like her. Simply her family lucky.
She wasn't angry — just confused.
Was it a mistake?
Or did the system choose her for something different from the beginning?
But today, none of that mattered.
Today, she had her family's voices back.
They talked a long time — sharing what happened, how each of them arrived in a strange, new divine realm, how they were surviving. Her siblings each tried to brag about their new lives; her mother kept crying; her father kept asking if she was eating properly; her sisters teased her a little; her brothers tried to act tough.
For the first time since becoming a goddess, Arsere laughed naturally.
Eventually, she ended the call — but her chest was warm, and her smile felt real.
She was happy.
Truly happy.
When the interface closed, the system clock floated before her eyes.
Day 2 — 02:23:54
Almost instinctively, Arsere reached into her inventory and pulled out the World Orb, the miniature core of Crevalis.
It pulsed with deep blue light.
She focused, trying to see the status of the Eternal Sea Plate — and then she froze.
Everything inside the orb had stopped moving.
Waves were frozen mid-crest.
Bubbles were suspended in place.
Even drifting particles of light were hanging motionless, like dust caught in sunbeams.
"Time… stopped?" Arsere whispered.
She quickly checked the device she had made — Tempora.
Tempora was built using her new divinity over time and space, a tool capable of managing the entire world's temporal flow and structure. It worked like a world-level timer, automatically adjusting time so that events happened at the correct pace.
But she had added one special command:
When the first intelligent lifeform is seconds away from emerging, stop the world.
And now… that exact moment had arrived.
Her world — Crevalis — had frozen because the birth of the first intelligent life was imminent. Within seconds, a species would open its eyes with primitive awareness, and from that moment on, the true story of Crevalis would begin.
Her heart skipped.
"So… it's happening."
Her voice shook with excitement.
The Eternal Sea Plate had evolved faster than she expected. Algae → simple organisms → jelly-like creatures → and now… something ready to rise into sentience.
This was a milestone every creator dreamed of.
The moment when life wasn't just alive —
but aware.
Arsere stayed silent for a long while, staring into the frozen, glowing orb.
She took a deep breath.
"Alright… let's welcome the first children of Crevalis."
The next chapter of her world was about to begin.
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