The universe trembled, and planets visibly shook, their surfaces cracking. Some even escaped their orbits, drifting into the void as wandering planets.
Lex, who was fully engrossed in his work in the cosmic void source, was unaware of the consequences of his power and actions.
He dissected the time laws of the universe into their most basic form. The delicate balance of the universe faltered for a moment, causing these disasters.
••••
At the Divine realm.
The primordials and the Ascendants reacted with curious gazes, especially the ascendants, as they discussed among themselves. They were the race Lex created from the essence of the primordials.
For a second, time seemed to halt, the stillness permeating everything. Then, just as abruptly, it resumed its natural flow. The Divine Realm remained largely unaffected, its stability unwavering, but the effects were far more pronounced across the universe.
Ripples of disruption spread through galaxies and dimensions, leaving traces of imbalance.
•••••
Oblivious to this, Lex now viewed time from an entirely new perspective, unlike anything he had perceived before.
This was vastly different from how he previously comprehended it; this time, it was about reconstruction.
He approached time like a human repairing a complex machine, deconstructing its foundations, analyzing its flaws, and carefully reshaping its framework to align with his vision.
What appeared before him after dissecting them were countless glowing threads of time, they varied in size some were infinitesimally some were as large as sewing threads.
Each strand pulsated faintly with moments from the past, present, and future. He extended his hand and grabbed one of the larger threads.
••••
At an unknown space and time
A lone figure drifted through the void. His gaze was fixed on the distant galaxies, which were scattered like jewels across a velvet sea.
Something inside him told him to look up. He did, despite his instincts screaming at him not to. His eyes fixed on the far reaches of the void.
Before he could look away, it happened.
A hand so vast it defied scale unfolded from the fabric of reality itself. Galaxies glittered like grains of sand in its palm. It didn't move through space; it simply appeared without warning and warped existence around it by its mere presence.
It lingered for a moment.
Then it vanished.
"What...have I just s—?"
The words died in his throat.
His eyes widened with primal, helpless terror. Every nerve screamed. Reality twisted inside his mind, the threads of his sanity fraying like old string. He didn't scream. He couldn't. The fear was too vast and alien.
A silence more suffocating than sound swallowed him whole.
Then, his mind shattered.
He collapsed unconscious, his body drifting through the void, caught in a coma from which he might never wake.
••••
Lex, who had been holding the thread of time, immediately let it go.
"That wasn't supposed to happen," he murmured, narrowing his eyes. "I misjudged how fragile it was."
He hadn't meant for the hand to appear. It was a side effect of holding too hard on a structure not meant to bend.
All he had intended was a slight adjustment. But slight adjustments carried weight when made from the Cosmic Void source.
He sensed the damage almost instantly. The lone observer who had seen the hand, albeit briefly, broke under the pressure. Lex could feel the mental collapse ripple like a snapped cord through the fabric of space and time, especially through the karmic laws.
He paused for a moment, then summoned a small, sealed vessel and added fragments of the laws of stability, clarity, and restoration within it.
He released the vessel through the same time thread, letting it drift gently toward the unconscious figure.
"That should be enough," he thought. "Next time, be more careful."
Now that he learned from his previous mistake, he approached the time threads cautiously.
He manipulated the thread, and his eyes focused as he rewrote the laws of time piece by piece.
Each adjustment was deliberate, weaving a framework that would govern the flow of the universe.
1 Mortal Era= 108,000 years: A stretch of time already beyond the lifespan or imagination of most mortals.
1 Cosmic Era= 100 Mortal Eras (10.8 million years): An age marked by the rise and fall of interstellar civilizations, their achievements and ruins scattered across the void.
1 Kalpa= 1000 Cosmic Eras(10.8 billion years): A timespan so vast that even the oldest known histories fade into myth.
1 Cosmic Reset= 1.08 quadrillion years (100,000 Kalpas): A controlled cataclysmic renewal of the universe itself designed by Lex a reset so total that every thing must undergo renewal or evolve before it reaches.
Lex understood a truth few could: most beings would not live long enough to witness even a single Cosmic Era. Time, in such quantities, was unattainable—mercilessly indifferent to all but the mightiest.
To live outside of time, like the Primordials do, is not just rare. It is nearly impossible for most of the creatures.
Satisfied with the structure, Lex added a hidden feature within the time laws, a secret mechanism that would only manifest when the right conditions were met.
He then vanished from the cosmic void source and reappeared across various parts of the universe where life was evolving.
Standing high above the planet, he scanned the world below. He saw cells being born and dying constantly, a ceaseless cycle of renewal and decay. His eyes flickered with brief recognition before he vanished, moving swiftly through the void toward regions where life had begun to take root.
Lex observed silently from planets housing primitive organisms to the deeper layers of space. The deep layers, once barren, now teemed with life. These creatures differed vastly from those on the surface.
Some bore humanoid forms, others resembled four-legged animals, but the majority had serpentine bodies slithering through the dark expanse.
His expression remained indifferent, though his gaze lingered on the creatures of the deep. Unlike the beings of the first layer, which are still evolving, these entities already have fully formed bodies. It intrigued him.
After several scans, Lex discovered the cause: irregular timescales. The layers of the universe no longer flowed uniformly. His interference with the Cosmic Void Source had altered the balance, creating layers where time moved faster or slower.
Though the repercussions did not affect Lex personally, he understood the effect they could have on the creatures he had created.
This realization was a quiet reminder: even his boundless power could ripple through the universe in unforeseen ways.
To prevent such disruptions from occurring again, Lex decided to create something that could monitor the universe when his attention was on something else.
He pondered deeply, pacing back and forth in the void as he deduced possible outcomes and solutions.
After careful consideration, he devised the concept of a "will."
This "will" would not resemble him but would serve a purpose similar to the natural "will" of the universe, a guiding force to maintain balance and order.
However, unlike the original "will," which acted on pure instinct and operated like a machine, this new "will" would be attuned to the needs of a living and evolving cosmos.
Lex reflected on the flaws of the previous "will." If it were still alive, the universe would have remained stagnant. Life would have taken an agonizingly long time to emerge, and the realms would never have formed, or even if they formed, it would not be early or as cohesively as they had under his influence.
The natural "will" lacked the adaptability and purpose required for creation to flourish.
He disappeared from his location and reappeared at the blank point. He sat cross-legged in the vast white void and then began to introspect deeply.
To create something resembling a "will," he needed to grasp its essence.
As he delved into his own being, he uncovered the truth of his existence: his very foundation as the Will of the Universe.
A will, he realized, was the collective mind power of all things within the universe. No matter how small or vast, every entity contributed to this latent force.
However, the strength of this mind-power varied, shaped by experiences, circumstances, and the nature of the entity.
Lex now clearly understood the fragility of his essence. If every entity in the universe ceased to exist, so would he. Yet, as long as even a single being or thing remained, so too would he endure.
The mind power of living, sentient beings, rich with thought and emotion, was far greater than that of lifeless objects. Still, regardless of scale or complexity, all things played their role in sustaining the collective will.
Without realizing it, Lex's understanding deepened as he slipped into an enlightened state. In this heightened awareness, the interconnected nature of all things became clear, opening new possibilities for his creation.
Still in the enlightened state, Lex focused inward, observing the depths of his own soul. He saw the composition of his soul laid bare, a delicate balance tipping ever further.
Seventy percent of his soul radiated the unique characteristics of the Will of the Universe, forged entirely from the collective mind power of the universe.
The remaining thirty percent was his humanity, a flickering light fighting a losing battle against the overwhelming presence of the will.
It clung to fragments of emotion, individuality, and memory, yet its grip weakened ever so slightly. He decided to tackle this problem after creating the will.
Lex severed one percent of his soul, reducing the will part within him to sixty-nine percent. Unintentionally, this caused his humanity to grow, rising to thirty-one percent and further diminishing the will's dominance.
The shift although subtle, but its impact was immediate; a faint ripple of change coursed through him unknowingly.
He stabilized the remaining soul power and focused on the fragment of the will's part.
Drawing on Origin Energy and Mind Power Lex carefully infused these forces into the severed part of his soul.
As the energies intertwined, a fragile consciousness began to form within the fragment.
It pulsed faintly, its essence unsteady and weak but he could feel its potential.