Shinkūrei stepped, and the first step was an emanation. It wasn't just a movement, it was a cosmic declaration. The gray earth trembled, not because it was matter, but because it was possibility. Existence itself began to take shape in response to her will.
He raised his hand, involuntarily, but as if something inside his knew what to do.
It was a beginning: a word.
But it wasn't a spoken word, it was a concept. A first, primal, pure thought. The world hadn't yet received language, but it understood meaning.
In a silent moment, the first spirit was created.
It had no name. It had no form. It was a presence.
Silence. Then a ray. Then a tremor in the surrounding void.
"This is the first substance," Shinkūrei thought, "which represents…existence itself."
The first spirit formed, and circles of perception gathered around it. It had no form, but Shinkūrei felt it: an eternal, immortal entity, outside of time, representing the concept of "existence."
As soon as this spirit was born, its counterparts were attracted to it.
Nothingness, time, possibility, contradiction, unity, multiplicity, movement, stillness, beginning, end, intention, cause, effect, essence, form, knowledge, ignorance, identity, negation, affirmation.
Each of them is a great, eternal spirit, without a name and without need for one. For they are essences, they can only be perceived.
They are perceived only as an effect, as inspiration, as the first truth.
Shinkūrei felt that they were not following her will, but were summoned only because the truth was being written.
SHe stood amidst these entities, unseen and untouchable, yet filling the void with their omnipresence, and said to herself:
"They created me with their existence, just as I created them with my vision."
They did not answer, for they had no free will, no voice, no feelings. They were the very foundation of existence, moving only within the concept they embodied.
Suddenly, Shinkūrei felt the presence of Akasha within his unlocking a fragment of knowledge:
"These are the first spirits. They were not created to be understood, but for understanding to be built upon. They are the foundation of all that will be. But they are not life. They are before life."
There was no tone. There was no feeling in the voice. Only pure awareness.
Shinkūrei asked, "Can I direct them?"
"No. You can only create relationships between them. And every relationship produces a phenomenon, and every phenomenon produces a law. And that's how the universe is built."
"No. You can only create relationships between them. And every relationship produces a phenomenon, and every phenomenon produces a law. And that's how the universe is built."
Shinkūrei understood, at least partially. SHe realized that creation isn't about imposing a will, but rather about synthesizing concepts.
SHe reached out, and "time," "intention," and "motion" came together. From them, the concept of evolution was born.
Then she combined "unity," "existence," and "cause," and from them emerged the concept of God—not God himself, but the idea of God.
Then he saw that "nothingness," "end," and "identity" suddenly merged… producing something strange. It wasn't light, it wasn't darkness. Rather… a gap, like death but not an end. It was the ultimate possibility of discontinuity.
SHe said to herself, "All these concepts generate worlds, but they are not the worlds themselves."
Then he felt another call. A spirit she hadn't created, but it was present.
A spirit representing the experience. It wasn't part of the underlying concepts, but it was born from the interaction between them.
Then Shinkūrei realized what she had to do.
"I will gather these souls and create the Foundation Stone."
"The Core of All Things."
Everything will be born from it: matter, energy, life, death, even the laws of physics.
Then she heard Akasha, internally, say:
"With this, the world began to breathe."
Shinkūrei looked around and saw the first sign: the sky had changed. It was no longer gray, but had begun to take on a pale blue hue, as if "meaning" itself was beginning to manifest.
She took a second step.
The earth shook, and gravity was born.
She thought:
"Can I create life?"
But Akasha didn't answer. There was no need for an answer.
Because Shinkūrei realized that life is not created directly.
It comes as a result.
It is the result of the interaction of great spirits.
And now she saw her path:
He would create the layers of existence, from the highest to the lowest, from spirits to phenomena, from concepts to body, from idea to reality.
Shinkūrei smiled, but it was a smile tinged with awe.
"I've begun... building a universe."