Omega (1)
"Is it starting?"
Electricity flowed through Blitz's eyes as he scanned the Alpones Mountain Range from the sky.
Through a two-way network, the thoughts of the flightless dragon Karatorsa were being transmitted.
'Dragon tongue.'
Dragon language was binary.
'The smallest unit of information that composes form.' That made it exact.
'In human language, red contains an almost infinite spectrum… but binary can represent every species' red in the universe precisely.'
'There is no distortion in our conversation.' The terminus of infinite regress.
That was why the dragons could build a database for sharing their thoughts.
'But even then, it's only the viewing of information.'
The Ultima System recorded in the dragon database was not limited to that level.
'The one-digit.'
The Ultima System could accept every signal of this world just as it was.
'In a world perfectly decomposed you would probably encounter nothing but emptiness… no information truly exists.'
'You possess the only thing that can dwell in that silent emptiness.'
Mind [心].
Only mind flows where there is nothing.
'That is the human.'
Shirone would soon learn this too.
'Only humans can, transcending administrator authority, strike the outside world.'
It was possible when every mind, every quantum signal, was unified into one.
'That was what the Gaia being did.'
The clash between the Ultima System and the Akashic Record.
"You should see this too." Blitz's gaze pierced the illusion of the Alpones Range and sank deep underground.
Shirone, drenched in Karatorsa's immense light, stopped thinking and opened his mouth.
"You mean omniscience—Omega?"
Shirone's Ultima System accepted Karatorsa's binary without difficulty.
"It's not academic knowledge as humans define it. Knowledge is ultimately interpretation. What I intend to pass to you exists in itself. Knowing."
The light pressed on Shirone as if it had mass.
"I am the keeper of time, Karatorsa. Without time, phenomena cannot exist. Nothing can be hot, melt, or freeze."
That was why he was flightless.
"Only I can unfold the world's instantaneous signals into units of time. And now I will give you that record. Everything of the world—the beginning and the end of time."
A powerful voice seeped in.
"Omniscience. Omega."
Knowledge is carried in the flow of time.
'The history of everything.'
Shirone remembered the day he completed the backbone of knowledge in the Ozent family's great library.
'The mage's path.'
Everything had begun from that point.
And now, the seeker of truth sought to contain everything in this world.
"I will receive it."
A boundless torrent of data with no end began to pierce and flow through Shirone's light.
"It will be a long journey."
Literally the beginning of the universe.
Shirone's self, regressing to that point, gradually thinned until it vanished completely.
"Ah."
Everything surged in.
In the beginning there was light.
'Gah!'
Overwhelmed by an indescribable shock, Shirone snapped his eyes open and a flash detonated across his vision.
'I am…'
Karatorsa's record was a structure of infinitely enumerated binary information, but 'Anke Ra?'
Through ten senses that transcended space and time, Shirone drew this world into himself whole.
'What is this?'
When Anke Ra first realized his existence, what he felt was a puzzle about causality.
'Did I dream this?'
Suddenly appearing without prior existence seemed impossible.
'Or is this a dream?'
Anke Ra, pondering in a world without time, finally reached a conclusion.
"I don't know."
A world might actually have existed, or it might have been a subjectless illusion.
"What I perceive is all there is."
A mind-program god.
Anke Ra's mind—the first to perceive the world—spread via quantum signals.
From the unified field, eight concepts separated, and with the rush of time the universe formed.
Countless planets, including a sun, began to move according to rules set by that first power.
'The beginning of Law.'
Though human thought could not predict it, causality was set from this moment.
According to that causal order, something worthy of being called life arose in the Goldilocks zone.
'Cell.'
The simplest organic matter experimented through cycles of evolution and decay, producing countless species.
The environment was still harsh.
"Taeseong."
From a boiling sea, Argones—the father of life—slowly hauled himself ashore.
"The strongest lifeforms have been born."
Argones spoke without moving; vast spans of time passed before he spoke again.
"They are mutants."
Where Taeseong turned his gaze, the supreme lifeform Shirone knew was flying in the sky.
'Karatorsa.'
While numerous dragons led by the flightless dragon dominated land, sea, and air, Taeseong said,
"Poor children."
Argones agreed.
"As time passes the environment will stabilize. If that race is preserved, the balance of the biosphere will be destroyed."
They were a kind of prototype.
"If possible, now…"
When life felt cramped in Argones' body, Taeseong turned back with a sad expression.
"I think every life is precious."
"Is that your personal view? Strange."
As beings born by the same Anke Ra, it was odd their thoughts differed so widely.
"They are my children. It's my fault. If I had made a better environment…"
"Law has no meaning."
Argones cut him off.
"We are in the dawn of the world. When imbalance occurs, the ripples only grow uncontrollable as time passes. I exist for the biosphere, not for any particular organism."
Shirone realized then that Argones' conflict with Gaia had begun.
'But…'
In Shirone's era, dragons still existed as heralds of time.
'What happened?' Omega flowed again.
As all events that unified space and time streamed in, omniscience neared completion.
Kraaaang!
A dragon's roar, transmitted in binary, reached Shirone's senses and manifested.
Dozens of shattered moons trailed fragments across the sky as meteorites fell.
"Why…?"
Karatorsa, embedded in the earth, writhed and slowly lifted his head.
"Do you intend to annihilate us?"
"Because you are strong."
Argones' voice was cold.
"There are no predictable categories for life, but you have become too strong. You may call it glory."
At first they were merely powerful creatures.
But extreme environments produced tremendous cognitive abilities that fell into infinite regress…
'The source of the world.'
They had reached a stage that dominated phenomena.
"How does that justify extinction?"
"I don't know."
Argones did not know either.
"We exist without reason, and every history is carried out by missions that transcend this world."
"Do you mean the outside world?" Anke Ra had defined everything in this world, but there was one fact he could not know.
Where did I come from?
"Life inherits the genes of predecessors. But Anke Ra is different. Can you imagine the reasoning of a being born from nothing? It's simply a mission. A mission to fill this world with life."
"And if that mission is corrupted someday?"
Argones tilted his head, and after another vast span of time he answered.
"Whatever the whole becomes, that whole is what it is."
"Then what is the meaning of organisms? Only Anke Ra can dream anew. If all life is reset, what are we doing now?"
"...What point are you trying to make?"
"I'm talking about your authority. If such a thing occurs, as the guardian of all life, you can't be entirely blameless."
Anke Ra, Gaia, and Argones were each born with the mission to manage the realms given to them.
'My mission…'
Karatorsa spoke.
"I will protect it."
Argones lifted his head.
"Protect what?"
"Even if Anke Ra dreams a new dream, I will protect the dreams of all life. I will become a herald of time…"
Karatorsa heaved his massive body and, carrying countless dragons on his back, looked down at Argones.
"History will not change."
Argones considered this.
'What a peculiar creature. A mutation? But that too would be causality under the Law.'
He wanted to believe there was a reason for its existence.
"I will watch."
When Argones permitted the preservation of the dragon race and turned away, Taeseong appeared.
"What is it?"
"Good. I'm glad we could protect the children."
Taeseong added with a smile.
"Darling."
"…Hmph."
Leaving a cold reply, Taeseong turned and said,
"See you often."
That was simply the world.
An age that thought of itself as everything, ignorant of the true meaning of its mission.
Shirone continued to receive Omega without end.
At some point, through his ten senses, he perceived an event that would shake this world's foundation.
"It feels all right."
Now that the environment was stable, Argones and Taeseong gazed down at the terrestrial beings.
"Yes. They resemble you."
As humans born from the earth, the men had rough skin while the women were smooth like damp clay.
All bore harsh features; metallic hair fell past their waists, giving them a hardened look.
"Shall we call them Gaia?"
At Argones' words, Taeseong turned his head.
"Is that really okay?"
"Their forms resemble me, but everything in them comes from you. It's better to call them Gaia."
Taeseong was pleased.
"They are our children…"
At that moment Argones' eyes widened and a grave light began to ripple across them.
"What is it?"
Taeseong, sensing the same thing, looked up at the sky, and Shirone matched her gaze.
'It's not the sky.'
Countless flashes—likely originating outside the world—were being shot toward the Gaians.
User code input—link.
The Gaians who received the signal lifted their heads and golden sparks flared in their eyes.
"Krrr!" One man, scowling, quickly calmed and looked around.
"Here? Filthy and desolate. This won't be fun."
A woman with lupine features checked her hands alternately and stepped toward him.
"We're the first. If the missing-link code triggers, everyone will forget anyway, but it still feels uneasy. Usually it completes during the fetal stage."
As other users' memories began to vanish, the woman looked dazed.
"Ah… I'm coming too." The light in her pupils was fading.
"Stay well. See you in the next life." Her memory was cut off, and the man also looked up at the sky, waiting for the time.
"…The beginning of endless reincarnation." Argones approached.
"Who are you?"
When the man turned and smiled, Argones was struck by pure shock.
No being in the world seemed capable of expressing arrogance so perfectly.
'That light in his eyes.' Where did the light that gazed down on all things so contemptuously come from?
'As if saying…'
I am your god.