Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

Everything happened so quickly that by the time Anna reacted, it was already over.

Watching her son being struck not once, but twice by two different bolts of lightning then collapsing to the ground almost caused her heart to stop. At that moment, Anna had no other thought than to rush to Lucas’ side and see if he was even still breathing.

Anna charged headlong into the still warped space in front of her, and the instant she did, she felt her entire body being twisted and stretched in impossible ways.

The pain was intense, more so than anything she had ever encountered in her life. Not even during her adventuring days, where she, her husband, and their best friends were frequently exposed to danger, had Anna experienced something so agonizing.

However, none of that registered with her as she was willing to endure any kind of torment if she could just reach her child a moment sooner.

Unfortunately for her, moving through the distorted space proved much more difficult than she had imagined.

It was like trying to swim through mud, and every step she took required at least 10 times more effort than normal. On top of that, with every breath that passed, Anna could feel a strange force penetrating her body.

This force was somewhat like World Qi that she normally absorbed in order to cultivate, but instead of being light and refreshing, it was sharp and gave her a tingling sensation that seemed to eat away at her body.

Red-eyed and breathing heavily, Anna continued to push her way forward with desperate determination, refusing to back down or retreat; but in the end, she was only able to take a dozen or so steps before she was forced to her knees.

Unresigned, Anna struggled to get to her feet, and when she failed to do so, she began to crawl, still refusing to give in.

As if the Heavens had witnessed her determination and were pleased with what they saw, just as Anna was about to pass out from the strain, the pressure surrounding her disappeared, space returned to normal, and the tingling sensation she felt began to ebb.

Finally able to breath normally again, Anna gasped for air as she stood up shakily and began stumbling forward, reaching Lucas moments later.

Bending down, she hurriedly rolled her son onto his back and was horror-stricken, for all she saw through the blood on his face was a pair of dull, lifeless eyes.

Immediately, she feared the worst, but just as she felt her heart being crushed, she noticed that despite his absent gaze, her little son’s chest was rising and falling in a shallow manner.

He’s still breathing! He’s alive!

Only those thoughts ran through Anna’s mind for a moment before she shook her head hard and began bandaging Lucas’ wounds. It didn’t matter to her what state he was in as long as he was alive. She would treat him and bring him back home first, then worry about everything else later.

Ripping off Lucas’ torn and bloodied shirt, she tossed the rag away before tearing her own sleeve and using it to wrap up his still bleeding injuries.

After dressing his wounds as best she could, Anna scooped her son up and dashed off towards town, praying to the Gods and Heavens above to preserve her precious boy’s life.

.....

Whether it was several seconds or several hours later, Trevor Ashford could no longer tell, but against all odds, he had somehow managed to collect every last piece of the young boy’s Soul he could find.

In the process of putting the boy’s Soul back together, Trevor had involuntarily learned a great deal about this boy named Lucas and the world he lived in.

He was 9 years old today and the only child of a pair of loving parents.

Trevor belatedly also realized something strange, namely that Lucas was human. If the theories were correct, he had traveled through the Spatial Tear to another universe, yet on the other side what he found wasn’t some alien environment, but an ordinary looking world populated by humans.

Technologically backwards human, no doubt, but humans all the same.

Aside from the obvious gap in the development of their civilizations, the biggest difference in this world that Trevor gleaned from Lucas’ memories was that the inhabitants of this world were able to draw in something called ’World Qi’ which could be used to strengthen themselves to a seemingly inhuman degree.

The properties of this World Qi actually reminded Trevor somewhat of Exotic Essence, only less potent, or perhaps less toxic.

It was all fascinating to contemplate.

Different universe, same species.

World Qi, Exotic Essence, Spatial Tears.

What did it all mean?

What was the connection?

Perhaps if Trevor could unravel all these mysteries, he would be able to explain what was happening to his home, maybe even stop it, but unfortunately, that was not meant to be.

All of this, as enlightening as it felt, was just a last brilliant flash of light before his life came to an end, offering him no practical benefit whatsoever.

Rather than contemplating the secrets of the multiverse, though, Trevor had a more immediately issue to deal with, one that he once again had no idea how to solve.

He had acted as swiftly as possible to collect all of Lucas’ Soul fragments, and by bringing them together and shuffling them several times he had mostly pieced the boy’s Soul back together, but it seemed that some damage remained.

I’ve probably absorbed about 2% of his Soul by accident, while 80% of it has fused together into a large whole. The remaining pieces represent another 15% or so, while 3% is simply gone, probably dissipated before I could collect it, Trevor Ashford estimated.

He also guessed that while Lucas would likely survive now even if he did nothing more, only the large 80% piece of the boys Soul would remain stable while the remaining 15% would quickly dissolve the moment he stopped ’holding’ it with his own Soul.

As for what the consequences of losing a total of 20% of one’s Soul were, Trevor had no idea, but he assumed they wouldn’t be good.

At a loss for what to do now, and running out of both time and strength, Trevor Ashford had no choice but to randomly experiment in hopes of finding a solution.

Taking two of the smaller remaining pieces of Lucas’ Soul, Trevor tried to roll and kneed them together like a ball of bread dough, a process he was actually quite familiar with, but this only resulted in them temporarily sticking before quickly separating again.

Next, Trevor tried to compress the pieces together, but he quickly stopped as this actually resulted in parts of the young boy’s Soul wearing down and disappearing.

No matter what method he tried, the result was always either temporary, or harmful to Lucas’ Soul.

Just as he was running out of ideas, though, Trevor noticed something.

Right outside the region he controlled with his own Soul, he saw a cluster of fragments still locked in place, despite him not holding onto them.

These wisps must have slipped from his grasp as he was slowly losing strength, but surprisingly, the remnant energy of his Soul seemed to now be acting as a kind of adhesive, possibly even nourishing Lucas’ Soul.

Reaching out and grabbing this newly formed piece, Trevor Ashford discovered something astonishing. Mixed in with Lucas’ Soul, which seemed to be an amalgamation of memories, feelings, and emotions, were some of his own memories!

It seemed that after his emotions and sense of self, his ’will’ or ’consciousness’ if you will, completely broke down, what remained was his raw experiences and information, almost like a written record or video of some kind, along with some type of pure energy which made up the structure of his Soul.

Seeing this situation, Trevor Ashford came up with a plan.

Quickly arranging all the remaining pieces of Lucas’ Soul as close together as possible, a total of about 95%, Lt. Ashford enveloped the entire mass with what remained of his Soul and held everything tightly in place.

Then, he simply waited for the end to come.

It was the simplest and crudest course of action he could take, and one he would never be able to confirm succeeded or not, but it was all he could do.

As he ’sat’ there, silently enduring the sensation of fading into oblivion, Trevor Ashford felt oddly at peace with himself.

He was born into an ordinary family to ordinary parents who ran an old-fashioned boutique shop on Acadia, but unfortunately, he lived in un-ordinary times.

After losing everyone in his family with the exception of his little sister, Trevor strove to do his best to help mankind, but what he could contribute was minimal at best.

Still, at the very end, he managed to save many lives and protect hope for humanity back in his home universe. On top of that, it seemed he was now going to be able to give hope to a young boy from another universe as well.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to go.

After giving it a thought, Trevor Ashford began ’talking’ to himself, ”Hey kid, I don’t know if you’ll ever get to hear this, but if you do, first of all, I’m sorry. I can’t say for certain, but the accident that befell you in the forest on your 9th birthday was probably a direct result of the experiments my people were conducting.”

”I know it doesn’t make it right, but please understand that we never meant to cause you or your family any harm; we were simply trying to find a way to save ourselves.”

Pausing for a moment, Trevor couldn’t help wondering what he was doing. It wasn’t like he had any emotional attachments to Lucas, nor was there any reason he needed to explain himself as he would soon pass away.

Perhaps he simply wanted to leave behind some record of himself, or perhaps he just wanted to do something to pass the time. Whatever the case, he had nothing better to do, so he continued, ”I’m not certain what I’m doing right now will save you, or what side-effects will remain if I am successful, but my death was inevitable even before we met, so regardless of the outcome, know that I chose to do this freely, so you have nothing you need to feel sorry about.”

”I don’t know what your future holds, but from what I’ve learned from your memories, you, and this world you live in, have an unlimited capacity for growth. Unlimited possibilities lie before you, so I encourage you to not let this unfortunate incident stop you from moving forward and chasing your dreams.”

Sensing he only had a few seconds left before he faded away forever, Trevor Ashford decided to make a request of the young boy he had never met, but now knew incredibly well, ”If my guess is right, you will inherit a large part of my knowledge and memories”

”Most of it probably won’t make sense to you, and I have no idea if any of it will be useful in your life, but if one day you do manage to decipher them and make them your own, and if by some chance you find your way to my homeland, I hope you can look for my family, and if possible, take care of them a bit.”

As if he was drifting off to sleep, with the last of his strength, Lt. Ashford quietly muttered, ”Goodbye Lucas... I leave the rest up to fate...”