Chapter 0: The Logic of Genesis ― Harmony Genesis ―

It was not darkness, but only a "nameless silence" that filled the world.

There was no sound, no color, no wind,
and not even the flow of time existed.

Only a deep, endless,
sleep-like universe lay quietly.

In the depths of that silence,
the first "breath" was born.

The roots of the World Tree touched the unsolidified earth,
conveying a secret tremor.

It was the fetal movement of the ley lines.

The pulsation, resembling the writhing of a dragon,
eventually came to harbor a single will.

Chisemoshiri—
The "Dragon of the Earth" that pierces the planet,
absorbing all pain and heartbeats.

Next, light flickered in the depths of the universe.
The twinkling of the stars gathered,
becoming a single "flow."

That was the first thing to give the world
a rhythm.

It was the beginning of time.

The fluctuation became a thread,
the thread became a flow,
and the flow eventually came to harbor a will.

Astraleon—
The entity that governs time,
giving "order" to all events.

Thus, the world was supported
by two logics: the earth and time.

However, the gods had
one constraint they could not overcome.

—They could not directly interfere with the world.

The pain of budding life,
the sparks of conflict,
the screams of the era,
and even the fate of hatred.

They could only watch.

That constraint eventually brought "distortion" to the world.
The earth screamed,
time unraveled,
and souls began to lose their place.

So, the gods quietly made a decision.

They would not create the world itself,
but rather an entity that would sing in the "interstices" between worlds.

It would be
neither a god,
nor a human,
nor a fluctuation.

The only "voice"
that could hear the pain of the earth,
the fraying of time,
and the trembling of souls.

—In the depths of the darkness, a transparent singing voice was born.

That was Kurenai.

Her first song
calmed the screams of the earth,
straightened the flow of time,
and gently stitched the wounds of souls.

However, that voice
did not only heal.

At times it burned,
at times it pierced,
and at times it forced a choice for the future.

Pregnant with both emotion and logic,
it was the most bewitching and dangerous voice in the world.

As an entity of the "interstices," Kurenai
was given the role of traversing eras
and guiding souls.

And then, at the end of distant time,
in a certain era, a single soul
began to respond to Kurenai's voice.

That soul
lived like a flame,
carried loneliness,
and possessed an intense will
to change the world.

There is no need to speak
the name of that human here.

Only—
when the two souls meet again,
the world will advance to the next layer.

The only future the gods could foresee
was just that one point.

Spun when the world did not yet have words,
this is
the story of the beginning of "The Land of Soaring Heavens."

My recent thoughts and expressions can be found here
→ "I am a human who survived."