Chapter 94: Genesis II: The Imperfect Creation

"Out of boredom, the original being had to find something that could change that perfection, something that could change the world and the laws it had created itself."

"Quantimanas," Freya said, understanding what Aria was explaining.

"That’s exactly it, Freya. Variables inside the perfection of creation, variables to the laws, which through those variables make it possible to change what cannot be changed."

"So mana isn’t there to create the spell, but to alter a law of the world for a few moments and create something out of nothing, something that shouldn’t be possible, which makes whatever’s missing from the equation irrelevant."

"That’s right. Without the laws of the world, if you go around them, the logic of an equation, the balance of the world, none of it holds any meaning anymore. In a sense, thanks to quantimanas, we take the same place you do," she said, gesturing at Freya, then at the golden universe, "outside the universe and therefore outside its laws. There’s an image I’m rather fond of, actually. Mana simply rewrites what happens. Take that wall, for instance. It never existed, that quantity of stone never existed in the perfect universe, but in the imperfect one, thanks to the variables of the quantimanas altering the course of things, it becomes as though it had always been there, because the immutable universe has been rewritten by them."

Freya couldn’t hold back a sound of amazement, mana kept revealing more depth the further they went, and all of it made sense at the same time, since without the laws of the universe, matter had no limit, no duration, no creation and no end, none of that was defined at all.

Then, remembering her dungeon’s mana core, something caught in her mind again in light of this conversation.

"My dungeon’s mana core, mine in other words, is an entity outside the universe?"

"Yes, you’ve understood it perfectly, Freya."

"I see..."

And there it was, everything made sense, why the dungeon core generated a new quantity of quantimanas at each upgrade rather than every day, because it knew, within immutable time, within that already-written point of the universe, it already knew exactly how much would need to be created to last until the system’s next upgrade, at which point it would generate enough quantimanas all over again to supply enough mana points each day until the upgrade after that.

Which set it apart from her miniature mana core in the proliferation reactor, that one being bound by the laws of the universe, exactly as its description had stated.

On top of that, it also explained why the two phenomena hadn’t been entirely alike.

Aria, who had given her mistress time to lose herself in her thoughts, picked the explanation back up when she saw her gaze return.

"But there was still a problem. It didn’t matter that it had created a new variable, if it breathed that variable into the universe itself, it would change nothing, because it would still know how everything would unfold. So it thought, over and over, in the place where time did not pass... well, I say place, but it wasn’t really a place, because..."

"Hmm... hmm..." She cleared her throat once more. "In any case, I’m drifting again. So the being came to the conclusion that it needed someone to support it, someone who wouldn’t be itself, and who would manage how that variable played out. And so it created a being—"

Freya cut her off.

"The World Tree."

"Yes, that’s right, or the cosmic entity, or whatever name you’d like to give it. The one who, once created, was given the task of inserting that variable into the world. And so it created something to help beings adapt to that variable and handle it better. The System."

"So even my System?"

Aria shook her head.

"The Dungeon Lord System is something else. I don’t know why it was created, I don’t know by whom, and I don’t even know its limits."

"Okay! Okay! Okay! That’s a lot to take in. So if I sum it up, the original being, out of boredom, created a variable to change the immutable universe it already knew inside out, working through an entity it had created, which in turn created the System to assign favorability, affinity and everything else to the beings of the universe."

"That’s correct."

"But hold on... hold on..." said Freya, raising both hands. "When you say all the beings of the universe, you don’t just mean this planet?"

"That’s right, Freya. Across the multitude of worlds and planets, every being has access to the System, as far as I know."

"SO ALIENS EXIST?!"

"Yes, after all, within the infinity of the universe—"

"HAHAHAAH! I knew it! I knew it!" Freya couldn’t stop herself from bursting out laughing.

She raised one arm toward the ceiling of her prison, index finger pointed at the stone, head tipped back.

"I told you so, Luna! You were always far too down-to-earth, that was always your problem!"

She let herself fall back against her chair, one hand on her stomach, laughing for a while longer before catching her breath and shaking her head.

Aria watched her without saying anything, hands still folded in front of her, waiting for her mistress to come back to the discussion in her own time.

Freya, for her part, was looking at the small golden point floating between them, the one holding an entire universe, and she let her gaze rest on it while her thoughts settled back into place.

She went back over everything Aria had just explained to her, the original being, the boredom, the variables, the World Tree, the System, and she felt that familiar warmth that learning something new always brought her.

She eventually straightened up a little in her chair, crossed her legs, and her breathing calmed completely.

Then, armed with a dreamy smile, she carried on with another question.

"And where do the deities fit into all this? Given that this world has them, what’s their role?"

"An excellent question!"

She let a pause settle before speaking in a calm, measured voice so that Freya would follow properly.

"The original being was capable of perfect creations, like the universe. But the cosmic entity didn’t have the original being’s talent, so its System, its creation that was meant to be perfect, turned out imperfect."

"Which is how certain beings, instead of borrowing quantimana in order to seize a single instant of a law, were able to do it permanently, reaching the very peak of the System within their domain and therefore surpassing it, rising above it."

Freya understood what she was getting at.

"Which makes sense in the end, with Nymeria’s children."

"Exactly. Gods are nothing more than beings who have surpassed the System in one domain, and who are called that by everyone as a result. They aren’t literally gods, they’re simply beings who have transcended the System. Gaïra, for example, is simply a healer who manipulates the quantimana of life, and who transcended the System in that domain, and therefore controls the law of life, and through that earned the title of goddess of life over time."

"Aaaaaah... that makes sense! It all connects... But if the original being can create perfect beings, why wasn’t the World Tree created perfectly, so that the System couldn’t be surpassed or transcended?"

"And that’s where it gets fun, Freya!"

A smile spread across her face as she continued.

"Nobody knows, not even me! But we can narrow it down to two possibilities."

She raised one finger.

"One. The original being was touched by boredom, which raises the question, are its creations truly perfect, if it isn’t entirely perfect itself?"

She raised a second finger.

"Two. That was its perfect way of creating the perfect being, one that by being imperfect would surprise the original being and pull it out of its boredom."

"WOOOW! But if it’s the first one, that calls everything into question?!"

"Exactly, and that’s what makes it so beautiful. Knowledge that may not be knowledge at all."

Aria closed her eyes as she said it, and a shiver ran through her body, her shoulders rising, her fingers tightening on the fabric of her apron, her breathing stopping for a moment before starting again more slowly.

She opened her eyes with that same smile, her cheeks slightly flushed.

Freya watched her without a word, and her own smile faded.

If knowledge had led the original being to boredom, was Aria, the demon servant of knowledge of rank SSS, touched by that same curse?

Was her strength also a wound that condemned her to something dull, a life without surprise, so that the moment something escaped her understanding, like now, or like me, my existence, my System, it made her shiver with pleasure?

Does she love me because I’m Freya? Or because she knows nothing about me?

"Aria..."

The demon stopped shivering and refocused on her mistress, waiting for her words, for her next question, but Freya hesitated, and hesitated again, wondering how she could put it without hurting the woman she loved so much.

"I— I..."

THUD

THUD

THUD

Aria, who was already looking toward the sound of the footsteps, turned back to Freya one more time.

No.

She bowed slightly, one hand on the front of her apron.

No, wait, Aria...

Freya wanted to speak, but the words stayed lodged in her throat, all their weight gone.

Aria came closer quickly, then kissed her forehead, while Freya’s arms went around her to hold her there.

No!

And she evaporated in her arms, the same way the bird, Aria’s familiar, had vanished back then.

"Wait—"