The Rise to Godhood

Gaia and Kailow were eating grapes in a cave when Thorax ran towards them on all four and started muttering gibberish. They looked at the child-beast in surprise. After finding out that Thorax could chase prey and speak at the age of 1, they had spent less time minding the baby, as Thorax had a different developmental curve than other Zetans.

“A storm… A storm is coming….” Thorax exclaimed.

At first, they didn’t understand what Thorax was talking about. Then they sensed a breeze that increased in intensity, and they heard the faraway noise of thunder and cracking tree trunks. Gaia ran towards a cave entrance, and she looked at the sky. A massive tornado had formed close to the Zeto Crystal’s location, and the skies were dark from stormy clouds.

“A shockwave is coming. Take cover behind that rock.” True Maker instructed.

Gaia picked up Thorax, grabbed Kailow, and exclaimed, “Take cover behind that rock!”

They reached their cover on the brink of time as the shockwave passed above them and flattened the valley.

Gaia looked through her cover after the shockwave had passed. Several Zetan spaceships had arrived.

“Come, let’s look for survivors!” Gaia urged, which prompted Kailow to follow her in the direction of the spaceships.

***

“Oh no! What a disaster.”

Arish felt heartbroken when he returned with a fleet of settlers from Disyerto-2. His calculations had been correct. Arriving from the Divine Dimension unleashed as much energy as it took to reach the dimension. Since he had come with 10,000 tonnes of supplies and manpower, his arrival on Zetani Nova had unleashed the equivalence of a nuclear detonation in the beautiful valley. It was a shame seeing such destruction in the place where he had spent months looking for the Zeto Crystal.

“What happened to the valley?” Areela exclaimed.

“Our arrival from Dihawara Densi started an exotherm reaction equalled our tonnage’s potential energy,” Arish replied.

“What do you mean?” Areela asked.

“We crashed from heaven. Somehow the environment had to take the hit instead of us. I think this is because the energy burst comes before our arrival instead of simultaneously,” Arish explained.

“Why didn’t you warn us about this? Kailow and Thorax were somewhere in the valley. We must find them.” Areela exclaimed.

“We are alright.”

Areela took a deep breath of relief when Gaia, Thorax, and Kailow came running toward her. As demoralising as the destruction of the beautiful valley was, she felt relieved that her kin was unharmed.

“What happened? Why did you blow up the valley?” Kailow asked.

“Ask Arish. Apparently, he forgot to mention that coming here with a large spaceship would set off a massive energy burst.” Areela sniped.

“Uhm, don’t blame me. I can’t know what will happen with new, untested technology.” Arish replied.

“What are you talking about? You ran several tests on Disyerto-2.” Areela replied.

“Never on this scale. I couldn’t risk flattening our city.” Arish replied.

Gaia zoned out from the Zetans argument. As sad as the destruction of the valley was, it was temporary. Besides, the settlers would have cut down a large part of the forest to build their settlement in any case.

A more urgent problem reached Gaia’s mind. What had happened to the Zeto Crystal when the shockwave flattened the valley? They needed the Zeto Crystal to get this colony up and running.

“We need to hurry to the Zeto Crystal’s resting place. I sense that the crystal might have gone missing.”

Having exclaimed this, Gaia grabbed Kailow and hurried to Zeto Crystal’s resting place with the others in tow.

***

“Oh no! The mountain collapsed from the shockwave.”

Gaia felt heartbroken when she saw how the shockwave from the explosion had collapsed the cave that hid the Zeto Crystal. While the crystal itself was indestructible, it would take a lot of time to excavate the mountain to find it. Time was of the essence, as there were less than two years until humanity would go extinct.

Fearing that she wouldn’t be able to save her species, Gaia collapsed, and she was inconsolable for the rest of the day.