Pleistocene_767
Legacy Name: Pleistocene_767

Not knowing Death's name, Night called out in search of the planets' creator... But his call was answered by someone else.

Death did not know what his name meant. In the previous universe, everyone was immortal. Thus, in vain, he tried to create life. From magma he tried to create his first creature, but the being hardened into rock as it was finished. From clouds he tried to create another, however as the clouds transformed they became heavy and the creature sank into the sea.

Feeling defeated, Death came back to seek his twin brother Rebirth, who had answered the calls of Night. He asked Rebirth to aid him in the creation of a living being. They then flew to the north and from the little snow that had already begun to fall, Death painstakingly worked on his masterpiece. Every crease and gentle curve was well thought of...

At last, the creature was done... a beautiful gryphon of ice. But what was once ice would then become warm with the flow of blood. Rebirth stepped forward and breathed unto the sculpture and slowly- from beak to the very tip of the tail- the sharp shards of ice transformed into soft feathers. Born was Vanbara.

Content with their work and confident that this creation could stand the cold, Death and Rebirth flew back to where they had met with Night and Time. The twins were about to rest for the night when suddenly Rebirth, who was the much weaker one of the two, finally succumbed to the effects of staying in the cold for too long and died. Realizing what 'death' was, Night became furious and along with Time left Death to weep alone.

After dusk, Death went out to sea carrying his brother's lifeless body, and then gave Rebirth to the waves once he couldn't go any further. Tears in his eyes, he trudged back to land to find a place where he could rest.

He then settled in a cave not far from the bay. With so much uncertainty- Who would make life now?- and so much sorrow, it was impossible for Death to sleep.

He sighed.

"Death is a terrible name."

Thump.

She opened her eyes to see him charging at the wall.

"Stop... Just, stop, Pleis-"

The gryphon turned around for a moment. "No, Encia." He then continued in his attempt to escape. "No. Just, no."

"You can't break an orb from the inside." hissed another dragoness, sitting in a pile of fallen feathers. "I've been stuck here even before the previous universe ended."

A furry dragon, Vincule, lying beside Encia, raised his head. "She has a point, Pleis-"

I didn't ask for your opinion, you beast."

The dragon's face turned deep red, "You have been banging your head on that wall since we first got here! Don't you think that's enough?"

The gryphon huffed. "...You are failures! Both of you! How could he have made something useful out of air and rocks? Maybe you can't, but I am str-"

"Hush." boomed the dragoness. "... A creature of magma, a creature of clouds, a creature of ice..." she stared at them intently as she mentioned them. "Two 'failed,' while one came to life as it was finished... "

"I do not know if this makes you anymore powerful than Encia or Vincule. But it doesn't matter."

"You were born only during this universe... I was born in the previous universe... Night and Time, like I did, also stored their spirits in an orb very similar to this."

"But Time and Night first came to be before there was life. Their essence is one so old that an orb would struggle just to keep part of it. While Paliatis, born under the name Contradiction, has experienced things so different, so radically life-changing that no orb can contain his essence."

"Why do I tell you this? Let me explain why I ended up trapped here..."

She looked at Pleistocene. "Do you know why Paliatis decided to give you some of his knowledge?"

The gryphon shook his head.

"Paliatis was the God of Emotion in the previous universe, as you already know." the dragoness sat up in her pile of fallen feathers. "When he became a new emotion, he gave the emotion he was previously back to the universe so that all may experience what he felt."

"But the universe cannot comprehend emotion. It messed everything. So when the previous universe ended Paliatis took back all emotion from the universe. But he didn't want to carry the burden of emotion anymore."

"Which is why he gave away these emotions and knowledge the first chance he had- when he saw you roaming mindlessly in the snow."

The gryphon pondered, "...Well, what does Paliatis have to do with you being trapped here?"

"...In a way, he trapped me."

"He trapped you?"

Her eyes narrowed. "In a way. Yes... When the previous universe ended... there was a problem."

"A problem?"

"The universe ended unexpectedly early. This caused distortion of energy, which could mean that what took several universes to create- Life, Time, everything you see... might have been ripped apart. To save ourselves, we had to force a bit of our energies into these powerful orbs- Orbs that are so powerful they can survive into the next universe."

"Night and Time would have had no problem escaping these orbs once we made it here. But they were very, very old souls, as I have said. I wasn't; I was only born in the previous universe. The orb I trapped myself in was too powerful for me to break out of, and I believe Paliatis knew that- but he refused to tell Night and Time... He took my orb with him as the previous universe ended."

"And then, he lost it. He lost my orb. He spent the next few million years looking for it not realizing that Death had found it before he did. He could have just... told me that I wouldn't be able to escape. But no. When Death got his hands on my orb he made sure Paliatis wouldn't be able to find it. You see, I'm not the only one who held a grudge against Paliatis. Death had problems with him too, though I don't know why. Death didn't know I was in the orb, but all he knew that this orb was very important to Paliatis."

"So while you three created the life that he wasn't able to create, Death tried to study the orb, and Paliatis was roaming across the universe searching for it. But Death found what he was looking for first. He couldn't walk up to Paliatis or Night and ask them what the orb was."

"But he had you three. His three precious creations. Slowly, Paliatis would leak out details about the orb, and You, Encia, and Vincule would end up passing bits of this information to Death whenever you visited him and talked with him."

Vincule shuddered. He was the one who talked with his creator most often.

"He learned that this orb, this seemingly normal gemstone we are in, was the single most powerful orb remaining. Because of the distortion that happened before the previous universe ended, all the great energy that had been stored in these orbs was ripped apart. Time and Night's orbs were broken once they entered the new universe. But this orb wasn't broken. Neither was it ripped apart by the distortion. I believe that, in the same way this orb prevented me from being destroyed, the presence of my soul here also protected the orb. I.. I don't know why... I'm not sure... But that is the only thing I can think of."

"Anyway, Death was saving this orb for the opportunity... To bribe Paliatis for whatever reason...."

"But he realized that he couldn't win. Paliatis told Encia that he was capable of bestowing immortality."

"And then, we three ended up getting trapped here when..."

"When Encia blessed all life with the ability to create life on their own..." the dragoness looked up, "Death thought you three had no more duties to fulfill. He wanted to protect you three even though you were all very powerful and immortal. You three were the only ones who neither hated or feared him. His twin brother was long gone- He couldn't stand to loose you."

"Even if it meant taking away your freedom... and he had the one thing capable of trapping the three of you."

The nameless dragoness sank back into her pile of feathers. "Now I hope you understand." Vincule and Encia remained quiet. Pleistocene sighed, and slowly turned his body to face the wall of the orb again.

"This orb can only be broken if it was smashed from the outside."

He remained there motionless, staring at the wall of the orb, and bowed his head in defeat. Thump. Hang on. He felt something...

A crack on the orb's wall glowed brightly. "Yes... yes!" He felt bits of his very presence trying to rush out of the crack... But then the light coming from the crack became dimmer, and the crack closed itself before the gryphon could have a taste of freedom.

He stared at where the crack had once been and shook. All his work, gone. He sank."You're right... Encia."

Closing his eyes, he sighed. "I should've just... stopped..."