"With that, we should be done."

In the end, my solution to the problem turned out to be slightly different than what I initially imagined. Instead of just shielding the budding civilisations from the great filter aimed at eradicating them, I decided to send several tens of copies of mine to each of the promising worlds. Rather than acting from the level of an all-powerful being, I decided to bring change from the ground up.

In general, great filters weren't a physical thing. It wasn't some kind of apocalyptic being attempting to eradicate all life. It was just a name given to a natural occurrence that early civilisations could not survive. Back during my life on earth, humanity had yet to officially make any contact with an alien civilisation. And the great filter theory aimed at explaining this lack of other forms of life in the universe.

Raising the blob of energy that made up my imaginary head, I cast a long look at the planet that my aura was looming over. With over two hundred copies of me descending to the surface, I didn't have to worry about anything at all. Because I wasn't going to intervene right away.

Instead of attempting to change entire planets with powerful but small units of men, I modified those copies accordingly for their task. The task of using only a shred of their power and knowledge to establish ruling classes over every major tribe or nation on the entire planet. By the time either the actions of the local populace or some natural event would bring forth the collapse of the local civilisation, the bloodline in those households would force its holders to counteract the apocalypse.

In human terms, the closest that my earthy kind ever came to the tangible idea of great filter, was during the cold war period. With nukes pointed at each other, if that arsenal was unloaded on the face of the planet, nearly no life would prevail. If all the life around the universe followed the same path of development and technology, that would mean all of the races across the vast sea of stars would reach for the military use of nuclear power.

And at that point, it was easy to imagine that nuclear doomsday would be the ultimate and uniform end to all life, no matter its origin. Observing the greenish atmosphere of the planet that I just finished fine-tuning, I couldn't help but smile. Distancing my point of vision away by entire galaxies away, I scanned the universe around me with all my might.

Not just by observing the space around me. All at once, I pulled in the results of observation conducted by myriads upon myriads of my other-selves. Instantly overflown with the vast array of insane images, I felt as if the entire universe concentrated on this central copy of myself. At this point, rather than being the original of myself, I was just a shared ego created from all the minute changes appearing in every single clone of mine.

Watching over the universe that I created and breathed life into, I suddenly felt slightly content. Even though I still had this big quest of mine to return to Eve's side, I couldn't deny all the good work that I did around myself. Maybe it was just me being used to temporarily parting ways with my dearest, but as much as I longed to return to her arms, I couldn't ignore what surrounded me.

Looking down on all the planets where life suddenly received a syringe worth of guidance and protection, I felt as if my mental image of myself smiled. With no body to speak off, this was just a slight notion in my inhuman brain, flashing as quickly as the dying stars would fade into darkness.

At this moment, I suddenly thought about one thing. Even when separated in different universes, my shared cultivation with Eve should be a thing. If that was the case, would feel the changes in my emotional state through this link? Or did I turn into something entirely else already, eradicating this last link that could possibly connect me with her?

Mentally shaking my head, I suddenly stopped on this track. What if this link still existed and could be used to build a bridge to her world? What if I could send a single copy of myself to help her get stronger and join me in this strange universe?

Sadly, as quickly as this thought appeared, one of my many copies brought his magical eyes down, right on the surface of the planet it was overseeing. Even though there was no plausible way for my central self to notice any difference, but the local me could easily do it. With this in mind, the image I saw was already reflected by the knowledge only shared by that local self of mine.

And on this image, I could see a world that was on barely a tribal level, already entering the age of discovery. From the looks of things, the history from the earth was repeating on all the planets that nearly instantly caught up to this level of development. With the households of my bloodline only awakening in times of need, I could see how any semblance of the past, god-given wisdom was already gone.

Gone in the sea of philosophies, schemes, politics and stories made by the local population. Even if some shreds of the knowledge that the first generation of my copies passed down remained, they were at most just a bit of folk sayings, not taken seriously in the worlds now already entering the age of information.

In what seemed like just a short flash, the early civilisations reached their maturity. Some spread out to their solar systems, others throughout their galaxies. Only a few managed to reach the theorised fifth level on the Kardashev's scale, governing over entire local groups of galaxy clusters. But thankfully, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find any omega type of civilisation, powerful enough to challenge my ultimate control over this universe.

But soon, even with the interventions of the descendants of my copies, all of those civilisations started to fall. While it instantly filled me with all the knowledge they ever gathered with the last line of my copies returning to the hive, it also meant that some level was impossible to break.

Even when the third generation born out of the remnants of the second wave reached the peak of its development, I was still stuck in the exact same place as I was before starting the entire thing. And then it dawned upon me. How could I expect the local life to be tough enough to find the answer to the question I could answer myself if they were given a handicap from the get-go?

The reason why I put and still controlled clones of myself in all the living worlds was to prevent the civilisations from vanishing. But now, with each of the new form of life benefitting from the knowledge of the previous ones, maybe I should reverse that trend?

Maybe what those worlds required to breed beings capable of shattering the shackles that held me in this world, wasn't a hero or a group of leaders.

Maybe what all those worlds needed, was the appearance of a villain?