Tree of Worlds

Bigwood stared at the towering tree before him. Its trunk stretches infinitely from top to bottom, with no end in sight. On its infinite branches lies countless fruits containing a myriad of worlds and universes. Some of these fruits glowed with light while most others are dim and grey.

Despite his size that spanned a few galaxies, Bigwood's body was still dwarfed by the sheer size of the tree. Even after countless trillions of eons spent observing the tree, Bigwood still could not find where the tree ends. Every time that he felt like he had seen all the tree has to offer, Bigwood would always find countless of new things that he has never observed before.

Bigwood has already lost count of how long he had spent floating around. As the only conscious immortal being that has finally managed to break free from the shackles of the tree of worlds, the concept of time is not really that important to him. Also, Bigwood suspects that the tree of worlds itself is probably free from the constraints of something as petty as time.

Bigwood still remembered when he was still a mortal who cared about time. He was living in a universe contained in one of these fruits of the tree. At that time, he still cared about love and honor, life and death.

How petty those things were! The moment he first laid eyes on the tree of worlds, Bigwood knew that all of the various concepts that he deemed to be important are nothing. Nothing at all compares to the splendor of the tree.

This is because the tree holds all of the myriad worlds. It holds all of the various universes and dimensions. How can anything compare when the tree itself already represents both everything and nothing all at the same time? Existing, yet not existing, that is the tree of worlds. The tree that holds everything together.

That was why Bigwood decided to spend an eternity to observing the tree. Every moment, he would float around the infinite branches of the tree of worlds as he soaked in the various happenings of the countless worlds. Boredom is impossible as there are infinite things that he could see. Infinite things that he can experience.

"Oh? A world undergoing its first tribulation? That's rare," Bigwood said as he saw one of the fruits that he had just passed by was flickering with light.

When Bigwood gets near it, the fruit that was flickering glowed brightly as it became one of the rare glowing fruits on the tree. Bigwood stared at it for a while before he chuckled. He had seen a universe like this one before.

"So, the only sapient being in this world are humans huh? To think that a single race that is still stuck in its home planet would have the chance to undergo the tribulation. Would they be called lucky or unlucky?" Bigwood said as he looked at the glowing fruit with interest.

Of course, Bigwood only had a slight interest. He had seen countless worlds undergo the tribulation before. Heck, he even went through the tribulation in his original world back when he was still a mortal. The only reason why he stopped to look at the newly glowing fruit was only because it doesn't really happen that often.

Just when Bigwood was about to move on to other fruits, the fruit that just recently glowed suddenly changed.

It was a very subtle change that didn't look like it even happened at all, but Bigwood noticed it. As long as he is close to the tree, no changes can ever escape Bigwood's eyes. Immediately, he decided to focus most of his attention on the glowing fruit.

The fruit was still glowing as usual, but Bigwood realized that there was now a tiny black dot on its surface. The black dot was strange as it was growing and shrinking at a rapid pace. It looked as if the dot did not know what size it was supposed to be.

"A time paradox brought about by time travel? And it seems to be caused by some powerful time god from the future sending someone back to the past? Interesting," Bigwood smiled as his interest was piqued by the shifting black dot.

Suddenly, the fruit turned all black and startled Bigwood. The fruit stayed black for a short while before it turned back into its glowing form. However, Bigwood did not leave it alone like he did earlier.

"A small time paradox actually completely changed all of the laws of this universe? How can it be?" Bigwood said as he closely examined the universe contained in the glowing fruit.

"Could it be? The birth of a new Overgod? But that's impossible. There is no way something as petty as a time paradox can lead to the birth of a new Overgod! Unless..." Bigwood said as he took a real close look at the glowing fruit.

Suddenly, Bigwood laughed, "Hahahaha! I should have known! There is no way that a universe's Overgod would suddenly be born just because of some time paradox."

"But to think that this particular universe with its backward civilization actually has the potential to create this kind of being. How scary. That being probably wasn't even supposed to stay alive that long, yet the time paradox had allowed him to survive till it reach this point. How interesting," Bigwood said.

Bigwood suddenly stared at the fruit as his eyes focused inside the universe straight into looking at a young man sitting bored in class, "To be so strong that you threaten the foundation of your universe's laws itself. Even if you are not the Overgod, there is no doubt that you are at least as strong if not stronger than the Overgod. Coupled with the fact that you are not bound by the laws like the Overgod does, you are definitely a frightening existence."

For beings in a universe that can rival the Overgod, Bigwood had only seen it in five different universes. Considering the fact that he had seen almost an infinite amount of universes, those five different beings are special even in the various worlds that the tree holds. To see another of those beings born because of a petty time paradox, Bigwood counted himself lucky.

"Let me see what you can do. Show me an existence that can rival the strongest being in a universe!" Bigwood said excitedly as he decided to focus most of his attention on observing the strange youth projected in the fruit.