Seeing how the shockwaves had destroyed almost the whole ecosystem on earth Ben decided to step in. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to wait for it to grow back but he decided to explore more of his vast powers. In his ‘early’ days with these abilities all Ben did was create something out of nothing, he didn’t really use any of the other qualities he possesses.

This time Ben wanted to accelerate the flow of time, for Ben who is a being of unlimited power playing with time is easy enough and the mortal consequences don’t apply to him. Time is a complex network of events onto which we project sequences of past, present and future and with the explanation of how you can also see time as a river you can easily manipulate it. Time is relative after all.

Humanity has associated time with the passing of certain events such as the circular motion of the moon around Earth though it is still a concept that cannot be solely dependent on certain events. Which could make time something subjective instead of a law of the fabric of reality.

Ben’s brain can see faster than time and see beyond it, mortal brains can simply not cope with seeing outside of time, their brains simply don’t function fast enough or have enough memory storage. The brain might have a few petabytes of memory storage but one moment outside of time could amount up to multiple times that, this simply makes it impossible for a mortal to observe outside of time.

To Ben this all made sense as he understood everything almost immediately, it was all because his brain can keep up with everything. This was also the reason why Ben could accept things that most people would freak out over. Why worry when your brain has already processed everything.1

Ben’s neutral expression changed as he stretched out his right arm, his hand in a grasping motion. It seemed as if Ben was trying to grab onto something that wasn’t there. Ben was in full concentration mode as he was trying to grab onto this invisible stream. To Ben it was annoying as it kept slipping out of his so-called grasp but to others something mystical was happening.

Surrounding Ben was a green light which gave off a presence of danger, this was a message to everyone that what Ben was doing was something incredibly dangerous. This light was flowing steadily around Ben surrounding his body but where the light shone brightest was inside the grasp of Ben's hand.

Everything was silent as Ben continued trying to grasp what is the concept of time. He had never done something like this before so he is bound to not get it right instantly, he isn’t perfect after all.

Ben's usual way of doing things was just to do things first and then think about it later, and most of the time it consisted of Ben using raw power instead of a strategy. So far it has worked splendidly for Ben as he has yet to regret any of his actions, to regret is to stay in the past after all and people need to move on.

Ben's sudden grasp of the green light hardened and even a faint vein was seen on his hand to show how much Ben strength Ben was exerting out on the light. With the sudden increase in pressure the green light seemed to form cracks in its intangible body until it eventually shattered into millions of pieces.

When the light shattered everything stopped moving, even Ben's construct who was staring with fascination towards Ben.

Surrounding Ben were green fragments of the light he had just broken, just like when he first came here only this time the only colour was green instead of the multitude of colours. Though what was surprisingly weird was that everything around Ben except for the fragments became grey.

This was mostly because time wasn’t moving and without movement light couldn’t travel anywhere, but because Ben’s eyes function differently than normal he could still see although everything is grey for him.

Ben slowly looked around him and took in everything that was now standing still, the flames that sometimes spewed out from the Sun, completely frozen, the winds that were caused by the aftershock of the shockwave, completely frozen and even a being like his own construct was completely frozen.

It truly is something to behold, although less impressive than when time is actually moving.

Now that Ben had seen enough of this picture he got started on his idea, you can only stare at one picture for so long after all. Ben's power mostly came from, I will it so it will be, there is of course more to it than that but that's the gist of it.

Suddenly everything that stood still before started slowly moving, Ben was willing time to go forward. He could of course reverse time before the shockwave, but sometimes it is good to leave old wounds behind to form scars that remind you of the past.

With every passing moment time started to accelerate more and more up to a point where the earth is visibly moving around the Sun. After some time Ben could see things starting to change on the planet itself, the climate which was still intact started to interact with the broken down landscape and slowly but surely the broken trees and fallen down rocks started to merge with the landscape.

Layers of dirt falling over the trees hiding what was the result of the biggest shockwave known to man. And whilst the dirt started covering up these wounds of the past new trees and wildlife started growing on top of it. Trees that clearly looked differently than their ancestors, these trees rooted themselves deeper into the ground than ever before, clearly a sign that even trees can evolve.

After the Planet had circled around the sun a few dozen times more Ben started to observe the planet even closer now, the ecosystem has already been restored after around a hundred cycles or so, all Ben was waiting for was something new, which quickly came.

…

[?]

Life is something sacred, not something anyone can decide to just rule over, yet someone did. Who or what, I do not know as of yet but I plan to find out. Ever since I came into existence I have witnessed multiple events that clearly indicate that there is someone or something out there controlling everything but I have yet to see a sign of it actually being true, and I’d like to know the motives behind everything.

The first few years after I was born I was stationary, all I could do was to try and spread my offspring to the world. Trees blossomed everywhere and even some were able to grow in the deep waters that cover most of the world. I was happy as life was everywhere, yet it was destroyed in a single second! I felt pain and sorrow, I considered every life form to be my child yet due to this giant wave of pressure they were all uprooted and killed!

I could hear their voices in my head calling out to me for help but all I could do was listen, listen to the voices of my children dying. I was bigger than my children, this giant pressure couldn’t even scratch my bark yet I couldn’t help to protect my children.

I silently mourned because of the massive loss of my children, I knew that they would rise up again, but it still hurt. The green luscious landscape that had surrounded me by all sides was gone with only a few trees left standing, trees piling up against my trunk due to them being flown against me by this wave of pressure and some were drifting aimlessly on the surface of the water. The only form of life that had survived were the trees which resided in the deep waters and a few near me.

I was glad that I hadn’t lost all of my children but it was overshadowed by the fact of that loss. After everything was over the source of light that claimed the blue sky started to glow brighter and brighter until it couldn’t see anymore. I didn’t have any physical way to see and instead I used what I could sense to see but I was still blinded by it.

After the light had dimmed to a point where I could see once more the Moon had already taken its place, even when the Sun was already behind the horizon it still had blinded me. I know that my body reaches far beyond what could be considered normal heights but strangely my senses only reached up to one fourth of my actual height.

Something had changed, was my first thought when I could see once more. Instead of the dark void that had dominated the night sky besides the purple Moon there were pearl like lights in the sky. Some brighter than others yet all held the same beauty.

I truly believed it to be beautiful yet this couldn’t make up for the loss of my children. Though when my new children start to grow, they will grow up with this sky instead of the previous empty void. What scares me is what might be out there, it is as if we are just pawns for someone else to use, that we’re so insignificant in the grander scheme of it all.

…

After everything settled down and I could take in all the damage that had been done I started to understand something I had not been able to see before. Yes, I knew that

my childrens death wasn't something permanent and that they would’ve died eventually after years but I never really considered why they died.

After hundreds of years I had witnessed my fair share of decay and destruction due to disasters but none compared to such a loss I had witnessed that day, something which clouded my mind and soul, had I stayed calm I would’ve realised it sooner. When everything was over I realised something, the old makes way for the new, like

how my childrens death caused the sky to be filled with shining pearls that gave off a feeling of serenity. They paved the way for the next generation, so that they can live their lives knowing that because of what happened they could live safer.After hundreds of years I had witnessed my fair share of decay and destruction due

My thoughts were many but my attention was not where I needed it to be, I quickly stored those thoughts for later as for now, I need to start restoring and preparing for the new generation.

...

1 This should clear up doubts about why Ben is able to accept everything. I don’t want to go far into this as this will be important later on. This is all you will get.