(Miklaus POV)

It had been so long since our talk with Reiji that I had lost track of any semblance of time. Who knows how many years it had been since we first arrived here. We never created a marker or system to keep track of it, so everything merely passed on. However, one thing was becoming more and more clear; the longer we manipulate and utilize our ungodly amount of power and knowledge, the more it starts to take a toll on us. This is not to mention the realization of just how difficult the task of creation was. We all knew it wouldn’t be easy, but what we hadn’t realized was just how much these powers had deteriorated our former personalities, like they were eating our souls from the inside.

In the times since we had started our journey of creation, we had failed many, many times; more times than any of us cared to admit. In fact, the only things we had managed to create successfully so far besides plants and trees, was the name for our new home and the last names for ourselves.

For our last names, we had decided to use the markings on our arms and their meanings, respectively. I had taken the last name Ouroboros* from Norse mythology; Heaven, the last name of Spéir* from the Irish language; Hikarus chose Guāng* from the Chinese language, and Reiji had chosen Seikatsu* from the Japanese language. With this, we were known as Miklaus Ouroboros, The True God of Infinite, Heaven Spéir, The True God of Skies, Hikarus Guāng, The True God of Light, and Reiji Seikatsu, The True God of Life.

After deciding on our names, the time came to name the new world. Many ideas were thrown out such as Earth 2 and New Earth, along with many more uncreative ideas. Then came the serious name choices mainly involving translations of other languages from our previous lives of words such as “planet”, “foundation”, “rebirth”, and finally “creation”.

This eventually led us to a realization that anything and everything we did from here on, would be ingrained in history for eternity and, because of this, we decided on going with something that meant creation, thus the name Tvorba* was given. Many laughs had been shared in these short times of creating ourselves anew and naming the planet, but what we would soon realize is that this would also mark the last time any of us would ever be human again.

The ease of creating ourselves and creating the planet's name and ecosystems had come with a major drawback: It marked the last time we would ever feel naivety and the realization that creation, along with these powers, were as much of a curse as they were a gift.

Our first attempt at creating the first mortal…well, calling it a failure would be a bad joke. As soon as we attempted it, the mortal's body shriveled up and turned into a massive ball of flesh. This only got worse the closer we got to perfecting the recreation of mortals. As our attempts progressed, the bloodier and more gruesome the failures became.

It had gotten to a point where we had seen people who looked exactly like us- people who were exactly what we had been, die in every way you could think. We had watched people explode or bleed from every opening in their body with a smile on their face, as if they couldn’t realize what was happening, to seeing soulless shells of what you could barely call people. The most disturbing part of all of this was how little we had started to feel the more we watched, as if we had become the same empty shells we had created. In fact it wouldn’t be wrong to say that by now, we were barely able to feel anything.

The only reason any of us were able to keep going along with the plan we made was for two reasons. The first reason being that it was our last promise we had made with what humanity we had left, and secondly because there were times when each of us would randomly cry with an expressionless look as if the small parts left of us were slowly withering from the inside as it watched what was happening. This was almost a sort of escape for what we had left inside of us- a way for that part of us to release whatever it was that had been burdening our subconscious.

I had to admit at the time I first saw it happen, it was terrifying to see. Watching the people I had known all my life walk around with no expression in their eyes, in their face, in their bodies, and in their posture, look at me with never ending tears.It was an image that would later represent our fall, or “ascension” from humans to True Gods. It was the true price of power.

Watching all the things we created constantly die in front of us, and all those billions of lifetimes constantly replaying in our brains like a never ending cycle at 100x speed, had slowly made us lose ourselves. We kept going, however, and little by little we made breakthroughs until today, the day we finally were able to successfully create the one thing we decided to sacrifice to do so: humanity.

“Reiji, are you ready to try again?” I hesitantly asked as I watched him return, soaked in blood from another day of failures.

“We’ve come too far to stop now, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.” Reiji said walking back without looking at me.

I nodded and watched the scene I had grown familiar with come to life again. The feeling of Reiji’s power pouring out from him as if it took up the whole atmosphere, as a bright, white light came from his hands. We watched on as an adult male was made in front of us. I could feel from the start of the formation that this time was differentWe waited a few moments, but nothing happened. We had finally done it, the first successful creation of mortal life was now complete, but as if a silent agreement had been made, there were no feelings of excitement or joy, just… silence. Though, how could there be any sense of happiness with how many we had killed in the many years of experimenting.

“Now that we’ve done it, what now?” I heard Hikarus ask from beside me.

“We still have much to do. Firstly, the creation of those who will take over after we have to leave. Name two pantheons of your choice. Miklaus, you go first.” Reiji said, looking at me.

“Uhhh I’ll go for the gods from the Shinto and Norse Pantheon” I said after thinking for a second and naming the first ones that came to mind.

“Shinto and Norse… Got it, and you?” Reiji asked, turning to Heaven.

“I’d like to have the Egyptian and Celtic Pantheons under me” Heaven said in an instant.

“Understood, and lastly you, Hikarus?”

“The Hindu and Chinese pantheons will be fine for me.” Hikarus said without much thought.

“Right, so that just leaves me then. I will do the Greek and Buddhist pantheons. Is everyone certain with your choices?” Reiji asked before preparing himself to start.

We all nodded in agreement before Reiji turned around to start. “I need each of you to cut off some of your skin and imbue it with the necessary pieces of knowledge for starting a civilization, in addition to a very minuscule amount of power. Maybe around the .000001% mark. After you’ve done that, I’ll create these beings for us while you three bury those mistakes over there, alright?” Reiji said, not turning back to us.

“The sooner we get started, the better for all of us.” I urged, as we all cut pieces of our skin off and handed them to Reiji.

(Hikarus’ POV)

We had all healed instantly from cutting off our skin. This was something that would normally be seen as amazing, but even if we could feel it, there was no time. The three of us had a job to do and, as we walked over, the three of us looked at each other and nodded as we buried all the failed creations under that single star fruit.

“After we are done burying all of them, we need to summon a cave around all of this and hide it within a forest.” I said, as we continued to bury them.

“Why’s that?” Heaven asked as she had finished burying the majority of her section.

“Our failures and countless attempts are something future generations shouldn’t have to see ” I said, looking down at all the bodies we had gathered.

“I agree with Hikarus, Heaven. Everything we do now will be engraved in history for eternity, and this is something that needs to be hidden.” Miklaus said in agreement to my proposal.

“I can understand why it needs to be hidden, but why not just get rid of them?.” Heaven asked.

“That’s because these bodies- these failures, are a testament to the price we paid in order to achieve what we sacrificed. It serves as a reminder to ourselves that, although we could be seen as all-powerful beings or “perfect gods”, even we fail” I answered as we finished burying the last of the bodies. We stood there, looking down in silence.

Miklaus began to conjure up a cave as Heaven and I worked on the forest to surround it. After only a few minutes, we had finished. We looked back for a second, all of us knowing that this event would never be mentioned in history.We all understood, or reasoned, that this was for the better.This place served almost as a gravestone for our humanity. This was the epitome of burying something within time and history. Burying our greatest attempts and their failures; our most horrific deeds.

“Reiji should be almost finished by now. Let’s head back to him at once.” With that, I turned around and began the way we came.

As soon as we arrived, we could see lines of the lesser gods and mortals together, organized for each of us. While the number of lesser gods varied between the pantheons, the mortals for each of us were the same: fifty men and women. ‘So the time has come’ was my only thought.

(Reiji POV)

When the others arrived, I pointed them to which group was theirs and, after they all lined up, I began to speak.

“I suppose this marks the end of our time together. At least for now anyway. We will each take our group to one of the four continents and raise them separately. I finished earlier than expected and decided to go to each of the continents to add in mythological creatures. Make sure to keep that in mind when raising these pantheon gods and mortals. They aren’t able to defend themselves from things such as dragons, so you’ll have to be somewhat careful, got it?” I watched the other three nod in agreement.

We all looked at each other for a second, unable to think of how to say goodbye to each other.The little humanity that was left of me urged me to break the ice by going to hug Hikarus. As soon as I hugged him, I could start to feel the other two join in.

“You know, this is probably the last time we’ll do this.” Miklaus said.

“I’d like to hope that when we’re all done raising them, some part of our humanity, even if it’s just a little, will come back to us.” Heaven added.

“Let's make sure to build the most glorious city in the sky when we are all together again.” Hikarus let out.

“Yes, let's all hope indeed.” I said as we all pulled away from each other.

“Who will be the one to stay on the southern continent?” I asked.

“I’ll do it” Heaven said.

“I’ll take the northern continent.” Miklaus added

“Then, in that case, I will take the Eastern one. That leaves you with the Western continent, Hikarus.” I finished. With that, Miklaus summoned up three portals for each of us to go through to our new continents.

We each led our gods and mortals through first before stepping through them ourselves. As I turned around, I took one last look at the others and caught the eye of Miklaus who looked like he had a tear in his eye. Instead of saying anything, he just smiled as he stepped through and closed his portal. ‘Right, goodbye old friend’ were my last thoughts before stepping through my own portal where we would each begin our next journey.

*Tvorba-Czech for creation

*Ouroboros-Infinity dragon of Norse mythology

*Spéir-Celtic for Skies

*Guāng-Chinese for Light

*Seikatsu-Japanese for life