Prologue: The Lonely Goddess 

This is a story from long, long ago, so long that the person it is about doesn't even remember. In this story, no one was at fault, but no one was in the right either. She was just too powerful, unfortunately. That was really it.

Ever since she was born, or possibly even before that, she was too powerful. She herself knew that something was gravely off with herself. There was no fantasy in the world, just days of never-ending, unmerciful reality. People had no superpowers, and they could not use magic. Those who claimed they could on television were just those good at faking it. Fortune-tellers and prophets were all simply people extrapolating from the past to guess at the future, and none of them could actually do what they claimed. That was why they would strut around like a peacock reminding everyone of their achievement whenever they managed to be right, but when they were wrong, they would craftily pretend that they didn't remember ever making any such prediction.

People could not fly through the air, nor could they live without air. People could not produce fire from their hands either, nor could they combat aging. That was why all of that was confined to the realms of fantasy and fiction, only to be told of in fairy tales. All of this was simply a fleeting dream that could only exist in fiction, or it should have been.

She alone was different. In this world with no dreams and no fantasy, she alone had dreams; she alone was fantastic. She could use magic, and she had superpowers. She could fly through the air, survive being in space, produce fire from her hands, and if she wanted, she could stop growing at any time. She could even become younger at will. She had once tried burning herself to ash as an experiment, but even then, she'd never lost consciousness. All that had happened was that she'd lost her body. With her consciousness still remaining, she could get her body back in an instant if she wanted. Even life and death bent to her will.

Not even she herself knew why someone like her was able to be born. In fact, there was probably no reasoning behind it. After all, would anyone be able to answer if someone asked them if there was a reason the universe itself existed? No, surely not. There would probably be some scholars or religious figures who would try to answer the question with some convoluted logic, but without any proof, it would still be the same as if they hadn't answered at all.

There are always things that people cannot explain, as well as some things that will probably go unexplained forever, such as how the universe was created. If asked, the majority would probably answer with the big bang, but that invited the next question. Then what caused the big bang to occur? At this point, most would become unable to answer, but a minority of smart people would probably attempt to reason through an answer. They might say that something happened, or that there was some kind of coincidence, or maybe that some kind of component clicked into place. However, that would then invite another question. Where did such a thing come from?

By repeating this cycle, the conclusion that the beginning was nothing would eventually be reached. However, reaching that conclusion would erase all meaning. If there was nothing, then there would be no coincidence or component, and there would be no universe. Wouldn't the nothingness simply continue for eternity? After going that far, most likely no one would have a rebuttal, since this would be reaching into the area of philosophy.

Ultimately, there would always be unexplainable things if one inquired far enough, and she was probably one of them. She was something that could not be explained by reason. In fact, there might have been no specific reason behind her at all. She was from a completely failed place where human intellect could not reach and illogicality and inconsistency ruled. She may have been born because humans imagined God, or maybe humans were born because she had imagined them. She may have come from the universe itself, or it was possible that the universe came from her. Not even she herself knew which had come first. After all, she currently stood in a place where a sense of time could not take hold. She both felt that she could have been alive before the universe had existed and that she could have come after the universe had ended.

What kind of thing am I? Why was I born? Why do I exist? 

Not even she could answer those questions.

In the end, it was probably all a coincidence, just like the universe that had sprung from nothing. Just like how a green planet called Earth happened to have been formed, and how life happened to have been born on it. Just like how fire and water existed and how time had begun as well. Just as how all things were born or formed, she was surely born as the concept of herself.

In other words, she herself was some sort of phenomenon, something that had even less of a chance of happening than the universe, a singularity that was able to be born and walk around on Earth. The biggest glitch ever to spring from the world.

She might have been the manifestation of all the unrealistic things that had been unnecessary when reality itself had been created. Maybe all the concepts and notions that had not been created in the world had taken human form and been born as her. This coincidence was basically impossible. It was as if someone had scattered computer parts all throughout the ocean, and they somehow came together and were assembled into a complete PC. There was an almost zero percent chance of it happening. However, she was born from such a happenstance. The impossible became possible.

Humans are beings who march towards death from the moment they are born. They lived with the fear of death their entire lives. However, she did not understand such things, and so she pitied humanity. No matter how much humans fantasized, they could never escape the cage that is reality. The only time they were allowed to dream was in their sleep.

How pitiful humans are, she thought. At the same time, she grew angry. Why does God not save these poor people? Look at how hard they're praying; it's almost comical. They're all wishing not to die. Why doesn't God reach out a hand to save them? Why, why, why? 

Her questions were never-ending.

Why is the world filled with so much suffering? Why do people make so many mistakes? Why do they kill and hate each other? 

People are scared, so they take up weapons. Though they seek peace, they cannot put down their weapons for fear of being attacked by others with weapons. 

As long as the concept of conflict exists in people's hearts, then fear will not disappear either. If someone didn't have any means to protect themselves, they would just be killed, so peace and weapons go hand in hand. Deadly weapons and peace… Though those two things are antitheses and will never mix, they've become synonymous. Just like that, people accrue weapons, gradually become stronger, and most likely they eventually fall, burned by the weapons that made them too strong. 

People recognize the inevitability of this future, at least somewhat. That is why there are so many postwar, postapocalyptic novels and stories in general. However, they still are unable to let go. If they do, they will be destroyed by others who haven't, after all. There would be no protecting themselves. So, wouldn't this be the point where God should step in? If a child picks up a toy that would hurt them, is it not the job of the parent to take the toy away? However, God is doing nothing. 

These poor, unstable creatures need strict guidance! But no matter how they pray or wail, God pretends not to see. No, he surely isn't even looking. She paused. If God really exists, then he is heartless. 

At some point, she started to think like that. After years, decades, centuries of living amongst people, the dissatisfaction she had towards whoever had made this world grew ever stronger each time she came to know of the suffering that she was divorced from.

Living things die. They leave behind children as proof they were alive, and they continue to pass the baton to the next generation. The reason living things exist is in order to leave behind children. They lived in order to leave behind proof of their life. That was probably a necessary evolution in order to survive. It had to be done in order to allow creatures to adapt to their surroundings and maintain diversity. By having generations quickly change out, resources were not wasted.

There were many other reasons why this was done, and she understood that. However, she still felt it was cruel. Because they were gifted with knowledge, humans all died while crying about not wanting to die. The will of this world was for everything that lived to die. There was no salvation; from birth, the world itself told them to die, to not survive.

Why was the world made this beautiful but also this cruel? 

At some point, she went out on a journey to save people. From the sick to the wounded to the suffering, she reached out the hand of salvation to all those she laid eyes on, continuing to pick them up. She was called a savior, a saint, and a goddess. She saved, and she saved, and she saved, but it was hopeless. There was no end. After all, people were made to die. In the end, it was as if she'd never saved them at all.

Because the world had been made this way, she was not solving the underlying problem. In order to save this world, in order to free everybody from their suffering, she had to flip the world over completely. That was why she decided to change the foundations.

Reaching the place was easy; she simply flew through the sky and space so fast that light was not even close to catching up, until she reached the end of the universe. It was impossible for a human-sized lump of matter to surpass the speed of light. Even if it did happen, it would be disastrous. However, none of that mattered to her. After all, she was a singularity. She was unbound by the laws of this universe, and she contained multitudes of different laws and providences within her. She simply rewrote the common sense of the universe, applied what laws were convenient to her, and forced them into place.

Normalally, cooling water would turn it into ice. However, if she said that the water would become fire instead, cooling water would then produce fire. Why? Who knows? She was able to do it, and that was that. The question of why never entered her mind at all.

"I can do it."

That was the truth, and that was all that mattered.

If someone saw the entirety of space at once, they would see that it resembled a brain, and that outside of that, there was nothing. There was just white that seemed to stretch on forever, and there was no god to be found. It was just endless nothingness.

"Ah… As I thought. There is no God."

She was disappointed at that. The salvation that humanity believed in didn't exist. There was no fantasy, and there was no dream. All there was was merciless nothingness.

I see. No wonder no one can be saved. No wonder no one stretched a hand out, no matter how people prayed. I mean, there's no one here. But from now on, things will be different. I can save them. I can stretch my hand out. If there is no God, then I will become God. If they pray, then I can be like the Gods from their dreamed-up myths, living beside them and listening to their wishes. After all, I can do anything. 

"Okay, it's time to change things. I will save them. It's the end of this world with no God. From now on, I will love all of you. I will save all of you. From this moment, the true world begins!"

She laughed and was innocently happy.

From now on, I'll be God. I can save everyone. I can make them happy. It'll be fine. I will never abandon humanity. I will definitely make them all happy. I will save them! 

A prisonlike world with no special powers is just boring, so let me split off another world. I'll use a piece of my power, mana, to make a new universe, populate it with stars and planets, and invite everyone there. People will be able to fly through the air and use magic, and I'll even let them have ESP. I won't put any fetters on evolution. If they don't want to die, then they can live for thousands or tens of thousands of years if they like. I'll even let them be immortal! 

That's right. It will be sad if they just disappear after death, so I'll just create souls. That way, they can be reborn as many times as they like. I'll also prepare a place.Valhalla, I'll call it, to accept people after death and allow them to be reborn. I'll trap all the bad concepts, like violence, life spans, hating others, and bringing people down, in bad mana, and separate that to make a wonderful world where everyone can live in peace. 

Everything started with a wonderful idea. She simply had a pure desire to make people as happy as possible. However, her ideals weakened at some point, buried under vast years of time. She forgot what she'd set out to do. All that remained was the desire to make people happy, but it had been bent and twisted. Finally, all that was left was rampant goodwill left beyond the edges of space, continuing to comically dance alone forever and ever without forgetting the ideal of making people happy but making grave mistakes on how to go about it.