The Old One

Prologue:

It was dark, cold, and slippery...and then, I became.

In the boundless expanse before the birth of time, the universe formed itself in the most mysterious form. There were no stars, no planets, gods, mortals, or creatures, just immense silence, darkness, and utter boredom.

At least, that was what I felt when I looked at the vast nothing, in my child form, and pissed. And I didn’t know why I was pissed. My brother, Abe, came seconds later. He looked chilled. Like nothing bothers him. And next came Kronos and last Nihil. We are all the first to ever exist. The universe itself forged us. We were the Sephirot, and my name is Ozmodeius.

To be honest, first to come was her...But we don't talk about her. Not anymore. Not after what I did.

My brothers and I are the abstract embodiment of the universe’s potential, beyond the comprehension of all creatures to exist.

“How much longer will you stare at yourself in the mirror?” Abe’s grey eyes sparkled with annoyance as he stood at my bedroom door, scratching his dark hair. “Come on, this is the only time we have to play, to be actual children and you are always admiring yourself.” He let out a sigh of annoyance. Abe loved to play with us. Well, what he loves is to prank on our youngest brothers.

“Yeah, I am waiting for a female to drop off. You know, the same way we were created, maybe the Papa universe decides to gift us with a female.” I take another look in the mirror and push the black curls away from my face. Damn, why do my brothers and I have to look so much alike? It seems that the architect, or Papa Universe, made the first version, me, and then got lazy and only changed a few details. We all have hair as black as night, but mine is curly, Abe’s is frizzy, Kronos’ is wavy, and Nihil’s is straight. Our eyes are grey. But my eyes are a shapeshifting grey, they change intensity according to my mood. And let’s just say, they are most of the time dark.

Resigned, I pulled the loose strands into a ponytail and walked towards my brother. “Okay, let’s go and play. But I don’t know why you’re so interested in doing childish things.” Pulling Abe by the collar of his shirt, we walked out of my room towards the door.

“We’re kids,” Abe retorted, his hands in his pockets as he searched for something. He always had things in his pockets, from cookies to marbles.

“Yes, we’re children. But at the same time, we have all this knowledge of the universe, and what’s to come until the end of time. We’re not children. So, I don’t want to waste time. I want a girlfriend straight away.” I puffed out my chest as we materialized outside the house. That was another cool thing about being a Sephirot, we could access the entire history of the universe. Except for things that were directly connected to us. Plus, I had all this knowledge, but at the same time, I wanted to do childish things.

That’s how, from the moment we came into existence, we knew things like houses, cars, mobile phones, humans, creatures, gods, etc. And none of these things existed yet. We didn’t know why.

I looked back as I closed the gate and saw our house, located in the center of Nexus, the Sephirot dominium, was a majestic white mansion with vines all around it. Wooden and glass windows allowed the light of the four suns to enter the house. Each sun belonged to one of us. Mine was blood red, representing the fire of the universe. Abe’s was dark blue, representing the Abyss. Kronos’ was dark green, representing Time and everything it brings and takes away, especially in nature. And Nihil’s was grey, representing nothingness, the end of things.

“Yeah, let’s go play. I call it dibs on marble.” I start running in the vast garden of Nexus, with the suns above us. Kronos and Nihil are playing with paper airplanes. But I know they’ll drop everything to join us.

We are children, but we are the most powerful beings in the universe. But the best part is being able to be with them. All the time and forever.