novelraw Chapter 365 365: Epilogue
Chapter 365 365: Epilogue
It took Sobek a few moments before he realized he was back in the room where it all began. That room where time and space ceased to exist, and where everything and nothing seemed to have changed at the same time. He already knew where he had to go; walking through the infinitely large (or perhaps infinitely small) room, in a few minutes (or perhaps a few centuries, who knows) he reached the familiar armchair on which was seated a woman with white skin and light hair.
God didn't even seem to move since she sent him to Eden. Even her expression didn't seem to have changed at all. She was still the same, beautiful and terrible at the same time, whose gaze was both magnetic and loving on him. "Welcome back, son" she greeted him in her crystal clear voice.
Sobek advanced towards her. This time there wasn't an armchair waiting for him, but a large mattress wide enough to allow him to lie down. He lay down on it and gazed intently at God. Even now, after he'd grown into a giant hundreds of meters tall, she still seemed to him infinitely larger than him, even though physically he could have crushed her with a fist.
"It will always be like this?" he asked her. "Will you always welcome me like this after my every life? You could at least change the furniture a bit"
"And with what furniture could you ever decorate a place without space? And when could you do it in a timeless time?" God asked him back. "If you find the answer to these questions, give me a shout"
Sobek snorted in annoyance. "Always talking in riddles, I see"
"I never did it. I'm just saying things as they really are. No enigma, no unsaid" God replied.
"Sure, right" Sobek grumbled. "There were many unsaid. You know, the last few years of my life were, like, very calm. I've been alone and still in one spot for so long that I have nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. And so I just thought. I thought about you, I thought about the world, I thought about what I had done, how I had done it. I think I've reached some sort of enlightenment"
"I know"
"And so you also know what I have understood". Sobek leaned slightly towards God, as if he wanted to look into her eyes: "You had foreseen everything, didn't you? Everything from the beginning, even before creating the world, indeed, even before creating the entire multiverse. You knew that the humans of Eden would have devastated the environment, you knew that nothing would stop them, you knew that I would have accepted to reincarnate there and you knew that I would have resolved the situation. You had every detail planned, from start to finish, and the proof of this is the System, which provided me with the skills I needed exactly when I needed them. This was Eden's fate from before it even began to exist"
God burst into laughter, making the room shake slightly. "And where is the big reveal? I have never denied that I know everything, on the contrary, I have always said it plainly. Read any sacred text, you will find the words 'all-knowing', 'all-seeing', 'almighty' and so on printed in large letters" she replied. "If you are unable to remember that 'all-seeing' also means knowing every single aspect of what is to come, then you can only blame yourself"
Sobek felt embarrassed by those words. "So… what does that mean? If everything is already written, then does free will even exist?"
God laughed even louder, so much so that she had to put a hand over her mouth to calm herself: "What questions are you asking? Of course it exists! Reincarnating on Eden was your choice, and yours alone. And as I told you at our previous meeting, I didn't intervene. Everything that happened on that world happened because of the choices you and those around you made. How can you think that free will doesn't exist, if life itself is a choice?"
"But… that doesn't make sense! If free will exists, how can you already know everything?"
"And why wouldn't that make sense? Who says free will and destiny can't go hand in hand?"
"Um… the logic?"
"What logic? For a child, being afraid of the dark is logical. For an adult, walking in the dark without fear is logical. But which of the two is right? Which logic is right? That of the majority? The wiser one? The more scientifically accurate one? Is there really a parameter to establish what is logical and what is not? And above all, does this parameter continue to have value when the subject to be calculated is the human being, or any other creature endowed with thought?" God shook her head, a gesture that seemed to shake the entire cosmos. "Your problem, son, is that you expect things to always be black and white. You believe that order and chaos are somehow opposites, and you can't see beyond that. If you succeeded, if you really had an epiphany like you said, you wouldn't ask me such questions"
Sobek laid his head on the floor. God was exasperating. His brain was completely out of whack, but what bothered him most was the gaze of the deity, who seemed to find his claims about her ridiculous, as if she were talking to a three-year-old child trying to convince her the sky was red. "When you said you had faith in me… did you mean that you trusted that I would fulfill my destiny, even at the height of my free will?"
"Mh… almost. You came close"
"Then what is the answer?"
"Do you really want me to tell you? So what's the point of looking for the answer? The key to all science is the question and the research that goes into solving it. Why would you want my help?"
Sobek's spirit flared. "Okay, that's enough now. Stop circling around it. I want to know why! If you truly anticipated everything, then why didn't you act sooner? Why didn't you prevent the world from coming to the brink of collapse? You are God, you are almighty, you can literally do whatever you like! You wrote the fate of every universe, you CREATED every universe! So why did you allow such things to happen, when you could solve everything with a snap of your fingers?"
Suddenly the aura around God changed; from calm and peaceful as it was, it suddenly became as turbulent as a hurricane. Sobek felt every shred of courage vanish from his soul as it seemed to him that a vortex was forming in front of him capable of engulfing all of creation and beyond, and he feared he had touched a raw nerve. But then he realized something: God's aura wasn't angry or peevish, it was... sad? Melancholic? Sobek's heart began to flutter as the aura brushed against him, as if some very negative feelings had suddenly emerged beyond his control.
"Do you think I liked it? Do you think I deliberately created the world this way?" God asked, and her voice no longer sounded crystalline, but deeper and more melancholy, like a tinkle of bronze. "Don't you know what a parent does? They love their children unconditionally. You can't even imagine how much I love you all, and how much I yearn every time my gaze rests on the countless worlds I've created and I observe scenes of corruption, war, hatred, jealousy. Don't confuse my not intervening directly with indifference, son"
Sobek felt bad. A tremendous sense of guilt was gripping his heart like a vice. He felt as if he had hurt a friend terribly. Maybe he should have been nicer, maybe he could have put the matter in other ways, maybe… he didn't even know. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention..."
"You don't have to be sorry. You deserve to have your question answered" God interrupted. "It was necessary"
"Necessary? What? My reincarnation or… everything else?"
"Both things. Sobek, I carefully observed all the possible futures that each world could go through before creating it, so believe me when I tell you that even when it seems that evil is running rampant, there is actually an end behind it. It's true, I could have done things differently. I could have made the animals intelligent from the start, or sent you to Eden before things escalated to this point. But a parent can't let their children live in a bell jar and expect them to thrive. A person needs to make mistakes in order to learn from them and improve. Without those errors, the children would be nothing more than a machine following a pre-established path, never being able to learn and therefore rise to something different". God swung her hand slightly in front of him, and all the suns in the universe seemed to explode all at once. "The very mechanism of evolution is based on tiny errors in the transcription of DNA. The formation of planets is based on errors in the orbits of rocks and dust circling the star, which collide and gather. But even if initially that DNA mutation or that clash between rocks may seem terrible and devastating, they will eventually lead to the creation of something new, better. And the same goes for civilizations and people. Beings who never face evil will never learn how to fight it. It's only by being subjected a little of that evil, it's only by colliding with it and looking it in the face, that people understand it and learn how to counter it. And so, pacifism is born from war, awareness of the environment is born from pollution, medicine and the study of microbes are born from diseases; from division comes unity, from fear emerges courage, and from hatred sooner or later comes love. If dictatorships never existed people would not be able to understand the importance of democracy, and would not defend it tooth and nail when the time comes; they would keep it simply because they would be used to it, but they would not be aware of its existence and its value. Are you beginning to understand?"
Yes, Sobek was starting to understand. "So, just as mistakes are necessary for a child to grow up, is it the same for humanity too? Were all the mistakes made in the history of any world necessary for people to improve themselves?"
"Exactly. If things on Eden had always been like what you made, then animals would never have realized their important role and humans would have become arrogant believing they could control them, and everything would have ended up with something even more bloodier than you can imagine. Instead, this way people were forced out of their bubble and grow up. They polluted and deforested, and were able to see the horror this brought, and then witness the rebirth after adopting another way of life; they will never forget it and so now they will always be aware that they are only one of the many species that inhabit Eden, and that they are no more important than the others. They witnessed what it means to bow down to dictators and emperors, and then tasted the thrill of democracy; and now they will remember it and never again will similar evils be repeated on Eden. Other challenges will await humanity and the creatures of that planet… but none of them will concern the problems you solved, son. But for you to solve those problems, they had to exist. Only in this way could a change for the better have occurred"
Sobek looked down. "Can I tell you that being able to keep up with you is really difficult?"
"Only if you look at a small part of the picture, as unfortunately everyone does. You cannot express a critical judgment on a work if you dwell on only one point of it" God replied with a smile.
"Yeah? Well, not everyone is omniscient like you"
"I know. I made you like this"
"And why?"
"Why not?"
The spinosaurus shook his head. God was really infuriating sometimes. He couldn't tell if she was teasing him or if he himself was just too stupid to understand. "Is it so difficult for you to speak in a understandably way?"
"But I speak in understandably wa. It's you who, even though I keep telling yourself so, keep staring at a small part of the picture" God replied. "I can't force you to look at the whole picture. I can restore a blind man's sight, but I can't force them to open their eyelids if they don't want to"
Sobek decided it was best to ignore those last words. He felt that if he continued like this he would lose his mind. He would think about it later. "So… now what happens?"
"Now? Well, you've completed your life, so… you can continue on the path" God said, and her eyes shifted slightly to the right. Sobek turned and saw that the room beside them had changed…or maybe it had always been that way and he hadn't noticed. Now in place of the wall a long corridor had appeared that seemed to go on forever.
"The path, hmm?" the spinosaurus murmured. "Where will it take me?"
"Beyond"
"Where? In the good place or… in the bad one?"
"The path will take you to the place you need to go. Which of the two… will depend on you" was God's simple answer. "Where do you think you should go?"
Sobek stared down the corridor with some apprehension in his eyes. "I used to think I knew, but now… I'm not so sure"
"I know. It's normal to be afraid"
"I'm not afraid! It's just… a lot has happened. Yes, I have done many good things, but I have also done many bad things… and many of them I have found pleasure in doing them. The more I look back, the more I see nothing but mistakes. I'm not sure I'll go... yes, well... that I'll end up in the good part"
God narrowed her eyes maternally, and the cosmos seemed to tremble at that gesture. "I told you, it's normal. Everyone, when it's time, starts to remember the mistakes they've made. It's not weakness or pessimism, it's just the nature of mortals" she said. "My advice is not to focus on the mistakes, but on what you have learned from them. Don't think about the moment you committed a bad deed, but about the moment you regret having done it. Only in this way will you be able to express an objective judgment"
Sobek gritted his teeth. "Why don't you tell me where I'm going?"
"It does not work like that. It's the rules"
"And who established these rules?"
"Me, of course! You always ask the same obvious question. And then you ask me why I say you dwell on a small part of the picture…"
Sobek felt like hitting his head on the floor, but he knew he wasn't going to get anything out of her. He had no choice but to take the path… but he stopped. "I can not do that. Not because I'm scared, but because I made a promise. I swore to my daughter, my grandson and… an important person, that I would wait for them here. I don't care where I go next, but I have to keep that promise"
He expected God to refuse, or say something sibylline as usual, but on the contrary the deity simply replied: "But you've already kept it"
Sobek was confused. "Uh? What are you…" but he immediately froze, as soon as he saw that the two of them were no longer alone in the room.
Something was advancing. Sobek didn't know which direction it was coming from, but he could hear its footsteps. And then, almost out of nowhere, shapes appeared before him. One of them came forward, and it was quite tall. As soon as Sobek was able to recognize it, his heart skipped a beat: "Mother?"
It was her. She was the same spinosaurus that had helped him hatch. Behind her came more spinosaurs, some larger, some smaller, but Sobek recognized them all. "Father… brothers… sisters… are you here?"
"Big brother, is that you?" one of his sisters asked. "How is it possible that you are already here? I died before you"
Sobek wanted to answer and say that he didn't know either, but other figures appeared before him. Tiny creatures that crawled, leaped, croaked or swam through the air.
Sobek was able to recognize the first frog he had hunted, the grass snake he had caught with his siblings, the compsognathus he had hunted using his egg as bait, the thylacinus he had caught immediately afterwards, the euparkeria, the bambiraptor, the arthropleura, the countless fish that he had caught with his father…
And then came other animals, bigger ones. The first was a baryonyx, which Sobek remembered as the first large theropod he had wrestled. Then an ichthyovenator and several oxalaia.
And then humans appeared. At least thirty people still wearing their hunting suits. And Sobek immediately recognized the one leading the group: "Wheathley?"
"Have we met before?" the hunter asked, then it was as if realization hit him: "Wait…I don't know why, but I know you are… him. You're the one who killed me"
Sobek wasn't sure what to say. "Well, you can't say you didn't ask for it"
Wheatley laughed. "Does it feel like I'm blaming you? I know perfectly well that it couldn't have ended any other way. But thank you for giving me a good fight"
Sobek couldn't suppress a smile. He barely knew that man, but he remembered the short but intense fight they had had. It was good to know there were no hard feelings after death.
Other large animals continued to appear, one after another. Ceratosaurs, carnotaurs, megaloceros, paraceratheriums, entelodonts, stegosaurs, different types of hadrosaurs…
And other people came. Sobek recognized them immediately: they were the ones who had tried to kidnap Jocelyne. Among them he recognized the bastard that he had personally devoured. He just glared at him, and he shrank as the pathetic coward he was.
And then someone bigger than the others came along. A huge carcharodontosaurus staring him straight in the eye. "Damn, you've grown up. Last time we saw you, you could barely keep up with me" he grumbled. "Well, know that I want a rematch. I will not stop until I make you pay for your insult to my pride"
"You really tied it to your finger, huh?" Sobek asked playfully, still watching the flow of souls that seemed unstoppable.
Countless animals kept coming. Pachyrinosaurs, gorgosaurs, allosaurs, sarcosuchis, deinosuchis, titanoboas, proterosuchis, hynerias…
And then came a big tyrannosaurus. A tyrannosaurus that incredibly resembled Buck. "Uh... I didn't expect this. Meeting the man who killed me as soon as I got here… I don't know whether to call it luck or a strange twist of fate"
"You're Buck's brother" Sobek murmured. "I think I owe you an apology. I…"
"What are you saying? You don't have to apologize!" the tyrannosaurus exclaimed. "I'm not mad at you for my death! Indeed, I am honored to have died at the hands of such a powerful creature! These are the laws of nature after all. Better than dying from a parasite in my stomach"
"I can't blame him on that" Sobek thought.
Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles, mammals, amphibians, fish; every single creature Sobek had encountered even for a moment in his life, for better or for worse, was now appearing before him. And several humans also made an appearance.
"Look, look. Then there is an afterlife" Mitch Morgan said.
"Well, as I've told you a thousand times, you don't have to assume something doesn't exist just because you can't see it" Ian Malcolm said, accompanied by his ever-present smile.
"So the great Professor Malcolm doesn't spare his lectures here either" Alan Grant grumbled.
"He wouldn't be Professor Malcolm otherwise" Ellie Sattler said.
"Yeah, that wouldn't really be like him" Sarah Hardy commented.
"I agree, I wouldn't recognize him if he didn't!" Jamie Campbell laughed.
Behind them, another group of people were having an animated discussion.
"Damn! It is different from how I imagined it" Abraham Kenyatta said.
"Why, how did you imagine it?" Robert Oz asked.
"Like an immense golden lake. He confessed that to me once" Dariela Marzan said giggling.
"Ah ah, seriously? Abe, you're always the same!" Jackson exclaimed patting his brother on the shoulder, who obviously retaliated with an even more vigorous pat.
Other people came after them.
"Do you think we are already in Heaven or still halfway there?" Nick Van Owen asked.
"Ah, I have no idea. I don't understand anything here!" Eddie Carr laughed.
"Stop it, you two!" Roland Tembo grumbled annoyed, who was clearly mulling over many of the choices he'd made in life.
And many more people came. Malcolm, Dreyfus, Alexander and Ellie from Cartago, Owen Grady, Franklin Webb, Barry Sembéne, Zia Rodriguez, Claire Dearing, Pauline Mackanzie, Darius Tanz, Harris Edwards, Liam Cole, Grace Borrows, Jillian Hayes, and many, many more…
Among the crowd, in particular, there was an elderly man who advanced leaning on a stick ending with an amber. The man looked around with something between surprise and admiration, and then he noticed the silhouette of a person he knew well. "Henry?"
The man turned around, revealing a scientist's outfit and a face that the old man knew well. "John?"
The two of them stood still and looked into each other's eyes for a moment, then they smiled and embraced. Both back as strong as if they were in their prime, John Hammond and Henry Wu felt they had finally reunited after a lifetime of being apart.
A man stepped forward and looked Sobek in the eye. It was Miles Quaritch. "You've gotten even bigger, huh?" he grumbled. "Damn… if I had known you had a divine mission, I would never have gone against you"
"Really?"
"Mh… I'm not sure. Maybe I would have thought about it, after all"
"But I know very well what I would have done" another man dressed in military uniform said. "I would have fought anyway, even if it brought me to an unpleasant end"
"Nice to see you again, General Davis" Sobek greeted him. The man only grunted.
Behind Quaritch and Davis came the hundreds of thousands of humans and animals who had fought in the first great war between animals and humans. Many of the humans glared at Sobek, but some of them were simply too busy looking around to notice. But the animals stared at Sobek lovingly, as if he were one of their parents.
And then one particular figure stepped forward. "So in the end you really won. Damn, I was so close" Wafner muttered.
Sobek nodded. "Yes, you were. You can brag that you almost killed me, because that's the truth"
The former emperor looked confused. "Aren't you angry? I expected much more resentment from you"
Sobek shook his head. "I've spent too much time hating you, Wafner. Thats enough. I'm tired, and I doubt our hatred has any value here" he replied. "I'm not sure I can forgive you for what you tried to do, but… what do you say, let's try to leave this behind?"
Wafner looked him inquisitively in the eye, then seemed to melt. "Yes… we can try. I think I can make this effort"
Sobek smiled, when he suddenly heard a voice: "Pack leader!"
His heart skipped a beat. "Old Li!"
It was really him. The old ankylosaurus was galloping towards him with a strength he had never shown in life. "Damn, you've grown big! How long has it been since I died?"
"Uh… quite a lot"
"How is my niece?"
"When I died, she was still very well. I hope it will be like this for many years to come"
A new figure appeared. "Pack leader!" Eema exclaimed. "I didn't expect to find you here. Did you follow me?"
"No, Eema. I continued to live my life. Even I can't explain how… all of this is possible" Sobek replied, then something went straight to his face.
"Pack leader!" Rambo shouted flapping his little wings. "What a joy to see you again! How are you? And my niece? And Snock? And…"
"Give me time, damn it! Still the same chicken brain, eh?" Sobek laughed. "Everyone is fine, don't worry. Let's see, the next one should be…"
"Pack leader!" Mazu appeared swimming in the air. "Have you seen? I'm moving in the air!"
"Hey, what's going on?" Snock's gruff voice was immediately heard. "Why is the mosasaur flying?"
"Snock! It's nice to see you again!" Rambo immediately flew on the back of his friend.
The giganotosaurus looked over the moon. "So even in death I can't get rid of you, mh?" he laughed.
A loud flapping of wings was heard. "Hey, folks, I hope you hadn't forget me!" Apache shouted as he landed in front of them.
"And me! I contributed too!" Blue exclaimed running towards them.
"And me? Come on, I'm so big you can't help but notice me!" Monica said lifting her long neck as high as she could.
"Hey, I'm here too!" Pierce grumbled trying to get noticed from under the brachiosaurus.
Sobek felt tears form in his eyes. Seeing all of them again, after all those years… his heart was literally doing somersaults.
And then came an allosaurus. "Pack leader! Damn, sorry if I couldn't say the last goodbye!" Al said. "Forgive me, if I had known, I would have come to see you that day before I died"
"It's okay, Al. Meeting again is all that matters now" Sobek replied. He wanted to say something else, but his words were overlaid by another voice: "Hey, Al! Those who die see each other again, eh?"
It was Carnopo, who almost jumped on the allosaurus. If he had decent arms he probably would have hugged him. "Oh, of course, hello to you too, pack leader"
"Hello, Carnopo. It's good to see you again" Sobek said. "So, where is…?"
"Buck? It's over there" Carnopo said pointing to a point in the room. Buck was having a conversation with his brother, and they were both laughing uproariously. As soon as he realized he was being watched, the tyrannosaurus came towards them and looked the old pack leader in his eyes, he couldn't help but smile.
The silence continued for a few seconds, then Buck exclaimed: "Well, this place is beautiful, but you can't say it doesn't shine when it comes to furniture. So when do we find better accommodation?"
Sobek wanted to throw a friendly punch at the t-rex. By now the spinosaurus really couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "Wait a moment longer. We have to wait for them to arrive..."
"We're already here, Dad"
Sobek turned to find Nefertiti standing in front of him. She was much older and larger than she was when he saw her before he died, but he still beat her in size. Next to her was Takaj, who had also become much larger and more massive than what he remembered. And on Nefertiti's back, smiling and jovial, was Jocelyne.
At that point Sobek couldn't hold back anymore: he advanced towards them and then grabbed Nefertiti and Takaj with his long front paws, embracing them. As he reveled in that contact, he could feel his other friends hugging him back, some simply rubbing against him, some executing a more 'concrete' hug, and some, like Jocelyne, simply limited to hugging his face.
He didn't know how long that moment lasted. When they parted, Sobek didn't know what to say. He only managed to turn towards God, who hadn't moved from her place and was observing everyone with a motherly attitude. "How…?" he whispered without finding the words.
"A place without space and a time without time, have you forgotten?" God answered him in her usual magnetic voice. "You keep forgetting the essential details, son"
Sobek snorted. "They… will they all come with me?"
"Everyone will go where they have to go. But you can take this journey together" God said, pointing back to the path.
Sobek's gaze flickered, uncertain what to do. He looked at his huge family, all those he had led or killed or fought or even influenced without even meeting them, wondering if he should have said anything. But in the end it was Buck who broke the silence: "Well, what are we waiting for then? Come on, guys! Are you ready for a new adventure?" he yelled laughing, darting towards the path.
"Hey, wait for us!" Carnopo exclaimed. "We should go on the journey together!"
"Ha ha! Stay behind me, snails!" was the only answer of the tyrannosaurus.
The others looked into each other's eyes, then burst out laughing. "Let's hurry up, we have to reach him and make him bite the dust!" Nefertiti exclaimed, running towards the portal followed first by her son, then by the twelve commanders, and then by all the others. Like a river, the crowd poured towards the path, disappearing into it.
Sobek stayed behind; like the good pack leader he was, he waited until everyone had passed, just to be sure no one was left behind. But he soon realized he wasn't alone: Jocelyne had stayed there with him, leaning on his foot. "Are you waiting too?" he asked her.
"You have your people to watch over, I have mine" Jocelyne replied, then gave him a winky look. "Besides…friends stay together until the end, right?"
Sobek smiled, and then did something he'd never done before: he grabbed Jocelyne by the scruff of the neck and tossed her into the air. The girl landed on his head and for the first time she could see things from his huge point of view. "And what is this?" she asked him.
"A favor among friends" was Sobek's answer. Jocelyne didn't answer; she just smiled back.
The two of them waited, and waited, until everyone had passed. Then, when only they were left in the hall, Sobek grabbed Jocelyne with one of his huge paws so he could face her. The two of them, the dinosaur and the human, stared at the path for a moment, then the girl asked: "So, shall we go?"
Sobek nodded, but as he was about to take the first step he seemed to have a doubt and turned to God: "I have one last question"
"I listen to you, as always" the deity replied.
"Here... I'm not going to ask you to explain your big plan, or what you plan to do, or anything else, because already I imagine it's going to be too complicated... but I wanted to ask you..." Sobek choked on his words: "Exactly, why did you create all this? I mean, well, why do we exist?"
And at that point God burst out laughing heartily. "Of all the questions you could ask, this was just the silliest. Tell me, does a parent perhaps need a motivation to bring children into the world?"
Sobek stood motionless for a moment, then he too burst out laughing. "Yeah… now that I think about it, that's a really stupid question!" he exclaimed, then set off down the path, and disappeared into it.
************
Even though Sobek and all the great heroes of the 'war that ended all wars' were gone, Eden remained a dynamic and ever-changing world. Humans and animals continued their process of unification, working together and traveling the cosmos. Nefertiti made sure to lay good foundations for a bright future, and so did her son Takaj.
Jocelyne would live until she was eighty. She never had a husband, but she had several affairs with numerous partners. She was never a mother, but she built many orphanages to welcome less fortunate children and promoted policies that protected minorities and punished sexual crimes such as rape. Before she died she would donate all of her money to charity. She would be buried in the garden of the old family home, next to the graves of her parents.
With the disappearance of Nefertiti and Jocelyne, the era of heroes was truly over, but animals and humans would continue to progress nonetheless. Takaj would have seen the first expedition to an exoplanet and his future son Takeshi would have contributed to the first complete colonization of another star system. Over the decades and centuries, the Eden Union grew stronger and stronger and the dream of a united people was born, made up of all humans and all animals. Slowly, all the barriers collapsed and from a simple union the Eden Union developed into a confederation, then a federation, and finally a great republic.
The era of galaxy expansion and exploration had begun. New challenges would await the new united people, but they would always face them together. When centuries later the time would come for the first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, which was in turn composed of millions of different species revealing a path as complex as the civilization of Eden, the new united people mindful of Sobek's teachings first sought coexistence. And so, over the course of thousands of years, the galaxy would have unified becoming an immense united country populated by species from all planets, who by combining their knowledge achieved such extraordinary goals that it would be impossible to describe them in words.
Sobek's body would never be moved from the spot where he died: humans and animals built a huge mausoleum around it and preserved the corpse as best they could. In the future, all of Sobek's descendants would be buried there, in that mausoleum which would be increasingly enlarged, so that the family would always remain united.
That mausoleum would become the most important pilgrimage site for the civilization of Eden. Humans and animals would continue to travel there for thousands of years, honoring the creature who had saved the world. Entire religions arose about Sobek, most of which saw him as the savior sent from heaven, while others even spoke of him as an actual god.
Many even thought that Sobek wasn't really dead, but that his was only a sleep similar to death, and that when the civilization of Eden needed him again, he would wake up and lead humans and animals towards a bright future for the second time. This belief continued for centuries and took root so firmly that someone often went to ask one of Sobek's descendants if this story was true. To that question, the answer they gave was always the same:
"He waged his war, and won. Now let him rest, he deserved it"
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AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS
And so we have come to the end. Thank you all for following and enjoying this story! Goodbye you all!