I didn’t remember how many years it took me until my tears dried out, until I stopped scratching my face of and bashing my hand against the hard rock until my bones were pulverized, until I managed to put my mind in place enough to comprehend that I needed to climb the Voting Tower.

But with a sliver of sanity in my troubled mind, time became once again a torture to be tormented for. And so, I spent seven more billion years in constant agonizing pain, weakened, insane, and with so many more defects, my body was almost completely covered by abstract marks representing them.

Then, against all odds, I was finally there. At the edge of the voting tower, on top of it, seeing that old landscape once more. And my kin didn’t even pay attention to me, but rejoiced in the untold amount of new pleasures they created throughout the years.

I bypassed crowds of beings just like me who were biting onto sweet fruits, or touching delicate bodies, or gladly looking down on lower worlds and playing with them like toy boxes. Skittish, I held my pebble closer, and walked forward, towards the Creation Pool, looking from one side to another, trying to keep away from everyone’s eyes.

At each step, my heart beat faster, and I could see myself getting so incredibly close to the Creation Pool. It took me just a few days to make it through the happily distracted crowd, and I saw myself with tears coming to my eyes right before a large pool of still black waters.

I held my pebble tight, feeling so relieved, for an instant only, it wasn’t like I was the bearer of the pains of existence. Then I threw my pebble in an arc into the pool. And a stone sank into the Pool of Creation. But not one of mine.

“[Failure]”, Badger said, and my pebble kicked on top of the still black waters, and slid off it.

I fell on my knees, staring at my impeded creation.

“My kin”, Badger raised both arms, standing on top of a pile of nude bodies of peoples and creatures in his black cloak. “Beware! The misery!”, he continued, and the others all instantly appeared all around me, eyes fixated on my shaking form impassive. “An existence deprived of everything that is good, robbed of its rightful place, cursed with suffering and powerlessness… Doesn’t it make you feel good just by not being him?”, Badger asked, and the billions eighty-six billion of them all smiled and cheered.

I gritted my teeth until they shattered and blood dripped from my mouth, and the destroyed blood vessels in my eyes and nose from pure stress. Then I got up, and started walking forward.

“Oh? Will you pick your pebble once more, pathetic Coyote?”, Badger followed me with his head. “And what will you wish for? A slither of hope? A comforting warmth? A light to follow in dark times? What wish will you spoil, Coyote? What will you fail to realize?”

I stopped at the edge of the Creation Pool, where everything that existed, or would exist was wished upon whatever one of the five realities for exclusively the pleasure of my kin. Then I jumped into it, splashing the still black water everywhere.

“Let it all end… [TRUE DEATH]!”, I shouted so loudly my vocal cords ruptured.

And from the four corners of that world, four beings emerged. From the west, a giant sphere of snakes eating one another. From the east, a ball of white fire encircled by large rings of stone covered in petroglyphs. From the North a world-spamming red fog from which innumerable arms hanged down. And from the south a floating monolith covered in cracks, which opened itself to reveal a fleshy interior covered with eyes.

As I sank deeper into the black water, which felt as thick as honey, I saw my kin trying to scurry away from the creatures, but it was too late, for they weren’t slowed down like me, and in an instant, the beings were over the crowd, not simply destroying their physical body, but ending their very existence, leaving no trace behind.

Then, I sank completely under the water. I saw the marks on my body morph, and change into chain links, as my body’s matter changed into something more physical. I fell into a deep slumber, as I sank deeper into the Creation Pool, and into lower worlds.