rey_regino
When brilliant physicist Ethan Cross receives a terminal ALS diagnosis, he expects nothing but a slow descent into darkness. Instead, his late grandfather leaves him the Engine - an obsidian disc that opens a portal to the Substrate, a primordial world older than time itself.
With only a handful of years left, Ethan becomes both creator and witness. He watches life spark from chemistry, guides the slow march toward complexity, and meets the first sentient beings who will never know his name. Every intervention costs him years of vitality, yet he refuses to simply observe. He builds skies, protects fragile lineages, and learns to coexist with the ancient entity called the Silence - something that was already watching when his grandfather first arrived.
As the Vael take their first steps and Ethan's body fails, he must answer the only question that matters: what does a dying god owe the world he helped birth?
A story of science, legacy, mortality, and the terrifying beauty of creation.