Inside the Dark Hut.
After hearing Raphael's conjecture, the Oldest One said, "That's right."
Raphael sat on the railing of the wooden corridor, momentarily confused and lost. The Original Creator had humanity too?
"I know what you're wondering," the Oldest One said. "In the beginning, I was the collective consciousness of everything supernatural.
"The second Master of the Shadow Cottage's reflections on the Dark Hut just now were quite interesting. To some extent, he described what the highest level of the supernatural was like.
"It was a collective consciousness composed of cold, unfeeling rules. Or rather, it required a simple consciousness to determine which rules took priority.
"Back then, I was more like a spectator, watching the universe shift endlessly between nothingness and reality. There was nothing then, yet everything existed.
"Then one day, I had some new ideas. Perhaps putting the universe in order would be more interesting.
"Of course, those weren't subjective thoughts yet. Everything was driven by the supernatural, and it was also the supernatural that gave me the idea of stabilizing the universe.
"So I put the real world, the Spirit World, and the Astral World into a basic order. Then something incredible happened. All I needed to do was establish rules for the universe, and it could evolve on its own."
Raphael focused, listening intently to the Oldest One's account. Although it wasn't as beautiful as the creation myths made it sound, he knew full well that this was a firsthand account of the universe's formation, told by the Creator himself.
The Oldest One continued, "Time and space appeared in the universe, and reality and illusion were distinguished from one another.
"At that point, I discovered that some rules affected me as well. Before then, I could use the illusory aspects of existence to evade