"Who are you?" Savannah asked with some apprehension.
'Life' chuckled and said, "Why, I'm your brother, of course. The one and only."
Savannah rolled her eyes as her hands held her hips. "Since you're my brother, you know I can tell Life apart from his different selves."
"You, different versions of Life only come up when these strange things happen."
"I remember when Stable showed up six years ago when the beasts were rampaging, and the World was shaking. It was after our parents died." Savannah said softly before shaking her head to dispel her sadness.
"Anyways, I know that you are not Life."
"Life is energetic, a bit strange, and very curious about everything. Stable is calm and patient, always has a stern expression on his face, and as if everything needs to be taken super seriously, but he is super hardworking. As for you…" Savannah paused before smiling.
"You are neither, so who are you?"
'Life's' smile disappeared as he scoffed.
With an arrogant tone, he answered, "Truly the words of an ignorant subject who barely knows what she is talking about. Let me clarify. I, Life, and Stable are all one. We are the World itself. Each embodies a core pillar of this World: Life embodies the concept of Life, Stable embodies the concept of Stability, and I, Vanity, embody the concept of Vanity."
"Wait, does that mean we are inside you right now?" Treko interjected with curiosity.
"Ew," Savannah added as she took a step back.
Vanity froze as the heroic and righteous aura surrounding him seemed to visually disappear. Regaining his composure, Vanity crossed his arms and shook his head before nodding.
"Of course, you are not inside us. Right now, you are talking about our incarnation, which is made from a small portion of our wills."
"Life, Stability, and Vanity are the core concepts that make up the World. So, being a part of this glorious World is already your greatest blessing. But you were given an even greater privilege than the other natives. You were made in MY image. The most beautiful, handsome, sweet, cute, sexy, dignified…, and intelligent Will in the entire Chaos!" Vanity rattled out dozens of adjectives with vigor making Savannah and Treko's mouths drop.
They had never seen such an arrogant person in their entire lives. They swore he listed off every single good attribute and gave it to himself.
"I had my doubts, but you really must be the incarnation of the concept of Vanity. How else can you be so narcissistic and not be ashamed?" Savannah said as she felt secondhand embarrassment.
"Can't you be humble?"
"Ignorant. Truly ignorant." Vanity shook his head as he looked at the two of them with disdain.
"Do you really think being humble is not a part of being vain? Vanity is all about perception. Self-perception and the perception of others are all the same. Without one, you will simply find yourself dying ugly." Vanity continued.
Treko didn't believe him and retorted, "Vanity is literally about making up your insecurities with external validation. How does that make us survive better? If everyone is humble, we will thrive."
Vanity smirked and asked, "What happens to those expelled from the tribe?"
Treko froze before softly answering, "They most likely die."
"So the public perception of them being dangerous to the tribe and undesirable caused them to die. Interesting. Treko, how did you feel when you were feeling sick and terrible about yourself?"
"You saw that?"
"Exactly, you couldn't even take a single step forward. If a group of beasts attacked the tribe, you wouldn't even try to fight back to survive. This is the power of Vanity."
"With good self and public perception, you are guaranteed to thrive. Vanity is great. It is simply your ignorant minds who can't comprehend the vastness of this concept." Vanity said with an arrogant smirk. His aura bounced back with the grandness that made him seem above everyone and everything.
Savannah and Treko fell silent as they thought deeply about Vanity's words. They couldn't find anything wrong with his words. Maybe they did misunderstand what being a vain person meant. They even felt as if they should listen to Vanity more. As the incarnation of the World, he knew more than they did.
"Vanity, stop playing your tricks. They are the flesh and blood of this body. Fooling them does nothing except harm."
"Listen closely, only with a good foundation can you truly reap the benefits of Vanity. Without a foundation, you simply stand over a bottomless abyss using nothing but a thin tree branch." A deep, composed voice came out of Vanity's mouth, startling Savannah and Treko.
"Stable, your back!" Treko shouted with excitement.
"I'm still here too!" Life jumped out.
Vanity palmed his face and looked regretful.
"You two are ruining my efforts to look mysterious and powerful. Do you even want to kill those otherworldly invaders?" The aura he had built up through his speech crumbled, making Savannah and Treko unknowingly sigh as they felt he was more relatable and close again.
"Their perception of you isn't important to our mission. We need to go now. I sense that the otherworldly demon will be born in one year inside the South World Gate." Stable replied, maintaining his composed and steady tone as if he wasn't in a rush.
"Wait, wait, wait. Explain. What are the otherworld invaders? And what is the South World Gate?" Savannah asked as if she felt confused by what was happening.
Vanity pointed his finger towards the sky.
Following where he was pointing, Savannah and Treko saw that there was a massive floating structure in the sky. The structure looked like a giant-sized version of the doors they made to enter their homes. It was made out of unknown materials, but regardless of how far up it was, they could still see it with their naked eyes, which showed how massive this structure was. They were very familiar with this structure since it had always been there, but they had gotten too used to it and blanked it out most of the time.
"That's the Up World Gate," Vanity said before pointing to the North, South, West, East, and finally Downwards.
"There is the North World Gate, South World Gate, West World Gate, East World Gate, Up World Gate, and Down World Gate. Each gate leads to another world. The South World Gate will be where the Otherworldly Demon will descend in one year. The West World Gate is where the Otherworldly Angel will descend in two years' time." Vanity explained, and when he saw the confused looks on Savannah's and Treko's faces, he sighed.
"The World we are in right now can best be represented by a single grain of dirt that makes up the earth. Instead of making the ground beneath our feet, this World makes up just one tiny part of what some would call a universe."
"So there are six other worlds other than ours," Treko muttered with astonishment.
He was having trouble processing all this. How could he not? Suddenly, being told that the big world he had lived in all his life was only a seventh of the whole universe was mind-numbing, and it was difficult to wrap his head around.
"No, there aren't seven worlds, Treko!" Life interjected and clarified.
"Every World has its own six World Gates! And those worlds, too! So the total number of worlds is uncountable! If you tried to count all the worlds, you would die long before you got close!"
Treko blinked as he clutched his head. How was that clarifying things? It only made it more absurd!
Vanity was starting to get impatient explaining all this. He waved his hand and grabbed the fur wrapped around Treko's waist.
"Ah! My clothes give them back!" Treko screamed as he covered himself with his hands.
"Oh, quiet, it wasn't like we haven't seen it before. We literally made you." Vanity said before pausing and stared at Treko.
"You should not feel embarrassed and ashamed you are based on me. Although you're far inferior, it's still a cut above the rest." Vanity said before going back to what he was doing.
Treko didn't know what to say and turned to Savannah for help, but she was indifferent. They were the only ones around, so him being naked wasn't a big deal.
"Don't worry, I've seen it before, too," Savannah said, trying to be reassuring.
Treko's face twitched as he felt as if he was being bullied just because he was the youngest.
Rip!
"My waist cloth! You know how long it took me before I was able to put together all the softest parts of the animal fur over the years. It took me ten years to get it that long." Treko cried out as he felt stabbed in the heart. Every time Vanity tore a section of his waistcloth, a piece of himself died.
Vanity ignored Treko's cries and put the makeshift carrier around his torso. Adjusting it slightly, he suddenly looked rugged and gave Savannah and Treko the feeling of a man ready to go on a journey.
Vanity tossed the scraps back to Treko to cover himself up.
"Like what Stable said, we are tight on time. We need to hurry to the South World Gate and use any means to make ourselves stronger." Vanity said while smirking confidently. He briefly glanced toward the direction of the tribe and began walking south.
Savannah and Treko, who finally snapped back to reality, quickly chased after him. Although Savannah was far less enthusiastic.
"Do you have to go? Can't you throw the invaders out some other way?" Savannah asked in hopes of convincing Vanity not to throw himself into danger.
"If it was so easy, we would have done so long ago. Otherworldly Invaders are sent by other Worlds, ugh, foreign Worlds that exist in the Chaos separate from this Universe. They want to take over newly born worlds to get stronger, and we are on the chopping block for two of them. With the help of these foreign worlds, I can't stop them from entering; I can only restrain their full strength to make things fair." Vanity said before suddenly grinning as a knowing glimmer appeared in his eyes.
"But," Savannah hesitated and was about to ask what the other options were.
Just then, hundreds of footsteps rushed towards them like a stampede, startled Savannah and Treko turned around and saw that everyone from their tribe was running over to them.
"Savannah, Treko, did you see what happened? That voice from the sky was that Life?"
Leading the charge was a middle-aged man, wearing a long spotted fur cloak, hat, and waist fur. He was muscular and tall. His immense stature radiated raw power that commanded respect and made it clear who was the leader. The man had a wise yet stern expression on his face as he stared past Savannah and Treko to Vanity, who had a calm, righteous smile.
He was the first and only chief of the tribe, Blage!
"Chief!"