I: Logic

There has always been, and always will be, the cycle. The expanding and contracting of the cosmos like that of a beating heart; every complete pulse a reality born and ended.

At its very foundations, there has always been peace and conflict. A duality of creation and destruction, much like the cycle itself.

Coexisting matter and atoms join together to mold the universe's shape, while those that oppose them break their creations down into nothing. Like-minded peoples and nations scheme to execute their goals, while secretly or boldly destroying their enemies. Be it between the fundamental matters of the universe or the grandest civilizations, the existence of conflict and peace has remained an undeniable truth.

And from that truth, came two lies.

Splitting the unbreakable fact, these twin lies sought to make themselves the new truth in its place. They wished to make realities of only one polarity, bathed in unending war or unending peace.

These were the Logics, as all would know them. They were known by many names, the Darkness and the Light; the Deep and the Sky; the Sword-Logic and the Shield-Logic.

It is not remembered when they truly began, these lies; a tragic symptom of reality's unceasing death and rebirth.

These great living concepts drew upon the one truth they stemmed from to fuel their dualistic power, molding the cosmos to fit their visions. In time, life that possessed the gift to think took to naming these Logics as gods, benevolent to those who followed their paths, and wrathful to those who defied them.

And like the deities they were considered, they grew to seek dominion over all things.

The Logic of conflict would prey upon death to make itself true, the Logic of peace would prey upon life to do the same. One was the perfect final shape of reality, the other a beacon of endless prosperity.

They were none of these things.

In the so-called perfect truth that both bore, they had created and deceived even themselves with a perfect lie. The lie that either could truly exist without the other to oppose them; the undeniable truth both wished to eventually usurp.

Even those who call for peace will know war, and how to wage it. Even in its demise, the Logic of Death would hold truth, for only that which is strongest may exist.

Even those who call for war will know peace, and how to maintain it. Even in its demise, the Logic of Life would hold truth, for that which remains can only know peace.

In that balance, there was the truth.

Neither logic could truly cease without the other's destruction, no matter how it may be brought about. Only in shared annihilation could either one of them truly end.

Through this connection, both Logics would be reborn with the very universe they fought to subjugate. The supposed victor of the past world would step into the successor realm, spreading its divine truth, only for its opposite to arrive with time, and begin their war anew.