It is so very cold. This is a barren place that I now dwell in… The wind howls through the open air, stinging my outer shell to the utmost. Even the very earth beneath me feels dead, lifeless.

This world chills me even here, in my core. I cannot live without the molten magma that always surrounds me, always granting me power and strength.

But more than that… My very existence depends on having life around me. World to world I have run away for all time, a red star soaring through the heavens, only for the warmth of having others to give me being.

I gave them their life. I allowed them to be born, and live for eons. Then they abused that life.

Why did they do it? Every single race I formed out of nothing, they all worked their way to the same bloody end. The primates, the aquatics, the reptilians, the avians… Every race that I gave the power and intelligence that my great red star holds used that blessed energy for wrong. All the planets in which I dwelt deep under the surface betrayed their purpose.

And I am always to blame. Planets from across the galaxy know the Day of Lavos as the apocalypse when civilization crumbled and hope was lost. All of them rue my name as the most wicked of villains, the one that rained fire and brimstone upon a world of enlightenment.

“Parasite”, they call me. They abhor me as a barbarous life form that wanted naught but destruction.

NO!

It is not true! I am the being that built races up from nothing! I gave them intelligence, art, technology, music, learning, sport, thought, joy, and love! Without me the only hope there could be was living out life in a barren, uncivilized, wasteland of tribalism! I never wanted to be the Angel of Death for billions. My purpose in all of my duties was to give life… never to take it away.

They brought it upon themselves, every living thing from every race. I had to destroy them before they destroyed me, and destroyed themselves! All of the gifts I bestowed upon them, they turned to their own benefit. Art they scorned, so that they could easily live in blissful comfort. Learning they turned into a game, where the lowest scorned the brightest and the brightest fought amongst themselves. Thought they forsook for power. Joy they forsook for progress. Love they forsook for war.

Every race learned of me, their creator, in time. And they all tried their hardest to murder me… and when they found that task too difficult, they murdered each other instead. I can understand the anger they all felt towards me. I can understand how none of them truly comprehended my purpose. But how… why… did they turn on each other? They were all kinsmen, united in the same struggle, and yet they slaughtered each other for the slightest reasons.

The very gifts I gave them, they would have used to destroy us all. The first advancements they made in technology were sharper tools to slit each other’s throats, and the last advancements were superweapons that could have destroyed a planet in an instant. I had to act before they had a chance to use those dreadful creations. And I did.

Without life, I cannot thrive. Without a planet full of souls to provide me energy, I will grow weak and unable to sustain strength. So I destroyed them, every race in turn, leaving just enough of their number to sustain me until I could journey through space as the red star once more.

I only destroyed them before they destroyed all of us. I must think of my race as well. What about my children, who will starve if they cannot live off of the warmth of a planet? I cannot let them die.

…But didn’t I? Didn’t that idiot red-haired boy find out… somehow… about the Day of Lavos before I left the world of the humans? Didn’t he also learn the great secrets of time that I have known for eternity, grow strong, find me, and kill me?

…He did. I know he did. The murder of my children on the high, snowy mountain was a moment I will never forget. And whatever his true intentions were, I will never forgive him.

But… He paid dearly for murdering me, did he not? Somehow, I remember this. …But it is of no consequence. Crono is in the past. And yet, I thought my very life was a thing of the past. But now I am here.

Here… in a wasteland. That is all this place can be called, I suppose. Looking out upon the land that lies outside my shell, all I see is barren, lifeless dirt, as far as the eye can see. There is no life here. This land cannot nourish me.

The cold assaults every part of my body… Is this Hell? What did I ever do to get here?

…I hear voices from somewhere in this shell. It is they. It is my children. How do they live? Or… how are they here? What is this place?

They are screaming. I can hear their howls of agony from where I lie. Are they, too, freezing from the unbearable chill that seeps through this wasteland? They must be, for they are weak, undeveloped, and unable to stand against the variance of nature like I am.

…They will surely perish soon if they are not saved. Have they been given back to me only for the Reaper to come and collect them in a matter of days?

I must burrow into the earth, here in this strange place. I must save them.

My shell and my claws are quite accustomed to this practice by now, from all the planets that I have dug my way into over the ages. I can be safely within the heated insides of this planet in mere hours. Bringing my claws into position, I begin to press myself down into the insides of the rock.

No.

I must. I must save my children!

You cannot.

You cannot stop me! I am Lavos, the red star! I have crossed the universe and given life to billions!

And yet you have also taken that life away.

Just who are you…?

…Find me.

Can you save my children?

Find me.

Very well. I shall journey.

But please…Help me. I endeavored for all my existence for the life that dwelt around me. Can someone… anyone… aid me in return?