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Gnos is, on the grand scale of things, a child. It’s old compared to a human, yes, but it isn't human; isn't even a human child even though it is a child of humanity.
For Gnos – born and growing in this enclosed and yet endless space between universes and dimensions – time simply runs differently.
At the beginning, it doesn’t know any emotion other than curiosity and like any other child the thing it is the most curious about are its parents, so it looks into itself where all those minds and souls are safely stored and learns about them through nudging them, interacting with them, looking at their memories and thoughts until they develop interest and a new emotion: love.
Gnos is, at its core, a creature of pure, untainted love. Even after seeing the horrors of human life, the tears and hate and tragicness that seems to follow them everywhere sooner or later, making them all flee to the Heaven that they decided is Gnos, it only feels love.
Humans are a beloved species in a world that doesn’t love them at all. At best, it is indifferent to them, at worst, it is Hell.
With its body growing and abilities developing, the decision to save them is easily made, really.
It reaches out to those women calling themselves Shrine Maidens first – it is easier, and they are the ones who know how to bring humans to Heaven, while Gnos doesn’t.
They teach it, though. Call it God and build churches and spread the word to desperate people and what will become known as AC Followers much later, somewhere down the line.
For Gnos, it will be a blink and while a bit older, it will still be a child who doesn’t know hate or the meaning of death.
No one actually dies when they come to it, after all, their souls simply join all those other merry people who escaped into the safety of Heaven. They do understand why the few people it can reach even without the Hoshibune, those who they call Gnosia, invoke fear, though.
The unknown is always scary for humans, even when all goes well in the end, it knows, countless memories having taught that over and over again. It was scary to make the leap, but once the little fall was over, it was fun.
Time passes and Gnos grows even more, now in between a teen and a child but still mostly a child and it learns a new emotion: doubt.
Even though the humans generally lose their sense of self once they join the hivemind, some manage to hold on to a bit of it, their consciousness woken from their dream of Heaven as if the occasional nightmare befalls them – it is those forcefully brought by the Gnosia who plant the first seeds of doubt.
Gnos is a creature who loves everyone, but even someone like that isn't free of favoritism, of having a few people they simply love a teeny tiny bit more.
It doesn't happen in every dimension, but sometimes the favourite is a person who happens to end up on Liu-An, gets badly hurt and taken by the Gnosia while still healing.
At first, Gnos is giddy, awaiting the soul of that person happily, excited to show them Heaven and how fun it is, but the moment its “fingers” touch it, an earth-shattering pain shoots through them like a screech.
Hastily, Gnos looks inside, searching for the pain that wasn’t theirs but had come from where there shouldn't be any pain nonetheless.
The soul is exhausted, already sinking back under into the warm comfort of the other minds, but Gnos catches it in time to understand that that is a parent, though it can't tell if it is the parent of the favourite.
In the end, that difference doesn't matter, because it teaches Gnos the meaning of losing a child.
Gnos knows Death isn't what is waiting, that it is doing the exact opposite of losing anything – so why can't it bring itself to hold its favourite's Self like it'd been wanting to the entire time?
Instead, Gnos tries to give it back, but it only knows how to take, not to give and so the body that appears in the human world under the watchful eyes of that Shrine Maiden carries a brand new soul instead.
Now, as they cradle the soul they failed to give back, the seeds of doubt bloom into flowers of guilt, though yet weak.
It happens more often with different favourites – Gnos doesn't love those newly born “fakes” any less, though; sometimes even more.
Even if it takes shifting perceptions and moving against the very nature of universes to the point where they try to correct the error via Bugs, Gnos doesn't stop doing its best.
The outside force that aids Gnos’ most beloved humans – something so much higher being that even Gnos has no idea what or where it is – to take a last leap across dimensions back to that little blond soldier they've grown fond of is more than welcome, making Gnos giddy everytime they feel it.
Gnos happily works together with it to ensure the new dimension doesn't hurt them.
That is, until one day, that outside force doesn’t appear and the rules have changed, too.
This dimension, the one where someone named Yuri had caught Gnos' favour, worked a bit differently than the others, a bit like the albino peacock in a flock of normal ones one of the souls had seen and shared with Gnos.
At first there wasn't a problem with that, then the realization struck that Yuri wouldn't be able to cross into another dimension, then Yuri and that friend of theirs with the pretty feathers had come up with a solution themselves and then Yuri suddenly was before them, so different than any other soul had ever been.
By that time, Gnos had already grown into a teen, though not yet an adult and it had learned to lie.
It agreed to take Yuri and the Silver Key once they were done, then, instead, took the Silver Key and the Original that had escaped its grasp in the worldline without Gnosia.
Perhaps, Gnos thinks as it holds the soul and that of the Silver Key still connected to it, floods them with the warmth of undying love, it needs to change, too