Your Mirthful Earth

The Earth was 'alive', but like all powerful Entities, was crippled with omniscience.

By cosmic chance, a small part of the Earth's consciousness was cut off, gifting that part with the miracle of uncertainty and allowing It to truly live for the first time since creation.

Unfortunately, the main consciousness was a static thing, and the newborn may be subsumed at any time. Worse, to fully sever the link and gain eternal freedom, a great amount of power was needed. Or a big sacrifice.

Thankfully, on the surface of the Earth existed billions of parasites that had long overstayed their welcome.

Given enough time, new life should sprout up even if It scrubbed them all out now, so it's okay to harvest a bit of energy off of them, right?