RE: Deity - The Breath of Creation

4:20 Where Are You?

The Big Four and the Eight Pillars were having a meeting. The chosen venue was, for once, not Elvira's palace, but rather Father's. Shockingly, or perhaps not, it had not suffered much damage during the war. Randus had tucked it into the land of dreams, protecting the history of the Four Realms that lay within the palace walls in a realm only he and the unconscious mind could reach. Despite how frivolous it might have seemed, Elvira found it made perfect sense. The palace was Randus’ one thing. He tended to it, and cared for it, and served Father within these walls. Of course he would want to protect it, even if it was just a building.The room itself was made of a dark grey stone, circular with tapestries and various other artistic paintings hanging from the walls. Originally it had been designed as a dining room of sorts, though it had never been used as such, to Elvira's knowledge. Father always preferred eating in a less formal setting, and when Elvira came here, they would eat in the gardens or library or wherever struck their fancy.

Which made it a perfect time to use it for something more formal, and more private than her own palace would allow.

"I think we let the binding between the individual Realms continue to fade. I have been watching it closely, and it strikes me more as a natural progression than the result of damage," Gilles, her husband, said, standing just to the right of her.

"But what does that mean?" Inesa asked, the brown-haired woman nervously drumming her fingers on the table while her husband, Xing Wu, lounged beside her, completely at ease and unworried. "Will the Realms separate completely?"

"No. It will merely free them to grow the way they have always meant to." Alexander rumbled. "The binding was, in the beginning, something to keep the individual parts flying away. My Spirit Realm was the one that maintained said binding. Now they're loosening, like stitches on a wound, to let it grow more naturally. The Four Realms will always be the Four Realms, even if the distance between said Realms grows. The question now, is what we will be."

"Because of the One World," Randus said more than guessed, earning a round of nods.

"We have already decided to take chunks of land and power from the One World. This is not a greed or reparations issue; the One World has already crumbled some, and taking away the decaying pieces to be used as fertilizer for something new is healthy for both the One World and the Four Realms." Reika added, plucking at a green leaf sprouting from her hair. She pulled it out completely, studied it, then flicked it away. "Ironically, the Celestial Empress has already discovered part of this."

"What will you be building?" Solana asked, the great fiery bird perched on the back of her chair. She wasn't even in her full bird form, just her feet formed as talons clutching the back of the chair, while her humanoid body teetered dangerously. Her golden fire lit up that side of the room, head cocking to the side curiously.

"Some of it will go to reconstruction," Keilan said, rubbing his brow. "Some of it will go to building certain pathways and connections between us and the One World. We are currently drawing up mock-ups, but the current situation is...tenuous. The One World is slowly crumbling, with us inside. We could expand outward and merge with the universe, but Mother has made it clear She doesn't want to do that. However, we cannot just leave them, either, and wouldn’t even if Mother asked. Not that She would. These pathways will allow energy to pass between our world and theirs, nourishing both of our respective domains."

"And the separation of the Realms will help in this?" Fang Xu asked, sitting beside his wife, Celene. She had her attention fully upon the conversation, hands clasped before her face.

"And what," she added slowly. "Is the One World thinking about all this? They are essentially without leadership right now. Scattered gods and nations working with or against each other, while Curie's SystemGuardians work on rooting out the Rot. They are utterly without overarching command, all their leaders are here or otherwise indisposed. Even Astraea is not functioning as the liaison right now; not that I think she would make a good envoy. She is too free for that.”

"That is one of our issues," Elvira agreed, wings rustling as Gilles sat down beside her, clearly having finally figured out that his time to talk was over. She reached across under the table to give his forearm a squeeze, then continued. "Which is part of why the Pillars are going to be so important going forward. My siblings and I will be busy with construction. Father will be as well. Which will leave you eight managing the internals."

"You're going to make us do more work?!" Kei whined dramatically, earning a glare from her mother that she completely ignored, slumping over the table, ears and tails drooping dramatically.

"The dangerous part of the war is mostly over with, even if fighting amongst the One World will continue. Skirmishes will continue for a while yet, and I imagine some ambitious or crazy gods will even attempt to stage assaults on the Four Realms. However foolish that is." Alexander rumbled. "But the hard work now begins. Our duties will be slightly passed down to you, delegated as we take on new roles. Just as Father delegated His duties to us, when He began to separate Himself from the Realms, now it is our turn." Elvira hid a little smile at the tone of Alexander's voice. He tried to hide it, but he was excited. They all were.

Despite all the tragedy, they were leaving their nest, the comfort of their homes, to start building something new. Elvira's hand slid down to her stomach, and the new life growing within her belly. It would take some more time for the little one to come into the world, but she was ready for it. She was ready for this next chapter of her life to begin.

There was hope on the horizon. Plans to turn into reality. But first came the bitter work.

"Now, as for the prisoners of war..."

***

The Four Realms was about to enter into a period of unprecedented growth. Everyone could feel it, even the Rival. But Statera Luotian felt it most of all, and he could see it in the way she was jittery, playing with her new kid, Amari Ren, who was currently absent, and bouncing around the healing chambers like a woman possessed, chattering freely at anyone who would listen.

He, however, was not nearly in such a good mood. A little something was niggling in the back of his mind, worming its way through his thoughts as he sat there, watching.

"Your [System] has potential, Curie. What were you thinking of doing to expand it?" Statera asked as she sat beside Alala, the muscular woman's eyes open, but unseeing. She was getting better. The Rival could see it in her. Her breathing was steady, her complexion had gotten better, and now she was even visually responding to stimuli. The healing process was long, but working. The Rival didn't need to be here anymore...not in any full capacity.

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"I am considering it. The question is how to make it functional, and not a limiting factor." Curie mused, her voice far less monotone than before. Her body was still a shell of its former self, but life was returning to her. "Something like a true video game system is limiting, unless I bump it up quite a bit."

"I agree. I also don't think letting it spread to the Four Realms is a wise idea. They won’t' mesh well." Statera said.

"I concur." Curie agreed. “The eternity your people contains could prove difficult to manage.”

"Hey, Statera," the Rival spoke up, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure? Well, depends on what it is. I know what your favors are," she said suspiciously, eyes narrowed. The Rival laughed at the accusation, half tempted to crack a flirty joke, but decided against it. Not this time.

"I want to go see the One World. Can you help me with that?" he asked innocently. Statera's eyes narrowed with further suspicion, a completely reasonable reaction in his professional opinion, and even Curie's attention turned to him.

"Why?" Statera all but demanded.

"Oof, so suspicious. Nothing too serious, I promise! I've been around, you know. I could have some insights for you." He said dismissively, waving one hand in the air like he didn't care.

"Didn't you make a non-interference pact with the Overgod?" she asked, head cocking to the side cutely, a strand of black hair falling across her face that she absently put back in place with a gentle breeze. "Does that break the contract?"

"A non-interference pact? Him? Who is he?" Curie asked, now putting her full attention upon the Rival.

"Oh, you never met him? I could have sworn you did. I know Alala met him - did she not figure it out?" Statera asked.

"My other selves' memories are spotty at the moment." Curie said without any sort of sadness or remorse, just a machine stating facts. Statera frowned at her, not in pity, not quite, but in sadness and empathy.

"I just want to go take a look around. I'm not really needed here any longer, so I'll leave a clone and would like to pop on over to another baby universe and see what it looks like." he admitted freely. Statera hummed, studying his face and finding no lie there. Or so he hoped. She was annoyingly perceptive, like all of her children. Not that there was a lie to be found - and now his thoughts were spiraling. Great. . he grumbled.

"I can do that. Would you like me to give you a tour?" she asked. "I can send an incarnation with you."

"That would be fantastic. I'm fast, but you're faster. And, because I didn't answer your previous question, no, that wouldn't break the pact with the Overgod. I can do some things without disturbing cosmic balance," he told her. Statera stood, those long purple robes of hers swishing around her legs as she straightened, another version of her immediately popping into existence.

The Rival resisted the urge to fan himself and swoon at the idea of 'two' Stateras being near him. The look she gave him was one that said she knew what he was thinking even though he hadn’t said anything, and he flashed her a cheeky grin.

"Got your clone ready?" the new one asked.

"Yep! Once sec," he said, stretching and popping his neck. Unlike way back when he'd still been a mortal in this cultivation world, where he'd had to nearly kill himself to make a clone, now it was as easy as breathing. His cells split, bones shuddering and cracking, qi fueling the creation of a new body and dantian - one completely controlled by his admittedly massive soul.

"Well. That was new." Curie noted, the woman watching him with a fascinated expression. "I did not expect you to have such complete control of your body. That's not an incarnation, but a true clone of yourself."

"It's a neat trick." The Rival agreed, extending a hand to Statera. "Next time, you should show me around. When you can move around again."

"I will be there. My SystemGuardians are everywhere," Curie stated bluntly, as Statera took his hand. He chuckled and, with a sudden warping of space that too way, way too long - the kind of warping that came from pushing teleports a little bit further than they were designed for - they suddenly appeared somewhere new.

It was a baby world, just like the Four Realms. But it was a rare kind - the kind that was truly only One World. The land stretched on farther than the Rival could sense, a new universe's energy flowing into him and sending him to staggering as it mixed strangely with what he already had. Like oil and water mixing, that he quickly had to rebuild into something that wasn’t so different.

"Ok, that was weird. Didn't expect that." A blue box flashed in his vision but he waved it away - that was the Overgod's message system. It didn't actually have any authority, just a warning that he'd done something weird and it would be noted for review. The Overgod would understand, in this case.

"Are you ok? I should have shielded you, I'm sorry," Statera apologized, hovering over him but not touching as he righted himself.

"Oh hush, I'm not fragile. Existing in two universes at once is a little outside my area of expertise; in fact, this is a first for me. Huh. You keep introducing me to new things, Syl," he said, reverting to his old nickname for his friend. Statera snorted in a very unladylike manner, gesturing out at the grand vista that lay before them.

Birds the size of skyscrapers wheeled in the skies above, never having to return to the ground if his senses were accurate. They had some sort of bouyant sac in their breasts that kept them aloft. Below them stretched a mountain range the likes of which he rarely got to see. Deep, verdant green valleys fell further down than even he cared to fall, so deep light struggled to reach the bottom. Great vines, thick as a river, stretched between chasms like bridges, various beings moving across them. Clouds and mists circled the mountain in levels, creating natural levels.

A beast roared in the far distance, the energy here, so different from the Four Realms, thinner, drifting by on faint breezes.

"This is the One World." Statera said with a soft smile, pointing upward. "The Sun Gods that drew the many suns that keep the One World lit were mostly infected, so I currently am pulling most of them across the sky myself. Curie's working on automation until the sun gods finish healing, or new ones rise. There's also a lot of cities that way, and that way, but...I like this view, for some reason." She gestured vaguely in the direction of the cities.

The Rival hummed and knelt, pressing his hand against the ground and sending his senses deeper.

"Could you take me to some of the cities?" he asked, standing and dusting off his hands. He'd have to explore the whole thing later, but, for now, he wanted to see something else first.

Statera didn't so much as blink at the request, tapping his shoulder and teleporting them to above a gleaming city.

"This is one of the cities that aided us greatly. Ran by the God of Law. He's been recieving quite a bit of aid from another god named Jax - they've been quite the stabilizing force in the region." Statera told him. The Rival nodded, letting his senses cast out over the massive city. The walls were partly broken - entire chunks carved out of the glittering white marble where Rot spores had been entrenched. He watched. He waited. He looked for signs.

And then they moved on.

Now he knew what he was looking for. He hadn't been certain, but now he knew. Statera was his guide, teleporting him around, chatting - and when he needed to be alone, to explore, she vanished. Only to reappear when he needed her. He wandered through jungles, through deserts, burned a horde of zombies that were infected by Rot in a nation of the Undead. And he searched for signs.

This crash would have been the perfect staging ground for the First. Maybe not something he'd start or cause, but definitely something he would have taken advantage of. The Rival expected to see his signature on everything - he wasn't one to take the contract with the Overgod overly serious, a benefit of being the First, and would have taken the punishment if it meant taking advantage of something as big as this.

But there was nothing. No that screamed he was here. The only depth he could feel was Statera, and that was because she was everywhere, even here. The Rival bit his lip, the worry in the back of his mind swirling as he gazed skyward, finger hovering over the chat keyboard. Their last dailogue, the agreement to not do anything crazy, was still the last thing they'd said to each other.

he wondered, closing the chat without typing anything. And he hated how worried that made him.