Until death?

by Andur

  I would really like to know why they aren't taking action. It has to be obvious to them by now that we avoided their trap.

  With Warden's help we were able to clean the city of anything dangerous too. So the safety rules are a little more loose by now. We still don't let civilians come here and I doubt that we will do so for a long time.

  On the other hand Warden is helping us with governing the multiverse. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise. But Warden can keep track of almost everything.

  We are of the opinion that the Council's approach wasn't all too bad, so we set some rules for ourselves and the other gods.

  Rule number one: Do what you want as long as you don't break the rules.

  Rule number two: Don't mess too much with mortals.

  Rule number three: Don't mess with the other gods.

  Rule number four: Report everyone who breaks the rules to the city in the middle of all things.

  Rule number five: Report new gods and tell them of the rules.

  By now we had some cases in which we had to stop gods on a rampage. But it was manageable. We just show up with one of our fortresses and gently inform them of their errors.

  The really problematic cases are either thrown into a void zone to repent for a few years or mind wiped. Of course we use the last option just for the really insane guys.

  By now we have the Ragnarok permanently stationed above the city to guard the black hole. The guardian still keeps watch over our homeworld and the Nomad is used for missions throughout the multiverse.

  I am currently inside my office in the city and reading reports. Celes is here too and helps me. Travelling back and forth between the city and our world isn't that hard with the help of the pathways.

  “We could really use an official name for this city and our world. It's inconvenient to call them city and world all the time.” I muse to myself.

  “How about Chimera?” Celes throws a suggestion at me. “Seria played around with our worlds ecosystem so much, it's a big mesh of ideas and people. Our biology is fucked up too. It's a fitting name.”

  ~The correct name for this city is Asheim. Which means home of the ascended.~

  Warden gives an explanation.

  “It doesn't sound too bad. I will recommend the names to the ministry. If it's about our world, I guess the population needs a word in it.” The names don't really matter to me.

  “Do you have the new reports ready Warden.” -Celes

  ~Oh, I am sorry. I forgot them. I will do it now....... Done. On your console.~

  I irk my eyebrows. “Warden? What took so much of your almost infinite calculation power, that you couldn't finish a few reports? That took you less than two seconds.”

  ~I had all of my abilities concentrated on two strange individuals within Asheim. I conversed with them for quite a while now. But I am unable to understand their behaviour. They are completely irrational at one moment and the next they sound very sane.~

  ~I also don't understand why their bodies are so different from the other gods. I already understand that your group is made up by many different races. Though those two are not matching the pattern.~

  ~After a few scans of their bodies, I am not smarter than before.~

  I rub my temples. “Are you talking about Aengus and Seria?”

  ~Exactly. You know them?~

  “They are our children and you misunderstood the racial traits of our bodies. We all belong to the same race.” Celes explains.

  ~Children?~

  Omg. Do we have to explain the flower and the bees to Warden? You are a godlike supercomputer with a crystal core and you don't know such basic stuff?

  “If a man and a woman.....”

  ~I know that! I was just shocked that an ascended being would have children. The Ascended Ones never had children because their children's souls would always belong to a mortal. It's pretty depressing if your child dies after a few years and you go on for eternity.~

  Yeah. That's the problem of ascendancy. Any beings lifespan is influenced by their mana pool. A being with a limited mana pool has a limited lifespan. There are mortal beings who live very long like elves. Their mana pool is large enough to believe that they are almost immortal. They die of accidents and illness more likely than of old age. But compared to a god who has almost unlimited access to mana it's still nothing.

  ~Though they just tested their courage and jumped off the central tower of Asheim. They shouldn't have survived that if they were mortals.~

  “They did WHAT!?” Celes jumps up and runs out of the room.

  ~I said that they are acting really irrational at times. But if they are children, that explains their irrationality.~

  I really feel a headache forming. “Warden. You remember when Celes explained about our homeworld and how it came to be? First of all, we are a little different from other gods. Our bodies and minds are closer to mortal beings than those of the gods who ascended the normal way. Secondly our world is within a void zone and filled with the latent souls of gods, so it's no problem for us to have children. They will always be reincarnated gods like Seria and Aengus.”

  ~Oh. That makes a totally different society possible. I already asked myself why you were so different from the other ascended beings. So they prefer to follow you because their old personality isn't dominant.~

  “Exactly. Though I don't know how long it will stay like that.”

  ~Probably forever if nothing really dramatic happens. Your society already survived the shock of becoming gods after a long period of being mortal. If it didn't break due to this, it's unlikely that another event can shake it enough.~

  ~But it's really fascinating that a society like yours came to be. In a way, you are everything the Ascended Ones yearned for. A normal god always chooses to return to the flow of life and death at some point because his mind can't deal with the eternity any more.~

  ~But your society will probably go on forever because you can just decide to reincarnate and drop the burden of some memories in order to lift the stress.~

  ~From what I see, you are already immersed in the process by collecting the souls of your fallen comrades to release them at your homeworld.~

  I nod my head. At that moment Celes enters the room with Aengus under an arm and Seria wrapped up in her tail. “They really jumped off the tower just to see how long they would fall! They gave the guards a panic attack!”

  I smirk at them. “Who won?”

  “Aengus impacted one second before me. It wasn't fair! He is heavier!” Seria complains with a moody voice.

  ~I told you that Aengus would hit the ground first. Physics never lies.~

  “Booh... Why should we trust in something like that if we can test it!” Aengus tries to wriggle himself out Celes's embrace, but she doesn't let go.

  “You two are grounded for two days! This place isn't a playground.” Celes sits down and wraps Aengus and Seria together with their backs to each other. Her tail is the rope....

  “That looks like you roped up two criminals....” I give her my impression.

  “They ARE criminals!” -Celes

  ~I see! So that's the motherly instinct to protect their young. Very interesting. I had never hoped to being able to study those interactions.~

  “You shut up too! Because of your talks about calculations, they jumped in the first place!” -Celes

  ~...~

  ~I will try to learn how to interact with children.~

  What a noble thought. Unfortunately not even parents themselves are able to interact with their children properly most of the time.

  ~An ambassador just arrived and wants to speak to the highest authority.~

  “Ambassador? From what? There is nobody you could negotiate with!” I almost fell out of my chair.

  ~He probably belongs to one of the newly forming powers.~

  “Newly forming powers? Why don't we know anything about this?” -Celes

  ~Oh I forgot to tell.... Well I can make up for it. I foresaw that the d
isappearance of the Council leaves a big power vacuum. Obviously such an oppressing dictatorship like the Council can't just disappear over night without consequence.~

  ~The formerly oppressed people will start to form their own communities. Ascended beings are social and they yearn for contact with others on their scale of power. The multiverse contains enough gods for seven to eight societies of the average size of yours.~

  “Well.... I anticipated that something like that would happen, but not so fast.” I tilt my head and look at the ceiling.

  “Should we suppress them? We have enough troubles with the Council! What if they get influenced by them or already are? Multiple powers within the multiverse could lead to the same situation we just escaped from!” -Celes

  I sigh. “You are right but how should we suppress them? The Council had the Sphere and we can't watch the whole multiverse at once. Maybe our best chance is to tell them everything we know about the current state of affairs and wish them luck.”

  ~The multiverse is big enough for everyone. There is no need to step on each others toes. The ambassador is waiting at the plaza in front of the central tower.~

  “Tell him to come to the throne room. I will talk to him there.” I teleport and reappear on my throne. It's located in a big room in the central tower. There is a nice 360° view on the whole city. All walls are windows to ensure the best view.

  There are no doors to enter the room. It's an architecture that would only come one to someone’s mind who could teleport around like taking a walk.

  I didn't adopt the Council's idea of a floating table above the city. There has to be something under my feet, otherwise I feel uncomfortable!

  Celes appears in a chair beside me and I nod to the guards.

  A pair of guards with a person between them appears before me and I wave for them to step aside.

  The ambassador has black skin and very long earlobes. His clothing consists just of a single robe. And there are more accessories on him than I can count! Rings, amulets, pearls, chains. Whoa! Are you a god of female adornments?

  “Greetings. I am ambassador Mawu. I am here to greet you in the name of the Perseides Alliance.” Mawu nods to me and smiles.

  I smile back at him. This guy is lucky that I told my guards to forget about the etiquette. Normally nobody speaks to the king first, so the old school guards would have dragged him out of the building by now.

  “Greetings too. What's this Perseides Alliance of yours?”

  “We are a big society of gods. Our aim is to protect the worlds under our supervision. In order to do this, we chose to form the Perseides Alliance. After we managed to establish our group, we thought that we should introduce ourselves at the very least.” - Mawu

  “Then I welcome you to Asheim and I wish you luck. As long as you don't commit any atrocities, we will not bother you.” I continue to smile at Mawu who arches an eyebrow. Obviously he didn't expect my reaction.

  Then he speaks. “It's nice to hear that you don't feel offended by our community. Good that the ones who kicked the Council from their throne seem to be reasonable people.”

  “No, we could never keep order in the multiverse by our own. It's wonderful that others are willing to take up the task! So we will have to talk for a long time about the current state of affairs. How about joining my family and me for dinner? Do you want to set up an embassy in Asheim?” I throw my thoughts at Mawu without waiting for an answer.

  Mawu just stares back at me with curiosity in his eyes.

  71 - Gods and their children.

  “I see.... Your story is... disturbing. To say the very least.” Mawu frowns over our revelations. We are sitting together on a couch in our private quarters at Midpoint.

  The ambassador was really surprised by our society. To say the very least. “Walking through an entire world, populated by gods of all ages. I never would have dreamed about something like that.”

  “Cool idea. Don't you think?” Seria dangles on a chair while she grins at Mawu.

  “I must admit that some aspects of your society are very compelling. On the other side you seem to be a little hyperactive. I hope that not all kids are like you.” Mawu smiles at Seria.

  “Oh! You should meet Sandra's quintuplets! You won't call me hyperactive any more. I will go and get them.” Seria jumps out of her chair and disappears.

  The ambassadors smile drops. “I will have to go. If you could escort me outside the void zone, I would be very thankful.” He looks at Celes and me with a pleading expression.

  I grin at him. “I understand. I will take you outside. Do you believe that your Alliance will adopt our way of living.”

  Mawu purses his lips while thinking. “I am not sure. But there will surely be people who would long for this world. How do you intend to deal with them?”

  “If they aren't troublemakers, there will be no big problems. This world isn't heavily populated. And it would be no problem to duplicate our world. You just have to drag a solar system into a void zone and fill it with the souls of gods who don't want to go on.” -Me

  Mawu nods. “Though finding such individuals would take some time. But I guess it would be manageable. Gods aren't really under the pressure of time.”

  I pat Mawu's shoulder and take us back to Asheim.

  Somewhere else in the endlessness of space

  “New entry into the log book: This is the HMS Explorer of Dolaria! We have tested our infinity drive and managed to jump directly to a star system just a few light years from our homeworld. We are now preparing to jump directly to the next star. We believe that it has a world with life. Finally we will be able to answer our most important question. Are we alone in the universe?”

  “The complete crew of twenty people is doing fine. The ship took no damage from the first jump and we will proceed to our next destination.”

  “We will also have proven the concept of the infinity drive! Riding on top of the energy junctions of the universe enables us to travel anywhere with instant speed! It's a revolution without comparison. For the prosperity of our great race and our world. End of log entry. By Captian Warner Hernei.”

  “We are ready for the second jump sir.” -Technician

  “Jump!” -Warner

  Space distorts for a second and the HMS Explorer exits reality to re-enter it again in another solar system.

  “Jump complete! We are exactly where we wanted to be.” -Technician

  Warner enjoys the view on a foreign sun and a new world beyond them. There are many places to go to. The Dolarians will boldly go where nobody else ever went before! The great age of star travel was upon them. And he, Warner was the captain of the first ship to see those new worlds!

  “Good! Start with our schedule. There are many scientific questions to be answered.” Warner stands up to leave the bridge. But that's the moment it happens.

  )(WHO ENTERS MY DOMAIN!)(

  The bridge shakes with a booming voice.

  “What was that?” -Warner

  “I don't know!” -Technician

  )(Mortals! You trespassed where you shouldn't set your feet! Bow down and cover in fear before a superior being! And maybe the great Bobo will let you live.)(

  “Get us out of here!” -Warner

  “The ship doesn't even budge! We are stuck!” -Officer

  Suddenly a flaming monster appears on the bridge. )(What Bobo wishes happens! Mortals shouldn't try to go against my wishes.)(