A century passed in the blink of an eye. To mortals, this was a lifetime, an expanse of time great enough to encompass the entirety of their being.

To a limitless, time was not nearly enough to encompass them.

The empire had gone through tremendous changes, shifting closer and closer to pure order, if such a thing can even happen with humans. There were no longer many that remembered the colorful chaos from before the final empire. It's a curious phenomena, that even though humanity has the technology to theoretically sustain the body indefinitely, the soul will always leave at around a century, drifting off to that hidden place. Of course there are always exceptions.

Nero remained the same, simply gathering momentum for the moment of truth. He watched the passing of those he proclaimed his children with sadness. But he did not let it consume him. There were always more children to protect.

His plan for ascension was simple. It was planned long ahead, as all things must be in an empire of order, and it followed a simple precept. In a nation of order, no task is undertaken alone.

A nation of transcendants would be raised up by Nero yes, but they would also be raised up by themselves. In the past century, Nero's path had been refined, casting aside blind aspirations of a unified collective, in favor of a greater type of order. An order of individuals. An empire where everyone was unique, and yet still maintained perfect order. It was a task of magnitude far greater than a blind collective, brainwashed into a great hive mind. Yet, for every action, there is a corresponding reaction. The nation of individuals was a far greater creation, a trillion unique gems fitted into a greater tapestry. And the results showed.

Where the world had previously bent in Nero’s wake, now it warped, reality screaming out in pain at being forced to accommodate such power.

We occasionally talked, and I found solace in his company, even as he clung to the last aspect of his mortality, endeavoring to bring them with him rather than shedding them.

Finally, the long awaited day arrived. The empire had long been aware of what was happening, no one so much as second guessing what would have drawn hysterical laughter only a few centuries earlier. Life virtually stopped as every person found their assigned spot, and prepared for what could be their last moment of mortal life.

Every person had been given years of time to prepare. Their job was simple. They acted as the batteries for Nero, powering the ascent. Each was to ponder deeply on their greatest creation and their strongest moment of emotion, providing Nero ample stores of creation and passion. And when the time came, when the weight descended on their minds, they were to push with everything they had, adding their will to Nero’s.

Nero himself sat on the great dome of the imperial palace, what had once been the council hall a century ago, meditating peacefully. Despite its stature and size, Nero loomed over it, even in his quiet contemplation.

Finally, the hour of ascension arrived, and Nero quietly rose. He looked the same he had on the day of his coronation, with long red hair and a sculpted body. A crown sat heavily on his brow. Only his eyes betrayed what he had become. They were like endless emerald pools, so deep one could drown in them, their soul ripped from their body.

He addressed the people, projecting his gentle voice through his domain and across the cosmos. “It's time.”

No more words were needed, the people having long been prepared for this moment. What was needed now was focus.

Nero began to hover, rising to nearly a mile over the great dome and the world began to twist and bend, like water before him. Yet just before it seemed like the world would break, it…stopped.

Nero , finally chose to speak, speaking in the voice of divinity, “Let order reveal the chains that bind me.”

A flash of blue revealed chains, trillions of them shooting off in every which direction. His power was clearly being siphoned off by them, used in a futile attempt to power another ascension. Alas not even Nero’s power, split a trillion ways, was not enough. But that was ok. That had never been Nero’s plan.

Instead, he pulled their weight unto him and gathered the full force of his power back to himself, at the cost of his metaphorical weight becoming incomprehensibly heavy.

Ascending with such weight should be impossible, like an ant with a mountain on its back trying to fly. But impossible was not enough to stop Nero.

He pulled further, taking the power of their creations and passion, augmenting himself to match the impossible weight.

And he began to dance.

There are countless ways to ascend beyond the great barrier that separates mortality and divinity. Some, like Jorhan, would have severed it. Some would have crushed it. It was all dependent on the path of the ascendant. Nero was the greatest emperor to ever exist and an apostate of order. He would not break it. He would have it kneel.

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Reality warped around him, barely a match of what he had been capable of before. But that was to be expected. He was now carrying trillions of times the weight. His movement wove the bones of a divine mandate, incorporating his path. The command of an emperor, and the calm of order were integrated into it, granting it authority.

That was the easy part.

Nero seized the creation and passion of the people, and began to weave once more. That was the nature of this mandate. The chaotic creation and passion of trillions ordered into a single perfect mandate. Hours passed as Nero continued his work, calm even as he processed the essence of billions of people a second. It was a feat I could hardly believe. His dance lit the sky on fire in its power, and shook the cosmos themselves.

Finally, the mandate was complete. A command of such power it could do practically anything I myself could. But of course, not even I could forcefully ascend trillions of people. I couldn't even forcefully ascend one. Well, perhaps, I could. But they would not be a true ascendant, merely an unlocked mortal whose existence would be dependent on me. I suspected that was what would happen to those Nero forcefully ascended.

If he succeeded.

If he accomplished the impossible.

Nero did not give up. In the voice of the divine he invoked his ethos, “I am Nero Baraton, Emperor of the Final Empire, Apostate of Order. And In my name, I hereby rise above the mortality forced upon me!”

It was the first time I had even seen him lose his perpetual calm, and it was with the passion he slammed the edict down.

“PUSH!” he roared, summoning his people to help bear a small portion of the load.

The command struck the barrier like one of my blows.

The barrier was strange, not something I had created, but rather a built in component of the soul, limiting its power and potential. And this one was far beyond normal, more a composite creation of a trillion merged barriers than a single one. A consequence of bearing his citizens' weight. He also had to bear their limits.

If Nero managed to shatter his with those chains still attached, he could seize them and pull them up with him.

The barrier began to falter, the absolute will in the mandate forcing it to obey. Forcing it to step aside. But it did not break.

Nero kept pressing, unheeding of the weight upon him, channeling not only the weight of his own immense will, but the will of his people. The barrier faltered, but remained standing.

If anyone had been watching, Nero would have appeared a blue sun, shining with light not physical but spiritual. I was forced to stabilize space around him so that the universe wouldn’t collapse.

A dangerous resonance was building outside of my creation, the leaking power of the mandate spilling outside of the universe and attracting attention from the True Void, a place beyond the reaches of space and time. I wove layers of my power around my creation coating it in layers of absolute power.

Nero’s struggle had reached a peak and he roared in effort as he pressed the mandate in further. The barrier buckled but did not break. Slowly but surely, Nero’s people were falling off, wills exhausted, eventually leaving Nero alone with nothing but a crumpled mandate and a weakened will. I saw him hesitate for a second, perhaps contemplating severing his ties and ascending before he shook his head and went back to his futile struggling.

Finally, hours later, the mandate was destroyed and Nero was knocked unconscious. I was forced to deal with both the back spiritual backlash from the mandate’s destruction, sealing it before it could kill a life in the universe, and the recoil from the True Void, wrapping the universe in layers of my power.

I watched as Nero fell from the sky and to the earth. I didn’t intervene. A little fall couldn't hurt him. I suspected the spiritual backlash was going to be much harder.

The attempt had been impressive, wielding enough power that the universe would have been destroyed several times over if I hadn’t stepped in. Yet no matter how impressive, one fact still ruled the rest.

Nero had failed.

—-----------------------------

Nero woke to immense spiritual pain, excruciating waves of agony that inflicted their burden on a spiritual layer. It only took seconds for him to regain his normal calm, masking the pain. Emperors don’t show pain. Emperors don't take breaks.

Immediately, he addressed the people, giving them a full rundown of what had happened and what the path was going forwards, namely the road to the next attempt. The people met that declaration with enthusiasm, their faith in him absolute after seeing the aftermath of his struggle to break his limits. His struggle to break their limits.

The next few days were taken in reaction to the effects of the failed ascension. Even in its failure, exposing the universe to such power had changed it, and Nero and his subordinates worked tirelessly to take stock of them all.

As for Nero himself, I didn't know what he was feeling. He had grown to the point he could mask his emotions from me if I didn't push. To my eyes he was the endless sea of calm he always was, but I was unsure.

Could a man really retain his calm after such a failure?

It seemed like it as Nero got his empire in order in record time.

Finally, I could take it no longer. For one of the first times in my timeless existence, I took the initiative to address a mortal, though I wasn't sure if the status even applied to Nero anymore.

“You failed.”

He looked up at me, unsurprised to hear my voice, “Yes, I failed.”

“What’s next?”

“I'll try again. And again. And again. Until I succeed.”

“And how will you do that?”

When he looked back up, his eyes were no longer green. They were a deep, calm blue.

“I will walk my path. Until the end.”

Until the end indeed.