“Okay.”
“Holy shit.” I grinned at my Doppelganger.
“It’s been a while.” My clone, Numa, chuckled in our voice. “Almost forgot the sound of Jonet’s voice.”
“Yeah right!” I snorted, turned, and lit a smoke. “But I’m glad they’re all doing okay. More so. This mutation is amazing.”
“Eh.” My clone shrugged. “My workload is still the same.”
“You were getting lazy anyway.” I laughed.
“At any rate, it sure is hilarious. Especially for the ones from Corvus.” My clone snickered. “Most of them didn’t even recognize our voice. They’re all headed home, though.”
“Good.” I grinned wide. Not only from that but from the fact that Silas and the others in Hill Base were doing better than I anticipated, though the news from him wasn’t all good. Regardless, it was an entire realm away and I didn’t have the time to catch up just yet. So I sent my clone back to work and cast an anti-gravity spell on myself before I stepped off the rim of the ringed dais.
Like a diver pulling themselves along the seafloor, I grabbed hold of the rails and roots to pull myself through the unbroken walls of my floor. Where, beyond the polished stone, my Doppelganger toiled without end. The few floors beyond were virtually empty, save a few troops of the Menagerie scurrying or prowling through the brush, searching for prey that had wandered in from afar.
The recreational floor was where all the noise was. Like the floors above, it contained oversized annexes dedicated to a particular type of leisure. The ‘pool’ for example, contained both an Olympic-sized pool and a dive tank. As well as water slides, spas, and a lazy river that meandered around the entire floor. That concept extended to the game room, where indoor courts and even a mini-golf course had been installed, and in all the other areas as well. Though, nearly everyone was huddled inside the lounge. Drinking, eating, wandering, and mostly conversing with Toril and the others.
Seemingly anticipating my arrival, they all turned with raised brows and lurched towards me the moment I entered.
Being the social butterfly she was, it was Scarlett who stole the show and approached me to ask the questions burning in everyone’s minds. “So, what happens next?” She excitedly asked. “You said training. Training in what? And why’s this place so big?”
I could only help but chuckle and pat her head as I stepped around her to take a seat. Then leaned forward to birth a few lines of light from my fingers and form them into a hologram of the tower. “In short, we’re graduating at the end of the year,” I explained. “Once we evolve, we can choose to leave or stay. If we stay we can power level our classes here.” I raised my other hand to create an annotated hologram of the southern peninsula and gave them a moment to read upon the kingdoms and the subguilds they housed. “I would advise you all to stay, both next year and the year after. But the choice is ultimately yours. In either case, we will receive a wise rock pebble as a reward for evolving. At that time.” I paused to play the hologram as I would a video and watched their faces as the tower split apart.
It separated first by floors, then by their pie-shaped rooms before distancing themselves from the lower and upper levels. The storage facilities and industrial kitchen were the first floors to condense into a hollow sphere, containing floors for each type of industry. A relatively thick skin of material fell atop the small body before my room, lab, and study wrapped around it like a shell. Then the training floor, the lounge, the observation deck, and the grove fell around it in the same fashion. In the end, it was capped with regolith and left with a rectangular cave opening along the equator. Giving it the strong appearance of a goat’s eye when stared at directly.
Or a dragon’s eye, if turned to the side.
“This is what will become of the moon I created,” I said, looking around all of them as they stared at their wedge-shaped compounds taking on similar forms to my moon, albeit smaller and in shapes that ranged from Earth-like worlds to floating platforms. “These will be your worlds. Your homes. Your foundations.” I declared. “Recruiting will be your mission post-evolution. When we aren’t training, we’ll be free to roam the south.” I gestured to the map. “Have your Doppelgangers bring your friends, allies, or subordinates to your moons or your towers and train them. My only rule is that we don’t own slaves.”
“You don’t have to tell me that!” Scarlett playfully slapped my shoulder.
“Um. What about training?” The half-orc, Hogaz, stepped forward to ask.
“I will ensure each of you meets the requirements for our studies on top of bringing you to my standard in combat, manipulation, and mana molding. To that end, we’ll train together every other day. On those days, physical training starts at seven in the morning and lasts for two hours.” I turned a wicked grin towards Toril and the others. “It's without rest. As is the two hours of combat training that follows.
“For the most part at least.” I snorted in response to Hogaz’s despairing face. “After that is two hours of lunch and rest. Classroom study begins at one and lasts until two, with labs and exercises for those lessons from two to three. After that is two hours of practicing your magic or manipulation. Followed by two hours of working down your paths. Our day ends at sundown.” I generously grinned. “And then the festivities begin.”
“Work hard play hard.” Zarzok beamed widely. “I like it.”
“Indeed.” I grinned. “In doing this, I intend to have each of you meet the prerequisites to obtain a Master Class. To facilitate that, I’ve read and summarized the Paths section in the library. Since then, it’s been copied into our library for your use. More so, there are facilities in and around the tower dedicated to each Class.”
“Like the grove up top for Druids?” Scarlett accurately guessed.
“Exactly.”
“What will you teach us?” One of the Epethian royals, Matthew Reid asked.
“Everything I know.” I grinned. “First comes survival lessons, then comes crafting. I’ll teach you a way to prepare food in such a way that it won’t spoil. I’ll teach you how to make tools from sticks and stones, and up the chain until we're making machines that create machines from metals and ceramics. You'll learn how to brew healing potions for yourselves, along with a few other basic things. Then, we’ll learn about surviving in the wild without magic before we move on to the more… complicated endeavors.”
“Like what?”
"Besides the obvious, science,” I said. Then played a hologram of ships and drones and spacecraft and cybernetic implants. Of the things I often saw in my past life. “It is a method to inquire about the natural world,” I explained before they could ask. “When you learn to understand the laws of nature, you can create technology- tools that will allow us to exploit those laws, up to their limits. Today, we can create ships of steel that float seamlessly over the water or cannons that can fire across fields. Tomorrow, we will be able to replace our limbs as easily as we change clothes. And-”
“Pardon my interruption. But allow me to make proper use of our deal.” Zarzok paused to stand before me, a half-apologetic half-prideful grin stamped across his face. “You are now compelled to tell us the truth no matter what, yes? You cannot lie to us.”
“More or less.” I nodded.
“How are you aware of these things?” He asked. “Science and technology? I mean, some of these things we have in Vagua, but how did you become to be so knowledgeable about these things and be so fortunate in life?”
I paused before answering. Not out of hesitation, but to expand my consciousness towards those in the tower who had yet made the pledges and filled my voice with abyssal darkness. “Though you have yet to make your pledge, I will still share this information with you. It will be shared with no one outside this circle, however.
“Naturally,” I said normally, though still with shadows to connect myself to those spread throughout the tower. Then paused again, rueful to the fact that Silas, Jonet, and the others weren’t here in my face to hear the truth. Such things weren’t to be said over the 'radio.' But that was the way some things went. Even then though, the Eternal Eye recorded always, so it wasn’t all bad.
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“Reincarnation is real,” I finally said, turning my eyes over the lot of them. “Though, in most cases, it only happens once the universe comes to an end. In more cases, it happens not at all.
“I was reincarnated.” I continued after a pause. “That said, the universe I came from has not ended. Or, at least it wasn't ending when I died. It may or may not be base reality and you may or may not have originated from there many reincarnation cycles ago, but that is neither here nor there. My body, spirit, soul, consciousness, or whatever else is no longer a part of that realm. It was a universe without Gods, mana, and magic. A small, hostile world, filled only with humans, animals, and the machinations we created.”
“That sounds horrible.”
“It was. I hated my existence there. As did many others.” I created a hologram of old Earth with a long sigh. “But it was also glorious. Although we had no magic, our species developed constantly, using science and technology to rise from our place of suffering in the middle of the food chain to holding dominion over the world- and others. But it was not easy. War and conflict were a constant throughout our few hundred thousand years of existence, and our mastery of it was ever-increasing. But eventually, we got there. By the time I was born, war was still constant, yet death and disease were nearly under our control. Our world was about half the size of this peninsula, but we could travel across it within a day and could communicate with people on the other side of it as easily as I speak to you now. We possessed the power to end societies in the blink of an eye- to end ourselves and all life as we knew it many times over. There were a few times throughout our history when we almost had.
“We would have if it weren’t for us being... saved.” I continued the montage with the scenes I saw long ago. Of fleets of automated shuttles descending from the sky to take the misfortunate and the educated off-world for good. “He could easily be described as a Sorcerer, as we understand things. His body was infused with technology far beyond our capabilities. Technology we were incapable of comprehending at the time, thus we first thought him to be... alien. But he was anything but.
“A certain someone once said, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ In that way, the Starfarer was the first being in our universe with magic. He descended upon our world and coerced humanity to comply with his plans because he knew if we were left to our own ends, we would have self-annihilated. Benevolent and magnificent though those plans were, he forced us to abide by his project to fare the stars.” I sighed nostalgically. “He gave us his knowledge and technology. He taught us to make things that could take us off of our world and allow us to not only explore the inhospitable worlds beyond but thrive on them.”
Pausing again, I expanded the hologram to create an orrery of the Earth-Moon system and waited for the habitats to begin popping up in L4 and L5 as the timetable jumped forward. With time, the image expanded to Mars. Then Venus, and then Mercury before my life changed forever and I got on that ship headed for the Saturnian System. Rather than show the planets or moons or anything of Saturnian origin though, I showed them a montage of the greatest creations within the Sol System following the start of that era.
I showed them the fantastically violent augmentations and implants that made the Galilean Powers famous; the stations and ships that outclassed asteroids, constructed only by the finest architects and void-shipwrights in Gelidia Corp; the habitat and space port-riddled bridge that connected Pluto with its moon, Charon- aptly named the Barycenter; the arcologies and art that echoed off an abundantly green Earth and the industrialized moon; the Venusian Cloud Cities, tethered together in clustered flotillas as they drifted through the long daylight; the industrial complexes spread across most of the Mars and the orbital ring encircling it. And of course, the famous Mercurial prison. The Mohole.
“Only when our species had spread so far that the threat of extinction had been all but extinguished did this Sorcerer give us the same technology found within himself. It was glorious.” I said after scanning the crowd of awed eyes. Then changed it to show them armies of fully-augmented people engaging in the sanctioned low-gravity wars that made the Galilean Powers infamous- Campaign.
I showed them footage of the Saturnian Knights-of a single Saturnian Knight-neutralizing a gang stronghold in less than a day using their renowned robotic clones dubbed ‘Ghosts.’ I showed them a glimpse of their power armor, made by the best roboticists in Sol in ways that merged with their many implants seamlessly. Then I showed them the relativistic kill missiles every nation used to deter others. I showed them the asteroid gangs. The space pirates. The world wars that came before.
Everything.
“It was glorious. But even with all that glory, humanity refused to change. Not that we needed to, I suppose. It was glorious.” I repeated. “But as glorious as it was, I decided to die at the age of one hundred thirty-eight. Knowing reincarnation awaited me, I died and soon found myself in limbo, facing the creator of this universe. An Eternal by the name of Telin.
“He explained to me that he is the source of mana,” I explained. “He is also the reason why the portals appeared across the Planes, and so too is he the cause for humans obtaining affinity cores shortly thereafter. He told me that he and those like him wish to judge me in this life, for I was an anomaly who chose to die in such a grandiose time to be alive. They were unsure of what to do with me. So, he told me that I would live as the Eternal God of this universe in order to see if I’m worthy of becoming an Eternal of the multi-verse once this universe comes to an end. He then blessed me as his champion, destined to ascend to godhood when I evolve. But he gave me the freedom to live as I please.
“And so, not too long after being born, I decided I had no wishes to join him. I love this life. This universe is… fascinating." I smiled, shaking my head. "I want to live in this universe for as long as I can, exploring and learning about everything there is and ever was in this fantastical place. So, I learned about the world around me, made a plan, and put it in motion; adjusting it as I went along. Fifteen and a half years later, and here we are.”
A period of long, piercing silence followed my words eyes fell down, heads cocked or turned, and minds worked through the assuredly unbelievable words that just left my mouth. But eventually, it was broken by the mutterings of Jaimess.
“So then...” he began. "You were born with the mind of an old man? Mentally, you were a hundred forty-three when we met, but your mind was in the body of a five-year-old half-drow sorcerer?”
“I knew it!” Toril cackled. “Haha! You were not of these realms, I knew it!”
“Yes...” I phlegmatically nodded, despite the surprise. “One of the benefits of being an Eternal is that I have perfect recall of both my past life and this one. I remember every minute detail of everything I’ve ever sensed, learned, or done, including the knowledge of how to recreate the glorious technology we had access to. All of it. Naturally, you all will have access to this knowledge as well. But it's a long road to make it a reality. Thankfully, I have time and the undead on my side.”
Another period of silence ensued; this one shorter, but no less significant.
“That’s a tall story.” Elurial's chortle rippled through the space, only to be countered by a quick, "tsk."
"Tsk." Zarzok shook his head. "You don’t understand. He’s under contract with us. The fact that he’s not suffering right now means he’s telling the truth. But then, I ask.” He turned to me. “Do you wish to emulate this… Sorcerer?”
“No.” I quickly shook my head and wound back the hologram to old Earth. “Every human that had ever lived resided on this pale blue dot until I was seventy-three years old. And, as I said, we were on a course that led to self-annihilation. He used coercion to move us off-world, preventing our extinction. There is no need for that here.
“Here.” I changed the map to a rendering of the disk on which we resided. “On the vast Mortal Plane, that’s not the case. There are hundreds of trillions of humans at least, all scattered across the Mortal Plane alongside dozens of other species. Even if an entire realm self-annihilates or is annihilated, there will be countless others who will have never known about them. My only goal is to see and learn about as many of them as I can.
“The reason why I’m recreating this technology and the reason why I’m training you all so hard is because this privilege and curse that I’ve been given by Telin will undoubtedly make my things difficult one day- not just for me either. Everyone, perhaps. He’s influenced the elves in many ways already. Corym, Archdruid Indra, and Abbot Eiriol know of my station and my ascension, as did my mother.
"She told me of how the Youteran elves learned the secret of the portals after a thousand years and closed them. They began to think of themselves as the pinnacle of all creatures or whatever after a century of culling everything that came through the portals. That's when Telin appeared to them, giving them tasks to prepare for my birth after. Those tasks include but aren't limited to the elves making contact with my great-grandfather and the Iron Magus, as well as my mother seeking my father out to conceive me. The three elven instructors were given tasks to teach me things. But other than that, I know not the extent of his meddling.
"That said, he gave his word that he would no longer intervene with the universe once I was born. However, that doesn't mean the ripples of his tasks won't wade into the far future, and the same isn’t the case for the Gods within this universe already. I will receive the last of my blessings in just six months when we evolve. Sometime after that.” I eyed as many faces as I could. “I fully expect the paradigm to shift. It may take years, centuries even. But it will happen. And no matter how powerful I will become, I can’t protect everyone I care about at once. The only solution then, is for those I care about to be strong enough to protect themselves.
“From anyone,” I said through clenched teeth. “Even the Gods.”
Feeling something that wasn't pride, Zarzok grinned in excitement. “That’s only fair. Considering we work for one.”
“Exactly. So believe me when I say you will be the Major Deities or Devils of my pantheon- but only if you wish.” I added, eyeing Roheisa’s apparent reluctance at the mention of deities. “My future party will be the only ones equal to your station. Likewise, the parties you form will first become your subordinate officers, then your Minor Deities. So choose them well, for they will be leading Legions of Demigods.
“Noctis Legionaries.”