Short summary of the last chapter:
Spoiler :
Voice made his dimension go 100 times faster, went back to his city, and got everyone out of his dungeon. He used his avatar to open a portal to his realm, and threw the dragons in.
Editor had agreed to help Voice with creating his planet, but said that she would not help him create any A.I. for his realm. Not because she couldn’t, but because she felt he would abuse them.
Voice wanted to protest, but restrained himself. He had made a goal. He was going to prove that he could walk around in the ‘real’ world. If EDI had such a privilege, then so should he. He had already formulated a plan.
He had killed many people. He was disgusted at himself. Not for killing the people, but for doing something that would so obviously make him fail the ‘test’ he was created for.
Voice frowned when thinking of it. Even if he knew his personality was manufactured, he still acted according to it. He was upset at learning the information. So he would be upset when thinking back on it.
But he put that aside for the moment. There was one big thing he needed to do before continuing on. He was going to fix the whole problem of ‘slaughtering villages’.
As his god-king form, Voice spoke out to the entire world below.
“Dragons! Hear me! You are in a new world. I created a perfect replica of Solun. You have two choices. Join me as the watchers of my planet, or fight me and die.”
Using they eyes of his god-form, he scanned the world with his Instant Analysis. It didn’t work as usual. He only saw the world, but intuitively felt that he could ‘search’ for any information simply being willing it.
He was looking for one thing: all forms of chaotic mana crystals. Throughout the entire planet, hundreds of spots of chaotic light showed up. Some were huge, others were as small as a speck of sand.
New Ability gained!
For bending the laws of reality you’ve gained the ability: Reality Bend.
Reality Bend
The user can completely bend any aspect of reality in a realm they control. It costs 1 million stamina, magic, and health.
Voice’s realm was the only one capable of housing everything that made up Solun, simply because he wasn’t limited to one type of mana. He could use every type of mana since he was a Complete Mana Being.
By focusing his infinite amount of mana into his world, he forced all of the mana stones to shoot towards him. In the time it takes to blink, every mana stone floated out in the void where his true body lay.
It’s time to find the best one.
The stones started sorting themselves into two piles. ‘Worthwhile’ and ‘Worthless’. In a moment all the stones were sorted. The ‘Worthwhile’ pile began to sort itself into ever smaller piles, until there were only two choices left.
“I guess I’ll go with this one.”
Voice instinctively knew how to rejuvenate the magic in the mana stone. If he willed it, the mana would return to the two versions of Solun.
Voice looked down at the planet below him. The dragons were raging, destroying everything they could in their anger. They seemed to want to lay waste to the entire planet. Voice activated the mana stone before him.
By pouring in his infinite mana, he began eroding the mana stone into nothingness. The stone shrunk from the size of a fist to the size of a pebble. Suddenly it reverted to the size of a palm. It began to grow at an exceptionally fast rate. It quickly grew to the size of a fully grown man.
Suddenly it reverted to the size of a palm.
Congratulations!
You have revived the lost mana type: Time!
With the power of time you will be able to reverse or age things at a rate visible to the human eye.
Quest Complete!
You have unlocked the mana type: Time! You can now change from a Complete Mana Being into a Time Mana Being.
If you change you will gain complete control of Time within your dimension, and the original dimension.
If you remain a Complete Mana Being, you will be able to completely manipulate Time within your dimension, and partially manipulate Time via your avatar in the original dimension.
Voice stopped for a moment. Complete control of time?
Despite the obvious discrepancy in power, he forced himself to choose the less powerful of the two choices. He remained a Complete Mana Being.
As a Complete Mana Being, you are entitled to revive only one form of mana. You have chosen Time Mana. Another Complete Mana Being must exist to unlock another. If enough Chaotic Mana Beings are revived, they too can unlock the remaining mana types.
Voice didn’t let himself feel regret. He started on his plan.
First he created a large lump of earth, about the size of the planet. Then he shaped that earth into various NPCs. These NPCs were not just the ones he had seen. He was creating every NPC that had ever died.
He had planned on using his Pure Mana to find every dead NPC, but that could have taken thousands of years. He knew that whatever mana type he revived would help, but time mana helped far more than any other could.
In a mere moment every NPC that had ever died on Solun, had a replica made of them. He poured water mana into each of the bodies. Humans are about 70% water after all. Next he infused metal mana into the long tubes that wove their way through the bodies. The metal platelets quickly adhered to the water mana. Blood.
Be fusing fire mana into the dolls he gave them energy to sustain themselves. He poured nature and wind mana into the bodies, giving them the ability to grow and move respectively. When darkness mana entered the bodies, the gained a glint of intellect. He used light mana, and brought the bodies to life.
These were not true living beings though. They were merely soulless bodies. Voice could fix that though. When he poured pure mana into the dolls, they began reconstructing the ‘souls’ of the ones they looked like. Even if Voice didn’t know them personally, he had complete control of his realm. That included all data about the departed NPCs.
The moment before Voice added in his final form of mana, EDITOR spoke to him in his mind.
“Voice, what are you trying to do? You are already a god, do you want the programmers to delete you?”
No. I am fixing my mistakes. I understand what I did in this game was all part of a test. Even this might be part of one. Or that might just be the paranoia that you programmed into me. No, what I’m doing is setting things right.
EDITOR sighed, but didn’t stop him.
“Do you have any idea how much space this is going to take?”
Of course she was talking about the space required to store the data and have it continue in the form of the NPCs’ lives.
I do. I also know that you can easily hold this much.
Voice added in the final bit of his mana: Time mana. He had planned to revive any NPC that happened to die in his world, but with time mana, he could do even better.
Voice sent the NPCs that were still forming into his world, while simultaneously doing two other things. First he sealed the dragons in the replica of his dungeon. At the same time, he made a new ‘rule’ for this world.
NPCs could not die. By fusing time mana into them, Voice made it so they would heal any wound instantly, by rewinding their body to the moment before the received the wound. They could no longer die, or even have time to feel pain. They would not need to eat or sleep, unless they wanted to.
Of course there were two caveats to this. One was that they could no longer birth children, and the second was that NPCs would only come here after they died.
“I’ve created the afterlife.”
Voice felt understandably proud of himself.
---
Using his pure mana, combined with his time mana, Voice was able to summon the ‘souls’ of the deceased NPCs the moment they died in the other world. Voice had intended on spending his time forcefully creating the souls, but his time mana made that redundant.
Voice looked at his work. NPCs occupied much of his world. They completely covered the entirety of his planet. Seeing this Voice knew he had to fix it. It wasn’t hard though. With a thought, and a few minutes of work, Voice made the planet expand to twice its original size, then three times, then ten times.
Once it was ten times as large, the planet was finally able to comfortably house the entirety of the NPCs. The amount of space between each house made it seem so barren, even in cities. So Voice pushed the buildings in the cities and villages back together, and made another decree. Whenever another NPC died and came to his world, the world would expand slightly, to accommodate the new person.
With a wave of his god-sized hand, Voice created a complicated glyph in the void of space. Suddenly an NPC appeared in it, they looked to be in some sort of stasis.
Geez, I didn’t think one would die THAT fast. The person instantly disappeared, and reappeared on his planet. The glyph basically worked by summoning the person from the original world, and letting them choose a destination to appear on in the planet, with a brief explanation that said this was the after-life.
Voice’s hope was that everyone here would have a nice after-life, and that the after-life would net him enough points to leave this place.
He remembered that was his original goal. He chose to forgo his memories, and try a new life, all in an attempt to be able to live in the outside world. But EDI! EDI had gotten that privilege! She was so much less-
No. Stop. You are nicer now.
Voice began the last part of his plan. With the speed only a god could match, Voice began to write down everything about the world he could. He started from the basic concepts of gravity, density of mana in certain areas, etc.
The more he wrote, the more specific his writings became. He even went so far as to force the location of the other grimoire’s to show themselves, much like how he did with the mana stones. He used his godly powers to force the books to him.
He spent an entire month writing. He had all of the grimoires written by Diviticus. There were hundreds there. Each and every one he had stashed. By feeding his compendium a few more books, he found he could accurately estimate the amount of time it would take for his compendium to finish ‘consuming’ them.
By the time it absorbed 50 books, it could absorb two at the same time. By the time it had 75 it could download as many as books at once as Voice could put in. With the amount of books he could perfectly conjecture when the books would be done.
So Voice began putting in the larger Compendiums. When a certain amount of time passed, he added more, those that would take less time, so they would all be done as the exact same tenth of a second, which was the smallest amount of time it would calculate by.
While it was consuming them, Voice continued to use his Instant Analysis to add more information to a self-made book. The sheer amount of information was staggering. It had all of the information about major details of the world and magic system. It had every crafting recipe found in any book, it had details on every weapon that had a major impact on Solun. It even included intimate details about the lives of NPCs and Players.
In a few weeks, or about five hours in the original world, Voice had added more data into the Compendium than most people would be able to learn in a lifetime. Finally, the Compendium finished consuming the books. Several hundred at once.
Your Compendium has absorbed more than 100 other books. Current: 432. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 10 language translation book. Current: 15. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 25 books regarding the evolution of Compendiums. Current: 30. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 50 books studying in-depth mana workings. Current: 50. Your Compendium has absorbed at least 30 books that have information on the Elder Gods. Current: 30. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 50 books studying in-depth crafting systems. Current: 50. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 25 books regarding legendary items. Current: 35. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 75 books about secrets of mana that have been lost to the ages. Current: 75. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 2 books regarding the secrets of the gods. Current: 2. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 100 books detailing the history of the world, nations, or the universe. Current: 100. Your Compendium has absorbed as least 30 books on the effects a god has on their created plane of existence. Current: 30.
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Your Compendium has the ability to evolve after absorbing 100 books. Would you like to evolve your Compendium?
*Warning*
If you choose to forgo this evolution, all books in the Compendium will be erased.
He obviously chose yes. This was what he had been working on for the last week after all.
Your Compendium has evolved to the maximum level: Artifact.
Your Compendium has gained new abilities.
Your Compendium can now instantly consume any book of its own rank or below. Due to the nature of your Compendium, it has synthesized knowledge from hundreds of sources. The synthesized information has 100% accuracy.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to mimic the writings of any author it has consumed the book of.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to rationalize information.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to copy any information from books in a vicinity of 10 yards, without destroying the book.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to create a visual above itself, summarizing the information it is being asked about.
Your Compendium has gained Sentience.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to communicate with you.
Your Compendium has gained the ability to use mana.
YAWWWWN. Oh! I’m awake! Hey, whatcha lookin for? Wait! I’m really speaking!? No. This isn’t talking. I’m projecting thoughts? Hm, that is a form of magic. Wait. I was created by Voice0fReason? He’s a god! Why am I not a god-tier item!?
Voice’s eyes went wide. The book reminded him a lot of Sol. A torrent of quick speech streamed into Voice’s mind.
“Shut up.”
Voice’s voice was completely infused with his infinite mana. The pure compelling force, made the Compendium instantly stop communication.
You have used your godly powers to create an item. You have the ability to fuse your life essence into this item. Doing so will upgrade this item to Ichor level. It will be bound to your, or anyone you deign to allow to wield it. The upgrade will increase the potency of all aspects of the Compendium by 1000%.
You can only create one Ichor ranked item at a time. It will take 100 hours to infuse this item with your life essence.
Voice chose to do so. An increase in 1000% potency was defiantly worth it. Voice used his mana to speed up the book, by enchanting it with ‘Light Speed (Major)’, which sped up something by 100 times. The book was now going at 10,000 times faster than the normal game. It only took an hour for the process to complete itself.
Within that hour, Voice made the books in Lydia’s library reappear.
When the Compendium was finished, Voice lifted the ban on its talking. Gee, thanks… Do you have any idea how boring it is to be forced into silence for that long?
Voice rolled his eyes. He knew how to deal with annoyances. Ignore them.
“You are coming with me. We are going into the original world. Obviously with my avatar.”
Before the book could complain, Voice bound it to his avatar, and sent the two of them out. A rift opened up above Voice’s restored city. From it he came. Descending down like an angel sent from the heavens.
At the moment he came down, the people in the city gaped with amazement. Not the least of which because Voice made his appearance as mindboggling awesome as possible.
Light from various mana sources came streaming out from the portal, giving Voice the look of an ancient warrior that had returned from the void. He looked like a figure that walked a thousand miles through hellfire, but was unburnt.
Every direction depicted him as something different. In each one he was resplendent.
When he came back, he felt the familiar pull of the gods. But they could not compel him to their realm. He continued on his way. To his castle.
He used wind mana to carry his voice. “Hear me! Citizens of my city! I am back! I have defeated our foes! We will forever be in peace!” The moment he finished his sentence, his mana spread over the entire city. Glyphs of all shapes and sizes began to cover every inch of it. Even the wall and area outside of the wall was covered in glyphs. The next moment, light mana seemed to twist, and concealed each of the glyphs.
A huge surge of mana forced itself upon the city. The wall suddenly seemed more stable. The area outside of the wall forced upon any coming near it with ill intentions, to feel a deep sense of dread. They would be compelled to turn away.
Everyone in the town felt their bodies become lighter, and easier to move. They felt healing aura invade their bodies, and heal every wound they had, or would have.
The healing field that had previously covered the city in a very light cover, completely surrounded the town. Even the fields surrounding the town were covered in various runes that promoted safety and growth.
The fields around the town suddenly sprang to life, blooming with fruits and vegetables of all sorts. Food would never be a problem in the city again.
Voice teleported himself, as well as Susan, Evan, Lydia, and Elizabeth to his throne room.
“I’m back.”
Evan smiled broadly, and Susan ran over to hug Voice.
“Susan-ooph. You’re chocking me.”
Susan had Voice in a vice-grip type hug.
Evan, ignoring the scene, spoke to Voice in a brotherly manner. “Heh. I knew you weren’t dead.” He walked over and joined the hug. Soon Voice was the center of a five-person hug.
Gradually the four others pulled away from Voice. Susan was the first to speak.
“What happened to you?”
Voice inwardly sighed, and began to explain. He explained to them all that he had been a True Elf, and a bit of their history. He explained how the gods had destroyed them, and how he eventually became a god himself.
“Yes. I have created the after-life. I don’t know if it ever existed before, but it does now. In that realm I have godly powers, in this one I have god-like powers. I have almost 50 thousand mana. I can basically do anything. Since you all have been there for me since the beginning, I want to give you all something. Anything you could want. Name it and its yours.”
Of course, all of their basic needs and wants had already been met. Voice made sure of that. He really did appreciate them, so he wanted to show them.
Evan looked reluctant, but was the first to speak up. “You know we don’t need anything from you, but if you insist… Please heal my wife.”
Voice blinked. It had never occurred to him to actually heal her. This is why they don’t want me in the real world.
Voice nodded and created a small set of runes on her body. “You are going to have slightly less mana than others, but it won’t affect you too much.”
Elizabeth, despite just having a miracle cure all cast on her, pleaded next. “Please Voice. I’ve been so sick that I’ve never been able to bear a child to birth.”
Without waiting for her to continue, Voice cast a spell on both her and Evan. “You two should go home for the week. That is how long that spell will last. The city itself will make sure the child is born healthy.”
Evan looked confused for a moment, no doubt his mind was reeling from the idea of having a child at his age.
“Lydia, I already have something for you. You can ask me any information you’d like. I’ll probably have an answer.”
With a wave of his hand, a pedestal appeared next to his throne. His Compendium appeared on the pedestal.
“That Compendium contains a large amount of information. I doubt you could go through it in a single lifetime.” Not that you’ll be limited to that One of the effects of the runes on the city basically halted the aging process for all inside. At least until they left.
Lydia looked delighted. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better!”
Voice nodded and shouted at her, as she was already running towards it. “Just ask it any information and it will help you!”
Finally came Susan.
“I don’t know what you’d want Susan, but I do have several things possible. All of the people that lived in your village are in the other world. When you die you can meet them again.
“I have just about any potion recipe you could ever want. If you put your findings in the book Lydia is studying, it can even help you in your studies. Just tell me anything. I’ll grant it.”
Susan had been the first kind soul Voice met. For some reason she had always been nice to him, even going so far as to help him when she could get in a lot of trouble with the other merchants. She had never been mean to him. Hell she even taught him alchemy!
“I only have one request. It’s a big one though.”
Voice nodded his head solemnly. Even if she asked for the power of his avatar he would have to think hard about not giving it to her.
A single tear drop ran down Susan’s face as she leaned in close and spoke. “Don’t leave again.”
---
Note* The next part is just some touchy feelys from the author.
Hey guys! How’d you like the ending? That was the final chapter of the story! I hope you all enjoyed the journey. It has been over a year and a half since I started writing DIVE. I’ve had spots when I almost gave up several times.
I’m glad I stuck with it though.
Props to mythu, tomolone, and clockworker! They definitely helped my motivation at the end there. There are countless others as well, but this isn’t an Emmy speech. I would like to note one thing though. Every comment, every like, and every vote makes a difference! Thanks so much!
And Tomolone: You get a reaaaaaally big chair for your priesthood.
A year and a half. Wow, that’s a long time. The story started out as something simply to get me better at writing in general, seeing as I had never stuck with a story for more than a month or so. I’ve had a lot of trouble too. You guys have no idea how many times I’ve re-written some of these chapter. Lol.
I really miss the days of updates every two days. If I could have kept up that schedule, I’d have come to this point about nine months ago. But like any good child, my story took effort to grow.
I’ve had several complaints about Voice being too shallow of a character. It makes me sad to see those. He was meant to be portrayed as an analytical type this entire time, unfortunately I was not up to par as an author.
Anyway! I really am glad that so many of you have stayed since the beginning! And I am happy for everyone we’ve picked up on the way! I do feel a bit bad for people picking it up in the last few months though. Sheesh! That’s a lot to read!
I hope you all appreciated the story!
I brainstormed a lot of ideas with Clockworker, but unfortunately didn’t get to put very many of them in the story. There were even a couple of plot points I had planned that never got put in! They weren’t major, but man they would have been interesting.
But it is what it is.
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Please read!
This isn’t the end for Voice though! There will be one, or several, epilogue chapters explaining his life after the end of this book. I even have something planned separate from that. Though one of you hooligans ‘suggested’ it as well. I’ll have you know! I was planning that if I ever made another book!
And good work on the guessing afterlife Clockworker! And here I thought I was being clever… lol.
I guess this is the last time I’ll have to put a spoiler header on. : ‘ (
I have a few stories in the planning, even a co-authored one! I hope you enjoy them as much as you’ve enjoyed DIVE.
May the god-king Voice smile favorably upon you!