"Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."
― Mark Twain
“Time to go,” Ven glanced around the now desolate multiverse. No matter remained, just the great husk of the wall that held back the sea of death beyond. “This place is about to fall apart…”
A shift of his cores propelled him toward the barrier. He stilled his cultivation and drew out his aura, shaped into a drill. The wall was spongy, a shadow of the bulwark he’d burrowed through before the Titan devastated this multiverse. The solid soon became a swirl of fog, familiar clouds that marked his return path.
One tedious journey later, spent in the identical, featureless clouds, and Ven launched himself free of the multiverse’s structure. The reek of the black tinted waters greeted him, a trigger that expanded his aura to drink deep of the free energy within.
“It’s not as satisfying now…” Ven sighed. The Titan was right about one thing, he would need to eat more as he grew. “At least the system’s fire is as tasty as ever.”
Wings of his aura extended, Ven drifted away from the dead shell of a multiverse and searched the surroundings. All things flowed in a single direction, and Cain had followed the current when they fled from home. He turned his face into the press and headed back the way they came.
“I can also use the labyrinth gate, but I’d rather not go directly to the relic world…”
He wanted to visit the vast sun that the oversized planet orbited. He bet his soul that it was the Titan’s system star, a construct of limitless energy. He couldn’t take too much from his own system without the creation of guilt, but this unowned one was different. For now, he would swim and submerge most of his focus into his realm.
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“This place is bizarre…” Lady Fate rubbed her hands over her cheeks as she gazed into the vast inner realm that now held her multiverse. “I can’t detect anything beyond it, as if it was a true multiversal space.”
Unless you breached the barrier, a multiverse was self contained. Ven’s inner realm was the same, except all the universes existed in a single massive space, ringed by the realms of the gods and centred with a massive star.
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“It’s disorganised… to many Earths,” the One God shrugged, dismissive. “Also everyone in here is a worshipper of that brat, I’ve barely got a half trillion followers!”
“Be happy I didn’t leave you out there,” Ven’s avatar popped into existence beside the two gods. Even within the One God’s personal realm, he could control the flow of space and enter and exit at will. “My true body is making its way toward my home multiverse, until then, we’ll have a bit of downtime to get to know each other.”
“Like I’d waste my time,” the One God snorted and teleported away. Ven rolled his eyes and turned to Lady Fate.
“How about you? We can visit the capital and I’ll introduce you to my friends,” Ven waved his hand and a portal appeared, the streets of Avalon on display. “I for one need a break, everytime I go out some kind of calamity sucks up all my willpower…”
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“You want me to be an enforcer…” Rafe squinted up at Mara, uncertain he’d heard correctly. “I thought the enlightened worlds were in charge of upholding the laws?”
“They are,” Mara nodded her masked face, tail locked in a spin. “But some champions are still weak, at least compared to the cultivators of the empire.” A flick of her hand drew a map on the air. “I want you to patrol and punish lawbreakers until things have stabilised.”
“I can do it, but what makes you think I’m strong enough for the job?” Rafe sighed. His own cultivation lacked compared to many in this new realm, how could a half-step Earth Deity handle things when true Earth Deities had failed.
“You underestimate yourself, and overestimate the criminals of this world,” Mara laughed. “They might have higher cultivations, but very few are actually skilled in combat.” A tap of her hand converted the map into a crystal, which she handed to Rafe. “They grew up in a time of unparalleled peace, unlike us old monsters.”
“Alright,” Rafe grinned as he accepted the data crystal. “But I’m not looking to die again, so if the going gets tough…”
“If you can’t handle it, just call in Aangor,” Mara snorted and waved the halfling from her office. “Now get going, I’ve got my own work to do!”
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“Ven! You came to visit us again so soon?” Lyra wrapped Vendak in a hug, before she turned to Lady Fate. “Who is your new friend? She’s very pretty!”
Ven laughed and disentangled himself from the enthusiastic wolf-kin. He waved toward the Goddess at his side and pushed Lyra toward her.
“This is… Lady Fate,” Ven blinked. “She probably has an actual name, she’s a new Conceptual God that has just moved into the neighbourhood.”
“Nice to meet you, you can just call me Aion,” Lady Fate smiled as she took Lyra’s hand. “I can sense a connection to fate and density within you, I can help you develop it further, if you like?”
“Really?” Lyra rubbed at her chest. The strange, haunted tension that had followed her every step had vanished long ago. The second she entered Ven’s realm, the premonitions of her promised fate had changed to dreams of bright futures.
“Really,” Aion laughed. “You would make an amazing Soothsayer, maybe even a natural prophet, if you devoted enough effort!”
“She’s right,” Fen’s voice drifted on the air as one of Lyra’s eyes turned black. “It is a gift I have no talent with, or I would have helped develop it long ago…”
“You three can chat about training,” Ven yawned and stretched his back. It was time for a long break, with nothing between him and his recreation. “I’m going to find Cain, that idiot still owes me some anime time!”