Actually finding the Goddess of Duty and Loss turned out to be a lot harder than Aperio had initially thought. The presumed Dominion of Epemirial was quite a bit larger than original impressions led her to believe, and its twisting nature had led her down the wrong path more than once already.

With a frustrated sigh, Aperio spread her aura through Epemirial's Dominion a little more aggressively. She had a sneaking suspicion that the Goddess of Duty and Loss had designed her Dominion to make it hard to track her — or anything else — inside of it.

"Having trouble?" Caethya asked, standing and looking up as the All-Mother nodded. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Not really," Aperio replied with a sigh. "I doubt that you can look through her Dominion faster than I can." Or take control of it if you try hard enough.

That was her plan after all: take over Epemirial's Dominion, bringing the Goddess of Duty and Loss into the white abyss while also forcing anything shady that might be going on in that realm to stop.

Nobody seemed to notice that her mana was slowly but surely seeping into every single thread that made up Epemirial's Dominion. Which, on second thought, did make some sense. Her mana was already used to make everything else, why would they notice if she took back what technically already belonged to her?

Of course, that did not mean it was impossible to notice – plenty of mortals already did, after all – but none of the ones inside Epemirial’s Dominion seemed to. Or maybe they are nothing more than mindless drones at this point…

Aperio wanted to check, but she would not risk discovery just yet. Not until I have full control. Reality already bent to her whim — even in another God's Dominion — but that was not the kind of control she was after at the moment. No, Aperio wanted the partial unity she had accidentally achieved with the [Court of Heaven]. At the moment the twisting nature of this realm managed to confuse her, but if she made herself part of the realm as she had before, it wouldn't. Hopefully.

"Any sign of Epemirial at least?" Caethya asked, taking a shaky step closer to Aperio. Her trust in the white abyss was apparently not as high as in the Void. Or maybe this realm is not good for her?

A sliver of Aperio's mana flowed through Caethya's body, the Demigoddess relaxing slightly in response. "Not yet, no," Aperio said, a sofa appearing in the otherwise empty space. "You seem unwell. Please, sit."

"Just worried," her disciple replied, taking a seat nonetheless. "And this space is a little… unsettling. Your Void is comforting in a way; this place just feels cold and empty."

"My temple was in here," Aperio said. "And my swordstaff… Maybe I used this as storage before?"

"Ah yes, the closet for giant temples and weapons that cut reality itself." Caethya smiled. "Something we all have, I'm sure."

"If you don't have one, you should get one," Aperio said, setting herself down next to her disciple. "Really handy to just find a floating temple hiding behind a reality-slicing swordstaff."

"I can't just make a realm," Caethya said with a sigh, "and my [Dimensional Storage] is fairly limited in what I can do with it." She paused for a moment, her eyes wandering to the All-Mother. "Can you see what I have in my storage?"

"I don't think so?" Aperio tilted her head slightly as she let a bit more of her mana seep into Epemirial's Dominion. "I am certainly not aware of where that skill would put the items. Or if it's even a physical space."

"Not a physical space?"

Caethya looked utterly confused, so the All-Mother attempted to explain. "Most everything is from mana," she began. Aperio did not have proof for the theory she was about to propose, but it made sense enough in her mind. "So it should be possible for the System to turn an item back into mana, no?"

"I guess?" Caethya replied with a light shrug. "Might be worth asking Mayeia about it once you’ve figured out what to do with Epemirial."

"You make it sound like I can just snap my fingers and get her to appear, ready to face her punishment." Aperio sighed. "If I knew where she was, I could, yes. At least, I think I could. I am not sure how strong she is."

"Is it even possible to be stronger than you?" Caethya asked. "Reality itself bends to your will, after all."

"I'm not unbeatable. Otherwise I would not have lived the life of a slave and forgotten everything."

"Unless you wanted to."

"Unless I wanted to," Aperio echoed, her voice barely a whisper.

That she did this to herself was an option, of course. The only one that made sense with the information she had at the moment, as well. How could she ever actually die if she did not want to? A thought was all she needed to stop any magic thrown at her. Poisons or other mortal tools would not work, as she did not depend on her body to actually live.

"But why would I have wanted to do that?" the All-Mother mumbled to herself. A reason still eluded her; the only answer she could come up with was wholly inadequate as a reason to let herself die and throw all of creation in peril with her absence.

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"I don't know," Caethya replied. "I can't really think of anything that makes sense. But knowing what you can do without much effort, I struggle to see how a normal Goddess — or even all of them combined — would be able to stand against you.

"You said it yourself," she continued. "Everything is made from mana, and you can control all the mana in existence with but a thought."

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Aperio said. "I can't really explain it, though. I just grasp the mana with my mind and after a bit, the mana kind of… wants to help me. Serve me."

A small nudge of the mana that floated through Epemirial's realm confirmed her words. Caethya could not see that, of course, but Aperio had not quite believed her own words despite having witnessed it happen more than once already. Sadly, the validation of her theory did not really help her in finding Epemirial.

While the mana that floated around in the realm was more than willing to serve her, it did not behave like her own mana — her aura. She couldn't use it to see. Did not know how to. Simply wanting to spread her senses through it did not work, as the free mana simply remained unreactive to the prompting. Almost like it doesn't understand what I want from it.

"End result is still the same," Caethya said, moving herself a little closer to the All-Mother to wrap her arm around her as best as she could. "You control the mana, which means whoever you took it from is basically powerless. Kind of like what you did in the [Court of Heaven]. Ferio is strong, but you nullified her abilities in a few minutes."

"What if it doesn't work on Epemirial?" Aperio asked. "What if she figured out a way to usurp my position?" There was that weird rune when I first looked at the System…

"If she did that," her disciple replied, "she would have never let you return. Nor would she have a need for runes on Souls."

"Perhaps," the All-Mother said, furrowing her brows as she found yet another quirk in Epemirial's Dominion. The Goddess of Duty and Loss, despite all the mana funneled into her Dominion from the realms that connected with her tower, seemed to not yet be content with what she had.

In a 'room' away from the mortals that roamed the Dominion Aperio found a small nexus of mana, not unlike the one that she assumed was the origin of the Magic Domain. This one, however, was not divine in any way. It was simply a collection of mana that had a few threads connected to it leading to different realms. Almost like a ball of yarn.

A thought cut the strings that connected the nexus of mana to the other realms, and Aperio took the mana that still flowed through them for herself. Her well was the origin of all the mana that flowed through her creation; returning some to it should do no harm. Why does it still flow, though?

That question would have to be answered later; she had a Goddess to find. Cutting off Epemirial's Dominion from the other connecting realms was not just because the mere idea of the Goddess sucking more worlds dry did not sit right with Aperio, but also because she hoped that it would draw her out.

The small nexus the threads had been connected to was… shoddy at best. How it even managed to channel any usable amount of mana was beyond Aperio. But, in the end, that mattered little compared to the need to find Epemirial soon so she could finally get some answers.

"Do you think Epemirial is behind all of this?" the All-Mother asked, staring into the endless expanse of the white abyss.

Caethya hesitated for a moment before she replied, seemingly unsure of her words. "Responsible for your life as a slave? Perhaps, but not for you becoming a mortal. We know you planned that — even asked Moria to come with you."

"But how would she do that? And why?" Aperio asked. "I did not care for her experiments. Or anything, really."

While she did not remember much about her old self, what she had seen made it quite obvious that she had not really held a fondness for anything at all. Moria's memory made that clear enough…

Aperio absentmindedly brushed her hand over her armlet, a tingle running through her fingers as a bit of the mana within flowed into them. The sensation caused the All-Mother to pause and look at the piece of jewellery. It looked as unassuming as always; just a metal ring that neatly fit around her bicep. But it always touches me?

"Something happen?" Caethya asked, trying to move Aperio's wing so she could see what she was doing.

The All-Mother obliged, wrapping her wing loosely around Caethya instead. "Just the armlet being weird. Mana flows from it when I touch it with my hand, but it does nothing when it's simply sitting on my arm."

A small flex of her bicep yielded no tingling of mana either, making it clear that — for whatever reason — a touch of her hand was required, and not just a deliberate action of her body. Not that it matters. If she wanted, she could always just pull all the mana out of the armlet at once. Would only take a thought…

Aperio sat a little straighter as she felt a presence move towards the small nexus of mana she was currently observing. A quick look confirmed that it was Epemirial. A furious Epemirial. Has she not noticed me?

The Goddess of Duty and Loss seemed to be focused on the ball of mana that floated in the 'room' in her Dominion and not on Aperio. Epemirial's presence was easy to feel, and definitely stronger than most Gods Aperio had encountered. Maybe even stronger than Ferio. How did I not notice her earlier? The most important part, however, was that the Goddess of Duty and Loss felt just as weak and fragile to Aperio as anything else that wandered in her creation.

"I found her," she announced to her disciple, removing her wing from Caethya as she stood up. "No idea how I had such trouble with that… She shines like a beacon in her Dominion."

"Did she notice you?" the Demigoddess asked, sitting a little straighter herself.

"Not yet, I think," Aperio replied. A thought caused reality to twist a little, and the comfortable weight of her swordstaff settled into her hand. "She will in a bit, however."

Her disciple took a deep breath. "Try not to kill her, please."

"We shall see," Aperio said. "She has a lot to answer for, and I will get answers."

Further talk was cut off as Aperio drew on her well more heavily than she had before, only a few moments passing before she had taken in more mana than Epemirial seemed to command.

A flex of her mental muscle twisted and tore the fabric of space apart, a few of the mana wisps that floated around Aperio becoming lost in the colourful space beyond. The All-Mother let her aura run free in Epemirial's Dominion, grabbing hold of the Goddess of Duty and Loss as she did.

The panic that briefly flashed across the woman's face caused a small smile to creep onto Aperio's lips. She might hide her desperation, but the All-Mother knew how Epemirial felt. Just or not, one would always be judged. Only a matter of time.