Telos had collapsed the Seven Heavens and initiated a phenomenon similar to the Big Bang, thus creating an entirely new universe upon the dimensional axis. This new Universe sat closer to Pleroma than any other, and its energy saturation was off the charts compared to the previous high energy champion, the universe that contained Grief. She felt eager to see what sort of effects such a high concentration of power would have on the evolution of life. The whole time they had been on Grief Telos had funneled the majority of her power into fast forwarding an entire universe, so that not only would it be much larger, there might be something interesting when they arrived.

This had an added benefit, as far as Telos was concerned. The more of her power she pushed into her creation, the more her evolution towards a being who couldn’t exist inside of her creation slowed down. How long could she put all her energies into the creation of a reality before it ceased to be the case was an extremely relevant question. If the expense of power showed any signs that it might accelerate, rather than decelerate her evolution, she’d stop.

Telos dubbed the first world that had formed Mythara, and that is where the gate she created deposited the four. Telos, Bobbi, Arkaziel, and Kallos stepped onto a high plateau on Mythara, one that overlooked a plain with two immense rivers joining together and continuing their flow far beyond their line of sight. On the far western horizon Telos could see mountains that made the Rocky’s look tiny, and on the eastern horizon lay plains as far as she could see. To the south an immense forest grew, and to the north, past miles upon miles of plains, she could sense a coniferous forest.

“There’s prey,” Arkaziel noted eagerly. “Strong prey.”

“Like Telos is going to make a world without things for you to hunt, no one wants to live through even a day of your whining,” Bobbi said flatly, but she too had narrowed eyes examining the far horizons and sniffed at the breeze to take in scents.

“How powerful are we, here, compared to the natives?” Kallos asked while she suspiciously turned a blade of grass between her fingers.

“Strong. This universe is still in the stages of Primordial Life, so everything is high on raw power, but might be lacking in millennia of evolution. The high ambient energy and proximity to Pleroma should have created some very powerful beast and monster progenitors. Nothing that could take me on, but there’s bound to be some creatures that could give each of you, alone, a run for your money.” Telos decided not to downplay the potential of danger.

“Almost all of my power is still going into pushing the expansion of reality and imbuing the worlds with life. Try not to draw on my strength unless you desperately need to. The more power I push out, at least for now, the more time we have together. I was thinking about putting our house here?” Telos ran her eyes over the plateau, and out across the glorious view.

“I like it,” Arkaziel chimed in.

“There’s enough room for an herb garden,” Bobbi said with a nod.

“Telos?” Kallos asked, as she surveyed her inner world.

“What’s up, babe?” Telos asked, but noticed the problem as soon as she pulled an object from her Inner World, and it vaporized into mists.

“That,” Kallos pointed out with a wry smile.

“Mm. Looks like I’m going to have to recreate anything we brought from the lower realms to survive in the higher realm,” Telos muttered as she rubbed at her chin. “Oh, I see. Sorry guys, I wanted this to be a slight challenge, and I guess I maybe sort of created some Laws that made ascension a challenge. I could undo them?”

“Hell no, I love a challenge.” Arkaziel argued against a change immediately.

“Says the Apocalypse Dragon who’s only equipment might as well be a souvenir,” Bobbi hissed.

“Calm down, Bobbi. I’ll reweave your cooking tools, you won’t lose any, just don’t pull them out of your storage space yet. You too, Kallos, decide what you want me to reweave and I’ll do it. While you two do that, and Arkaziel hunts…” An axe made of ice appeared in Telos’ hand. “I’m going to start making some timber.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Don’t you have an inventory full of flying cities?” Bobbi asked, a hint of despair in her voice.

“If I draw them out they’ll vaporize, and if I upgrade them, well, they’ll become something different than they were. I’m going to keep them as they were, maybe make a dimensional museum later. If you’re really against humble shelter, I could make an ice castle?” Telos offered with a smile, the air temperature around her dropped ten degrees per second, until the other three all shivered. “No? Okay, then I’ll go cut some trees.”

“I believe in her world, this was called ‘roughing it’, or ‘camping’. If we indulge her, she’ll get bored and build a castle before we know it.” Arkaziel assured Kallos and Bobbi, who stared at him doubtfully.

“I can still hear you, you know,” Telos called over her shoulder, before she walked into a copse of trees.

By the end of the day Telos had created a simple log cabin that roughly took up just over one hundred square meters.

By the next day, the log cabin was just the entry way into a crystalline manor, raised by the magic of Kallos, after all four agreed that there was little to no reason to slum it.

By the end of the week, Arkaziel had eradicated the largest predators in a wide range, and the four agreed that maybe they should take a planetary tour, possibly a galactic one, and see what this new world had to offer them. Telos erected a protective barrier around their new home, the first on Mythara, and after evolving and repurposing Libby, they were on their way.

Record keeping would put the first day of the cabins construction at First Home 1, and become the first major date system in the new universe. The vast propagation of this as the corner stone of galactic time were to be blamed on Libby.

FH 40.

A black dragon larger than the biggest of cities on Mythara landed on the Sealed Plateau. Unlike the people who’d built a city down in the plains near the rivers, nothing kept the colossal reptile from simply landing near the crystal tower and the slightly dilapidated wooden entry way that had been abandoned for decades. The dragon, at least to the view of people watching from the stone walls with optical magnification (magical or mechanical) were then astounded when the dragon vanished. Astounded, and glad. The vile looking black dragon had an aura of death and destruction, and black lightning had coursed along its claws promising annihilation. Yet how could something so massive have disappeared?

The resident of Winona with the best vision claimed to have seen two pregnant women and a lizard-devil riding the back of the dragon, but no one paid much mind to the ramblings of Yohan. He had tried to pierce the protection on the crystal spire a decade ago, and he’d talked to invisible people and shadows ever since.

Yohan was right, of course. When Arkaziel touched down before the first home, he shape shifted to a human form to provide two very pregnant women each with a shoulder, while Bobbi rushed inside to prepare for what was to come.

“Why’d we decide to be pregnant at the same time, again?” Telos asked Kallos with a touch of regret.

“Because we’re both idiots, darling. This is opening all of the Gates at once all over again.” Kallos maintained her dignity as much as either woman could, but both leaned heavily on Arkaziel, who wisely said nothing to draw their ire in this most precarious of all times.

“It really isn’t my fault that the Kusoni System got destroyed. How should I know that an Arrheed lived in the systems sun, or would react to me going nova? Besides, Arrheed scales make the best cloaks, and we would never have found that out if I hadn’t had to kill one.” Telos defended her past actions, but it was half-hearted at best, especially once Arkaziel helped them across the threshold into the dust-free, but dilapidated porch, then into the crystal tower that held up much better.

“Did you decide on the name you’ll pick yet?” Kallos asked Telos.

“I did, I’m going to name him Alexander.” Telos grinned, and Kallos winced.

“That was a cursed name on Zenithar. A great warlord of doom and enslavement, he put nations to the sword. A party of heroes sent by Apollo marked the start of the holy legacy of Zenithar,” Kallos explained.

“Sounds like a perfect name for our son, don’t you think? Alexander Metanoia.” Telos grinned, and Kallos laughed lightly.

“Well, our daughter will have a proud name to counter-act the cursed one you’ve chosen. Lilith Metanoia.” Kallos left no room for disagreement.

“Lilith!? I… yeah, you know what, that’s absolutely perfect. It’s a little weird we both chose names that were kind of malevolent on our own birth worlds, but you’re the Soul Witch of Chained Wings, and I’m the literal origin of the Void, I guess, so let’s just embrace our inner edgelordiness, and hope our kids don’t decide to rename themselves to Hope, or Greg.”

“Greg!?” Kallos made an overly dramatic face. “How dare you.”

“Another cursed name?” Telos laughed.

“The Cowfather,” Kallos explained, without explaining anything. No one elaborated, and an awkward silence settled over the three.

Arkaziel and Telos shared a confused look, before Bobbi called from the top of the spire down at them.

“I’ve got everything prepared!”