Drifting above one of the eastern portions of the heaven plane was a cloud, a floating isle, whose scale was such that it might have been more appropriate to call it a floating continent.
This was the home to one of the cosmos’s most famous academies Evil Moon’s Glenn. An establishment that was actually quite warm and welcoming despite its ominous name and the fact that it was run by a former destroyer of worlds.
Near the corner of that floating continent was a forest, a shaded glade of deep shadows and tall black trees. A wood filled with shifting shadows and howls and growls and cries from creatures that were both horrific and marvelous. And near the center of that forest, right at the heart of the wood was a house, that sat innocuously.
The warm glow in its windows, the plain picket fence and the pastel coloring of its exterior, making it seem just a tad too inviting. With the only things that gave away it true nature, being the house’s tendency to move around through the forest, and the over-sized, raptor-like footprints that would be left nearby shortly after it did so.
Nowadays, along with the howls and the cries, there was a noise that could be found in the wood. In these most recent days, if one listened closely, one would be able to hear the sound of children’s laughter.
*****
There’d been nothing in her past to forewarn her, and no reason for her to suspect that it would be so, but at this stage it was fairly hard to deny the evidence. Unexpectedly, Tamra Patton had an affinity for small children.
Maybe it was the fact that she’d filled the woods that made up her true-self with slightly more cuddly creatures, after they repeatedly ignored her warning not to trespass. A choice she’d made to avoid pissing off her current employer and leaving a bad impression with one of Billy’s friends.
It was possible that her conscious attempts to be more child-friendly, by replacing the shapeless horrors and perilous cosmic energies that normally filled the house that served as her core, with toys and snacks and near infinite stock of candies had something to do with it. Whatever the case was, it was now a confirmed fact that children liked her.
However if the children ‘liked’ Tam, than they positively adored the little queen and there was no mystery as to why. Isodel’s true form gave her a decisive an edge that made her the toast of the town whenever naptime and storytime came around.
Her true form was that of a throne and a stage, with whispering strings dangling above it, and it allowed her to create puppets that brought whatever she bound with those strings under her control.
Thus allowing the girl to bring whatever tales she told to life. As such, little Izzy was able to easily win the battle for favorites, at least so long as no one minded the giant mechanical spider, with its golden body and gleaming jewels for eyes, that served as the primary core of her body.
Fortunately the heavenly plane’s standard for the unusual was such that no one actually minded. Which meant her status as queen of the nursery was pretty much assured.
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Not that Tamra minded, being liked by children was something that’d probably come in handy once she had children of her own. And after that whole, awkwardness with Ophelia and the wing-eared boy who’d turned out to be her, and Billy’s grandchild, Tamra had now decided that that she and Billy ‘would’ be having children. The only real question in her mind was the quantity, five or five hundred.
As for the situation with Isodel, having someone who was better liked meant that there was someone who could take the heat of Tamra, both for now with the children of the nursery and for later, in general.
******
A svelte young woman with long yellow hair and features that could have either been devilish or elfin, lead a line of children out of the black wood. Once the wood was emptied, the howls and growls shifted, becoming more sinister. The air within the wood became more gloomy.
The amount of sunlight making it through the tree-tops grew thinner. And from the center of the wood came a gloomy sound. A Somber, dark souled, song that chilled the bones of whoever heard it and promised madness for any who’d dare to stay and listen.
Later the yellow haired woman returned and after listening to the dreadful song she changed her form to that of a stage the size of a city, a throne the size of a palace, and a spider the size of a mountain.
The metal spider weaved its thread into magic strings and used those strings to turn a few of the trees and a fair portion of the soil into puppets. Then she made those puppets dance. Their movements eerie and disjointed, creating a timeless feeling that captured the eye and altered the flow of reality.
This was a cultivation tool that Tam and Isodel had been taught before they’d arrived in the heavens. It generated several years worth of progress for each day of practice.
Growing stronger was another, important portion of their plan. Along with the boost that brought them to full, or full-step immortal status, each and every member of the five hundred or so people who’d come to the Heavenly plane with the BTC was also gifted a method to rapidly increase their strength. In a little over ten thousand years, they’d need it if they wanted to forcefully bring the war of the gods to an end. As well as to avoid being destroyed should the plan fail.
Contrary to common belief, a full seventy percent of the gods, celestials, devils and fae that lived in heavenly, had been born there. It was both irksome and comforting that the heavenly plane wasn’t all that different compared to the mortal plane.
Most of the architecture, clothing and culture was even based on what was present in the mortal planes. Ranging from chrome and glass plated cities of the future, to the stone castles and wooden forts of the past. People worked, they lived, they could die, and if one wanted to grow stronger one needed to cultivate that strength first.
The only key difference was every single being that one saw on the average street was a being of unquestionable power. Each and every single entity in the heavenly plane, could be considered nigh-omnipotent. Beings of power, that wielded the raw energies of the heavenly plane at will.
Whether it was bending the laws of space and time, or just using raw force to annihilate a world, every individual in the world of immortals was thoroughly capable of this.The only real differences lay in preference, understanding and skill. Differences that were trumped by scale and concentration.
One consequence of this, was that in the heavenly plane there was far less leeway to be had from bloodlines and specific special abilities. Battles between the gods and devils were settled by raw power and skill. With an immortal’s rank, and the associated power therein, being a deciding factor on how much, and how easily they are able to bend reality to their will.
Though death was generally less permanent in this plane, a fatal loss could result in one’s wasting thousand of years. If one was truly unlucky one’s soul could end up broken and scattered, which was the only way the god’s, celestials and devils could experience permanent death. Thus the need to constantly train.
*****
List of Immortal Rankings
1.Half-Step
2.Full-Step
3.True
4.High
5.Great
6.King
7.Emperor
8.Aeon
*Each Rank grants one-one hundredth, of the power and insight granted by Rank below it.(1 Full-step= 100 Half-Step)