“So then I cut my way through the outside of the island and got back in here. Looks like I took a little too long though.” Caeden finished his recounting, looking regretfully at the capsule containing the founder.
“What’s a god, anyway? I know some Outworlders came from places that have them, but I don’t think I ever heard what exactly was going on with that.” Erik asked, leaning against the arms of one of the massive Ethermen that Cat had just converted into her undead versions. All of them had crowded around the founder’s capsule, waiting for it to open so they could unleash a flood of attacks.
“I have no idea,” Caeden shrugged. “Anyone else know?” He immediately looked at Dave, seeing as the ancient undead had traveled all across the Material Plane.
“I’ve met several gods in my time.” Dave caught the look and started explaining. “And I’ve been to thousands of universes ruled by them. Gods come in a lot of different flavors, but the basic premise is that they’re true immortals with deep connections to domains. In some places, the domains form conscious avatars, making gods. In others, gods are mortals who managed to finagle a connection to a domain that propelled them to immortality. It varies. But your situation is obviously closer to the latter than the former.”
“Do you know what a Creator Deity is? Or a Pantheon?” Caeden asked, eager for some answers. Argentia had promised to help him figure this all out after he’d wrapped things up here in the Starry Sea, but he was feeling a little impatient after experiencing the level of power he’d gained from his transformation. Just using his Soul Anchor in conjunction with the Cosmic Smith’s eyes had yielded overwhelming results.
“I don’t know for a fact what a Creator Deity is, but I would hazard a guess that’s it's a God that starts their own universe, from scratch. I’ve never met one, only heard the stories. But they’re considered some of the strongest gods out there. And a Pantheon is simply a group of gods that work together to manage a universe, or universes.” Dave shrugged. “They’re pretty common. Usually a single god doesn’t have the breadth of domains necessary to manage every aspect of a universe. Those that do are the true standouts.”
“So, I’m not the top of the pile, but pretty high up?” Caeden asked.
“Sounds like it. But I’m just going off of context clues here. You’d have to ask Argentia.”
“Well, that’s fine by me.” Caeden was just fine not being the strongest out there. He hadn’t even meant to become a god at all. Doing so sounded like it might be more trouble than it was worth.
“Wait, so your new shroud has a physical space in it, just like Blade Forge?” Lily asked.
“Yup, but it's completely empty, a void. I’m still processing everything. Forging my soul like I did was something done all on instinct, guided by my new shroud and my experience as a blacksmith more so than any conscious control. It’ll probably be a while before I can get a grip on what that space is supposed to be for.” Caeden explained. It would be more frustrating that he didn’t know, but he could feel his new shroud slowly bleeding that information into his conscious mind.
That small trickle of information was enough to make him feel light-headed. He wasn’t about to rush the process, it felt like he might black out for a couple of months if all of it got shoved into his head at once. At least, out here in the Starry Sea. The endless power his body held while he was inside his new shroud’s space or the Blade Forge wasn’t present in this body.
That part was frustrating. He’d known all of this information while he was there, but moving a body over sealed it all up. Apparently there were some rules he wasn’t aware of preventing him from immediately possessing all this information in a mortal body.
“What’s your shroud called anyway?” Cat chimed in. “You never said.”
“Ah, I don’t know.” Caeden rubbed the back of his head. “That’s part of the stuff I haven’t been able to get a hold of yet. I’m pretty sure I knew what it was as soon as I finished it, but it’s like there’s a fuzzy gap in my memory whenever I think about it.”
“Who is Argentia anyway?” Erik asked, ignoring the conversation that had been going on to ask Dave. “Sounds like she’s a big deal.”
Dave barked out a laugh. “Oh, yeah. That took me by surprise. Both Argentia and Kendr are a big fucking deal in the wider Material Plane. Argentia is also known as the Tree of Memories. She’s a record of everything that has ever happened in the history of the Material Plane, and owns her own plane of existence. Kendr’s a bit more mysterious, as she said. There’s a lot of conflicting stories. Sometimes people say he’s on the weaker end of the power scale, just really smart and knows a lot. On the other side, some say he’s literally the strongest being in existence.”
“That’s a lot of variance.” Lily commented.
“Yeah, exactly. No one really knows what’s going on with him. But he started the Greyroot Company, which is a Planar powerhouse. Everyone who’s a part of that group is certifiably insane, and powerful enough to give me a run for my money as I am now. At a minimum. The fact that shrouds are something he created…doesn’t surprise me.” Dave rubbed his face. “Honestly, it's a little scary thinking about those two paying attention to you. My information on them is spotty because they’re so far outside my level. I’m just not qualified to learn what’s going on with them. But I do know that the two of them are in some kind of alliance, which corroborates what Argentia said.”
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Wait, hold up.” Erik waved his hands, drawing all attention to him. “You said Aregnetia is a record of everything? What?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty wild. She’s apparently this tree that’s as big as the entire Material Plane sitting on her own private Plane and keeping a record of everything that happens on the Material Plane recorded in her leaves and trunk.” Dave raised his hands helplessly. “That’s the kind of beings we’re talking about here.”
“...” Everyone was quiet for a long moment as the scale of what had happened to Caeden sunk in.
“Huh. Kinda puts all this stuff with the founder in perspective.” Cat spoke up first. “Makes everything feel…small.”
{}
Inside his refuge, Founder opened his eyes. The first thing he experienced was the silence. For the longest time, he’d been plagued by the endless whispers of the ghost of the Outsider who’s nearly ended him. It had, in fact, driven him insane. Founder was aware that his original identity had vanished, perhaps the moment their souls melded. Now, he was someone else.
So much so that he didn’t remember his name, or the Outsider’s name. Both were lost, along with the original identity of either of them. But he had maintained control. How that mattered when he didn’t know who he was, he couldn’t quite understand. But it was the truth. This was his body, and his mind. But the whispers persisted. They drowned out the still and calm parts of his mind, leaving only fractic mania free of their insidious noise.
But now they were gone. Just as he’d planned, the addition of the shroud had repaired the damage to his soul, unifying the fragments of his two original consciousnesses without any gap left to be filled with dissonance. Sanity was, once again, his.
The second thing he noticed was his body. This Transformation Reliquary he’d designed wasn’t just supposed to integrate his soul with his specially designed shroud, but also make improvements to his ravaged body while his soul was repaired and improved. The pinnacle of his so-called Etherman technology was added to his body, enough to place him in the realm of shrouded physicality even before his new shroud was added on top. As proven by his shrouded Ethermen, the multiplicative effects would likely be astounding.
And it seemed that the additions had fuzed into his healed body seamlessly. Without his damaged soul trying to rip his body apart, he was restored. No longer did he look like something from a horror story. Rather, he’d say with blatant confidence that he’d become handsome. Dashing, even.
Finally, he turned his full attention to his shroud. This was, ultimately, the most important aspect of his transformation, the other two merely being nice additions. It was as it should be. The new sensation of his aura was a wild thing to experience. He could feel the world around him like never before.
Of course, certain ethertech devices and even simple technological machines could allow him to make minute observations, but to reach out with his mind and feel an oxygen atom in the air…It was magical. No doubt the Outsider that used to be part of him would have given much to have this ability. It was extremely convenient for experimentation, and Founder was excited to explore that avenue.
But first he had to deal with the threat outside his Transformation Reliquary. Which would require the more offensive and less observational aspects of his new shroud. Founder was aware that shrouds required training to become strong, and he wasn’t all that interested in the concept of spending his time shoving his shroud against another to increase it’s potency.
With that in mind, he’d worked to create a shroud that would instantly make him a powerhouse simply by virtue of connecting to a powerful domain. His success was inevitable, but he needed to ensure that it had occurred now. After all, he wouldn’t get another chance if the group of nuisances outside had anything to say about it.
Concentrating, Founder forced his shroud to form its sigil. Annoyingly, the shape naturally formed directly on his forehead, meaning he couldn’t see it. But A flex of will had it come down before his eyes. Once he saw it, and the name registered within his mind, Founder chuckled. He’d succeeded, without a hitch. And under immense pressure. Truly, he was a peerless genius.
Fate. This was the shroud he’d chosen, its sigil expressed as a web of gold, white, and black thread. Together the various intertwined threads formed a three-dimensional shape. A set of scales, one side primarily white and the other mostly black. A representation of karmic balance. The Scales of Fate. And now such a powerful concept was his to wield.
It was a genius method to overcome the training deficit. Fate could have a massive impact with only a deft touch. This was a shroud that benefitted from finesse more than raw power, so it mattered little that power was exactly what Founder lacked.
Immediately, he used his new shroud to peer into the strings of fate. It was obvious that those outside his Reliquary had strong links to himself. Most of them heavily weighted against him on the Scales of Fate. This was self-evident. He’d wronged them in many and varied ways, and they were here to reap those threads of fate and kill him. Without intervention, that was his destiny. To die by their hands.
But now that he could see those threads, such a fate could be averted. Founder just needed to find some of their own negative karma and use it against them. Unfortunately, that field was surprisingly thin. Unlike himself, whose being was riddled with black threads, the nuisances outside were almost entirely composed of gold and white.
Rooting around finally revealed a viable thread. All of them except for one had a strong thread connecting them to a being far distant. A monster, and a powerful one. Bound with cruel chains for only trying to follow its nature. Such a fate could only accrue negative karma.
Moving to his auxiliary controls within the Reliquary, Founder used that black thread to guide a portal opening. He found that his base had been heavily damaged during his transformation, but that was no matter. They hadn’t severed the base’s link to the CMS tower he’d commandeered. With it, he opened a link to a far-off mountain, dropping it right outside.
The ground rumbled, signaling its arrival. Finally, Founder wove a small thread of white, positive karma. The sword plunged into the core of the monster he’d called here wiggled slightly, the chains binding the monster loosened. And it kept wiggling.
With this, the monster would be in his karmic debt when it resurrected itself. That would keep Founder safe. And with his new shroud and the negative karma the nuisances had accrued…Well, he could certainly make this interesting.