POV: Keilan
I appeared in Mother's palace, in Her designated "research room" which was actually more like a collection of things from the entire Four Realms than an actual research room. It was completely unlike the one you would find in my palace, or that Gilles had created. Though there were a few purely conceptual creatures floating around as masses of golden light, like blueprints for their creation...hmm, it seemed as if Mother was planning on creating more Divine Beasts, like Kei but obviously weaker. That could be interesting. Perhaps it is a research room.
"Hello, Mother." I said, causing Her to look up from whatever it was that She was doing. She was currently standing at Her desk, balls of light floating around Her as She threaded them together, carefully watching their reactions and nodding seriously. I could sense a strange fluctuation of energies from within the balls, but did not understand most of them.
"Ah! Keilan! I was actually expecting you...but you should really come through the front door. Randus pouts when he doesn't get to introduce people like a proper butler." Mother said with a wink. On cue, said deity appeared next to the door, shooting me what I might've mistaken as a glare.
"Perhaps you should focus on your project, Ma'am? You know you cannot procrastinate." Randus said, his tone level. Mother winked at me.
"See? He's pouty now." She teased, turning Her head back down to whatever it was She had been working on.
"Hmm. Yes. What are you working on?" I asked, completely forgetting why I had come here in the first place in favor of learning what Mother was doing. She just winked at me once again, threading together a few more of the balls of light before nodding in satisfaction.
"It's the mortal's cultivation methods. Generally speaking they only break through from one stage to the next, giving them power with no guidance. So I've been thinking of how to fix that, because a few devil cultivators have popped up recently, and this is what I've come up with. Putting the Dao into cultivation!" She announced proudly. I looked at Her, confused. Wasn't the dao already within cultivation? Simply by living one technically cultivates their own dao. Mother nodded once again, gesturing to the balls of light. "While it's true that the dao is in everyone's life, it's never been physically manifested, and there needs to be something more...humm, powerful? for them. Not sure if that's the right word, but whatever. It's just in the basic stages right now, but it'll do until I can get something more permanent set up."
"And what does this one do?" I asked, leaning forwards.
"Basically it forces them to look into themselves and focus on their own personal dao, their path, while also understanding the fundamentals of the world around them. At some point in their cultivation, close to becoming an immortal, I set it up so that they'd actually have to sever parts of their personality in order to advance. Plus, the deeper one's understanding and insights, then the more profound their cultivation will be. It'll also help develop my next project, which you'll just have to wait and see about." Mother said teasingly. I hummed and nodded, doing a few quick calculations in my head before opening my eyes and guessing what that final thing would be.
"You're going to create true Dao paths for the cultivators to follow, aren't you? Ones that lead to the...well, as the mortals put it, ones that lead to the heavens, to a higher Realm." I guessed, and Mother pouted as She pushed the balls of light, watching as they, one by one, flew out and merged with the Four Realms, causing a slight shift in its natural aura. I suppose She had wanted to keep that a secret, but it pleased me to know that I had figured it out.
"Party pooper. Essentially, yes. It'll bring them to a higher plane of existence by increasing their understanding. And hopefully in the long run it'll prevent people from going down a....negative path, though it's almost a certainty that some will do so regardless. I-" Mother cut Herself off mid-sentence as She stared blankly at the air in front of Her, a small smile stretching across Her face. "Well hello, Mr. Blue Boxes. Long time no see!" She muttered senselessly to Herself.
"Who?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll become aware of its existence eventually. Anyways! What brings you here this fine day?" Mother asked, moving away from Her cluttered desk, waving one had to wave away a few of the creature designs She had floating around.
"Right. You said to come get you every time the Paragon soul was passing through the Karmic King's judgement. That time is rapidly approaching once more." I informed Her. The Paragon soul, formerly known as Dei, had already passed through twice, and was approaching its third time and third life, the one Mother was highly anticipating. She blinked at me, glancing outside at the Solar and Lunar Stars, as they had come to both be known as.
"Oh, it really is that time, isn't it? KEI!" Mother shouted. After there was no response for a few moments, Mother turned towards Randus. "Randus, go get Kei. She'll want to be around for this." Mother said.
"As you wish." Randus said with a "butler-esque" bow, before disappearing without a trace. Honestly, his control over dreams were far too vague. Even Gilles, the self-proclaimed Keeper of Secrets, or myself, who rules all that is untouchable, cannot keep track of him while he was in the realm of dreams.
"Great! Just meet us in the Karmic Realm." Mother said to the surroundings, nodding to me. I waved my hand and in a flash I was in the Karmic Realm, Mother standing right next to me. In the thousand years since the battle against the Enemy, not much had changed besides the ocean surrounding the Valley finally calming down, a few new Karmic and psyonic beasts appearing, and everything getting back on track. Personally, I found the changes to the Mortal Realm far more interesting. Ten new solar systems popped up in the Realm in the past thousand years alone, bringing the total up to twelve, while the landmass of Pangea expanded alongside it. Not to mention that twenty Immortals appeared as a result of the final battles, with that number showing no signs of stopping.
The explosive growth of all the Realms was really astonishing. Mother says it's partly the Lunar Star's fault, as it finally stabilized the Realms enough that it could really start to grow again. After millennia of stagnation, it should've been no surprise that the Four Realms grew explosively...though only in size for the Heaven, Karmic, and Spirit Realms.
"He's going to his third life now?" Kei asked, appearing alongside Randus and directing the question to Mother.
"Yes." I answered. "The Paragon soul is undergoing his trial right now." Kei nodded at that, stepping forward and peering down at the Paragon soul as the Karmic Kings judged him. His karma was actually clear of all sins, as his first rebirth had been designed specifically for clearing negative karma. Namely, he had been born as a weak, sickly child that didn't live past the age of sixteen, four years further than originally designed. Of course his frail life left a heavy impact on the parents souls as well, and in their next lives they became doctors.
In the Paragon soul's second life he had lived as a simple fisherman in a fishing village on one of the smaller planets that held life. In this life he had been born as a Karae, and lived a mortal life while watching the passings of karma. I myself wasn't certain what lesson this was supposed to teach him, but I could tell that it caused a subtle shift in his personality. He lived to eighty years old before passing away, leaving nothing behind but an old boat and a useless fishing net.
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"Since when...?" Mother muttered to Herself, rubbing Her eyes and peering closer at the Paragon soul, a mixture of surprise and confusion crossing Her face. "That's...interesting. Hmm. No, actually...hey, this could work..." She continued to mutter, watching the Paragon soul closely. A small smile momentarily flitted across Her face, and Kei cleared her throat.
"Mind sharing?" She asked, a small hint of amusement tinging her voice.
"Nope!" Mother said cheerfully, waving one finger and rewriting the Book of Life and Death held by the Karmic King judging the Paragon soul. Now his journey would follow Her designs...however, when I read it...
"Is that wise?" I asked, furrowing my brows. That sort of life was a little...well, bad.
"That's an awfully hard life to live." Kei added, causing Mother to cackle.
"You obviously don't understand his personality, Keilan! Think about it, when does he flourish the most? In times of peace? No! He flourishes when it seems the entire world is turned against him!" Mother laughed, shaking Her head. I thought about it and had to begrudgingly agree with Her. The Paragon's soul had developed far faster when under immense pressure, such as living an extra four years in his first rebirth, than when not, as shown when he had basically nothing to his name when living a simple life.
"Still..." Kei said skeptically. I could understand her sentiment, as she was personally close to the Paragon soul, and as much as I agreed with her, by this point I had gotten used to Mother's pointless meddling with this soul. Paragons were interesting and all, however, deities would still be above them in terms of prowess, influence, and power.
"I know that look. You're wondering why I meddle in his affairs so much!" Mother announced to both myself and Kei, grinning as she watched the Paragon soul wade through the ocean of memories before being whisked away to the Mortal Realm to be reborn. Mother followed to watch for a few moments, a smile flitting across Her face as She did so.
"I still wonder." Kei muttered to herself. Mother just laughed and pointed to the Paragon soul as it grew within a woman's belly in the lands of Pangea in the Mortal Realm.
"Look real close at his soul, and you'll see. I mean really closely." Mother said cryptically. I did as She said, observing the soul as closely as I could. I could see the karmic light radiating from the Paragon soul, and the karmic strings that bound it to its two new parents and the medium-sized cultivation clan it will be reborn into. It looked like any other soul to me, if not a bit more powerful than most. Then I focused my attention, harder, delving deeper until I was looking into the very core of its soul, the truesoul, that which defined existence. Even then I delved deeper, until I was peering into the heart of the truesoul, and looking at something that, even now, seemed to elude my attention.
It was a droplet of water, hovering within the Paragon's truesoul. Overcome by curiosity I continued to examine it until I was interrupted by Kei.
"What is that?" She asked in shock, eyes wide.
"That is what keeps drawing me to him, and what is giving him a very powerful fate. I myself didn't notice it until sometime after our first meeting because he just had this aura of familiarity about him. It bugged me until I simply sat down and dug through his soul a bit, looking into his past and whatnot." Mother explained.
"Okay, but what is it?" Kei prompted. I myself continued to stare at the strange droplet, until a stray thought caused my eyes to widen. I recalled something about the birth of the Fae, and how Mother had watched over them for years...and at the end of that time, just as She was about to leave...
"Is that-?!" I blurted, whirling towards Mother as everything began to click into place.
"Keilan's got it! Yes, it is. That is my teardrop." Mother stated, before explaining further so Kei could understand. "When I watched over the Fae to ensure that they would survive in the Four Realms, one of them cursed at me because his son died in a hunting accident. That had been the first time one of my children cursed me, and so I shed a single tear, one which I assumed had faded away. Instead, it had been almost perfectly absorbed by his soul. This is only possible if a soul is both extremely compatible with the power and emotions contained within that drop, or any form of my essence for that matter, and is fated to do so. Not even the 'Enemy' could assimilate my power as perfectly as he has." I just sighed and shook my head.
"Ah, he's being born." I mentioned, drawing the attention of the other two. We watched silently as the Paragon soul was once again born into the Mortal Realms as a bouncing baby boy.
"Tian....his name will be Cavan Tian." The mother whispered to her wailing child. The father burst into the room soon after, creating a picturesque seen for this happy family.
"Fate...what is Dei -I mean, Tian's fate?" Kei asked, and Mother just laughed, a loud, booming laughter.
"His name was Dei! You know as in DEIty?! Now it's Tian, which means heaven! Also LuoTIAN, part of my name! What do you THINK his destiny is?!" Mother laughed, grinning wildly at Kei. This stunned both myself and Kei, having never thought about such a thing before. "Didn't I ever teach you about the importance of names?" Mother giggled behind one hand, winking at us childishly. "Thank you for getting me, Keilan. Now that Tian is on his final rebirth, I can focus on a few other things." She said, and disappeared with Randus.
Kei and I both sighed at Mother's rather abrupt disappearance, and dropping such information onto us. Such is Mother's personality.
POV CHANGE: Statera Luotian
Chuckling to myself as I returned to my palace, I paused upon entering my research lab. What was I going to do next...? Ah, right! With a wave of my hand space rippled and I stepped forwards, disappearing into a pocket dimension created outside of the Four Realms. It was the same trick the "Enemy" had used to hide from me, and now I was using it to imprison it.
"What do you want?" The "Enemy" snarled as I stepped into its dark prison, complete with a window that allowed it to look into the Four Realms and watch it grow. I simply shook my head.
"I figured that it was time to do something that was long overdue -give you a name." I replied. Its eyes narrowed as it glared at me, and I just shrugged.
"A...name?" The "Enemy" asked, no small amount of scorn to its voice.
"Yes, a name. Names have power, you know. You should never underestimate that." I said with a smile. "For instance, I could simply name you Satan and then you will be known as the devil for the rest of your existence, constantly feared by the mortals of the Four Realms. However, I will not name you that, or any other devil-like name. Additionally I could name you after chaos, but that would be interfering with my domain when there is nothing to balance you -besides myself of course. What is chaos without order, and vice versa? No, I'll give you a good name. Trust me on this, I had the same predicament when naming the Karmic Realm."
"I don't care." The "Enemy" said, and I could feel that it was being quite honest with me.
"You should." I said with a sigh. "Your name will be Morgan." The "Enemy," now Morgan, simply turned away with a scoff. For once, this name had no deeper meaning to it. It was a completely blank slate in my mind. I did not know what it meant, or what the cultural significance of the name was in my old universe, I simply wanted to name it Morgan, and let it create the image around which its name shall be built. Then, I simply turned around and vanished, fully aware of how Morgan was muttering the name to itself over and over, tasting it.
Congratulations! You are the 2nd to have completed the [Shadow of Your Universe] mini-trial! Your choices led you down the path of [Redemption.] Whether you succeed or fail in turning the Shadow, now named Morgan, into a part of the Four Realms once again falls entirely upon your actions now, previously, and in the future. Good luck.
Hm? That wasn't what I was expecting. I thought I finished that when I captured Morgan.
You would've been first to finish had you not procrastinated for a thousand years. Does it really take that long to come up with a name?
Hey, shut up! I wasn't procrastinating, I just had other things to do!
...right. Look, I've seen countless universes created, and they've all had their own [Shadow] to deal with. You were procrastinating. And while I will admit that I approve of your Dao Path thing, that's still no excuse to forget about bestowing a name.
I grumbled to myself, but had to admit that Mr. Blue Boxes was right. I had been procrastinating. Just a bit. But all's well that ends well, right? I mean, it wasn't technically over until I was certain that Morgan wouldn't do anything stupid if I let it out of its prison, but hey, that's a technicality. With a sigh I rubbed my face and looked out over my domain, my creation, my universe. This was hard work, and I had a feeling that it never got easier. But it was fulfilling as well, watching my children grow.
A small smile crossed my lips as I turned my attention towards Tian, watching him grow from afar.
"Now," I said with a smile. "Time to see who tied their string around you, hm?"