The Architect sat watching.
All of reality lay bare to his sight. Though not his domain, he occasionally peered down, seeking inspiration, at the very least he enjoyed toying with the ants beneath him. The Lover may pair them as a past time, or some sick amusement, when she intentionally crossed paths of the more destructive ones. But the Architect was searching, he had just completed his last project, and was ready to start a new one.
A few millennia break was just what he needed. Creating realities, systems full of planets, entire races was not out of the question for him, but he was past that, he had acquired all the information he could from those projects. They shed no new light upon the unknowable. And so, he watched, and waited.
Alerts went off, processed and resolved, faster than the speed of light. He monitored all of his creations, after he had freed them unto the multiple universes he claimed as his. In actuality, none of the True Gods cared much for territory they just divided up vast swaths of reality so as not to get in each others way. The Architect could no more defend his territory, than he could take others. It was against his Domain. For his was one of order, of creation, of building. Not of expansion, or conquer. That True God was long dead.
This fleeting thought lasted no more than a nanosecond, but it reminded the Architect of his own mortality. His end would come long after the end of the solar system he found himself watching. But come, it would. As Death came for them all, eventually. He shuddered to think of the day Death would meet its end.
In all his musings, a single notification hung, an alert from the System he had been Tasked with monitoring. It was stuck in a loop… It had requested assistance? Was that possible? The System was not supposed to have a Will of its own. A mind of its own, maybe, its body long deceased, so more of a way of processing information. Not an actually thinking mind.
“How is the Will of The Conqueror requesting assistance? It must be close to expiring for it to be desperate enough to accept help from those that killed it. That will save me some time.” The Architects deep voice resonated throughout its realm.
“Archie! Have you see any weird notifications, lately?” The Lover appeared within his domain. He knew she was coming before she had appeared. He could have stopped her, but was interested as to what could pull her from her own domain.
“No, I haven’t seen the new System generated STD.” The Architect remarked, knowing what she was referring to, but he did always enjoy reducing her domain to its primitive state.
“Not that, you ass.” The Lover said, knowing full well the Architect knew what she meant. They had known each other since their birth into the multiverse, which allowed them something a kin to familiarity, if not out right friendship.
But True Gods, did not have friends, how could concepts have friends. How could concepts have anything other than Domains they inhabited, and domains they ruled over. Whatever it was, they had it.
“Yes, I got it. I also received a request, as it is a System I am tasked with. Annoying really.”
“Oh, what is it requesting?” The Lover asked, fully invested, her curiosity knew no boundaries.
“It is requesting…” The Architect took pause,”It seems this System is running an experiment, and one of its test subjects left its mark on my facility. It is requesting I repair it. What is your notification?” The Architect said, as he brought up the feed from the event so they could watch it together.
A screen spanning light years arose out of the fabric of reality.
“Mine says two souls are separated, two souls are bound, a fallen has arisen.”
“A fallen, really? Curiouser, and curiouser.”
They watched on, as a lone man rose into the atmosphere, wrapped himself in stone, and fell. They watched as gravity warped around the boulder, increasing it’s speed by the second. The air around it super heated distorting the vision of the boulder. They saw it dive straight into an open hole, and moments later an entire forest was gone, replaced by a gargantuan crater of molten earth.
The Architect realized why he had gotten the notification. This impact was nothing special. Lesser gods could do something similar with a casual thought. It was WHERE it had happened that was the issue. It was in the experiment the System was conducting. An area he had created many many millennia ago. For the now dead god. The Will of the dead god was requesting The Architect to repair the world he had created. If not, the same crater would appear on all the versions the System was using.
A million billion thoughts crossed The Architects mind, his job was simple. Monitor The System, and when it got close to realizing its fate, when it had run out of Mana, ensure its demise. Right now, The System was attempting to repair his creation. Burning through Mana waiting for the approval.
“Denied.” Was all The Architect said. He wanted the System to bur through Mana faster. Duplicating the crater, after it had spent Mana in anticipation for an accepted, would only quicken The Architects task.
The request came again.
“Denied. All future requests to repair that section, Denied.” The Architect said, even if a few hundred thousand thoughts were tempted to allow it.
There were several good merits for the repair. But The Architect was curious to see what this human was up to. It wasn’t everyday he saw a human in an Initiation Trial use orbital bombardment, and leave enough damage that it had to be repaired. The Architect could, with a thought restore the Endless Plains to its pristine nature once again, but for a mortal to do so little damage, when compared to gods, and himself, to his creation in the first month, with such little power. With such disregard for their own safety.
The Architect kept watching the human, interested in what they had done, and would do.
“System, alter the dungeon to offer Smiting Professions. Seven standard options, 4 primitive. 4 Next tear up. For the eighth option, set it to Magic Smithing.”
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His orders were sent. The System returned with requests to continue with its intended course of action, which was an extreme difficulty dungeon, ensuring the subjects death.
“Denied. Follow the orders given, offer Magic Smithing. In fact, segment the options to be restricted to set paths. Make it so Magic Smithing is the most appealing. Ensure they take it.”
The System accepted the orders.
“Do you think it will obey? This one is close to its End of Cycle.” The Lover said, having heard everything.
“It will, but I suspect it will still offer the combat option. If this human is ignorant, it will take the Combat option. If the Fallen has any say, I suspect it will do what it can to argue for the profession dungeon.”
“Hmm. I am interested in this pair. The human, and the Fallen. I am reviewing his initiation, it seems the Human forcefully fused the Fallen to his soul. The System aided by granting him an achievement, adding layers to his Soul.”
“Really?” The Architect asked, quickly reviewing the human’s time in his Endless Plains, “He hates the System. He wants to kill the System.”
A hearty rumbling laugh echoed through the Architect’s Domain. For a human to wish death upon what is already dead, truly only a human could want that.
“I enjoy this human, I am thinking of intervening. Do you have any objections?” The Architect asked.
“Only one. He is Soul Bound to another. I propose a mutually beneficial intervention.” The Lover said.
“How so?”
“I am sure you have seen the promise made, yes? Freeing the Fallen? Offer him the chance to leave the Endless Plains, for the price of the Fallen. I want him and his mate. You get the Fallen, I get the pair.”
The Architect thought about the offer. He didn’t care that much for it, a Fallen could be valuable as material, but little else.
“No, I don’t think that will work. I have little use for a Fallen at the moment. If this Human takes Magic Smithing, I want him. The Fallen bond to him, is interesting. I can’t remember the last time a Fallen was created by someone else. Rather then them denouncing a System.”
“It has never been done. Every Fallen to date, has been one of its own making. Not someone else’s.” The Lover said, knowing for a fact it had never been done. She had hidden away enough Fallen to know how they were created. Most had run because they had found love. He
“We now know it can be done. I would like to see if he can follow through with his promise. But I am more interested in how far he can take his war against the System.”
“Is that all you are interested in?” Asked The Lover.
“As of right now, yes. I may have a new hobby soon. I think I would like sponsor this young human.”
“Oh. Then may I tag along, and sponsor his bonded pair? We can at least both benefit that way.”
The True Gods finalize the deal in mere moments, thoughts racing faster than the speed of light, a deal was struck. Neither would interfere with the other, neither would interfere with the System. The details of the deal could only be known to them. Both human’s had to remain in dark about the deal. And finally, they could not elevate the humans. The Fallen was to remain the wild card, and the children were off limits. It was too easy to sway human parents with their children.
“So why Magic Smithing?” The Lover asked, after their deal was finalized.
“All other Smithings, require materials. Magic Smithing on the other hand, crafts with Mana as a tool, and a medium, it is exactly what it says it is, Smithing with Magic. If I can sponsor this human, I believe I can teach them to do just that. Magic Smithing is what allows the System to create skills, achievements, rewards, et cetera. I want to see what happens when a human is given the chance to craft, to smith, as those low gods do. What kind of monster do you think will be born?”
“So you want to see what happens when you give a human, limited god powers?”
“No, I want to see what happens when you give a human, the knowledge and understanding of a god. And what they’ll do with their own power. Remember no uplifting.”
“True, true. I hope it works out for you.”
“What about you, and your sponsee?” The Architect asked, not entirely sure what The Lover got out of this arrangement.
“They have a Harbor Soul Realm. Not that rare, but interesting, when you factor in the Fallen. I am always more than happy to welcome one more to my Domain.”
--
The True Gods spoke more about what it is they hoped to achieve with this deal. But it boiled down to The Architect wanting a break from work, and The Lover just wanting to flex a bit as it was rare to find Soul Mates in the newly initiated. Both were looking forward to the new insights they could glean from the pair of humans.
The duo watched on as the Human ended up choosing the option the Architect had set up for him. They also saw the System had added the Combat option, proving to the Architect it was close, well closer, to needing his intervention than he had hoped. They watched as Ethan entered the profession dungeon, and started smithing. They watch him making small talk, The Lover kept a screen of her own open, watching Rebecca. She watch Rebecca interact with Guides, watched her scheme and plan, all while refusing to give up information on her husband.
“I like this, she is either paranoid, or confident. She doesn’t trust the System either, these two were made for each other.” The Lover commented as they watch their feeds.
The Architect let out another laugh, as he saw what Ethan had just finished crafting.
“System, approve the creation of this human, Chain Hydra Aegis. Label it a tool. Even in his crafting he thinks of ways to exploit the System. He wasn’t lying when he said he wanted to destroy everything the System created. Its too bad he hasn’t realized he doesn’t need any of those materials.”
They watched as Ethan left the dungeon, The Architect almost took the chance to intervene but thought better of it. He was interesting in what Ethan had planned. More interested in what he was going to use his bag of metal cones for, though he already knew. It was like watching a young apprentice try out something ‘new’ that had been done a millions times before, but you had to let them learn on their own through doing, and not through lecture.
At this point The Architect was just enjoying the deadline for the System arriving sooner as more requests came in to repair damage done to the Endless Plains. The Architect naturally held off as long as possible, before denying them.
The Architect watched as Ethan fell, a wave of self hatred washed over him, and The Architect felt it all.
“Ah, I see now,” The Architect said, as he saw what was going on within Ethan, “The System is broken, it is deteriorating faster than I thought. Or… It is letting this happen. We may have to move sooner than I thought. This human wasn’t fully integrated, it was allowed to lose control. Scars of their old world are still fresh.”
“What do you mean? Allowed?” The Lover asked.
“This Ethan, wasn’t healed of its mental scars. I thought it was just a beast of rage. But the more I sense their emotions, the more it feels like it was intentional. The humans internal control was intentionally, I believe, left lower than it should have been. Do you know why five is the base stat for humans?”
“Because that is the base for all low grade human races?” The Lover answered.
“It is five because that is the minimum we set, stats are elevated when a human is integrated. The difference between two to three stats isn’t enough to notice. But for internal control, it is massive when you are in the Soul Realm, it is the only stat that matters. It is the difference between Self control, and being controlled.”
“You think the Conqueror… controlled this human somehow?”
“No. I think he plans to. I think they intentionally left this human broken, and used that as way to enact something… bigger. It doesn’t make sense, the human’s body is already joined with his soul, control shouldn’t matter anymore. It should be one stat now. But his internal control is still two. It is being artificially manipulated.” The Architect said, his mind racing.
Billions of thoughts converging, dividing, multiply. Trying to come to a conclusion other than what he feared most.
“I may need to share more information than we agreed upon with this human…”
The Architect recalled his Domain for the first time since he ascended to True Godhood, opened a portal, and stepped through. The Lover following behind, a question hung on her lips, afraid to ask. This was not her domain, she knew the human heart, not the rules of the System, or how a dead True God could even worry The Architect.