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“You alright Sephy?” Raziel asked a little worried. His little sister was panting heavily after their training session in the school’s gym. They were both taking part in the physical training lesson, Raziel because he had to and Seraphiel because she wanted to. As the youngest and smallest student present, it was perhaps not a wonder she had trouble keeping up. She’d chosen to take part despite her small size, mostly due to boredom.
“I’m *pant* fine *pant*. You go ahead *pant* I’ll catch up.” She promised while leaning on her knees.
It was a strange experience for Seraphiel to be physically lacking. Even when she’d first been created, she’d been created into the body of an adult, and as the epitome of Father’s creations, she had been the perfect physical specimen even without any angelic powers in the mix. In the very first universe she had been thrown into, one of the Gifts, the Gift of Adaptability, Father had given her had allowed her to become a psion beyond anything that universe has seen, which also enhanced her physical abilities. In all other universes since then, she had access to all those powers she'd trained previously. Never before had she been forced to live in the body of a child with no other powers beyond those that were common to the race.
Her race was still some sort of an Angel, which meant she was far beyond the standard physical limits of most races at her apparent physical stage of maturity, but she was still within the standard parameters of her race. She might be growing up a little faster than normal, and her knowledge and experience might make her perform better and train harder than a normal Angel of her age, but she was still if not ordinary, then within the bounds of extraordinary. She wasn't used to not being the most powerful being in the room. In fact, she had never before been the weakest person in the room before now. It was a humbling experience.
Her mother Ophiel had speculated her disappearing powers were due to being integrated by the System, in which case she’d gain access to them once again after her System Day. Still, that didn’t make things easy in the present. She’d still make the most of the situation and train hard, and if her powers didn’t return, she’d simply need to adapt. Perhaps this life could be considered an interesting challenge with her powers limited.
She forced her shaking and aching legs back into action as she continued to run around the enormous gym with hundreds of students scattered into various activities. That was another thing she had to get used to. She was used to strain and struggle, and she’d been subject to some of the worst pain that could be imagined, and even worse. However, she wasn’t used to the everyday pains of life. The Gift of Permanence, which made her kind nigh immortal and almost invulnerable meant that she wasn't used to ordinary niggling problems like muscle strain. As such, her daily pain tolerance wasn’t exactly what you’d call high. Still, as she had the mind of one much older than her appearance, she easily had the grit to push through the pain. That didn’t mean she enjoyed it though.
"Come on sis! We're going to be training with wooden swords next!" Raziel called out cheerily. No wonder as she usually allowed him to play the part of the big brother, letting him win while at the same time forcing him to improve in ways that he didn’t even notice himself most of the time.
As she was already in enough pain, she was not in the mood to take hits from wooden swords. It was perhaps time to show Raziel that his little sister had been holding back…
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"Your brother seemed to be in an odd mood," Ophiel commented as Seraphiel sat down to have one of their private lessons. Just because she already knew many subjects better than her mother, that didn't mean she didn't need to learn some subjects particular to this universe.
She had to sigh in relief at the very comfortable chairs they had, as her body was still aching from the earlier training. She would need to put in more effort it seemed. This was intolerable. Their home was luckily created with comfort in mind. The décor was an odd mix of very modern with a magical element, and some more traditional features like decorations that she would've described as similar to older Chinese or even Persian back in her home world and many of the alternate versions of Earth she’d visited. The soft smell of incense was quite common, and the place was extremely well-lit. The Angels and Draenei both placed heavy emphasis on light, both as a divine concept and in general.
“I may have gone a bit too hard on him during training. He isn’t used to losing to me.” She offered in the way of an explanation. Raziel hadn’t exactly taken it hard though. In fact, it seemed he was taking the opposite route.
Ophiel smiled at that. “I suppose it could be a bit of a shock if you suddenly trounced him. We’ll have to see how he takes it. Now, what was today’s topic?”
“You mentioned that you’d talk about the Champions and how they’re involved with geography. Not the combination I was expecting.”
“Ah yes. Right. So, let’s start from the top. Remember how I told you that our universe takes in new things from other universes? Well, in practice that means our universe is always expanding. Sometimes we get entire new galaxies, while at other times it could only be a solar system or two or maybe even just a piece of a world. That seems like a mess, and in many ways it is, but what keeps things in order is that only certain worlds and solar systems truly matter. Most of the new worlds and even galaxies end up becoming gathering places where the gods can draw new forces and challenges from. You could even consider them resources for the gods to compete over. The races from those worlds will then make their way to the Core Worlds where all the real action happens. If they are able and willing. Sometimes the new arrivals get crushed before they even get to start. The Core worlds are worlds that are much richer in resources and much, much larger than normal." Ophiel explained. A magical image of two worlds appeared and one of them was massive compared to the other. The difference was so large that the smaller world looked like a tiny pinhead in comparison.
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“How much larger and what kind of resources? I mean, I would think most resources could be found in the new worlds if entire galaxies are brought along.” Seraphiel asked.
“You would think. However, the System limits the availability of certain exotic materials to the Core Worlds. The main point of these resources lies in the way that they facilitate levelling and allow you to get through certain thresholds. For instance, a galaxy full of warrior races might feel strong, until you realize that none of them can get above level 500, unlocking their third Class and their fourth Class evolutions. A single being even in the lower four digits could slaughter entire armies of these kinds of warrior races. The Core Worlds are also blessed in a way that makes levelling easier. Once your power reaches such heights, your equipment also needs to be specially made to withstand your power, and even those races that come from technologically advanced universes can’t make such equipment without the proper Classes and Skills to make them. Simple materials can’t handle the strain. Only the enhancement from the high tier Classes can handle it.”
Seraphiel frowned while jotting down a few notes. “I think I can already guess where the Champions come in.” She wasn’t sure if she liked it.
“I would be shocked if you didn’t. There are many ways to gain territory in our universe. War is an obvious one, but only wars sanctioned by the gods are allowed on most of the Core Worlds. In fact, one of the things that makes the gods so important, is their control over the Core Worlds. There are countless gods that have influence in our universe, most of which have been brought over with their servants from other universes. However, the important gods are those that control one or more of the Core Worlds. It is also usually only these gods that can summon Champions from other universes. The others have to settle for trying to elevate their own Champions from amongst their servants. Unfortunately, that usually doesn’t work so well, as the summoned Champions are granted certain advantages.” Ophiel pursed her lips in displeasure at that.
“What kind of advantages?” Seraphiel asked, knowing she’d most likely have to face them at some point.
“Only the Champions can really answer that. Those kinds of things aren’t heavily advertised.” Ophiel shrugged. “Anyway, the other main way to gain access to the Core Worlds is through the Champions. The gods arrange all sorts of events in which the Champions can participate and earn various rewards. I don’t know the rules according to which the Champions are ranked exactly, but every event contributes to the rankings, and the gods themselves have tied their influence to the Champions they’ve chosen. Now, that doesn’t mean a god loses all power if their Champion is killed, but it does mean their prestige takes a heavy hit. Once again, I do not know the exact details of the Great Game played by the gods. We can only speculate, however, one of the reasons the Angels are subject to discrimination by many is because we had a very powerful Champion that dominated for a long time, and we were not shy about taking advantage. We got a harsh lesson on the importance of being graceful in victory when we lost both the Champion and the god at the same time, which led to our empire crumbling. The arrival of the Draenei and the Light has given us new hope.”
"So how does travel work? Between worlds and galaxies, I mean. Those two words imply rather large distances.” She asked, shifting the focus again.
“The System facilitates travel. Every inhabited world and system is connected via a network of gateways, which allows the transfer of small groups easily. Some Classes can travel between worlds almost freely, and certain high-ranking Classes can even move entire armies at a high enough level. There are also gates in the sky that allow skyships to travel to other worlds, though those gates only go to certain other worlds and don't allow free travel. I think this is another way through which the gods and the System encourage struggle and conflict, which in turn encourages levelling. Training can level you, but danger and battle usually allows you to level faster. It is said that you absorb a small portion of the experience of everyone and everything you kill.”
“And is our world one of the Core Worlds?”
“Sort of? Ok, so this one is a little complicated. There are certain worlds that are special cases. They aren’t exactly Core Worlds, but they aren’t…not Core Worlds either.” Ophiel looked really unsure of her words at this point. “Strictly speaking our world isn’t counted among them, but it has many of the benefits of one. It once used to be a very important Core World while the Angels were still a dominant force, but the importance of our world has diminished as the power of the Angels has gone down the drain. Nowadays the inhabitants of this world can’t even agree on the name of the world, not to mention anything more important, and the Angels only control portions of the world, but many of the important resources still remain. Not enough to cause significant invasions, but enough that we are in a better position than those without the resources.”
"I assume I'll learn more during our history lessons." Seraphiel guessed while closing her notebook. She'd learned many useful things today, even if it seemed some of the information wasn't entirely reliable.
“Probably not actually. This isn’t something widely talked about, and most Angels only learn about our less than glorious past once they get into one of the academies.” Ophiel’s words caught her by surprise.
“Academies?” She asked the obvious question.
“Ah, that’s another topic of interest that we’ll go into more detail about later. The academies are another example of special worlds that both are and aren’t Core Worlds. They are considered neutral grounds. After you unlock your System, you will gain the opportunity to apply to one of the academies. The academies are actually flying cities much like ours, except they travel between worlds. The better your grades, Class, and other qualifications, the more likely you are to gain access to one of them. The school both you and Raziel are enrolled in is a preparatory school for the academies. Not everyone gets in of course, but I think you should have no trouble. There you will run into students from hundreds of other worlds and races.” Ophiel promised. “Certain academies have their own focuses, like mostly teaching magic, or crafting, or management-related classes. There’s even one dedicated to royalty and nobility. Only those kids with Classes that have to do with nobility can enter that academy. Then there are the religious academies…”
“Did you go to an academy?” She asked eagerly.
“Of course. My family would have never allowed me not to. On the other hand, that was also one of the reasons why they didn’t like my subsequent choices.” Her mother frowned at the memory, before regaining a more cheery expression. “Still, I have fond memories of Mahora Academy. I highly recommend the place!”
Seraphiel looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ve attended several places of learning in the past. It might be interesting to see another.”
“Speaking of, I’ve been wondering about this for a while now. How old are you really?” Ophiel came out and asked a question that had been bothering her for a while. Sometimes her new daughter seemed positively ancient, while sometimes she could act almost young.
"That's a complicated question. Time works a bit differently between universes. I'm both much older than you think, and younger than that might imply. I've told you before that I was there when Father created the seeds that became the other universes, which would imply that I'm older than most universes, yes? However, I've since learned that time passes more slowly in my home universe, and for the vast majority of that time, I was effectively just observing in almost a stasis-like state. I was created to be a protector, and our kind were created as wardens and shepherds, but in the beginning, there was nothing to protect or shepherd. Back then a million years could pass in a blink of an eye, and I didn't even register time passing. It wasn't until my siblings came around and Father created other races that I became 'active'." She still didn't say a number, but at least her mother now had a rough idea.