As the budding omega emperor is simultaneously envisioning the megalopolis at the end of multiversal time in an imagined golden age and learning about the nature of the legendary “Emperor’s Dreadnought”, events throughout space and time continue to unfurl. One such series of critical events is the journey undertaken by Mynassa, the ancient but weak cosmic goddess who has just now completed her journey to a destination decidedly unlike her native universe.
The cosmic goddess floats in the void of intergalactic space, surveying a vast cosmic landscape sweeping out before her. She floats just outside of the furthest, least tamed reaches of the broader empire of Etherscape. The Staneeth Expanse stretches out before the cosmic goddess, and as she studies it she begins to feel her personal power slowly increase.
The cosmic demigoddess is a stunning figure. She stands a mere five feet tall, but has slender, mesmerizing curves, and the topmost portions of her head, where a forehead would be on a human, becomes a mess of feathers. Past and behind the feathers is a long mane of blonde hair that flows down her back.
“So many instances close by…” She mutters, “Instances” referring to instances of her domains: life, fertility, spacetime, love, and lust. She has invested decently in all of her domains other than spacetime, allowing the goddess to slowly accrue power with every passing second. The cosmic goddess faintly senses even weak instances of her domains from across the multiverse but now, close to a potent font of her central domains, life, fertility, love, and lust, she basks in even the ethereal echoes of countless instances of one of her favorite power sources.
She smiles as she darts forward, brazenly stepping out of untamed, unclaimed outer space and into the very furthest reaches of the Staneeth Expanse, one of a tiny handful of territories still under the aegis of Etherscape that is not actually one of the one thousand planes in which ether naturally exists. As she does this, countless distant ascendants snap their heads in her direction, aware of her curious actions even if not aware of the strange motivations driving the previously passive goddess to act.
One of the ancient cosmic deities who has mastered the domain of spacetime, an older signatory of the anti-aggression pact which makes Etherscape potent neutral territory, intrigued by other unfolding events in Etherscape, transmits a warning to Etherscapian authorities within seconds of Mynassa’s intrusion into Etherscapian space. The warned authorities quickly issue alerts up and down their chain of command, and within seconds high thronemaiden Sif herself is aware of the situation and is issuing preliminary commands to the first responders tasked with reacting to and intercepting the curious ascendant.
Mynassa is only able to move a few hundred lightyears, taking a matter of seconds to do so thanks to her ascendant physique coupled with her innate speed due to her conceptual power over motion, before a distant ship appears at the very edge of her vision. The cosmic goddess notes the ship and proceeds to ignore it as she continues to move forward.
Every nanometer she moves closer to her intended destination allows her to extract more power from the instances of her domains she is focused on. Greater cosmic gods do not need to factor distance into the metaphysical equations that determine how much power they draw from instances of their domains, but she is barely a toddler, power-wise, compared to other cosmic gods and so distance is an important factor into how much power she is able to wring from instances of her power sources.
As she zips through space towards the dimensional nexus that will allow her to move into Etherscape itself, the ship that appeared begins to speed towards her. The ascendant goddess notices this and slightly adjusts her trajectory so that she can face this strange vessel head on. She moves far faster than the vessel and in seconds finds herself right in front of the gigantic capital ship, moving so quickly that the crew abroad the vessel are forced to rely on the artificial intelligence synchronized to the vessel to stop it in time to prevent a collision.
Mynassa smiles as she is empowered by the movement of the vessel and the lifeforms inside of it. Even the subtle motions of their breathing and the beating of their hearts empower her ever so slightly. It takes a few seconds but eventually the crew onboard the vessel manage to recover from the shock of the cosmic goddess’s actions and her remarkable speed inflicted on them.
The captain of the vessel, standing in the frigate’s command station, stares at the goddess and begins the mental preparations he needs to undertake prior to reaching out to her telepathically. The figure in the ship is able to look at the goddess directly, and in doing so he stares up at her as she floats over where the command station is positioned on the ship.
The man studies the goddess and despite his knowledge of ascendant abilities and the nature of how cosmic divinities acquire new power he can’t help but feel an all too human pang of lust. The goddess’s beauty is enrapturing, the sort of soft beauty that stirs the hearts of those attracted to women. The goddess is well aware of her effect on those attracted to women and doesn’t reveal how delighted she is that even in this distant universe her conceptual beauty is still capable of eliciting the emotions that allow her to grow in power.
The instant that he reaches out to her, mind to mind, she turns and looks directly at him, smiling peacefully. She welcomes his mind into the same spiritual space as hers as he mentally closes the distance between the two of them to facilitate communication and she is serenely peaceful when the figure makes contact with him.
“Hail, ascendant. You are in sovereign etherscapian space, and I am speaking to you in my capacity as a trained diplomat and scout representing Etherscape. Please state your name and the reason why you are here.” The figure mentally states, staring at the goddess even as she studies him.
She is silent for a few moments and the figures on the ship tense as they wonder whether or not to prepare to defend themselves, but when she speaks her telepathic voice is projected into the minds of all seven people on board the ship, instead of just to the figure who questioned her.
“Hail, mortal. I am Mynassa, a cosmic goddess of life. I come from a distant universe, and I am here to investigate something strange I sensed last night coming from somewhere beyond your vessel.” She explains. Mynassa’s telepathic voice is peaceful, and fills those who hear it with a strange sense of peace and calmness. Even the most telepathically headstrong member of the crew, the diplomat who just spoke to the cosmic goddess, feels subtle emanations of peace and serenity in the soothing tones of her mental voice which unconsciously cause the man to relax somewhat.
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“Greetings Mynassa. We would be delighted to learn more about your intentions and the investigation you plan to conduct, but we cannot and will not permit you to wander our sovereign territory without some sort of escort. We believe that such a move is in the best interests of everyone. Would you be willing to consider what we have just offered?” The diplomat offers, and Mynassa nods in response to the figure’s mental mutterings. She momentarily delights in the slight power she gains from being referred to by name, but she does not let the pleasant sensation that accompanies that distract her. She is also quick to offer a reply.
“I find such conditions… acceptable. I simply wish to see my curiosity sated. Are you to be my escort?” She asks, again projecting her thoughts not into one mind but into multiple. This question causes the crew of the frigate to hesitate and they turn and look at each other silently.
Some of their actions, such as the motions they make to turn away from Mynassa to look at each other, subtly empower the divinity floating above them. The group bickers for a few moments, and eventually the diplomat reaches out to Sif who is amused by the ascendant, and also swiftly recognizes the most likely reality which is that the goddess is a harmless eccentric but one with powers which are planetary in scale, and is savvy enough to recognize that if none of the ascendants linked to the peacekeeping pact are moving to counter Mynassa that means that she doesn’t have a chance of conquering Etherscape.
She considers what to do before deciding to defer to the emperor as a means of seeing how he reacts in a situation requiring a diplomatic touch. The redheaded woman contacts her emperor, who is swiftly briefed on the situation and decides to handle it directly. His voice is the voice who issues the next move the government makes.
His declaration is that the ascendant is to be escorted to the edge of the tel’Iome hegemony and that he will be one of the figures who greets her there. Sif’s only request is that she be retrieved by the emperor before he goes to meet with the ascendant, a request he informs her that he will grant.
Sif refocuses and uses ethertech connecting her to countless government officials to repeat the order she has been given to the diplomats onboard the frigate, who move to execute it without hesitation though not fearlessly. They repeat the details of the order to the goddess who agrees to meet with the emperor, though she never learns his name so she is still oblivious as to who he is relative to her cosmic knowledge. Mynassa silently teleports onto the frigate, and is silent as the ethertech vessel moves through intergalactic space at a speed exceeding the speed of various spaceships in Earth’s science fiction genre.
The emperor is also quick to act, swiftly making use of the dreadnought and moving to quickly head to tel’Iome territory.
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Frantic alarms begin to blare around me as I begin to issue orders. The noise caused by countless scientists and advanced ethertech machines heading to countless teleportation gates stationed throughout the multi-tiered command deck of the dreadnought is loud enough to be heard against the auditory backdrop of the alarms emanating from the walls of the vessel.
I, along with the holographic avatar of the ship’s artificial intelligence as well as the thronemaidens and Thalace calmly stride towards the center of the ship’s deck. We watch as countless scientists and their machines continue to make liberal use of the teleportation infrastructure installed in the vehicle. Curiously, not everyone is departing from the ship and a few scientists, mostly males at that, are staying behind. They are undoubtedly here to help in some way, though I admit that I’m curious as to what they can do.
“Alright, we’re going to jump to Drinn and grab Sif and then head to the edge of tel’Iome territory. They are the ones in charge of the Staneeth plus they have the most military technology and some of the fiercest warriors.” I remark, which gets nods from the members of my extended harem who are here.
I wordlessly begin to use technopathy, which allows me to make use of the vessel without using the avatar as an intermediary. As I do this I hear the avatar quietly moan in surprise and in delight which makes me laugh lightly, even as I feel my mind fill with a sharp, supernatural awareness of the vehicle’s abilities. One of those abilities is the power to send messages from ship to ship and from artificial intelligence to artificial intelligence, which I make use of to transmit a message to my allies over at the tel’Iome hegemony.
I construct the etheric equivalent of an e-mail, introducing myself to the hegemonic head, summarizing the situation, and I use the vessel to transmit it. This takes me as much time as it takes a heart to beat, and as I do this I sense the vehicle underneath, around, and above me begin to stir and shake. The dreadnought is rumbling to life around me and as it does I smile relaxedly.
In seconds the rumbling comes to a stop and I command the vessel to take us to the skies above Drinn. Only a few heartbeats later my senses allow me to feel the stimuli from outside of the vessel, previously the interior of a strange subterranean vault abruptly shift to reflect my new surroundings. I can feel the cool Drinn air touch the outside of the vessel and I hear the quiet machinery at work inside of the ethertech subtly make a few noises as they react to and acclimate to our new surroundings.
A few moments pass before I get an etheric email and the very same instant that I get an etheric message from the Iome hegemony’s head, I watch Sif appear inside of a teleportation pad on a platform far above where the thronemaidens, Thalace, Star, and I are standing.
I mentally read the message which informs me that Mirvel, the princess from the hegemony, is en-route to a warehouse and that I should head there with the goddess and any guards or soldiers I want as backup. Using technopathy to silently share where I want us to go with the vessel’s avatar is as easy as breathing is, and in seconds I can sense the ship making preparations to do another dimensional leap.
“Hey Sif!” I call out, which makes Sif smile even as she steps up to the edge of the platform and then leaps off. She falls gracefully through the air for over a hundred feet before performing a superhero, or superheroine, landing near Star.
“Hello Your Majesty. I see you’re getting used to being the owner of your own private vessel.” She tells me, and I approach her and wrap my arms around her. She freezes for a second, before relaxing against my arms and hugging me back.
“I… I missed you, your majesty.” She confesses, in my arms. I smile at her and lightly kiss her cheek even as I feel the vessel perform another dimensional jump.
My sharp senses allow me to sense the ship’s movements indirectly, but the interior of the vessel does not vibrate in response to dimensional and spatial shenanigans. Even without using my sight I can keenly feel the industrial air and smoke colliding with what I know is intended to be my personal vessel, and I can sense the smoke that partially masks the precise location of the vehicle.
Sif and I stop hugging, but as we part from each other I can see a pleasant blush spread across her delicate face. Still she quickly regains her composure and turns to face the other thronemaidens.
“Good morning everyone. As you know, we are currently in the midst of reacting to something a touch unusual: an alien ascendant has set foot in our territory. The other ascendants have not reacted to the presence of this unusual visitor other than to alert us to her presence and our first responders have made peaceful contact with her and arranged to have her brought to tel’Iome territory. We are going to guide Emperor Ignacio and protect him as he helps us round out this bit of first-contact.” Sif explains, speaking quite quickly and efficiently summarizing the situation.
“The figure in question is a cosmic goddess with an unknown number of domains, though she has said that she is a goddess of life. That said we can confirm that she is nonviolent and nonviolent ascendants have been known to temporarily dwell in Etherscape peacefully. Plus we’ve seen ascendants who are signatories of the pact that protect us from belligerent ascendants react to attacks before we have realized what is going on. We believe that it is reasonably safe for the emperor to be here. Some of the sages on Drinn even theorize that the emperor is likely to be a pacifying presence for some types of ascendants given his personal power.” Sif states, revealing that she’s been in contact with some “Sages”.
“For now we need to outfit the emperor in his imperial ethertech and get him up to speed on ascendants and cosmic gods specifically. Who wants to volunteer for dressing duty and the task of educating our sovereign?” Sif asks, and I chuckle when I notice the thronemaidens all eagerly volunteer for the task ahead. Sif eventually picks Velvet as the figure to dress me, while telling Chyliss that she is to educate me on ascendants.
She then informs the group that we have about forty five minutes before the ascendant arrives, which prompts the thronemaidens to hurriedly usher me towards a teleportation gate located not far from where we were standing when Sif arrived. I am followed by both Velvet and Chyliss, as well as by a group of male ethermancers who assure me that they’ll take good care of me when assigning and attuning me to various ethertech devices. And with that begins the most frantic forty five minutes of my life, so far at least.