That was what Humans and Great Beasts could do when working together. The Dragon High Emperors could clearly tell the Pyramid was the anchor of the entire place, and as it grew, so did the Broom Closet. Flowing Silver High Emperor’s other vassals were helping it grow, especially with the lower layers, but this had been made by a Human!
A great domain of her own, perhaps even a Demesne, taken and claimed and grown without taking territory from any other Great Beast!
“THIS... HAS A GREATER PURPOSE,” The Ice Emperor deduced slowly. “IT IS NOT MERELY NEW LIVING TERRITORY.”
The Human answered, Her power such that she did not even have to defer to Him, “If the Netherlords or Nirvanans win their conflict, the time of Great Beasts upon the Mortal World is over, Your Majesties. Shortly after, as the Elders reckon things, the Beast Realm will follow.
“The connection between the two Realms can be severed from the Broom Closet, and it can drift away. As long as there are no Emperors, and specifically no High Emperors, within, the Realm Lords will not be able to discern it against the planar and temporal eddies of the Aether, and those within can live on.
“Perhaps, in time, it can even form the Seed of a new Realm entirely, or it may bump into another Realm and regain an anchor.
“We hope that it will not be needed, but we plan for it nonetheless.”
Both Dragon High Emperors were disquieted as Flowing Silver High Emperor let the illusion fade. After all, the Human was planning for a time past when they would fall, and they... were not. If they died, then all died with them, and what did they truly care about, beyond themselves?
The fact that a Human, the only Tribe that might survive and benefit from the coming of the Interlopers, was doing this as much or more for the Beasts than for themselves, was also quite unnerving. It was a display of an open heart and open-mindedness that cut across Tribal lines, and not something Dragons had much use for.
But it was not something High Emperors would benefit from. The two Dragons looked at Flowing Silver, who looked back in open amusement. Plainly He was acting to save the younger generations, too, as He could not leave along with the Broom Closet without dooming it.
And though He could certainly take it for His own, for the sake of its ultimate purpose, He had let the Human do so.
The Dragon High Emperors settled back down, their thoughts deep in ways they had never truly considered before. It was uncomfortable, as if a whole vista of new possibilities that had somehow escaped their attention was opening up before them, denied because of how unpalatable they were... but in the harsh light of possible annihilation, they were coldly and thoroughly logical.
All because of this ridiculously young Tribe of furless Monkeys...
“WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR DEALING WITH THE INTERLOPERS, HEALER FAE?” The Ice Emperor asked the little Human directly.
“Your Majesties, the Interlopers do not seem to know it, but they, too, are but pawns in a much larger game.” Both Dragons tried to hide their great alarm at those words, the Truth in them making their souls quiver.
If those Realm Lords were but pawns in a larger game, what did that make them?!
“They have been lucky, and have been playing about the edges of the board, somehow avoiding the major players, and/or remaining completely ignorant of them.
“Our worlds cannot endure their attentions. We have no choice but to take the game to the next level, and bring in the true players.
“I must inform Your Majesties that this will irrevocably remove You from your positions at the top of the world’s hierarchy, and the hierarchy itself will change. Your standing with the new powers will be something You will have to decide for yourselves, and exercise that which is intrinsic to all things: your Free Will.
“You are all Beasts, and neither Faith nor Belief are easily come by. But to the powerful and the Profound who are coming, this is the coin they trade in. Free Will, Faith, and Belief are the axis upon which the greater multiverse spins, not merely power and strength.
“Our current plans revolve about bringing in Heaven to break the stalemate and eventual cataclysm that will result when the deadlock is broken between Sin and Axiom. This requires Faith enough to sing out into the Aether and attract their attention, Faith that is being accumulated as we speak.
“We do not know if there will be enough before Axiom and Sin begin their endgame, but we are trying. If there is not, we can only withdraw long enough to attract the attention of Heaven, and perhaps one day return.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I say this with Truth, Hope, and Valor.”
The souls of High Emperors rocked as, for the first time in existences which had lasted millions of years, long before any Monkeys existed, they heard the power of Virtues made manifest, a power far, far more profound than the Elements they were aware of.
Their last denials and doubts were cruelly smashed as they faced the Truth of the situation: that they were now bit players on a board, desperately scrabbling for the way to survive what was coming, and the true game was now indeed far, far beyond them...
-------
Three Soul Cluster Star Diamond Pearls.
The remnants of the three slain High Emperors of Shadow, Shadow, and Undeath were naturally ceded to me, as the High Emperors had no use for such things, even replete with Mana as they were. The best thing they could do was break them and return the Typeless Mana to the environment, being unable to wield such stuff themselves.
These glittering, three-foot crystalline orbs of ever-shifting depths actually had less Mana in them than the Immortal Pearl did, a tribute to just how much Dark Mana the High Emperors had been venting to stave off death as they fought. Just the damage for being immersed in intensely vivic waters must have been excruciating, given their size and so the level of exposure they had.
Get impaled by a few hundred Compressed Vivic Ice Lances spreading their joy through you, and yeah, venting Dark Mana to keep the vivus away from your soul was the only way to stay alive.
Hadn’t helped in the end, as the attacking High Emperors piled on the vivic-enhanced damage or concentrated attacks bypassed that venting.
Also, a LOT of Netherworlders and Corrupted Aquatics had died. Some had managed to flee down the Conduit, their fate in the Netherworld to be puppets, die, and come back as Shades or Undead, sure enough.
It was a lot of Soul Crystals of all sizes, and again, the Aquatics had no use for them, so I’d sucked up all of them.
Tens of millions of them, actually, gleaming in my Pocket, ready to be combined into ever-higher forms, the act of which was happening continuously.
I had a potential shot at getting all Tier-7 Stars. Wouldn’t that just be a kick in the teeth?
More to the point, could I use these things to get a jump on my Syzygy?
Right now, I was working on 4x Compressed Mana. The harmonics of the system required I get 4xMana on everything before jumping to 40xMana, then apply all of that before starting on 400xMana, rinse and repeat before High Emperor 4000xMana.
But... at one point per six seconds, that was just pretty damn slow.
Flowing Silver High Emperor’s pale blue eyes were watching me keenly as I studied the three massive Soul Crystals made from Netherworld High Emperors. “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?” He asked eagerly, always excited to see me do something impossible and new.
“I’m thinking that I can jump out ahead of the curve and start working on my 40x, 400x, and 4000x Mana, Your Majesty,” I replied absently.
His Nine Tails quivered in expectation. “YOU CAN FORM SUCH COMPRESSED AND PURIFIED MANA ALREADY?” His note of disbelief was tempered with more amusement.
“Of course. It’s just a skill check.” Against 100 or so at the highest level.
His Tails flipflopped again. “SHOW ME,” He said eagerly.
I realized he’d not seen Compressed Typeless Mana at those levels, and I obliged, drawing in forty Mana of various types in a swirling pattern, and then Igniting them to Burn away their biases and form true Arcane energy, what everyone else called Typeless, and was actually All Types.
The Mana of various Elemental Colors Burned away the bias, mixing together and transcending their nature into the harsh blue-white hue of pure Arcane energy. I then brought them together and began to Compress them down, magnifying the Arcane aspect of each point one by one in a rippling crystalline formation as I condensed everything.
It took me exactly four minutes the first time to do the condensing, a minute for the Burning.
I looked at the coldly brilliant 36xMana Point in my hand, then calmly tossed it into the first Shade Soul Star Diamond Pearl.
There was a sparkle and ripple of light within it as the Compressed Mana tumbled through the Mana there... but the vivisized Mana there did not dissipate it, instead gathering around it and starting to ripple out, like a final grain of salt dropped into a hypersaturated liquid and starting the crystallization process.
The Vivisized Mana in there was truly typeless, and the Burning of it would be nearly instantaneous. The Mana there would be fused to the Mana I already had, instead of being applied point by point as was normal. I just hadn’t really had anything that could store a partial point like this... and doing so with 4xMana didn’t save any time at all.
I’d just taken a four-minute addition process down to twenty-four seconds, only having to fuse to four more Mana to complete the 40x, and apply the whole amount at once.
I drew in another 36 Mana, and Burned and Compressed it again, only faster this time.
There were extremely subtly minor variations dependent on exactly what Elements were getting Burned, but I made the adjustment, and instead of taking a minute plus 216 seconds for Burning + Compression, it took 30 seconds + 108 seconds.
I dropped the second Point into the same Star Diamond Pearl, and swirled up my third.
It was a twenty-point penalty to the check to double your speed. At a base 40, I had a lot of room to go faster.
Mana swirled in, Burned, Compressed, was stowed.
15+54 seconds. Flowing Silver’s pale blue eyes narrowed as He watched me work.
Mana draw, Burn, Compress.
7.5+27 seconds, a 100 check for eight times normal speed.
But I was Focused now, and this process was a Concentration check for me. Mana swirled in, and my thoughts and Will levered down to accelerate the process yet again, humming a special Chord that flared the Elements and ignited the Arcane.
The Mana almost popped in my hand, it ignited and Burned clear so quickly, and then virtually collapsed in on itself and folded itself into a 36x Point of Mana smoothly.
3.75+13.5. Basically eighteen seconds to gather and Compress a Low Emperor Point of Mana. Then it would take four cycles to integrate the 4x already present, so 42 seconds overall, when it was time.
All that, while my three Waking Meditation thoughtstreams were working on the constant one Mana per six seconds 4x Compression, I could also be working on setting up the 40x next stage.