Black-lacquered, low-profile chairs and a matching table appeared before them. Steaming tea poured itself from a seafoam green kyusu into three yunomi of the same color.
Josh and Sen huddled over the table, hands over their cups.
The Blessed One sipped his tea as he spoke. “He’s right, of course. I am a clone of the Blessed One. My progenitor, Chiteki Tamashi, left the mortal realms for his attempted Immortal Transcendence billions of years ago... but he loved this moon. It was his birthplace. Back then, Mwezi was more than seventy percent covered with seawater. Now, the moon is almost completely terrestrial. There are only small inland seas remaining...” The clone trailed off with an air of nostalgia reflected in his expression before turning back to them. “Before he left, Chiteki set up the White Palace...” He waved his hands side to side to indicate the rooms and everything around. “To siphon off the torsional energy of Symgan’jyaun’s gravitational pull – that’s the gas giant you now call Baroo-7. Without this intervention, the moon would have been pulled to bits of gravel and absorbed into its atmosphere long, long ago.
“Chiteki set up the Blessed One’s Race and the Temple of the Mind Breaker as an afterthought when he realized he could extend the life of the facility by thirty percent if he used the planet’s siphoned energy to grow the Ip’pul fruits instead of allowing it to dissipate via gravitational entropy—not to mention, significantly benefitting novice Cultivators... but I digress.” The clone returned his focus to them with a raised eyebrow to accompany his sly smile. “I’m not completely sure I understand every nuance of what is going on with you both... but I can smell Immortal intervention all over you, and I’m not going to mess with it—”
Josh’s face scrunched up, and he almost instinctively objected when the Blessed One’s clone raised his hand placatingly, still sipping tea with the other.
Finished with his sip, he said, “Not to worry, Joshua... you both deserve the Ip’pul fruits... and I’m not saying that we can’t go through this whole trans-system dog-and-pony show with its randomly generated environs and combatant spirit beings... if you really want to.” He stopped waving his hand to-and-fro matching the singsong voiced-words he had been speaking. He continued, obviously bored stiff at a routine he had gone through literally millions of times, “but we all know how this whole competition’s going to pan out in the end, don’t we?”
The clone then waved his free hand flatly over the table, and a rounded, deeply violet fruit encased in crisp skin appeared before each of them. A full, sweet fragrance that spoke deeply of energy and somehow… consciousness?... rose to Josh and Sen.
Josh cut himself off as the youthful clone continued.“What I’m saying is... there’s no need for you to compete. I’ve watched your combat and learned many things about you in that rather interesting display.” The clone took another sip of his tea and then held his hands out, encompassing the rooms around them. “This place is for novice Cultivators to get one last helpful push before they need to start walking the Path of One on their own. Quite frankly... the routine program doesn’t have anything to offer you two.” He finished with his thin fingers on his chin. “The Naga was an unforeseen happy accident and the only worthy opponent for you. I am sure you learned more from your confrontation with that creature than in all of the available training here, no?” He gestured at the fruit. “So how about it? As far as I’m concerned, two single-Attuned Cultivators taking down that monster supported by a not insignificantly capable blood-sucker have already earned their reward.”
To their surprised looks and hands twitching with desire to grab the Ip’pul, the clone opened his eyes wide and warned them with a stalling motion.
“Let’s not touch them yet... perhaps we could finish our tea first, shall we?” Chiteki’s clone ended by narrowing his eyes and peering around with an air of conspiracy.
Looking sideways at each other, Josh and Sen smiled knowingly. Without a doubt, their Clone would appear and whisk them away as soon as they had possession of the fruits. Chitek’s clone obviously seemed to suspect as much as well…
Chiteki’s clone joined in with their smiles and looked at Sen with a friendly but slightly penetrating stare. “Senyak Marztanak. You recognized this avatar. I would know what you know of my progenitor. Did he succeed in his Transcendence so long ago?” A serious, if slightly disappointed expression came over his young face. “He has never returned. I don’t know what to make of that. I see only three possibilities. Either he failed, was destroyed as he progressed, or his concerns are so great and expansive on the other side of Immortality that the mortal existence holds nothing of interest for him.” Sincere longing to know filled the clone’s face as he leaned forward. “Can you speak on this?”
Sen straightened in his chair and smiled faintly as he spoke. “Great Elder, I do know of your progenitor. He is called the Prime Motivator. He is responsible for the vast expansion of the mortal and Immortal iterations. His actions led to the placement of aspect doorways and the seeding of entire iterations with spirit beings up to and including thirty-five aspect doors from the main core of Immortal iterations.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“The Prime Motivator is widely known as one of the three most potent Immortals. The Seraph, his Immortal followers, are Dharmic and innumerable. You would know them by their white-winged avatars should they appear in the mortal iterations.”
The clone’s eyes were gleaming at Sen’s words, begging him to continue, and Sen did. “Many wonder why the Prime Motivator has not yet Ascended into the Great Unknown. It is common knowledge that he has long been finished with the seven stages of Immortality. Perhaps you would understand his reasoning more than most.”
Chiteki’s clone took on an awe-filled gaze as he looked up to the heaven’s for several seconds before he spoke in a quiet voice. “He’s gone so far since leaving here… Thank you, Senyak Marztanak. I couldn’t imagine that he would have failed in his Transcendence. I am very grateful to know that he has continued on... and along his beloved Dharmic path as well.” Chiteki’s clone nodded in appreciation to Sen. “May your spiritual growth be without bounds.”
Sen bowed in his seated position to the clone’s traditional blessing. Without provocation, Chiteki’s clone looked up and swallowed once almost as if he was trying to assess someone or something through the roof above them and far off. Then he returned to his friendly and youthful demeanor, huffing a breath and smiling. “I cannot give you any specifics about your future paths in repayment. I suspect there are forces around you that would expunge me if I tried.” He looked up to the ceiling nervously again.
Waving his hand, a thick pink and orange bubble appeared around them, making their ears pop at its airtight fitting. “Let me speak quickly—this shield won’t last long and I have to tell you what I know my progenitor would want you to understand. You are both functioning well beyond what is expected of normal Cultivators, even those at one hundred percent probabilistic efficiency and at maximum statistical growth margins. In short, you are both improbable, which, in simple terms means that it is possible you are becoming Agents of Karma!” A look of amazed bewilderment flooded the clone’s face as he tried to speak faster, obviously talking about things he himself found hard to believe. “The ramifications are almost completely unheard of in this iteration–your actions may have impacts, not only on the iteration you are currently in... but concurrently on the surrounding iterations as well!”
He stopped talking and stared straight into Josh’s eyes.
He was wearing the most severe expression they had seen on his youthful face. “There is a non-zero chance that everything you do, every action you take or don’t take can have rippling effects into other iterations even without reaching the fifty percent overflow that Reality normally requires for impact on the iterations of the surrounding cuboid. Remember this. Concerning your daughter, Sophie—”
The bubble encasing them shattered into thousands of dissolving pink and orange shards that dispersed into ascending sparks as they tumbled around Josh, Sen, and Chiteki’s clone.
Floating over them, Zenyak’s Clone appeared in all his blue-blazing glory with a very stern expression on his glowing face. Holding his hand, palm up, a solid beam of ultraviolet-tinged white light as thick as a Coke can shot from it. The beam blasted Chiteki’s clone from its floating position, pinning him to the far wall.
In less than a heartbeat, the Chiteki clone’s entire body had been erased like a sandcastle washed out by an incoming tide. His face’s last expression haunted Josh as it reflected the terror of billions of years of existence coming to an abrupt end under the Clone’s assault.
Blue-white liquid fire screamed behind the Clone’s eyes under his currently erupting lightning-tinged brows. His line of sight turned toward Josh and Sen. “We needs be gone. Take your fruits.”
They grabbed the violet Ip’pul Fruits–and before they could even turn back they were simply… gone—pulled from the comfortable niche they had so easily slid into with Gusti and the Sundai, and back under the Clone’s tender mercies. Josh could barely suppress his shiver at the thought.
* * * * *
Zenyak Marztanak stepped through his portal from the deep blue wisdom of the Way and into the chamber at the center of the Mind Bender Temple. He rolled his avatar’s head on its shoulders with a deep sigh. Some habits were hard to break, even into immortality. There were no physical reminders of the injuries he had sustained during Oblivion’s attack—and no Immortals save for the other two Paramounts would see anything but his seemingly endless energy pools if they dared attempt to assess his power. Regardless, Zenyak had been… diminished. The power expenditure he had spent to prevent the destruction of the three of them from Oblivion’s assault, and then the effort to repair his shattered Core and Meridians had required more than 22 percent of his dedicated Immortal Ka. It was more than enough power to recreate an entire cuboid after its stars had completely burned into lifeless cinders.
I’m not good at losing... Zenyak sighed again... but needs must.
The three Paramounts needed to move forward and determine their path against this foe... But only after this stop that Chiteki, the Prime Motivator, had demanded as mandatory. Zenyak’s youthful-appearing friend was already here and getting a report of the recently transpired events. The teenage looking Immortal scowled at Zenyak as he rested his hand on his mortal clone’s bowed head.
After a long moment the mortal clone bowed to Chiteki and glared at Zenyak as it blinked out of the room.
Humphhh... sore loser... Zenyak noted that he was not the only one who struggled with defeats.
Chiteki, a perfect reflection of his clone, cast a sideways glance at Zenyak. “Were the dramatics really necessary? Your Clone shortened the lifespan of this facility by eight percent with the energy expenditures needed to repair the damage it did–that is a loss of two billion galactic cycles of continued existence for my home world.”
Zenyak rolled his eyes. “Home world? Grow up, Chiteki. You know what we face. You are not unaware of just how many ‘home worlds’ are at stake in this struggle. We need every advantage and every probabilistic upper hand we can scrape together. I’d implode this iteration for the sake of maintaining the necessary pressure on the Bonded pair and the potential… options they represent to us.” Zenyak’s avatar leaned into Chiteki, and their genuine friendship softened his words. “You would as well, my friend.”
The Prime Motivator conceded the point with a nod of his young head at the truth in Zenyak’s words. Without a doubt, he would.
Chiteki moved on. “Concerning our ‘options’, the Principal Master has moved beyond our relays at the fifty-third aspect doorway. He has made a disturbing finding and requests that we join him now to confer.”
Zenyak’s penetrating gaze asked the question that didn’t need to be said. Is the time to proceed with our last option upon us?
In response, the Prime Motivator’s brows rose in uncertainty.
Two simultaneous tears in space-time flooded the chamber with the deep blue of Reality as two of the multiverse’s most preeminent Immortals went off to join the third in their continuously losing battle against Oblivion.