Chapter 4:32 Crocodile Tears |
Randus hovered worriedly over Statera Luotian, much to the Rivals' amusement. It was honestly cute how her kids worried so much over her, despite how she repeatedly showed she was and would be ok. He could understand where the concern was coming from, though; she tended to do wild things, seemingly at random, like this, and throw herself headfirst into problems when they were presented to her, for good or ill.
He could see a fair bit of what she was doing right now, though, and what was happening, so he wasn't worried. He'd been running a technique to watch for outside influence for quite some time now. It wasn’t technically supposed to be able to see between universes, that particular technique was something that simply required more raw power than he had at his disposal right now, but the One World and Four Realms were so small that it wasn’t that much of an issue. They lacked the density and existential weight that came with some of the older universes.
It was for that reason he'd been able to catch what the Big Four did, and how the Overgod had helped Statera. A little flash of power from the Overgod was so big it was easy to miss for those who didn’t know what to look for - like the entire sky moving - but he'd been watching for it. To him, it was visible as a bright ball of light in the sky over the One World, roaring like a sun, threads flowing down to touch the top of Statera’s head and through her chakras.
What had been more interesting was what Statera had done with the power, though. Rather than letting her kids directly borrow the power of the Overgod, she was filtering it. Her own domain of balance was fluctuating wildly, twitching left and right and up and down, severely overwhelmed by the Overgod's own presence. Her true body sat above the One World and the still-unconscious Oshun, streams of golden fire, the Overgod's power, or in this case understanding, raging around her seated form like a helix. Only a little bit of that power, silver light that was far less potent but still a deep energy, passed down through the One World to her children, the rest filtering back up and away, or into the universes about them to nourish their own healing and growth.
He couldn't see the Big Four directly, the technique he had used wasn't designed that way, but he could guess at what was happening to them, and observe the aftershocks. Primarily, though, he needed to deal with the deity of dreams.
"Randus, buddy, calm down," The Rival said, stepping forward to lay a hand on his shoulder. The butler god of dreams whirled on him, expression a little panicked and eyes blown wide - his pupils dilated so far his entire eyes looked black as the night. His salt-and-pepper beard was mussed from where he'd run his fingers through it multiple times, a teacup floating beside him, empty.
"I - that's a lot," he muttered, swaying as if drunk. "She is - marm is -"
"Alright, buddy, cut yourself off from that. Like a good hard liquor, that’s a bit too much for you. Oh, that must be why she's filtering the Overgod's power from the others," the Rival muttered, gently guiding Randus to sit in the air beside Statera. It took a few minutes, but eventually he managed to get Randus to disconnect from Statera slightly, his divinity existing partly within Statera’s unconscious mind not helping with that task in the slightest, getting him to finally lose the power-drunk look he'd been sporting. Once he was up and semi-functional again, he had a task for the man. "Could you do me a favor, Randus?" he asked.
The god of dreams had his head in his hands, still visibly overwhelmed, practically shaking in his butler suit.
"The Overgod doesn’t do lectures. You get blasted with the full might of things or nothing at all - he doesn't do it by halves." The Rival scoffed, then immediately clamped his mouth shut because he still needed Randus to focus and get through it rather than latching onto his personal connection to the Overgod of the Multiverse. Randus looked up at him, brow furrowed, and he cleared his throat. "I've been punished before for doing dumb things. Let's just say this is...well, par for the course for his 'help.' Now, what you really need to do is go check on your siblings. The Big Four." He urged.
"Why?" Randus asked, and it wasn't that he didn't want to go check on his siblings, as far as the Rival could tell from his expression and tone, but a blunt declaration of 'why do they need to be checked on?'
"Because they're getting the leftovers of your power-drunkness, and may need watching. Get the Mad Scientist and have her help. Solana, too. Do not interfere with whatever is happening, but absolutely do keep notes. Statera is in control, and I really want to know what's happening." The Rival admitted freely, switching tactics from ‘empathy for your siblings’ to being completely honest mid-sentence. The Mad Scientist had predicted something like this happening ages ago, and it had been put off until now thanks to the collision. She wouldn't want to miss this.
Randus stood, eyes narrowing as his divine power did...something. The Rival wasn't quite sure what, if he was honest, which was mostly because he'd neglected becoming a full-fledged god in the Four Realms so far. Then, with a flash of dark black shadow swirling around him, he was gone.
The Rival shook his head. "I need to get around to becoming a god," he muttered. He’d seen just about all he could as an Immortal, and now it was time for the next tier. He had to be ready for what was coming, if he wanted to be a proper observer.
"I thought," Statera said, voice strained, eyes still screwed shut as she focused on managing the Overgod's power, her black hair whipping about her head like a living organism. Her purple robes were calm against her body, however, unworried by the power flooding through her. A pity. He’d kind of hoped they’d get blown off. "You weren't going to become a god of the Four Realms."
"I wasn't. But this is too interesting, and that will extend my lifespan in this universe by a few thousand more eons, even without any additional techniques and things. I'm not in danger of running out of time at the moment, it's just a precaution. Also, you sure you should be talking? I know you’re awesome, but c'mon, you’re doing a lot and it seems like you’re just trying to show off." He chattered, kneeling mid-air before her, a relatively safe distance away because she was radiating like a nuclear reactor juiced up on the fires of creation. Her eyes remained shut, chest rising and falling in a calm, measured breathing method.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"'S not as hard as it looks," she muttered, tilting her head forward, a strand of black hair falling from between her horns to hang in front of her face. She didn't bother blowing it away, and the rest of her hair, still angrily whipping about her head, remained in motion. She was getting better at managing it, clearly.
"Uh-huh. Right. Say, why aren't you letting the Overgod's direct power flow down to them? That'd be easier." He asked. “And just imagine what they’d look like while drunk! Bet they wouldn’t even be able to remember their own names!” Statera was silent for a long, long moment.
"They asked for my help," she admitted. "This is not ego talking. It simply is a fact. They do not want the Overgod's truth, they want mine. I asked for the Overgod's truth, to help me manage my...own," she paused, brow furrowing further.
"And there are pieces you agree with, and pieces you don't. That tracks." The Rival nodded sagely, settling into a lotus position, casting one eye below. The Oshun, that giant stone body, still remained motionless on the surface. Below the surface a storm was raging as she struggled to wake up, but there was still plenty of time until that happened. "You're the type of person to take nothing at face-value. You internalize, absorb, weigh it against what you know and understand, and go from there."
"Yes," Statera agreed slowly.
"That's really all you're about, isn't it? Understanding yourself." The Rival muttered. "That's why I liked you as my therapist. You didn’t judge, you just wanted me to be honest with myself. Well. You didn’t judge unfairly."
"Know thyself," Statera all but whispered. The Rival grunted, watching the power flow for a moment, silent and genuinely intrigued. This was new to him. He could practically see the cluster-universe forming in real time, the nascent power of Statera Luotian folding in on itself like...layered steel. Statera had used the steel-versus-feathers metaphor to describe herself and the Oshun before, but she'd missed a key part to it.
Steel was more useful than feathers. Feathers made great pillows. Steel made far, far more. And now it was evolving further, that core within her twisting into shapes his current eyes could not comprehend. They were more than enough, however, to find what he was still looking for - the loop-back that came with having a piece of multiple universes within you and forming of you - there!
Threads of light circled back up into Statera from below, presumably from the Big Four, looping in concentric circles and creating latticework within the outer parts of her aura that were absorbed without issue. Bits and pieces of the One World's ambient energy was absorbed as well, the Authority she contained reacting quite positively to all this. It was fascinating.
He'd been in cluster universes before - most universes were part of a cluster anyways. The Heart, the Mind, the Defense, Nexus Worlds, and so on, were all typically governed by gods and Origin Gods, but were part of an overarching system that was overseen by Greater Gods. Masters of the Heart Universes and so on, or lesser clusters. Seeing it from the beginning like this was...well.
New. Statera just had to always be showing him new things, didn't she? Or reminding him of things he’d forgotten. Even things he'd tried to forget about himself, when she'd made him cross the Immortal Bridge and face everything he was and had been.
The Rival frowned a little. Would there be another trial when he ascended to divinity? That...he wasn't sure he was going to like that, if there was. Facing it once as he ascended to Immortality was one thing, doing it again for divinity was entirely another. Everything felt more when you were a god. It was uncomfortable.
"You're thinking too much, I can hear it from here." Statera accused, eyes still closed.
"Guilty as charged." He chirped happily. "Need anything?"
"No. I am fine. You have a message, though," she muttered, and the Rival furrowed his brows. A message? What -
Something blinked in the corner of his vision. A chat symbol, the thing he'd opened up with the First when he'd first figured out Statera Luotian was someone he knew so they could agree on a cease-fire for this lifetime. He stared at it without opening it, occasionally glancing at Statera, who muttered softly to herself as she meditated there.
Had she really noticed that before the message arrived?
Goddamn. Just...goddamn.
He chuckled a little as he opened the message, ignoring the way his heart clenched in nervousness or fear at the prospect of the contents.
Their old chat still lay untouched since their last messages to each other. Plus one new one.
[number1: i felt a big shift. was that you???]
The Rival chewed his lip, looking skyward and guessing the First had noticed the Overgod's movement.
[contender69: nah man, that was the 4 realms doing something crazy.]
[number1: crazy??? i felt that from here. we agreed not to do anything insane. the overgod made it clear we cant intervene too much.]
[contender69: im still talking to you arent i? of course i had nothing to do with it. id be locked in the Room if i had, dummy]
Silence, no more messages for a long, long moment. The Rival rocked back onto his heels.
[contender69: you in the One World???] He couldn’t be, but it was always best to ask.
[number1: no. not there either. not sure my place has a name yet and haven’t met the origin god either which kinda sucks i haven’t met one in a long time.]
That wasn't reassuring. No matter how much he wanted it to be, it wasn't reassuring at all that the First was somewhere the Rival couldn’t see…but at the same time, for right now, he didn’t really care either. The Rival rubbed his eyes, and looked back at Statera and, for the first time in a long, long time, ignored the First's follow-up questions. There was someone far more interesting right there, and frankly, he was tired of worrying about him.
The admission cost him something, even if it was only to himself. He sat beside Statera and looked out over the One World, the gargantuan mountains catching the rays of the sun and reflecting them like a painting. Yet no mere painting could compare to the beauty of that sunrise.
“I’d be a God of War,” he admitted softly. “That’s why I haven’t joined your pantheon yet. I wouldn’t want to do that to you – let someone else be the first to become the God of War.”
“Don’t be silly, and don’t sell yourself short.” Statera immediately replied, reaching over and grabbing his hand from…well, very far away. Not an inch of the Overgod’s power did he feel, despite her sudden proximity. “You’d be the God of Conflict, not merely war.” The Rival smiled at her, the word striking a cord within himself that rung as true; war was conflict, but not all conflict was war. How dare she know him that well? It’s cheating! “One is war. The other is the spice of life.”
“Are you sure your divine domain isn’t perversion, instead of balance? Holding my hand before marriage? How scandalous!” He cried dramatically, despite the way his throat clenched and eyes threatened to burn at her simple statement. She scoffed and let go of his hand like it had burned her, and he cackled, knowing that if she wasn’t distracted right now she’d have hit him for that. But he didn’t push further. Instead he looked out over the One World again, this time with a little smile, and mourned. He mourned that he loved her, and was fated to leave. He mourned his duty to his sworn brother. And he did his best, not to cry.
Which meant he cried big wet crocodile tears, going over the top in his performance just to embarrass the hell out of Statera.
Comments 1