Start of a Competition

POV: Kei

I giggled and stuck my tongue out at Sequoia, who was pouting at me. She angrily clenched her fists, puffing out her cheeks and stamping her foot, having just tackled a divine incarnation of mine instead of the real me. It was a mean trick, but she had to catch the real me to be able to touch my tails, not my incarnations.

"No fair!" she protested, "you promised you wouldn't tease me with incarnations!"

"That only applied until you became a Dao Progenitor! Now you are one, so I'm using incarnations again," I told her, crossing my arms.

"You're changing the rules to suit you," she whined, flopping on the ground and staring plaintively up at me. I snickered but didn't bother to deny it. I looked forward to the day she would actually be able to give me a good chase, but until then I had to keep myself entertained in other ways.

"Give it up, Sequoia, you'll never catch her." her skyshatter wolf friend, Fuego, told her as he trotted up, having not quite been able to keep up with our little game of tag. It spanned three entire solar systems in the first three hours alone! It was awesome! "Best to try and sneak up on her. Or do that weird time thing and get her stuck in a blip," the wolf suggested, not actually speaking and instead projecting its mental voice via psyonic powers. It was really impressive that the wolf could follow the path of the Mind as far as it did. Especially since the skyshatter wolves weren't particularly suited to that style of cultivation.

"No, I'll get her eventually," Sequoia rejected, glaring at me. Subborn, that one was. It'd been five hundred thousand years since the end of the Realm War, and she had already reached the Dao Progenitor level, becoming the first Progenitor of Time. I was personally unsurprised at her path. Time was something she had a vast knowledge of, thanks to her childhood and that inspiration the First gave her.

And in all that time, she kept up chasing me across the Mortal Realm, wanting to touch my tails. The other Evolver Beings weren't far behind her in terms of cultivation and enlightenment, but because I didn't know them that well I couldn't say what their Dao was. Though I hear the Djinn was interesting. The crazy kind of interesting.

"Mmm, maybe," I teased, cocking my head to the side. Sequoia huffed.

"Well, setting a goal is good," another voice said, prompting me to crane my neck and look up at the silver dragon descending from the sky. Argenti had taken to visiting Sequoia once every thousand years or so, which was the only time he ever left his cave.

"I am not saying otherwise," Fuego argued, "I am just unsure how to feel about her goal being to touch the tails of a Divine Beast." He paused, and looked at me. "Well, THE Divine Beast. Goddess of Art, and the only nine-tailed fox. Hm. It doesn't sound nearly as strange if I think about it like that, but it's still kind of weird."

"I don't think so," I added, though only Sequoia really cared about my opinion. Argenti and Fuego ignored my comment and dove into a conversation about Sequoia's goal to touch my tails. I pouted and launched myself at said dryad, tackling her in a hug. "Sequoia, they're ignoring meeee!" I wailed, making sure to keep my tails out of her reach. She giggled back and mock glared at her friends.

"That's not nice!" She called to them, both the dragon and wolf ignoring her as well. I snickered and pulled away from her, lifting my hands and forming two glimmering balls in either palm.

"I'm going to glitter bomb them," I announced. Sequoia frowned.

"That's mean," she told me, and I snickered again.

"'Tis all in good fun!" I said, plastering my best evil smile on my face and looking pointedly at the two beings now looking at me in horror. Ha. Now they were paying attention. "Fuego, Argenti, let's have some fun!" I called sing-song. The two glanced at each other, looked back at me as I casually side-stepped Sequoia, who tried to sneak-attack my tails, and then they shot off in two opposite directions.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" I called, cackling and taking a single step forward. Then a chill ran up my back, and I shuddered. Pure terror crept its way into my heart, my gut twisted in anxiety, and it felt as if Morgan itself was breathing down her neck. Slowly turning around, my eyes grew wide as I spotted that which was making me feel as if my doom was approaching - Grandpa, the Creator, with two balls of pink and blue glittery paint floating above either hand.

I immediately recognized them as prank-traps I had set up for Him or Randus. Um...uh-oh?

"That's my line, sweetheart," Grandpa called, grinning wickedly and glancing at Sequoia, who was staring at Him intently. He winked at her and turned his full attention back to me.

"H-hey, Grandpa, how are you doing?" I laughed nervously, taking a few steps back. Grandpa looked thoughtful for a moment glancing at the balls of paint.

"I'm wonderful, thanks for asking. I just saw these things and thought of you," He said, looking at me with a grin. "Wouldn't happen to know where they came from, would you?" He asked.

"Would you believe me if I said no?" I asked. Grandpa shook his head, His smile grew wider, and He pointed up towards the sky. I looked up, and just frowned in acceptance of my fate. A massive ball of glittery paint hung over my head like an obscene halo, promptly popping and dumping its contents all over me. Then, just to add insult to injury, He asked me the dreaded question.

"Would you believe me if I said I had no idea where that came from?" He asked innocently.

"Creating paint is cheating," I whined, flinging paint off of my fingers and floating into the sky. Grandpa laughed evilly, spinning the balls of paint He had in His hands and eyeing me. It was then that I realized that this wasn't over. I shot off like a bullet from a gun, Grandpa chasing after me with a cackling laugh and leaving a very confused Sequoia all alone, looking around and wondering what just happened.

I'd go back and play with her, I promised myself. Just as soon as I escape Grandpa, or He exacts His revenge which isn't really revenge because my prank didn't even touch Him. Ah, technicalities.

POV CHANGE: Elvira

"I didn't think it was possible for Kei to be tired out," I told Father, one hand laying gently on my slightly bulging, pregnant stomach and watching as Reika stroked her daughter's hair. Said nine-tailed fox was gently snoring with her head laying on Reika's lap, her hair matted with paint and glitter and face covered in mud and dirt and paint and grime. But she was smiling in her sleep, and I had not seen her look more like a child in a long, long time.

We, meaning myself, my husband Gilles, Reika and Kei, and Father were all sitting in one of the gardens of the Holy Palace, enjoying the light of the Lunar Star as it hung overhead.

"She needed a good release," Father said with a shrug, a broad smile stretching across His face, "and I had fun, so we just played until she got tired."

"...think she'll take a hundred thousand year power nap?" I asked, looking pointedly at Father. He laughed and Reika shook her head at me and I tsked. "Shoot. Was hoping she took after Father in that aspect." They all chuckled at that.

"You'd miss her mischief and you know it," Gilles said with a smirk.

"Would not, and you know it," I shot back, vehemently denying that I enjoy any of her tricks or pranking. Even when she annoys the other deities so much they leave without begging me to fix the problems they could easily fix themselves.

...ok, I can't lie to myself that much. I do enjoy it when she does that. Gives me a breather. Being a leader is hard and time consuming. At times I want to yell at some of the deities that they know their domains better than I do, so they should know how to fix certain problems, or at the angels that they know whatever they're doing will work, they're just not looking at it in the right direction. But I can't. That wouldn't make anything better except for making me feel better.

"Your expression says everything. There is something you like about Kei's troublemaking skills," Reika teased, and I stuck my tongue out at her in response. She just laughed.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with us," GIlles continued, eyes twinkling with mirth. I just sighed and shook my head; there was no way I was going to win this. So I changed the subject.

"It'll be at least another half a million years until the Evolver Beings become deities, right?" I asked, thinking of the little Raijin that was making waves in the Heaven Realm. He was quite the little firecracker, and when he was set off, he raged like a storm until whatever it was, was fixed or made right. There was little that stood in the face of him - he was as much a force of nature amongst the cultivators of the Heaven Realm than anything else. They just didn't get in his way.

"Mm, give or take," Father mused, scratching His chin. "Sequoia's obviously the closest, but the Nereid is in second. I'd say between half a million to a million years until they become deities and change their respective Realms. Still figuring out how I'm going to trigger that, though. It's going to be a bit of a pain." He said with a sigh. I nodded. Changes like that didn't just happen.

We talked a bit more on that subject before Reika changed it once again, asking another question that had been on all our minds.

"And what is Morgan doing with the Elementals?" she asked. I remained quiet and looked at Kei, avoiding looking at Father. I had figured it out relatively early on what Morgan was doing, having watched and confronted the wolf myself, and personally agreed. Father was...brilliant. I loved Him dearly, and I knew that He truly did have the best of intentions for the Four Realms and all of us at all times.

However, He's tiptoeing. He needs to strut, take big strides, and force change if we are going to survive the Calamity. There will be no great change if we do not take equally great risks, and Father has not been guiding us towards any risks. And though that isn't exactly Morgan's thought processes, it is something similar and I begrudgingly agree with it. Reika agrees as well, she's just asking Father more for formality's sake. And to make sure He understands what Morgan is doing as well.

"Why are you asking me this? You know exactly what Morgan's doing." Father objected, raising an eyebrow. An invisible conversation passed between the two, and Father's shoulders slumped in minor defeat. He recognized His mistake as well, it seemed.

"Just making sure you do too," Reika continued, scratching Kei behind her fox-like ear idly. I looked up at Father, and paused at seeing the far-off look in His green eyes. He looked incredibly tired like that, something that has been a more common sight recently. He, out of all of us, is by far the most worried about the impending Calamity simply because that is His nature.

"Mm," Father hummed, and shook His head. "Well, I'd better be off. Things to do and people to see, you know. I'll be back in a bit," He said, and vanished. Gilles and I exchanged a look, to which he shook his head.

"No, I don't know either. Honestly, you expect me to know what the Creator is talking about? Even I can't understand Them ninety percent of the time." He complained, folding his hands inside of his sleeves. I laughed lightly but didn't disagree, Father could be pretty erratic and didn't always share His plans and actions with us until He already executed them. He was getting better about it, but. Old habits die hard.

I hummed and leaned back, laying on the ground and spreading out my wings, simply basking. It was good to relax every once in a while. I layed there for a bit, slowly drifting off to the sound of Reika and Gilles conversing. And, before I knew it, I had fallen into a light slumber.

POV CHANGE: Statera Luotian

I walked calmly into my palace, ignoring all the scultpures and brilliant art pieces hanging about. Normally I took some time to appreciate the art my children had created whenever I take an actual stroll through my palace, but not today. I had too much on my mind, and it was not what Morgan had done that was on my mind. To be honest, I recognized my fault here. Morgan wasn't saying that I was too light-handed in dealing with the Elementals, Morgan could not give less of a damn about those two.

The specifics of the situation were...difficult. Morgan was essentially guiding the Elementals to become more powerful and more devious, allowing their city to prosper and flourish in the realms of the Dimensional Creators. The coming war would be powerful and Realm-shaking. This was bad. The good was...well. People would rise against the Elementals, and the chances were that something incredibly good would come of the end of the war. Since it was so far away, at least a million years, even I couldn't accurately judge the endings, but I did get what Morgan was saying.

I needed to take risks, thrust the Four Realms into chaos myself if I have to, and find the outcome that is the most beneficial, and ups our survival chances to the greatest degree. Now was not the time to let the Four Realms grow naturally. Unfortunately. All I want is to watch my creations and children grow at their own pace...

Shaking my head, I refocused on my current mission. "Randus, with me," I said calmly, said Diety of Dreams coming out of the shadows and standing by my side. He was still half in the Realm of Dreams, and as such only visible to me, but his presence was undeniable.

I thrust my hands forward and pulled, ripping a tear into the fabric of reality and stepping through it, traversing Creation and Void alike, following the string Mr. Blue Boxes had laid out for me. At the end of it lay a small pocket of creation, merely two galaxies in size and filled with naught but Primordial Chaos, within it the being I had come to meet.

Sylphina Luanhua, the Great Butterfly, Origin Deity of Change and the creator of the Vast Expanse hovered in the middle of this region of nothingness, waiting for me.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," she said, her antenna twitching. I nodded to her with a small smile, allowing all my worries to slide off of me. This would be a nice reprieve, and thoroughly enlightening for both of us.

"It's my pleasure," I assured her, "after all, its not every eon I get to "contemplate the dao" with a fellow Origin Deity," I chuckled, shaking my head and sitting cross-legged in front of her. Sylphina made a noise halfway between a laugh and a humm, bobbing up and down as she settled, her wings ceasing to beat.

This was what she had called me here for. It would be mutually beneficial for us to compare our domains and enlightenment against one another in a way similar to fighting. This competition would not only trigger new enlightenments, but also new ways to apply our previously gained enlightenments. All the while pointing out potential flaws and weaknesses we had.

"'Contemplate the dao,' huh? Is that what you call it?" she asked, amused. I shrugged and waved one hand airily, letting my aura bleed out and clash against Sylphina's aura as she did the same.

"Well, that's what the children of my Four Realms call it when they compare their enlightenments with each other. And by compare I do mean attempt to overpower one another," I said with a light laugh as our aura's vied for dominance, without either of us really trying.

It was an interesting comparison, to be sure. Sylphina's aura was more powerful than my own, her presence more demanding, as it constantly changed and never held any true coherency. Mine, on the other hand, was much more subtle and less powerful. It allowed Sylphina's aura, which was constantly changing how far it reached, to wash over it in waves, never faltering from the places it had established for itself.

If Sylphina's aura was like water, constantly flowing and shifting, than mine was a sphere of stone, rolling and remaining steadfast. In fact, I kind of liked that analogy. Sphere...that is incredibly balanced, is it not? So long as it has just the right amount of sturdiness, but given enough pressure, can still roll and move. Well, maybe or maybe not.

"Shall we begin then?" I asked after a moment of silent contemplation. Already I could feel new insights beginning to gather, and that excited me. I couldn't even sit still, grinning and squirming about like an impatient child. Which, you know, I acted like even on a good day. Amusement rolled off of Sylphina in waves.

"Yes, lets," she said, and at the same time our power burst forth, smashing into each other an rending the surroundings. I giggled, and unconsciously cracked my neck. This was going to be fun.