Problems and Solutions

ARNELE'S POV

The Great One chose us for the grand assignment of going forth into the plains of Mistrelon as he called it to find other cities, sites where we could lay a foothold. The host was growing and Great One decided that it was time to expand in all the plains and realms.

The First Borns were not chosen for this. No, we were. We were given the privilege to search the white lands and bring back news of the enemies of the Great One. It was an entirely different group that found it. The place with the stone, but even if it was like the other sites where stones with diagrams were depicted on it something was off about this one.

The other sites had atleast a few wierd looking beings or beasts guiding their gates. Yet this particular place had none. Great One gave the orders and we marched to take it. But of course, we didn't just enter the city. Great one warned us of what could come into the city and as such we posted the larger numbers of our host in the forest and left just scouts by the Monolith to warn off any movements here.

The plan was simple. Capture the trespassers and find out information about their universe from them. Battle plans, defenses, strong units, and weaknesses.

We settled around the monolith for several days, growing lax and bored. Days turned to weeks and then a month went by. The great one was patient, he warned us about the time difference in realms as such we persisted and kept vigil.

It was in the second week of the second month that someone finally came. I found myself with my kin staring at a being that made my bones rattle. Her eyes were like the blues of the Great One's wines. And her height, she was just as tall if not taller than the Great one. What in the host was this?

My kin attacked. insulted at her mockery of the Great One's strength. Yet I watched as she barely reacted. Like a parent halting stubborn children from climbing all over.

The rest might not have realized but I had. The Creator of whatever universe was linked to this monolith hadn't sent anyone.

No. The Damned lady had brought herself.

I saw the moment she realized what we were. It was when she showed a bit of her might. The fools faltered. That was the beginning of our end. She moved. No, she disappeared. Teleported. One blink she was crushing an angel's head in her palm. The next a golden sword was dissecting another angel far off. The ground moved and formed ridged spikes that parted and then crushed another angel from the waist down. Her scream petrified me. This Creator wasn't pausing. Her feet left the ground, golden light that oppressed me flowed like rivers underneath her flesh. Her blue eyes were shadowed by the intense glare of the sun emitted from them.

The screams of pain as two beams shredded the angels running about made me fall to my knees. She flicked a golden light at an angel and another bursting them apart.

It was over in but a second. All it had taken was a move from her and we were obliterated. I shook as her eyes leveled on me only now realizing I was in her grasp dangling like meat.

"Speak your Creator's name" Her voice was both lovely and damning. I felt the heavy pressure that pressed me back and yet she had not even used her aura. I wanted to speak, I had to speak but I would be betraying the Great One. That was unacceptable, I refused to be such a disgrace.

My claws shot to my throat aiming to shred my flesh and bleed myself to death. The wind rushed past me as a hand gripped my wrist crushing the bones to powder.

"Let me help you." The softness of her voice calmed me. A mistake I realized as I looked up at her. This was no goddess. This was death and destruction. Her smile lit up the void in my heart even as the glow in her palms and eyes intensified.

"Hopefully you respawn. If not, too bad. If so, do tell your maker. 79 dislikes roaches". I barely registered the statement as my eyes met the hotness of her eye beams while my body was dried off the blood within it. I saw nothing and felt only pain as nothing consumed me.

***

HILDE'S POV

I tossed the headless corpse aside while looking at my bloodstained hands. It was not the Celestial Ocular blast that had killed the angel. Rather it was my new attempt at using Mellifluence. Blood was harder to control even more when hidden beneath layers of flesh and skin. It made the effect more agonizing for the victim as the blood pushed itself through cells and meat to get out.

I frowned as my mind left the dead angel to focus on what this entailed. Someone had sent scouts to check out my city. I was certain this was the case since there were no other stones or diagrams here. This meant other creators also had their cities as it was in the Tartarean Rifts.

" Let's not think about why the system keeps giving us different starting points in other planes'. There were more worries because I couldn't summon my Dylaerian messengers to guard here either. They were not strong enough to contend with foes beyond the mortal Plains let alone here in the outer realms. Heck, my children would have issues with it maybe.

Which left me in a visible conundrum. With the angels here it was obvious that trouble had come. I had to act now or somehow this creator could find and complete whatever he was planning. While I knew no way to travel through another creator's monolith I wasn't naive enough to believe only I had secrets.

This meant I had to act now. Not later. But how. Do I comb the forest for foes? So what if I did? Was I going to remain here all the time? No way. Of course, this was what subordinates, gods, and the living armor were for. Yet as I thought of it I figured that this could also be a ploy to make me show my hands. Every problem had a contingency and if I showed one a smart creator could create a contingency. That was what templates were for. Creation.

So what do I do?

My gods were already moving in the Tartarean rifts hopefully they would soon find the other cities of the creators. My protection period was already shortening and I didn't know if this would be like some games where you couldn't attack another territory with your still active protection. But even worse now was this place. A creator had managed to somehow find my territory in this huge world of white.

"Cole?' I pondered. It could or could not be but accusing did not change the problem.

" First I clear the area. That will help me both train and check out the environment. Hopefully, there won't be anyone spying to check out my power set." I snapped my fingers giving off a slight metallic and flesh sound.

"I'll use only those abilities known by the public, better to increase their use and maybe get some levels in the skills, mastery, and proficiencies in my intents. I'll just keep AUM out of use. Not like I normally use it for anything other than..."

I froze as I realized something. I remained in the position for just a few seconds before I face palmed staining my face with the still lingering blood of the angels.

"I'm so dumb". I groaned. Slowly I wiped my face with the back of my palm as I kept thinking.

" Who said AUM was just for battles? It has a long range that helps me lock unto foes I want to shred to nothing. So why didn't I ever think of using its range as a detection skill? My perception stat while good might not be that helpful and I've had several close calls. Why didn't it cross my mind? Dumb Hilde, dumb". I struck the side of my head with my left fist softly.

"Alright, all is not lost. First thing first get a clean site." I looked around at all the dead angels before sighing again. My hands glowed green as the earth beneath the angels moved dropping them down it. I rolled my fingers and the blood-soaked ground turned inside out.

"Clean."

I sat without hesitation and shut my eyes, palms laid on my lap and focus waning from my surroundings. I felt like doing it this way would be better than just directly activating the skill. Especially for any watching.

First I tried to sense all around me, locking my mind in the same darkness I knew from before.

[Meditation]

I exhaled as I probed my senses trying to find something. In the darkness, there was nothing but silence. Just silence. Then I mentally prodded for that feeling, digging around and pushing all things aside for it to come to light.

There it was. Om. In my mental space, I saw it as a white ripple with various waves flowing in all directions. Just like before I noticed how it could affect me too, and noted how it followed the instructions and directions of my will. It was beautiful to feel and also see.

'Spread'

Om moved with the word, pulled along by will, directed to all the sides of the city. Like a mist of invincible fog, it rolled through the city, past the ruins, and into the rubbles of the buildings. It washed past the walls of the city and out into the plains that were beyond the wall before it continued to the forest.

Everything it touched and felt, everything it made a connection with joining the ride and appearing in my mental space. As I looked through the city and on towards the walls something caught my attention. Something buried down into the rubble of this city. My head tilted my meditation breaking, but still, the skill stood. I rose slowly afraid to break the connection as it lingered just outside the forest.

The spot turned out to be the castle where my monolith stood. Amongst one of what once made up the many rooms of the castle, covered in the stones and debris of the former castle was buried something. It tingled at my senses pulling at me. Not literally just the curiosity to know what it was.

The stones glowed green moving to the side as I stepped closer and peered into the large pit shown. There lying with a sword by its side was yet another alien bone yet familiar.

A few moments later I had the creature lying down on an elevated stone slab. It was high enough that I could look at it without bending over much. The first thing I noticed about it was the bones or what should have been stones. It was made of a material that while not metal, iron or steel was definitely not bone.

My intent marked the bones as a corpse without a hint as to what material the bones were made of. I looked down at the bones again. The skull or skulls were distinctly human just from the same type of eye sockets and the basic jaws. But that was all. The vertebrae were dense and made of aw weak interlocking and overlapping flexible yet strong bones. Like Lesatorn but more stretchy. The bones' arms were longer than normal, longer than the hind legs which seemed to be quite hinged or curved. Enough for...

"Destroyer bones. Good enough to stretch and collapse like a spring. But still, walk tall like a human."

Something carved into the side of the skull caught my attention. While I remembered that I was yet to scour the forest this was the first time I'd get to inspect a destroyer's bones. The last destroyer fell because I had the time to prepare. Now though I might not get such a chance. which meant I needed to find a weakness in this creature.

"Bummer it's just bones". I raised my palm and forced out a strand of aether from the pores of the metal palm. The white fog condensed onto my palm awaiting its orders.

" A mini sun." the result came instantly as the aether forged itself into a little golden ball of sunlight. I could see the little splashes of fire and feel its heat on my palm. I smiled at the warmth before bringing the flames close to the destroyer's bones. The light illuminated the interior of the skull as I looked. I pushed OM into the skull I was interested in to observe more carefully the now obvious etchings on the skull of the creature.

It was a symbol, something unknown. An eight within a triangle hooked over another eight. I cocked my head in confusion. Intent washed over the symbol but showed nothing. There was either nothing to show, the system couldn't or it didn't want to show. Either way, it wasn't a problem for right now

'How to use this ?' was always my next best question. How to use a situation to my advantage. The more I thought the more I stared deeply at the destroyer.

My Living armors and those of the gods were powered by shards, both mine and theirs. Armors were basically unliving entities giving will and intent, a false life by the imbuing of diving shards into their shells to power and control their metal skins.

'What was the difference here?' I pondered. While I had not tried a certain feeling told me it would not work the same. "But why?" Metal was an unliving material. A thing. The destroyer on the other hand was bones. Something that once bore life.

'So the spark of a god won't be able to control it.' I frowned, it sounded wrong.

"No. It's not that it can't control it right. Metal is just that, metal. It doesn't need to grow or be complex. Just move. The shard just had to make it copy, memorize and keep several basic instructions within it. But bone would be different. It constitutes of cells. Cells that each have a different function. Without an intelligent mind guiding the energy all I would have is a..." I stopped.

'Did I just deduct the way to make an alien outer realm zombie?'. As much as the thought horrified me I also knew my curiosity was too big to have me ignore this prospect. If it worked then I would know what to do next.

"Here goes".