[2375 Words]
This chapter is written, Proof read and edited by me, Your only god and savior
{Lustful_Death}
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❞𝕡𝕖𝕖𝕡𝕖𝕖𝕡𝕠𝕠𝕡𝕠𝕠.❞
-Nike13K.
Still, Clear water without a single ripple as far as the eye could see, A window that showed intertwining tree branches only inches beneath the surface.
The stillness of the water was disrupted however, Water splashing into waves as suddenly a gigantic tree made of light appeared above the water and crashed onto it with a heavy thud. A steady cloud of steam continuously rose as the water evaporated when in contact with the tree yet the water level never dropped.
The majestic light construct although still imposing wasn't in the best of conditions however. Cracks ran all over the body of the tree, It seemed as if a simple firm impact was all that was needed for the entire tree to shatter like a pane of glass.
Many of it's branches and roots were completely missing while some of the remaining ones were barely hanging on by the bark.
The most noticable and serious piece of damage however was a giant chunk of the tree's trunk that was missing.
Shēnghuó; The primordial spirit of life wasn't in the best of conditions both on the outside and the inside.
She may have neutralized the threat but at a steep price, Her injuries may take weeks to recover and that might be delayed even more due to the poison that was currently attempting to ravage her body.
She will have to first remove it and only then can she start her recovery. Even if it took her a year to recover it wouldn't matter, However what matters is that she; A primordial spirit, Had made a lapse in judgement so great that she got an ancient spirit killed. And not just any spirit but the spirit of the ocean itself.
All living beings need the ocean, Some much more than others, Now that the ocean was gone due to her fault she would have to use her powers to forcefully keep all oceanic creatures alive, Stretching her power even thinner.
As the death of the ocean spirit was her fault she would have to find a new ocean spirit and bare the responsibility of pacifying the moon spirit.
As if that thought was the incantation to a summoning ritual, Hundreds of large tentacles of water sprung from under the tree and wrapped it tightly as if seeking to squeeze and snap it to pieces and keeping Shēnghuó in place.
The water started rapidly boiling when it came into contact with the tree's body causing a large blanket of steam to form over the area and block Shēnghuó's vision.
When the steam started clearing due to all the water tentacles having been evaporated, Shēnghuó was greeted by the sight of a gigantic 11km high super tsunami that dwarved her in size crashing down towards on her.
"Enough", Shēnghuó ordered sternly. With that one word the large behemoth was frozen in it's tracks and slowly started going down just like how an ice cream cone would melt under the hot sun.
From the water emerged a large humanoid fish spirit that seemed to be made out of water. White patterns were spread all over it's body.
(Image)
Shēnghuó had used her authority to stop Tui's rage fueled assault. It was simple really, As the primordial spirit of life she could completely control almost all living beings in the world, The only exception being the other primordial spirits and apparently beings from other worlds, She might need to keep an eye on the other two remaining other worldlers.
Although it is unlikely for them to become an issue, Almost ten thousand years ago a normal human managed to grow powerful enough to kill three of the four lion turtles, Who knows how powerful these other-worldlers or how dangerous they can become, Leaving them around was never a prudent decision.
They underestimated them as just weaklings but after seeing how hard and costly it was to eliminate the most recent trespasser, She was having thoughts of smothering the threat while it was still in the cradle but that was on the bottom of her long list of things that needed her attention, She had many things to take care of, Starting with Tui.
"Tui, I understand what you feel and I don't blame you for holding a grudge against me but you need to understand that I didn't kill La, He died at the wicked hands of an evil invader who threatened the safety of everyone in the world, Even I was severely injured in the battle to defeat it. I know it may not mean much to you but I am very sorry for what happened.", Shēnghuó said, Trying to pacify Tui.
She could brain wash her into not holding a grudge against her and going back to work but she would rather only use such measures as a last option incase reason fails.
Tui seemed to be stunned as hearing a high and mighty primordial spirit apologize isn't something that happens every day.
Just as she was about to respond, Tui felt her connection with ocean spirit appear again not far from where it originally cut off. The ocean spirit had come back, Her beloved companion was back, That's what she thought until a cold bucket of water was dunked on her when she felt the familiar yet extremely different feeling through her connection with the ocean spirit.
It was an ocean spirit but not THE ocean spirit, HER ocean spirit. It wasn't the same feeling of perfect harmony and rhythm she was familiar with, It was something far more cold and mechanical.
She saw a world of red. Red on the ground, On the trees, On Her fins. The world felt heavy, Heavy and uncomfortably warm as she sat there, Looking through it all and feeling empty. It always felt empty as she stared out, Arms at her side looking over the red with stray dark splotches throughout. She tried to push herself up, But she was heavy, Heavy and warm. Her hand gripped something and she turned to find it, More red drawn from it as she felt the pain from holding a naked blade. She didn't drop it, Just stared as she tried to push herself up.
It was sticky, It seemed to attach to her legs, Holding her down even as she moved to push herself up. But still she tried, She reached down with her other arm to try and push, But turned to see it was gone, Covered in ugly veins. Trying to put her weight on it made her fall onto her side into the red. The red started to pull her down and she started to struggle, A flicker in her mind finally recognizing the red. Once the recognition hit she gasped and started to try and climb out, But the more she pushed the further down she descended, Being swallowed by the red, By the fresh blood, Until the only thing she could grip to get to the surface was the blade edge.
It hurt, It hurt to hold on, And she was beginning to slip as something dragged her deeper into the blood. It was swallowing her, So warm, So crushing, It was becoming harder to breath, And her thrashing didn't push her upwards. It wasn't water, She couldn't swim, She would be swallowed... She would be...
Something in the distance tolled, But it was too far away. She couldn't tell what it was, But something swept through the red. It created a ripple, Which pushed forward, Mounting and mounting until it created a wave. The wave moved through, Pushing her up from the swallowing blood, Sticky and weird. She came up halfway, Hand still gripping the blade. She stared off into the distance as her eyes met with a light and suddenly…
She startled awake, Finding herself back Infront of the familiar giant tree that had one of it's glowing branches touching her head. She didn't know what that dream was or even if it was even a dream.
What she was certain of however, Was that the one she felt through her shared connection with the ocean spirit wasn't La. It was something else, Something far more malevolent and cold.
Tui was pulled out of her trance by the voice of Shēnghuó.
"It would seem that my efforts were for naught, I will be leaving now.", Without further explanation Shēnghuó teleported away from her abode in the spirit world, Her destination being the invader now posing as the spirit of the ocean.
She of course was the first to feel it when the ocean came back and through Tui she was able to gain access to the spiritual connection between the moon and the ocean spirit.
Although it was somewhat different she could still recognize that intent, It belonged to the annoying bug that has caused her more grievance in a few minutes then the entire last one thousand years combined.
But where Tui could only sense evil and coldness, Shēnghuó could see the underneath of the underneath; Confusion, Sloppiness and uncertainty. She saw the opportunity for her to deliver a final and finishing strike that would insure her victory.
Mid-teleport, She felt a pulling she was unable to resist as she was forcefully teleported somewhere else.
Only one person was capable of this.
"Oh Shēnghuó, Glad you decided to join us", Said a casual voice. The voice belonged to a floating red cube.
"Damn it, What's the meaning of this?", Shēnghuó said absolutely fuming as she Addressed the five creatures standing or otherwise hovering around her.
There were the three she had seen earlier in the day being the mother of all faces, The father of all names, The primordial spirit of death with the edition of two others; A floating red cube and a giant head that seemed to be made of marble and adorned with many clocks all ticking at different rates, Some not at all while others moved backwards.
The two new faces were the primordial spirits of space and time respectively.
(Images)
"Well, You seemed to be heading towards our new other-worldly "Friend" so I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.", The cube said.
"Oh 𝘯𝘰𝘸 you're taking interest, You were awfully quiet when he managed to enter I thought you were just incompetent but it seems you let him in?", Shēnghuó said.
Hearing what she said all the other spirits looked towards the cube, They could tell that Shēnghuó was just throwing dirt on his faces but they were interested as to how someone managed to slip through the cube's monitoring and directly arrive in their world.
(...Get it? cuz a cube has many faces...You should be laughing, This is peak comedy.)
"Oh don't be preposterous, I am not incompetent and I certainly didn't let that thing in. Speaking of incompetence aren't you incompetent yourself being absolutely humiliated by a fledgling with only one twentieth your own chakra?", The cube cooley shot back.
"What does that have to do with the fact that you let it get in in the first place? Aren't you just trying to divert attention from your incompetence through pointing fingers at me like a child?", Shēnghuó asked.
"I'm not incompetent!", The cube asserted.
"But then how can you explain not being able to foresee three individuals entering our world?", This time the mother of all faces asked, Not in an accusatory way, Just curiosity.
"Ok I'll explain it in a really simple way so you all can understand, Think of existence as far as I've managed to figure out as an infinitely large vegetable crate, Inside said vegetable crate is an infinite amount of onions, Each onion having an infinite amount of layers and each layer being a universe like the one we live in currently. Each onion is a multiverse. My range of spacial awareness only extends to our universe and a few thousand of our close neighbors. If a being from the universes I can sense tries to enter our universe I can tell and even stop them quite easily as I have the home field advantage. Every now and then universes exchange souls of individuals, They do so in order to keep their future trajectory unpredictable by introducing outside variables. My theory is that planes do the same and that our plane and another plane have traded a few souls in order to keep their trajectory unpredictable.", The cube explained.
(A/N: Multiverses will be referred to as plains cuz it sounds cool)
"So you're saying those three entered like that, But how are you so sure it's an exchange between planes and that they didn't come from a universe that you can't sense?", The father of faces said.
"To put in a way that I can explain without getting technical it's like being able to tell the difference between a boat and a cart, There's a difference, And I didn't say all three of them came through the exchange between plains, The first two came that way, Third one's method is unknown but its definitely not from our plane.", The cube explained.
"Then why did it come here? If a plane has infinite universes that means access to an infinite amount of any resource imaginable, Why go through so much trouble?", The mother of all faces asked, All this other planes business has gotten her bit anxious.
"Maybe to experience the difference between planes?", Suggested the father of a names.
"Doubt that, I took a look at that things soul, And it's pitch black, It's completely evil with it's only goal being to aquire power. My guess is that it hops planes and universes in search of acquiring more power. and although the thing is juvenile it's definitely brilliant, Wanna know how it managed to devour La's soul?", The primordial spirit of death asked with a diabolical smile.
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Welp that's the end of this chapter, We've just started this world and we're already nine chapters in. But the way from now on the first commenter gets to choose the name of a future chapter or begining quote.