PDLP 4:39 Four Names
4:39 Four Names
The Rival and the Mad Scientist were arguing over universal structures. Neither had watched a universe form from start to finish, and though the Rival had seen more universes than the Mad Scientist by quite a large margin, even he had to admit that she was putting up some decent arguments to what their internal and external structures would end up being.He was convinced that they would end up like the Four Realms, if not in structure, then in spirit. The [Words] used had all been very similar, and distinctly connected to Statera, so he was fully expecting four brand-new Xianxia universes. She was less convinced.
"We haven't even gotten to the naming of the creations yet," she chattered excitedly. "Right now they're still nebulous - we know from the Overgod's actions and Statera's own accounts on the acts of creation that names have power. Whatever these universes will be in the end, they will solidify through naming. While the apple may not fall far from the tree personality wise, we both know that a child can still be wildly different than their parent. Already the external structures are very different than the Four Realms, and while many of the words used were similar, the intent behind them I am not convinced will be the same. I’ll have to actually visit those worlds and gather data to know, but that’s my working theory. We’ll see how everything changes once everything gets truly finished."
"Only their purposes are nebulous," The Rival said, stroking his chin in thought. "The true structure is basically there. I just...have to wonder about the design itself. I question the integrity.”
"The design? It's brilliant, is what it is," the Mad Scientist chattered animatedly, her enthusiasm infectious. "Look, this is pre-joining with the multiverse at large. What we're looking at is practically a scale-model of cluster universes. Each one, while appearing separate, is supporting the other. Statera simply isn't old enough or powerful enough to act as the central node of a cluster universe, so they're relying on each other more." She explained, gesturing grandly toward the universes. “The integrity will come with time, it just needs time to mature. Like a sapling, growing, or a seed. Sometimes seeds aren’t viable; this is growing them in a controlled environment, to make sure they’re strong enough for when they’re introduced to the Void and multiverse at large.”
The Rival frowned as he peered through one of the Mad Scientist's telescopes, casting a few techniques to clarify some things. "I somewhat agree, but also not. Statera is powerful in odd ways." He muttered. The problem was, he wasn't seeing a cluster universe yet; or at least, any sort of cluster universe he was familiar with, or theorized on how the structure was. After all, he’d been a lot of places, but had never played with what he would consider the real “big dogs.” He was aware that there were layers upon layers of cluster universes in the multiverse, but most of the ones he'd heard about, and seen from a distance, acted almost like...well, parts of a cell, or molecules, which was more accurate. A group of universes bound together to create something that, while the separate universe could still function alone, together they formed something new and potentially more useful than their constituent parts. That was, of course, the absolute basics of it.
He’d seen a few during the big war he’d been created to fight in. Their deaths had been catastrophic for the surroundings. Clusters were key points for the multiverse. Very important. Protecting them had been a priority.
For larger clusters, as far as he was aware, though, the rules changed. The Rival was the first to admit he didn't have the full details, but he was aware that some of the strongest beings in existence were, in essence, overseers of massive quantities of cluster universes, rather than masters of their own universes. The "heart" universes were one such example; he knew for a fact that they were overseen by a divinity that was, frankly, unnamable. He'd seen their work once, back when he was fighting alongside the First to clear out the multiverse of the universe-destroying viruses he had been created to combat.
Reality wasn’t so much as clay to them, as a suggestion.
Statera's children had not created either of those things, as far as he could see. Not a cluster coming together to create a stronger whole, but more…well. Like the Mad Scientist had said, each was relying on each other in separate ways; they were very clearly their own creations, but frankly, they were binding with each other.
Elvira's was the supporting structure. Long and bone-white, the exterior shell he was not able to see inside of lay practically inside of all the other ones, surrounded mainly by Reika's mass. Segments were forming along the outer shell, dense and hard and very much unlike the cloudy fluffiness of the Heaven Realm as it was, that shifted ever so slightly when Reika’s flexed or moved. Small dots occasionally squeezed their way out of the denseness, doing something to the exterior, investigating where Reika’s universe clung to Elvira’s, and then entering once again.
"Elvira's universe. Do you think the outer shell will be able to withstand the Void?" he asked honestly.
"Yes. Just like how the One World's atmosphere eases creation into the Void, so it isn't as agitated and doesn’t create Paradoxes, that shell should, in theory, be so still that it doesn't create the chaos that Statera's own Primordial Chaos shell did. I wonder if that will have an effect on growth?" the Mad Scientist muttered more to herself than answering the Rival's question. He, in turn, stroked his chin as he continued to observe, reading the big picture rather than the minute details.
"It might...unless it doesn't need to grow, once it reaches max size," he said, the theory in his chest forming even faster now. Reika's universe was...well, it, at first glance, seemed to be just a pulsating mass of chaos. Pumping and pumping away, tearing in places where it flexed too hard. Yet, it was clinging to things. Struts of afterlife from the One World, even Elvira's support structure, bits of Reika's Universe attached itself to the firm, immovable-looking support, using it as an anchor to pull itself with.
There was a method to the madness, slowly forming. Strands were taking shape within the pulsing mass of Reika's universe, forming in lines from where it connected with other things that was visible through the mass itself. How that would shape up into a universe was beyond him, but he could see almost...concurrent worlds, forming? Maybe? He had no idea, honestly, how it would function as a universe unless he was allowed inside of it. Which he doubted he would be until it was named, and properly formed. What he did know was that it was the most well-lit of the four universes, light seeming to shine all over it like a painting.
No. He shook his head, eyes narrowing. Big picture. Big picture. He wasn't seeing the forest for the trees right now. How did it all work together? That was the question. Let the Mad Scientist do the fiddly details, all the data collection and whatnot. Old as he was, and for as much as he’d seen, that just wasn’t his wheelhouse. He was better at the big picture stuff.
Keilan's universe was oddly shaped. One central sphere, surrounded by branching spheres, connected by thin strands. The fractal mirror that had formed for just a brief moment was all but invisible at this distance, merged almost completely with the rest of the universe. Pulses of energy ran from the central node down to the extending spheres, which shook with each pulse, almost like lightning running through each sphere and the connecting strands.
Said connecting strands ran through a bit, of Reika's universe, slipping between the strands, and not connecting with Elvira's at all. Yet it was clearly using Reika's pulsing mass for something, he just couldn't tell what. Nor could he tell why Keilan's universe was slowly connecting with the shattered afterlife of the One World, not overtaking it but simply...connecting.
And the One World was sending something back. Maybe? Not energy but...information? The Rival chewed his lip and rubbed his eyes, which were starting to burn from overtaxing his current cultivation. Said cultivation was prodigious, and deep, and probably more than any being would possibly be able to achieve for the rest of the Four Realm’s lifespan, comparatively speaking, but it was not to the point where he should be staring at the heart of creation like this.
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That wasn’t going to stop him, but that was beside the point.
Finally, was Alexander's universe. The dragon had made what looked like rivers, flowing through tubes that went out, looped through and around his sibling's universes, then flowed back to the source. The source being a larger, more central creation that was slowly trying to form a casing around the Four Realms.
The Four Realms, which didn't provide anything for the new universes except for intent. The Will of the Four Realms was simply willing the four new universes to do well, as the parent. The connection between that, the four new universes, and even the four with the One World, was far different. The Rival tapped his chin. Took a step back. Closed his eyes and rubbed his face.
What was he missing?
No, more importantly, what was staring him in the face?
He opened his eyes and unfocused, observing it all with a blank mind and blanker expression, his heart thumping once, twice in his chest.
It thumped in time with the pulsing of Keilan's realm.
"Overgod," he said slowly, eyes growing wide as he saw what may or may not be happening. The foundation was there, the key was, honestly, that it needed a few more systems and a jump start.
The jump start was coming in the form of a dragon.
Holy fuck-knuckles. Statera was accidentally building not just a cluster universe, but one of the greater clusters, wasn’t she?
"Overgod," he repeated, softly. "Now would be a really good time to tell me if - " The words died in his throat. Not because they got stuck, but because something reached its hand down and silenced him entirely. In all his long life, there had only been a few times where his actions had incurred the direct hand of the Overgod - and he had not expected this time to be one of them.
That was all the confirmation he needed.
He shot upright, the telescope falling over in his haste, aura flaring, then dimming as it was once again suppressed by the Overgod himself. Ok, got it. No overreactions. That would be…bad, for some reason?
"You ok?" the Mad Scientist asked, eyebrows raising, her wings flaring just slightly. The Rival opened his mouth, but bit back his words.
"I need to go ascend to godhood real quick. Be right back." He told her, mind racing. She opened her mouth to question him, but he was already gone, teleporting away using the greater teleportation array the Rival and the gods who kept visiting the viewing station used. He appeared in the Heaven Realm, somewhere in the Holy Palace, the elemental gods’ arguing echoing through the halls.
Under his breath, he muttered. "Might be taking this 'I am the heavens' bit, a touch too far, don't you think, Stat?"
***
Mr. Boxes stopped me from rushing down there right away, to go congratulate my children.
[[Congratulations! Your creations have spawned offshoot dimensions!]
[Like many new universes, until they are able to withstand the rigors of the Void, these new dimensions are not yet able to be considered truly new universe. But the potential is there! Start by giving the new universes [Names]. But be careful, too much direct intervention on your part can be harmful. You must let them do their own thing.]]
I chewed on the interior of my cheek in thought, while observing the entirety of what my children had created.
I could only see them as the whole, and struggled to see their universes as individual structures for some reason. Why was I seeing them as bodily functions? Elvira's was the support, the skeletal structure. Reika's was musculature, Keilan's a nervous system, and Alexander's the circulatory system. All while the One World provided the shell, and the Four Realms remained the...what? The soul? The center? I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
I was taking this whole "I am the Heavens" shtick a bit too far if I was thinking about bodies. But that was, honestly, the biggest part that I was confused about. My children's Authority, when they had said their final [Word] of balance, had shifted ever so slightly in my favor. Not too much, but enough that I could feel it. One percent, maybe less. I had a single percent of influence within their universes. Was that normal?
[For standard cluster universes, a range between ten and thirty percent is the average, depending on the number of universes connected to the Head Deity.]
Again, with the mind reading, Mr. Boxes. Are you paying more attention now because new universes are being born?
[Yes. It is not unheard of for Origin Deities to produce more Origin Deities while still in their own [Trials] phase, but you are in the 99th percentile. It is my duty as the Overgod to oversee the creations of more universes, as is happening now. Me acting more as proxy is typical for Cluster Universes.]
[Please present names for the newly born universes.]
I bit my lip, considering. Names? What were the names supposed to be? These were different than the Four Realms by an order of magnitudes, I daresay almost completely redesigned. I didn't know what the Overgod called structures like this. Compared to the other universes I'd seen...huh, maybe there was something there.
I closed my eyes and focused my mind on the one percent of Authority I held in Keilan’s universe. That one, at least, felt like it could be self-explanatory. Except just "Mirrored Realm" felt too simple?
"What would you name them?" I asked.
[Mirrored Realm, Realm of Change, River Realm, Pocket Realms.]
"Pocket Realms? For Elvira, really?" I muttered, shifting my attention to her structure, eyes still closed. The endless rooms contained within the bone-white structure of her Realm could, I supposed, look like a thousand tiny pocket dimensions. And the name really was more of a descriptor, than a defining trait, wasn’t it?
The Four Realms had been a name because there were four realms. That hadn't changed anything. Only when I started naming things did functions settle.
I raised both my hands, palm facing outward as my children began to settle into their new universes, still dazed and drifting lazily, drained of all power. I, myself, felt a little similar...but I was more buzzing with excitement and worry both, my heart hammering in my chest.
It wasn't going to be good if I descended down into those fledgling universes and began talking to my kids yet, and they hadn't called me down, either. But I could still send messages, if I took a page out of Mr. Boxes' book.
"Keilan, the Mirrored Realm," I said, because as interesting ss the central node structure was, the biggest descriptor seemed to be the physical part compared with the non-physical mirror. "Alexander, the River and Sea Realm," because his was not just a river flowing; he had created a point from which all the river-ness ran, and looped back into. "Elvira, the Wall Realm." Hers was less about the rooms inside, and more about the walls that kept everything safe and secure. "Reika, the Shifting Realms." That felt better than chaos. There was chaos and change in Reika's realms, but it wasn't quite like the Physical Realm, or anything exclusively related to those two concepts.
The biggest descriptor of hers, was that it was constantly shifting position and moving. The strands that stretched and grew were made of a million different pockets, almost similar to Elvira's realm, but the pockets were surrounded by Chaos, letting in only a few pieces here and there. It was almost like a garden; as I watched, Reika drifted over to one such pocket and filled it with fire; only for said pocket to burst from the constant movement, then regrow with three more around it to fill the space.
[Congratulations! You have named the four new universes tied to your reality.
To complete this stage of creation, please allow your followers to name their creations.]
Ah, right. That was the next step. Not a breakdown of what it all was, not quite yet, but waiting for them to name their stuff. What did they have to name? Everything?
I supposed it didn't matter. My gaze slid over my kids, watching Alexander swim through the narrow channels and tributaries branching off of the larger rivers, looping back up to the great sea growing around the Four Realms. I watched Keilan pop in between the two mirrored realms, travelling down the branches to touch the nodes, pride writ across his features. Elvira, walking slowly through each of the rooms, satisfied, shaping the guardians while one hand rest against her slowly swelling belly, thoughts of showing Gilles their new home filling her head. And Reika, giggling to herself as she continued to fill her "bubbles" with different things, imagining all the ways Kei could play.
I turned my gaze to the Four Realms. Xing Wu playing with Sequoia. Amari Ren, toddling after him, having just learned to walk. One of my incarnations was right behind the little one, helping them along, though Inesa was standing worriedly beside me. Solana, managing the Karmic Realm while Keilan was gone. The Celestial Empress, learning the ropes. The two Monkey Wrenches, watching me, the Rival, choosing to ascend into godhood...
Even in the One World. Argent, God of Metal from the Four Realms, helped some of the gods of the One World get reacclimated with their home universe, and helped them balance some of the imbalances. Astraea and Atreum, working together to mend cracks, and observing the now-defunct Rot that had its will absorbed and recombined with the Oshun. And even the Oshun, working quietly on her [System], humming to herself.
It was pleasant. Which meant when the shoe dropped, I was both ready, and completely unprepared for it.
A roar echoed in my ears, the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I looked skyward, toward where a great big ball of Chaos had appeared in the skies above.
“No,” I whispered, standing. “Not now.” Nothing was finished yet. And while I wasn't exactly exhausted thanks to Mr. Boxes giving me power to help with the creations of my children, said power was no longer with me, and I was still off-balance.
But it was too late. Sehuyun had arrived.