by Andur
I brace myself and sit down cross-legged to concentrate. Doing this right can't hurt. After my mind is clear, I start to set up my defences.
A good mental blockade has to consist of multiple layers and insurances in case something goes wrong.
After spending another whopping twenty minutes with setting up every trick I know, I slowly stretch my mind for the sphere.
At first it feels unhealthy and cold. But then I get used to the Sphere. It's a gigantic conductor for sight-magic. This particular type of magic can be used to search for something lost. But I never heard of it being used on such a scale.
The Sphere channels my magical power and forms it into a pre-defined spell. Suddenly my perception increases drastically and I have to gasp. It almost overwhelmed me but slowly I am getting a grip on it.
Is that what omnipresence should feel like? I know it isn't real omnipresence, but it comes very close to it. I can see the people in front of the room. They really called Nicosar, Celes and even Arthur. Such low self esteem.
Above me are other worlds. By focusing on one, I can search it in seconds. And there are sparks of pure power everywhere.
After concentrating on one of the sparks, I realize that I am watching over the shoulder of a god. He is playing an immoral prank on a mortal. Seeesh. Is that everything an ascended being can do to kill time?
Carrying on I return the focus of my attention to the Council's city to watch its inhabitants. Then I focus outward again in an attempt to find the missing members of the Council.
But there is no way to distinguish all the sparks from one another. Where should I start? Do the Council members know each and every spark? So if a new one turns up, they know that it's a new god?
Then I become aware of a heavy presence. It's watching me. And it's close. I search for it and find its origin within the black hole.
It's ominous and dark. The same feeling I got from the sealing room and the sphere. Suddenly I feel a strong pull on my entire being and I am jerked towards the black hole.
-Who are you?-
I try to resist, but my soul falls towards the black hole and every resistance is futile.
-Come!-
Something black and slimy grabs for my mental body and I strike it mentally. It shudders in pain but it still keeps enveloping me while I fight. I am being pulled down! Down towards the darkness!
And there are teeth!
-Fresh!-
The thing claws into my mind and starts to eat! All my defences fail or are blown aside like smoke.
And all I can do is scream.
...
-NOOOOOOO! BETRAYAL!-
69 - Work for the next generation?
-NOOOOOOO! BETRAYAL!-
I watched with curiosity, as the thing inside the black hole tore the mirror mind apart and ate it. I had set it up in case something went fatally wrong.
Obviously the -thing- inside the black hole wasn't happy when it realized that it didn't catch a real soul.
The first rule in a duel of minds is “Don't fight openly”. The real me hid inside my mirrors shadow. Of course if you set up something like this, you are out of control. The mirror mind will do as it sees fit from it's point of view and you will just tag along.
But it's perfect as a decoy. Learning the enemy's abilities is important. I retract my mind from the sphere and look at with disgust.
Did everyone who used the sphere get eaten? The thing seems to have a direct connection to the black hole.
So the thing inside the black hole reprogrammed the Council members and they started to feed it with the souls of gods? That's a horrifying thought. Does it get stronger with every soul it eats?
I stand up and walk to the door and open it. Outside are quite a few people looking at me with worried expressions. Those guys should ease up a little. The other mind-mages immediately try to scan me.
“Bow down before the ruler of the mult-” *SLAP*
*Blergh!*
“OwOwOwOW! It was a joke! Stop it!”
Celes immediately slapped me without hesitation while Arthur took me into a choke-hold and Nicosar jumped onto me to hold me down.
I let my defences fall and the mind-mages verify my identity.
But what they see in my memories doesn't make them happy and everyone goes either pale or pulls a grimace.
My family's expressions turn sour as they already fear the worst.
“He is fine.” One of the older guys announces after a minute. “Just a little messed up in the head. I can't believe that someone like that is our king!”
The mind-mages nod without fail.
I smile and wave for them to listen. “Have we recovered all souls of the people who died during the fight?”
“We are fairly certain that we got all of our people because we put priority on them.” One of the mages informs me.
It takes quite some time for a soul to drift to a new world and reincarnate. So everyone should still be near this system. Souls shouldn't go towards a black hole by themselves.
A free soul is attracted by every living being which is able to contain it. The black hole shouldn't have any attraction at all. I still don't want to feed that thing any more even by chance.
“Clean the whole system of free souls. Even our enemies. I want a complete soul-free space around the black hole.” Two of my subordinates bow and disappear. They don't have to ask any more questions because the scanned my mind.
“Can you explain what's going on?” -Arthur
Arthur and Nicosar get off of me and pull me to my feet.
After thinking for a second I answer. “It looks like there is -something- sealed inside the black hole and the Sphere of Sight is set up to connect the user's mind directly towards it. This thing took great pleasure in eating the mirror mind, I had set up.”
I wait for a second to let the information sink in. “So at the moment it looks like the Council was manipulated by that thing to feed it. They threw meals into it's maw for who knows how long.”
“We could have been it's food too if it weren't for Seria.” Arthur mutters to himself.
I nod. “We can't be sure of it, but it could very well be that Seria's actions were responsible for keeping the thing on a low diet.”
“We should destroy the Sphere of Sight. It's useless to us. And then we smash that room too. Maybe crushing the whole city would be better.” Celes thinks aloud.
“I think you are right in destroying the sphere. But we may still need the room.” -Me
“Are you insane? All you could do with it is feeding this ominous being.” -Nicosar
“I don't want to feed it. I want to have the room in case one of those things is still outside the black hole!” I drop the bomb on them.
“That possibility is.... not....” But Arthur gets interrupted by Nicosar.
“Unfortunately he is right. We have to work with the worst case scenario. So if we assume that the culprit didn't belong to the Council. There still has to be someone unknown in this equation!”
I nod. “The next thing I want is that everyone who returns to our home has his mind checked twice! The last thing I want is that we carry something unwanted with us. Then I want this whole system off limits! Just the guards. And at home we will construct a few more fortresses to set up a permanent watch here.”
Then I wave my hand to materialize my staff. “And the Sphere will be dealt with here and now.” I turn around and walk back into the room.
Before the sphere, I take a stance and strike it with all my might. I invoke a shield, as the sphere shatters and shards of it are spraying around the room. Slowly dimming, the room goes silent and a little less bright than before.
Celes looks inside with a curious expression. “I thought you wanted to break the sphere and not the city.”
I turn around. “What?”
“The city just lost all energy.” Arthur gives his observation.
But then the light slowly returns and a female voice booms through the ro
om in a strange language.
~Jegme'nod. Mjerk'sod'lemef~
“I don't understand a single word. What about you guys?” -Me
But everyone shakes their heads.
~Adjusting language to current citizens. Restart complete.~
~Contaminated systems recognized. Removing contaminated systems.~
~There is unauthorized personnel inside vital parts of the city. Identify yourself.~
Celes gives me an accusing look.
“Holy shit! What did I break now! Since when can this city talk?” I can't believe this. Has this city something like a super computer installed?
~I am not a city. My name is the Warden. I was created to see to the continued imprisonment of the great calamity, which plagued the multiverse. Identify yourself! Or you will be removed!~
“Hold it! We are on your side. I think you aren't entirely up to date!” -Nicosar
~Calculating time difference according to star movement.~
I hold my breath and Celes whispers to us. “That thing was obviously meant to guard the black hole but failed miserably. We should make a run for it in case it isn't alright in it's cpu or whatever it uses to think!”
~I can hear you. And you don't need to have such fears. My creators intended me to be able to keep my watch even after their return to the cycle of life and death.~
“So how long have you been out and why?” -Arthur
~....~
“Hello?” -Nicosar
~My calculation tells me that it has been four billion years since I tried the restart.~
I whistle and take a look around. “So I guess you can't tell us who manipulated the Council either?”
~I know nothing of a Council. There isn't a faction like that within the Ascended Ones, who rule the multiverse.~
“Give me a complete version of history, as far as you know it.” -Me
~You are not cleared for this information.~
I purse my lips while I think about Warden. She seems to be a highly advanced AI. But a little literal minded too. “Warden. Your creators are gone and you failed your mission until now because you slept! The society inside the multiverse underwent a series of changes. We are the closest thing to the highest authority at the moment. So it would be really smart if you tell us how to proceed with the thing inside the black hole.”
A few seconds of silence follow while Warden considers the situation.
~You first. What's the history of the multiverse from your point of view?~
Celes jumps in and gives Warden our version of history. At least as far as we pieced it together. After half an hour she goes silent and Warden starts to speak.
~I see. Some things went seriously wrong while I slept. As far as I know, the Ascended Ones are..... were the highest advanced beings in the multiverse. Their society spanned everything and it was their goal to lead all inferior life to a status of perfection like themselves.~
~But even though their bodies would last forever, their minds couldn't take the eternity. Many returned to the cycle of life and death, which all inferior lifeforms have to go through. They firmly believed that they would ascend anew in the distant future to regain their birthright. But it wasn't enough for some of them. A few researched possibilities to endure the eternity.~
~They found the answer in an experiment to meld their souls together. But the result wasn't stable. The ones who underwent the experiment went insane and started to crave for more souls. Melding with each other and every soul unfortunate enough to fall into their hands, they became what we called the great calamity.~
~A being which only aims to eat each and every soul within the whole multiverse to merge with it.
The lesser beings aside from the Ascended Ones had no chance to defend themselves against something like that.~
~So the remaining Ascended Ones stood up to fight the first and last war in their history. They created powerful weapons to defeat their foe. But all their efforts were in vain, as the great calamity spread like a plague.~
~For every incarnation of the great calamity slain, two more would split up from it and continue their horrible thirst for souls. The Ascended Ones decided to seal their foe inside the black hole above us. Not even they knew how to escape a black hole.~
~And so they hoped the great calamity would stay sealed until the end of time. Maybe it would even starve to death with time. But after the great hunt for the calamity had ended and all it's pieces were thrown into the black hole, the Ascended Ones realized that there weren't many of them left. And time wasn't on their side.~
~They were old enough to know that someone had to keep a keen eye on the prison.
So they created me, the Warden. They intended me to guard the prison for the rest of eternity.~
~With time the Ascended Ones faded away and returned to the cycle of life and death. In the last of their days, when their numbers were just enough to fill this city, other ascended beings started to arise.~
~They were wild and impulsive, much like the Ascended Ones in their youth.~
~The Brightest One of the Ascended created a globe to watch the new beings in their struggles. He intended to guide them on their path after he would understand their quarrels. But to install the globe, he had to connect it to my system. So he ordered a complete reboot. Which I did. …..... not waking up again until now.~
“So the globe, which was connected to the black hole, halted your reboot. And after we destroyed it, you could complete the reboot and woke up.” I conclude.
~It looks like it. But if that's true, something of the calamity survived the hunt and infiltrated the Ascended Ones. It shut me down with the globe and somehow managed to deal with the last Ascended Ones. Otherwise they would have repaired me.~
But Celes has her doubts. “Did they even know how to repair you besides that Bright One you mentioned? Who would have known that the globe is at fault? Wouldn't they have been brainwashed like the Council?”
~Although I don't want it to be true. That's a possibility. And if the great calamity got control of the Bright One, there is a big chance that it could divide and crush the remaining Ascended.~
“But if something of this Calamity is still outside the black hole? Why didn't it eat the whole multiverse until now?” -Arthur
~The great calamity was able to plant a part of itself inside a host. The poor soul would become a mere servant, bent on feeding the great calamity. The servant however would be unable to merge with other souls and continue to long for something it could never get.~
~It's unlikely that a core part of the great calamity survived. The multiverse would be gone by now like you said. It's more likely that we overlooked one of its servants and he invaded us or corrupted others with the help of the globe.~
“You know that you are a real harbinger of bad news Warden?” I ask the voice while I contemplate about the whole story.
~I am just the Warden.~
70 - A new sport?
It has been a month since Warden's awakening. We have settled in and took over the government of the multiverse as much as we could.
Though it didn't work out all that well. The Council is still hiding somewhere. They know the multiverse far better than us. After all we were confined to our worlds by our occupation as gods while the Council could travel around as they pleased.