5:18 One Step Forward

The more I looked at it, the weirder Morgan's universe became, because it was, quite frankly, not a universe in any sense that I understood it. If I had to describe it, I would say it was similar to how the Hidden Realm was in relation to the Four Realms – part of it, but unofficially so.

I had at one point considered renaming the Four Realms the Five Realms, but eventually decided against it. Not only would that be counter to the Hidden Realm being called the Hidden Realm, as it had always been intended to be a secretive part of the Four Realms, it did not provide any of the essential functions that the other Realms did. In fact, the only purpose it had was to hide things, and what I and other deities imposed upon it because Morgan didn’t care what happened to it. It was, in essence, a completely separate entity from the Four Realms. An add-on, not a whole functioning part. Or at least it had been that way at the start.

After eons of existence, now the Hidden Realm did have a function as a supportive structure. But, again, that was a thing given to it after its creation, not inherent in its creation, which was an important distinction to make.

Morgan's quote-unquote universe was a natural evolution of the Hidden Realm, because Morgan's own desires had changed. Rather than trying to show me what it thought of as a mistake I was making, and hide its own power growth, it was trying to support my growth into that greater existence called the Heavens. As such, what it was making was not…well. It just wasn’t.

"Is it even a universe? Is it something else?" I asked, stroking my chin.

For once, Mr. Boxes did answer my question, his aspect piping up from where he’d been watching. I was long past needing to see his answers in the form of boxes, though. "It is very rare, and almost exclusively tied to clustered universes, because it does require being aware of neighboring universes. But it's also even rarer for a shadow to be actively creating something like this." He said.

I hummed, reaching down and grabbing that thin streaming line that was Morgan's influence and universe. The spiderweb that reached out across all creation, slowly threading through other universes and being very careful not to cross my line and cause too much influence in things that was not its to influence. There was no Primordial Chaos in it yet. Nothing that could actually count as creation, except for the fact that something was most certainly being made. I could feel it. The way the universe, or whatever it was, was reaching out and rebuffing energy from the flux and other universes flowing in. The way it was influencing the other universes to act as one cohesive whole despite their different functions.

I muttered to myself a little bit. "What is being made here? An immune system?" I asked, sensing that was most likely the truth of the physical aspect of Morgan’s creation, but may not be the complete answer for all of the non-physical aspects. Morgan still had other words to say, after all, even as it sat in its little hole and muttered about what it could do, what it should do, what it needed, what I needed.

"Baffling," I admitted freely. "At least this time it's not trying to hide it from me. Now, if only it'd hurry up and finish."

"These things take time," Mr. Boxes said.

"Don't you patronize me," I said back lightly, mostly joking. Then, after a moment of silence, continued. "Any advice? For me going forward?"

"Find a thing," Mr. Boxes said almost immediately. "Every cluster god, every Origin Deity, they all have a thing they latch on to that helps keep them grounded even when they keep growing higher. Mine is this. Being present for new Origins. The [Trials] themselves. There are a few I know of who enjoy continuing to make the sun rise over their universes, and are always present for that. The higher you go, after all, the harder it is to split yourself into smaller parts without making yourself lesser. And I don't mean lesser in a simple manner. I mean no longer recognizably you."

I hummed in acknowledgement, already suspecting that if my path continued to lead to the creation of more and more universes, I would probably take a page out of the Overgod's book. Though I doubt I would perfectly mimic Mr. Boxes' deity trials thing. especially considering how much I enjoy teaching. Hell, even now, I've been unable to stay too far away from my children's universes, despite them not necessarily needing my guidance anymore, and certainly had not been able to stop myself in aiding with Bashikhan's universe.

I turned my attention, my full attention, briefly to Reika's realm, and to where one of my incarnations sat. My daughter was having a moment.

I'd been sitting with her, sipping on some tea, listening to her woes and letting her show me around her universe, and now she was pacing through her realm, arguing with it, because it wanted to constantly change and she wanted just a touch of permanency.

"If I just want fire," she said, "I have fire for all of about five seconds, and then it changes to ice fire or water fire or lightning fire. And then goes straight to fucking purple," she whined, holding out her hand and demonstrating that exact thing. Fire shifted to cold flames, the flames of lighting, and then randomly shifting to a pure blob of the color purple, no conscious choice of her own driving these changes.

I had to hide a smile. Reika was arguably the most innately talented of my children. But that talent did come with a cost. Sometimes, because she was so talented, she refused to believe that the solution could be simple. Because if it was simple, why hadn't she already fixed it? I let her rant a little bit longer, then finally stood with a little laugh, laid a hand on her shoulder to silence her, and looked out over her universe to just admire it.

She was tense, but still stood with me in in silence.

It was growing fast, faster than all the others because of its nature. The individual pockets of elements and things that comprised it, most would call them pocket dimensions, where worlds could be formed within, were arranged to me like individual cells or nodes in a muscle strand. The only places that seemed at ease, or still, were those connected to Elvira's Wall Realm by the universal equivalent of ligaments and things. And I really was using more body terminology, wasn't I? That was fine, it helped me keep the structure organized in my head, as the ones who should actually name those parts and areas had not yet named them.

However, stillness was not the solution. Everything was functioning quite well, actually. Exactly as designed. The chaos was settling somewhat. The changes were becoming more traceable. And if she just gave it a little bit of time, it would resolve itself on its own, her little worries fading away. Even where the constant expanding and contracting created tears in the fabric of reality, where her concerns were the most, was fine. After all, those tears healed over and came back stronger for it.

It was actually like a muscle. If I had to describe what was wrong it with it, it was just working too hard.

"You know," I said lightly, breaking the silence that had fallen between us, "maybe you should take a break. There's a lot of work happening, and sometimes even universes need to decompress."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reika asked.

"It means," I said slowly, still smiling, "that the only reason these uncontrolled changes are happening so fast is because things are working excessively hard for too long. The rapid changes are what's helping burn off the stress that's being created." I patted her shoulder, and Reika frowned at me, then at her universe, then down at her hands, and huffed.

“I hate it when you do that,” she complained after a moment. I nudge her with my shoulder, and she nudged me back. We watched her universe for a time, an entire dimension of purple appearing for a brief moment, then fading away in an instant. "Would you send Kei?" she asked, and I laughed.

"Yes, my dear. I will send your daughter to you." I assured her, that incarnation already moving to fetch the rambunctious fox-girl.

I pulled my attention away from that and shifted back to a more complete view of the entire cluster. A view that had been suddenly colored by two deities reaching out to me from across the Void, their messages riding the flux between universes. The Emperor and Shin both had sent word.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The Emperor's was more stable feeling, and appeared floating in the Void around the One World as an envelope sealed with red wax, a bottle of booze floating beside it. An incarnation materialized beside it, and I cracked open the letter to peruse the list, holding the bottle of liquor to the side. It was an energetic trade offer, as expected. A request to increase or decrease the flow of energy between our universes. He was offering to increase the amount of energy we got from his universe, specifically energy flavored with his domain.

Honestly, the energy we needed the most from him, the concept, was that of the Emperor specifically. The kind of leadership that he provided, or could represent. There were plenty of great leaders in the entire cluster. Elvira, Alexander, Alanna, even Astraea, the goddess of the stars of the One World, was turning out to be quite the leader. Pretty much all my children were wise rulers in their own rights. One might even consider myself that. However, we also specifically lacked a certain depth to it that the Emperor contained, because my children and I were family, and the leading authorities of multiple universes.

Surprisingly, and wisely, honestly, The Emperor was not asking for samples of my own Balance, but rather other things. The draconic nature of Sehuyun and Bashikhan's universe, and Alexander's. The leadership of Elvira and the like, as she was different in tone than the Emperor’s leadership. The change of Reika’s domain in particular, nascent though it was, because, he quoted, maintaining the status quo is not as good as improving it.

I nodded to myself and adjusted the flow between our universes, the flux allowing certain kinds of energy to be taken and shifted away in response, just as he had asked. I expected him to respond in kind soon enough.

Shin's note, on the other hand, felt a little bit shakier, but was very similar. It appeared as a letter as well, sealed up tight, and listing what he requested and offered. He did request Balance, though just a small amount of it, and offered the Cycle in return. I obliged, adjusting the flow accordingly before turning back to my children.

There was one more thing that was bugging me here. All these universes were growing at different rates. The One World and the Four Realms far and above the most developed between all in the cluster. In fact, they were grossly outpacing the others, to the point I knew it was going to cause balance issues.

I could have gone my old path, suppressing certain parts, encouraging others to grow. But the Four Realms needed to be allowed to grow. I couldn't stand it being slowed or suppressed anymore, and if I tried to suppress it again, I wouldn’t blame the Four Realms if the Will itself tried to rise up against me. So I wouldn’t touch that approach for now. Frankly, it was high time I started reaching for a power I had very purposefully sworn off because I found it distasteful.

Time.

I rarely messed with time. Not because I couldn't, but because I refused to, because my personal Dao hated many of the ways it was used, that I had seen it used. Time was only meant to go forward, never backwards. I was all about the relentless march forward. The crossing of the bridge, to the next life, the next thing, mistakes and successes permanent reminders of who and what we were, all the way down to the Truesoul.

I looked down at it all, toying with the notion of time. The Rival and Fang Xu making the trial for gods exiting the Four Realms. All the other universes. The One World's slowly fracturing skin, which was was no longer worrying, as the [System] had so informed me what it was going to do to the One World. I couldn’t suppress or stop any of this, but the other universes needed to speed up if they were ever going to catch the Four Realms and the One World.

It was in exactly those kinds of thoughts that I’d found a use for time.

I sucked in a deep breath and steadied myself, reaching out and grabbing the ticking clock I imagined the concept to be, turning up the dial just a bit on those universes that were growing slower and were further behind. Alexander's, when compared to his siblings. Sehuyun’s corpse, so eager to resist me. Not slowing any of the other universes’ timestreams, just accelerating the ones I needed to.

Almost immediately I felt the strain in my head, a headache blooming, and, if my true mind still had a true body, I was certain I’d be bleeding from the nose. I staggered a little, fucking with time straining me, especially considering the size and scale of the feat I was trying to pull off. Origin Deities were fixed points in their own time; that now included the Big Four, and even Sehuyun’s corpse. Playing around them only added to the complexity of what I was attempting.

"[System]," I said, calling upon the [System] that the Oshun had made through metaphorically gritted teeth, pulsing the message into the One World. "Do me a favor while I'm busy, would you? Contact Nyxteria. I’d be willing to trade some things in return for some lessons about time."

The system dinged.

[Acknowledged. Sending message.]

I let out a breath and focused inward a little bit more, nearly letting all time snap back to normal, those who had been going a little bit faster shuddering. I narrowed my focus. Instead of giving those who were growing slower a massive burst in relative time, I only slightly increased the speed, while letting the Four Realms and the One World remain at base. Even just a small increase twisted my domain in an almost painful manner, but I could hold it for longer like this.

"I hate to admit it," I grumbled to myself. "But I think Morgan may have been right. I can't just ignore parts of time and space." Time and space, time and space…what if I created minor pockets around the universes needing acceleration? Pockets of space, so I could accelerate smaller areas without having to worry about maintaining the edges. Theoretically possible…

I doubled down and got to work, and only once did I consider the possibility that Mr. Boxes had done what I was trying to do, to us in these [Trials.]

*

Morgan had an epiphany in what it was trying to build.

All of its [Words] until now had been descriptors, things that dug its influence into all beneath the Heavens so that they may become closer to realizing the greatness of the Great One. Content, was it, to continue to work alone. But if it had learned anything in its long lifetime, it was that having minions was good at times. If not to prove entertaining, then useful in dealing with the minutiae beneath Morgan’s notice. It needed to create something that would help keep everything it was building in…order.

Now, it had finally decided what that would look like. Morgan stood, spidery limbs tapping against the walls of the little room it had created around itself, and spoke.

[Chaos.]

There was an explosion of raw primordial chaos all around it, obliterating its cave of stone. Before the chaos could settle, before it could even start to form what Morgan had envisioned, it spoke again.

[Order.]

There was another explosion of the primordial essence of creation. But this was firm. Not raw elements clashing against each other, but arranged in neat, orderly rows. The Primordial Chaos and Primordial Order smashed against each other violently as they bled out along Morgan’s influential lines, mixing and intertwining, the rigid order rebuffing chaos and chaos constantly trying to change order. This was the thing that the Great One had been balancing their entire life. Allowing people to cause chaos where and when needed, and create order as well, for both had their virtues.

Morgan bared its teeth. The answer had been staring it in the face this whole time. The things it had felt in that new wave of foreign energy. Those things it had seen in the other false Great Ones, the unwhole origins. Specifically, the butterfly and the damnable machine, each representing an incomplete half of the Great One’s Truth. Morgan cackled as its power leeched out across creation. The Great One was already reaching for time, it needed no longer remind Them not to limit Themselves, but was now stumbling as order and chaos was dragged from Their understanding to create the disgusting physical aspects of Morgan’s universe.

It had not injected any of its own thoughts on what chaos and order was, besides its vision. A vision that was already on the path to completion. All is equal beneath the Heavens, because none can match Them. Morgan had even intentionally held back some of its darker desires, knowing the Great One would disapprove. Even if it meant letting the other little Heavens the others tried to make continue to exist. Fine. It would let them make their insignificant copies, so long as they knew that it could all be torn down in an instant and would never match the Great One.

The primordial essence and chaos condensed around Morgan, but it willed it to spread out, to lance and arc between everything, bind it all together as it had before. And then finally it created the last thing that it needed.

[Minions]

It spat, and everything shifted.

The order to its right began to tick, like a clock or machine It could already sense the machines trying to form within it, beings that would seek out and instill order wherever it desired, whatever functions it wanted done, wherever it needed. And chaos to the left, space folding and warping like shattered glass, disrupting even the ever-present flow of time. Little beings, little chaos gremlins, constantly shifting, aggressive like tears in space, trying to wake up, ready to destroy or change or cause chaos whenever it's needed.

Morgan felt the attention of the Great One fall upon it like a fierce and terrible storm, but no punishment came, no reprimand, and Morgan grinned up at the skies where it knew the Great One was watching.

"I saw Your vision for what You thought I was doing, what You needed. The immune system," Morgan snarled. "I approve. But that is only the physical parts. You forget I am the Shadow. Your Shadow. The Shadow of the Heavens, the reminder that none will be as great as You, try as they might. And there is nothing that can stop it. After all, even this is just a split in the balance you represent. Halves of wholes, while everything else is just another fraction of what you encompass."

It said, and the Great One said nothing, for there was nothing to say.

As Morgan settled back on its haunches, its eight spidery limbs started to reach out and weave with purpose, the web it had spun now beginning to take a proper shape. Did it even have any more [Words] it needed to say? Morgan didn't know and didn't care. It had said all the ones it needed to. Whatever was left, if any at all, it would mutter into nothingness.

[Light,] [rest,] [sleep,] it muttered out a few words just to see what would happen. And continued to do so even as it settled back down, and let its intent do all the work of building a universe for it.