The Empyreal Gem Master

The progression of power was absolute, for the most part, and for most entities.

It was slow. Grueling. A process where entities spent years, some dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands just to make the tiniest bit of progress.

And then there was Alexander.

His progression was something straight out of a fantasy!

His Enneagram seemed specifically designed to make him the fastest-advancing entity in existence. So even though he had just forged his Universe, he spent a single day locked away inside a Luminarch Cache of the Cosmos, and when he emerged…

His Origin erupted, birthing thousands of Universes.

Even someone as seasoned as the White Ascender, Arthur, stood there in stunned silence, awe and disbelief plastered across his face like he had just watched reality get rewritten and couldn’t wrap his head around it.

It had only been a day.

How many years had Alexander experienced within that parallel cosmos? How had he emerged so early, and so quickly? Based on his own experience, Arthur looked up at the shattered ceiling of the Grand Archive and saw seas of Primordial Energy descending like a heavy flood. This much pure Primordial Authority…it was meant only for those assimilating the Cosmic Tao.

Did Alexander focus solely on comprehension and assimilation of this pristine authority within that parallel cosmos?

The White Ascender found himself nodding in a daze, half-convinced by his own theories. But even those didn’t explain the sheer velocity of Alexander’s rise. He had already stepped into the Universal Filament Realm, and this was only ten percent of what he’d gained inside that place.

Authority raged all around him. The White Ascender couldn’t help the thrill coursing through him as he had chosen well!

This was the one who would carry his legacy and pursue the Cosmic Filament to eventually confront the Crimson Ruinborn!

“Haha! Grow strong- grow strong and prosper! Because in the end, I will have my retribution!”

The White Ascender laughed like a madman.

Near him, Alexander sat within a swirling storm of authority, one brow raised before continuing what was to him, just another step.

For him, this was normal. He held memories from countless others as he knew how their lives had progressed over the years, but he didn’t see himself starting at the same line.

None of them had what he had. He considered himself something…entirely different.

So even though all of this seemed unreal and bordering on fantastical to anyone else, to him, it was simply another day!

As this clone returned with his troves of boons and wonders, his main body and remaining clones hundreds of millions of light-years away were already absorbing everything and exploding outward in an unfathomable surge of power.

He was still at the lower levels of the Infinite Cosmic Tower. And yet the treasures he accessed were the kinds even cosmic entities would envy.

So no- he didn’t dwell on the moment as some grand feat. He simply moved forward. With a flick of his hand, he summoned a second Luminarch Cache of the Cosmos.

When he activated it, only this version of himself, this clone, was absorbed into the parallel cosmos. Even now, his Main Body and the rest of his clones continued progressing and assimilating the Primordial Cosmic Tao.

The dazed White Ascender blinked as he saw Alexander grasp another glowing orb of brilliance before he had even reaped the full rewards of the previous one. Without waiting for permission or ceremony, Alexander placed his existence into the new pearl once more!

WAA!

His eyes shut slowly like the gates of a stellar being, and his existence vanished into another parallel cosmos.

—

The second life he lived inside the new cosmos was that of a scholar.

He was born into poverty, in a world torn apart by warring empires and wandering philosophers who preached compassion in the chaos.

It was just a starting point. He retained his Enneagram and just like before, continued the same path.

His existence surged with terrifying boosts granted through full assimilation of the Primordial Cosmic Tao.

That pristine authority, the force that made up the cosmos itself, seemed to whisper to him. It told him what it could do. And the moment full assimilation was reached, every body and clone of his would undergo a baptism.

His molecular structure would be reforged under the brilliance of this cosmic power as his very being would be blessed with Parameter Boosts.

Empyreal Vigor and Energiea were all multiplied by more than a thousand times.

His rate of progression, his damage output, his defense form of the authorities he commanded…All of this multiplied a thousand times as the full assimilation of the Primordial Cosmic Tao came with boons beyond imagination. No other Tao compared. His entire being felt like it was being reforged and reborn under its white-gold light!

And even as that happened, the Core Features of his Enneagram continued climbing, riding that wave of empowerment to absurd levels.

Just as his Vigor and Energiea multiplied a thousandfold, so did the range of the Peacemaker. The Investigator’s reach expanded equally as the number of Empyreal Clones he could forge?

They were no longer Minor Empyreal Clones, and the number exceeded 20!

His Temporal Enneagram Space’s time dilation ratio increased as well as to Alexander…it all felt momentary.

Because he knew that as long as he held the Luminarch Caches of the Cosmos, his power in the coming days would explode to ridiculous levels. All the boons he was absorbing now-Vigor, Energiea, everything…they would keep changing, evolving, growing.

So, he stopped worrying about it and set a small goal.

He wouldn’t pay attention to the smaller changes. Not until he attained something that only few could ever hope to reach in a lifetime.

“How about we look at everything after all the Luminarch Caches are used up and I’ve attained the Cosmic Realm?”

…!

Yes.

He would give himself a monumental power-up, and only when he reached that far-off nearly impossible goal of a Cosmos shining in his Origin…would he pause to examine just how far he had come!