POV: Yueya Oshun (Deity of Beauty)

We spent a total of ten years in Reilly's realm, long enough to learn a bit but not nearly long enough to start unravelling the truly profound secrets of the Nine Heavens. Even for Statera, that was too short a time. It was very informative for me, however, and I was itching to go visit the other universes. If one universe gave me such brilliant ideas, then what would the other two do? I couldn't wait to find out.

"Back to the portal then?" Statera asked Reilly, who nodded.

"Yeah. I'll be bringing Steward with me instead of Pyrah, however. She told me she wants to stay behind and manage things, plus Steward's hit it off with Yueya, so I figured why not?" Reilly asked with a twinkle in his eye. Said shade didn't react to Reilly's prompting, and I just rolled my eyes. I found Steward to be a pleasant conversationalist, right up there alongside Statera and, surprisingly, Shin's follower Ze.

"If this one may be so bold, I would like to inquire as to where we shall be going?" Steward asked, miming a slight bow.

"To visit the others' universes. I believe we're going to Shin's next." Reilly said, looking to said skeleton for confirmation. Shin nodded his confirmation, and Reilly smiled at Steward as we continued forward, heading towards the portal in the sky that only we, the origin deities, could see.

"I...see." Steward said, sounding none too surprised. From our earlier conversations he undoubtedly figured out who we were years ago.

"Don't get too excited now." Statera said with a chuckle, looking away from the three suns that circled the Nine Heavens to give Steward an amused look. Steward twitched a little and glanced at Statera nervously before looking away. The shade didn't seem to like Statera much, always getting nervous whenever Statera talked to him or even glanced towards him. "Oh don't give me that. It'll be good for you." Statera scoffed. Statera said that a lot.

As I watched Statera subconsciously changed to become a woman, her hair growing longer, features getting softer, and horns shifting to curl around the sides of her head rather than the top. That was another thing that we all had to get used to over the past ten years. Statera had the habit of changing forms at random times, for seemingly no reason at all. She didn't even realize she was doing it most of the time, and her transitions were even more flawless than even my own physical changes...and as the Deity of Beauty, I have a lot of variation in my original form, so I change a lot as well.

"There she goes again..." Shin said, the flames in his eye sockets flickering a bit. I took a moment to admire the fact that the blue flames matched those of Reilly's second sun (they were all different colors, the first being gold, then blue, and then a deep red) and then focused on what Shin was saying - er, well, more like muttering to himself. He was saying something about why Statera changes...some personality thing?

"Shall we, then?" Reilly asked, gesturing to the portal. I paused for just a moment to turn around and look at the Nine Heavens one last time, as did the rest of us. It looked a lot like Reilly's flag had, with nine flat worlds stacked atop one another while the three suns circled them. Various smaller worlds circled outside of the nine major worlds, but they were so small and insignificant that no life existed on them. Maybe in the future they'd sustain life, but for now...

With a bit of effort I tore my attention away from the controlled chaos of souls ascending and, in some cases, descending the levels of the Nine Heavens, before vanishing into the portal. I had to wait for a few minutes before the rest filtered through, and then we headed towards Shin's world. The silent skeleton led the way, and I was greeted to a very different sight than that of the Nine Heavens.

Shin's world was a giant ellipsoid when viewed from a distance, formed of Spirit and Physical energy. In the middle of the two energies was a rift of sorts, formed of both Spirit and Physical energy yet of neither, through which all manner of things flowed. Souls constantly flew back and forth in a giant cycle, while the entire realm spun and shifted. It was almost disorienting, the way everything was constantly moving.

"This is my world, that which represents the Cycle in its many forms, the ever-churning Wheel. Its name is officially the Spirit and Earth Realm, but I prefer to call it the Wheel." Shin explained idly.

"Impressive." Reilly admitted.

"I've been in a universe like this before." The Mad Scientist whispered to herself, catching my attention. I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering just what that was about. After all these years I still didn't know why Statera had brought a mortal along, but apparently Shin had figured it out. Reilly hadn't either.

"Come." Shin said, drifting further towards his realm, with Ze leading the way. Shin and Reilly were a lot alike in the respect that neither of them preferred to directly lead their realms, instead allowing their subordinates to and manning things from the back seat, or in more subtle ways. Not like me. I prefer to be more in the mix than that.

Ze walked calmly behind Shin, staring at the universe and nodding slightly. "It does seem to be about ten years since we left." She noted.

"Mm. The passage of time returns to normal when in another's universe." Shin noted idly, and I blinked. Huh. I hadn't even thought about that. So then it'll be twenty to thirty years before I get back to my world? That's...well, I don't know how I feel about that. I've never left my world alone for so long...

"This'll be a good test, to see how they run without us. Letting our relative universes run autonomously for a little while may yet reveal more problems in need of fixing." Reilly mused, scratching his chin. I silently agreed with him, glancing around quietly. The constant cycling was a little unnerving. Sure, my world had a bit of cycling as well, especially with reincarnation and all, but this was just...more. It was overwhelming. The Cycle was the absolute center of this universe, just as luck had been the absolute center of Reilly's, and beauty was the absolute center of mine. The Cycle was just a bit more...noticeable than Reilly's Luck.

Shin didn't speak as he led us into the direct center of the Wheel Realm, passing by innumerable souls and spirits along the way. The Realm, like Reilly's, was nowhere near the size of mine, but I could already tell it had a denser population of powerful beings than mine. Most of the powerful beings were cloaked figures, much like Shin, or clad in robes and kimonos, like Ze. They seemed to fade both in and out of the spiritual and physical, and more than once I saw them sporting various weapons.

The moment we reached the very center of the universe, everything calmed. It was like sitting in the eye of the storm, with an entire universe laid out before us for all to see. Quite literally, from here, I could see most everything as if I was standing right in front of it. It was an observation room.

"This is my home." Shin said, sitting down cross-legged. "Ze, take their companions and show them around a bit. They will not be able to handle the pressure here." He continued motioning for us to sit down as well. I glanced at my follower and noticed for the first time how pale his face was. Only the Mad Scientist looked any shade of OK, not even Ze was up to par, and they all gratefully left the area after Ze. Statera kept a neutral expression as she watched them go, and I turned my attention back to the universe surrounding us.

One was a starry sky, filled with worlds and suns, while the other was a single world, living in tandem with the other.

"Let us begin the introduction." Shin said, staring at his universe with what I assumed was a soft expression. Hard to tell on a skeleton. "This world is based off of Cycles, as I'm sure you can tell..."

POV CHANGE: Reilly (Deity of Luck)

Shin is very methodical. Very...cautious. He reveals only what he wishes to reveal, and we find out only what he reveals. No more, no less. I am fairly certain even Statera would say the same, even with all of her insight. There is simply too much to see without needing to spend millions of years meditation on the small stretch of time we have and will be spending in the Wheel Realm, and Shin is an expert at guiding our insights. It's truly astonishing.

To be honest, what I've gained the most from this excursion is that Shin has a single race as the core of his universe, as opposed to my Nine Heavens, which has a hodgepodge of random mortal races. None are exactly alike but none fully different either. As opposed to me Shin only had a race he called Naria, which were a race of humanoids with an armor-like exoskeleton that covered their chests, legs, and upper arms. I immediately saw the benefits of having a centralized race or races, at least in the beginning stages of a universe, though for mine I would probably have to merge a large majority of my races into five or six main ones. It just made things a bit easier to manage until we truly got to a more advanced stage in our growth.

Shin's voice broke me out of my thoughts, and I looked at the skeleton. "...and that is the head of the Reapers. Please keep in mind that Ze and her direct subordinates are technically above the Head in status, but he is the one who controls all the Reapers and organizes their operations in the physical realm. For the most part they deal with spirits who are unwilling to depart or are simply causing trouble...consider them the peacekeepers of the realm." Shin explained slowly. The Reapers were technically spirits, and thus didn't count as a race, but they were borderline a race because of the uniqueness of their...forms. They were the police force of the realm, which I didn't deign to comment on.

It had its merits, certainly, but then again Shin could've simply allowed the beings within the realm to make a force like that on their own, rather than making it in the first place. I sighed and rolled my dice once again, frowning when I felt the luck around me fluctuate negatively. I'd gleaned that one of the five things Shin created at the start had been these...Reapers, when I had a stroke of good luck. It seemed now, however, that I was pushing it trying for more.

With a slight frown I considered forcibly altering my luck so as to learn more about Shin, but eventually decided against it. I wouldn't be able to do so again for a while once I did do that, and I wanted to wait until there was a really good opportunity to gain something really useful. I chuckled to myself a bit, staring at the dice that everyone seemed to think were some special treasure.

They weren't. They were just normal dice. Well, maybe to everyone but me they would be a treasure filled with the aura of luck (simply because I spent all my time with the things, and allowed my aura to seep into them) but to me they were simply dice. The trigger to cause a shift in luck was actually a conscious choice, and I liked to roll the dice when I altered my luck simply for the effect. Most beings don't seem to realize that luck is very...mathematical in nature.

It's not all probability and statistics, though that plays a big part of it. Luck also ties heavily with fate and various other guiding forces in the multiverse. It might be seen as fate that two people fall in love at first sight, and live their lives together, but in the end that might just be luck of the draw simply because fate had no specific designs for the soul in that direction. However, if someone is fated to do something very specific, then it will be luck that decides what treasure or encounter they come across that pushes them in that direction.

Of course it's far more intricate than that. Much like how Shin's Cycle is more than just the cycle of life and death...

"Say, why did you create the Reapers?" I asked suddenly.

"It was a whim, one which I rolled with." Shin replied without missing a beat, his flame-eyes meeting my own with no expression showing. I merely shrugged and looked back out at the universe, tapping my fingers. There was a small area in-between the Spiritual and Physical that seemed like a mix between the two, and Statera had been staring at it for the past few years.

As if sensing my gaze Statera turned away from the blank spot and looked at Shin. "There's a storm coming." She said slowly, carefully. Shin froze, and I frowned a little bit. "At this rate you'll lose." She finished, standing up and dusting off her robes. Looking around at the rest of us in mild surprise, Statera smiled. "What? It's been ten years already, has it not?"

"What do you mean by that?" Shin asked calmly. Statera glanced at him, frowned, and shook her head.

"You know what I mean, don't you? You can feel it. But - well, I'm pushing it telling you this much. Just keep that in mind." Statera said, cutting herself off with a bitter expression. Glancing once more out a the universe, she sighed. I simply closed my eyes and chewed over what she had said. We'd had a few conversations about my own 'storm,' as Statera was fond of calling it, over the ten years that we were in my realm, and she'd had that expression a few times. It was always when she couldn't quite decide what was really best. Or so I assumed, from what little I've gleaned from her.

Shin may be an expert manipulator, Yueya a brilliant conversationalist that can give out wondrous advice like it was nobody's business (even if she herself didn't understand what advice she was giving), but no one could see more than Statera. And nobody understood more how important it was for beings to grow of their own accord, even if allowing them to severely clashes with her personality at times. I closed my eyes and stood as well, smiling at Shin.

"Well, let's get going, then," I say, looking at Shin pointedly. "Whose universe should we go to next?"

"Can we go to Statera's?" Yueya asks hopefully. Said deity shakes her head and gives Yueya a rueful smile.

"I'm afraid that we must save mine for last. I would greatly appreciate it if we could go to yours next, Yueya." Statera said in a formal tone, brooking no room for argument. I raised my eyebrows and shared a glance with both Yueya and Shin, surprised by this turn of events. I absently begin to toss my dice up and down.

"Sure," I say first, nodding to Statera. The deity shot me a grateful smile, following the silent Shin as we move out of the central area. Almost immediately Ze and the other beings are with us, though the Mad Scientist looks pale and about ready to fall to pieces. A quick wave of the hand from Statera fixes that, and the Mad Scientist gives her an odd look as they have a short mental conversation.

"We'll be leaving the edges of the mortal universe and stepping into the Primordial Chaos soon." Shin said coolly, turning to glance at his realm. It didn't have a Realm Sun or Suns like mine did, only small suns scattered throughout the Wheel Realm. Then it vanishes entirely, much to my surprise, when we step into the surrounding primordial chaos. It was much different than my own, appearing more like mist that messes with the senses rather than a seeming Void.

It only took us a few minutes to appear in front of the portal and return to the empty meeting room once more. It was then that the Mad Scientist spoke up.

"I wish to return." She said tiredly. Statera looked at her for a moment before smiling and nodding.

"Of course. This would be very tiring for you. I'll send you back to your planet." Statera said before turning to us. "Just give me one second, guys." She explained, leading the Mad Scientist to her portal. I watched silently as she pushed the Mad Scientist into the portal, her hand sinking into the swirling vortex for just a brief moment. There was a brief shifting of power from Statera as she did...something in her realm. My luck had shifted for the better a few moments ago, so I was able to glean that Statera did something more than just send the Mad Scientist back to her planet. I couldn't tell what, exactly, but it was...interesting nonetheless.

"Done?" Shin asked quietly as Statera withdrew her hand, staring idly at her palm for a moment before her body shifted into that of a man with greying hair and a serious-yet-kind face.

"Of course." He said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Yueya, if you would?" Yueya nodded in response to Statera, smiling at us and standing before her portal with her "plus one."

"My world's pretty big, so...try not to get lost." Yueya joked as she slipped into the vortex. I snorted and followed her, stepping through the portal at the same time as Statera and Shin. I had assumed Yueya's statement was a joke. We were origin deities, so I assumed that our divine senses would be able to encompass the entire universe, no matter how big.

I was wrong.