POV: Statera Luotian

For a while, my mind was naught but blankness as it absorbed and assimilated all the knowledge I had gathered over the past two million years, categorically storing it and doing...unimaginable things to my domain. As soon as that was done I found myself floating about within the Four Realms, watching as everything happened. My insights continued to grow as I silently watched the worlds continue to churn, the Realms continue to spin, and the souls continue to cycle. It is something I had witnessed an uncountable number of times, and yet, only now were a few insights starting to click.

Time was very subective in this state. I could have been watching for a year, or ten thousand years...I don't actually know. But, when it was over, I could feel that everything I had needed to gain had been gained. It was a strange feeling, to be honest, though no more strange than when my gaze turned skywards, towards the Abyss, and the roiling waves of utter destruction that continued unabated where the Void met Primordial Chaos.

Watching this endless destruction and creation, I couldn't help but ponder it. Why was it that the nothing of the Void could be made into something...and why was it that the two were so incompatible? Sitting there for a long while I started to come to a realization; while the Void seemed to be endlessly seeking the destruction of the Primordial Chaos, or Creation, Creation was likewise endlessly seeking the destruction of the Nothing, or the Void, in its own way. And yet, where they clashed, both were born from the other. With a frown I extended a bit of my will...as this was my mind, a strange incomprehensible manifestation of myself as my body rested within its crystal bed, I had no hands to extend.

A small ball of Void and another of Primordial Chaos separated themselves from the Abyss, floating before me in carefully separated and restrained balls of my will. Why was it that my will did not provoke a reaction from either the Void or the Chaos? A question for another time, as the one before me was more vexing.

I studied the two balls of nothing and something, examining them from the inside out. The Void - with no words that could describe it, for even emptiness does not do the blankness of the Void justice. The Chaos - just that, Chaos. Endless, roiling Creation in its base form, ready to be built into anything at all. At a glance, extreme polar opposites, completely incompatible with one another...but I, of all beings, should know better than to believe that. Holding the two in front of me I gradually drained them of the other's influence, as there was most certainly still influence from the other in such proximity to the massive amounts.

Slowly, the two drained. Ever so painfully slowly...the Void I held started to become truly devoid of anything, and the Chaos became even more chaotic. This was because I was separating them from everything in the universe and Void, as if there was truly nothing but Chaos and Void. When I was about halfway done, I began to feel strained. Three quarters of the way done, and I was struggling to keep the two balls contained.

Then, it got to the point where I could advance no further. All my attention was on keeping the two balls contained, and nothing more. The Chaos, ironically, was becoming stiller the less Void Influence there was, whereas the Void...well, I couldn't tell what the Void was doing, in all honesty. It's impossible to tell if nothing is different when its still nothing. Unfortunately, however, I could go no further unless I let one of the two go. So, without a moment's hesitation, I allowed the ball of Chaos to float away, returning to its normal state, as I slowly continued to drain Creation's Influence away from the Void ball.

And, suddenly, it exploded.

Primordial Chaos flew everywhere, flying out towards the Void before bouncing off of Mr. Blue Boxes' barrier and flying back to join with the rest of it as the Primodial Chaos of the Four Realms absorbed the new Chaos hungrily. It surged outwards, almost doubling in size before coming to a halt...and I felt a moment of satisfaction coming from the will of the Four Realms, as if some strange hunger had been abated.

What in My name was that?!

That was...that was...I blinked.

That was just like Yin and Yang. That was Balance. When there is absolutely nothing, no abstract influence from the Primordial Chaos (that I can, for some reason, no longer understand or fathom, much less control), the Void becomes the base of Creation, just as when there is nothing but Yin, there shall suddenly be Yang as well, and vice versa.

Incredible. Simply incredible. Things...were not as I first imagined them to be.

On top of that, just a small ball of the Void was enough to double the Primordial Chaos in the Four Realms. What would happen if that ball was bigger? If a larger section of Void was devoid of any influence from Creation? Would it create enough Primordial Chaos to, say, create an entire Multiverse? Or...

But wait, how does the influence work? It doesn't make any sense...the Void is literally nothing, not even influence! Nothing cannot, by definition, cause anything to happen! It falls under the same category of a Paradox, those Void Beasts, because HOW DOES THAT WORK?! Damn it, if I had hands, I'd be rubbing my temples by now. And possibly ramming my head against a wall. The imporant thing was, however, that Creation and the Void were like Yin and Yang, with me understanding very little about the Void. It's almost like I was a mortal again, back in my own universe, when I understood very little about the Spiritual world and yet knew it existed.

And what I did know, was mostly guesswork.

...that's so accurate it hurts.

With a sigh I turned my attention once more to the Abyss, watching it for a few more moments. "All I know is that I know nothing." I muttered to myself, to quote a certain philosopher. For a moment longer I stared at the Abyss before slowly slipping back into my trance and turning my attention to the Void itself. Curiosity overcame me, and I silently flew my...mind, or whatever this was, out of the barrier safeguarding the Four Realms. My vision continued forth for a while into the darkness, and I looked around. There were so many things to see...not. It was just a Void.

And then, I was attracted to something, floating off in the distance. It was...enormous, compared to the Four Realms. As I neared it, suddenly I realized what it was; the One World. The Realm of Yueya Oshun, the Origin Deity of Beauty. A thin layer of Primordial Chaos covered the giant ball of earth that was the World and the space in which the suns and moons circled said World. Inside, I could see Yueya herself moving about, managing things and instructing her fellow deities as she struggled to raise more beings to higher levels.

She didn't notice me as I passed by.

Neither did Shin when I passed by his Wheel Realm, as it endlessly spun, nor did Reilly, as I watched his Nine Heavens for a while. As my consciousness traveled, I passed by all eleven other Realms...although, most of them were obscured to me. I could sense whose they were, but...perhaps because I had not visited them yet, I was not allowed to see what they were. Most certainly I could sense whose they were, but I couldn't really see them. That was, until I came upon the twelfth universe, the home of the only Origin Deity in our little group of twelve that I had not met.

I could just barely sense within it, and it felt...ancient. Old. Far older than any of us have any right to be. The entire universe radiated an archaic aura even as it lay hidden in obscurity, the Realm itself growing far slower, but much steadier, than any other. And in the center of all this was a dull flame, flickering in one part of the universe...the last spark of life of what once had been a being. A small thought struck me then; this twelfth universe had been created from the body and soul of its Origin Deity. Although it was never this simple, for all intents and purposes...the Origin Deity of this realm had perished.

That small thought was followed by a much bigger revelation - Origin Deities were there at the beginning, true. But there was nothing in the job description that said we had to be there at the end, either.

It was a very humbling thought.

POV CHANGE: Old King (Somewhere in the Heaven Realm)

I stared coldly out at the two armies clashing against one another, watching with careful eyes as the soldiers fought with a thunderous noise, their armors and blades flashing in the light of the sun. Spells from the weaker cultivators stationed in the back of the two forces began to fly forwards, igniting the warriors on the other side. My cultivators, however, were specifically targeting key points in the enemy formation in an attempt to make it collapse. Easier said than done, of course, but a tactic I had honed well over my life-long carrier of war.

Above us, Avians flew about engaging in aerial combat, every once in a while one of the bird-people falling from the skies with a shriek and rain of red blood. A few cultivators of higher skill flew in the skies as well, with the aid of their magic treasures of course. The more powerful cultivators, the ones that could fly without outside aid, would never debase themselves with fighting in a small-time conflict like this.

The mere thought of them looking down on me set my teeth to grinding, even as I watched my army begin to push back the opposing kingdom's. This was but a ruse on the enemy's part, though, as I knew their heavy cavalry was just waiting for the chance to tear my own army to shreds. This would, of course, not happen, as I was far too prepared. But it was just a matter of time before my armies were torn to shreds, and my kingdom fell to those who I had attempted to conquer. My armies had been stretched too thin, my people too tired of war to continue on with the wars I was waging across the known lands beneath the Holy Mountain.

I would end up as one more in a long list of would-be conquerers. There was no way around that for me.

"Look out there, and tell me what you see." I said to the Earth Elemental next to me. He, and the female Fire Elemental next to him, were my...successors, in a sense of the word. My useless son would inherit a crumbling empire after these wars were over, if there was anything left to succeed in the first place. Only these two would carry on what I learned far too late in life for it to be useful in my goal. Hence they would be my successors in spirit and teachings.

"The battle is going well. The only thing to worry about is the heavy cavalry, and they'll be taken care of by the pikemen we've got in reserve." The Fire Elemental praised. I withheld a snort as the Earth Elemental spoke up.

"We're still taking too many losses." He said with a frown.

"Mm. This is perhaps the last battle that shall go so well." I said. The duo kept their stoic expressions, revealing nothing of their true thoughts on their faces as they absorbed what I said. With a snort, I gave them a dirisive look and continued. "You brats, don't think you can't fool me. I know exactly how you think of me, and I know you know what the fate of this campaign and my kingdom is. I may be a fool, but I'm not stupid." I chided them, causing the color to drain from their faces.

It was rather interesting for me, being an old, greying Avian myself, to watch the color of the fire that made up a Fire Elemental's body change, the same going for an Earth Elemental's soil. They still bled blood like the rest of us, but their flesh were made of elements themselves. The biology behind it was best left to those science-y fools.

I couldn't help but inwardly gloat at their expressions - for the young and inexperienced to think they could fool the old and wise was foolish. "Tell me, how do you conquer a people?" I asked, turning my attention back towards the ongoing battle. The enemy army had just deployed their heavy cavalry after their front lines "broke," with the intention of plowing through my infantry. Unfortunately for them, I was well aware of their plan, and had my pikemen already prepared to intercept thanks to some clever use of magic from the cultivators.

"...take out their king and armies?" The Earth Elemental asked skeptically. "Initially at least."

"Make them dependant upon you economically." The Fire Elemental said with more conviction, crossing her arms and nodding. She was a beauty of a Fire Elemental, I was told. Her skin was a fiery red color, flickering slightly, but nothing quite captured one's attention like her coal-orange hair that glimmered like the coals of a great fire. Her outfit, a simple black shirt and pants, accentuated her curves and full figure, and was made of a fire-resistant material. I, for one, was not attracted to her. We were of different species, after all, and I was over three hundred years old. I'd seen my fair share of beautiful women in my time.

"Wrong on both counts. Taking out their king and armies is how you capture a kingdom, not a people. And economic dependence only maintains peace." I said with no small amount of bitterness. I had attempted to capture a few nations economically before, with...mixed results. "Any other ideas?" I asked, feeling morbid satisfaction as the enemy heavy cavalry crashed against the best pikemen in the land - my own. It was like a bird flying into a wall, the cavalry just stopped upon the long, deadly pikes of my army. This, in turn, allowed my own heavy cavalry, which had been cleverly concealed from the enemy scouts by hiding amongst the infantry until now, to run through the retreating army like wheat in a field. Their horses had been hidden beneath invisibility spells and formations.

"Is it...lower the taxes? Give them food?" The Earth Elemental asked stupidly. I snorted in annoyance.

"No, you fool. That is how you temporarily win their hearts. What happens during a famine? When there is hardly enough food to go around, and I cannot give them any more food than they have? Or when I need to go to war, and the taxes raise again? Those who lived in kingdoms I had conquered would lose their bought loyalty. No, the way to win a people is to first...destroy their faith." I said with a smirk of superiority. The confused expressions of the Earth and Fire Elementals caused my smug expression to grow as I allowed that to sink in.

And then, it clicked for them. Everything I said, the speeches I've been giving to my people for the past ten years, the propaganda and lies I had been spreading...everything clicked.

"Oh," The Fire Elemental said, mimicking the Earth Elemental's expression and brushing one orange flicker of fiery hair out her face.

"So, Pyre, Terra, you finally understand?" I asked, addressing the Fire and Earth Elemental respectively.

"Yes." Terra answered calmly, shaking his head. The brown "hair" atop his head rustled a bit with the movement, and he shifted, adjusting his outfit. The light grey garb went well against his soil-colored skin, though the gleaming magic sword was a little off-putting. Too ornamental for my tastes.

"Sort of." Pyre corrected, shaking her head. I hummed in amusement, watching the battle for a bit longer before finishing my thought.

"Destroy their faith, and the people will not resist, their armies will become weak, and the government will be easily supplanted. I learned this lesson too little, too late. And of course, I don't mean faith in God alone. Destroying their faith in any religion they may believe in is important, just as important as it is to destroy the people's faith in their government, their neighbors, their ability to be kept safe...even themselves. Only then can you truly conquer a people heart and soul, and they will let you." I explained quietly, nodding to myself as the enemy army started to truly suffer losses, after their heavy cavalry was destroyed. "It is only because of this that my campaign has lasted for that last ten years...or else I would've been defeated some time ago...

"And to think, I had once dreamt of ruling over all the lands in this world...of climbing that Mountain to stand at its peak as an Emperor...no, a god." I muttered to myself, glancing to my left. Over the tops of the sparse trees that dotted the surroundings, the base of the Holy Mountain could be seen, stretching high into the sky with no end in sight. The Mountain was incomparably massive, large enough that it was the land, horizon, and sky all in one. Rumor has it that Lady Elvira, the Queen of the gods and goddesses resides atop its peak...

Yes, how I desired to conquer that mountain.

Snapping myself out of my delusions, I turned to coldly look at Pyre and Terra, who were looking at me with carefully masked expressions. "For the next few months, you are to study everything I have done in the past ten regarding this style of conquering, and expand upon it." I told them sharply. The duo nodded, and I glanced once more at the battle I was now handly winning before turning and walking back towards the command tent without another word. In the next few months, those two would undoubtedly vanish. Or, at least, once the war takes a downturn and we start losing.

I am ok with this. I am already nearing the end of my lifespan, having never been much for cultivation in the first place, and understand the folly of staying aboard a sinking ship. Additionally, the two Elementals a young and have a very high talent for cultivation, much higher than my own. They will do far more than I will. Not that I'd ever tell the little shits anything of the sort. I'm still the wise old bastard that taught them everything they know, willingly, no matter how much they think they are manipulating me.

That doesn't mean I'll let them just up and leave, however. If I catch them, they deserve it and will be executed. But secretly I do hope they'll get away. They carry my legacy, after all.