POV: Statera Luotian

An incarnation of mine was touring the Mortal Realm, not long after the three new races were introduced to the Four Realms. Maybe a dozen or so years, and the three new Evolution Beings, as I have taken to calling them (it is not a name I am particularly proud of, but if the shoe fits...), have been growing just as slowly as Sequoia. Over the past hundred thousand years, the situation in the Mortal Realm had progressively worsened, although that was only visible when viewing the hundred thousand years as a whole. Terra and Pyre were taking their time, making sure their roots in their 'empire' were deep and well-placed before they waged war against the Celestial Empress and Gallos Empire, who were merely sitting back like a sleeping giant.

Terra and Pyre severely understimate the Empress. As loathe as I am to admit that anything about the war will be funny, it will be hilarious to watch them prod a sleeping bear. The sleeping bear. The two elementals are top-of-the-line assholes, after all, and as such it will be pleasing to see them get slapped in the face. The fact that they are my children makes no difference in this matter.

My incarnation was merely wandering about, my true body back in my workshop working on creating two new divine beasts, and various other incarnations off doing any number of things. This one was slacking. Because it could.

That is, however, until a particular shout of panic caught my attention.

"STATERA LUOTIAN!" The Mad Scientist shouted from two solar systems away. Each Tree was, in essence, its own galaxy, but only the First Region had reached the size of a true galaxy like the Milky Way as of yet. As such, each Tree had multiple solar systems orbiting them, each with their own miniature sun. Not every solar system held life, either, just like in my old universe. Cultivators could obviously change that however, since Immortals no longer needed something as mundane as oxygen. I turned to peer at the Mad Scientist as she flew every which way, hair a mess and a wild look in her eyes as she shouted my name to the heavesn above.

"Yes? What has you in such a tizzy?" I asked, teleporting by her side and scaring the living daylights out of her. I suppressed a snicker and quietly looked into what she had been doing for the past while, while she lived in the outer Regions of the Four Realms.

The answer was...not much. She'd been experimenting a bit, staying true to her name of Scientist, as well as increasing her cultivation level but nothing overly exciting. Oh, what's this? Seems she found a sweetheart. A shy little Fae that was struggling in his cultivation until the Mad Scientist came along and helped him out. It started off as a master/assisstant relationship, until it evolved into something deeper. How cute.

"YOU-! No, wait, that's not important right now." She shouted, not turning down the volume one level and also losing the pauses in her speech in her panic. "That One is coming. Is here. That One is here, in your realms, and I don't know why." She said gravely.

"You're going to have to explain further that just that. I don't understand what you mean by That One. Are they another Monkey Wrench, like yourself?" I pressed, urging her to explain further. The avian fluttered her wings in agitation, bobbing her head up and down while taking a few deep, calming breaths.

"Yes....they are. They are the...first, Monkey Wrench. I only ever met...them once, very briefly. Words cannot...describe that meeting. They have lived for...countless lifetimes, and countless years...in innumerable universes. Their name is....The First, and they are the...Ultimate Monkey Wrench." The Mad Scientist said slowly, regaining her usual speech pattern. I patted her shoulder, sighing internally and deciding to just take it all in stride.

"Ok, but how can you tell that they are here? I haven't felt anything, and the Four Realms knows the template of Monkey Wrenches because you are here. Well, I haven't specifically been searching for more Monkey Wrenches coming into the Realms though, so maybe it just slipped my attention." I mused, scratching my chin and sinking part of my true body's consciousness into the Four Realms to search for Monkey Wrenches.

There weren't any. Or, well, I say that, but I could clearly feel there was something there, but it wasn't in or a part of the Four Realms yet. Hmm.

"Monkey Wrenches can at certain...levels, sense another's...presence. Many factors are...involved, but possibly due to the small...size of the Four Realms and The First's strength, I can...feel them now." The Mad Scientist said, shaking her head. "But that is not the biggest...problem. Many times, the First is...accompanied."

"Oh? Accompanied?" I questioned, still probing the presence and trying to figure it out.

"Yes. By The Rival. The only being that is able to contest The First...they almost always accompany one another. Their clashes are...legendary. And destructive." The Mad Scientist begun to wring her hands.

"Do they always accompany each other?" I asked.

"...no, not always. But it is...common." She said. Okay...Mr. Blue Boxes, do you have any advice? ...no? Not even a little statement or warning? Fine then. Thanks for the help.

"Wonderful. As if I need another problem." I muttered, rubbing my temples. "Look, I'll handle this. I don't know how strong you think The First and The Rival are, but when it comes to them versus the destructive might of an entire universe, no matter how small, I'm going to put my money on the universe. Thank you for bringing this to my attention." Look on the bright side, me, this could end up being extremely beneficial. But well...in the end, I figure I'll just treat this like I do most everything else, and only take action if it threatens to become too much to handle.

Stretching out one hand, I grasped at one of the many strings of Fate I was beginning to become aware of. Quite a few were being redirected towards The First. Let's just...see where this goes.

POV CHANGE: The First

When I entered the newly made universe, I could only blink in confusion. For one, I was surrounded by Primordial Chaos. Second, I still wasn't a part of the universe. I was still in the processing stage, where my body and family and such would be decided and created. In this stage I could still adjust a little bit of the outcome, such as what race I would end up as, or what gender and whatnot. However here, in this area, I could feel that the chains that normally bound me from completely choosing were a bit...less than normal. Probably due to this universe's young age. Just under three million years...I'd taken a shit which had lasted longer than that.

No joke. And not a story I intend to delve into once again, thank you very much.

"Let's see...a Starman?" I questioned, pulling up a "game-screen" that displayed my future race, gender, family, etcetera. It was a lovely ability I picked up for the first time in my twentieth life. That world was a bit too much dark-fantasy for my tastes, though. Too much blood and gore and death, and not enough happy bards and busty tavernmaids that weren't looking to rob you blind and leave you dead in a ditch. Which reflected in the color of the screen, which I occasionally forget to switch from goth black to something cheerier. Like blood red, heartbreak blue, existential-crisis grey, or happy days yellow.

But it was one of the better layouts, so I kept this one instead of switching to other styles. For familiarity's sake.

Name: The First [Insert secondary name here] Age: 0 Race: Starman (Unique) (Divine Beast) Gender: Undecided Backstory: Born from the Primordial Chaos Family: Unique in the Four Realms, N/A

"A unique divine beast...? Sounds interesting. What does it look like?" I pondered, willing a projection of my future body to appear before me. It looked...pretty dope. I would have a total of seven arms, three on my left and right sides, respectively, with the seventh sticking out of my back, and my skin the color of a nebula. Actually...I'm pretty sure it was part nebula, because the skin shifted in color and had the same visual depth as a normal nebula would. Stars reflected from the black hair atop my future body's head, and my eyes shone like the sun itself. Seven horns stuck out from the top of my head, looking to be a mixture of metals commonly found in asteroids.

Neat. So the race name fits, huh? Starman. Starman...

"...I don't like it." I decided after a moment. Nope, I didn't feel like being a living nebula today, thank you very much. So, scrap that. Tapping on the [Race] part of the display, a list of options appearing before my eyes.

List of Races [Four Realms] Animals: Planet Dependant Magical Beasts: Planet Dependant Divine Beasts: Starman (Unique), Dragon, Frostform Dragonfly, Fireform Beetle, Skyshatter Wolf, Rainbow Serpent, Karmic Leviathan, Thunderbird...(more) Sentient Races: Fae, Avian, Karae, Elemental, Draconian, Dragon, Dryad, Arachion, Dimensional Creator, Nereid, Raijin, Djinn (Mixed-races available.)

I frowned. There were that few options to choose from? Only twelve sentient races and four categories? That's...pathetically low. Well, I suppose that's because of how young this universe is. It's exciting, really. I can't wait to get in there, but first...well, I want to select my race.

I started with pervueing the divine beast list. I'd been a dragon before, and as fun as it was, I didn't feel like being one this time around. It was interesting, however, that dragons were classified as both a sentient race and divine beast. Supposedly it should be one or the other, unless there are two separate races of dragons, but it appears whoever was the progenitor of dragons in this world deemed them to have the characteristics of both. However, in the list of divine beasts, nothing caught my eye.

The sentient races likewise held little interest to me either, and I had no intention to become a magical beast or animal. I had once reincarnated as a bacteria, and grown to become a divine beast. It was difficult, and not something I wish to repeat. To me, the sentient races were nothing special. The Fae were pretty cool, as were the Arachions (they had to be created by an evil being, because normal creators don't make their races that ready to fuck shit up. I mean, come on. They were part scorpion, part spider, part human and all nightmare. They were awesome.) However, I just wasn't feeling being a Fae, nor part of a warmonger race.

Three of the races were too young, too. They had barely been around long enough to learn about rocks, let alone fire. I'd guided civilizations before, and this...well, I was here to enjoy something new. Experience it, not mess with it. Kinda like how if you see something you really like, you don't have to take a picture or video, and instead bask in the moment.

"Hum dee dum, what should I do? None of these really interest me." I muttered to myself, shaking my head. The Djinn were kind of interesting sounding, because Djinn in many universes were also Genies, but I wanted to start off more from the bottom. So that meant being insanely and naturally talented, like a Starman, was out of the question. "Creation mode," I commanded, the game screen shifting to give me templates of humanoid bodies that I could manipulate...within reason. Each were base models of the twelve sentient races, with options for creating half-bloods.

This was a lovely power I had developed over the course of many lifetimes, mostly by living as doppelganger or shapeshifter races. Picking up the tiny bits of their powers here and there allowed me to utilize a more free-form style of shapeshifting...though it was limited to the "creation mode," which I could only access before I was re-born. Unless I was a shapeshifter. Then I had free reign.

"Okay, okay, let's see here...the Fae seemed to be the most balanced of all the races, and also the most populous, so I'll start there." I muttered to myself, selecting the 'doll' in front of me. Two more options popped up, depicting both the male and female sexes, and giving me many 'game-like' options for designing them. Yet another useful mechanic that I picked up...though I turned it on and off. Sometimes I wasn't in the mood for game-like options, and instead wanted a different approach. But this would serve my purposes this time around.

Ahhh, it had been far too long since I experienced the joys of character creation. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' and all that jazz.

I started with the horns. Most Fae had variations of straight horns, meaning each horn had a single 'trunk' that didn't branch off at all. Sure they could vary - some had different colors, some curled, others were straight, and there was on preset option that even allowed the horns to curl like ram's horns. So naturally I decided to stand out.

Reaching out, I grabbed the projections' horns, twisting them magnificently. The single 'trunk' was no more, instead replaced with three branches that intertwined with each other and creating a 'basket' over the top of my head, like a crown. For the male version, anyways. The female version was much more elegant, with the horns curving around the sides of her head and forming a beautiful 'tiara' type...thingy. I rubbed my hands in gleeful anticipation, promptly diving into the next portion of the creation process - the face.

In the end, I spent a good ten years just creating my body before I was satisfied. Awesome body? Check. Gorgerous (mispelling intentional) features? Checkaroo. (I'd been butt-assed ugly before, and while that was fun in its own right it had grown a little old...for the moment.) Completely void of all talent so that I could manipulate it as I saw fit while living? Check-a-mundo. Wings, because I came to really freaking love the design of the Avians? Double check. I say double check because I gave my new bodies four wings to make up for a lack of a tail. Y'know, for stabilization purposes. Lots of other minor things that I came up with and are too many to list? Cheeeeyeck.

The final step to this little thingamajig was to decide whether I wanted to be a super manly man amongst men or kickass goddess of kickassery amongst females. Because if there was always something I was, it was amazing. But that was just the problem, I had spent so long designing these bodies, and I didn't want to part with either of them!

Here, I'm going to save you the trouble of deciding. Watch me fix it.

I blinked at the purple box that appeared before me in surprise, watching in double surprise as my two bodies merged together...adding a function that allowed me to change genders at will. But...that's stupid. I don't want to be gender-fluid. That's just being lazy and postponing a decision rather than making a choice on gender. This designer is an idiot.

That's hurtful. I would never do something as asinine as taking a side by choosing a gender. Wait, you're 'hearing' my messages via boxes?! This is too cool! "> ;D :0 SMILEY FACES!! *Evil cackling* Oh, so that's how it does sound effects! I am Purple Boxes-San. Bow before me foolish mortal.

Yes, this designer is most certainly an idiot.

Tian will like you.

Whoever Tian is, they're a tool. I paused, waiting for a response. When none came I began separating the two bodies, opting to go for the third option.

Simply put, I separated my soul and consciousness into two identical pieces, sinking them into the bodies. This way both bodies were under my control without constantly switching genders, which would just be confusing for everyone involved. Additionally, I would share memories between the bodies, essentially living two lives at once.

Ignoring the purple box that inquired as to how that would be less confusing and accusing me of being hypocritically indecisive, I moved onto the next step. "Rightyo, then. Let's get this party started! Background powers, activate!" I shouted, throwing my hand up into a victory pose as the two bodies merged into my 'soul.' Once this period was over, I would be born anew as TWO, not ONE! In response to my actions, two more boxes appeared, one black, a product of my power, and one purple, as a comment to my performance. I didn't even glance at the background portion, opting to leave it set on random, and also ignored the condescending comment from the self-titled Purple Boxes-san. After all, I was old enough to not give a single flying flip as to what others thought of me.

You're fun.

(Though to be honest, I was intrigued. Was Purple Boxes-san the Origin Deity of this universe? I had never met one before, as they were either too big to be bothered with little-ol' me, just never bothered with me to begin with, or were dead.)

Ha. They didn't hear that thought, did they?

"Alright you lot, get ready for the shock-and-awe treatment! Because this party is getting started in exactly FIVE...FOUR...THREE...TWO..."

Ninety-seven

"SHUT UP! ONE! REINCARNATION, BEGIN!" I cried, and promptly began my new life in this new universe.

POV CHANGE: Randus (Deity of Dreams)

In response to Mother's strange cackling as She lounged next to Her fireplace, I merely raised my eyebrow. "Were you not going to leave this strange one alone until it did something more impressive?" I inquired, pouring Her another cup of tea. She took a long sip, patting my arm gratefully.

"Always with the most wonderful tea, Randus. And, to answer your question, yes, I was. But I got bored, and they were taking too long to create their body." She said airily.

"Ten years is too long? As I recall you took a couple hundred to create the Fae." I told Her.

"Yes, well, that's different. The First had a template to play off of, I had to create a sentient race from scratch without any prior knowledge on how to do so. Most of my attempts were experiments." Mother reasoned. With a flick of Her fingers, She sent off another message to The First, snickering to Herself. Something about their unique aura turned Mother's divine messages, which normally would've been more like a mental conversation or so subtle the recipient would view them as their own thoughts, had changed them into...something else. "Game boxes," I believe She called them. "Oh, this is fun." She cackled.

The novelty of it all would wear off in the next few hours. She frequently had moments like this, after all.

"What should we call this new race of theirs?" I inquired.

"Hmm? Oh, new race? Well, it's not technically a new race. It's a conglomeration of many current races, and not an official race. Since the Will of the Four Realms does not recognize it, I do not recognize it, and because I do not recognize it, the Will does not recognize it. Make sense?" She explained. I nodded vaguely, a tug pulling a portion of my essence back into the Dream Realm.

Ah, how intriguing. Two bodies, one soul, yet eight times the dreams? That is not how mathematics work. Nor dreams.

"I am expecting The First to cause a lot of changes, merely through their presence alone. There's a reason they are called Monkey Wrenches after all...though the Mad Scientist has done an excellent job of staying under the radar." She said, nodding her head. I agreed silently, gazing into the Dream Realm.

Dreams were many things. They were the past, present, future, all that will be, all that was never meant to be, and all that is a possibility. It is a Realm that all beings lived in, yet none of them were truly aware of. Except for myself and Mother, who have full access to this Realm. Through viewing a being's dreams, we were able to see far more than what any thought could profess. After all, the truest part of one's soul produced the truest Dreams, much in the same way the Heart revealed one's truest desires.

And yet the First's dreams were hidden from my eyes. Mother could see them, or at least pieces of them, but I could not. That was...disturbing. And yet I also knew it was merely because I was lacking, not because they were deliberately being hidden from me. Thus, I needed to grow further, and by watching The First I could do so...

A gentle push on my shoulder brought me back to the normal Realms, Mother looking at me with soft eyes, Her hand on my shoulder. "Go on, you. Don't let me keep you," She said. I bowed and slipped into the Dream Realm, vanishing altogether.

"By your command, Madam," I whispered, and let myself sink into the depths of Dreams. Grand fantasies, and dark nightmares, all were mine to watch and command, gently manipulating others in ways strange to the normal deities of the Four Realms.