《Trails of Ascension》Chapter 1: Aftermaths

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At the Peak of the Cosmos, two figures clashed.

One, overbearing and arrogant, with a crown of golden stars on his head, wearing blue armor and clad in a majestic aura of white.

The other, defiant and sharp, wears a black and silver armor with a violet coat, his whole being blazing with a crimson haze.

They clashed, and the Universe was torn apart. In their struggle to slay each other, they reaped the lives of countless beings, each attack holding the strength to devastate a minor world, the sheer force of presence exuding from them could ravage minor deities.

Finally, the battle came to an end.

The Challenger slew the Tyrant, and thus the heavens shattered and the Cataclysm was unleashed.

The universe of Urq, on an asteroid zone between two major planets, Diron and Haron.

A strange phenomenon occurred, a Spatial Howl, a phenomenon where astral bodies such as asteroids begin to shiver, move or otherwise behave in an abnormal way with some kind of epicenter as the origin, most of the time it is caused by the presence of mighty beasts altering gravity.

An enormous gravity locus started attracting asteroids in hundreds of kilometers around it, and space itself was torn as a gigantic beast emerged from the center of the Howl.

The beast had a long neck resembling a turtle, torso like a crocodile, 4 long front legs ending in claws and 2 short back legs with webbed feet like an amphibian, a long and thick spiked tail, its head is like a serpent but more wide to the sides, with a maw full of sharp and venomous teeth. The beast is 40 meters tall, 200 meters long, a gargantuan creature with eyes full of malice and madness.

The beast opened its maw and a voice could be heard in space, it is not sound, but rather a thought, an intent transmitted by psychic waves through the empty space.

"Finally... I am free..."

The voice sounds aged, tired and full of melancholy.

The beast looked around and two planets entered its vision

"It's been so long... I am... hungry."

Miasma started leaking from the beast's open maw, it’s drooling in anticipation of devouring a world after millennia of being caged.

The beast started to move towards the 2 planets, each movement of its legs made it cover a distance of a thousand kilometers. It wouldn't be long before it reached the atmosphere of the closest planet, Diron.

"Finally... something to quench my thirst and hunger..."

"Hmph, so you wish, mad beast."

Another thought-voice resounded.

The beast stopped moving immediately, how was it found so soon? It couldn't feel any presence around, where was the voice coming from?

How strong must the other party be to hide so perfectly and yet deliver such a clear message?

It soon got the answer to those questions, as a massive golden spear materialized in front of it and, without giving it any chance to react, cut it in two halves vertically.

The beast died, each side of its face staring at a different planet in the distance, full of regret because it could never taste them.

The spear that slew the beast reduced its size rapidly until it was barely 2 meters long, a figure almost as tall as the spear emerged next to it and took hold of it.

Robes seemingly made of pure white light covered his upper body loosely, immaculate pants of white linen covered his lower body, and sandals of pure gold adorned his feet. He had spotless skin like a marble, golden eyes that shone with the light of the Divine Power and long hair flowed behind his shoulders like a waterfall of gold, but the most standing feature of this being was the pair of powerful white wings on his back.

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He stood there watching the burning corpse of the spatial beast, wondering how it managed to escape from its ancient prison. Then he flew into Planet Diron, stopping above a forest. Looking at its calm sceneries of nature always relaxed him so he liked to visit such places when he had to meditate over troublesome matters.

However, he had no idea what could have caused the escape of that beast, and he figured it was better to go back to the Palace of Jade and talk with his comrades about it.

"I guess I should go back now."

He said with a melodious voice. Just as he was turning to leave, a puncturing pain flashed from within his chest making him grimace, it was stronger than anything he had felt before, what was happening? It was as if someone was stabbing him over and over from the inside.

He was a commander of the Heavenly Army, very few beings could hope to threaten him, how was he wounded?

He didn't understand what was happening, and now he felt a huge pain from the deepest part of his mind, as if his brain was being ripped apart from the inside. He screamed, holding his chest and head, struggling to stay awake, he needed to stay on guard, in case whoever or whatever was causing this pain decided to take a more physical approach to wound him.

He would not be taken down, he was a Celestial Soldier of the highest order, one that had been given powers and gifts by the Divine Himself, yes, he would withstand this and then continue serving Lord... who?

He froze for a moment, what was happening? His mind was getting foggy now, he felt he was losing something, but the moment he tried to know what it was, he even forgot he lost something.

He panicked, something was messing with his memories!

Such a thing should be impossible; his mental defenses had been put in place by... someone? Something? Who?

He shook, and the pain made him throw up blood.

"No, no... this can't be, the Divine Lord, I forgot his name. I am forgetting him? How is this-"

Raiel tried to organize his thoughts. He was feeling fear and despair; how long had it been since he had felt fear? Had he ever known despair? An existence of such high standing didn’t feel such low emotions of lesser beings, and yet, right now he was certainly feeling them deeply.

Another wave of pain made him scream and collapse on the ground. He felt inside him, the Mark of the Divine Spirit that was on him disappeared, and with it, many memories and a lot of power left him.

After a few seconds, the pain was gone, yet he remained on the ground, disoriented and breathing roughly, blood still running down his chin and onto the ground.

He raised his head to the heavens above, the place he called home now seemed to be a foreign place to him. He felt the emptiness in his soul, something was missing, something had been taken, ripped out of him in an extremely painful way, he even had moments when he didn't know who he himself was anymore.

"What the hell is going on?"

He spoke in a trembling voice. He was full of fear, feeling the desolation both within himself and in the heavens above. Tears fell from his eyes as his soul was grasped by despair.

It was at that moment that he knew that the race of Angels, celestial messengers of the gods, was going to face a huge calamity.

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In the Planet Tergan, a vast metropolis exists, filled with people going and coming, doing all kind of activities, vehicles move across the city at high speed as their passengers hurry up with their obligations of the day, lights of all colors flash in windows, roofs, walls, and posters. A city brimming with life and energy... at least that's how it should have been, because now the city showed a vastly different picture.

The world had stopped.

The pedestrians were frozen in time, airplanes in the sky disregarded gravity as they floated in the air, dogs with their snouts open in the middle of a bark, pigeons with their wings spread midflight, the planet itself was no longer spinning.

Yet in the middle of that silent world frozen in time, a single soul was still awake, aware of what was happening around him.

A young man of mere 18 years of age sat on the ground with his back on a wall, he too was paralyzed, but he was aware, and what he sees terrifies him more than anything he had seen or heard before, because no horror movie ever prepared him for what he was witnessing.

He had been going to the cinema just a minute ago, when he felt a tremor run through him, making him fall to the ground, he barely managed to avoid hitting his face to the asphalt when he noticed he couldn't move, and while scared for his own paralysis, he saw everyone on the street freeze just like him.

He knew, deep inside him, on a primal level beyond his concious self, that something was wrong. Something terrible was happening beyond what he was witnessing. It was like he suddenly found there was no air around him, or if the color blue no longer existed and his eyes were struggling to make sense of the new state of the world. Something was fundamentally wrong, but he could not know what it was.

But the situation only became worse as a sudden, terrible screech sounded, it felt like a thousand nails scratching a blackboard at the same time and then the screech turned into a cracking sound like tableware shattering over and over again.

As if the world itself was wailing.

It was loud to the point of deafening, and when the young man started to think he would go insane because of the noise, it ended, at the same time as thin cracks started to appear on the air around him, it seemed as if he was watching the world through some glasses, if those glasses were now full of cracks.

The rifts went through everything; the ground, the air, the buildings and the people, the only place without cracks seemed to be a small area of about a meter around the boy. As if that wasn't enough for the poor lad to question his sanity, he felt his body loosen a little, feeling strangely comfortable and strong.

But he didn't have much time to wonder about his body.

The world restarted its rotation and he saw people start to move again, but as they touched the cracks, people fragmented. It was as if each part of them passed through a different path, heads stood in place as the rest of the bodies kept walking, legs started walking in opposite directions separated from the torso, the left side started walking into the air while the right side dug in the ground.

Some people moved and became fragmented, other people stood on the street watching their phones, some talking, everyone unaware of the cracks passing through them and dividing them, no one seemed to notice how everyone was being hacked into random-sized pieces. The only place untouched was around the young man.

It was like some twisted kaleidoscope, and it was extremely disturbing for him to watch this bizarre scene. Watching with morbid fascination at the scene displayed in front of him, he kept sitting there in his small area without cracks for the few seconds the eerie spectacle lasted.

And then, hell on earth.

With another short screech and a sickening snap, the cracks disappeared as the space restored to its original appearance.

The bodies of the people did not return to their previous positions.

Every person was horribly sliced apart and their limbs were strewn across the ground, buildings fell apart and pieces of airplanes fell from the sky adding destruction of fire and explosions to the carnage.

Billions of souls wailed at the same time as the world exhaled its last, and only one living person still drew breath.

More than the horror he had just witnessed, enough to traumatize him already, pain assaulted him as a veritable torrent of something rushed into him. It was as if an ocean was trying to fit into a bottle.

It hurt. It burned from the very core of his being in a way beyond physical, igniting his soul as a wildfire.

In the dead world of Tergan, where only one man remained alive, Ethan Bhreg screamed at the top of his lungs, dyed in red on a land where no soul could hear his cries.

Seventh Sphere of Pereastra Plane.

The Holy City of Habika, home of the greatest temples of many of the major gods in the cosmos, it was considered by many as a land loved by the Gods, and it housed many marvels and treasures dedicated to the Gods, even some artifacts and constructions were said to have been created by the Gods themselves.

The Central Temple, a massive construction filled with statues of the gods was the place where the ruling class of the city, the priests, lived, performed their religious duties and took decisions for the city.

On the northern part of the city stood a giant monolith shaped like a stone gate carved with golden sigils, it was usually shining with power and a divine radiance, however, it had lost its brilliance all of a sudden, and even started to crack, looking like a dull rock.

The priests were gathered in the Central Temple for an emergency meeting, the reason for it was that the Arc of Revelations, a divine object created by the gods and through which they communicated with the priests, had lost its radiance and the divine presence was no longer in it.

The Arc was a major keystone of the Holy City, and a central part of their religion, since it was used for the gods to descend into the Pereastra Plane and it was said the gods would also take their chosen with them through its gate.

But now it had lost the blessing of the gods, and by extension, it meant that they had all lost the blessing of the gods, such a thought brought despair into their hearts.

“It is too soon to jump to conclusions, we haven’t received any divine revelation nor any celestial messenger has descended, there is no need to be hasting, we need to be patient and keep our faith.”

One of the older priests spoke. His voice was firm and calm, although his face showed he was extremely worried about the situation.

“Correct, if our behavior, actions or decisions had incurred the wrath of the gods, they would have told us so and we would have taken immediate action to correct the issues, so it can’t be that we have lost their favor.”

A priestess of Ela, the Goddess of Nature, said with a serious face.

“Something must have happened in the Divine Realm.”

The Head Priest of the Central Temple, a man said to be a Prophet of the Divine Sovereign himself spoke with a solemn voice.

He was holding his chest and had a pained expression.

“Head Priest, is your health okay?”

The priestess of Ela who spoke before looked worriedly at the Head Priest, he was already a very old man. Maybe these events had been too hard for his heart? Unlikely, as they were possessors of great power, blessed by the Gods themselves. They wouldn't be taken by mere disease or old age.

“I’m fine.”

The Head Priest answered while shaking his head.

“But I have a weird sensation in me, it’s probably due to the same disturbance that caused the Arc of Revelations to stop functioning, but I’m not sure what it means.”

He let out a sigh and raised his hand to his hair. The priests looking at him froze and stared at him.

“What?”

The Head Priest asked after noticing their expressions.

“Head Priest, your breastplate, was it always black?”

A priest of the Fire Temple said while frowning. He was trying hard to remember, but could not ascertain how the Head Priest's breastplate looked like before.

The Head Priest furrowed his brow, his breastplate was a religious symbol depicting scenes from the legends, great deeds of the gods, especially the lead Divinity, Lord De… Lord… who?

He noticed in consternation how his memory was failing him and then took a look around, the breastplates of all the priests had stained with a black color, he watched, stunned with terror, as many of the portraits and statues around started to turn to dust but the lower level priests didn’t even notice there was something there. He knew there was something, but he no longer could remember what those things looked like.

There was a loud sound as something crumbled in the middle of the Central Temple, in the most revered area where the statues of the Gods were. Right in the middle of the statues, there was a huge empty space.

Was something even there before?

In the mystic lands of Velleriut, one man stands surrounded by 6 Masters, he has multiple wounds across his body, his robe is shredded and his blood falls to the ground little by little, and yet, for each wound inflicted on him he has inflicted two on each of his assailants, they were 50 when this chase began, only 6 remain, stubbornly clinging to their ambition, they have already gone too far and sacrificed too many things, they can't return now, they either succeed or die.

"Give us the treasure, Marcus, and you might return alive."

One of the men said with a scowl on his face, hatred was clear on his eyes and voice.

"Come on, after all this, you can still spout such obvious bullshit?"

Marcus gave him a dry laugh and mocked him.

"You can't win."

Another Master, this time an elf, said with a cold voice.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure I can win. It's others who had to gang up 50 to 1 in order to have the balls to take action."

Marcus answered with a sneer. The men glared at Marcus with hatred and fury. There was no doubt that they were never planning to let him leave alive, they have been humiliated by him too many times, even now, with wounds all over his body and when outnumbered, he remained unafraid and still mocked them for their cowardly attempt.

But they had no choice, he was simply too strong.

Marcus Eltrigga was a tall 32-years-old man with light white hair and sharp green eyes, his hair was short with a spiky pattern towards the back of his head, he wore a gray martial artist robe which now exposed his wounded torso due to the fight, a black bracelet on his left arm and black pants with wet stains of blood in them, most of it from his opponents, he wasn’t wearing any shoes.

He had risen to prominence a little over a decade ago as a young prodigy of martial arts. In a world where every major power consisted of people who studied the mystic arts and used relics of power to strengthen themselves and fight, he was a maverick who honed his physical prowess and toned up his body for combat. Every muscle of his body was developed, but it was not for mere potency or strength for lifting things, he didn't have a massive body, it was the body of a skilled warrior, tempering every fiber to the utmost in search for perfection and martial efficiency. He valued speed and precision over brute force, but of course, he possessed a monstrous strength capable of shattering rocks easily.

His specialty was hunting magical beasts and he possessed a high resistance to mystic attacks, at first he was underestimated a lot and bad-mouthed by many, but slowly yet surely he proved to be a force to be reckoned.

Case in point, a year ago in the exploration of an ancient ruin, many Masters of mystic arts gathered to search for its treasures. Being a bit of a pariah, he entered alone which carried a huge risk but on the upside also meant his loot and any discoveries inside belonged to him alone.

Inside a deep chamber that he was pretty sure belonged to some powerful wizard king of the distant past, Marcus found an artifact that radiated power like none he had felt before. Despite the huge possibility of it being useless for him, there was no reason to not take it, especially since giving it to those arrogant mystics who hated him so much was definitely a bad idea.

However, he was found on the way back and a group of mystics tried to steal the artifact from him, resulting in Marcus killing many of them, including the head of one of the most powerful clans and the heir of another clan of similar status. The survivors who managed to run away spread the news of the artifact and claimed Marcus had stolen it from them.

Such blatant lie was, however, the perfect excuse the clans had been waiting for, they wanted one to call a raiding party upon him, and thus a hunt began.

"Come on, moths, don't be so far from the flame after chasing it for so long."

Marcus raised two fingers and pointed to the elf Mystic Master.

"But first I really wanna hear how were you geniuses planning to share a single artifact among 50 mystics."

He flexed his fingers, beckoning to the elf, taunting him to break formation.

Promises of the ancient mystic artifact was a huge enticement for many Masters to join in the hunt against Marcus, but it was an illogical enticement, as it was impossible to share the artifact between all participants.

However, the bait had worked, with the mystics secretly plotting against each other and planning to run with the artifact at the first chance.

For a whole year, Marcus had been fighting constantly, fighting, running, hiding and fighting again, but he had claimed the lives of numerous mystics in this year and his own skills had improved significantly.

And now the hunt has come to an end, either they manage to kill Marcus now that he is wounded after the ambush of 50 mystic masters or they die, because if he managed to get away and recover, then it will be them who will be hunted down.

Although Marcus didn't plan to let them live another day.

The elf Mystic Master howled at Marcus and gathered energy for a spell, he pointed as a magic circle appeared in a second, fully charged and ready to shoot a blast against Marcus.

And Marcus wouldn't let such a chance slip by.

"This fucking idiot!"

One of the mystics mentally cursed while trying to summon a barrier, but it was too late.

A single second, that was all that was needed for someone of their level.

One second to summon an attack spell, one second to summon a defensive barrier.

Barely more than what Marcus needed to dash forwards and jump towards the elf, delivering a Guillotine Kick to the neck with lightning speed, the attack was so fast and precise that the elf's neck bones were blown apart by the kick passing through his body and yet the body remained immobile.

Marcus landed behind the dead elf before his victim could realize what had happened, a fraction of a second later a barrier formed in front of the elf, too late to stop his death.

"Damn it!"

The other mystics cursed at the sight of the elven corpse.

"You are next, fuckers!"

Marcus laughed as he side-stepped the incoming attacks of two mystics before running towards them, half-way through, however, he jumped to the side just before a huge spike thrust from the ground in the space he was just a moment ago.

The jump directed Marcus towards another mystic, who started to hurriedly form a defense by burning an amulet, Marcus spun in the air and kicked the air, creating a shockwave and changing direction midair, returning to his previous charge towards the two mystics who stood side by side.

This was an amazing display of skill, but they had seen him do greater things during the initial ambush, had it not been for the elf mystic mistake of letting his emotions overcome him, he wouldn't have been killed so easily, but they were all tired and stressed after such a long fight, and watching other powerful Masters die one after another constantly made them have thoughts that maybe the next to die would be them.

These two mystics were more cold-headed but they couldn't help panicking a little as they felt Marcus murderous intent channeled in his fist targeting them directly.

They both summoned lightning and synchronized their spells, further increasing the resulting attack, just as Marcus thrust his fists forward.

Lightning chains clashed against fist of flesh and bone, but this flesh and bone had been tempered to be stronger than steel, the lightning was blasted apart dispersing under the superior force of the martial artist, the eyes of the two mystics widened in fear as the fists continued forward, hitting them on their faces, their skulls cracked and their faces caved in before their bodies were sent flying by the impact, they crashed against trees 20 meters away with the unmistakable sound of their spines breaking. The bodies fell to the ground, never to rise again.

"Three left."

Marcus said, almost like a whisper, as he stared at the trio of soon-to-be corpses.

They were too scared now, although they were too proud and ambitious to run away, their fear was evident in that now, when Marcus lunged at them, their first reaction was defense, they raised their individual defenses, cooperation was broken and their will to attack was gone.

Just what Marcus wanted to happen.

Losing their calm, they act on instinct, their minds momentarily forgetting they didn't have the necessary strength to withstand his attacks alone.

Marcus delivered a kick to the chin of the first mystic, cleaving his barrier as if it was paper, his head flew through the air.

He dashed sideways, his feet appearing to glide on the ground as he approached his second target, sweeping with a low kick under the mystic knees, shattering them. The mystic screamed in pain as he fell to the side. An elbow strike to the head later, he was silenced forever.

Now only one mystic was left, the one who held the barrier with a burning amulet. Marcus walked calmly towards him, the mystic stared at him for a moment before sighing in defeat.

"This is your victory, Marcus Eltrigga."

The mystic said, apparently accepting his death.

"Yes, I already knew that, paper fan."

Marcus replied in an unamused tone as he walked to his last opponent.

"Congratulations, Grand Master Marcus, now there is no force in this world that can oppose you."

"I never cared about such shit and you know it. it was always you bastards who touched yourselves at night thinking about the control you held over land and people."

Marcus spoke with disgust clear on his face and voice.

He was now 3 steps away from the last mystic.

The mystic gave him a rueful smile and closed his eyes.

"Yeah, I suppose that's what you would think of us."

He raised his head and opened his eyes again.

"Let me ask you a final fav-"

"No."

Marcus cut off the mystic's head with a swift motion of his hand. He took a deep breath and started to search their bodies for valuables, a bracelet on his left arm shone and all the items were collected inside a storage space.

He watched the sky, now finally having the time to carefully inspect the strange phenomenon occurring. A multicolored haze covered the skies, many images were displayed on it, images of shooting stars, flying beasts, and roaring dragons.

Marcus first noticed it about an hour ago, in the middle of the fight, but he was running while fighting, so he couldn't pay much attention to it. However, there were 2 things that made the strange phenomenon impossible to ignore: first, he felt changes within him starting at the same time he noticed the changes in the sky, his body felt lighter, it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from him, he could even breath better now; and secondly, the artifact he had in his possession, the very same that triggered the hunt against him, was reacting, emitting pulses of energy from within the Spatial Bracelet.

Marcus took out the artifact to take a careful look at it. It was a golden medallion encrusted with a heliotrope-colored gem in the center, silver runes of archaic design were drawn around it.

The gem shone brightly and a magic circle was drawn in the air in front of Marcus, he smiled after feeling the energy of the gem, it was trying to open a portal.

He did not hesitate, he stepped into the portal with a confident stride, driven by his instinct and curiosity. Marcus vanished into the portal, toward an unknown place.

One minute later, the mystic lands of Velleriut were ravaged by meteors from beyond the skies.

In the middle of the ruins of the Divine Realm, Navin sat in meditation with his eyes closed. Fire spewed from his right eye, lighting cracked on his left eye, from the numerous cracks on his body all kinds of energies gushed out, breaking it apart despite his constant recovery, he could barely keep them at bay and prevent his body from falling apart, and yet his body was slowly but steadily strengthening in this long and painful process.

He couldn’t move due to the damage caused by Deus on his body, but his mind and soul were stronger than ever before, and from the privileged position of the Divine Realm, a plane higher than all other known by him, and having so many karma threads and lines of causality connecting it to other worlds, it wasn’t hard for Navin to be aware of the great changes happening in the cosmos.

The cataclysm was terrible, and it had claimed countless lives already, some worlds didn’t suffer a direct backlash from the separation with the gods, while others were crushed by the wild energies out of control, some worlds even clashed with each other, thrown into chaos by the sudden rupture of the Seal of the Cosmos.

The races related to the Divinities lost their Grace and Gifts bestowed by Deus, as well as the protection of their patron gods who were now dead. The mortal worlds deeply connected to the Gods took the heaviest blow, as the backlash was most violent in them, resulting in the destruction of many civilizations.

But not all was lost, not all was devastation. There was also hope, and this destruction had a purpose. A new dawn would rise for the whole Cosmos, an era of reconstruction and elevation to unprecedented heights was about to come.

The ancient restrictions on people and lands were lifted. Those who were more sensitive to the laws of the cosmos must have felt it already, the comprehension of numerous paths was made easier and the limits imposed by the Divinities were gone now. It was time for breakthroughs and the birth of new Powerhouses. There were also some worlds that absorbed others and species that assimilated new energies in their organisms. Creatures were adapting, evolving.

Navin watched many events happening across the cosmos, a hard smile on his face. There was still hope. It hadn't been in vain, all the fighting, all the suffering. After this last Cataclysm, the Cosmos would finally know true freedom.

He took out something from his personal storage space. A white rectangular canvas appeared in front of him, shining with soft energy. A strange feeling of purity, order, and void coming from it. This was a Divine-ranked Artifact created by Navin, the blank canvas known as an empty page of new creation, Tabula Rasa.

It had been created after much effort by isolating the principle of order from the energies of chaos but preserving the creating function of Primordial Chaos. Navin had invested on it his own comprehensions of the Path of Freedom, the essence of being unfettered and unrestrained, along with an understanding of the Void. The creative energies inside it were immeasurable.

This artifact had no attack power, and yet it was an object of the highest rank in existence, its function lied in the creation of something entirely new, completely unpolluted by outside forces, free from external restrictions.

And now, it was time for it to be used.

Navin placed the Tabula Rasa on his chest, and it entered his body, appeared next to the core of his soul, right in the middle of the chaotic energies trying to destroy him.

It started to absorb the chaotic energies, preventing them from further damaging Navin, a pattern of all colors appeared in the center of the canvas, representing Primordial Chaos, it was like multiple spirals superimposed. It greedily devoured the ravaging powers, making Navin let out a sigh of relaxation.

Taming those wild energies had proven too difficult to do in a short time, and Navin needed to take action, so despite his reluctance of using his precious creation on this, he used it to stop the damage on him.

His body was still too damaged to move. He needed to focus on recovering, but if he let the Cosmos go berserk for longer, who knows in what state it would be once it calmed down. It was good that the potential of the worlds and the people were no longer restrained, but too much chaos would only lead to destruction instead of bringing forth change and advancement.

Breathe in.

Navin closed his eyes again, infusing his soul into the Tabula Rasa, a small figure sitting cross-legged in a single dot representing him appeared in the core of the spirals.

Breathe out

Navin extended his hands in front of him, multiple lines of different colors were projected from the white canvas inside Navin towards the cosmos around him, the lines seemed to extend to infinity and then faded until they were invisible.

“Fuck, to think I not only have to heal myself but also keep this bunch of stuff at bay.”

Navin complained while feeling the great stress on his whole being.

“Well, once the worlds stabilize and people start reaching the necessary state to control these forces, my burden will be lifted.”

He had no desire of ruling over the cosmos or being the controller of all the forces in the multiverse, however, he was the most capable for the job, and if he didn’t step in to keep the forces from rampaging they would destroy the planes of existence.

This was his responsibility, he was partly responsible for the current situation, after all, he was the one who led the war against Deus and other Divinities, as well as the one who killed him, so now he had to do damage control.

There were 2 ways for him to do that:

-Keep the forces at bay by holding the reins on the energies of the cosmos until the planes stabilize and new powerhouses capable of wielding the forces ascend.

-Travel around the cosmos, applying direct measures to repair damage and prevent further chaos.

He was already doing the first, the chaotic energies inside him came from the stars of the Divine Realm which were connections to the realms under it. Through those energies, Navin recreated the connections and started to regulate the energies rampaging the worlds and stopping the backlash from the rupture of the seal from continuing.

But he also wanted to do the second, so he needed a new body, an avatar or maybe a group of clones he could move while his true body stayed here recovering.

And he had just the treasure for it, his Tabula Rasa. After all, its original purpose was to be used in the creation of something completely new, untouched by the cosmos corrupted by Deus.

Now he would use it to forge a new body, pure and free, with an unrestrained and unlimited path, and use it to explore this cosmos now that it was released from the Gods’ oppression.

Using his own flesh and blood together with the Tabula Rasa infused with his soul, a figure was formed. The second body’s appearance was like a younger version of Navin, looking like a man in his early twenties with short dark brown hair and blue eyes, he was tall with a toned body, well-developed muscles, he wore black boots, dark blue pants, and black tunic-like shirt, he also had a white robe with violet runes embroidered covering his upper body.

“Well then, where to go now?”

Navin's new body wondered while stretching. His eyes flashed with Primordial Chaos for an instant as he read the flow of energies and felt the states of the worlds. Including the Threads of Karma now pulling at him, calling for him. A smile blossomed on his face as he stared at the possibilities starting to take form. The path of Fate now extending in front of him.

“Alright, I have decided.”

He put a finger on his forehead and produced a small light, he extended his finger and divided the light into 4 small orbs.

"Nirmita."

The four orbs shone for an instant before taking his shape, although they were transparent, barely more than a sparkling mirage.

These were thought-constructs emanations of his self, created by his aura and mind, they had a mere fraction of his powers, but would be enough to explore the worlds and interact with people if necessary, they could also take a more physical appearance for a short time.

Now, he reinforced them and infused them with more power. Anchoring a mystical array with the use of these Avatars of himself.

He waved a hand and the 4 Nirmitas flew away, descending toward the lower realms

“Now, let’s begin this new journey.”

Navin’s second body said with a smile.

And while his true body closed his eyes and focused on cultivating to restore himself, the second body teleported out of the ruins of the Divine Realm, on a quest of new adventures and to bring great changes to the Cosmos.

The Wheel's stagnant rotation, turning without truly advancing, had been broken and now it was a time of calamity and turmoil. Yet that too, in time, would pass.

Then, the Cosmos would finally be able to move forwards again.

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