Chương 569: BECMI Chapter 568 – The Stories Never End

Events were winding down on Nown in many ways, even if they remained energetic overall. At least, they were for me. Immortals were still throwing their mortal followers at one another with zeal, but with Avatars dying regularly, more and more of them were being barred from Nown entirely. That those attacking the Churches of Heaven were the ones being barred or outright killed the most didn't escape their attention.

Entropic Immortals quietly vanished into the cold and dark, only the fact their priests had lost their magic forever cluing in the curious as to their fate. Those of wiser mindsets removed themselves from the Prime entirely, not daring to send forth Avatars that could lead back to themselves, seething but restricting themselves to visions and dreams sent to their priests and mortal followers.

The right and will of the Immortals to take mortal followers and set up religions was now a burden and a responsibility that had to be taken very seriously. Immortals who didn't mess with mortals ended up being mostly ignored by the entities of Heaven who took that duty very seriously, indeed. It meant a distancing of many Immortals from the Mortal Plane. This was helped out at the highest Levels by discussions between several Hierarchs and Avatars of Heaven.

The news that the Alignments extended across Creation and outside this Multiverse was both good and horrible news to these Immortals. The latter was wonderful, as it confirmed what they'd been unable to discover for themselves: the existence of multiple Multiverses, different even than the Dimensional Walls their powers could not pierce readily. Horrible, because there were Evil, Lawful, and Chaotic gods out there who would be brutally efficient at subjugating all of them and forcing them to serve beneath them…

or just wipe them out as ignorant competition. The gods of Heaven were quite bad enough, especially for the Entropics… but when the Entropics heard about the likes of Voyd and Skulos and Huul and their subordinate gods, not a one of them had the slightest inclination to go find beings of that level of power to counterbalance Heaven, knowing they'd trade ornery neighbors for being slaves for eternity… and that settled well with none of them.

Heaven wasn't even forbidding them from interacting with mortals, they simply had to do it with mortal methods… and if they wanted to mess with one another or realms with no mortal souls, they were perfectly fine to do so. If the whole former Pantheon somehow arrived, they'd warp the entire multiverse.

The home realms where the Immortals played as gods would be folded into singular planes under the actual gods' wills, and they would effectively lose everything that defined what they were, trading it for an eternity of enforced servitude under beings they could not rival. The mortal strife basically shook out those Immortals who were going to wash their hands of Nown and go off and find other things to do. It was bloody war for the mortals involved at the wills of the Immortals, but to the victor went the spoils.

Defeated Immortals gave up the field and withdrew from Nown to a large extent, often holding onto but a few diehard adherents who truly believed in them and their message, and letting go of many lay followers and neutral believers who had little true fervor. Other Nown was gearing up for a new Eternal war. The Shroud was out there, the undead were expanding, and every year we delayed was another world lost or more.

Yet even Eternals deserved some rest, and so time was spent fortifying, raising children, teaching them well, internally expanding, and consolidating gains and authority as needed to be done in service to the greater mission.

There was a hammering from the other side of the thousand-foot Seal. The force of it shook the entire Seal, and it made the very mountain it was upon shudder from the power of the blows. Immortal Power contended with Immortal Power and blows impossible to truly stop, and the Artifact-class Seal wavered as its power was chipped away. Then the baka-stone it was made of was driven apart by a mighty Hammer that could forge the hearts of stars, and wasn't going to be stopped by a mere Artifact, however grand.

Wulshar, also known as Clangyr, could not help but feel the blows falling upon the Seal he had made, and could only close his eyes and sigh at what was to come. Hurriedly he began the process of severing off the portion of his own Home Realm that held the moon the Seal was upon, rather than give who was coming access inside his own home and thus the ability to destroy him forever.

Harnadin the Smith-Father of the Dwarves, their true Creator, was returning to Nown, and was going to upset Immortal society immediately when doing so. After all, the other Immortals had tacitly consented to his being barred away, so he had no obligations to them whatsoever at this point. This new Dwarven Immortal Himmelstern was going to have a great and powerful supporter behind him shortly, one who had seeded and sponsored great dwarven nations across a thousand worlds.

Who knew how long his time as Clangyr would last in the face of the two of them? He had treated his dwarves well and always supported them, but the trickery involved in their making might well shatter their faith in him completely, and he knew it. Facing down the direct wrath of the Father of the Dwarves would also be very tedious, indeed, leaving Clangyr wondering if it might not also be time to leave the world of his birth behind… Did you know this text is from a different site?

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There was no great council to hammer out rights and responsibilities, the gods looming over all and forcing the Immortals to submit. Heaven had no faith in the Immortals to obey such things, and the Immortals knew the only reason Heaven had to obey such a compact was if they chose to do so. There was no great war between Immortals and gods, because that was something which the Immortals had absolutely no chance of winning, and they knew it. Heaven was not into conquest, and so eschewed the option entirely.

The wars in the world of Nown did begin to dry up, creating new openings for power and privilege among the people of many races, new ruins to explore, and new opportunities for adventure which Immortals and gods alike prodded their faithful to take advantage of. Scores of Immortals departed Nown forever, unable to manifest there at all, while scores more had gone missing and were deemed to be slain, by either the gods or their own peers acting in secret.

The world had changed, and yet, to most mortals it went on as it ever had. There was danger to be found in the open and in the shadows. There was adventure to be had, breaking out of the mold of the common soul and seizing magic and might and changing one's future. There was glory to grasp, and Eternity to strive for. And there was one thing more. There was a war waiting for them. A war against a monstrous foe that numbered in at least the hundreds of billions, probably trillions.

There were whole worlds waiting to be reclaimed from under The Shroud...

The Signal came at the temporal coordinates they were set to, decided long ago in the past to give time for our people to rest, recover, and prepare. Across two worlds, Eternals began to move and make their final preparations. Those on different planes adventuring and exploring finished up their expeditions and returned to take part. It had been nearly forty years since Aelryinth had been there. New nations had begun to rise, old nations to change, religions to spread and evolve.

Recovery from the wars took root in most places, festered on and worsened in others. It was time enough for Eternals to have families and leave behind a legacy… or even to bring them with them, if they so desired.

Below the Innspot, the Temporal Lock I acknowledged rang back to Aelryinth, reverberating beyond dimensions and the multiversal wall. With two points to anchor it now, the timelines of the different multiverses would sync up and there would be no leverage of time between the two multiverses going forward.

The Nexus of Realities that was in his Sanctum Sanctorum reached out and interwove with the standing Portal here, shifting its loop and tunnel through time for a moment, allowing it to reach beyond the world of Nown and this multiverse. Over a thousand battle-hardened and very prepared Eternals were gathered around the place, drawn from both Nown Worlds and ready to undertake the next stage of their own existence.

With them came entourages, friends and families and followers gathered over three millennia of conflict, ready to get back to the fight, or to embrace an Eternal War for the first time, as the case might be. Rainbow lights fell from the Portal as it cleared, showing a new world beyond, waiting for us. It was one step closer to the threat of the Shroud, and a level of glory that would carry them on for another thousand years.

The mortal and Immortal Clones, Sims, and Duplicates I was leaving behind could take care of my mundane mortal affairs, the kingdom I'd established, and the relationships that I'd built up. I was leaving everything in good hands. It was time for an Eternal to do something worthy of being an Eternal. I would follow the paths of the Death Gates from slain world to slain world. I would map and chart them across time and space.

I would bring the armies of mortal life to those worlds, and there they would do battle and kill off the undead scourge, beating back the Shroud. I would be a Harbinger of True Death for lost worlds, and it would be Good. I did not order anyone to go first. I took the lead here, as I had for the Road to Eternity. I stepped forward into the Nexus as the Harbinger, leading the way, and they followed me to this war as they had followed me to the last one.

Sif and Thor, their Empires handed off to their descendants and Eternals interested in administering mortals, were right behind me with the Imperial family members who had chosen to come, which was most of them. Mortal affairs were best handled by mortals, and they had plenty of descendants who were Aspirant Masters with extra years and the experience and vision needed to do the job. Not all the Eternals were coming.

Some remained to watch over Nown and Other Nown, just in case they were needed, until new blood arose from below to replace them, and they could come to join us. Behind the Bright Imperial family, the Mick led all the rest. Laurentine was at his side as ever, leading those who would undertake the Duty of Fire. Whole worlds would be Burning en vivus flamme to purge them of undeath. The gods had the Immortals in hand. It was time for Eternals to do something the gods could not.

We stepped into the Portal and the Nexus, there to be transported across time and space to a world freed from the Shroud, and the Death Gates leading out from it… and one leading TO it. I… would be undertaking another jump from this lonely world slowly being returned to life, a task some of the Eternals who had experience restoring Other Nown were going to lead efforts on here and accelerate. I was heading to a dark and lifeless abandoned moon in orbit around Terra-Luna, with twelve Death Gates extending from it.

I would be the Harbinger, mapping the Shroudworlds, and in my wake, sooner or later, the Fires of Life would follow... ======================= This is the End of Biracial Edgelord Can't Make Immortal. But as ever, the story keeps going, and Edge is answering the call of one of the other Shards to do what has to be done. She's had many more years to gather forces than Traveler has…

The next novel will be coming out and picking up the story of Tiya and Deus from the Magazine Contest here on Royal Road that I wrote them for. Shard Zvei, Deuce is trapped on a world where all the male gods, and all the Good gods, have been exiled, and Eryl the Storm Queen dominates the world. By her authority, males are prevented from reaching higher than Level Four in any Classes, which means all positions of power and authority naturally go to women who can become far more adept than any male.

Deuce is born into this world, has to grow his power under the noses of a domineering Amazon culture, find out how the gods are barred, and save the world while he's at it. No pressure. It's just starting as a babe, half-breed, and male in an Amazon Empire is not exactly the best starting point for a fight like this, so it's time to rely on Mom to save the day! …