Chapter 250: Sabbatical – Chapter 232: Opening Move

"You seemed to have enjoyed yourself," Caethya said as Aperio appeared behind her and wrapped her hands around the Demigoddess' waist.

"You watched me?" the All-Mother asked.

"No," her love replied with a shake of her head. "I can't really look into the separate floors of the dungeon. The way you set them up is confusing, to say the least. But I don't need to see, I can feel it. Hard to miss the universe having fun."

"I see." Aperio then sat down. As tall as she was, her arms still more than reached over to her love in a way that allowed her to remain comfortably standing. "It was indeed enjoyable, even if I was reminded of how pitifully weak Earth is. Despite everything I have done, my body still takes in more mana than Earth can hold at any one time."

Caethya gave a small laugh and turned around. She looked at Aperio with a smile on her face for a moment before she leaned in and gave her love a kiss. "Your body alone uses more mana than I can reasonably hold within mine, as far as I can tell. And all of that is seemingly only for making it physically stronger."

"That is not all I do." Aperio tilted her head. "I mainly strengthen my body so that it can contain myself, which is as constantly expanding as my creation. In essence, I am trying to give my traditionally formless self a form."

Technically, she could just make multiple vessels like her old self had done, but Aperio was against that. There was only one of her, and she would keep it that way. Compared to what she was planning to do with the rest of her creation, it might seem like hypocrisy, but Aperio had no intention of making more than one true body for herself. The other realities that would come to be would simply have to live without her physical presence.

"Right." Caethya nodded and sat herself down in front of Aperio. "I always forget that your awareness spans all of existence." She smiled again. "I guess that means you are doing a good job of staying in one place."

"While the two of you are somehow adorable," Eleanor said, "could I ask a question?"

"Of course," the All-Mother replied, glancing past her love and at the mortal mage. "Ask away."

"What happens now?" the woman asked. "Are you just going to wait until we beat this dungeon? Will you make more?"

"In a few moments I will grant the next set of mortals access to the System, and after that there are only a few left that were so far removed from mana itself that I am questioning how they are alive."

For some of them, Aperio had difficulty even calling them 'alive' as they were practically chained to a bed, unable to move or even wake from the slumber they were in. She knew none of these mortals, but their current state did not sit quite right with her. Those who were in that state specifically because Earth previously lacked sufficient mana for all the mortals that loved on it were especially of concern to her. You'll be free soon.

"You... how bad is the situation for these people?" Eleanor asked.

The All-Mother tilted her head slightly. “Their bodies cannot function as they lack mana, leaving their minds at the edge of consciousness at all times. All of them, trapped in a slowly withering husk that is only kept alive thanks to the medications your people feed them. Doomed the moment they were born, simply because their Souls came to Earth at the wrong time.”

"Are you telling me that some of the diseases we have no explanation for are caused by a lack of mana? That would explain a few things." Eleanor shook her head before she muttered, “Mana draught, what the fuck.”

"Perhaps." Aperio shrugged at Eleanor before she wrapped a wing around her love. "I know little of what ails your people, nor do I wish to know. I have come to fix a problem that was caused by my absence and make sure it does not happen again."

"Ah yes, 'multiverse'," Eleanor said as she shook her head. "Gonna be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about you making millions of copies of myself."

"They already exist," Aperio replied with a wave of her hand that caused countless versions of Earth to appear around her. "They are simply chaotic and not stable. Only this one is constant, the others coming to be at a moment’s notice and vanishing just as fast."

"More like a shadow of Earth than an actual different version," Caethya said, leaning herself fully against the All-Mother's wing. "That's how it looks to me, at least."

"It is one way of interpreting it," Aperio replied.

Conveying what she saw to Caethya would already be hard, but she was certain that Eleanor would simply die if she tried to show her what she perceived of Earth and all its versions.

Aperio balled her hand into a fist, putting enough force into the motion to bend reality a tiny amount before she let go again. Seeing this chaos in her creation made her angry; unreasonably so. She had made reality to work like this — well, become this way if not supervised by her. Probably not by design, though…

"What I intend to do is merely give my creation more structure and make all its versions a little more relevant." And make you mortals stronger a little bit faster…

Her current idea also involved splitting the Souls of mortals between all the worlds that exist to allow them to gain strength more quickly. Once they were strong enough, she would simply return them all to the state of a single Soul. At that point, they would regain all their memories of their past lives and start a life like the one Moria has. Every death would be remembered, and offer them an opportunity to grow stronger.

"That doesn't make it sound any less intimidating," Eleanor said. "Actually, I think I am more worried now."

"You will not even notice it," the All-Mother said, tilting her head slightly. The projections of Earth she had summoned also vanished, replaced by tiny glowing blue motes as she relaxed a little and let more mana flow from her well. "And neither will anyone else, for that matter. If I had not told you, you would have never known."

"But I know now, so it does make a difference," Eleanor replied, her voice getting more agitated as if this was some serious issue.

Try as she might, Aperio could not see why Eleanor was as distraught about this whole thing as she was. All she had said was that she was going to bring order to an already-existing part of her system that was simply not working as it should.

The mortal would never meet any of the different versions of herself and neither would their existence have any more influence on her world than they currently did. Aperio furrowed her brows as she looked at Eleanor.

"It will happen — has to happen — and it will not influence you for as long as you live," she eventually said. "I am not willing to let my creation languish in disrepair any longer."

Eleanor looked at Aperio for a moment longer before she got out her book again and began to scribble more notes. This time she was seemingly trying to make sure she wouldn't forget that other versions of Earth were a thing, as if the All-Mother would take her memories at any moment.

"Is it really that weird?" Aperio asked Caethya, making sure to not use the English that Eleanor knew. "The whole multiverse thing."

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Her love offered a small shrug. "I don't think it's that weird. Especially if it’s already happening and you are just changing it to be a bit more stable."

"Then why is she so… upset about it all? The only impact it will have on her is more strength in her next life." The All-Mother tilted her head slightly. "This will even allow anyone an attempt at becoming a deity if given enough time. A chance they might never have been able to take if there was only a single version of their Soul inhabiting a solitary instance of a given world."

"True, but the idea of another you is unsettling. I wouldn't want another version of me around." Caethya looked at Aperio and gave her a small smile and giggle. "What if you like her more than me?"

"I doubt I would," Aperio replied, wrapping her wing a little tighter around her love. "They are also not a copy of a person, but their own unique being that simply shares a few core aspects. But it does not apply to you anyway."

"Any reason why?" Caethya asked, mirroring the head tilt of the All-Mother.

"Your Soul is too powerful," Aperio replied with a small shrug. "The benefit you would gain from this is so minuscule that it is not worth it. You would also have to die, and I will not let that happen."

Caethya looked at her for a moment before she tilted her head to the other side. "But the people of Earth don't have to die for it to work?"

"That is because Earth already has different Versions. Verenier does not."

"Everyone did always say that Verenier was special." Her love leaned back a little, looking at the sky. "I guess they had a point."

"They did." I just need to figure out what exactly makes it so special besides the fact that I used to be on it a lot…

There was another reason lingering at the back of her mind, but for the moment it eluded her grasp. Perhaps she did not actually wish to know at this moment. That was the only idea Aperio could come up as to why she would not be able to recall a moment in perfect clarity.

"I know that look," Caethya began. "You aren't quite sure why though, right?"

"Not entirely, no. Something to investigate further, perhaps."

The fact that she knew but couldn't truly remember at the moment did unsettle her, which drove her all the more towards wanting to know. That, of course, did not bring the elusive memory to her grasp. It would appear that a part of her didn't like the idea of recalling this particular set of events, whatever they were.

Aperio could probably force herself to remember, but she didn't want to do that. If it was actually important, she would know. Perhaps a bit of mystery was good for her. After all, she made it a point to not know everything. Being unaware felt nice in a way that the All-Mother could not quite put into words.

There was a feeling of excitement coupled with the tiniest bit of fear. What could she not know? Truly a mystery for the ages. The answer was, of course, lots of things, but mortals seemingly forgot that again and again. Or don't want to believe that I am not omniscient. It probably didn't help that she could be omniscient if she truly wished to be.

"I assume that is something you will do after we are done with Earth?" Caethya asked, taking the All-Mother from her thoughts.

"Yes," she replied as she nudged yet a few more mortals from their slumber. Aperio had to fix quite a lot of them by proverbial hand, as the damage they had suffered from lack of mana had been quite substantial. That should not be an issue for them any longer. And should never happen again, either.

Aperio had long let go of the idea that destroying this version of her creation and beginning from scratch again was the best way. Yes, mortals were selfish, arrogant, and idiots — even without the influence of equally selfish, arrogant, and idiotic Gods — but most of them did try to at least better themselves. Something that, in many cases, also helped others. The only thing the All-Mother wished was that more mortals would pursue a path of actual strength now that it was viable for everyone. How anyone could accept being weak was a mystery for her.

"It will not be much longer before the last mortals here have awakened to their true potential," Aperio said, fixing her gaze on her love. "Once that is done, I plan to investigate a little deeper into how I made reality behave like it does. I am not ready to believe that the current state of alternate realities was intended."

"Maybe the System tried to do what you are going to do, but failed? It is you, after all. Just not really thinking, unless you direct it to do so." Her love pinched the bridge of her nose. "This entire setup is really headache inducing.

"I'm together with you, but also the universe I live in, and the System that I use to grow stronger," she continued, giving a small laugh. "If anyone would've told me this would happen I would have called them crazy, but here we are."

"Here we are, indeed," Aperio replied and wrapped her love in a hug of not only her arms and wings but reality itself for good measure.

After the briefest moment of hesitation, barely enough time for a mortal to form a thought, Aperio leaned in and kissed Caethya. She lingered for a moment as her love's hands brushed over her cheeks and shifted upwards to trace her ears. The touch made her ears twitch slightly, but she only pulled away once Caethya did too.

Her love smiled and pulled one hand away, while the other slowly moved down Aperio's neck — the touch leaving behind a warm, almost hot, line on her skin — until she reached her collar bone. Caethya looked at Aperio for a moment longer.

"Oh my," her love said, leaning back slightly and touching her chest with one hand, the smile still gracing her face. "That was quite wild and decisive of you." Her smile widened a little. "I like it."

Aperio tilted her head ever-so-slightly before she gave a nod. She could do something like this more often. It had very much been an impulsive action; one she hadn't been sure was even the right move. It would seem that her doubts were very much unfounded, as her love was practically radiating. It was something Aperio did not fully understand, if she was perfectly honest with herself.

"I shall endeavour to do this again, then," the All-Mother eventually said as she carefully removed her arms from her love and let her essentially lie on a wing. Reality, too, returned to normal, the fabric of space and time no longer warped to help with Aperio's musings.

"Please do," Caethya said, seemingly content to remain on the feathered appendage. "But don't feel obligated. Do as much or as little as you are comfortable with; I'll let you know if I don't like something."

Aperio gave a nod at the words, most of her attention returning to the various mortals she had yet to fully prepare for their own awakening. Only a little bit more and it would be done. Then she had to fix the other mistakes her old self had left behind.

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