Chapter 152: Book 3 epilogue

The twin suns in the sky dipped beneath the horizon bathing the ocean before them in a beautiful red glow, the water lighting up in countless colors marking tiny organisms of the world caught the final rays of light as nearby humans finished up their days.

            It was simple, well supposed to be. Just pop down and check if the world was ready for ascension, or not. There were a lot of factors in this, mana density, population, and a dozen other tiny variables that were honestly better left to part of the system but Life insisted they come down sometimes themselves. A sort of vacation he guessed, though if you stand on one pre ascension world you have seen them all. though this one was at least a tiny bit different.

            Death leaned against a city wall with a pipe held loosely in his one good hand, a small delight that can be found wherever humans were. Strange how no matter what world they are placed on they somehow always find a way to make a recreational poison to smoke, and they call him Death. It never ceases to amaze him, an entire race that is so good at killing they even find ways to slowly kill themselves, how… wonderfully human.

            He chuckled to himself as he took another long draw from his pipe, watching as Life cheerfully bought another loaf of bread. Her long dreadlocks and dark skin stood out in the predominantly white town, though no one dared comment on it even in this backwater town. This world seemed to respect magic more than most, and Life’s glowing green eyes probably protected her from scrutiny here as she cheerfully greeted another group of patrons at the little stand.

            They would need to plant the Trees soon if they wanted this world to thrive, well replant Life’s tree at least. As far as he knew the other two were still in place, after all Thought never did learn how to swim and given this world still has its oceans, he doubted it got to Darkness’s tree at the bottom of the ocean. And he knew for a fact Light’s “tree” was still active, though it had been unstable before it had finally calmed down enough for life to flourish in the south. Though the other races have yet to pop up to protect them, he wondered if Life planned on bringing other races here or if she was going to leave this world one of the rare worlds controlled by a single race.

            Then again, she had always liked the race with the long ears, she left them with several planets of their own. Humans were typically left with harvester worlds, their race was far too… adaptable to leave alone in a world with magic. One of the main reasons they are the current base for most races, it amazes him just how versatile they are, and hardy too.

            The fact they survived on this world that by any measure had died eons ago was a testament to their races ability to adapt. Then again, Life did coddle this world way more than he felt necessary.

            “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Life asked coming up beside him, wrapping her arm around the sleeve of his shirt that hung freely by his side.

            “I suppose.” He replied, taking a long draw off his pipe. “You think they are ready?”

            She scoffed, putting his pipe out with a snap of her fingers. “Must you pollute the air wherever we go?”

            “Pollute the air?” He cocked an eyebrow as he relit the pipe, “Dear sister, I pollute the very ground I walk on.” He nodded to the footprints he left in his wake, patches of dead grass lining their path gained him a glare from Life.

            “You’re doing that on purpose,” She huffed, “and don’t call me sister. It's weird.” It was weird, but they both knew they weren't actually siblings, it's just what everyone called them. In fact, none of the Pimordals were actually related… they didn't think. It's kind of hard to have siblings when one just appears after all. With a wave of her hand the “path” he had created vanished behind a fresh new covering of grass and flowers.

            He chuckled as he exhaled a plume of smoke, “What can I say, I can’t help myself.” Looking out across the sea he asked again, “You never answered. Do you think they are ready? Or have you been playing with the children again, I told you we should have just sent a terminal down here to check for us.”

            “Where is the fun in that?” She laughed, “Besides you know this world is special; and so, you don’t ask again, yes, I think we can start to implement the system here. Though we may need to send some souls primed for ascension from a harvester world to kickstart the divine processes. It amazes me, they figured out engineering, agriculture, and magic but not religion. Did you know this world hasn’t even formed rudimentary worship?” She spun to face him, a beaming smile on her face though he figured that was to distract him from the fact his pipe had again been put out. “This world is truly gorgeous! Think just a couple thousand years ago it was a barren wasteland and now this.” She gestured to the sprawling forest that butted up against the walls of the city.

            “Well,” He gave up on his pipe and put it in his pocket, he knew Life was far more determined than he was and had no desire to be scolded for the next decade because he was too impatient to try the new human concoction he had found. Maybe after this he could convince Life to go to one of the more advanced worlds, there were ones with much better vices than smoking after all. It was only fair in his mind, they went to a world she wanted and then he asked politely to go to the one he wanted… It rarely worked, but it has in the past. Besides, seeing her smile was kind of worth it in the end. “I wouldn’t say it’s special. Lucky is more like it, it’s one of the only ones to survive Thought, though I think this was one of the first ones it hit so it probably just didn’t do a good job on it. The world is lucky Thought couldn’t drain it dry like the others when it was here.”

            He could tell by the look on Life’s face that they would not be visiting one of the more fun worlds after this. “Yes, well.” She sighed before dragging him along, “We should go find a suitable location for my world tree, since it was so kind as to burn the last one down.” She quickly changed the subject.

            Why Death was the only one who freely spoke of Thought was likely because he was the only one not affected by its rampage. Sure, he lost his arm, but it had long since healed, it just took so long to do so he… kind of got used to having just one arm. Sure, he could have shattered himself and reformed whole. But… Well he is the only one of the four to never have been shattered, even during the war. A fact he knew bothered both Light and Darkness to no end. 

That was the real reason he remained armless; it was petty sure but he, the weakest of the primordial, managed to survive not only their own squabbles but the battle against Thought all the way until they managed to seal it in that harvester world. He would never let them forget that either.

            Now that he thinks about it, that world was… advanced enough he supposed. They didn’t have those flying cars that were so fun to zip around in, but they had enough entertainment. Maybe it was time to pay their wayward sibling a visit, to check up on it and all. Be sure the binds were still in place. It did cheer Life up to see it, though she would never admit it. Thought had hit her the hardest, killing off countless numbers of her “children” had taken her a long time to get over. At least she no longer cries about it whenever it’s brought up.

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            He followed Life for… a while. They passed out of the city, despite the protesting guards, and into a forest. It may have been an entire day, not that he paid it much mind. The creatures of this world didn’t bother them, and if they did Life would just befriend them and send them off to terrorize some other travelers or something. She was… strange like that. She coddled all living life but would never ask them to go against their instincts, always supporting them in whatever they did. A fact that was apparent as she patted a strange cat-like creature as it desperately tried to eat her.

            “Are you done playing with the locals?” He asked as she cooed over the beast.

            “Aren’t you just gorgeous,” She ignored him as she stroked its long bristly fur. A wild smile on her face despite the creature’s fangs that were currently buried in her shoulder. “Yes, you are, oh big hugs.” She wrapped her arms around the beast and gave it a gentle hug that caused it to rethink its actions. It was “gentle” in the fact the creature survived, but it clearly had enough force for it to know it was not harming her at all.

            Once freed the cat turned its eyes to him and with a flick of his hand the cat aged rapidly before eventually becoming dust in the wind.

            “Why did you do that!” She stomped her foot causing the forest around them to shake.

            “Don’t worry, I just sent it to a different world, such a strong soul is wasted on this planet anyway.” Besides he just got this coat and he kind of liked it. Looking around, he shrugged. “This looks as good a spot as any, don’t you think?”

            Life rolled her eyes as he tried to change the subject, looking around she sighed. “I suppose it is,” they stood in a large valley that separated the north and south hemispheres, the north populated by the humans and culled for their needs, where the south was untamed land filled with powerful beast that were spawned from the out-of-control mana from Lights broken “tree”. It would be a while before the land stabilized but at least it is no longer leaking mana from the ley line.

            With a glare that never left Death, Life grabbed onto the very tip of her pinky and with a twist popped off a small part of her own essence before ramming it into the ground. “There, that should do it.” She flexed her hand as the part of her pinky reformed. “Now we just need to get a few divine here and then we can have little Mother put the system in place. I’m thinking four souls, we can each pick one out and bring them here.”

            “Make a competition out of it? I’m sure the other two will be all for it, maybe even give out a few boons. I can think of a few ways to spice it up too.” He commented rubbing his chin, only for Life to suddenly go ridged, her face contorting in disgust as he quickly back pettled. “Not that we should play with the lives of mortals or anything…”

            Life shook, actually shook, as she spoke. Her voice wasn’t even a whisper, yet Death was positive the entirety of the world heard it as her words shook the very core of this planet. “It's free.”

            “What?” He asked dumbly before she lunged at him.

            “We need to go, now!” She grabbed onto his arm and tugged him forward. “Now!” She snapped, causing him to pull away from her.

            “I’m not going anywhere until you calm down.” He straightened himself with a huff. He knew she wanted him to release them from this world, though she could do it herself. His transitions were much smoother and didn’t leave a corpse laying around afterwards.

            “The chimera… Thought…” Her voice shook as she clung to him. “I felt it, it… it touched one of my Trees. my essence… I felt it, Death it’s… it’s free. We have to stop it!” She slammed her fist into him as if that would stop the impending doom that loomed over the universe.

            “And we will.” He rubbed her arm, trying to calm her. “Are you sure it was Thought you felt?” He knew she wouldn’t like being asked, but he needed to be sure it wouldn’t be the first time a powerful soul came into contact with one of the world’s trees and sent them all into a full-blown panic. Though it has been a long time since they had a scare, that was why they implemented the safeties in the system…

            Life raised her fist again and he prepared himself for another blow that never came. Instead she sank into him as her whole body shook, “I cant. Death, I can’t let it kill them again. It's… it's too much.” Life, the primordial mother of creation, wept. Her tears caused the world around them to warp as it was consumed by the explosive fauna that sprang out of every tear, “it’s not weakened like we thought. Death it’s just as strong as it was before. I can’t… I can't, I'm not strong enough. Not again.”

            Swallowing hard Death pulled Life into his chest, “We will stop it.” and with that the two turned to dust, their bodies dissolving into the world around them as the two appeared in their own world, the heart of the system. They would need to verify Thoughts escape, and plan how to deal with it. If its already on a world with magic and confident enough to approach a world tree then… Then one world was lost already.