Chapter 245: Chapter 244: Realmcraft

As Carl explained that that was why they arrived outside and the room couldn’t be opened from inside either, which was why he was holding it open.

When everyone was done wishing Kitsunoko well, they filtered out, whereupon Carl summoned Aegis and designated them as Kitsunoko’s dedicated guardian while she slept. A challenge, considering that meant finding a way to keep her properly nourished and limbered up.

Klaire advised them to seek Lydia’s advice, then Carl reached through to ask one of the Aegis Legion to come and assist.

When the Alpha Legion arrived, Carl explained the room and its quirks, which spoke to the Kyubi in them both and inspired a gnarled grin to spread across each of their faces.

Ishtar then opened the portal she had attempted to earlier.

“The first thing to know, is that Realmcraft is exceptionally dangerous and also the first advanced creation technique that you’re attempting without my system’s safeguards…”

They found themselves in a section of Nothingness, which Ishtar described as being called The Ruinless. It wasn’t an independent realm, but a corner of Nothingness left uninhabited and isolated, specifically for the purpose of Realmcraft and avoiding disaster if something goes wrong.

“…The second thing to know, is that it is entirely the same as the fusion creation you have already used, but you need to utilise intent, vision and creativity as ingredients…”

As Ishtar spoke, the Nothingness undulated into a chaotic maelstrom, an event that Ishtar seemed to be half-expecting.

“…Primordial Chaos, have you come to wish me good returns?”

The maelstrom itself seemed to twist and spit energy in a thoughtful response, they were random and chaotic, but that didn’t change the fact it was a legitimate language and sentient communication.

It also seemed to recognise how only Ishtar was able to understand and so it took on a more conversible form.

“Forgive my interruption, I sensed the newly-weds and thought to introduce myself properly.”

He was immediately hounded by Klaire, who thanked him profusely for the gift he sent, then apologised that they hadn’t had the chance to invite him over to thank him before hand.

“…We wanted to, but it seemed rude to invite people over to a warzone.” It was more than an apology, it was her regret. A wish she once held that was never going to be realised, that all that needed to happen for her happily-ever-after, was to cement their relationship.

It seemed silly to her now, the regret didn’t stem from the unfulfilled wish, it stemmed from realising how immature and toxic that wish was. The real reason they hadn’t wanted to celebrate was deep down they knew how twisted their relationship was and how messed up the situation surrounding their marriage was.

“Think nothing of it. There is no place in Thingness for me regardless.”

“Well, then I’ll make sure the realm I make has a piece of Nothingness!” Carl shouted over from where he stood heeding Ishtar’s instruction.

The form Primordial chaos had taken was still nebulous, basically just his natural form compressed and shaped into something passable as a humanoid. It was an absurd tumultuous sea of Nothingness that was only different to their surroundings because of the consciousness it possessed.

As a result it wore no expression, only able to vocalise thanks to effort and using its power to forcibly vibrate a target’s ears to create a raspy facsimile of a voice.

“One of my children spoke to me of you recently, one who also happened to teach the your fox and elf companions and now you have defeated Gilgamesh…”

Ishtar suddenly snapped her fingers several times to interrupt. “Carl! We don’t have time for this, the revived elder gods are holding Margo’s villains at bay, but they won’t last indefinitely!”

Carl snapped back, rightfully explaining that should have been the first thing she told him, but then she grabbed his ear and told him to pick a focus and focus on it.

It wasn’t self-grandeur or dictation, she knew he couldn’t focus on the fight until he had dealt with the more mundane issues dividing his attention. There was more to it though, some hidden lesson that she thought would be vital in the upcoming battles.

As she started drilling Carl in Realmcraft, she threw a glance at Primordial Chaos, who in turn began to crackle, rumble and undulate.

The others weren’t blind to the continuation of their wordless conversation, but they could sense it was something they had no place interfering in until Primordial Chaos was filled with so much fury even they could understand.

“…Apologies, I have had my fill of company for the time being, I will see you when you’re done. You have my pity Carl and Sis, your lineage is burden you don’t deserve.”

Carl’s casual reply was purposely barbed toward Ishtar, but Sis was a bit more torn about it and simply waved in silence.

When Ishtar decided she had imparted all the vital knowledge to Carl, she told him to begin when they had evacuated, then opened a portal and ushered the group through to leave him to his challenge.

When they arrived back, Sis said goodbye to the others and took Ishtar back to her home.

The others weren’t entirely comfortable, but again, it was a matter that they had no right to intervene in.

By the time they arrived though, it was clearly not going to be a happy reunion and catch up and Sis walked over to the table which held nothing but a single book and a light by which to read it.

The book had clearly been read cover to cover, over and over, drowned in the obsessive compulsion to be memorised as soon as possible.

“You lied to him, Mum. You made me lie to him. Now I want to know why I had to…” Sis was furious, forced to choose between lying to her brother and potentially costing him his life without proper explanation.

Ishtar walked over and ran a hand over the cover of the book, whilst the other gripped her arm with a strength born of self-loathing, both trembling as she held back tears.

“I’m a coward, you know? I wanted the kind of relationship with my siblings as your nieces and nephews have.

I played a prank, without knowing the consequences, I led to the very concept of war being born as a result of inspiring rage in my brother. My actions not only robbed him of any chance of happiness, but also creation’s chance of peace.

I then watched helplessly from his realm as he slaughtered them, all because I was too scared to admit that I was responsible. It wasn’t long after by our perception at the time, that he encountered your nephew’s future-self, a being of such extraordinary power he ended that atrocity by simply getting annoyed…”

Ishtar broke down and Sis moved away, detached and purely analytical, waiting for a reason more than arbitrary relation to care about the woman’s tears.

She was a good person though and it became difficult for her to watch, so in the end she relented a placed a glass of water in front of her mother before fetching a handkerchief for her to wipe her eyes, but refusing to do anything to console her.

It was a tough few minutes for Sis as she tried to be a callous observer, but she didn’t realise seeing her daughter having the strength to put what was right and uncovering truth regardless of how powerful, was just as painful for Ishtar as the memory she was sharing.

“…In the time leading up to it, I had been toying with the idea of a fluffy species of spiritual creature that had a unique affinity for all the laws. So imagine my surprise when I felt something that felt more powerful than an individual law, then a moment later found myself face to face with a girl as powerful as all of them.

I was horrified, it taught me how insignificant we Elder-gods were and when the others all forgot and became callous and judgemental, I remembered.

The memory of coward forgets no terror and I knew if we kept pushing those beings would descend once more. The thought robbed me of sleep for tens of thousands of years and in the end, all I could do was play arbitrator to stop us angering them, whilst trying to create echoes to remind the others.

I perfected the fox-spirits to the best of my ability and the same went for the dragons. Then the humans emerged and my efforts were forgotten again, the others more concerned with bringing the new species to heel or annihilation.

When I fell pregnant with you two, I heard a voice. It was neither angry nor happy, but disappointed that we had “missed the point entirely”. More so however, it was disappointed in the fact the laws had refused to intervene.

It recognised its own failure as much as ours and theirs, then self-destructed and bathed me in its essence. You began to fall apart, I felt you dying inside of me, then I felt your brother’s unconscious rage and how he absorbed every trace of the being’s power.

I thought I was sure to lose both of you, but then he simply directed all that power to hold you together inside of him until you acclimatised to it, whilst also holding himself together with it…”

The Love Of Mothers

Klaire, Kyubi and their children returned to their extended family to get them up to speed, of course, they hadn’t forgotten the fact that Illerion had received a prophecy on events to come and remained silent either.

To all of their surprise however, she took the lecture happily and even apologised with sincerity and prostration. It was such a jarring response coming from the newly appointed embodiment of Chaos, that they found it unsettling enough to warrant letting it go.

Leanna, Danielle and Alisha however, were not so forgiving towards Klaire, Kyubi and their grandchildren. They weren’t happy with any of it. “Why has it been so long since we had a meal together!?”

“Honestly, I know you three are all loved up and adults, but depriving grandparents of their grandchildren is just crawl.”

“Don’t think that just because you became the leader of our species or whatever, that you can avoid your mother young lady!”

It just left them uncertain about the three ladies’ ability to properly prioritise, though they could see their point, it felt like ages since they had visited them and were only there then because they didn’t have a house.

“Mum, I’m sorry, it just hurts. I feel like every time I sit down with you all, I’m just being taunted with what I’m not allowed to enjoy. We left the kids with you when we went away so you could at least have some time with them, but honestly I’m a bit jealous I can’t be babied anymore.”

Danielle laughed as she wrapped her arms around her daughter and told her she’d never be too big or important to outgrow being her daughter.

Leanna and Alisha focused on Kyubi and the kids at first, but it didn’t take long at all for the discussion to turn to the matter of Kitsunoko’s condition, which was obviously at the forefront and weighing on their minds.

They had heard Lillim’s explanation, but worry is seldom settled with words alone and theirs would undoubtedly persist until her eyes opened once again.

Unfortunately for them all, the point Klaire made about not being able to rest was quickly rubbed in their faces and pulled them apart once again. It came in the form of a nervous knock and hushed bickering from the door, which when answered revealed those of the extraction team.

“Sorry guys, I hate doing this, but we couldn’t make the call…” Gillian was already bowing before the door opened.

He went on to explain that the “war” ended so quickly that they hadn’t reached full extraction of even a single off-world facility, but the capture of the six committee members and everything that transpired left the point of their ongoing operation in doubt.

“You raise a good point, but the answer is obviously that they need evacuation. Gilgamesh called on Margo just to go down swinging and he might have left boobytraps in facilities even the others don’t know about.”

As Klaire spoke, Kyubi scratched her chin thoughtfully, then suggested that they had better evacuate destroy and replace every facility. She added that before they do however, they should ask the ones who will be leading in charge what they’d do in the situation.

Gillian apologised again and left, but then Alysse stepped forward. “Sorry guys, it’s the best plan, but I don’t have enough divinity to produce that much on my own…”

“…So you’ll need one of us a divinity battery, got it. Catch up with your mum Klaire, I’ll go.”

“I really am sorry you guys…” Kyubi playfully pushed her through a portal as she said that Alysse apologising just felt wrong, then paused and turned around to grab Omedra, who was trying as hard as she could to resist jumping through.

“They gro-”

“Don’t you dare say that until you’ve raised one who needs you to change their nappies.” As the kids laughed at their grandma Danielle scolding their mum, attention turnt to another subject.

Unfortunately, having every head in the room turn towards the nervous little angel sipping juice in the corner, made said angel panic and hide behind her brother who was left to explain how she got her output under control.

He told them that Kitsunoko made a point to give her a quick lesson, since she had seen it took an entire year of isolation before she was able to get her power output under proper control.

Apparently Kitsunoko considered letting it go ahead, valuing the effort and sense of achievement it ultimately gave her, but it led to a few occurrences that had long-lasting consequences.

No one envied the responsibility Kitsunoko had taken upon herself, but they also didn’t entirely approve of her essentially performing triage with the timeline. Still, they also couldn’t bring themselves to be angry about it, since it was clear she didn’t do so lightly and gave everything proper thought.

The most important thing for them to do immediately was prepare to bring the game to an end, but they also needed to get everyone around them ready to do so.

It was quite possible that the system would collapse when the game came to an end, which would leave the humans in a dire situation if the demi-humans they’d devalued harbored any grudges.

“Leanna, how would you feel about being on the new committee? Having a hybrid on the board would be a symbolic gesture to try and dissuade bad blood turning into fallout.”

Leanna laughed, then Danielle and Alisha both passed over a card with the word “favour” written on it, which they then explained was her prize for winning a bet made between them after she’d seen this coming from a mile away.

Alisha was apparently under the impression that they would ask someone else, whilst Danielle thought they would ask Lydia to use her succubi powers to ease tensions and try to manipulate people away from any heavy-handed and violent actions.

Regardless of the fun they had had with the subject, Leanna admitted that she felt more comfortable being able to keep an eye on the committee directly and mentioned she had a couple of old faculty members in mind to fill the other two seats.

Bespoke Realm

As Carl kept up his Realmcraft efforts, it proved to be just as Ishtar had explained, but he also began to recognise the secret lesson Ishtar had hoped to impart through it.

As he formed the lands, the seas, the physics, the life of the world, it became obvious that it was impossible to do what he was doing. It wasn’t a thing that only ten-stars could do because they were more powerful, but because it just happened to be that the laws weren’t able to understand the requests that anyone trying their hand at it were making.

To call it “Realmcraft” was both incredibly misleading and encapsulated the hubris of those who originally named the practice. The fact was that nothing but the laws could actually create a new layer of existence and fill it, but doing so required a being to be able to both perfectly envision what they wanted the realm to look like and how it should behave, whilst also possessing an intimate enough relationship to let the laws share that vision.

The simple fact was, the laws trying to interpret the thoughts of creatures lesser than elder gods, was akin to a man trying to read the thoughts of a moth.

The reason it was dangerous, well that was even more simple to figure out. The laws were relentless workers, giving form to thoughts and details immediately one after the other. If a stray thought entered the practitioner’s mind, they could end up destroying the realm they were making.

The one Carl was envisioning was vast, unbelievably so. With several dozen core worlds that were tailor made for specific members of the family, rather than a bedroom, they got an entire world to do with as they pleased.

He had made one to act as a common ground, where everyone could visit freely and they could host guests as and when they wanted.

Then there was a world for Carl, Klaire and Kyubi to share, whilst they each also had a private world in case they ever wanted alone time, or to pursue something that might have proved a bother to the others.

The kids each had their own world and finally were several more which were designed to be the residence of more honoured guests such as Equinox, Aegis, his mums, etc.

To finish, each world was fitted with a control panel similar to the one Ishtar had used on the realm she had made for Bakunawa, which he now understood the purpose behind. Since things could get missed if they couldn’t properly envision it, or they might want to adjust things later.

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