After so many days of molding pseudo-reality to his heart’s desire, and the lingering satisfaction of his last project being at the scale it was; there was zero chance Jun was gonna be alright with a mundane project with mundane materials for his comeback broadcast. It wouldn’t have been appropriate for the message he was sending.

He needed to do something big.

Surrounded by a swarm of tiny red bunnies holding tiny cameras floating around on tiny futuristic plates, was a towering obsidian knife that cut the thundering clouds as a part of an endless jaw of stone mountains that blocked the spread of an unnervingly vast and impossibly flat plain that stretched out into a perfectly flat horizon.

At its base stood the diminutive dot of a human being who held his palm on his new, stony canvas. There was the start of an image, a desired motif, and the powerful inspiration of his chosen subjects. It was such an insane idea. Both the scale and exposure should give any sane mind pause, but Jun was really excited.

A tiny ant at the base of a monolith flexed his fingers and did some warm up squats while mentally calculating his totally sane attack plan. Having already lost himself in the delights of his labor, Jun tuned out his bunny filled surroundings and prepared to do something he’d only fantasized about.

He leaped.

Not concealing anything, Jun exposed his strength by ascending the vertical cliffs and reaching the severed mountain top within three resounding bounds. Kneeling at the center of the reflection of his new dining table, Jun knocked on the stone and felt it talk back. A sensitivity he’d been proficient in with moderate sized materials before his ascension was now magnified to the scales of mountains.

Walking to the right for a few steps, Jun felt around with a few small pats and located the correct position.

He threw a devastating punch.

Forget the plateau, entire portions of the stony cliffs were crumbling down along with the shattered floor he pounded.

Like a hopping tick with the keys to unravel all matter, Jun rode the waves of crumbling stone and repeatedly punched out with such destructive force that for the distant Sophies, it appeared a dot was transforming the mountain just by passing.

A mountain was shedding stony layers and shaped and molded down into something imagined by a mortal’s fist.

Every time he punched , he felt the mountain echo out its response.

It had a lot of opinions about what was going on.

In a random center of an endless line, where two types of death were forever divided, a single link in the chain was being broken and transformed.

A pair of fists liberated a mountain from its cursed bonds and stood singular and, after more deliberate destruction, split into a connected pair.

Two slimmer towers shed more of its confining layers and took the form of titans.

Once Jun had removed most of the major unnecessary masses, his blows became more measured and focused.

A tiny dot was crawling around the surface of the formless giants and everywhere it passed, forms emerged from the formless, and the undefined became defined. Flashes of runic lights would occasionally emit, reinforcing the forms of two increasingly delicate giants from collapsing.

There were two figures, a man and a woman, dressed in battle worn armors with their arsenal of knives and swords safely sheathed at their sides and backs. The two stood with their vulnerable backs facing out to either sides of the divide, each completely focused over the shoulder of the other, ready to charge out to face all pursuers.

Their dominate hands were raised and jointly holding up a stave high into the Heavens, while their left hands were reaching out and possessively grabbing the backs of their partners, their four legs spread out in a protective readiness leaving little evidence of the mountain base it all came from.

Proud and upright, with broad and dependable shoulders, he had kind features but an intense and penetrative gaze that saw past all facades. It was the image his mother had painted of Yu Min, the father Jun never had the privilege of meeting.

The beautiful figure that mirrored his father’s possessive posture and looked out at the tragically flattened plain with a fierce determination to protect was the perfect reflection of Yu Min’s bride, Ella Maine.

The pair exposing their backs as they watched out for the other showed strength while offering vulnerability and trust.

A gesture made for more than just each other.

Sitting on the very peak of the nearly finished mega sculpture, Jun, covered in a near perfect coat of stone dust, was taking a moment. He did that in a single go. That was exhausting.

Exhilarating.

But freaking exhausting.

Only one step remained for him, while the stage was just being set for the others.

At the very top, where the source of fire lights from a torch, a massive white flame ballooned from a squatting sculptor, who was trying to stand up but got too tired and gave up halfway.

His weary face never lost the light of resolve that quietly smoldered even before the creation process, but his knees really didn’t want to cooperate anymore. Instead, Jun focused on the rune that would serve as the fuel to light the torch.

Origin Runes layered multiple dimensions of meanings, and to express an idea with them was to converse in different dimensions of intent.

The Fire that Jun was about to light was anything but simple flames.

With his vitality serving as the bridge, a mortal shaped the Origin with his overwhelming will to protect and to offer comfort, and made an eternal pledge to pave a path for peace and rest.

Lines were drawn in the air like an idea that glowed with a promise in the form of gentle orange flames that radiated a warmth that could be felt as far as it could be seen.

Two immortal giants stood sentry between the breach and held aloft a great beacon.

The torch had been lit.

The declaration had been made.

The world had changed.

In the lands of eternal darkness, where death and silence were the only tenants, a light bloomed out and tamed the darkness and a warmth was felt in the air, softening the wind and calming the storms. The biting chills thawed with the orange rays and the lifeless valleys looked like a place from a dream that wasn’t so terrible.

The great beacon of light shone far and wide, drawing the attentions of wandering presences that lacked destinations.

Great scrapping sounds wailed in protest.

The earth began to tremble as something massive approached in anger.

On the other side of the Jaws of Madness, where the world killed itself in a few more steps and accumulated the extremes of human emotions, the wreckage of civilization were amassing into colossal monsters of rubble and hate. Their numbers were swelling from several to dozens to over a hundred, with the chorus of screeching metal and stone signaling their discontent.

The stillness of the wastelands was an illusion of desolation. For those who could see the traces of life’s passage, they would see fireflies in a world saturated in the pitch black lingering aspects of death.

A soft orange glow, a meaningless attribute in a desolate world that hadn’t moved in centuries, had stirred what was at rest, and awakened unresolved disasters.

Physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted, Jun blankly watched as an army of the largest rubblemen he’d ever even heard of - the largest seemingly composed of fallen skyscrapers and at least as tall as the sculpture’s waist - began amassing on his location shouting unholy war cries.

When the Administrator made her last astonishing appearance, Jun didn’t forget to get her insight into what he felt when he extended his spiritual senses out into the world.

What he’d experienced when he came into contact with the rubblemen and how he personally witnessed their lingering essence rejoining what the traumatized Jun could only describe as an ‘ocean of bad,’ were all beyond anything he’d ever experienced before and needed someone to make that make sense.

She was happy to oblige.

It was a horrific thing to hear.

In short, the world was broken. Jun already knew that, but realized he didn’t know what that actually meant.

The Purple Haired Administrator explained that life and death was processed by the universe like the breaths of a living being. Life and death were a part of the cycle that was necessary for the universe to grow and prosper. But when there is an imbalance of the scale of Earth’s near total extinction, there were going to be problems.

Earth had been scorched bare and poisoned to death, and all remaining life could be accounted for in bureaucratic databases. Life was a few glowing embers in a cold, ruined husk of a once mighty star spanning system.

The process was already broken.

The things left behind by the dead were permeating the world without any possibility of natural release. Some of it would congeal into the physical realm with borrowed bodies made of spiritless materials for a few hours before destabilizing and disintegrating but never disappearing. And right now there were a lot of them. It meant that he created something that could stir.

The little floating red camera-bunnies were constantly switching perspectives from the lone figure who tiredly sat with a beer in hand as a raging spiritual flame blazed behind him, and down and at the armies of tortured echoes attempting to extinguish the light that disturbed the sleep that numbed their pitiful existences.

Jun was making a gamble, and he was almost certain he was winning.

According to what the girl with violet curls had said about his last two works, Jun had the ability to create miracles. Magic that worked regardless of laws and systems defined by the Origin.

The Garden sculpture read the viewer’s very soul and recognized the most emotionally nurturing existence they ever had and refreshed those memories by merely engaging them in a highly nourishing process in response to his desire to see his mother.

The Table of History, a project that was meant to be an impressive gesture of showcasing the history of his world’s existence, connected with the system of whoever touched it and read and displayed the histories of their world.

There was intent, and there were relevant results.

Jun wanted to take this opportunity to test out how far he could take it.

An invisible aircraft made its presence known when a doorway opened up by the resting sculptor’s side and six adults and a toddler wearing matching black and red combat uniforms and red masks with bunny ears stormed out and struck a pose.

Both adult adults, the redhead, and the little girl, proudly stuck out their chests with their fists to their waists, while the other three lacked the same passion. They looked mortified.

Jun spat out his beer and coughed violently.

While little Ella rushed over to pat his back as he wheezed for air, the rest of the, whatever that just was, went off to deal with the results of successfully stirring the pot - a visibly embarrassed young man whispering “shut up, shut up, shut up” as he ran passed. Now the only question that remained was, to what end?

“I like how you play it big,” the voice he’d been waiting for complimented.

“Thanks. I thought, might as well. I figured if none of this worked, at least I could come out of it saying I beat a mountain into new shapes.”

“Yes, that you did.” Violet hair shook with mirth as the trio watched six 3rd cleansed beings cultivating pinnacle arts absolutely wrecking their enemies, regardless of their staggering differences in scale.

A storm of a thousand sword gleams was shredding the hordes of smaller rubblemen shaped like beasts that blanketed the wrecked urban streets while the giant humanoids were dealt with by the others.

A copper giant that figured out how to manifest clothing was fearlessly charging into the gathering herd of giants and thinning down the adversary with devastating blows of copper fits.

Three white wolves were teaming up take down giants with a swipe at the ankles and at the falling throat and finished off by a combined attack for good measure.

Palms of compressed air pressure plowed through lines of enemies as a girl in a battle skirt demonstrated the killing arts of an ancient underwater empire.

Flashes of starlight shone from the heads of the tallest rubblemen before they exploded with a burst of celestial light while a second mysterious phenomena was causing random rubblemen to collapse with their cores scattered without visible reason.

Ella cheered her little lungs out from her comfortable perch on her dad’s lap, in absolute awe of what her amazing family could do.

“So did it work?” Jun asked weakly.

“Why don’t you tell me?” The being that had witnessed billions of years of selfishness and greed asked the man who impressed her with his selfless act.

Jun felt the sensation on his chest and looked down at the mark that had appeared over his heart. It was a shattered set of red lines that should have been whole. And now it was his duty to make it so.

“Do you regret it?” She asked the mortal that had tied his fate to an Oath he was only now understanding.

Jun looked at the giant orange flame that did not hurt the eyes to stare into and felt the purified essence of the dead condensing at its core where there was warmth and a chance for rest.

He saw the dirty condensed stagnation broken down by lil Davie’s celestial punches and slowly pacified and attracted by the glow that first agitated it awake.

The fear and despair, the confusion and denial, the hate and resignation, every shard of negative emotion was soothed and placated and gathered within the purifying flame that grew brighter and more far-reaching with each integration of solaced emotion.

As more of the rubblemen broke, the more fuel was offered to the flame, and the greater the range of attraction.

For as long as he lived, and the Fire burned, the gathered fragments of the dead could rest, temporarily comforted in the warmth of the Oath to one day offer them real peace.

He felt the price of the flame in the lines on his chest. If Jun could not figure out a way to fix the natural cycle and allow death to die, and life to live, his own soul would shatter.

“I didn’t think it would stake my life to it, though,” Jun replied helplessly.

The Administrator laughed, “What kind of thing did you think the Oath was? It was the greatest promise, with the greatest consequence of failure. I’m honestly shocked you even knew about it.” She said with glittering eyes.

Jun looked strange and avoided eye contact when he finally mumbled his confession, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. No clue what an Oath is. Just kind of working on inspiration here. I just thought I’d try to make a new Spiritual Artifact that would somehow fix all this.”

The Old One looked at the youth in surprise and wonder. Such an interesting thing this new Elder was turning out to be.

She could feel the intent woven into the Oath and knew the sincerity behind his desires.

The Fire, composed of the intents of comfort and rest, burned mystically bright and sacred with the power of the Oath, but something else made it giant.

A man’s stony face looked out towards the ongoing hellish conflict of superhumans and monsters, ready to defend the back that entrusted itself to him while holding up high a beacon to gather the restless souls of the dead, offering them a small respite until the Oath was satisfied and released into a world made right.

The birth of a new Spiritual Artifact was overshadowed by the light of the Fire it held up and supported and amplified for effects even she couldn’t foresee.

“I think you’re on the right track,” she finally said, and truly meaning it.