“Hahaha!” An elegantly robed ape leaped down from his inner circle platform and gracefully landed on one of the floating seats. Bowing respectfully towards Jun, the moved gorilla dipped down and placed an expectant finger to the awaiting surface.

“This humble Gior Je the Ever Inquisitive greets the Newest Ascended. Help me bear witness,” the Elder greeted and looked up with widened eyes.

A ripple.

A new set of history.

One that he and his entire culture had longed to de-mystify.

“Ah. I see.”

He hadn’t seen that coming.

Giant flames came crushing down from the highest ring and shrank down to a flaming figure the size of a man. Another hasty introduction and an expectant historical revelation. This one was particularly violent.

Other and other the Elders came down from their rings and introduced themselves to their newest peer and touched the table.

Some showed sweeping victories against the Enemy and some showed dominating might, but most worlds were survivors of nearly tragic fates.

Earth wasn’t the only world to have had a change in dynasties, either. Nor were they the only ones to have been unaware of that fact.

Several Elders were themselves shocked by the number of previous rulers of their worlds. One particular Elder, who also served the dual role as his universe’s supreme religious leader, needed to be propped up by their own emotional aides, so psychologically damaging the lost histories were on their minds.

“The seventh? We, the proud empire of the Fifth People, are actually the seventh? But we don’t have seven toes. That was a big deal for us, wasn’t it? Five toes?? Our entire culture is built on Five toes! Are you telling me it’s all meaningless?!”

While certain histories simply stripped away the convenient lies that hid uncomfortable truths.

“The town drunk was my father?! What kind of demon shit is this?!” screamed an Elder that once took pride in his noble genealogy.

“My race originated from turtles mutated by industrial waste that grew up in the sewers of the previous era? Is that a talking rat? There were talking rats? Why did….. Ah. I see,” said a calm reptilian Elder with powerful natural armor plating adorned with golden ornamental accents that covered most of its body, draped in exquisite violet fabrics. Although some took the shock with more grace, their hearts still thundered. They didn’t descend from Earth Dragons?!

Then there were the ones that even the most knowledgeable Elders knew little to nothing about.

A small ball of fabric that kind of reminded Jun of Dor-Thay, but with an obvious physical body underneath these sheets, unelegantly tumbled down from a simply decorated platform of cute tables and chairs that were filled with oddly shaped moving dolls of poor craftsmanship that served as the Elder’s attendants.

The 136th ranked Bruyeti.

Almost nothing was known about the last Elder to Ascend before Jun’s unprecedented rise. Her Ascension demonstration was considered unimpressive at best and no other offering or demonstration of her capabilities was ever released to entice the passing Crowns to seek her guidance, resulting in the first Elder to gain zero Karmic merits and becoming the biggest joke in the Nexus.

Now that there was an opportunity to shed some light on this mysteriously elusive character, many curious Elders leaned forward to observe.

“Bru-Bruyeti. Greetings,” came a tiny voice that mortals would have had no way of catching. Panicking under all the attention, the little ball of cloth tipped forward and to the side for a tiny hand to poke through and poke the Table.

Most stories about war-torn worlds had main characters that went beyond mortal limits to alter devastating fates, even at the cost of their lives and sometimes, their very souls.

The ancient world of Macballay, the mega planet the size of dozens of normal worlds, was a world with numerous dominant intelligent races to represent it.

Empires and united kingdoms of various races found balance and harmony and progressed together, and when the Enemy came, the races of the world united as one force to cleanse the invading darkness.

Epic wars where the heroes of the old era fell like flies and the heroes of the new era rose through the sweeping of blades were fought in never-ending cycles of destruction and glory.

Powerful 8th ranked heroes, forged through the millenniums of war and sacrifice, banded together and vanquished the demonic hordes, leading the allied armies of mortal warriors and magicians to the final victory of everlasting peace.

Heroes became kings and emperors the day the Demon King fell and a new world order of peace and prosperity was blessed upon the lands.

And at the very end of that legendary saga of strength through unity, a small unknown herbalist living in the forests of the boarder-lands, where news of war had never even reached, had her Path validated and given a Glimpse of the end of the Path that she strove, and became a 9th ranked being and an Elder of the Nexus.

Problem was, she didn’t know what that meant.

Bruyeti was an orphaned girl who lived off the land based on the few teachings she remembered from her mother before she passed.

Things like, ‘don’t eat those,’ and, ‘always eat these,’ and, ‘don’t touch that.’

In the wastelands where contact with others was more dangerous than meeting beasts, Bruyeti survived a quiet life, secluded from the problems of the world.

She did the simple breathing exercises and tended her life-sustaining chores and survived.

One day, her senses for detecting the health of her herbs grew sharper.

And on another day, she noticed a burst of energy when a life came to an end.

Those types of improvements and observations grew in numbers and frequency as she grew from a child into a young adult, and as she witnessed more of the world and experienced more trials and conquered more tribulations, Bruyeti finally understood that she could sense Death.

She didn’t know that her home was sitting at the perfect intersection of the world’s spiritual lines that created a place that exuded more spirituality of the departed spirits cycling towards reincarnation.

Or that those streams were abnormally abundant and vibrant with the continued deaths of powerful heroes bravely fighting to save all lifeforms of the world.

Bruyeti just knew she didn’t get sick anymore and that her herbs could survive anything as long as she wanted them to.

Never having interacted with outsiders, she didn’t know how long a being of her race normally lived.

She just continued living.

The seasons changed in cycles, trees grew and fell in cycles, and animals came and went in cycles while she just kept living.

Until one day, she grew so lonely and missed her mother so much that she forcefully tore open the veils of death and called out over and over until something called back.

And she got her Glimpse.

The next thing she knew, she was being congratulated for Ascending and then cursed at for being useless.

It wasn’t her fault.

She didn’t even know what it was called when there were more than two, let alone that there was a war and that she was strong. In Bruyeti’s mind, she was just a young girl who knew how to dry herbs really well. What did she know about demons and Enemies and karma?

Of all the histories that had been displayed so far, this was the first with an Elder that had nearly zero impact on the world they hailed from. Besides the scene of her Ascension, there was a small instance of a theft, and of Bruyeti successfully brewing a potion. Three small scenes.

Other Elders also sighed with wonder that such people could also Ascend and Glimpse.

But then in the face of a 4th ranked Awakened Glimpsing before Ascending…or did Glimpsing mean he already Ascended? But at the 4th?

It wasn’t worth stressing over anymore.

They were all freaks.

Slowly, all but a few Elders had come forward, touched the table and joined the circle.

Other than the super cool robot Elder, Albara Tesin and the ancient Spirit of Light, Mada, the two highest ranking members of the Elders Council, only Elder Paskone, the half cybernetic creator of the super AI Sophie, had yet to step forward and touch the table.

Although it went unspoken, it was understood that the two supremes would go last, so it wasn’t appropriate for Paskone to delay coming forwards any more than he already had, and yet, even now, when all the strongest of the multiverse were awaiting his next move, Paskone did not budge.

Rather, it almost seemed like he couldn’t.

What could have an existence that once calmly looked into the eyes of extinction and denied it, to hesitate in taking a step now?

Not suspicious at all, no.

What trivial secrets could remain between comrades of billions upon billions cycles?

Probably nothing.

Touch it.

Touch it.

Touch it.

Over a hundred gazes burning with curiosity, screamed without words.

An unnaturally white hand reached out and tugged at the petrified Elder’s sleeve. Paskone looked back at his emotional anchor. A woman with long white hair and white bandages over her eyes nodded for him to be brave. It was time. It was alright. Do it.

Sigh.

Fine!

Bam!

Black stony surfaces rippled from the frustrated slap and showed a new set of history.

Humanity prospered under peace and wisdom and spread throughout the stars on ships that bent space and time, harnessed stars and black holes to power cities and rearranged the galaxies to fit their needs. There were no limits to their abilities because they had no limits to their wills. But they weren’t watchful.

The Enemy came and did not need to spread to the stars to chase after humanity to conquer it. They only needed to swallow one world.

Humanity didn’t know the importance of the Motherworld that birthed their race, only considering it as a planet to conserve as a symbolic place.

It wasn’t till the brink of its destruction, when the sudden weakening of the Spirit drastically shrank the spiritual sphere that made all life in the universe possible, did they know the danger of their neglect.

But by then, the hastily assembled armies of humanity were playing on enemy grounds.

They were a people that lived like gods, but their flesh was still the same as it was the day they dreamed of touching the sky.

Mortal.

Weak.

The world fell against the 5th Wave.

At the end, when the last army collapsed and the last floating city fell, there was only one unremarkable man on the moon to weep. Todd was the last human left in the entire universe.

Todd was left on the moon base to manage the systems used to relay communications between the different orbiting cities and the floating military bases. Which basically meant he did nothing because everything was automated, but protocol had someone stationed there, and in that moment, it was Todd.

He was the only person in the world that knew what it felt like to watch billions flicker out of existence with the fading of icons on his monitor.

When the last signal was cut and destruction confirmation marks were displayed, the Supreme Military Mind awoke and appointed him, the highest, and only, ranking officer in the Empire, as the 305th Honored Paskone, Supreme Power of the United Hand.

The first thing he did with that authority was empty every surviving orbital arsenal and rain on the surface of the planet with ten years of never ending destruction.

Jun swallowed his dry mouth as he looked at the series of reliefs that depicted the destruction brought by a broken mind. If he were placed in that position, Jun wasn’t sure in what ways his own mind would have broken. He liked to think he’d have gone the hallucinations route.

It seemed that a huge arsenal of weapons had survived the last battles, because there was enough to defeat the Wave. Just blew it up.

It also brought the world to the very brink of death. Perhaps the real miracle was that it survived at all.

The next portions of depicted history showed a man who refused to submit to fate as he used everything in his power to prepare for the 6th Wave.

Fleets of drones were dispatched to the corners of the universe to excavate the most precious minerals and resources to purify the planet and discover new ways to destroy their enemies that didn’t involve blowing up the planet again.

Humanity had already shifted their technologies from the planet destroying warships to the strengthening of the human body in order to deal with the ever-increasing firepower of the Enemy on the surface of the planet. The one they were trying to keep safe. But now there were no more humans to make into super soldiers.

Facing the Enemy as a single man, the Honored Paskone authorized the unfettering of the machine minds.

With his growing army of evolving assistants, he searched for a new Path.

New alloys were developed and robotics research was taken to the next ten levels as armies of artificial minds grew increasingly more powerful, as did the last human in the universe.

It was after the successful thwarting of the 8th Wave that the 8th ranked Paskone discovered it.

The massive oceans of souls floating around the world like a spiritual mist, unable to be processed by a near dead universe.

He could see their faces, eyes closed in eternal but unrestfull sleep. There was even a face he thought he recognized.

It took a thousand years of obsession, but the Paskone did it.

He found his family.