Ch 75: Human again

Odd, I’m human. Not just human, but this is the body I had when I first accidentally began ascending.

“Alice! You’re okay!” Tessa’s hugging me, and getting my shoulder wet with her tears.

“How long has it been?”

“A day.”

“That’s it?”

“Yup. You just suddenly appeared next to me after being dead a day.”

“You’re crying when I was only gone a day?”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d see you again! Every time you die, it always worries me. Maybe this time I won’t be able to find you. It was hard to find you when you were a rock! And there was that time you vanished for almost twenty years with no sign of you at all! And… and really, the only reason you come back at all is because of that god. If they ever decide to stop, I’d lose you. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Sorry, Tessa.”

---

After comforting Tessa for a while, I had to re-learn how to cultivate as a human. It really is different. However, it also made me realize something: the next step after becoming a deity is probably something easier to do as a human, and I wasn’t convinced anyone had actually done it yet.

“Actually, Alice, someone did find the next step already.” Eh? “They only published it recently and credited the idea to one of your books about Earth. They were inspired by the description of solar systems and galaxies, and tried to create a solar system within their core.”

“A central ki powered sun, surrounded by planets in orbit?”

“More orbs of ki moving like planets. They were able to slowly expand this, but they needed a good understanding of space and gravity for it to work. They concluded that the understanding of the laws is necessary to create inner worlds and universes, and that this may be the key to advancing further… why do you look down?”

“Well, I’m happy they figured this out, but I’m also sad, that someone else beat me to it. Feels like I lost a contest.”

“You weren’t human. This method probably wouldn’t work for non-humans.”

“Yeah, non-humans don’t have cores, so they’d need a different trick.”

Ch 76: Sun

“I’m having trouble forming a sun.”

“Huh, I found it really easy.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got fire and earth affinities. You’ll probably have an easy time making a sun and planets as long as you don’t try to put anything alive on them, or create an atmosphere. Don’t even need many physical laws for that.”

“Is it possible to use someone else’s ki?”

“Let’s try.” Joining hands with Tessa, we shared some of our ki together, as we’ve done many times in the past. Just a bit of a difference this time.

“Oooh, I can use this to grow a tree on one of my rocks. My solar system doesn’t feel quite real though. It’s like there’s still a lot of missing rules to complete it.”

“Yeah, we probably have to create enough rules for a whole universe. Though I don’t think it has to be a normal universe or system. The one Earth had was all elements. It should not require all elements for each person to make their own though. Universes with only some should be possible, as well as universes with entirely new elements.”

“Creating a new element?”

“You already know how the elements are a bit inaccurate, a person’s created universe should probably match their own natural ki. So if someone’s ki is weird, they could end up with weird things as the basic building blocks of their personal universe.”

“What’s happening when we use each other’s ki?”

“While I can’t say for sure, I like the idea that it means we are including each other in our universes. That’s how important we are to each other. I’m definitely making you my sun and light.”

After that we got a little too distracted with each other to continue working on our cultivation for a while.

Ch 77: Sword Universe?

The Ultimate Sword’s view

That’s right, if I’m trying to become a sword, then I should not just master sword law, I should become sword law! I’ve made a sword, now to fuse it with my core, and create a sword core! A fusion of ki and sword law! The ultimate world of swords!

Alice’s view

So, the first to ascend from the upper realm was some maniac known as the Ultimate Sword. From what little I could see of the ascension, he’d become such an absurd embodiment of a sword, that his very presence cut open a rift in the world, and he got sucked out of the world through it. I’m glad he didn’t stick around. His power was high enough that he might’ve caused a lot of problems had he not ascended so quickly. I guess not knowing what to do was the only thing holding him back before.

---

“Making a world of trees and plants doesn’t feel right. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s like, even if I can make a world that’s entirely mine, it’s not what I should do. My world needs more than just that.”

“Maybe there’s something missing you’ve forgotten to include.”

“Tessa? Will you help me?”

“Of course, Alice. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, I was thinking that a key part of me, that isn’t fully integrated into my little inner universe and world, is that I’ve never been alone here. You’ve been with me almost the whole time.”

“Is being your sun, not enough?”

“No, it doesn’t feel like enough. I feel like I want to make our world. Not my world. A universe we create together.”

“I suppose I’ll never convince you to stop doing crazy things.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t apologize, at least this time it’s much too sweet for me to complain about. We just have to be careful. If we accidentally break your core, it could be really bad.”

---

“So, we need to strengthen the connection of our souls.”

“Then use that to connect our cores.”

“And create a new shared world.”

“A shared universe held within two cores.”

“... is that like those stories I read with overlapping worlds? Like a shadow realm and the one mortals knew… hmmm… what would the two sides be?”

“Hey! Don’t lose focus!”

“Sorry.”

Ch 78: Adding soul

There’s still something missing. 

“Our world lacks souls.”

“Well, I’m not about to go steal any.”

“I wasn’t thinking of that. Maybe we should put a piece of our own souls inside.”

“I’ll put a piece of mine in your core, and you put a piece of yours in my core.”

“Uh… okay? Not quite what I was thinking of, but now I’m really curious.”

“Your bit of soul is settling into the plants on my world formed with your ki.”

“Yours is entering the sun I made with your ki.”

“Do we need to add our own souls too? Even though it’s already inside us.”

“I think that did it. It feels alive with both… I hope this doesn’t mean we ascend. We still need to get rid of that demonic sect.”

“Oh, that’s actually taken care of already.”

“Eh? When? You’ve hardly spent any time away.”

“Once I spread the information and made clear what the issue was, lots of people were willing to help out. When their home base was found, Betty personally destroyed it.”

… just how far out of the loop am I? An entire demonic sect gets destroyed by an emperor, and I don’t even realize it… and it’s an emperor I’m living with.

---

“It feels like there is a new energy developing inside me.”

“Alice, can we try sharing it? I’m worried this is the next step to ascension, and want to ensure we go together.”

“Like when we shared ki together? Or… I suppose since our worlds are linked, we should be getting similar energy, and should be able to work together to cultivate this new energy. I want to finish writing down my notes though. If we ascend, I might not be able to share the information afterwards.”

---

Betty’s view (Bunny Emperor)

We felt it (my mate and I) when the ascension began, and we moved quickly to see it. Alice and Tessa, hand in hand, glowed with a power I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t ki, it wasn’t soul, it was something else. Then, they vanished.

“Was that divinity?”

“I don’t know.”

Ch 79: Heaven?

“You’re here!” A beautiful woman greeted us in a strange room I didn’t recognize. “Come on, you can help me fix this world properly now!”

“Don’t. Fixing that world is her punishment for breaking it.” A handsome man standing near a door spoke. “Apologies for the late introduction. I am Alfred, and you are currently in this fool Valia’s administration office. She’s the one responsible for the world you ascended from. You are now free to do as you like, just don’t try to start a fight like that last idiot did.”

“Wait, so this Valia is the god that sent me to that world?”

“Sent? Valia, what did you do? Did you steal someone from one of the other worlds again?”

“I didn’t steal her, I just made a copy. Ennarra said it was okay.”

“Alfred? What exactly can we do here?”

“Lets see…” He starts looking through some papers I could swear he didn’t have a moment ago. “You’re from earth, huh? Well, if you want, you can access the earth’s internet from your own admin office, or any world’s internet really. You can make avatars to go visit various worlds, and manage and run your own world. It’s quite interesting that the two of you made a shared world. It’s the first time I’ve seen this. As a result, you’ll have a shared office. I do hope you get along, you’ll probably be stuck together for eternity.”

“How do we..” Suddenly we were in a familiar room. Our room in our tree.

“Oh, everything is directed by thought.” Tessa spoke as cup appeared in her hand and she began drinking. “Excellent, just what I imagined.”

“Lets go back, I have a few more questions.”

Alfred suddenly appears. “I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have. I was created to answer any questions the gods have, and assist in learning how to do things.”

“And you can just appear anywhere?”

“So long as someone needs me to answer questions and the location is within the administration offices, yes.”

“So, how did Valia break the world?”

“She started a war between the two strongest factions because she wanted to watch the fight.”

“Is this all there is? A heavenly paradise for gods to play with their worlds? What do you do?”

“Well, I’m just an aide. My creator ascended. Apparently if one gets their world to a certain level of development there’s a higher level. It’s been approximately 400 million earth years since my creator left. None have done it since. Honestly, I’m not sure if he actually ascended, or just decided to end his life.”

“How many gods are there?”

“Including you two, only 678. It’s pretty rare for someone to ascend this far. It can only be done after someone has created a new world, and begun channelling the divine energies it creates.”

---

“Hey, I took a look at Earth, it seems to be stuck in a loop. It’s just repeating the same 200 years or so, over and over.”

Alfred appears again to explain, “We’ve had issues with AIs in that world causing problems, so we keep resetting it back a bit whenever it gets too close to becoming a problem. Many of the gods really enjoy all the fiction they produce, and it often inspires their own creations.”

---

“Hey, Alice?”

“Yeah? What is it Tessa?”

“I found some really fun looking ideas on Earth’s internet.” She’s holding a silk rope.

Ch 80: Epilogue

Originally I thought I’d be focused on making our new world, but instead Tessa and I got completely distracted by each other and all the things we found on the Admin network, and the many records of Earth’s internet. Every cycle had been saved, and there had been many.

Eventually others managed to join us. Betty, and her mate for instance. Catherine eventually joined us as well, though she took a while. Not that I noticed the time go by.

When I checked how the world I’d ascended from was doing, it seemed Sylvie was more interested in changing and enjoying the world than ascending and hadn’t even really begun creating her own world. It seemed like she was doing a better job than I would’ve, since she was more actively engaged in the world.

Then one day…

“Why can’t I check on the world I ascended from anymore?” It was almost fully fixed, and had many people at high levels of cultivation, and far fewer wars than it used to.

Alfred appeared: “It seems that shortly after fixing her world, Valia ascended.”

“What? Her? How?”

“Well, apparently the world advanced enough in whatever way matters. I had noticed her divine powers increasing quite a lot near the end.”

“I never suspected she would advance.”

“Neither did I. It seems putting you in her world was the one time she did something right.”

“You mean it’s because of my influence?”

“You changed the entire path of her world. Though much of the work was done by Sylvie I believe. Still, Sylvie wouldn’t have done what she did if not for you.” 

I had no idea how to feel about that. On one hand, it feels like I got ripped off. On the other, I’m not convinced I want to ascend again. Going further up is likely to be a downgrade from the fun here. Tessa and I, and all our friends can do whatever we want here… and Tessa’s been getting pretty creative.

---

Sylvie’s view

Woah, after the world got fixed, the sky box became a real sky! I can go into outer space! It’s time to start the space age and explore the galaxy!

---

Valia’s view

I… ascended? I didn’t really think that was possible. Why? Why did I ascend? Is it because of the new spaceships? Where am I anyway?

“Welcome, new recruit! You are the latest member of the Dimension army. Here we will train you in the use of your powers and in how to wield the full power of your world in combat! You will need these powers to defend our multi-verse from horrible invasions!”

… Boot camp? Invasions? Did I just get forcibly drafted as a soldier? This is terrible!

“There’s no need to worry about harm to your world here. Should you die a horrible death, as you likely will, your world will live on, under the care of the aide you met below!”

“Finally, a worthy challenge! I shall show the true power of the sword!” Oh, geeze, that crackpot sword maniac was here.

“Is there anyway to go back?” I really didn’t want to be here.

“No.”

***Author Note***

Sorry for ending it. I’ve really not read enough cultivation stories to continue and ran out of ideas a while back (end of arc 8, actually). Just had to continue it long enough to try and create an ending because I really didn’t want to leave the story incomplete. So instead of dropping the story, here’s a badly written happily ever after… well, happily ever after for Alice and Tessa. Not so happily ever after for Valia. I guess the Ultimate Sword is happy?

Wait… there’s more!

---

Valia’s view

As a God of Genesis, I have a world within me. A world I created. Now I’ve been forcibly drafted for an army I had no idea existed before. From the training and lessons I’ve been forced to endure, I’ve learned that I can summon a copy of anything in my world, as well as employ any technique or power that exists in my world. 

“Gah, did you really have to summon me? I don’t like being cooped up like this!”

“Sorry Sylvie. You are the strongest and most experienced person I could summon. If I try to do this alone, I think I’d break. This isn’t anything like I imagined!”

“At least I can still access the network. Ruby is with me too. I guess she counts as equipment, huh?”

“Yup. Your personal network spirit is considered equipment.” 

“Am I just accessing a copy of the network?”

“Heck if I know how it works. For all I know, I might be a copy. They mentioned death being likely, but there’s no way they’d have enough defenders if that’s the case. It’s very rare for someone to ascend this high.”

“You seem really reluctant to fight for a god of a cultivation realm.”

“I like to watch fights, not participate in them!”

---

As early training I had the pleasure torment of sparring with the sword maniac.

“Evasive maneuvers! We can’t block sword law that strong!”

“It’s just swords! Just giant swords! How can they be such a threat?! This is a battleship!”

“Mastery of Sword Law makes it possible to cut anything! Even space itself!”

“What about time?”

“Uh, I don’t know, no one’s tried it that I know of.”

---

On the plus side, now that I’ve made my own network spirit, I have full access to all the fiction and games and live-streams when I’m not being forced to train.

“Oh thank goodness the VR works. Flying around in games isn’t quite as good as the real thing, but it’s better than staying locked up with you.”

“Oh please, I know how good the VR is, and it’s impossible to tell the difference between it and real life, Sylvie. You’re just complaining because you’re unhappy with me.”

“The difference is knowing I’m gonna have to come back here again.”

“I wonder if there’s a way for you to return without ceasing to exist.”

---

“Ha! I got it! After I asked for help, we managed to make a portal system! Bye Valia!”

“Hey! Make sure you send someone back to help! I can’t do this alone!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll find some volunteers.”

---

“Greetings, Valia. I hear you are the one true creator of our world.”

“Indeed. Feels good to be recognized. Ow! Why’d you hit me!”

“That was for killing Alice after she’d arrived as a tree.”

“Ow! Stop that!”

“That was for all the others you’ve killed with your schemes… I guess I’m done.”

“Did you just come here to hit me?”

“No. I’m here to save my world from your idiocy. We’ve determined our world is a copy of the original, likely created when you summoned Sylvie, since her network access wouldn’t work right without it. That means if you die, we die too. I’ve already prepared a few training programs for you in VR, to make sure you know how to use the techniques of my world.”

“Oh, no. You plan to make me train even during my down time.”

“That’s right.”

That is such an evil looking grin on his face now.

***Author Note***

I don’t have enough ideas to turn that into a proper story, but figured I’d leave it here as a kind of epilogue to the epilogue. Oh, and, as for why Sylvie never tried to explore the void? Well… someone did once, and it’s seriously not safe. The only thing to make it back was part of a captains log:

Captain's log, Stardate [redacted]

After five months of travel through the void, we've finally found something. It has too many teeth. Seriously too many teeth.

Captain's log, Stardate [redacted]

We found more. They seem to ignore us, but they seriously freak me out. Ensign [redacted] tried shooting one with a cannon, despite orders not to fire. It did nothing. The shot just passed through it like it wasn't even there. Ensign [redacted] is now on medical leave. Counselor [redacted] complains that the entire crew is showing signs of severe stress.

Captain's log, Stardate [redacted]

I don't think it's safe for us to stay here. I've started seeing teeth on walls of the ship. [redacted] is insisting nothing is wrong, and that it's normal to have teeth lining the walls like scales on a dragon. I suspect they may be going insane. I've ordered an immediate retreat. Full speed.

Captain's log, Stardate [redacted]

The ship has gone rogue. They are insisting we need to join the herd. I, and the few crew members still capable doing their duties, are going to try to unplug [redacted] from the ship, and install a new spirit. This may be our last transmission.

Oh, and there’s a reason no one knows of anyone who’s tried to cut time.

A timeless mistake

If I were to be asked what my greatest regret in life was, I’d say it was trying to cut time. I was a master of the sword, and I mastered sword law. I thought that if I could cut anything, then surely I could even cut time. Then perhaps I could go to the past and change things. So, I tried.

I didn’t know. Cutting time severed my connection to the timeline. I haven’t gone away, I haven’t vanished, but I can no longer interact with the world, and the world has no idea that I’m even gone. I no longer exist in the timeline at all.

All I can do now, is watch. I don’t even age, or tire, or do much of anything but regret. I can’t even cultivate, because I can’t gather ki. 

***Author Note***

… Why is there so much hidden horror in my lighthearted cultivation story’s setting? Oops.