Isolation
“We cannot remain reserved anymore. Everyone, do not worry about the consumption of divine force… the prime material plane is our foundation.” Oghma’s voice was filled with heaviness, “If we really can’t handle it anymore then our only option will be to migrate all our worshippers into our divine kingdoms…”
Divine kingdoms were indeed only suitable for spiritual existences. Mortals would undergo an irreversible transformation within, but there were still benefits to such an action. At least, for the next decade, the gods wouldn’t have to worry about declining faith. They could deal with the Magus assault and then settle their worshippers in the prime material plane once more.
“Agreed!” “I Agree!” The gods quickly agreed with Oghma’s suggestion, starting to demarcate lands as they determined times to open and connect their divine kingdoms. Looking at the heated discussion, terrifyingly dark clouds appeared on the faces of Lathander and Tyr.
“Everyone…” Tyr eventually stood up, “What we should be discussing right now is how we defeat the Magi, wiping away the disgrace of the dusk of the gods. We shouldn’t be acting like cowards, searching for ways to escape! Still, if that’s what all of you hope for, forgive my absence.”
*Bang!* His avatar slowly dissipated, and the other gods could sense Tyr’s will leave the Celestial Plane.
“I agree. However, I agree with Oghma as well: moving our worshippers into our divine kingdoms will protect them to an extent.” Having expressed his own opinion, the Morninglord left the Celestial Hall as well…
Even without two of the greater gods, various decisions had been made in this discussion. The gods quickly instructed their priests to begin executing plans, attracting more worshippers to their divine kingdoms so they could attain ‘eternal life.’
……
Leylin naturally learnt of the events in the prime material plane. However, his true body was still taking care of Malbolge, and he had no time to care about this. He instead sent Kukulkan in his place, the clone walking out of the tall church to arrive at the location where Mother Core was.
A towering mountain had been formed at her location, flush with a molten core that flowed out of it in endless patterns. The mountain was connected to the earth, seemingly detecting the surroundings. An eye appeared from the lava as Leylin’s clone arrived.
“Great Mother Core, I believe you know why I’m here…” The eyes of the A.I. Chip clone were dead and indifferent, like a puppet that could only carry out orders. However, it still had the power of an intermediate god, so Mother Core couldn’t afford to neglect it.
After all, rank 8s were at the forefront of existences in the Magus World. What’s more, the rank 8 puppet in front of her was only a avatar of Leylin’s true body.
“Of course. The epidemic in the prime material plane caused at least ten million deaths, some even call you the new Lord of all Plagues now… Even though we know this isn’t your doing…” Mother Core’s conscient released a vast amount of force, and some roots extended out to form an image of the prime material plane.
“Indeed. I sensed the fear and faith headed my way recently…” Kukulkan’s expression grew a little ugly. Someone was evidently trying to pin crimes upon him, and there was only one who was familiar with his actions and could evade the laws of the World of Gods. “Is it Distorted Shadow? We really can’t chase him away…”
“Perhaps he wanted to attract the gods’ attention towards you. However, he isn’t the only one capable of such things…” Clearly, Mother Core had even more information. Her path was the path of the world, and nothing could escape her eyes.
“There’s a lot of Magi who invaded the prime material plane, and the ancient conscients who escaped are doing the same thing. They wish to strike against the gods’ faith, perhaps to gather enough spirits for them to recover…”
This information left Leylin wondering about something.
“How well are we prepared?” he asked. He was naturally paying attention towards all the intelligence about this. After all, the war between the gods and the Magi was directly related to the path of eternity. It could not be neglected.
“We’ve learnt our lessons from the last time. Other than a few crazy ones who are attracting attention on the surface, the rest of us are hidden well. We’ve established contact with the ancient conscients, and they’ve promised to do their best to conform to our plans.
“Nine wormholes have been opened up, and the passage connected by the Manderhawke Plate is quite stable as well. We’ve shifted it to the void sea…” Good news after good news came from Mother Core.
“What about the suppression of the World of Gods?” Leylin asked the most crucial question. Being similar in power to their own world, the World of Gods had a somewhat horrifying suppression of Magi who were outsiders.
“We’ve considered this as well. We’re quite lucky in this regard…” Mother Core’s voice was very heartening. “The World Will here, their Overgod, is in a deep slumber so the suppression we’re facing is much less than that in the first war. It was hurt more during the destruction of the Weave, and we have you to thank for that…
“Even if we’re not going to drop in rank, it’s still a troublesome matter…” Leylin frowned.
Of course, this was all an act. When he merged with his divine clone and advanced to rank 8 with the path of Original Sin, his bloodline had transformed into the Nightmare Hydra. He was stunned to find out that the World of Gods stopped suppressing him at that moment, as if he was a native of this place!
The laws of the two worlds hadn’t been fused before in the history of the astral plane, and it was precisely due to this that a miracle had happened. The current Leylin was unimpeded by both worlds, not facing any suppression whatsoever.
He’d kept this all a secret, to be treated as the biggest of trump cards. Those who were unaware would be ruthlessly conned by him at the end.
Mother Core frankly addressed Leylin’s ‘concerns,’ “Naturally. We’ve been performing research on how to avoid the suppression of other worlds, and we already have some results…”
*Rumble!* The earth split apart, and numerous tree roots formed a palm that shot out to place a silvery-white metal ball in Leylin’s hands.
“This is…” The fluorescent light of the A.I. Chip flashed within Leylin’s eyes, but several probes only returned with question marks as the screen prompted an ‘unknown’ message. The silvery-white ball’s surface was extremely smooth, yet it didn’t reflect the world around it.
Leylin was speechless for a period of time before he spat out a sentence, “The World Origin Force, it’s blocked!”
“Correct… We’ve called this technology World War Armour. It was created using a new alloy that can block origin force, protecting our true bodies so we can evade the restrictions placed upon us by the worlds. It lets us display our peak strength!”
“That’s great, but… This thing seems too fragile to support beings like us for long…” After testing it for a while, Leylin could pinpoint the armour’s weakness. It was a film that isolated the Magus from the world around them, but as armour it was useless once broken. From what he’d seen, it wasn’t exactly durable.
“We’re still trying to improve on this. However, even this version is enough for us to launch a small-scale war. Take this, it’s a gift…” Mother Core spoke generously. Leylin was after all a Magus, and he’d given up several benefits for their world. She had to display some goodwill as well.
“Then I’ll skip the thanks. I really am interested in this…” The alloy entered his skin the moment he pressed the ball to his chest. A strange white pattern appeared on his body, as if an armour protecting him.
‘It’s cut off origin force, really magical… There seems to be room for improvement, though…’ Light continuously flashed from the A.I. Chip clone.
[Reverse engineering from sample… Possible optimisations deduced!]
Having fused with Kukulkan, the current A.I. Chip had grown far more powerful. With Supercomputing and Simulate Reality, its calculative powers far surpassed those of a peak rank 8 Magus.
‘It seems extensible into the Magus World and Dreamscape as well…’ The only ability of the A.I. Chip was to deduce. As the user, Leylin could do things the chip could not, which was the advantage of out-of-the-box ideas that a mere tool could not achieve.
The discovery of this weapon instantly gave Leylin another plan. If he succeeded he could rush to the peak of rank 8 quickly, and even lay a solid foundation for comprehending the laws of space and time!