Chapter 32: Ascension, Nicholas POV (Patreon)

Chapter 32

Ascension

Nicholas POV

I leaned against the railing outside my old throne room, enjoying the sense of nostalgia as I gazed at the endless seas. I had come a long way since the last time I stood here. It was only eleven years, but it felt like a lifetime. I’d been seventy-eight years old when I left to raise my children —an old man by any account. Yet I’d never grown up. I’d never learned to put someone else's needs before mine for more than a few days.

Being a father had taught me how to do that. It had shown me how to get out of my head and look after someone else, even when I didn’t want to. And there were days when you didn’t want to, no matter how much you loved your children. The thing about those days was that those were the days when you learned how to be an adult, when you learned what it meant to put someone else's needs before your own because they couldn’t take care of their needs without you.

I lifted my cup from the saucer and sipped the hot tea, enjoying one of life’s simple pleasures as I turned to watch my children play tag with Nargus’s children across the main deck. The loss of Mars too recent of have hit them yet. In a week or two it would catch up with them, until that happened everything could be new and fun.

Nargus’s children seemed like good kids. None talked like their father, using plain old English instead of his flowery speech. They only slipped into his speech pattern when they swore, which was quite amusing.

Through my Domain, I evacuated the falling sectors, relocating the resources, players, and NPCs. The NPCs and resources were being delivered to Sector 13 to assist with the growth of the new Mars faction. By the time I finished, it would be so stuffed full of resources and NPCs that they wouldn’t know what to do.

Lark had warned me that I was pushing the boundaries of what I could get away with. If I did too much, my tangles of fate would get woven into the fate of the Mars faction. My problems would become their problems, and my problems were the sort of problems that could end their faction with a thought.

The only reason I was getting away with what I was doing was that, technically, the resources already belonged to humanity. I was just moving them around. So long as I didn’t cross any lines, this was fine.

I took another sip and sighed.

The last few hours had been such a whirlwind of activity that it was good to be able to relax. I’d killed Rob, Colin, along with all the bionoids onboard The Pantheon, and everyone at the shop that sent me to steal from Tiberus. The benefits they offered weren’t worth the risks. Lark had shown me Rob's tangles of fate to prove it.

After they were taken care of, Lark had used my transcendent minion tokens to bestow Nargus and me with mantels. I was now the God of Pirates, Privateers, Travel, Tracking, and Battle. Nargus was the God of Death, Navigation, Shipwrights, Knowledge, and Mercy. These changes meant nothing now but would make a significant difference when we ascended and lost our ability to directly influence our followers as we chose.

Having a God of Mercy would allow all our followers who showed mercy to receive more attention and benefits from our religion, subtly influencing the nature of our followers for the rest of the season. I didn’t really understand it, but Lark promised it would help humanity, so I’d let him do what he wanted.

Pan walked over, leaned against the railing, and glanced at my children. “Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?”

“Having children?”

He was probing me to check my mental health. “Not for a second. They’re what I always wanted. If I'm being honest, maybe a few more than I wanted, but that’s fine with me.”

Pan turned and gazed at my face, searching for something. “You’re a different man from the one I knew, aren’t you?”

So different, eleven years of raising children was practically a lifetime. “The Peacekeepers made me go through therapy while the kids were young. It helped me deal with becoming a God in the Game and what it did to me. It took me years to accept my Domain, to adapt to the things I could see and feel, to separate who I was from what I experienced.”

Pan turned and looked out at the stars. “The Peacekeepers try to do as little harm as possible. Sometimes, that just means less harm, not no harm. I’m glad you accepted help when they offered it.”

“I’m glad they offered it. I don’t like to think about what I would have become without it.”

Pan smiled. “When are we going to drop off the capitol buildings?”

“I did it a couple of hours ago.”

“You did?”

I nodded and stepped back to stretch my back. “I completely forgot about delivering the capitol buildings while the kids were growing up. When Melody told me it was time to return, I had to remind myself of what we were doing here. It used to seem so overwhelming, so extremely difficult. Now it seems simple.”

“What changed?”

“Besides working through the trauma of having a Domain?”

“Yes, besides that.”

“I stopped thinking the world would end because of me if I failed.”

“It kind of could. Without those Tokens, people will eventually die of old age.”

“Exactly.”

Pan raised an eyebrow.

“The Game is like a team sport. And in team sports, no player can win alone. It’s up to everyone to make sure the team succeeds. I thought about my efforts like humanity couldn’t save themselves, forcing me to become their saviour. But what I really am is just the best option we have.”

“Doesn’t that make you more important?”

I shook my head. “No. It just means I have to do my best. If I do my best and fail, then it's on the rest of humanity not to fail, too. If they fail as well, then it’s not just my failure but ourfailure that caused humanity to lose. None of us are responsible for the failure of the human race, only our personal failure. So, I’m just going to do my best, and if it’s not enough, I’m going to hope that someone else is there to pick up the slack.”

“That does simplify things, I suppose.”

Lark flapped his wings and landed on the railing beside me. “Have you thought about my suggestion?”

Pan raised an eyebrow. “What suggestion?”

I sighed. “There’s a local cluster that only contains player factions. Lark suggested I raise my Might and Power to SSS+ and relocate all the factions out of that cluster to gain the pair of achievement rewards from destroying a cluster. It would let me and Nargus leave our faction with all four SSS+ buffs without me going insane.”

Lark bobbed his head happily. “It would let him relocate planets in the falling sectors to the surviving ones, too.”

“That doesn’t seem that unreasonable,” Pan replied. “It shouldn’t be traumatic for you.”

“That’s not the problem,” I said. “It will take me more than a day.”

Pan nodded. “Which means you would have to hold back your ascension and remain a Transcendent being for another Cycle.”

“Exactly.”

Lark cawed. “Is that why you’re refusing?”

I nodded.

Lark leaned forward and plucked the endless pouch from my belt. Time once again slowed to a standstill.

I facepalmed. “I’d forgotten that was how it worked.”

I stepped away from the railing, leaving the endless pouch clutched in Lark’s beak. I sipped my tea as I considered my situation. Being in a different flow of time slowed the evacuation, forcing me to dampen the inertia people were experiencing. It wasn’t hard. It was just slower. Even though it was slower, I could tolerate how long this would take.

I opened my character sheet and dumped 10 points into Might and 10 points into Power, bringing them both up to SSS+, their maximum.

Your existence has evolved beyond the limits of this reality.
Your presence is warping time.
Your presence is warping space.
 

Your Domain is altering reality beyond its limits.
Your presence is heavily warping time.
Your presence is heavily warping space.
 

You should ascend before you break this reality.

Time slowed further until I could measure the moments between nanoseconds in decades. I didn’t let it bother me as got back to work and finished the evacuations. With my greater Power, I could open portals large enough to relocate suns, so Sector 13 became the home to all the falling sectors' most useful planets and suns. Each one was perfectly balanced so that they wouldn’t interfere with one another’s gravity.

When that was done, I began relocating the inhabitants of the local cluster. Melody had mentioned Morgan was making his five-faction alliance with the Kilocksin, Quilt, Borak, and the Narsonians and shared what little she knew about their cultures. They all had sectors in the cluster I was relocating, but I could only relocate the Narsonians and their resources to our cluster without causing a political issue or war.

The Kilocksin, Quilt, and Borak got sent to another cluster with their NPCs, while all their resources were sent to the clan sectors we were supposed to be allying with. It would give all five sectors their greatest chance at achieving their goals.

A notification appeared as I removed the last trace of intelligent life from the cluster the following day.

Congratulations, you have conquered a cluster! As the first member of any faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Expansionist Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+25% build speed for your faction.

+25% research speed for your faction.

As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an additional achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Expansionist Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+10% build speed for your faction.

+10% research speed for your faction.

I opened my character sheet and dumped 20 points in my Domain, bringing it up to SSS+, the maximum. My Domain buff increased the strength of my Might and Power, transforming them and bringing time to a standstill. My Domain expanded until it engulfed the entire branch of the galaxy. I could see everything, but I could interact with nothing. It was all frozen in time.

Your existence has evolved beyond the limits of this reality.
Your presence has broken time.
Your presence has broken space.
You should ascend before you destroy this reality.

It was time to move on.

Everything I’d become drifted away as I opened the door to a higher reality. My Domain, Power, and Might drained away, releasing me back into the flow of time as my Domain shrank towards my body. The Pantheon vanished through the door, dragging Pan with it. Then, Nargus, Lark, and I began to crumble.

***

I found myself in a familiar white room. However, instead of there being a single white leather armchair, there were two familiar thrones and a nest against the far wall. Nothing else filled the space until Nargus and Lark appeared a second later.

Lark squawked at me, jumping from foot to foot. “Did you do as I suggested?”

“Yes. I evacuated the cluster and now have three SSS+ attributes. Do you mind telling me what’s going on?”

Lark turned his head so he could see everything. “We’re in the rewards room. Ascending is the end of the line of players, so most come here to celebrate after they’ve ascended. You can summon food and drink and stay as long as you like without time passing in the outside world. Once you get bored, you take a seat on your throne, and the Peacekeepers distribute your rewards and return you to the Game.”

His answer raised more questions. “What happened to Transcendent beings that aren’t players?”

“It depends on how powerful we were. If we’re as powerful as you, we move onto a higher form of existence.”

I conjured a chair and sat. “There’s a higher form of existence? That’s hard to believe, considering I rearranged the cosmos.”

Lark walked over and leapt onto my armrest. “You weren’t the Alpha and Omega, Nicholas. You just caught a glimpse of God. There are higher forms of existence still to come.” Lark poked me with his beak and glared at me. “The insanity your Domain caused you is nothing compared to what awaits your species if they reach those forms of existence.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“This experience as a Transcendent being is supposed to prepare your species for when reaching this stage of evolution. It’s meant to be educational.”

I could remember hearing something similar while I was going through my tutorial. “I don’t feel like I learned that much.”

Lark face-palmed, covering his head with his wing. “Of course, you didn’t learn anything. You’ve been a Transcendent being for a couple of weeks, with a Domain that drove you insane, and you didn’t even let me trap you in time for a few millennia to give you a proper understanding of what we are. You’re likely more clueless now than when you first started down this road.”

I wanted to disagree, but Lark knew what he was talking about, and I didn’t. “What happens to you if you’re not strong enough to move on to a higher form of existence?”

Lark stuck out his chest. “Transcendent beings who reach this point but can’t go further become administrators for their pantheon’s followers. They direct these followers and impose their will upon them. It’s the Transcendent equivalent of middle management, and it’s as boring as you imagine.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I’m looking forward to what happens next.”

I looked at Nargus. “Do you feel like celebrating?”

He shook his head.

I turned back to Lark, ready to leave. “How do the rewards work? All I’ve been told is that my Domain is now a permanent part of our branch of the galaxy.”

“It’s better to think of it as your former Domain. You’re still going to have a weak Domain for the next few decades. Everything I read on your species suggests you will go insane without it, so they’ll remove it slowly as you age, similar to losing your sight and hearing. As for your other rewards, you get one reward for your faction for each attribute and Transcendent item you possess. The reward you’re given is based on how high your attributes were before you ascended. That means Nargus will have an SSS+ Wisdom reward, while you will have an F-10 Wisdom reward.

“The song that was the star disappoints the sun.”

Lark rolled his eyes. “These aren’t minor rewards. Your SSS+ Wisdom reward gives humanity a 400% increase to how quickly they learn while in the Game. The Might reward does the same thing except for muscle memory and physical learning. Power gives a 400% increase to out-of-game rewards.”

“Water and sand.”

“Nicholas created you. That’s why his faction receives the reward you earned. You can contest it with the moderators if you want to give it to the Horde instead.”

“Water and sand.”

I wasn’t surprised that he liked that option even less. “Lark, what happens to your rewards?”

Lark hopped off my armrest. “My rewards go to my people for the same reason yours go to yours. They’re who I want to help.”

That made sense. “Are there any achievement rewards for ascending first?”

“Just one. You’ll see it when you sit down. If you’ve got no more questions, I’m going to collect my rewards.”

I stood up, walked over to Lark, and knelt in front of him. “I want to thank you again for what you did. You’ve filled my life with so much joy.”

Nargus came and knelt beside me. “Oblivion calls to the rich widow’s cry, aiming for the wind to sing its last goodbye.”

Lark reached out with his wings and patted our shoulders. “Just remember this feeling the next time you’re upset with me.”

Nargus and I both frowned.

“What did you do?” I asked, getting a gut feeling that I’d been manipulated in a way I wouldn’t like.

Instead of answering, Lark raced away and leapt onto his nest. He vanished in a flash of light.

Nargus and I looked at each other.

“This can’t be good.”

Nargus shrugged, walked over to his chair, and vanished in a flash of light.

Seeing no reason to put this off, I walked over and sat, sinking into the cushioning. A notification immediately appeared.

Congratulations, you have successfully transcended your reality. As the first individual of any faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

Reality Breaker Perk

+1,000,000,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

Transcendent beings cannot interfere with your faction.

I stared at the notification for several seconds before dismissing it. That was quite a useful perk. Another notification appeared.

SSS-10 Might Reward:
Your faction learns physical skills 400% faster.

SSS-10 Power Reward:
Out-of-Game rewards are 400% greater for your faction.

F-10 Wisdom Reward:
An AI research coordinator has been given to your faction for the next 100 Cycles.

SSS+ Domain Reward:
Your Domain and its effect have become a permanent fixture of the galaxy branch you ascended from.

Tree of Health Reward:
4,000,000 members of your faction will randomly receive a rejuvenation treatment package each Cycle.

4,000,000 members of your faction will randomly receive a medical treatment package each Cycle.

You will receive 4,000 rejuvenation treatment packages each Cycle.

You will receive 4,000 medical treatment packages each Cycle.

Transcendent host Reward:
Each Transcendent Being who dies or cannot ascend to a higher reality will become a member of the Transcendent host for the remainder of the season.

“Wait, what?”

The last notification disappeared as I finished reading, and the room faded without me getting to choose a new class.