Beacon from Beyond (Book 1 Complete)

He initially thought the movements of his System were something unique granted by his affinity, but the more he leaned into it, the more he suspected all Systems were like this, it was just that his manner of going about it were far fleshier than usual.

The force of entropy coursing through its calculating blood was simply not predictable enough to be measured. In order for the entire thing to remain stable, it needed to constantly alter its own structure. If anything, regular Systems likely had parts similar to gears or gyroscopes within them- rigid in structure, yet providing fluid responses to different variables; his did not have this, but something close enough for the same end result.

The issue he ran into now was that he just… didn't have the mental capacity to do something like that for long. His mind was grand, incredible after all the improvements, but he wasn't willing to sit and do nothing forever just to get his System online- which is why he went a slightly less extreme route.

Malleability, the minds ability to adapt to different situations. It was a long-forgotten use of his High Mind Skill, but one he believed was perfect for the current situation.

Overmind, the current iteration of the spell, was imbued with chaos and specialized into fracturing itself so… why not break off a major portion of his mind, then alter it completely to focus exclusively on maintaining the System?

It sounded obvious, but it was only a step below crippling himself. This new version of his mind would do nothing but maintain his status screen, at the cost of all higher brain functions.

If he had to compare it to anything, it would be like re-orienting all the muscles in his body to face the same way. How much could the average mortal lift? One to three hundred pounds?

If every muscle in the mortal body were arranged in the same direction though, they could absolutely lift up to twenty five tons.

Dei would break a piece of his mind off, then turn it into spare parts and dedicate that entire thing into this one goal. It would not think, breathe, live, or anything. Its one purpose would be to maintain this System, and prevent entropy from tearing it apart.

He sighed, as he knew it was the only way he would ever reasonably have enough computing power to create his own System, and exactly how much was needed.

Twenty seven percent of his entire mind would have to be rewritten for this singular purpose, which was a lot after all his enhancements.

There was nothing to it though. Focusing, he began the arduous process of reshaping a piece of himself.

* * *

He did not finish with the remodeling of his mind before Thadria awoke, and it was time to move on.

During the break, Dei also realized a pattern in the previous few universes: Separation, the Reality Being, was splitting up the various factions of Primordial Children, that's why there was only one Champion in this section of the Multiverse, because Separation was splitting them based on how close they were to it.

At the furthest was the Titans, then The Champion and the body of The Mother were in the layer closer. In their most recent dimension, Caps, the feral Dragons reigned supreme, recognized as a group different to The Champion for some reason.

That left one faction, maybe two unaccounted for: the Leviathans, and the consciousness of The Mother.

He was sure the Titans also resided in multiple dimensions, as there were sure to be more than three total, but they were likely in the ones neighboring Minerali.

The Leviathans were mostly unknown because only Lucifer had ever been seen, and he was now dead, so Dei asked himself where all the others were.

Then, he was still quite unsure about his theory on The Mother, but surely her mind had been severed for a reason. He asked himself if she even could exist without a body but…

'Yea, almost a guarantee. If Daniel could do it, I'm sure the God KNOWN for her mind can as well.'

Which meant Separation considered The Mother's mind and body two separate entities, similar to how it considered The Champion different from the rest of the Dragons. It split her up.

'Which begs the question: does she have two souls? I'd say either yes, or her soul was split as well and simply adjusted to its new condition.'

There was also the issue of the age of these universes. The closer to Separation they got, the newer each reality became, with their current one only being two to three thousand years old, which was half the lifespan of Earth apparently.

All of this meant the next universe might not even exist yet, but if it did, it'd be even newer.

Stepping into the raw fabric once more, Dei saw two planets: Earth and one more yet to be named, the one he suspected was closer to Separation.

He wasn't going back to Earth of course, so in a blink he-

-was pulled out of his Void transportation by a Cosmic Beast, which immediately launched a series of reality-bending attacks on him.

'Here we go again…'

* * *

One repeat of the previous Cosmic Beast battle later, and they finished their journey to the new planet.

Encounters with the natural denizens of the raw fabric appeared to be common enough that it would happen to everyone traveling through it eventually, but rare enough to not be a harassing force on every journey.

Cosmic Beasts were all incredibly similar, so it was not easy to call any one an "Anomaly." Dei's first encounter with them was absolutely indicative of the temperament of the rest, and he had to keep an eye out, even if they didn't always feel the impulse to attack people.

The first way he looked into the planet was visually, but there was not much unique about it. It was mostly tall, dense, jungle, but that could be either The Mother or Leviathans, as both were quite involved with life or beasts. True, The Mother could arguably be closer, but it simply was not definitive evidence.

Zooming around the fabric, looking at the planet from different angles though? He saw no evidence of any civilization, with many large beasts. That pointed towards The Mother, but it could just be because the planet was young and the sapients present were very primitive.

Preliminary assessment complete, Dei turned to Thadria and Jacob.

"Would you two mind sitting this one out?"

"Hm? How come?" Jacob asked.

"This might have the consciousness of The Mother on it, and Thadria is vulnerable to her because she has The Dream within her. I don't want to say I'm untouchable, but it'd be harder for her to infect and hide within my mind. If she is here, I'd rather she not be allowed to escape or use anyone I care about against me… because we may end up coming to blows."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Really? Why?" he wondered, baffled. "I know the other guy was evil or whatever, but this one seems a little unprovoked."

'Oh yea, he doesn't really know.'

"Oh, The Mother is an objectively evil being who enjoys squashing sapient life. If there was any on this planet and she's the only God here, they're likely dead. For the one on Earth, Daniel actually wasn't evil, he was twisted by her latent desire to kill everything."

By the end, Jacob was pale, and Thadria looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Alright," Jacob finally said, "Yea, I don't want to be there if that happens."

Perumah spoke next, saying "I hope she is here. I'd like to kill a version of her myself… and you won't be able to reach her if she's spread throughout the minds without using your manifestation, so it'll be up to me."

The idea of breaking his soul again made him grimace, but he'd do it if that's what was required. "Really? You hate her that much? I get it though, she did try to brand your soul by calling you a tool, and that is completely antithetical to your every ambition so… I'd probably do the same."

"What? No, I don't care about that, I want the Achievement and she has been cut off from almost all her power."

"Really? You don't-? oh wait, you don't have Wrath yet, duh.

"No matter the case, if she has a gateway to the other versions of herself, I think we should back off. I'm ninety percent positive that was a feature of her body alone, but if she's able to communicate with the web of Mothers through the multiverse, it just won't be worth catching their ire. I almost had a divine bounty put on my head when I killed Daniel, and I don't want to risk that happening again. It just won't be worth the effort."

"Hm, very well, we verify there is no way for her to contact the others then kill her?"

"You do all that, I'll sit back and guard your body when you have a mental clash. If we encounter The Mother at all, because right now I'm just working off the patterns I've seen in the previous universes, not solid evidence. I'm predicting what is likely, not seeing into the future."

"It is an obvious conclusion which would make sense," Permah agreed.

"Alright, any last minute words before we check things out?"

"Yea, I have one, what's that?" Jacob said, pointing back the way they'd come. Because of how the fabric treated distance and angles, they were also able to see the next planet in the series. Honestly, they would likely skip over this one if not for Perumah wanting to earn the Achievement and Dei not wanting to leave a rogue Mother near Earth.

When Dei looked back, he saw Caps and… a bubble of darkness surrounding a blindingly white point.

"The next planet probably isn't born yet, so that might be it forming? I don't know, we'll have to see."

"That's it for me then."

"Dei, boil yourself."

"What? Oh yea, Convection build up, thanks for the reminder."

When Dei was ready and preemptively in his battle form, Thadria and Jacob stepped back while he opened the portal, and they slipped through.

It wasn't long before they moved away from the pole, the arctic on this world being particularly small to match with the tropical environment.

Dei felt Divine flicker something away, changing his organs to provide resistance to a powerful yet mundane poison.

'We're still a small distance from shore… why would there be poison?' Dei thought as they arrived at the super massive forest.

"Dei, the air is… suffocating."

"What do you mean? Are you alright? My body registered it as poison."

"No it's… I think the air is mostly oxygen."

"Oh! That would make a lot more sense… and did you say mostly? I believe most planets only have about twenty percent oxygen."

'Also, you still need carbon dioxide? Do you undergo photosynthesis? Surely not, because you have to chlorophyll… there is no green on you… questions for later.'

"Yes, mostly. This… cannot be below sixty percent."

"By God!" he exclaimed, "How?! At its peak Earth only had thirty five percent, and there were massive bugs when that happened."

A premonition of what was to come appeared before him, and he shivered. 'Okay, definitely The Mother on this planet because she's a swarm kinda gal, and bugs would be perfect for that if she didn't have Lunar Spawn. She's definitely done some terraforming.'

That answered the question of if there were any Sapient Races here at least.

He did a quick dive into the Realm of Leviathans, seeing it empty, and which further cemented the situation.

"Good news Perumah, we're right and this is a Mother world."

"And why, pray tell, might you be looking for me?" A hum of wings resonated to form words from the jungle below, and Dei was taken off guard.

Normally, when meeting races in other dimensions, they would speak or communicate in concepts. The words of The Mother though? Pure verbal Undercant, the language of Gem Dweller Humans.

At least, that's what he assumed. If The Mother knew it though, it was likely older than the race itself, hailing from the Supreme universe- potentially even created by The Mother herself.

'It's called Undercant, not Gem Dwellarian or something similar. It's the language of those under the earth.'

Dei preferred to speak with his voice when possible, and now he'd accidentally allowed The Mother to hear him.

Thinking quickly, he said "Perumah here is a monster and we were wondering where your consciousness went on our original planet. You see, a human found your body unguarded and sort of… took over. We killed him, but we came searching for the rightful owner."

"A human dared?" she spoke in a low, furious tone. "They always were the most audacious… That explains your disconnect from The Dream."

"Then I take it it's yours? Unless I'm talking with another Mother, it seems her Identity was cleaved off by Separation."

"Yes… yes… the body is my own. Take The Dream upon yourselves once more and let us set for my other half."

"Woah!" he stopped her, "Let's slow down. We just got done killing a corrupt Mother, how do we know this is not a second one looking to expand their reach? How do we know you are a true Mother?"

She hissed, but sounded more irritated than furious. "I have no body, the body has no mind. The pieces are plain to see."

"True, yes, but if one can be twisted, how do we know the other is not?" Even the insinuation made her growl, but he plowed on. "Not to mention, we simply have no way to confirm your lack of a body. Can you get the vouching of a second Mother? Daniel had passing interactions with them, but I don't believe he was ever given scrutiny. The word of another self would be more than enough evidence-"

"I DO NOT HAVE A BODY, INSOLENT UNION! HOW AM I TO CONNECT WITH THE WEAVE?"

He smirked, "Good to know."

Perumah's body broke apart, latching onto his back and hiding the main portion of herself inside her armored roots; he took this as his cue to protect her body while she did her work. She could not hide her spiritual self within him this time, as she had to reach out to attack The Mother.

Dei had to admit, he was worried. Even if The Mother didn't have the crushing force she normally would, she was a God of Minds, Perumah had her effort cut out for her.

If he could do anything though… it would be to split her attention.

Plunging downwards, his Convection surged, flames licking at the edge of his skin, and he was careful to keep it away from Perumah.

Hundreds of massive insects surged up to meet him, but he could only smirk. His fist shot out, and a shockwave of heat and force exploded from him.

It'd been a while since he'd pushed his heat to the limit. He was originally inspired by how volcanic eruptions used snap mana… and he now emulated them perfectly.

Hundreds of man-sized insects were vaporized, thousands killed, and trees in all directions blackened to ash in the wind.

In a single punch, a crater formed below him despite the ground only being peripheral collateral.

'This might actually be fun!' he thought gleefully, looking to his next targets.

With the click of a mental button, he also deactivated the portion of his dorsal fins which reduced friction on his body, letting his speed refuel the heat from his punch almost instantly.

In two strikes, the jungle was gone, and Dei quickly moved towards where he saw more souls hiding. He needed to keep at least one monster in range of Perumah at all times, or he'd interrupt their battle.

He felt her connection to his mind deepen as she started predicting who he was going to kill next, accounting for that in their clash. 'I'm definitely doing something if I need to be noted.'

If he wanted to exacerbate the advantage Perumah got from his murder spree, he'd have to be chaotic enough for The Mother to fail to account for.

Flying around the planet close to the speed of sound, Dei released explosion after explosion, utterly massacring the wildlife.

Despite the bugs being massive they were all… just bugs.

Not a single one had magic.

That made him wonder, 'Did Separation put The Mother in this particular universe, closest to themselves, specifically to imprison her? To cut her off from any magical allies she might have?'

No matter. Large insects or not, they burned all the same.

His was the easy part, it was Perumah that would clash with the majority of The Mother's skill.