RE: Deity - The Breath of Creation

Kei could now understand why her mother was undergoing such drastic changes after Gramps took her on her trip. Everything was so crazy and different in another universe, even if they were supposed to be the same! The elements themselves tasted funny, and while they responded to her power and the elements bound within her tails, they resisted it altogether. And that wasn't even to mention the creatures! She'd been struggling for so long to create her own people like Mother had and Gramps had shown, and this was giving her so many ideas! Who said her people had to be like Gramps? They could be intelligent beasts! Those were so much easier, and she connected to them better anyways.

"Hey, what's that?!" Kei cried, ears flicking and tails swishing as she descended from the skies above, where she'd been flying beside Curie and Astraea, to hurtle to the vast plains below.

"Hey – wait!" Curie cried, but Kei paid her no heed, landing softly in a field of ten-foot-tall golden grasses. Her feet weightlessly touched the tops of the plants, keeping her above them as she studied the object of her attention.

It was a cow.

But not just any cow! It had horns the size of Uncle Alexander's fangs when he got reaaaal big and mean, and fur the color of solid gold. It blinked its eyes lazily at her as it peered down, standing easily thirty feet tall with muscles as dense as any stone. Kei whistled and paced around the giant cow, being very careful to avoid the lesser beings – smaller golden cows without the spark of intelligence and power that radiated from the big guy – as she looked him up and down. It mooed once at her.

"Thanks! But I'm a fox," Kei said proudly, narrowing her eyes at the inner workings of the cow's internal energies, gaze alighting on a little core of power that sent lines of nourishing power through the entirety of the cow's body. Was that what made it grow so much bigger and more intelligent than the other cows? It reminded her a little of the dantians that cultivators made, but was fundamentally different.

It made sense for a cow in another universe to be different from the Fae.

"Would you focus!" Curie snapped, appearing next to her in a flash of electric light and scaring off the cows. The big one bellowed in panic while the lesser ones fled, plowing trails through the grass, waiting just long enough for them to escape before following after. Kei beamed at it. What a good cow, to wait for its herd mates to flee!

"It's interesting though," Kei pouted dramatically, leaning on Astraea's shoulder as the star goddess softly appeared beside her, starlight radiating from her dress. "You can't expect to bring me by so many cool things and not get distracted. You even scared off that lighting bird earlier, and the elemental god of wind! He's different." Kei noted. The wind god was so much different than the elemental goddess of wind she knew – all talkative and bubbly, rather than the silent, secretive goddess of the Four Realms.

"You have the attention span of a bacterium!" Curie snapped, smoothing out her hair and straightening her robes as she glared lightning bolts at Kei. "And the curiosity of a child! I expected better from the plus one of one Yueya so highly praised, yet here you are acting a fool!" Kei set her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest proudly, flaring her tails dramatically. "That was not a compliment! We need to fly fast to get to the so-called rot and get back again before the others notice, and I – why are you looking at me like that?"

Kei hid a smile, keeping her innocent look plastered on her face. Had she finally noticed? It was about time. It wasn't like she'd truly stopped for nothing all those times. "Oh, I was just wondering why we need to go all the way to where you're leading me when there's some of the rot right here? Did you want to show me something different?" Curie's expression darkened for a split second, followed by a widening of her eyes as she looked downward, panic flashing through her expression.

"How did it get this far?" She demanded, raising one hand high into the air. A metal rod appeared in her palm with a flash of blue that she brought downward to strike the earth with a mighty blow, cracking it open effortlessly. A three hundred yard-long split falling multiple hundreds of miles into the One World's crust stretched beneath Kei's feet, a whoosh of air rising upward to whip her hair all about her head. For a brief moment Kei felt respect for Curie – she had barely felt any fluctuations of power at all! That was nearly on Gramps' level; the strike itself hadn't even been necessary, just a show for Curie's sake. But more importantly, her attention was directed downward. Far, far below she could sense the so-called rot slowly pulsing…and Curie teleported away, down into the depths.

Kei shared a look with Astraea; the star-goddess had her brows furrowed, biting her bottom lip in worry, and Kei smiled warmly at her.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about, it's just a baby Shadow." She said, and dropped. The wind whistled past her, ruffling her hair and fur as she hurtled into the depths, speed assisted by her magic. There was no need to rush – besides, she wanted to see what Curie would do when they got to the bottom. Even still, it only took fifteen minutes to reach the bottom of the cave, falling into a wide cavern that was illuminated by false blue light.

Bulbs of false blue light illuminated the cavern as Kei touched down gently, smoothing out her robes, as Curie scrambled about, setting up strange equipment and what looked like alchemical supplies as the goddess of science struggled to identify what they had landed before. She muttered constantly under her breath, asking questions such as 'what is this doing here?' and 'how did it get so far without my notice?' Kei sighed. It wasn't that interesting, was it? It'd barely formed.

As of now, the baby shadow was little more than a blob of red fungi. Or slime? Kei was truthfully unsure – what she was sure of was that it was uglier than sin, and smelled just as bad. She wrinkled her nose at it. The blob was nearly twenty feet tall and half as wide, strange humanoid shapes sticking out of it – like people, screaming and reaching out to try and escape the blob's grasp. Were they actually people? Or was it just trying to imitate them?

Kei cocked her head to the side curiously as she examined it, stepping forward, heedless of Astraea's cry of warning as she circled the growth. Magic washed over her, drawing her attention, attempting to lure her closer.

"Don't get too close," Curie warned, hurling a silver spike into the blob from thirty feet away, a mask covering her face now. "It will charm you and suck you in, devouring your body and soul. I already warned you about this, but you seem to have forgotten, having gotten so close."

Kei shot a look at Curie and Astraea from her position not but ten feet away from the pulsating mass. Curie's gaze was only half-fixated upon her, the fungus drawing most of her attention. Kei didn't get it. Sure, the thing was novel in a world that was mostly beautiful, but even supposed ugliness could draw out beauty. Such a thing might manifest as humor, or some other talent – beauty was not confined to the physical. So why all the attention to this…thing, that appeared to represent pure ugliness, in all its forms?

"Kei, step away please." Astraea begged, gaze flicking once to Curie, then back to Kei worriedly. She purposefully did not look at the blob, silver eyes darting everywhere but the rot.

Kei pursed her lips. That would not do. That would not do at all. Who did these gods think she was? She had divine blood running through her veins.

Kei's hands twitched once as she looked back toward the blob. What would Mom do? What would gramps do?

"Bah. I'm not mom or gramps," Kei grumbled, and, in one smooth motion, touched the red blob. Immediately it surged forward, the fungi launching itself at her, crawling up her arm like a snake prepared to strike. Curie and Astraea cried out in alarm while Kei shuddered, the feeling of the fungus crawling up her skin like a spider dancing up her arm. Only, a spider was at least purposeful, and not truly malicious. The fugus felt…hungry. It clashed against her power and soul, trying to eat away at her very being, to gnaw at her connection to Gramps and the Heavens. But such a thing was not something a mere mushroom could sever, not without her permission.

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Astraea screamed. Curie cursed rapidly, power building up within her. And Kei just giggled, making everyone, including the fugus, freeze. She'd figured it out, in that little moment. That tiny, infinitesimal second in which her own essence had allowed the rot to touch her soul and been wholly rejected.

She knew what this baby shadow was. And she wasn't subtle like gramps, or quiet like Mother. She was Kei. She would tell them exactly how she felt. So, with the fungus all the way up to her shoulder, threatening to keep climbing and try to consume her, she admitted the one thing that had frozen it in place. The one thing that was antithesis to all the rot represented.

"I'm bored of you."

And the rot screamed, foxfire leaping from Kei's fingers to burn it from within. Kei leapt backward, yanking her arm blissfully free from the foul substance, a mad grin dancing upon her lips as it burned with blue fire.

"Who do you think I am, to try and corrupt me? I am Kei! Unrivalled beneath the heavens! Subservient to no one! Where I go the wind follows, and play comes to greet me – until I run off again, to find a new curiosity! An obsession such as you does not suit one such as me!" The rot screeched its rage, pulsating and growing, bulging obscenely in a hundred different places, power building up within it. Curie cursed, thunder radiating from her as she prepared to annihilate the rot, and Kei withdrew her fire, watching closely. Curie hesitated.

Astraea did not.

The goddess of stars raised her hands, a ball of purifying silver light forming between her fingers that flashed out in a beam and burned the mass. Kei forced a giggle from her lips as the rot was burned away, shrieking painfully, while Curie began shouting obscenities, power lashing out to finish it off. Astraea turned her attention to Kei, expression serious, while Kei playfully dodged Curie's words that struck like lightning bolts from the cavern ceiling.

There. She wasn't subtle like Gramps. That, at least, should get it through Curie's thick skull. She couldn't be more direct if she tried. After all, what was the bane and boon of art and science, but limiting obsession?

***

"Are you sure Kei is going to be alright with Curie?" Yueya asked me as I walked beside her, looking down upon a village of elves. A young god of the earth watched over them – barely a god, more like an angel to me – and I shrugged.

"The real question is if Curie is going to be alright with Kei. That girl has untapped potential, but only because her attention span is so limited. She's a bloody genius; and like many geniuses, she suffers from a severe lack of focus. Some things might catch her attention but it's rare for her to obsess over anything once she thinks she's mastered it." I said, squeezing Yueya's hand comfortingly. The poor goddess had been so tense ever since we'd come to her Realm – and it wasn't just because she'd been informed of all the work she'd missed.

They were woefully understaffed, the sheer size of the world vastly outstripping the number of high-powered spiritual beings that worked within. Alala, the tanned tomboy of Yueya's three selves, had gleefully informed her of all the duties she'd missed while she'd been away – duties Yueya had promptly handed off to an incarnation while she, herself, guided us through the main functions of her Realm.

"She was very bubbly," Yueya agreed, squeezing my hand back. Before us, her incarnation and Alala chattered away with the group at large.

Honestly what they were showing us greatly interested me, even if I couldn't directly use the processes. As a matter of fact, the process of expansion was vastly different from what I had expected. Instead of constantly exploding into the Void like I had been lead to believe, Yueya's universe was constantly creating landmass. As this planet was one massive, spherical structure surrounded by a protective shell of primordial chaos – which I was beginning to suspect was far more common than I realized, as very few of the universes went without said protective shell – it couldn't just create land into the Void.

Instead, it functioned much like continents.

There was an edge to the One World. It was a band, a ring around the middle that ran beneath the surface of the planet. There, primordial chaos clashed with itself and a thin band of Void, creating more chaos that, in the process, was transformed into energy and landmass that surged upward, pushing more land into the crust of the planet like magma bubbling up from below, thereby expanding the sphere. It was a source of endless creation, that didn't need any management. Only people to fill the space it created.

Good lord, just how big would the One World get?

"I already have plenty of ideas on how to increase the number of gods we have, or high level beings." Yueya whispered. "Have you gotten what you needed out of this?"

"I have," I said, and truthfully, I had. Her comments up until this point through the rest of the universes had given me plenty of ideas – but none that I would actually implement. The seeds I had planted would grow fast enough as it was, and I did want my children to figure some things out themselves. I might make some minor adjustments, but…the wheel turns, and it was time for me to take a step back from the Four Realms. I got the feeling that my overbearing presence was part of what was stifling its growth.

For now, at least. There would come a time for me to step in again.

"Then follow me. I want to show you my art collection." She whispered, tugging me along. I let myself be led, half amused and half curious as we sped through the skies, away from the others. Alala shot us one glance as we went, even though I left behind an incarnation, then resumed talking to the others and boasting of her and her sister-selves' accomplishments.

It took no time at all to vanish from view, even my divine senses unable to reach the others as the land blurred by beneath us. Gone went the holy coliseum Alala used, her seat of power that sat at a key point across the globe from Yueya's city, and the lab Curie supposedly used. Gone went cities and badlands, wastelands vanishing by just as massive kingdoms of mortals and sprawling empires, only to fade away to forests and mountains the likes of which dwarfed any territory said empires could ever hope to hold.

The only being who spotted us was a lone wizard, the old, greying elf watching us fly by overhead from where he contemplated the nature of a pond – he was nearing Yueya's threshold of Divinity, about to become a god himself, but not quite there yet.

And all too soon we were back above Yueya's city, the god of justice that governed it glancing up at us as we descended into Yueya's palace, then turned his attention away entirely. The domed roof of Yueya's palace split open to allow us entry, revealing gilded halls and glittering gemstones. Everything within was a work of art, from lifelike paintings of landscapes to more abstract art, from sculptures of stone so realistic it seemed as if they would jump to life, to crudely constructed statues of unrealistic size and proportion.

And those were the least interesting things.

My gaze wandered as she led the way through her palace, and even if she had been talking I doubted I would have been able to hear her. Thousands of things pulled my attention every which way, and I let them, basking in the awe of laying eyes upon such brilliant works of art. This was so much unlike my own home – true, I had art there as well. But they were creations of my children, even if they were good or bad I was obligated to love them. This? This was simply something for me to admire, be it swords or beautifully drawn maps, or even food.

And then we reached Yueya's workshop. Paintings and woven tapestries hanging from the walls. A loom stood tall in one corner, golden thread half woven, while painting supplies stood in another; a block of stone, rubble strewn about around it alongside various sculpting tools scattered about.

"I'm in my visual art phase. Sorry for the mess." Yueya apologized. But I wasn't really listening. My eyes had found the thing sitting in the center of the room; a bed, with red velvet drapes hanging from the posts, adorned with plush pillows and soft covers. The door to the room slammed shut behind me, startling me into turning, meeting Yueya's half-lidded eyes.

"It is no trouble. I find it endearing," I said, an easy smile gracing my lips despite the tension forming in my gut. Yueya smiled, and oh gods was it a pretty smile. Both my male and female selves could agree on that. She sauntered forward, stride confident and full of purpose as she came to stop just before me, nose so close they were almost touching. I still towered over her, having not shrunk my form in the slightest in the past few years; her red hair shone in the light of the room, a light blush dusting her cheeks.

One hand touched my arm, and my mouth went dry.

I was no blushing maiden, but it had been eons since my last…well. I silenced that little voice in my head and cleared my throat.

Yueya giggled, a fierce gleam appearing in her eye as she leaned even closer.

"I cannot have been the only one to have been lonely in these past few eons. Being surrounded by your creations is one thing, finding a kindred soul is quite another." She breathed out, other hand reaching up to rest upon my shoulder. "This doesn't have to be anything but fun, so let's just -"

"Yueya," I said, cutting her off with a teasing smile. "Don't ruin the moment."

She laughed then and, in a moment that blurred my mind, planted a kiss upon my lips.

It was the first of many.