Sovereign of the Karmic System

A few hours earlier. "What is her role in all of this?" Roley asked, perplexed. Joan was a simple immortal cultivator, after all. Aside from Ian, who was a simple mortal, she was the least unique of the beings within their cohort. Not a force of nature like Wolfe, not a mental cultivator like Aeron, nor a semi or full fledged being of existential nature. Just a simple immortal cultivator. Daniel scoffed at the scholar's plain arrogance–a spark of disdain growing in his eyes at the thought that either of his companions could be of more use to him than any other. An arrogant way of thinking for any other creature, but an ingrained mindset for a being of his caliber, who viewed value only within a person's ability to produce power for himself–Hence why, in Daniel's perspective, Joan was the most essential member of the group. Instead of correcting him, Daniel turned to look at his surroundings, then explained. "It is purely a guess, but the weave of fate should be the window Fate uses to peer into the past, present and future of all things–His absolute domain. Luckily for us, that also means that its workings should be entirely reliant on the existential power of fate. So I see no reason why a power like mine should not be able to carve a hole for us." Roley nodded in agreement. "That's a fair assessment, I suppose. Though, while you did succeed in altering a fated event, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. How do you plan to change that?" "How do you think? If something does not yield after the first strike, you simply need to keep hitting until it breaks." Daniel said as his lips curved into an amused grin. "But in order to do that, I am going to need to gather some power.. and for that, I need you." As he finished speaking, Daniel's gaze locked onto Joan's figure, who briefly showed a hint of unease. The days that followed were filled with the deafening sound of Fate's immense power coming down onto a prepared Joan, frying her body into burnt flesh that fell off the bone, followed by the sight of her body being regenerated. A cycle that, had her mind not been under the protection of Aeron's mental powers, would have caused her to lose her sanity. Yet, despite her consciousness being protected by feelings of pain or dread, by the end of the first week, Aeron suggested vehemently that she took a few days of rest, for her mind and spirit were showing signs of scarring. Unwilling to listen, Daniel demanded that Joan's cooperation continued, only granting her a day of rest every several days of torture until finally, a month passed. After Joan's body was restored for the thousandth time, her cured visage now showed signs of weariness and dread. There was no damage to her body, and Aeron worked around the clock to restore her mind to full health whenever she was allowed to rest, but her spirit.. repeatedly parted from her body, yet prevented from reaching its resting place.. she had been depressed. Luckily, the moment she stood up and readied herself to continue, Daniel raised his hand in a halting gesture, then looked at his surroundings in silence. Right in front of his eyes, several more scenarios passed by. A woman being kicked out of her household after the discovery of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, forced to give birth in a dirty alley.. an avian beast of gargantuan proportions desperately attempting to fight back an even bigger serpent, failing to prevent it from stealing its eggs. Even uneventful scenes depicting gales of wind capable of ripping flesh to shreds, raging in never-ending storms on the surface of an unlivable planet. He waited patiently with closed eyes, unbothered by his changing surroundings for what felt like an eternity. After which, finally, the right scenario appeared. When Daniel's eyes opened, he found himself in absolute darkness. "Here.." He said before floating away from the rest of the group. "Here? Where is.. here?" Ian asked, frightened by the surrounding space. The place they were in, a place of which only Daniel and Der were aware of, was a universe that had reached the stage of heath death. Something found in the farthest reaches of time, when the stars had long burned out, and the galaxies drifted apart, leaving the universe in an eternal void of frozen stillness shroud in eerie silence. A cosmos that, despite once teeming with the light of countless stars, had now cooled into a realm of dark, lifeless emptiness. Had Roley's body not emitted a faint glow due to the treasures of light, lightning and fire essence lodged into his body, Daniel and the others would have experienced a far more dreary scenery. A space that had run out of energy, motion, and life.. with no potential of either creation or destruction. Simple nothingness. "This is.. impressive. How can a place like this exist?" Roley muttered under his breath, dumbfounded by the scenery. The treasure of primordial dark essence within his right hand felt like body temperature water, almost impossible to distinguish from the surrounding space. At the same time, his scholarly heart made him wonder how a universe like this had come to be, as he had always been under the assumption that the natural death of a universe was its collapse. Daniel looked around with a satisfied expression, then began explaining. "Scholars from the planet I have lived on for the past two thousand years, or maybe calling them scientists would be more accurate.. They theorized that the natural end of a universe was not a collapse of its space, but something called 'heat death'. A state of evolution a universe is bound to reach uncountable years after its creation.. when the energy present in the particles that make out everything the universe contains is extinguished." "Some scientists from my armada suggested this possibility once, but the theory was soon discarded." Der interjected calmly, yet his eyes betrayed his discomfort. The lack of sounds, light and smells felt odd now, but he could tell that with time, in a few hours, or days, this peculiarity could very well begin to gnaw at his psyche. Roley, however, appeared unaffected. He nodded with interest at Daniel's explanation, then asked enthusiastically, "Did they also propose a theory regarding how a universe might advance or regress to such a state? Moreover, is the potential for collapse still considered possible?" "Hard to say." Daniel responded plainly. "At this point we cannot even be sure whether this is a vision of the future, or the past. But if I had to guess, I would say that it is the past." The scholar's gaze turned pensive, "Indeed. It should be the past. Such a place could not remain unnoticed for too long, which would imply that, by now, this universe must have collapsed like all others." As he spoke, Roley continued to examine the familiar surroundings, but soon enough, his innate curiosity drove his mind and eyes back on Daniel. ".. But what is your interest with this particular universe?" Daniel raised his hand, pinching at the empty, dark space in front of him. A small golden orb formed just an inch shy of his fingertips, first covered in a golden mist, then solidified into a perfect pearl only visible to his eyes. "I wish to test the limits of this armament.. to see how much interference it can bear before collapsing." He said before shooting the bead of golden power in the air. When it reached a distance of a few thousand miles from the group, the bead of compressed karmic power exploded with impossible force, expanding and condensing in mere moments. But Daniel and the others saw none of this, as the moment the sphere's power manifested, the now familiar white glow shone once more, followed by the obliterating white lightning. As usual, the moment Daniel interfered with the events that were being shown, the weave of fate fought back, eradicating the intruder and resetting the stage.. Yet, as the minutes of motionless emptiness played out again, one could see that a new event had become part of it. A bead of golden power being formed out of nowhere right where Daniel once stood, then thrown far into the distance, before exploding with a brilliance that gave a last breath of life to what was effectively a deceased universe. But that was not enough. The moment the attack of karmic power was shown by the looped string of events, a second attack followed, reaching the former attack's ground zero with even faster speed, reaching it moments before the first attack. Then, just like its predecessor, the second bead exploded, forever changing the monotonous course of events Daniel and the others had witnessed before. Just like before, the dark universe was lit by an oppressive flash of pure white light, then the lightning came. Daniel's body disintegrated once again, but this time, the others noticed that something was different. "Wait.." Roley said as Daniel's body became whole once again. "Something is changing.." He muttered in the direction of the aspect of existence who, unfortunately, had no intention of listening. Soon the time of the attack came again, and like before, Daniel shot a third bead of concentrated karmic power into the mix. This time, making it land in the short span of time in between the first two attacks. Flash and lightning followed soon after. "Ssshh" Ian hissed as a portion of space began to crack by his ear. The feeling akin to a slab of glass being pressed against one's skin with enough force to shatter, yet lacking pressure or potential for damage. His ears rang sharply and his head tilted to one side. "What the hell was that?" He asked, panicked. Daniel's body reformed just in time to see Roley's halting gestures, voice failing to reach him.. but he ignored him. His focus was on the time the previous attacks would land, and when the moment arrived, not long after, Daniel added another attack to the mix. This time, ordering it to land mere instants before the first one. He then closed his eyes, ready for the lightning to strike–yet.. A wide smile crept on his lips as he finally noticed the first change. His companions cringing from the pain of space trembling around their bodies, hugging them in a cold and sharp embrace as the four attacks struck one after the other in a fraction of a second. Only then did the white lightning struck him.. far slower than it had ever been before. "Let's do a few more.. hehe.." Daniel snickered as the weakened lightning wreaked havoc into his body–Now too weak to outright turn him into dust. The following several minutes were absolute torture for Der and the others, who were being forced to experience a peculiar and odd event. The space around them was distorting, but since their existence did not belong to the changing scenery, only their minds were being affected. Pulled, twisted and shaken, they felt like toys at the mercy of a violent toddler, and as they struggled to maintain their sanity, the brief looks they struggled to spare in Daniel's direction told them the situation wouldn't take a turn for the better any time soon. A few feet from them, Daniel's figure played a game of pull and tug with the weave of fate. One restoring the thread of fate, the other staining it indelibly, to a point where the very weave of fate, in order to keep up with the erratic and permanent changes created by a contrasting force, began to lose ground. With Daniel's eighth attack the once peaceful dead space showed signs of shattering, with the tenth, the repeated bombardment of karmic power outright collapsed the space, and by the time Daniel had stacked thirty attacks bound to repeat whenever the armament managed to reset the event, its workings finally failed. A full minute after Daniel's thirtieth attack landed, the flash that usually preceded the obliterating strike of the power of fate shone with impossible light, yet the lightning never struck. When the brightness failed to dissipate, even after several seconds, Daniel realized that he had succeeded, for hew as not in the looped fated event anymore, but somewhere completely different.