Note
I would like to apologise in advance for the amount of exposition in this chapter. Believe me, it's all necessary and I cut out a LOT of words. Lore galore.
-Rhea
*
Once Langa was sure he had everything he needed for a new challenge, including potions, pills and Exploding Orbs, he stepped into the teleportation wheel and pressed the button for the 2nd Floor.
He stood in front of the 36th Floor Overlord, Lady Mira's office, and opened the door, expecting to have another lovely conversation with her.
To his surprise, however, the vampire 36th Floor Overlord was not behind the desk. Instead, seated there, was the System Administrator he had met inside Funduvus' Gate.
"Huh, Randi Benkoffyouri? What are you doing here? Where’s Lady Mira?" Langa asked.
He felt a sudden, strange sense of anticipation and a glimmer of happiness inside him. He blinked it away in confusion.
"How rude, child of Adtonifulmin. Were you not taught to greet your elders before you speak?" she asked. Her voice was deeper than it had been before. "I suppose your attitude should not surprise me, given how often you have questioned my Authority."
There was no Karma coming from the seraphim's body, and yet wisdom filled her eyes. When he stared into them, happiness flooded him, and Langa's spirit felt content, as if everything in his life was as it should be. As if he were at peace.
He knew who this was.
"You're L...Lady Unrivalled?" he asked. His heart sped up, and it felt like sunshine and flowers were blooming inside him. "For fuck's sake, Master, can you please control your feelings?"
[The Deiwos Clan God: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, says his essence flows freely in the presence of his beloved.]
She rolled her eyes. "Persistent, isn't he?" she asked.
"Yeah," Langa said. "So, your Incarnation is a seraphim? I thought only constellations could be Incarnations?"
"Randi Benkoffyouri is my System Administrator. Since she is the only one you know, that is who you see me as," The Unrivalled said. "I’m not really here, but your mind has constructed a form you can converse with. There is not a being in existence that can handle my raw essence, mortal or immortal."
"Okay? So, why are you here...eh...Your Holiness?" Langa said, kicking back into polite mode. It wouldn't do to offend the System herself and his master's beloved.
"Do not force respect that is not there; it's pathetic. For all Players, on the Floors in which you take the Infinite Challenge, the essence of The Quartenity will escort you through the Gate. I am always at the beginning to teach you about what the Infinite Challenge is," she said. "But first, let me give you your 1st Floor clearance. You have received most of your rewards, therefore, you only need the pass."
[You have cleared the FIRST FLOOR MAIN QUEST
Clear Rank: A
You have Cleared an unclaimed Level 10 dungeon solo.
You have earned 36 268/10 000 Karma
You have Chosen a deity to serve
Quest Rewards:
Ascend to the 2nd Floor]
"That's it?" Langa asked in disbelief.
"Yes, that's it. You’ve already received your Karma and experience. You will not be getting an item because you are over-levelled for this Floor, unfortunately," she said.
"What? How is that my fault? Your Floor Overlord caused this whole mess!" Langa complained. The only thing he received was the pass to enter the 2nd Floor.
"So, because he broke the rules, must I do the same for you? Above level 13, you don't get the item reward. It's to stop Players from waiting to clear the Floor until they're higher level. This was clearly stated in the extended words of The Tower Rulebook that Alfsol gave you when you first entered the 1st Floor," she said. "You just skimmed it, didn't you?"
"If I had known there was fine print, I would have been more thorough. I thought it was just a guideline," Langa said defensively. He was very meticulous when signing contracts because of some of the messy contracts his brother-in-law had signed for him when he was a child, which took forever to get out of.
"Well, the rules are there to discourage people from staying too long on the 1st Floor after they clear it," The Unrivalled said. "Now, will you keep complaining or would you like to begin the Infinite Challenge?"
Langa placed his pass in his Feathervault bag. "Let's do it."
“Go ahead with the questions I know you want to ask; I can hear them swirling around that tiny little head of yours,” she said.
She reminded him of his primary school teacher—a stern, no-nonsense woman.
“Okay, what is the Infinite Challenge?" Langa asked. "All I know is that completing it is one of the requirements to become a deity. I know we can only begin it on the 1st Floor and then we have to continue it on every 10th Floor until we complete it at 101st Floor.”
“That is correct. Do you know what percentage of Players Ascend to deityhood per Tower?” The Unrivalled asked.
“10%?” Langa guessed.
“0.13%,” she said. "There are two primary conditions that hamper them. Completing The Infinite Challenge and Obtaining a Divine Domain. Luckily, you already have the second, so we shall see if you can get the first."
Langa found it hard to believe that so few people made it through the Infinite Challenge.
“You will learn soon. My brothers and I will tell you all you need to know about the Challenge,” The Unrivalled said, reading his mind. She stood up and held out her arm. “Come, there is more I wish to speak with you about.”
Langa took the lady's hand, and she led him out of the office into the corridor outside. Surprisingly, the corridor seemed endless.
"Will you tell me why you dislike me so?” The Unrivalled asked.
“I don’t dislike you," Langa said as they walked down the endless corridor. Strangely, it reminded him of the time he'd walked in the Carciere with Merreddyd.
"That is unsurprising. There is a reason I chose that child. She is very dear to me. As is Coraloa and as was Kefaniroka. I care for all my Guardian Knights," she said with a smile.
"You offered me a Guardian Knight Class after the tutorial. Why?" Langa asked, ignoring the fact that she just read his mind again.
She stopped walking, and her rich blue eyes, clear as light, bore into him. "I was trying to save you from your fate, but in the end, you chose Toni," she said. "So, if you do not hate me, then why do you disagree with my Guardians’ rules?"
"I appreciate what you’re doing with the Guardians. I just don’t think it’s enough," Langa said. "You’re the closest thing to the type of god my sister taught me about growing up. You are very powerful, yet you allow the people you claim to care about to still suffer."
“What? Do you want me to make sure that every living mortal in every single world in the Infinite Multiverse is happy, healthy, and unharmed?" she asked incredulously. "That is unrealistic.”
“How is it unrealistic? I’m not asking for every single mortal, I’m asking for the innocent children. You are one of the most powerful active gods of all time-" Langa started.
“I am the most powerful active god of all time, but I cannot do what you ask. That would be a positive action." She paused. “How do I put this in a way that you will understand? I have to remain neutral for everyone, Langa Zulu. Positively aligned mortals, neutrally aligned mortals, negatively aligned mortals, and voident aligned mortals. I must be fair to all of them."
“That doesn’t make any sense. You just admitted that you favour certain Players. You are Merreddyd’s patron deity, and you co-Sponsor Coraloa!” he argued. “How is that neutral?”
“I do favour them. The problem is that you mortals think there is only one line. You already know this from your status sheet but I measure Neutral Alignment in mortals as anything between -100 and +100. Above that, it is a Positive Alignment and below it is a Negative Alignment. If someone is -99 and someone is + 99, they are both classified in the system as neutral. But are they morally the same? No," she said.
Langa hadn't thought about it like that before. Alignment was notoriously hard to improve, a good example being Synn who kept trying to improve her Alignment back to positive by saving people.
“Alignment is a spectrum, and it is the same for me. To maintain order in the Infinite Multiverse, I have to stay within that neutral range. I cannot step over the line, whether it is to the positive or negative side,” she said. “If I were to use my power to ensure that every single innocent child in the Infinite Multiverse is happy, safe and healthy, that would be me stepping over the line to Positive Alignment, and I won’t do that.”
“Why won’t you do it? You’re a goddess!” Langa asked.
The Unrivalled turned, her face suddenly filled with pain and anguish. It surprised Langa and he flinched back when she gripped his shoulders tightly.
“If I were to step one toe out of line just once, order would cease to exist. Do you understand? Because I would’ve broken the rules I created. Life, Death, Chaos, Order, Creation and ???. I am the System that governs all of them. If the System disappears, we will return to the time before the First Divine Summit, before Mother gave me form. A time when Chaos reigned supreme and could do whatever he wanted to the worlds of mortals. When Death could force mortals to die and become undead without consequences. When Life let mortals live forever without becoming seraphim or constellations, and filled the multiverse with thousand-year-old mortals who could stomp on the worlds of newborns. That is the multiverse that awaits mortals if the System is gone.”
She looked ready to both cry and shout in anger as she kept her hands tightly on his shoulders.
“So no, Langa Zulu. I don’t even walk anywhere near the line. Why? Because I need to protect the order that governs your very existence. The covenant of Karma itself. Why do you think Chaos pokes me over and over again? Why do you think Life and Death send their agents, the demon gods and saint gods, to war, time and time again, knowing that it is futile? Because they want me to finally snap and say enough is enough. They want me to take the law into my own hands to punish them outside of the rules of the System, bringing an end to order. If I did that, the Chaos/Order imbalance would cause the Creation/Corruption balance to be disrupted even more than it already has. “
”So to protect order in mortal worlds, you can’t use your full power to do anything you want?” Langa asked.
She was the most powerful active god in the world, and yet she chose to limit herself to keep the Infinite Multiverse safe. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, considering how much he valued the freedom to do whatever he wanted.
The Unrivalled frowned and let him go. “Do not look at me like that. It reminds me of how Toni used to look at me when he was mortal,” she said. “I do not need your pity, and I do not need another foolish mortal to fall in love with me.”
”Huh?” Langa shook his head. “Oh no, it’s not like that at all. I just understand you better now. Besides, I’d never step on Master’s toes. You’re more like my stepmother, really.”
”Absolutely not. I do not have that kind of relationship with your master,” she said, looking away. “We’re here. It’s time for you to go.”
Langa blinked and saw that they had arrived in front of what looked like an elevator, and when it opened, the inside was the same as the door he’d used to Ascend from the tutorial to the 1st Floor. The only difference was that there was what appeared to be a glass capsule with a bed inside, like a coffin.
”Get inside the Divine Strapper,” The Unrivalled instructed him. “Once your body is Strapped, we will send your Karma through the Soul Gate, and you will emerge in a corrupted world.”
Strapped. He’d heard of this before. It was the punishment given to voidents, wasn’t it? “Why can’t you just send me through the Gate?” he asked.
”Because, unlike the submortals who have adapted to living in corrupted worlds, you are mortal, and the amount of corruption in the atmosphere is a million times greater than anything you’ve experienced in the Tower. You will cease to exist if you go in there with your body,” she said.
Langa thought he detected a note of annoyance in her tone.
“Now, I am very busy, Langa Zulu, so get in the Divine Strapper and receive The Quartenity’s assessment or forfeit the Challenge, and the Divine Lucent Lift will take you to the 2nd Floor. Only your body can get into the Strapper. Leave your bags here, so put your armour and everything else you need into your inventory," she said.
Damn, so this was why Synn had advised him to get more inventory slots. He did as he was told, placing only essentials in his inventory.
”Okay,” Langa said, getting into the coffin and lying down.
She looked down at him, blue eyes filled with sorrow and pain. "Langa Zulu, I will not be in charge of your Infinite Challenge again for four cycles, and by then it will be too late. So I will say this now. You are a child Branded by my father and a child dear to my friend. I have seen your future. I will continue to steer you towards the right path, but when the time comes that you make the choice that creates a rift between us, I want you to know, as always, that I did my best to save you from your fate.”
She closed the lid of the coffin, and golden water started to fill it.
“Wait!” Langa said, trying to process her words while also horrified that he was trapped inside a small space like this, and the water was rising to cover him. He feared he would drown, but that didn't happen.
*
Langa found himself in a familiar river of stars, yet he couldn't remember when he had been here before. He saw the thirteen mana pathways lit up in front of him and the strange fourteenth one flickering in and out of existence.
Four essences that he immediately recognised as The Quartenity surrounded him. He could also faintly sense two other essences somewhere in the background.
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"Welcome to the Infinite Challenge," the voice of Life said. "This is where we test what kind of deity you will become, should we allow you to Ascend."
The dark essence of Death spoke over Life. "It's not just a test. These are real people whose deaths will be in your hands. You can choose to take control of their fear or faith in you. Or you can discard it."
"I don't understand," Langa said honestly.
“To use an expression from your world, we are killing two birds with one stone, as your work in the Challenge gives a doomed world a third chance against corruption,” The Unrivalled said.
Langa frowned, thinking about what he knew regarding corrupted worlds. Once the corruption of a world became inevitable, Chaos would make the world's Void Erupt and seal the corruption before it became rampant and fully razed that world and all those surrounding it. If they were lucky, The Unrivalled would save the world and integrate it into her Towers.
But what happens to an unintegrated world after the Void Eruption? He knew some of them, like the tutorial world Zamone became abandoned.
"If being integrated into the Tower is the second chance, then what's the third?" Langa asked.
"If the world has fallen too far or been completely razed by the Behemoth, it is in danger of being stuck in the Abyss of corruption. Those are the worlds seraphim go to war over. The Infinite Challenge gives regular mortals like you the chance to obtain worlds that haven't completely fallen to the Behemoth," The Unrivalled said.
“I have no idea what half of what you said means,” he told her. What the fuck was a Behemoth?
Langa shuddered as the essence of Chaos filled him, and whispered in his ear. "To understand that, you should know the history of the one we Erased. The one whose Name you will not find in any Relgte. Only those who take The Infinite Challenge are entitled to the truth about him."
"No matter how much we Erase, a conceptual being will always exist in myths and legends. The same is true of him. He is present in every Creation Myth," Life said. "Tell us about your Creation Myth. How do you view The One Without Existence? According to Langa Zulu. How did the Infinite Multiverse come to be?"
It surprised Langa that they wanted to know that. There were so many Creation Myths from different religions back home, and when he tried to reconcile them with what he'd learnt in the Tower, the age-old question was...
"If, in the beginning, The Creator created the Infinite Multiverse, who created corruption?" Langa asked.
“Even before I was created, I existed,” The Unrivalled said. "What do you think would have happened if there were only creation and no corruption?"
“What?” Langa was becoming even more confused now.
“Order. There can be no creation without corruption, there can be no death without life, and there can be no order without chaos. Karma demands balance, and when the balance tips to one side, like the First Divine War between Life and Death, it leads to rampant corruption. It caused corruption to overtake creation, and the world fell into chaos."
"Do not disparage us in our presence, little sister," Life said, sounding scandalised.
"Hush, Order speaks the truth," said Death. "Everyone has their own understanding of Mother and Father's relationship. Show us, Langa Zulu, how you see them. Will it be from the outside, or from one of our perspectives?"
Four massive stars flew through the river towards him, and Langa felt the water overpower him. The wave of stars violently thrashed his Karma around like wind until an overwhelming essence called out to him and he latched onto it.
*
Langa’s perspective suddenly changed as over a trillion memories flooded through him. Similar to the vision he had in Adtonifulmin’s body, he was no longer human, no longer himself. He focused on one memory. His spirit floated in the black pool of the Abyss. Or was he the Abyss, Non-Existence, itself?
In the beginning, nothing existed, not even him. The Abyss wasn’t the kind of emptiness in which something was missing. It was the kind where nothing had ever been, an Abyss of non-existence.
At first, he wasn’t alone in the Abyss. Another concept was one with him. However, he suddenly felt her separating from him when she chose to become Existence itself. She tied his emptiness to herself and converted it into Karma.
Her will created the first world, but he consumed it, attempting to return her into nothingness with him. No matter what she created, he ended up consuming everything in his wake until finally she created life.
She became The Creator of Worlds, the Mother of life, death, chaos and order. She became Karma itself.
The memory of her proximity haunted him. No matter how much he chased after her, corrupting everything she created, she just kept creating. Each creation he corrupted was a pitiful attempt to fill the void she left inside him, but in time, he grew to enjoy turning existence into non-existence.
Since he was a reflection of loss, a manifestation of the nothingness that had turned into despairing existence, he became her Adversary, running counter to her creation. He became a force that pulled her creations back into the Abyss of Corruption, where he originated.
The Nameless One was Non-Existence, yet to return the world to its natural state, he had to give form to his Abyssal spirit. He called all iterations of the spirit the Behemoth. Across many realities, Corruption and Creation battled. Once, she overcame him and he slumbered in the Abyss to replenish his Karma. When he awoke, he found that thousands of years had passed, and her reality was an Infinite Multiverse now. In rage, he corrupted it.
Buildings lay crushed beneath the Behemoth’s massive feet, and it silenced every scream. The repulsive laughter of children, the warmth of sunlight, and the taste of sweet fruit. The rampage was endless, but not mindless. It opened its mouth and consumed everything that existed, living, dead and inanimate, elevating the flaw that was existence into the Abyss of nothingness.
Her mortals were weak, and in exchange for his power, they allowed The Nameless One to Brand them as his own. His goal was to take away the one gift she gave these sapient creatures - free will. If they signed the contract for their children, one day, the world would be filled with those who carried his Brand, and he could bring them all, every piece of her Karma, back to him, back to nothingness.
Each razed creation, each broken soul, was saved and returned to non-existence. In that war, he overcame her, and her reality ceased to exist. She slumbered in the Well of Karma and returned to non-existence.
When she awoke, she created a new reality, and the cycle never ended.
In this memory, the multiverse was devastated. His Behemoth mated with the Branded, creating a brand new race of mortals. Parasitic eldritch horrors who were born with the power of corruption.
If The Creator was going to deny his non-existence, then she should have protected her creations from him.
The Behemoth consumed an entire universe using his new race of mortals and the Branded. His parasitic horrors hid among regular mortals, destroying them from the inside. He could do this infinitely, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.
Before he could rampantly spread his corruption to the next universe, however, a weight of Karma pressed down upon his spirit.
Karma Pressure.
He could almost taste her presence, the disgusting essence of her existence, but surprisingly, it was divided into four entities in the bodies of mortals.
The Behemoth recoiled, but The Nameless One forced it to attack, to consume her essence inside them, but it failed. These creations… were made in both hers and his image. They carried pieces of The Nameless One’s power.
“Hello, Father. It’s lovely to finally meet your existing form,” one of them said. He was a creature cloaked in shadow and approached the Behemoth first, holding black mist in his hands.
The Nameless One recognised them now, they were four concepts that she had plucked from him when they were together and mixed them with her essence to give them form.
The second concept was beautiful, with long, flowing white hair and a living feminine figure. Life’s energy rippled from him, trying to assimilate with the Behemoth, taking its corruption and absorbing it.
<
“How should we know?” the third, Death asked. He was small, stick thin and quiet as he raised his scythe, and the icy grip of death harnessing the Behemoth’s corruptive energy. “She’s probably out creating more things and abandoning them to fend for themselves as she always does.”
<
The youngest child watched him without moving. She had the form of a woman who looked extremely ordinary yet perfect at the same time, as she radiated warmth and purity. “We came into existence to restore the balance between you and Mother,” Order said. “A version of us will always exist. You cannot corrupt us, Father.”
He could feel her gaze piercing through the Behemoth’s corrupted existence, seeking to burn away the sickness that had followed it. She was the clearest reflection of her mother and reminded The of the non-existence he had lost.
The Behemoth shrieked in fury as The Nameless One’s essence fuelled it even more and it lashed out. Corrosive black flames of Karma ripped through the air, but the four children all moved as one. Chaos coiled around the Behemoth’s monstrous form like chains sealing away its strength, and binding it. Green branches of life wrapped around the sealed Behemoth, syphoning its corrupted Karma and absorbing it. Death took the energy of the flame and harnessed it. The black flames that had been the Behemoth’s weapon now burned within its chest, consuming its insides and forcing it to destroy itself.
The Nameless One felt the hollow place within him, the Void that had always been there, filling with the cold, devouring emptiness of Chaos.
He thought their assault on his vessel was over since they could assimilate, harness and seal corruption, but they couldn’t destroy it. Surprisingly, pure light flowed from Order and engulfed the Behemoth’s body. The corruption that had clung to its skin and the rot it had spread across nations burned away, clearing the entire world of the sickness it had spread.
The Nameless One felt his essence unravelling, pieces of himself being pulled away from the Behemoth, and he watched his children through the eyes of the dying Behemoth.
<
Chaos shrugged. “We’re not alike at all. I don’t destroy, I merely seal away Karma. It all exists inside my darkness, and I embrace my existence. If you gather enough Karma to awaken again, the four of us will stop you.”
The Nameless One laughed. <
The beautiful Life gave his father a sad smile. “What makes you think we don’t already know that?”
So they knew and still did as she asked? Why?
<
All four of them remained silent for a moment, none of them surprised. How could they be? This may have been the first time they had physical form, but it wasn’t their first reality, after all.
“You’re right, but don’t worry about the future, Father,” Order said. “Even asleep, you see everything, so I cannot hide this from you. I am doing something different in this reality. Giving Mother’s creations a chance to be immortal like us. That way, even if we lose the corruption war, their essences will be reborn along with us in Mother’s new reality, and we can start over. Just as Mother bound you with existence, I will bind all of them, including my brothers with my own System.”
The Nameless One detested Order the most out of all his children. The last thing the Behemoth saw was her face, the face of Light, who looked so much like her mother that it aggravated him. And then, there was nothing, and he was back in the Abyss of Non-Existence.
His only connections to The Creator’s worlds were the mortals he Branded, and he vowed to raise another vessel. He needed an immortal vessel similar to them, which could not be destroyed. He would have to raise one from his corrupted race of mortals.
Langa gasped as he found himself back in the river of stars, surrounded by the four essences of The Quartenity. That had been a lot. None of that information was in The Relgte of The Quartenity, and he hadn't read either The Creator or The Nameless One's Relgtes. Did they even have Relgtes?
'I am in control,' he thought. He was Langa. He wasn't The Nameless One.
“What the fuck was that? What did you do to me?" he demanded, for a moment not caring that he was back to being a puny human, and The Quartenity could destroy him for his rudeness.
"Fascinating," Chaos whispered. "You owe me 2000 elven souls, Death. Don't forget that I bet he would see it from Father's perspective."
"Yes, but that's because he's Branded and the Visage of Father's Visage," Death said.
"Not necessarily. How can you say for certain that the child saw the memory the way he did because Adtonifulmin Chose him?" Life asked. "It may be that Adtonifulmin Chose him because he can see it the way he saw it."
"I will give you the souls, little brother, but only because the idea of agreeing with Life revolts me," Death said. "While it may be more common for mortals to see the memory from the outside or from one of our perspectives, it is not uncommon for the Branded to see from Father's perspective. The ones who truly impress me are the rare ones who see from Mother's perspective."
"I'm always right, Death. No matter how hard you try to deny it. I suppose you-"
"Enough. Stop talking amongst yourselves," Order said, cutting her brothers off. Irritation swirled through her essence. "The child asked a question."
"Ah, yes. Langa Zulu, what you just witnessed is a Creation myth,” Life finally answered.
Listening to their conversation had given Langa a moment to get his bearings back but Life's statement threw him off. “What do you mean by a myth? You’re saying your father isn’t a force hell-bent on bringing the Creator and all creation back into nothingness?” he asked.
“That is what some people believe. Others believe he is the force that guided her, and she used his essence to create existence. Therefore, by corrupting creation, he is taking back the essence she stole from him,” The Unrivalled said.
The air in the river of stars darkened, like a graveyard at sunset. “Others believe he reduced a prior reality to non-existence, but The Creator survived it because she planted the seed of existence, Karma, into her creations," Death said.
“Many also believe he existed as the black water of the Chaotic Abyss. Mother uttered a word and created existence, thereby shattering his peaceful non-existence," Life added.
Chaos' essence blew around Langa like wind on a stormy night. “I heard a story where they didn't exist together. The Creator existed first, and because she existed, Karma brought him into being for balance.”
“What's the truth, then?” Langa asked.
He sensed confusion in Life’s essence. “We just told you.”
“You told me like five different stories," Langa protested.
“Life, he cannot comprehend the infinite number of realities that have existed for us,” The Unrivalled said. “Every reality has its own creation myths, Langa Zulu, because it is a new world. All you need to know is that Father, even in his formless state, constantly brings the Behemoth into existence. Worlds consumed by it exist, destroyed as they are."
Would that have happened to Earth if it hadn't been integrated?
"The Behemoth razes worlds not sealed by a Void Eruption. Anything unlucky enough to survive it has to exist in a Karmaless world. Generation by generation, because of the lack of Karma, mortals lose their mortality and devolve into submortals from the infection of corruption,” The Unrivalled continued. “It becomes the closest thing to Father's world, hopeless non-existence.”
The essence of Chaos danced around Langa, pricking him uncomfortably. ” To bring these worlds back into the Infinite Multiverse, deities, angels and seraphim wage wars. Unfortunately, corruption spreads faster than mortals Ascend into deityhood. Thus, the Infinite Challenge was born," Chaos whispered. "These corrupted worlds vary in levels, but if there is any hope of them becoming a natural world, someone needs to bring them light to clear the corruption, darkness to seal it, life to assimilate it and death to harness it."
"The worlds we send you to will be increasingly more corrupt as you Ascend the Tower, and they will become yours if you can save them," Death said. "One day, you'll have to face the Behemoth, but not just yet."
The Behemoth? Why did they keep this knowledge hidden from regular mortals? If voidents knew they were hurting the entire reality, they wouldn't seek the power of corruption. No, he shook his head. Mortals wouldn't give up their powers. Langa wondered if the reason The Quartenity only shared this information with Players who took the Infinite Challenge was tied to something Adtonifulmin had once told him: that every time a god's word, achievements, deeds and Name spread, they gained more Karma and more life. Did The Quartenity hide knowledge of The Nameless One so he wouldn't get stronger?
He sighed. "So, it was true, then? He'll rise again?"
The Unrivalled's Karma was solemn as she explained. "We have existed for over a trillion years in over a trillion realities. Every 13 000 years, without fail, Father would Awaken at full power and consume all of existence. These are known today as The Great Divine Corruption Wars. If Father won the wars, the entire multiverse would cease to exist. Mother would sleep and then restart creation after 13 000 years," she said. "The Quartenity would be reborn, the same, but different. Then all the deities of the previous reality would be reborn. Depending on how much Karma they had, they lost Karma, believers, and some of their memories of the previous reality. There would be another war after 13 000 years of the Creation/Corruption Cycle. The longest we ever went without the Great Apocalyptic Reset was five cycles, in the cycle before the last."
That meant they had defeated The Nameless One five consecutive times. Langa was impressed, then disturbed at the realisation that nearly all the deities in existence besides The Creator struggled against one.
"Of course, the cycle before the current one was a disaster for us. Father won the war in less than 500 years. We didn't stand a chance," Life said, sighing dramatically. "Father got himself an immortal vessel so that even during his slumber, he could corrupt the multiverse early. And that vessel's Affinity for him was so astounding that it made the behemoths look like ants."
An immortal vessel. "Lord Adtonifulmin," Langa said, realisation dawning on him. "Wait, if that's the case, then hasn't this been the longest cycle?"
"Yes, they won, and the universe was reset 91 000 years ago. But Father wasn't a very nice or kind master, so while playing nice, his Visage agreed to hold his power while he slumbered, then joined with us to betray Father, and we Erased his Name, sealing him in the Abyss with the help of the Neutriarchs. Most of Father's power remained inside his Visage," Chaos said. "Father has been asleep for all those years, and there has been no Great Divine Corruption War. Without his Name, Father is dormant, just a passive force. Ironically, there is one person who can give him his power back.”
“Lord Adtonifulmin,” Langa said again. If everything he'd experienced so far was corruption in dormancy, what happened when The Nameless One was active? How bad did it get?
"Precisely," Life said. "He has to stand trial every 13 000 years before us, on the days Father should have woken. We monitor everything he does, and that includes you. But because Adtonifulmin Chose you, you are special to us. Well, Chaos just wants to play with your broken mind, so there's that."
The fact that Chaos didn't deny it made Langa uneasy. "Father will not wake soon as long as the Creation/Corruption balance remains stable. Like all Players, to begin the Infinite Challenge, you will be sent to a world whose seal was broken when the Behemoth walked past it. You must reconnect or claim it, otherwise, it will cease to exist,” Chaos said. “The Challenge is infinite because as long as Mother creates, Father will continue to corrupt.”
So, the Infinite Challenge would just be Langa saving increasingly corrupted worlds and claiming them to prepare for becoming a deity one day?
"The Infinite Challenge is the key that many Players fail because they do not understand what it means to be a deity," Life said. "They do not know how to act when they encounter a hopeless, corrupted world that needs guidance. A deity must be able to build something from nothing, otherwise, they will not survive Father. Faith or Fear? Will you aim to become the kind of deity mortals look up to or one they fear? Either is valid, but it has to be earned.”
“If it wasn't for Karma, we would be the only ones fighting against the corruption of those worlds. Constellations fight to obtain more uncorrupted worlds for themselves so they have more followers," Death said. "Seraphim and angels fight to protect these worlds so they can earn enough Karma to Ascend to deityhood."
Langa wondered if he had reached the wrong conclusion. "Are you saying that the entire road to Ascension from Players to seraphim and angels to constellations, even gods... all started as a way for you to gain soldiers to stop corruption? You're telling me the whole point of deityhood is so you have strong immortals willing to lead people into battle against corruption?"
Chaos laughed. "Exactly. We lured mortals to fight for us with immortality. Yet only 0.13% can obtain it. Some fools choose to fight on Father’s side, but many will go to war to keep their existence during the Great Divine Corruption Wars. It does not matter to us as long as balance is maintained."
“If you wish to become a god one day, that is the path you have to walk. This is something we tell all mortals before they begin this journey. We give them a choice,” Order said. “So, Langa Zulu. Do you want to walk the path to immortality? Will you begin the Infinite Challenge?"
[Deity:
The Great Quartenity:
Life, Death, Chaos and Order
Challenge Level:
Divine
Challenge:
Overall Challenge: Obtain the World Core Orbs of at least 13 corrupted worlds.
Floor 1 Challenge: Earn the Faith/Fear of at least 50% of the submortals in the first world to obtain your First Step to Immortality.
Time Limit:
Overall Challenge: None.
Floor 1 Challenge: All who complete the Challenge within 13 days will receive +25% extra Karma
Reward:
Overall Challenge: Ascend to Deityhood (MANY Other Conditions Need to Be Fulfilled Before This)
Floor 1: One Step to Immortality
Restrictions:
This Challenge may only be taken and continued after clearing Floors 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 101. It may only be resumed after the end of the divine temple wars on Floors 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 of any Tower.
This Challenge is forfeited if the Player dies during any of the Challenges.]
[Accept The Divine Infinite Challenge: Yes/No?]
"Yes. Of course, I do, but I need to know more about this," Langa said. "Tell me everything about Lord Adtonifulmin and your father. This affects me too."
"That's all the information you will get before you begin the Challenge," Death said. "Goodbye.”
“Wait!” Langa said, startled.
”It’s okay, child, you're safe,” The Unrivalled said, her essence filling him and calming down his panic. "We will be with you, as we always have and always will."
The river of stars disappeared, and then Langa was falling as darkness overcame him and his soul left his body and went through a rift.
Hey everyone.
I want to take a moment to say THANK YOU for your incredible support! Thanks to Patreon contributions, I was able to hire an artist to create an amazing cover for Book 1. I’m beyond excited to finally share it with you!
1. Book 1 will soon be available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited in both Ebook and Paperback formats! The book has been copy edited by a fantastic editor, and I’m currently doing the final round of Proofreading before publication.
This means I’ll be removing all chapters from Book 1 (Chapter 1 to 33) from both Patreon and RR on the 25th of April.
The Ebook is currently scheduled for release on May 10th, 2025.
Audiobook:
I’ve got an audiobook offer from one publisher, but the one I really want to work with is currently full. However, they told me that if the Ebook does well, they’ll make room for it! So every bit of support helps make that happen.
2. Want a Free Advanced Copy of Lightning Lancer 1: Path of Lightning?
As a thank-you to all of you, I’m offering free Advance Reader Copies (ARCs). If you’d like an early copy before release, just fill in the google form below.
https://forms.gle/3NB6YQkCUqHmWSVL7
!!!If you started following the story in 2023, then you’ll see quite a few changes in Book 1, but if you started reading End of 2024, then you’ll only see minor changes!!!
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