We Are Not Alone

  This time, the Forbloffende Traes Sect did wait. 2 years passed before the Shadows moved on to the last 'bastion' of the Universal Lands. The Toreon Clan and the Flora-Sweet White-Heavens Dynasty joined hands. It wasn't difficult when they were already such allies before even the Neutral Existences became darkened, let alone now that it was only them against the world. Although it did not felt that way in the beginning, the Dynasty and Clan felt that way after the darkened barriers rippled and countless Grand Fleets, Small and regular Expedition Fleets exited from every darkened Universal Land.

  The war declaration wasn’t even needed. With this one situation, there was only one proximate result, and the beginning of what wasn’t thought would happen in this Change, or at least this quickly. The Dynasty and Clan were alone against the darkness, they were up against Shadow, who had already proved himself nothing like they had ever thought. Only when this situation fully unfolded with the fall of the second Universal Land did they realize.

  When the war reached their doors, they realized of their predicament that even with hundreds and hundreds of trillions of troops, their first frontline was rapidly eviscerated. Countless lives were lost, and the mere magnitude of the Shadows’ swarming towards the rest of their Universal Lands put them on an all-time all-out system. They could never rest.

  If the enemy’s citizens, and even cultivators, weren’t dying in battle against the insanely mighty Shadows, they were falling to their exhaustion. The Shadows weren’t too many, considering they came from 5 Universal Land. In fact, the number of troops in the Leftover Goldslaughter and Scintillating Crop of World Universal Land were higher than the Shadows fighting throughout them. Even then, the number of casualties on both sides was still slightly more decimating on the enemy side.

  The situation was deplorable, but the Universal Land didn’t budge a bit… until the Celestial and Patriarch sent their intentions through their bending of laws and reality. Something that a being can only perform with utmost limitations, but nowhere as efficiently as an existence.

  The message was clear, they wanted to surrender. Furthermore, they just show a good enough fight as Heian Ciemnosc sat on a little throne he made in space and watched trillions die day after day. He did so with some or one of his wives enjoying the firework scenery with him.

  Thus, Heian Ciemnosc met with them, leaving his side a throne as his wives joined the Motherships commanding from before the 2 Universal Land warring to no end. He met them in the ghost space between the Flora-Sweet White-Heavens Dynasty and the Neutral Existences.

  “Sect Master Darkness,” Celestial Moli greeted first, bowing her head as the war in the Universal Land continued. Lamidas Toreon followed suit, nodding a little, but doing so with the utmost sternness and awed respect. “Darkness.”

  “Oh, I ended up liking that name. I guess I’ll take it borrowed from my little girl, hm.” Heian Ciemnosc looked at the void, tilting his head to the left, and his darkest eyes darted to the upper right corner. He made a slight grimace before facing those 2 again. His calm countenance went from in a good mood and lighthearted to serene, lifeless, and ultimately cold.

  These 2, which once betrayed what little trust he gave them in the past. Although it wasn’t a significant trust, thus an insignificant betrayal, it was something that Heian Ciemnosc did not like. They knew this and were aware Heian Ciemnosc remembered their actions, but they had no reason to ask for ‘forgiveness’. Or rather, they didn’t even bother asking or begging for it.

  “Well, as much as you’d like me to treat you like guilty sinners, I am no cult. I didn’t care enough to stop the transmission Little Proque sent you. I don’t care you now know. Although you did well by not exposing it to the rest of the world without my permission. Yes, everyone else but your people know.” Heian Ciemnosc lowered his head as he spoke, looking terrifying.

  “There’s nothing we can offer to ask for forgiveness, Forefather Darkness, but our forces surrender. We hope we gave your eminence a good fight… may we accept your embrace?” Celestial Moli said as she dropped to the imaginary floor in the ghost space. Her head hung low as she brought her hands before her chest, pleading.

  “Your forces may receive it, and you too.” Heian Ciemnosc suddenly said, astounding them. She lifted her head as Lamidas stared wide-eyed at Heian Ciemnosc. But then, Darkness said, calmly and like it was the most normal course of actions for forgiveness. “You’ll just have to warm me until I get bored of you.”

  “…” - “…” The Celestial’s expression stiffened, while Lamidas’s eyes gained a new emotion, rage. But, of course, who wouldn’t? Yet, it was either that or dying, along with everything they ever built, all to be taken by this ‘person’, the all creator. Just then, from a distance, a couple arrived at their side and yelled, wanting to level down the situation.

  “Mom, don’t accept! We’ll find another way, even if…” - “Mom, wait!”

  Lingmin and Xue Toreon rushed to the side but didn’t charge towards their parents or Heian Ciemnosc. They stopped in place as Heian Ciemnosc gave them a little glance before moving in front of the mother. He looked down at her and said with a calm tone, as if none of this was deviant. “So, what will it be, you, her, or the usual? You know, you’re the only ones I offered this much luck despite your actions.”

  Heian Ciemnosc crouched, placing his right forearm on his right knee as his left knee fell on the spatial floor. Like a senior speaking to a crying kid that needed to learn. Slowly, Celestial Moli lifted her stiffened face as it gained liveliness. She faced Heian Ciemnosc, looked at his overly pale red lips, and softly voiced, “Take me, not her.”

  Heian Ciemnosc liked how the insanely magnificent, breathtaking, exquisite face looked up at him with angered determination, hidden and subtle under the certainty of sure death. His right index, ring, and middle fingertips traced her neck from below to up before landing below her chin. Like this, after briefly enjoying her skin, he lifted her before nodding at the man who was still amidst recuperating his old lover.

  With that, Heian Ciemnosc ignored the other beauty nearby and brought Xue Moli to a palace he immediately created with just his will and using the laws of the world. The family of 3 was left baffled, but… they couldn’t do anything. Such things were… quite nonexistent among Godly cultivators, let alone higher Steps. Either way… the war ended… ‘the’ world fell into Heian Ciemnosc’s hands.

  Heian Ciemnosc spent 1,110 years wallowing a magnificent body that didn’t belong to him, at least during the first 100 years, to his heart’s content. It wasn’t a problem for him to begin rebuilding the entire world as he administered punishment to naughty kids. In the end, he even made her slightly believe he impregnated her, which she only realized wasn’t truth in the last few years. The best few hundred years of coitus Heian Ciemnosc enjoyed with someone who wasn’t his wife, surpassing even Arla or Tania’s bedding with him.

  . . .

  100,000 years flashed by.

  At first, time didn’t really flash, the first few hundred years, when Heian Ciemnosc forcibly and then normally talked about life with someone. The world’s darkness engulfed it all before everything was lifted. When the darkness receded, the world welcomed a brand-new sight everywhere.

  When the world gained peace, once again, and not a single battle existed across the entirety of it all, Heian Ciemnosc stood atop the Mythical Tree of Evolution, which already exceeded the Authoritarian Summit Divine Kingdom’s space territory. His image, voice, and emotions transmitted to the rest of the world.

  “I… am Shadow… Darkness, Heian Ciemnosc, the black monster… It has been a long time since I was recognized, but the small events across the world of Pure and Darkness conventions hadn’t forgotten me. Today, I return. If anyone wishes to check my identity, feel free to travel to the core of this world. It isn’t that costly, and it’ll only take you 2 to 3 years. From now on, the world has to begin its restoration to what is should have— been. This is the last of all Changes, my Change. The World Tree and the Shadow Change. And it will only end… when all Changes end. This is… the last Change.” Heian Ciemnosc said.

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  Then, the world welcomed the last Change of the world. Furthermore, civilians made a goddamn enterprise just selling stories, tales, and legends of the world, not just about Darkness. After all, when one of their legends became true, and it was the first of all ever written and always known to the children of the world so they wouldn’t mature too stupidly… It did have an effect on the people.

  This resulted in old things like the legend of the gone Time, the otherworld, the beyond… and more… Everything… everything was coming together. They were no longer words, ideas, thoughts, rumors, over exaggerated stories… They were… the world.

  The entirety of the universal Lands were unified. This time, without one sole Universal Lands and no further Universal Land. The 7 Universal Land kept their name and even their leading organization, all Existential Sixth Step organizations, but no longer the only ones. Dozens of such organizations sprouted everywhere. Although there was still rivalry and the like, the world now welcomed powerful forces from all over the world.

  For example, from Heian Ciemnosc’s people, Lady Calisneia was the last person to form her own organization. She was convinced of the fact that she and Heian Ciemnosc would have to show their future children the way to lead their own organization in the future. That still took time before she finally founded her Pavilion, naming it Immortal Eyewatcher in Sara’s honor.

  After all, Heian Ciemnosc was still far from helping Sara find her way back to her world. Nevertheless, the lower Steps did continue fighting, battling, and competing for resources, prestige, and to gain the world’s acceptance. Even then, what any organization wanted the most was to gain the recognition of their creator, Darkness.

  The moment he announced the truth, his name wasn’t dared to be spoken unless he allowed it, which only happened when he directly spoke to others. Heian Ciemnosc was… divine. He was often seen traveling the world with his family, be it his wives or adopted daughters. It was said that he was as tall as a tree would grow in an endless prairie of only grass, striking and never slighted.

  A never-ending worm accompanied him and his family through space, always seen traveling through space by some people on public, commercial, and transport routes. They never took portals, but they still traveled around, appearing anywhere whenever they wanted. It was enigmatic.

  The peak of the world increased, and the cultivators, citizens, and civilians alike felt their breaths improving. It was as if the world was purifying the air quality around them. Furthermore, through some accidents and events, those in the First Step discovered their resistance to Elemental Poisoning increased to 10 times in the first 10,000 years.

  By the time 100,000 years passed by, it increased to 100 times. There was no mistake here, the world had really changed. What’s more, the military strength the world had was the Shadows. Everyone, as a whole, belonged to the Forbloffende Traes Sect, including the brand-new born ordinary animals and insects, let alone civilians.

  Even then, other subsidiary forces such as Crimsons, Trees, Venerators, and so on, were created and thrived under Darkness’s rule. Furthermore, following the Forbloffende Traes Sect’s example, some organizations rose from the bottom to the top, breaking records that shocked the world and marveled the Fifth and Sixth Step organizations that wanted to find sports to work with.

  The world welcomed world-wide tournaments, treasure hunts, organizations’ convergence, and more. As a whole, the peace brought everywhere was… just right. Natural… what it was supposed to be.

  Death? Many every day, month, year, millennia. However, without death, life wouldn’t be life. Not because they depend on each other, or because they are inseparable. Death is what always follows life. Striving, jealousy, progress, resources, love, respect, fame, reputation… Many things were the ultimate cause of death, but all death caused, although not life, evolution.

  Yet, what they didn’t know was that a hidden danger, one to rock their world and ignite their utmost primitive instinct… was about to first destroy their image of unstoppable.

  … In a singular day of the World Tree and the Shadow Change, Heian Ciemnosc sat cross-legged before the ‘extremes’ of the world. He was in the eastern ghost space of the Uster Orion Grotto’s Limited Ferverscence Universal Land. He seemed to struggle with something as his eyebrows twitched. At last, he sighed heavily before relaxingly opening his darkest eyes.

  “Hm.” Just then, the empty blackness, which was as usual, black, suddenly cracked open a 17 centimeters long line. It was vertically placed to Heian Ciemnosc’s universal focus. After looking at it, Heian Ciemnosc sent his darkest eyes upturned, only for a ripple to echo. An echo that resonated within everyone’s hearts and heads, including all newborns.

  Heian Ciemnosc calmly sent a notice to the entire world, one that first shocked them for a full second… before countless Godly cultivators rushed from side to side, entering emergency, world-wide portals to return to their… World war positions.

  Not long after, Heian Ciemnosc watched the same crack from before broaden as it expanded up and down, becoming millions of kilometers long and hundreds of thousands of kilometers wide. Then, in one final push, 2 hands seemed to peek through in the middle of the crack, like a portal separating 2 places, but it was no portal, it was…

  “The worldly barriers have been breached,” Sara muttered beside Heian Ciemnosc’s left, leaning her chin on his shoulder as the hands struggled to force the barrier open. Sara tilted her head to the left and pitifully said, “He can’t do it on his own. Will you help him?”

  Heian Ciemnosc grinned before softly rolling his eyes. He placed his left knee above his right shin, as his right leg folded inwards, and waited until the other party began spreading the barrier’s opening. The gap revealed a black emptiness, similar to the one behind Heian Ciemnosc, and some diminutive Kingdoms far away.

  ‘I see.’ Heian Ciemnosc lifted his eyebrows, noticing that this other side didn’t have a ghost space like the universal Lands he rebirthed in. But it was to be expected. After all, this Universal Lands was the center of the world… of the world.

  PSAAAAAAAAAAAASHHH~~~~~~ CRACK- CRAAAAAAASSSHHH~~~!!!

  The barrier finally opened, and from it, a person peeked his head and half his torso into Heian Ciemnosc’s natal Universal Lands. Like glass, the entire world welcomed the breaking of an enormous hole leading to… another Universal Lands. The notion affected the rest of the barrier, down to the Universitalities of Yore Universal Land, led by Zafey with her Pale Testimony Sect.

  “HWUGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUHH!”

  As the barrier seemed to have crystallized-ruptured around the gap, now hundreds of millions in diameter, the man stepped into Heian Ciemnosc’s side. He looked crazily at Heian Ciemnosc, as if silently asking ‘did you see that?’ before opening his mouth wide and his arms upwards.

  “Darkness! I have been waiting for this moment for so long, hahahaha!” The man said, laughing to his heart’s content before calming down and saying with a bow, folding his right arm before his face and all. “I am Servantes Zinano. This… this is the Loss Eternal Universal Lands… sniff! Ahhh… How sweet this pure aroma is… Huh? So little Elemental Poisoning, not bad! Now, Darkness, prepare! I will be the one to devour you instead… HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

  “Join the line,” Heian Ciemnosc calmly said as he stood up, with Sara already watching from his inner body, when the man pointed at his glabella. “There’s someone inside you? Like… a Soul? Hahaha. It doesn’t matter. You have no idea how much my Catatonic Barren-Rain Universal Lands have waited ever since your Universal Lands finally lost their Lords, hahahaha…”

  “Alright, enough chatter. Come at me,” Heian Ciemnosc said, changing his darkest eyes when he mentioned Sara. His ultimately cold eyes narrowed, making Servantes narrow his in response. At last, both of them activated their Essence at the same time, with Heian Ciemnosc’s Dark Essence easily fending off against Servantes’ Zenith existence Essence.

  Immediately after, Servantes, rushed towards Heian Ciemnosc, sending all of his Essence forwards, with Heian Ciemnosc only being capable of defending against him. Thus, Heian Ciemnosc engaged in a severe fight with the enemy Universal Lands’ leader. This was no simple existence like any other, nearing Calisneia’s level.

  Bout after bout, struggle after struggle, Heian Ciemnosc’s dark tail, Vocón Link, and dark claw strikes were destroyed and deflected, leaving him nearly helpless to strike back. Meanwhile, all Servantes Zinano had to do was chase Heian Ciemnosc like a cat to a mouse. Although he did receive a few injuries, they were light, albeit they didn’t heal. Heian Ciemnosc’s Dark Essence wasn’t something that an existence could still deal with.

  When the end of their fight neared, Heian Ciemnosc and Servantes stopped as the other side’s countless armada Small Fleets started pouring into the Loss Eternal Universal Land. The greatest among them followed by a Mothership and a Godly Space Station.

  Furthermore, people started pouring into their fight, stopping outside their fight and watching as Heian Ciemnosc and Servantes looked at them. One of them, a young woman, with a slightly childish yet mad bearing, looked like Servantes.

  Heian Ciemnosc returned his stare at Servantes, who smiled and spread his arms. Servantes shook his head and said with a wide, sparkly smile, “I can’t help it, Darkness. It’s your fault for being unprotected. Your anti-espionage measures were fine, but only towards your own people. It’s pathetic, really- huh?”

  Amidst his talk, as Heian Ciemnosc lightly traced backwards, which they did not care because he couldn’t escape them now. Servantes stopped and looked to his right, where a worm with a diameter larger than the barrier’s gap opened its maws and intended to eat Heian Ciemnosc.

  They felt deep, penetrating fear, as if their bodies would rupture and spread throughout both Universal Lands. Thus, they rapidly retreated except for one person who shouted and rushed forth but was forced back by her father.

  “Daad! He’s not gonna die at your hands! If you won’t do it, I’ll do it! Die, die, die, die, die, dieaidaiadiaidaidie- dieeeeeeeeeee! I’ll eat even your hair, die!” The little beauty with blonde hair became a rabid dog when her father held her back, biting his arm and hand, forcing her away from the worm’s passing.

  “Hm, charming.” Heian Ciemnosc placed his left hand on his hip and tilted his head rightwards, letting his body ‘hang’ loosely before the worm engulfed him, not stopping, and kept moving to their left. His grin disappeared, but it made the gal narrow her eyes.

  “!” Servantes narrowed his eyes, watching the worm, when it suddenly disappeared completely, helplessly baffling them. It was a trick!

  …