I watched as the Hero’s party gathered themselves. They had won, but at what cost? That was what was going through their minds.
Of course I knew the real cost. Nothing. The ‘life’ of a fake person I created.
They discussed what they were going to do, and what they were going to do with the dungeon core. But the System made that part clear. Soone had to take over as the master of the Chaos God Core in order to stabilize it, or the core might break. Which would lead to even more problems.
So the Hero placed his hand on the core and took the position of Dungeon Master. The Saint and Sage soon followed, and were nad the assistant Dungeon Masters.
It was a recomndation from the System. The System Agents wanted to avoid another situation like they just had, so having three in command of the core would be for the best.
They then decided to head to the surface, taking the body of Anastasia with them. Sadly, I couldn’t let that be a thing. Anastasia must only be in their mories, if even in them.
So with every step the party took towards the surface, I erased a bit more of Anastasia with Erasure Magic. Yes, I have Erasure Magic. Got it a while ago with an install as I thought I might need it against Haji. Because he can’t fix himself if I erase his body.
It took Kanata until the fourth of the ten boss rooms to realize that Anastasia was vanishing from his arms. Probably because her body was already really light, and he is really strong. He asked Lucia to try and heal her again, but as she did, I simply accelerated the decay, so they stopped, instead rushing back to the surface. They wanted the others there to see the heroic demon.
Sadly, Anastasia would never make it to the surface. It isn’t that I wanted to cause them more grief, it just was what had to be done. And sadly, I wasn’t even done yet.
They arrived to the surface with their hands no longer holding the body of the demon, each looking down. But the army was happy to see them, even if they lacked the triumphant look they expected. The party had returned and that ant that at least the Demon Lord had been forced away from this land.
And as the party shared the good news, the army celebrated.
The leader of the Army, the first King of what would beco the Ruiso Kingdom, noticed their mood. He asked about it and was told about the sacrifice a demon made. How soone who, according to their own words couldn’t stand against the Demon Lord, stood proud against them and gave the party the chance to defeat him.
Ruiso listened and gave his condolences, even if he didn’t understand the history behind this demon.
But they had to press on. Because sothing important still had to be done. And that was fixing the mistakes the Demon Lord left behind. And that ant that the Goddess was coming.
Normally, I might be afraid. I might be. Being this close to a God ans I might be revealed, but luckily we’ve tested it and the Goddess cannot sense when my Nuron Code abilities are active.
The three mbers of the Hero’s party joined their hands in a circle and prayed. Or that is what it would look like to most people. In truth, they were letting their three System Supports mix, the three becoming one and that one manifesting outside of the bodies of its holders.
As the Goddess took shape, I spread my own copied souls and even made more of them. I wanted as many as I could make, so that I could attach them to different people and get their view on the Goddess.
For , she looked like she always did. Extrely beautiful with hair that changed colors. But for the mbers of the Hero’s party, she looked different. She looked like a near perfect copy of Anastasia.
I already knew she would do so for the Hero, but the other two I wasn’t sure. But for them as well, she was very close. Not as perfect as with the Hero, since the two had only seen Anastasia for a few monts, but her influence on their vision of the Goddess was clear.
Listening to their conversion, I heard as the Goddess spoke with the party. She told them she didn’t have the power needed to fix all the damage and she needed more.
Kanata was ready to sacrifice anything, even his life, if it ant saving the world. He was ready to go after Anastasia. Sadly, I couldn’t let that stand. He had to forget about her.
So when the Goddess said that his blessing, the unique skill that was given to him by a God outside of this world, would do, I moved the mories related to Anastasia to be a part of that skill.
It was quite easy with how the Hero’s mory was fragnted. He had a clear linear separation between his mories from Earth and his mories from this world. So I simply moved his mories about Anastasia to the other side. I did leave behind a few things. He would still rember Asprin, the demon who gave him his sword. But he wouldn’t rember Anastasia, the person from his world who beca a demon in this one. And he also didn’t rember how she stood against the Demon Lord during their final confrontation.
And best of all, I didn’t need to ss with the mories of the two others. Since we were talking about the Goddess, a world altering power, she would erase the mories the Hero would lose from everyone. It is sadly how the story would go.
So I watched as the Goddess repaired the Dinsional Barrier, keeping an extrely close eye on everything. I wanted to know how it was done so that I could do it when I eventually mastered the Nuron Code. Or summoned Holactie, whichever cos first.
And while observing the repair of the Dinsional Barrier, sothing unexpected happened. For the first ti in over 40 years, a System screen opened on its own.
Mission: Make and Deliver the Hero’s swordGoal: Produce the Hero’s sword, nowadays known as Demon's Pride and Fall. Then take it to the past and hand it over to the Hero. Mission CompletedReward: Your System Support will be upgraded to Ultimate
… okay. But how? I checked my Status and yes, my System Support was now Ultimate. But how did I get that reward now? I shouldn't be able to gain it until I go back to the future, since the Gods who gave the mission are there. So who approved the mission? The System itself?
(When you have the ti, I would like to talk to you.) A voice said in my head. I didn’t know whose it was, but I was more than taken back by the fact soone could talk to like that. Nothing should be able to interact with , so how did so mysterious male voice get into my head.
“Brian?” Alice was the first to ask.
“Spoilers. You’ll learn in a second.” I told them.
Sadly the mysterious voice took away from the world changing super power that was the Goddess. Luckily I have everything recorded, so I can just watch it back.
I still felt as the wave of power rolled over everyone. Mainly because I had my soul copies in the random people. It actually just passed by and didn’t do anything. I didn’t forget the Hero’s na or anything else that I should have, had that affected .
On the other hand, my soul copies did forget. Because of that, I had to pull them all back. Not that I needed them any more, as I had what I needed.
I then watched as the Goddess vanished, the System Supports returning to the bodies of their holders.
I quickly jumped into the mory Palace, just to confirm that I didn’t lose any mories, but after a quick check, it seems like I was fine.
I was tempted to act on the voice I heard, but I decided to wait on that. Unlike the people here, I don’t even need to sleep, so I can just do it later when they rest.
… Admittedly nothing worth observing happened, so ti to face the mystery man.
I assud that getting to et him would be a problem, but luckily Laura had the information we needed. She knew where to guide my soul, so in a flash, I moved sowhere.
And that sowhere was an empty white room. And in it, a single man was standing.
He appeared to be 30 sothing, but his real age was impossible to determine. He held a long staff, with a large magic stone at the end of it, and I could feel that at one ti, a spirit lived in that magic stone.
He was bold, with only minimal facial hair as well, so telling his position within the System might have been difficult. If it weren’t for the rainbow pulses of energy that ran across his stave, making it look like an enchanted item from Minecraft.
“... The All-Mighty, I presu.” I spoke to him. With the rainbow glint in the staff and the fact that he could speak to , that was the only possibility I could think of. I did wonder how he got past my Nuron Code defenses as Protection of Ami, but maybe he knows a way.
“Correct, ti traveler.” He said. “I would greet you by your na, but your System Support did a fantastic job at keeping you secure, so I cannot. Even if she did get a bit ahead of herself and revealed that you are in this ti.”
Holy shit, he knew! How long? I assud Laura would have been able to keep us secure.
“I learned a bit after the Demon Lord began operating.” The All-Mighty answered, despite not asking the question. “I shall tell her where she went wrong, but even if I don’t, now that she is Ultimate, she should get around my detection. But now, your na? Or should I keep calling you ti traveler?”
I pondered for a second if I should, but I think it is safe to introduce myself to this God. He knows I’m from the future, so I think he will keep my na a secret so as to not cause any more issues. Besides, he never did anything anyway, even though he knew I was in this ti.
“It's Brian. Ami Brian Wood.” I introduced myself.
“Ami?” He questioned. “As in the Ami Sei and Ami Janina, the divine dragons? You do seem to be wearing scales from one of them.”
“Yes. I’m married to Ami Janina.” I confird.
“I see… Makes sense for soone of your power.”
… I waited for him to continue, but he didn’t, so I magicked myself a chair. Actually, I just wanted to have one and one appeared, as if this place was the Factory. I then made another one for the All-Mighty and he took a seat. I made a round table appear between us, and generally decorated the room to be nicer. … only to realize that I unconsciously made it almost match the System parlor room. And oh boy. Did I create that room? Maybe I did, and thus I adjusted it even more to be a perfect match of that room.
“Impressive.” The All-Mighty said. "Not everyone can simply imagine things into existence, even in a moldable space like this."
“I have a world of my own. I’ve had practice.” I told him. “So, what did you ask here for? It has to be sothing important considering your … hands off approach to managing your continent.”
“It is.” He confird. “However, I mostly wanted to explain to you why I did what I did.”
“Aka. why you didn’t do anything.”
“Yes. During the ti I was alive, my master was one of the two mages who first discovered Ti Magic. The two of them learned it directly from the Ti Spirits, the only force who should have had access to it. It should have never been given to people. People who use that power for their own gain.”
“And spirits don’t?”
“Spirits don’t understand greed. Or need. Or many other things. It may seem like they do, but spirits are the virtues humanoids strive for. Demons are the sins we fall for.”
“... what happened?” I asked.
“Both of them gained a System Support for discovering a new aspect of magic. They gained power and learned to ti travel. But that is when they disagreed. One wanted to use it to gain more influence, while my master realized that they couldn’t. If they changed the past, they might change the future to the point where they wouldn’t exist, so they wouldn’t be there to change the past. He discovered the Ti Paradox.
“Sadly, his friend didn’t listen. He believed the two of them were masters of ti, and above such things. He did everything he wanted, and no one could stop him. Except my master and Lachros. The two of them worked together, stopping my master’s old friend in every ti. This ti jumping sadly didn’t leave the tiline intact. The world began to break around them, more with each jump. They’d each try to erase the other from existence, causing endless paradoxes the System attempted to fix. The energy required to do that ripped apart the dinsional barriers even worse than what happened with this Haji, so in the end there was no choice. The Chaos God Dinsion deleted the world and rebuilt it anew.”
“Then how did you..?” I asked.
“The System kept us safe. Myself and my Master. It took us to a place outside of the world, and we stayed safe. We would be the only ones to rember. We were tasked in keeping the world safe for the rest of our lives, or we would be erased. Then, after our ti was up, it picked to beco a God of this continent, as this continent didn’t have one before .”
“Are you saying that the System is sentient? And what do you an the Chaos God Dinsion did the deleting? Isn’t it just an energy source?”
“You should know that the System is sentient. It isn’t just, how did you call it, a computer program. It is more like your artificial intelligence. And the Chaos God Dinsion hosts the core System. It is what powers the dinsions connected to it, and makes sure they are running.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Never heard and didn’t push for it. I do know that it has sothing to do with the Gods outside of this world.”
“So a higher power we can’t understand.” I complained.
“But that doesn’t answer why you didn’t stop Haji earlier. He had a System Support, so surely you knew what he was trying to do.” I pointed out.
“I did, yes. I gave it to him as soon as he arrived. I always do so with ti travelers. Monitor them. But for every bad ti traveler, there are three good ones that prevent a major catastrophe. That man did nothing wrong. He lived and kept quite good care of a Chaos God Dungeon. I believed he was here with good intentions.”
“Until he lost his mind and beca the demon lord.”
“Demon Lord. A title he barely deserves. I let him be as I believed him being here, in this ti, was destiny. Sothing that had to happen for a better future.”
“And it was.” I confird.
“Yes, it was. So despite him doing what he did, I let him be. I know the other Gods called a fool for it, but I felt that I had to. I even discussed it with Lachros, and he agreed. The tiline felt solid, like this is what needed to happen. So we let it.
“And then you appeared. Well, your System Support. I wasn’t quite sure what it was at first. I noticed the issues in the ssages we send each other. The ssages my agents send to . They were late. Soone was reading them on the way. It did take a bit to figure out who, but you gave yourself away.
“Well, that demon you made did. It confird that I was right. There was soone other than Haji in this ti. The tiline was being kept safe. I was simply wrong about the person. It wasn't Haji, but you.
“So I let ti pass, believing in you. And you did wonderfully. The Hero carried out his part, but you are what allowed the tiline to continue.”
“So you did nothing because you believed?”
“Yes. I lived through a tiline reset, and while it is a crisis to those who know of the possibility, to , it is nothing that crazy. It is simply sothing I’ve lived through.” The All-Mighty said. “But I’ve lived longer than the other Gods. They don’t know just how many rollbacks there have been. Unlike I, they can’t rember them. I do. Nine tis the world has had to roll back to fix an issue. One caused by my Master and his friend, but the others were caused by the other Gods being too aggressive when trying to fix an issue, only to cause a different, larger one. Don’t tell them that, by the way. They won’t be happy to hear it. I’ll rather be rembered as the senile old fool who got this position because there was no other choice than the one who pressed the reset button instead of trying to improve the world. The others did that part much better, even if I had to remind them to be more gentle in their approach. I simply relied on the power I had. Resetting when things went wrong.”
“... I see. So even if everything would have gone to shit, you could have just traveled back in ti and dealt with Haji as soon as he appeared in this ti.”
“Essentially yes.”
“... I’d call you a dumbass, but you did have a reason as good as any other.”
“I can call myself the All-Mighty moron then.” He joked.
“... Sorry, but I can’t let the other Gods keep seeing you that way.” I apologized. “You may have relied too much on the big reset button, but you are no fool. You had a reason for waiting. If you hadn’t, a tiline shift would have happened and Haji and I would have never appeared. You knew that, so you waited.” I recapped. “You did what you believed to be the best with the information you had. Your only issue was not communicating with the other Gods.”
“Thank you, young man.” The All-Mighty said.
“Young? I’m like … 70 by now.
“That is still quite young to . I am older than your wife, even in the ti you co from.” He said, shaking his head.
“Here. Take this.” The All-Mighty said, handing his stave over to . As I took it into my hands, I could feel so sort of strange Ti Magic flowing through it. “It is a weapon blessed by the System itself. If a tiline correction happens, whover is holding it will rember everything. I don’t need it anymore, as I won’t be a God for much longer. Besides, you fulfill the conditions of being a System God, so you may hold it."
“... thank you.” I thanked the All-Mighty.
“No. Thank you. My ti has long since co. But this position cannot be left open. So finally, thanks to you, the Demon Lord and the Hero, a new God has risen and I may fade from the System.”
“... so you really are just too old and lazy to do your job.”
“I suppose I am.” He agreed. "I do not know what you will do in the future. Will you challenge the Gods for their position? Or will you just better the world in the way only you can. But I will tell you this. Keep that dragon close to you. An eternity is a long ti to spend alone.” The All-Mighty said, before he disappeared.
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