Yoshika’s thoughts were a confusing jumble, as though she’d just woken from a dream, but she’d dreamt of...everything. It echoed in her head, reverberated through her soul. She had been something—something she’d yet to become, in a past that might never happen. Then it faded, as dreams did, and only the echoes remained. It had been real—of that she was certain—but the totality of it was too great for her to comprehend.
“What happened?”
Long Qiuyue’s voice snapped her out of her reverie, bringing her back to a present—no, the present. Yoshika was still inhabiting the cosmic body that encompassed the entire world, but she concentrated her attention down to what felt like something smaller than a single cell in her body, and blinked open the eyes of what had once been ‘her.’
Dae was shaking his head uncertainly.
“I don’t know. Yoshika started the ritual, everything was going to plan for a while, then there was some sort of surge and...then I don’t know.”
Yoshika looked down at her hands. The Sovereign’s Tear was not there. It wasn’t gone—she could still feel its power within her, but different. It was no longer merely a part of her. It was a hole in causality, the corpse of a—the demiurge? And now it was her. The power of creation was at her fingertips, but if she drank too deeply of it she would return to that dream again, and never come back.
She realized that the room around her had gone silent, and everyone was staring at her. Yoshika blushed briefly, then drew herself up and regained her composure.
“I think I—we did it. It worked.”
Seong Misun rubbed her forehead, frowning.
“I thought we’d destroyed the world for a second there. I can still remember...something, but it’s fading like a dream. I haven’t dreamt in decades.”
“That was real. You...everyone entrusted the future to me, then everything got drawn into the Tear and...I don’t remember, but I think I created a world where we survived.”
The words tumbled from her almost unbidden, and she barely understood her own meaning. She’d sacrificed herself to do it—or the other her had? She kept getting confusing flashes, glimpses of pasts that hadn’t happened and futures that would never be. None of it made any sense.
Ja Yun let out a shuddering sigh of relief and cast a hopeful look at her.
“Does that mean it’s finally over, then? The seal is gone?”
As if to punish her for tempting fate, the soul realm shook under the assault of Qin and his allies, causing those gathered around Yoshika to flinch. Strangely, the attack didn’t rattle her like it had before. She still felt it, but it was more distant—like a discomfort in her stomach or an insect’s sting, rather than the all-encompassing pain that threatened to shatter the walls of her very soul.
“I suppose there are still a few errands I need to take care of.”
Her grandmother’s jaw dropped incredulously.
“Errands?! I’m not going to pretend I understand what’s happening here, and...I felt that strange dream as well, but goddess or not, God-Emperor Qin is still not a trivial enemy.”
Yoshika felt the possibilities taking form around her, as though she could peer at the surface of time itself. It came naturally as she considered taking action and the future unfurled into a series of overlapping images, just waiting for her to make a decision that would collapse it all back into one now.
It made her uncomfortable. It was a dangerous level of control. She understood—somehow—that there was no real fate or destiny, but some futures were more solid than others, in the places where possibilities overlapped most and converged on the most likely outcomes. Was this what it was like for Void? Where had that thought come from? The echoes of whatever had happened to her kept intruding into her thoughts in ways that she struggled to understand.
She shook off the feeling and tried to ignore the visions of the future, leaving only vague impressions in their wake. One thing stood out in the overlapping visions of the future, however.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. I’ll go speak to him now.”
Another body manifested at the edge of Chou’s wards, which had been integrated into Jiaguo’s shield formations to protect the city—and her soul realm—from both physical and spiritual attacks. Elemental as well, but the elemental realm was usually a place of pure chaos until the essence there distilled itself into physical form to birth a new elemental.
As she arrived, she realized why their attacks had felt so much smaller. The edge of Jiaguo was no longer the edge of her soul realm. In fact, her soul realm wasn’t a place in the spirit world anymore—it was the spirit world.
It hadn’t been her intention, but her avatar took form as a floating giant, towering over the three gods assaulting her city.
“Qin Yang, Shen Yu, Longyan—I don’t suppose I could convince you that there’s no more reason to fight me, could I?”
The God-Emperor glared up at her defiantly, his domain expanding and...failing to even find hers, much less suppress it.
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“Whatever it is you have done, it changes nothing! Your petty illusion could not hold me forever.”
Yoshika sighed. It was...awkward to suddenly be on the other side of the dynamic, with Qin struggling hopelessly against her overwhelming power. Especially when he didn’t seem to have realized it yet. Sovereign Shen, at least, seemed to understand what had happened. He shook his head and grimaced.
“I’m afraid you are mistaken, Sovereign Qin. Young Sovereign Yoshika has ascended to the status of a full Sovereign Deity—this is her world now.”
“What?! That’s impossible!”
“It is. Or should be. Yet I cannot deny the reality before me. If I may ask, Sovereign Yoshika, how did you overcome the seal in order to ascend without causing this world to collapse?”
Yoshika cocked her head. There probably wasn’t any harm in telling them. It wasn’t like she fully understood it herself either.
“I didn’t. The world collapsed. Everything was destroyed—even the divine realm.”
The Sovereigns Shen and Longyan both scoffed, but Qin Yang turned pale.
“So...it was true, then. That dream. It was no illusion, was it?”
She smiled apologetically at the little tyrant and shook her head.
“No, it wasn’t.”
Shen Yu eyed them suspiciously.
“What are you talking about? What dream?”
She scratched her cheek—so he really hadn’t been there, then.
“You didn’t see it because you’re not part of this world—your true selves are elsewhere, so you didn’t become part of me at the end.”
“The end?”
“I absorbed the ocean of primordial essence and became it. I think everything was destroyed, then. After that, it gets fuzzy, but I sent it all back where it came from—into the Tear—and myself along with it. I think the world was rebuilt exactly as it was.”
Shen Yu scowled at her and shook his head.
“Impossible. You are claiming to have done what none—not even the Bloody Sovereign—ever could. You are certainly beyond most newly ascended deities, but to claim you are a demiurge is beyond laughable.”
Yoshika chuckled mirthlessly.
“I don’t claim to be a demiurge. I’m not even sure it’s accurate to say I became one. More like I...gave birth to one? Or killed one? I think it’s the same thing. Like I said, it’s fuzzy.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
She shrugged.
“Not really, no. They—she? Whatever demiurges are, they don’t interact with cause and effect the way we do. I think...because I’m alive, she’s dead? The past where I became her hasn’t happened yet—it’s just a dream.”
Even Yoshika didn’t know what the heck she was saying. The words just sort of came to her. Qin Yang fell into quiet contemplation, but the two Sovereign Lords of the Divine Realm latched onto only one part of what she’d said. Longyan’s shadowy form snarled up at her.
“So you are claiming to be a demiurge?”
“A dead one maybe? But all of us are. The only difference is that I’m her corpse—or shadow? Or...reflection, maybe?”
The emptiness left behind in its wake. The words echoed in her head, a distant memory from the beginning and end of time. Maybe she was more like Void than she realized.
Shen Yu sighed and stroked his beard.
“What you are, Sovereign Yoshika, is a threat. You wield the Sovereign’s Tear more completely than even Chou himself did. I assume you intend to renege on your agreement to transfer it into my custody?”
“Eh, I had considered it, but technically you broke our deal first by attacking me. Also, the seal is still in place, so I’ve still got over four years. Anyway, there is no Tear. It’s just me, now.”
“Then I’m afraid that you pose too great a risk for me to ignore. My original self, and my Divine Immortals will see you as an enemy to the peace of the divine realm.”
Yoshika sighed. That was annoying, but not unexpected. She turned to the Demon Lord’s shadow.
“And you, Longyan? There’s nothing to be gained from fighting me anymore.”
“Yu Meiren’s life was mine, and you took it. I will not be satisfied until I have destroyed you and all that you hold dear, down to the very roots. I care not for the practicalities—my war with you is personal, and the Demonic Crimson Dragoneye Moons will hunt you and yours to the very ends of the cosmos.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
She held out a hand and both divine avatars disintegrated into raw essence. Yoshika felt threads of their souls retreating through infinitesimal breaches in the world—the mostly repaired paths through the Void which had bypassed the divine seal. She let them go before closing those holes and all the others she sensed. The world really had been coming apart at the seams.
She paused when she got to the one through which she and Yan De had tumbled during their confrontation. Her father was still there, trapped alone in the Void at the edge of her perception. Once she closed that last fracture, there really would be no way out for him. It was better than he deserved, and yet she still hesitated before consigning him to eternal darkness. It was unlikely—vanishingly unlikely, according to the unhelpful visions of the future that crept back into her thoughts as she considered her options—but he still held the potential to be better than he was. Did it outweigh all the potential for harm? Or the harm he’d already done? Yoshika didn’t feel qualified to answer that. She had nothing but contempt for the man.
In the end, she left that pathway open, but nothing more. If, one day, he managed to internalize her Voidbreak technique and return of his own accord, she’d address the issue. Until then, he could enjoy an eternity with only himself for company. Perhaps then he’d finally learn just how insufferable his company could be.
Qin Yang opened his eyes, apparently having finished whatever meditation he was doing. He looked up at her with steely eyes, but spoke in a level tone.
“I am still a god, but it is evident that whatever competition we might have been in has ended thoroughly in your favor. Whatever fate you assign me, I will meet it proudly. But know that you cannot destroy me without—”
“The planet, yes. I know. I wasn’t planning on killing you anyways. What was that Sealed Bloody Star thing you mentioned?”
He was taken aback by her frank attitude, but rallied quickly.
“That is the name of this world as assigned by the divine realm. I was to be its sovereign—and that of the entire local starfield, but you have usurped that position.”
“Starfield?”
“A loose grouping of mortal worlds. Most do not develop life of their own accord. I’m told that our starfield is quite remote—unnamed, except for our own star, which is the only one to bear life.”
Yoshika stroked her chin thoughtfully, the beginnings of a plan starting to form. She waved away the visions that came with it and huffed. Seeing the future was actually kind of annoying.
“Sounds to me like there’s plenty of room for both of us, Qin. And more.”
“Certainly—until two of the three greatest powers in the universe come to exterminate you.”
“We’ll see about that...”
!
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