Ding!

  {[Congratulations!]

  [You have survived the collision of the One World and the Four Realms -]}

  "That's quite enough," I drawled, or at least this segment of my mind drawled. Mr. Boxes immediately came to a halt, the 'cursor,' if you could call it that, blinking in place. "Y'know, I was just about to ask you about this whole 'authority' thing and if it was safe, not that I can back out now, but it seems you've read my mind and already come for a conversation. Well? What do you have to say?"

  To my surprise, Mr. Boxes did not speak. He did not add anything else to the box, the half-finished message sitting in place. My eyes narrowed. That was very much unlike him; I didn't ask many questions of him, preferring to figure things out myself unless it was a very specific unknown issue - such as when the Four Realms had come under attack from the Void Beast and the Rogue God all those eons ago - so when I did ask questions he was usually more than willing to at least respond 'yes or no.'

  "Alright, spit it out then. What's the message you were trying to give me?" This time the box vanished entirely, leaving this part of my mind completely blank and empty. Just my sliver, and empty white space all around us. "Is what we're attempting safe?" I pressed again. My main body was still in the process of attempting to assimilate Curie's Authority as an Origin Deity, and it was not what I would call a simple process.

  It was like grafting a new limb onto my back. Or a whole new chunk to my soul. Thankfully there was space for it - I had removed myself about two thirds of the way from the Four Realms, which made some space in my soul for this authority to sit. That didn't make it comfortable. Or easy. I still had to fight off the One World's Will, counter that damnable curse that coursed through my very being like a poison, and work on stitching the authority to myself at the same time.

  Oh, and I was still injured.

  So yeah, it was anything but simple.

  Ding!

  {[Alert!]

  [You have been gifted a shard of Authority. Be warned, just being in possession of a piece of Authority does not give you direct control over another universe.]}

  "That's it? That's all you have to say? What about the success rate? Is this a legitimate path forward?"

  Ding!

  {[Yes.]}

  I frowned even harder, crossing my arms across my chest and making my relative displeasure known by swiping through the box, dispelling it. Everything about this situation pissed me off. I didn't want to be the origin deity of two universes, which is why I planned to return it to Curie when it was all said and done, so long as she survived, and remained worthy and untainted.

  Which seemed to me like it was becoming less and less likely. This war was still in the early stages though, so who knew?

  Which brought up another point of contention - I turned my back to Mr. Boxes. I wanted to rage and scream at him, demand he tell me why he never told me that Yueya had impregnated herself with my essence - I was convinced the pregnancy did not come from that one night we shared together, it took more than that to create a child between two beings of our power. Children of the soul were far more complex than children of blood.

  But I knew better. It would be hypocritical of me to rage against him for doing things the same way I did; letting people live through the consequences of their own actions. Yueya had done this. I had done this, even if I hadn't willingly or knowingly been a part of it. Now I had a mess to clean up, and another child to raise. No matter how that very thought made my heart clench in pain.

  I just...wish she'd told me.

  My mind drifted to the little one, still curled up against my physical body's side. If this part of my mind focused, I could sense it. She was beautiful. He was wonderful. It was my child, so of course something like gender was no real point of contention for it. Even from here, locked away as this part of my mind was so it could focus on plotting and strategizing with little in the way of distractions, I could feel her.

  She was...a child of two worlds. Half Fae and half Elf, half Cultivator and half Magician. I truly wished I had known he existed. My mind pulled away as the curse lanced through me, shocking my mind into stillness for a brief moment, allowing the One World to push harder against the Four Realms. My universe pushed back equally hard, not budging an inch, but there was a lot of pressure being put on us.

  "I am sorry, little one." I told her after regaining control of myself, already feeling my mental sliver being pulled away to rejoin the fight. "I doubt I will be able to give you the upbringing you deserve, if this war lasts for as long as I fear it might. But know this. You are my child. And you are loved. Your name is Amari Ren. Even if your mother and I are not there to show it to you right now, in the way you deserve, I want you to know you are loved and cherished."

  As I slowly faded away, determination steeling within my heart, I sent a sliver of energy down to the little one. Amari Ren curled his little fingers into a fist, snuggling deeper into my side with a small mumble, the curse that plagued me completely ignoring him thanks to Yueya's blessing. She had given her child a gift, even as she lost her mind.

  And I crossed my arms.

  It was time to show them, once more, who I was. My name was Statera Luotian, and I was the Heavens themselves. Those who allied against my children did not know how high the heavens truly were.

  This rot, for all its ambitions, had eyes yet could not see the Holy Mountain, let alone me.

  ***

  "We have incoming!" Xing Wu roared, making a hand sign with one hand. The Dao Stars surged in brightness, a net of silver light forming around the Four Realms in a hexagonal shield-like formation. Balls of red foulness crashed against the shield like slime, trying to cling to it, seep deeper into the Dao itself, but a Dao was far beyond mere obsession.

  Xing Wu snorted, making another gesture to activate another technique - though he needn't have bothered. Fang Xu stood next to him, golden flames burning from his hands as the slime was incinerated, burned away with but a thought. The Realm Sun increased its rotation speed, streams of golden sunfire roaring out to join the net of starlight - on the other side of the Four Realms, Xing Wu could sense Celene's Lunar Star doing the same, icy blue fire filling in the gaps of the net. The three celestial forces hanging in the skies, forming the primary defense.

  "This takes me back," Xing Wu said casually, eyes fixating on the thundering horde slowly making their way toward the Four Realms. It was truly a massive army, with siege machines the size of the Holy Mountain locked onto their position. Great, screaming balls of fire collided with the barrier, shaking the walls as the second salvo, but they held firm. Xing Wu grinned savagely, laying his spear lengthwise across his shoulders and he kept his senses open for the real threats.

  "How so?" Fang Xu asked.

  "Back when were defending our city from the devil cultivators and demons in the Sun War. Us, holding the line, them coming and breaking their backs against our walls." he explained as Celene came hurtling over to their position.

  "Only this time, you're the one maintaining the defensive formations, and Celene is the heavy hitter." he argued. Xing Wu snorted as said icy woman came to a halt just beside her husband, wrapping her arm as far around his middle as she could. Considering how big he had become, especially in what he was calling his War Form, which was just bigger and covered in more fire, her fingers couldn't even touch.

  "Celene has always been the heavy hitter." Xing Wu said dismissively as more artillery shells crashed against the barrier. The legions of the Heavenly Host trembled as the walls shook, elemental gods positioned in key points around the formation so there was always someone nearby if there was a breach. But many were desperately repairing the interior. Fixing the biding between Realms, realigning the formations, leeching energy from the Hidden Realm out of the crystal skeleton to fuel the regrowth of the Primordial Chaos...

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  It felt almost like a skeleton crew, but he knew that wasn't true. The Big Four needed to conserve their strength in case one of the other Origin Deities came by, and the others were fueling the newly created war machine.

  "You were always just meaner, when it came to fighting," Celene chimed in, standing back as Fang Xu moved. He squared his shoulders and made a motion as if to draw a bow - fire from the Realm Sun flowed forth, crafting the flaming weapon for him. A string of pure sunlight bound the weapon, and Celene breathed out, creating an arrow of Lunar Light upon the string for him.

  "More savage, I think is the word you're looking for. You are definitely meaner than I." Xing Wu corrected gently.

  "He's got you there, sweetheart," Fang Xu murmured, and loosed the arrow. The blue light screamed as it shot out of the Four Realms and into the One World, too fast for the Will of the foreign universe to extinguish outright, the arrow shattering into a dozen tiny missiles that impacted the siege engines, destroying a few and damaging others. He smiled in satisfaction, but Xing Wu frowned. Either those things had the blessings of gods to not be outright demolished, or the One World's Will really did weaken them more than expected.

  "Excuse me? What did you just say?" Celene demanded, setting her hands on her hips and glaring up at her husband.

  "Nothing," he said wisely. "It was a good shot, no?" The barrier shook again as more artillery shells impacted the walls, less now than there were before, and Xing Wu's frown deepened. They had to be smarter than this; a siege was not in their best interests -

  "Stay back," he said conversationally, stepping forth and twirling his spear. The Heavenly Host scattered before him, covered in talismans to ensure they could survive the faux void of the Four Realms as they were, and he met the incoming attack with a spear thrust.

  A sword of red blood cracked against the tip of his spear, nearly shattering the haft and sending Xing Wu stumbling backward. But the attack was diverted all the same, the blood sword glancing off of the formation walls instead of crashing directly into it.

  Xing Wu wiped his mouth and met the eyes of the assailant calmly. He was a massive man, clad in blood-red armor with hair that same color. His eyes burned with fire, teeth bared, shining white. A cape hung from his shoulders, the blood-sword hovering around him menacingly.

  "You must be the god of peace," Xing Wu drawled, looking him up and down. Everything about the man screamed battle and war. "Did you come to negotiate?"

  "Silence, invader! You are the ones trespassing on One World lands!" The god snarled, spreading his hands and summoning a war spear that was admittedly far more impressive than Xing Wu's own. The head was at least two feet long, matching the god's giant size, runes of power crackling along the metal. The shaft was painted blood red, feathers and other decorative objects hanging from the leather-wrapped grip. What looked like dragon scales covered the middle part, ad the whole thing radiated an aura of danger.

  ...Xing Wu had never had spear envy before, but he was experiencing it right now. He wanted that spear.

  "You are the betrayers, launching an unprovoked assault on a peaceful Peoples, and now you line your armies around our home and threaten invasion. However, the Heavens are not without their mercy. Lay down your arms and we might yet come to an accord." Xing Wu drawled, not disrespectfully, but not respectfully either. He could see the light in that man's eyes. There was going to be no 'talking it out.' But the Heavens demanded he make the offer, so offer he did.

  "Fine. Lower your shields. Allow me in. And we can speak plainly," the god said, relaxing. Xing Wu raised an eyebrow. That wasn't happening.

  "No. But I'll come out there." he said. "Consider the land just outside our respective worlds, where the Wills meet, to be neutral ground for now."

  "That is a bad idea, Xing," Fang Xu warned.

  He just smirked over his shoulder at his friend, winked at Celene, and felt the pressure of Inesa's gaze upon his back, from where she stayed with their child in the Heaven Realm. How could he tell them that he needed them to overextend, play part of their hand without giving it away? Then he stepped forward, the barrier parting before him like water before the prow of a ship, closing just as smoothly behind him.

  "There, now we can speak without that thing between us." He said, eyeing the god’s spear. Yep. Definitely spear envy.

  "Yes, we can. I demand your unconditional surrender." The god said.

  "For a god of peace you sure do drive a hard bargain. Sure you're not a god of negotiation?" Xing Wu replied with a yawn, leaning against his spear. Out here, he could feel the two Wills clashing against each other, a line in the sand where two universes argued about dominance and their right to exist. Here, he was neither helped nor hindered by either universe.

  "I am not the god of peace. I am Atreum, the God of War." He rumbled.

  "Could've fooled me," Xing Wu muttered, rolling his eyes.

  "You are trying to irritate me." Atreum accused, the sound echoing in his chest. He stamped one foot, and fire rose from the blood-red pauldrons upon his shoulders, curling about his head like a helmet. "For your crimes against the One World, for harboring a traitor and stealing part of the Authority of our Creators, I demand your immediate surrender, as well as the immediate return of the Authority. Astraea, the traitor, will be returned to us, too. Then we will negotiate your terms of surrender."

  "That's awful generous." Xing Wu lied. "But those are spoils rightfully won. She has claimed refugee status and sought asylum from what she believed to be a plague of madness sweeping through the One World. The Authority was willingly surrendered by the creator you speak of, and we are under no obligation to return a gift. In fact, I daresay you have no legal authority, as a member of a coup."

  "Lies." the God said, arms crossed. "You -"

  "We are not surrendering. We are willing to negotiate on peaceful terms, but if there truly is a plague sweeping through your people -" Xing Wu's words died in his throat as he saw it. The little flash of recognition in the God's eyes, the flickering of the fire that swiftly stabilized. Then, his intensity returned. And with it, came a tingling sense of danger that set the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

  Xing Wu was no god of war. He was the closest thing to one the Four Realms had, but he knew in a direct confrontation, this god was more powerful than him. More dangerous. More deadly. But he was not without his tricks.

  "I will accept nothing less than your total surrender." Atreum said.

  "You have to be in a position of power to demand terms such as that." Xing Wu told him.

  "Then it seems negotiations have failed."

  "Oh good. I make a terrible diplomat. I’m better at ‘I say jump, you say how high’ than negotiations. Shall we get to it, then?"

  For a moment, nothing happened. Xing Wu could feel the trap closing around him, the jaws of death reaching forward to try and take his divinity, his very life, everything he was as the God of War stalled for time by posturing. He let it close. He played the fool for just a moment longer.

  Then, just before the trap had fully closed, whatever power or spell or technique or reinforcements the God of War had summoned to entrap him not yet in position, Xing Wu did something unexpected.

  He charged forward.

  Atreum's fiery eyes widened, spear rising, but Xing Wu was faster. There was very little faster than light. His spear lanced out, a beam of silver starlight tearing through the air, shattering the god's helmet and ripping off the God's ear, just as three other divinities leapt out of the shadows to stab at him with slimy red knives. Atreum roared in pain, his spear spinning, halting Xing Wu's attack, but he was already spinning, eyes glowing with the power of a technique he had been honing for far too long.

  "Eyes of Heaven," he declared, the words falling about him like a cloak. For a brief moment, all of reality was laid bare before him as he channeled the unparalleled Sight of Statera Luotian. The three gods leaping toward him moved in slow motion as he danced between them, batting them away with simple, easy sweeps of his spear. The god of death was sent flying. The god of mists was scattered beneath a sweeping beam of starlight. And the third, the god of the army, was struck by an arrow of fire before he needed to act against him.

  Xing Wu surged forward, following the instincts given to him by the technique, one hand closing around a knife the god of death had been holding - and Atreum was there, golden blood streaming down the side of his face as he barreled his spear at Xing Wu's chest. He leapt up, feet brushing the massive spear tip, his own weapon lashing out again - only to shatter as Atreum headbutted the tip. His eyes widened as Atreum's momentum carried his entire body forward, the spikes of his helmet colliding with Xing Wu's chest.

  Pain, fiery and coursing through him like a thousand angry snakes, bloomed in his chest. Xing Wu threw himself backward with the force, starlight lancing out, wrapping around him, the light from the Lunar Star freezing the dozens of attacks from the army and God of War himself in place as Xing Wu was drug back within the Four Realms.

  Fang Xu caught Xing Wu, blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth as Atreum...didn't rage, just glowered and took a few steps back, the three gods he had summoned falling back with him. Xing Wu wiped his mouth, wounds already healing as he watched Atreum retrieve his ear and stick it back onto he side of his head.

  "That was stupid,"

  "Take this to Gilles. Be careful not to touch it with your hands." Xing Wu said, ignoring Celene's chiding and holding up the dagger. Now that he got a good look at it, the blade was covered in a thin sheen of red slime - likely the Rot Astraea had warned them all about.

  Now they had a sample of it. And the siege was just beginning.

  "And get me to Astraea. I want to make sure none of this thing's spores got on me." Fang Xu didn't bother responding, scooping up Xing Wu, knife and all, and igniting the air around them with golden flames.

  "We both go. The gods can hold the line as the siege continues." He promised. And together, they shot off to the Holy Mountain, where Gilles and Astraea worked together on countermeasures for the Rot.

  That was the only weapon to fear. The One World could be held back, and that first clash had only confirmed it. So long as their numbers didn't overwhelm them, the enemy's greatest Weapon was the Rot.

  Xing Wu sighed and cycled his qi, watching it closely for any deviations. That was why he had risked that; they needed countermeasures.