Мастер Исандер
Verse and Dimensions: Stories
Death of the Traveler
After meeting up with his fellow travelers from the neighboring monocosms, it was metatime for The Omniversal Traveler to initiate the next phase of his plan. He knew for certain that something lay beyond Beyond, given his prior experience with climbing the Archverse chain and surpassing The Barrel. If there was anything that that had taught him, it was that there was always something bigger. He endeavored to raise himself to Omnipotent^1 power, and he believed that the means for such a thing surely existed outside of Beyond. Specifically, he believed that whatever being had granted him his powers in the first place resided in this mysterious realm. And so, the Omniversal Traveler began devising a plan to surpass Beyond.
Meanwhile, The Supergod Council was too preoccupied with more pressing matters to focus on something as "menial" as the Traveler. They already were concerned with some kind of "Collapse", from what the Omniversal Traveler had heard. The perfect opportunity presented itself for him and his team to exit Beyond, and ultimately slip beyond the Council's grasp.
Upon entering Transcendentem, the Traveler felt excruciating pain as his physical dimensionality was yet again extended and distorted. He knew it would have been uncomfortable, given the experiences he had when surpassing -verses before. However, he was barely able to keep his form intact in Beyond, and now the limits were being pushed further. The Omniversal Traveler was able to restabilize himself after a bit of effort, however many of his other teammates were unable to handle the transition and instantly were erased from existence after exiting Beyond. The size of the group was considerably reduced, practically cut in half. Still, he pressed onward, considering his teammates' death a necessary sacrifice for his own advancement.
Trancendentem was full of many wonders and horrors, as the Omniversal Traveler and his group came to discover. It was in fact populated by an entire diverse ecosystem of high-level cosmic entities and creatures. Soon however, Trancendentem would turn from intriguing to horrifying. It all happened so fast, as one by one each of the Traveler's friends succumbed to various natural hazards within the dimension.
The first was devoured by a Sleeping God, after riding an elastic without knowledge of what would happen to it. The second was erased from existence by a Lesser Guardian, who mistook the being to be a hostile threat. The third would be devoured by a passing Transcendentem Breaker, in much the same way that a whale consumes crustaceans.
Many other members in the team suffered various other gruesome deaths until at last, The Omniversal Traveler himself remained as the final survivor. As he began running through Trancendentem aimlessly, regretting all the recent decisions he made, he began to believe that all of this was a mistake, and that he would never get the power he sought and he would die a horrible death in Transcendentem’s wilds because of his stupidity. He then saw before him an enormous beast with a fiery rage in her eyes. The fearsome ruler of Trancendentem herself, The Guardian of the 5th Wall. She had come to put him down. The Guardian of the 5th Wall loomed high above him as she prepared to commence destruction. Before she was able to, however, the Omniversal Traveler was transported elsewhere, by an external force. The next thing he knew, he was standing before an expansive field of Stage I seeds, appearing as if they had been cultivated in a farm-esque fashion. The Omniversal Traveler gazed around in confusion, as a disembodied voice spoke out to him.
The Voice spoke words of incomprehensible madness, which the traveler struggled to interpret, only able to understand fragments of the Voice. The Voice asked the Omniversal Traveler if he liked its "garden". Before he could even reply, he now saw before him an enormous Tree. A silhouetted figure, presumably the source of The Voice, was nonchalantly leaning against The Tree in relaxation, before turning to face in his direction. The Traveler then realized, that perhaps this may have been the being who had given him his power. He became excited, even more so as the figure seemed to confirm this. It told the Traveler that all the experiences he had just been put through was a test of worthiness, to determine whether he was suited for more power. It said that he passed, and now was prepared to reward him.
The Figure grinned cruelly, although the Traveler couldn't see, before bringing him yet again into another location. The Omniversal Traveler gazed around this ornate room, seeing chalices each filled with different colored flames, each chalice resting upon an alter. The figure briefly remarked on having gotten these flames from some "old friends", before asking to Traveler to pick one, any of them. The Omniversal Traveler realized that this was his reward, and whichever flame he picked may have supposed to provide an enhancement of his power in it own way. The Traveler studied the different Flames, until he gazed upon the chalice holding a Blue Flame. Feeling drawn to it, The Traveler began approaching the chalice. The figure remarked that he made a good choice, before proceeding to extract an ember from the chalice and giving it to the traveler.
As The Omniversal Traveler held the ember in his hands, he began feeling strange. Suddenly, the Blue Flame spread from the ember and began snaking all over his body. He screamed in agony as the flame incinerated his form, but that was not the worst part of it. The figure had placed a single one of its thoughts, an idea, into the ember, and as the flame consumed the Traveler this thought entered his mind. To a human, a thought is a mere minute instance of perception, a barely-existent "blip" of a tracest signal within the brain. But this being was so far beyond all comprehension, even to the Guardian of the 5th Wall, that this single thought could not even be contained by a mind the size of Beyond. And so The Omniversal Traveler, a mortal, screamed as the ember ignited into an explosive blaze, and this single thought obliterated his mind into a maelstrom of maddened fractals, scattering pieces of his linear mortal existence throughout metatime and metaspace. But even his screams were lost in the vast vacuum of the Void.
The figure watched the Omniversal Traveler's fractured, blazing soul rocket into his native Monocosm with a blue streak like a shooting star, headed towards an unknown fate. In the wake of the Traveler's demise, the figure chucked slightly, as if it had played a simple prank.
The Alom Wars
The Alom Wars was a major Omniversal conflict waged as the result of the sudden abundance of Alom in The Omniverse. The war caused disturbance and destruction on a scale surpassing that of the Negative First Causal War, which in fact was a relatively conflict that became entangled with this. The war was brought to an end with Hyperman's apotheosis to Monocosmic Godhood, and the intervention of The Supergod Council.
The Birth of Oblivious
After a significant span of metatime, all of the Oblivious Entities within Oblivion had eventually discovered the existence and survival of each-other, learning that every other entity had gone on to create their own -verse within their own self-contained voids. This discovery was a significant one, as each Oblivious Entity had formerly believed themselves to have been the sole survivor of Oblivion’s implosion. Taking into account the manner in which they interacted on the prior occasion they had all been in each-other’s presence, tensions were considerably high. However, rather than going to war with each-other once again (something which they had come very close to), they instead realized that cooperation was key to their survival, lest the entire Oblivion Monocosm be destroyed completely in another battle. This led all the Oblivious entities to congregate together, slowly gathering into a large group at the center of Oblivion. This process would have been perceived by a mortal to have transpired over an immeasurable period of their perception of time, however it occurred almost instantaneously in metatime. As more Oblivious Entities united, it seemed as if a larger underlying force was beginning to hijack their forms and take control. Suddenly, all the Oblivious Entities collectively adopt a single goal: they all “needed” to physically merge and reunite themselves back into the original primordial chaotic state that Oblivion had once been – or at least the closest possible alternative. All the Oblivious Entities found themselves involuntarily merging together. Even despite the protests of the individuals, the collective will outweighed it all. In their union, all the Oblivious Entities’s minds and forms merged together to become a singular Monocosmic God-like entity – Oblivious.
Oblivious was an unnatural abomination, to describe them generously. They were a mosaic of infinite Monocosmic Gods that had been created in the metapast. As such, they contained all of their emotions, personality traits and other attributes. Due to this, Oblivious had no identity as a singular entity, with many conflicting personalities ingrained in them. Despite this, Oblivious forced themself to remain intact with sheer willpower. This effectively broke Oblivious’ mind, making them mentally unstable and unhealthily imbalanced. Oblivious did whatever they pleased at their own whim, creating just as passionately as destroying, with no order or purpose behind their actions. When Oblivious’ hunger eventually extended beyond the Oblivion monocosm, they realized their ability to forcefully exit it, allowing them to rampage through Beyond and spread their chaos to other Monocosms. While The Supergod Council could have swiftly identified and neutralized a threat such as this, no such group currently existed. Oblivious’ escape from their Monocosm had occurred recently following the mass Beyond Bubble collapse that killed most of the original Council and heavily damaged the Cohort. At this point in metatime, the remaining Supergods (some of which not even hatched) were in no position to do their job properly if at all, and Oblivious easily slipped under their radar.
Oblivious’ spree eventually led them to arrive at The Barrel, the monocosm which was relatively closest to Oblivion in metaspace. Upon entering, they were first met with Creator. As an entity who eponymously existed solely to create, Creator was strongly opposed to Oblivious and the chaos they reveled in. As the Omniverse’s first defense, Creator did battle with Oblivious, resisting their advancement to the best of his ability. In a metamoment of hesitation, however, Creator was rendered vulnerable, and was easily overpowered and defeated by Oblivious, sustaining grave injuries in the process.
Without Creator, Hyperman (still mortal at the metatime) and Destroyer were the last remaining beings capable of intercepting and defeating Oblivious before reaching the Omniverse. Although these two entities did not like each-other by any means, they chose to set aside their differences to work together towards the common goal of defeating Oblivious. Hyperman and Destroyer engaged in a fierce battle against Oblivious – with Destroyer doing most of the “physical” fighting while Hyperman mostly coordinated the attacks themselves. Throughout the battle, Hyperman noticed fragments of Oblivious breaking off from the whole of their form. He then realized that while Oblivious may have appeared large and imposing, they were logically fragile and brittle. With this in mind, Hyperman ordered Primsus to distract Oblivious and lure them away from the Omniverse, as they pursued it through The Outside. Eventually, Oblivious was led directly into the oncoming orbital path of one of the Godverses, upon which Destroyer shoved them directly into it. Due to the large difference in logical solidity between Oblivious and the Godverse, as well as the velocity of the godverse’s orbit, Oblivious was smashed by it and they fell dead. As Oblivious was killed, a collection of Oblivious Entities that made up their form were able to disassociate themselves and split away just before the moment of death, successfully escaping. Those who did not fully separate in metatime, died with Oblivious. The corpse of Oblivious plummeted directly into the Core of the Omniverse, in which several large non-sentient chunks of Alom were separated from Oblivious and scattered all throughout times and spaces within The Omniverse, transporting themselves through many timeline paths throughout many -verses.
The Race
In the wake of this cataclysm, all the inhabitants of The Omniverse were now met with a sudden abundance of Alom, a highly rare and coveted material to them. The entirety of Oblivious' remains, as well as the Oblivious Entities that split off from them, were completely made of pure Alom. Never before had such an amount ever been present within The Omniverse. Near-instantly, many different entities and organizations of varying interests throughout The Omniverse set their sights upon the Alom, and a struggle over it was realized to be inevitable.
The first party to openly express their interest in the Alom were The Guardians of Aleph, which as a group claimed ownership over the Core of The Omniverse due to their supposed mission statement of “protecting the Verse Cores”. Another thing which attracted the Guardians of Aleph to the Alom was the fact that the -1st Causal War was occurring, and the Guardians of Aleph believed that the Alom would provide them with a significant advantage in the war. Meanwhile, The Apeirocoalition, the Guardians of Aleph's enemy in the -1st Causal War, also wanted the Alom for the very same purposes as The Guardians of Aleph. Thus, The Alom Wars and the -1st Causal War became intertwined with one another.
An uprising and expanding regime known as The Eternal Imperium also took interest in the Alom, for the purposes of advancement in conquest and increasing their military firepower.
Even The Collectors were drawn in. The sudden presence of Alom within The Omniverse had caused such fundamental upheaval within the group, that a schism formed and split them into two opposing factions – The Ayinic Collectors and Alomic Collectors; the former wished to rid the Omniverse of its “divine influence” (Magic and Alom) to restore The Omniverse to “its former state”, while the latter instead wished to harness the power of Magic and Alom to accomplish this.
The Overseer also wanted a taste as well, and he too was next to be drawn to the allure of Alom, seeing it as a potential opportunity to allow him to increase his power and aid in his conquest.
Eruption
The Alom Wars finally began in earnest as The Apeirocoalition, The Guardians of Aleph and The Eternal Imperium began to journey towards the Core of The Omniverse in a race against each-other, clashing at certain points along their warpaths. Meanwhile, the surviving Oblivious Entities were pursued by several individual entities and contractors for larger organizations, as they were hunted down for their Cosmic Eggs.
Creator, still in critical condition following his battle against Oblivious, was unable to intervene in the war, and could observe helplessly as the chaos unfolded. Destroyer, who thrived off of strife and destruction, chose to do nothing more than just sit back and watch the fireworks. And Hyperman, meanwhile, was horrified by the chain of events which he felt personally responsible for triggering. He went into hiding, believing that not much could be done by him alone to stop the conflict.
Pursuit
Many of the Oblivious Entities took refuge in The Hospice, to hide from the organizations and entities that were hunting them down. The Hexagon Lords welcomed them with open arms, providing them asylum from the conflict. Shortly after the arrival of the Oblivious Entities, The Odhinites began to sense a disturbance in the forces of magic emanating from within The Wall. They realized that the heavy presence of Alom was causing severe disruptions in Magic. Thus, much of The Odhinites’ technology was rendered useless, and their ability to defend themselves was reduced.
Eventually, The Overseer, who had been tracking down the Oblivious Entities, finally succeeded in tracing their location, and discovered that they were taking refuge in The Hospice. The Overseer knew that after his previous (failed) attempts of conquering The Folded Cascade, everyone and everything defending it would be on high alert for his presence. The Overseer thus chose to instead employ the efforts of one of his loyal lieutenants, The Huntsman, to do it for him. The Huntsman was quick to accept, eager to pursue this new form of prey in what he hoped would be an exhilarating hunt.
The Huntsman soon breached The Hospice as he attempted to capture and torture/kill the Oblivious Entities to harvest their Cosmic Eggs. Most of the Oblivious Entities successfully fled, but The Huntsman still managed to ensnare The Aberration. He tore the Cosmic Egg from his chest, impaling it on his spear. This did not immediately kill The Aberration, however he began to enter the process of dying. The Hexagon Lords intervened and fought The Huntsman, allowing the remaining Oblivious Entities an opportunity to escape. While The Huntsman knew he would have been able to take the damage and even allow his form to be destroyed, he also knew that The Overseer would have been displeased if he returned empty-handed. And so The Huntsman was forced to begrudgingly retreat rather than be granted a warrior’s death. He however was successful in securing a Cosmic Egg, the ultimate goal of his mission. After being presented the Cosmic Egg by The Huntsman, The Overseer harnessed and absorbed Alom from it, empowering himself.
Meanwhile, The Aberration, already an unstable entity to begin with, lost all sanity with their Cosmic Egg removed, and proceeded to rampage throughout The Wall’s territory.
Experimentation
The Aberration’s rampage ended when The Odhinites caught and killed them, proceeding to experiment on them and their Alom. The Odhinites made many interesting discoveries through their experimentation, such as the fact that Magic was a byproduct of Alom and that both forces can be used to enhance each-other. Furthermore, they also decrypted the information encoded in the Alom that made up The Aberration, and they were able to learn and master The Aberration’s magic system, which was based around Alom manipulation.
The Odhinites likely would have made even more discoveries, but that was stopped when a detached team of Guardians of Aleph, who had been assigned to track down the Oblivious Entities, arrived at The Wall, and stormed The Odhinites’ territory with the intention of capturing the Alom. They did battle with The Odhinites, in which some of the Odhinites absorbed The Aberration’s Alom to increase their power. The fight ended with The Guardians of Aleph damaging a significant amount of The Odhinites’ structures, and successfully captured what remained of The Aberration’s remains for themselves.
Up to this point in The Alom Wars, The Odhinites had been relatively neutral in the conflict. They were not concerned by what they perceived as a petty struggle over a shiny substance. However, now they had seen the true properties and capabilities of Alom, and fathomed all that could be accomplished with it. Furthermore, they also sought compensation for the resources they lost in their battle with the Guardians of Aleph. Thus, the Odhinites chose to involve themselves in The Alom Wars, as they too now sought out the Alom.
Climax
Soon, every party involved in this war would dramatically cross paths.
The Overseer was incredibly impressed by the increase in his power from the Alom. The size of his territory and resources seemed to have squared itself as the result of it. Realizing its true power, The Overseer desired even more Alom, enough to empower himself to a degree that would allow him to rule the entire Omniverse. Deciding that deriving the Alom directly from Oblivious’ remains would be far easier than harvesting the Cosmic Eggs of Oblivious Entities, The Overseer began his journey towards The Core of The Omniverse.
Armadas of The Apeirocoalition and Guardians of Aleph, themselves nearing The Core of The Omniverse, eventually clashed with each-other. The Odhinites and the Eternal Imperium then arrived, and an all-out omniversal brawl ensued.
Hyperman, having thus far observed the entirety of this war from afar, looked on with horror at the sheer carnage that unfolded. He knew that something had to be done to put a stop to it, and prevent the war from escalating any further.
Hypeman finally intervened, however it was then that another being intervened as well. The Overseer suddenly arrived with his army, and swiftly wiped out the clashing armadas of ships. The archversal armies crumbled before the might of the empowered Overseer, as he advanced towards Oblivious’ remains. Hyperman attempted to intercept The Overseer’s approach, but he was too late to stop him. The Overseer remotely absorbed a significant amount of Alom directly from Oblivious’ remains in the Core of The Omniverse. The Overseer was empowered far beyond Hyperman’s level, reaching close to nigh-omnipotence. With the war at its climax, Hyperman knew that whatever transpired next would determine the fate of The Barrel. He confronted The Overseer, prepared to fight him alone even despite his loss in such a scenario being a near-certainty. He would not be without help, however, as Hyperman found an army of Oblivious Entities rallied behind him. Apparently, these Obvious Entities took responsibility for the presence of Alom in The Omniverse, and believed that helping to end this war was the least they could do to rectify all the problems they indirectly caused. Thus, Hyperman and the Oblivious entities proceeded to engage in a duel against The Overseer.
The battle was incredibly long and intense, with The Overseer at his most powerful than he had ever been with the Alom he absorbed. Even with Hyperman's backup from Prismus and the Oblivious Entities, it didn’t seem to be enough to defeat him. Hyperman became overwhelmed, and fell. The Overseer loomed triumphantly over him, and he prepared to strike the killing blow. But just before he could, something happened. Almost in slow motion, Hyperman watched an ethereal arrow whiz just above him, making a whistling sound as it flew towards its destination. All of a sudden, The Overseer loudly roared in pain as the arrow struck his eye, with the arrowhead protruding from the back of his head. After dislodging the arrow and yanking it out of his eye socket, The Overseer stared down at it with his remaining good eye, wearing a face that expressed a sort of horrified recognition. Hyperman, taking advantage of the distraction, was able to gain the upper hand in the fight, and quickly defeated and crippled The Overseer. Hyperman then used Prismus to strip all the Alom that The Overseer had absorbed and de-powered him. The Overseer retreated, with his tail between his legs. Meanwhile, a figure, the one who had shot the arrow, watched from afar. She whispered to herself, "Next time, brother," before sheathing her bow departing.
Overseer retreat
Hyperman looked upon the Alom contained within Prismus. For the first time, that special allure which drove everyone else in this war to such violent lengths had finally struck him. He only now realized how much power he literally held in his hands. It was as if existence offered to grant him a single wish, with which he could achieve anything he desired. He could have solved the lack of all natural resources in The Omniverse. He could have systematically resolved all conflicts permanently, and achieved Omniversal peace forever. However, Hyperman’s goals were not so selfless. Rather than doing any of those things, he instead proceeded to absorb all of the Alom into himself. Hyperman ascended to nigh-Omnipotence, achieving a status of Godhood over the entire Omniverse. With his newfound power, Hyperman single-handedly wiped out both the Apeirocoalition's and The Guardians of Aleph's fleets, destroying and killing a significant amount of both side's forces. The Odhinites too retreated, not wanting to lose anymore than they already had. The Eternal Imperium, meanwhile, voluntarily retreated, figuring that they already had a well-enough amount of Alom and didn't want to take any risks.
The Supergod Council, after having gotten their bearings in the aftermath of the Collapse and having been alerted to the heavy disruption in The Barrel, finally intervened. They banished the remains of Oblivious to The Kalyubi Dimension, as well as the remains of any individual Oblivious Entities who had been killed in the conflict, so that no being could access them. Creator was then restored to his full health and power by the Council, before they departed.
Consequences
The Alom Wars created a ripple effect throughout the Omniverse and beyond.
The first of these after-effects was Hyperman's creation of The Mevalkagna, in hopes of retaining his power over The Omniverse by preventing anymore large-scale wars from occurring again. To achieve this, he programmed The Mevalkagna with the purpose of balancing the scales of power throughout The Omniverse, preventing any group or being from potentially challenging him. Additionally, Hyperman left The Omniverse itself, using Prismus to create His own Godverse within which he permanently resided. He did this so as to distance himself from all the enemies he had made in the conflict, as well as finally be beyond all the “petty” matters that occurred in The Omniverse. It would not be long before The Mevalkagna's purpose was validated. The Eternal Imperium, who had gained a near-monopoly on Alom in the events of the war, became an extremely powerful omniversal military force seemingly immediately from it. They were the party which most benefited from the war. The Mevalkagna, having identified the Imperium as a threat to cosmic balance, went on to launch an attack on the group which ultimately led to its dissolution in an internal revolt. All the Alom that was confiscated during the Mevalkagna's attack would be fed to the Collective Consciousness, increasing its power and capabilities so that it could monitor and regulate The Omniverse more efficiently.
Secondly, the surviving Oblivious Entities were now living within The Omniverse rather than in Oblivion, which they could not return to even if they wanted to. Several of the Oblivious Entities, however, were fine with this, believing that their created -verses may have been better off without them. Most of the surviving Oblivious Entities chose to enter into hiding in more secluded and isolated sections of The Omniverse, where they would not be a danger to others or themselves. Some attempted to create new -verses, while others, like The Architect, found that they surprisingly preferred the isolation.
Thirdly, the remains of Oblivious are now residing within The Kalyubi Dimension. What effect this could have, if any, remains to be seen.