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137. Ripped Oppen Universe
🕑 Added 2024-03-25 09:31:11 +0000 UTC“What is happening, Uncle Liam?” Kiri asked with well-hidden confusion and apprehension to the All-Father.
A few hours after the Harvester Queens incident, she was called to follow Liam and Eywa to the Moon, where their full authority had invoked every leading figure in the Coalition, no matter where they were and what they were doing. The question of what was said had never left her, only growing in fact, and she wanted to know what could cause such a reaction in the two immortal beings.
“Do you know the various theories and ideas concerning our universes and what might exist beyond its ever-expanding boundary?” Liam answered, floating at the front, his hand held highly behind his back. His expression defined serenity itself, yet the worry was not and could not be hidden from his voice.
“A bit, but not much more than any others.” Kiri answered in her ever so confused honesty, “It's the ideas of other realities existing parallel to ours with different rules and such. But it's pretty much blurry and mysterious beyond this, as far as I’m aware, it's an interesting concept in stories.”
“That is the general idea without the complex math and non-linear theories. And it's more than confused concepts and ideas; it is the truth. Our universe is not alone in existence, and its boundaries are ultimately what its name suggests. Think of it as a tree; each flower, fruit, and leaf on it is a universe, but expand it to a forest, then a planet, etcetera. It's the closest thing there is to infinity.” Liam continued as he advanced to a door of light that opened to reveal an expensive room with hundreds of people, both Na’vi human and not, stopping their discussion and bowing at their little group's appearance.
“And this boundary was damaged by those insects’ foolishness, my child,” Eywa said, not helping Kiri think why it would generate such an intense reaction from them, but the reason must be extremely grave.
It wasn't the end; such an event had happened and been fought back and won. It was from then that her confusion stemmed from her absolute devotion and trust in those two beings.
Kiri parted from them to her seat next to Miles and Akwey, where the first expression was calm, but she could taste the nervousness in the ambient Psionic. For the chief of the Invictus, there was a constant silent tap of a metallic finger, the turmoil existing within clear to her.
What was said did little to calm her down.
“I have summoned you to speak of a recent event that will shape our very future, nay the fate of our universe itself,” Liam announced, standing at the centermost place of the amphitheater. His voice seemingly reached every place at once from every corner and angle.
“I will be brief: the Harvester, in their madness with their imminent destruction, have decided to flee and through it do what Humanity has named a scorched earth policy where all that had been fought for is turned to little more than ash,” he said drawing a sentiment of great tension in his audience.
And he doubled down upon it the next instant that if not for who he was, outraged and naysayers would have exclaimed their discontentment loudly. For once, Liam would have dearly wished he could have agreed with them, but that was not the case.
“They cannot escape me or my mate’s every sense within this universe; they knew of this, and decided to alter the only parameter in their control. They changed the rules. As flimsy as it may be,” he pressed, showing complete maps of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies like Andromeda and others with space once under Harvester's control.
All were connected through a complex but straightforward network of Tek Portal, granting night instantaneous travels across the vast expanse of space. It was how, even trillions of light years away, everyone within this room arrived in under two hours.
“They have opened a rift through space and time, ripping open a gaping wound in our universe to escape it.” the Homo Deus said, causing a general moment of existential shock and disbelief in his audience.
Though it didn't clarify much beyond the claim and what he entailed, Liam was here to explain it and avoid future and easily preventable problems.
“Our universe is akin to a receptacle amidst countless more; between them is the Great Void where concepts and rules are unmade. But that is not the case here. If it were, I would not have been able to communicate with you,” he explained, raising alarms with this knowledge that, if not for who was speaking, would be considered nonsensical babble by many.
But it wasn't, and that was what was worrying. Only the Senomorph could even say to understand all of the implications, and Liam was correct. The area of nothingness where even nothing had no meaning would be like pure water and potassium or matter and antimatter. Mutual destruction.
The universe would not live more than a millennium, depending on the initial hole made. It was horrific. No, it was far beyond that. It would be the end in the truest sense of the word. With this realization, rage beyond any before began to spread, only calmed down by the general training of the people present. Anger was useful but only when aimed and controlled.
“However, it does not diminish the gravity of the situation. The Great Void was not what the breach led to but another receptacle, another universe. From then on, there are two possibilities: mutual destruction or assimilation, for the damage done, could not be healed.” He said with an animation similar to the one of the Milky Way fusing with Andromeda upon collision.
“For now, I cannot speak with certainty of any potential threat in this other universe or what the connection and mingling of universal rules will result in. I cannot assert that this hole can be closed or if it is wise to even ponder on such possibilities. There are too many unknown variables. That is why it shall be fixed by studying it.”
“This is a new chapter in our existence. Until further information, I trust you to do as you see fit, but be aware that the rules of the Coalition apply and will be enforced.” He finished with finality before dissipating into motes of light with his mate.
“This can't be real!” A thin amphibian humanoid creature said with disbelief, and more followed, but it was shut down with one clap.
“Silence. Father has spoken, and we shall obey. This is not the time for meaningless schemes and pointless knives in the back. For those that do so, I will act personally to punish you. I will know.” Miles commanded before leaving, and in the next minutes, the chamber emptied itself, every representative scurrying back to their people away from the Everlasting Garden domain.
Months later, floating in the nothingness of space were two strange figures, both made of wood-like material and similar body plans.
However, there were two significant differences. The first was on their back, where one had a crescent-shaped ornament jutting out and the other wings of bioluminescent roots. The second was their overall stature, one masculine and the other feminine.
‘What a fucking annoyance. I'm going to rip their entire kind to pieces.’ Liam sent telepathically to his mate, words many would be shocked to hear.
‘We agree, and We will do the same for their souls, my love. They did not escape and never will.’ Eywa sent back with a level of anger he rarely ever felt and one he shared with her.
What the Harvester had done turned a conflict of interest into something more personal. There never was any hate toward them from the All-Mother or All-Father. Eywa saw them as a threat to her existence, but there was a peculiar emotion of the like, and it had changed.
What was done was no simple crime. It was something that couldn't be forgotten or forgiven. The Harvester have threatened creation in their insanity.
‘No matter where they are, they will never escape. They will always fear for their existence, for We-I will never forget and forgive.’ Both thought together as they stared at the fractured reality before them.
It was where the hole in the universe was. Space and time lay shattered like glass fragments as the laws of reality broke apart and disobeyed their fundamental calling, creating scene and matter, each more bizarre than the last.
It was a gaping wound that couldn't be closed, but it could be sealed, limited in its reach and effect. And it was done so by constructing a sphere transcending three-dimensional space under Liam's direction, the Reality Carcan.
But ultimately, it was a band-aid solution until the Homo Deus developed better alternatives. Its main functions were to contain the alien rules within and to stop whatever life forms existed on the other side.
Yes, sides, the non-space surrounding the universe was filled with others, many others, so much so that neither Eywa nor Liam was confident of the numbers.
The wound was akin to a fragmentation grenade explosion that had shot shrapnels of realities to other universes, creating unstable gates to theirs via the wound. And undoubtedly, more fragments were floating around connected to unknown places, each as potentially dangerous as the last.
Amidst this gate, the largest and most stable led to a universe that was their source of worry, a parallel universe, to be precise, and it wasn't only one gate that led to it. There were thousands upon thousands, each leading to different parts of this other universe's Milky Way.
It was the closest to theirs in terms of ‘laws’ with a few differences, but overall, it was a copy. The major difference was in the history of the races that had lived and were living there, or what could be glimpsed through Drones and deduced with data obtained.
Unbeknownst to most, mirror realities were stretching across spaces, focused on galaxies as if they were beacons. These were realities of Psionic nature yet intricately connected to the physical like a blanket, a layer of skin; it was how Psionic moved faster than light. It didn't simply abide by the rules. It didn't exist under them, for the most part.
Eywa had named it the Sea of Souls, for it grew with each life from birth and death. Each sea varied from galaxy to galaxy, with sometimes minor danger lurking within, but overall, it was a realm of peace.
Powerful Psionic had a presence within, and it was how they could detect and influence one another. It was where the Psionic of species was stored and what the Harvester harvested by taking planetary cores. They took the blanket stuck to it.
But the other universe… Little justice could do words to describe how horrific and monstrous this ‘Sea of Souls’ was. It was Psionic. That much was clear. It was a realm having a similar purpose of storing thoughts, memories, dreams, and emotions, but beyond this, it was a warped dimension that shouldn't have any right to exist.
‘They know we are watching, studying them.’ Liam said with a frown forming on the face of woods, the ones spoken from in this universe and ‘they’ the true sources of worry.
‘Indeed, those creatures do, and they thirst to feast upon us like the rabid parasites they are. Lesser life forms that cannot work upon the most fundamental aspects of survival, self-destructive abominations too young yet too old to grow anymore. Taints upon realities.’ Eywa spat with venom, her sense not needing to go beyond the broken veil to feel the corrupted, twisted essence oozing into their universe like a disease trying to spread.
But that was in vain. Gardens, as they have come to be named, celestial bodies that the All-Mother held dominion over where she had grown, forming a net of Psionic power all across space. However, those Gardens were not the usual ones; however, there was no Na’vi or animal life or complex biosphere.
These Gardens were uniquely habited with Tree of Souls grown and multiplied by the Element. Their sole purpose was to be amplifiers and conduits of Psionic with Rose of Jericho to fight fire with fire. They generate a feedback loop of death for anything not alleged.
However, like the Reality Carcan, they weren't permanent and were prone to potential failure. One barrier was physical and the other metaphysical, each useless without the other.
Both barriers have cost a lot. Tens of thousands of star systems, nebulas, and black holes were turned into raw materials in weeks by the full-blown industrial might of the Coalition, and the Argent Sea—stars were even used as mere fuel for Element forge of gargantuan proportion and more.
The efforts surpassed the ones done to fight the Harvester.
It was the largest project ever done in the history of sapient life. One that was done in haste, but it was done adequately.
Advancing toward one of the broken glass reflecting what appeared to be an industrial planet plagued by the inferno of war, Liam hummed pensively.
‘Is this where we shall travel through these puppets, my love?’ Eywa questioned, already knowing the answer through the wide-open mind of her mate.
‘Affirmative, the mortal natives are unaware of our spying gazes, but that will not remain a reality for long.’ Liam answered, his hands of wood trailing the gate as they pulsed purple and space distorted like bread dough.
‘But footholds are required first, and we do not wish to become enemies to them until proven otherwise. Though that will be us the bearers of patience.’ He added that both had learned of general ideologies living in these parallel realities.
But also through Liam memories of a past life, if of ultimately little use beyond knowing that he remembered it as fictional. His ability to recall what he had seen and experienced with clarity did not change; he could not invent what he did not see or experience. And of this universe, he knew little.
To say this universe will be extremely hostile and hateful to them will be only the beginning, at least for the most influential faction in the materials world.
‘How far Humanity has fallen…’ He thought with rising fury at the sight. He wasn't one to say one bad was worse than the other, but what had happened on this Earth was so small, insignificant, and innocent compared to what happened daily in this other universe
It made Liam,as aaHomo Deus, feel in ways he deemed extensively dangerous, ways that would lead to an all consumption of this reality by the Element to begin anew.
His ‘species’ was one created to ensure the prosperity of Humanity as a whole; they were immortal immaterial guardians and guides of immense computing power. He was not dictated by ‘instincts’ or ‘emotions’. It was below his standing, but to say it didn't viscerally piss him off will be lying.
The state of this Humanity was something he found excessively unpleasant. And that was only from observing at a safe distance, and it was barely the tip of a mountain of rotting corpses of innocent and monstrous humans and aliens of incomprehensible proportion.
‘Love? Let's begin; footholds must be placed and the universal gates secured.’ Eywa telepathically sent in a soft, reassuring voice, calming him down.
‘Yes indeed, let's begin, honey.’ He mentally nodded, and both flew through the gate into a dark universe forty thousand years in advance to their time where there is only war.
Comments
Asura
All caught up thanks for all the chapters👋 Absolutely love this series, Mc will be able to evolve again right?
William Kirk
When will this continue to be updated?
TITOO
It won't be the only one and won't happen in the same timeline. I chose this one because I'm more comfortable with it, though if it's a problem, I won't stay in it for long.
Deathknight134
..why 40k? You already have a story on that.
