Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

A Conversation With A God

The city all around them was a marvel beyond any comparison. Buildings rose to touch the sky, some even piercing it, with giant rings fixed upon the barrier of the heavens. Through them, he could see a violet sea of the Void, and the buildings stretching up into it. Large containers moved across rails built into the side of those towers, riding up through the round rings and into the void. He saw flickers of energies around them as they passed into the void—a protective shielding of some kind, he assumed.

Everything around him was strange, too orderly, too artificial. There was no nature here, nothing that was not wrought by intent. The world around him was conquered, mastered, supplanted by walls of steel and glowing lights of trapped lightning. Wires stretched between buildings, their inner power blazing in Ra’azel’s senses.

The flying vehicles were everywhere, some as small as a carriage, others as large as the largest seafaring boats of his old world. And yet, there was no chaos or confusion here. Everything moved in an orderly fashion, as if it was all a choreographed dance.

The vehicles looking as if they were polished bone and gleaming metal, were propelled by unseen forces, and zipped through the canyons between these obsidian giants. Above, platforms of impossible size hung suspended, connected by shimmering bridges of pure energy, light commanded into form. Strange, pulsating fruits, grown from metallic vines that snaked around the buildings, illuminated the city with a cold, ethereal glow.

The cthul themselves, those that Ra’azel could see on the walkways and bridges, moved with an uncanny grace. Their clothing so strange compared to everything he had ever known. Monochrome for the most part, sleek and form fitting. Their long, nimble fingers held what looked like shards of glass, rune-like inscribed devices—arrays perhaps.

Yet, Ra’azel didn’t feel much power from most of them, instead it was the constructs they carried that contained power.

The flying vehicle he was in approached their final destination, and they left the forest of towering buildings to exit into the heart of the city. A giant circle free of the towering pillars, with the sky clear of any flying objects. In the heart of the city, a colossal ziggurat dominated the skyline. Its surface was a tapestry of writhing tentacles formed out of wires, pulsing with power.

From its peak, a beam of raw energy shot into the heavens to enter the so far largest ring fixed into the ceiling of the sky.

The ziggurat’s terraced levels, each one larger than the last, were etched with intricate patterns that shimmered with an otherworldly light. The bottommost level, a platform of immense size, surrounded by large pillars, hexagonal with orbs fixed on top of them. Ra’azel could feel the power being fed into them, and he recognized weapons when he saw them.

Whatever those were, he was certain that they were defensive measures.

Their transport made its way to one of the terraced levels, entering a large cavern like opening in the side. A shimmering field flickered as they entered, and Ra’azel’s sense of the outside faded.

The constructs etched onto his soul whirled to life, and in a span of a heartbeat his senses returned, but he was still impressed. It was not an easy thing to block his constructs.

Once they landed, the Sixth Emissary of the Machine led Ra’azel out where they were met with a group of heavily armed cthul.

“You should be honored,” the emissary said. “No drake has ever seen the inside of this building.”

Ra’azel didn’t respond, instead just inclined his head, the emissary was obviously not important enough to know everything about Ra’azel. By now, he was certain that whatever his god was, it knew.

He could feel its presence now that he was inside the building. It was everywhere around them, with a weight not completely unlike that of a Soul, except different. It was massive, infusing every part of the building, from the walls to the people walking around. Ra’azel could feel its intent, and knew that it was holding back from touching him.

It was smart, because his countermeasures might react violently should it attempt it. He was led through the corridors in silence, the people around him feeling no threat from him. He could feel it in their souls, somehow, a sense that he hadn’t had before he entered this body. It didn’t matter much to him, they didn’t know him, and so underestimated him. Or they had complete faith in their god.

Ra’azel was… unsure of his decision to come. Putting himself into the heart of another’s power, was not something he would ever allow. Except… The cthul god knew exactly what to do to make him come. He was intrigued enough, and after seeing his old home, got a piece of his daughter back, emotional enough.

Which was also why he was pissed off. He was ready to lay waste to everything around him at the first sign of treachery. His constructs thrummed in his spatial space, and the ones on his person were primed and ready.

His lack of knowledge about what to expect was a disadvantage, but sometimes, there wasn’t much that enough destructive power couldn’t counter. He had taken the lesson of his defeat well. Being prepared was not something that he could count on every time, being able to unleash enough destruction to lay waste even to what was unforeseen was something that he had remedied since his defeat.

They arrived in a small room, with a single table inside and two chairs one across the other. A pale light shone from above. Other than that, the room was empty.

“Wait here,” the emissary said. “Someone will be along shortly.”

Ra’azel tilted his head, his tail twitching behind him with no input from him. He hadn’t yet gotten used to having it, and sometimes it acted in ways that he didn’t want it to, which was frustrating. ȓＡƝОＢƐṡ

For a moment he considered refusing, but then decided against it and entered the room. He was fairly certain that the chances of this being a trap of some kind were low. And if he was wrong, well, he was prepared for it.

Once the doors behind him closed, all the sense of the outside vanished. A stronger effect than the one that surrounded the walls of the ziggurat itself. It took him a few moments and a leveraging of his will to push through, and even then his sense of the outside was muddied.

He was impressed. He could feel the power running through the walls, the arrays that were layered across them thrummed with energy.

He sat in the chair and focused, stretching his soul to examine the walls directly. It was easy, and he realized that the walls didn’t actually have much defenses against Soul Essence. He could push out with ease. Though, while the arrays and the walls themselves weren’t able to stop him, he did sense attention shift on him.

The presences that filled the ziggurat noticed his investigation, but didn’t otherwise react. That was… eerie, he had to admit. The size and weight of the presence was immense, but Ra’azel wasn’t frightened. He had dealt comparable beings. He had bound the Aspects of Mountains, of Oceans, of the World itself. Size mattered little when pit against a will that could bind it.

His musings were interrupted as the wall across from him slid open, and another cthul entered. Immediately, a few things stood out to Ra’azel.

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The cthul was male, and wore simple clothings, a robe with a shawl bound around his middle. He carried no items on his person, except the metal band that seemed to be melded to his skull going in a half circle from his temples all the way back.

Ra’azel’s eyes narrowed as his mental constructs immediately alerted him to the nature of the array melded with his head.

“Greetings, Ra’azel Equinar,” the cthul said as he walked up to the table and sat in the chair. His demeanor seemed somehow vacant, his eyes barely seeing him. He put his hands, palms down, on top of the table and stared at Ra’azel. “I’m Third Speaker of the Machine, I will facilitate your conversation with Atalar.”

Ra’azel already had an idea what that would entail. “Your god cannot speak directly?”

“A god’s thoughts are not for just anyone to understand. I shall interpret and relay my god’s will. I will speak with Atalar’s voice. This conversation will be known only to myself, my god, and the Herald of the Machine.”

Ra’azel waved a hand. He didn’t particularly care, nor did he believe the cthul’s words in the first place. He was in the heart of their empire, expecting privacy or secrecy was ludicrous. “Very well, I am interested to see why your god has called me here.”

The cthul nodded once, and then the metal band around his head activated. Ra’azel watched in fascination, his right eye, the one that he had replaced with a construct, shifting and watching as the presence all around them reached out and touched the speaker.

The cthul stiffened, and then opened its mouth. The voice that came out was rough, devoid of emotion and too precise, every word spoken with perfection.

“Ra’azel Equinar of the yeti kind. Your arrival was expected.”

Ra’azel leaned his head to the side, he could feel the intent around them, at the edge of his perception. His soul construct whirled and activated. He was fairly certain that what the presence around them transferred to the speaker was not words, but pure intent, which this speaker then translated into words.

“Why use a living conduit for this conversation? I’ve seen the… technology your people possess, an array or a machine could suffice,” Ra’azel asked. He was curious, mostly because he was pretty certain that the speaker’s Soul was slowly tearing itself apart from just touching this so called god.

“My understanding transcends mortality, transcends the capabilities of the flesh. Conveying true intent hard, much room for mistakes when relaying complicated concepts. Usually no need for it, my people follow simple instructions without the need to understand higher logic. You will not accept such a thing. Using a speaker necessary.”

“Even though you are killing him?” Ra’azel questioned.

“The Speaker serves.”

It didn’t elaborate, and Ra’azel figured that it didn’t need to. Was he speaking with the true intelligence behind this god? Or was this just a part that it could funnel through its follower?

“Why have you asked me to come? How have you even found me?”

“Opportunity,” the speaker channeled its god. “You are known to us. Pieces of knowledge gathered over the ages. Dungeons, monsters, items, your name appears. The prison. The knowledge you brought, runes, has spread. Was written down, it alerted us to your presence. It was easy to locate you afterward. The use of your runes ripples across the planar boundary.”

Ra’azel blinked. When he used his runes, he did at times carve them into the space itself, which was connected to the boundary between the planes. He wasn’t aware that it could be felt though. That information alone was worth the trip. He would have to test and find a way to detect it himself, then find a way to hide it.

“What kind of an opportunity?” Ra’azel asked.

“Goals align.”

Ra’azel chuckled. “I doubt that.”

“Your goal is mastery and command over nature, reality itself.”

Ra’azel opened his mouth to refute that, then paused. That was… right. If his goal was boiled down to its most basic form. In order to force the creators themselves to acknowledge him, to master this reality was the only way. He narrowed his eyes again.

“How could you know what my goals are?”

“It is the most probable possibility based on your actions and past accounts.”

He was still unsure how this being could even know any of that, how it could know his actions or anything really about him. His daughter’s journal would account for some, but a lot of it didn’t make any sense. Unless it truly was a god and was at the very least omnipresent, which Ra’azel doubted. His mental construct activated, and his mind sped up. He thought things through, what he knew said that this being’s knowledge was impossible, but he lacked information. His understanding of this reality was still minuscule, he didn’t understand all the rules. So, he decided to continue the conversation under the assumption that this being was powerful and knowledgeable, a god. The Aspects of his old world were powerful as well, the Aspect of the World knew everything that happened within its domain.

There was only one thing that he was certain was indomitable, free of any interference, Mind and Soul. Unless it had some subtle way of reaching through his defenses and reading his mind, but he doubted anything could achieve that.

“What do you want?” Ra’azel asked.

“Your knowledge and skill. Aid in mastering reality.”

“What you want would go against the rules of this Infinite Realm, you would need to go against the Dealmaker.”

“Not so,” the speaker said as a drop of blood started trailing down his cheek from the corner of his eye. “You misunderstand their role. The Overseers and the Dealmaker will not interfere as long as the foundational rules are not broken. The Three have granted freewill, striving to command reality will not break those rules.”

The Three, he had heard them spoken about in the Infinite Realm, but more as a legend, as a creation myth. Once Ra’azel pressed people to tell him more, none knew to point to the origin of those myths. In his reality, it was different, the Aspects knew of their creators, knew that the Three had fashioned reality itself. What the Dealmaker told him about freewill aligned with this being’s words, but he was still wary.

“Explain what you mean by mastery of reality,” Ra’azel said.

“Reality is segmented, rules hidden, it is malleable.”

Ra’azel immediately knew what the god was talking about. “The Ways.”

“Yes. Their existence is counter to true understanding and mastery. As long as individuals can impose their will upon reality, a single will can never master and know it all.”

This was not something that was new to Ra’azel. Ever since he had witnessed it happen, since he saw two Ways being created, he knew that there were deeper layers to this reality. Manifestations of Aspects no longer existed, there were only planes empty of will, waiting for someone to come and shape them, step into the mantle that was occupied by manifestations in his reality. But now he knew that there was even more to it than that, that there was something beyond that could shape an individual further in much the same manner they shaped a Way.

“And your solution?” He asked after a moment.

“Segmented reality inefficient, the only solution is merging into a singular plane. Allowing a single will to shape all laws.”

Ra’azel blinked, his mind whirling as he absorbed the information then realized what the god wanted. He laughed. “You seek to become a god in truth.”

“Single guiding force, an arbiter of all laws, is preferable to chaos. It would allow all the same opportunity to understand and master those rules.”

“Except you would be on top,” Ra’azel added.

The Machine God didn’t respond. Ra’azel stared at the speaker with his eyes, but his Soul and will took the measure of the being that surrounded him.

It had to know that Ra’azel would not allow another to stand above him. It had to know that eventually they would be enemies. But… he had to give it to the god. It knew him well enough it seemed. He was familiar with what it wanted. His reality had been like what it spoke about. A singular plane with no separation between Aspects, the manifestations of Aspects were smaller, not overarching things, and their nature was not malleable, it was… nature itself.

The rules of reality had been unchanging. The Infinite Realm was completely different, it was a world that was made to be shaped. A reality that allowed constant evolution and change, chaos. A strong enough will could change reality on its own.

What the Machine God wanted was to prevent that change, to impose order on reality. To tear down the boundaries between the planes and merge them all into one, allowing a single will to shape it all. And Ra’azel knew why it needed him. The god needed his knowledge of the Runes, the ability to command the base reality itself.

It was… what he wanted all along. The ultimate way to not only prove his worth, but far more than it. To eclipse everything, to supplant the direction of creators themselves. To defy everything and everyone that had attempted to put his life on a road, forcing him to walk. No, Ra’azel wanted more.

“And you are certain that the Dealmaker wouldn’t interfere?”

“As long as the afterlives are not touched, the rules will not be broken.”

Ra’azel didn’t know much about the afterlife, it wasn’t a thing in his reality.

He looked at the now blood soaked face of the cthul. He knew enough to know that this conversation was barely the surface of the thoughts within this being. It was thinking on a level that was beyond simple words. But that wasn’t much of an issue.

“Perhaps we can come to an agreement.”

The god probably knew that they would be enemies eventually, but Ra’azel had bound gods before. The arrogance of beings such as this was that which existed outside of their understanding, things beyond their comprehension. And Ra’azel possessed more than just the knowledge of runes. Going along would be fine for now, until he figured out a way to bind the god, or failing that, how to kill it. There couldn’t be two masters of reality after all.

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