Dei continued blowing everything up, but the bugs just stopped attacking him over time. He didn't really want to kill the ones that'd given up because he assumed it was something to do with Perumah, so he focused on moving away from those.

Eventually, Perumah emerged from his back and killed the last few, telling him The Mother was now dead, and explaining the entire battle from start to finish.

"Ahh, that's why I started avoiding certain bugs," he said when Perumah told him about her manipulating his subconscious. "You can do that?"

"Naturally."

"Do you ever use it on me to convince me one way or the other?"

"Of course not," she assured him, "That would be a terrible breach of trust. I merely connected with and began communicating with you in a certain way, letting your body act on information you may not have otherwise known. You have a similar spell as well."

"Really?"

"Indeed. Your spell, In Tune, does the same thing to your allies."

"Oh uh… huh. Didn't think of that. I didn't mind the influence before, but this just further cements my not-caring."

"I see," she said monotonously, and he got the sense she didn't actually care. "On a separate note, may I store my army of insects within your Harmonic Sanctuary? I've taken control of them and would rather not leave them behind. They may prove useful in the future, such as giving me a base with which to create my own Mind Realm."

He shrugged, "Sure, I don't see why not."

"Is there not a capacity to how much your inner world can hold?" she asked curiously, and he opened his mouth to say 'No of course not,' then paused.

'Huh… is there? There really should be a limit, yea? How am I maintaining so much life?'

He scanned over the world, only now taking in just how expansive it was. When he focused a critical eye on it, Knowledge returned with an answer.

The first step to maintaining such a world was increasing the spells Potential, which would normally happen through leveling. That wasn't an issue for him since he'd consumed an entire Realm, which allowed for a high upper limit- though not as large as the entire Mind Realm, considering it was spread out evenly to every aspect of his soul. This alone wasn't enough, it just made it an option.

It was his consumption of the Minerali spark of chaos that provided the power required. He didn't know what the true level of the spell was supposed to be, but he'd one hundred percent powerleveled the entire thing by raising its level cap then feeding it exorbitantly.

While this was good… he'd given up the different evolutions by doing it this way. When a spell reached "One hundred percent shell integrity" so to speak, it would earn its own evolution. He'd increased its power up to the fourth or fifth shell, somewhere between level three and five hundred, but it was still a first-shell spell.

Giving up the evolutions wasn't necessarily bad,it just meant that Soul was no longer responsible when it came to leveling it up. By doing it on his own, the spell was well and truly his, and he'd have to grow its strength on his own if he wanted it to.

He also got the impression he already had evolved it with his actions, it just wasn't through the regular means.

'I wonder how The System will measure me, because I get the feeling that I'm beginning to fall outside the metrics it normally uses. What will MY System say for that matter?'

Either way, these factors came together to make his Harmonic Sanctuary massive. He hadn't even reached the edge of its definition, each creature adding more material for it to work with.

"...Yea, it's still got some space in it," he responded to Perumah, and they began the semi-arduous process of absorbing all the affected bugs.

He was tempted to ask The Champion to let him eat this universe as well, but the planet wasn't actually dead, so he was pretty sure it would just be an unnecessary massacre of life.

* * *

POV: Perumah

She watched the procession of bugs with more than muted curiosity- she watched it with understanding.

Every single one was claimed by her, in line with her will and ready to serve her within reason.

She knew that they would not follow her orders if she was disregarding of their desires, and she wasn't irritated by this fact; it felt more than reasonable, it was right.

She investigated her feelings with Heart, finding the sparks of Justice- but she wasn't there yet. Something prevented her from altering her internal emotions, and she knew it was Separation.

Despite the Reality Being's best efforts though, she decided to search her psyche to understand why she'd arrived at these conclusions though- and it started at her name.

Perumah, one she'd received from Aloran. It meant "Blood Queen," and this is where it all began- where her sense of authority first grew.

Her name. It was more than just a title, it was her ideal. Back when she first chose the name, she did not even know what a queen was, it was simply the closest translation to how she felt.

She felt like she was greater than others of her kind, but she knew she'd never ruled before, but she could now. She could be the blood queen, even if it was only to insects, but what did it mean? What was it to her, and why specifically towards those in front of her now?

It started with their blood, their life. With her echo within their minds, they shared pieces of her. They were her children now, her blood. Blood was life, and hers now sat within each- she had lain claim to them all. They held a duty to her, but that came with caveats of her own.

The queen part was something she found herself thinking quite differently of compared to the regular definitions. What was a queen to others? Someone who stood above all others as a ruler, but she found herself unhappy with this definition.

The greatest of entities stood not above others, but below them. They held others up, for it was the strength to do so that allowed them this privilege. How powerful was a person who relied on the work of others to reach their position?

Dei was the perfect example of what she considered to be an optimal ruler. He hadn't always held the strength he does, but he has always gone out of his way to grow it in the favor of others. Even in quarantine, in a cruel world that punished those trying to do good, he'd tried. He'd helped her back before she was truly sentient by providing Soul mana without receiving much in return, simply because she asked; he'd helped Fendrascora despite having to face off with a powerful Elite, because he thought it was right; and he'd saved Clever at risk of his soul shattering because he felt the despair- all of this before he'd grown into a power to match his mindset.

He'd served as a base for others, and in taking the weight of the world upon his back, he'd grown stronger.

That was where she thought a leader should be: not standing atop the efforts of others, but serving as a base to push them higher.

In her case, a queen wasn't at the top of the world, they were at the very bottom, they were the most basic of positions that took many forms, because so many needed them.

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Though she could not feel a sense of righteous justice yet, she now knew the direction she needed to take with her Mind Realm. The Mother stood atop her dream, crushing the swarms below her boot and festering off their deaths.

Perumah would place herself below them and perhaps… she could push them higher.

With that ideal in mind, she began drawing together a plan for her own Mind Realm.

* * *

With the world picked clean of supermassive bugs, they left it behind once more, hoping they wouldn't cause too much of an ecological disaster with their departure.

Then again, The Mother had artificially raised the oxygen levels significantly so… maybe it was fucked to begin with the moment they removed the being responsible for balancing it.

He'd had to place the bugs in yet another new zone of his soul, otherwise they would've suffocated rather quickly without him bending some rules to raise the oxygen levels in a particular area with the help of their innate concepts.

Around a day later, they left the unnamed planet, probably Avium, and found their two companions playing "Go Fish" with illusory cards.

"How'd it go?" Jacob asked.

"Yea, The Mother was there. She's dead now though, so Earth should be safe."

"That's good… I kinda wonder why Separation did that to her though. Aren't Reality Beings supposed to be neutral? Like, they're laws of nature and stuff? What'd she do to make someone like that mad?"

Dei shrugged, "I feel like at this point everyone has it out for The Mother considering she's been sealed like…" quickly counting how many Celestial Parasites there were, he said "At least twelve times, probably more. Perhaps this was just one more way of cutting her off from her power? Either way, let's go" he said, turning towards the blinding white flash surrounded by darkness.

When they were close enough to touch the bubble surrounding the starless black space, they stopped and stared at the pure white gleam, which simply sat there unmoving.

"...Are we looking at something?" Jacob asked.

"I don't know," he mumbled, "I'm not feeling anything different, even the gateway is there like normal."

"Will we investigate this phenomenon as well?" Perumah questioned.

"...No. I feel like that would be a bad idea if there's a world currently being born. I'm… good. We've been to enough places, do let us simply move on."

It felt strange to leave such a sight behind without gaining anything, but he didn't have to use every moment to put his life on the line.

Turning around again, they saw the planet they'd just come from and, again, something more- though it wasn't anything they could really see, more of a speck in the distance.

Dei squinted, but he couldn't make out any details.

"Are we at a dead end?" Jacob asked.

"No, there's something way out there, it's just further than normal. Hold on tight, I'll take us halfway to get a better look first."

They blinked across, and he still wasn't close enough so they halved the distance again.

By now, all of the Cosmic Beasts were gone, the dark stars left behind somewhere along the journey, meaning they were surrounded only by featureless white.

When Dei squinted, he could finally see what they were looking at, relaying it to his party.

"It's… a house?" he said, baffled. "Or… a cottage. It's made of logs and has some dirt and trees surrounding it. It kinda reminds me of… Oh GOD!" he shouted suddenly, and the rest of them looked alarmed.

"What?" Perumah was the first to ask.

"It reminds me of Sarah's castle!"

"What?" she repeated her question.

"I told you about it a while ago, that time when I was experimenting on how to teleport in Aloran's cave and jumped the limit approaching infinity? Then I appeared on some insane woman's lawn and got into a rap battle with her for my life? Clever was there."

"It was poetry, I believe," Perumah reminded him.

"That's not the important part!" he snapped, "I don't want to encounter something like her again."

"So we are turning around?"

He wanted to groan, but just rubbed his eyes. "No, I suppose not. We're already here, and we need directions. Let's… not bring up Sarah while we're here though. We did, after all, kill her, so if she was some insane Reality Being and they're all friends, let's just keep quiet about it, and I'll ask at the end."

Everyone else shrugged, not knowing the horror of Sarah as none of them were there to experience it.

'Man, I miss Clever, he would've hyped me up.'

Better prepared, Dei teleported the final distance, running into that familiar barrier that surrounded all the anchor worlds.

Opening the portal, all four found their way through, and Dei turned around to check if it was the same, finding it was.

Behind them was a sheer drop off into a pitch-black void where the world simply ended, giving way to a deep, starless space.

Directly forward was a layered brick road that would, supposedly, lead to Separation.

They walked through the quiet forest, eventually coming upon the clearing where a tiny cottage made of logs for the bottom half, some kind of stone on the second floor, and a thatch roof with a chimney jutting out of the top. Dei saw the smoke rising, telling him that at least someone was home.

Rather than be stopped at the edge of the clearing, they were actually able to make it all the way up the steps, hearing the quiet shuffling of a single pair of feet from within.

Looking at his companions, none of them had any suggestions so he just… knocked.

He instantly heard the feet pause and slowly approach the door.

It hesitantly opened, and Dei saw what he guessed was Separation.

He wasn't sure what he expected, but a tall-ish older woman was not on the list.

She was probably around 5'8 with the tan-skin that was a trademark of those who'd lived in the Supreme universe. She had brown eyes and pitch-black hair, and wore a modest, loose long-sleeved shirt that attached to a brown dress at the bottom, one which covered her feet completely.

If he had to guess her age, he'd say perhaps thirty to thirty five, as she still had a lot of youth, but there was a strong matronly aura about her.

She studied the four of them in turn as well, cautious but not afraid.

"...May I help you?"

"Uh, yes ma'am," he said, deciding to treat her like a respected elder, "My name is Dei Grrata and we were looking to get directions towards a particular Reality Being? We're hoping to meet Separation and ask where to go, are you her? Or do you know where we might find Separation?"

She nodded slowly, "I've been called that before… and I might be able to help you. It depends on who you're looking for. Please, come in, I'll put on some tea while we talk."

She moved out of the way, and Dei found himself shrinking down to fit through the doorway while his friends shuffled in after him.

The inside fit with the time frame established thus far, with dark wooden boards and light decorations on the shelves. It was a clearly "Lived in" space, with a comfortable living room and a large dining room. Dei couldn't hear anyone else in the house, but he felt she had frequent visitors- despite the notion being absurd, considering what he was talking to.

They sat at a long rectangular table, and Dei intentionally left a single chair between himself and the head of the table, his party following suit with Perumah sitting to his right while both Jacob and Thadria sat across from them.

Eventually Separation, or whatever her name was, walked out of the kitchen. "It'll take a bit for the pot to heat up. While we wait, I wouldn't mind doing some introductions. My name is Dor'Zen," she said, confirming to Dei that she was from the Supreme universe with how that matched phonetically with the others he knew from there. "I'm called Separation by some because that's my job, but don't go thinking that's all I am. I do it because my son asked me to, and I don't mind the work load."

"Your… son?" Dei asked, confused. "Who is your son?"

She smiled gently, "I can't say."

"Alright, then I won't ask. Well, as I said before, I'm Dei Grrata, a union who follows the path of the Leviathan, though I haven't fully transitioned into a Reaper yet. I'm a Slaughterer, but I promise I'm a lot more mentally stable than the others you might've met."

She looked at him piteously, "I've met none, but I have heard of them before. I'm glad you're doing well."

He blushed, feeling the urge to defend himself, but she was right that Slaughterers didn't come about happily.

Perumah went next, saying "I am Perumah, a Flesh Trap which seeks to become a Sapient Race of my own."

"Never heard of a Flesh Trap before," Dor'Zen admitted.

"We are plants. The body is composed of my roots in a facsimile of what a sapient may look like."

Dor'Zen said nothing and nodded to the next in line.

"Thadria, elf, Titan Slayer. I don't… really care where we're going. I'm just sticking with Jacob" she said, patting the man on the arm.

Dor'Zen's eyebrows raised and she leaned onto the chair she was standing behind. "Titan Slayer eh? Rather grand. And you, the lucky man in question I take it?"

Jacob smiled, "Yep, I'm Jacob Smith, a bit of an odd-man-out because I'm the most regular of the group. I don't have any real powers, other than some weird circumstances that make me immortal."

Dor'Zen laughed slightly, "No powers, just immortal? Ah, I see. Truly the weakest of us all."

Jacob laughed, and she looked back to Dei.

"Alright, you seem to be the most directed one here. Which Reality Being are you all looking for?"

"Edit."

"Really?" she said incredulously, looking between Dei and Thadria. "To do… what?"

'Ohhh boy, that doesn't sound good.'

"Originally it was because I had a construct in my soul that would reward me for discovering secrets, but now we're looking for the source of Edit Energy, because we believe it holds close ties to chaos, and we need certain answers."

"Answers huh?" she said, blowing out a deep breath. "Well, I can point you to him, but I would recommend not approaching the man himself. Just get close enough to enter his domain, experiment with some of his energy, and get out of there."

"How come?"

"Because he's mad as a hatter and infinitely dangerous. Also, I don't think he'd take kindly to a Titan Slayer considering he's the first Titan."

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