The journey's last leg

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu had no idea what to expect of the space beyond the portal. It could be anything: they could find themselves standing on an enormous transparent bubble containing the Frozen Fields, if Urist’s theory was true. Or maybe in a white expanse like the Nexus, or more dangerously, a sort of outer space. As Oki’s hands reached through from beyond the black portal and grabbed her arms to pull her through, she wondered what it would be. Then she was lifted up and saw herself faced with a pitch black sky, and her three friends already waiting for her.

Oki, Urist and Fiara stood on a sort of platform, or to be exact Oki was kneeling on it with his hands gripping her arms to tug her onto the surface. Was it even a platform? The only pointer to that was that they all stood there and that she met a resistance when propping her hands below herself to climb up. Urist seemed to have realized this too because he was tapping the ground in front of him with his pickaxe, checking for holes. Shuddering at the thought of what might happen if they fell into the void, Amaterasu pulled herself up and looked back.

The portal was still there. Like a window they could see the peak of the rock they had just climbed, and the snowed mountain extending beneath that. How peculiar… one could see in from the outside, but not the other way around? And extending that thought, did that mean that there were more “windows” like these where an outsider could look into a verse from? It was a creepy thought to pursue, so she decided to leave it at that. The matter at hand was a whole different one, after all…

“This en’t right”, murmured Urist. “Ah can’t see no borders ta this place.”

“What about those things?” asked Fiara and pointed at the ground. True enough, there were faint white lines that Amaterasu hadn’t noticed yet. They were blurry like paint that had been washed away by water, but the more one looked at it, the clearer they stood out.

“Leylines…” she murmured. “Could it really be?”

“Wha? Layla-ins?” Urist parrotted Amaterasu’s words.

“I think I know what this place is… none of you move”, she ordered, but a moment too late. Urist had turned around and lifted his foot to move towards them, but the moment that he did so his body flipped over and, with a surprised scream, he fell upwards as a sort of reversed gravity gripped him. Before anyone could really react to the sudden shift though the dwarf hit a surface and tumbled forward, rolling along an invisible ground and finally stopping at a fair distance from the rest of the group. Diagonally above them he sat, his head facing downwards and his face depicting such a comical grimace of confusion and shame that even Amaterasu had to laugh despite the severity of the situation. “Are you okay, Urist?” she asked once she managed to regain control of herself.

“Aye… ah, bu’ wha’ happened? Why’re ye all upside down now?”

“Stay put. The laws of space are different in this place. Moving around may fling you across the space, or worse.”

“I imagine that you’ve got a plan?” Oki intervened with a worried frown.

“Yes… there’s only one type of space that I know that this could be, one that has leylines and where the regular laws of space and time are distorted: an extradimensional hypometric area with chaos-logical antilaws.”

“...”

“... okay, that’s a mouthful, I realize. Omoikane, the Kami of wisdom, discovered it before I was reincarnated into Nippon, as a space between spaces through which lesser Kami can navigate from Tamagahara, Earth or the Underworld to any other of the three realms without undertaking the lengthy journey through Nippon. The common name we gave that place is ‘Abyss’, the realm between realms that holds reality together.”

“That I think I can memorize… so you know how we must move to get out of this place?”

“Yes and no… the good news is that I think I know where this could lead. The Abyss was a connection between the underworld, the surface and the heavens. If this place is anything like it, then it may have a connection between these realms too. We could try to find an exit that will bring us to the Nexus.” Yes, they could. But her destination was going to be a very different one. Oki raised an eyebrow and despite that he didn’t object Amaterasu suspected that he knew what she intended to do.

“And the bad news?” Fiara interjected.

“The bad news is that I will need to calculate the chaos-geometric properties of this antispace to define what antilaws govern it, and thus determine how to reverse those very same antilaws in order to synthesize a formula that allows us to determine the correct path of leylines to follow if we are to get anywhere. And that sort of calculation will take a while… depending on the magnitude of the antispace we’re in I could need a few days.”

“What if we take a path along a leyline at random?” Oki suggested. “I realize that it may not be the best course of action but we can’t leave Urist up there and it’d be faster.”

“I have no idea where these leylines may lead, Oki… sure we may end up somewhere we want to be but who’s to say that we won’t end up in the Underworld, if the Omniverse has one? Or in some other, equally bad place, like the core of a verse, or in midair where we will fall to our deaths.”

The Oina warrior shuddered. “I… suppose.”

“The leylines should be the single constant in this world, which will allow me to unravel the whole thing… you guys can travel up and down along them if you have to move, but avoid straying from them. Urist, try moving around and see if you can get your feet onto one of those lines! You should be able to navigate your way back to us.” Having said that, she took a seat, crossed her legs, closed her eyes and emptied her mind. This sort of calculations would take a while, and a single error because she didn’t concentrate could make everything else useless.


Oki observed as Amaterasu began to paint a complex spherical model into the air using her Celestial Brush. Every stroke, every blot of ink seemed to have a purpose but the pattern was getting more and more complex with every second. Before long he had to turn his eyes away because it was making his head hurt to just look at it, let alone to listen to the rows of numbers she was writing next to it and murmuring to herself. Was she even taking breaks to breathe?

Whatever the case was, the Kami seemed to know what she was doing, and the three of them could do little but to trust in her. A place like this, a plane of existence where the most fundamental laws of reality did not apply, was not a domain for a simple warrior like him, or even for a learned scholar: it was the domain of the gods.

“Urist! Do you happen to still carry that Protractor on you that you’ve been using on the maps?” Amaterasu asked loudly.

“Uhh… aye, ah should. D’ya need it?”

“Please. Throw it down to me.”

The dwarf did as told and Oki watched with great interest how the little piece of metal fell downwards from his perspective. Urist was standing upside down with gravity seemingly pulling him upwards, yet it seemed that the Protractor cared very little about that. Amaterasu snagged it from midair without turning her eyes away from the drawing.

“Oki… can you pass me a can of food from our provisions? A big one, preferably.”

“Sure”, he replied and dug around in his backpack. Strange, it felt like it was way larger and deeper on the inside than out… he quickly found one of the cans with preserved meat and vegetables and tossed it towards her. “Did you need that for your calculations as well?”

“Eh? Oh, no”, she said as she popped the lid off, then tilted the can over her mouth and swallowed a mouthful. “I’m just hungry and need some brain food.”

[Amaterasu]

“OKAY!” Amaterasu exclaimed out of the blue , making Oki and Fiara almost jump from the surprise. Even Urist who had somehow managed to find his way back to them in the meantime was startled. “I think I have this figured out.”

“You do?” Oki asked. She noticed how all three of them were actively avoiding to look at her. Weird.

“Yes. If my calculations are correct I have resolved the correct leyline path. Now we just need a test subject to ensure that everything goes correct…”

“I volunteer”, the warrior offered up without hesitation. “I trust your judgement on this and out of the three of us I’m the one who you can re-summon with most of my memories intact.”

Fiara was about to raise her voice but Amaterasu cut her off. “Thank you, Oki. Now, here’s what you must do… navigate along the leyline you are standing on, never put your foot anywhere but on the line, and if possible keep your arms to your sides. If you see a portal, don’t go through it, but rather stick your sword through first, and if it comes out unscathed try your hand, and only then your head.”

Though his mask concealed his face she could tell that he was grinning involuntarily. “You told us not five hours ago that the portals could open into a hole far above the ground. I feel like that’s made me scared enough to not jump into a random portal.”

“Right, so then… wait, five hours? Have I been sitting and calculating for this long?” She looked back at the chaos-geometric sphere drawing she had drawn and the calculations next to it and found that Oki was right: she had completely lost track of time during the process and written several hundreds of lines. “Huh… I guess I must have been. Anycase, yes. Just try to be careful. I’m pretty sure that I can replace a severed arm or a broken sword, but if you die that’s a whole different matter.”

“I’ll be careful. So what do I need to do?”

“Go along the leylines and don’t stray for them for any reason, even if you see a portal within arm’s reach that is near one of them. You should…” She turned to the sphere, rotated the painting and eyed the surface. “... encounter a crossing with three branches, pick the middle one, then when it branches to two left and right ones take the left, on the next crossing the right. That should lead you to a portal. If it’s the wrong one, keep going and stay with the system: middle branch, then left, then right. If you accidentally pick the wrong way don’t go back even if it’s just one step, just keep going forward.”

“Got it. I’ll be careful.” With that he began to walk along the leyline, his back turned to them. At first he moved normally, then suddenly he zoomed forward despite not breaking his walking pace, putting enormous distance between the others. Before long the black void swallowed him, just as he was starting to move upwards.

“And now?” asked Fiara.

“Now, we wait… there’s nothing we can do other than that.” She sat down once more and crossed her legs.

“Oki might not make it back, you know!” Fiara exclaimed with an angry glare. “You might have sent him to-”

“He knows that as good as everyone, Fiara”, Amaterasu snarled. “Why do you think he offered to do it so fast? So neither of you would get in the awkward situation of having to stay silent because you can’t.”

“I could’ve gone!”

“I couldn’t endure you dying twice in such quick succession”, she noted with a bitter tone. “And even if I could, resummoning you would have wiped most of the second-hand memories that you got from watching those videos of yourself in Dante’s Abyss.”

The girl huffed. “What about… what about summoning a random secondary and having them do it?”

“Ah don’ think tha’ would be okay”, Urist interjected. “T’summon some poor sod whose only purpose is t’be used as a guinea pig.”

Fiara glared daggers at Urist. “It’s still better than to send one of US to their potential death!”

“Hold it, you two!” Amaterasu interjected. “Someone’s coming.”

“Wha? Where?”

Indeed, a shape was forming in the distance, in the direction opposite to where she had sent Oki to. A humanoid figure… with red and blue clothes, walking briskly and- it was Oki?! How could he be back so fast? There was no doubt that it was him though, even from that distance she could tell. As he came close he stopped for a moment, then covered the remaining distance with hesitant slow steps.

“I’m back”, he said. “I have no idea how, but I’m here… again.”

“How did you cover so much distance in just a minute?”

“I’ve been going for way longer than that… no time to tell in this place but it felt like hours.”

“No… that’s not possible, an antispace doesn’t have time-bending properties. And you shouldn’t be back here… are you sure you followed my directions?”

“Absolutely. There was a fork with two paths though, so I took the left, then there was one with four ways which left me confused…”

“Four ways? No, that’s…” With the largest frown she turned towards her painting. Had she missed a crucial detail? There were no four-directional forks in this system! There could only be between one and three ways to follow, otherwise the antilaws’ reverse rule of causality would have been disrupted! Had she made an error in her calculations? No, everything fit together perfectly… why then had Oki encountered a fork with four paths?

That was when an idea formed in her mind. A very worrying one.

“Could it be that… this whole place isn’t an Abyss?” she asked herself aloud. “Did I mistake the properties of the space we’re in and… make an error? Oki, are you certain, absolutely certain, that there were four ways? That all four of them were leylines?”

“Absolutely certain”, he confirmed. “I have triple-checked because of what you told me.”

“And my calculations should have been correct if this was an Abyss, I can’t find any errors in it either. So then… I’ve messed up. This isn’t an Abyss, and… I have no idea where we are. Or how we can get out of it.”

“Ah, yer overthinkin’ it”, said Urist with a cheerful smile. “There ain’t nothin’ we can do about figurin’ out which way ta go, aye? But we can follow tha layla-... the law… the lines an’ see where it leads us. Worst case, we get stuck fer a while, but we’ve got a Prime with ye.”

Fiara nodded. “I agree with Urist. Sitting here and wondering about how to find the exit will never let us go forward. We’ll just have to do what you told Oki to do about sticking a sword or a hand through a portal to make sure we don’t end up somewhere bad.”

“Let’s at least give it a try”, offered Oki. “If we don’t succeed, you can always use what knowledge you gather as we walk to figure out where we need to go.”

With a laugh Amaterasu raised her arms in a surrendering stance. “If you’re ganging up on me like that I’ll follow. The big question is, where do we go?”

“I volunteer”, Fiara spoke up. “I’m tired of sitting around and playing it safe. Urist, could I borrow your pick?”

“Mmmh? Aye, sure.” The dwarf nodded and handed over the pickaxe, which Fiara grabbed by the metal part so she could use the stick as a cane. They stepped onto the leyline and, as the phoenix girl tapped the ground in front of her like a blind person, they advanced.

Amaterasu soon felt the distortions of time around them. It was clear that they had some sort of spatial restriction because the four of them felt time pass equally, but she shuddered at the thought that years or even decades could pass outside. There were people out there that might be gone by the time she returned. Kushi might be an old woman with grandchildren… the thought made her smile a little, but she kept it to herself. And not just that one.

If they found what they were looking for, they would be happy, but it would be the end of their journey together. Urist had his proof: living memories of what he had seen and two witnesses to support the story. It was of course possible that nobody would believe him despite it all, but at least he had some comfort in knowing that he was right. Fiara and Oki had no wishes except to accompaign her on this journey, and that part of their tale together had been told. Now it was time to part ways. It was time for them to return to Earth where they could live happily, and it was time for her…

“Ama, is something wrong?” a voice asked. She blinked and noticed that Fiara had stopped and Oki, who was walking in front of her, had stopped and were looking at her. It was Oki who’d asked. “You looked like you were far away in your mind for a while.”

“Oh, no. It’s fine, I was just remembering the length of the journey we’ve had so far, and how it may soon come to an end”, she replied, skirting around the bigger part of what her thoughts revolved around without lying to him. Even so the Oina warrior looked unconvinced, but nodded.

“Okay, but if you feel tired just say the word and we’ll take a break.”

“No, it’s fine, let’s keep going.”

Just as Oki and Fiara turned around however, a white figure flew over their heads. Draped in what looked like white silk robes and emitting a bright white glow, it was a more than welcome change from the otherwise impenetrable darkness. Amaterasu made out what seemed like huge spreaded wings but the figure was rapidly flying away from them, paying them no mind. Something that Fiara did not take to well. “Hey! HEY YOU!” she yelled, flames shaping on her wrists as she activated the Phoenix Blasters and began to run after the mystical creature. “WAIT UP! DON’T YOU RUAAAAAAAHHH!” Her last words were interrupted when she fell over an invisible edge, down and out of their sights. Her surprised then panicked scream was swallowed by the darkness, then the sound of something splashing into water could be heard far away.

“FIARA!” Amaterasu yelled and ran as close as she dared to where she presumed the edge to be, before leaning over. Everything was absolutely black. No, no, no… Fiara couldn’t…!

A light flickered far away, then another. More sounds of splashing water. Someone was swimming, and the two lights moved forward, then stopped. “Hey! Are you up there, guys?” the girl’s voice then rung up. The two lights, evidently the flames of her Phoenix Blasters, formed an archway as the girl waved both her arms at them.

“We’re here! Are you okay?!” Please tell me you’re okay…

“I’m fine! Just drenched in some sort of black water. You can jump, it’s safe! The leyline continues down here!”

It was a very strange experience to jump over an edge you couldn’t see down a precipice you couldn’t see the walls of, into a body of water you couldn’t distinguish from the surroundings. Amaterasu held the need to scream as the woosh of air blowing past her ears told her just how fast she was falling, before she was suddenly engulfed by water. From such a height it should have hurt far more, but nothing of the sort happened: it was as if the water was purposedly soft to catch the fall. Next to her she could hear Oki and Urist splashing into the water. She paid them no mind for now, focusing on swimming towards Fiara. There was the leyline… that accident had led them to discover a path they may otherwise not have taken. Whether or not it was the correct path was not yet clear.

The water was neight cold nor warm, but when she climbed out onto the edge of the… lake? Puddle? her clothes felt heavy and indeed, drenched with a black liquid that looked like oil, except it dripped as freely as water. She was about to say something to Fiara when a tirade of words that would’ve made a sailor blush were yelled by the dwarf. Oki rushed to his help, but Urist could swim just fine, it seemed. Even so, he cursed until he arrived at the shore. “Bruenor’s beard, tha’ fall almost stopped me heart dead in me ches’... wha’s this you found, Fiara?”

“A new way, it looks like”, the girl answered. “Let’s see where it leads.”

“Won’t have to look for long”, remarked Amaterasu and pointed forward. There was a portal there that looked exactly like the one they’d come from, but rather than opening into a verse its inside was completely black. She moved closer, careful to stay on the leyline, and examined it. Firat the pickaxe, borrowed from Fiara… when she pulled it back it looked fine. She reached her arm through and found it caressed by a salty breeze Was that… a sea? She finally dared to stick her head through to look. Below her were little ripples of waves , foam on their crests, and blue water as far as the eye could see with not the slightest hint of land. She withdrew her head. “I don’t know what this is”, she told the others, “but it’s definitely not where we want to come out. There’s just water everywhere, it looked like an ocean.”

“Maybe t’is Omni’s water supply fer the Omniverse”, remarked Urist and chuckled.

“Who knows… let’s keep going though.”

And so they continued, along the leyline yet again, and walked for what seemed like hours. Urist began telling a dwarven tale to pass time but just as he got to the point where the evil troll was about to clash with the heroic dwarf in a swordfight the leyline split into a U. And between the two forks was another portal, this one letting them see through. It led into some sort of cloud staircase, but they could not see beyond that.

Amaterasu knew, without a doubt, that this was where she was meant to be. The place she had aspired to arrive at all this time. It was the entrance to Tamagahara.

“There’s no need to test this one, Fiara”, she said, walking past the girl before she could poke her pickaxe through the portal, and stepping through it without hesitation. “It’s the right one.”

“But it doesn’t lead into the Nexus, does it?” Fiara asked. But by that time Amaterasu had already traversed the portal and stood on the cloud on the other side, beckoning for them to join her.

Their journey would soon be over.

[Amaterasu]

The posts below take place after the events in the Oververse!

Amaterasu felt a pinch of regret at simply leaving Oki and the others behind for something that was no fault of their own. They weren't weak, but if they had to make their way back down the mountain in the same way that they had come up, it would be very problematic for them to do without a Prime to back them up: after all their equipment and provisions had been stocked up with her summoning powers in mind.

Well, maybe Omni would be able to drop them somewhere. Or they would be able to find another way out through one of the Void Gates if they followed her, and from there find their way to the Fields again. She just needed to be there before them, to have a few mounts at hand. Either way she couldn't turn back now even if she'd wanted, because the instant that she had stepped through the portal out of the Oververse it had zoomed off into the distance, far beyond her reach.

On the plus side things were finally silent around her. She was alone and had time to straighten things out with herself. Involuntarily it reminded her of that age-old episode when she had been younger, when her brother Susano-O had destroyed her rice fields, desecrated her temples, razed her people's homes and even thrown a flayed horse carcass into her home. She had gone into hiding and with her had taken the light away from the world, plunging everything into complete darkness. She had withdrawn and with it caused a great deal of trouble to even the other kami. It would not be like that this time, however. She was determined to return, and to prove to Omni how brightly the just light of life could shine.

She walked along the leyline that had led to the portal, without a clear goal in mind. She just needed some way to get out, to return to the Nexus and from there to the Frozen Fields. She would have to ask King Bruenor about what evils plagued the Omniverse, what dangers lurked that were greater than all others. Surely he would name the trolls, but she was beginning to have her doubts. Were they really and truly evil? She had heard only one side of the story so far. It would be wrong to judge them without hearing them out first. Of course, having killed several of their tribesmembers to get in with the dwarves would probably not sit good with them, so simply finding their cities and speaking to them would not be a proper solution either.

A sudden shift of weight on the back of her dress caught her attention. She stopped and turned around, but nobody was there. However, the weight shifted as she turned, and something heavy bumped against her backside. Something attached to her dress? She frowned as she tugged on it, and found - the black orb that Oki had taken from Omni! But he had never given it to her, had he? When had he... and how she wondered as she reached out and grabbed it, finding that it had been balancing between her sash and the Yasakani no Magatama very precariously. Had she walked much faster it probably would have fallen off. The strange item was visible only against her hand in the blackness of the Void, matching its color perfectly.

There was plenty of time right now, so... perhaps it would make sense to try and find out more about this. Was it simply an orb of some black material that she did not know about? It didn't feel like metal or rock, but it felt relatively light... perhaps it was hollow, a shell containing something within. There were no cracks or unevennesses on the surface, no hints of anything that indicated that it was a container that could be opened. Was it an egg or something else with no opening - in other words, one had to be made? Was it not meant to be opened at all? Would it open on its own at some point, when a certain trigger was met? What could it possibly be?

It was cold, that was for sure. Hmm... perhaps attempting to warm it in some way would be helpful. Objects expand under heat and eggs need heat to hatch, so perhaps this would react? She had not tried this before, but it could work somehow.

"Taiyo", she murmured as she drew a circle of ink onto the surface of the orb. Several particles of her golden ink pots detached themselves from her sash and formed a tiny sun over her head. As sunlight started to shine down on her she held the orb up.

Luckily nobody was around to see this. She probably looked like a baka right now.

Amaterasu is feeding 2 SP worth of energy into the Wover Tear (SP: 5/7).

[Tearen Wover]

As Amaterasu fed her raw energy into the small, black sphere, a triad of ghostly eyes illuminated its surface. Two evenly spaced, and a third below the right eye. The Prime and the orb stared at one another for a moment.

All at once, the sphere disintegrated into a brilliant corruscation of viridian energy. It wrapped around the kami like a blanket, infusing with her essence. Before Amaterasu could even gather the wits to raise her defenses, she was more.

So very, very much more. Her godly skin took on an ebony sheen, and her red markings now blossomed with that glimmering green light. A third eye, and a crow's wings unfolded from her back...and the power. She felt a connection to this universe as she had never fathomed. The very laws of physics, even as understood by her deific mind, stood ready for tampering.

But in spite of this rush of potency, she felt calm. Collected. Focused. More herself than she could have imagined. Images flashed passed her mind's eye, showing her the orb's final thoughts...it's blessings, and most importantly...it's mission.

[Amaterasu]

Ludicrous.

That was the only word that came to Amaterasu's mind as she witnessed the final moments of Tearen Wover, a man of such power that she felt defenseless as a newborn before him. It was ludicrous of her to think that she had any sort of understanding of this universe's deeper workings. It was only a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of a creature that had spent far more time in this world than her and that had gone through hardships unlike any other. It was ludicrous of her to say that she had witnessed one of the greatest evils when faced with the goat-horned warlock of Hero's Graveyard. It was ludicrous of her to believe that she had earned the title of kami in the pantheon of the universe with the child's play that she had performed so far. It was ludicrous of her to consider herself worthy. Her entire existence as kami of the sun appeared ludicrous when compared to the existence of this creature, who was a god among gods.

So ludicrous was it all that she laughed into the Void, loud and bright with a voice that was neither his nor hers. But as she laughed their voice became hers again and as quickly as the other body had merged with her it separated itself again, and reformed into the unseeming black orb in her hand that this had all started with. And it left a great emptiness behind.

She did not feel like laughing at all anymore. In fact she felt like crying again. To have seen a glimpse of Omni's true face... her meeting with him had not been one bit like the one he had had with Tearen. It was as if he had humored her, played along with her game like a parent playing with their kid, whereas Tearen had spoken to the deity almost as an equal.

A kid. That was the best way to describe herself right now. Like a child throwing a tantrum when not given what they wanted, stomping their feet and claiming that they'd "show" their parents. The only difference was that she hadn't actually stomped her feet. What a strange series of coincidences it was that had led her to obtain this item, to let her get a glimpse into the bigger reality. 

She realized that there was no turning back though, and this time she thought so in a far different way than only minutes ago when she had first returned to this empty expanse. The insight that Tearen had given her had torn away the paper walls that had concealed the world beyond the little, secluded reality that she had explored so far, and revealed just how much there was beyond her horizon. How big the world to explore was. How many people there were who were Primes like her. How many people and cultures there were.

How great the grand evils that simmered beneath the surface were.

She tucked the orb into her sleeve and began to walk the leyline with more hurried steps. This was not an evil like Orochi, like Kyubi, like Crimson Helm or even Yami that she could hope to stand a chance against. It was an evil so great that this man, Tearen Wover, had sacrificed his very existence to create an item that could eradicate it. And be it through fate or through an idiotic coincidence, it had fallen to her to hold that item. And perhaps, in good time, to use it.

She could only hope that if that time ever came, she would be worthy of it.

[Amaterasu]

Warning: post contains heavy spoilers of Okami. Reader discretion is advised.

Amaterasu walked along the leyline with haste even though she was almost certain that her speed did not matter. Time was bended into relativity so much that the concept of how "long" she spent here was in itself baseless. The only one whose impression changed was she herself, and that was her subjective view of things. She only hoped that this time bending would not lead her to exit the Void long after Oki, Urist and Fiara were past the meeting point. But, she was not walking fast because she was worried that she would arrive late.

She was advancing with grand steps to begin a new journey.

An idea was forming in her head that was grander than anything she had ever pursued in Nippon in her time as a white wolf. Her past experiences from the day she had first awoken on the pedestal of stone in the form of the legendary Shiranui, the knowledge of the Omniverse acquired through her own journey and the tiny glimpse that she had caught of Tearen's memories came together like black storm clouds that gathered to form a wind to bring great change to the land it would cover. Yet her head felt clearer than it had ever been.

She accepted her own weakness. No longer was she the sole savior of a land, the single hero who saved all with the aid of her allies. Here she was one among many, but her opponents were manifold and powerful. There was no shame in admitting that she could not stem this tide once it rose, not alone. Like a shoot of bamboo she would be broken and washed aside. Like a candle her light would do little to evaporate the flood that threatened to consume the Omniverse.

But there were others out there. Others that were weaker than her, others that were stronger. Others that had seen more and witnessed greater events than she ever had. Some of them, perhaps, had seen as much, if not more, than what he had. Yet against opponents of such magnitude they, too, were like shoots of bamboo and single candles, scattered throughout the world. But together they could ascend to greater power than divided and by themselves. Ten bamboo shoots could be woven into a mat, a hundred could form a wall, a thousand could create a barricade, a million a dam. Just like a million candles could burn bright as the sun, to dry great lakes with their warmth. The only question was, how many were necessary to contain this tide and stand strong? How many candles were needed to dry a flood this great?

And of course, they would not flock to her that easily. What could she hope to accomplish by speaking big words and threatening people with an uncertain evil that would one day come? She would make herself look like a buffoon at best and like a delusioned madwoman at worst. Or like a rebel to the system.

In Nippon she had gained the Praise of the people by performing acts of kindness, aiding them with their small and big issues and restoring nature to rekindle the people's belief in the kami. And it was through the Praise that she gathered that she had grown stronger, until she could stand against Yami himself. Here it was doubtful that most even knew her name, as she had seen confirmed time and time again. No, there was little fire to kindle and grow into a great flame of belief here, and it would be of limited use if all those she could gather by it were weaker than her. She had to gather others, those stronger than her, through a different message, one disconnected from religion and belief, but something more fundamental. A message not of fear, one that people would shut out, but a message of happiness. A promise.

Yet promises of peace, of protection, of prosperity and of friendship meant little if there was nothing to back them up. In other words she needed to find a way to fulfill those promises. Sacrificing her powers as a Prime and the conjuration of Omnilium would be a cheap and short-lived way. Besides, the only method there was to gain strength seemed to accumulate Omnilium. To gain the material from which she could conjure anything she desired. To fulfill everything she wished for. It was obvious, though, that the evils had gathered far more of it than she could hope to. If she offered it to the people by conjuring gold and warriors to protect them she would not have any left, and the people would follow her for the material promise, not for the greater message.

What, then, was a better way? An opportunity maybe. The chance to grow. A land free of conflict and war full of opportunities for those willing to give it a try. A place that would welcome them with open arms if they accepted. A place with laws to keep the darkness out and with forces of light to uphold those laws as paragons to the rest. Like Tamagahara, a grand plane where the light could shine upon all.

A force that in time could reach out to others. There were great forces out there, and though maybe not all would be willing to take the offer or would even oppose it, in time these outreaches could result in a network spanning the entirety of the Omniverse like a chain of people holding each other by their outreached hands, with the strength to stand against all that would attempt to shatter these bonds. A union of people very different from one another, joined by their cause. That would be the ultimate goal of such a force, and no doubt one that would require immense dedication and immeasurable lengths of time.

And one problem remained: the existence of forces that would want to drown this Leviathan while it was still in its infancy, small and helpless. Amaterasu thought long about this one.


The power of Orochi had only been able to spread so freely because the eight-headed snake had chosen a small and secluded town. Likewise, Amaterasu's actions had gone widely unnoticed in the grander area of Nippon. Kamiki Village laid behind Shinshu fieds, far outside the long arm of the Emperor. This was the case even more so for Wep'Keer, the snowed village in Kamui at the foot of the Ezofuji, which was far beyond the grand monarch's interest and unlikely to be more than a footnote in his considerations. Had Orochi or the twin Demons Lechku and Nechku begun their dark machinations under his nose, they would have been met with his burning wrath, and the blades of his warriors. Only Blight had been able to slip by unnoticed, and that was only thanks to its ability to shrink.

Her cause was a far nobler one, of course, but who was to say that evil had not already reached its tendrils out to infect the minds of the great leaders out there? And even barring that, there would be few that would look favorably upon a group trying to found a new nation, especially one that could risk to grow into a force threatening them.She would need to find a place safe from the paranoid gazes of such powers.

Then, it occured to her. The Frozen Fields! A wasteland of ice and snow, occupied only by two factions of limited strength who were warring with each other and far beyond the reach and interest of most large factions, she imagined - it had little value as far as she could tell. On the other hand, the dwarves would likely welcome the opportunity to establish stabler trade routes and a free city to meet merchants from outside of Dwarfholm, and it would pose no risk to them. As for the trolls, she would need to find ways to get in touch with them too, somehow. Perhaps through ways of emissaries or diplomats...

It was all in her head, yet she could see the foundings already if she closed her eyes. Allies and enemies, alliances and wars, conflict and peace... under the shining light of a star that would lead the way to all who were willing to seek it.


She would, through her actions, gather other Primes, too. And with them she would share her warnings, telling those who she trusted about what she knew. She would have to be careful, for the item she wielded could be taken from her, and there was no telling what could happen if this orb fell into the wrong hands. But she was confident that she had it in her to succeed.

[Amaterasu]

Portals came by, one after another, as Amaterasu continued walking the leyline. One needed only to peek to see that they did not lead to where she wanted to go. It had to be either the Frozen Fields or the Nexus. She could not risk being stranded in the corner of some unknown verse and risk never finding her way back, or only after a while. No, she needed to find a direct route.

Soon she had concluded that there had to be multiple portals for each place. She could vaguely remember the interrogator in Coruscant having told her that there were eight, plus the Nexus. By now, she had to have walked past a dozen portals, at least. Not one of them led to anything bright blue as ice, or white. It was good to know that... should she ever return here, it might be a good way to explore other locations, once she had the time. Moreover, there was the issue of her remaining Celestial Brush techniques. Moegami in particular – Fiara would be enraged if her parent was not rescued. However, to run this project would require extensive time investments, she would not be free to run around anymore and she could not delay it for too long. What a dilemma.

A familiar whiteness greeted her from the next opening. She unhooked her Prayer Beads and let them hang through the opening, then checked. No burn marks, no frozen surfaces... she held an arm through. A fresh breeze stroked between her fingers, but nothing else. Finally she poked her head through the portal, very carefully. Nothing happened.

There were some people off in the far distance, and... yes, the outline of a portal. It wasn’t the Frozen Fields one, but she recognized the shape. Could those people be her friends? She withdrew her head and reattached the Prayer Beads. It was time to find out.