Looks like the experiment was a success. The Fallen Terra looked at her twin, smiling. Should we go and run our own test?
The Divine Terra gave a firm nod, glancing at the departing Leowynn. There was still one important part of the weapons test that they still needed to complete, and only a few individuals were even aware of what that entailed, even among the Greater Pantheon. It wasn’t that they were purposely trying to hide it, but that it would be more trouble than it was worth to come out and say it.
The two quickly left, heading to the sanctuary of the Fallen Terra, a vast meadow with a shimmering, blue sky. It was currently positioned near the Deckan universe, among a cluster of other fallen sanctuaries.
As soon as they landed, the two looked at one another, grinning. “Think that it worked?”
“I hope so. Even big sis couldn’t say for sure, so who knows?”
This had all started when the two of them had asked the main body of Terra how an Origin was supposed to increase their power. At the time, Terra had said that she couldn’t tell them, because of the rules that bound her very existence, so they had to leave it at that.
Over time, the two of them began to speculate on ideas of their own, bouncing them off of Terra’s main body. Sometimes, she was able to outright say that an idea wouldn’t work, but other times she couldn’t do so.
This was a rather large problem for the two of them. While the Origin of Fate had short-term output far surpassing that of a normal god or fallen, its sustainability in a fight was horrid. In their minds, an Origin should be the best of both worlds, possessing the sustainability of a fallen that can draw their power from the void, as well as the sheer power output of a stronger god.
They had tried methods of gathering energy for both gods and fallen, whether it was meditating in the void to absorb the raw information present, or spreading their names far and wide to gather faith. Honestly, that last one shouldn’t even have needed to be mentioned, given that they were the incarnation of one of the most revered members of the Greater Pantheon.
Both methods worked… sort of. They were enough to maintain the Origin form for only a few seconds every month, but other methods had proven wholly ineffective.
Try to understand the essence of Fate to build a connection with the Origin? Well, she got better at seeing the past and future, but the energy consumption was still the same.
Try to make sure that you are present at key points of history, so that you can be at the epicenter of multiple fates? Turns out, even the biggest disasters are microscopic in the grand scheme of things.
That was when they came to this most recent attempt. As far as most people were aware, the Avenger weapon was designed to annihilate a designated period of time with vast, destructive energies. And, in their defense, that was not entirely a lie! It was actually more true than not! However, there was a key misconception that they never bothered to correct, and it was this misconception that formed the foundation for the weapon’s operation.
The designated time was not destroyed by the Avenger weapon, per se. Rather, it was transferred. Not to another timeline, they really did try that first. This had been an idea that they came up with when they were racking their brains to try to come up with a better answer.
Instead, that time period was transferred directly to the Origin of Fate, consumed by it. They were aware of the theory that an Origin was naturally created by producing and absorbing a world made to be compatible with a particular Origin. Because of this, they believed that the power that an Origin possessed did not originate from the infinite, raw energy of the void, but rather the more highly refined energy present within the world.
If this was indeed the case, then ‘sampling’ that information would be enough to prove it. However, they were not the Origin of Fire, capable of devouring a star to consume its ‘information’. They were the Origin of Fate, and would thus need to find a way to consume fate. A way that would not be seen as… well, as adverse as it could be.
When they pitched this idea to the main body of Terra, she actually didn’t know how to respond. She believed that the theory behind it was sound, but there was no way for her to reliably answer whether or not it would work.
So, they set their plan into motion, using the precious few moments that they had saved of their Origin form to imbue the Avenger weapon with the ability to consume fate in a designated area. In total, they had managed to make fifteen of these weapons, but were planning to make more if the idea worked, and gave them more time to access their Origin form.
The Terra twins reached out, placing their palms against one another. They didn’t have to fully transform in order to measure the time that they had left, but did need to maintain physical contact, allowing their energies to connect.
Previously, they had enough Origin energy to last for roughly three seconds, before the first Avenger had been fired. Three seconds wasn’t enough time to do much, and it would be cut far shorter if they actually tried to use their power in that form.
Now, the two of them were focusing, the Divine Terra being the first to open her eyes in surprise. “Five minutes?”
The Fallen Terra nodded her head, looking at their hands. “That one Avenger gave us a year’s worth of meditation? Should we combine, and have her analyze it?”
The Divine Terra pulled a face, but nodded her head. “It would probably be for the best. Her connection is deeper than either of ours, so she’ll probably be able to figure out what gave us so much time.”
With that said, the two of them began to glow brightly, one gold and the other blac, before walking into each other. There was a brief swirl of energy, which quickly calmed to form the image of the Origin of Fate, yet another Terra with pitch black eyes.
If others saw them combine in this way, they would have likely felt cheated, given the ceremony that the two usually put on when combining. However, that was not strictly needed, as long as they properly harmonized their energies.
The Origin of Fate chuckled for a moment, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She was not truly another consciousness belonging to the incarnation, but rather a combination of both the Divine and Fallen Terra’s. This combination could lead to a slightly chaotic approach to things, but there was little that she could do about that.
“I see… so that’s what happened.” The Origin muttered, a sly grin forming on her face. The other two couldn’t properly sense the change, but she could. Within her core, there now existed a small strand of essence, slowly being burned away by the sheer fact of her existence. This strand was none other than the twenty-four hour timeframe that the Avenger weapon had consumed.
However, it was more than that. There were tiny branches near the end of the strand, and she focused her sight in on those branches. They were all focused on one thing, the drone that had been sent in before the test. In some branches, the drone was called back just slightly sooner, and in others it was later. In some branches, they left the drone there until the weapon was fired.
With this information, the Origin was able to piece together quite a lot. For the upcoming tests, she would only be getting a small amount of time from each firing of the weapon, depending on how large of a timeframe they set. But, when it came time for the invasion, or if for some reason the weapons were truly needed before then, that would give her a much more significant amount of energy.
What she was feeding on were the possibilities that existed, and were thus being snuffed out by the activation of the Avenger weapon. If the weapon was used against a true threat, then it would have to be set to a time period at least just before the disaster took place. Which meant that there would still be conscious life within the scope of the consumed fate.
Conscious life meant the ability to make decisions, to alter one’s fate. And with every decision made, a new path would present itself. Add in the millions, maybe even billions of creatures that would be in the blast radius, and every branching decision that they could make in the affected time period…
The Origin of Fate knew that she should not be looking forward to such a thing, as it meant that a disaster had struck requiring use of such a terrifying weapon. However, if she were able to use that energy to prevent more disasters in the future, that would mean that it was for a good cause, would it not?
After thinking of that, the Origin of Fate divided itself once more, forming the twin incarnations of Terra. These two looked at one another in shock, remembering the revelation that the Origin had made. “That’s… not how I was expecting it to go.” The Divine Terra spoke hesitantly, her twin nodding her head in agreement.
“Right?! But, maybe this means we’ll actually be able to participate in things again soon. We haven’t really had much of an impact since we got to this point. I wonder if Dale would let us use this power on a specially created, dead universe…?”
The Divine Terra shook her head at that. “It probably wouldn’t work. If there aren’t any creatures capable of conscious thought, that means that there wouldn’t be any diverging paths of fate for us to consume. We might actually use more energy trying than we would gain back. And if we used it on a living universe, then think of all the karma backlash.”
“I guess. We would need to find a planet that once had civilization, but that civilization was wiped out in the past, and ensure that we were the first to find it. Also, we’d need to make sure that nobody else had flown through that region of space ever since that civilization disappeared… yeah, that would take a lot of our time, energy, but most of all luck.”
The Fallen Terra let out a huff, shaking her head. “Either way! Do you think we should at least go tell Dale? He’s the Keeper, so he should know if the most powerful weapon at his disposal just got an upgraded battery life.”
The Divine Terra thought about it for a moment, before nodding her agreement. “Sure. Besides, it’s not like what we are doing is really bad. We did everything we could to limit the scope of the consumption to the parameters set when the Avenger is fired, so the end result is basically what we reported to the analysts.”
The two nodded their heads at one another, focusing. A moment later, they disappeared, reappearing just outside of Olympus. The two of them hummed lightly to themselves, holding hands as they walked into the elevator in perfect harmony. “Take us to the Keeper, Hermes, please and thank you!”
“Of course, my ladies.” The AI in charge of transportation responded, a blue light flashing in the elevator. A playful grin appeared on the faces of both girls as they walked through the halls, only to pause, seeing a young, blonde, kitsune maid with purple highlights in her hair. “Have we seen her before?” The two asked one another. This was a face that they weren’t used to seeing, after all, and very few people ever made it into Olympus.
“Maybe Dana decided to look more like Tsubaki?” The Divine Terra suggested, only for the Fallen twin to shake her head.
“No, no,Dana already has her big girl form. She just doesn’t like to use it.”
As the two were speaking, the kitsune walked over to them with a smile, giving them a polite bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet the two of you. I am Lena, the new information specialist of Olympus, serving under my senior, Tsubaki.”
“Information specialist?” The two sisters looked at one another, blinking. “Were we replaced?!”
“No, no, calm down, it shouldn’t be that bad.” The Fallen Terra said anxiously. “I’m sure she fills a role we’re not meant for. We’re still the ones that predict attacks meant for the Keeper in the present, and keep an eye out for future dangers.”
Lena looked… rather awkward when she heard that, causing the two to gasp. “Wait, wait.” The Divine Terra spoke up again, looking at her sister. “Our ability to look into the past can’t be challenged! We’re still number one when it comes to investigation!”
Somehow, Lena looked even more awkward. The twins looked almost panicked, trying to think of other roles that they could fill. The Divine Terra opened her eyes wide. “Ah! We can use the Origin power to predict the outcome of a plan! Surely that’s not something other people can do!”
“Okay, you got me there on that one.” Lena spoke up, and the twins let out a synchronized sigh of relief.
