“Hohohoho~, I haven’t been this busy in eons…”

The supermassive golden fox had first sold a few dying universes to Arcana. Although their relationship was a bit hostile, they were still trading partners in a sense. Eternal Deities weren’t very numerous throughout the entire Chaotic Void. Especially not ‘Legends’ like themselves. If the two of them were to ever actually fight each other, they would lose far too much to make it worthwhile.

Then she received an update from one of her avatars about a new group of ‘Kitsune’ who were going to be graduating soon. Sariel realized that the girl was related to soul fragments of Uriel and Azrael. Thus, she started paying more attention to that particular ‘child’.

Time within the Chaotic Void was difficult to judge however. Particularly in relation to events that were happening within the various universes that were scattered around. That was also one of the reasons why high-level Deities tended to avoid concerning themselves with Mortal affairs… They had too much power to refrain from apathy. There was also the Karma System, which was able to punish and reward everyone. Obviously loopholes and tricks existed, but Legendary Eternal Deities were the most strictly constrained.

“I wonder how those brats are doing? Heh-heh-heh~, I probably spoiled them a bit too much… I’ll head over and make sure they get to the Graveyard safely though. If too many Soul Wraiths invade Elysium, the little game I set up will be ruined…”

She was talking to herself in a sense, but Eternal Deities were never truly ‘alone’. They always had hundreds to thousands of avatars either within their Soul Realms or attached to their bodies in some way. Even for beings so powerful, it was impossible for them to instantly create anything above a Worldly Deity. However, even a Mortal would be fine as a companion for conversation or entertainment.

“Well, considering that you raised them in a cave… I’d say that it was amazing they didn’t turn into complete savages.”

That reply came from somewhere deep within the fur of her ninth tail. She had already found and picked up the planet that was floating around in the Chaotic Void without even realizing it, but she wasn’t even slightly shocked or surprised. That whole world was so minuscule that she would have had trouble sensing it without the aid of her avatars.

“Hmmm, seems like Chaotica isn’t going to accept defeat…”

“What do you expect?”

“I guess I should head over to the Eternal Graveyard and deal with this.”

“Why not let the little ones experience a bit of hardship?”

“They will… But they are still my children after all. I can’t let that vile woman corrupt them.”

The soft and feminine voices sounded almost exactly the same. However, there were slight differences in intonation and volume. After what seemed like several minutes, the golden fox started to finally approach an area that wasn’t just emptiness.

A translucent barrier formed around her entire body, as tiny particles were gently pushed out of the way. Each of those minuscule specs were small ‘Extradimensional Spaces’, which belonged to Immortals and low-level Deities. If she accidentally destroyed them, there wouldn’t be anything that the victims could do in retaliation… Yet, she was still careful and considerate, because it was possible that some of those might actually belong to her own avatars. Even if they weren’t that closely related to herself, there would still be consequences for her actions.

“I can’t even recall how many fools have accidentally killed themselves through their own carelessness over the eons…”

As she mumbled to herself, Sariel remembered a few friends that had recklessly traveled through the Eternal Graveyard. They ended up breaking some of their own extradimensional storage devices from when they were younger. Obviously they were unable to alter their own past, but still, their own actions had caused them much suffering and grief. The cause merely happened after the effect from their perspective.

It wasn’t only extradimensional storage items either. There were also Soul Realms that connected to the Chaotic Void in order to store items more efficiently. Along with actual souls that were wandering aimlessly. Without a body to protect them, they would eventually lose their memories and mana, but it wasn’t instant.

“Excuse me… Be careful…” Sariel was constantly whispering telepathic warnings to everyone and everything that was in the area.

Although Eternal Deities were the only beings capable of surviving in the Chaotic Void without protective mana-barriers or shields, there were plenty of life-forms that had the technology or biology to create those force fields. All kinds of ships and creatures were traveling around the area. The huge spheres of light and swirling vortexes of darkness contained entire universes. They were huge, even compared to the golden fox.

Of course, from the perspective of a Mortal or even an Immortal, they might not be able to see anything at all. Sariel’s eyes were much more sensitive to mana after all. There were several other monsters lurking around as well. One was a black turtle, another was a silver serpent, then there was a fig tree. Each of them stared cautiously at the golden fox, but once she passed through, they continued whatever it was that they had been doing previously.

Eventually she reached an area where the universes were millions of times larger than her massive body… Then she saw it in the far-off distance. There was a singular universe that was swirling around like a galaxy. It appeared as if it was moving clockwise at first, but the closer she came, the more it seemed to slow down to a stop. Then, as she breathed in a few thousand planets, that disk abruptly moved in reverse, sucking her entire body inside.

“Hohohoho~, hopefully I don’t get lost again like last time! Let’s see… The Solar System within the Milky Way Galaxy… Earth year twenty-fifteen? Seems like a good place to drop off Elysium.”

***

“We’re going to launch Project Exodus in two days… If you guys are planning to tag along, then you better hurry the fuck up.”

After being blasted out into space, Beatrix, Adam, Luke, Gabriel and the other members of the Guardians received a message from Doctor Azrael on Mercury. They weren’t the only ones invited though. Practically every faction had a stake in the Exodus Project.

Even if Mercury had previously been a relatively small and desolate planet, things had greatly changed in the past few decades. It had practically no atmosphere and the gravity was about the same, but that wasn’t necessarily bad. At least, the mechanical lifeforms that lived and worked there had no complaints about the environment.

Most of the planet was shiny and reflective, because it was covered in solar panels. There were various different kinds: Some were black, others were white, there were also silver and gold ones. Considering how close they were to the Sun, and without any real atmospheric interference, they had to worry more about keeping the panels from overheating, melting or breaking. Fortunately, with the advent of super-metals like ‘Mithril’, ‘Orchalicum’ and ‘Arcanium’, there were plenty of methods for them to experiment with.

As far as buildings were concerned, they were mostly built underground. Except for the twelve massive metallic pyramids that were positioned across the planet. At the center of each of them was an extremely powerful teleportation array. They were developed based on Arcana’s mirror-like portals, but they only activated when in use, rather than constantly oscillating. Most importantly, they could be controlled.

Azrael’s forces had already constructed dozens of other similar waypoints across the solar system. There were none on Mars because of the chaotic environment, but there were plenty that linked the other inner planets together. Even Jupiter and Saturn had a few moons that were connected.

People like Luke, had the ability to directly fly through space, but it was a waste of time and energy. Even before Azrael created his transportation network, it was still easier to use Arcana’s portals. There were also plenty of people who found Legacies or Artifacts that were essentially advanced spacecraft. Some of those actually had the ability to survive within the Chaotic Void… Hiro was one of those lucky people.

Author’s Note

Casually selling universes as snacks…

Btw, in case you didn’t get the significance of the ‘size’ of the universes from the perspective of beings in the Chaotic Void, it’s based on quantity of mana. Matter and energy can be converted into mana, but well, I don’t wanna get into the specifics since there’s probably only like 1 person who actually cares enough to read this AN anyway lol.

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