"But, instead of what our imagination makes us suppose and which we worthless try to discover,life gives us something that we could hardly imagine."
― Marcel Proust
Oceans fell, wrapped into the embrace of shadow alongside their inhabitants. Arms wide and mouth open, Giant savoured the variable notes of seafood and salt. Mountainous whales, countless predatory sharks, all drawn in and separated down to a stream of delicious energy.
Wrathful bellows sounded in the distance, shockwaves that launched compressed water in terrible waves. He drank in the force, a welcome tang, a spice on his already wholesome meal. Challengers were a welcome thing, powerful food would help him grow strong.
Outside Giant's aura, vast beasts gathered, united in their horror as the invasive storm consumed the waters of the world. A turtle, whole worlds secured to its back, opened its beak and released a spear of light. Turquoise fire lanced into the shadow, only to disappear into Giant's hungry maw.
A leviathan squid, more tentacle than anything else, directed a cascade of lightning after the world turtle's attack. It was joined by more than a dozen legendary beasts, monsters that pushed the edges between mortal and True God. World ending attacks, all swallowed by the storm below.
Giant smiled as he lowered himself into a sprinter's crouch. These creatures called to him, mobile feasts of power that delivered themselves to his feet. So many flavours, new and untasted. He would devour them, alongside the delicious soup they called home. A flex of his legs and he stood under the turtle's belly, aura shaped into vicious spikes.
– – – –
"How many of you are there?" Dante sighed as a half dozen of Ven's clones poured over the formation under his skin. Another slipped into the prison cell and joined the effort, with more no doubt on the way. "Dividing yourself so many times… what's your secret?"
"I've made about thirty… thirty-one avatars," the Ven closest to Dante's face muttered, eyes locked on a small cluster of runic script just under the devil's left eye socket. "But I'm sure others with more experience than me can manage more…"
"Hardly," Dante snorted as he shook his head, only to have three Ven's hold it firmly in place. "Most can only manage one, maybe two… though the One God and those like him can often maintain half a dozen when faith is in abundance."
"Hold still…" Ven drove more power into his eyes of truth and delved deeper into the cluster's scriptures. "I think I've found it!"
Buried within a node of extremely dense runes, a fractal snowflake almost too small for his eyes to catch. It sent resonant pulses, surges of restorative energy that remade and reinforced the formation as a whole. Delicate and intricate, this semi-independent structure was what his own work lacked.
Outside his realm, Ven's true body froze. He took a deep breath and wiped away the half-finished formation before him. Hands steady, he began the laborious process of replicating the structure, while inserting a few important changes. The core remained intact, but new scriptures wove into place around the edges.
This formation would become bound to his true body, so Ven took every precaution he could think of. Hours passed, days, until finally it was complete. A golden sphere, clockwork perfection that would make certain his true body was never unaware. Even if all his focus delved into his realm, with this formation installed, his body would respond to any threat as if he actively controlled it.
A gentle push of his hands guided the scripture into his chest, just below the heart. It settled into place, ready for activation. It was clear already that he'd succeeded. Any runes drawn into his cells simply reformed, more resilient than before. Ven flicked his fingers and sent the command, an order that unfolded the formation under his skin.
"It's working…" Ven smiled, a grin mirrored by the thirty-one avatars within his realm. This success meant more than the completion of a single task. This restorative runic structure could be used in countless ways, to create formations that never failed. "From now on, every spell I cast could potentially remain active forever, without the need to touch up the runes myself."
Ven let his perception shift from avatar to avatar, while his true body continued on its journey through the depths of the melange of souls. With all his focus reunited into a single place, his thoughts took on a crystalline edge. He had underestimated how much he used to keep his true body in action. Even his connection to the realm was deeper, fuller.
"Now, it's time to expand the number of avatars," Ven's true body had already begun, another five drops of blood that reformed into identical clones. Each one settled into a meditative stance, focused on a single law of the realm. "I need to make one for every law, or it will take forever to familiarise myself with them all…"
– – – –
"Welcome to the abyssal core!" Hive waved his arms to take in the tainted glow that rose from below. Deep under the surface, the machines had discovered a molten white orb and a mysterious door. "This is the location of the first new gate we discovered, but we are unable to open it."
Rafe and Lucifer walked closer, only for Hive to raise a hand in caution. The A.I extended his fingers, until the tips entered the core's baneful light. The individual mechanical cells of his avatar rusted the instant they crossed the threshold, turned to rusted ash on non-existent winds.
"What kind of energy is that?" Rafe shied away from the boundary, eyes focused on the distant gateway. "It registers as common sunlight in my senses…"
"It is an inversion of holy force," Lucifer let the tips of his wings extend into the glow, excitement in his eyes. The light caused him no harm, but invigorated the fallen angel. "How could I have failed to discover this place?"
"We only found this chamber through mass scouting," Hive shrugged, focused on Lucifer's reaction to the light. "Micro drones are still expanding outwards in all directions, so far this is the only unusual discovery below the surface."
"It's a miracle… or a perverted one, anyway," Lucifer snorted and stepped into the core's glow. His muscles tensed, then relaxed as the unnatural light soaked into his pores. "There is more unholy power here than I held in my prime!"