A servant looking person who looked around nervously knocked again. "What's your business?" Jaycee said through the door. The small woman stood on her tippy toes to get closer to the peephole.
"Um, I've been told to deliver information to the priestess room". She said. Jaycee glanced at the two next to the door who heard the woman as well. They both shrugged. Taking the large wooden board off the door they allowed the servant to slowly open the door and step inside.
Jaycee's hands twitched as the servant bowed in front of them. "The intruder situation is not resolved yet. Everyone remain in here with the priestess. More soldiers have been sent to the room. End of message." The servant said before backing out of the room. The woman took off in a run down the hall which still was silent.
Narrowing his eyes Jaycee motioned for the two soldiers to close the door but leave the wooden bar piece off. A few minutes later there was panicked running as people came down the hall. Seconds later there was rough knocking on the door.
5 people stood outside the door breathing heavily. They were clearly dressed in soldier's gear except for one who was a familiar face. Jim looked slightly scared as he waited for the door to be answered. Jaycee motioned for the soldiers to open the door and allow the new soldiers to be let in. Jaycee wasn't fast to let them in and quickly made sure they were distant from the priestess.
They locked the door again and Jaycee addressed the new soldiers. "Good to have more men here. Tell me why you were panicked." He said.
A large man at the front of them spoke up. "The halls are deadly. There's dead people in each hall and this mysterious intruder is turning this damn temple into a kill zone. They've pissed off someone that's too much for us to handle. Those damn priests sent us out into the halls knowing there's a 50 percent chance we die. Shit. We lost some on the way." The man explained.
"What? Did you see the threat?" Jaycee asked.
The man shook his head. "No! There were two other soldiers with us who got arrows put through their necks. We couldn't even see them except for small peaks around a corner." He said. Everyone in the room devolved into concerned chatter as these new soldiers explained the things they saw. Supposedly blood was common in the halls and the intruder was faring much better than the priests implied.
Calming down the situation Jaycee sent the whole new group except Jim to relieve the door soldiers. Jaycee wanted to be careful and the nature of this intruder was scary. Bringing Jim to his side privately they talked. "Any status on anyone else? I've got Kara here but that's it." Jaycee asked.
Jim had calmed down quite a bit and replied. "I know where some are. There's a huge gathering of the survivors who are sticking together to avoid the intruder. But they've been sending soldiers out into the temple to try and defeat the intruder but many times no one comes back.
Percy had just been sent out to try and hunt down the intruder. The other people I've seen there were Farrah, Zeke, Lady, and Dion. Dion had been sent out an hour ago and hasn't returned since. I also barely saw Preston at the beginning before we went in different directions. What about you. Are you all good here?" He asked.
Jaycee nodded and gestured. "Yeah we're just sitting in here. We need to stick together though. I'm perfectly ready to dip on Kara but I think the objective is to protect this priestess. So in the case of an emergency she's the important piece." Jaycee explained. The priestess watched the soldiers mill about her room and talk to each other about what's happening outside.
Eventually after 15 minutes of nothing eventful happening, Jaycee began chatting with the priestess again. She began to explain to him the big powers in the universe. She was surprised he didn't know any of it, but he explained he was a hermit who rarely interacted with the outside world. Surprisingly that was something that happened often in the multiverse as hermits were not unheard of.
First, she explained how in the first integration of the universe things were a lot different. It was incredibly difficult to grow in these earlier eras as less 'Records' were in the universe. Jaycee had to stop the priestess there. "What's records?" He asked.
She seemed much more surprised he didn't know what records are. "You don't know? Hm, well Records are essentially the way the system values certain things. It's difficult to explain without any prior knowledge but it's similar to the quality of the object or idea or item or person." She said.
Jaycee nodded aggressively. 'Yes yes.' This is what he had guessed existed before. But what she was explaining was on a much larger scale.
"For example when the first universe was integrated into the system the Records in the multiverse were very weak. The only thing contributing to the system was the young universe that hadn't done much yet. So the creatures of the universe had little to build off of. But in the later universes there were beings that rose to power and strengthened the records of the system.
For example Dragons didn't exist until The Dragon God evolved from a lizard and created the race of dragons. No other lizard could evolve to a dragon until one outstanding member had strong enough records to build up its brethren." She explained. So records on a smaller scale were like achievements. And records on this giant scale affected so many things. Jaycees mind raced to understand this interesting idea.
As she explained more he began to truly understand it. For example something he did that produced some records was his premature recreation of fire in his mana. Something he had discovered was that most mages couldn't physically change their manas nature until they reached level 10. In fact it was so rare that he gained enough records to gain the Prodigious Mage class evolutions.
Of course he did all kinds of other impressive things that contributed to his records. Like slaying hundreds of beasts on his own even when they're many levels above him. He eventually settled on a simple interpretation of Records that explained the basics. Records were the impressiveness of the feat in comparison to the person doing it, as well as the people around that person. "I think I get it." Jaycee said.
"Okay good. In the first integration of the system, life was much harder. Survival was difficult and trillions never ascended to godhood. But in the end 11 beings were able to become gods before the integration of the second universe. They're considered some of the strongest, most influential beings in the multiverse as they've all overcome trillions of other beings to reach their level. They're called the Primes." She explained.
Jaycee nodded as he listened. He could already imagine how cool and powerful they were. "They're so powerful that nearly all of their Records bled through to even unintegrated universes." She said. Jaycee nodded as he realized something.
The reason dragons even exist through so much folklore and media was because of this dragon god's massive influence. Thinking back to the god this temple worships he realized that Hell was a similar idea that exists in the multiverse. Several different stories of hell-like places existed on Earth before the integration.
It was like the classic Christian depiction or the ancient Greeks' Tartarus. Things were distorted slightly in the different interpretations. "Do you mind naming all of the Primes?" Jaycee asked.
The beautiful young woman nodded as she brushed her hair out of her face. "Sure. I can't actually name them because their real names are known by few. But I'll tell you what they're known as. Firstly let's start with the dragon god. The Dragon. There's a lot of depictions but he's always seen as either a white dragon or gold dragon. He leads the giant, extremely powerful Dragon Coalition.
The second is The Holy Mother. She's worshiped by trillions and has one of if not the most powerful pantheon. However, she's my enemy. The holy empire and the circles of hell are sworn enemies. The third is The Ant Queen. She's the head of the enormous bug empire. They've laid large claims to the universe with their ability to overtake whole solar systems through their nest expansion. The fourth is The Monk. He's a simple neutral force who leads a devoted sect beneath him. The fifth is The Blacksmith.
He's a dwarf that runs Superforge that employs billions of crafters and blacksmiths. The sixth is The Merchant. The Merchant is a mysterious figure who's said to be able to transform into anything. The seventh is The Breeze. It's an extremely elusive creature that I've heard little of. The eighth is The Inventor. He's known for creating a lot of things that are commonplace now.
He's also created his own race of mechanoid people. The ninth is The King. He's the head of the Knight Legion and a largely worshiped god. He's known for his strong faith in knighthood and what's right and wrong. The tenth is The Hunter. Supposedly the strongest but most secluded of them all. It's said he's never failed to hunt anything.
The last Prime, well, died a few universes ago. The Puppeteer. They were killed when most of the primes joined to kill them." She finally finished. Jaycee nodded as he absorbed the information. There wasn't much to say because these figures were so far removed from anything he'd be interacting with, but still it was cool to know.
Jaycee nodded, "I understand. And this hell pantheon?" He asked.
"Oh yeah. We worship the ancient Theroux of the fourth circle of hell. He's one of the gods under the rule of the fourth circle Devil. The whole of the 9 circles of hell are enemies with many groups but most widely the Holy Church. I wouldn't be surprised if this intruder is someone from the Holy Church. " She explained.
Jaycee nodded in understanding. He hadn't thought of the potential religious things that would come with this new world but it was clear how much of an influence they would have. If it was anything like how religion operated in older days it was going to be intense.
He was certain that there were many religious crusades in the multiverse.