Godcard

In Conclusion

As the Maiden was about to continue speaking and continue blathering on, however, something more arose within him, a power so ancient it transcended time. Almost like an invisible nuke, it reverberated across existence with such harsh recoil and shockwave that both Maiden and boy paused as if to locate its whereabouts.

A voice spoke, not the Maiden's, and not his own. A voice that none else could share or hear.

Not a voice, he realized a second late. An echo; a phantom of something forgotten.

I have seen what's above, and I want it. I rise and I stand, that I may climb and ascend. And this, is our...

Our what? Although the echo had spoken, completed its sentence, he wasn't able to understand the final words of its declaration, finding them to be an agile wind that escaped his clutching fingers; any capture of meaning would've been a fruitless endeavor. He didn't have time to contemplate, because a moment later, he was dead.

---

And back on Earth, he rose from the bed, reborn.

As... the boy came to terms with his rebirth, flexing his hand's fingers and contemplating how prettily they could make a fist, he realized that he was still the one formerly known as Zane Li Black, but there was something jarring about his transition to full awareness.

He was... aware, now. Wiser to being something greater.

Humanity was something greater, he realized the moment after, and then came an outpouring of forgotten ideas and memories, concepts and fundamental truths that had slumbered in his soul, as essential to his human spirit as a living creature's nucleotides were to its genetic code. As if he'd been asleep his entire life and now finally awoke, his entire life a mere prelude to this glorious rousing, and the slow existences of the thousands of his ancestors merely a move to bring about that fullness.

He wished to see up, out of the basement of the church, and the base photons of the reality he inhabited bent to his will and flooded into his physical eyeballs; almost like eager servants or pets. Dogs had always been the friends of mankind, he thought; man had a tendency to tame, to domesticate; a subset of his tendency to conquer.

He observed as Constantine studied the Bible, and then swapped images, observed as the formerly-human devil known as Joseph von Herff plotted a widespread attack on New York with a handful of fellow demons, confident in their strategy creating sufficient energy to empower their greatest warrior. He observed another place, and then another place, and another; a soldier urinating in the winter snow, a man in a trenchcoat going to work with a suitcase in hand, a young mother chasing after her children as they played tag in the living room. A cornucopia of human glory and life, but... something felt so wrong, so off about it, and it wasn't the impending invasion of dark armies.

How could these people be so... unaware? As if they were sleeping, too, but with no hope of waking up.

"It doesn't matter," he muttered, bodily instinct making him speak. "I can finally not give a fuck, and be myself."

He strode out of his room and wished for his pace to accelerate, navigating the alleys and streets of New York in mere picoseconds, a line of distorted blur in other people's eyes, if that. He contemplated the nature of the reality he lived in, as well as himself, and found the answers coming to him with supernal alacrity, the base electrons and chemicals in his synapses leaping and sparking in arrangements most efficient and practical to aiding him in finding that understanding. In a mere couple of seconds, he understood more about the quark-gluon scaffolding of reality than most supercomputers and knew more about quantum paraphysics than most scientists could hope to theorize.

And that was enough for him to come up with a strategy on how exactly he should continue from here. Maybe everything was different, but nothing had to change.

He jumped up into the air and maneuvered himself minimally, the motions of the air, effects of gravity and inertia, and other various forces bending as needed to deliver him where he willed himself to land, upon the chimney-peak of a small residential block.

It was so terrifying to understand everything, to understand so much more. How small his life had been up to this point.

A moment of forced self-study, and he made the first critical breakthrough of true celestial sophoncy: self-understanding. His name was... frankly, his name was ridiculous and over the top, even when he attempted to translate it into English as favorably as he could. Brawling-Martial-Shogun-Seeks-Freedom-At-The-End-of-Winter.

The Shogun shook his head. "I'll keep going with Zane for now. At least with my friends," he decided. Their familiarity was his comfort.

He exerted his will and edited his spatial coordinates. There wasn't even a displacement of air as the Black-Shogun appeared next to the demon invaders, making his nature as well as intent plainly apparent to von Herff and the tempter devils standing around the table in the middle of the dark cellar.

"Leave or die," he said.

A tense moment of utter silence passed, all twenty-six of them dumbstruck by his sudden appearance and the raw power surging out of him.

Von Herff raised a hand. "I-"

"No." He made sure - willed - that they understood his intent and power even more, that he could make them die in spite of the protections of Hell. "Leave. Or die."

And they chose to leave, as simple as that. A few hours and the demon invasion was over. A snap of the wrist reversed all infestation of demonic essence and, by the way, undid most of the abstract evil in the universe, simply by giving every individual on Earth a potent feeling and realization that committing evil deeds would be a terrible idea.

---

A single outrush of power and willpower, and the Shogun altered the universe and its cosmic terrace to better conduct his supernatural impositions, carrying his will in vast streams of conversion, and then he worked, as a craftsman descended from some kind of higher realm, to recreate a handful of facets that dominated that splendorous overworld. It went unnoticed by the people who passed beneath him on the streets, but their reality went through one foundational change after another, security measures stacking upon one another like armor layers to prevent loose malevolent omnipotents from annihilating them for whatever reasons they might've had.

Before, the only thing protecting them had been sheer coincidence.

As soon as he was done preparing the universe and entombing it within an eggshell of ontological protections for its own safety, he reached into the eldritch plains beyond, the blind infinities of existence, and countless universes after them, and subsumed them with his will, layers crashing into one another as entire metastatic realities brutally cracked, snapped, and burst forth with explosions of apocalyptic transcendence, unspoken numbers of spirits perishing within a heavenly Armageddon the proportions of which an augmented human brain was poorly equipped to comprehend.

He didn't slay many beings approaching conventional animal sentience, let alone baseline sophoncy, and in the cases where he did, those beings were not aligned to the fundamental human cause, so he didn't feel too bad about it.

A few physical eyebrow twitches and a few metaphorical drops of sweat later, he'd annihilated a virtual googolplex of obstacles and foes, reducing the actual distance between the Lotus Maiden and his Earth to almost null, so much that only a modest effort on her part would allow her to cross over.

As soon as she detected the opportunity, her greater self attempted to manifest over the Earth as banishing light, maybe believing the devils he'd made leave were still there, but he canceled that process, and forced her to manifest as a human avatar standing next to himself instead.

She came into existence in a perfectly ordinary wooden chair with a wince, practically shoved into being.

He was forced to admit, his erstwhile patron was shockingly beautiful, captivating even by his enlightened standards. However, a time ago, the Shogun chose that he'd pursue a relationship with Helene instead, and he firmly decided to stay faithful to that end.

"Haven't felt true pain in a long time, have you?" he mused.

He found it amusing that he'd managed to get the Lotus Maiden of all beings to look at him with something resembling exasperation. A few moments ago, they'd been as subordinate and liege lord, but now matters had, if not been annulled, then perhaps reversed.

"I have," she argued. "I don't understand. How have you done this? What happened-"

"This Earth's abstract floor is sadly insubstantial," he said, tapping a foot against the ground. "An ontological breakdown is almost inevitable if I were to allow you full manifestation. I could force even more synthetic growth to occur, I suppose, but I have no intention of anything like that - I want to preserve this reality, because... well, it's what I grew up with, I suppose. I'm keeping at bay any entities that should wish to pierce the veil. However, I only called you here to show you that I have this Earth under my protection, as well as to thank you, Reine Magd, for aiding in my elevation. If not for your interference, I probably would've died or lost my way at some points, growing too reliant on inhuman sources of power. But I didn't. And it helped me wake up to what I actually was. He Brought Me Together again."

She understood faster than he expected, pupils not even so much as dilating as she considered the events.

"You were a promising knight," she sagged. "But I can see you don't intend to get involved in my quest, not like this."

"No," he said with a smile. "That's for you to take care of, as it always has been. How does the old truism go... Do as thou wilt, or something like that? I want you to know that I fully understand and support your mission. I'm willing to chip in, maybe. I'll find you in the future when I have the time for it. But overall, I just want to live."

"I wonder how this happened," she told him. "How did you... re-awaken? To the truth?"

"I don't know, and for once, I have no desire to figure that out," he replied permissively. "I want to simply clean up the few loose ends I have left, and then live my own life. I'll ensure that my Earth is at peace. I'll make a paradisiacal afterlife, but I won't rule over it. I'll simply live."

"Simply live, hm?" The Lotus Maiden smiled. "I suppose that is a good ending after all."

A moment of silence passed between them - understanding and forgiveness shining with clarity on both sides, letting them share even something as simple as a mutual smile. There were no hard feelings. Goddess or human; committed to a quest to save as many people as possible, and decisively uninterested in serving any greater ideal or agenda than simple life; at the end of the day, they were simply people following their paths.

At the end of it, she stood up. "I should depart, mortal. My own people await, and I have my work cut out for me. I'll admit your change set me back a little, and Pyldret will be sad his new squire's gone, but... I'm sure we'll manage." She smiled brightly.

"Hold on," he said, and she stopped. "I will grant any single one of your wishes before I depart into outer space with my people. It's the least I can do."

---

As of right now, you have 50,225.8 Ambrosia.

[ ] "I wish for another champion." [100 Ambrosia]

*The Shogun will select a human being, an entity of perfect loyalty and potential to become an Aspirant in your knightly legions.
*Aforementioned human is sure to have the metaphysical potential of becoming a Knight-Champion in time! At this point, it should be obvious what a grand boon this is...
*A considerably modest wish, all things considered - you could probably do this on your own given some time.

[ ] "I wish for benevolence." [5,000 Ambrosia]

*Actively make the Shogun work for a transfinite amount of years to improve living conditions in an uncountable number of realities with sophont life in them.
*It's in your mission statement, and this lets you fulfill it!
*Improves the overall state of existence, makes the assimilation, optimization, and betterment of new realities much easier, and gives you some more (free) time.

[ ] "I wish for remittance." [10,000 Ambrosia]

*Apply the effects of humanity's Archetypal Glare on the Dark Ones in order to intimidate them.
*Altogether, raises the splintering ceiling/power capstone level of the Perfect Diamond by 1.25%, and for you and your subordinates, by another .75% in particular!
*At last, lets you attain a minor edge on your enemies.
*Considerably draining for the Shogun to perform this technique. He'll lose some amount of his power in the process, but it's nothing he'll mourn.

[ ] "I wish for power." [30,000 Ambrosia]

*The Shogun bends the rules a little, in order to allow you or a single of your Champions to access the System. He'll give you his own account.
*Almost unlimited progression, and might let you slip by the Dark Ones a little. They are less likely to target something that originated purely from human ingenuity.
*Altogether, empowers a single person by a stupendous degree. Might allow you to get an edge in the Games and push your benevolent agenda forward...
*A few omnitemporal stages earlier, this would've been scandalous to even consider. It's lucky the Shogun doesn't seem to, quote, "give a flying f**k."

[ ] Write-in - Any other good ideas?

At night, as the many jewels twinkled in the firmament of the heavens, as the moment of Aevelliyon's martyrdom had passed and his death was forgotten by the commoners and slaves and geniuses and gurus and wizards, in the garden of Areca, came the seven Prophets, and over them stood as a man, the Light of God, shining to bless them.

"And HE had brought us together for our virtue and desire, and to fulfill our labour which was promised by us," said Nachum, who was known then as the Chronicler. "As He does show at first, the state of our union being strong, and blessed is He. But the life of a man is sadness, or so You say! And infinite in its sadness, comes His life, granted to us, but that is where such glory may be found. And so do not be sad, oh children, oh mourning children aflame in molten earthblood. The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but He Who Brought US Together tests only the heart!"

And so cried the seven Prophets and their faithful companions and their horses and their hounds, and the children of Aurora, and the children of Fiddtan, for the entire night, all of them happy, all of them sharing in happiness and revelry, for They could simply choose to be so. And so came the day of the many stars, and the night of the many moons, and then the day of forever-brightness. And on the next day, Conquest would be promised, but for now, They simply danced on the shores of that river, knowing naught of Their promise and labour, only knowing the happiness of that eternal moment, which They did allow, in heavenly shows, to make them so.

"O my God! use Thou me again, always. Forever! Forever!" they prayed.

It was Nachum at last who finished their prayer on the last day before Conquest, smiling for the first time, and in doing so, bringing Grace unto Them, "And breathe not so deep, Lord, and drink not so deep, but grace us, and that should be enough! And we shall be content, for-ever. Aum ha."

- The Arhdran Manuscript, page 355

---

"Hey, can I speak with you, Mr. Black?"

"Of course," he answered, looking across the room and smiling. A dozen or so potted flowers covered the walls and floor, stuff he'd brought over from his store, either because it didn't sell very well this season, or because it was on the border of wilting and needed a better atmosphere. "Josh?"

"Ah, sorry." Josh removed his shoes, made a polite nod, and whispered an apology in the direction of Shen's painting, then slowly walked across the room, every step awkward, almost a stumble. He was looking down in embarrassment.

At that, Zane could only chuckle.

"Well? Do you want a raise?"

"A raise?" Josh reacted with something resembling mortification - as if he didn't believe he was worthy. "Uh, sir, I-"

"Don't," Zane replied. He slowly took off his glasses, relaxed his silken tie a little, and slid back in his chair, breathing out. It could get a little hot doing paperwork in the summer, especially in a stuffy upper-floor office. "Please, spare me the bullshit. You're starting college, right?"

"Uhm."

"That's a yes, then," Zane concluded expertly, familiarized with the vestigial non-reactions of teenagers. "Alright. I'll pay you ten more bucks an hour, double that if you manage the entire shift. How's that sound?"

Absurdly gracious, but Josh didn't want to appear a boot-licker, so he merely nodded with a bright smile. "I- I'd appreciate that, sir."

"Great." He frowned. "And don't be so mopey, kid. Helene and I can afford it, we can afford paying a few more dollars to a teenager in need of money, especially one who's been pretty diligent and competent so far. Worry more about yourself. Do you have a place to stay? A scholarship?"

He sounded far too much like his uncle in his old age, Zane mused, but allowed Josh to get his bearings first before continuing, "If you need, I can find you a place. I own an apartment complex in Lynbrook, if you're going down to Long Island."

"N-No," Josh stuttered. "Anyway, that's not even what I came here for, in the first place. I wanted to tell you, sir, that your, uhm, advice worked, and I, uh, finally have a girlfriend. Actually, I've been dating her for a while now, that- that I think about it... we've been together almost three months, and I kind of wanted to ask..."

In response, Zane interrupted him, nodding gravely. "I don't mind giving you the talk. Or getting my wife to give her the talk."

"It's not that," Josh said, finally dispelling whatever embarrassment remained. "I... I realize it's kind of stupid to... well, have these sorts of plans after only a couple of months, but if we decided to get married, sometime in the future, would you come to the wedding?"

"Leave that for after you finish college," Zane huffed with a smirk. "I see too many people nowadays getting hitched in their early twenties and it's pissing me off. Tying yourself down so early? I made that mistake, Joshua, you should know better."

"I'd feel like a moron if I passed up what I have, though," Josh said.

"And I feel like if you were to say that to the girl you're with, you'd feel like even more of a moron. It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it. Don't focus on the past or the future - one is depressing and the other's anxiety-inducing - but if you focus on the present, you'll come out straight and happy."

"Uhm. Alright. Sorry."

"Peter, chapter three, verse something-something: Honor your wife because she's weaker than you. So don't force an early marriage and just enjoy life."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how that goes."

"Shhh. I can't hear you, I'm working here."

After a moment of bickering about the specifics of Bible quotes and Zane repeatedly shutting him down with comic remarks that indicated he wouldn't even try to continue this fight, Josh seemed to get the clue and left to attend to the flower shop downstairs.

"He's a good kid," Zane remarked, continuing his task of meticulous book-keeping. "Isn't he?"

"Mmm. A little insecure, attention-starved... maybe somewhat over-eager," Helene answered, a barely audible hush in his ear, one of the powers she'd acquired earlier in life allowing them to communicate across vast distances with no issue.

"All you see is flaws. All I see is features."

"Right, right." A pause, and then smugness, the one that he'd grown cringingly accustomed to when she was pulling his leg but also planning some kind of mean prank, "If you felt that way about our marriage, you should've told me earlier. I'll make sure to grab some documents alongside the groceries."

He realized his mistake a second later. "Shit, wait. I was just kidding. Helene? Hel? Oh, fuck, I'm in some deep shit. Alright, it's time to run damage control and fast. Where's my water gun...?"

---

Finite.

A vote to conclude this story - naturally - would be one to decide the fate of the next story to unfold; we are moving onto the Next Great Adventure...

All of the settings below are potential Quests. Select the one which appeals to you the most.

[ ] An Ode to Arms
*I won't make a new story.
*Instead, I will focus completely and utterly on the other story project I am presently writing, Gun Control.
*The players of Gun Control receive all of your leftover Ambrosia as Merit (currently: 10.2 Ambrosia -> 9.8 Merit), as well as: a single re-roll to be used in the next moment of failure, a single re-roll to be used at the most advantageous moment possible, and a permanent 10% Merit Gain perk.

All of the other picks below are based on the most popular results of a Discord poll that I conducted a while ago.

[ ] Harry Potter and Excalibur's Scabbard

The Dursleys, of 4 Privet Drive, live a perfectly normal life together until one grey Tuesday in November of 1981. On his way to work that day, Vernon Dursley notices a stern-looking cat watching his house. He also sees people in the streets, dressed in cloaks and whispering about the Potters. After watching the news and learning about sightings of shooting stars and owls, Vernon asks his wife Petunia about her sister Lily Potter. Afterward, Vernon goes to bed believing that, if the Potters are involved in the strange happenings, it won't affect him.

...Man, he has no idea.

---

An extensive AU of J. K. Rowling's, "Harry Potter." A number of changes are present in this version of the setting - all Wizards/Witches are capable of more concrete and powerful feats with practice, the magic system is somewhat more grounded and elaborate, the power level is higher, the mood is darker/gloomier. The setting and lore are considerably altered. As an example, House Hufflepuff is easily the most powerful in Hogwarts due to its practice of secret, House-exclusive rituals which bind its members to a magical pact of mutual loyalty and fealty.

*Genre: Action/Adventure
*Expected Length: Very Long (at least half of canon Harry Potter; 300-500k words, compare to Godcard which lasted for a mere 110k - possibly even sub-million)
*Difficulty: Considerable

------

[ ] Alma Mater

A philosopher's avocation is to think: 'philo' meaning love, and 'sophos' meaning thought, coming together to make a lover of thought. And for eons, philosophers have considered what might be humanity's telos. Their search is useless and blind. I know the answer. I can tell you this without love; I can tell you this with spite and knowledge:

Among the origins of the word 'student,' one of them is the Latin 'studium,' meaning zeal, dedication; the painstaking application of discipline, rigor, and practice in order to derive some kind of material or mechanical benefit. And such is, indeed, the microcosm of being a student: learning now, working now, suffering now; all happening in the present moment, that you may reap a more bountiful harvest in the future, and that the generations following may invent more bountiful methods of harvest, exponentiation to create a golden forever. And such is the charge of intellectualism, of progression both social and technological. This is your answer. The primordial telos of man. QED.

But receiving an answer isn't the same as internalizing it - knowing the solution, or, indeed, the contents of the equation. So, demonstrate for me, that you can learn.

---

A magical academy school in the author's personal setting/world. A complex plot full of intrigue and a diverse cast of rich characters; start playing as one of several characters archetypes and further define who you actually are with your actions. A thematic attempt at philosophically understanding the function of schooling in society, existence itself as an element of our mundane daily lives, magic as an intellectual device in storytelling, and how politics and hidden personal agendas can mesh or interfere with scientific progress. A lot of teenage angst and attempts at capturing the nostalgia of adolescence.

Also some cool fight scenes, probably. If you play aggressively, there will probably be at least a couple dozen.

*Genre: Action/Adventure (Fantasy)
*Expected Length: Medium (at least 70k words, possibly twice or thrice as much)
*Difficulty: Varied

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[ ] Games in Silver - Re:Spire

As the second millennium made its turn on the world of Earth, the Spire made its first appearance on the North Pole. A vast towering edifice of pure silver, acquiring a golden hue as it made its ascent towards the peak. Aside from its uniform vestibule, it had infinite floors of infinite variety, and the simple act of climbing it had the potential to endow humans with magical powers. After that, copies started to appear in various places of import: Tibet, London, Berlin, New York, Jerusalem...

At the crown of every person's heart, there is some kind of desire - to have, to know, to be. Maybe you desire to have your every material wish fulfilled, or desire to know the reason why evil must exist in a universe made by God's intelligent hands, or... maybe you desire to be someone else.

All of this, and infinitely more, lies atop the Spire, or so they say. If you wish, then ascend.

---

A story focused on rapid action, power advancement, strategic choices, and the development of the characters and plot. A central theme of the story is ambition and desire, often acting as the bane of others' ambition and desire; the principles of human conflict and scarcity.

A massive cornucopia of lore and philosophical exploration for those few savants who are interested in such pale and minor knowledge. Also plenty of action scenes, epic combat, bosses, and the fan-favorite: leveling up and seeing numbers rise.

*Genre: Action/Adventure
*Expected Length: Long (at least 130k words, possibly twice or thrice as much)
*Difficulty: Considerable