High Artificer: Epilogue

Sam stood among the stars as his dominion stretched across the galaxy. 

He was half in the Heart of the Void and half in the main dimension as he watched the formation of the new Path.  

It took effect immediately in the settled half of the galaxy, and in a few days it reached the far edge on the other side of the Chaos Wild. 

It was slowly expanding farther, reaching out to distant stars. 

One day it would cross the Great Dark and reach other galaxies, opening natural teleportation routes, fulfilling one of the Titans’ greatest dreams.

Hopefully, people from this galaxy would be strong enough to deal with it by then, but it would be a while. 

He’d had a choice to do that or not, but it was better to create controlled paths rather than to leave it up to chance, ones that he could secure if needed. He didn’t want the galaxy to be isolated and this way people would be able to travel if it ever came up. 

Over time, the Path would continue to grow. 

He had imbued it with the Word of Eternity, which would preserve it even if the rest of the galaxy crumbled away, and also with his ability for Stellar Infusion, which allowed his creations to improve on their own.

For his golems, that meant raising their level, but for the Path it meant increasing in power and complexity. He could feel its presence in the Heart of the Void, echoing back to him in the future, but where it would end up, not even he knew. 

He could only tell that it would achieve its potential and endure.

The primal chaos he’d scattered across the stars was already altering the natural flows of mana and essence, and the level of energy throughout the galaxy was increasing, becoming hotter and wilder. 

It was like he had reversed time.

Soon, the stars would regain the potential they had during the First Age and the galaxy would have another chance to rise. 

He would make sure it was stronger than before.

Soon, natural monsters would start to appear from the mix of chaos and the elements, just like the Primordials had. At first, they would be simple variants of current beasts and monsters, but they would grow more complex over time.

It would give people something to fight and drive their progress.

Once the energy reached a high enough level, it would become self-sustaining and astral chaos   could form again, as well as things that hadn’t been seen before. 

New Titans might be born from the stars in a few million years.

It also meant that if Sam wanted to have children with Alora, he just needed to create or gather enough astral chaos to make it possible. 

His mother would be happy to hear that. 

Asenya probably would be too.

He turned his attention to the human domain, as well as all the people who were arriving there.

As the Path changed, he’d asked it to give humans everywhere the option to leave their current circumstances and travel to the new domain. 

Some chose to stay, but many were teleported away in an instant, along with their families, and delivered to the new worlds that Sam had built for them.

Some homes and nascent cities were already formed, and there were golems and elementals to help keep order for now, but eventually they would have to figure things out on their own.

On other worlds, armies stood still and soldiers stared at the sky as the Path spoke to them, explaining their new options for Evolution. 

It offered them individual plans to train their skills, improve their abilities, and more.

The Path would be by everyone’s side now, an assistant accompanying them on their journey to greatness. It would also help to grant experience for crafting and other work, like the World Core did on Aster Fall. 

With the size of the Path, the amount of experience that it had access to was greater than anything that had been seen before. Once it settled in, it would be able to harness a great fraction of the entire galaxy’s energy.

A lot of it would be devoted to crafting classes. They would flourish across the galaxy.

As the creator of the new Path, he was still a part of it and the first one it acknowledged.

Titles Granted: Primal Architect, High Artificer of the Path of Stars.

Prime Authority Acknowledged.

All functions of the Path will obey your commands.

It was already a given, and the Path itself was linked to his dominion, but the Path liked to register key events, so that was what it was doing.

Notifications from it rang in Sam’s mind as it assessed the changes he’d implemented and it began to channel experience to him. 

He had created the new Path, so technically everything it did was a result of his crafting. 

It would be a constant flow of experience in the future.

He dismissed the overt notifications, only glancing at the result.

With the unity of energy that came as a Sovereign, the Path’s reward balanced out to the equivalent of 25 Levels in the Sixth Evolution and 25% completion of the Sixth Star.

The battle with the Vos’Rekan had also given him some essence and experience, which brought him to Level 635 and a third of the way through the Sixth Star.

It  was a significant amount, but he didn’t bother to look at his attributes in detail. It was enough to say they were close to double what they’d been at Level 600. 

With the Path’s support, it wouldn’t take too long before he reached the peak of the Sixth Evolution. 

Then he could look into a method to reach the Seventh Evolution. That would help him understand it and he could find a way to help others.

He breathed in a breath of stardust and chaos, and then he looked out across the stars, watching the new era begin.

Some key events sprang into his awareness.

***

Altey

On Council, Altey was teasing Rolen about a class they were taking. 

“Second place is still second place!” She grinned as she poked him in the side. “You need more golems if you want to beat me!”

“I don’t want to beat you,” Rolen said honestly as he looked at her. “I want to be on the same team and then we can beat everyone else up.”

“You’re too honest for your own good!” Altey grumbled as she poked him again, but it was lighter this time. “That takes all the fun out of beating you!”

“It sounds like I’m too honest for your own good,” Rolen said with a quick grin. He tried to grab her hand, but missed. “Stop poking me!”

Altey was about to respond with more teasing, but at that moment, a wave of power filled the world.

It felt like heaven and earth had flipped places and everything was hanging frozen in space, except for the stars that were rushing toward her. Then a voice that filled all of existence echoed through the world.

“Let the Wild Era begin.”

Energy shifted and it felt like everything was sorted and reassembled, and then the world returned to the way it was before, but there was something different about it.

A sense of potential and vitality was everywhere, flooding across things.

The stars looked brighter, the grass richer, and the trees more green.

Everyone else in the academy’s courtyard was staring at each other, wondering what was going on, but her thoughts were more specific. She knew that voice almost as well as her own. 

It was her brother’s.

“Sam...?” she mumbled the word as she looked up at the sky. “What did you just do?”

She was used to him doing big things, but this felt bigger than usual. Whatever had happened, she had the feeling everything had changed.

Then notifications began to fill her mind, filled in a voice that she’d never heard before, one that was more powerful and more ancient than she’d ever known. Welcome to the Path of Stars. 

By the command of the Sovereign of Silver Chaos, the greatest Astral Titan of this galaxy, a new future is offered to you.

All current and future Evolutionary nodes within this galaxy are under my authority, as are all Paths, Abilities, and Skills.

If you wish to accept my assistance, I will be your guide to higher Evolutions and greater strength. You will never again be limited by your connection to a Node, only by your own accomplishments.

There were many more notifications that explained what was happening, as well as a direct burst of comprehension that explained the value of the Path and what it had to offer.

Some of the notifications were specific to Humans, detailing the new Traits that they would gain, as well as how long it would take for their bodies to adjust.

Altey was less affected by that than most people, since she already had a powerful elemental affinity, but she would still benefit. 

It looked like the Traits would be added over the next month. 

She pushed the notifications aside until she came to the last one, which required her to answer.

By command of the Sovereign, in order to remove you from the potentially negative circumstances of becoming part of the High Council, all Humans are offered direct teleportation to the newly constructed human domain, which is in a distant section of the galaxy.

Do you wish to travel there now?

Another burst of information explained what the human domain was like, as well as the intent behind the teleportation offer.

Altey declined, but she could see why some people might want to go there. She looked quickly through the rest of the notifications and then dismissed them as well. 

She looked up at the stars, imagining Sam’s figure in her mind, and shook her head.

He was so down to earth most of the time that it was hard to put that image of him together with reality when he did things like this.

“You’d better come back home soon.”

***

Somewhere in the Borderlands.

A scruffy looking human boy about thirteen years old was being pummeled by a group of older boys.

“I told you not to be late with the payment again, Hirkan,” one of them said. He was slightly older and better dressed than the others. “I don’t care if you think the adventurers are innocent or noble or whatever. Your job is to lift their wallets when they’re drunk.” 

He shook his head as he gestured to the others, who pulled the boy’s head back and slammed it into the stable wall again, not caring that blood was already running down his face.

At that moment, the world froze as the Path descended, making them all stand there stunned for countless minutes.

When they were able to look around again, the boy was gone.

***

In the Chaos Wild.

Aldric and Jesai Hastern were at the head of the tattered band of their old allies

They had once been the mighty Cabal, the darker side of the Boundless Alliance of Level 399s who ruled Aster Fall from the shadows.

Now they were only a broken group of travelers. 

A quarter of their number had perished over the last year, and those who were left were in dire straits. A group of Blackbrand Void Serpents had been chasing them through the Chaos Wild for over a month, making it impossible for them to rest.

It was fortunate for them that they didn’t need much food or water, but they were still at the end of their rope.

“We should have taken the Titan up on the offer to work for him,” Jesai said tiredly as she looked back over shoulder. She looked awful, with pale eyes and hollow cheeks. “Even warping space around us is barely enough to keep us ahead of those things. I don’t know how much longer I can manage this.”

“If you don’t, we’re going to die,” Aldric snapped back at her. “We’ll find a place to rest soon, somewhere they can’t get in. The last one was just unlucky.”

“I never should have married you,” Jesai said as she turned back to the front. “My mother was right.”

“Too bad you can’t go back in time,” Aldric said blandly, barely reacting to the provocation.

He was about to say something else, but at that moment, the Void seemed to tilt on its axis and the stars shifted. 

A massive voice echoed through Jesai’s mind, one that felt strangely familiar.

“Let the Wild Era begin.”

“It’s him...!” she said suddenly as the realization hit her. “The Titan!”

“What?” Aldric asked, looking shaken. He touched his head as if he were feeling dizzy. “That High Artificer? How is that even possible? Isn’t he back by Aster Fall?”

“Maybe he followed us?” Jesai asked, feeling puzzled as she looked around. “But what’s he talking about?”

She didn’t know what this Wild Era was supposed to be about or why she would hear the Titan’s voice right now, but clearly everyone in their group had.

Even the Void beasts behind them had frozen in place and were letting out terrified hisses. 

As soon as they were able to move again, they broke off their pursuit and scattered into the distance, apparently trying to get as far away from the area as possible.

“That’s a blessing, at least...” Jesai muttered as she let her dimensional spell taper off as she caught her breath. “Was he trying to help us?”

Nothing else happened for an hour or so, except that the Void felt silent and still, as if everything nearby was hiding. 

The group took the opportunity to rest for a moment, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Then they pushed on, heading into the distance. They knew generally where they were going, thanks to the directions they’d been given, so they set their sights back on the stars that marked civilization.

At that moment, the Void shifted again, even more than before, and a different voice echoed out all around them, one that felt old and powerful at the same time.

It reminded Jesai of the World Core, but it wasn’t as cold. There was a familiarity to it, as if she had always known the voice.

Welcome to the Path of Stars.

A series of notifications flooded into her mind as the voice continued to speak, explaining what was going on.

When it came to the end, its tone changed.

By command of the Sovereign, in order to remove you from the potentially negative circumstances of becoming part of the High Council, all Humans are offered direct teleportation to the newly constructed human domain, which is in a distant section of the galaxy.

However, you have a prior agreement with the Sovereign of Silver Chaos that supersedes this offer.

You were previously offered the chance to work for the good of Aster Fall and to receive a direct teleport to the settled galaxy, or to be free of obligation and go your own way.

You chose to go your own way and ignore the plight of your world.

The Sovereign of Silver Chaos asks you once again if you will work for the good of the world. If so, he will teleport you back to Aster Fall, to spend ten years working in the Fallen Abyss to destroy Outsiders who threaten the world.

At the end of that term, you will be teleported to the new human domain, where you may start a new life.

Do you accept?

The words hung in Jesai’s mind, waiting for her decision.

She glanced at Aldric, wondering what he would decide, and then looked away almost instantly.

All around her, members of the Cabal were already disappearing, apparently heading back to Aster Fall to serve their penance.

“Sovereign of Silver Chaos now, is it?” She shook her head as she considered what the words meant. 

Every time she thought about that Titan, it seemed like he was even more important than she’d imagined.

She wasn’t sure what this Fallen Abyss would be like, but the information from the Path said that the tasks would be suited to her level, which was better than the condition she’d been in for the past year and more as they were hunted across the Void.

It didn’t take her long to choose.

“I accept,” she said calmly.

A decade was nothing.

She’d lived for over two thousand years. Ten more wouldn’t make any difference, and then she could see what this new human domain was all about.

It sounded promising.

This Sovereign still had some mercy, since he had made them this offer again, even if it had come too late for a few of them. The Cabal really hadn’t known what they were getting into when they chose to head into the Void themselves.

She didn’t bother looking at Aldric again as the world turned to silver light and she faded away.

Frankly, she hoped he refused.

If not, she was going to look for somewhere in the Fallen Abyss well away from him.

***

At the Heart of the Path.

A great distance away, Sam turned his attention away from his great grandparents.

They’d made their choices.

Offering that option to them again was the limit of his patience. 

Sending them directly to the human domain felt like too much of a reward after they’d abandoned Aster Fall, and he had no intention of allowing it.

There were more interesting things across the galaxy to watch, so he spent some time observing them and tweaking things here and there, aiming for fairness as he made sure that the Path was working.

His sister’s muttered reminder to come home made him smile. He had every intention of doing that soon enough, but he wanted to take care of a few more things first.

It didn’t take him long to oversee the core tasks. 

After that, he assigned a few avatars to help out with any smaller details and stepped more fully into the Heart of the Void.

His gaze turned toward the distance and a moment later he stepped out of the Heart of the Void and into space near Aster Fall.

Ahead of him, the Nexus loomed large. Its grey spiral was slowly turning, releasing a wave of energy that swept toward the World Core. 

He was close enough to it that it might have pulled him in if he’d been weaker, but it had no ability to move him.

Rebuilding the Path had given him some more familiarity with his strength, so he had decided to look for an answer to a question that had weighed on his mind for a long time, one that was centered on the Nexus.

Why hadn’t the Titans returned? 

If they were stuck in the other galaxy, what had happened to them and were they still alive?

He wasn’t planning on going through the Nexus yet, but he should be able to see across the distance.

The Outsiders had long been able to launch attacks across it, some of them well targeted, so he knew it was possible. He’d just never had the time or opportunity before.

It was time to find out what had happened to the Titans.

He focused on his dominion as he reached out as far as possible, attuning himself to a particular energy signature that he could sense in the Heart of the Void.

Caerlon. 

The ancient Titan’s aura was a blend of starlight and runes. It was a presence that Sam had noticed in the Heart fairly quickly, since it was similar to his dominion.

Now he needed to find it in reality.

The flow of energy in the Nexus held some similarities to primal chaos, especially in how time and space twisted together inside. That was enough to stop a lot of people, but not him.

He sent strands of essence into the spiral, tracing them as they disappeared. At a certain point, they seemed to freeze in time, as if they had stopped moving.

But time meant little in the Heart of the Void.

He sought out the reflection of that same energy in the Heart, where it was still connected to him. Then he looked for where it reappeared in the main dimension. 

It hadn’t appeared on the other side yet, but he could sense it in the future, so he pulled that image back, from the moment when it would appear. There was a large time compression, around seven thousand years before that energy would reach the other side.

But he could see it.

A different galaxy opened up before him, its stars shining with unfamiliar light. They were tinted toward the ends of the spectrum, a mix of reds and oranges on one side and blue to violet on the other. 

There didn’t seem to be many yellow or white stars, just those.

He pushed the differences out of his mind as he continued to look, and some things became clear.

The Outsider galaxy was much older than his own. 

Its stars had been altered long ago by its inhabitants to suit their taste, and some of those individuals had been at the Seventh Evolution. The changes they’d made still endured.

He focused on his search, following the strands of his essence as they passed through the galaxy. He couldn’t see everything, but some things were clearer to his senses than others, especially if it was related to his dominion.

Fortunately, Titans were made of astral energy, which made them noticeable. They were a sharp contrast to the stars in the galaxy.

It didn’t take him long to find Caerlon.

It was a reflection of a single moment in the future, so Sam could only see him standing there, but the surroundings were clear.

The ancient Titan was standing in the Void at the front of a massive hall. His arms were folded and he was looking into the distance with a calm expression, as if he were guarding against something, but he didn’t look too concerned.

A sense of solidity radiated from him, something so profound that Sam had never seen it appear in their home galaxy. Sam smiled as he saw that, since he knew what it meant.

Caerlon had reached the Seventh Evolution.

The hall behind him was so large that its individual pillars were like mountains. It was three thousand miles across, entirely made of astral stone. Inside, an army of powerful beings and elementals worked on crafting artifacts and forging. 

Other Titans moved among them, guiding the work and channeling flows of astral energy, which they were gathering from the Void around them. There were over a hundred of them, all at the Sixth Evolution. 

It looked like Caerlon was the only one to have reached the Seventh so far, but to a Titan who was busy with crafting, even a million years wasn’t that long. More of them would probably get there soon enough.

With the time compression from the Nexus, they probably felt like they hadn’t been in the Outsider galaxy for that long.

The energy they had gathered was flowing through a massive enchantment on the hall, something that was no less complex than the World Core. 

The runes fell under Sam’s dominion, telling him they were part of enchantments for strength, durability, and other things, as well as communications and more complex features, like defensive wards.

The hall was some type of outpost in the Void they had built for themselves, and the communication enchantments on it were set up to recognize others of the same type. 

It didn’t look like the outpost’s primary purpose was for battle, but it clearly had that capability. There were a few scars along the surface where something had impacted it, which had been mostly repaired.

Sam could tell that it wasn’t the first one they’d built. There was probably a chain of them throughout the galaxy filled with all of the other Titans, each of them a mobile fortress and crafting workshop.

He could only guess at the decisions Caerlon had made over the years, but from the look of it, he’d protected his people and was now traveling the galaxy. The intensity of the crafting behind him spoke of important work, but not dire circumstances.

There were no enemies outside the fortress, probably because Seventh Evolution beings were rare, even in the Outsider galaxy. That, more than anything else, had probably secured the Titans’ future there.

For now, that was all there was to see. 

Sam felt a bit exasperated as he let his connection to the essence he’d sent into the Nexus fade. 

Some of the questions he’d had for so long had been answered.

At least he knew that Caerlon and a lot of the other Titans were still alive, doing something that was important to them.

If he had to guess, they were exploring, caught up in a wave of excitement about being in a new galaxy with new possibilities, like the Seventh Evolution.

With the age of that galaxy, it had a lot of history that must have appealed to the Titans, and it might even have connections to others beyond it in the Void. 

It was unlikely they would come home until they satisfied their curiosity.

Not even Sam could guess when that would happen.

It looked like they weren’t fighting a war against all the enemies in that galaxy, despite the continued invasions through the Nexus, so either they had won that conflict or it simply wasn’t that important compared to whatever else was going on over there.

The Three Demons had been critical threats to Aster Fall, but in their galaxy they were just Sixth Evolution warlords. The Caerlon standing in front of that hall could have crushed them with one hand and not even noticed.

Perhaps there had been a conflict at first, but it hadn’t lasted long enough for him to see it.

It took about 5,000 years of Aster Fall time to cross through the Nexus, which meant he was looking at Caerlon about a million years from now, in terms of galactic time.

Sam frowned as he considered what to do, but after a minute he fashioned an avatar out of starlight and gave it a nod. 

The avatar chuckled as it jumped into the Nexus, where it swiftly shrank into the distance. 

It would reach the other side eventually. Then Sam would see if he could open a portal there directly and skip the time compression. 

If it worked, it would be the best way to cross the distance, but it would take a long time to find out. Fortunately, it wouldn’t feel like too long to the avatar. Time compressed even more going through the Nexus, so it would be fairly quick.  

His connection to that avatar was faint, but he could still sense it. If needed, he could always dissolve it, even while it was in transit.

He spent a while considering what he’d seen, but finally he shook his head.

His opinion of the Titans was complex. 

He was grateful to them for all they’d done, angry with them for leaving Aster Fall on its own devices, and worried that they might be in danger. 

“I suppose they’re fine for now,” he said to himself.

They’d found something to keep themselves busy, and he couldn’t really blame them for moving on. They weren’t required to stand guard over his homeland for eternity. 

That was the job of the later generations. 

Like him.

In the end, things had worked out.

A trace of a smile ghosted across his features as he gave the Nexus a nod.

“See you sometime,” he said quietly.

Then he faded away into the Heart of the Void. 

***

When Sam reappeared, it was on Council, on the tropical island where he’d left his parents and Alora.

Alora was standing on the beach, looking out at a lovely sunrise of gold and red that was lightened by softer rose pinks and orange. 

He walked up beside her and watched it silently, his smile growing wider. 

She didn’t turn to look at him, but she slipped her hand into his and leaned her head on his shoulder. 

The two of them stood there together, framed by the rising light, until the sun rose, casting the world in an ocean of soft gold.

“How do you feel about a walk?” he asked as he held her hand. “I hear the stars are nice this time of year.”

“Let’s take a while for this one,” she replied as she looked up at him. “We got distracted the last time.”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed. “We can take as long as you want.”

The two of them faded away, turning into a field of starlight that merged into the sunrise.

And where they walked, only they knew.