High Artificer, Ch 36: New Horizon

When Sam finished with the core region of the human domain, he turned his attention to the other worlds that his avatars were bringing.

The borders of the domain were about two hundred light years in diameter, starting from the Great Divide on the west and then stretching inward. 

He’d originally only planned to move in a handful of worlds, but once he’d settled on this location, he’d thought of many ways to use the space. He would probably end up moving some more stars in to fill it out, while still leaving a gap to make it difficult for unwanted travelers to visit. 

If he built up the systems concentrically, it would give humans a series of defenses to fall back on if they ever needed to retreat from the borders. It was intended to protect them against outside invaders, but he wasn’t blind to internal strife.

The word of the High Council was generally well regarded across the galaxy, but they didn’t have control over the actions of every planet, much less every race. They were only involved in the major issues.

That was one reason he was giving these worlds good defenses. He wanted them to be able to take care of themselves.

It was possible that some people, both among the current High Nine and the many younger races, would be jealous of humanity and how he was establishing them as one of the High Races.

As word got out, some would envy them or try to take out their anger on them.

That was likely to cause trouble for the weakest members, especially if they were working in difficult circumstances with people who wouldn’t take it well. He could already imagine some low-level humans in poor conditions being targeted just because they were now a High Race. 

It would take time for them to rise to the status, so he had to do what he could to smooth out the transition.

He’d demonstrated enough force in destroying all of those worlds that no one should be too quick to cause trouble, but secrecy and speed were the best options. 

That was why only a few people knew about this domain so far, and no one but him knew his exact plans for elevating humanity. 

Once he finished the structure of the worlds, he would set up the teleportation gates to allow limited access and give humans time to grow. 

He had already told Asperio to begin managing the human migration, starting with the poorest and most in need. They could be the settlers and villagers. 

The new councilor’s connections ran deep and word would spread.

There was also a need for guards, since some of the worlds had dangerous beasts and other wildlife, so they would have to be cautious in settling, but while humanity was distributed, it wasn’t excessively weak. 

It could manage to settle some worlds, and he would help to make sure there were safe areas.

As for contacting all of those people and who would be chosen first...that was going to be the Path of Stars’ job. It was the most powerful artifact ever created, even more than the World Core, and it was fully distributed across the galaxy.

It could help Asperio to organize the effort across a hundred billion or so humans. 

That silent migration should head off some of the jealousy and give the people who most wanted a chance to live another life the opportunity to move.

It would eventually become common knowledge that humans had been elevated and were moving, but by that time there should be fewer issues.

Other than that, he wasn’t too concerned with a bit of jealousy. Many people envied the High Races and it hadn’t broken the galaxy yet. 

He was correcting a wrong when it came to elevating humanity. 

They weren’t the only race to deserve it, but they were the one he was most familiar with. Even as an Eternal Sovereign, he had no intention of using all of his time to build the other races their own domains. 

If they contributed to the overall support of the galaxy, he would help out here and there with building new worlds or fixing other problems. 

He would announce that soon, but it was all he would promise.It would help to make Titans well known again and to reinforce that he was working for the general good.

In time, humans would be strong enough that they would be just as threatening to their neighbors as the rest of the High Races, which could cause problems of its own if they became aggressive, but that was where the council came in, along with the general governance of the galaxy.

It wasn’t possible to control every action humans took in the future, but he trusted that the council would do it well enough. He should be around to step in if needed.

Beyond that, however, he had some plans in mind to motivate the galaxy and draw their attention away from humanity. 

If the changes were big enough, this migration would seem like a footnote, something of interest only to humans and history books.

After all, with nine current High Races, life didn’t change much if he added another.

People would be better served working on their own strength rather than paying attention to what humans got up to. 

To that end, he was planning to make some widespread announcements soon. 

The galaxy at large was still buzzing with the news of a Titan appearing and destroying worlds, and his conversation with the High Council was a secret. 

The news of humanity taking the Tenth Seat would be one of those announcements, but not the first one he put out. 

He was going to announce a series of changes and of rewards and punishments. 

The censure of the Wind Wraiths and their ban from the High Council for 100,000 years was one of them. He would focus on their assassination of Sixth Evolution members of the younger races and of the old Winged Fury councilor, and use it to demonstrate why changes were needed.

After that, he would set out a decree of his own to prevent in-fighting. 

With the images of destroyed worlds fresh in their mind, people would listen. If not, he didn’t mind making an even more pointed display of the troublemakers.

That should earn him good will from most races who were not in the High Nine, since he was defending them as well as humans.

Then he would announce the positive changes.

Those would be targeted at improving the general strength of the galaxy, and they’d start with the orders he’d given to the High Council, including expanding access to Evolutionary Nodes across the galaxy and offering greater opportunities for Class advancements.

The promise of greater personal strength was one of the biggest lures he had to offer, and it would help to get people to focus on their own progress rather than humanity’s.

Then he was going to show them the need for greater strength, including how weak this galaxy was in the grand scheme of things and the very real threat of invasion, with Aster Fall as an example.

If it worked, it would incite a fever for growth across the galaxy.

But after that, he had even grander plans, starting with the Path of Stars and the World Core. 

They were not being used as well as they could be.

The Path covered the entire galaxy and was capable of managing Evolutions, while the World Core was the strongest single Evolutionary Node ever created, as well as an artifact capable of managing the Nexus.

They were built on the last vestiges of astral chaos and countless Fragments of the Primal Void. Each of them pushed the possibilities of the Divine tier.

Meanwhile, the scattered Titan worlds took up about ten percent of the space in the settled galaxy, and they were also full of powerful nodes and artifacts.

The Path touched them all.

Yet what were they being used for currently?

The World Core managed a single world, while the Path was almost idle and only carrying out the last few commands from the Titans.

It was a travesty, and it didn't need to be that way.

The Path was perfectly capable of helping him Evolve as Titan no matter where he was in the galaxy. It could be adapted to do the same for everyone.

He just needed to bring everything together.

The World Core had the capability to help anyone evolve, even Outsiders, but it was limited in its range.

Meanwhile, the Path was everywhere in the settled galaxy, but it was focused on only helping the Titans with their Evolutions and research.

The Path governed all the nodes they had built, and it had taken control of most of the ones the younger races made as copies, but only so far as to ensure they continued to function. It didn't support them more than that, and it didn't distribute that capability across the galaxy, which meant it couldn't help people Evolve unless they were near a node.

If people were just flying about in the Void or in some random location, they were out of luck. They had to be on a world or at least close to one.

A related problem was that the quality of current nodes was limited, so that people on one world might have a Third Evolution node, while another world had a Fourth Evolution node like the Wild Tree on Verdant…and then there was Aster Fall with a Sixth Evolution node.

But the majority of worlds only had Second Evolution nodes, ones built by the younger races as copies of what the Titans had made, and those tended to have preset Evolutions and Classes with rigid structures, which were unsuitable for a lot of people.

They had no ability to add adaptive abilities like the World Core or to grant unique variants, much less to integrate powers they didn't understand, like a bloodline.

If you were stuck between worlds and had to Evolve, you had to hope that your previous visits to a node were good enough to set your Path or that your luck was strong enough. Otherwise, you were taking your chances.

He was already going to offer humanity links to the World Core, so there was no reason he couldn’t do it for the rest of the galaxy. 

Just like the World Core managed Aster Fall, the Path could do the same for everyone.

That would strengthen the galaxy and also pull attention away from humans, so they could settle their domain in peace. People would be too busy with their own progress to pay much attention until later.

To kick that off, the World Core would have to be the heart at first to help with Evolutions and the Path would be the network, but eventually the Path could take over completely, once it was adapted enough.

It just needed to be modified.

There would be no more need to visit a node to evolve safely, and no more limitation based on which one you were near. 

The Path would be everywhere.

The energy for the assistance could be provided in exchange for a tax on experience gain, the same way the World Core operated currently. That would vastly increase the amount of energy the Path had on hand, making it even stronger and able to do a better job.

It wouldn’t be hard to integrate everything under the Path of Stars. The capability already existed. It just hadn’t been used like this before.

The Path had been built earlier than the World Core, and it was attuned to astral energy and Titans, so it would need a few minor adjustments to handle the flow of experience and essence more directly across the galaxy, but he could copy the World Core as a model and add those changes to its core process.

Once it was done, he would just need to issue new orders.

It would be a complete system.

But modifying the Path wasn't an easy thing. It was effectively rewriting the nature of a universal law, one the Titans had created out of astral chaos.

In order to make that happen, he needed some materials. 

The easiest way was to hunt the ancient Vos’Rekan. 

A few Fragments of the Primal Void would be enough. The primal chaos in them would form the heart of the enchantment and the new capability.

The only better energy would be astral chaos, which was a sub-type of primal chaos that had appeared in this and apparently the neighboring galaxy. It was very close to pure primal chaos, but it was more attuned to the laws of starlight, which was what had given rise to the Titans.

He could eventually create astral chaos as well, and perhaps even give rise to new Titans, but he had to be careful of the law of unintended consequences.

Even for him, Chaos was unpredictable.

He would have to copy the exact signature of astral chaos that had once existed here, including its affinity for starlight.

Once things were stable, he would try, slowly and cautiously.

Then perhaps new Titans would rise again, but it would take millions of years for them to be born from the stars the regular way. It might be easier to create new Titans like him, beings infused with astral chaos and astral energy until they became a Titan.

Maybe.

His family came to mind, but being a Titan wasn't everyone's dream. It meant you were partly removed from humanity. He wasn't sure they would appreciate that. It might be better to help them reach the Seventh Evolution the regular way.

But those thoughts were for later.

For now, he had work to do on the Path of Stars, which meant hunting down the Vos'Rekan.

Any extra fragments it had could be used for his other artifacts, including Silverguard, and for anything new he needed to build.

He was capable of creating similar fragments himself now, but it would be time-consuming, perhaps on the order of tens of thousands of years. There was a lot of energy and potential gathered in each one, and it was already aligned with the laws of this galaxy.

Once it was ready, the improved Path would be central to strengthening everyone, and each time he discovered a new way to improve training, it would make it easy to distribute.

It would be the start of a new era.

Silver grey light rippled in the Void as Sam disappeared.

He planned to move a few more worlds and then he would gather everyone for the hunt.

***

Near Council

A few days later, Sam walked out from the Void and into his Titan Hall.

He’d ended up moving a dozen new worlds to the human domain, as well as three more solar systems. It was a satisfying job.

Whether it was a Titan instinct or something that had always been part of him, he liked building new things.

He’d created the first teleportation gates and placed one on each of the four worlds in that first solar system. He hadn’t named the system, since it would be important for the humans to do it themselves, but he’d started calling it the Heartland.

He’d also created a Titan Gate on a nearby moon, copying the structure that Caerlon had used in the past. It was the first time he’d made one, but it wasn’t difficult. They only needed to be linked through the Heart of the Void and that was his second home now.

That one was mostly limited to him and Asperio at the moment, since he’d given the man a key, as well as to Asenya if she wanted to visit. He’d given Alora a key, but she would need to reach the Sixth Evolution before she had enough energy to activate it on her own.

For now, she could use the regular teleportation gates, if for some reason he wasn’t around to take her there.

After that, he’d distributed the access keys to the Path of Stars and given it orders on which humans to begin teleporting. It had already gathered a few hundred who were at risk. 

They were temporarily staying in a safe haven on the first world that Sam created and warded for them. Once enough were present, they could begin establishing other villages and more fully settling the planet, but he left it up to them.

If they wanted to live in the safe area, which he had planned out like a small city, he had no issue with it. Their descendants would explore the world soon enough.

These early ones were scattered across the Evolutions. All were under Level 300 so far, but there were enough First and Second Evolution warriors that they could get a start on foraging and hunting.

It should also be enough for them to create a government of their own, with the standard structure used by governments in the galaxy for establishing new cities. That was one of the things that was the easiest to manage, since it was just filling in administrative roles and deciding how to apply them locally.

He left the other details of that to Asperio to sort out, but the Will of the Path was monitoring the settlers to ensure they didn’t attack one another. 

If they did, it would be a quick way to die.

He’d also started work on a node for the system, which would make it easier for the Path of Stars and World Core to be present there. It was a massive crystal sphere that was in a dimensional realm side-by-side with the main world, roughly similar to where the planet’s core was. 

The structure was complete, but he needed a fragment or two to finish the core enchantment and to upgrade its tier, which meant it was time to deal with that Vos’Rekan.

He sat down on his throne and then looked up at the stars, letting his awareness stretch out across the galaxy.

Before, it had been hard for him to find Vos’Rekan, but things had changed. His dominion was everywhere, which made it possible to get a widespread sense of starlight in the galaxy. 

And Vos’Rekan devoured starlight, even while they were sleeping.

So all he needed to do was to look for the gaps, places where there were holes in starlight. 

He waved his hand and a map of the galaxy sprang into existence, filling the Void above his hall. Swiftly, he plotted out areas where starlight was disappearing. 

Hundreds of black spots appeared across the map, each of them ringed with a band of red light. Some of those were black holes, which had a similar feel to a Vos’Rekan. The Nexus was the largest of them, showing up as a glaring red spot next to Aster Fall.

One by one, he began to remove locations, eliminating the ones that were black holes. 

It wasn’t difficult, since now that he knew where they were, he could study them through his dominion, which let him feel natural elements, runes, laws, and more. It let him examine the area from multiple angles.

Although Vos’Rekan devoured energy around them, they didn’t do it in the exact same way as a black hole. They were more selective and not as strong. Black holes felt a little different too, denser and less hostile. 

Even slumbering, there was a hunger to a Vos’Rekan.

One by one, the red outlines disappeared, until only a few dozen remained.

Those he sent his avatars to check out.

It was easier than ever for him to travel across the Void. 

As long as it was within his dominion, he could be there instantly. There only needed to be some presence of starlight, the elements, or runes. The hardest part was identifying where to go, which was why he’d mapped it out.

He would probably get better with it, but for now distance was ephemeral. Unless he had something else to distinguish it, it was hard to tell how far apart things were. They all felt close.

Within an hour, all of his avatars reported back and he had the locations of most, perhaps even all, of the Vos’Rekan remaining in the galaxy.

There were 47 of them.

About half were at the Fifth Evolution, while the other half were at the Sixth. 

Almost all of them were asleep, but there were a few awake and moving around in the depths of the Chaos Wild. 

He marked all of the locations, since he might hunt them down if he needed more resources, but his attention was focused on one in particular.

It was only a short distance from Aster Fall, about three hundred light years. Even before his Sixth Evolution, he could have crossed that in a few days on the astral paths.

It was practically next door.

He’d always believed an ancient Vos’Rekan was sleeping somewhere near Aster Fall, resting from the battle where it had damaged the World Core.

Now, he’d found it.

His avatar appeared in a field of silver stars, quickly fading into reality. He studied it and then disappeared again before it could wake up.

Vos’Rekan. Primordial Void Beast.

Level 652.

Titles: Sun Eater, Devourer of Life, Dimension Warper, Bane of Light, Corebreaker.

Abilities: Endless Devouring, Void Stomach, Dimensional Bubble, Eternal Body of Stone and Dust, Regenerative Sleep, Stone Form Hibernation, Greater Elemental Resistance, Greater Dimensional Resistance, Innate Void Affinity.  

The beast was enormous, over 1500 miles long, three times larger than the one he’d fought before.

This was the one whose claw had descended through the sky of Aster Fall and torn apart the Moonlight Relic in a single blow, bringing an apocalypse to the old inhabitants.

It was also the one that had torn a rift open on the surface of the World Core, damaging it for endless years.

In a certain way, the beast was responsible for his class as Battlefield Reclaimer, just as much as those Outsiders that had tampered with the core’s instructions.

It had similar titles to the last one he’d faced, plus a couple more, but it was 150 levels higher. 

It was a match for any adult Titan, if they faced it without artifacts or aid.

He’d sworn once to kill it.

Now it was time.

He sent his orders out to his avatars, his voice echoing across the stars, carrying a call to battle that hadn’t been heard for millions of years.

“Call everyone who wishes to come. We hunt a Vos’Rekan.”