_ _ _3rd person pov_ _ _
In a place outside of normal existence, within the space between multiverses where a chaotic, warping sea stretched in all directions, something floated through this churning void. An obelisk-shaped structure of eternally shifting matter, neither liquid, solid, gas, nor any other type of matter, its very structure defied all known logic no matter how bizarre. Surrounding it were trillions upon trillions of lights, each a sentinel that had been tasked with guarding this sacred place since the dawn of creation itself.
This was the anchor point, the very centre of Chaos's territory, and the place currently hosting some of the most powerful beings in existence. The Administrators of Chaos were arriving one by one, their forms manifesting into existence, each completely unique from one another. Of course, not all were called, but most were; three to be exact were currently present.
"It's been a while," Grey hummed as he appeared within the central chamber that constantly shifted in a size and shape.
His body was that of a living tempest of spiralling wind and dark grey and black clouds, a several-kilometre-long, multi-headed snake whose cobra-like form crackled with blinding flashes of silver lightning. Close by were two other entities, both vastly different in appearance.
One was a truly colossal leviathan that put even Grey to shame in terms of sheer size. To put it into context, the creature's six eyes, three on each side of its head, were each literally the size of a football field. The leviathan, who was none other than Cyan, looked like a mixture between a carnivorous whale, a great white shark, and the bioluminescent deep-sea dragonfish. Additionally, all around her body was a spiralling vortex of violently churning water that moved almost like hungry blue flames.
And finally, there was the last one, who oddly was far less complex than the other two. In fact, when comparing all three, the third was comically mundane in comparison. Bronze took on the form of a humanoid entity made of bronze light with absolutely no physical features whatsoever, and that was it. Honestly, while he was quite large like the others, there was literally nothing else about his form of any real note, just a featureless glowing bronze humanoid and nothing else.
"Indeed it has, dear. I don't even remember the last time so many of us got together," Cyan mused in her usually grandmotherly way as she hovered in place.
"And where exactly are the others?" Grey asked. He had expected more of them to have arrived by now. "I mean, I get that Alizarin and Rouge are far too busy right now, but what about everyone else?"
"Come on, dear, you know he likes to be called Ali," Cyan said, causing Grey to shake his form from side to side, seemingly exasperated.
"Elder Sister will arrive shortly, from what I was told," Bronze, who was hovering opposite the two, shrugged as relaxed as ever. "And Limey is nowhere to be seen, like normal. They apparently wandered off to who knows where again."
"As for Peri and Cider, well, you know how they can be," Cyan sighed with a mixture of emotion.
"Right... the last time they did anything personally was who knows how many hundreds of years ago," Grey huffed, sounding slightly irritated yet understanding how they were.
A second of silence passed before Grey continued. "And Goldy... where is he?" He asked with an irritated look on his multiple faces.
Bronze simply shook his head at that as he began counting down. "Three... two... one..."
Almost instantaneously after this did the lyrics to I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) started playing from seemingly nowhere at full volume as a golden light filled the centre of the room. Streams of glowing golden energy spiralled throughout the room like red hot molten metal, slowly collecting together. This continued until they merged into a blazing star-like sphere that quickly warped and solidified into the form of a massive avian made of golden metal and gears.
This overly grand spectacle was then followed by a loud and frankly obnoxious voice. "Hello ugly bitches! Did someone call my name? Of course you did, I'm amazing after all!"
"I should have seen this coming..." Grey hissed in irritation.
"Why couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?" Bronze muttered, though his voice had no edge to it.
Cyan, on the other hand, just chuckled half-heartedly. "Oh dear, hahaha..."
"I know, I know, you're all in awe of my very presence. You are very welcome." The ever-sarcastic Goldy spoke with a mocking bow.
"Come on, little brother, can't you be professional for once?" Bronze hummed as he leaned back in the chair that appeared out of nowhere behind him. "Not that I actually give a damn, but this meeting wasn't called so we could hear your jokes and sarcastic comments."
Goldy's response was simple. "Yeah yeah, shit stain, nobody cares what you have to say." Bronze went to reply but was immediately cut off. "Shhh, nobody car-"
"Silence."
In an instant, the room fell still as someone appeared at the head of the central chamber. Unlike the others, who had arrived in their true forms, this one was different. It came with no flare, no announcement, one second there was nothing, then it appeared: a large, colourless reptilian-like eye of translucent mist surrounded by shards of shimmering crystalline glass.
"Report." The voice was female, stern, eerily calm, and spoke with absolutely no emotion whatsoever.
No one argued against the command, not even Goldy. In the end, it was Bronze who calmly spoke up first. "The first spore wave began approximately three months ago in Nexus time, a clear sign that The Eclipse has started once more, far earlier than expected I might add."
He paused for a second in thought before adding, "In fact, we began seeing signs of it so abruptly that we were barely able to mobilise defences to hold back said first wave. Thankfully, it should be a while before the next wave, and possibly years before things really start reaching their peak."
"Damages?"
"Not as bad as it could have been. Around one hundred or so universes close to The Divide have been lost, while hundreds more are currently under siege," Cyan said, sounding somewhat relieved at the "small" number of damages. "Thankfully, Death's forces are being pushed back in several areas, and that's without us having time to fully spread the word about what's going on."
"Once our forces are informed, it should be easy to clean up these minor stains," Grey mused, already planning it out in his head.
"And others? What of their situations?" Blank spoke again, her voice completely flat, as if hundreds of universes being destroyed or invaded was just an everyday occurrence.
"They've begun fortifying their parts of The Divide," Cyan added, but before she could continue, Goldy laughed abruptly.
"At least they can do that right. I mean seriously, defending The Divide is the only thing we can agree on after all," he said with his usual arrogant and mocking demeanour. "Not to say it wouldn't be absolutely hilarious if they all just up and died because dear old Death decided to wake up a little early from their nap."
"Anyway, from what we can tell, Order is in a similar situation to us. Their Marionettes, however, are mobilising at a faster pace than the alternatives, which makes sense, I suppose." Bronze yawned, his words followed by Grey's own.
"As for Balance, well, I don't need to remind you how damn difficult it is to get information about what's happening in their neck of the woods. However, their Chosen seem to be holding their own rather fiercely, as usual."
"And the cause?" Blank asked once more, but this time it took a moment for anyone to answer.
"To be honest, dear, the cause is completely unknown," Cyan hummed with a thoughtful look.
"However, Ari did give me a rather disgruntled report about some kind of massive energy surge within Death's territory," Bronze added a moment later.
"Isn't it usually impossible to get any information about what's going on in there? You know, since anything that enters immediately begins to break apart or becomes corrupted." Grey sounded genuinely confused.
"The fact that what you just said is very correct should make it quite obvious just how substantial said energy surge was," Bronze said with surprising seriousness.
Once again, silence filled the chamber, at least until Blank spoke once more. "Let us continue..."
_ _ _ _Carmen Pov_ _ _ _
(They could have at least fucking explained before up and disappearing like that.) I complained internally as I leaned back in my chair.
(Seriously, what the hell even is The Eclipse anyway? It has to have something to do with the other concepts, right?) I huffed as I sat inside a large office space in my new house.
Yeah, I had a house now. I had asked about building one, but Ophelia had instead told me to claim whichever empty building I wanted. Honestly, I felt kind of stupid for not just doing that in the very beginning, but whatever, can't change the past I guess.
Anyway, I had picked a rather large one close to the edge of town, mostly because I enjoyed the quiet environment. Additionally, I had already covered my bedroom walls in hive resin, mostly because it helped calm my instincts when I was trying to sleep.
As for how I had gotten to this point, well, the others and I had tried asking more about what was going on, but all Decker and the other mentors had to say was that it didn't matter and that we were too weak to actually get involved anyway. In the end, they had gone off to talk amongst themselves and I been forced to let it go. Soon after, we arrived back in the Nexus, and I was quick to leave and head back to my sanctuary.
Back to the present however, after a few moments of frustrated ranting, I finally sighed and let it go for now. "Moving past all that, though, I should probably start thinking about where I'm going to put all my new additions."
(Once I've indoctrinated the Yautjas, they can go over with the others,) I thought as I began to figure things out in my head. (First, however, I should probably check in on those five at some point, see how the preparations for their new arrivals are coming along.)
(There are also all the mutants I still need to sort out as well...) I mused internally. (Looks like further expansion is necessary.)
"As for the specifics, well, I'll figure it out later," I muttered as I turned my attention elsewhere.
"For now, let's just take a breather."
More specifically, my attention turned to the back side of my office, right behind me, where a massive metal and glass tank stretched across the entire south wall. The tank was over twenty-five feet long and nearly five feet wide. The damn thing also nearly touched my ceiling. This wasn't an aquarium, though, no, it was a paludarium, an enclosed ecosystem of both aquatic and terrestrial environments.
Now then, what do you think I'd put in this massive, intricately crafted paludarium? A lizard? Ants? A snake maybe? Nah, none of the above. In fact, what was inside the paludarium was a variety of strange creatures. Most notably, several groups of tiny, colourful entities, pikmin to be exact.
Yep, pikmin, as well as many different creatures and plants from the Pikmin universe, like Bulbears, Pellet Posies, and even the corresponding Onions. Why did I feel the need to get these? Simple, because how could I not? I mean, seriously, who would pass up a chance to see these guys in real life? Not me, that's for sure.
As for the paludarium itself, well, it was split into three main sections. The front west side was made up of a large tree stump surrounded by various plants. This was also where most of the pikmin and less aggressive creatures hung out. Next was the back of the tank, which was made up of rocks, bushes, and tall plants that made the place look like a dense forest. That's where most of the more dangerous predators in the tank resided. Lastly, dividing the tank in half was a snaking stream that started from a small artificial waterfall in the back west corner and ended in a somewhat deep pool at the front east side of the tank.
As I sat there for a moment in complete silence, I let myself fully relax. I had always found this kind of thing soothing, after all. Just sitting back and watching life unfold, it was chaotic at times, but there was also a strange and calm order to it all. Maybe this was how gods felt when they were watching their own creations.
Just then, however, a knock on my door pulled my attention away. "Excuse me, can I come in?" A familiar voice echoed from the other side.
"Sure, I'm the one who called you here after all, so of course you can come in," I called back with a chuckle.
(She got here faster than expected,) I thought as the door opened, followed by a small figure walking in.
"How have you been, Mel?" I asked fondly.
"I'm okay, errm, can I ask why you called me?" She tilted her head innocently, causing me to chuckle outwardly.
"Well, you see..."