Before the rging process...
"Wait, what?" a phantom asked, dumbfounded. "AKHASHA is a what?"
Serenity sighed.
"You heard . AKHASHA is a Deity, a very old one. I suppose you can call him the first Deity to ever exist. , Void and Emmae don't exactly qualify as Deities. AKHASHA is near as old as we are," she said. "He is the one who established the Common Reality Leagues and most of chanism under them."
The phantoms were stunned. When they had asked Serenity what ascension ant and how exactly they were supposed to go about climbing up the new power hierarchy ladder, they hadn't expected to hear that the AKHASHA points Serenity had ntioned were necessary to climbing up were based on soone.
"As old as you are?" a phantom gaped. "Hold on. This... this has too many implications."
"If he's as old as you... but then... worlds... how does..."
Before the phantom had an aneurysm, Serenity answered the questions she knew were vexing the phantoms.
"Reality wasn't always as it is now. I already explained how Void, Emmae and I ca to be. We lived on a world; the first world. Before AKHASHA transcended, nothing was established yet. There was no great void and there was only... The point is, everything you know to be true now only ca after my sisters and I began on our respective paths. AKHASHA went about his after Void covered the entire reality, Emmae created her own space with her undead minions, and I, my Null Verse. He had free reign since neither of us really had much of a say in how reality would unfold because of the restrictions that ca with our powers."
The phantoms listened carefully. When Serenity paused, they didn't rush to bombard her with questions. She appreciated that.
"AKHASHA is a prideful Deity. Anyone who wishes to use his established ascension system must first acknowledge him, and then they can begin to earn AKHASHA points. As it turned out, he inspired Deities that ca after him to adopt a similar system in other regards to his Common Reality Leagues," Serenity explained.
***
Present ti...
[You have chosen to invoke AKHASHA]
[Will you agree to an EXTENDED CONTRACT with AKHASHA?]
Skullius sighed.
With everything that the phantoms had shared with him about what Serenity said concerning this first Deity, AKASHA, he knew this wasn't sothing he could choose to ignore or find an alternate path for (unless he chose to go and live in the Null Verse, of course, where certain things seed to be different when it ca to Divinity).
Unless Skullius agreed to this Extended Contract, he would forever be stuck as a Divine with a Phase 1 Broader Existence, cursed to never raise his strength.
As for what this Extended Contract was, the short of it was that it was an agreent that served both Skullius and AKHASHA in the long run. Even Serenity wasn't sure what gains it gave AKHASHA himself exactly.
The thought made Skullius uncomfortable.
This first Deity...
He was quite different from Deities like Quintess, Listafelle, Suzate and Boron. Very different.
His age was one thing, but his power was another. Apparently, he and several of the Deities that ca after him had a na they gave themselves. The na wasn't hollow though. It wasn't a re title. It asured these Deities as being second only to the likes of Serenity, Void and Emmae who had powers that transcended the Common Reality Leagues before it had even been established.
Skullius shook his head.
"Fine," he told the guidance field and it chid.
[Congratulations! You now have access to AKHASHA's Unit to Ascension thodium!]
[You have slain six enemies with a Phase 1 Broader Existence. Each enemy has earned you 0.5 units]
[You have acquired 3 AKH units!]
Skullius rubbed his temples.
AKHASHA units were drawn from the Broader Existence of an enemy rupturing. As it were, everyone who agreed to the Extended Contract seed to get imbued with a fragnt of AKHASHA himself that beca a permanent part of them. This fragnt would be transferred to this individual's killer after their Broader Existence was destroyed and on and on and on
And this was how the olden Deity was able to create a power system based on his terms. Skullius had been right when he assud the cumulative mana system of Aigas was probably based on the AKHASHA unit system.
'These numbers are... pretty pathetic,' Skullius thought as he looked at the [3/1,000 AKH] on his status.
He had known this was how it was when it ca to earning AKHASHA points. According to what his phantoms had learned, this Unit to Ascension thodium - as the guidance field called it did not reward a Divine for killing an ascended expert weaker or just as powerful as they were, which was why the earnings were so abysmal for Skullius.
Additionally, the Unit to Ascension thodium encouraged lower ranked Divines to seek out stronger enemies and hunt them using ALL the elents of the Common Reality Leagues. It was possible to equip strong Treasures against more powerful enemies.
It was also possible to wield Exotic Parlous Natures that made the difference in quality of Exora Amras or Immortal Physique irrelevant.
How limited as the Common Reality Leagues appeared at first glance was rely a farce, Skullius knew.
If not for Serenity, he would have been caught off guard by this truth. Unfortunately, the fullest extend of the Common Reality Leagues couldn't be explored when one was stuck in a
world.
Skullius clicked his tongue.
'Three down, 997 to go,' he told himself. That was not going to be easy especially if a chunk of his ti was going to be stolen by his excursion here on Aigas. 'There aren't that many Divine level experts left and I doubt killing them will get to Phase 2.'
This was true.
Right then, the guidance field chid.
['Entropy's Harmonising Nimbus' has completed its analysis of the World rank Exotic Parlous
Nature 'Flawless Reinvention']
[Would you like to-]
[Incoming intrusion...]
...!!!
Skullius imdiately went on guard.
Soone was intruding on his guidance field!
'Don't tell ...!' Skullius thought, more awed than afraid.
[A Prival Deity is interested in your newly forged Exotic Parlous Nature!]
[A LIMITED CONTRACT has arrived. Would you like to open the CONTRACT?]
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