The Guardian gods Chapter 863

He turned his gaze back to Ember, his eyes reflecting the world they stood upon. "This moon is my artifact. The very nature I helped birth became my ultimate power source, guaranteeing I always possessed the reservoir of Qi I required when battling the mages."

He paused, allowing the gravity of the lesson to settle within the boy’s mind, ensuring he truly grasped that a mere crafted artifact holds no value to an Origin God, for they themselves are the ultimate wellsprings of creation.

This realization completely overturned Ember’s prior understanding. The sheer magnitude of the concept left the young disciple utterly frozen in thought. For several days, he remained immobile, lost in profound contemplation, until he finally broke free from his trance. As his vision cleared once more, he observed Ikenga intently examining the construction of the Mage Tower. Now that Ember possessed a genuine comprehension of what a divine artifact truly entailed, he recognized the tower's significance and immediately expressed his desire to participate in its study.

However, time was a critical factor. Due to the absolute regulations within Ikenga’s domain, Ember could not remain an indefinite resident. Lingering too long would compel the domain to begin absorbing his essence, classifying him as an integral part of its reality, which would make his eventual departure nearly impossible. Consequently, both understood that his stay would necessarily be brief before he had to return to the secure confines of the spirit realm.

Ember’s ultimate aspiration was to attain the title of "God of Forging." Observing the disciple's profound interest and distinctive viewpoint, Ikenga envisioned a new trajectory for his own strategic designs. It was precisely for this reason that he afforded his grandson authorization to study the tower in his company.

The decision was already yielding results. As they engaged in their work, a subtle yet unmistakable aura of true divinity began to emanate from the boy’s presence. Ember no longer needed to seek guidance in uncertainty; he simply had to continue treading this precise path to ultimately achieve his ascension.

While Ikenga initially encountered significant difficulty in comprehending the foreign structure, the boy was actually progressing far better than he was. Ember displayed an innate knack for the physical layout, yet there remained a foundational stratum of the tower, an esoteric profundity, that eluded his grasp. It was a barrier that only Ikenga possessed the capacity to surmount.

"Let us commence," Ikenga declared.

As the words left his lips, two supplementary golden arms unfurled from his back, transforming him into a form prepared for intricate labor. At that precise instant, a wave of heightened awareness and absolute enlightenment washed over his mind as he activated Oracle’s blessing.

With the blessing engaged, the tower’s concealed blueprints were revealed in their entirety. Nonetheless, deciphering the architecture constituted merely half the challenge; the actual replication presented an entirely different hurdle. The materials originally employed in the construction of these ancient spires were utterly alien, forged from substances never before encountered in this world.

It was entirely logical. The enigmatic Mage Civilization had erected these edifices utilizing resources indigenous to their own plane of existence. For Ikenga and Ember to accomplish a comparable feat, they could not merely mimic the existing blueprint. They would be compelled to meticulously search their own world for native materials that, despite possessing fundamentally distinct compositions, shared the identical, stringent magical and physical characteristics essential for anchoring a Mage Tower.

In one of Ikenga’s golden appendages, a swirling, luminous orb representing the entirety of the world of Nana was held. In his other hand, he manifested an immaculate replica of the alien material salvaged from the Mage Tower.

Through his omniscience, every concealed recess and profound secret of Nana was instantaneously depicted upon the surface of the miniature globe. As his heightened awareness meticulously dissected and analyzed the foreign replica down to its fundamental constituents, his divinity over nature stirred. He extended his influence to the world itself, and the world began to relay feedback directly to him, imparting revelations of where a viable substitute possessing the exact same elemental properties could be discovered within their own realm. Each potential local analogue was summarily cross-referenced and deconstructed to verify its possession of the requisite magical signatures.

Concurrently, Ember stood nearby, a vast chart of the world spread out before him. The instant Ikenga’s consciousness pinpointed a resource, the miniature globe within his golden grasp would shift, spinning rapidly to project the precise geographic coordinates of the deposit. Ember’s responsibility was to immediately record these locations.

The undertaking proceeded swiftly. It demanded every iota of Ember’s concentration and vitality simply to remain synchronized with his grandfather, and this was with Ikenga deliberately moderating his own mental faculties and decelerating his pace to prevent the boy from becoming overwhelmed.

Ikenga and Ember were far from the sole entities dedicated to this monumental endeavor. Throughout the entire realm, all the Origin Gods were intrinsically interconnected, their collective consciousnesses intertwined as they executed disparate, rapid analyses within their respective domains.

Despite meticulously examining every part of Nana, they came to realize that while their world held sufficient quantities of typical materials, certain highly specialized and uncommon substances were simply absent.

Presented with this obstacle, Ikenga put forth a daring proposition: if the world couldn't supply the necessary materials, they would have to fashion them themselves.

His siblings, intrigued by the concept, immediately offered their enthusiastic endorsement. What ensued was a magnificent display of pure creation. Across Nana's vast expanse, all five Origin Gods began to directly collide fundamental elements with one another.

As these basic forces clashed and fractured, the gods observed the tumultuous interactions with intense concentration, subtly guiding the chaotic energy to meld, compact, and stabilize into the precise materials they required. This was an exceptionally draining and intricate undertaking, pushing them to their absolute limits, as fabricating entirely new matter from nothing was far outside the natural scope of their divinities.

It was an uncommon occurrence for them, as they seldom had cause to engage so directly with base mana and the raw, untamed elements in such a manner. Nevertheless, despite the immense strain, a deep sense of fulfillment washed over them. In this crucible of mandated creation, each Origin God was learning and evolving, broadening their comprehension of their distinct divinities.

It seemed almost unbelievable to them that a mortal creation like a Mage Tower could impart any knowledge whatsoever. For many years, few things had actually managed to challenge or propel the Origin Gods toward expanding their perspectives.

This revelation struck them with a profound sense of wonder for the Mage Civilization that had brought forth these magnificent structures into existence. Gazing upon the sheer mathematical and arcane sophistication of the spires, the gods could plainly see how far their own world's civilization lagged behind.

Instead of causing despair, this humility ignited a fierce, intense eagerness for the wider cosmos and whatever might await them among the stars. Somewhere out there, concealed within the universe's dark tapestry, there had to be other civilizations capable of pushing them to their absolute limits, and the mere thought of it thrilled them.

Down on the moon's surface, the rapid pace maintained by both Ember and Ikenga finally began to decelerate. The swift blur of their movements ceased as their colossal undertaking approached its conclusion. Every naturally occurring material on Nana had been successfully located, cross-referenced, and meticulously charted. Apart from the specialized components the five siblings still needed to fabricate from raw elements, this initial phase of the project was finally concluded.

When it pertained to the literal core of the Mage Towers, the pulsating heart that breathed life into them, Ikenga and his siblings had encountered an insurmountable barrier. They discovered this core was something that even they, with all their accumulated divinity, could not create from the ground up. The true origin of a tower's heartbeat stemmed from an entity possessing the same primordial status as the Abyss itself: 'The Elemental Plane.'

This ancient plane had been mentioned to them only once before by their mother. It was a foundational realm of creation so volatile and fundamental that even their status as Origin Gods offered no guarantee of easy access to it.

Yet, defying all these obstacles, the Mage Civilization had somehow discovered a method to bridge the chasm, establishing a direct link to that realm to siphon the cores necessary for their towers. As Ikenga utilized his hyper-awareness to delve deeper into the structure, dissecting the ancient runes and inscriptions carved into the tower's foundation, he observed that it was far from straightforward.

The mages had not forged a peaceful accord, nor had they been granted permission. They had aggressively forced their connection with the Elemental Plane, tearing open a gateway through sheer, audacious arcane will.

Mana, as Ikenga was beginning to truly grasp, was not a primary force of nature, but rather the lingering trace left behind when the four fundamental elements naturally coexisted and interacted with one another.

It bore a striking resemblance to the process he and his siblings were currently attempting by forcing the elements to collide, with one critical deficiency: no actual mana was being generated from their actions.