Empress Kian sat in her office. She’d just finished a load of paperwork. One stack was paperwork and memos that she’d send out for others to finish, now that she’d done her part. One stack was paperwork that was finished in whole and could now be acted upon. One stack was actually just a heap of ashes, whose senders’ names she’d made sure to record and pass over to the Empire's Office of Discipline and Corruption. Many of those unlucky souls had castigations, scoldings, and or public floggings in their future.

The Dragon Empire prided itself on being highly efficient, despite Dragons’ reputation for willfulness and independence, those who dared try to gum up the Empire’s gears for the sake of being “political” or pandering to their lobbyists, without having the brains, savvy, or influence necessary to do so in a manner that didn’t make them into a total eyesore for the mechanisms of the state would be dealt with quite ruthlessly. Even the Empress herself wasn’t above those laws. Governing dragons was worse than trying to herd cats, and the forebears of this great ranch figurative-felines, had needed to be quite brutal to keep things from falling apart.

The Empress looked up from her work as a certain issue that had been on her mind all this month bubbled up again.

“Do you really think they have that many people about to join them?” said Kian.

Kian’s assistant, attache, and confidant, Lorelei, a purple-scaled thunder-dragon looked up from her own work, on the other end of the office. Lorelai’s human form was that of a petite (for an immortal true-dragon) 6’4 woman with a slender build, olive skin, dark hair, and cold blue eyes.

She was highly competent and capable of various kinds of work, be it competitive, administrative, or household. She had the air of a calm, cool, and collected big sis and generally acted as Kian’s anchor when the whole world felt like it was losing its mind. She also often acted as Kian’s sounding board and go-to person for very key matters, which was how she went from being a maid to being one of the most influential people in the empire.

“Ordinarily, I’d say that ascent into the mortal realm is no simple thing...but after the report from the Calloways, clarify their intentions for their mountain and the arrival of a large number of their associates that are currently present in the mortal realm, I find it hard to completely deny the possibility,” said Lorelai.

“Mhm...Yeah, plus there’s been quite a bit of chatter about our little cousins and little siblings in the world below...I thought we were just having a good decade, but…” said Kian.

“Now, if we connect the Calloways’ report, to other reports our agents, and allies, have gathered there’s clear signs that the matters are related,” said Lorelai.

“Ugh...On the one hand, I’m happy there’ll be a whole lot more dragon-blooded beings in this heavenly realm…” said Kian.

“But on the other hand, keeping this from turning messy is likely to be a headache,” said Lorelai.

“Exactly! Oh, I knew “you” would understand...Thankfully, the two pantheons have backed off and we were able to sue for peace before all this became a thing…” said Kian. Smiling and then sighing...and then tiredly getting up because work was done for the day, and she had just long enough for a quick bath and a spot of tea, before she had to go watch over this year’s closing of the Imperial Senate.

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Elsewhere in the shattered world’s heavenly realm, the various gods, devils, the transcendental mortals, spirits, angels, and fae were having their own reaction to the news that they’d heard and then confirmed. The fate-weavers and the temples of the myriad gods and goddesses of fate were kept busy, by the explosion of inquiries that further confirmed that a lot of people who would have failed their ascents, or simply died of mortal causes, suddenly had fates that were a lot longer, a lot farther -reaching, and a lot more uncertain than they’d been before.

The gods and devils were alarmed at first, but intrigued on second thought. The primary concern of the gods was whether this influx of immortals met an explosion in the population of gods and would-be gods. Godhood was one of the mainstream paths to immortality, because if one did it right, the faith one gathered, and the karma that one accrued, would become part of one’s divine mantle, and a powerful enough divine mantle could withstand nearly any amount of cosmic rejection.

The problem was that godhood was a limited thing. There were only so many pretender-gods that a universe, or multiverse, would tolerate. Only a few would be granted divinity, the rest would simply be eliminated as troublesome existences. Thus godhood was always a competitive thing. The various gods all competed amongst one another. The various gods of a particular subject or domain would compete to become the primary god of that domain. The would-be gods would compete with one another, and gather strength to hopefully topple one of their predecessors.

This made the prospect of too many immortals appearing in the heavens at once a stressful one for the Divinity of the Shattered Heavens. If they could get a handle on things, they’d have a new influx of powerful new servants, but if they were careless, the newbies would be trying to climb over their heads in no time. In some ways, the divinity were even more cutthroat and bloody than the infernals were at times.

Speaking of the infernals, the Devils were also concerned about the gods getting new manpower and were already making plans to recruit, and/or, kidnap as many of these new immortals as they could. The hells never lacked for demons and devils, but new strength and new talent were always wanted. At the very least, immortal flesh and immortal souls were a very valuable resource for the hells. Thus there were a number of dark sovereigns and demonic rulers that were making plans to make this a windfall, and not a loss.

The spirits and fae were pleased to here that a great number of their kindred in the mortal world would soon be ascending. Both races were sparse in number despite their influence, and getting reinforcement, and the increased potential of new helpers and partners, was something they celebrated.

The transcendental mortals' feelings were in line with the spirits and fae. It was generally always nice to see and be bolstered by one's own people, with the caveat that the transcendental mortals’ weaker presence and influence, in the Shattered Heavens, meant that their immortal sects were really just forces held by the gods and devils. A few of those transcendental mortals who weren’t quite pleased with this arrangement saw the rise of so many more of their number as a chance for some of them to spread their wings, and rise to prominence within the Shattered Heavens. After all, in times like these, when the world was uncertain, even the tailor might end up a king.

The only ones that were aloof to this news were the angels. The angels were a race of nothing but true-immortals. If they had any kin ascending, it was the half-blooded kin that they acknowledged, but held mixed feelings over. The nephilim, and half-demons.

The angels' main concern was what this new change would mean for the multiverse as a whole. They’d realized what the rest of the Shattered Heavens was still too flustered to catch. The Shattered World would soon be an elevator world. A world where eventually becoming immortal was just a matter of course. It was just one step shy of the feats of the legendary Emperor of Asphodel, who’d brought his entire multidimensional empire up into immortality and the higher-realms with him.

The angels were beings of good and order, and they were unsure of what to feel about this change. On the one hand, the Shattered World was going to be a whole lot more volatile. Immortals tended to branch out as they grew stronger. Even if they didn’t do so on purpose, the branching would happen, since the Shattered Heavens touched a multitude of universes. That meant the Shattered World’s denizens would soon be affecting a great many other worlds. The Calloway Immortal’s “Empty-Dream” would soon be affecting a great many other worlds. On the other hand, that Empty Dream gave meat without unnecessary suffering, it gave strength without unnecessary turmoil.

The Shattered World itself had reached a point where the last serious conflict had taken place centuries ago, ended quickly, and was censured by basically everyone, because the content multitude didn’t appreciate the interruption in what they’d been doing. It would be a bit too much to call their world utopic, but it was fair to say that, for the time being, any world that this Empty Dream existed would be one, that was much quieter, by virtue of all its energies being sunk into a space that was much sturdier, much bigger, and much richer in resources.

The Angels decided that in this case, they would welcome the Shattered World’s changes. They were, however, extremely concerned about the beings responsible for the Empty Dream. They were especially concerned about the Empty Archivist, who they were pretty certain was related to one of their lost brethren...One way, or another. They felt a need to keep an eye on Calloways, because if they could so easily, and seemingly carelessly, change the universe for the better, they almost certainly could do the opposite.

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Meanwhile, in the Valley of Ascension in the Empty Dream’s Eternal Realms, a great power was gathering. The sky had fallen and from that void poured an endless deluge of light. Oppressive and revealing black light, blindingly bright white light, and all the lights in between. This was the great sea of ascension that appeared within the Valley of Ascension every other month.

It was a great sea of cosmic power even richer than the energy that could be found in the Shattered Heavens. Swimming to its surface from the bottom that made up the “valley”, was a final trial of the body, spirit, and mind given by the cosmos to those who would become existences that stood in the face of common sense.

Some folk immediately died. Literally, drowning in all that energy. Those who took the process likely and didn’t take the time to firm up their foundations, or at least prepare certain items I'd placed in the game to act as extra optional safeguards, were quickly erased by the overwhelming flow of cosmic energy. Their virtual bodies evaporated, and their levels dropped by half, as they were spat out into the waking world and informed that for their safety, they wouldn’t be able to log-in again for at least a month due to the damage done to their spirits and bodies. Others, a great many others, succeeded.

As they reached the surface of the ascension sea, their virtual bodies merged again, with the physical bodies that were left back in the "real world", and the spatial-shield that once protected those bodies from harm, became a great cauldron, and reformed their bodies with the energy that now coursed through their spirits. This process could take between several days and several years, but slowly but surely a new generation of immortals would appear within the Shattered Heavens.