In a place that is neither in-between nor a domain of the gods, a higher plane of existence. Two people standing on a cliff, staring down into a strange flat world, filled with ancient Asian architecture, fashion, and people with powers akin to gods.

“No just no.” A woman steps away from the cliff, “What the hell is this place even?”

“It's a cultivation world. The ascended plane of it though.”

“But why are there so many gods?” The woman asked feeling power radiating off almost all of the people below them.

“Well most of them aren't gods, their cultivators who reached this level ascending to godhood.” The man clarified.

“Again.” The woman said pointing to a particularly dense group of gods, “Why so many, and why are so many of them walking skeletons?” Sure enough, there was an entire area that looked to have only the undead.

The man looked to the group of skeletons, “Oh that. The cultivation method they use, harnessing death energy or something.”

“The fuck?” The woman said disgustedly.

As the woman watched she then noticed battles happening all over the place, “And why are they all fighting?”

“Old habits die hard?”

The woman stared the man down.

“Look I don't know,” The man admitted, “These words are weird. They like to kill each other for the smallest reason. They tend to be massive hypocrites to preaching controlling their emotions, and mastering themselves, and yet they have no control.” The man paused his rant to take a breathe, “Honestly, I think they just bottle everything up constantly then blow up over the slightest thing. I’ve noticed it gets worse the older they get.”

The woman grasped onto one thing he said, “And how old do they get?”

“Like hundreds of thousands of years.” He said as though that was the most normal thing ever.

“So…they just go mad with time.” The woman suggested.

“Probably.” The man admitted, “But also their culture. If you aren’t at the same level or higher you are treated like shit, then as soon as they reach the next level of power they treat, people who were just their friends, as trash. It’s kind of fucked up.”

“But why are we here? They already have so many god powers.”

The man looked towards the woman confused, before realizing he didn’t tell her why they were here, “Oh this isn't delivery. It’s is a pickup.”

“Wait a pickup?” The woman looked over the group of cultivators seeing, many of them with powers that would make it incredibly difficult for them to take, “How the hell would we even grab one of these people?”

——

Somewhere on an ascended plane, of a cultivation world. Two people stand ready to battle. The head of the soul-devouring sect, stood facing the head of the righteous heavens sect. The man stood in his skeletal form long throwing away his humanity in order to ascend and become a god. He stood there raged flowing through his bones as a cloud of dark miasma. He stared facing down his opponent, the head of the righteous heavens sect, who stared at the skeleton in disgust.

The righteous heavens sect believed there was no need to throw away what made you human, so he was able to hold onto his humanity when he ascended to godhood. The man was controlling his power circulating it through his veins with such intensity that lighting appeared to circulate through him.

The two massive powers stood starring each coiled to strike. This was not a spur-of-the-moment fight, this was a continuation of a fight the two had been doing on and off for years. It started as a difference in opinion then escalated into a constant battle every time they met. Neither man could remember the slight that caused the initial fight, and neither man would care anymore, they just wanted to rage and fight. At this point, it had essentially become a tradition, between the two.

Every time the two battled the other ascended gods gave these two plenty of room as they fought.

Like a lightning bolt they began, with a lightning bolt, the human shot his power through his body and rushed towards the ghoul.

The skeleton threw up a shroud of darkness, absorbing the power of the bolt causing it to dissipate into nothing. The ghoul held a hand up catching the man’s arm canceling his momentum. "Why do you always do the same thing?" The skeleton asked disappointed.

"Doesn't matter creature, you will die today." The man said angrily.

The skeleton gave his grim smile, "No, I will take your power for myself."

The man's arm being grabbed slowly started to turn black, before a burst of power shot through his wrist breaking the skeleton's grip, freeing the man to strike, only to be blocked again by the ghoul.

The two pinnacle existences continued to fight for hours, days. Constantly repeating the same fight, over and over. Then something changed.

The two were fighting when one day a loud horn sounded. The two watched as a truck flew toward them both while they grappled with each other. The two scoffed ignoring the truck feeling no power coming from it. ‘Someone was making trouble throwing a hunk of metal at us.’ The two thought and would deal with them after the fight was over, or at least that's what they thought when suddenly they were somewhere else.

The higher plane suddenly became silent, the endless fighting ended and no one was sure what had happened, but they concluded they must have finally annihilated one another.

——

On a highway between worlds, two people drive to a delivery.

“Who is asking for these 2 powerhouses?” The woman asked.

The man looked over his clipboard and laughed, “Believe it or not, it's another cultivation world.”

That got the woman's attention, “Why would they want these two?”

“I thought the same.” The man looked back over the clipboard, “Says here, in the paperwork, it was because the world we are delivering them to is stagnating.” The man shook his head, seeing the confusion on the woman’s face he explained, “There people are stuck on their cultivation paths, not making progress, and the void is encroaching too fast for them, growing too strong. They need fresh techniques and paths to move their world forward.”

The woman understood the human, but didn’t understand why they would need an undead, “Why the skeleton guy?”

“Both paths are paths to power, one is just...” The man was searching for a word.

“Evil.” The woman supplied

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Is this about balance?” The woman asked annoyed, “Cause that's bullshit.”

The man let out a sigh, “Yeah, but these cultivators love philosophy, and balance and blah blah blah”

“Yes blah blah blah the most important part of cultivating.” The woman let out a giggle.

“Agreed, but they will both most likely set up their own sects spreading their teachings to the rest of the world.”

“Won't that take centuries?”

“Probably.”

“But you said they need them soon.” The woman said trying to understand.

“Soon is relative to cultivation worlds, it's more like they need the knowledge to spread over the next 1000 years disseminate, evolve, and grow.”

A thought occurred to the woman as she looked the man over, a man appearing to be in his early 30’s, in decent shape, likes to wear jeans and overalls, and asked what she was thinking. “How long have you been doing this.”

“A while.” The man responded slyly.

——

On a small blue marble, something strange happens. Out of the corner of people's eyes, just for a second, people start to see places beyond the world. Only for a moment, and not everyone knew what they saw. The world shrugged it off and moved on, forgetting about the whole thing.

——

In a world filled with monsters, demons, people, and sometimes a mix of them all, 2 babies are born. One was a skeleton who for the first time in thousands of years he had flesh once more. The baby felt everything he had lost, for so long come back to him, looking up at the first person to ever see his new form, and all he could feel was radiating joy.

The trials and tribulation the man had been through didn't matter anymore, he could finally live as a mortal. Live with his family that died oh so long ago, destroyed by some cultivator. The baby smiled and for the first time in his new or old life, he cried with tears of joy.

In another land far away, another child is born with fierce eyes and indignation for death by a flying metal machine. The child looks around seeing creatures with furry ears and tails but otherwise looking human. 'Did I reincarnate as a beastman?' the babe wondered. For the first time, the baby breathed through its nose overwhelmed by scent, and there was one he had long forgotten. A scent of others, of those who would protect him, he thought it was nice. With that a thought the babe began to wonder, 'What's the point in cultivating alone?'

The child resolved to bring his tribe to the pinnacle, to be the strongest, and tare down any who stands in his way.