The Other eventually makes it back to the dungeon as the golems are debating the finer points of their suggestion while playing craps and bidding rocks. Particularly shiny rocks but rocks nonetheless. Seeing the Other after hearing him walk down the steps, Pohon speaks up just before a cheer from the golems still playing.

“We have a proposal about a gigantic, massive, overwhelming tree.”

- - - - - - - - - - -

“You’re sure this will work?” the Other asks the Purist group.

“Most assuredly, we spent a year on it and already had something similar designed,” states the golem in charge. “The only real question is whether it will be as tall as the mountain or taller than the mountain. A week to finish the primary structure, a month to finish out the details while the organics take hold. You’ll have to scale up these spells while keeping the spacing nearly the same. The key is for the interior to rotate while the “bark” grows in a typical fashion.

- - - - - - - - - - -

“Wow! This is amazing!” exclaims a young adventurer who just arrived at the Valley of Megiddo. “I can hardly see the top and I’m on a mountain!”

The caravan has stopped temporarily at the apex of the mountain pass while equipment is checked. It gives the entire group time to admire the tree stretching from the valley floor to the heavens above even their vantage point.

“Just wait until you see the city itself little bro,” says a slightly taller copy of the young man. ‘I almost can’t wait to surprise him with the dungeon teleporter that they discovered last year.’

- - - - - - - - - - -

“I have been thinking about it, and I have too many regrets about how I lived my life,” the Emperor of Vaidal laments to the Other over bitter drinks. They are sitting on the balcony of a café under the ‘World Tree’ while the whole world walks by below them.

“I’ve spent fifty of these last years hearing stories about this place and how fulfilled my children and grandchildren feel having explored the world away from my influence. I wish I had another chance, to not stay holed up in the palace with the singular goal to take the reigns from my father.”

“Well,” the Other says slowly with the pause. “There may not be much to be done with your past, but perhaps there is something to be done with your future. Make it to the bottom floor then retire under the tree, perhaps you will be surprised.”

- - - - - - - - - - - -

“Did you hear about the new research out of Northwind University in Fleur?” asks a well dressed sheepkin in a tweed jacket to her human companion.

“Oh by the gods who hasn’t at this point. ‘The Oldest and Most Prestigious University on 5 Continents Discovers Decline of Magical Creatures,’” he says as if quoting the headline, which he is. “What about it? It’s not like we haven’t been suspecting this for literal centuries. Every parent has told every child, ‘There used to be a lot more monsters than this when I was growing up.’”

“The rumor-mill,” the sheepkin begins while wagging her eyebrows, “says that they were forbidden from publishing the answer to the question, ‘But where did they go?’ And that answer is The Dungeon.”

“That thing has been explored for literal millennia. Well, one to be precise, so you would expect the adventurers to keep track of things like that, but there’s been no overflow or increase in aggression or even increase in production from that place. I say it’s horse-hockey. We’ve just gotten better at controlling their populations.”

- - - - - - - - - - - -

At the bottom of the amphitheater, the Other is lounging in the spectator stands, looking off into the ‘sky’ with his feet on the table and a sleeping duck on his chest. Sebastian is finishing up his report of the century.

“The planet wide soul net is functioning appropriately according to the survey that finished this year, though the only soul with enough regrets and qualities to trigger it remains the Emperor from 326 years ago. Just a reminder, he described his second life as ‘thoroughly enjoyable, just a bit short’ as he died at the age of 42. Back on topic though, there have been some odd… Fluctuations, in the net this year.”

This gets the Other’s attention, as he turns his head to look at the golem and says, “Describe it to me.”

“It’s almost like there is a weight on the net, but not from any souls or persons we can detect and you know how well we developed those ‘sensors’ since you were the one to place them around the planet and moons.”

With a hum, the Other thinks for a brief moment before replying. “Did you spend much time in the last millennia studying any, shall we say, galactic space-time phenomenon or multiversal theory?”

“Not as such no, but I take it that it may be important?”

“Perhaps, but perhaps not,” the Other replies while looking back at the ceiling. “The fundamental flaw with armchair reincarnation is what? Where do we get all of these extra souls from, right? You and I know that there is no travel between ‘tiers’ of existence based on our work setting this net up, so where did these 5 billion souls from the last 800 years come from? Where do they go to? Are they created de novo?”

Sebastian stands at the front and nods slightly in the slight pause.

“But what if there’s a different issue entirely, regardless of what is happening in our space. What if there’s a leak from somewhere, letting souls pass through the veil? Some hapless soul floating through space until it happens to hit a planet with life and happens to hit a sentient baby-maker-in-progress? What if our planet and existence is superimposed on another, and by some strange circumstance on the part of the universe at large or the gods on one side or the other, a soul sized hole is opened?”

Sebastian looks like he is about to have an existential crisis, or he would if he wasn’t a golem. As such, he does manage to get out the question, “And then what?”

“As far as our net goes, this means one of two things. Either a soul on our side that meets the conditions is in the process of actively, almost-but-not-quite-yet dying. We only have the Emperor to measure the stress on the system, and he died quite quickly so it’s hard to tell. Or, there is some sort of multiversal, universal, or fate magic shenanigans going on. In either case, if we catch someone, put on a show and make sure to get as much information out of them about their life and how they died. No change in procedure needed if it’s a soul from here. Let me know before initiating phase 2 if it is anything else.

- - - - - - - - - - -

*Buuuuuuuaaaaaap. Buuuuuuuaaaaaap. Brrrraaaaaaa. Buuuuuuuaaaaaap.

“Ah great, what is this alarm for?” complains Margaret.

The other golems around her shrug their shoulders or shake their heads. Their confusion doesn’t last long however, as they see Sebastian and Graham stand from opposite sides of the room and run out and down the same hallway together. The alarm continues for another thirty seconds before turning off.

Wild speculation occurs in the ‘cafeteria’ after they leave as everyone tries to deduce what would cause both of them to run off in an alarming situation. Dozen of plausible theories are put forth until Duke Selim walks in and is asked about the alarm and his thoughts.

“Oh, that? That’s the reincarnator alarm. It’s gone off before, about three and a half centuries ago, so if you have forgotten that’s understandable.”

At this, the conversation turns as those who were around recall stories of the late emperor, sparking excitement in the (relatively) new members of their group as well as old hands who were either on ‘vacation’ or not paying attention. Because if the rumors are true it means one thing is bound to happen.

Flagrant disregard of the rules by their boss and Overlord.

- - - - - - - - - -

“Boss.”

The Other, groggy from his decade long nap, rolls over on his cot and sits up. Yawning and stretching, he replies in a low voice, “Who disturbs my slumber?”

“Sebastian, and you’ve been sleeping for approximately 3500 days. Same with ‘Bill over there by our recollection.”

“Well, get on with it, I’m not getting any younger over here. Which empire is falling and do I need to accelerate the process or start it?”

“Neither sir,” Sebastian replies. “You asked me 15 years ago to let you know if the reincarnation net catches anything not from here, and so here I am.”

The Other blinks for a few moments while waking up and processing things, while the duck atop his dresser wakes at these words and flys over to his head and sits down.

“Bollocks…” replies the Other, finally catching up to the situation and conversation from over a decade ago. “We have any idea where it came from? And how long ago…”

Sebastian interrupts, “None whatsoever, and approximately a year ago. We figured since the soul was caught and not deteriorating we could get some information out of it while working on things. The Multiversal group were hoping they could get a rough world map from them, but it turns out they didn’t care at all about learning geography, as there was clearly a concept of “world map” but no details besides ‘some land here and there with a bit of a stretchy point between these areas.’ Strangely, they are aware their planet is ‘in the short arm of the galaxy,’ but isn’t sure if it is a spiral or barrel galaxy, just a ‘spin-y’ galaxy. So the next question is what do we do now?”

The Other stands up, activating a complex rune on him and the room, causing a woosh of air as everything is cleaned and walks out the door. “What do you mean, what? The rule is if it’s caught in the net it gets another chance. Perhaps not how we or it was expecting, but that’s what it gets.”

“It comes from a no-mana world, as best we can tell.”

“Hmmm-yawn, well, that is certainly interesting but what of it?”

“Perhaps viewing the logs and recording crystals would help.”

- - - - - - - - - - -

“Well gentle-golems, after a month reviewing things I agree with you on this,” the Other begins, “this guy, is it a guy? Souls have no chromosomes but this one needs a lot of help if this is going to happen. Which it is, so any suggestions? My vote is to just throw him into whichever royal family is closest and having a baby soon and be done with it.”

Realizing it is now or never, several minions step forward with suggestions they have carefully crafted over the last year.

Fleur begins by saying, “First off, every one of us have heard at some point in time that ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ and we think that would be the best option in this case. Put him in a village setting where he can be watched over by multiple people growing up.”

“It will also be bad,” continues Margaret, “if he regains all his ‘memories’ at once as early as 5 years old. We know it is mostly ideas, impressions, and images, but it is overwhelming. 12 years old, and slowly over the next 4-6 years as we can hide the changes in perception within those angsty years.”

“He will also need friends!” proclaims Saidel.

“And that’s where you come in,” says Graham. “The magic needed for memory suppression will need a close eye and close proximity, and if Lord Thunderhammer sitting there is any indication, we know you can shapeshift as well. We already have a thousand year old village of retired adventurers and royalty, isolated far from civilization. For extra hands who more intimately understand the situation though, we want to send these five with you specifically and to consider a few more that would like to go.”

The Other looks at Fleur, Margarette, Saidel, Hammond, and Harrison. Seeing no immediate problems with this as it will theoretically lessen his work load, he nods his head.

“Done.”

Graham looks at him for a moment before continuing, “Sir, I don’t think you quite understand. Even today golems like us do not exist anywhere else in the world, because frankly we are not golems. Secrets will get out if they go as they are, so I highly recommend rethinking their request.”

“Oh? So you aren’t wholly on board with this request then? The magic memory suppression we already knew about and have accounted for it naturally, though with a non-native the extension seems appropriate. Graham, go tell the soul it is reincarnating. You five stay, the rest of you leave.”

Feeling slightly perturbed, Graham hesitates and leaves the room with the rest before the Other continues.

“I assumed that you all knew I would be making a proper homunculus for those leaving, and that it is effectively a death sentence, albeit a long and protracted one since they age much more slowly than the average human last I checked, unless humans are living for hundreds of years now.”

“About 200 or so at the longest with the reduction of miasma and monsters, baring other unforeseen events. But you already had something like this planned?”

“Ah,” says the Other while blinking. “It seems it has been a while then, so perhaps not much different if you stay in this village you spoke of. And yes, of course I have planned something like this, those bodies of yours that you are using now, how much different are they from your normal ones, if you remember? You need a face, a skin tone, and for your soul to be anchored to it, and that’s it, that’s the only significant difference between those bodies and a homunculus. All the parts are basically there, just waiting. I have been keeping you immortal because the other option you were given at the start was death itself, sanctioned by the Church of Death.”

While the group has long since realized it would be feasible to once again walk the world as a living, breathing, being, they had not quite realized how insultingly close they were. And that they could always choose to ‘properly’ die.

In this somewhat stunned silence, the Other blazes on.

“So, what kind of bodies have you wanted or settled on? Or should I just add faces and **holes to your current bodies?”

- - - - - - - - - -

Saidel lets out a long sigh after the meeting is over and they are given time to think about their new ‘body.’ While in isolation, so that none of the other golems are made aware of this change.

“Since when did he get bitter and mean like that?” she asks.

“It’s been slow,” says Fleur, “but it always seems to be worse after he manages to fall in love for a while, the last one was 200 years ago. I think it hit him fairly hard as he had started a ‘normal’ family and left for “work” for a week only to have the two of them murdered in the street. He has really only been awake for about a year after that. I was told the authorities never found the culprit…”