Lord Shadow

To his surprise, everyone in the martial arts world knows about the Thirteen Steps. The only reason he did not know was because he did not come from this world.

The Thirteen Steps of G.o.ds and Devils had many origin story. But the one that the Temple believed to be the truth was that it was built by the Demon Monkey magical abilities.

In the story of the Temple, it was said that when the Demon Monkey reach enlightenment he had pointed his finger down from the Heavens to the mortal word.

Light covered the whole world and divine songs could be heard echoing all across the four directions of the world

The sick was healed, the blind could see and the deaf could hear. All kinds of miracles were happening the moment that light envelops the world

When the light subsided, the steps to the Temple of Xi were changed. There are thirteen steps, different from the stone steps leading towards the Temple.

The Abbot saw the steps, thirteen of them and its peculiarities and named it the Thirteen Steps of G.o.ds and Devils

The reason why it was called the Thirteen Steps of G.o.ds and Devils was because each steps features a statue of some images of the G.o.ds that they wors.h.i.+p and otherwise unknowns type of beings.

The Temple believes that some of those are Devils and some of them are G.o.ds. It is a mystical steps of the Temple and was revered and respected by the martial arts world.

Even today, some martial artist would climb the steps leading toward the Temple and walk the Thirteen Steps of G.o.ds and Devils hoping that some of their confusion of martial arts would be solved when they look at the eyes of the statues.

There are some stories of how some martial artists gained an enlightenment when looking at the eyes of the statue.

When he heard the stories, Azief immediately connected the Thirteen Steps in front of the temple of Xi to the Thirteen Steps of the Supremacy Stairway.

Sun Wukong, Demon Monkey, or whatever the h.e.l.l his name is in the Omniverse, he must have predicted his coming.

Azief was not surprised at this.

Alsurt once teaches him that there are many powerful beings in the Universe that could divined fates and Destiny, and even manipulated Time to get the best conclusion for them.

But only the most powerful of them dares to mess with fate and Destiny, to divine it and even fewer that dare to manipulate it.

It was never easy and the Price is always steep.

The Demon Monkey had predicted his coming since ages ago. That was his conclusion

It would explain a lot if he accepts that answer

Azief also found something else when he was researching the myths of this world.

It was not a surprise that the G.o.ds and Demons and Devils in this world is heavily related to the Heavenly government of the Jade Empire.

After all, this is a world inside the system of the Three Thousand Worlds

What surprises him is something else

On one of the story he read it was said that the Monkey Demon and the Enlightened Monk had found the Sutra of Immortality hundreds of years ago.

But from what he knows, the Beings that walks those Supremacy Stairway, on that Thirteen Steps and that includes the Demon Monkey they were all ancient beings of immense power that probably lives for thousands of years or even eons ago.

For example, Azul who had lives pa.s.sing many epochs.

Of all the ancient beings that Azief had encountered in his journey, Azul might be the one that is most ancient of them all and probably the oldest being that still exist.

Azul race, the Ancient Asura, the predecessor of the Asura race was a race that live during the era of the Etherna, the First Race that exist before even Time exist.

Azief had researched them of course. And while he has a lot of information about this mysterious race, he knows it is not enough.

Some of these stories of the Etherna were imparted to him by Alsurt. Some of them he heard from some tents of oracles and soothsayers when he was jumping through realities and worlds, stranded in an infinite world with Will.

What he notices that in every world, if they reached some level of power they would one day found the remnants of the Etherna.

Their traces remains

It is like while some things changed in parallel worlds or the other realities, there is one thing that is not erased. The Etherna traces

He had found that in some worlds that he is stranded on did not have the same G.o.ds as Earth and sometimes their culture is very different and is unseen before.

Usually even if its is different world, some familiar faces, some familiar G.o.ds and G.o.ddess would appear in some form either by name, or by a.s.sociation.

Azief notices that.

He found that some worlds wors.h.i.+pped a G.o.d similar to that of the Viking. The Norse G.o.ds with the Aesir and everything.

Even their rituals and the way they honored these G.o.ds are the same like the ancient Viking of his world

It was only the name that was different since that world is full of people so primitive that they did even yet developed a formalized language.

Their G.o.d of Trickster is called Ulki and their Chief G.o.d, Odin is called Eolden. Asgard is called Arghgard. Their language is made of guttural sound and grunts.

What impress him was the similarities. How could a civilization, trillions of light years away, could develop the same kind of belief like humans did in Earth?

What is the impetus of such similarities?

There are also some worlds where there is the statue of the Olympians. He saw a statue of Athena, and some structure resembling that of the Parthenon in Greece, in a world ruled by monsters

Azief had also learned what that is when Will told him.

After he and Katarina escapes from the Mountain of Ice, Will visited him.

They talk about a lot thing at that time. During that time, they talk about the statues of these G.o.ds that resembles the G.o.ds they have on Earth.

Azief at that time, knows that the G.o.ds of Olympus, that Asgard and those mythical beings exist. Though they did not exist on Earth, they exist on a different realm. In a different dimension.

When the topic reaches there, Azief was shocked to know that Will know why such thing happens.

Will at that time have learned a lot under his teacher. Azief did not pry much because he knows that Will would do alright.

It is a way of respecting the path that Will had chosen. In all the years that they have known each other, Will has stand by his side, unhesitantly.

Azief had his own concerns about Will teacher but he supported him nonetheless. Not because he is not worried.

It is because he knows that Will to probably had the same ideas like he did, knowing the risk. But he still chose that road. Will did not trod the same path that he picked.

He picked his own path. And in the end, they still going to meet each other. A forked road sometimes leads to the same destination

Will had sacrificed some things to learn under that teacher of his, but he also gained a lot of things. And one of that is the knowledge of why the G.o.ds in many other civilization and in the Otherworlds seems so alike.

Will talk to him about this mystery. He told him about what he learned from his teacher. About Stamp. A Stamp of Will. A seed of belief and faith

He said that the G.o.ds of Asgard, Olympus, the Heavenly Palace of the jade Empire and the many other G.o.ds in the myths of humanity were steered by a Stamp of them.

A stamp of their Will that will slowly imprint itself in the mind and the consciousness of the world and its Universe.

These G.o.ds and deities also had their own culture long before all of the newer worlds and Universes were formed

The stamp helps these powerful Beings to infuse their culture into the foreign universe making their wors.h.i.+p easier for the lifeform in that world to stomach

By wors.h.i.+pping them, faith power will be generated.

It is hard to categorize or quantify fates power because what is important in wors.h.i.+pping is not the quant.i.ty but the quality or the depth of one faith.

Knowing this, Azief finally understand why some worlds have only Aesir G.o.ds and why some Universe only have Olympus G.o.ds or the others.

These intergalactic civilizations must have their own agreement and treaty deciding where they operated.

Then what about Earth?

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Sorry, a little late chapter.