Universe's End

Chapter 285: Event Housekeeping

The five Founders, having realized exactly what they were up against, immediately put distance between themselves and the towering figure.

“Oh, cautious?” The First asked, his voice still warbling oddly.

“You look like some sort of demonic shit,” The Rogue said, pointing a black dagger at the world spirit.

“Relax,” The First grinned, its skeletal ram head flaring with light as its eye sockets became illuminated with green light. “Do you expect that the Eternal would allow me to kill you directly?”

“No, but you’re still a weird bony sack of moss shit,” The Rogue answered for the group once again.

“I did try to pull a fast one, I shall admit,” The First said. “Not that I expected much from it. No, I am here to fulfill my responsibilities the Eternal imposed upon me.”

“The rules,” Rory stated, realizing the obvious.

“Correct,” The First answered. “You have come to me to conquer my challenges, and I have built challenges to conquer you. In this case, the rules are simple: Dotted upon me are ten creations, anomalous existences, the ten Kaisers. Beasts which exist beyond the standard realm or classification of strength, each one with the energy of a tier ten monster.”

“Wow, wow, wow, back the fuck up,” The Rogue held his hands up. “Tier ten?”

“He said energy, not strength,” The Spear corrected. “Meaning, there is more than meets the eye.”

“Correct,” The First repeated. “What specifically that means to you all, will be for you to figure out. That aside, there are other housekeeping rules I must inform you all of. First, the… shop.”

The Founders looked at each other with confusion, the World Spirit sighing dramatically.

“Slaying my creations, the lesser creations most specifically, will award Anomalous Energy.”

“Anomalous Energy? Not Ascension Energy?” Zoey asked.

“Correct,” The World Spirit repeated itself for the second time. “The nature of how my creations were fostered so quickly, at least in the grand scheme of things compared to my elder sister, involves a form of energy that you may all find valuable. Unfortunately, it is explicitly incompatible with Enlightened beings, so while it will ‘gather’ within you, don’t expect to use it directly to grow.”

“So, this Anomalous Energy, what do we do with it, regarding this ‘shop’ you mentioned?” Rory asked.

“I was getting there. Truthfully, learning the intricacies of speech to discuss this with all of you is beginning to feel like it wasn’t worth it,” The First sighed dramatically. “Anomalous Energy may be concentrated into Anomalous Beads, a form of ‘currency’ that may be exchanged for varying boons or rewards. Or, perhaps, other uses as well.”

Lifting its hand, an obelisk of bleached bone and green moss rose from the ground before unfolding, expanding larger and larger until it was like a portable cave had appeared, a green orb of light at its very center.

“These shops may be discovered naturally, or you may spend some of your Anomalous energy to summon one. Not all shops contain the same inventory either.”

“Very game-like,” Tom noted.

“I do not know what games you are referring to,” The First said before moving on. “None of this is my idea, I should mention.”

“Eon,” Rory said, pointing out the obvious.

“Correct,” The First repeated for the third time.

Curious, Rory entered the strange cave with the green light, approaching the orb of light before glancing back out.

“Touch the orb,” The Rogue called out. “Maybe it will eat your hand!”

“It will not, as much as that would amuse me,” The First said.

Seeing no reason not to, Rory reached out, his hand entering the green light.

Wow.

Materials he’d never seen before sprang to mind, each with a listed ‘price’; whether they were expensive or not, Rory had no current reference point. Attached were small ‘descriptions,’ though it was more like just ‘examining’ one of the items, which brought the information to the fore.

Knowing this was for demonstration, Rory didn’t bother fixating on any, except for a single item listed as ‘Free.’

Interesting.

‘Purchasing’ the item, the green light seemed to shrink inward, hardening into a quartz crystal wand –not to be mistaken with the Harry Potter ‘wand’ from fiction— green all the way through except the very center, which was filled with a dusky grey, nearly black, smoke.

“Ahh, the World Phylactery,” The First spoke, appearing next to Rory instantly. “Which brings me to housekeeping number two. While Anomalous Energy may be used for the shop, it may also be injected into your World Phylactery.”

“Which does… what?” Rory asked.

“That depends,” The First said, before going quiet.

“Depends on what?” Rory asked, growing impatient.

“Variables.”

“Such as?”

“Personal variables,” The First said, looking as if it were having fun.

Finding no answers from the World Spirit, Rory switched to examining the item.

World Phylactery of the First

Rarity: Unique

An object meant to primarily house the exotic Anomalous Energy. May be used in conjunction with a World Crucible to generate potent rewards.

“Alright, better, but not by much,” Rory sighed before looking at the World Spirit. “World Crucible?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“And finally, housekeeping number three. Occasionally, you may find yourself in the presence of World Crucibles, locations of immense power that will allow you to perform miracles that normally only a World Spirit would be capable of. Where they are, who knows?”

“Guarded by your Kaisers?” Zoey offered from outside the cave.

“Perhaps.”

“Definitely guarded by Kaisers,” Zoey amended.

“Probably secret areas too,” Eric added.

“Side bosses?” Tom offered.

“Definitely secret bosses,” Even Allison joined in, with a slight upward tilt of her lips as she made a point of ignoring Rory’s existence altogether.

“So, Anomolous Energy can be earned from beating stuff, which may then be used to purchase rewards at these ‘shops’ or instead used as some… fuel? Fuel, works, I guess, in these phylacteries. Phylacteries may then be used at World Crucibles to make… stuff. Chances are this is only a surface-level understanding as well,” Rory said.

“Correct,” The First repeated for the umpteenth time.

“Can the World Crucibles be used for things other than phylactery stuff?” Rory asked.

Silence.

“That’s a yes,” Rory said, suddenly excited. While defeating Aelia’s siblings had been a chore lumped upon them, now there were direct, tangible benefits for them, outside of keeping Aelia from being consumed by her siblings.

“Will Ascension Energy still be obtained during this event?” Tom suddenly asked.

“A good question,” The First answered. “In a fashion. The significance that would generate the ascension energy you are asking about is instead being used to actualize the anomalous energy into a form that you can interact with, as explained prior. While you could choose to obtain said ascension energy in its pure form, that would negate the ability to gain anomalous energy.”

“So any significance that would result in ascension energy is going to be from secondary actions or from beating your challenge entirely,” Tom clarified.

“In theory,” The First grinned widely. “But that assumes you can best my challenge of my ten Kaisers.”

“Got it, you can leave then,” The Rogue popped up out of a shadow. “Before you start villain monologuing or something. We got it, going to munch on our bones, blah, blah, blah. Thanks for the information, though.”

While Rory hadn’t had many interactions with the Rogue, he found himself stifling a smile and a snort. There was just something immensely satisfying about putting World Spirits in their place that never got old, regardless of whether it was him doing it or not.

Glaring at the Founders, the First opened its mouth to say something, before Zoey spoke up.

“Blah, blah, blah. We’ve heard it all before. You can go.”

Green lights coloring his eyes, narrowing, the World Spirit vanished a moment later, leaving the summoned shop behind.

“Enlightening,” Allison sighed, her eyes skipping past Rory as she looked at the rest of the group. “Given this shop seems permanent, how about we set up our base camp zero here?”

“Base camp zero?” Zoey asked. “What sort of name is that?”

“A perfectly functional name,” Allison said defensively.

“Sounds like some nerd shit,” Zoey snorted as Allison glared down at her older sister.

Rory was silent, a slight frown on his face.

I thought Base Camp Zero sounded cool….

It turned out that, when you had five Founders all working together, building a base camp was something very easy to do. Handing out axes, Rory sent the others out to bring back lumber, as Rory manipulated the ground with Earth Soul. The terrain was somewhere between a proper desert and a scraggy badland, ignoring the crimson, nearly pink trees that grew from trunks of bone white bark, each tree looking like a candy cane and a bald cypress had gotten their freak on. While the trees were rated as mundane, they were harder and stronger than any ordinary mundane-rated trees Rory had seen on Aelia, closer in common to the strength of a peak uncommon-grade tree.

Interesting.

Reshaping large swathes of terrain around them, the ground fighting his manipulation that he wasn’t used to, their camp was soon born, five cottages of wood and stone, with a surrounding wall made of the same material.

Oh, and they were also on a bluff raised over three hundred feet, something that was extremely exhausting by the end, as the dirt and stone and sand resisted more and more, even with the ultra-efficient Earth Soul. Thankfully, the shop had been raised without problem; it wasn’t somehow statically tied to its exact spatial coordinates on some weird Eon shenanigans.

Further defenses would be added later, but the twin suns, now alien to them on a new planet within the same stellar system, were nearing the horizon and on the verge of setting into darkness. While nighttime wasn’t really a problem, there was a universal rule regarding nighttime.

That was when the strong stuff went bump in the dark.

Critically lacking in intel, there was a limit to how much they wanted to push their luck for the first night, instead choosing to settle in for the night.

All except for the Rogue, who decided to take advantage of his Primal Night affinity to scout their surroundings, the only one who was actually stronger in the unknown darkness.

Sitting around a fire inside an open pavilion, the small group was silent. Mostly because every time chatter would begin, either Rory or the Spear would glance at one another, and conversation would dwindle.

Christ, it’s like my ex all over again.

The fact that she wasn’t trying to gain revenge on Rory for killing her best friend was a testament to the work that Zoey had put in over the last few years, but man,were things still awkward.

“I’m going to bed,” The Spear finally said, standing up and brushing herself off before marching toward one of the cottages.

Watching her go, it was only when the door closed behind her that Rory eased up.

“You’d think you fucked her sister or something,” Zoey snorted.

“You are her sister,” Rory rolled his eyes at her comment.

“I know, that’s why I thought it was funny,” Zoey snorted once more.

“Stupid,” Rory sighed, but not without smiling slightly. Zoey was an idiot, but as his best friend, she knew better than anyone else how to amuse him.

“I will be heading to sleep as well,” Tom said, standing up. “While none of us needs to sleep often, I believe it's better to get sleep when we can.”

“Yep, thanks for pointing out the obvious,” Zoey chuckled.

“I think he’s telling us we should sleep as well,” Rory said.

“Oh, I know, I just wanted to play obtuse about it,” Zoey rolled her eyes. “We will head to bed shortly, once Eric returns and gives us an idea of what we’re working with.”

“Fine by me,” Tom said, before walking off to claim his own cottage.

With just the two of them, Rory found himself staring into the crackling fire. It wasn’t needed for warmth or even necessarily for sight, but the human instinct craved the light of a nice nighttime bonfire.

“Sorry,” Zoey said after a moment of silence. “She is still prickly.”

“Honestly, that’s better than what it could have been,” Rory sighed. “The way I see it, the fact that she isn’t gutting my where I stand is already a good sign.”

“She’s gone through a lot,” Zoey agreed. “So, how have things been the last few years? Didn’t really ask about it earlier.”

“Fine?” Rory shrugged. “The Flying Fortress project is coming along.”

“Is that what that thing you were flying on was about?”

“Yeah, it’s the prototype that eventually the plan is to extrapolate on.”

“Worked well,” Zoey said.

“Thankfully, we basically did a single test run of it before Aelia snatched me up,” Rory chuckled. “Otherwise, earlier, I would have been restricted on how I could have helped out while maintaining such an expensive suppressing domain.”

“Oh, how about your domain? Any better at it?”

“On the fly? Not really, fully realized domains are still a pain in the ass. I don’t think a tier eight is really meant to be playing around with them in truth, I’ve just been cheating with manipulating parameters and all that.”

“And the Arcana magic?”

“Also, something I don’t think is meant to be applicable at tier eight, I think the Bird just cheated with its multiple true bodies that multiplied its magic capabilities. At best, I’ve got a better grasp of using sequences as a parameter now.”

“Nifty,” Zoey said, borrowing Rory’s favorite word.

“Any new developments on your part?” Rory asked.

“Ehh, not really. Qualitative improvements, sure, but not all of us can whip out new shit on the fly like you can.”

“Oh, don’t start that complaint up again, you know that without combat skills coming easily, I need to be able to do that.”

“Uh huh, sureeee,” Zoey said, poking him in the ribs. “I just think that-”

The two of them instantly stopped, as a wave of pressure rolled outward, blanketing them as a familiar face popped up out of nowhere, bleeding profusely and sweating.

“So, uh, problem,” The Rogue groaned. “Territory Alpha.”

Rory and Zoey glanced at one another, raising an eyebrow. A single territory alpha, while dangerous to a lone Founder, wasn’t a-

“Multiple,” The Rogue added.

“Oh,” Zoey instantly closed her mouth before she ever had the chance to say anything. Allison and Tom were with them moments later, having reacted as soon as the pressure blanketing them was felt.

“What’s the situation?” Allison asked, eyes narrowed at Eric.

“Three Territory Alphas. Why three are cohabitating is beyond me, but they’re on their way here. They managed to get a chomp on me as I made my escape.”

“How did they even notice you?” Tom asked.

“Because they’re fucking snakes,” Eric grunted.

And with that, their walls exploded as three serpentine heads, each the size of a bus, struck toward them.

Can’t even get one easy night.