I might have overdone it.
Taking deep breaths, Rory slowly caught his breath as he took in the sight.
Yeah, definitely overdid it.
The energy he’d unleashed in the attack should have created a crater miles across and just as deep; thankfully, the attack carried the conceptual intent of precision. So rather than a several-mile-wide crater erasing any proof that the undercity had ever existed, there was rely a 400-ter-wide chute that dropped into complete darkness, with much of the energy boring downward.
“Ugh, feeling queasy.”
Dropping from the sky, Rory plumted two hundred feet, crashing onto the ground below and lying sprawled out.
There was overkill, and then there was whatever that was. Rory had just been so caught up in the utter venom he felt toward-
No. Can’t even let myself think of that thing.
“Enchain still needs work,” Rory said groggily to himself. The fact that a single binding skill had taken 80% of the pneuma reserves he’d had left was a far cry from usable in any regular situation.
“Notifications, oh notifications,” Rory mumbled, several beeping red icons alerting him to their presence before Rory swiped them away. He’d get to them later.
Lying there, Rory was left entirely alone, even as the teleportation temple was abuzz with activity now that the Bane was gone.
When soone finally did decide to approach, she squatted down, her knees nearly hugging her chin.
“So,” Zoey said, giving him a poke. “Several questions.”
“You’re not going to give so ti to recover?” Rory asked. “A lot of bad shit just happened.”
“Normally I’d have that grace,” Zoey said, the usual joking tone gone from her voice. “But you’re right, so serious shit did just happen, one more important than any of the others.”
“Yeah, that being?”
“Your daughter. You can be an idiot, but even you aren’t blind. She’s a Sensen.”
“Yeah,” Rory acknowledged.
Several seconds of silence later, Zoey spoke up, a sort of low growl in her tone.
“’ Yeah,’ that’s all you’ve got? C’mon, Rory, don’t play gas with . I would think we’ve been best friends for long enough that you can spill.”
“Best friends? Does it count if no one else is around?”
“Rory.”
“Fine,” Rory sighed, knowing there was no getting around this talk. “Yeah, she’s a Sensen.”
“Where did you find her? Or are you harboring a colony of omnicidal maniacs?”
“No,” Rory snorted. “It’s a bit of an odd story. Years ago, after returning, one of the people in Ehkorrus gave an item they’d co across, an item that would lead to things from a ‘lost ti’ or whatever the description was. I assud it would revolve around stuff from our universe. Following it led to the very depths of tunnels dug by the forr territory alpha of this place. At the bottom was this… canyon? Gulch? Whatever the technical term is. Anyway. Lo and behold, after exploring it, I found a ricochet ship of all things. From what I could tell, it hadn’t been there for long; sothing had ‘summoned’ it into this reality, where it was rged into the nearby rock after lding into this universe. It had been scrubbed of basically everything noteworthy; crossing the primordial soup of a dood existence into a new reality tends to do that.”
“And?”
“I was getting there. Inside, there was a life pod or whatever. I managed to crack it open without turning the inhabitant into space goop. Tadah, a Sensen, and a child at that, maybe ten years old.”
“Your daughter,” Zoey said.
“Bingo. At the ti, I wasn’t sure what to do. I could always pull a baby Hitler.”
“Baby Hitler?”
“You know, the joke about ti travelers and baby Hitler?” Motioning with his hands, Rory mid as if he were tying a pillowcase around his neck.
“That’s awful,” Zoey said, with a hint of amusent.
“Yeah, well, in the end, I had that sa thought. I’m not a kid killer. Had it been an adult Sensen? Probably. But a child? No, just no, I couldn’t bring myself to do that. So, in the end, I ended up raising her as my own kid.”
“Why was she there? In a ricochet ship of all things?” Zoey asked, sounding confused. “That doesn’t add up with anything revolving around the end of our universe. In one of our ships? Hell, sightings of child Sensen’s were essentially unheard of; only a few pictures had been obtained by those from the Intergalactic Community.”
“Soone is well-versed,” Rory pointed out.
“I might have run away from ho, but that doesn’t an I completely stopped caring about important world news, or I guess universe news,” Zoey scowled. “It just doesn’t make sense?”
“Don’t ask , I was basically just a lab tech and part-ti helping out with athletics at a nearby high school, hardly any high-level diplomat or politician.”
“So…. She hasn’t been talking about murdering puppies, has she?” Zoey asked.
“Fuck no,” Rory said. “She’s the best damn kid I’ve ever known, and I’m proud to be called her dad.”
“Softie,” Zoey sighed.
Several seconds of silence hung until Rory coughed.
“That’s it?” He asked.
“I an, yeah,” Zoey shrugged. “I’ve known you longer than I’ve known anyone else. I trust you more than I trust anyone else. You’re my partner and best friend, though if you ever repeat this to anyone else, I will punch you right in the snoz.”
“No one says snoz anymore.”
“Well, I’m going to bring it back,” Zoey said smugly as Rory let out a quiet chuckle.
“Thanks,” Rory sighed after a mont, the levity appreciated. “Bad shit happened here.”
“Yeah,” Zoey agreed quietly. “I didn’t see much. I only brawled with your bane for a few seconds through this place, but in those few seconds, I saw what was left behind.”
“I never took it seriously enough,” Rory muttered. “Life, death, that was the regular business. This? This was like a personalized hate cri. It’s been figuring out for decades, until the point it could hit where it hurt the most.”
“Are you okay?”
“From a certain standpoint, yeah. No one I knew personally, aside from the big snake, died. But children died, and my kid nearly died.”
“And that big ass snake?”
“The Khan of Blue Lightning,” Rory answered. “We’ve got a pretty long history, but safe to say he was the first ally I had on this world that was from outside my ‘people.’ His goal was to one day reach tier ten, where it would be able to free itself from the Maw. He was purifying this territory, making it into sothing people from Earth would liken to a paradise, golden fields and all that. You should see what it looks like beyond his influence. He was a friend, a friend I never took seriously enough.”
Rory’s gut hurt, and not from eating sothing uncooked, a pain of loss that he sequestered away.
“I’m sorry,” Zoey said.
“Don’t be, you didn’t cause this. Fuck, if it weren’t for you, I’d have lost my kid.”
Again, silence, before it was Zoey’s turn to break it.
“What was that power, by the way? So intense shit I felt from you.”
“Faith or Belief juice is my guess,” Rory answered. “Only felt it once before, when Ehkorrus was very nearly destroyed in a Siege Wave that was hijacked by the sa blight khan you killed. Re-killed, whatever.”
“That’s a thing?”
“I an, it makes sense,” Rory said with a shrug. “Concepts, intent, significance, when you factor all that together, a bunch of people praying for soone in particular, soone they treat almost like a god, that’s probably got to translate into literal power.”
“Spicy shit,”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Yeah, but I’m going to make a point of not using it.”
“Why?”
“Not exactly an abundant source,” Rory said. “At least I’m not going to use it for fighting. And more importantly, it’s not my strength. Rely on sothing that isn’t your own too much; it will hollow out your own significance.”
“Hmm, I guess that makes sense,” Zoey said. “So… now what?”
“Now? I lay here for a while and second-guess all my life choices, eventually get tired of that, and move on, figuring out my next move.”
“What is your next move?”
“Speak to Apostolos, you t him briefly. Probably Irene, you also t her briefly. Then? Spend so ti with Roxy. And then? Probably eat sothing.”
“And then?”
“That’s part of the ‘lay here and figure shit out’ phase,” Rory snorted.
And that’s exactly what they did, for nearly an hour.
During that ti, Rory finally figured it was ti to look at notifications.
The first was a genuinely interesting one, confirming his thoughts on the mystery ‘faith’ energy.
Grand Attribute Gained: Stigmata
The power of faith, worship, and belief may vary based on individual understanding. Yet the core concept remains: confidence and reliance on a higher being. Few will ever experience what it ans to be the subject of such belief and veneration. Stigmata does not naturally replenish itself; instead, it is fueled by the intensity of others' beliefs. Increasing one’s Stigmata attribute results in the deepening of one’s reserves.
Fair enough. Rory ntally nodded to himself. He was not a fan of being an ‘icon’ of any form of worship or belief, but he’d crossed that bridge already. Overall, the gist was that it was super-duper pneuma gained from others.
Definitely over-simplified with so mysteries that have undoubtedly not been touched upon, but good enough for now.
The next notification was less pleasant.
Allied Territory Shattered
The [Golden Fields] territory of the Khan of Blue Lightning has been shattered. With the heart of the forr territory stilled, all allied benefits have been lost, resetting the territory to unclaid neutral status.
Rory stared at the notification for several seconds before sighing and dismissing it. There was no undoing what had already happened. The Khan was gone, leaving the forr Golden Fields unclaid. In fact, without his influence, it would likely begin to revert into the poison wastes it had once been, and still was, past the inner domain.
Next.
Successful Skill Creation: Enchain
The combat skill Enchain has been successfully created. Rarity grading: Aberrant.
If Rory wanted more information on the skill, he could always pull up the actual skill details, but given he’d made the skill himself, he didn’t see a reason to, he already knew what it did, it was a physical and coordinate binding skill, preventing sothing from slipping away through teleportation or simply tearing apart the physical constraints of the chain. The downside was that it was in serious need of further tinkering to improve its efficiency. Still, at last, Rory finally had a combat skill, a real combat skill which existed only for combat, unlike Earth Soul, a technicality. Given it had also been created from scratch, Rory had no concerns that Eon would co and snatch that skill away from him either.
Finally, it was ti to get to the ‘big’ one, the reward for defeating his bane, and in a rather spectacular manner as well.
Planetary Event: Bane’s Birth
Requirents: All Founders A6
Having crystallized and solidified their foundations, the ti has co to add the spark of chaos to the dry kindle of potential once more.
Event Details: For the next three tiers (6,7,8), each founder will be confronted with their Chosen Bane three tis per tier. Defeating a Chosen Bane at least two out of three tis will be counted as a tier victory. Final rewards will be scaled based on tier victories. A Chosen Bane will not attempt to kill a Founder directly until the tier eight culmination confrontations. Successfully wounding a Chosen Bane to a pre-determined degree will award minor rewards per fight, regardless of victory or defeat. Should a Chosen Bane be completely killed, a new Chosen Bane will be spawned. Tiering up before battling a Chosen Bane three tis in a tier will automatically count the entire tier as a loss.
Chosen Bane of the Architect
Tier Six Status: 2-1
Tier Seven Status: 1-2
Tier Eight Status: 1-0
Current Level:
Adaptations:
-Spatial Warping and Void Affinity
-Solar Negation and Enervation
-Illusion Negation
-Earth Elent Suppression
Rory was sowhat surprised that more things weren’t listed in the adaptations, such as the sonic scream it had used in the past or the fact that it was using weapons now, but after a thought, Rory nodded as if making sense of it.
The sonic scream wasn’t really an adaptation, more like a specific move available to the form it took at the ti. The fact that it uses weapons now is the sa thing; rather than a bat-form and thus a sonic scream, it’s a -form, ergo, weapons.
Moving on from the basic report, Rory finally got onto the rewards.
Planetary Event: Bane’s Birth Tier-EightPartial Encounter Report
Record: 1-0
Status: Total Victory
Reward: Anti-Matter Essence
“Anti-what now?” Rory uttered, as, suddenly, from throughout the undercity, a cry of surprise went up from the ergency teams as motes of inverted light shot upward, traces of the corrosive and void affinities of the Architect Bane fusing and synthesizing into a new elent.
Anti-elent?
Fusing into a single speck of energy, it shot toward Rory, who instantly caught a sense of it, the potential vision aspect of Eyes of the Architect screaming at him to grab it.
Flicking his wrist, the speck, no larger than a piece of dust, was contained within a crystal-like marble, perfectly isolated from the outside world.
“What the hell?” Zoey asked, shooting upright into a seated position from where she had been lying.
“My Bane reward.”
“Anti-matter?” Zoey half-asked, half-exclaid, her eyes squinting then widening as she finished examining the item.
“Anti-matter essence,” Rory corrected. “It might be a distinction without difference, but that will take so ti to determine for sure.”
“What are you planning to do with it?”
“Well, for now, bask in being the world’s first trillionaire.” Rory half-heartedly joked.
“You do know there were six other trillionaires already, right?”
“Oh, fuck off,” Rory muttered. “Jokes aside, I have no idea.”
“Master-quality. So, it’s considered a resource and not a natural treasure.”
“Noticed that as well,” Rory agreed.
“Master-quality as a reward for a partial reward seems a bit much?” Zoey mused.
“Ehh, considering I had the rules changed, not quite.”
“Oh yeah, mind explaining that?”
“Oh, simple. Tier eight, with three guaranteed fights, even if you win the first two, offers a chance for extra goodies. So, I surrendered that final fight; our next encounter is the final one. One less reward opportunity, and one less shot at survival. With three fights, if you win the first two, the last fight, your bane is probably not going to be as hell-bent on killing you since you’ve already technically ‘won.’”
“Maybe not your Bane.”
“Maybe not my Bane,” Rory acknowledged. “But the point stands. Next fight, all or nothing. I think the reward has increased because of the difficulty increase and the reduced number of rewards.”
“Got it,” Zoey nodded. “Was that really wise?”
“Doesn’t matter if it was or wasn’t,” Rory shrugged. “All that matters is next ti I’m going to tear its god damn heart out of its chest.”
Typically, Zoey would have comnted on Rory trying to play the ‘edgy’ angle, but after everything that had happened, she decided to let it rest.
“Oh, by the way,” Zoey suddenly spoke up. “I’ve got sothing for you.”
‘Opening’ her inventory, a mont later, the world’s biggest monster core appeared, the sa size as Zoey herself.
“Got this bad boy out of that blight khan. You can have it.”
“What? Why?”
“The hell am I going to use it for?” Zoey asked. “Best I could do is smash it into the shape of an armchair, I guess.”
“No,” Rory shook his head, ignoring her joke. “That’s not fair to you.”
“Blah, blah, blah, we both know you’re on the hook for making sothing extra jazzy, so let’s not go down the ‘no I couldn’t possibly accept,’ road, alright?”
“Fine,” Rory muttered, tapping the core as it vanished into his own inventory.
“A shield.”
“Huh?” Rory asked.
“My repaynt will be the most kick ass shield in the world. Like, makes coffee, does my taxes, gives a back massage, and karate chops banes in the throat, that sort of kick ass.”
“You don’t pay taxes.”
“See, this is what I an, let a girl have fun.”
“Alright,” Rory huffed. “When do you want it?”
“Probably before the heat death of the universe.”
“I don’t think this universe can-”
“Nerdddddd,” Zoey droned out, as Rory chuckled.
“Rude thing to say to the person who's going to make a coffee-making, back-massaging, kung-fu doing shield.”
“See, now we’re talking.”
While the oozing bleakness remained within the crevices of his soul, trying to drag him into their depths, the banter had managed to bring so much-needed lightness to Rory, who finally stood up, dusting himself off.
“Alright, let’s get a move on.”
The pain would take ti to heal, but that was how all pain and loss were dealt with: ti. Until then, he’d do his best to process as best he could. There had been a loss suffered, sure, but he’d hardly been the worst case.
“So, I finally get to properly explore your village?”
“Village. Yeah, sothing like that,” Rory chuckled. “Co on.”
The two of them began making their way to the teleportation temple. The Khan of Blue Lightning’s body still lay upon the ground, decapitated, but there wasn’t anything to do about that for the mont. It was on his list to handle, but not right now.
While Rory could have teleported them directly there, Rory wanted the ergency crews to seehim, to see their leader, to show them that they weren’t alone.
Having another Founder alongside him didn’t hurt the image either.
“Oh, one last question,” Zoey suddenly asked just as they neared the teleportation temple.
“Yeah?”
“How the hell did you pull that avenging angel shit?”
“Huh?”
“You know, floating in the sky, looking down on all of us re peasants.”
“Shut up,” Rory rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he did. “It actually wasn’t anything crazy. Between here and Ehkorrus, I’ve thoroughly mapped out the ‘coordinates’ and have a strong grasp of them. I just had to anchor myself to a set in the air. Can’t exactly do that anywhere that I haven’t set up base at, though.”
“For now,” Zoey corrected.
“Yeah, for now.”
“Well, it was a damn cool image. Hell, it would have been nice if I could do that when we fought the clones of the King, stupid fucker kept making jump after it when it was flying high.”
“Anyone tell you that you act like a child sotis?”
“Yeah, you,” Zoey snorted.
Appearing atop the temple, Rory grabbed Zoey’s arm, locking onto Ehkorrus and beginning the teleportation.
It was sothing Rory could have done in his sleep, as easily as breathing, the quick step through space-ti a hop, skip, and a jump away to the city.
So, when Rory found himself in a completely unknown location, facing a very well-known face, he could only frown.
“We need to talk,” Aelia said, staring at him with her arms crossed.
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