Universe's End

“Weren’t those things only able to be found after killing a Kaiser?” Eric asked, looking confused for a moment.

“No,” Rory shook his head in denial. “The implication is that defeating a Kaiser will grant access to a world crucible, not that it’s the only time we can access them.”

“And we need to access them if we ever want to have a hope of beating a Kaiser?”

“Maybe,” Rory shrugged. “Perhaps if we fully clear a Kaiser’s ‘kingdom’ or whatever you want to call them, it will bring them down in scale to only a bit beyond one of the Kaiser generals. But if we’re wrong and we try to waltz in, we might end up slaughtered.”

“I don’t like being slaughtered,” Zoey said, adding her valuable insight into the conversation.

“And these world crucibles will give us the juice needed to beat them?”

“Maybe,” Rory again shrugged. “But, with that said, I don’t think we can freely abuse them once we find one.”

“Oh? Why not?” Tom asked.

“Because why would there need to be several? My guess is we get a few uses max.”

“So, the game plan if we find one?”

“First, you,” Rory said, pointing to The Spear.

“Me?” She asked, suddenly surprised.

“The exodermal armor I made you from the Spectro Orckalite, and the inner armor that you’ve had for ages, I plan to bring them into unison, a singular piece of gear unmatched by any armor to date.”

“What about you?” Allison asked. “Your armor went kaput.”

“Sadly,” Rory sighed. “Unfortunately, I think it’s dead dead. It’s not something I can break down and recycle; it was never made of anything capable of that to begin with. I’ll hold onto it, if only for memory purposes, but I have in mind an idea for a new set of armor for myself.”

“So, fusing my armors does what exactly?”

“It’s not quite an ordinary fusion,” Rory said. “And some details are unknown until we actually find a World Crucible. Right now, the effects of your armors don’t synchronize fully. One reduces the strain on you, but you don’t use many spiritually straining techniques. The other, at least, the Spectro Orckalite set, was designed with your abilities in mind.”

“So… you don’t know what exactly it does,” Allison said.

“No,” Rory admitted. “But the concept is simple: you are the literal spearhead of our group. You have the best balance between offensive prowess, defensive strength, and scaling potential.”

“And a weapon wouldn’t be better?”

“In this case, no,” Rory shook his head. “We’re recycling significance and combining power. Maybe if you still had your old spear, sure, but that degree of interpersonal significance between a person and their weapon takes time to build up. Your original armor is the best bet.”

“If you say so,” Allison shrugged. “And that will be enough to beat a Kaiser?”

“On its own, no, but I plan for all of us to get gear upgrades, even if you’re the only one with gear affected by a World Crucible by the first Kaiser. And anyway, we have other options as well.”

Waving his arms, Rory gestured to the corpse of the fallen hydra.

“Can you all feel it?”

“Feel what?” Zoey asked.

Walking up to the corpse, Rory tapped it once, as at the same time, the World Phylactery they’d all received appeared in his left hand like a lantern held out. Instantly, the corpse disintegrated into a veritable lightshow of glittering light, which was sucked into the phylactery, which seemed almost like a lantern in its glow.

“These fuckers grant an utterly ridiculous amount of anomalous energy,” Rory said. “And, not just in the regular means, like we can fully convert them into energy.”

“Isn’t it better to make use of any parts?” Tom asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Rory said. “Think about it: the faster we can get a network of the anomalous spires set up, the faster we can generate it freely, the faster we can get more spires, the faster we can mass buy any shop materials.”

“Do you think it’s infinite?” Allison asked.

“Probably not,” Rory answered with a shake of his head. “It would make gaining rare exotic materials far too easy. But another thing to consider. Oscuro.”

“Oh,” Allison’s eyes suddenly widened. “That’s right, that should work here as well.”

“Kinda lost,” Eric said, looking between them.

“Oscuro was created as a result of The Spear’s major law reward, a dimension that can be entered once every ten years, planet-dependent, and every hundred years regardless of what planet. We take advantage of that to take a ‘break’ from here, loot the place for whatever it's worth, scamper on back, and we’ve got ourselves a treasure horde of potentially powerful materials to use alongside anything from here as well. We build up, arm ourselves, and take the fight to the Kaisers.”

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“And if the Kaisers become ‘easy’ to beat, we can make it more difficult by skipping generals, and hopefully increasing the end reward,” Allison finished for Rory, the two sharing a smile for a brief instant.

“A regular old video game,” Tom said.

“I never played any video games,” Allison said with a shrug.

“Not too surprised there, Ms. Trauma,” Eric chuckled as Zoey glared at the man.

“The glare means nothing to me, Ms. I-don’t-have-any-hands,” Eric added after a moment.

“Anything else to go over?” Tom interrupted.

“Probably worth another look at the shop now that we've fully-fully cleared this region,” Rory said. “Otherwise, not much else. We can rest, recover, and then move on to our plan to split the group in two, just now with the intent of finding any World Crucibles with greater urgency.”

“Well then, what are we waiting for?” Eric asked with a greedy look in his eyes.

“And?” The group asked as Rory walked out of the shop located within the fortress of base Null.

“There was indeed something new.”

“Being?”

“This,” Rory said, opening his hand as the group looked at him strangely.

“What…. What is it?” Eric finally asked.

“A shell,” Rory said.

“Like… an egg shell?” Tom asked after a moment,

“Yep,” Rory said.

“So, what’s the plan? And how many beads did it cost?”

“More than you’d like to know, less than it could have been,” Rory said evasively.

“Alright, and the plan with it?” Allison asked.

Rory turned before pointing directly at Eric.

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you,” Rory said. “How would you like a familiar of some sort?”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, you can examine it if you want-”

“Nah, too much reading.”

“But it’s got significance revolving around serpents and venom. I think if I pair it with a cracked samsara seed or two, I might be able to get you a little friend.”

“And why me?” Eric said, seeming wary.

“You’re the champion of the Founders, are you not? Call it your reward for being the one to finish off the hydra.”

“Well, I won’t say no,” Eric said. “How long will this take?”

“Shockingly, not long,” Rory said. “Primarily because it’s already primed for this exact purpose. I could probably have refocused for another use, but why bother fighting it?”

“It won’t hatch into a snake, will it?”

“No idea,” Rory said with a shrug. “Does it really matter?”

Eric was silent for several seconds before sighing.

“…I’d rather a rabbit, but whatever, I guess.”

True to his word, the process for ‘preparing’ the empty eggshell wasn’t all that difficult. Setting up a quick ritual circle composed of items such as a samsara seed, a pearlescent core, and other conceptually aligned items, Rory broke down the items within through the help of the bound space. The final result was the samsara seeds ‘fusing’ together with the pearlescent core as the other items broke down.