Universe's End

A man hummed to himself, wiping the counter down. It was one of his few days off, and he’d been planning to get ahead of things before the week ended, but the rush really hit.

Or that was the plan, until he paused, his extremely sensitive hearing making out the sound of his front door opening.

“Yes?” Elijah called out, making out three figures entering.

“Four shots,” A man said as he walked up to the bar, joined by one woman and a horned woman.

“Y’all do realize I am closed, right?” Elijah asked, well aware that all three knew that much.

“We do,” Kai Rong said, tapping the counter again.

“So, business,” Elijah sighed as he snagged a bottle and poured four shots of liquor out, passing one to the woman and her two companions, Flair, the number one adventurer of Ehkorrus, and none other than the Lord Founder’s daughter herself.

“Business,” The Daughter of Design said.

“Serious business for you three to be together. Strange business as well,” Elijah answered.

“We will be blunt,” Kai Rong said. “We want you on our team.”

“Beg your pardon?” Elijah raised his eyebrows upward before scratching them.

“Oscuro,” The Daughter of Design said. “The second opening is only a few years away.”

“I have heard some rumblings,” Elijah answered. He’d heard more than just ‘rumblings,’ given pretty much everyone within spitting distance of tier eight was scrambling. He himself was still quite a way from tier eight, and he’d had no real desire to involve himself anyway.

He was just a simple barkeeper after all.

“As long as a single member of the group is tier eight, the full group may enter,” The Daughter of Design continued. “We have two.”

Both Flair and Kai Rong briefly let their aura intensify. It didn’t explode, so much as it felt as if it were layering upon itself, deeper as they held back on hiding it.

“The first round of Oscuro was essentially limited only to the former Chief Protector, who made a point of entering with only Grinning Demon Marcie,” Kai Rong spoke. “This time, there will be a bigger push, and not just Ehkorrus.”

“And you want me… why?”

“Rumors about your unique capabilities. Some use illusions, but you aren’t just a user of illusions. Songs that trick the world itself into believing they fully exist. We believe you’d be best to round out our team,” The Daughter of Design said as she crossed her arms. “Based on the reports brought back from Oscuro, my mentor believes it would be a good place to grow stronger and obtain valuable materials.”

Everyone with half a brain knew that the Daughter of Design’s ‘mentor’ was none other than the current Chief Protector, the monstrous Tsarina, meaning if there was one thing Elijah felt certain of, it was hardly a rash decision.

“Should we be cautious of the others?” Elijah asked, referencing those who belonged to the other city-states.

“Not prohibitively, but nor should we be reckless,” Kai Rong answered. “I would not be surprised if there were some underhanded actions taken, as long as things such as outright murder are avoided. My conversations with Lady Irene have led me to believe there will be an official decree of ‘rules’ for Oscuro, such as competition being both accepted and encouraged, something she and the other leaders of Aelia have concurred upon.”

“And so, the most prominent independent adventurer, matriarch of the Rong, daughter of the Lord Founder…. And a bartender will team up,” Elijah finally said. “What’s in it for me?”

“Growth,” The Daughter of Design said. “You wish to be everlasting, or rather, you wish to be the eternal repository from which every song, every rhythm, every hum and hymn is known. Am I wrong?”

Elijah felt himself frowning. He’d never quite phrased it like that. Still, he’d be lying if the longer he spent carrying songs forward, to be heard by all, the more he found himself resistant to the idea of fading, to be eternal so that they may be eternal. He’d also never explained that to anyone, but from what he knew of the Daughter of Design, he wasn’t exactly shocked that she’d plucked that from him in such a short encounter.

“Also,” The Daughter of Design said slowly, as if testing the words as she spoke them. “A song of your own, a story of your own. Yes, that feels about right, doesn’t it?”

Elijah felt a prick of annoyance. That one stung. For all his music, all his love of music, he felt hollow, never a story of his own.

They’d been wise. With any other group, any other attempt to convince him, Elijah would have shrugged off the request.

But this?

Taking the shot, Elijah slammed it back before sighing.

“I’m in.”

“Just the two of us?” Violet asked, arms crossed as she looked at her husband. “What, no Marcie this time?”

“She’s going to be leading a team of her own, which gives us more attempts to probe Oscuro.”

“And so, you want it to be just us two?” Violet asked, essentially repeating her question.

“Yes,” Apostolos smiled. “How often do we get adventurers like this?”

“We explore the Maw,” Violet answered.

“That doesn’t count,” Apostolos sighed. “But whatever the case, it will be a fun adventure, one we haven’t had in a long time.”

Violet thought about it for a moment before smiling wildly at her husband, the center of her world.

“How could I say no?”

“Harrison, Jharrel, Morales, Marcie. You four will be the entering Oscuro together, with the mission being to push as far in as you can, grab as many valuables as possible, and then retreat without getting yourselves killed,” Tsarina said, looking between the four.

Or at least one of Tsarina’s clones did.

“No one else?” Morales asked, sounding surprised.

“We don’t want to deplete too much of our main firepower. Three of you have already worked together in the past, and Marcie will be the team leader, having briefly entered Oscuro before.”

“I should be able to manage that,” Marcie said. She was lounging relaxed in her spot, sprawling in a way that spoke of her confidence. “Speaking of prior visits, is Boss Man going?”

“If you mean former Chief Protector Apostolos, that is unknown, though I suspect yes,” Tsarina said. Since the former Chief Protector had stepped back, he had spent more time with his family, but there was still a clear effort at growing; he was no weaker than when he had officially resigned.

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“What about Flair or Kai Rong?” Marcie asked. Based on Tsarina’s prior mention of not wanting to deplete the firepower of Ehkorrus, she highly doubted Edward would be participating, always good at following orders.

“They will be going together,” Tsarina said. “On my request.”

“Oh?” Marcie questioned.

“They will be accompanying Lady Roxy,” Tsarina said. “They are also in search of a fourth member, but that is roughly the maximum size we are looking to be sending; increasing size will only increase the resistance met.”

“So, potentially three Ehkorrus teams as things currently stand,” Marcie said, proving her vast intellect by being able to count to three. “What about the other cities?”

“The Esteemed Luminary has been doing some… digging,” Tsarina said, the word clearly said with secondary implications. “Currently, reports show that High Crest Sect is sending three, Sky Haven is sending two, Varas is sending one, and most importantly, Tidal Grove is sending four.”

“Four? Damn,” Marcie whistled. “Didn’t know they had that many tier eights on standby.”

“They’ve always had a strong emphasis on martial strength. I am not too shocked they’ve had at least four tier eights to spare. It should not be too surprising that they had nearly as many as we do. Ordinarily, I’d have sought to have Flair and Kai Rong as part of different teams, but due to who they are accompanying…”

“Can’t let the princess get hurt,” Marcie snorted. “Your protégé and future replacement.”

There was a brief pause from Tsarina as she stared down Marcie with her compound eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, swear on my power I won’t spill, and these three are loyal enough to make the same,” Marcie jerked her thumb at the three others. “Not like it’s a shocker.”

“We swear,” Harrison, Jharrel, and Morales said in unison.

Tsarina was silent for a moment longer before brushing past, her plans for the future already dating into the decades and centuries.

“There are still several years before the next opening,” Tsarina said. “How far do you believe you will be able to push into the realm this time around?”

“Ehh, kind of up in the air,” Marcie admitted. She was one of only two people who’d visited the realm once prior, when it had opened up shortly after the Founders had left the world. She’d gone in with Apostolos, but they’d largely avoided probing the realm too much, given the unknowns. “Near the breach, it’s essentially just tier sevens. Further in? Tier eights. But that isn’t really the main problem.”

“Yes, the report mentioned complications.”

“Oscuro is filled with shadow miasma,” Marcie said. “It’s not too bad near the breach, where Aelia’s ‘clean’ energy bleeds through, but the deeper you go, the more it corrodes. It’s essentially shadow pneuma, but that’s putting it too simply. I’m sure if the True Big Boss were around, he could give a real in-depth explanation, but from what my normal Big Boss and I determined, it came down to direction. There is regular pneuma; you can think of it like the ‘North’ direction, then there is theoretically ‘South’ pneuma, the equal-opposite form, not to be mistaken with opposing elements or pneuma concepts. But, this ‘shadow miasma’ form is neither north nor south, something like east or west.”

“I’ll be honest, Ms. Marcie, that made no sense to me,” Harrison huffed. “From what I got, it’s pneuma, but not how we know it, so we can’t just counter it with regular means.”

“Basically,” Marcie shrugged. “Plus, within Oscuro, there are the puzzles, the denizens, and many other factors that we barely scratched the surface of. Seeing we ‘explored’ Oscuro would be doing it a disservice and might lend too much overconfidence.”

Tsarina was silent for several seconds before sighing, an artificial sound given her lack of actual human lungs.

“The details are irrelevant. In the absence of our Lord Founder, we must push forward as best as we can, and that means we can’t let this opportunity pass.”

“Wait, what about the Founders? Won’t they have their ten-year window open soon?” Morales asked.

“No,” Tsarina said, shaking her head. “Oscuro is open for only a year, and the window is staggered so none of the stellar system planets have equal openings. That is, except for the one-hundred-year window, but we have zero information regarding the mass Oscuro opening.”

“Got it,” Morales said. “So, the plan is we as a group begin training together in preparation for Oscuro? Anything else?”

“Yes, specifically how I wish you to prepare,” Tsarina answered. “The battleground.”

“Oh. Seriously?” Jharrel took a turn to speak.

The ‘battleground’ was a location that had been hinted at for years, decades in fact. A location in which several competing Khans of the third floor of the Maw were constantly vying for. For the longest time, no one had known just what it was that several khans were fighting so intensely for, and reaching it had been out of the picture with the Blight Khan’s territory in the way; even after its death, the former khan’s territory had proven extremely hostile, in fact more so, as the effects of the Lord Founder’s bane were seen fused into the territory.

Pushing past it, thanks to an elite team of Lady Dawnfire, Marcie herself, and Flair, they’d discovered what had been so important that the khans had fought so fiercely for years.

The ‘battleground,’ as it had been so aptly named, was a natural treasure, a towering rosebush made of black crystal that sucked in the vital energies of anything that died in the vicinity before spitting it back out in the form of endlessly spawned ‘black-rose’ monsters. A khan who claimed that natural treasure could, in theory, massively bolster their forces.

Aside from the sheer usefulness of such a natural treasure and what it could entail, the bigger thing was that it was a perpetual whetstone, as the recaptured vital energies weren’t limited to foreign monsters. No, in fact, Black Rose monsters fed the natural treasure even more efficiently. It wasn’t truly endless; eventually, it would run out of energy to refuel newly spawned monsters, but it was essentially a redundant point for how useful it could be.

“Your team has one goal: Break the deadlock, and if possible, claim the Black Rose, and hone yourselves.”

The small group looked at each other before Marcie grinned.

“Great, when do we begin?”

“…and that concludes my report,” the man said, offering a salute before taking a seat.

“Oscuro,” The acting commander sighed. “A chance to decouple from Ehkorrus depending on the resources we can bring in.”

The classic problem of Tidal Grove had always been resources, a problem that had been alleviated over the last decade or so since they’d become a far more interconnected planet, and specifically, since they’d begun trade with the city of the Architect, Ehkorrus.

“Decouple might be a hasty reflection of the intent,” Another figure seated around the situation room said. “We are not enemies with Ehkorrus.”

“No, not on paper,” The original figure said. “But that matters little. We have a working relationship, and not an unfriendly one, but that matters little for looking at things in the long run. If we suckle at their teat, we risk becoming dependents. Furthermore, the relationship between our Founding Commander and the Architect could explode into a shredding rift at any point. We must achieve our goals at the next Oscuro opening.”

“Still, are four teams really likely?” A lower-ranked member of the situation room questioned.

“Yes,” the lead voice answered. “From the intel we’ve managed, we know that their former Chief Protector stepped down and is likely to reenter Oscuro, and we have proper data on at least three other tier eights within their city outside of what was already known: the First Chief Protector’s wife, the matriarch of Ehkorrus’s Rong clan, a largely independent adventurer nicknamed ‘Salamander.’ If you add to that the existence of ‘Grinning Demon,’ another semi-independent type, their former Chief Protector, and their current Chief Protector, a monster, that brings the known total of tier eights to six.”

“Enough to scramble four teams and still have some tier eights remain.”

“Correct,” The lead voice answered.

There was silence for several seconds before another figure spoke up.

“How much of a critical issue will it be? High Sect is providing more teams than our intel on Sky Haven suggests. By all rights, we should have a numerical advantage. Direct murder is off-limits as well. We should still be able to achieve everything we want.”

“Perhaps,” The lead voice said. “But we can’t just accept a white victory. To do less than to claim complete domination would dishonor General Badger.”

Again, silence stretched; the situation room was the leading convention of deciding voices now that the Founding General was off-world, a heavy burden to those whose lives were vowed to their people and their homes.

“I’ve an idea,” someone finally spoke up, the lowest-ranked member of the situation council.

“Go ahead,” The lead voice directed.

“The Blue Abyss.”

Instantly, faces began to frown at the mention of the location.

“What about it?” The lead voice asked.

“We’ve avoided it, perhaps for too long. But it is from trials that growth occurs and risks are rewarded. We have several who are nearing tier eight. If we send them in-”

“They could die, and we would lose valuable soldiers.”

“Perhaps,” the lowest-ranked agreed. “Or they prevail in the face of adversity, and we manage to squeak out even one or two more teams leading into Oscuro.”

“Merit,” The lead voice finally sighed, letting a small chatter die out. “It has merit. But we are a council, not a dictatorship, in the absence of the Founding General. Let us vote. All in favor of keeping authorization to access the Blue Abyss locked down?”

Several hands went up, but even a single glance was enough to indicate where things were going.

“And those in favor of lifting the strict access authorization, and opening the Blue Abyss to more public access?”

All but a few hands shot up, two or three members of the council choosing to abstain entirely.

“Then it is decided. We shall begin easing Blue Abyss restrictions, so that when Oscuro opens, we may achieve total victory.”