Universe's End

“Alright, changing the name,” Rory said on the spot. “Presenting Sky Fortress Alpha Heavy.”

“SFAH doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely as shaft did,” Eric grumbled.

“There wasn’t even a T!” Rory bemoaned.

“Series one, and one looks like T; therefore, shaft.”

“Whatever,” Rory grumbled. “Anyway, this bad boy is a marvel of modern engineering. Well, whatever you want to call modern engineering at least.”

“It looks like a jail cell with wings,” Allison muttered.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Tom said empathetically. “More like a cluster of jail cells with wings.”

“Alright, all of you? You can all walk there if you want,” Rory grumbled. “Yes, it’s Alpha Heavy. This thing is a war machine. All the little ‘jail cell’ offshoots that you see? Shield generators and damage dispersers.”

“How do damage dispensers work?” Zoey asked.

“Well, one part of it is just standard redistribution of damage through material and magical means. The secondary layer is that, in each of those block sections, there is a subdued tier eight monster directly hooked up to the fortress, and damage is partially redirected to them. The great part? They’re also hooked up to systems to force-feed them regeneration- and durability-based brews. And each of the monsters is some variety of durability- or vitality-focused monster.”

Rather than the awe he had expected, Rory found himself frowning.

“What?” He finally asked after a moment of gauging their expressions.

“No offense,” Zoey said, a sort of nervous laugh coming from her. “But that’s like… really fucked up.”

“Oh come on, don’t start some P.E.T.M group on me.”

“Petma?” Eric asked.

“People for ethical treatment of monsters,” Zoey informed him. “He thinks he is clever for replacing a letter.”

“Alright, ethics to the side,” Allison interrupted. “How much punishment can it take?”

“Given the massive amounts of armor and everything else I mentioned? More than any of us/ Including Zoey, or even you in your Silvermere armor.”

“That sounds like a challenge,” Zoey added.

“It’s not; please don’t break our ride,” Rory sighed.

“And what about damage?” Eric asked.

“Two of the three weapon systems are copied from my glider, Hard Light Cannons and Null Glitter Lance, just… more of them.”

“Two of three?” Tom asked, pointing out the obvious.

“Ahh, yes, because it also comes equipped with, how should I put this lightly… magical nukes.”

“Huh?” Eric questioned, clearly lost.

“The science of fission and fusion still obviously exists and works, and using magic, promethium can be used like a dense radioactive material. It’s not radioactive, not that it would matter to tier eights like us, but I digress. Furthermore, using the joys of magic, the impact size has been scope-limited, further refining the power.”

“So, you’re saying we are going to need to be delivering nuke-level damage?” Zoey asked.

“Realistically? Yeah,” Rory said with a shrug. “We’ve only got a few, and worst-case scenario, we blow the ship itself.”

“Preferably while we aren’t in said ship?” Eric questioned.

“Yes, I have no intention of suicide runs, and added to that, blowing the ship is something I’d rather avoid.”

“Anything else we should know?” Tom questioned.

“Uhh, don’t press any big red buttons?” Rory offered.

“And are there any big red buttons to press?” Eric asked, eyes suddenly shifty.

“No, which is part of why you shouldn’t press any big red buttons, because I didn’t add any, so if you see one, we’ve got problems.”

“Hardy har har,” Zoey stared at Rory, face straight. “Hilarious. Alright folks, I want to be back in time for dinner; let’s get a move on.”

“Yes mommmmm,” Eric groaned as the group started to approach the flying fortress, which had opened up.

“Wait, no one wants to know how it-”

“No, no one does,” Zoey shot back from over her shoulder. “Because we will be here until next week if you start explaining all the details.”

Watching them enter his flying fortress, Rory ground his teeth, lips set in a pout.

Well, everyone is a damn critic.

Sighing, Rory promptly got over it as he followed the rest into the flying fortress.

“So, question,” Eric asked as he looked around. “Where are all the holograms and supercomputers and stuff you’d expect from a flying fortress?”

“There aren’t any?” Rory questioned. “This is a series one; it’s a flying bunker, not a hotel.”

“Boring,” Eric grumbled. There was only a single ‘section’ that was freely walkable, which resembled the hangar area of a high-altitude dropship used by old Earth-based militaries to deliver soldiers who would then perform a HALO jump, also known as a high-altitude low-openingjump.

“Strap in, folks,” Rory announced as he sat in the single ‘pilot’ seat, sticking his arms into what looked like two empty sockets before pulling out two oversized handles.

“Those don’t look like they’re promising a smooth ride,” Tom said as he noticed exactly how Rory intended to pilot the thing.

“Oh, no worries. It won’t be,” Rory confirmed. “So, no need to even question it. Alright folks, strap in!”

Flipping several switches from the top of the flying bunker, several copter blades slowly emerged above each segment of the flying fortress, slowly spinning up.

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

“Uhh, that sounds like a helicopter blade!” Allison shouted over the noise. “Not very magical!”

“Well, if anyone had wanted to know, I would have explained the flight systems, but nooo, can’t have that. And yes, they are magical.” Rory shouted back, layering aura into his voice so he could be heard over the noise. “Now shut up, I’m going to need to fully concentrate, since we have no idea what we might be flying into.”

As if to prove the point that the copter blades were magical, a golden, see-through shimmer suddenly sprouted like a sail between the blades, making them appear like a translucent fan that began to spin faster and faster.

“Three…two… one! Liftoff!”

Lurching upward, the super-heavy flying fortress listed for several seconds, the faces of the Founders within blanching before it righted itself.

“There will be no in-flight snacks,” Rory suddenly called out. “The seatbelt sign is there is no seatbelt sign, so don’t be stupid. Next stop, Phosphorus.”

Rapidly gaining altitude, the one-part helicopter, one-part tank, one-part glorified brick, and one-part fortress seemed to embrace the very motto of the humble bumblebee: flying when everything said it really shouldn’t.

But fly it did.

Where gliders of the past had never really been designed for true high-altitude travel, and the G.S.A.C series was typically a low-altitude aerial combat vehicle, the Shaft-

No, wait, name change. I am not sticking with that stupid name!

The Sky Fortress Alpha Heavy treated the high altitudes like a joke, climbing into the air magnitudes faster than anything aside from a G.S.A.C could have managed, and even where the G.S.A.C would have begun to falter, the SFAH kept on chugging right along.

Destination in sight.

High above, a single cloud had remained anchored in the sky, unmoving throughout their time on The First. It was so high above that Rory hadn’t even really noticed it until more of Phosphorus’s generals had fallen; like the ‘veil’ had slowly faded, and the whispers of the wind reached Rory that something was amiss high above.

Minutes passed as the cloud grew larger, from barely a speck to bordering on the size of a continent, reaching heights where space itself was becoming visible, as if it were only a short jaunt away.

Within only a few miles, the interior of the SFAH suddenly began to pulse red.

“Uhh, Rory?” Zoey asked, sounding alarmed.

“Oh,” Rory muttered. “Well, I did say this would get bumpy.”

Before anyone could ask what the ship had picked up, ten massive bolts of lightning suddenly shot down from the cloud, each miles across.

The fact that the bolts weren’t as fast as real lightning was worse because any basic understanding of conceptual give-and-take meant slow-moving lightning would hit hard.

Hard enough that Rory didn’t want to test the SFAH already.

“Evading!” Rory shouted before yanking the handles with all his might.

Credit where credit was due, the flying cinderblock was agile for something so blocky. Whipping through a barrel roll, several of the Founders had unfortunately failed to follow basic safety procedures and buckle up, tumbling about and smacking their heads on the ceiling and walls.

They’ll live.

As Rory continued to ascend rapidly, even more slow-moving bolts of lightning dropped from above, and he found himself flying through a literal minefield of lightning, each more than capable of inflicting massive damage.

There!

With Eyes of the Architect blasting to its max, Rory found the seam within the clouds, the entrance to whatever lay beyond, and hopefully past the lightning that continued to rain down.

“Hold your breath, shutting off non-mandatory systems and redirecting!”

“Huh!?” Eric shouted as the air suddenly vanished, their altitude magnitudes higher than even the sky island Rory had once meditated upon to unlock sky chanting; it was no shock that even the Founders found themselves without anything to breathe.

They’ll live.

With all extra power redirected, the blades above the sky fortress all but vanished as they spun so fast even Rory could no longer track them, assuming he had been outside of the helicopter-brick abomination of an aircraft.

Lurching through the air even faster, Rory ignored everything else, simply doing his utmost best to get through the lightning-dominated sky. Slowing for even a moment would spell their end as one bolt of lightning turned into several, slamming into them all at once.

One mile. One thousand meters. Four hundred meters.

With only a hundred meters to go, as if in slow motion, Rory witnessed a single massive bolt of lightning open up directly in their path, leaving them absolutely no chance to avoid it.

No way around it, no time to dodge; there was only one way.

Through it.

Shouting for all he was worth, Rory slammed into the lightning, the world turning yellow as every system on board screamedthat they’d taken a significant hit.

But the Sky Fortress wasn’t called Alpha Heavy for no reason. Riding through the lightning for the single moment they needed to withstand it, the sky of lightning vanished as they passed through the seam in the cloud, entering somewhere else.

Relieved to be past the lightning, Rory found himself in a clear blue sky, clouds floating throughout. It would have almost been picturesque.

If one ignored the very glaring problem.

“Folks, this is your captain speaking,” Rory said. “The good news is that we survived the turbulence of the storm. The bad news is that we’ve arrived to a welcoming party.”

Flying in the sky were thousands of horned serpents, the sort of flying serpent dragons from Chinese mythology, each only a tad smaller than the average attack helicopter.

That was a problem.

The mile-long flying serpent was a worse problem.

There was no mistaking it, at least not to Rory.

The Empyrion Serpent, the Koi that Would Be, the Khan of Blue Lightning, his sworn friend, was back.

Or his image was, at least, given it was supersized even beyond the massive size of the original Khan of Blue Lightning.