Universe's End

“I don’t see why not?” Irene crossed her arms, irritated.

“We already communicated the terms of the deal,” Kai Rong said, mirroring the expression. “If the situation were that dire, you would pay the cost.”

The two women glared at each other before Irene sighed. “Fine. Shuuang will have its payment. In return, Ehkorrus will enjoy the increased permitted access to the Archon and the third floor.”

Kai Rong seemed as if she were considering another word on the matter before finally nodding slightly. “I’m glad we can see eye to eye, if barely.”

“Well, we do have the same patron,” Irene said, only the barest hint of a barb. “Our two cities should remember that.”

“Mhmm, we always keep in mind the Grand Architect,” Kai Rong said, the same hidden barb in her words. “Well, with that, I shall take my leave first. No need for power dynamics of who will leave first.”

The woman rose, as her entourage quickly followed her.

“Of course,” Irene finally sighed and leaned back after she was certain she was alone. “Roxy?”

From a hidden veil, a woman appeared, having been there the entire time.

“Thoughts?”

“It was handled as well as it could be,” Roxy shrugged. “Kai is as resolute as always; she remains steadfast in her reverence to Dad, her commitment to Shuuang, and her unwavering loyalty to her clan.”

“Yes, figured as much,” Irene grumbled. “I do miss the days of your father being around. Perhaps this could have all been avoided.”

“Perhaps, or knowing Dad, he would have shrugged and moved on with his day,” Roxy chuckled. “Though I do miss him. Over forty years tends to do that.”

More than four decades since the Founders had left Aelia, the world had changed a lot. It wasn’t the first time that their Founder had vanished for decades, but the interconnected nature of the planet, of the resources and push and pull of politics and everything that went along with it meant it was a far different landscape than the last time they’d been gone.

Case in point: Ehkorrus and Shuuang.

Shuuang, the capital of the Rong clan, home of the Archon Cruor-Shu.

It turns out that over forty years was enough for the growing rift between the Rong and the bureaucracy of Ehkorrus to reach the point of no reconciliation, the physical separation eventually leading to the Rong establishing their own city, a genuine separate faction from Ehkorrus itself. For the first time in history, one of the Founder factions had properly split, though their loyalty remained to the same patron and, as a result, remained ‘allied.’

But it also wasn’t the only faction to split. Without the presence of the Founders as a constant reminder of power, the growing populations of tier eights and the general population, as well as simple differences of opinion, meant that essentially every faction had some form of split.

Sky Haven, the home of the Vanguard, had split between Sky Haven and Deep Rock, the Air Riders and Burrow having had such a falling out that the two sub-factions of very different natures had gone their own ways, with the Expeditioners themselves remaining the ‘neutral’ group of the three. However, all remained loyal to their Founder, a common thread between all the splinter factions.

High Crest Mountain had likewise seen a split. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the clean divide between followers of the Rogue and followers of the Monk. Instead, their ways had blended and intermingled over the years. What had once been two ‘separate’ ideologies had morphed into the competing schools of Frozen Nights and Still Shadows, borrowing aspects of both of their ‘Patrons.’ To Irene, the details seemed minor, but to those of High Crest Mountain, it had been enough as High Crest Mountain went from being the home of the High Crest Sect to the home of the Frozen Night Sect and the Still Shadow Sect, found in separate regions of the massive mountain that put even the Reverse Mountains to shame.

Even Tidal Grove hadn’t been spared the splintering. Perhaps it was thanks to Ehkorrus itself, both from the indirect influence and the direct influence Irene had gleefully leveraged, that caused the faction to split down the seams from a single unified military organization into the competing-albeit-aligned Martial Tide city and civilian Mangrove Sands.

The only faction that hadn’t splintered was Varas, likely due to the relatively lesser development and the lack of a Founder patron, a city as ‘neutral’ as one could be, ignoring the strings Irene herself had placed.

All in all, things on Aelia had become a mess. Hell, there was even, on the far side of the planet, a growing city of intelligent monsters.

‘Led’ by none other than Eia herself. The situation there was a little different, as calling them a ‘city’ wasn’t technically correct, and Eia wasn’t technically their leader. More so, it was a group of monsters with strong enough sparks of enlightenment to resist the call for violence against the enlightened races such as humans, osferians, varasians, dwarves, anzu, or even the growing presence of daeshi, short, extremely pale figures with eyes that seemed to shine like cut gems, fragile but extremely intelligent on average.

The group of so-called ‘enlightened monsters’ preferred not tobe killed and thus had eventually rallied under the ‘banner’ of the Queen Serpent herself, even if the ‘Queen Serpent’ in question had little involvement outside of being the central pillar of inspiration.

Said ‘Queen Serpent,’ while typically uninvolved, was so susceptible to flattery that she’d made it a point of throwing her tacit support behind them.

And that was a problem, because Eia was the strongest being on Aelia at this point. Had she remained nice and quietly tucked away in Ehkorrus, it would have been the leverage Irene needed to strong-arm the others without the Founders around; the next closest in strength to a Founder, yet the serpent, a wandering spirit from early on, had made it clear that she would defend Ehkorrus if need be, but would not involve herself more than that, probably because she took after her sire, a complete disinterest in anything political.

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The problem, at its root, was the rarity of true Transcendent-tier fighters who could unify factions. Outside of the Founders, the identified Transcendent-level fighters numbered less than ten, on a planet with millions at this point.

The First Chief Protector of Ehkorrus, Patriarch of the Anzu race, Disciple of Brilliance, First Student of the Architect: Apostolos Dawnzu.

Whereabouts? Unknown; he and his wife went on an adventure nearly two decades ago, only reappearing in a city around the time of an Oscuro opening.

Then there was the Heroic Fist herself, the ‘Grinning Demon’ Marcie Prota, a last name she’d given herself as the ‘Protagonist of the People.’

Whereabouts? Also, unknown. As the Founders had left Aelia, it was as if every monster had collectively agreed that it was time to turn the activity up to eleven, the once relatively ‘tamed’ areas surging with monsters. Seeing an opportunity to stretch her muscles, she’d gone on a journey to become a ‘wandering hero,’ as she phrased it. Annoying, utterly annoying, but given she was her sister, Marcie took Irene about as seriously as a ham sandwich.

One also couldn’t ignore King Eater, Queen of the Serpents, Former Guardian Beast of Ehkorrus, Eia. Whereabouts known; she was technically the Khan of the Enlightened Monster coalition. She mostly lazed around but would take action to defend her turf from would-be challengers. There had been one story of a territory alpha challenging her for claim of the ‘nest,’ as it had called it. When she’d bested the monster in single combat, her strength had been truly recognized as peerless.

Another Transcendent monster, Bug Empress Tsarina, Second Chief Protector of Ehkorrus, and Dedicant to the Architect. Her whereabouts were obviously known, given she called Ehkorrus her home and hive. It was almost a waste that she dissuaded thoughts of a frontal assault on Ehkorrus, given Ehkorrus was already the most well-fortified city in the world, thanks to the Grand Architect’s past efforts; his foresight in creating a living, growing defense network had paid off in spades.

But Ehkorrus wasn’t the only home of Transcendents, far from it: Acting Grand Marshal, Marshal ‘Lance Strider’ Laurence. There had been some snickers about the fact that the man’s name was literally Marshal. Still, the man had risen through the ranks of Tidal Grove, and it was only in a spar against none other than Marcie herself that his power had been recognized.

Sam or Samantha –depending on what identity they were occupying that day–‘Skinwalker’ Yee Naaldlooshii, a name derived from an item that had been partially responsible for their growth. A prodigy of the Vanguard’s sect and known as the closest in behavior and personality to their patron. Always talented, they discovered a natural treasure that let them truly embody their inner world, shifting as they pleased. With its aid, they blossomed into a true powerhouse.

Night and Shadow, real names Tracie and Juji Garan, the ‘Twin Brats’ of High Crest Mountain. Twins who belonged to the competing sects, their natural competitive drive had led them to align themselves with the equal-but-opposing sects and, endlessly butting heads, had reached a point of being peerless upon their mountain home, and nearly peerless on the planet itself.

Finally, the lone power figure of Varas. Largely a mystery, Irene’s information on the figure was… limited, to say the least, even with her extensive information network, probably because they were a bit of a hermit who, while connected to Varas, spent their time outside the city.

Which made sense: as Voice of the Precursors and the first instance of an inheritor of a Founder-vocation, they were well equipped to work alongside tamed monsters and be self-sufficient.

What was known was a name and a race. Gara Dawnzu. They weren’t actually related to the Dawnzu. Still, they’d adopted the clan name after having undergone a rather unique process: a race fusion. Half Varasian, half Anzu. How, why, when? No one knew the details; it was a closely guarded secret.

Headaches. All of them headaches.

Irene sighed at the thought of their world's state.

Oh, how I miss the days when Mr. Rory was my biggest headache inducer.

Outside of the headache of the outer world, and even putting aside the topic of Shuuang, Ehkorrus itself was hardly a cakewalk. It was the biggest city by a relatively large margin. As the only city that had cleared a one-hundred-year Siege Wave streak, it had the most territory claimed, which allowed it to grow far more expeditiously than some of the other regions, as they were able to take advantage of the Sovereign-System for expansion rather than everything being direct labor efforts. Pretty much every city of note had begun its own siege-wave streak now that tier eights weren’t the rarity they once were, but that was beside the point.

What mattered was that Ehkorrus had become a bit of a behemoth with a population of approximately one point five million people. The fertility tax and credits that had been implemented long ago simply as a way for Mr. Rory to avoid the issue of teenage pregnancies had turned into one of the biggest accidental growth boons possible, something that had been well understood for decades now. And with the defeat of a yearly wave bringing in groups ranging from the hundreds to the low thousands, exponential growth had done its thing.

And that was the other very specific advantage of Ehkorrus. The city itself was essentially one large integrated organism, all connected to the Ehkorrian Grand Tree. Homes could literally be grown from the ground up, and in short order. Trees that stood hundreds of feet tall were filled with people working and going about their days. With the Founders off-planet, there was no one around with memories of Earth or the old universe, but had there been, they would have instantly clocked Ehkorrus as some weird fusion of a modern metropolis and some fantasy-elf landscape, an oddly harmonious fusion of artificial and organic.

And all that growth? It was all on Irene to handle. Okay, not technically, but she was the Esteemed Luminary, the one who was the guidepost for the city, who illuminated the path forward. That meant balancing civilian life against the needs of their higher-tier citizens, or even the crafters.

Speaking of which… Mariah.

Irene felt herself sighing again. Her adopted sister was demanding another meeting. For years, the woman had been a hermit who focused on herself, but that had changed some time ago; her personality had only changed more since. Now she’d taken the mantle as the top crafter of Ehkorrus, and even taken the role as the current chairperson of the Artisan Association— yes, they’d changed their organization’s name again—and she was only further pulling ahead. Once purely an alchemist, her vocation had evolved with her change in motivation. Now, she was Mariah the ‘Arch-Paracelsian,’ whatever that exactly meant; no one was sure. All anyone understood was that it came after she’d spent time studying under some of their top doctors in the healer and medical arts, the two fields of alchemy and healing fusing under her banner.

Mariah was still exceptionally secretive about what her own personal work was; that aspect of her hadn’t changed, but for as much of a headache that she could be for Irene, Irene couldn’t deny how many innovations and discoveries had been made or pushed forward by her; all the headaches that Mariah provided were well worth it for those facts alone.

“Irene?” Roxy asked, dragging Irene out of her thoughts.

“Sorry,” Irene muttered. “Lost in thought.”

“Mariah?”

“Bingo,” Irene said, borrowing the phrase from Mr. Rory.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” Roxy said, trying to ease her exhaustion.

Rubbing at her temples, Irene slumped into her seat.

“Probably, but you know how it goes.”

At the very least, bringing Roxy closer to her had been a wise choice she’d made years ago. Of course, she’d only done that after having personally created a skill to block Roxy from gleaning too much insight from her, but that was simply being proactive and prepared.

Her father, the original headache, and the daughter, the only reason I’m not crying blood regularly.

Life was funny that way.

“Would you like me to grab some coffee?”

Looking wistful for a moment, Irene finally nodded, a slow exhale escaping her.

“That would be nice.”