Universe's End

“So, we’ve got our destination in mind?” Zoey asked.

“Yep,” Eric answered. “The next closest region. A little bit of invest-i-migating and I got a name. Ganju-ai, the Kaiser of Fallen World Tempests.”

“Quite the name,” Tom noted.

“Yeah, also totally bullshit. Fallen Worlds? C’mon, what fallen worlds? Nothing but description flavor text.”

“That’s E.O.N for you,” Zoey said, something she and Rory had discussed in depth decades earlier. “But in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Any other details?”

“Ash, lots of ash,” Eric said. “And a lot of bug-type monsters, specifically slanted toward moths and the like.”

“Oh!” Zoey suddenly perked up. “Then I bet I know what monster this Ganju-ai is modeled after.”

“Survey says?” Eric asked.

“Ash Reaping Coscinocera. Nearly killed Rory way back. So, we’re tackling the two Architect-themed regions first, it seems.”

“Fun, fun,” Eric said, nodding.

“A reminder,” Tom interjected. “We are not going after the Kaiser, but rather one of its generals. There is a limit to what foolishness I’ll follow along with.”

“We know, we know, but you’ve got to start data collection somewhere,” Eric said. “So, with that said, the first general of Ganju-ai is a monster known as ‘Kal-Rok the Thunderous,’ which honestly? Not all that descriptive. Could be loud, could be lightning, who knows.”

“Wonderful,” Tom sighed. “We are going in blind.”

“Not blind; we already know what sort of affinity these monsters will be slanted toward- earth and fire, most likely,” Zoey countered.

“Two broad concepts are still very much blind.”

“Are you just going to bitch and moan?” Eric asked.

“I am neither bitching nor moaning; I am pointing out obvious issues with our plans.”

“Yeah, yeah, sounds like a fancy way of saying bitching and moaning,” Eric rebuked. “So, bitch baby, are you in or out?”

“I am not a bitch baby,” Tom said distastefully, sighing once again. “Yes, I’m in. Must we do anything special to summon this Kal-Rok?”

“Nah, doesn’t seem like it. It’s a pretty straightforward process: we go, kill some territory alphas; it fuels some magic-y bullshit, and presto, Kal-Rok will rise.”

“It is always nice to have a stealth and information person around,” Zoey said with a pleased expression. “So much less ‘Zoey, go run in and let them bash your face in while I figure things out.’”

“I mean, there will still be lots of that as always,” Eric said.

“Yeah, but at least it’s not all the time,” Zoey snorted. “Anyway, our plan is the same? Wait until the next time the First throws a pseudo-wave at us, crush it, then bum rush the next region while the First is low on assault forces to attack our captured areas?”

“Pretty much,” Eric answered. “Speed will be of the essence; we can’t spend too much time outside our strongholds, or else they could get recaptured. The automated defenses will only hold up so well once a territory alpha is churned out to attack the base.”

“Which means Eric-Express,” Tom pointed out.

“Yes, I know what it means; we all know what it means. It’s all that it ever means because you’re all a bunch of freeloaders,” Eric groaned. “But not many things move faster than the speed of shadows.”

“Alright then,” Zoey said, a seed of excitement budding within her. “It’s finally time to act.”

As much as Zoey wanted it to be time to act, the reality was they still had to wait for the First to act first, and while he didn’t know exactly what the three were up to, he knew it was something. Erring on the side of caution, the First held back and waited.

But it turned out to be a game of patience, and for once, the World Spirit lost. Perhaps, accustomed to the accelerated development pace produced by anomalous energy fueling everything it did, it lacked the same patience his elder sister had.

All that was to say, after several more months, the First had finally grown exasperated enough to throw an unusually large force at the three Founders still huddled within their strongholds. Pushing the limit of what it was allowed to throw at any one time, the battle that took place would have been one for the history books.

Had anyone been around to document it aside from the three Founders, that is.

With the wave crushed, thousands of monsters dead, and the Vanguard down a hand- a rather common occurrence, as if fate enjoyed the running gag- the First was presented with his worst fear coming true.

Well, second worst fear. His true worst fear was the other two Founders returning.

In this case, his fear of the three remaining Founders having been plotting proved true, as almost immediately after defeating the forces thrown at them, they moved out with shocking speed, as if they already had a destination in mind. Traveling east, the Primordial Rogue pulled the three of them through the shadows, distance almost an afterthought to that Founder in particular.

The assault was as vicious as it was fast. Moving together as a pack, without any pretense of playing around, the group managed to slaughter eighteen territory alphas within the region controlled by the Kaiser Ganju-ai in the span of two weeks.

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It was the perfect opportunity to strike back at the captured territories; unfortunately for the First, territory alphas were not fast to spawn, usually taking at least a month or so, even with anomalous energy supplementing most of the required energy. Without a territory alpha or two to lead them, his forces couldn't push through the swathes of captured land quickly enough.

The same couldn’t be said for the three Founders, though. Needing only one more week, the group had gathered together in a place of power, the summoning location for Ganju-ai’s first general; how the group had even known the exact location baffled the First.

It must have been that damn Rogue!

The thought enraged the First, but if any Founder could slip under the radar, it was the shadowy figure embodying the Primordial Night.

At the very least, the First finally understood what the group had been up to all this time, giving the Rogue time to gather information as they planned out the assault.

And it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Assaulting one of the Kaiser’s generals as a group of three was ordinarily a foolish idea. Still, the First reckoned that it wasn’t about winning.

It was about causing some karmic reaction; for every action, a reaction. It was the exact sort of effort that the Eternal typically played into, which is why the First feared the possibility of it working.

And so, as Kal-Rok rose from the depths, the First could only grind his physical avatar’s teeth.

Do NOT let me down, you damn worm!

“So, who put money on this?” Eric asked, glancing around as both Tom and Zoey stared in confusion. “Well, that’s a big fat none of us. Kal-Rok the Thunderous. You’d expect, I don’t know, a big ass bird or something like that. What the fuck is a worm doing with this name?”

The summoning location had been a vale surrounded by three equidistant hills of calcified ash. All they’d needed to do was direct some anomalous energy that they held into a special item they’d received after killing one of the territory alphas, a rock that looked somewhere between a chunk of charcoal and an ashen flake.