Universe's End

Chapter 191: Kerrigan

In what reminded Rory of the lead-up to his very first siege wave, the remainder of the time until the oncoming siege wave marched closer and closer. During that period, outside of Roxy, Rory rarely interacted with others. He'd had several run-ins with Gil, Apostolos, and Mariah, but they were less like visits of leisure; they were all related to the upcoming wave.

Only three days before the wave, Rory sat in his basement, holding a vial of liquid up to his eyes,

Well, we managed to pull it off.

Flask of Renewed Evolution (Unf)

Tier: Seven (+)

Quality: Tonic

Effect: An extremely potent brew containing a mix of pure concentrated liquid renewal pneuma, a hungry seed, and several other ingredients. While nearly complete, this brew still lacks species attunement.

Turning back to the scourge mites, Rory could only sigh.

"I swear, I really am sorry about this," Rory said. During Mariah's experiments with brewing lesser versions, she'd determined there was one un-negotiable step, that without the brew would never fulfill its intended purpose of forcing an evolution. It had to be attuned.

How?

Usually, by taking several unfortunate members of whatever target species was required and basically melting them down into concentrated monster goop.

And given the only scourge mites in existence were the ones in his basement….

"I really am sorry about this," Rory repeated.

And yet.

Yet, Rory wasn't that beat up over it. A more humanitarian side of him said that the scourge mites, his 'forced' pets of the last year, deserved better.

But Ehkorrus needed this.

And.

And Rory wouldn't lie; he was just damn curious.

So, ignoring the looks of fear that Rory had come to recognize from the scourge mites, he turned his hand upward, as crystal spheres encapsulated all but the scourge mite empress. No longer just basic projection containment, the year of practicing with bound spaces had led Rory to the point where he could now incorporate them into things like the crystal containment spheres, which he occasionally used to relocate unfortunate specimens.

Likely sensing something was wrong, the captured scourge mites attempted to scratch and claw their way through the projected crystals, but the crystal was too strong for low-tier monsters such as them to even hope of chipping. Not to mention that, contained within a bound space, they were utterly cut off from any pneuma they may have otherwise attempted to draw on for any skills or abilities.

"Let's begin," Rory said, as a magical circle appeared beneath him, before a second, larger magic circle appeared, covering nearly the entirety of the basement. Runes woven throughout the magic circles that he'd planned out long in advance, the thrashing off the scourge mites turned utterly frantic as their bodies started to disintegrate. As much as Rory would have liked to have done something to shield them from the worst of what was happening, there was a limit to how much magic he was willing to use upon them, lest the added magic interfere with their base nature. Rory doubted it was all that possible, but now wasn't the time to find out for sure.

Thus, with a straight face, Rory watched as one by one the scourge mites were disintegrated until their high-pitched squeals went silent.

Several crystal orbs filled with former scourge mites turned to goop. Rory twisted his fingers as the orbs slowly orbited him, his attention turning to the vial in his hand.

And the final step of the brewing process.

Uncorking the flask, one by one, the crystal orbs hovered over, a small hole appeared in the bottom of them from which the scourge mite goop dripped out, sizzling the moment the droplets splashed into the unfinished brew. Even though the contents of monster goop were several times larger than within the brew flask, by the time he'd emptied each of the crystal orbs, the flask had only increased in overall volume by ten or fifteen percent.

Examining the flask, Rory sighed.

Flask of Renewed Evolution

Tier: Seven (+)

Quality: Tonic

Effect: A completed brew of renewed evolution, when used upon a member of the scourge mite species, a forced monster evolution will occur, turning the monster into a renewal-aspect monster of a similar class.

"Perfect," Rory said, already putting thoughts of the deceased scourge mites out of his head. Gesturing toward the final remaining scourge mite, the scourge mite empress, it floated over toward him. While the other scourge mites had been in frantic distress, the scourge mite empress seemed entirely unfazed.

Unsurprising. The empress is meant to spawn more of them. What is the loss of lesser members of its species to it?

Examining the empress one last time, taking it in for all its knock-off-facehuggerness, Rory sighed for the millionth time.

"Guess this is my last time seeing you like this,"

In his other hand appeared what looked like a syringe head, which he promptly attached to the flask. Then, without any extra fanfare, he proceeded to stab the syringe into the scourge mite empress. Flexing his intent, the contents of the flask-turned-syringe were pushed into the scourge mite empress, which instantly began to shudder.

After the syringe was emptied, Rory placed the scourge mite empress back within its containment. Seconds passed, as from the scourge mite, what appeared like sickly pus was expelled from any orifice or opening within its body, clinging to its body until all that remained was a rather ugly-looking cocoon, the size of a small child.

Alright…. Any second now.

Waiting for nearly a minute, the cocoon remained unmoving until suddenly, it began to shudder.

C'mon, here we go!

Excited, Rory watched the cocoon hatch, and when it finally broke all the way through, his face suddenly fell.

Alright… What the fuck?

Something had definitely hatched, but it was not a bug.

Or, well, it wasn't purely a bug.

It was… well, 'humanoid' was technically the correct answer. Still, it was as if convergent evolution had produced something resembling a human shape. Its 'face' looked almost like a fully armored visor that had been modeled after the face of a moth.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Except, it wasn't a helmet; the opening and closing mandibles looked like the jaws of a carpenter ant under a microscope.

The rest of its body wasn't much better, sleek segments of black and silver chitin plating, broken up by a soft pink 'fur' that reminded Rory of a bee.

Four arms, each with two elbow joints, ending in serrated talons three times as large as would be expected from ordinary human nails.

Its legs were strangely long, reminiscent of the legs of a wasp, maybe fifty percent longer in proportion to the rest of its body than an ordinary human. With double knee joints, it was almost like the legs of a grasshopper fused with the legs of a wasp.

Finally, there were the wings, undeveloped for the time being. Rory could already see the similarity with butterfly wings, lined with scales that shone with a soft silvery, almost blue sheen.

"What are you?" Rory muttered, examining the monster properly after a moment.

Ehkorrian Tsarina

Level: 50

The first of its kind, the Ehkorrian Tsarina is a hybrid monster belonging to the Ehkorrian Papilionoidea family and combining empress- and warrior-class traits. Born from the machinations of the Lord Founder of Ehkorrus, the Architect of the Precursors, it can self-produce without outside intervention, forming a hive of its own.

"Right…. So…. What the fuck?" Rory questioned, baffled.

Hybrid monster? Ehkorrian? You were supposed to be just a renewal mite empress!

Where had he gone wrong? Surely somewhere? And tier five right off the bat? How the fuck had that happened?

All Rory could finally settle upon was that he'd gone too far with the forced evolution brew. During the crafting and brewing of everything involved with the forced evolution tonic, his mind had wandered, the scope of his goals expanding until it wasn't just the walls, but all Ehkorrus he was looking to change. That change in scope must have bled over into the concoction.

Ahh fuck. Did I accidentally add elements of foundational affinity in the process? It must have distorted the overall balance of affinities. Shit. Shit!

Pacing around, Rory kept his eyes glued to the monster, which, after breaking free from its cocoon, seemed to be getting a feel of its body, fluttering its wings, and clicking its jaws from time to time.

Still pacing and lost in his thoughts, Rory largely ignored as it attempted to flutter its wings, rising a few inches before it flopped back onto the ground, its still undeveloped wings unable to support its weight.

Shit, this derails everything! Shit!

Looping around for his umpteenth loop, Rory suddenly froze as he heard a sound. Goosebumps had appeared down his neck; the sound wasn't just some random sound. First off, he was in his basement, deep beneath the earth. There wasn't anything to hear.

Except for the Ehkorrian Tsarina.

Again, Rory heard the sound, and this time, Rory had the uncanny feeling he could almost hear a word.

No, surely not. It's a recently evolved monster and evolved from a mite-class monster! No way in hell that-

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Nope, definitely imagining it, that was not-

"SiRe. kHaN."

And I've gone and fucking done it again!

"So…."

"Don't say it."

"Say what?"

"Oh, don't play coy, smart ass," Rory said, very aware of the fact that this exact conversation had been had almost a year ago to the day.

Except rather than a cute, albeit alien, monster girl running around and calling him father, there was a humanoid bug monster, placed in a near-stasis through the liberal use of deceleration runes, an oversized crystal dome, and a rather exhausting bound space. From the monster's perspective, it would have been like time had frozen, entirely unaware of what was going on outside its crystal containment.

"The culmination of the last year of your work. I'd think you should be pleased."

"I wanted a renewal mite. Not an Ehkorrian Tsarina. I don't even know what a papilo-whatever-the-fuck is!"

"Maybe a name for a butterfly?" Apostolos said, pointing at the wings of the monster.

"Not helping," Rory said through clenched teeth.

"Alright, my question for you is, will this change our direct plans for the wave?" Apostolos asked.

"Well… no."

"Alright, then no big deal."

"But my plans!" Rory all but threw his hands up.

"Are… are you throwing a tantrum?" Apostolos snorted. "Because you got more than you bargained for?"

"It called me sire," Rory hissed.

"Yeah, you mentioned that almost first thing when I got here," Apostolos laughed. "Anyway, I don't really see the problem. It's an empress-class monster, right? Isn't that what you needed?"

"But it's not renewal!"

"Rory, I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you this, but I think 'Ehkorrian' trumps renewal. It's got our name in its name after all."

"Still, I was expecting a mostly mindless monster that I was going to help form a nest within some of our walls, then, using the energy from the wave, I was going to attempt to tie them together, the walls a natural extension of the monster hive. With any excess energy, I was going to use the now-naturalized walls to link to the city itself. I even helped my treehouse push its roots into the core room! Everything was set up to become one singular semi-organic settlement! Like a sea anemone!"

"I don't know what a sea anemone is."

"Not important!" Rory all but shouted.

"Rory, I think you need to relax."

"I just don't know what went wrong." Rory continued ranting, pacing around like a restless dog.

"Master," Apostolos said, purposely throwing the word out there, knowing it would force Rory to center himself, given Apostolos rarely ever called him that anymore. "Think. What does this actually change in your plans? Can't you move forward the same as before? Worst-case scenario, it doesn't take; you try again next year. Hell, it shouldn't take you even a fraction as long. So, really, what is the worst that could go wrong?"

"It's tier five as a newborn is the problem," Rory said through gritted teeth. "A colony of these… things could turn south, real fast. I've seen enough movies with monster infestations, hell, one of my favorite games as a kid, I always played Zerg!"

"What's a zerg?"

"Again, not important," Rory dismissed. "Based on the tiers and levels I saw from blight mites and scourge mites, I felt confident that there wouldn't be a problem; they'd be forced to obey by the simple nature of being so terribly outclassed, capable of naturally growing our walls and filling them with a mass colony of mites that could be turned outward alongside other defenses. These? Who damn knows!"

"Rory, we tier sevens can handle a tier five."

"For how long?" Rory finally asked the real problem he was facing. "Tier five as a newborn. None of you is exactly racing up the tiers. By the time you're nearing tier eight, it might also be tier seven, and who knows how many more of them it will have spawned by then. Because it seems intelligent to some degree, it's not out of the picture that it will play the long game."

"You never had these doubts with Eia."

"Because I was there," Rory said. "And anyway, had Eia as a baby snake ever turned outright hostile, I would have dealt with her. These are meant to be my stand-in." Rory waved at the monster once more. "Meaning I might not be here if things go south, in fact, if I were an intelligent monster, that's exactly what I would do, wait until I was gone and then bam, they're chewing on your bones!"

Apostolos was silent, beginning to understand Rory's problem.

"The smart choice would be for me to discard her before it has the chance to turn into something terrible," Rory sighed, before frowning deeply.

"But even with all that said, you don't actually want to. Your logic just finished laying out all the arguments. Your real issue is that you still find yourself willing to risk it because you're curious, and that bothers you: you haven't decided, and the good of Ehkorrus isn't enough to have convinced you. Otherwise, if you were going to 'discard' it, you wouldn't have needed to call me ASAP. You want me to help convince you."

"Fuck," Rory sighed. "When'd you learn to read me like an open book?"

"When you started being obvious as shit," Apostolos chuckled. "Your project went awry, and that annoys the piss out of you, and combined with the danger it could pose, you know you should have already decided. So, you called me. Irene would get on your ass, and you don't actually respect anyone else's opinion in Ehkorrus enough to care what they say."

"You make me sound like an asshole," Rory snorted.

"You are an asshole, but not a bad guy," Apostolos laughed. "Point is, you want me to convince you. Well, here is what I say: tough shit, make your own damn decision, you're a grown ass man."

Rory stared at Apostolos, who remained unfazed, matching his gaze without faltering, the only person in all of Ehkorrus who could truly remain unfazed by Rory's stern glare.

Finally, Rory broke first, an exaggerated sigh escaping him as he flipped Apostolos the bird.

"Fuck you. Fine, I won't kill it. But I swear to fucking Eon above, if it's a few decades from now and I suddenly get a motherfucking emergency beckon because none of your dumb asses managed to reach tier eight before my creation decided to break free of the shackles of oppression and turn on their creators, that's on you."

"You've got quite the script in your head already for how it's going to go down."

"I'm mostly plagiarizing from movies and stories," Rory admitted.

"Movies. You know, I should see if I can get any of our artisans to figure out how to do something like that."

"Isn't that a waste of resources?" Rory asked.

"Sure, but I'm tired of you making references to 'movies' when I can't remember a single damn one," Apostolos chuckled. "Alright, enough beating around the bush, let's get this over with."

"You asked for it," Rory said, but even saying that much, he couldn't ignore that if he were being truthful with himself, for as annoyed as he was, Apostolos wasn't wrong.

He was at least a little bit excited and curious.

Turning toward the Ehkorrian Tsarina, Rory released his will that held the stasis magic in place. A tired huff escaped him as he did, even for Rory, that level of magic was exhausting.

Magic released, the crystal surrounding it dispersed into the air, as did the bound space imbued within the crystal prison's walls.

Freed, it took several seconds for the monster to blink as if gathering its bearings.

Wait, why does it have eyelids? It has compound eyes. Scratch that, probably the least strange thing about it.

Blinking several more times, the small humanoid insect monster turned to Rory, examining him for several seconds before its mandibles clacked together.

"Lord. Khan."

Well, at the very least, for now, it knows who's in charge.