Universe's End

Chapter 192: Tsarina

Rory crossed his arms, staring at the small bug queen.

"Lord. Khan." It repeated as Rory remained silent. Apostolos had left only minutes prior, and yet Rory still found himself with quite a head full of thoughts.

"Lord. Khan."

"Yes, are those two words the only words you know?" Rory finally huffed, uncrossing his arms.

"Lord. Khan. You." The humanoid bug monster clacked out with its jaws, adding an extra word.

"Very good," Rory sighed.

"Very. Good." The bug repeated as Rory narrowed his eyes.

"Are you messing with me, or learning as you go?"

"Very. Good. Learn. Go."

"Right. Name. You need a name."

"Name. Need. Name."

Rory thought for only a moment before a perfectly usable name presented itself.

"Tsarina. You will be Tsarina from now on. How does that sound?"

"Very. Good. Tsarina."

"Great," Rory said. "So, next question. How much do you understand of what I'm saying?"

Clack. Clack.

I'll take that as a 'not much,' or something.

Elongating the nail of his index finger into a sharp, blood-red crystal, Rory slashed his wrist before flicking a drop of blood at Tsarina, the monster tilting her head as she processed the message contained.

"So, that seemed to work," Rory said, before flicking several more droplets of blood at the monster. Each one sank into her fur almost instantly as her eyelids flicked several times open and closed.

"A lexicon of words, and the intent of their meanings. Hopefully, that should help your understanding increase faster. Nod if you picked that all up."

A single nod from Tsarina was the exact answer he was looking for.

"Perfect. So here is the situation. I need to see what you can do. But I don't want to do it here. Here is home." Rory waved his arms around him. "And there are people, members of our hive here that we want to protect."

Rory made sure to stress the words and use ones that would likely have more significance to the monster, such as 'hive,' hoping to hammer home right away the importance of not hurting the people here.

"Alright, well, follow along."

Tsarina rose to her legs, and it was almost cute, in a monstrous bug sort of way, to see the newborn monster-

Reborn? It may as well be newborn, given that the scourge mites were effectively instinct-only monsters with a very low level of base understanding.

-test out its body, taking a wobbling step forward. Standing at its full height, it only reached Rory's hip.

Cute. But maybe evil. Why do I always end up with cute-but-maybe-evil children?

Listing over for a moment, its underdeveloped wings fluttered, righting it out.

"Are you good?"

"Good. Yes. Good," Tsarina clacked out. Her voice was beginning to sound more natural, though the clacking mandibles as her jaws opened and closed didn't help her much.

Oh. Wait. She's doing the Eia thing, talking without using actual vocal cords. Except she's also mimicking by physically moving her mouth.

Making his way up the stairs from his basement, with the occasional glance backward to ensure the monster was still following him, Rory soon left the earth-scented underground into the brightness of the outside world.

"Bright. Bright." Tsarina said, the compound eyes shifting slightly as if adjusting.

Weird, but I won't say anything.

Anyone watching would have done a double-take that day, as they witnessed the Lord Founder being trailed by a child-sized figure. While the founder's adopted daughter had been accepted to a degree, the figure trailing him was smaller than even Roxy. Furthermore, it was clearly a monster.

And yet the Lord Founder seemed entirely unfazed, and thus, anyone who did catch sight of the weird scene felt like they were in no sort of danger.

Taking quite a bit longer than it would have had Rory been alone, eventually the odd pair made their way to the Null Window, passing through before appearing within the Maw. The Khan of Blue Lightning was clearly busy with its own things, given Rory didn't even feel a passing flicker of its aura. Thankful that he wouldn't have to explain the situation to the oversized tier eight snake, Rory gestured to Tsarina.

"Here, climb up," Rory said, pointing at his back with his thumb.

Letting a monster grab onto me probably isn't the most brilliant idea I've ever had. Still, I really do not want any run-ins with anyone here.

Clacking her mandibles a few times, a reminder to Rory that she was a monster in case he'd forgotten, Tsarina eventually hopped up, her legs launching her with ease before all four of her arms wrapped around his chest.

Monster secured to him like a particularly vicious backpack, Rory took off, seams unseen, as always, a valuable skill for cutting directly through air resistance and speeding along.

Traveling for nearly five full minutes, Rory finally came to a stop. They were still within the 'golden zone' of the Khan's territory, but outside of a few oversized pill bugs rolling around, there was no one nearby.

"Alright, you can hop off."

Doing as he commanded, Tsarina let go, dropping to the ground with a level of grace that he hadn't expected, given that she had been stumbling around getting used to her feet less than an hour ago.

"So, here is the plan," Rory said as he faced the small monster. "I need an idea of what you can do. So, let's start with the empress-class abilities of yours."

Tsarina blinked at him several times before Rory frowned.

"What?" He asked, confused why she wasn't moving.

"No. Not. Can. Do."

"Can't is the word you're looking for," Rory corrected before his frown deepened. "And why not?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Not. Mine." Tsarina waved her arms around. "Bigger. Stronger. Me. Small."

"Oh," Rory muttered. "You mean the Khan of Blue Lightning. You can't do your stuff because this territory belongs to something stronger than you?"

"Yes. Bad. Idea."

Rory opened his mouth, ready to explain that it was fine, before closing it a moment later.

Actually, probably a good call. I probably shouldn't have a direct 'minion' attempt to invade its territory like that. It's a different story when it's my own people, but another monster? Yeah, bad call.

"Alright, well, what about drones? Can you spawn some of those?"

Tsarina clacked her mandibles several times, which Rory had started to recognize as signs that she was thinking, before one of her arms pointed at a nearby pill bug.

"Can. Eat?"

"Um, sure?" Rory said. The pill bugs were just random spawns that appeared throughout the golden fields; they weren't actually related to the Khan nor his snake clan.

As soon as Rory had given his blessing, Tsarina shot forward, snatching the pill bug and, in two snaps of her mandibles, swallowing the smaller and weaker insect monster, consuming it without a shred of hesitation.

Fast.

For a newborn tier five, it was surprising just how quick she was, something that Rory mentally jotted down.

Maybe a speed type?

Watching Tsarina for several seconds, Rory found himself curious about what would happen next.

Is she going to lay an egg like when she was a scourge mite empress?

What Rory wasn't expecting was for her wings to flutter, wing scales fluttering around as her entire body trembled, before a moment later her mandibles opened and a blob of red mucus spat out, landing on the ground.

Staring at it for several seconds, Rory turned back to face Tsarina.

"Material. Lacking. Grade. Too. Low."

The blob of red mucus-y goop trembled for nearly a minute before it slowly solidified, taking a form of well… something. It was like a fetus, except buggy.

"So, you need higher-grade materials to produce drones properly," Rory said, as Tsarina bobbed her head in agreement.

Is that good? Is that bad? No idea.

Sighing, Rory decided to put any further investigation of her empress-class abilities on ice for the time being.

"Alright, new plan. You're a hybrid-class monster, both an empress and a combat type. So, let's flex those muscles a bit and have you come at me. Don't worry, I'll be fine. So, do your best."

"Prove. Value. Khan?"

"S-sure?" Rory tentatively agreed.

Tsarina seemed to consider it for a moment before lunging at Rory. As she did, Rory felt his eyes widen. It wasn't that her speed took him off guard, far from it.

It was her claws. As she lunged at Rory, he sensed what was very obviously stellar energy in those claws.

What the hell?

Attempting to swipe at Rory, her wings aided in her movement, not confined merely to ground-based propulsion.

Rory dodged without issue. Even with the benefit of being a tier five monster, which tended to have a greater attribute density than a tier five human, she was still two tiers beneath him. Added to that, with the attributes of each tier counting for more than the last, the two-tier difference was a massive divide.

Still, it wasn't as if Rory's purpose here was to gauge whether he could beat a tier five monster or not; thus, he let the small insect queen continue her assault. After it failed for several seconds longer, the energy dissipated from all but one of her claws as she lashed out, and a crescent blade of sunlight shot toward him.

Alright, that's definitely Apostolos's move. How the hell?

Rather than dodge, Rory simply struck the blade with the back of his once-prosthetic hand, the tight field of self-aura surrounding his hand crushing through the sunlight blade.

Rory was about to say something when his eye twitched. Flaring his eye skill, all at once they became visible, from her wings imperceptibly small scales were being blown toward him, each one carrying a concept of sharpness.

Hey, I recognize that one! That's a favorite of Coscinocera-class monsters! Guess she really is a butterfly-type monster, or at least some form of cousin. Twice removed? Estranged uncles? Who knows!

Chuckling internally at his own joke, Rory still made a point to keep tabs on her skill usage.

Two of five, unless she has some innate skills outside of her standard five tiers of skills.

When the razor wind attack simply swept around Rory without damage, Tsarina changed tactics once more. Stopping, the small monster began to draw in energy. In a real fight, stopping to draw in energy and charge up like that wasn't usually the most practical move, but Rory was willing to let her.

Whatever skill she was busting out, it took considerable effort and energy on her part, as it took nearly forty-five seconds straight. But, at last, the monster seemed to have reached capacity, as her entire body began to vibrate, before all at once, she broke.

Well, no, that wasn't quite correct. In a single moment, the shaking stopped, as Tsarina tore herself free from her own molt.

Can't say I was expecting that.

What was even more unexpected was that the molt began to heal, its ripped outer carapace stitched back together until Rory found himself facing down not just Tsarina, but a molt puppet.

An original skill. Cool.

Not much else to say on the matter, Rory let the small insect queen once more launch herself at Rory, except now with the added assistance from her molt clone.

It… Well, it didn't change anything. The clone seemed capable of using all the same skills as Tsarina herself. Still, two-tier fives or one hundred, it wouldn't change anything.

Something that Rory found himself finding out firsthand, as once Tsarina's attempts at even landing a single successful hit were thwarted, she busted out yet another move.

If I've kept count correctly, which I have, she should have at least two more skills.

Stopping, Tsarina and her molt shared a look before raising their hands. While Rory had seen the insect queen use abilities derived from Apostolos or her very distant monster cousin, there was someone he hadn't expected her to have a skill from.

Himself.

Hands raised, images began to take form: green 'holograms' that took on physical shape within seconds.

Projection magic.

Hot damn, that's plagiarism!

Between Tsarina and her clone, six projections manifested, hunched over and heavily armored. To Rory, they looked like a cross between rhinoceros beetles and an anteater, crouched over with stout back legs and shorter triple-clawed front legs.

Rory attempted to examine them, only for nothing to come up.

Yep, that's genuine projection magic.

"Except," Rory noted, crossing his arms and tapping a finger to his bicep. "It is skill facilitated. This isn't completely off-the-cuff projection magic in the way I can do it."

As if to prove a point, Rory turned one hand upward, the green projection light shuffling between different items and objects before settling into the shape of a stick.

Using his projected stick, Rory proceeded to smack both Tsarina, her clone, and the projected bug warriors over the head as they attempted to mob him. Much as Rory had expected, the projected warriors proved unable to use any magic or abilities; they were simple physical manifestations. Rory even had doubts about whether they were truly autonomous.

After nearly an hour had passed, Rory finally clicked his tongue, ending the 'spar.'

"Enough. The fact that you've not used a fifth skill, externally at least, and the fact that you're still going fresh as rain, your fifth skill is a form of self-replenishment, isn't it?"

Silence.

"Huh, didn't know monsters could pout… Scratch that, I absolutely did, I've spent enough time around Eia to know that. What's the problem?"

"Khan. Disappointed." Tsarina clacked out as her projections finally faded, her clone following suit several seconds after, crumbling apart.

"Nah, that was a pretty good showing," Rory said, and he was being one hundred percent truthful. In fact, given that she was a newborn tier five, she was extremely dangerous.

So dangerous that if Rory was truthful with himself, he knew he should put an end to this and kill the young monster here and now. It would be painless; he could ensure that.

But.

But Rory was too far invested by now. Seeing the young monster use skills from himself, Apostolos, and some inherited species skills had him beyond curious, so much so that-

Wait… Is that why?

"My projection. Apostolos's sunlight blade. Razor scales. It's not just the razor scales that are inherited species skills. You're an Ehkorrian… whatever that other word was that your species was called. Ehkorrian is still the prime word. You're connected to the history, the legacy of Ehkorrus, into what went into making Ehkorrus what it is. Specifically, the renewal-affinity pneuma that was used to help you be born. Renewal-affinity is born from blood, starlight, and growth affinities. That's why you have skills from Apostolos and me."

Rory was pretty confident there was some level of Eon shenanigans involved, his primary theory being that she had inherited skills the way kids might from their parents, clan, or bloodline.

I might have to check in with the Rong clan or Apostolos's family to see if they can confirm… Actually, let's just keep it to Apostolos's family. I don't need another two-hour lecture on 'honor' this and 'clan head' that.

While Rory was temporarily lost in thought, Tsarina stared at Rory, unblinking. While she was quickly learning, the rapid-fire monologue had been too much for her.

"Khan. Happy?" Tsarina finally asked, ignoring everything else he had said aside from the general feeling behind his words.

"You could say that." Rory finally said, with an airy-sounding chuckle, returning to reality. "Alright, well, plans have changed, but perhaps not for the worse."

"Khan. Approve?"

"Khan approves," Rory said, humoring the newborn insect queen.

Maybe, just maybe, my plans aren't completely trashed. There is only one real problem left at this point.

He really did not want to hear Apostolos make fun of him for having made another kid.