Universe's End

Chapter 197: Assessment

Floating in an empty void of his own making, Rory sighed.

Well, 'sighed' was a bit incorrect; he wasn't corporeal for the moment.

"Well… shit."

What he was experiencing was something he'd experienced once before, when he'd been stranded inside his own Mind Palace after suffering some rather severe backlash.

This time was much the same; the failed domain attempt had snapped back like a rubber band.

"Well, may as well be productive with my forced timeout. Just hope I'm not here for too long."

Spoiler alert: He would be.

Floating in a void of nothingness with little to do, Rory decided that now was the time to do a proper think-over of his most recent battle.

On the one hand, not bad.

He'd gone into the battle planning to see just how far he'd come. The results spoke for themselves, fighting full force against a peak-tier-seven monster for over an hour straight. It wasn't just any run-of-the-mill monster either; it was his Bane, a god damn clever and slippery menace.

Fuck, I'm not sure if Zoey would have handled it much better. Though with her recent upgrades, she might have worn that fucker down first.

On the other hand…. He had still lost.

Which fucking stings the ego.

He'd lost in their first encounter of tier seven when the batty fucker held a grudge. Sure, he had won the second round, but it was on a technicality, facing Zoey's Bane instead.

And then he'd gone on to lose again.

Fuck… Tier seven may as well have been a total god damn failure in that sense.

It was weird that even though on paper, tier seven was almost an utter failure, he still felt as if he'd made some good progress. At the start of tier seven, he'd still been highly reliant on the advantage of his creations. Still, by the end, he'd definitely grown his personal skills quite a bit.

Now… Where did I go wrong?

"The obvious option is endurance," Rory said while floating within his own mind. "If I were able to hold out longer, I could have potentially straight-up out-muscled that fucker."

But.

But that wasn't really a winning strategy. In fact, the entire reason Rory had been able to hold such an even playing field against the teleporting fiend was that with Earth Soul, he'd managed to turn the ground beneath its feet into a weapon, keeping it constantly on the move, with few opportunities to get its bearings against him.

But.

But tier eight? Rory already had a pretty damn reasonable suspicion it would show up with some sort of adaptation neutering the use of Earth Soul.

So…. Endurance isn't really the problem here.

The problem was the god damn teleporting. With spatial flickering, it was already a pain in the ass. Rory had thought he had solved that problem, given that he had long since understood the complicated cooldown sequence its flicker pattern followed, like an abstract equation that seemed to have no rhyme or reason until charted on a graph or flowchart.

With his level of cognition, his mind was like a on-the-fly flowchart or graphing calculator, so he hadn't really thought much of the problem since he'd nailed the sequence down.

Now though?

When coupled with the new ability, or perhaps an extension of an ability it always had, to split space itself and create rifts like linked teleporters, suddenly it had turned into a Wack-A-Mole on steroids and crack.

"It's beating me at my own game."

Outside of his affinity for blood or lattice, one of the concepts he understood best was space, it was how he made his void diamond bracer, how he'd constructed a functional Null Window doorway, 'blinked' through the Blight Khan's territory, and even managed to hold stable the in-and-out spatial warpage of the volcanic ride he'd taken to make it back to Ehkorrus almost precisely one year ago.

Stealing my entire damn flow.

The reason the Bane was so skilled at spatial stuff to begin with was because of him, because it had gained elements from their weird ass connection.

I've spent too long thinking of it as separate from the rest of my abilities.

Suppose he had taken more time to incorporate his understanding of spatial concepts into his personal combat abilities. In that case, he might have been able to either seal the rifts that his Bane has torn open or prevent its teleportation outright.

And if it couldn't teleport? Well, much like Rory had neglected using his prowess with spatial concepts in his battle capabilities, his Bane's bread and butter were spatial concepts applied to a combat situation.

If I want to survive tier eight, I need to figure that out.

He wasn't being hyperbolic either. In tier eight, the kid-gloves would be off, and lethal restrictions would be lifted from the Bane, allowing them to kill.

"On the plus side," Rory said as he looked around his mind prison for the foreseeable future. "When life gives you lemons and all that shit. May as well use this as some great last-minute training opportunity."

With nothing better to do for…. Well, who knew how long, Rory settled himself in.

Now then, let's see what I can figure out.

One moment, Rory had been modeling his newest attempt at space magic; the next, his eyes fluttered open.

"Oof," Rory muttered. "Head hurts like a mother… fudger." Rory corrected himself as he noticed who was sitting next to his bed, neck deep in studying a tablet.

"Roxy?" Rory wondered out loud.

"Dad!?" Roxy's head snapped up, eyes widening. "You're awake! Finally!"

Without time to prepare, the alien-looking girl launched herself at him, hugging him tightly.

"Yeah, I am. Uhh, where are we?"

Glancing around, Rory found himself confused. It was a mostly bare room, with sunlight shining through curtains that, while tasteful-looking, utterly failed at their job.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"The Rong household," Said a new voice as the door was pushed open, a man who, while not old, looked like he was dipping his toes into the 'aging' look.

"Hao Lin," Rory said, recognizing the technically former clan head of the Rong. "Were you just standing out there waiting for a dramatic moment to walk in?"

"No," The younger man, even if he looked older than Rory, said with a laugh. "You've been stirring for the last day. I had sent for Roxy and parked myself outside the door. Funny that phrase, 'parked.' Anyway, aside from myself, the only other Rong family member who knew you were here was Kai Rong herself."

"Right," Rory nodded before frowning. "So…. Why am I here?"

"When you didn't return for several days, the Chief Protector and Esteemed Luminary concluded that something might not have gone well. Therefore, a small but elite force made up of the Elite Four, minus the Chief Protector, who remained behind, was sent to the site of your battle with the Yaoguai."

Oh, hey, look, another word he randomly remembers from Earth.

"Upon reaching the destination, several things were discovered. First was the state of the battleground, which, to keep the vivid imagery used by my dear daughter short, was rather destructive."

"We did have a go at it for a while," Rory agreed.

"The second issue was you. Whatever happened to you was unlike anything seen before. Had it been nearly anyone else, you likely would have been dead, but of course our Lord Founder is made of sterner stuff than the usual."

Those durability brews I made so long ago with Zoey definitely paid off.

"While it was unseen and unknown to nearly everyone, my dear daughter had a theory on the matter." Hao Lin Rong said, puffing his chest out a bit with pride at the mention of his daughter. "Your injuries were similar in nature to wounds she herself has suffered from pushing too fast with her cultivation. Except, it was to an unseen magnitude on you. Using that, we had a semblance of an idea of how to help speed your recovery."

Cultivation? Curious what exactly he means by that. I'll have to pick Kai Rong's brain at a later date.

"To give the short rundown, at the end of our battle, things were looking in a rough state," Rory said with a sigh. "From an observer standpoint, I was actually beginning to win, but I had hit the end of my endurance."

"Even for the Lord Founder, fighting a peak-tier-seven for a prolonged period must not be an easy task."

"Well, it wasn't just that, but I won't get into the weeds of it," Rory said, not caring to explain the nitty-gritty of how the god damn teleporting bastard made things ten times harder than if it just stayed still. "But the point is, running low on steam, I made a gamble at trying to use a certain technique well before I was ready. And it… sort of worked, but mostly not. I pretty much ended the fight instantly at that point as I was put out of commission."

"I understand," Hao Lin Rong said with a bow.

Yeah, calling bullshit on that, but he's probably gotta keep up appearances of the wise patriarch. Cheeky little shit.

The idea of the younger man putting on airs amused Rory enough that he chuckled before sighing a moment after as he returned to his memories of what happened.

"Well, I lost. But I don't intend to lose again. I went into that battle taking things a bit too lightheartedly. Now, back to the original question: Why am I here?"

"Bloodwoods," Roxy said, her eyes lighting up now that her precious father was awake. "Apparently, the vital energies from the bloodwoods were the best way to get you back on your feet."

Right, my ossified blood gems are something only I know how to do…. I should change that.

"We were forced to cull half of our grove, but it was for the best; otherwise, your recovery may have taken upwards of ten times longer."

"By the way… how long was I out?" Rory asked.

"A month," Roxy grumbled, poking his chest. "I was worried!"

"I'm sure you were," Rory said apologetically.

Sounds right.

From his standpoint, he'd been 'gone' for two years, spent focused entirely on brainstorming and workshopping how to integrate his spatial understanding into more practical usability.

"You do not sound surprised," Hao Lin Rong said with upraised eyebrows.

"I'm not," Rory said mysteriously.

"Well, would you like to-"

"Nope," Rory said, gently removing Roxy from where she was sprawled out over him in a monkey-like embrace. No longer held down, Rory popped up to his feet.

Alright, pretty damn stiff, not exactly surprising.

Focusing on his circulation, with only a little effort, his blood began to 'warm' within as he circulated pneuma through his blood. It was a bit of a stolen trick; exactly how he circulated the pneuma was based on what he'd seen from Kai Rong and her weird kung-fu body, but hey, who was he to turn down inspiration?

"That's better," Rory sighed, flexing his body as the aches melted away, like he'd taken nothing more than an extended power nap.

"Now that I'm back in the world of the living, I have important things to handle."

"You were amongst the deceased?" Hao Lin Rong asked, eyes widening.

"What? No, phrase, it's a phrase." Rory corrected, shaking his head. "Anyway, now that I'm back and up and moving, it's time to handle something that has been a long time in the making."

"Being?" Hao Lin Rong asked, seeming expectant of his answer, something so long in the making could only be of absolute and utter importance for the Lord Founder to-

"Gotta make some dinner for Roxy. It's been a month she's been without my cooking," Rory said, flexing his arms with a smile as Roxy giggled.

Never mind.

"Mr. Greg made me food while you were asleep!" Roxy said.

"But he can't compare to me, right?" Rory asked.

His answer was Roxy glancing awkwardly to the side, failing to hide her obvious opinion on the matter from reaching her face.

"You wound me," Rory said, poking the girl in her ribs as she giggled again. Obviously, Rory knew he wasn't as gifted at cooking as the man, the second eldest of the original generation, who'd spent his entire life on Aelia focused entirely on the culinary arts.

But it was still fun to tease his adopted daughter.

That reminds me, I should ask him if he has any interesting cooking skills that might be beneficial.

"Oh, and after that, I have another small errand to handle," Rory said, halfway grinning.

"Oh?" Hao Lin Rong asked once more, even if his curiosity had been slackened by the anticlimactic answer he'd just given.

"Yeah, have to get my tier eight ascension over with," Rory sighed as if it were no big deal.

Was he doing it on purpose? Of course, but he had to get his kicks somewhere.

"Tier eight? So, Lord Founder is truly stepping through to the eighth realm?" Hao Lin Rong asked, his eyes the widest they'd been the entire conversation.

"Eighth realm, you sound like Eia." Rory snorted. For some reason, monsters preferred to call tiers by their other name, the mysterious-sounding 'realms.' Why exactly, he had no idea, and Eia hadn't ever given him good answers, acting as if it was just because, like asking how he remembered to breathe.

Whatever, probably just because it sounds fancy. Hao Lin probably saw it as flavor text somewhere and just incorporated it into his usual manner of talking.

"Tier eight? Dad, isn't that pretty awesome?"

"It is," Rory flexed once more as he offered his hand to Roxy. "Because your dad is awesome. Anyway, let's head home. I've got some dinner to make."

While there were probably important things to attend to, in truth, Rory couldn't be bothered. He'd done his job and gotten Ehkorrus through the most recent siege wave, and had even laid the groundwork for their success in future waves.

In his mind, he was entirely free to focus on himself once more. Apostolos and Irene could figure things out on their own for a while. Sure, he'd give them a heads-up that he was no longer dead, but his job was largely handled.

With that thought settled, instead of stopping by the city hall or where anyone important might be, Rory instead helped hoist Roxy onto his back as he zipped through the city, holding back from going his full speed for Roxy's sake, who was cackling and laughing the entire time. Purposely looping around several times to extend the trip for Roxy's sake, at last, they arrived home as Rory lowered her from his shoulders.

"I'm dizzy," Roxy giggled.

"But did you have fun?" Rory asked.

"Yes!"

Sighing, Rory felt himself smile before it slackened a second later as he examined the young girl.

Man, she's already a bit taller than she was a year ago. Soon, she'll probably start sprouting up like a beanstalk. Oh god, I really have become a dad.

With that harrowing thought of Roxy growing up firmly planted in his mind, Rory made it a point to keep his mental threads singularly focused on his time spent cooking, listening to Roxy talk about everything that had happened over the last month. With the school year over at the wave, she'd been on 'summer break' or their version of a summer break, given it was still the misty season.

Worried about Rory, Roxy had kept her mind off things by bouncing between spending time working on things inside of Astra's room at the foundry, harassing Mariah for lessons on alchemy, and just being a general ball of energy who always wanted to be learning.

That helped put his mind at ease, that even without him around in the future, she would be fine on her own.

Then it's settled.

For the next six or seven years, until she turned eighteen, Rory would hang around Ehkorrus.

But after that, I think I'll get out and about once more.

It was a bit of a turnabout: usually, when a kid turned eighteen, it was them flying the coop, not their parent, but the sentiment still stood.

Decision in mind, Rory nodded to himself, still laughing and talking to Roxy as they enjoyed their meal together.

But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. After all, I still have something to handle.

Wave handled, Bane faced, ascension energy maxed, there was only one last thing to do in tier seven.

And that was to break through into tier eight.