Universe's End

Chapter 229: A Warning Most Brilliant

“Oh, wonderful,” Rory sighed. Aelia was looking at him with a half-frown, her arms crossed, this time appearing as a titan woman covered in savannah grass and what looked like the leaves of a baobab tree. “What did I do wrong this time?”

“Nothing.”

“Huh?” It was Rory’s turn to frown, but before he could follow up, he found himself voicing other curiosities. “Where exactly are we?”

“You aren’t anywhere.”

“Huh?” Rory repeated.

“To keep things simple, using some of my… World Spirit privileges, I waited for the moment you stepped through your Null Window in which your mind would be split in the space between space.”

“Uh huh, the Void.”

“Correct. It would allow for this conversation to essentially occur instantly, all while your ‘presence’ here is masked.”

“Masked? But who would- Oh, you mean hidden from Eo-”

“Hush, you fool,” Aelia said as his words dried up. “Yes, hidden from it. While it presents itself as omniscient, it is not.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Rory said, still frowning. “Again, where exactly is this, even if I’m not physically here?”

“This would be a realization of my inner aspects, but if you had to think of it as anywhere, you could think of it as the core of my physical world.”

“Right, right,” Rory said, nodding. “So…. Why am I here? And specifically, why am I here discreetly?”

Aelia began pacing for several seconds, arms crossed, before she uncrossed them, almost as if debating with herself.

“A warning,” She finally said.

“And again, I’m not in trouble?”

“No.”

“Right, well, continue,” Rory gestured toward the World Spirit.

“Your city is going to be attacked.”

“Right, a little late on that one,” Rory muttered.

“Not an attack from your Bane, which was unable to enter your city itself. From another Founder.”

That got Rory’s full attention, his spine straightening out as his eyes narrowed. “Explain,”

“I’ll ignore the demand. The short of it is that the Bird, Born of Brilliant Feathers, has divined your location, and is planning to come after you.”

“Wait,” Rory was back to frowning. “Why are you telling me this? I thought you wanted us all to compete?”

“Compete is the keyword,” Aelia said. “The Bird is, to be frank, delusional.”

“But I thought it was like your monster representative or something.”

“Against what you all may assume, I do not have a representative or a favorite or anything of the sort. I am a force primarily for myself, who understands that my Founders are those who stand at the cutting edge and trailblaze, which further-”

“Right, I’ve heard the theory before, you don’t have to re-explain it.”

“My point is, the Bird has adopted a belief that it is my Champion,” Aelia spat. “And has decided to chart a course which would directly screw me over. In under three decades, my Founders are expected to deal with my siblings

. So, let us think logically: if you are intended to face it together-”“We are?”

“Spoilers,” Aelia waved it away. “In what world would I want the primary person who can gear the rest of the Founders to be slain because of some birdbrained-” Aelia said the word as if throwing a slur. “-belief that all I care about is how stupidly you can all sprawl about in the squalor? Growth is growth, and while I’ve shared my personal beliefs of the most efficient manner to pursue it in the past-”

“Yeah, I recall,” Rory smirked at the memory of himself and Zoey tearing into the World Spirit after she’d gotten a bit too big for her britches.

“-The point remains that I have little care if you grow from killing monsters or building cities, so long as you are still moving forward with urgency. The Bird has, at some point, come to believe that Founders who do anything other than grow through violent struggle are ‘unworthy.’”

“Oh,” Rory said as he put it all together. “You want me to kill it.”

“Correct,” Aelia said. “Hence why this message needed to be delivered discreetly. I do not pick favorites, but I can recognize those who would be a cancer upon my own success. Once, I had hopes for the Bird as a monster who’d slain two Founders, not exactly an easy achievement. Still, ultimately, he began to lean too much into a belief in self-grandeur. Perhaps had he had more time to ease himself into his own status, he would have developed a better sense of things, but that’s neither here nor there, nothing but a hypothetical.”

“So, KFC and kill the Bird.”

“Huh?” The World Spirit questioned, her turn to look confused.

“Nothing,” Rory waved it off. “Question, how long do I have?”

Aelia was silent, her frown deepening.

“Is this some sort of ‘I can’t share too many details, or You-Know-Who will catch on?”

“Exactly,” Aelia confirmed.

“Wonderful,” Rory murmured. “So, charades. Let’s assume he isn’t alone.”

Silence.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Probably going to assume it isn’t directly imminent, would be a dick move on your part to wait for the day before.”

More silence.

“I’ll also take that as confirmation. So…. If I were a little birdy, when would I attack?”

Thinking for only a moment, Rory half smiled.

“Does Mr. Birdy happen to have a schedule of the Siege Waves?”

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“He is rather intelligent,” Aelia said, neither confirming nor denying.

“I will take that as an ‘effectively yes.’ Alright, so, when’s the best time to attack? Well, Ehorrus learned that itself. Coinciding with a wave. And what wave would be better than wave one hundred?”

Silence.

“Fuck,” Rory snorted. “Anything else I should know?”

Aelia sighed, shaking her head.

“Well, best to send me back then, I’ve got a lot of-”

Rory blinked, suddenly within the Null Window Station, holding Zoey’s arm.

“-to do.”

“Huh?” Zoey asked.

“Nothing,” Rory muttered.

Well shit.

Aelia hadn’t been lying when she’d said the passage of time was essentially zero. Rory appreciated that, but he now had a problem.

How the fuck do I deal with this?

Neither Eon nor Aelia was his friend or ally; they simply were. Eon’s big schtick was ‘balance integrity’ if using video game terminology. A.K.A, it really didn’t like unfair advantages or whatnot, such as directly tipping off one Founder about the details and plans of another, especially given they were locked in an event together.

So, how do I prepare without making it obvious I know the timing?

“A good question,” Rory sighed.

“You’re thinking out loud again,” Zoey said.

“Yeah, yeah, I am,” Rory muttered, shaking his head.

But first, I’ve got to get a handle on all of this.

Only a few days later, Rory was back within the former Golden Fields, arms and legs crossed as he sat in front of the decapitated head of his sworn friend, the former Khan of Blue Lighting.

“Right shit luck you were handed,” Rory muttered. “Continuously antagonized by my- by it, always fucking you over.”

The Golden Fields had been all but abandoned, without the Khan of Blue Lightning or his clan of serpents to protect it; it was no longer considered a safe location, even if the Bane had been chased away. A single tier seven could wander in and slaughter anyone remaining.

The Undercity Emergency, as it had been named, had been resolved by now. Two hundred and fifteen non-combatants were deceased. Only sixteen survived, entirely thanks to the efforts of the ‘Daughter of Design.’

“She’s going to be more famous than me at this rate,” Rory chuckled. He was immensely proud of Roxy, but God damn, had that been too close. “I didn’t even know she’d been getting lessons from Tsarina. I mean, how would I? I wasn’t here.”

Silence was his only companion.

“Usually, they make some sort of monument or memorial in times like these,” Rory sighed.

And that was the issue. Rory felt… dry, out of ideas. Oh sure, he could recreate anything from Earth if he wanted to, but it lacked the punch of meaning, like copying someone else’s essay.

The corpses, those that remained, had been collected and remained within a temporary mausoleum of Rory’s creation. This scale of death had only been seen once before during the Fall of Ehkorrus, and even that hadn’t resulted in nearly so many corpses.

Mostly because those who died during that day had been torn apart, eaten, or blown apart on a battlefield, there wasn’t exactly a lot to salvage.

This had been a purposeful act of butchery by his Bane. There were plenty of bodies, and even one of them could have left the members of a CSI team blushing.

So, what do I do about it?

Oh sure, Rory was prone to handing off responsibility to others, but this was one of the rare situations where he had to be the one to decide.

It’s the least I owe them; they were collateral because of me.

“Got any ideas, buddy?” Rory asked the Khan’s oversized head.

Silence.

“Yeah, figured,” Rory said.

Still seated, Rory noticed the temple activating as someone appeared. However, Rory made no attempt to get up even as Apostolos made his way toward him, taking his time.

“Hey,” Rory said, never turning around even as Apostolos stood just behind him.

“Still thinking?”

“Bingo,” Rory said, injecting forced humor in his voice. “Sadly, the big guy here hasn’t been very helpful as far as ideas go.”

Apostolos said nothing, instead taking a seat next to his adopted brother.

“I don’t blame myself,” Rory said after several seconds of silence. “At least, not in the sense that I believe it was entirely my fault or something. We live in a dangerous world. Sitting around on my hands would result in something eventually finding its way and swatting us over because we’ve remained idle.”

“You got any bright ideas?” Rory finally turned to look at Apostolos.

“Was that pun on purpose?” Was the first thing Apostolos said.

“No, but I will pretend it was,” Rory said, a weak smile on his face.

“Personally, I was thinking something like a funeral pyre,” Apostolos answered.

“Not a terrible idea,” Rory said with a nod.

“But not what you’re thinking?”

“No,” Rory shook his head.

After that, the two sat for over half an hour without a single spoken word. It was unusual for Apostolos to make time like this, but given where he’d said he was going, no one had protested when he’d left.

Finally, thirty-seven minutes later exactly, Rory began to speak.

“I was thinking. Back on Earth, there was this story in mythology. There was this tree, and within it sat something called the Golden Fleece. It could... cure people or something? I’m a little fuzzy on the details. Anyway, this tree was guarded by a sleepless dragon.”

Rory’s eyes landed upon the Khan of Blue Lightning’s body even as he continued to speak.

“This place was meant to be the Golden Fields, the world as the Khan of Blue Lightning saw it. Or perhaps desired, moot point, really. It’s not in my power to bring that dream to life, because it was never my dream; it would only ever be a mockery. But I’ll be damned if I just… let this place decay back into the noxious wastes that it once was. That wasn’t his dream, nor was that the dream of our people.”

“So, you’ve got an idea,” Apostolos said.

“Yeah,” Rory slowly nodded. Then, in his hand, he suddenly held a cracked shard, like a splintered crystal.

“Cracked Samsara Seed?” Apostolos asked.

“An item I received from the death of a tortured Territory Alpha. It wasn’t quite a dragon, but I think it will work.”

“The Dragon and the Golden Fleece,” Apostolos said.

“The Golden Fleece actually isn’t the important part of the story,” Rory said, shaking his head. “It’s the tree that the fleece was placed in and that the dragon guarded.”

“Oh,” Apostolos’s eyes widened as he began to see the full picture. “I’ll go contact Hao Lin Rong.”

“Thanks,” Rory said, remaining where he was. “This is going to be a biggie.”

“Lord Founder,” Hao Lin Rong bowed to Rory as he entered Rory’s ‘office’, though it was mostly ceremonial, given how little Rory used it; it had been Irene’s idea. “I offer my deepest condolences at this time of grieving.”

“It’s fine,” Rory waved it off. “At this point, you and your family have been studying Bloodwoods for far longer than I have.”

“Bloodwoods, Lord Founder?” Hao Lin Rong perked up. “Why would such a matter be of relevance at the time?”

“Humor me. How does one nurture a bloodwood?”

“Simple, you feed them the bodies and essence of monsters; they are carnivorous plants in nature. A ‘natural’ bloodwood would take very long to grow, if it could at all, because, while they are carnivorous plants, they are unable to accrue nourishment on their own. They instead would require the corpses of monsters to fall in their vicinity, where their roots would slowly reach out to drag them below. In our nursery, we directly nourish them, allowing for vastly accelerated growth.”

“And the most advanced bloodwood you’ve ever natured?”

“A single Matured Bloodwood. While there were thoughts of harvesting the tree for study, the family had instead chosen it as a totem tree that we nourish with offerings of our clan blood.”

If you didn’t know better, that would sound real cult-like.

“Hao Lin Rong, I will be direct with you. The Golden Fields have fallen, but I do not intend to abandon them. I plan to claim the former Golden Fields, but without the protection of a guardian, it would be a rather dangerous location to hold; we’d have to deploy the likes of the Elite Four to have any hope of holding it for an extended period. Instead, I intend to raise a special Bloodwood variant there and birth a guardian for this territory. Hao Lin Rong, as your family has proven loyal. As a reward, I intend to raise your family to that of the ‘First Retainers of the Architect,’ after which I will gift these territories to your clan. You will still be under the purview and a part of Ehkorrus, of course, but will otherwise be Ehkorrus’s first attempt at branching beyond a simple outward expansion.”

As he spoke, Rory didn’t miss Hao Lin Rong’s reaction. It was subtle, that man had a good grasp over his own emotions, but there was no missing to Rory’s keen eye that shift in the younger older man’s eyes, his irises expanding ever so slightly.

Placing his hands one atop the other on the table, Hao Lin Rong lowered his head, placing his forehead flat to his hands.

“My Lord. My clan will forever follow you.”

Dramatic.

“I should remind you that while it is a reward, it is not without challenge. Should anything cut off the connection between the former Golden Fields and Ehkorrus, you will be left to yourselves. Furthermore, I suspect that the evolution of the territory won’t be anywhere so docile as your own bloodwood groves.”

“I understand,” Hao Lin Rong answered instantly. “But it changes nothing. On the honor of the Rong, for the honor of the Ehkorrus, and for the Lord Founder’s eternal glory, we will not fail you.”

Had Rory been in a more jovial mood, he would have found the declaration at least somewhat eyeroll worthy, or at least internally, but given everything that had happened, Rory merely nodded.

“I should hope not.”