Universe's End

Chapter 240: Architect of the Precursors Vs. Born of Brilliant Feathers Pt. 2

Yanking the Bird through space and flickering back into the sky, Rory faced the oversized toucan from whom he could distinctly sense the annoyance radiating off.

“Nothing. This changes nothing other than what I’m willing to expend,” The Bird announced. “I wished to deal with you quickly and easily to avoid excessive losses, but the easy path has been ignored.”

“Yeah, sorry, let me just die really quick for you,” Rory rolled his eyes. “Anyone ever tell you that you yap a lot for a bird?”

“Do you believe it a jest?” The Bird said, its aura flaring like the noontime sun.

Rory was about to open his mouth when, for once, he was the one cut off.

“Aspects of the Arcana.”

Oh, that’s definitely not a jest.

Appearing just behind the bird was a partial circle, like a crescent moon, with eight empty ‘constellations’ within it.

“Ascending Aspect – The Phoenix.”

The first bubble suddenly filled in, a fiery image of a phoenix within it.

Time to get serious.

The Bird wasn’t the only one adorned by something just behind them, as the hands of a clock appeared behind Rory.

Appearing in his right hand was a red spear, and in his left a shield hefted as Rory prepared himself.

“Phoenix Flames.”

The Bird rushed Rory, flames that weren’t actually flames wisping around its wings, striking against Rory’s shield. Rory attempted to thrust his spear toward the Bird, only for it to swerve around the strike as easily as always.

Focusing the pneuma within his eyes, Rory peered into the flames that the Bird had summoned, trying to better understand them, unlike any concept he’d felt before.

Wait… no concept?

Even with Eyes of the Architect capable of making sense of magical phenomena to a high level, the flames left him confused. Focusing on the ring instead, Rory felt his eyes widen. The first ‘Aspect’ was the source of the power, the flames merely an extension.

How does that work?

It was a curiosity that Rory was dying to understand, but that was something for future Rory to really break down and digest.

Instead, Rory merely focused on pushing back the Bird whenever it swept toward him. Something that became increasingly difficult when things started catching fire at random. Oh, it was one thing to see something like a monster or a person or an item igniting because of some fire magic.

But when the air itself started to burn like the flames carried by its wings were contagious?

Even the Bird’s magic had begun to carry those same strange flames, which began burning whatever they touched.

For example, the ever-so-friendly stallions summoned by the Bird, composed of prismatic and solar energy, soon had burning manes as well. When Rory attempted to block the charge of one of the stallions, his shield suddenly caught fire, and, given that it was made of promethium, to say it was alarming would be an understatement.

Flickering backward, Rory frowned. Now would have been a perfect chance for disrupting the magical horses with Nathair, but, well, Nathair was out of the picture for reasons.

Instead of charging up a Nathair, a physical bow appeared in his hand as he began to unleash arrow after arrow, many simply igniting in the air as they traveled toward the Bird.

Tsk.

“Only the first Arcana, and already you struggle.”

“Yeah, yeah, let me guess, want to me surrender, painless death, blah blah blah.”

No,” The Bird said, flying higher as if it had the compulsive need always to present itself as some godly being. “I shall let you surrender and swear yourself beneath me.”

“Oh, right, so much better,”

Rory sighed. “Then what? I feed you grapes and fan you with a palm leaf?”“What are grapes?”

So damn annoying!

Swapping weapons again, Rory held what looked like dual-wield crowbars, an adjusted version of tonfas.

Flickering behind the Bird, Rory unleashed a barrage of strikes toward the oversized pigeon, only for it to again avoid every single hit as it showcased the benefits of a rather impressive flexibility investment. Even the few times where Rory did manage to land an actual hit, it simply healed in an instant.

“Is there a reason for this useless endeavor?” The Bird asked, more curious than annoyed.

“Of course,” Rory said, for some reason refusing to stop swinging his arms even in the open air.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping the momentum building, duh,”

Teleporting next to the Bird yet again, where it had easily dodged ninety percent of the earlier assault, it now found itself losing ground as Rory’s strikes grew faster.

Momentum Inscriptions work better than hoped.

Where many of Rory’s weapons carried inscriptions for things like extra power or repair functions, the tonfas were different, forgoing the regular slew of inscriptions and instead specializing in a single purpose: so long as they stayed in motion, they would endlessly build up momentum.

It was a good show, but unfortunately, the Bird was hardly near the end of its own bag of tricks. Flapping its wings and pulling away, the Bird called out.

“Ascending Aspect – The Fox.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Instantly, what looked like an afterimage of the Bird appeared, except afterimages didn’t usually separate from the real body, or appear when at a standstill, for that matter.

Oh, joy, a clone.

“Do you know what the Fox represents?” The Bird suddenly asked.

“A brand of winter clothing?”

“Cognition itself,” The Bird said, ignoring Rory’s attempt at confusing it. “The Fox is the aspect of the mind, and the Arcana can only begin with the mind itself.”

Right, so, that sounds like something bad.

“Try to survive.”

One Bird flying around and lighting the sky on fire and shooting off magic that was stronger than what he could do was already bad.

But two?

At the very least, the second Bird seemed far more limited, yet every time Rory managed to strike at the Bird clone, it reformed, unable to be properly damaged.

If Rory hadn’t known better, he would have almost assumed this ‘Arcana’ business was about establishing a domain, yet Rory could very distinctly tell that wasn’t what the Bird was building up to.

Some form of magic or something I’ve never seen before.

That wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. While Rory was a trailblazer, he wasn’t the only one. If anyone else could manage to advance some field beyond what Rory had or in a different direction, it would undoubtedly be another Founder.

Even if it was a bird larping as a Founder.

While Rory could feel the increased pressure, the second Bird wasn’t really that huge of a boon to the actual Bird, more of a nuisance than anything. Several gems appearing in Rory’s hand, he cast them toward the second Bird, snapping his fingers as they exploded, and the second bird found itself in a literal birdcage.

That should hold it for a bit.

All it had taken was one room, one barrier, and one seal gem.

Seal as in ‘to imprison,’ not the animal.

Feeling clever, Rory was reminded that he probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of himself as a flaming stallion crashed into him, igniting his armor as he was launched back into the earth below. Crashing and forming a sizable crater, Rory groaned. He’d braced for impact with another two gem expenditures.

I really wish projections were on the table.

At the very least, Rory took a moment to activate Earth Soul as several stone spears formed of ultra-condensed earth elements, teleporting with Rory as he flickered back into the sky and launched them toward the Bird.

As the Bird flew about, the stone spears chasing it, Rory patted down his armor, suffusing his hands with his aura of self, enough to put out the flames that carried no trace of concepts.

Better.

Having an idea, Rory held his hands several inches apart from one another as lightning began to arc between them. He was doubtful regular old lightning would do much against the Bird, given its entire Brilliance stuff going on, but that was why Rory wasn’t intending to use just lightning.

In most cases, this would be the point at which the lightning turned blue, incorporating heavenly concepts.

In most cases. This wasn’t most cases, though. Instead of becoming heavenly charged, the lightning turned crimson as Rory injected his blood into the magic. Not just blood affinity, his literal blood. True ‘blood magic’ wasn’t really a thing, at least not currently, given a person only had so much blood, even as a tier eight.

That didn’t mean Rory hadn’t tried exploring the idea at all, though.

The last of the stone spears hounding down the Bird were destroyed as it turned its full attention back to Rory, just in time to take a bolt of red lightning to the chest.

“Surely you have a better idea than-” The Bird suddenly cut off; if it had a human face, it would have frowned.

Its brilliant plumage, seared and scorched by the lightning, seemed to be healing in slow motion.

Oh, that does work. Nifty.

One’s ‘aura of self’ was normally something that couldn’t be pushed much past one's own body, perhaps a few inches at max. But Rory’s blood was also his affinity; it carried traces of himself just as much as anything else. In theory, he could instill a ‘packet’ of the aura of self into the blood and weaken whatever healing effect kept the Bird so healthy.

Now, the problem was that Rory didn’t have enough blood to meaningfully shut down the effect entirely, but it was nice to know.

“Aspect of Noon – The Monkey.”

Oh, right, almost forgot about that.

The third ‘constellation’ sat within the ring behind the Bird lit up; this time, the image of a monkey.

As it did, the afterimage contained by his birdcage suddenly vanished, reappearing next to the true body, alongside another image of the Bird.

“The Monkey, the Aspect of Flexibility. A personal favorite of mine, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I’ve noticed,” Rory grunted.

“I must congratulate you. The last Founder I slew never made it past this point during our numerous conflicts. Of course, that was because I never had anything past this point at the time. Tier seven was quite limiting after all.”

“Oh, well, I am honored,” Rory said, laying the sarcasm on thick.

Which, apparently, the Bird didn’t quite catch.

“Wise of you. I must also thank you for offering up the Vanguard on a silver platter.”

Rory’s attention turned below, scanning for a moment as he noticed Zoey out cold. The wave boss was utterly defeated, given it had been reduced to a skeleton outside its head.

Why can I sense Oblivion energies?

While Rory had no idea the precise details of what had gone down, he could at least piece together a general idea.

She collided paradoxical elements, caused a boom, and took a nap.

The Architect of the Precursors, truly a being of boundless wisdom.

“The Vanguard is a true warrior; she shall be spared from my hunt.”

Right, and when everyone totally agrees, the Bird will listen as a proper peer. Right.

“Nah,” Rory said. “She’s too stubborn. Besides, it doesn’t matter.”

“I suppose because you believe you still have a path for victory.”

“Damn, you’re a mind reader,” Rory said, holding a hand to his open mouth.

The Bird said nothing, instead sending the two afterimages after him.

Faster. They’re definitely faster now.

It still wasn’t as bad as when he’d been under attack by the Bird, the wave boss, a team of support shamans, and whatever the hell that Eidos monster was, but it was starting to climb up there.

I can understand why it seemed so confident when it said it really was about efficiency, then necessity.

The hands of a clock behind Rory were approximately a third of the way around, meaning there was still quite a bit of time to go until he was ready.

So, keep on keeping on.

The plan was quite simple: goad and annoy the Bird, stall, and try not to die.

Simple. Super simple.

Less simple given he’d recently sealed his projections, but hey, sometimes you had to take a risk.

The Bird clearly wasn’t an idiot, watching as Rory seemed content to play keep away, blocking and defending but rarely overcommitting, especially now that there were two sets of afterimages chasing after him and setting the world on fire.

“You believe you can prevail if you just hold out?” The Bird suddenly asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” Rory said as he fired off several arrows toward the Bird, who didn’t even bother to dodge as prismatic lasers intercepted the projectiles.

“Idiocy such as yours could be studied,” The Bird said.

“You know, I’ve been told something similar quite a few times already,” Rory laughed, doing his best to continue being as grating as possible.

After all, he needed the Bird more irritated than cautious.

“And who exactly do you think you are?” Rory asked, charging up another blood lightning bolt and unleashing it, as several barriers of folded light intercepted.

“The Chosen of the Great Mother, of course. A divine envoy, if you would.”

Rory frowned. Something about the way it had said those words, there was more than just the usual aura coloring its speech.

Wait… Stigmata?

Rory had already figured out it was using the power of faith for some time now, but it only just now caught his attention that even when it projected aura into its voice, it still drew upon the faith energy.

It’s an addict.

Several things made more sense all at once with that revelation. Aelia had explained how the Bird had gotten a bit nutty with its attitude, and now Rory could understand why. Upon tasting the sweet nectar that was the power of Stigmata, the Bird had begun to channel the energy increasingly often, and in doing so, encouraged the religious fervor its followers seemed to exhibit to more rapidly restore the expended stigmata.

I’m battling a drug addict dodo with a god complex. Oh, how life comes at you fast.

Which was all well and good as far as figuring things out went, but that didn’t change that Rory was still in a battle to the death against said addicted pigeon.

And as if to make things worse, the Bird spread its wings wide.

“Aspect of Noon – The Lion.”

Yet another one of the eight bubbles within the crescent ring behind the Bird filled in, a lion with a flaming man of sunshine.

As for Rory, his time was just shy of halfway.

With a mental grimace, Rory faced the Bird as yet another afterimage appeared.

Just have to keep on keeping on.