Universe's End

Chapter 247: Monstrous Personalities

“How do I look?”

Rory stared for several seconds before shaking his head.

“You look like a person,” Rory answered. Astra stood there, hands on her hips, feet on the ground, and around five foot ten.

Which was to say, she wasn’t a floating little pixie anymore.

“Also… why are you tier eight?” Rory asked, genuinely baffled. It had only been around thirty years since she’d crossed tier seven, and the last time he’d seen her, roughly a week back, she had been far from peak seven, only around two-thirds of the way through tier seven, which was already at a rather rapid pace.

“I ate a lot,” Astra said, hands still on her hips.

Rory paced for several moments before he lifted a hand.

“You’re a stellar, were, a Stellar Unseelie Fae. The forces of the Bird weren’t technically aligned with the physical aspect of stars, but there was a whole lot of crossover. Add in the stigmata infused in so many of his forces...”

“Stigmata?”

“Not important,” Rory waved it off. He had no doubts that if Astra learned of stigmata, she’d be the exact type to try to start a cult worshipping herself. “They fed you once they saw the crossover.”

“Mostly,” Astra confirmed. “Since you were asleep, I can fill you in. Tsarina had issues with her hive trying to bring in too many of the corpses; their brilliant nature apparently causes some issues if they try to assimilate too much.”

“I’m surprised you cared that much to learn about Tsarina’s details,” Rory said. Astra did not like Tsarina, and Tsarina did not like Astra. Tsarina being so much more ‘no nonsense’ seemed to be at odds with Astra, who was about as serious as a whoopee cushion.

“Duh,” Astra rolled her eyes. “It’s for that reason that they gave me so much to eat. To the point that it sort of… forced a change, my prior state couldn’t contain it all.”

Stellar Unseelie Sidhe

Level: 80

“A forced evolution, huh,” Rory muttered. Technically, that wasn’t a first; he’d done something similar in creating Tsarina, after all.

He just hadn’t expected it to be possible for a mid to high-tier seven monster that had already been around for some time.

“Mhmm! And best of all, my tether is gone completely!”

“Oh?” Rory asked, curious.

“Mhmm, I can go where I want! But also, I can do this!”

Gesturing, suddenly her form flickered, light racing away from her before reforming into the stellar heart of old.

“Tadah!”

“And that did… what exactly?”

“Oh, I forgot to explain that part, didn’t I?” Astra frowned. “Well, it’s my anima core. If I were to go poof elsewhere, I’d reform back in my anima core.”

“Like Apostolos,” Rory said, eyes twitching.

Seems like there is a common trait among solar or solar-parallel beings: reforming skills.

“Oh, yeah, I guess so,” Astra shrugged. “Of course, if I’m not in my core, feeding it doesn’t directly benefit me anymore.”

“That only seems fair,” Rory snorted.

“Yeah, but I don’t want

it to be fair,” Astra sighed dramatically.“And you’re not getting any ‘eat people’ ideas, are you?”

“No,” Astra said before shuddering. “Anyway, she is out there, and I look like a snack to her, just like people do to me, so I don’t want to give her a reason.”

“Her? You mean Eia?” It was his educated guess, given he doubted Zoey was going around eating stars.

“Yes! She’d sip me up like soup!”

“Well, I’m glad you understand not to get ahead of yourself,” Rory snorted. A forced evolution to tier eight had propelled Astra to the strongest person in Ehkorrus if he and Eia were to leave. While Apostolos was probably on the verge of breaking through anyway, it was always good to keep Astra from getting any ideas; the Stellar Unseelie sometimes thought with her stomach first and head second.

That aside, the changes in Astra weren’t that extreme outside of growing several times taller. Now she looked less like some royal Barbie clad in starlight and more like an actual star person, her hair blonde and silver, with sharp features and eyes that reminded Rory of a cat.

You know, I wonder if it’s because she’s specifically Unseelie, weren’t they like the bad version compared to regular Seelie? Something, something, Shakespeare. Didn’t pay as much attention in English class as I should have.

“So, what are you planning to do with the new and improved body?” Rory asked.

“Eat,” Astra said as if it were obvious.

“Eat?”

“Yeah. I’m going to check out that Maw for myself, and I’m going to eat everything that I come across!”

“That’s… wonderful,” Rory sighed. Astra was decades older than Tsarina, yet you wouldn’t guess it from interacting with either of them. “That aside, I’m surprised you’re still spending time here in your room.”

“Oh, I’m on lockdown for now. My aura is back to trying to eat weaker things,” Astra said with a shrug. “Once I get it back under control, I’m allowed to leave once more.”

“Is that why the only person to have visited you is Roxy?”

“Yeah, only the scary snake and that one woman are otherwise unaffected.”

Makes sense.

Having eclipsed Apostolos –temporarily at least— he would be just as vulnerable to her aura as anyone else below tier eight. Added to that, Apostolos was literally a solar-affinity anima body; it was basically asking to get accidentally hard-countered. Roxy, thankfully, had spent so much time around Astra growing up that Astra’s aura seemed to ignore Roxy entirely.

Zoey and Eia, meanwhile, would be able to ignore the effects of her aura even if she was trying to weaponize it against them purposely. And much like Astra was a bad match-up for Apostolos until he was tier eight, Eia was an even worse match-up for Astra, given that her entire thing was consuming energy and auras.

“Well, you just, uh, avoid getting in trouble until you get your aura under control,” Rory said.

“I will! Oh, wait, question!”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on NovelBin. Report any occurrences.

“Yes?”

“Can I go visit your other place now that I can travel away from Ehkorrus?”

“The Reverse Mountains?” Rory thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I don’t see why not, as long as you leave your anima core here.”

“Well, duh, I don’t want to end up dead.”

You know, I bet her and Jinn will get along like peas in a pod.

The thought of Jinn suddenly sparked a memory in Rory, specifically of where the World Ichor Elemental loved to hang out.

That’s right, I’ve also got the Heart to check out finally. Well, add it to the list.

“Well, I think I’ve got to take care of… other things now,” Rory said, preparing to leave now that he’d confirmed that Astra hadn’t turned into some bloodthirsty monster.

Or it would probably be appropriate to say a MORE bloodthirsty monster. Whatever, semantics.

“Wait!” Astra suddenly raised her hands, stopping Rory, who’d been a moment from teleporting away.

“Yeah?”

“Can I have that?” Astra said, pointing at Rory’s vambrace inventory.

“I am not giving you an entire-”

“No, no, no, not what I meant,” Astra shook her head. “Something in there smells delicious.”

Having an idea what she was referring to, Rory suddenly held up the Feather from on High.

“Oh, yes, that! Let me eat it!”

“No,” Rory shook his head, putting it back into his inventory. “I’m surprised you even were able to sniff that out.”

“It’s because it smells so much like all the stuff I’ve already been eating, but like, a bajillion times better.”

“I don’t think a bajillion is a real number.”

“Bleh,” Astra stuck her tongue out before turning into starlight and fusing with her anima core. “Fine. Be stingy.”

Rolling his eyes before teleporting away, Rory appeared next to a park bench, taking a seat and looking up into the air.

“Alright, that’s my number one priority with Roxy visited. Still got to check in with Zoey, Apostolos, Irene, Eia, Hao Lin Rong, or Kai Rong, and that’s really all the big names.”

Reaching his senses outward, Rory searched for Zoey first, only to find… nothing.

Huh. Odd.

Eia was also gone, though there was a solid enough chance that Rory already knew where she was.

Then, I guess Irene or Apostolos.

Thankfully, the two were in the same spot. Flickering, Rory appeared within the council room of Ehkorrus.

“Oh, Lord Founder,” Irene said, showing next to no surprise even as a few people within the room jumped. “You’re awake at last.”

“Yeah, you don’t throw down with a peer like that and come out unscathed,” Rory snorted. “Ahh, am I interrupting an Adept Forum?”

“Something of that fashion,” Irene answered. Several of the faces in the room that Rory recognized were ranking members of their respective artisan schools, with the notable exception of any Rong members present.

“Well, you’re all dismissed,” Rory said, waving the gathered adepts away, who all bowed their heads and quickly left the room, leaving only Apostolos, Irene, and himself.

“Is something wrong?” Apostolos asked, sounding tired. Not surprisingly, given that he wasn’t exactly all that interested in artisan business.

“Nope, just didn’t feel like having an audience,” Rory snorted. “First, does anyone want to tell me where Zoey is?”

“She said, and I quote,” Apostolos sighed. “Tell that sleepy fuck I’m heading back to my people. He can come visit whenever.”

“Fair enough,” Rory laughed. “I’m assuming Eia is down by Cruor-Shu?”

“Correct,” Irene answered. “She spends… a lot of time there.”

“Not surprising,” Rory muttered.

Probably a lot of things she’s figuring out for herself.

“Hao Lin Rong or Kai Rong?”

“Kai Rong returned to the Reverse Mountains,” Apostolos answered. “Alongside a rather large contingent of adventurers and the likes. With the wave threats handled, there has been a sort of buzz in Ehkorrus we’ve never felt before.”

“Threat handled?” Rory asked, curious.

“After clearing wave one hundred, we received a notification that we’d unlocked the ability to switch to ‘Controlled Waves.’ The general idea being unlike the hundred years of escalating threat we faced with the Siege Waves, these would be waves we could select the ‘level’ of and modify year by year. The next bracket of Siege Waves is slated for a duration of 1,000 years, concluding at tier ten. So, we’re going to pause pushing Siege Waves for a few centuries at minimum.”

A thousand years. Could I reach tier ten in a thousand years?

No, probably not, not if Rory were being honest with himself.

“Alright, well that aside, I can see why people would be willing to look past the city walls,” Rory said.

“Yes, and we may have put out incentives. This has been the biggest baby boom so far, plus all the new citizens.”

Oh, you’ve got to love that renewal affinity.

A central aspect of their ‘little’ city was the renewal affinity that had intertwined itself with all Ehkorrus, formed from blood, growth, and stellar affinities. Skipping the boring details, the surge of energy that Ehkorrus took in after so many things died during a wave directly correlated with a massive baby boom,led by the massive increase in vital energy circulating through the city.

And unlike on Earth, where childbirth was risky and took nine grueling months, by tier three, childbirth was essentially riskless, and most importantly, was only three months long. Combined with some of the Sovereign System's benefits, such as fertility taxes and credits, which ensured only those who wanted children had them, the population of Ehkorrus was like an accelerating rocket. Pushing people out to expand into new areas was the obvious play, allowing a tad more breathing room for the city's own expansion.

“I should take a moment to mention something,” Apostolos suddenly said. “First, prisoners.”

“Oh, yeah, the Bird’s people and the former Voice’s people.”

“The Varasians,” Apostolos nodded. “We’ve been keeping them under watch, and they’re treated well, but we don’t really know what to do with them. Hell, they don’t really know what to do either. It’s the second time they’ve lost their leader.”

“Any religious nuts?”

“No,” Aposotlos said. “Those types preferred to die fighting.”

“Hmm,” Rory thought for a moment, crossing his arms. “Question: Do we know for certain that this was all of them?”

“What do you mean?” Apostolos asked.

“Oh. Oh!” Irene’s eyes widened. “Oh, I’m an idiot,” Irene said, an outburst that was very unlike her.

“What?” Apostolos asked, still confused.

“They likely came from some village or community. I would say like Ehkorrus, but I have doubts it was anything to this scale.”

“And it’s entirely undefended,” Irene answered, a gleam in her eyes.

“Perhaps a more sinister way of phrasing it than I necessarily approve of, but yes,” Rory nodded. “The core of it being, unless they had absolutely no combatants, they have to have a home somewhere.”

“Assuming the Bird didn’t kill them,” Apostolos pointed out.

“I have doubts about that. It’s not exactly wise to slaughter the family and friends of your troops, though maybe given time it would have eventually resorted to that.”

“So, we find them, sweep in, rebuild them, and expand our claims,” Irene added.

“Humanitarian aid is more what I’d like to call it, but sure, ultimately if we can work with our Varasian ‘prisoners’ they can likely help us make it back there, bring them under our own banner, and suddenly the Ehkorrian civilization will have expanded to three locations,” Rory said.

“What about the remaining faction?” Apostolos asked, sounding uncertain.

“We’ve likely got a window of reprieve,” Rory answered. “The Spear and her faction only recently settled things with the First Monk’s faction. Also, unlike the notification of ours, which indicated our victory through slaying the Bird, theirs were far more amicably phrased. So, worst-case scenario, I don’t see them coming here to cause potential widespread slaughter.”

“Comforting,” Irene said. “Anything else?”

“Do you guys have anything else?” Rory asked. “Any special rewards I should know about? Maybe a crazy wish-granting monster or Eon started a new event?”

“Surprisingly, no. We did get a few bonus things with the Sovereign System, but that’s not stuff you’re all that interested in the details of anyway. So, the gist is just that we’ve improved the efficiency of all blood-related activities as well as enhanced the circulation of renewal energy further.”

“Perfect, see, this is why I leave you two in charge.”

“Well, there is one thing,” Apostolos said, looking around with an odd expression.

“Oh?” Rory asked, curious.

“I’m planning on stepping down as Chief Protector.” Apostolos finally answered. “A one-hundred-year tenure. Not stepping down this second, by the way, I mean within the next few years. You once told me that if I want to protect the city and the people I care about, I need to work on myself. Ehkorrus has come a long way, where I’m no longer even the bulk of its personal strength.”

“Sure,” Rory said with a shrug.

“That’s it?”

“As long as we don’t turn it into an elected position, it’s still ultimately a position of power. In fact, I have two names I’d like to toss out there.”

“Yes?” Irene asked.

“First, Marcie-”

“No,” Irene instantly said. “I love my little sister to death, but no.”

It was touching that even a hundred years after they’d arrived on Aelia, they still thought of one another as family, ignoring the literal siblings of the group, being Irene, Greg, and John.

You know, I should check in with those two. I know John keeps busy constantly helping to expand the city, but Greg stays holed up in his kitchens.

“I agree with Irene,” Apostolos snorted. “My little sister-in-law really isn’t one for the job. But, I do hope you don’t suggest Violet.”

“No,” Rory said. “Violet is strong, but not the sort of power I’d like to see in the position. Instead, my suggestion is this: Tsarina.”

The two of them stared at Rory for several seconds, silent as if processing his words.

“What?” Rory finally asked.

“Tsarina? The monster?”

“Didn’t realize there was another Tsarina,” Rory said.

“I don’t have anything against her,” Irene answered. “But… she is a monster.”

“And?”

“You don’t think people will have thoughts on the matter?”

“Not really,” Rory shrugged. “And if they do, it doesn’t matter. She’s proven her loyalty to the city, she’s smart, and she is strong. Her and Marcie I’d put roughly equal, and they’re not even that far behind you, Apostolos.”

“Sure, but I mean-”

“And most importantly, Roxy loves her to death,” Rory answered honestly. “And I’d trust her judgment.”

“Why not make Roxy-”

“No,” Rory shot down. “She only recently broke through tier seven. She is her own woman, maybe in the future, who knows, she might take the title of Chief Protector herself, but from a pure qualification standpoint, she isn’t ready; it would be nepotism to the highest degree that would only endanger her and the city.”

Irene and Apostolos shared a look before at last sighing.

“Tsarina, it is.”