Universe's End

Chapter 265: End of the Vacation

“Now, pay attention because here is where things get fun,” Rory said as he reheated the metal, wanting to keep it a little pliable. “First off, stylus.”

Holding his stylus up, Rory took a moment to lecture.

“Obviously are should understand this, but a stylus isn’t necessary at all. The reason I use a stylus is that it helps with direct inscription on materials such as metal, and I’ve designed my styluses to use my own blood as a form of ‘ink’, which, again, is unnecessary. Having spent decades with the affinity, though, I’ve developed a style that revolves around it, including the ability to encode extra meaning within droplets of blood through a skill called Ghost Message. It’s not a great option for anything that wouldn’t agree with blood essence, but I digress.”

Rory was making a point of narrating, letting the woman understand exactly what he was doing and why, now that it was directly inscription-related.

The stylus began to move, and runes began to gently appear within the still softened metal.

“As mentioned in the open lecture, runes don’t always have to be literal. Take these three runes. Energy, Fire, Metal. What do you think I’m putting together there?”

“A fire effect throughout the metal?”

“Bzzt,” Rory said, buzzing his lips like an incorrect buzzer. “It’s a supplement.”

“Supplement.

“Energy, Fire, Metal. Yet, the interlinked meaning is reforging. Would you like to know why I haven’t used a reforging rune?”

“Yes?”

“Because much like you can have a single rune with an advanced meaning, such as reforging, or several runes with sub-meanings, a single advanced rune can lack the sub-meaning of the several lesser runes. I purposely want the meaning broken up, as a reflection of the construct itself, which is itself not a ‘finished’ item; it requires my active input, or it will.”

“So, the meaning of the rune can be in the sub meanings, advanced runes and their advanced meanings, and even how the identity of the rune can be interpreted as a reflection of the item itself?”

“Bingo,” Rory said with a smile as his stylus continued to move throughout the metal. “It’s art and grammar in the same form. Efficient runes can be inefficient compared to lesser or broken up runes if the runes themselves also reflect the item or the situation, context, context, context.”

“I’m following,” Analissa said.

“And now, watch this.”

Pushing gently, the runes seemed to slowly vanish, as Analissa’s eyes widened.

“What was that?”

“Layering. Runes can also be layered or nested within an item. Now, layering is an advanced technique that most inscriptionists can’t manage. There is also a limit to layering; at most, I can manage three layers depending on what I’m working on.”

“Why?”

“Because it requires an intimate understanding of the item you’re inscribing upon. This usually requires that you have been the one who made the item to begin with. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but the more you understand the other crafts and artisan skills, the easier it will be to layer on an item you yourself didn’t craft. Furthermore, each ‘layer’ becomes narrower, as the runes begin shifting from a realm of physical space into a more conceptual area. As I said, three layers is the most I’ve ever managed, and at that point the runes placed on the third layer, which I should mention doesn’t count the surface, are usually only enough space for one or two runes if I’m giving it the absolute maximum focus.”

“How long until I can do that?” Analissa asked.

“Depends,” Rory shrugged. “Every field has advanced techniques. Forging has True Folding, for example, the act of literally folding an item so that double the matter fits in the exact same space. Alchemy has inversion processing. Advanced Gem Crafting allows point rerouting, using existing points as free reroute nodes during the mapping phase if properly planned in advance. And Inscription has layering. Some are more difficult to learn than others, and these are only a few of the advanced techniques developed so far. Which is to say, if you want to learn Layering, you’re going to need to spend time studying other fields as well. A basic first layer. Layering typically only requires a proficient understanding of the material sciences involved, though the more advanced your knowledge, the more the ‘layer’ opens up. Also, the deeper the layer, the more it ties to the innate nature of the item.”

“That’s… a lot,” Analissa admitted, blinking several times.

“I should mention that just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” Rory quickly added. “I don’t truly fold literally every piece of metal; sometimes it’s unnecessary for what it's meant to do. If I want a dagger to be used by a tier one, using True Folded metal will just make it heavier and more difficult to use, and furthermore, the added oomph will force a tier one to fight enemies they aren’t ready for due to having ‘better’ gear. Layering is similar but different: you don’t need to layer every inscription; too much can make it messy. If all I want is a tablet to absorb light, I don’t need a thousand different runes on a thousand different layers.”

Analissa remained quiet, simply nodding.

Having said his share, Rory continued the rest of the inscription work in relative silence, aside from explaining a few cases where he had runes attached to one another in a particular way so as to reflect a specific intent that might otherwise not be clear.

Taking advantage of the silence, Rory began to chant in the unknown language of the words of the wind under his breath. Much like his prior attempts, his relative newness with the skill reared its head, as even after having neutered as many of the ground-aligned aspects of the modified promethium as he had, it still proved far more stubborn than anything else he’d worked on prior. He would chant the word for ‘lift’ only to hear a whispered melody back, a clear impression of no.

It was an odd feeling for Rory to find himself bickering in broken ‘wind-i-ese’ with a piece of crafted metal, but life came at you fast, and so while the rest of the crafting process hadn’t taken all that long, Rory spent hours trying to win over the metal. During that time, Rory had finally let Analissa leave, the woman having gotten everything she could out of the impromptu ‘lesson.’

Alone, Rory spent the better part of eight hours constantly bickering with the metal.

“Lift.”

“No.”

“Lift.”

“No.”

“Lift.”

“No.”

It gave Rory flashbacks to videos of babies back on Earth babbling back and forth like they were in a heated argument. Except, he wasn’t a baby, and neither was the nearly finished chakram.

Had he perhaps jumped straight into the deep end, going from trying to win over the simple components of a glider to arguing with a near-cousin of promethium? Yes, yes, he had.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

But…. Well, but nothing. In hindsight, Rory realized he probably could have learned at least a few more pieces of vocabulary when it came to the words of the wind, but hey, hindsight was twenty-twenty for a reason.

Rory wasn’t really sure what caused the metal to finally surrender, the stubborn no, at last quitting, as Rory waited several seconds in near disbelief.

Wait, for real?

Blinking in surprise, he’d spent so long that night was nearly upon him, Rory examined the item that had been finished in everything except the chanting department.

Projection Framed Sky-Tolerant Promethium Chakram

Grade: Rare

While Promethium is typically known for its dense, earthen concepts, forged from deep-rock materials, not all Promethium is made the same. Earthen elements reshaped, the promethium used is no longer bound to ground, instead free to fly high above, or higher, at least. Made to act as the vessel for projection magic, this Promethium Chakram is capable of modular alterations while being physically more robust than ordinary projections.

“Swell,” Rory said. Because projection magic was already inherently flexible, Rory had been forced to keep his inscription flexible as well, unable to specialize in any specific role. It was just a stronger version of his normal projection chakrams, and the skybound trait was just enough to help counteract the usual density and heaviness of promethium.

Looking at it for several more seconds, Rory shrugged before it vanished into his inventory.

All that build-up, and it just goes into the inventory. Well, it’s not like it was meant to be a Mastercraft item, just a fun idea I had.

Looking up at the dark sky, Rory sighed to himself. It had been a productive day when all was said and done, but given that most of that productivity was arguing with a piece of metal, Rory couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Next time, I’ll find a nice brick wall instead.”

The next few months passed in a blur, as Rory enjoyed his vacation, because in truth, that’s what it amounted to. He gave lessons, worked on small side projects, and otherwise just enjoyed the change of atmosphere. His skill with skybound chanting more than doubled, which was a fun way of saying he went from knowing barely a handful of words to around thirteen total. The Thunderous Lord was processed, usable parts stripped, and given to people who could use them, with Rory himself deciding that he only wanted a single thing from the territory alpha.

Last Bellow of the Lesser Sky

Quality: Rare

The final cry of a lesser lord of the sky, in physical form. Once a syrinx organ, it collapsed inward upon death, hardening into partially calcified tissue. With little practical use, a skill artisan may still find the largely defunct organ useful.

It was a weird item, looking like the lung removed from a chain smoker of seventy years, about the size of his head, and like a lump of hamburger helper, charcoal, and chalk that had been mashed up, with sticky mucus still remaining within the folds and crannies of the former organ. Rory wasn’t certain what use it had, if any, but he damn well knew for certain that no one within Zoey’s village would be able to find use for it any time soon.

And so, like so many other things, it was tossed into his inventory to collect dust. At the very least, Rory had the foresight to place it in a small container before tossing it inside to collect dust, in case the slimy mucus turned out to be valuable, letting it dry out would be a critical mistake.

Starting to grow restless and somewhat tempted to take up Zoey’s offer to explore the place that sounded an awful lot like the Maw, he never had the chance. Mid-experiment with creating a new lacquer for use on varying items, Rory almost spilled a bottle of acidic slime from a venus-fly trap monster on himself as a notification jumped out at him.

Messengers from afar

While some look to slaughter their enemies under the talon of conquest, others choose more diplomatic means. Within the heart of the Architect’s domain, a messenger has arrived. What news they bring may only be discovered upon return.

“A notification for that? And it couldn’t wait an extra fifteen seconds?” Rory grumbled, rolling his eyes at Eon’s subtle approach toward humor, always seemingly opting to jump scare him mid-experiment so long as it was something relatively minor. For example, the acid he was working with was too weak to have done anything to him, but it would have put a hole in his shirt, which would have been at least mildly annoying.

It was a notification that he’d been expecting for some time, if not the exact details. The ‘grace period’ post-defeat of the Bird had come to an end, and it was time to confront the other founders.

But first.

Putting things away, Rory locked onto two specific aural signatures, flickering first to the biggest one.

“Vacation time is over,” Rory said, hands on his hips as he appeared on a nearby mountain asteroid, where Eia was in the process of swallowing whole some poor tier eight monster that looked like a snowy orangutan covered in mistletoe.

“To be expected,” Eia said. The nice thing about her speaking through mentally projected speech was that even with his massive maw currently preoccupied.

“Should I fetch you in a bit after I’ve snagged Zoey?”

“Yes. I’ll hasten this somewhat,” Eia mentally sighed, as her aura began to concentrate inward, corroding the monster’s body like acid eating away at metal.

“Dandy,” Rory nodded before flickering away, finding himself upside down as Zoey was putting a literal snowman in a chokehold.

“Should I ask…?” Rory offered as Zoey shook her head.

“Long story,” She replied, jerking her arms and ‘snapping’ the snowman’s neck. “What’s up?”

“Notification. We’ve got visitors at Ehkorrus.”

“Spanish Inquisition?”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Zoey sighed. “I was making a joke.”

“Were the Spanish known for that?” Rory asked, having never gone to Spain himself.

“No, just… never mind. Visitors mean the other Founders are moving. So, you, Eia, and I head back? Hopefully, fewer zealots and delusional birds?”

“Hopefully,” Rory snorted.

“Is the Z.O.E.Y ready?” Zoey asked.

“Yes, I touched it up over the last few months. You shouldn’t have to burn your damage nullification just to cross over.”

“Great,” Zoey said with a wide smile. “Because I hate fighting without having that in my back pocket.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be a fight.”

Zoey stared at him, unblinking.

“What?” Rory asked defensively.

“Because everything is going to go hunky-dory, no problems, and we all sing kumbaya together.”

“It could happen,” Rory said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Anyway,” Rory said, ignoring her. “It’s just a visitor for now, at least based on the notification.”

“And why exactly did you get a notification and not me?”

“Probably because you were busy doing…. Whatever that was,” Rory said, pointing to the corpse of the snowman.

“And you weren’t?”

“I was, but Eon has this thing about making me jump when it can.”

“Oh, right, you’ve mentioned that before.”

“Yeah, almost burnt a hole in my shirt,” Rory said with a frown as he glanced down at his shirt.

“Oh boohoo,” Zoey snorted. “Poor Rory, the last person alive who could figure out a way to replace a shirt.”

Rather than dignifying her comment, Rory flickered away, reappearing a moment later with a giant snake in tow.

“Oh, hey Eia. Did you just finish eating something?”

“I did. I’d rather take a nap, but it appears there are things in motion.”

“Alright, next stop, Z.O.E.Y,” Rory said as he changed the subject, snagging hold of them both by their auras as they showed zero resistance, the three of them flickering to a far-off asteroid. It was barren, except for a black metal cube covered in runes, and a forest of obelisks that had been set up throughout the entirety of the small asteroid.

“So, while I touched it up, it’s still not a proper void passageway,” Rory said. “As in, still not going to be the most comfortable experience.”

“Yeah, yeah, less yapping, more wooshing.”

“Wooshing isn’t a word.”

“Does it matter?”

Sighing, Rory shook his head as he stepped up to the black cube, an item he’d personally made for Zoey some time ago. Tapping it once, it began to unfold, as an ‘orb’ floated upward, a three-dimensional dodecahedron. The function of the Z.O.E.Y was actually quite simple; the obelisks were all variants of pneuma crushers, folding the pneuma densely within, shaping into ‘physical’ form, though it wasn’t true solid pneuma as it used a regular crystal as the ‘seed.’ After being activated, the densely folded pneuma within would re-aspect into oblivion energy, after which it would-

A pillar of null light shot upward, slashing reality and leaving a tear in space and time.

-cut through spacetime. By nature of their only being two other void passageways through all of Aelia, like water flowing to the lowest point, the slash through spacetime would inevitably ‘flow’ to the next closest void passageway, the Reverse Mountains. From there, it was just a matter of stepping through.

“Alright, time to go,” Rory ushered toward the gash in reality. “Hurry up.”

The gash was already beginning to reseal itself, and not needing to be told twice, both Eia and Zoey passed through.

Oh, wait, we never told any of her people we were leaving…. Ehh, they’ll figure it out.

With that final thought, Rory stepped through, and with no one left keeping the gash open, space healed, leaving zero trace behind.

And with it, the last time ever before the remaining Founders would collide.