Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 324: Ten Years Later

Ok, why the fuck do I have to walk up that stupid staircase every day? Tanja loudly complained as she stomped out of the space colloquially known as the walk of shame.

It really wasnt fun to use that particular staircase due to its enchantments. Gravity magic to make going up it harder to move, constant twists and turns to reduce the maximum achievable speed, and spatial magic to increase its length by a factor of ten.

Because you keep jumping from the roof and landing in the courtyard, Isaac said, We had a problem with students deciding that the wards meant to catch people who fall off mean that this is a perfect place to go skydiving, so we built the Walk of Shame and tweaked the wards so that anyone who jumps has to take it to get back up.

But I can fly, she whined, Im not going skydiving.

Yeah, the point still stands. Having a massive Valkyrie land in the crowds down there isnt fun for anyone. Just land outside the wards, Isaac suggested, Thats what I do.

You know, Artemis, your human can be really mean sometimes, Tanja whispered to the leopard who was currently resting with her head in his lap.

Then, she pulled out a box of treats, shook it, and the cat was on her feet in a flash.

Traitors, both of you, Isaac mock grumbled, doing a terrible job of hiding his smile.

This place really was wonderful, having constantly evolved as the [System] threw up more and more issues.

Initially, Isaac had just built a small training hall on the land near the university hed purchased so long ago and officially lived on, even though he was almost never there.

A place where he could train those he wanted to, and somewhere for people to visit him so he could teach them his [Skills].

And then, things had gotten slightly out of hand.

Some labor was granted in exchange for teaching, an expansion here, an addition there, and suddenly, the whole affair had blown up immensely.

Until eventually, Karl had told him it would be easier to just build a godsdamned skyscraper and leave half of it empty until he needed it.

So Isaac had built it, well, Karl had built it while Isaac helped however he could and later repaid him with several favors.

And things had kept escalating from there, with the whole affair eventually becoming an academy where Isaac was essentially the head cat herder. Hed named it Akashic Academy, obviously.

The entire affair was all about the various little tricks that high-Level people could teach combined with general education and safe summoning, which was largely run by the people Isaac had hired.

And Isaac himself, well, he occasionally showed up, having largely moved to Camelot with Elena, but he made sure to spend every fourth year teaching. The curriculum took four years, so that way, everyone would have a chance to take his courses Know Thy Enemy, Creative Combat and Making the Most of your Abilities, gaining his teachable [Skills] in the process.

During that time, Isaac had also gotten an actual Doctorate in [System] studies by writing a thesis that further explored the capabilities of [Aura]. Most people had deferred to his honorary doctorate when addressing him, but hed still been aware of the fact that it was not a requirement.

And the twins were currently in their third year. Thankfully, they had the good sense to not abuse their connection to him directly, but unfortunately, not treating him as the principal extended to bitching to him about the school as if he were just an uninvolved older brother, not, you know, the guy in charge.

Oh well, cest la vie.

Ah, but what an awesome time the last ten years had been. Everyone had hit Level 200, and Arthur had been offered a signature enhancement for [Round Table], which reset its Level while retaining threshold bonuses and would triple the number of its slots every ten Levels. So the number of available seats had rapidly exploded, though they were most empty as they were being damn careful about who they filled them with.

And as for the world itself, well, it was still there, still limping along, still inhabited by people. It was working overall, though.

A whole bunch of treaties on reasonable summoning had stabilized things, but it was still more based on raw power than Isaac felt entirely comfortable with, something based on reason would have been better. But it was likely the best he could hope for.

The UN general secretary had managed to create a [World Law] using his [Skills], that allowed them to set a single rule, within reason, that affected the world, and would only be changeable by the next person in his position with a similar [Skill].

And what theyd chosen had been to delay the activation of World Items for a minimum of one hour, but with that length increasing if the World Item wasnt too powerful. Assuming there was such a thing as a weaker World Item.

The important thing was that the warning message about its activation would not only still go out, but also inform everyone of the users name and exact, up-to-date, location. If it was something nefarious, well, there were a whole lot of S-Rankers on the planet to kick the ass of any would-be apocalypse-bringers. It would still be a total mess, but it should be at least possible to solve it.

As for the [World Bosses] themselves, sadly, theyd largely gone in the direction of surveillance state. Sort of.

Enough people with surveillance [Skills] checking specifically for [World Boss] circles, pattern-recognition abilities investigating purchases of required materials in sufficient quantities, and other investigative strategies almost eliminated the risk of having one of those apocalyptic beasts summoned on Earth.

It wasnt a great situation, but it also wasnt anywhere near as bad as the images the term surveillance state conjured up.

Isaac used his [Aura] to check the nearest clock. Almost time to go to class.

And then, his phone exploded. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Some moron of titanic proportions had apparently summoned the [World Boss] Ymir. Not on Earth, hed have gotten a message if that had been the case, but on Pluto. Someone had wanted to find out what that thing looked like, or something like that.

Either way, no one felt like leaving that thing out there to wreak all kinds of havoc.

It took him only an hour to reach the dwarf planet, which was already surrounded by several spaceships. Three belonged to the Solar Patrol, which fulfilled a similar purpose as the various Cost Guards back on Earth. Except they were under the command of the UN, which tried to administrate the solar system. It was a bureaucratic mess, but it was one that at least functioned.

Four were mining vessels retrofitted for long-range bombardment, which were currently being evacuated to the Solar Guard vessels, except any space suits that didnt belong to Solar Guard officers were handcuffed.

And lastly, there were the three warships, one cruiser, one battle cruiser, and a single battleship, trading metaphorical punches with the [World Boss] at range.

It didnt take a genius to figure out what had happened here.

Someone had figured that summoning a [World Boss] on an empty and isolated rock in the solar system would make it easy pickings for long-range kinetic bombardment and promptly gotten themselves arrested, while the military tried to clean up the whole mess. Emphasis on tried.

Modern warships were equipped with a mixture of railguns, lasers, particle beams, missiles, elemental focus cannons, and casting platforms, absolutely none of which was doing much to help matters.

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Ymir wasnt anywhere near as large as the Leviathan had been, but he was still huge. Four kilometers tall, and a little under one wide. Big enough to lie down in Central Park and still crush some buildings in the process.

He had long hair that was a mixture of frosty blue and ember orange, and bone-white skin, with only a dirty-looking loincloth covering his unmentionables, though Isaacs [Aura] told him there was nothing down there to cover. An issue of appearances, he supposed.

But it was the giants eyes that were the most distinctive, the left trailing icy mist even though he was in a vacuum, and the right burning like the sun, while its palms were the opposite, with the right hand wielding ice and the left holding flame.

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Using [Knowledge Seeker], he scanned every inch of the monster. [Challenger of the Apocalypse] was likely the better [Class] for this, but the moment he switched, [Final Defiance] would likely activate, and he didnt know what would happen if he switched back while it was active.

Would it just discharge all mana in the [Skill], thereby wasting it? Or would the boost last even when [Challenger of the Apocalypse] went inactive?

He certainly didnt know.

So, he just kept pulling uncharged weapons from his storage, empowered them with increasingly intricate and well-adapted versions of [Logos Blade].

Once properly enhanced, the weapons went into his arsenal bracelet.

It was a starsteel-and-platinum bracer on his left wrist with a massive blue gem, the core of a Lord of Time and Space, sitting in its middle. If he hadnt had [World Boss] armor, it would have been the single most expensive piece of gear he owned.

First came simple throwing daggers, then blades, then spears, and finally, one of his ten Leviathan tooth lances, adapted to Ymir as best he could.

While he did this, the ships continued to duel the giant on their own. Kinetic rounds were less accurate than they should be, somehow wobbling? in flight, lasers and particle beams were attenuated by clouds of ice crystals and spells were met with elemental beams and dispersed.

Sure, they were doing some damage, as little as it was. But that result was to be expected, they were facing a freakin [World Boss].

What was really irritating Isaac was what was happening to the kinetic projectiles.

Even on the rare occasions they struck, Ymir only swayed before straightening unnaturally. Something that big should be easy to unbalance, yet it was as if Isaac facepalmed.

Big monsters didnt ignore the square-cube law, they just worked around it, be it with ludicrous physical abilities or magical effects, something had to be allowing the large monsters to stand.

Ymirs weight should be cratering the ground underneath, but he wasnt. There were also invisible effects keeping him standing and redirecting kinetics.

Ymir is able to use gravity magic in some capacity, Isaac announced once someone had finally spotted him and invited him to the naval party.

There was no swearing in the actual comms channels, but he was sure it was happening.

Now, he needed to do just one more thing: copy that fire.

A quick conversation with the Commodore in charge of the battleship later, and Ymir was parrying a devastating barrage focussed on his left, burning, hand.

Flaming projectile hit Plutos surface and stayed there, continuing to burn.

Perfect.

Ymir really wasnt very concerned with a gnat landing at his feet, and grabbing the flame was easy as pie mostly. Reaching it was simple, but for the first time in a long time, Isaac burned himself when he touched fire. With an annoyed hiss, he drew back his hand while swearing. Well, mouthing them, considering that there wasnt any air to carry them.

That shit was apparently called Muspelheim Flames and was a primordial energy on par with the Samadhi Fire that formed the basis of his [Prometheus Wrath].

But he had it, he was immune to it, and that was that. Half of the [World Boss] arsenal, countered.

Isaac returned to space and got ready for a proper attack. He reached into his Arsenal Bracelet and messed around with the blade enhancements a little, enhancing them based on his knowledge of the monsters flame.

With all preparations done, Isaac switched [Classes]. His ability to pick up new information dwindled away into basically nothing, to the point where he briefly felt like hed gone blind, dumb, and deaf, while power surged, [Aspects of the End] getting ready to cause devastating damage the instant he began to draw on it.

But, in Isaacs chest, [Final Defiance] flickered uncertainly. As though it werent sure whether or not to activate. He didnt care about Pluto, yet this could escalate, couldnt it?

Also, he didnt know if he wanted to blow his current stockpile of mana.

What did he want to do here? The [Skill] was giving him a choice, and it was making this clear. Honestly, he loved that [Skill], it was actually smart. Or seemed to be, at any rate.

He kept it inactive and charged using just [Speed of Hati], first zipping down to the planets surface and then running through the air parallel to the ground.

A lance of Leviathan tooth, sheathed in black energy, was retrieved from the Arsenal Bracelet, and charged.

Ymir turned to observe and then unleashed a stream of flame straight at him while using the ice to keep the ships at bay.

[I Am The Sword] triggered and flung him right at the monster, blasting clean through the joints behind the kneecap and then, the kneecap itself.

Ymirs physiology was largely human, so any of the anti-human moves should work similarly against him, though theyd require vastly more damage to be effective.

He took a brief moment to scoop up a little blood with a vial and then shot skywards, most of the remaining liquid being blasted off him by the motion. And once he was outside the monsters range, he switched [Classes], analyzed it, and switched back to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] once hed created an improved [Logos Blade].

This cycle continued several times until hed managed to obliterate the giants right kneecap, but by then, what felt like half the S-Rankers and warships in the solar system had gathered.

From that point on, it was a slog.

Ymir was trapped at the bottom of a gravity well, even with his powerful jumps and gravity manipulation, he wasnt able to really reach them.

But they were also being really careful, humanity having learned the consequences of being too good at injuring [World Bosses] during the battle against the Leviathan.

Isaac knew that, at the very least, [World Boss] automatic summoning didnt happen for at least six months after theyd been summoned, so he didnt feel like prodding things into high gear either.

Which left everyone duking it out at long range, with only people like Isaac occasionally darting in to do damage, first taking out his other knee, and then, his eyes.

Ymirs greatest attacks had been fully drawing upon the power of the Norse primordial realms, unleashing alternatively the burning storms of Muspelheim or the freezing winds of Niflheim, which were then directed in the general direction of the fleet and often caught up at least a few vessels in the process.

But they just. Kept. Fighting.

So, after five fucking months, the [World Boss] was dead, and so were close to two million people, the Solar Guard had lost a quarter of its ships, having been responsible for Search & Rescue, and over half the space-warships of humanity.

And the [System] was throwing a bloody fit over their cowardly tactics.

The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some specifics that need to be shared ahead of time:

1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, tooth-sized bone, 50 m^2 of leather, 5 cubic meters of organs/fluids (or muscles)

2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop a compatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards.

3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out.

4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200).

However, due to a severe lack of people who did anything but sit at a distance and (ineffectively) use their weapons, very few of those rewards will be distributed

Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP

(Basically everyone)

Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP

(Ship commanding officers)

Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect

(Fleet commanders)

Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped slay the Primordial Giant Ymir are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of Ymir and 5 body pieces.

Or at least, that is how it would normally go, in this battle, basically anyone with half a pair of balls reached this rank due to everyone elses overwhelming cowardice.

Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle.

In this case, it was Isaac Thoma, who bravely fought the Giant directly and actually achieved something.

As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of Ymir, 25 body pieces (23 by his choice, Ymirs Flaming Eye, Ymirs Freezing), and the World Item [Essence of Ymir].

So, the [System] apparently had a snarky side, or at the very least, the subsection that doled out [World Boss] rewards did. Won-der-ful.

In addition to general rudeness, it had also outright skipped several ranks.

But this whole fight had been a clusterfuck, almost as bad as the Leviathan fight. Theyd lost fewer S-Rankers, but in terms of men and material, this had been both painful and expensive.

And most of the people whod tried to directly strike at the monster had died, largely due to a lack of other people to draw attention.

The issue was simple. Real simple. Long-range bombardment didnt work, their attacks were largely burned out of the air/vacuum, and while their deaths per day were low, the fight was dragged out so long that the overall number of deaths was still very high.

Next time, they needed to just go for it. Well, make a plan, then go for it, but go for it all the same.

The cautious, safe, approach just plain didnt work, and it wasnt even safe.

And something that Isaac had initially found weird about the rewards was that this time, the effects of the [World Item] werent announced to the whole, well, world, but that was a question that was cleared up when he read its description.

Essence of Ymir (World Item)

The Boon given to the slayer of Ymir is the essence that made up the primordial giant, allowing its holder to do what the Asgardians did, and create the world.

Depending on what its user wishes, this world item can either create a tiny celestial body with of own (Ceres-sized), instantly terraform a small one (ex: Earths Moon), slowly terraform a medium-sized one (ex: Mars), or aid the transformation of anything larger, though the power of this item rapidly drops off with increasing size.

This item cannot be used to terraform already optimal worlds (like Earth).

As a World Item, the Essence of Ymir cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device.

Yep. This was going to happen again. And again. Over and over because this was solid gold. No, more.

A freaking terraforming package. One that even had a safety feature.

This little vial was what would let humanity claim the stars. And even if humanity was alone in the universe, which Isaac sincerely doubted, there were plenty of things that could go wrong out there.

Then again, hed saved the planet, and once humanity was sufficiently spread out, there was very little that could threaten the human race in general.

And while hed help in those inevitable smaller-scale catastrophes when possible, he sure as shit wouldnt dedicate his entire life to preventing threats that would, at most, only affect a tenth of humanity. Still a humanitarian catastrophe, but not one hed run himself ragged to prevent even the smallest of it coming to pass.

Hed use this thing on Mars, give humanity a second home, and then, mostly retire.