Mage Tank

Chapter 202: Special Guest Star

The souls of everyone present rippled as the Dread Star’s true name caused reality to shudder. The boiling conflict between us froze as the three syllables delivered overwhelming context. The Dread Star’s nature was revealed, engraving itself onto our spirits in a pattern that no force could undo, without rewriting the universe itself.

The cube that Hysteria had trapped us in was a small slice of the physical plane, transplanted somewhere that rebelled at its existence. We were adrift in oblivion, where nonexistence was sacrosanct, and our every atom was a sin against the god whose flesh we marred with our presence.

Even so, we were a single mote of dust amidst an endless empire of nothing. We were beneath notice, our transgression so insignificant that a being of infinite consciousness wouldn’t waste a thought to wipe us away. This place was anathema to matter, and our blasphemous speck would eventually be drawn to someplace more accommodating.

When the entire life of a star passes in the space of a breath, all problems become transient. There’s no reason to spend any effort at all to solve most of them, especially when the problem is the barest fleck, a particle so minuscule that it’s already closer to nothing than something in the first place.

Of course, when that mote of dust starts shouting your name, you might be more inclined to get rid of it.

In short: we were fucked, and everyone knew we were fucked the moment the name came outta my mouth.

“What…” Hysteria began, voice just barely above a whisper, “did you just say?!”

A pair of galactic eyes opened in the void behind the avatar, so distant that the universe would die before the light of its birth could reach them. So close, that we were already within them.

Hysteria turned, careful and slow, and as they turned we all came to face the Dread Star, though we faced it no matter where we looked.

Ten thousand keys and only one door,

Ten thousand feet and only one floor,

Ten thousand tries and only one more.

The voice was not sound, it did not propagate as waves through the air; what use would that be to the god of the void? It was presence, the Dread Star’s commandment, saturating all things.

A point of light appeared to our right, then multiplied a billion times until it swirled and glittered like the cosmos. It stretched out into eternity, adorned with five pillars, each as large as the Milky Way.

In that moment I realized I could see in all directions, my normal vision expanded into a complete sphere. It was necessary to take in even an allusion to the scale of the thing. It was necessary for me to comprehend the shape of it.

It was a hand.

Ten million rise and one falls short,

Ten million crimes and only one court,

Ten million lies and only one retort.

The presence of the Dread Star grew. It approached from a place separated by an untraversable gap, a span so vast that time could not flow through it. It expanded eternally, and the Dread Star swelled until it overflowed from the meager confines.

The Dread Star’s voice was real. More real than anything. More real than us.

More real than me.

Ten billion realms in only one place,

Ten billion sins and only one grace,

Ten billion flies and only one taste.

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The hand grew, magnified, becoming sharp and immediate. It threatened to overtake my entire field of vision, continuing to expand even after it was all that I could see.

Adrenaline flooded my body when I realized what I was watching.

It wasn’t getting bigger.

It was getting closer.

An endless want and only one state,

An endless whine and only one fate,

An endless prize but you just can’t wait.

The countless points of light became countless stars, the hand too close for its shape to be seen.

Someone was screaming, and Hysteria was melting. The Dread Star’s message was for all of us, but its ire was wholly centered on the avatar.

AN INFINITE MIND POORLY CROWNED

“Arlo,” Zura said, shouted, and whispered. “How?”

The Zenithar was weeping, all semblance of Hysteria’s control over her gone. I caused Zura to shrink while causing Riona to become larger, until the young Ravvenblaq’s face blotted out the sky. I grasped her shoulders.

“Accept the invite,” I said.

Riona blinked, and her eyes shone with the hand’s reflection.

Riona Ravvenblaq has joined your party.

AN INFINITE GRIND UNTIL ALL ARE DROWNED

We were inside the Dread Star’s palm, dense clusters of stars hurtling past, my mind screaming that their speed and proximity to one another made no sense. The Dread Star’s voice made it the unshakeable Truth.

King Celeritia was beside me, eyes plastered wide as he grimaced.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Try to sum this up for me,” he said.

“I think we’re going unreasonably fast,” I answered. “Fast enough to break physics.”

“Ah,” he said. “I have a skill for that.”

Filix Celeritia has granted you Non-intertial!

Non-inertial: You are immune to damage caused by changes to your inertia.

Some part of my brain puzzled over whether that buff made me immune to all Kinetic damage, then wondered if it would even matter.

AN INFINITE GROVELLING

BEST DONE

FROM THE

GROUND.

A single star went from the size of my thumb to swallowing all of reality in a single second. A spike of heat seared my skin, but before I could register any discomfort, I was underwater. Zura’s soul encompassed me, along with all of our allies.

We all seemed to teleport, finding ourselves pressed against the wall, but I barely felt any pressure. At the same time, there was a deafening BANG, and Hysteria became a colorful, smoking stain.

The wastelanders were frozen in place, a thousand runes shining around them.

The star receded, faster than it arrived, and I could make out the hand, swimming through the eternal void like it had just served an astronomical volleyball spike. It shrank into nothingness, and the perfect black of the Dead Star’s realm faded to the imperfect black of space.

I turned, seeing us hurtling toward another star. I opened my inventory and pulled up the Card. Everyone was in my party. I just had to–

Establishing System uplink. Please stand by…

“Grotto?!”

[It appears we need to be within ten million miles of the planet to establish a robust connection.]

“I don’t know if we’re gonna pass that close!”

[We are not on a direct course toward the sun. Our approach vector is off by 0.3 degrees.]

“So we’ll miss it?!”

[Not as such, but I believe we will collide with Arzia first. You will have approximately… two point one seconds from when we enter the System’s range to use the Card.]

“Okay, I can do that.”

Runes pulsed, and the wastelanders disappeared, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

[Yes. Hopefully, the Card’s activation does not take much time.]

“Fuck! Just let me know when I can–”

[Now!]

I activated the Card, and a flurry of notifications flew by.

Redeeming Get Out of Cage Free Card…

Analyzing environment…

Escalating request due to exigent circumstances…

Evaluating…

Extraction denied. The energy requirements of generating a spontaneous unanchored portal targeting multiple extra-atmospheric objects traveling in excess of 67,061,662.9 miles per hour relative to the nearest System node are outside of Phase Two parameters.

Emergency override submitted by System Core 2.

Override Code 009: Apocalypse Mitigation.

Override Note: Please don’t be difficult, SC1. The less matter impacting the planet at a notable fraction of light speed, the better. Also, I’m firing all the lasers we have.

Override Code 009 is accepted to prevent catastrophic surface damage.

Extraction Approved!

Upgrading extraction package.

Please prepare for interdiction.

The world stuttered a hundred times, each one accompanied by a new notification.

WARNING! Momentum buffer exceeded.

Adjusting reference frame…

Please prepare for an additional teleportation instance.

The Hysteria smear disappeared, and the entire planet vibrated in a blur for a moment. Then, we were in the desert.

WARNING! This is definitely not a minimum safe distance. Enjoy the mess you made. Sunglasses are advised.

A flash bloomed in the atmosphere, a hundred times brighter than the sun. The world instantly darkened, and I was hit by another notification.

Filix Celeritia has granted you Transcendent Organ!

Your eyes are Invincible for 100 seconds.

A streak of light traveled down through the atmosphere, so fast it appeared as a single line. It landed on a mountain chain several miles distant. The first mountain it struck evaporated in another burst of light. A wave of destruction thrummed out, destroying mountains to either side, and the ground rose to kiss the sky.

We all watched, stunned by the sight, for about two seconds.

Filix Celeritia has granted you Haste!

“We should leave,” said the king.

He was right, we weren’t far enough away.

I mana-shaped the Closet portal, opening it in record time. Before I could think to start moving towards it, I was already inside, along with everyone else. Celeritia’s hand was on my shoulder.

“Close it!” he shouted.

An overpowering blast of heat and pressure burst through the portal. I caught myself with Gravity Anchor as most of the group was knocked deeper into the Closet. Shielding sprung to life over our skin as sand and rocks hurtled in, and my skull rattled as a piece the size of a fist hit my torso hard enough to shatter the stone. I focused on closing the portal and it rapidly shrank in on itself. The Closet portal would close in the blink of an eye.

It wasn’t fast enough.

A pair of skeletal hands gripped the portal’s edges. They pressed outward, allowing more destruction to rain in, shattering walls and furniture. The entrance was forced back open a foot, and a stream of colorful liquid poured through.

Finally, the portal closed, and a shimmering skeleton began forming from the ooze on the ground.

Smoke and steam wafted off the creature as it rose, streaks of neon hues swirling around the dark, smoldering bones. The shadowy sockets of its skull each held a small bead of mercury, glinting as they darted between us. It continued to study us for a moment, then walked forward.

I tensed, summoning Somncres and prepping for a fight, but the skeleton moved casually, wandering between us and walking through the foyer. It paused and looked up at one of the chandeliers, tilting its head and holding a hand up towards it.

The fixture melted into mimic goo, drawn to the skeletal hand and dripping down onto it. The thing absorbed the entire chandelier, covering its form in squirming liquid, and then moved on.

I was on edge as I watched it, trailing behind to keep it in my sights. I checked on everyone as I went, making sure we were all in one piece. There were cuts, scrapes, and more than a few rising knots forming bruises, but no one looked critically injured. The spent mana of a dozen skills swirled around our more vulnerable members.

The skeleton kicked open the door to the kitchen, then went in, the door swinging closed behind it. Before I could enter, I heard Celeritia shout from behind me.

“Hells!” he said. I spun to see him wrestling with the crown on his head, which glowed as though it had become molten. Then, the leader of Hiward disappeared.

“After all that, he’s gone again?” I asked.

“The crown has a recall effect,” said Varrin. He spoke softly, like he was afraid someone might overhear. “I think that once he was back on Arzia, the throne registered the crown. It pulled him back to Hiward as soon as it could.”

“Lucky bastard,” said Xim. “He gets to go home and take a shower while we’re left to deal with avatar skeleton.”

“We should leave,” said Nuralie.

I mentally checked on both my Checkpoints, but neither was off cooldown. We hadn’t been gone long enough. That surprised me, given all the relativistic speeds we’d been dealing with. Then again, based on where we’d been, it was possible no time at all had passed while we were inside Hysteria’s prison cube. Something to look into later, maybe.

“Only way to leave at the moment is to go back out into the shit,” I said. “We should probably give the nuclear explosion a little more time to settle.”

“Where did we even land?” asked Xim. “Did that wipe out a country?”

“It looked like the Wastes,” said Nuralie. “Those mountains may have been the Left Hand, on the border.”

Um,” said Etja. “Does that mean Eschunder is…”

Zura placed a hand on her back.

“The body of Hyrach will bring no harm to Eschendur,” she said with full confidence. “The earth will become dust, the winds will spread it to the western plains, and the rain will wash it into the sea.”

I genuinely hoped she had some divine insight into what had happened, and that it wasn’t just wishful thinking.

I turned back and went to the kitchen, followed closely by the others. The door to the walk-in fridge was open, soft vapor trailing out across the floor. I approached carefully. When I was nearly close enough to peer inside, the skeleton burst out of it, carrying several glass bottles in its arms. I jumped back out of its path as it bustled by, a dozen frosty mugs trailing behind it, floating through the air.

It set the bottles down on a counter, uncorked them, and began pouring out ice-cold brewskies. It slid each glass across the counter toward us until all twelve were filled with frothy beer. It picked the final glass up and leaned back, pouring the contents into its mouth.

The beverage splashed down its spine and rib cage, splattering to the ground until the mug was empty. It reached up and wiped its exposed teeth with an ulna, then clacked them open and shut a few times. I think it was trying to smack its lips. It tapped its bony toes, splish-splashing in the expanding puddle beneath it.

The mimic goo slowly began forming silvery flesh, starting inside its chest. A set of lungs appeared, followed by vocal cords, tongue, lips, and cheeks.

“Welp,” said Hysteria. “That was fucked up.”