ROD - Chapter 123

Chapter One-Hundred-Twenty-Three – Velocity – Part One

You want me to allow the items you store to retain the velocity at which they were stored… I’m not opposed so long as the original agreement stands, it must be an object you can hold above your head in the normal gravity of your world, and as an added precaution, it can’t be the velocity while you travel through a System generated gate. There will also be no arguments later that something floating on water such as a building fits this criterium… This would obviously require you to drop your claim on extending the Abyssal storage and relinquish any further complaints relating to Abyss as null and void. If such a thing can be agreed upon, I shall grant your request.

-Mythren The Enlightened One-

When Mythren agreed to allow me to retain the velocity that an item was stored, I don’t think he thought I would discover an alternate form of travel to the System gates. In fact I’m sure of it. Because if he was able to parse my thoughts at the time, I wasn’t even thinking about it like that.

My original plan to exploit the Abyssal storage was to first convince Mira to make me a Drakaroth like her. That would in turn according to Sage allow me to be naturally ten times stronger than a normal human. After compounding levels, I would have been able to lift a bus or a train car with ease. Now, when I was trying to exploit velocity with my last fleecing of Mythren, I had done so under the notion of standing on a plane while holding the object, or at the very least a bullet train.

Now… I can scarcely imagine the impact of objects stored at the velocity one acquires while traveling near instantaneously along Ley Lines.

What is stranger than that thought though… is what is going on with my Nexus.

Static lines rupture along the walls as I walk through them. Glitching error text pops up all around. Looking down at my palm, I see the torch the last Jimminite left me is glowing fervently. Is this their doing?

“Sage?” I ask, striding into the main room, “Terra…”

Neither answers, I can feel that something has changed here, something fundamentally altered in the Nexus. Abyss’s door is cracked open, tendrils slide around the floors like an overgrown jungle. Even the Chaos Emporium looks strange. I’ll investigate Abyss in a minute.  

I wonder what happened with those items from the Chaos Emporium. I know that the Error one is working, it converted souls for me into Chaos Charges. Still wondering where the Gamblers Cannon and the Compass are though.

There’s a strange new door marred in a purple film that reads ‘Abyssal Storage’. It looks like clouds blooming back and forth like a heart beating. Interesting. My hand touches a cloudlike door handle and the clouds retract, revealing a hallway. Hundreds of items are floating in the periphery, it’s similar to Abyss’s storage, except the items aren’t colored by rarity, nor is the storage endless. The walls along the edges are very clear to define.

Still… I wonder what lies beyond the walls. One should always be curious of such things.

***

I have searched for a very precious hour and found nothing of note besides the smallest of cracks in one of the walls. One that begs me to explore it. Magic is strange inside the Nexus, however, Sage showed me how to use it more freely once upon a time. After investigating the crack, I place a few of Carl’s sapper spell runes inside and stand back.

A loud thud later and the small crack becomes larger, revealing a doorknob of some kind. I twist it. Light flickers as more cracks form, these are deliberate, a door forms from the cracks and it slides open. Purple fire ignites around a portal and I step through the doorway into it.

Inside is a small room lit by more purple fire. There’s a single pedestal in the center of the room, a scroll adorns the top of its smooth marble surface. My hand extends the scroll and I examine what Mythren has left for me.

To answer your first question, I am leaving this against my better judgement because… I trust you… or at least I trust that our goals are aligned. To answer your second question, I knew that the Abyssal storage could be compromised, as it is actually rooted to the Grand Nexus. So I hid my message in a way that only a… deviant like yourself would find it. Most would look at a crack in a dimensional storage space and think twice about widening said crack… you are… well, who you are.

That was not in fact my first question. However I was curious. So, this storage space, it's connected to the main Nexus… interesting.

The Earth will fail. Not because it is unworthy to pass, but because the Quorum of the Nine and the Holy Six have already decided it will. They stopped fighting many thousands of years ago, instead they trade worlds on whims. Yours, Earth is fated for the Marauders to win. As are most worlds now. Because the nine are out of balance, because the six do not fight it. The Grand One… it should have balanced them… but it hasn’t, it hasn’t done anything in millennia. We’ve been operating under its directive for ages now, without even a whisper of a word. If the Nine find out… I worry they may swallow the universe and reset it. They know the true power of the Grand One, unlike the younger generation of gods. The thought of the Grand One is what keeps the old ones from devouring everything quickly.

So… they made a game and the thing that’s supposed to balance it is nowhere to be found, and they have resorted to cheating instead of spending resources to win. Why be surprised. The only thing that has changed from this revelation is the body count I intend to leave. My list of gods to kill has increased by six. The number of System entities has increased by one.

Your world will perish, there is nothing that you nor I can do about it. However, that does not mean it is entirely hopeless. I want you to join the coalition I’ve been forming for the last seventy thousand years. The strongest of each cycle that were good, the ones left behind in the struggle against the absurdity of the imbalance they faced. I will show you the path to become a demigod, perhaps you will even pass the fifteenth rite and become a true god. This is my offer, this is what I can give you. A chance in the next two hundred thousand years to exact revenge upon the gods.

To balance the universe.

The alternative is that you choose to fight the tide that cannot be stopped. I will be replaced as the Admin of Earth’s sector and one of my peers will take over and snuff you out. It will be swift, it will be merciless and you will fail. This will also result in a formal audit of myself. Such a thing will be problematic for my goals… goals that if you really think about it, you also share. Your words in my office convinced me of such.

Do not try and win by yourself. Do not think that Ulana will save you if you fail. She is strong, very, very strong. However, in the face of the Nine and the Six, she is nothing. She will lose that fight, every single time. There is only one logical action to take. Bide your time, when your world fails, I will retrieve your soul and add you to the Font of Heroes.

See reason… for it is the only path.

As soon as I finish reading it, the note erupts in a brilliant purple flame. It leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

So, Earth is doomed, and I have to wait two hundred thousand years to do anything about it. He wants me to join a band of heroes from failed worlds with a grudge to settle. I assume that he will then take the mantle as the new Grand One, since he has taken it upon himself to become the balancing factor.

“Interesting offer, Mythren, but I like my odds.”

Allowing the Earth to be destroyed is not in my repertoire of tricks. I can say this with complete belief. If they did somehow succeed in destroying my world, thereby killing those I care for… gods help them… fates help them… for I will come for them with a fury that will shake the cosmos. That is my resolve. That is my solemn promise. There would be no mercy, no quarter taken, it would be a bloodbath that would end when the universe itself kneels before my wrath.

***

The rest of my Nexus appears to be experiencing errors, I can’t access any of the other rooms.

After inspecting the cracked door of Abyss, I found that it was not quite ready for me to enter yet either. I did however find a progress bar hidden under a brazier near the entrance of the Nexus. One that had a small torch symbol on it.

[ Carry The Torch: 0.0000000001% Uploaded ]

I can only assume that this is the work of the shadows. If the spell did not require me to be of complete soul, I would have already made more to fill the ranks of my empty army of defiance. Still, if less than one percent has caused the Nexus to do this, I wonder what the full effect will be. The memories are still muddled with complex intentions. I’m not sure that as I am now I’ll be able to comprehend them all without going insane.

My hand tags the exit button after I am sure there is nothing left to examine here.

***

My eyes open in reality and there is a brief moment of peace as I feel the warm breeze of a sunny day upon my skin. The feeling is fleeting as the momentum of my momentous task rises into my thoughts and I wonder what summit I will have to climb to see it completed.

A sigh falls from my lips.

“Everything alright, Godslayer?” Clayton asks.

I nod as I stand, “Come, there is work to be done.”