NOVEL WEB Book 3 Recap
Xera was ecstatic and exhausted. She had been at work for months making the necessary repairs to The Cosmic System now that she could access the exterior. She had finally made every fix she had planned. "And now," she muttered as she got out of the hygiene station and laid down in bed, "Time to offload."
She had to do this routine every few years…normally. But events of late had transpired so quickly that she was doing it almost monthly. And with the brand-new subsystems she had put in place…there was a lot to upload and re-pack. She felt the cord slither out over the bed and plug into the socket at the base of her skull. Messages played across her vision, and she heard the soft, soothing, male voice echo through her ears.
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[Hello, Xera.]
[Welcome to you. Are you ready?]
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"Yes," she replied softly. "Let's get it started."
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[Confirmed. Engaging memory extraction and compression protocol…]
[Standby…]
[Initialized.]
[State your name and designation.]
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"Xera'tal Pen'arkon…overseeing administrator for The Cosmic System." Saying that new title filled her with a giddy joy she hadn't felt in a long, long time. Finally fixed it, she thought.
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[Confirmed identity.]
[Discuss events that you wish to withdraw and compress.]
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"My Signers had to scatter across the whole universe to counter Astral Incursions. Rifts torn across the breadth of The Cosmic System as aftershocks from the Incursion created back on Menaly that Jace dealt with." She sighed as she felt the wave of dread and flutter of her heartbeat at the Incursion's occurrence. Always a huge risk, she was lucky she had enough Signers to respond to every incident.
"When the reverberations lessened, I sent Jace to a world of snow and ice called Poltor Six – a rogue planet that was home to the Guatch species before I intervened and forced their world through Cosmogenic Merging pre-cataclysm." The icy sphere had been hurtling through space for eons, and was a perfect place for Jace to gather Stardust and clear Complexes for Boons. An excellent training ground, she thought.
"But," she continued, "The Black Hole Conclave also wanted the world. To find the rumored engine embedded in the core of the world by the Guatch before their world's demise. Jace was able to clear a number of complexes whilst my other Signers finished dealing with the sympathetic Incursions, dealing with the Astral Demon threat." She felt a slight palpitation as Jace's body-death experience surged to the forefront of her memories.
"Jace…he went into a Complex that was not integrated thanks to a Class Reset Crystal equivalent being present in the facility. While there…he died. He was killed by an Ascendant who was trying to get a bounty placed on my Signers by Deckard Stonewall." She vividly recalled the visual feed from his armor post-incident. The enormous sniper round ripping through his chest, his vitals readout showing the instant death. "But," she whispered, "The NICIF, those wonderful nanites, saved him from brain death and repaired him. Incredible fusion of magic via the Swordmage Class, magitech from the super soldier serum, and technology from the CIF."
There was a deep sense of thanks she felt flood through her. An ancient, nanite-based super soldier serum from a magitech world, combined with Cyberconnect Integration Fluid from Earth – a technology world, and prosthetics from magic worlds: all of those components blended in the perfect storm of chaotic evolution to create a blended, harmonious whole. Note to self, Xera thought, work on the replication matrix.
She took in a deep breath before continuing, "He cleared a few more Complexes and acquired his Ascended Power of Void." She said the last with a hint of triumph, as wrangling the concept of nonexistence into the framework of the System was a nightmare of programming and algorithms. But, it had paid off, and resulted in something that could devastate Astral Demons whilst leaving Souls and Essence intact – a must-have for the Astral Verge.
"He used Quinn's help to track down the sniper's home base here in Khrox, and with my sanction, destroyed all of his backups, forcing him into his strongest suit of armor. Heading back to Poltor Six, Jace killed the Ascendant, and the Conclave members on the planet." The ruthlessness that he showed was phenomenal. Exactly what she needed from him, showing nothing but brutality towards his opponents.
"Then Troxanir allowed Astral Demons up through Oblivion – through himself – and somehow exerted control over them." Note to self, she thought, Astral Demons have some means of controlling lessers of their kind. Continuing, she kept speaking, "They arrived on Poltor Six and took the guise of the dominant life form on the world…Jace. Duplicates that mimicked his body. They could not mimic the System elements, but his Equipment was included in their mockery."
The chase, the fights, Jace being pushed to his limit as he fought versions of himself that grew, improve, and learned over a short period of time filled her with a sense of trepidation. They had shown remarkable adaptability in a very short time span. If they had escaped Troxanir's control, which she reasoned was feasible, then they would have wrought horrors she could scarcely imagine.
"He defeated his duplicates, found the facility at Poltor Six's core, and suffered body-death again. But it did somehow bring back his soul energy coefficient – no clue how that works…damn magic."
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[Please refrain from off topic commentary.]
[You have much to compress.]
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
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"Right, right. Well, we could not terraform the world, and instead I installed an engine which has a few million years left before it gets the world into the orbit of a sun and makes it inhabitable once more." She sighed, "Then we come to the tricky part. Factions. I arranged a meeting with Tyul, who is now the leader of the Nebula Alliance, but chafed against Deckard's control and dealings with Troxanir. He was able to get my Signers onto Deckard's home world and the Nebula Alliance headquarters. Dee got her revenge, Deckard died, and the bounties were lifted."
"Then…the betrayal." She felt anger. White-hot and red in her gut as she seethed, and spoke through near-clenched jaw at the sudden urge of emotion that she felt; which was rare given her cybernetic brain's limiters. "Star Father betrayed us. Troxanir promised him safe passage through Oblivion, so that he could find a fledgling universe and take it over for himself. He blew up Greg and Missy's wedding…killing many. Jace hunted him down and slew the faction leader before he could escape our universe and take knowledge of it away."
At least I kept Missy safe, she thought as she vividly recalled the woman waking up in a panic inside of her cloned body as her mind was subsystem-cast to Khrox. Shame about her friends and family.
She took a deep breath once more, "Then we get to Harkon Secundus. A world of soul-magic, cultivation…something that Xero and I had no clue was different from the arcane and divine magic we had encountered. Those ran on formulas and patterns…but this soul magic was something else entirely. It did not seem to follow logic or sense; and quite frankly, it was infuriating to try and figure out."
I still haven't figured it out, she thought. Despite the vast processing power at my command, I still have little idea how it really works. And the local Divine Beast administrators are very restrictive with the knowledge of its inner workings. She let out a sigh of frustration and continued, "Jace hunted a bunch of creatures while my other Signers – Dee, Priam, and Greg – went and searched for the remaining parts of the Arbiter. Anathema objects."
"There was one incident that occurred that caused them to return temporarily from that world. A schism threatened to tear apart the then-leaderless Star Council. Mizarion was pushed up to a leadership position, and a small splinter faction led by Levi – an arrogant Ascendant if I've ever met one – has gained a little ground as a militaristic group of zealots." She frowned on the inside, at least it won't be another Troxanir situation. Just using Star Father as a martyr isn't nearly as dangerous as an Astral Demon and his machinations.
"They went back to Harkon Secundus and got the last bit of the Arbiter's Anathema items. Then…the journey to the center of the world. They fought leviathans and got a lot of Stardust in the process. One even transcended its limitations and fought Jace in a demiplane of some creation – and Ollie was able to analyze the special limit-surpassing Skill called Limit Break and apply it to his Wrath's Embrace." A massive power-up for her Ascendant and most powerful Signer.
"We got the Anathema Forge from the center of the world, and I've been using it over the past few months, once a month when it recharges, to create a variety of Anathema items for our use if magic becomes an issue. Since it is so nebulous, I'm not taking any chances."
Then…the biggest risk of all. "Troxanir's forces had not been idle. Suicide bombers as he tried to amass Souls. A means for Astral Demons to level up in their Astral System. We needed a lot of Stardust, fast…so I sent Jace to one of the oldest and most dangerous worlds. The magic world from the trio of planets my home world was included amongst….Regnum Mortis." She remembered watching Jace's feed through the HUD and Ollie's vision as the Ascendant fought against horrific monstrosities that he would have been decimated by if not for his Void powers.
But, in the end, he did it. Tier 10, passing his Ascension Trial, and then heading to face Troxanir with the Pulsar Coalition. "In the meantime, his allies also got Stardust and achieved Tier 10 Ascendant status. But they are not part of the Astral System like Jace is, because I want them on reserve. In case Jace fails his mission. I need them to be able to step in. All three of them, working together, could be a way to do it. But I still want the lone wolf approach for the meantime."
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[Chronological Order, please.]
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"Right. I stationed those three Signers inside the sublayers of The Cosmic System where they could pin down Troxanir's Astral Demon form. Preventing him from fleeing into Oblivion. They succeeded, on their part, and Jace was able to destroy Troxanir's avatar before delivering the final blow and freeing all of the Souls trapped within. Including Chroma."
Jace's sister. The whole reason that he was doing what he was doing. Working for The Cosmic System. Working for Xera. It was for her. He survived for her. Well, his sister and Shhiv. Bless that woman, Xera thought. She has been instrumental in keeping him sane and cared for. That extra motivation of love has always fascinated me.
"With Troxanir dead, I was able to use Jace's Void power entwined with Dark Matter and Dark Energy to make a permanent gateway over our singularity. Only myself and Jace – and others I permit – may go outside. And even then, I expanded the gate down to the bottom of the funnel. This permits me access to the universe exterior without needing to enter the Astral Verge…I was able to finally fix the Cosmic System. And now, at any time, Civilians may choose to take on an Aspirant Trial…though it is still dangerous and deadly."
That meant more Aspirants, and possible more Ascendants. But now there was no way to break The Cosmic System. And she could make fixes immediately. There was no chance of Astral Incursions, either. She had her safe universe. And all that was missing was returning people from death. It was almost perfect.
Almost.
"That is all. Complete process."
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[Confirmed.]
[Data extraction of described events in process.
[Stand by…]
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Xera was pulled from her body and her consciousness was temporarily suspended into a storage area. She floated in the blackness, unable to move – only think. And she had a chance to really re-experience her emotions as the cybertronic brain she had been using to house her consciousness in her most recently cloned body suppressed such feelings – not just facsimiles and processed emotions, but true, genuine ones. She felt…pride.
Pride in Jace. In her other Signers, of course, but especially in Jace. He had done so much for The Cosmic System in such a short amount of time; all because of his relentless drive to get his sister back. Thanks to him, the System was stable and would be forever that way. No longer missing administrators, Xera's beloved Wayfinders were now the overseers of The Cosmic System. Sure, Xera would still be tech support, and technically she was also the highest level of administrator…but she was not going to use that override unless the Wayfinders became tyrants.
Someone had to watch the watchmen. And she only trusted herself with that task.
She also felt remorse. A true, deep remorse, and she wept as she knew she had hurt the Signer she had grown to care for in such a short time. She had been playing him for months. He trusted her, and she manipulated him. It was necessary for her goals, and yet the betrayal still cut her deeply. She had apologized, and he had forgiven her…but she knew true atonement could never happen.
She had fostered his killing of hundreds of thousands. All in the name of a greater good, with the knowledge that if her final plan came to fruition, they would all have a chance to return to cloned bodies – prepared bodies that Xera was already processing in subsections of the System. She was responsible for the deaths of trillions; hundreds of trillions over the countless millennia since the dawning of The Cosmic System…and she could live with that.
But forcing him to live with that hurt her deeply. I'm so sorry, Jace.
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[All data extracted and compressed.]
[Confirm re-upload?]
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Yes, she thought. The machine read her mind and returned her consciousness to her body. All of the memories packaged and compressed, ready for her to glance through as if watching a replay on a cosmopanel. She sat up on the bed, kicking her legs over the side. Glancing over to Josie, who came floating in with a small platter of food, she smiled. "Thank you. How are they doing?"
"Your Signers are doing just fine," Josie replied in a chipper voice.
Good.