The Ruler of Ruin

The Scavs had a small mountain of technology. Very little of it had the sleek design of the Stellarae Enclave but expecting that level of technology from a group of scavengers was ridiculous. I didn’t know what any of it did, except when Arx Maxima told me. Chrys had a better idea than me, and she oohed and aahed about it. I let her take all the gadgets and gizmos and toss them into her spatial storage, but I asked for her to give me a few of those metal cylinders that exploded in fiery apocalypse when I got my own belt.

Chrys had me dismember the big insectoid creature before we left the amphitheater behind. She claimed she would be able to make some great armor out of its durable exterior, and it wasn’t like Delirium of Ruin were sentient or would oppose being used to butcher a monster. To deter the appearance of Decaylings or their like, we tossed all corpses onto a pile and Chrys lit them up with green fire.

The trek back to the command terminal remained uneventful.

The belt of Diana was a brown leather belt with several pouches on it. While it seemed fairly ordinary, the moment I put it on my vision swam and Arx Maxima told me the belt and mask were synchronizing. She took this time to also update the mask herself, which made me throw up. Since all I’d eaten lately was Stonefruit, I hurled a nasty neon blue liquid onto the floor.

“Very attractive,” Chrys told me.

Amaranthine’s shadow mimed clapping.

I ignored them both.

When my vision returned to normal, freeing me from the tyranny of blurry objects, double vision, and ridiculously bright spots of color, I heaved a thankful sigh. That’s when the Mask of Azazel came fully online.

1500/1500.

A circle composed of fifteen lines filled the bottom of my vision near my snout, with the numerical representation of my energy reserves.

“I have fully converted your energy status into a visual for you. Additionally, the Master Tracker ability of your new belt has been converted into a visual representation. Concentrate on a particular entity you wish to track to see only those tracks. In populated areas all tracks will be dimmed unless you focus on bringing them to the fore. Finally, if you touch the belt pouches, the contents of that pouch will display as an itemized list which you can manifest into your hands with a thought. Please practice with this ability.”

How big of an item can I store in the belt?

“The Belt of Diana will store any object with a volume less than 64 ft³.” Arx Maxima told me.

What’s a what now?

“Volume is measured in cubic feet. To ascertain this value, multiply the three linear measurements – length, width, and height – in feet. The total will be the cubic footage. Example: a box has a length of two feet, a width of three feet, and a height of five feet. Multiply two by three by five, to achieve the answer of 30 ft³. Thus, a two by three by five foot box would fit within the Belt of Diana.”

Okay. So, math wasn’t a real big thing in the Academy…

“I will add a filter to highlight things which can be stored inside the belt.” Arx Maxima practically sighed in disappointment at me, her voice sounded so exhausted. I felt like an uneducated bumpkin and resolved to further my formal education someday.

Is there anything else we need to do here? I need to get stronger and find more allies to rescue Etienne, if not.

“Yes. We must travel to the command deck of this Plate. It is only a days travel, and we will be able to make use of the majority of this Plate for future endeavors.”

“Hey Chrys, you good to go to the command deck of this place?” I asked the Gneissling, who stood next to the wall tracing her fingers over one of the devices she’d acquired from the Scavs.

“You know it, sloshy,” Chrys didn’t even look at me when she spoke.

“I don’t slosh,” I complained and stood from the command terminal chair. “Let’s get walking then, we’ve got a long one ahead of us. Unless you need any kind of break?”

I still didn’t know if Gneisslings needed to eat. I had seen them consume Stonefruit, and stone, but nothing else, and not regularly. Did they excrete anything? Did they have bodily functions? I didn’t know, and it felt too weird to point blank ask Chrys if she needed to pee.

I went to scratch my chin, and remembered I had a huge ass snout full of scales now, and scratching them didn’t really feel like anything, because they were scales, and not skin. I could still run my hand through the little bit of hair I had left, or caress my horns, but I had a deep fear I’d catch my hands on one of the jagged scales or spikes, or whatever the accurate name for the protrusions all over my face were. All were significantly stronger and denser than flesh, and even the lightest touch in the wrong spot ended with me bleeding and having to expend energy to heal myself, or Chrys having to do it while lecturing me about touching myself being both inappropriate and dangerous.

“What kind of break would I possibly need?” Chrys asked me, curiosity filling her voice.

“I have no idea, that’s why I asked. I still don’t know a lot about you.” I tried to be as honest as I could, the advice Arx Maxima had told me to use with everyone in a world where you didn’t know who had the ability to sense lies, truths, or see connections behind your words that you didn’t even know were there.

The door to the halls opened before I got to it, and Arx Maxima floated slightly ahead of me.

“I don’t know much about you either, Emery of the Stellarae Enclave who’s also from the True World of Mithras.”

“That’s true. Why did you pick Eureka as a concept, anyway?” I asked Chrys once she fell into step with me. The halls of the Plate were boring, and most local threats had been expunged by the Scavs, so there wasn’t even anything to kill to break up the monotony of passing one lit section of hall after the next.

“Think about it. You say ‘Eureka!’ when you figure something out, when you have the spark of genius to figure out a new way to solve a problem. It’s a constant source of inspiration and creativity, that swells up in my mind when I want to make something. The knowledge of the Ancients is lost to us, or so I thought, so I wanted a way to make their technology without their knowledge. I also, admittedly, hoped it would accelerate my acquisition of other skills, too.” Chrys explained it in a way that made total sense.

After all, I was the one who enkindled the flashing lightbulb of creativity that was Eureka to her strength attribute.

“Why did you enkindle Katrina?” Chrys asked after a lull, while I considered her answer.

“I went on a journey of the mind, got tricked by Corvusol, and was caught in Katrina. It called to me, resonated with me. I don’t know if it was all the crazy monsters I saw on my way to meet Arx Maxima, a flaw in me to begin with, or maybe my connection to Amaranthine, but the storm seemed so beautiful, so captivating, that I wanted it. Also, there was a substantial part of my thought process that considered if I bound it, it might not destroy me.” I explained my reasoning as best I could put it to words.

“You found the Nothing Storm, the legendary disaster, the folk tale of madness, and decided not only that it should be cemented into reality even further, but that you wanted to bind it to you? That’s all kinds of messed up, isn’t it?” Chrys didn’t sugar coat it.

“In my defense, I’d been exposed to the presence of Corvusol, Amaranthine Sadow, Arx Maxima, Mithras, and several other high-powered concepts in a short period of time, turned into a paste, rebuilt, all after getting lost on my first mistwalk. It was a lot to take in. Even now I feel like I’m still recovering,” I shrugged with the last.

I heard a distinct Harumph from my shadow, and when I looked down at the seductive form of Amaranthine’s shadow, I swear it glared at me with her hands on her hips. Was she offended I blamed her, even slightly?

“Given everything else, I suppose it makes sense,” Chrys agreed with a laugh. The laugh kind of hurt my feelings, a little. Sure, laugh at the man with the invisible crystal, the shadow of a powerful Mist Lord, and a binding to the Oblivion Storm of Madness who needed to storm the True World and rescue his brother and then exorcise Mithras from him before Mithras turned Etienne into a sock puppet avatar.

“How much further do we have to go?” Chrys asked, picking up on my change of mood.

“Well, it’s been like five minutes, so a really long way,” I laughed.

I didn’t know how right I was. Three hours into our hike, both Chrys and I fell silent and walked. When I had to sneak into a restroom, Arx Maxima found one for me, but since I was inside, I didn’t see if Chrys went into the ladies room or not. Around hour ten, I ate a Stonefruit. Chrys didn’t.

Eventually, we reached a door.

I touched it, and it opened to reveal a small circular room.

“This is an elevator, step into it, and then press the button that says Bridge,” Arx Maxima explained to me.

Whoosh.

The enlivening sound of the doors closing put a smile on my face, and I touched the button Arx Maxima had told me to. After a slight delay the elevator moved upward. Chrys let out a started sound.

“We’re moving! This is a transport!” Chrys jumped up and down, and the transport groaned slightly. Embarrassed, I think, Chrys stood perfectly still.

“We’re going to the Bridge. All the rest of the buttons only have numbers. I wonder why?” Chrys asked, but Arx Maxima took no mercy on us to answer. Eventually, there was a dinging sound and the doors opened. We stepped into an area full of consoles, screens, and a large window. I think it was a window, anyway, it could have been a screen too.

Outside of it, I could see a rainbow of storms crashing into each other. I had no idea what the hell I was looking at.

“What’s with the storms?” I asked, hoping either of the ladies knew.

“Are those the Abyss Storms that rage between the realms of the Gossamyr?” Chrys asked.

“Those are the Storms of Chaos. When the Universe was abolished, these storms formed. They represent the primal forces of creation and destruction. They seek a home, but never find one. If we give them a home, the first true cardinal axis in the Gossamyr’s ever changing flow will be formed. What do you think, Herald of Arx Maxima? Shall the Ultimate Fortress be reborn in the heart of chaos?”

What does that entail? I had no damn clue what I was being asked.

“You wanted to build a Castle, but you cannot. Now, you can build a Fortress, here, in the bosom of chaos. By anchoring chaos, all realities will gain a layer of stability. I even have the perfect name for our new home.”

Let me guess, Arx Maxima?

“No. Monados. Atop the Shining Monolith of Arx Maxima, we shall create a sanctuary in the heart of the Gossamyr.” Arx Maxima seemed excited, even enthusiastic, about this idea. I did want to build something, a legacy, but my focus was supposed to be on saving Etienne right now.

If we do this, we are still focusing on saving Etienne right?

“Yes, we can do both,” Arx Maxima assured me. I felt confident she wasn’t just telling me what I wanted to hear, either.

“Guess we’re polarizing the Gossamyr, or something, Chrys.”

Chrys, who had gotten bored of me staring into space talking to Arx Maxima, had moved on to examine the consoles and even the chairs in command bridge.

“Did you just say polarizing the Gossamyr? How would that even work? Why? You aren’t going to destroy Subterra, are you? Even if we’re in the edges of the abyss now, we were in Subterra before we got on the transport,” Chrys asked me a plethora of questions, rapid fire.

“No, we aren’t going to destroy anything.” Are we?

“Nothing will be destroyed. I will sever the linkages for the level of the Plate connected to Subterra. The Gneisslings may keep it as a gift for their generosity and aid thus far.”

“Nope, no destroying. In fact, Arx Maxima is going to leave that whole floor of the Plate connected to Subterra as thanks to your help and aid so far, that’s awesome, right?” I thought it was pretty nice of Arx Maxima, but I didn’t want the Gneisslings to start thinking maybe they should own all the levels of the Plate. Greed wasn’t good, and I couldn’t imagine Arx Maxima negotiating over what essentially was her own body.

“I’m sure Lord Granix would agree to that,” Chrys nodded.

“Great. So, now what?”

Cosmogenesis Initiated.

Wasn’t that the name of your destroy the Universe power? Arx? ARX MAXIMA?