Apocalypse Redux

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Prolog: Once More Into the Breach

2137, unknown star System

Space was a vast expanse of nothingness before him, endlessly spreading out in every direction. Nuclear furnaces burned like ever-distant campfires, stars dotting the skies.

In fact, there was a star just a few thousand kilometers from him, but it was hidden from sight.

Dr. Isaac Thoma had seen a lot of things in space, from the emptiness between stars to somehow even greater emptiness between galaxies, watching nebulas grow indistinct as he flew through them and was no longer able to properly take in the reflected glow from the stars behind it … but a Dyson sphere was new.

And fit in perfectly with the warning his doomsaying prophecy [Skill] had provided.

Prophecy: The Distant Worlds

Seal One:

A blue orb, lonely,

Beings unknown live

Seal Two:

Graveyards ancient,

Distant civilization

Execution rise

Seal Three:

Review vision Y/N?

The whole mess was, well, messy.

The first seal of the prophecy was shared with the warning called “The Wider Existence”, which he’d gotten when he’d first gotten his prophetic [Book of Seven Seals], but the pair had diverged since then.

As he’d suspected, “The Wider Existence” was a generic warning about alien races existing, and it hadn’t really budged beyond adding a second Seal to clarify.

But this one, the prophecy of distant worlds was rather more alarming, having not only given him three updates in less than a decade but also showing him enough to let him find the first of these dead worlds. Well, “world”. It was a sphere around a star that someone had somehow built, capturing every iota of power it put out to fuel the vast technology inside the sphere.

It was slowly disintegrating, though, with most technology gone and the pressure inside growing and growing until stuff started breaking.

He’d left Elena two star systems over, which held an almost entirely oceanic planet smack-dab in the Goldilocks Zone. A drinking-water ocean. At the 5th Evolution, she’d gained the ability to link new bodies of water to her pool, expanding her power and, over time, creating a connection between the two.

Of course, traversing that connection was a whole other kettle of fish, costing not only mana, but if the range was long enough, ludicrously expensive reagents.

But it was still useful, and unless something went horribly wrong at the Dyson Sphere, they’d be having some fun at that place later.

Isaac projected a brief burst of flame while reducing his own mass to bring himself to a dead stop relative to the star and let himself be drawn in by the gravity of both the star and the metal that surrounded it.

His sensory [Aura] swept out, penetrating the metal with casual ease and laying bare everything in range.

It was weird how simple the technology and the materials were.

No … “simple” was the wrong word. “Mundane” was perhaps more appropriate. No magic, no physics-breaking apparatuses, just a whole bunch of advanced alloys and technology that Isaac couldn’t understand, but he could still see regular physics behind the whole thing. Karl would be able to reverse-engineer this stuff, kit and caboodle, in an afternoon.

Admittedly, an afternoon was a tad optimistic, but the principle still stood.

This had to be old technology, built over a century ago, before the [System] had arrived. Either that, or the people who’d built this place had decided against using that ability. Or they’d evacuated after the Initialization? He certainly hadn’t found any bodies, or anything that might have once been bodies.

Still, this place looked fine. A quick check with [Blessing of Innovation] told him that trying to do the math about how much damage this place could do to Earth would give him an aneurism, but it also informed him that even if every atom on that star were to spontaneously be converted into energy, Earth was still well outside the blast radius. And for that matter, so were the territories of all known extraterrestrial species.

Maybe the threat lay in someone finding this place and using its technology to wage war? Isaac could certainly imagine this incredible [System]-independent tech being built using magical materials and covered in enchantments to create glorious and terrifying machinery, or maybe … nevermind. There was a monster.

A massive, glowing, spectral beast that came up from the heart of the star, entering Isaac’s [Aura]-range.

Yeah, that was a problem.

Isaac reengaged [Alcubierre Bubble] and zapped himself into a higher orbit. The [Skill] didn’t work too well in combat, but shit hadn’t fully hit the fan just yet. And then, he waited, looking at where he knew the monster would emerge.

A mass of spectral flesh the size of a mountain pushed through the surface of the Dyson sphere. But as bad as that was, the real issue was the fact that inspecting the beast provided a [System] screen.

Spectral Amalgam, Death Knell of Worlds, Ephemeral Gestalt, Nascent World Boss (Level 147)

When a world dies, its killer doesn’t go with it.

When fools summoned Ephemeral monsters, they were torn apart, their vaunted technology failing to damage anything to halt the advance. By the time warriors rose through the ranks by slaying other enemies, their entire world was already flooded.

And over the course of decades, this swarm of beasts has fused and combined, ascending first to the rank Field, then, later, Raid, and finally, World Boss.

However, the creature’s Level is not yet at the maximum, and as such, it has not come into its full power, “merely” being a Nascent World Boss.

Even so, this is still a beast of apocalyptic power, wielding cataclysmic magic that can ruin worlds if not stopped.

Well. Shit.

[Final Defiance] crackled in the back of Isaac’s mind, practically begging to be unleashed. This thing wouldn’t necessarily be a threat to Earth for centuries even if it could go FTL once it hit Level 200, but it was still a threat. And no one knew if [World Bosses] could autonomously summon.

This thing needed to go, the only question was if he should try to do this himself, or wait and get reinforcements.

The smart choice would have been to get reinforcements, and hope the monster hadn’t moved away by the time he returned. Which would be in a year or so. He had a few ways to get back to Earth in moments, but coming here again would take a long time.

But he hadn’t had a good fight in forever, this thing needed to be dealt with, and it wasn’t an actual [World Boss]. Yet.

Isaac grabbed his communications necklace and warned Elena he was about to do something stupid, though that was more of a “by the way” message, rather than a call for help. Burning [Final Defiance] would put him well past the point where she could help and if it ran out before the monster died, then he’d call for help.

The monster came closer, swimming through the cosmic ocean, slowly taking on an odd shape. At first glance resembled the regular, cliche, ghost, a spectral woman in a trailing gown, but it was decidedly not that.

For one, it wasn’t human, taking on a distorted form that might have revealed the true form of the Dyson Sphere’s builders.

There were also quite bulges and extra limbs, half-merged ephemeral beasts that hadn’t quite been assimilated into the new form.

Isaac switched his [Class] to [Assassin of the Logos Blade] and studied the beast. The merging spots were sadly not weak points, nor was any other spot on its body.

A typical Ephemeral-type, it would need to be killed via cumulative damage, and there would be no shortcuts.

It would also wield something akin to a Poltergeist’s telekinesis, a Wraith’s weapon manifestation, the ability to project deathly cold, and what seemed like the power to split off parts of itself to create minions.

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Isaac pulled a dozen blades from his Arsenal Bracelet and charged them with energy entirely and fundamentally inimical to the creature before him, and sent some more of that energy into his other bracelet.

And with that, he returned to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] and charged.

[Final Defiance] ignited within him, flooding his body with power, and he charged.

He’d killed countless [World Bosses] with the rest of humanity, and as a result, [Aspects of the End] had been massively boosted, gaining a permanent 10-second increase to his time pool, as well as a new sub-[Skill], with every new foe. Not to mention that he’d slotted several of their Aspects, gaining several powerful new Aspect [Skills] and a ton of Stat points.

[Speed of Hati] wreathed him in white light as he accelerated, while flames were projected by [Balor’s Gaze] and [Primoridal Cycle], wrapping him in power and massively increasing the potential of his fire-based powers.

Up first, a full battery of [World Boss] Aspect [Skills]. They gave quite a few “cooldown but not really” [Skills] with high power and a cooldown, but a mana cost that had to be paid outright.

So it was a damn good thing that mana wasn’t something he had to worry about right now.

[Glare of Obliteration] was one of Balor’s [Skills], projecting a devastating beam of fire, heat, and fury from his right eye for the low, low cost of two and a half thousand mana. It thrummed with power, blinding him in one eye as it hammered into the Spectral Amalgam’s chest and tore straight through, going down the length of the beast.

Isaac jerked his head to the side as he closed and the beam slid through the monster’s body, carving huge chunks out of it before it spluttered out, only to be immediately followed by a series of compressed fireballs from his hands, the combination of the universe’s deadliest flames known as Prometheus’ Wrath detonating against the Amalgam’s body.

And then he was in range to trigger [Field of Annihilation], Balor’s other big attack [Skill]. It was less focused, meant to clear the field of battle and turn even the most mountainous terrain into a parking lot upon activation, but it was still devastating when thrown in someone’s face.

The Amalgam’s face cratered under the force of the impact and countless manifested weapons shattered, but before the monster could recover, Isaac had already triggered [I Am The Sword],making himself invulnerable and immovable for a split-second.

Then, he was inside the creature, switching out his armor as quickly as he could. At some point, [Fully Geared] had gained the power to equip an infinite number of armor sets, as long as they were each made out of a different [World Boss]. And each of these sets had a different daily or weekly ability.

He triggered every power the second it was available, switched, and activated the next one, the new flood of power being unleashed before the old one had even dissipated.

Tearing gusts of wind, explosions, floods of fire, frost so cold it burned to touch, spatial tears, the touch of death, raw magic … the monster screamed as its insides were obliterated. There might not have been any organs there to damage, but its essence was still getting shredded.

He erupted out the other side of the beast and reversed course as quickly as possible, being immediately greeted with a flood of spectral weapons. Each of them trailed white energy and radiated cold, but he wasn’t worried, meeting the barrage with his own salvo, summoning every form his soulbound blade, Old Reliable, had.

They jumped forward practically on their own and ignited, shattering the weapons while attacking the main body, using another of his cooldown [Skills].

[Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing Flame] wrapped him in fiery hoplite’s plate armor, deadly power incinerating anything that got close.

Isaac charged with all the acceleration [Speed of Hati] provided and punched out with his right arm, bracer disintegrating to unleash the payload stored within.

Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny needles, ready to be flooded with [Logos Blade] energy when needed, holding it until he unleashed them. Hundreds upon hundreds of instances of energy inimical to his foe’s very existence striking it, tearing it to pieces.

BANG!

His blade-telekinesis added more speed to the needles as the bracer fell apart, the salvo shredding the front side of the Amalgam, its ectoplasmic body practically disintegrating wherever they touched.

Drawing his charged blades from the Arsenal Bracelet, Isaac fed mana into [I Am The Sword] and tore straight down the monster’s length again, then pulled onto his various weapons still stuck on the other end of the monster while sustaining their flames.

The Spectral Amalgam didn’t whirl around, exactly, rather, it transformed in such a way that it was now facing him without outright turning, and suddenly, it started bringing out massive weapons, swords the size of battleships, hammers that were like skyscrapers.

Attacks were met with fireballs and counterblows, [Power of the Behemoth] flooding his limbs with strength while providing him the ability to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction and not be hurled halfway across the star system by the first hit.

All the while, his burning soulbound weapons were drawn through the beast, shredding it bit by bit.

Back and forth, hacking and slashing, Isaac tore apart the monster, but its stamina and life force seemed inexhaustible, constantly regenerating.

Until one particular cut caused it to simply … fall apart. No apparent cause, it hadn’t even been a particularly good strike, but it seemed to have finally pushed through the monster’s ungodly durability.

The World Boss Spectral Amalgam has been slain.

Heroic Deed has been noted.

As you have killed this monster on your own, without outside help, you will receive all rewards:

10 Aspects of the Spectral Amalgam, 50 cubic liters of Spectral Amalgam Ectoplasm in a specialized container, 2 tons of spectral steel, and the Pseudo-World Item [Heart of the Android]

Ah, fuck.

This thing was a full [World Boss] in almost every way that mattered, and if there were other undiscovered dead civilizations out there, one of these days, its remnant would become a real one.

And the World Item would be … interesting to deal with. Less powerful than a true one, but nonetheless capable of causing widespread changes.

Something needed to change.

Perhaps he needed some help out here? A proper survey corps. Bored S-Rankers, desperate A-Rankers, talented low-Level people who could be given material support and would hopefully gain optimal [Classes] of epic or legendary rarity.

It would be a gamble, especially in the latter case, but he was rich, “fuck-off money on a global scale” rich. He could afford to take a few gambles.

And hadn’t there been that little program of having people train until they were thirty before they picked their starter [Class]?

Sure, whoever was currently running the Bundeswehr would likely be hopping mad if he poached those folks, but that was nothing a little “bribe” of taught [Skills] couldn’t smooth over.

***

The solar system was a very impressive place. It had always been, a natural wonder that had fascinated humanity since the very first homo sapiens had stared up at the night sky.

But once humanity had started properly exploring it, they’d made changes. After society had stabilized from the System’s arrival, changing to handle the increased capability of every single person, there’d been a lot of somewhat bored, powerful, immensely long-lived superhumans around, with full access to the seemingly limitless resources of the Sol system.

And what was someone with immense power, vast material wealth, and the time to take full advantage of the first two to do?

The first “fun project” had been an annual illusion that made the moon look like the Death Star, for one day, on George Lucas’ birthday. It would have gone over a lot better if the idiots responsible for the first casting had actually told people what they were going to do.

Look, there was nothing wrong with wanting to honor the work of a great man after his passing, nothing at all, but suddenly having a planet-destroying superweapon hanging above everyone’s heads had caused something of a panic … and almost ended with the people responsible charbroiled by an overly enthusiastic quick reaction force. No one had ended up dead or badly injured at the end of the day, but it had been a near run thing.

Isaac had been around for that one, as well as the next few endeavors. Like when someone had decided to rebuild the version of Atlantis seen in the Stargate series on the surface of Neptune, though that had ended in an expensive and embarrassing failure. Sure, no one had died, but having the structure that had been hailed as the “Jewel of the Solar System” crumble mere days after it had been completed … oof.

Just glancing around, it was very easy to tell what had been designed by an engineer told “design me something made to do x”, and when someone had told an engineer “he’s a picture, here’s the wiki page, here’s what it looks like in action, now make me something like that”.

Star Wars designs were utterly non-existent, though. Even nowadays, no one fucked with Disney’s copyright lawyers.

But that was hardly the only space-related series that people with too much time on their hands wanted to rip off.

The spinning drum of the Babylon 5 station was visible in the asteroid belt, though Isaac could only shake his head at the use of rotary gravity. Sure, it worked, but could cause nausea in those aboard.

And then, there were the abominations that were Star Trek vessels. According to Patrick, the engine nacelles were designed like that due to technology limitations in the series, but in the real world, having the propulsion be that far from the main body, not pushing against the center of mass directly, created immense sheer forces.

Those connection points were more heavily enchanted than literally the rest of the ship combined, to avoid having them snap like toothpicks.

Someone had built what looked like a 20th-century battleship, adapted the guns for use in space, sealed all external access points, and slapped rockets to the rear end. The ship with “Yamato” stenciled on the bow was actually a more viable design than the … dozen or so Enterprises floating around the System. Or was it “Enterprise Class”?

Either way, those things were weirdly popular.

But popular culture ripoffs aside, the solar system was utterly swimming with ships of every size and design, as well as artificial satellites for any purpose one could imagine.

Space stations, FTL internet relays, fabricators that could eat asteroids whole, and more besides.

And the planets themselves had been changed immensely as well. Most of them, at least.

Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, being gas giants, weren’t meant to be settled directly, but there were immense buildups of industry around them.

Venus, meanwhile, had been terraformed a decade after Mars had, and Mercury held a combination of a luxury resort and the Solar Guard’s High command. The Solar Guard had started out as the space-equivalent of the Coast Guard, but rapidly acquired heavier and heavier ships as dealing with rogue summons not located on a planet had become a part of their duties.

The inner system looked slightly odd, though, severely lacking in the civilian passenger traffic department even though it was thousands of times more populated than the outer system. That was easily explained, however, since the Earlking’s World Item had created a fast travel system there.

It had a few limits on usage, like each person only being able to travel a couple of times a day, and had a somewhat limited number of points where it could be used, but overall, it was vastly superior to all other forms of travel. People who’d received private points could even moderate usage!

But Isaac’s favorite planet by far was Mars. After all, he owned a sizeable chunk of it, a plot of land nearly as big as Germany. He was the one who’d used the World Item to terraform the planet, and in exchange, he’d received Olympus Mons. Twenty-one kilometers high on the lip of the crater, and six hundred kilometers meters across.

All of it was his and Elena’s, and they’d transformed it into a paradise.

His and Elena’s house had been built into the wall of the crater, overlooking the large lake he’d created there, filled with wonderful wildlife to fish for or hunt, fruit plants like coconuts lining the side.

Beyond that was vast unspoiled wilderness, with only the occasional small town interrupting it, some populated with friends and allies who’d wanted a place away from it all, or the caretakers of the land.

Amy, for example, had built a palace from sparkling crystal, right underneath a waterfall, while Raul had decided to go old school with a log cabin made from entirely mundane materials.

It was the most valuable piece of real estate in the solar system by now, due to its size and a complete lack of any building codes beyond Isaac or Elena saying “no”. But Isaac and Elena had no intention of selling off any parts. Ever.

But the real value was the thing that no one knew about. The stuff underneath the soil, filling the entire mountain and several kilometers beneath it. Machinery, supplies, potions, armor, weapons, fabricators, even spaceships.

If shit ever hit the fan again, if humanity found itself in danger despite everything he’d achieved so far, this arsenal would be enough to fuel a war to conquer the entire galaxy.