“No.”

It was a simple word, one of denial.

Though the being it had been meant for showed zero inclination of being denied today.

“A shame. The Custodian’s experiment shall be rendered a failure today.”

They had now crossed the point of words.

Reality quaked as Almyra channeled power into her Mantle which then fed her intrinsic skills. Immediately, hundreds of mirror copies of herself came into being. She had been practicing with the Mantle ever since joining the loops and now had a far superior grasp upon its properties.

Illusory, elemental, spatial, dimensional, soul, mental… her clones had all sorts of spells primed and ready to go.

“Pitiful. That Mantle belongs in better hands.”

The pronouncement came like a damning indictment. And with it… the Mage finally moved.

One moment each and every one of Almyra’s hundreds of clones had spells ready to unleash in both hands, and the next…

…the very magic in their hands sputtered out and failed.

Even Orodan was shocked. Vision of Purity had caught absolutely nothing at all. The energy was completely and pristinely pure. His instincts had felt something move through the air and touch each spell, but to do so for each and every one individually? Astonishing.

The previous looper, whose spells had fizzled out like candles in the wind, went pale as a sheet.

“H-how…?”

“Your spell structure is flawed. Do not offend my sensibilities by bringing the cantrips of children against me,” the Mage imperiously spoke. “Now, enough of these false bodies.”

A dark mist suddenly came into being.

It wasn’t cast, it didn’t travel as a projectile, it simply appeared as though it had always been there. Almyra’s clones, which were created through a mirroring technique, were instantly dispelled as the dark fog cut off her ability to chain tethers and multiple reflections of her soul into the real world.

Simultaneously, each and every layered spell surrounding her body was suddenly stripped. A targeted dispel.

Almyra’s eyes went wide and her hands went to her throat as her unconditioned body without magical support was not at all suited for the harsh airless clime of the deep void.

[Galewind 38 → Galewind 40]

Orodan’s hasty Galewind which conjured copious amounts of wind into the otherwise desolate hollow allowed her to breathe, and a quick weaving of a pocket dimension around Almyra allowed the air to remain and not be hungrily devoured by the void.

Alagameth immediately began firing a cavalcade of arrows of light, Talricto began sending dimensional cutting edges and Almyra resumed her spellfire. But frankly, he didn’t like their chances.

As the spatial spider’s arrows were consumed by an orb of darkness, Talricto’s dimensional cutters unraveled and Almyra’s spells harmlessly dispelled, Orodan stepped forward via Dimensional Step.

Or, he tried to.

The sheer resistance he encountered was unreal. As though he was suddenly attempting to walk on frictionless ice while being blasted by a tornado.

But there was one more party in this battle.

The Mage suddenly howled in utter agony, doubling over as he fought to regain his faculties.

Zaessythra.

Her strange power affected even this Administrator! But, the ancient spellcaster had not gotten to where he was by not having countermeasures. This was no Prophet.

This was the single greatest wizard in all System space. A being who made Destartes, Almyra and the High-Orast put together look like little children playing at magic.

Zaessythra’s eyes clouded as an illusion came over her mind.

Orodan’s mind, soul, body and very being suddenly came under horrid existential agony.

“Stop! You’re targeting Orodan!” Talricto warned.

Simultaneously, the gigantic star-system sized Fireballs the Mage had ready finally flew for them. Not for him, but towards his allies.

Talricto and Alagameth were forced to warp Almyra and Zaessythra away lest they die on the spot.

And finally Orodan powered through that miserable agony and concurrently smashed through the strange resistance with naught but raw power and brute force alone.

[Dimensional Step 54 → Dimensional Step 57]

It was the single most expensive Dimensional Step he had ever performed. The sheer amount of soul energy he’d needed to spend was impressive even if the distance had been less than a planets’ width.

He emerged nearer to see two things.

The Prophet, both arms outstretched and glowing, but looking distinctly strained.

And the defenses of Glyphward Fortress staring at him, as though wanting to eradicate him on he spot but unable to due to the token he carried.

“Like a bottomless well… is this the unnatural power which has drawn the ire of so many Invaders?” the Mage asked, layering ten-thousand spells between himself and Orodan in an instant. The spells were no mish-mash like Almyra’s, but a pristine and perfect lattice of true harmony. “My Dispel skill is at level 199. Never before has it failed to strip or halt something. Yet that raw power of yours… it is true Infinity, isn’t it?”

“An irksome thing. I alone will suffice; I did not ask for the concept to begin fighting my battles for me,” Orodan spoke.

“Then know this. An entire faction of the Invaders are pressing against our borders simply to study you. There has never been an Embodier of that concept, even beyond System space where such terms are spoken of differently,” the Administrator warned. “You are strong. Stronger than I thought possible for a time looper to become. But the gulf between us is still vast, and the time loop will not avail you should you die beyond the bounds of its influence.”

Orodan was tempted to tell him that even hurling him outside System space and killing him would fail, but for now chose to leave the information disparity untouched.

“Orodan Wainwright. The Custodian’s final gambit turned greatest disaster. You were meant to cleanse the System, to finally give this failing cage a measure of hope. Instead, you slew the Prophet and did something which has caused an innumerable amount of breaches to appear in the boundary. Do not think your harboring of an Invader has gone unnoticed either. I have felt that wicked power once before… never again.”

“She is not an Invader,” he replied sternly. “But we have spoken enough. You struck first seeking hostilities. Let us put an end to this matter.”

“Bold. Come then, see what no amount of time looping will ever allow you to match. While you wasted time with words, I was stockpiling every possible spell and advantage I could.”

The Mage was not bluffing. The ancient spellcaster’s body was thrumming with over a hundred thousand spells now. To make matters worse, his foe was also cranking up an extreme Time Compression field, hastening his movements.

Countless spells, hastened speed thanks to chronomancy, and two miniature palm-sized black holes which were forming above the Mage’s head. Things were not looking good.

Exactly the sort of clash he lived for.

The sword rapped against the boss of the shield thrice. A mocking taunt… which the Mage did not heed at all.

The answer instead came in the form of an absolute barrage of spells from range.

[Elemental Living Enchantment 57 → Elemental Living Enchantment 59]

which Orodan was forced to answer with a furious Endless Blitz of Smites of Abrupt Deliverance while fire flowed through his body. Not his maximal power strikes, but quick, rapid.

His empowered sword alongside Eidolon of Violence carved the spells into pieces, yet even these pieces began animating and attempting to come after him. Thus he began targeting the very essence of the attacks, outright killing the spells, giving them a final death via the power of Violence.

Still, some spells did get through for such was the reality of facing an opponent who was his greater in skill and localized power.

[Fire Resistance 82 → Fire Resistance 83]

[Psionic Resistance 90 → Psionic Resistance 91]

Fire struck, as did a deluge of spellfire meant to utterly annihilate his mind. Minus the crisping of his physical body, the psionic assault alone would have turned any other looper into a comatose husk for the rest of eternity.

But Orodan was made of sterner stuff.

The Mage frowned.

“Resistant to flame and mental assaults? I suppose that particular method of permanently ending you is futile. Vexatious, but intriguing… let us test another few avenues.”

[Lightning Resistance 71 → Lightning Resistance 73]

[Poison Resistance 4 → Poison Resistance 28]

He carved a majority of the spells apart as he continued his slow and inexorable advance. But many still hit. The lightning was no issue, causing a pleasant buzz which was healed trivially quickly via Harmony of Vitality. But the poison?

His cells died, convulsed and almost wanted to rebel against him as entire patches of his body began turning black and practically melting off as though foul sludge coming off a bone. A massive jump in the relevant resistance skill, but hells was this poison some extreme stuff.

The lightning was normal enough, but he had never seen bolts made of pure poison, glowing with a pale green as though it were an element. He nearly lost grip of his sword as the bolts caused the flesh of his arm to melt and fall off in blackened patches.

“That too? The poison is meant to be the bane of any self-healing skills, and yet…”

Harmony of Vitality, though facing resistance, still pushed through with force to recover his body. It also helped that he had no veins, arteries or organs. No pathways for the poison to spread through when his body was just muscle and bone.

But the Mage had more, of course he did. Why would an Administrator who went by such a moniker be limited in spell variety?

Orodan advanced closer and closer to his foe, yet the nature of the spells he was carving down suddenly changed yet again.

[Light Resistance 26 → Light Resistance 34]

[Water Resistance 42 → Water Resistance 44]

“Now that is just masochistic… how many more do you even possess?” the Mage asked, baffled. “Have you been spending loops dying on purpose?”

Orodan had a feral and bloody grin on his face as he advanced closer.

“It was good training.”

Still, he was not stupid. The positioning of the Administrator, the baited entry, Orodan knew he was walking into a trap.

In fact, the next wave finally targeted something he did not have a resistance skill for.

Darkness.

His mind and soul suffered damage as cascading waves of the element of darkness assailed him. It was a rare element. He’d seen it once in a salamander during one of his earliest delves into an energy well, but aside from that even the more nefarious foes he’d fought scarcely used the element.

However, the real crippling issue with suffering an assault from darkness was the mind and soul damage it inflicted. It suffocated both, and this spell the Mage was hitting him with was no exception.

If anything, by the feel of it, this was another one of those which was meant to have dire long-term effects if it had hit anyone else. Already he could feel the darkness attempting to slither across his mind and soul as a permanent and crippling mark. A shadow which would haunt his every step.

It was a problem…

[Incipience of Infinity 180 → Incipience of Infinity 181]

…which Orodan burnt away by flaring his soul energy.

“Tch… you begin to test my patience, time looper. I suspected it, but you are a true triple Celestial, are you not?” the Mage asked. Orodan’s silence as he simply continued surging against the barrage was answer enough. “Abominable. To allow so much power in one being. But that will be enough. Your bullheaded advance would earn you much favor from Talasgan, but equal parts disdain for your shortsightedness. You have walked into my trap.”

And to that, he said only two words.

“I know.”

For just as the Mage had been herding him towards a pre-prepared spot with a wormhole leading to beyond the boundary… so too had Orodan been subtly moving sideways in a manner which lined things up perfectly.

The wormhole leading beyond and to the greater cosmos opened beneath his feet. And at the same time, Orodan produced the token of Glyphward Fortress in his shield hand… and crushed it.

Immediately, the System node’s defenses shrieked and opened fire.

With the Mage right between them and their target.

The Administrator’s eyes widened, casting a mighty surge of dark magic and loosing the palm-sized black holes towards Orodan. The Mage’s attention was tied up dealing with Glyphward’s barrage of defensive fire.

And in those spare moments… Orodan finally understood what darkness was and how to resist it.

[New Skill → Darkness Resistance 47 (Exquisite)]

And black holes which were entirely force-based? That he could deal with.

The rim of his shield met one, the tip of his swordpoint the other… and both exploded with cataclysmic might. A shockwave he bullied his way through as he surged a titanic amount of fire through his body via Elemental Living Enchantment.

Eidolon of Violence was the vanguard, with Elemental Living Enchantment and a Smite of Abrupt Deliverance fueled by fire and Burst Casting. It was the same strike which he’d slain the empowered Prophet with during the Defense of Alastaia.

“Hrk! Orodan Wainwright! Well played!” the Mage roared, impressed and suddenly off-guard in equal measure.

The Administrator’s Mantle channeled at full power and all the magical might within came pouring out at him.

He was strong, but the Mage was well above the Prophet in a pure fight.

Would he be enough?

A question which was interrupted by someone.

A bald, scarred maniac dual-wielding straight swords.

The Mage had left the defenses of Glyphward Fortress to face Orodan. And he was on assault from both the fortress’s defenses and Orodan’s own culminating attack.

It was a moment of prime vulnerability exploited by the Reject, who appeared via wormhole.

“Xia…?!”

From Orodan’s perspective, the blow took an eternity. But the maddened refuse of the Administrators took delight in every moment of it as his dual blades pierced the Mage’s back and erupted out his chest in a shower of blood.

Only too late did a titanic greatsword come in-between Orodan’s assault and the Mage’s own Mantle empowered attack.

A clash against the blade of the System’s greatest warrior which finally pushed him over the edge.

Everything he had done with the Eidolon, all the skills underneath it, he recalled all the moments behind them.

Spear and club training with Zukelmux and Aliya. As he had taught his students, so too had they taught him. Halberd training with old Adeltaj. Woodworking, Mining and Stonecutting with Old Man Hannegan… and the sword, shield and grappling he had honed across every battle of his loops so far.

It all came together and gave the Eidolon of Violence… it gave Violence itself that final requisite push into the level beyond Grandmastery.

[Eidolon of Violence 100 → Eidolon of Violence 105]

[New Title → Violence Transcendent]

[New Title → Sword Transcendent]

[New Title → Shield Transcendent]

[New Title → Wrestling Transcendent]

[New Title → Stonecutting Transcendent]

[New Title → Halberd Transcendent]

[New Title → Woodworking Transcendent]

[New Title → Mining Transcendent]

[New Title → Spear Transcendent]

[New Title → Club Transcendent]

The Warrior’s blade, interposed between the two of them, genuinely wobbled. The wielder of said blade roared… and then proceeded to smash both strikes aside with only moderate effort.

What freak power.

Orodan’s blood boiled, wanting a fight on the spot with such a prime warrior.

“Enough.”

Talasgan’s directive was a simple one, and for now, Orodan held his warrior spirit in check.

The Warrior’s next move was to send his greatsword right towards the Reject who was already mid-escape. The attack sent Xia hurtling through a wormhole and right out of System space. The same one which had been meant to throw Orodan out.

The Mage was wounded, but alive, magic already healing the grievous injury. Orodan was fine; better than fine given that he’d advanced to Transcendence in his third Celestial skill.

And the Warrior was not at all pleased with the situation.

“We will talk. Now.”

#

Talasgan’s hand rested upon the pommel of his titanic greatsword, point down in the ground.

Kalmiron, the Mage, was pacing. Unhappy, still scarred and wounded in a way no healer had been able to identify.

And Orodan simply stood there, arms folded across his chest as he watched.

These three were the centers of gravity in the room. Yes, Orodan had Almyra, Alagameth, Zaessythra and Talricto behind him. But in terms of weight, they might as well have been nothing in comparison to the three juggernauts.

The other Embodiers and their Transcendent underlings around the table also paled in comparison to the main three.

Yes, there were strong individuals here.

Kharadun Voidfortress being one of them. The dwarven King of Kings was apparently a well-known mercenary contributor to the defense of the System’s borders, extracting great wealth in return.

Azkar the War-Father, and leader of Azkar’s Reavers was another. The orc was gigantic. A head taller than even the Warrior and looked to be made of muscle and battle with an axe which looked like it could cleave anything it touched.

The giant eyeball he had seen a few times by now was also present. Though not a combatant, the Identifier’s piercing gaze saw all. There was no hiding a secret while this one was around.

And finally, a long and lanky being in loose robes whose skin was whiter than the sun itself. Pale and unnaturally white in a way which made fresh printed paper look dark. This, he had been told, was the Master of Death who kept the System’s casualties from being dragged out beyond System space. Not a combatant unless forced into it, but of critical importance.

Still, even then… both Azkar and Kharadun had been eyeing Orodan with a measuring gaze since they’d arrived. The two of them had no liking for one another, standing on opposing sides of the gigantic table. But a warrior’s assessment between them had the two realizing that a fight between them and the time looper would not go well.

“Never has such madness been uttered within these walls before,” Talasgan began. “Yet I am no blind fool who would cling to denial. Your explanation rings truer than even the keenest blade. Your empowerment of the loops through your own soul caused the internal breaches… and your addition of tens of thousands of time loopers to the loops has caused all the external ones.”

“Then why do we not just take his head and be done with it?” a Transcendent behind Talasgan’s section of the table furiously asked. “He slew one of your sacred kind, my lord.”

Talasgan spared a most brief glance backward at the man, causing him to shrivel in on himself.

“And will you draw your spear and dispense that sentence?” the Warrior asked calmly but directly, leaving no room for excuses. “Do not speak of passing sentences which you cannot enforce.”

“But that does not erase the fact that the Prophet is dead and we are down two of our Mantles. With the Custodian managing the problems within we are limited to just the two of us, in a time where we would be in dire straits even with all five. That preaching sycophant was… corrupted, but he was on a mission on our behalf,” Kalmiron spoke. “A mission which would have never been necessary if you had not stolen a Mantle which does not belong to you.”

All eyes fell upon Almyra with those words. She did not shrink, but Orodan could tell her stance became just a slight bit more defensive.

“And why should I turn over what landed in my galaxy? What I found first because you and yours lost it after the betrayal of its former owner?” she asked in turn, refusing to be cowed. “If you want it back so badly, then perhaps the claimant should come with it.”

There was an outrage at that suggestion. Even the lowliest person in the room was a Transcendent, yet they had opinions on such things, even if expressed far differently than how a babbling assembly of politicians might.

“Very demanding of an outsider.”

“We have a trial for these things. Do you mean to just walk in and demand Administrator status?”

Some were more direct.

“Weak mage! I could break you in half even with that little Mantle and you think you’re worthier than I to wear it?” Kharadun threateningly asked, causing Orodan to give him a challenging look as though daring him to try.

“Worthier than you? Greed for riches and treasures has rotted your heart and mind in equal measure,” Azkar spoke, sneering at the dwarf. “I will not say it should be me. But the honor of attempting a fair trial is all I ask for.”

“For a long time now, Xia’s Mantle once found was to go through bestowal after a trial,” the pale Master of Death spoke. “It is a combat-relevant Mantle, the robes of a cultivator. While I have no delusions in my ability to wield it successfully, you understand that your demand is entirely selfish, yes?”

Almyra however still did not back down.

“And perhaps the fixation on combat is what has led to the System’s current state and its poor defense of its borders. My track record in organizing an entire galaxy and giving rise to a galactically relevant faction is evident. Throughout my loops, I have honed and re-honed my plans for uplifting the Blackworth Collective into what it is today. Which of you can claim the same?” she challenged. “The dwarves? Driven by greed and riches, mercenary vultures who fight for the highest bidder. The orcs? My Collective led a coalition to drive your lot out when you overreached. Pit our factions against one another in open war and see who prevails.”

“The argument of the weak. What use will your Collective be when an Embodier slays you in open battle? If I rampage through your precious armies while you hide like a craven without checking me, what use is that organization then?” Kharadun derided. “Nobody among you could contest me.”

“I could. Shall we step out and put it to the test, Kharadun Voidfortress? I nearly slew you a few loops ago and have only grown stronger since.”

The challenge caused the room to grow silent with anticipation and the King of King’s jowls to quiver with anger. The dwarf was not stupid. He had likely seen Orodan’s fight against the Mage and that mid-battle achievement of Transcendence in a third Celestial skill.

Kharadun would still be a good fight, sure. But the advantage lay firmly with Orodan now.

“This is not an arena for proclaiming challenges to one another. Need I remind you that we all share the common cause of protecting System space from the predators circling it beyond our borders?” the Master of Death posed. “Contain yourself, Kharadun Voidfortress. And… though it is entirely against tradition, I can tentatively agree to this new claimant having a Mantle. We are in dangerous times and would not have had the Mantle at all if not for her bringing it to us and asking to cooperate. And if the time loops truly do now extend beyond System space…”

“Then it would be in our interests to use it. To train her in utilizing the Mantle with each loop, yes, but also…” Talasgan trailed off. The Warrior then looked at Orodan as though assessing the worth of a fine blade. “Did you lie when you said your loops have only been ongoing for a few thousand years?”

“To the best of my knowledge. Bit difficult to retain track of the time when losing myself to a concept, or when fighting them. Time always gets murky whenever I deal with them.”

The room grew even quieter, the weight of that landing powerfully.

“That, I can agree with. For long has the concept of War been under my dominion. But it seems, in not too many loops, that might no longer be the case.”

“I refuse to believe this. Lord Talasgan, no time looper has ever-”

“Orodan Wainwright. You are a triple Celestial and an Embodiment of two of those, aren’t you?” the Administrator asked.

“Yes.”

The protesting Transcendent grew meek and quiet very quickly.

“As you can see. Before us stands what is likely the single greatest weapon ever forged by the hands of the System and chance coming together. If the loops truly affect even the greater cosmos now… then it is little wonder that the true enemy is so desperate to lay siege to System space. It must have noticed. And we… would be fools not to take advantage of this opportunity.”

“But they also have an Invader with them! One of the true enemy’s spawn bearing its same stench!”

To that, it was not the Warrior who answered, but the giant eyeball.

“Half-dragon borne of evil Boundless, yes. But also of Eldritch Boundless. Of System and of not-System. Identifier sees enough marks of native System-born species.”

That caused many of the glares of suspicion to lessen.

“Hmmph… you shall have to share how you managed the process of true soul genesis for an intrinsically shattered soul. It strains my suspension of disbelief when you claim it was through forging her in the collision between two Boundless Ones,” Kalmiron spoke, and then grudgingly muttered. “Though I suppose neither your nor her power is a lie.”

That was the closest he would get to praise from the surly Administrator. Especially after he’d foiled the ancient’s attempt to kill him.

“Then how about I do one better. Rather than me having to tell you over and over… what if I showed you a particular thing?”

As he posed the question, an orb came out in his hand.

#

“On one hand, transferring the memories of two Administrators via the orb means we need not renegotiate this deal every time and we can hopefully avoid you getting attacked.”

“Him? Avoiding a fight?” Zaessythra questioned. “We all know he’s going to enjoy fighting the Mage each and every time before the misunderstanding is cleared up. We may as well account for that to occur in each and every loop moving forward. Because this is certainly going to take a lot of loops.”

The ‘this’ Zaessythra referred to was of course the sight beyond the boundary.

Glyphward Fortress was a gigantic structure which was embedded within the boundary of System space. It could also freely moved around to any point on the boundary, like a floating castle. It certainly helped when it came to reinforcing particular sectors or beating back enemy attacks at particular points.

But the fortress hadn’t moved in a while. Not since Orodan’s loop had began and this chaos started.

And the main reason for that was the colossal black hole on the exterior side of the boundary.

One that was slowly approaching even as they spoke.

Orodan ignored the two of them and instead looked closely at the very slowly but steadily approaching cosmic structure. It had multiple bright and glowing anchors around it, helping it maintain its steady speed. And frankly, although the encroachment looked slow, a closer look told him that it was anything but.

For something so massive, at such an extreme distance, to be moving so slowly in their view, meant it was still moving at tremendous speed.

The cosmos outside the boundary looked just as the one inside did. Galaxies, distant constellations, pockets of the deep void that looked… suspiciously empty. But that approaching black hole took up most of the view.

“How long till it makes contact?” he asked the Master of Death who was looking out the balcony just as he was.

“A week. That is the battering ram which will shatter the boundary once it collides,” the Embodier explained. “In better times we would not have had so many breaches already. Our forces would have been well-organized, and the Custodian would have been freer to lend aid and prevent its actual collision with the boundary. But now? Its mere presence prevents us from sealing many of the breaches. The Warrior and the Mage are also marked out and responded to with eerie accuracy whenever they sally out to try and do anything about it.”

“You are under siege.”

“I suppose we are. We always have been, but this is the first time in my long existence that I have seen the Invaders make such successful inroads.”

“Tell me about what happens if I were to step out of the fortress and to the outside.”

“Have a death wish, do you? You are aware that Lord Talasgan has chosen to deploy you at a particular site alongside himself, yes?” the pale Embodier asked, and then the deathly being had an odd twinkle in his misty eye. “Hmm, I suppose answering a question will harm no one. If you were to step out beyond range of the Fortress’s defenses… then the first things to get you would be the Moon Devourers and their brood.”

“Moon Devourers?”

“Yes. That field of debris you see in the extreme distance beyond what even your Vision of Purity can sense? Those are not asteroids. They are the young hatchlings of those planets and nearby stars just beyond our boundary.”

They were? Orodan peered in hard. He forced as much soul energy into his eyes as he could. Vision of Purity was out of the question at such an extreme range. Good training, and something to aspire to over a few hundred loops of grinding. But right here right now he would not be extending it that far.

But he focused and tried to have his naked eyes and regular sight make out the details. He strained and focused on the nearest planet, extremely distant as it was, and…

…the thing twitched!

It was alive!

“Identifier recommends not staring at Moon Devourers. Rude creatures they are. They stare back. Sometimes they smile. Other times you catch the notice of something worse without meaning to and cry like a newborn hatchling in the healing sanctum.”

The giant eyeball floated over as it spoke.

“I’ve seen worse. Those strange anomalies among them,” he replied.

“Horrid things. Gave Identifier headache when looking at their ugly faces. Then Identifier looked back and they did not like that,” the Embodier spoke.

Interesting. So the System’s forces were not as defenseless against those things as he originally thought.

“Moon Devourers and anomalies. What else is beyond the boundaries? Armies? Fortresses?”

“That black hole approaching us is an enemy fortress,” the Warrior spoke coming up to stand beside them. “The anchors being used to move it are defended by armies of the great evil’s forces. It is impregnable. Even I have not been able to crack it. They have beaten me back each time I have tried.”

“Kharadun Voidfortress has volunteered the usage of his own captured black hole as a counter, but at ruinous cost,” the Master of Death spoke. “And sending anyone into that section of the void to try and scout things out would be a death sentence.”

“We cannot strike directly, we must first weaken their advance forces circling the borders, break a hole through this encirclement, and from there…”

Orodan stopped paying attention, allowing the Warrior’s words to wash over him like a breeze.

The lot of them were staring out at the void and noting the enemy’s movements.

Orodan was too.

But it was Zaessythra who was staring directly at him. She recognized the look on his face.

“No… don’t even think about it, we have an entire plan set-”

“Is the Invasion of Narictus done?” Orodan interrupted.

“It… should be,” Almyra answered. “I sense no activity from that part of the Athranos at all. Why are you-”

“Good. Then there is no need to delay. Plans and stratagems are good… but useless without direct frontline information of our foe. as you said Almyra, I function best under pressure.”

The Warrior looked ready to physically stop him, Almyra looked surprised and even Zaessythra looked quite displeased. The Identifier just watched, and that pale, wispy Embodier simply smiled.

Before Talasgan could intervene, Orodan moved.

[Dimensional Step 57 → Dimensional Step 59]

The resistance was titanic. Like last time, he felt as though he was attempting to step through a slippery and gelatinous thing. Proof that even the Mage was trying to stop him.

But before Talasgan’s hand could reach out to grab him, Orodan’s raw power bent and then blew an opening through Glyphward Fortress’s anti-dimensionalism net.

And out into the great void beyond the System’s boundaries he went.

His destination? One of the anchors responsible for dragging the Invaders’ black hole along.

This was Orodan’s first time seeing and dealing with a black hole. And unfortunately for him, nobody had told him how they interacted with and really skewed things related to dimensions and space.

Which was why he learned the hard way that one couldn’t so easily use Dimensionalism to travel near a black hole.

The first indication that something was wrong was when Orodan was pulled right out of his brief phase between the dimensional boundary… because there was no other dimension he could enter and travel through. Just the material plane, and an absolutely enormous force of gravity pulling him right back into it.

The moment he appeared, he realized he was within some sort of debris field. And his Vision of Purity and ability to sense souls told him that absolutely none of it was void debris.

The asteroids began moving. They grew teeth, opened eyes, sprouted appendages and looked all-around hungry.

And the first few hundred to begin swarming him began dying in droves.

Orodan Wainwright had broken hordes before. Sending an army of chaff against him was futile. But these things were not logical or reasonable creatures. The sheer hunger, the starvation he sensed in them… it was at a depth he had never seen before in a being of the System.

Their prowess ranged from Master to Transcendent, yet even then his blade, shield, fists and knees slaughtered them as though he was the center of a butcher’s shop. Their appearance, that of void rock, was a deception. The rock was shell and their insides were vicious flesh, teeth and acid.

Most hordes facing him broke and ran out of self-preservation, but these creatures, Moon Devourers, simply kept coming as though survival was secondary to sating the appetite. As he killed hundreds, the approaching thousands fed on the remains of their fallen kind. It was a sort of primal hunger which overrode any fear they might’ve otherwise felt.

Eerily, they were not even rushing for him anymore, the horde was more interested in devouring the splattered remains of the dead floating in the void.

Thousands more were pulped by his raw storm of physical fury, until the only ones left were carrion-feeders on the edges who were happy to engage in the feast he’d left for them.

And two very large and very angry planets who were glaring at him.

He was no stranger to fighting gigantic foes the size of a star system, but to face living planets who had eyes the size of continents? It was a novel experience. Particularly when the grotesque eyes—mockeries of the human organ—were hatefully glaring at him as though he’d slaughtered their children.

Perhaps he had. But in that, they could only blame themselves for not disciplining their hungering brood better.

The surfaces of these gigantic living planets were a nightmarish ruin of discarded organic refuse and drained bodies. Amidst that refuse were swarms of more of the smaller Moon Devourers, slowly being born amid an environment which knew nothing but hunger and starvation.

And within, beneath the surface… depths. Cave systems, without any sort of world gate. But in the absolute bowels of it all… world cores. Ravenous things which periodically pulsed with need to drain more from the surface and toward themselves.

The fleshy mountainscapes and foul pits of drained biological sludge upon their surfaces suddenly drained and split apart… to reveal gigantic continent-sized maws from which tongues the length of entire countries protruded, extending right towards him in hungry pursuit.

Even as Orodan’s Smite of Abrupt Deliverance vaporized them both, he could hear the tortured moans of what constituted ‘life’ upon their surfaces.

Foul things. It made one grateful for the System which regulated world cores and prevented them from going rogue to twist into such abominations. It made the defense of System space against these Invaders of paramount importance. For it seemed there were wicked creatures out there just as bad as the Eldritch.

More of which had now noticed him.

He was close to the black hole, close enough that he was being pulled along by its inexorable gravity. He could resist by flaring enough soul energy to deny gravity’s influence upon him, but why bother? One of the anchors was in the way of his ‘fall’.

Of course, plenty of other things had noticed his arrival and approach too. Chiefly, a very eerie anomaly Zaessythra had slain already in a prior loop.

Orodan didn’t know what its name was, but it was no fool. It did not approach or charge him, instead opting to wait at a safe distance… and alert everything else in the vicinity about his arrival.

A gloomful wail, the sort of sound which should never have existed, left the throat of this anomalous woman-thing. The noise echoed without end.

The anchors of the black hole, those glowing white nodes of power responsible for moving it, suddenly erupted. Thousands upon thousands of figures began spewing out of an enlarged mouth from the center.

Void Archons. Not the Fallen ones within System space.

The same group he’d aided in driving back from the Crimson Sink Galaxy. And at their head, four separate Embodiment-level Archons.

He’d killed a singular one earlier, forcing a tendril of their invasion in that sector to retreat. But to face four at once alongside an entire army?

Now this would be a good fight.

These were cautious beings not prone to the same bloodlust and battle-mania possessing him. Which meant Orodan was not surprised in the slightest when they formed a moving cage of bodies around him. Not at all in melee range, thousands of miles away, but the encircling net was absolute all the same.

And the comprehensive bombardment began.

Each and every element he could think of was sent his way. These Void Archons were not melee specialists, but they were mages. And with the coordination of a hivemind, an army of ten-thousand mages, each with six arms, all at the Grandmaster-level minimum… could be a force of reckoning indeed.

[Lightning Resistance 73 → Lightning Resistance 75]

[Ice Resistance 50 → Ice Resistance 53]

[Darkness Resistance 47 → Darkness Resistance 48]

[Water Resistance 44 → Water Resistance 47]

[Wind Resistance 43 → Wind Resistance 45]

[Light Resistance 34 → Light Resistance 36]

[Psionic Resistance 91 → Psionic Resistance 92]

[Iron Body 97 → Iron Body 98]

Orodan was electrocuted, frozen, darkened, drowned, hit with reaving wind, scorched with fire and light and assaulted by some of the strongest mental assaults he’d felt in a long time. They even began testing his physical form with bolts of pure force and gravity, but these only had the benefit of giving him one more level in Iron Body.

That anomalous thing wisely hiding in the very fringes wasn’t inactive either. Its mournful howls amplified the enemy assaults and he could feel the sound seeping into his very soul, as though attempting to weaken his resistance skills and render them inert.

This was a truly dangerous foe, a creature designed to massacre the System’s defenders by cutting off their access to it.

However that reliance on such a trick was the reason it had died to Zessythra in the past. And why it would die to him now.

He needed no System. For he had forged himself without one and then built his own from the ground up.

Eidolon of Violence grabbed the distance between them. And like a juggrnaut hauling a rope with something heavy at the end, Orodan pulled.

The slippery anomaly had but a moment to end its miserable song before it was no longer many thousands of miles away. Now, suddenly, it was in grabbing distance of him.

The sheer volley of elemental assault from the enemy Archons eased up, not wanting to harm their ally it seemed.

But it was too late.

Orodan’s hands wrapped around its neck, physically, but also around the information pattern that this wicked thought-corruption was composed of, metaphysically.

And he twisted.

[Eidolon of Violence 105 → Eidolon of Violence 106]

The anomaly died.

There was no howl, no shriek, no final display of its end. Just as he had annihilated the Prophet’s very soul when first synergizing the Eidolon, he now obliterated its very being in a simple and most final act of pure violence and savagery.

It simply disappeared, not even a corpse remaining.

For a moment, the army assaulting him stilled. It was a hivemind, one whose individuals should have been under the control of its commanding Embodiers. Yet the stench of shock and fear was now evident among the collective.

A piercing warble of that strange and alien speech the System knew not echoed, and the commanding Embodiers ruthlessly clamped down, stabilizing their underlings. The assault resumed, yet Orodan, shield raised, weathered it.

He was tough and capable of self-healing, but even before that he had been familiar with the shield. A skill which had now been absorbed into the Eidolon of Violence and was Transcendent.

Like a juggernut, he floated through the void, expending soul energy to propel himself closer and closer to the nearest anchor of the black hole. And as he moved, his shield and Shield Intent, one of the skills he’d learned from the cultivators, flared to shrug off the Archons’ assault.

[Shield Intent 84 → Shield Intent 86]

He was a one man shieldwall, a mobile fortress whose approach was inexorable. His speed was not overly fast, and the enemy encirclement moved with him, refusing to allow him close to either of them… but what did that matter when he was heading for a target they had to defend?

If they feared him so much in melee, then he would simply smash their precious anchor while they skittered like rats.

But, he had sustained enough of an assault from them. The time for their receipts of damage to be paid was soon. For just as Orodan had assimilated Shield Mastery into the Eidolon of Violence, so too had he absorbed one other skill…

…Warrior’s Reciprocity.

And at the Transcendent-level, not only was he now capable of delaying the return and allowing it to build up. But the interest was quite steep.

He pushed for the return…

…and felt resistance!

Something on the enemy side was seeking to prevent him from cashing in the debt they had incurred by striking at him so freely!

Of course… the Warrior had mentioned having the skill himself. Why would the enemy not have a countermeasure for it?

But countermeasures were only as good as the power available to fund them. And Orodan Wainwright was very good at exposing the one limitation which even the most extreme plans took for granted… total power.

And so he flared his soul, pulling upon power enough to cause galaxies to quake.

This, he threw into pushing against that resistance the Warrior’s Reciprocity aspect of his Eidolon encountered…

…and the result was naught but doom and ruin for the Archon horde.

[Eidolon of Violence 106 → Eidolon of Violence 109]

[Incipience of Infinity 181 → Incipience of Infinity 183]

He felt something designed to counter such a trick, great and distant, shatter.

And the first to die were three of the four Void Archon Embodiers.

Over nine-thousand of the ten-thousand Grandmasters and Transcendents followed, vaporized to less than ash where they were. And only those who had cast supporting magics and the one Embodier who had some manner of failsafe second-chance skill survived.

Like that, a force of ten-thousand became a force of a few hundred, with only one grievously wounded and terrified Embodier leading them.

Orodan’s grin was manic.

“Who else?”

Not them.

The psionic link was shattered, the collective collapsing. And in real-time he saw via Identify how the species of those freed members went from Void Archon to Fallen Void Archon.

And they fled.

But not before the Embodier sent a pulse of warning out.

The anchor began roaring. A howl of pure energy and warning which connected with all of the others too. He was close enough now that Vision of Purity could trace the tethers between it, the other anchors and the black hole.

There were twelve anchors on the outside. Four more on the inside just beneath the dark boundary of the black hole in a stabilized layer of space. It was the sort of information nobody on the System side had managed to glean before, mainly because even the Warrior sallying out this far on his lonesome would’ve been dangerous.

And Orodan could now see why.

His return path was entirely barred by a solid wall of Moon Devourers. Some of them Embodiment-level and the size of star systems. And the nearby anchors now began spitting out tremendous amounts of reinforcements. Including an elite force leaving the black hole itself.

Seven figures. And even from a distance Orodan could sense each of them was as strong as the Mage, with the leader being even more powerful. It would not be a fight he survived.

This place was a true fortress which would require no less than a siege. The forces arrayed within, innumerable in quantity and extreme in quality.

But before these converging reinforcements could reach him, the black hole’s gravity did its work. He reached the anchor first.

He had already slain the local army guarding this anchor and thus, there was no resistance as passed through the energy barrier of this glowing structure. The barrier tried to burn him, but the damage was meagre against his toughness.

He fell through layers upon layers of these barriers, keyed for the Invaders no doubt, but each of them attempting to harm him worse than those prior. Yet it mattered little when he fell through the final one, barely fazed and landing upon a dense core.

He was in it, upon it now. The anchor was not just a structure meant to move the black hole… but also to maintain that stabilized layer of space just beneath its surface? What would happen if he broke it?

The thought of that was interrupted as a sickly pink beam of might subsumed him, utterly anihilating his System.

Pain, agony, despair… all of these thoughts consumed his mind, soul and very being as a gigantic crystal the size of a star system hovered overhead. The overseer for this anchor perhaps?

It was one of the sadistic Boundless One’s minions, little doubt.

But Orodan had faced worse. And with a flare of power, he shrugged its beam off with a roar of his own which returned its delivered damage via Warrior’s Reciprocity.

It had a large crack running through its center, and a colossal array of enchantment lines around it was shattered. Was this the thing which had been attempting to stifle his Warrior’s Reciprocity earlier?

“The anointed champion of the caged…? From whence does that power come…? Of the System and not… an impossibility.”

The gigantic shard was speaking, but it was something else beyond it. He knew this voice.

“You… grown greedy and decided to invade, have you?”

“A mutation of the anomalous structure… affecting even us…”

The time loop. Of course. All this truly was his fault.

“Anomalous… why not remain? Become our champion? The rot of our caged sibling displeases the anointed. Embrace purity, embrace freedom.”

“I have seen your wicked purity when we met in prior loops. A Boundless One of pain and suffering. You disgust me… and I have a debt to repay which involves you,” Orodan said and then his gaze turned ice cold, determined. “Know this, I shall seek out your true form, and kill you. This I vow.”

Its only response was a deep and unending laugh which threatened the human part of his sanity with just its noise. He could feel all the reinforcements converging too. But frankly, he had done enough in just reaching this far; a notion that would have been suicidal for anyone else.

And now?

There remained only one thing left to do. To see what happened if the anchor was destroyed.

It was tough. Tougher than he could break in any reasonable amount of time. But that was fine…

…for what need was there to break something when he could simply overload it?

[Incipience of Infinity 183 → Incipience of Infinity 185]

The gigantic shard, an extension of the sadistic Boundless One’s will and being, went from amused to quiet very quickly.

Orodan channeled soul energy enough to turn his own form into a handful of cells.

And as the anchor overloadea and the shard and reinforcing Embodiers reached him, it was too late.

The anchor exploded, the spatial layer keeping the black hole bound tight unraveled…

…and he learned that it was keeping the entire thing quite heavily compressed.

And that black holes could explode with some absolutely titanic force.

#

A keening wail ringing in the night sky awoke him.

Zaesythra arose next to him.

“That was… quick. You died before that even reached us. What was that?”

“A gigantic explosive,” Orodan answered. “I can see why they’re moving that as close as possible before they cause it to erupt.”

But also…

…an excellent training opportunity.

A knock resounded upon his door, and Orodan had the sense to get decent before answering.

The door of his hovel swung open to reveal…

“Edrosic?”

His fellow militia man had a jovial smile on his face…

…and a spell scroll in blood in his hands.

“Picked this trick up on Narictus, chicken blood mind you, I’m not some nefarious necromancer, but look how much smoother certain parts go with vitality? Now I just need to be less squeamish about using my own blood and then we’ll get somewhere.”

Orodan’s eyebrows raised.

“You lot succeeded then?”

“Of course we did!” Parthus replied with an unamused expression. “Do you think we’re a gaggle of helpless ducklings following after your shadow? Hells, we even memorized some weird techniques and insights which might help you. Kalemar was practically salivating as he was putting it all together.”

He would not lie and say he was entirely certain of their victory. But they had proven his doubts wrong. The Alastaian alliance had succeeded without him and its Embodiers. And on top of that, they had brought back techniques, skills, knowledge and research which could then be shared.

Material which would help further Orodan’s own training.

Training at the start while the array was prepared, breaking Invader tendrils and significant breach points near the border, and a mad charge against the enemy’s black hole at the end.

Train. Protect System space. Die. Repeat.

No matter how many loops it took until he could crack that damned black hole open.