Flashback Biscuit
Pantophagic energy eats the attack of the Weredeer, eats a hole into the 10th floor, into the structure of the tutorial, and all the way out. But that isn't the only force doing so.
After all, it is the floor that belongs to the Ruler of Lust, and she makes sure the hole is wide enough, even putting one of her pets to work. Too excited and too worried that someone will take away the new addition to her menagerie, she leaves the Cerulean Parlor in a hurry, swinging her wings and teleporting to appear on the mark her pet placed.
Now she floats in open space, victoriously golden hair, eyes, and wings wide spread. One of her wyverns that helped is there as well. Adult, yet not that big, barely big enough for the Ruler if she wanted to ride it. Yet, underestimating it would be a grave mistake. The wyvern is pale golden in color with pale red eyes, keeping their target surrounded by a barrier as the Ruler of Lust arrives.
“Good job, my precious,” Lust says lovingly, and the wyvern lets out a deep, happy noise, its red eyes constantly observing the area for danger as well as the tear in space.
“And you, poor little thing,” the Ruler whispers as she touches the barrier and watches the puppy corgi there. “It must have hurt, didn't it?”
The corgi is missing one of its front paws, and its side has a hole in it with a patch of fur missing. With eyes closed, it keeps twitching and whimpering.
“So brave, but so imprudent. But don’t worry,” she whispers, “I will make sure to raise you right, just like my other babies.”
A deep growl warns her, and she quickly follows her wyvern’s gaze that leads towards the nearby star. There, even from this distance, forms a noticeable lash of fire. Out of it, a myriad of small orange sparks shoot, heading to space, spreading further and refusing to be choked out by the cold space.
The feylith’s eyes widen in horror as she snaps an order to her wyvern. Just as they are about to teleport, a growl spreads through the soundless space, making both halt and shattering their attempt to teleport.
The victorious gold of her eyes, wings, and hair is replaced by ash gray as her eyes tick towards the sparks heading their way and the corgi puppy. Her mouth opens and closes a few times as she struggles to make a decision.
And then it is made for her. One of the sparks reaches them and dies off, in its place floating a big gray bear with orange eyes.
The wyvern roars, lunging before Lust can even flinch.
With a casual swat, the bear deflects the strike, sending white lightning arcing into the distance. A spark flickers, and the bear is suddenly, unstoppably, above the wyvern, slamming a massive paw down with a force that shakes the beast’s entire being, and stuns it. It then sinks its teeth into the wing to pin it, shearing through scales thought to be one of the toughest in the universe.
The orange eyes watch the Ruler of Lust while a barrage of attacks crash against the bear as the wyvern struggles to get out. White lightning, projectiles, arrays, mental attacks, spatial cuts. Yet nothing damages the bear as it just bites deeper and shakes the wyvern, which roars in pain while the bear just watches calmly.
“We will leave! Please!” the Ruler of Lust begs and halts all her mana’s movement.
The wyvern stops moving, just hanging there sadly as the bear bites harder and bone cracks, causing it to roar in pain. Even then, no one dares to move.
Only then does the bear let go, and both the wyvern and the feylith disappear as quickly as possible.
The bear, licking its maw covered in wyvern blood, reaches the puppy corgi and shrinks to the size of a normal brown bear. It pokes the place where the corgi is missing a paw with its nose and sniffs a few times. Then it carefully licks the tiny animal.
In the end, it gently bites into the pup’s scruff and lifts it up, and then disappears as the star nearby flares up again.
POV Biscuit´s disciple
It is on a planet set in the forgotten parts of the universe, those on the edge of one of the biggest battlefields of the System War. It is a battlefield where many gods died, with currents of many energies coloring the galaxies like polar lights and mana still not functioning as it should.
On one of these planets, a young pitch black wolf with golden eyes stands, overlooking the far stretching plains of one of the oldest planets in the universe. Waiting for his prey, he has his head lifted, sniffing the scents the wind carries until he feels something unexpected, but familiar.
The wolf moves quickly, lowering down into an incredibly fast sprint, with slight flashes of his primordial energy devouring the space in front of him to make his leaps that much longer.
Tracking that smell, he barges into the quiet, dark forest where some trees are older than planets, and halts when he notices a single orange spark. The wolf does not hesitate much and follows it for a few minutes. There, on the moss and under an oak like tree, he finds a tiny puppy corgi, and the orange spark disappears.
“Master!” The wolf shouts and jumps closer, poking the tiny animal with his nose repeatedly, but quickly calming as he realizes the corgi is just unconscious.
After looking around, the wolf sits down and looks around once again, golden eyes narrowing as his primordial energy reaches towards the puppy.
He sighs. ”Oh, master, I have told you to be careful about how much you use.”
The wolf shrinks a little and pulls out one of the enormous leaves from the tree to put it on the ground. Then, very carefully, he pushes his master on the leaf with his nose, the corgi barely taking up half of the leaf.
“The Elders will be angry, and the Great Elder probably already noticed a change to our primordial energy, but it doesn't matter!” The black wolf begins to shrink further and further. It continues until he is of a size comparable to the puppy corgi: a tiny wolf pup with fuzzy fur and a round belly.
“You are very young, master! But powerful. I always thought you could carry our will, be someone to use our energy with a strength none of us can, and take revenge in our stead!”
The wolf pup grabs the stem of the leaf and begins to pull it, together with the corgi puppy on top.
He still talks, though his voice is muffled because of the stem in his mouth. “Ebwen if your primordibal energy is gone now, you are stwill my mbaster! Bubt don't worry, we will help you gebt it back!”
POV Tess Hansen
Maybe I should declare for myself that the desert is nicely cold with a constant breeze. Would something like that even work with that mysterious skill of mine, I wonder?
I stop to take a break, making sure to keep my mana signature hidden and my body tucked behind one of the rocks. I’m confident I drank more water already on the 11th floor than I did in my previous time in the tutorial combined, even if I drank not long ago, I take out my bottle and take a small sip, stopping myself from drinking more.
Peeking from behind the boulder, I look in the direction where I’m heading. My sight strengthens and expands, and my eyes zoom in multiple times until I see that structure again. It is 50 or so miles away. Ambient mana bounces off the structure and the walls, offering shielding that doesn't allow me to see mana signatures inside.
I sweep the area again and then dash forward, turning into crackling lightning as I keep myself low, jumping from stone to stone. My speed gradually increases to the point where it is almost as fast as teleportation would be.
When I stop, I’m still a dozen miles away, but I don’t need to go closer. I already see everyone outside as if they stood in front of me. With me just using my senses, they can’t sense any probing, and I take full advantage of it.
What I’m looking at, we think, belongs to the Aurate Consortium, also called the Corporation, outside of the tutorial.
Even here, during the time the record of this floor was made, they are one of the most powerful, and I’m waiting to see their Adjudicator to confirm my suspicion. We are on the day side of this tidally locked planet, so no matter how long I wait, no cool, refreshing night will contest this heat, nor hide my signature. Yet all I can do for now is wait and hide.
I calm my breathing too, slowing down my heartbeat to just a few beats per minute, and my mana barely moves anymore. Even my body is perfectly still as the sand gathers against me. I don’t blink or use my [Psychokinesis] as sand gets into my unblinking eye, while the other one remains behind an eyepatch. The entire time, I hold my breath.
And the Adjudicator finally comes. Out of the sky, a bright white plate-shaped flying object comes, stopping near the base. At the bottom of this object, a hole opens, and multiple figures drop down. Almost all of them are wearing suits with tubes on them, and some even have containers on their backs.
But one of them doesn't wear that suit. Instead, the Adjudicator is just as it was described to me by one of the talnium searching groups I met.
The Adjudicator has a womanly figure, and unlike everyone else's pale colors, she wears a black jumpsuit that covers her entire body, even her head, even with dark glass covering her eyes. But that jumpsuit is now damaged because of the likely fights she got into.
My heartbeat slows down even further until it stops fully, and I forcefully stop myself from shaking. A small lizard runs across my skin as I stand there, while they make their way into the building that then leads to tunnels underground. Even then, I stay ten minutes longer, not daring to move.
Only then do I allow my heart to beat slowly and gradually. The process takes a few minutes for me to return to normal. It is not as easy to use as someone like Tacita’s or Lyraen’s field, but I’m confident it is something I have a better chance to use to hide from someone with good senses like Nathaniel.
Once all is back, I explode into movement and turn to lightning, moving back much faster than before and taking a roundabout way to make sure I’m not tracked.
But my run slows down as, in the hazy burning air of the desert, I spot the figure wearing the black jumpsuit standing on top of one of the dunes. My eyes get pulled to her face, confirming she is looking straight at me.
The mask of the jumpsuit is half burned and torn, revealing fair skin, golden hair, and violet eyes. Even shown partially, the face is beautiful.
As quickly as I can, I lift my hand with the Ring of Preserved Status on it, and a thousand red and white lightning projectiles form behind my back. The crown over my head dissolves, and the sunny day becomes darker as storm clouds block out the light.
Yet I still hold, keeping my hand in the air and ready to swing it down. I giggle when I feel my quickly beating heart and smile, moving a strand of hair off my face as we stand, facing each other. It is so scary.
The Adjudicator moves first, and half of my projectiles shoot ahead as she begins to weave in between them, breaking some and taking direct hits from others. They splash against her, merely damaging her jumpsuit while leaving her skin untouched.
If I had to compare her movement to anyone, it would be to Lily. She is faster than her, but she doesn't move like Tacita. Her movements are just like our healer’s, powered by an incredibly powerful body, straining and tearing the muscles only for them to heal so quickly that no wounds even show.
I shoot the other half of the projectiles and turn around to burst into a dash that turns to lightning as I head forward in a straight line, continuing to pick up speed. The storm clouds twist like a whirlpool, and from them, lightning crackles in a blink, reaching me and hitting the space over my head where the crown reforms.
Before I can even react, she is behind me, stabbing her hand into the lightning and forcing me to materialize as she pulls back.
My fist, covered with lightning, crashes against her face, but she doesn't even bother avoiding it. She takes the hit expressionlessly, and her hand moves, slamming an open palm against my chest as I drop reinforcement on the rest of my body and focus it all on the area she hits again.
My heart stops beating, and my lightning cracks within me, restarting it as I take a deep breath and activate one of Lily’s healing marks. Lightning surrounds me as I duck under one of her attacks, concentrating on moving faster and slamming my hand against her chest with as much power as I can, and breaking my hand.
The Adjudicator just shrugs it off and follows me as I attempt to flee. She grabs my leg to slam me against the ground and stomps on my chest as I defend again with all I have. Under that confusing attack, my heart stops beating again, and my lightning kickstarts it once more, this time slower.
I use another healing mark from Lily. With mana oscillating across my hand, I cut off the leg she holds, turning into a streak of lightning, white and red, trailed by the further red of my blood.
From the ring, I pull another attack: a small cube that expands quickly, locking her in a cage made of lightning. My crown disappears again, pulling the clouds from the sky just as she pushes through, with all of it failing to damage or stun her at all, and just slowing her.
I stop, and my rapid heartbeat calms down as I watch her. There is just a tiny bit of mana in her body, I can tell, as my eyes finally pierce through. She has no heart, and there is a small box in the middle of her chest instead, a mana battery to power just the tiny bit of skill she uses. It is something that also receives communication from the base.
And that’s all. She barely uses that mana, the rest is just from the power of that body. The strength of those muscles and the insane regeneration.
This time, I fly high into the air, and two more healing marks restore my leg as I look down at her. And of course, she jumps up. She then leaps off the air itself towards me. Not with mana, but by stepping against the air itself so fast and powerfully that it becomes solid ground.
As she heads higher and higher, I reach my hand towards the sky, towards the clouds, and then beyond them. Much further beyond them. Towards a javelin made of endurium in orbit of this planet. I have declared it mine, and so it is my extension.
My lightning crackles and appears around it as I swing my hand down with all the power I can gather. And then I continue to add more. I pull on it with all my force, filling it with more lightning.
My floating golden hair swims around my head, blocking a part of my view, and just as she is about to reach me, the sky screams. The dark clouds are pierced and disappear as a straight line is drawn down, attempting to catch up to the javelin. It slams against her. At least, I think it does. Even I can’t track it with my eyes, but the next moment, just before she is about to attack me, she is gone.
The entire sand dune under me explodes outward and then further. All of the sand rises up into the air as a wave, taking more and more dunes as a hole is dug into the base of the black rock underneath.
And down there, I see movement.
So I pull another javelin, drawing a straight red and white line that slams there with the loud cracking of lightning that shreds the silence and sends sonic waves tearing outward.
Then a third, all of them hitting the very same spot the size of a coin, but the movement doesn’t stop.
I watch her broken arm simply become healed, and the hole in her chest close. I don’t even see the process. One moment there is damage, and the next she is healed.
I allow my [Psychokinesis] to feed on my mana, and all that sand and red rock rise into the air to plug the hole in hopes of slowing her down, and rush away.
Giving it a thought, I decide it’s not enough, I can’t leave a chance for her to track me to the others. I will deal with the consequences of using the token this way later.
Sset (Hell, group 4) - I will be going to Beyond.
I send the message in the Community before I use my token, appearing in the headquarters of the Silent Veil. Me leaving should clear the tracks and make the natives forget they were tracking someone.
Looking around my clean but spartan like room, I check the mirror, clean myself up, and change clothes before heading out. The headquarters isn’t big, as this guild never has too many members, and everyone is A rank at least. But it is cozy, with a lot of red color and dark brown wood.
I’m early, but there are already a few members preparing for the expedition to the 5th floor in a few days, and I greet a few of them with a smile, even as I still feel my hand shaking and heart beating wildly, but I force myself to keep my expression calm.
I wonder how many of them know that the Adjudicator is Kindness’s clone, likely grown from the flesh The Corporation has access to. And I wonder how much goodwill or shards I can get for sharing this information.
Small Talk Only - Live Podcast
19 million concurrent viewers
“Rafael, and here we are again. Is this our fourth time? It has been almost a month since the last time anyone saw you, and we were getting worried. I also bet that today is the day when Septa will let me pet her. So, how do you enjoy your role as Christoph’s Herald? You know that's what they call you?” Faye Hard smiles at him while sitting very comfortably in her chair.
Meanwhile, Channeler, also Rafael by his real name and now the man called a herald, sits in a similarly comfortable manner, though he is wearing a black shirt that is unbuttoned to show his collarbones, and his sleeves are rolled up. His golden hair is a bit longer than previously, and he continues to smile in that nonchalant, confident manner.
“‘Herald’ has a nice ring to it, even if it’s a bit dramatic. And as for Septa, I’m afraid she’s a bit of a snob when it comes to new friends.” He says while he looks at the spider that stands on the table in the distance of the set that looks like a living room.
As if listening up until now, one of the spider’s legs, which reaches up to a human’s knee, moves and flicks a vase off the table.
Faye doesn’t even seem surprised and smiles charmingly. It doesn't even seem like she is aware of the viewers from the way she behaves, though she knows those numbers very well. After all, every word from the man she sits against represents another man, a man that some groups have even started to worship and whom many leaders, under pressure or fear, have begged to become their leader.
Still, she doesn’t get to the point she wants to talk about and tries to keep the conversation light. She controls herself by keeping a calming smile on her face, but at times her fear becomes noticeable, at least to the man sitting against her.
At one point, they play a game where she reads the comments left under videos of individual tutorial attendees. At this point, there are many such videos, and some of the attendees have become famous, mostly the ones still in the tutorial, even if those who already returned as superhumans scare and fascinate many.
“And now to the last set of comments,” Faye catches up, seeming a bit embarrassed, and her smile becomes a bit more honest as she says, “The first one reads ‘i can fix him’ and is followed by another comment that has a dog licking its lips emote and text saying: ‘I can make him worse.’”
“Faye, seriously, I refuse to answer this one,” he says for the first time, and both of them laugh.
As that laugh slowly dies off, Faye takes a deep breath and says in a quieter voice, “I have to say, what Christoph has done surprised all of us, Rafael.”
“Let’s be honest, Faye. You don't have to be careful with me. That’s why I’m here.”
“It is scary, you know.”
“I get that. I really do,” Rafael nods, his smile turning gentle and reassuring.
“He killed many people that day, Rafael. And-”
“May I?”
“Please.”
Channeler sits a bit more upright, and his smile weakens. “I think a little bit of fear is reasonable. People should be afraid because what is happening to Earth is scary. We are currently Pairing with not just one planet, but two. Just yesterday, I shared information with our Vice President that the gravitational pull of Earth will continue to get stronger. The moon will soon be pulled closer, and in the following months, it will continue to be pulled closer until it breaks apart.”
“And why did you talk to the Vice President and not the President, Rafael?”
“Because the President was part of the problem Christoph had to deal with. Along with several other leaders who weren't up for what's coming.” He leans closer, holding her gaze with a calm intensity.
The number of viewers jumps up as people continue to join and watch, some out of fear, others out of curiosity.
In the past month, a lot has changed.
“Faye,” Rafael continues in a smooth, confident voice, “Christoph is capable of things you haven't even seen yet. He’s going to handle the moon so it doesn't rain down on us. He’s the one who’s actually going to keep us safe as the Pairing progresses. I know it’s a violent change, and that’s hard to swallow, but…”
He stops and smiles while shaking his head. “Words do not matter. Neither of us is a politician promising one thing and doing another. We will let our acts speak. But Faye, I’m sure you are aware, what did the people that died have in common?”
“They were widely acknowledged as corrupt.”
“Exactly. And look at the streets. Was anyone else targeted? Were any homes destroyed? Did we hit a single person who was just trying to live their life?”
Faye shakes her head, and Rafael continues, “The world is better off without those people. They were parasites, leaders who hoarded everything while everyone else struggled, warmongers, people who didn't even see the rest of us as human, and-"
The conversation then continues for longer. Rafael answers many questions, including plenty from an audience that doesn't hold back. Many ask what gives him the right to decide, others ask how confident they are that the people who died were truly bad, and others ask how anyone can be sure some people weren't just killed because they simply stood in the way.
Rafael answers all of it, calmly and confidently in his own words, but with an attitude that doesn't make him seem defeated, answering them or like he is being judged. He is there just to inform.
Once it is all over, he leaves the set and is driven to the airport, where he boards a private jet.
Just as the doors of the plane close, he freezes, seeing a well-kept man who seems to be in his early 40s sitting there with Septa near him already. They stare at each other, and Channeler then sits down across from him as the plane begins its taxi for launch.
“I have to thank you, I personally wouldn’t be so patient,” Christoph smiles, and Rafael answers.
“I hate it.”
“You will get used to it,” the man sitting opposite him says, looking out the window. “Most of these people will stay just a human, and die in fifty or sixty, maybe seventy years. Even if some of them get brave enough to level up a few times or if healers spread medicine through, they will live just over a hundred or two hundred years.”
The plane shakes, and the lights on the launchpad show, reflecting inside the cabin.
“It won't take that long, and everyone on the planet will be people who were born after the Earth’s awakening and who grew up under our leadership. All this complaining, all these people talking about democracy, religions, countries... To us, it will be remembered as... a fleeting nuisance.”
POV Warden of the Parallax Eyes, Kyralon
I take my eyes off what is happening on Earth and allow them to deactivate, cutting the power to my tower and to the field, strengthening my sight. As the hum continues to weaken without any power sources, I turn to watch Greed, who is sitting nearby, drinking one of the best alchemical wines I have been saving.
Greedy as she is, she almost never uses her own when free ones are available for her to take.
“What happened?” I ask her, curious about her visit.
Ruby looks at me before taking another long sip and looks at the glass in her hand. “Pride just cleared the 14th floor of Beyond.” She watches the liquid slosh. “And I have learned that the First Dungeon has 20 floors, so at least that is nice.”
“But that isn’t all, is it?” I ask.
“It is not,” she shakes her head, throws away her glass, and takes long sips straight out of the bottle. “All of the Rulers got a quest to kill the Ruler of Pride. The rewards are one of his active skills at its current level, given even if you have 10 skills already, and an upgrade token.”
***
Author Note: A chonky 4500-word chapter to end Book 10! I'm a day late and sorry for breaking the schedule, but here it is!
As I mentioned before, I will be going on a 2-week break to get some rest and plan things out. If any of you subbed and got screwed by the timing, just send me a message - I will refund you, no problem!
Also, during the break, I plan to write the side story I promised for the Biscuit plush campaign.
If you bought one, you can join the Discord: https://discord.com/invite/s5ARCv7kfG
It might take a bit, but there will be a special role for plush owners and there might be some voting on the side story. I'm not sure yet, it is difficult to do properly with some buyers being from Patreon and others from RR or SH. But I'm confident the side story will be fun even if I just pick the idea I like, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Thank you all for your support and for reading through 10 books already - just how crazy this is.
Anyway, see you in two weeks with the usual schedule!