“No… Susan… not when everyone is-” Eyes snapping open, Rory found himself face to face with a largeish snake whose tongue flicked out and tickled his nose.

  “Seems about right,” Rory sighed. His body ached, and he couldn’t help but wonder-

  Wait! The Wave!

  Wanting to scramble out of bed, Rory was restrained by a certain serpent that kept him pinned.

  “You.” Rory narrowed his eyes at the serpent. “Did Apostolos put you up to this?”

  “I did.” Rory heard a figure say as they appeared in his doorway. “You’ve been stirring recently, so I put Eia on babysitting duty when you woke up.”

  “Oh,” Rory said, glancing down with a frown. “How long was I out?”

  “Two and a half weeks.”

  “Well, shit.” Rory sighed. He wasn’t that shocked; toward the end of the battle, he knew he had already burnt himself out so thoroughly that he would need a week or two to recover.

  Then he’d gone on to force out one last act of magic for good measure -a fairly advanced one - which had really fried him.

  “How are you feeling?” Apostolos asked, after giving Rory a moment to collect his thoughts.

  “Better,” Rory said. His bones didn’t feel like they were filled with acid-spewing ants anymore. “What about you two?”

  “Fine, respawning always fixes any kinks in the neck.”

  “Oh, so you did die,” Rory said, thinking back to when Apostolos had been sent crashing through his own home. “Oh… uhh, so, your home…?”

  “I set up a temporary shelter for myself,” Apostolos said with a snort. “You did teach me that stuff at one point, remember?”

  “Right, I did,” Rory responded, memories of teaching the still young Apostolos how to build a basic lean-to resurfacing.

  “I was actually wondering if you could perhaps-”

  “Fix it myself? Nah, way too many repairs to make around the settlement. I’ll use the ascension energy from the wave instead.”

  Turning his attention from Apostolos, Rory looked at the snake atop him instead. “And you? How are you feeling?”

  “It took her roughly a week to recover back to full strength,” Apostolos answered on her behalf. “What exactly happened to her?”

  “Oh, I forgot you didn’t see how it ended... again,” Rory teased. “She popped out of the ground and restrained the Architect Bane for long enough that I could land the decisive blow. It was just enough that rather than continue fighting, it fled. Teleported away or whatever you call that spatial manipulation skill of theirs.”

  “Could it always do that?”

  “No, I figure that’s the adaptation it picked up,” Rory said with another frown. It had mirrored his experience to an extent, which bothered him for reasons he couldn’t exactly put a finger on. “Anyway, it pissed off, then I passed out. The rest, you know more than I do.”

  “Well, when I respawned, everyone was passed out, and most of the camp that wasn’t strictly bolted down was trashed.”

  “And here I was thinking I over-prepared our defenses. Turns out I didn’t do enough.” Rory said with a sigh. “Whatever, all the ascension energy we’ll be getting is going to fix a lot of this shit right as rain.”

  “Speaking of which, the wave rewards. What did we get?” Apostolos questioned.

  “I’ll look in a bit. First, let me stretch my legs out, given I’ve been laid out for three damn weeks.”

  Eia got the memo as she slithered off him, letting Rory step out of bed upon wobbly feet.

  Stretching, he slowly crept out of his hovel, stepping past Apostolos as he surveyed their camp. It was much the same as before, partially scorched, with quite a few of the more fragile ‘buildings’ knocked down. Only the forge area was largely untouched, which had been more developed than anywhere else with far tougher materials.

  Even their campfire hadn’t been spared, the three rows of concentric in-ground seats partially reduced to rubble.

  Bleh. Annoying.

  Taking a seat within the rubble anyway, Rory sighed.

  I still really wish we had a coffee equivalent, but, like… Damn, I just do not have time to pursue such a trivial project.

  “Apostolos, could you get me a cup of tea?”

  Within moments, Apostolos was handing Rory a mug of dark green liquid. It was made by boiling the aisormba surrounding the essence spire with several herbal leaves dunked within.

  In other words, tea.

  You know, one day, I’d like to try to investigate potential alchemy, but again, damn, I am way too busy.

  Inhaling and exhaling slowly, Rory sipped the hot tea, letting the liquid—equal parts spicy and sweet—warm him.

  Projects. Always more projects, more responsibilities, more things.

  Yet there was only one of him. Apostolos was helpful, but he’d left this path years ago.

  Bah. No more point in ruminating.

  Flicking his finger upward, his interface appeared, and he was greeted with the results of their victory.

  “A metric fuck ton of ascension energy, and… oh?”

  Tapping once, Rory sensed the ground shift nearby as the dirt seemed to loosen. A glassy black marble sped through the air only a second later before landing in his outstretched palm.

  Concentrated Aura of the Architect’s Bane

  Quality: Unique

  Pushed to the edge of oblivion, the monstrosity known as the Architect’s Bane was forced to expend precious resources to escape. The excess run-off energies were fused and concentrated, forming a pit overflowing with spatial aura and Bane essence.

  “Sweet,” Rory smiled before it vanished a moment later. “Now, what the hell do I do with it?”

  The last reward for battling the Architect’s Bane had gone to Apostolos, so Rory decided to keep the small marble to himself. Putting the question of what to do with it to the side, Rory instead focused on the wave reward interface, considering how to divvy up the rewarded energy.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Repairs first.

  Quickly maxing out the repair slider, Rory was impressed that it had only taken fifteen percent of their max-awarded energy.

  Next.

  Out of curiosity, Rory briefly checked to see what would happen if he maxed out the energy by allocating it to the essence spire.

  Whistling, Rory couldn’t help but shake his head in stupefied amusement. Even maxed out with the full ascension energy awarded from a Siege wave, more than a hundred times the size of a regular wave, it wasn’t enough to push the spire to its next evolution.

  Right, well, query for the future.

  Reallocating energy to repairs, Rory investigated several other ways of splitting the energy. Opting to focus on how to spend half of the energy first, Rory settled upon fifteen percent to repairs, twenty percent to their Stellar Forge, and another fifteen percent to unifying the inner portion of their settlement to the same updated material he’d used for replacing portions of the ground.

  Great, now for the next half - what the hell!?

  Before Rory could even attempt to begin distributing the second half of the energy, it suddenly bottomed out to nothing, his interface closing as everything was forcibly locked in.

  “Fucking excuse me!?” Rory leaped to his feet, angry. “I don’t remember confirming anything. I swear that- what was that?”

  From his hovel, Rory heard a muffled fwoomph like a massive titan inhaling a gigantic breath. He was instantly tossed from his feet as a wave of power radiated outward, his hovel the epicenter. Notably, Rory recognized the feel of the power radiating outward as containing the same energy signature one would expect from space-aspect Pneuma.

  That wasn’t the only oddity. Rory sensed the marble within his pocket crack as a black vapor rushed away, beelining straight to his home.

  No, the fuck not!

  Chasing after the wispy vapor, Rory saw Apostolos sprinting over as well.

  “What was that?” He asked, clearly concerned.

  “No idea!” Rory wanted to rip his hair out, feeling like he’d been scammed.

  I swear to fucking God, Eon, if you ripped me off for some stupid reason, I will… do exactly nothing, but still!

  Reaching his hovel seconds later, Rory suddenly stopped, trying to understand what was before him.

  The Null Window that he’d safely stored on a shelf had expanded to its full size, smashing several things as it did.

  More importantly, eight kids were crammed within his home, ranging from roughly thirteen or fourteen at the youngest to sixteen or seventeen years of age at the oldest.

  “Uhm, master?”

  “Yeah, I’m seeing it too,” Rory said. Another far less human figure joined them as Eia slithered beside him, staring inside his home.

  “Ow,” One of the kids groaned; a girl, the oldest amongst them, maybe sixteen or seventeen, began huffing as she shoved three of the younger kids off her. “That hurts, jerk.”

  “Shut up, Irene,” A boy, perhaps fourteen or even thirteen, complained. “Your elbow is in my side.”

  The kids scuffled and shoved at one another, trying to make space within his cramped home as Rory continued to stare at the scene in confusion. Finally having enough, he turned to Apostolos.

  “Entertain them.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes, you. Eia, uhh, don’t eat any of them?”

  “What are you going to do?” Apostolos questioned, panic of all things evident in his expression.

  “Making a quick phone call.”

  Apostolos raised his eyebrows at Rory as he quickly jogged outside the camp, looking around before he tapped once at his interface as it sprang up.

  “Aelia, we need to speak.”

  A slight rustle of leaves was the only sign that Aelia had appeared, her presence undetectable as the World Spirit manifested from nothingness. Since last time, she’d changed her look, going for a more tropical style with plenty of coral and seashell decorations adorning her inhuman form.

  “Why, Architect, it has been some time.”

  “Yeah, we’ve had that conversation before. You know why I called you here?”

  “I assume it has to do with the coming of the first of the Second Generation.”

  “The first of the… what?”

  “First, there was your spare few, my precious Founders,” Aelia said, tutting like a pleased mother. “Then, the First Generation.”

  “Apostolos?”

  “Amongst them, yes. Now, the second generation.”

  “But... they’re all kids.”

  “I’ve mentioned before that non-adults require less energy.”

  “Still, I don’t see why you had to-”

  “Oh, it wasn’t me.”

  “Huh?” Rory stopped, taken aback.

  “I didn’t summon them. You did. Or, to be precise, it was a joint effort.”

  “I… wait… the Null Window?”

  “Correct.”

  Rory furrowed his brow. The Null Window was meant to ease the distortion of space and all that jazz, after all. He just hadn’t considered using it for anything other than inter-dimensional travel or whatever buzzword fit the approximation of planetary travel.

  “E.O.N. chipped in, you can probably guess.”

  “Chipped in? More like Eon forced it.” Rory grumbled. “But I suppose I can understand why. Wouldn’t have known it was possible otherwise.”

  “Oh, it’s not,” Aelia said happily.

  “Explain,” Rory said, eyes narrowed.

  “Energy-wise, E.O.N. did 99.99% of the heavy lifting.”

  “But… that took half of the rewarded energy!”

  “Which accounted for exactly .01% of what was needed.”

  Fuck me, she’s not lying when she says drawing people in is expensive.

  “So… why did Eon ‘help’ me then?”

  “I’m only a World Spirit; you expect me to have all the answers regarding that… existence?”

  “…Fair.” Rory sighed. If anyone had a chance to understand Eon’s intentions, it was him.

  If I was Eon… Hmm, yeah, that adds up.

  If Eon wanted to speed things up, bringing over a new generation of folks as a ‘reward’ was the perfect excuse.

  Only cost half our ascension energy… No, I’m not moping.

  “Wait, what about my reward for beating the Architect’s Bane?”

  “For clarification, you didn’t beat it. You merely did enough damage to prompt a retreat. It’s likely impossible to truly beat a Bane until tier-eight.”

  It’s not a regular monster, so it’s best not to think of it like one.

  “Anyway, I’d advise examining your Null Window once more if you want an idea of what happened to your little marble.”

  “Gotcha,” Rory said, tapping a finger against his bicep as he folded one arm over the other. “So… now what?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean… I’ve got more kids to take care of.”

  “I’m not certain I see your problem,” Aelia said with a shrug.

  “Did the other founders get dumped some more strays?”

  Aelia turned her head upward for a moment before shaking it. “No. Three of them are likely to push some of their own innovations and discoveries far enough that they’ll likely find themselves responsible with their own second-generation settlers as you have, in approximately a year or two.”

  “Great, I’m the only one stuck with more babysitting for now.” Rory sighed. “Well, thanks, I guess.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Uhh, I guess?” Rory frowned, sighing a moment later. “I guess it’s rude to demand answers without at least some reciprocity. How have you been, Aelia?”

  “Wonderful,” The inhuman World Spirit smiled with teeth Rory was sure were made of sharpened pearls. “While I’m not a fan of E.O.N. having created black sites on my crust, the benefits have far outweighed the annoyances.”

  “Oh… like?”

  “Anywhere a Bane is lurking becomes veiled from my sight and influence,” Aelia informed, tapping her foot in annoyance. “Which can be annoying, but again, the benefits are… astounding.”

  “Such as?”

  “Well, within the next hundred years or so, I’ll finally reach my next Ascension, not to mention the reward for the entire event on top of that.”

  That piqued Rory’s interest. If Ascension’s could take a long time for them, they were positively rapid compared to Aelia, who was only A2 or A3 last he recalled.

  “Once you’re A3, I’m assuming that-”

  “Yes, the floodgates will open. I will have a certain baseline foundation stabilized so that I can begin pulling the third generation in with abundance.”

  “So, is the second generation anyone brought here before then? What about natural-born people?”

  “You feel the need to overthink things.” Aelia crinkled her nose. “Those born naturally would be of no generation; they’d simply be. I hope to draw in as many third-generation settlers as possible before it becomes impossible as their information decay reaches an unreachable point.”

  “What happens after that?”

  “Assuming I understand at least some of how E.O.N operates, it will likely recycle as much of their information as possible, in essence, ‘reincarnating’ them through the natural born. The reincarnated would likely have no memory of their old lives, though aside from my founders, even the early generation settlers have little memory of your old universe, to begin with, so I suppose it would be a moot point.”

  Rory’s mind was bumbling about as he grappled with things like ‘reincarnation’ and the future, causing his head to pulsate with a growing headache. He still had not fully recovered from facing the architect’s bane, and thoughts of the future weren’t helping.

  “Ahh, but I am carried away looking forward to that future. While it would be little more than a blink for me if I let my attention wane, I’ve been enjoying viewing you all from a more… standard time frame.”

  “Happy to, uh, amuse you?” Rory said, uncertain how to respond to the World Spirit. She’d definitely become… odder over the years. That much was certain.

  “Well, if you have no other questions, I will take my leave before any of your citizens can spot me. I prefer remaining naught but a myth to all but my founders.”

  And just like that, she was gone.

  Any of my citizens?

  Not entirely sure what she meant, Rory finally shrugged before re-entering their camp. The mass of teenagers had been escorted out from his hovel, now sitting around the ruined remains of their campfire.

  Thankfully, the repairs should still go through.

  Apostolos stood before the small crowd, saying something as Eia bobbed her head as if supporting whatever was said.

  Walking closer, Apostolos waved him over, a slight look of panic in his eyes as he did.

  He’s never dealt with kids before. Hah, he’s only had me as a frame of reference. A bunch of teenagers is probably a bit much for him… Though it’s still hard not to see him as a teenager, what with the slowed aging and all that.

  “And there he is. If you’ve got any other questions, ask him,” Apostolos announced as Rory took his spot next to him.

  One of the kids, the oldest amongst them, raised her hand.

  “Uhm, yes… Irene.” Rory said, recalling the name after a split second. “What’s your question?”

  The girl glanced at the other kids, nodding to ensure they were on the same page, before looking back at Rory.

  “Are we in Hell?”

  not a mistake that when referring to Eon, it's written as Eon when it's Rory speaking or thinking, and E.O.N for basically anyone else.