Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 19B3 - : You can’t kill a wraith

Jace, oddly enough, did not feel any pain. Just a sudden imbalance as he was lopsided. The NICIF in him filled the corner of his HUD with a message.

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[Large amount of damage sustained.]

[Portion of NICIF swarm was disintegrated.]

[Using extra caloric content to produce more of the swarm.]

[Just stay alive, boss! We can’t rebuild the arm, but we can repair the armor!]

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Jace growled and felt anger rush through him without needing Ollie to manipulate his brain’s chemical compounds. Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused]. The crimson, crackling red nebula surrounded him, and he also reactivated Void Shield (Rank 6)…or tried to. “Ollie?!” he shouted as he ran sideways as fast as he could, dodging the stream of automatic weapon fire.

“The beam disabled your shield for the day, just like Arbiter’s Anathema.”

Reaper’s Shadowstep, Jace thought as he warped from the shadows cast by the sleet storm above, through reality, and arrived right behind the tank thing. “Ollie, use that Legendary (Skill Evolution)! I need something that can blow this away in one go!”

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[Using Boon: Legendary (Skill Evolution).]

[Applying to Skill.]

[Skill Name: Void Beam.]

[Evolution Name: Horizon-Splitter.]

[Effect: The beam uses all available energy, leaving the user on the verge of unconsciousness, to increase the size of the effect.]

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Jace held up his hand, “Void Beam (Rank 1) [Horizon-Splitter]!”

His energy bar emptied immediately, and he collapsed to his knees from the exhaustion. Everything in front of him, hundreds of feet out, ceased to exist. The snow, ice, wind, sleet, the tank directly in front of him, the corpses of the Conclave Signers, their hovercycles: all were gone in the blink of an eye.

Jericho felt an odd burst of energy from behind him. Glancing back, he felt himself lose control over his bowels as he felt utter despair, terror, and fear. The entire landscape had been scoured and left barren, slowly filling in once more as new snowfall fell.

Far off in the distance, a figure, a dot on the horizon that he could barely make out because of the distance but could make out thanks to the sudden lack of snow and ice…stared at him. Or maybe he imagined they were staring at him. The Star and Gigastar symbols on their hand shimmered brightly.

Jericho let out a scream and faced forward, feeling tears freeze instantly upon his face, as he raced to the mobile fortress.

“Downside of that,” Ollie stated as he patted Jace’s face to keep him from falling asleep, “Is that there is nothing left to loot.”

Jace sat down, dropped his sword, and put his hand over the thigh armor. “I need food,” he muttered. Survival meals appeared in his grip: and instantly froze. Damnit, he thought as he put it back inside the TPSB. Looking up at the Conclave’s vehicle far off in the distance, he stood up and began trudging in that direction.

“Ollie, ask Xera if she can give me a Quest to deal with that so I can get a new arm.”

“On it!” Ollie replied. But then, he stilled and floated at the maximum of Jace’s tether range, “Uhm…she can’t right now.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jace stated as he kept walking forward, seeing his energy slowly, very slowly, refilling in the HUD.

“It’s not,” Ollie stated. “She has a lot of resources invested in figuring out this Astral System and has to leverage her assets.” He flew up behind Jace.

Quinn came over the comms, “I can help out if you want. You have an Epic (Augmentation) Boon sitting in your inventory. I can take that and swap it for an (Equipment) Boon instead. It will be a lower rarity due to the speed you need it at; I can get you two Rare for the one Epic.”

“Do it,” Jace stated as he kept walking over the slowly-refilling-with-ice landscape.

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[Gift Sent: Epic (Augmentation) Boon.]

[Gift Received: x2 Rare (Equipment) Boon.]

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“Ollie, get me a new arm with grappling features like the last one,” Jace ordered as he began to move a little faster, getting his second wind as his energy slowly refilled.

“Yup!” Ollie clapped his little paws.

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Jace felt the odd sensation of something being inserted into his arm socket, before a near-blinding flash of stardust-blue light pulsed and then faded. He felt the NICIF rebuilding the connective tissue as he gained control over the arm’s movement.

The metal was a soft, dull green color, with hexagonal patterns of inlaid red. “This is called a Guatch Grappler,” Ollie stated. “It does not have a grappling hook or grapnel line. Instead, it projects a sticky ‘tag’ and then an invisible tether up to 200 ft. in length will attach you to the tag.”

“Functionally, it’s like your Ghostlight Grapnel Arm was,” Quinn stated. “Just longer range and it actually sticks to surfaces, instead of being spectral.”

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Jace saw the red pattern flush with a light blue as he felt sensation along the arm, and the NICIF popped a message into his HUD.

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[New arm incorporated and fully online, boss!]

[We’re working on repairing the armor, but we need more calories.]

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“Soon,” Jace said. “I have to clear out threats before I can set down the tent and hopefully that’s warm enough to let me actually eat the damned meals.” He flexed the new arm and held it up. The fingertips were covered in some type of microscopic suction cups that he could barely make out even with the enhanced zoom of his All-Seeing Dragon’s Eyes.

He kept running forward and saw the expedition tank abuzz with activity as turrets began to turn and the mobile fortress came online.

Jericho got to the command station where Renlas and Bellor were ordering the defense of the mobile structure. Shouting commands to ensure that people were at stations and preparing all defenses.

Renlas looked at Jericho, “Report. What are we up against?”

Jericho tried to speak but saw the figure on the monitor behind the two Conclave signers. And the eyes glowed with a sinister, purple and black light that made him go dumb with fear. He simply moved his jaw up and down.

“What are you looking at?” Bellor asked as he, too, turned to look at the monitor, only to be frozen in fear.

Renlas scowled and kept his back to the thing, “All forces, fire!”

The thunderous sound of shots did not reach Jericho’s ears. All he heard was whimpering, wails of terror, and the palpable aura of fear all around him. A chorus of screams that joined his own as he was struck still by the terror taking over his heart.

Now that Jace was looking at a singular object, the (Terrifying) Augmentation on his eyes was working as intended. Anything Tier 6 or lower would be incapacitated by their fears, and apparently this entire Conclave expedition was filled with people of that Tier or lower. Pulling his arm back, he kept his range and threw his sword at each of the turrets, disabling them one by one and letting the Void Blade’s damage over time eat away at the metal.

Thirty minutes of rote throwing from a hundred feet, and the entire vehicle had melted away to nothingness. The Conclave members were all standing there, in the snow and ice, trembling in place and unable to do anything as Jace kept throwing Nethaldrim, recalling it to his hand, and cutting them down one at a time. Only when they were all dead did he advance and have Ollie dust the corpses.

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[Stardust Acquired: 1,200]

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Jace sheathed his sword and headed back to the prison complex. At least if I get down into the lower levels, he thought, I can make sure that I am safe from any random, chance encounters.

Jericho found himself in front of Troxanir, being judged by the terrifying, awe-inspiring entity that sought the destruction of all and the paradise that lay beyond. To his right, Renlas and Bellor were kneeling already, and Jericho knelt beside them along with the rest of his now-dead, fellow Signers.

“A shame,” Troxanir said. “You lot were all slaughtered within relative speed of each other. What did it?”

All of them began overlapping their voices as they tried to explain what happened, but Troxanir raised his hand and stared into Jericho’s soul. “You, you fought whoever it was. Let me see your mind.”

Jericho dipped his head down and felt a warm, soothing touch against his temple. It then phased into his skull of this now-phantom existence on the edge of Oblivion, and he saw all of the memories replayed in moments from the start of the expedition to his death. Troxanir pulled his tentacle back.

“Tsk, a new Signer that is a thorn in my side.” Troxanir stood up, “And apparently you lot could not act at all thanks to some Skill. I suppose you were too weak.” Troxanir gestured to the singularity, “Renlas, Bellor, as this is your second death…if you desire to come back, and die another time, your souls will not be strong enough to survive the journey. You will die, permanently.”

Both brothers looked at each other and stood up, walking to the edge of the event horizon before being sucked into the mass of souls inside the singular dot of existence.

Troxanir looked out at his other Signers, “All of you, this is your first death. You may go to paradise, if you desire. Or you may wait until others die whose bodies you can possess. Choose.”

All the Signers except Jericho went towards the singularity. “Forgive me,” Jericho said. “I failed you because I was weak. I want to be strong, to help bring oblivion to all!”

Troxanir chuckled, “We can work on that, young one. It is a shame we lost those stasis tubes that could have been used to grow cloned bodies. As such, we must wait until a corpse becomes available for you to inhabit. For now…rest.”

Jace got into the prison and made his way up to the quarters on the second floor. Shutting the doors and setting up the tent, he crawled in and found that the fabric was very insulating. Getting survival meals out of his TPSB, his helmet retracted, and he began shoveling down bags of the tasty goop.

As he kept eating, he did not feel full, but rather his armor slowly re-knit from the grey NICIF swarm inside his body. Only once the armor was completely rebuilt, and he received a notification in the corner of his vision: not his HUD, but his actual line of sight from the nanite swarm: that they had rebuilt up their numbers, did his hunger become sated. Ten survival meals down, Jace thought as he pulled out the bedroll that had been cut apart.

Wrapping himself up, he ensured the helmet covered his head and fell asleep.

Troxanir stood before a console that he had imported from The Cosmic System to stand as the main operating center of his ring world around the singularity. Progress continues at a rapid pace; he thought as more supplies were brought in from his contract with the Nebula Alliance. But whoever this is on Poltor Six is throwing a wrench into my plans.

Troxanir did not just want to build this ring world for staging purposes and to gain a foothold on The Cosmic Corridor, but he also needed Universal Matter to attain his next level in the Astral System. He had met the Soul threshold but was missing a good quantity of quality matter. What I need is a few more planetoids, he thought.

Velenar Prime was a lost cause: their punch drive did not do what it was supposed to do, and thanks to the now-dead Flicker, the Pulsar Coalition had wiped out his forces there. Troxanir had many Signers yet, but his high-Tier ones were running on short supply. He pulled up his personal Astral System log and contemplated a choice he had been ruminating upon.

He controlled access to and from the Astral Verge, and whilst he detested the idea of having other Astral Demons come into the universe…if he was able to control them, then he could use them. Sure, they might not be classified in the same capacity as Tiers were in The Cosmic System, but the Astral System would doubtless provide for a variety of Skill-equivalent effects that could take out this person on Poltor Six.

Troxanir sighed, “It seems I have no choice,” he whispered to himself. “I must call upon others of my kind…but keep them on a tight leash.”

Gesturing to Oblivion, he formed a claw-like shape with one of his hands; the tentacles thwapping about as he willed his body to shift slightly. “Come, brethren, serve me, and I will ensure you have souls.”

But, Troxanir thought, I must keep them off the System’s notification routines as best as possible. To do so…I must ensure that they only operate in limited environments. This ice world that I need should prove the perfect testing ground.

The singularity warbled, and Troxanir used some of his accumulated Souls, feeding them in a tight funnel down to the Astral Verge, and to his delight, thirty lesser Demons spewed forth and began to rush towards him. But he exerted his powerful will, and they stilled, coming to rows in front of him. “Brethren, welcome to a universe. There are Souls to devour, and Universal Matter. But you must obey my commands, or else the protectors of this place will end you.”

Troxanir gestured and a screen floated behind him, as he showed a video feed of the Astral Demon on Velenar Prime being killed by Flicker. “Defenders such as this one,” he stated.

The lesser Astral Demons looked at each other and one by one dipped their heads. And now, Troxanir thought, to seal the deal. Star-eater’s Pact. A contract appeared in the air above each of the Astral Demons. “Sign, and you will be under my purview.”

The Astral Demons all signed, and Troxanir felt the Pact finish as he saw their status displays in the corner of his vision. “Excellent. Now, I send you to Poltor Six.”