Shipwright

The Shipwright was very happy. He had just received word that his Frank and the two loaners from Morrigan had closed the rift on his ship. They were now in the process of routing out the remaining corruption. His onboard units could likely deal with the problem in time, but why waste the free labor of others.

He hummed a disjointed tune, consisting mostly of white noise, to himself as he flicked through his screens. His station world was being slowly overrun, but he had millions of drones throwing themselves at the problem. He didn’t plan to get involved himself unless he had too, he had told the Erlking’s champions that just to get out of the work.

He much preferred Frank to these two, he never asked for anything but his scraps, to build with. Perhaps if he hadn’t incinerated all the drone parts before he got here, he would give him some of them as a reward for his work. Processing data about the humans, brought Shipwrights mental pathways to wondering about the Erlking’s pair’s progress.

Pulling up his Drumstick drone’s interface, he realized that he had a notification from the chicken. The tune he had been humming stopped abruptly as he absorbed the data. The humans were stealing his property. He only had ten million or so of those biological cleaning units, he couldn’t spare one for that greedy human. As for the kobolds, well, he had been running a long-term experiment on the effects of insanity on forgotten experiments. That was ruined now too.

Absorbing more of the report, he realized that Drumstick had trapped them inside the resort. The happy tune returned as he ran projections on how likely they were to leave that resort, with his property still in hand. His tentacles whipped around wildly when the percentages that he got back were more in the human’s favor than he thought they should be.

This wouldn’t due, running more mental calculations, he determined that if he acted now, he just might make it in time. Turning back to Frank’s screen and that of the two extras he began the long task of routing resources into portaling them here, faster than he planned. A subroutine informed him in a small window that he could produce over three hundred thousand biological cleaner units for the price he was about to pay to recover the one Benjamin held.

He dismissed that window, he got along well enough with the Erlking but that didn’t mean he would be stolen from by his people. The timing had to be perfect however, he couldn’t risk the rift not being closed. If drumstick was able to recover his property, he would cancel his plans. That would be the best outcome, but he couldn’t count on it.

Doing more mental math, he determined that if he pulled back a few units... A few more calculations later, he had set up the battlefield to funnel the corruption right at the resting humans. He would force them to fight the enemy, which would prevent them from stealing anything else from him.

He rubbed his tentacles together with glee, with that damned Arbiter gone he didn’t have to play so nice anymore. He just hoped he didn’t make the Erlking too angry with this. He had been around during the last Great War, the last thing he needed was to have the Morrigan sent to visit him.

* * *

Arbiter

He stood in the deep blackness between stars. Away from the influences of all the World Lords, except perhaps Specter’s. His human avatar shouldn’t be able to withstand the cold of space. He had already disobeyed just by going on this trip however, so letting a little more of his power bleed through wasn’t going to damn him more.

He regretted the necessity of this action. He had been fully prepared to die when he had come to this universe. The Creator had instructed him on how he was to conduct himself here, and although he might not have yet violated the letter of those instructions, he was reaching the limit of their spirit. He questioned again why he was doing this, why was he looking for the bound and disgraced watcher.

He had also asked himself why he worried about it at all. The Creator had pruned them away from his garden of universes, like a rotten apple is plucked from the tree and let to fall to the ground. They now fell too, the universe descended into the chaos. The corruption beyond the thinning barrier was slowly working its way inside; like worms into the apple’s skin, if he was to continue to use the analogy.

He had seen it before, many times in the past. The universes would age and gather corruption to themselves. He didn’t understand the why, but he knew it happened. He had once been the protector of one such universe. His true form was nearly the size of that universe in its entirety, and he had worked outside the barrier for eons uncounted to keep the corruption at bay.

He had failed to check in on his charges while he battled on their behalf, however. When he finally beat back the chaos enough to go back inside…they had done it to themselves, just the way the World Lords of this universe had. Reaching for power that was beyond them, only they hadn’t reached an unsteady peace the way this universe’s World Lords had.

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Their great war had lasted for longer than many universes survive, all thanks to his sacrifice in time and the effort he spent on them. So that they could destroy themselves. Straightening his jacket, the Arbiter put those thoughts to the past. He had to focus on his current mission. The reason he had decided to reach beyond his inevitable death.

In all his time as a protector and watcher of a universe, he had never seen a soul like Benjamin Vryce. The blending of creation and chaos essence, was astounding. He had reenforced the barrier to the Erlking’s hive world so well, that the Arbiter didn’t think it could be broken again. It shouldn’t be possible, but it had happened.

That had brought him here, he wanted to extend the time this universe had. If only to see if beating the corruption was possible. He had been bound inside the barrier however, and even if he had wanted to, he couldn’t leave to confront the corruption out in the chaos. The watcher on the other hand, he had been bound to this universe, but he hadn’t been bound inside of it.

If it was possible to convince him to go out into the chaos and beat it back, if only for a short time. To allow Benjamin a chance to grow into his power, was all the Arbiter needed. Assuming, of course that the old World Lords, didn’t destroy themselves and the humans while he looked.

That was a test in its own way though, if they destroyed themselves so quickly then the Creator was right. This universe deserved to be destroyed, but the human souls who had been sent here had done nothing. Only failed to fall in line on their old world, and that alone wasn’t reason enough to let them be wiped from reality.

Well, almost all of them anyway. The Erlking’s hive world was now a safe haven from corruption. As was Benjamin’s as yet unnamed forest world, if he was able to access it before corruption destroyed them all anyway.

He sighed, shaking his head and opening his portal door. There wasn’t even an echo of power here. Stepping into the door, so beautifully carved with his failure, and out into another empty patch of space. The Arbiter tried again, he would keep looking. Eventually, he had to find a trail.

* * *

Specter

The World Lord floated in the void of space. Watching fondly as an ecstatic Annice flew about unrestrained. Her daughter was taking longer than she had expected to arrive. She probably stopped to bathe in an attractive looking star, and fallen asleep. With a sigh, she sent the mental call out again. She would come eventually. Specter felt bad rushing her anyway, she would need to go into battle when she got here.

She hadn’t had to battle anyone since the last Great War. She wouldn’t have bothered back then either; if a coalition of weak World Lords hadn’t ganged up on one of her children, and killed her for the vast store of essence she had held from an eon of life. Specter had been enraged when she felt the death. She’d gathered her other children and wiped the coalition from existence. She had gained ownership of their worlds with their passing. She still had them rolling around in her space somewhere too, one of these days she would get around to doing something with them.

The ancient and powerful World Lord brought her wandering thoughts out of the past. To watch as the teenage girl flew circles around the blind dreamer she had been harassing for days. The ghost cloak had gone over wonderfully, but she was still unable to breathe in the vacuum of space. They discussed the problem at length and Specter had created her the mask she asked for.

It was an interesting article. Black leather in appearance, with large round goggles over the eyes. There was also a long downward sloping nose like cone, reminiscent of a bird’s beak. Annice had called it a ‘plague doctor’s mask.’ said it would go so well with her ghost cloak, that Specter couldn’t refuse her. It was also a soul bound pattern, but only kept her body warm and supplied with air, when properly supplied with essence.

The added boost to her soul power was helpful too. She had managed to crack the thick shell on the asteroid sized monster this time, before she had run low on essence and had to return.

“Ah, man. I almost had it that time, did you see that Specter?” she asked excitedly, flying over to the World Lord. “I think draining my core over and over again is actually helping it to grow. It’s hard to tell with the boosts from the mask and cloak though.”

“Yes, Annice. You have been improving wonderfully, when my lazy girl gets here and clears us a path to that rift, I have no doubts you will be able to close it now.” she said, with the sideways head tilt that signified a wink.

“Thanks Specter, I’m really trying. I need to catch up to them, I can’t believe how strong they all are.” She said with a disheartened sigh.

The girl had bugged her for some time to show her the girl who she had learned the hands-on hips move from. Specter had finally given in and shown her Jade and Benjamin. They had been engaged with the kobolds at the time, and the girl’s eyes had nearly popped out of her head when she saw the battle. She had wanted to see more of the human souls fighting, so again Specter showed her Frank and the others fight in Shipwright’s hanger.

If her eyes had lingered a little longer on the boy her own age, who was flying the gunship into one-on-one combat with a demon beast, Specter hadn’t noticed it. She had noticed the new determination the girl displayed to grow stronger though. Thus, leading to this outing and the new mask.

She was even talking about going off to fight with the other humans, after they had closed this rift. That saddened Specter some, but her other children had all gone off to explore alone eventually too. So, she supposed she would have to let her if she wanted to. Again, that was why they had been brought to the universe after all.

She looked back at the space ship she had created for the humans under her charge to live on. Perhaps it was time for her to get the rest of them battle ready too. She had already seen many of them out near the edge watching Annice fighting with jealous looks on their faces. Maybe if she taught them how to use their essence and gave them some individual patterns… her thoughts trailed off. There was no point thinking about these things after all.

“Annice, I think I want to get the others fighting as well. We need to teach them how to use their essence and get them a few patterns too…want to help me design their new outfits?” she asked the goth teen. Who was wearing a ripped and dirty looking black cloak, which bled purple light. Who also wore a plague doctor’s mask, over her white painted face with black lips, and whose purple hair was just visible around the mask’s straps. The World Lord couldn’t think of anyone better suited to help her with fashion advice, oh, she was getting excited again!