Sam blinked as he was suddenly transported from the battered floor of the arena building into the depths of space. He looked around and saw billions, no, trillions of other beings floating there with him. They came in all shapes and sizes, some of them smaller than his fingernails, and others the size of mountains. Next to him, Berrigious floated, stunned at how he could have been moved against his will. He made a move towards Sam, preparing to kill him, but the faster than light attack moved as if through molasses, not even reaching Sam before his entire body locked down.
A brilliant flash of light, like the birth of a star, appeared in the void, revealing the form of Tantalos Veruvax. The man was pissed. His face was colored the ruddy red of a molten ingot of iron and the sheer power that coursed off of him was enough to stop the hearts of everyone that felt it, that was if it was not directed solely at Berrigious. The pink man made a strangled noise, and tried to move, but he could not. A cracking noise echoed across the void as the man's bones started to shatter. Accompanied by Berrigious' screams of pain, Tantalos flashed across the space in the blink of an eye, grabbing Berrigious by his throat.
“So you are the trash that dared to place my universe in jeopardy? That overgrown kraken that was drawn to here by your destruction of the cosmic membrane actually was able to hurt me. For that, your death will be long and painful, Berrigious Elevantus.” Tantalos vanished, bringing his unwilling companion with him, leaving everyone floating in space. A starry figure stepped out of the darkness, floating in the space high above them. It was the System Overseer that Sam had seen once before. With the voice of a being who had never once tasted defeat, it began to speak.
“IT IS TO MY GREAT REGRET THAT THE APPOINTED SYSTEM IMPRINT TO THIS UNIVERSE IN MY ABSENCE HAS DEVIATED FROM ITS CORRECT PATH. IT ALLIED WITH THE BEING KNOWN AS BERRIGIOUS ELEVANTUS, PLACING THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE AT RISK. REST ASSURED, BOTH BEINGS ARE BEING PUNISHED NOW AND WILL NEVER RETURN TO PLAGUE YOU AGAIN. UNFORTUNATELY, THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE OWNER OF THIS UNIVERSE AND THE CREATURE THAT WAS SUMMONED BY ITS SUDDEN WEAKNESS DESTROYED YOUR UNIVERSE, TURNING IT INTO A CLOUD OF PARTICLES FLOATING IN THE VOID. I AM WORKING TO REMEDY THAT, AND YOU SHOULD BE RETURNED TO NORMALCY IN A FEW HOURS. STRIVE TO GROW STRONGER, LEST THIS HAPPEN TO YOU AGAIN WITHOUT ANY PROTECTION.” With those words, the being vanished, leaving everyone in silence. None of them could move or speak, so they simply floated there, waiting for themselves to be able to leave this place.
Sam’s mind was working overtime however, and he barely noticed his situation. This was the first time that he had seen Tantalos since the very beginning of the integration period, and Sam suspected that was the actual man himself this time, rather than just a clone of him. Sam wanted to find out how to make the clones that Berrigious and Tantalos had been able to create as they seemed quite useful. He could send them out to gain information and if they died, then nothing would happen to him. Sam guessed that it was a far higher tier ability that he had access to however.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Speaking about that, Berrigious had not been what Sam had expected. Because he had used that clone as a baseline, he had thought that the man was about E Rank or something around there, but unless the power of the ranks grew exponentially as one progressed, that was impossible. He was still far weaker than Tantalos however, which meant that he was likely a D Rank at most. That was frightening to Sam as the power that Berrigious had possessed was enough to destabilize the entire universe. Would he one day be like that? More importantly, how long would it take? Would he be millions of years old by the time that he reached that level, or would he be able to do so before his allotted time expired? Seeing Tantalos deal with Berrigious like that made the 100 year deadline suddenly seem like nowhere near enough time to progress.
After a while of such useless thoughts, Sam found himself back in the hallway that he had been in before the universe was destroyed. It looked exactly the same, except Berrigious was no longer there. Sam still had the bag of contracts under his arms, and he checked them quickly to see if they were all there. They were. The universe had been recreated down to the last atom, and Sam heard the faint banging of the robot on the door of his room. Smiling unexpectedly, he hopped down the hallway, in a strangely good mood. Avoiding the death of your universe would do that to someone. As he walked, a message appeared in the air in front of him and he stopped, startled at the sudden appearance of what looked to be a System notification.
10,239,428,157th Universe Patch Notes
Removal of entity “Berrigious Elevantus”.
Repair of universal membrane.
Causal reversal of universal destruction.
Reparations made to the inhabitants.
Sam laughed. It really was like a game. Then he paused when he read the word reparations.
“What reparations?” Sam said to the air. As he spoke the word reparation, a small bag dropped out of the sky in front of him. He picked it up and opened it. Inside was a small item that looked like an I.D card. It had his face and name on it, and as he touched it, it dissolved into his flesh. Shivering as a sensation like ice water being poured down his neck overtook him, he was greeted with another message.
In apology for the inconvenience caused to your universe by the actions of Berrigious Elevantus, everyone has been granted a rank appropriate citizenship for this Multiverse. This grants you certain privileges within this Multiverse such as access to interuniversal travel and access to the Supreme Multiversal Bank. As a result of this, you have gained a Class 6 Citizenship, as fits one of your rank. (Many of these privileges have been revoked by the order of your universal ruler, Tantalos Veruvax.)
Sam was puzzled by the card that he had received. What exactly was a multiversal citizenship? Why was it something that he was only learning about now? It seemed like it was something valuable as it was the reward for his entire universe being destroyed, but it didn't seem that useful to him based on what he had read. Closing the message, Sam decided to forget about that for now and get on with his task.
Making his way out of the hallways and into the main waiting area, he walked into a chaotic scene. All of the fighters were standing in a mob, and seemed to be arguing with each other. As Sam approached, they all turned around and started to direct their antipathy at him.