Small cracks continued to appear on the egg, but it wasn't happening quickly. At first I thought it might be best to help it, but according to Maji it isn't a good idea to assist magical beasts in their hatching phase as it could cause them to become too reliant on me.
What the most important thing to do is to ensure I'm the first one it sees as to imprint me as its owner, or Mother as Maji put it. I joked that if I was its Mother would that mean it would be the Spirit Prince or Princess. But sensing the mood change to a serious one the moment I asked the question, I realised that it would indeed be a possibility.
The sun had set a while ago and with the night quickly approaching midnight, I continued to sit there waiting. Isabelle stood away from me, still waiting to see what hatched. As a Lvl 1, she showed signs of tiredness whilst myself and the Spirits were still very much wide awake. Because of this, Isabelle had taken a risk and gone to grab a pot of coffee and now sat there drinking some while chatting with Maji.
Even though the egg had yet to hatch, I couldn't help but feel exciteful. Every fibre of my being did not want to do anything but wait till the egg hatched. I felt a strange feeling from the egg, one I couldn't put my finger on but knew to be familiar.
As the wait continued, a new message came from the System, one I was not expecting, nor would anyone else in this world.
Attention! Warning!
Total Death Count of the Incarnates has reached 450,000.
This number is unacceptable. This is the final iteration of the Prime World and it must be saved at all cost.
In 6 months, 29 Days, 23 Hours and 59 Minutes, 2,318,956 more Incarnates will be brought to the Prime World. In addition, ‘Potential Heroes’ and above will be presented with an opportunity.
Message: This is the final iteration, failure can not occur. No more iterations are possible, if this iteration fails, all of creation will collapse.
Sitting there, shocked, I kept rereading the message. Over four hundred thousand are dead? Two million, three hundred thousand more people are being sent here? From where?! Not our world, right? If they’re dropped into this world now most wouldn’t even survive! We can barely take anymore people, if we expanded with more people now we’d be in a very difficult situation.
Looking over at Isabelle, I could see that she had paled. Our eyes met, hers trembling for a moment. Maji was the first to notice our change in attitude. Before anything could be said, the egg cracked loudly.
Snapping my head to it, my first reaction is to smash it, killing whatever is in the egg, but I quickly reined in my emotions. The timing just lined up perfectly, the egg hatching hasn’t caused anything.
Taking a breath to stabilise myself, I quickly started to deeply think. Closing my eyes, I quickly ran through every possible scenario that could’ve led up to this announcement. We were but a tiny group in the long run, only just surpassing a thousand, which means elsewhere in this world, wherever the others were, there are those that are still dying, barely surviving.
Just because we are safe and sound, that doesn't mean others are, so having this come out of the blue is expected, nothing we did triggered this. But now, I have to wonder exactly why the System is bringing more people here. Another System message came through, and reading it my mind fell into a daze.
As a Sharpshooter Sovereign, the Spirit Queen and a Potential Hero, it is your duty to punish those that have fallen.
Eliminate all Traitors in the town located several days from you.
0/29 Traitors killed in Haven.
Traitors? Why can’t the System just kill them? The Traitor from the attack said that the System kept freezing him before eventually turning off for him. As I watched, the quest counter number went up by two, increasing to 32!
Iterations, Incarnates, Traitors, Husks, World Soul, Monsters, Void Legion. Just what in the world is happening to this world? We only know it’s under attack and if it falls so does ‘creation’. Why is this the last Iteration? Who is behind the System? I landed on one possibility as I opened my eyes slowly.
‘God’. A concept that many religions worshipped. A term to describe an all powerful, all knowing being. At this point, we can not deny that a being, or multiple of them, are behind the System. Yggdrasil believed that we received our power from the soul of this world, would that imply that this world’s soul is a ‘God’?
Whatever this being is, if it’s becoming desperate to save this world, then there is only one likely scenario. This iteration being the last means it is running out of power. If the previous iterations indeed failed, would that not mean ‘creation’ fell as well? So these iterations happen because whatever is behind the System is reversing time, bringing other Incarnates to this world.
But it doesn’t appear to be a true time reversal. The System now says this is the final iteration, how is that possible if it can’t reverse time? Unless it itself doesn’t reverse, meaning it indeed is running out of power. Shaking my head, I knew it was pointless to think of this, right now the most important thing to do is survive, get stronger and overcome the danger.
[Due to the high-death count, the System will now provide those who have completed Survival Basics Quests with Advanced Survival Quests earlier than intended.]
“Huh? Earlier than intended? Survival Basics was the first quest we received, how long until we were meant to receive ‘advanced’?”
The egg, which still hadn’t hatched yet, shook once again and turning my attention to it, I ignored the mutterings of voices behind me. I knew Deven, Isabelle, Rebecca and Geralt were all speaking to each other at the moment. I wanted to go join the conversation, however I needed to stay put until the egg had hatched. Checking the Advanced Survival Quest, I gritted my teeth slightly.
Quest Received!
Prime World Advanced Survival
oin, Create or Lead a settlement with 1,000 people or more: Done
Discover inheritances, settlements, historical sites or mana wells: 1/5
Create 5 Blue Grade Machines and 1 Purple Grade: 2/5 and 1/1
(Quest modified for Entity Midnight): Locate and gain the acceptance of 2 Primordial Spirits: 1/2
1/4 Tasks Completed.
More shit to do! Considering the urgency that has just been placed on us, this means the quests need to be done as soon as possible. The quest being modified for me means the System has taken into account my status of Spirit Queen. Looking over the quests I needed to do, I felt a bit of frustration at the list. Blue and Purple Grade weren’t as simple as just making a machine and hoping it turns out alright and discovering those locations meant a lot of time exploring and hoping to find a pin in a haystack.
Then there is the ‘Primordial Spirits’. This implied that there are Spirits from ancient times, perhaps the creation of the world itself. I had gained the acceptance of one already, meaning one of the three behind me has been around since this world formed, which would mean they had far more knowledge about it then any other source…and perhaps they knew this world’s language.
Our research on the machines we found in that underground bunker, along with the files and everything, had halted because we couldn’t figure out their language. Excited, I mentally noted to ask them later. Looking at the Advanced Survival quest, I then looked at the requirements for Lvl 4.
Required for Lvl 4:
Completion of:
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Class Points: 15,550/20,000
Advanced Survival Quest: 1/4
The Machinist Queen: 3/6
Awaken Link with Entity Winter: 15% Complete
Enemies Killed: 10,185/20,000
Clear Dimensions: 17/20
Bonus Objectives:
Furthest Shot that Hit an Enemy: 3,521 Metres
Entity Midnight is the Spirit Queen of the Prime World.
Unlocked Subclass and Subjob.
Killed a Traitor of the Incarnates.
???
There may be items or more that will be beneficial to Lvl 4…
“Nearly there…Maybe it’ll be best to fully focus on obtaining Lvl 4 before focusing on everything else. No, I can’t just get up and leave on a grinding session…” Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I looked at the egg while my mind spun. Breathing out slightly, in a very low voice, I spoke to the System. “I don’t know if you can hear me, the one behind the System, but given my status, can you answer my questions?”
Feeling a tad stupid for even attempting to, I nearly chuckled to myself but the next message from the System nearly caused me to jump out of my skin.
We will answer 2.
We? Implies multiple beings. Does that mean the theory of the System being run by Gods to be correct? This single answer gave me so much insight.
Thinking thoroughly, I landed on one question that I desperately needed to know. Speaking quietly once more, I asked “What is the Prime World and why is it that you would reverse time just to save it?”
The Prime World is the world at the centre of all of Creation. It is the template for all worlds in the multiverse and shares its power with them all. Known as Inzona by its inhabitants, the Prime World was left hidden, sealed away from the rest of all existence. However, beings of Destruction that sought pure destruction of all living beings, found the world by chance. If the Prime World’s World Soul is destroyed, all of Creation will be destroyed, including your world. It must survive the coming trials and tribulations, you Incarnates must ensure its survival.
You will be censored if you attempt to share this with another.
Most of this I figured out already, but to learn that this Prime World is at the very centre of all worlds and if it is destroyed all else is. Has this entity never heard of a fucking back-up system?! Then again, when it came to the creation of worlds I had no idea how any of it actually worked. Closing my eyes, I thought of my next question, and landing on it I opened my eyes and asked.
“Have we been Incarnates previously? Have we been used all this time?” This question had been at the back of my mind for a long time. I knew it wouldn’t matter to know if we had or not, it wouldn’t change anything. In fact asking anything else could have been a hell of a lot better, like when the next Nexus event will be, when the theoretical Turning Point would be. For some reason though I needed to know the answer to this question.
No. Each Incarnation has used individuals carefully selected from all worlds. This Iteration is the first time Incarnates have been summoned from it, and the next Incarnates coming will also be from your world.
You can share this information with others.
More information than I had thought! I had expected only a yes or no and upon reading the answer, for some reason I felt relieved. Is it because I had feared that my previous selves had repeated this cycle many times over? Now questions arose in my mind; why wouldn’t it use the same Incarnations over and over? Surely keeping your memories of this world would be a huge advantage, discovering everything about it over time would mean you’d become stronger, faster. Does this mean the previous Incarnations didn’t want to repeat…or is it because they couldn’t?
“Thank you.”
No reply came this time, but that’s fine, it gave me plenty to think about. The end conclusion to it all is that ultimately we just need to keep going. Leaning forward while watching the egg, I started to think of the next thing we needed to focus on; long distance communication. We had short range radios, but we needed more. We needed towers that could power themselves, linking us up with potentially the rest of this world.
I had a blueprint already for such a thing, the only thing needed was to construct it. Previously it was out of the question, but now we needed to start finding other people, rallying them to one alliance, making sure we amplified our chances of survival, especially since more humans were on the way. We also have to go to Haven at some point and deal with the Traitors there.
At that moment, just as it hit midnight, a piece of the egg cracked and fell off. More pieces started to fall from the top of it, and quickly sitting up on my knees, I watched as small pieces of the egg fell away as whatever was inside made its way out.
Suddenly a small head pops out, and at first glance it looks like a regular puppies head. Looking a bit closer, I saw that it had a small horn on the top of its head, the shape of a tiny sword. Its eyes white with pure black pupils, the same colour as its fur. Its eyes reflected me and after a moment it tilted its head slightly before opening its mouth and biting away at its egg.
I watched as it slowly ate the shell of the egg. According to Maji, it’s best to allow it to do what it wants when it first hatches as it works on mainly instincts and interrupting it may cause problems later. As it ate, its tiny body became more exposed, revealing it to indeed be the shape of a normal dog, but with small differences.
It has slightly larger nails, its fur is also very smooth and thick. Its tail normal till the tip, which ended with a tiny ball. It started to clean itself after eating the egg, during which I managed to see that it’s a male. He soon finishes cleaning and turns to look at me, tilting its head slightly. Slowly, I hold my hand out to him as Maji suggested earlier, allowing the small pup to sniff my hand.
Now that it had hatched, I could sense that this pup is a Spirit. After sniffing my hand for a moment, it looked at me again before opening its mouth to bite my hand. On reflex, I quickly retract my mana shield, allowing it to bite my flesh directly. Its teeth are too soft and small to draw blood, but merely biting me is enough.
After he bit me, he licked my hand as if to say sorry. This is the imprinting stage, except for the licking part, where it gets used to your image, scent and strange taste. Calling out to the System softly, I looked at its information.
Young Void Spirit
Newly hatched Spirit. Bonded to Entity Ruby ‘Midnight’ Piper.
“Come here, you.” Gently reaching over, I pick up the young Spirit. It doesn’t resist, in fact it acts eager to be picked up. It’s as small as my palm, and holding it gently with both hands, we both looked at each other, the pup panting happily with his tongue out.
“Noir. That’s your name.” A rather simple name, but I liked it. It matches mine as well. The pup barks softly once, as if understanding the name.
Standing slowly, I hold Noir to my chest and walk over to the others, who had at some point stopped talking and were watching. Approaching them, I looked at those who had gathered and revealed Noir, who looked excited, giving a cute bark.
“This is Noir. A Void Spirit.”
I knew I could trust Geralt, Deven and Isabelle. All of them carefully reached over with a finger to give Noir a small pat and Noir ate up the attention, getting all excited and barking with excitement, likely due to all of the new scents.
“Ruby…” Deven looks at me with a serious look.
“I know. We can’t do anything about it right now, let’s just focus on what we need to do. Deven, Rebecca, did you both receive a quest for Haven?” Looking at the two, they narrowed their eyes and both nod. Looking at Geralt and Isebelle, they shook their heads. “Alright. We’ll gather the Vice-Leaders soon and discuss everything in detail.”
With that, the others disbanded, with Isabelle heading off to rest while Rebecca and I remained behind with the Spirits. Sitting on the ground, I placed Noir down gently and watched as he sniffed around the grass, happily running around checking different spots. A few Fairies floated over, seemingly playing with Noir as he chased them. The Fairies happily glowed as Noir played with them.
“Lumi, Maji, Greyback.” Looking at the three, I sat up a bit. “Which one of you has existed since ancient times?”
Both Maji and Greyback shake their heads. Turning my head to Lumi, she nodded once before ‘speaking’ without opening her mouth. “I have, O’ Queen of the Spirits.” Before I could say anything else, Lumi continued. “My soul is reborn into a new body whenever I perish. When this happens, I lose the memories of my previous life, only remembering my identity.”
Feeling slightly disappointed at this news, I give Lumi a small smile. “That’s fine. May I ask if you know how to read our language?”
“Yes. The Fairies told us about your language, including the words.”
“They did?”
“The Fairies are very intelligent, My Lady.” Maji answered me and as I looked at a nearby Fairy, who was playing with Noir, I just blinked in slight surprise since they had never spoken before.Looking towards Lumi once more, I continued.
“How long have you been watching me for?” I had been wondering about it for a while, ever since the battle outside of Lux. I had felt her watching me during my fight, with her only intervening when it appeared I was in trouble.
“Since your arrival and awakening. This is where I hid after the battle of the Spirit Realm to recover my wounds. I can not afford to be reborn now, not until the world is restored.”
“I see. What can you guys tell me about another Primordial Spirit?”
Greyback’s face showed surprise. “You know about the Primordial Spirits, My Lady?” Turning to him, I nod before his face becomes serious. “Then you need to seek out Xia, the Space Spirit.”
Remembering what he said before about Xia, I realised that to find her I’d need to travel to the Void. Looking towards my office, I pursed my lips and determined myself to study Void magic once more.