I sat on the bridge of the Crystal Vortex drinking from a large jug of fruit juice, as I looked out over the Forbidden City. That was a pretentious name, but it seemed like this place was just as pivotal as Purgatory, perhaps even more so. Perhaps how pretentious the name was, translated to how important the city was in terms of events.

There was movement behind me, but I wasn’t worried. Jacob came around and looked slightly surprised to see me. “Emperor Michael,” he greeted me.

“Working late?” I asked.

“That and doing final checks. Trying to think of anything else I can do,” he said.

“Well feel free to join me. We haven’t talked personally to each other. And if you are coming along I would like to know you better,” I said.

“Beyond being the Master Fleshcrafter?” he asked.

“And how you ended up in such a role?” I asked.

“I wanted to live. One didn’t fight the Divine Empress and win until you did. She wanted cruelty and I was her dealer of choice. I saw people resist, there was nothing they could do,” he said with a sigh.

“And before?” I asked and he gave me a confused look. “Back on Earth?”

“Oh, I was a professor of biology,” he said.

“That makes sense. Were you really fooled by me when I robbed this city?” I asked.

“Yes. I was much more focused on the Divine Empress than gazing at her intensely. When you get more stats, physical features can be less clear if you are looking at energy. While hers was off, she had been gone for a while. Things were falling apart. I didn’t think anyone would be so daring,” he replied.

“It was quite bold,” I replied and drank from my jug of fruit juice.

“If you don’t me saying, you are much better than the Divine Empress. You don’t want a screaming throne,” Jacob said, and I snorted at that.

“She was brutal, with no mercy to anyone. Motivating yourself, what a joke. Time off might as well ask for a permanent retirement. Sure, I got to do research, but it was research in hell. I wasn’t so sure about you for a long time, but the fact you haven’t killed me yet, well thanks,” Jacob rambled a bit.

“You are useful. Anyone else in your situation wouldn’t have lived,” I said.

“I know it. I am hoping that coming along will prove that I am not completely hopeless,” he said.

“It is do or die, but I appreciate it. More than you might think. It is us against this place. Just adding additional cruelty and suffering on top of all that, seems incredibly pointless,” I explained.

It was something that I had come to accept. Trying to make this place worse was like setting your house on fire while it was flooding. The fire wouldn’t remove the flood water. It would just leave you with a burnt soggy house. That wouldn’t help anyone.

“You were researching the area around the sphere, any insights?” I asked.

“You probably have more than me, but the confirmation that the terrain is higher level terrain is an indicator that something happened outside the System’s control. The calamity is most likely, since the location is on point. That sphere arriving could result in a massive sudden conflict. Then the System won, and it went into hibernation,” Jacob said.

“But that doesn’t explain why the System countered it once already, but is doing nothing now,” I replied.

“The System could be a machine. But the sphere could be adaptable. Like a body and a virus. Sure, humans are far stronger, but targeting something so small isn’t easy or simple. The sphere has probably adapted,” Jacob theorized. I nodded at this and drank from my jug.

We sat there in silence for a bit. I held out my jug and Jacob took it and drank some of the fruit cocktail. “What is this?” he asked and handed it back to me.

“Fruit blend. I wanted something sweet and light before tomorrow. You really think there is something going on with this lower layer?” I asked.

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“Yes. Energy is coming from that direction. Not the environment. Well, it is hard to explain, since it is operating on another dimension, that is layered next to the one we are in,” Jacob explained.

“But we haven’t seen anything from the System in this lower layer, have we?” I asked.

“Tethers and many other abilities go through there. But energy construction and manipulation isn’t my specialty. There is a lot of overlap with how energy interacts with people, but the Astrologer was a true genius in that area,” Jacob said.

“He was quite clever, even if he was insane,” I said.

“Where was he hiding anyways? The Divine Empress was really looking for him,” Jacob said.

“Inside a tower, near the top. Fuse himself with the tower to survive the calamity,” I replied.

“Ouch. It would take a lot of courage to do that to yourself,” Jacob said.

“But how did he stay alive and the people bound to that throne?” I asked.

“They were just flesh constructs in the shape of people, infused with life energy. While they might have kept their intelligence, it is questionable. But merging energy is quite risky. I do have to admit, the hybridization concept and summoning is inspired. The concept is similar at a basic level,” Jacob said.

“That was the Ritualist, an old enemy. He had several breakthroughs, but he went full insane,” I said with a sigh. Looking back at the situation, I could see why he would refuse to share the results of his research even with the offer of a large payment. It really was overpowered at the start of the Systemic Lands.

Now, there was much greater difficulty and summons couldn’t keep up. I sipped my jug of juice. It was getting low. That meant it was probably time to get some sleep. I would probably just sleep on the airship in my room.

This place was my home away from home. “This might be the end. You ever wonder if there is anything after this?” Jacob asked me.

“One theory about this place, is that everyone is already dead and we are just waiting to enter hell,” I replied. Jacob gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. “Purgatory, where you are just waiting around to know your fate.”

“Oh, now that makes a lot of sense. I never really understood the name,” he said. He was completely uneducated. I let out a small scoff at that statement.

“It is a good name, better than Forbidden City,” I countered.

“The Divine Empress actually didn’t like that name, but it caught on too much, and she didn’t care enough to get people to change it,” Jacob said.

“Wait, really?” I asked in surprise. I thought she had an iron grip over everything in her Dragon Empire when she had been alive.

“She was let concerned about names and more about killing people in horrible ways who offended her. Experiments that stripped people of their humanity,” he added.

“The Envoy. He lost whatever intelligence he had long ago, even before you killed him. Vat grown humans linked like that, it is a bad idea,” Jacob said. I nodded at that since I had read his research he had handed over. It wasn’t really a second life. Just a lesser copy that was made of a person. While they had their skills, their stats were lost.

“Now we have the sphere. The greatest enemy so far. Don’t you think it is odd how it has matched my ability?” I asked.

“It could any number of things. Like it doesn’t want to scale up to save energy. It wants to avoid detection by avoiding attacks or skills at a certain level. Or even the System is suppressing it somehow. If it gets too active, the System could intervene,” Jacob speculated.

“And it isn’t something from the System, like a field boss?” I asked, curious what he thought.

“Doubtful. But who knows how an alien mind actually thinks. For all we know it could be an out of control chat program,” Jacob said.

“I would worry it would be listening in, but if it was, it should have prevented this crisis,” I replied. I was feeling a lot less charitable towards the System at the moment. That’s why it had lost its Almighty title in my eyes.

Every other crisis was caused by human beings. I could accept those as humans making messes and the System expecting us to clean them up. The Ritualist was a problem I created. The Divine Empress was just plain evil and crazy. The Astrologer was a conniving bastard. The Monster was from a human initially if the information I had was correct. The Sword, well I wasn’t sure about it yet, but it had been created by humans even if the System handed out the meta-points.

But this sphere was something that had come from outside the System. It felt unfair. The System had been fair in my mind, but uncaring. Content to let humans figure things out themselves. I gave it credit for all the stuff it did. But now that everything it managed was breaking apart, it lost all that credit.

In the battle between gods, the ants got crushed. “I am going to sleep,” I said and lifted up my empty jug of juice. I made my way to the bathroom next to the bridge. Jacob gave me a nod, getting up and leaving as well.

It was probably not the best thing to talk to him while he was working out countermeasures before the big battle, but I wanted to better understand him. I doubted the Divine Empress ever shared her juice with him. There was still a lingering concern if he would try something, but it really was win or die at this point. With no clear path to escape, we had to win. There was no where else to go.

As I laid down to go to sleep, I could only hope that tomorrow we wouldn’t all die horribly. I didn’t like this feeling of waiting before going against a more powerful opponent. They had all chased me or I had been forced into a fight. While I was being forced into this one, it felt different in a way I couldn’t describe. I guess the tension was much greater than before.

Emperor Michael, Sphere Slayer, it would be a nice title to add once we won. A group monument this time for the brave teammates that were coming along with me as well. And the Avatar, she would get included as well as the figurehead on the airship. Ready to be flown in as a humanoid missile. That thought brought a smile to my face as I fell asleep.