Chapter 237 - Seed of Eternity

Nate stood on the prow of the ship as it passed through the portal. In his senses he could feel how space contracted, squeezing them into a thin tube that only lasted a few seconds. In those few seconds he was able to sense how similar the portal was to his Spatial Anchors. In the same way his anchors could connect his spatial zone without something or somewhere in Reality, this portal was simply a doorway from one area of the Dungeon to another. That thought was enough for him to question how his own spatial zone was anchored to Reality but he immediately came up with the answer. The Skill on his Class Core was the true anchor and why his spatial zone was always easily accessible wherever he was. He very much doubted that he could create a spatial anchor in one universe and then leave for another and have the two remain connected. The mana required would be incredibly high, which he thought explained why portals weren’t left open. Still, it gave him ideas for the future. But those thoughts belonged in the same place, the future, because it was time for him to face the final Challenge of the Dungeon.

Passing out the other side of the portal brought Nate into a world unlike any he had expected. Halureth had been beautiful and natural, the Calikex building their cities into and around nature. Their civilisation had been a merging of mountain, sea and sky with the trappings of a sapient people. This world, or at least the Dungeon’s rendition of it, reminded Nate of a dystopian Earth. Towering buildings marked the distance like cancerous growths, their shapes malformed as though they had grown and mutated over time. Nearer to the portal were great mines dug into the earth, spewing forth dust and multicoloured gases as some form of industry was conducted within their depths. Without thinking about it Nate modified his barrier runes around the entire ship to keep out the fumes. 

As they sailed through the sky surveying their immediate surroundings, Nate was able to see a relatively flat, but sprawling stone monument in the shape of a decagon. Using his farsight sphere of awareness let him see another runecrafter’s work for the first time. The entire monument was a portal and Nate tried to narrow his focus to learn new Sigils only to find that they were obscured, or entirely faked. The monument was as fake as the rest of the Dungeon, meant to represent the idea of a runecrafted portal dais.

Beyond the portal, the final battle was already underway. The Calikex had taken the portal dais and were holding it even as they simultaneously worked to destroy it. In the skies above, the black dragon soared, making ill-coloured clouds vanish with every beat of its wings as only three remaining Divines tried to contain the creature.

With his understanding of what lay before them Nate moved to pull up the Dungeon notification. As he did so, everything froze. The Calikex below fighting off waves of The Eternium warriors, the dragon and Divines in the sky. Even his flying ship wasn’t spared, though Frick and Kiri clearly were as they joined him a moment later, noting the air shimmering in front of him.

A second later, a being of volcanic smoke swirled before them, looking like a darkened tornado, elemental and faceless.

Nate didn’t need to hear Kiri’s snort to sense what they were dealing with. The Dungeon Custodian, a Spirit, had come to pay them a visit.

“I COME AT ITS BEHEST. AN OFFER,” it rumbled loudly.

The emphasis on ‘its’ was pretty clear but Nate still asked for clarification.

“The System has an offer for us?”

“YES. OFFER. FACE THE FINAL CHALLENGE OR A CUSTOM CHALLENGE SO YOU MAY KNOW YOUR FUTURE ENEMIES.”

“Can you show us the different Challenges?” asked Kiri.

A second later two notifications appeared in Nate’s vision.

Final Dungeon Challenge: Close the Gate! (Defender)
The forces of The Eternium have been beaten back. The Calikex hold the Portal between Halureth and Kalar’Don. Clear the area around the Portal so that the Calikex may destroy the gateway.

Custom Dungeon Challenge: Face a True Seed of Eternity! (Defender)
The forces of The Eternium have been beaten back. The Calikex hold the Portal between Halureth and Kalar’Don. Beyond the Portal, in one of the pits, an artifact of the Calikex is held. The Deepcurrent Shell of the Azure Oracles was stolen. Reclaim the Deepcurrent Shell and escape back through the Portal.
Warning: Your opponent will be one of The Eternium’s Seeds. Their effective power will not be reduced to match the level and nature of the Shattering of Halureth Dungeon. Though, like you, its Divinity will be sealed.

Nate considered the language. The first was clearly the normal Challenge and would involve clearing away the various combatants in a radius around the portal dais so the Calikex could destroy the connection between the two universes. The alternative sounded far more dangerous, but would also give them an idea of the calibre of enemies they could expect when they finished their time in the Wild Realm and were sent by Arikanvil to the Heartlands. Though, before they made a decision Nate had one question.

“How much will this cost us?” he asked.

“NO COST. WITHIN MY POWER TO CHALLENGE YOU. CONTRACT BETWEEN MYSELF AND IT.”

Nate looked at Kiri, “I think we should try the Custom Challenge, if only to get an idea of what we can expect when we venture to the Heartlands.”

Kiri grinned back at him.

“I would’ve done it just for the challenge. I’m in.”

“AGREEMENT RECORDED. IT DESIRES I EXPRESS A SINGLE REQUEST… SURVIVE.”

With its parting words delivered the Dungeon Custodian faded away, the spiritual energy vanishing from Nate’s senses.

“Time to go find an artifact I guess,” Nate commented.

Kiri moved back to the helm to guide them closer to the pits, the words unspoken that Nate would use his farsight to scout out the location rather than have them try and fight their way into one pit after another. As they flew, the lands below them raced by cracked and broken. A wasteland in the truest sense. As they flew over the first pit, Nate glanced over the railing of his flying ship and gazed into its murky depths. For the first time in this Dungeon, he lamented his lack of access to his Divine Energy. His summoning range for his farsight sphere was over six-hundred metres, but a single glance at the yawning pit beneath them told him it stretched deeper than that. With a single unit of Divine Energy he could have turned that six-hundred metre range into six kilometres. Instead, he motioned to Kiri to take them down into the middle of the pit itself.

“Frick, man the cannons,” he ordered absent mindedly.

“You mean goblin the cannons, Boss!” cackled Frick, already moving to position the various rune cannons. Nate noted he should spend some time connecting them as well so they could also be controlled centrally.

Scanning the walls of the pit told him they were mining for rare metals, as there were plenty of lower rarity ores that had been left in plain sight within the honeycomb of tunnels that stretched away from the main shaft. Without his heightened Intellect Stat, scanning the pit might’ve taken hours, perhaps even half a day, but he needed less than a second to take in the relevant information as his farsight sphere flitted from one location to another. The tunnels were barren of life, something Nate doubted would be the case in the real world, but he could understand that the Dungeon didn’t see a reason to waste mana merely to pretend there were workers present. Especially since this was not a normal challenge.

The first pit was a dead end with nothing present. The second pit was more of the same. However, the third pit showed activity, with faux workers digging away in the tunnels, undisturbed by the battle taking place less than a few kilometres away. And in its depths, in what Nate suspected was meant to be some sort of management type office, he found what he was seeking. A faint echo that he sensed was meant to hint at Divinity. The building itself was unremarkable, carved from the red stone of the mine itself and standing multiple stories tall, but within it he sensed a real existence. An existence that could, it seemed, sense him back.

Nate felt it as his farsight sphere was erased from existence. The damage didn’t stop there though, as the top floor of the building simply dissolved into nothing as purple flames engulfed it, eating away at it until nothing was left. In the middle of the remains stood a tall, two-armed, three-eyed, green-skinned humanoid. Clad in purple and black armour, the creature looked Nate in the eyes and smiled. Conceptual Sight of The Runic Artist displayed their enemy’s Classes.

Deathflame Seed of Eternity
Devastating Deathflame Mage Devotee (M) (60) / Devastating Deathflame Phalanx Devotee  (L) (40) / Devastating Deathflame Eater Devotee (R) (20)

Nate eyebrows climbed as he recognised that like himself, this creature held two separate ideals within their Embodiment. Worse, half of the Concepts they held were directly meant for combat.

“I had hoped that some of you would be foolish enough to come for it. And this time, there is no one to spoil my fun. Prepare to become food for my Path,” intoned the Deathflame Seed.

Then the world was awash with purple flame.

Nate suddenly felt the barriers on the ship starting to fail - and he immediately sensed the issue. The Concepts of Death and Fire were so thick in the air that he could feel his senses of taste, sight, and hearing being reduced from simple exposure as they ate away at everything. The barriers on the ship weren’t meant to be able to handle such an all encompassing assault and he knew it wouldn’t hold up for more than a few seconds. Coupled with their angles being all wrong to use the cannons effectively, he made the decision to save the ship rather than use it to fight.

“Abandon ship!” yelled Nate before sending a second message to Frick.

“Get the artifact.”

As Kiri vanished, teleporting beyond the ship, Nate activated Spatial Anchors and shoved the ship, the barrier still burning in the deathflames, straight into his spatial zone before using Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to teleport himself. Appearing on top of the destroyed building, he got a first row seat as Kiri attempted to engage the Deathflame Seed. As Kiri attacked with over twenty arms, Nate watched a wave of deathflame blast out from the Seed of Eternity. The purple fires ate through Kiri’s arms and erased them from existence. Even the mythic daggers Nate had created for her showed signs of damage, with pockmarks appearing on their surface.

Nate wasn’t idle, even as he mentally processed the meaning of what was happening. Once upon a time activating more than ten Constructs at once would’ve left him with scant mana to continue the battle or protect himself. But throughout the course of the Dungeon, Nate had steadily raised his Mana Absorption Stat. Then, abusing his ability to create runes for almost any situation, he had created a Rune to aid in absorbing mana, using the Sigil for Mana Absorption itself. That use, of course, was purely to abuse his Embodiment that doubled his Mental and Magical Stats when he was utilising Concepts. The result was a functional Mana Absorption Stat of over eight-hundred. So even as he emptied his mana reserve, he was already refilling it at an astonishing rate. He’d be full again within a minute. Conceptual Automated Existence birthed ten Constructs in an instant. Each was given a different Intent based on their nature. A shattered-glass looking Construct that warped space around itself created a spatially separated barrier between Kiri and the Deathflame Seed, preventing a concentrated beam of purple fire from bisecting her. Three Water Constructs tried to douse the Deathflame Seed only for a wave of purple flame to wash forward and evaporate the water in a rising wave of steam.

Then Nate was under pressure himself. The Seed of Eternity rushed him, a spear tipped in darkness that reeked of death aimed at his heart. Nate teleported only to appear on the other side of the roof and have an explosion of purple flames bloom beneath his feet. His barrier absorbed the explosion as it flung him into the sky, but the lingering fire was eating away at it. Then a bullet shot into his sphere of awareness and he sensed that pinpoint of death again seeking his heart. Conceptual Spatial Authority and a Spatial Barrier rune stopped the attack dead in its tracks, buying Nate the time to teleport back to the roof. In response the Seed of Eternity used the spatial barrier to rebound with enough force to launch itself back at the roof, crashing through it with Kiri.

Nate’s mind immediately went to the strategy of fighting someone who focused on such destruction in an enclosed space. With a thought he created a new rune in the air, mixing together the Concepts of Earth and Fluid as he dissolved the building. Kiri appeared nearby even as Nate felt Frick in the ground below, trying to break through the barrier that was protecting the artifact they had to grab.

The Seed of Eternity walked out of the dissolved building, motes of dust vanishing as they got close to it. The six remaining Constructs all launched their attacks only for them to be erased with thin beams of purple fire and Nate recognised the issue. Conceptual Automated Existence specifically stated the idea behind the Skill was giving ‘life’ to Concepts. They would of course be weaker against someone who used the Concept of Death. Worse, Nate was quickly realising that this enemy had them beat in both Stats and Skill Levels, while likely possessing comparative rarity Skills. Had they been Divines, that difference might have been balanced by Nate and Kiri having more Divine Energy, but with the Dungeon having sealed their access to their Divine Energy, they were at a distinct disadvantage on all fronts.

It was a first for Nate in a long time that he felt like he was the weaker party. He had faced Platinums back on Galle and achieved victory, the tier of his Classes and Skills making up for the level disadvantages in both. But here before him was proof that he and Kiri were not alone in the universe. There were others that had done similar. Similar, he said, but not the same, as no matter what else could be said, the Seed of Eternity before him had clearly not chosen to take a Divine Class at level sixty. That didn’t change the fact that in this situation, Nate and Kiri were the weaker party and his thoughts went back to the final word of the Dungeon Custodian as Nate prepared to suggest running. That word echoed in his mind now as he felt the rising Death Concept before him. Survive.