Heralds

  The attack was more powerful than anything that Ryun had experienced before. The Herald’s ship was truly a marvel. It’s technology utilized the laws of their reality to their fullest, interactions of Essence used to create effects and master the world around them.

  He could see why their doctrine hated what the rest of the world followed. To them, laws were immutable, things that were unchanging. Willpower and Ways were a threat to them and their understanding of the world. Bending the rules and forcing your idea onto the world was powerful, but working within the rules did have its advantages, as Ryun was witnessing at the moment.

  The attack came in a fraction of a second, his Authority and being were spread out and watching everything, and still he was struggling to follow it. Computers that controlled the ship exchanged information far faster than even Ryun’s mind could, at least not in his base state. The attacks obliterated his vessel faster than he could react even if he wanted to. It was a sobering realization, knowing that something could attack and wipe him out faster than he could think, could even notice the threat. Though it was only a true threat if he had gathered his density and narrowed his being into a single vessel. The more spread apart he was, the harder it was to outright kill him. There was a lesson here that he wouldn’t forget. Constraining himself to a human body had risks.

  Perhaps if he was still on the same level as he was when he first encountered the Herald, this would’ve been the end of him. The attack was precise and total; the beams of light incinerated everything in their path, bombs teleported next to him and exploded with the might of contained Reaction Engines, wiping clean any Essence that survived the initial onslaught. His regeneration at its peak was powerful, but he needed something of him to remain for him to regenerate. This attack would’ve ended him completely.

  But he was no longer a being of flesh and blood, or even Void, Oblivion, and Soul. He was an amalgamation of a Soul and End, and his being was no longer contained to an Essence so easily destroyed. He was a being that was spread into the world, a dense existence that was more akin to a field than an actual physical presence.

  The Herald’s attack hurt him, there was no question about it. Pain lanced through him at the loss of so much of his mass, more than he had ever lost before, but still not enough to hinder him in any real way.

  And that was what shocked him, so much power at their fingertips, so much potential for destruction, and it felt so familiar to him. In this mode, when the ship was attacking, destroying all in its path, the meaning of the End within it grew stronger and stronger, and with it Ryun’s authority over it.

  The scanners blasted through the territory, searching for him. An Essence that he was unfamiliar with bounced of Ryun’s Essence of the End nestled deep within all the other Essences he was spreading his being through. Then almost instantly the ship’s weapons moved, firing into what appeared to be empty air.

  More explosions, more destruction of Essence, and more hurt inflicted onto him. Ryun was almost frozen, unable to act. Disappointment bubbled up inside of him.

  Have I really reached the end?

  He wondered if this was all that he could expect in the future. The most powerful of this world, unable to provide any kind of challenge. He had lived his life striving to overcome, and now it seemed like there was nothing left for him to overcome. Not until others reached the same level of existence, made their own Ways, became Axioms, and occupied their own thrones. And even then, he would always be above them.

  His attention was brought back to the ship and its mad attack against the world in an attempt to kill him as an explosion rocked its side.

  “I’ve been discovered,” Ereclaw spoke in his mind.

  Ryun focused and perceived what was happening inside the ship. Assault teams were hunting Ereclaw as he ran through the halls, killing everyone in his way. He was heading toward the bridge where the Herald was, but Ryun didn’t think that he would be able to reach him. Ryun narrowed his attention and pushed on his Authority of the End. His Qi flowed out of his Core and around Ereclaw who paused in his mad dash through the ship.

  Attacks against him were swallowed by his raw Qi as he channeled it into a technique. A {Twilight Cutting Flicker} targeted the space between Ereclaw and a faraway point in the territory and swallowed the Space Essence in between, making the distance between the two points zero. Ereclaw’s own power pulsed in response, End and Twilight working in perfect harmony. They were bonded after all, their power complementary.

  A moment later Ereclaw stepped out of the ship and far away, the Space Essence from around the wound in the world he created pushed out and reinstated the natural order of things, closing up the makeshift wormhole.

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  Ryun manifested his vessel next to Ereclaw a moment later.

  “You could’ve just sent me to the Herald,” he said in a low growly voice.

  Ryun turned his head to look upon the ship in the distance; it was glowing with power and light, attacking everything in its way. Ryun expended his will and authority to keep their sensors from finding Ereclaw.

  “No, it’s…” He was disappointed in his opponent; that was the truth. He didn’t want him to end in such a way. He would die, for he had dared to attack Ryun’s family. There was no room in Ryun’s Soul to compromise on that. He had relented on his desire to kill everyone in the Empire, but those who were the leaders, who were like the Herald, for them he had no pity. This wasn’t about that.

  Ryun had always struggled; he had fought against those stronger than him, but there was just too much of a gap between the two of them now. Ryun knew well enough how he would’ve felt if someone far stronger than him just snuffed him out without him being able to do anything. That was life, he would’ve lamented that he wasn’t stronger, but still… it would’ve stung.

  And Ryun was the End, Axiom, Shard of Divinity. So many things had changed within him that he hadn’t even been able to process everything. But he knew that this felt wrong to him. To kill the Herald in such a manner would go against his meaning. He was still the Witness of the Journey’s End. And the end of the Herald’s journey lacked weight.

  He pulled from his bottomless core, an ocean of Qi rising to his call. He pushed it out into the world through his being, everywhere around the Herald’s great ship, the Memory of Stars. He shaped techniques, and with precision unmatched by anyone else in the world, he attacked. He sheared its hull, cutting its weapons away. Inside his Qi swallowed up their ammunition reserves, he attacked the core powering the ship within it, so similar to that of a Cultivator.

  Explosions rocked the ship, but he didn’t destroy it outright, as he could have; instead, he gave them time. Its crew ran, shuttles and smaller escape pods were launched from the dying ship. Thousands of cthul escaped, though not all of them managed to get out in time.

  Ryun didn’t pay them much mind, he focused more on the Herald as he entered his personal mech unit and flew out of the ship, Ryun let him.

  Once everyone made their escape, he flooded the ship with his Qi and channeled a {Final End}. His Qi exploded through the ship, every Essence it touched reached its end in an instant. Different Essences acted in different ways; some turned to dust, their End being a change into a different state. Others just stopped, vanishing completely, changing into something that no longer existed in this physical plane.

  With a whimper, The Memory of Stars vanished from this world.

  Erdania had finished destroying the flagship’s escorts, and he told her to stay away. Her curiosity peaked, but she didn’t ask him to elaborate.

  “Stay here,” Ryun told Ereclaw then dismantled his vessel and created another near the Herald in his mech.

  The moment his vessel manifested it was attacked, half of it blown apart before regenerating, the attacks from the mech kept coming, and Ryun kept not reacting. Eventually, the weapon’s fire drew quiet and Ryun just stared at the mech, his perception seeing deep.

  The Herald of the Machine was aptly named. Ryun could feel his perks, his power infusing the machine that surrounded him. He didn’t comprehend the nature of the Herald connection with his tool, but he knew that it was there, that it enhanced and did more that was outside Ryun’s purview.

  There were other mechs all around them, shuttles, and small attack craft, all with their weapons targeting Ryun’s vessel, all with people inside nervously waiting for their deaths.

  The Herald’s voice finally crackled through the external speakers of the mech, the audio laden with static and a barely noticeable tremor that hinted at the man’s fading composure.

  “Why?” The Herald asked, the metal fingers of his machine twitching. “You have unmade the Memory of Stars as if it were a child’s toy. Why do you linger? Why haven’t you wiped us from this world? What do I not see?”

  Ryun didn’t know what he was rambling about, so he tilted his head.

  The herald took the gesture as a question, though it was not intended as such. “Atalar sent me here, so even if I die, I know that I will have accomplished its will and vision. Just me being here, across from you, serves our purpose.”

  Ryun felt the weight of the Herald’s life, the decades of zealotry, the brilliance of the engineering, the absolute certainty of his faith in the Machine God. He believed that even his death was a victory for his god. Perhaps it was, Ryun couldn’t tell yet. Or perhaps they just had no understanding of the gulf between them. Ryun had gotten used to the Exalted Empire knowing more than they should, but there were very few people who knew about the heights he had reached. Even a god can make mistakes. But that was not a concern at the moment.

  “I will not be the one to kill you,” Ryun said to them all, his voice echoing not through the air but vibrating inside their vehicles, like a whisper just next to their ears.

  “Mercy?” The Herald scoffed, his voice filled with disdain. “Do you think yourself so much better than me? You are nothing, Atalar will prevail in the end. You are nothing before the weight of reality, of the peak of knowledge, before a God.”

  “Not mercy,” Ryun said, his voice getting harder. “You attacked us, you and your empire struck a blow that nearly cost me more than you can comprehend. You will not live to see another sunturn. But I will not deal that final blow, you are… a disappointment, a grain of dust pretending to be a star. It would take no more effort to snuff you out than it would take for me to twitch a finger.”

  “You dare—”

  Ryun didn’t let him finish. “It is hard, I know… Being forced to meet reality, knowing that what you know is wrong. You saw us as rivals, as adversaries. But we are not, we’ve never been. Even I was wrong about that. You do not grasp for the same heights I do, you chained yourself to your creations and rejected the heavens offered to us, and for that you will never know the peaks that you could’ve reached.”

  The Herald didn’t answer, and silence filled the air. There was no reason to delay any longer. Ryun reached inward and focused on his power.

  [Summon Herald]