Dungeon at the End of the Universe

A familiar portal opened near my core and a familiar fairy barrelled through it, familiarly crashing into the wall. All the while, my mind stood frozen, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to process this.

In the meantime, the familiar Dungeon Fairy looks to have recovered enough, as it was now familiarly stirring in place and beginning to look around.

Briefly, very briefly, a familiar disappointed expression came over its familiar face.

It lifted off of the wall and flew straight towards me, it’s wings familiarly silent and unmoving. Then, once within arm distance, it reached out a familiar hand and touched my crystalline surface.

Then, I heard Faellen’s familiar voice, “Oi, are you even conscious in there? Better yet, are you even aware? Damn, I really hope I wasn’t chosen by some mindless Core.”

It was only those familiar words that, at last, jump-started my brain and forced me to act.

“Faellen? Is that you?” I said, disbelief clear in my voice. And how could it not? After all, I’d just watched reality itself dissipate right in front of my eyes. But instead of dying, I now found myself here. On top of that Faellen, who I watched cease to exist just minutes before, stood before me too.

Said fairy appeared shocked I knew it already, but that didn’t stop it for long. “How do you know my name?” came the distrustful question, soon followed by, “Who are you? And where are we?”

Truly, I was at a loss for words. There was only one thing I could think of to provide the barest hint of an answer, so I finally looked at my new ability.

Endless End (UNIQUE)
Within your domain, the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End is never the End…

I closed the window as soon as I’d read the first couple of words, since it just wasn’t stopping. The text kept on repeating over and over to infinity, which is why I made it vanish before it blocked all my sight.

Still… all the clues pointed to only one possibility.

“I’m… in a time loop,” came my shocked voice.

This did not seem to please Faellen, at all. In fact, that may have been the worst thing to say.

“Oh, just fucking great! Fucking thank you so much for that! For the love of Wyld, I couldn’t have been chosen by a worse Dungeon,” was only the start of Faellen’s rant, “So not only am I in fuck-knows-where, but my summoner is also a damned fucking time vandal! Great, just great. And I doubt they’ll bother figuring out whether I was actually a part of this shit or not. Noooo, they’ll just throw us inside the time prison, or even worse, banish us outside the time stream. Great, thank you so much Mr. Fucking Dungeon!”

While Faellen was working through its fit of rage, I began to think of the implications. If I truly am stuck in a time loop, the I don’t need to worry about the End, for now at least. Maybe there’s some limitation on when I can return, but that’s for later. Right now, just one thing is on my mind, quest.

If truly everything reset, then I should be able to to the Burgeoning Dungeon quest-line again, and farm infinite levels (along with infinite Level-Up enhancement tickets).

Paradox Core of the End (Dungeon)
Level: 2
Primary Aspect: End/Paradox
Abilities: …
Quests:
Where am I?
A Dearth of Adventurers

Ah, unlucky. Then again, if my level doesn’t rest, along with my abilities, then I don’t know why my quests would.

“Hey, Dungeon, are you even listening to me?” Faellen’s angry tone managed to pierce into my mind.

“Sorry, no. I was waiting for you to cool down.”

“You-” the mad fairy spluttered, “You really have no idea what you’ve done, have you?”

“Nope,” was my, admittedly a bit too cheery, response. “I didn’t have time to consult you before everything went to shit, and besides, the Ability activated automatically.”

“You? Me? Consult?” oh boy, seems I’ve confused it again, “No matter, we’ll figure it out later. At least it being passive and an Ability should give us more time. For now, we have to figure out how to hide. Please tell me you have at least some rudimentary enchanting skills. Or something similar>”

“You’ve taught me how to do a simple construct before, but that’s about it.” Before I can be interrupted, I quickly add on, “But I really don’t think it matters that much, no one is coming here.”

“Oh yeah, and why is that?”

After telling a slightly abridged version of what happened (will happen? Is happening?), Faellen finally calmed down. Or, at least, its anger went down to a gentle simmer.

With one arm holding its head, as if fighting off a headache, “That’s not really that much better than what I feared. You do realize that, right?”

“Yes, yes, it’s the most ideal situation we find ourselves in, but it is what it is.”

“Fine, okay, whatever. Just, give some time to process this and figure out some plan,” was the last distracted word I heard before Faellen lifted its hand from my crystal.

“Wait! What about the bond!” I shouted, but the connection was already gone. Great, now we can’t talk and I’ll have to wait for it to come to me. Whatever.

At least I had some time think it over myself. Maybe. On the other hand, I could start working on my Dungeon again.

Come to think of it, the spatial fractures only penetrated into my Dungeon a little bit back then, so what if I made my walls thicker? Much thicker. Would that perhaps protect me again the Universe’s space theft? Wow, can’t believe I just genuinely said that sentence.