Dungeon at the End of the Universe

I was about to go on another experiment spree – I still had to know what the Wyld-tree would do in an actual dark and mana starved environment – but apparently Faellen had had enough of its own break. Combined with my own impatience, I was just itching to get back to some proper work.

“Are you done? Are you ready?” I excitedly asked Faellen.

“Yes, yes. Let’s get back to it,” it replied. “So, what’s on the agenda today?”

“Figuring out how to survive the space-grab of the Universe, aka the ‘last hurrah’, and then the actual End. You know this,” I said.

“Yeah, whatever. Any ideas? You were the only one who saw what it is we’re up against.”

“Right, yes. As I mentioned, the ‘last hurrah’ is the Universe fighting against the spatial decay (or whatever it is that’s going on) by pulling all the pieces of undamaged space somewhere far away. Which also includes the space in my Dungeon. But! From what I can understand, it only managed to steal from me because that spatial decay had already damaged some kind of barrier separating my Dungeon from the rest of the world. So, I made sure to make my outer wall much thicker and I’m fairly certain that’ll prevent the Universe from reaching in,” I let out a metaphorical sigh from being metaphorically out of breath. “So now we just have to figure out what the End actually is and how to survive it.”

“We don’t actually need to wonder what the so-called End will be. It’ll just spit is out into the Void between worlds, so all we need to do is make your Dungeon into a Void-vessel.”

“Oh, right. And how do you suppose we do that?”

“That,” the fairy emphasized, “is the crux of the problem. From what I know, there’s no blueprint for making a Void-vessel. All of them are unique. Maybe even UNIQUE.”

“So, what you’re saying is we’re back to square one,” I said, deadpan.

“Essentially.”

Aargh! This is all so frustrating! IF we don’t do anything, all of my progress will get reset and I’ll have to start building my Dungeon all over again. And sure, maybe my Abilities stay the same, but it’s still annoying having to rebuild all over again all the time.

System, is there anything you can help me with here? After all, your own survival hinges on this as well.

Query [Quest assistance] received.
Providing answer:

The System is unable to further increase the chances of succeeding in Quest [Where am I?] Objective 2 [Withstand the ‘last hurrah’] and Quest [Where am I?] Objective 3 [Survive the End].

Well, awesome. What a great help you’ve been, System. What good even is this query function if it never actually gives useful info.

So, with the System being as unhelpful as always, and neither of us with even a shred of an idea on how to proceed, we sort of just whiled the time away.

I mean, sure, we didn’t just do nothing. I continued to work on my little experiments and Faellen… Faellen did Faellen things. And all the while we basically constantly brainstormed ideas. But despite all that, it never amounted to much and nothing ever came of it.

Then, one day, I looked out of my Dungeon to see the spatial breakage was very nearly at the same stage as it was last time when everything went to shit. I quickly told Faellen and then proceeded to anxiously wait to see what would happen next.

With a justified sense of deja-vu, a familiar scene unfolded in front of my many, many eyes.

With a sound like glass shattering, the outside world… well, shattered. The still remaining bits of real space that prevailed over the holes in reality gained tiny fractures in them, at last connecting all of the tears together.

Some even intruded into my own domain. Thankfully, something about my Dungeon domain prevented them from spreading too far, and this time my barrier prevailed. Whatever barrier separated me from all else stood strong, keeping the breaks in space away from me and my Dungeon.

The strange energy from before, the Universe’s own energy, reached out again. This time, however, it wasn’t to stop space from breaking. Instead, it decided to try and recoup its losses.

Even though real space and the breaks had now seemingly switched places, it didn’t mean no real space remained. Which is why the energy this time gathered around those last scraps of remaining space and dragged them off to wherever. Probably to build a last stand.

Unlike last time, though, my barrier was intact. So, when the Universe’s energy came across my Dungeon, it simply flowed around me, brushed off as if it were nothing at all. I was a rock, an island in a raging river, unmoved by the goings-on around me.

A tide of hope began to surge within me. Unfortunately, it appeared that was not all.

As soon as the strange Universe energy realised there was something that was resisting it, it completely changed direction.

All of it for may kilometres around me, as far as I could see, began to gather and congregate around my Dungeon, all the while bringing their bound pieces of space with them. It didn’t take long for the area around my Dungeon to appear the same as it had before everything began to break. It almost provided the illusion of nothing being wrong, as if the End was just a bad dream.

But it wasn’t, and it was fast approaching.

Before that, however, something else approached. A mass of something sped towards me at unimaginable speeds. What was more concerning was the massive cloud of Universe energy surrounding the mass.

Then it struck my Dungeon… and bounced right off. I think both of us were surprised by that, as we both just remained shocked and still for a good while. It was a little moment of peace in all the chaos. Up until the strange mass moved again, this time with less force, and began to circle my Dungeon, likely looking for a way in.

“Faellen? Are you seeing this?” It stood without question that I was rather concerned about this new development.

“Roughly,” my lovely assistant said, “It’s difficult to scry through all that energy but I can sort of make it out.”

“Well what is it? And what is it trying to do? Should we make contact?”

“Some kind of manifestation of the Universe, most likely. And it’s definitely trying to get into you Dungeon. And I’m trying.”

The unknown mass continued to move about the outside of my Dungeon for some time, until it got convinced there truly was no way inside. At that point it stopped and made some distance from me.

It was only now that I realized that that strange energy had continued to gather the remnants of space around us. Now it truly did look like nothing had ever happened and everything was fine. Except for the giant mass of something floating right outside my Dungeon.

It is a well known fact that an animal is most dangerous when backed into a corner. A less known saying, but all the more applicable to my situation, is that if there’s no way around then the way is through.

Yes, indeed. Since the mass must have determined that there’s no entrance into my Dungeon, it decided it must make its own way. With a dull thud, it rammed into me like a hug battering ram. And then again. And again. Thud. Thud. Thud.

“Faellen! How do I stop it? It doesn’t seem very friendly,” I provided some helpful commentary to my only companion.

“I don’t know! I’ve literally never eve heard of such a thing!”

After another dull thud, the mass gave up on that avenue of attack. Which, sadly, did not mean a moment of reprieve for us. Only, a new approach to worry about.

And worry we should, because this one appeared to work.

The mass stretched and morphed, enveloping the whole of my Dungeon within itself. It was not acting as a sort of extra layer for my Dungeon. But then it began to constrict. Constrict, and push against my Dungeon’s walls.

Which unfortunately worked. Bit by bit, the immaterial mass of the strange mass passed through my Dungeon walls. It was by no means a fast process, but it worked nonetheless.

Eventually, it made its way through the entirety of my defence, at which point it once more gathered itself up into one whole mass. At that point it took it almost no time to fly though my Dungeon and get to my Core Room.

It went to the exact spot of my Core and began to do the same thing it had just seconds ago done to my walls. This is also when I noticed something I had missed while it was making its way through my walls. The space it, the Universe, had been gathering around me was slowly following the mass. And now that it was inside my Dungeon, the energy, along with the space, began to follow it inside.

Sure, some it got permanently stuck within my protective walls, but a lot of it still made it through and to the strange mass of Universe stuff.

And as I said, that mass was currently attempting somehow enter me or something.

Suddenly, my Dungeon instincts went haywire and informed exactly what the Universe was attempting to do. It was trying to supersede me as the Dungeon Core! Without even giving it a second thought – frankly, most of it was done automatically by my instincts – I activated as many of my Abilities as I could.

I Controlled the mass, and the very space it was occupying, to push it away from me. I With my newly discovered capability to control space, I began to Create more of it between my Core and the mass, putting it even further away from me. But most importantly, I began to Destroy it.

It was the first time I felt Destroy have some kind of cost. There was a genuine pull at something deep, deep within me. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been able to do so, perhaps nothing should be able to consume what is essentially the Core of a Universe. But despite it all, I chanted a line from one of my Abilities: “You affect all equally. You affect all equally. You affect…”

And indeed I did. The End refused to treat anybody with a special status, so I would not treat anyone either. Even if it was a Core of an entire Universe. Even if it was something that was supposed to be untouchable.

Multiple things happened at once. The mass and the Universe energy brought the last bits of salvaged space into my Dungeon’s domain. At the same time, the mass vanished. It didn’t manage to take over my Core, it didn’t manage to flee. I had done it, I had destroyed a the Core of a Universe, and by proxy the Universe itself.

I looked outside my Dungeon… and saw nothing. No space, no breaks in space. Just nothing.

It was in that moment that I knew I had done it.

Then my System exploded with notifications.