A Chronometric Defect

I've spent most of today bidding the people of Haitos my condolences. I think they all know it's a load of crock. After all, it's impossible to explain away a three-storey dragon stomping down main street. I won't even try to claim it was a projection. While inscriptions are amazing, and while I'm amazing, I haven't figured out how to do that.

Inscriptions show themselves in the real world via their drawn or carved form. As for the effects these complex symbols produce? They tend to be uniform. I can easily create a projection of a wall or a complex shape.

Sure, fine, but getting it to move with solid form is another matter entirely. If I can't show something approaching that— and I can't— then who would believe me?

It's not like I'm keeping quiet merely to maintain my reputation. Nope. I'm simply not bothering to maintain Pure Evil's reputation as he likely assumed I would. I doubt his real intention was ever to apologize to the people of Haitos. I can't know because he never shares his thoughts with me— only sometimes his emotions. And I get it. He flat out said he wouldn't give me access. I wouldn't either.

The reason I offered to do this is simply to prevent him from continuing to spread his noxious influence. Haitos is MY city. I'm named after it. I've effectively run it for decades. I won't let him waltz in here, kill over 200 people, then waltz out happy and whole.

When Pure Evil killed me? I figured I died completely at random. He explained that he ate me and seemingly accepted responsibility for his carelessness. His honesty is why I could enjoy his supposed gift. It wasn't merely a second chance at living, either. There's SO many benefits— and he's never let me experience a single downside.

Right as I was thinking so, Pure Evil informed me that he was waiting for our coach to meet up with him. He'd decided to humbly request our assistance in conducting those so-called 'apologies.'

I couldn't make any sense of it. Why? Why was a dragon waiting on humans to conduct a human social interaction?

My own newly-acquired draconic insticts were telling me clearly: such behavior is far beneath any dragon's regard, much less a dragon as powerful as Pure Evil. Surely, he had a hidden reason for denying this sense of wrongness.

I voiced my concerns to the mayor, who helped me see through my ignorance. My death wasn't a random accident as Pure Evil claims. Nor was my imprisonment within his body beneficial. At least, I'm not the one gaining real benefit from my death.

It's Pure Evil. He's outsmarted me. Over and over.

Maybe it's unfair to ascribe godlike intellect to a dragon, but Pure Evil himself has claimed to have a limitless capacity to learn. I've benefited from his brilliant intellect myself.

He's... Shockingly competent. In many ways.

Whenever I do experiments, I can remember my entire experiment with perfect alacrity. There's not a hazy moment. Not a single missing digit. I can mentally flit around within a three dimensional recollection of my experiment and replay its entire progress at any speed. From any sensory organ. Using any perspective.

That last bit is the weirdest part; I can see things happen in ways I never once examined during the entire experiment. Also... From impossible locations, such as the inside of an inscription slab.

I had to ask myself: is his mind actually RUNNING this experiment, but mentally? It's the only way I should be able to gather data from such a vantage point. And if so, how in the hell is his mind keeping the experimental results consistent with reality? I've checked. There's no deviation.

Zero.

Calling the mental abilities of this creature 'godly' isn't an understatement. It even claims there's more I can't access. I can't even comprehend what that's supposed to mean. The part I've been allowed to use is above and beyond belief. Every time I try something new; it just works, as though Pure Evil actually has infinite cognitive resources.

It possesses an impeccable memory, an unparalleled perception, and such vast knowledge that I can't even begin to wrap my mind around how it acquired what it knows. Such an obscene intellect is downright PETRIFYING! It doesn't make him immune to mistakes or oversights— but it does mean there's no actual limit on what he can accomplish. Competently so.

My communication array is proof of that. How else could I develop a whole new branch of inscription in a single day? Yet, even while I'm using his absurd mental faculties, he...

He helped me solve multiple difficult problems. His intellect somehow still reaches beyond what I'm able to understand.

It pains me to say, but— that which this dragon can do within his own mind puts my best inscription techniques to shame. If he were able to bring this mental ability into the real world, well, what use would inscription have?

Then, moments ago, he tells me he's recently learned how to do exactly that. How to make his imagination real. If he can change his size, then he can change other things, too. Perhaps he hasn't realized, but if he does?

WHEN he does—

He could make a projection of himself. Of quite literally anything he can imagine. And I know he can imagine things I can't. I keep thinking back to the moment he upended my entire knowledge of inscription with one stupid toodleing sound.

If that isn't godly, what is?

Except this 'god' killed MY people. Hell, said 'god' killed me. I don't hate him for it, I understand why he did. Yeah, I believe his excuse! That it was like he accidentally tripped and demolished an entire house. Of course I do.

Pure Evil's just that powerful.

Nobody should have that much power. Even the gods themselves either can't or don't exert that much power on regular people. They're acting far more responsibly than Pure Evil. Now, he has the gall to tell me he ate a watchtower? Was anyone inside?

Does he care?

What really chilled me was what he said next, though. I played it off as best I could, but I was shaken to my core. My comment about it being an Apocalypse Dragon was...

Correct?

Is that a joke?

Considering the ridiculous level of power Pure Evil already has— yet now it tells me it can eat a whole watchtower like some kind of parasitic scourge.

A PARASITIC scourge.

It bluntly told me it was half-dragon, half-parasite. That its parasite form is even more powerful. I'd dismissed the claim as typical draconic arrogance. 'This is merely my weakest form.' Such nonsense.

But now? Oh, hell no.

We think of parasites as inhabiting the body and causing harm. This parasite inhabits existence. Reality. Our universe.

Is Pure Evil a parasite upon existence? Not just upon the nation or the planet, but existence? When I look at its mostly black body, it... Matches the color of space. Judging by its maw, nostrils, horns, spikes, and eyes, its body is likely the same internally. Except that this space IS its body. Has it eaten space? Maybe it has.

Which goes leagues beyond merely 'apocalyptic.'

The one vulnerability this space-devouring creature has is me. Myself. My mind. For whatever reason, Pure Evil decided to cage me within itself. Does it think it can learn more that way? If so, it seemingly can't directly absorb memories from those it consumes. Given the fact it hasn't figured out that I'm not on its side... I'm guessing that's because there's some sort of limit on its ability to read my memories whilst I remain conscious.

This ability might be how it got so intelligent before it showed up. Perhaps it was hopping from body to body, eating memories, growing its mental acuity the whole time. Once it felt satisfied? It started looking for a strong body which could unlock more raw power. It was just a matter of shoving its matchless intellect into a matchless body.

A dragon is the natural choice, since Pure Evil is a born spellcaster.

A dragon's sole weakness is its inability to cast magic. Shove a creature which possesses perfect Mana conductive tissues into a physically-powerful dragon? Bam, the perfect hybrid. A creature whom can probably eat gods, if given time to grow.

I've watched it grow notably in both strength and intellect within merely a single day. Yes, its already unbelievable mind has grown yet swifter still. This already immensely intelligent creature is still getting smarter.

Except it's not just Pure Evil's mind which is improving. If I'm not mistaken, those spatial black tissues belong to its parasite half. From what I saw, its parasitic tissues are slowly eating away at its dragon body. Whatever its true form is— it'll likely come out entirely within the next few days.

And yet, it seems to have retained all of the immense physical power of a dragon.

Even as its dragon body is being eroded.

Seriously?

Doesn't that mean it can absorb not just raw power, but also the beneficial attributes of whatever it eats? If it eats a planet, will it gain magma breath? If it eats a star, will it gain plasma breath?

If this creature is truly limitless...

What in the name of the gods might it become?

I briefly considered that it didn't want to pry into my thoughts or that it was being polite. Do I honestly believe that? No, of course not. This thing's literal name is Pure Evil. It could also be lying about its name to act more intimidating— it does claim to be part-dragon. Dragons aren't exactly known for their tact.

So, I had to know for sure. That's why my new communication array can peek into the status panel of anyone else who has it. The thing used my inscription right away. Lo and behold, it wasn't lying. Such a trusting monstrosity.

Assuming, of course, it didn't re-write my array on the fly. I learned a fair number of techniques and even a few new sigils from Pure Evil. Without those, I couldn't have made my newest breakthroughs.

Which leads to what concerns me most.

Yes, even its claim of being an Apocalypse Dragon comes in at a lower priority.

I released this array specifically to examine its status panel and to make it easier for other nations to unite against it. I may not be human anymore, but I do recognize that humans are much stronger when they're able to unite.

Goal two has ostensibly been achieved. It's only been one day since my array's release, but three nations have already standardized my new communication array in some manner.

As for goal one? Seems the damn parasite tricked me.

No...

It tricked me again.

Inscription Status, Pure Evil.

Name: Pure Evil

Level: 81

Job: Dragon Acolyte (Locked)

Skills: None

Species: ??????¿??¿????¿????¿???????¿?

Talents: N¿ne

Stats:

Str: 722

Sta: 783

Int: 923

Wis: 896

Free Points: -|000

This status panel is all kinds of wrong.

First of all, why is Dragon Acolyte locked? I can't view its description or bonuses.

Second, what in the world is going on with its species category? Whatever it says, it's not 'dragon.' 'Dragon of...' Maybe? Problem is, nowhere can I fit 'parasite' in that mess of question marks.

I don't understand how a species name can BE so long.

I mean, it's one thing to have a long name, but there's no spaces in that species name. Worse, some of the symbols are inexplicably upside down. Why is it all question marks in the first place?

The more I think about it, though, the more I feel it's likely those inverted question marks aren't the missing spaces. The last inverted question mark is one letter before the end of its species name. It'd be weird to have a single character at the end. No species I've ever heard of was appended with a number or letter.

Third, no skills? I don't buy this for a damn second. I've never seen it use a skill, but that bubble-like layer it ate me with is obviously... Not on this status panel.

Perhaps that's a talent— a section I've never seen on my own status sheet. Which would make sense, because "None" has another inverted question mark shoved in there. Why? Is something missing? It seemed likely, and boy did I not like what I found when I looked.

There's also those free points. It's just... Not a number. Again, why? It looks like 1,000, but there's no indication of any points having been used. Which would mean Pure Evil gets 12.5 free points per level. That's not possible.

4,000 would work, and the first few glyphs do look similar to a '4,' but that would mean...

50 free points per level. Humans only get ONE! The highest I've ever heard of for a monster was four. If I'm correct, Pure Evil gets more than ten times that number.

I just... I guess I should be thankful it hasn't used any. Who even knows what it'd become if it gained 4,000 status points all at once. That would more than double its already ridiculous total stat count. I shudder to think what might happen if those stats were all dumped into Int.

I next tried querying each available sub-category. Only one worked. The same one I was worried about. Even though I can only peer into that single item, it still almost gave me another heart attack.

Can this thing even be killed?

Inscription Status, Pure Evil, Talents.

Chronometric Fixation (Active)

Your fate is forever pinned to the chosen pivot. Even if you die and are reborn in a different body or a different world, the gears of fate will pull you inexorably toward your destined pivot. From this point forward, you won't be able to escape from your fate, but neither will anyone else whose fate you've ensnared.

Since your pivot was fixed, you've adapted to your fate with incredible ease. Your chosen pivot has accepted your Will, and in turn, has bestowed you with unfathomably great power.

Pivot Type: ?????????

Related Fates: Dragon God, Pure Evil

Bonuses: ??????????? ????

I've ignored all the weird verbiage. I don't even want to THINK about how it can seemingly be reborn if killed, that fate itself is guiding a parasite toward acquiring greater power, or that there's apparently at least one bonus on top of this talent's already nonsensical description.

Instead, I've chosen to focus on the most comprehensible part: the related fates, plural. 'Dragon God' and 'Pure Evil.' If I take what I've been told at face value— Pure Evil is the parasite and said parasite has consumed... The Dragon God.

I guess it found the Dragon God's dead body? I want to bang my head against a wall.

Speaking of walls, I don't dare touch the limits Pure Evil has placed upon me.

But... Even if I somehow break those limits? This parasite is nonsensically strong. Even one part of one talent leaves me wondering whether Pure Evil's existence can be QUESTIONED, much less harmed. Killing it seems nigh-impossible.

Worse, it seems to be hiding so much more. Why in the world would it hide so much, yet still show me this disgustingly overpowered talent?

Isn't this some kind of draconic brag? A sick game? Was it waiting for me to find this half-baked status panel? Does that mean it's already powerful enough to alter its own status?

The whole situation leaves me with endless doubts. I, the great Aitos, despite my intellect being empowered by a fledgling godbeast, find myself without any answers.

I don't know what to do.

The array I made... It's useless. It seems anything I do may be useless. All of us may already be doomed to be eaten.

Maybe it hasn't gone on an eating spree because it's having too much fun? Maybe nobody can stop Pure Evil. Maybe it's not possible for this parasite to stop itself from eating everything.

Maybe it's just a matter of time. Until the end.

The apocalypse.

Its best advantage lies not in its raw power, as I'd assumed yesterday. It's also not in terms of its intellect and breadth of abilities, as I'd assumed earlier today. Its greatest advantage lay its very existence.

Yet, even at that most BASIC level, this creature whose body I inhabit seems genuinely limitless. Even to me— who controls a tiny part of those immense abilities.

"Which, you are no longer allowed to access. You were wrong, by the way. I don't have any restrictions on reading your mind or your memories. I simply wasn't."

Ahhhhh, crap.