Dark Matter Ascension

Troxanir was calm, cool, and collected. He stood, facing his enormous Astral Demon form that was locked within the singularity he called Oblivion. I have plenty of Souls, he thought. Almost enough. Just a few more mass death incidents, and I can send them on their way to the Nethershift and level up.

He grinned at the thought of having a brand new Talent to utilize. Something that he could use to allow his avatar to instantaneously travel to Khrox. And once there…well, the whole universe would be at his disposal.

The ring world was still being constructed, as he always believed in having backup plans; and eventually he would want to have his faction travel with more ease to and from the location. But eventually, the ringworld would have to expand as Oblivion grew more and more.

Troxanir closed his eyes and pushed his consciousness back into his Astral Demon body. He sank his consciousness down into the depths of The Cosmic System, and saw millions of his deceased Signers in their spiritual forms, occupying the silvery sea of starlight. "Report," he ordered.

Brom, the Signer who tried to kill Flicker twice, saluted. "My lord. The space has been sealed off. It appears that X has isolated this node that your true form is tethered to."

"Tsk," Troxanir replied. "Inconvenient, but not unexpected." He let his consciousness expand, and found the space to be quite large. The equivalent of a small planetoid in size; naught but liquid silvery starlight. "And none have approached?"

"We saw a shadow pass through beyond the boundary walls," Brom replied as he gestured to one of the far corners of the contained space. "A body, a physical form of some type, that was but a shadow."

Troxanir felt slight concern, knowing that his Astral Demon body was vulnerable in two places – Oblivion where it was tethered, and this subsystem of The Cosmic System that also tethered him to this universe. If my avatar were to be destroyed, and an assault occurred on my real body…I may actually die. The idea of that happened sent ripples of fear, excitement, and dread through Troxanir's mind.

I could always retreat. Break my tethers and flee back to the Astral Verge.

He had been able to leave any time he wanted with a bit of preparation and time – but being "trapped" in this universe was the best thing he could have asked for. He got all of the Souls of those who died here, rather than squabbling and fighting with other Astral Demons as they passed through the Astral Verge and to the Nethershift for judgement and sorting. Plus, the nature of the supermassive black hole ensured that universal matter would be easy to gather.

He was trapped, yes. But the universe was trapped with him. And he had the opportunity to become the strongest Astral Demon, aside from the Demon Lords of the Astral Verge. At this point, he was strong enough to be counted amongst their number. But only once he had completely consumed this universe would he leave.

"It matters not," Troxanir stated. "Continue to keep vigil. And do remember, if you somehow died in here, it would be akin to a second death whilst alive. You will cease to be, forever."

Brom bowed, "We understand the risks, my lord."

Troxanir returned his consciousness to his avatar and looked out upon the vastness of the cosmos.

The kite travel took a few days. Greg, thanks to being able to stave off sleep, hunger, and thirst, piloted them the whole time. Dee just needed to rest a few times, and Jace was able to let the NICIF take control of his body while his brain slept. A few days passed before they arrived at their next destination. Another floating mountain, but this one was…strange.

The mountain was a perfect pyramid, the point facing down as the flat top square shape spun slowly. It was also shimmering with a bright orange glow. As they got closer, Greg lost control of the kite. "It's hot! The heated air is making us go higher!"

The kite ascended and eventually hit a high point of stability. Dee frowned as she glanced over the edge, "A giant hot mountain? How do we get on it?"

"I can turn off heat in a local area," Jace replied. "Void Removal (Rank 10)." He focused on the suppression of the heat, and the kite began to drift down once more. "Fly us down! As long as I have this active, the heat won't be an issue."

Greg dove down, the kite dropping into a steep descent before he pulled it up into a U shape to prevent impact and lessen speed. Spinning the kite around, the landed it, and Dee stored it in her TPSB. "Look over there, an entrance."

Jace began walking to the hole in the rock. A perfectly square hole that led to a tunnel that a person his size could crawl through. "Tight spaces," he muttered. "There's an easier way to get in." He walked over to the center of the flat expanse. Focusing on his sight, he tried to isolate the various shimmering auras of magic.

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The rock itself was magic, exuding a massive amount of heat that he was suppressing. Beneath that, though, was another shimmer. A slightly black shimmer, far below him. Raising his hand, he muttered, "Void Beam (Rank 2)." The grey-white energy bored a hole down, through the rock structure, and out the bottom of the pyramid. A tunnel that went down to the black sparkles. Jace looked at his allies, "Come on. Shimmy down the sides."

He planted his feet and hands and descended, passing several cramped, tight passages that most likely one was intended to crawl through. A massive maze of an upside-down pyramid that would surely cook anyone alive who did not have some type of heat shield or defensive capability to protect against the massive warmth. His allies followed him down, keeping in range of the Void Removal, and Jace arrived at the black sparkle. A chamber that he had blasted a hole through, big enough for someone to squat-walk inside of. And the leg he was looking for was laying on an altar. He grabbed it, put it in the TPSB, and then kept descending until he reached the bottom of the pyramid.

"Dark Energy Mine (Rank 3). Detonate." He pushed himself down and out, tethering himself in space as his allies joined him below the pyramid. "And just like that, we got the last leg."

Greg looked up through the hole Jace had bored, "Seems like cheating."

Dee shrugged, "Who cares? It worked."

Quinn's voice came over the comms, "You three aren't too far from where Priam has been meditating for these few days. Head over to him, and then come back to the apartment. There's an issue with the Star Council, and Xera needs us to take a detour."

"All of us?" Jace asked.

"Probably not you," Quinn replied. "But maybe."

"We do deserve a day or three off," Greg stated. "It's not like we are being pressed for time."

"We are," Xera replied. "I can give you a single day off, and then Jace will be coming back to Harkon Secundus while you three deal with the Star Council's impending schism. I can't have all worlds locked down for too much longer, and as soon as they start to loosen their Cosmic Corridor lockouts, Troxanir's suicide bombers will resume their activity." She sighed, "They even tried to blow up my tower. They were swiftly dealt with."

Dee pulled out the kite, and as it drifted down, Jace grappled down to it, and then reached out to pull his allies on board. Letting the Mine's effect fade, the trio took flight once more – heading towards Priam's location.

Priam woke up from his meditation, quite hungry. He had been meditating for hours upon hours, only taking breaks to eat, drink, and relieve himself. He had to hop to a few different locations across the world, as he had drained the ambient Stardust dry. But there was no one else one the world doing the same thing, and so he was able to amass a large quantity of the substance.

It had been six days of almost nonstop meditation, on a world with thirty-hour days.

All in all, he had acquired 360,000 Stardust. Already having split it up between everyone, that meant they all had 72,000 Stardust added onto their totals.

Quinn had also sold off the rest of the items that Jace had gathered up, and with her Broker's Fee, that resulted in another 50,000 Stardust per person.

He was sitting atop a mountain over a vast lava field. The sputtering magma below was pleasant, as it brought a rapturous heat to him that reminded Priam of the hot deserts of Fernaid. He cracked open a survival meal and began chowing down, taking small, measured sips from his canteen.

The enormous lizard with blistering red skin, the Cosmic Corridor protector and Divine Beast called Fu Su, the Radiant Flame of healing, looked up into the skies. "Priam," he hissed out, "There are people flying above and descending."

Priam glanced up and spotted the familiar shape of the kite, "Oh, they're my friends! Please don't burn them."

The lizard scoffed, "Fah, fine then." He glanced over at the various creatures who had tried to attack Priam upon his arrival – all turned to stone from his petrifying gaze. "I won't add them to my collection."

Jace, Dee, and Greg landed, and Priam felt the heat around him fade. Fu Su looked over at the trio and growled. "Turn off whatever Skill you use to remove the heat."

"Oops, sorry." Jace deactivated whatever Skill was keeping the temperature temperate, and Priam sighed as the heat returned. "Hey, we're heading back to Khrox for a day of downtime. Ready?"

"Oh yeah. Did you guys see how much Stardust I got from meditation?!"

Dee walked over and scratched him on the head, reaching her hand under his dad's hat. "Sure did. You are amazing."

"And he drained the world of ambient Stardust," Fu Su stated bluntly. "This one is a powerful cultivator. But the world will need time to recover. Ten years."

Priam sighed, "Well, it was pleasant while it lasted." He bowed to Fu Su, "Thank you for accommodating me."

Jace led the way through the portal back to The Cosmic Corridor, and the thoroughfare was empty. He whispered, just loud enough for Priam to hear, "Where is everyone?"

"The lockdown," Quinn replied. "People are staying in their home world, or in Khrox. Troxanir's suicide bombers are a real issue."

"I wonder why he only started doing it now," Jace wondered aloud.

"Good question," Priam replied. "We know he needs Souls – maybe he's really close and just wants a ton of Souls really fast?"

"Possible," Xera replied over the comms. "Warping engaged." The world warbled around the group, and they were in the lobby of the apartment a moment later. "You get one day to yourselves. Then, we have to deal with the Star Council."

Jace went over to a couch, and his armor retracted revealing his prosthetic legs – all the way up to the hip line. The armor kept his privates covered. "Greg, mind ripping my legs off?"

"No problem," Greg replied as he walked over.

Priam rushed over, "What, what?! You're going to rip his legs off?!"

"It's the only way to get the Anathema Legs attached, and keep the (Augmentations)," Jace replied. "He already did it to my arm – it doesn't hurt."

Priam breathed a slight sigh of relief, "Okay…well if you need healing, just let me know!"

Greg ripped Jace's legs off, and Jace pulled the Anathema legs from his TPSB, holding them in place for a moment before a weird, grey goop surged out and sucked the leg into the socket. The armor reformed over the legs. Jace stood up, "Thanks. It'll be nice having my arms and legs all the same color." He frowned, "That sucks. Looks like both legs count as a single item, and give me one use of Arbiter's Anathema instead of two."

"How many does that put you at?" Dee asked.

"Five," Jace replied as he held up his hand. "So. Level ups, relaxing a bit, and then we deal with the Star Council."

Priam nodded, "Sounds good! I'm going to go and get something to eat that isn't paste from a bag."