The Boundless Expanse(An Epic System Apocalypse LitRPG)

Sessus had been reduced to smoking ruins by the battle between Graxus and Giressa, but at this point, the outcome was clear. The Seshari queen lay broken on the ground, trying desperately to defend herself with shields of karma and elemental energy. Graxus, covered in blood and wounds that refused to close, nevertheless stood above her foe, hammer raised to deliver the final blow.

His weapon descended from above, smashing through layers of protections, with the sound of tinkling glass. Giressa thrust her energy hands up to block, briefly halting the attack. Then Graxus' body bulged as he channeled more power into it, and he forced his way through, bringing the weapon down on Giressa's face. Her Dao Core shattered and her body turned to ash, floating away.

Graxus stood there for a moment, his body shrinking until he was his normal size. Blood sloughed off him like a waterfall as he did so. With the death of Giressa the karmic ties that kept his wounds open ended, letting his regeneration get to work. He ignored all of this, simply basking in the glory of having finally made a difference in the Genesis Disc.

His people had warred for millennia without making any concrete difference. The world had been divided into three for as long as any living being within the Genesis Disc could remember. Now, there was hope. A way out of the cycle.

As the final motes of ash that had once been Giressa vanished from sight, so too did the specter of her sovereignty. All across the city of Sessus, Seshari writhed in pain as their minds were uncoupled from the queen that had controlled them their entire lives. At a certain point, they had become dependent on the control, unable to live their lives without the comforting presence of their matriarch. If they survived the transition, their new lives would be very different.

"Surrender now and you will be spared!" Graxus boomed across Sessus. "There will be amnesty for what you have done, as it was not entirely your own decision. Anything past this point will be considered war!"

The nearest Seshari, only now recovering from their mental crisis, slowly got to their feet, looking at Graxus warily.

"How can we trust you?" one of them said. "Your people hate us. Every single being on this forsaken disc despises the others. What did we ever do to deserve this purgatory?"

Graxus stared imperiously down at the Seshari. "There is a way out. His name is Sam Atlas."

***

With the deaths of Auberon and Giressa, the political landscape of the Genesis Disc had been forever changed. Now, however, came the longest and hardest part. Actually clearing the dungeon.

Over the new few weeks, the Seshari surrendered quite easily. Without their queen to impel them to war, many had little wish to continue a futile endeavor. The problem was the Calabrangi. While some were willing to surrender, most were zealots to the church of jingoistic pride, unable to bring themselves to bow to what they saw as lesser races.

Sam and Graxus had been forced to carry out campaigns of great violence against the recalcitrant Calabrangi, only managing to force a majority of the survivors to surrender rather than all of them. Estimates of the remaining belligerents ranged wildly, but it was at least in the millions.

With such a daunting task ahead of them, Graxus and Sam were forced to look towards other avenues of victory. Chief amongst them was replicating the Seshari mental link and using it to broadcast messages to the Calabrangi from their own people. The holdouts wouldn't listen to anyone other than another Calabrangi, and if one respected enough by the masses called for surrender, it was likely that it would happen.

The only impediment to this was the difficulty in recreating the domineering psychic presence that had allowed Giressa to carry out her grand feat. It wasn't until over a month had passed that a prototype had been created.

Standing in Graxus' throne room, Sam and Graxus watched as a nervous Seshari technician put the final touches on the metal throne that would serve as the center of the psychic array. The throne itself was made out of iron infused with Giressa's blood and ground scales, creating a conduit to the latent psychic power that the queen had wielded. On it sat General Ophera, one of the highest ranking officials in the now defunct Calabrangi empire. She had a scowl on her face, but she had accepted her fate at this point and wanted to spare her people from death.

On the very top was Auberon's crown, an icon of the late king's sovereignty over his people. It was a symbol of the pride of the Calabrangi species, and a way to focus the gaze of the throne upon the rebels. Sam didn't really understand how the throne was supposed to work, though he supposed he should have, given that it was based on karmic ties. Sam's mastery of karma was quite specific, dealing with crime and punishment rather than rulership. He was a hammer whereas someone like Giressa was a scalpel. Still, it was up to him to use the throne. At least, to power it.

"It is ready, my lord," the Seshari said, bowing his head. As Sam approached, he scurried away, leaving the throne unattended.

Sam set one hand on the throne, and as he did so, the karmic threads around him snapped into focus unbidden, without any input from his Dao. There were millions of them, each presumably leading to one of the rebel Calabrangi.

"It's time," he told Ophera. The Calabrangi woman glared at him, her brown plumage fluttering slightly as she ground her beak in annoyance. Even though she had surrendered, her pride in her people was still strong.

"Fine. What is the message you want me to transmit?" she asked. "I will not degrade myself nor my people."

"Come up with something that conveys the information we want to get across," Sam replied. "I don't particularly care what you say as long as you try to convince them to surrender so we don't have to kill them."

Ophera nodded once and closed her eyes. Sam couldn't hear what she was saying, but he could sense the karmic threads quivering as she sent the message across. A few seconds later she opened her eyes. "It's done."

"Good. Now we wait, I suppose." Sam turned away from the throne and walked towards the open balcony.

He looked out the window, arms folded behind his back. With a neutral expression, he took in the Genesis Disc before him, thinking about everything that had happened over the last few weeks. In the outside world, less than two days had passed, but here and entire world had changed. Civilizations that had existed for thousands of years were tossed into upheaval, and monarchs who had reigned without question were now dead. It made Sam wonder just what his role in the Boundless Expanse would be if he ever came into his true potential as the Dao Incarnation of Existence.

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He stood there for a good few minutes, waiting to see if the Calabrangi would listen to Ophera and prevent a massacre. After ten minutes, Sam turned. "It seems like there are a few holdouts. What should we do about them?"

Graxus opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak, the skies outside cracked open. A titanic face pressed through the firmament, made out of darkness and the twinkling shimmer of a myriad stars. It was the face of a System Avatar.

"This world has been marked for reclamation," the Avatar declared. "Within the next minute, every living being will be transported to the planet known as Mercury, the site of this World Dungeon. What you do from there will be up to you."

The face receded into the sky, the crack closing up behind it.

"Well," Sam said, "I guess that answers our question. Before we go, I have a quick question. Just how many people live on the Genesis Disc?"

"About 10 billion, I think," Graxus said. "Why?"

"Oh. Shit."

The world went dark as the System started to tear it apart. Sam blurred through fractured space, before finding himself standing on the grey surface of Mercury. Only, he wasn't alone. For miles in every direction, a sea of people stood, looking extremely confused. Authorities started to sweep out to shield the weaker cultivators, though there weren't many below E Rank who weren't capable of surviving in the local environment.

"This might be a problem," Sam muttered to himself before turning his gaze towards Earth.

As he did so, the planet beneath him shuddered and a glowing orb rose out of the ground. A Planetary Core. A System message appeared in front of Sam.

Congratulations on claiming the planet Mercury!

As you are of a sufficient rank to assume Planetary Governance, you may do so by touching the orb. Additionally, you may appoint a deputy Governor, with full access to the authority of the Planetary Core. However, you may override their decisions at any time and transfer ownership to others of sufficient rank.

Which will you choose?

Personal Governance

Appointment of a Deputy

Sam thought over it for a moment and made his decision. He didn't want to personally involve himself in the running of the planet, and as it turned out, the settlers were already there. The billions of refugees from the Genesis Disc needed a home, and here was one ready built. Well, it would be built within a few hours by the Planetary Core.

Sam turned towards Graxus. "Are you interested in ruling this planet? Your people need somewhere to live and I need someone to govern Mercury. I doubt any of my current faction elites would want to come all the way out here."

Graxus nodded immediately. "I've been a leader for most of my life. What difference does it make what universe I am in?"

Sam accepted the System notification and a faint glow surrounded Graxus for a moment. His eyes glazed over as he read a message. Then he walked over to the Planetary Core and set his hands on it.

Sam turned away, but remembered something. "Do you need some Credits? The buildings need-"

Before he could continue, skyscrapers started to rise out of the ground beyond the edge of the crowd, dozens of miles away.

"We had credits in the Genesis Disc," Graxus explained. "The System's functions seem exactly the same."

Sam blinked. "Right. You seem like you have this under control. I need to get going then. Before that, you'll need to join my faction. I'll be able to communicate with you more easily that way."

After the quick process, Sam portaled away, appearing facing Venus. He wondered if Jacob had finished clearing a World Dungeon yet. Knowing the man, that was likely.

***

In the end, the Hyperborean Seas hadn't been that much of a challenge for Jacob. Each kill had netted him an increasing amount of Dao energy, making the next fights easier. His power had grown at such a rate that even as the battles grew more difficult, the golems growing in strength proportional to each slain, he came out on top.

The final battle had ended with a clash of fists, one the size of a city and the other that of a mortal man. Only, its owner was anything but. Jacob's strike had not only broken the golem's fist, but blasted its entire body apart in a single hit, ending both its false life and the World Dungeon.

The Planetary Core had manifested itself on a floating platform orbiting the planet, where Jacob himself had ended up after the end of the dungeon. As there was no surface to Neptune, any settlements would need to be constructed in orbit. Still, the planet now belonged to the Arbiters of Justice. At this rate, both Sam and Jacob would only need to conquer two or three more planets each to fulfil their goal.

Jacob's journey to Uranus had been far swifter than his trip from Pluto to Neptune, leaving him with much more time on his hands. As before, he dug through the planet towards its core, finding himself facing the World Dungeon's entrance.

The sphere of multicolored light hung in the center of the planet's hollowed out core, absolutely dwarfing Jacob. He took it in for a moment, a faint smile on his face. Even the man who called himself the Overlord could appreciate beauty and wonder sometimes. Though, as it turned out, his mission here was to destroy it.

He set one palm on the World Dungeon core and entered. The dungeon notification appeared as he stepped out of the coruscating vagaries of spacetime, the sharp, jagged edges of torn reality closing behind him. If the entrance was anything to go by, this dungeon would be different from the one he had seen before.

You have entered Uranus' World Dungeon!

Skyfather's Legacy: Mid D Rank

The titan Ouranos, namesake of this entire planet, once held sway over the entire universe, sharing his power with his wife Gaea. While Gaea is now dead, slain by the warriors of Terra, Ouranous lives on. He sees that you were one of those responsible for slaying his partner, and will take great pleasure in ensuring that slight does not go unpunished. To clear this dungeon, you must battle your way through hordes of lesser Titans to reach the Astral Throne, seat of power for the Lord of the Sky himself. Only then can you do battle with Ouranous himself and clear this dungeon.

Jacob stood on a dark stormcloud, stretching out to the shadowy horizons beyond. The sky above looked like it had been painted on, a shockingly detailed canopy of brilliant stars and galaxies. It was hundreds of times denser than the heavens of the real world. As Jacob took it in, he realized that the stars traced out the outline of a gargantuan face. As he stared, the face started to twist into a vicious smile.

"Jacob Atlas," Ouranous rumbled. "You dare to show your face in my domain? The face of the man who contributed to the demise of my lover? And my son?"

Jacob frowned at the last bit, before remembering that in his bid to claim the Seven Seals, he had fought against Cronos for the titan's sickle. While none of the mythological figures that the System seemed to love plucking from the depths of history were real, it seemed that they all viewed each other as such. The System must have planted the memories in their minds, otherwise Ouranous wouldn't have known things that had happened long before his creation.

Jacob merely curled his lip and within his mind, transformed into a different form. That of the Overlord. "I slew them like a butcher slaughtering hogs," he spat. "Now it looks like I can get the whole family as a package deal. The System might be the instigator of everything that has happened to my planet, but at least I can thank it for that."

Ouranous' eyes flashed as twin supernovas detonated in their center. "You will suffer for that, you bastard. I await you at the Astral Throne. For my sake, I hope that you reach it. I will savor stripping your body down to atoms, and spreading them across the skies to create a constellation of your own demise."

The Overlord merely laughed and with a wave of his hand, a pillar of red light erupted from him, spreading out as it ascended. Soon it blotted out the entire sky, blocking out Ouranous' face. "If a mere mortal can erase your godly image, that doesn't say much about your strength."

If the Titan did indeed respond, the Overlord paid it no heed.Instead he started across the desolate cloud, looking for the first foes unlucky enough to have to face him.