A Simple Transaction I

Prelude to Apocalypse

Hunger excavated another mountain range, scalpel of his will piercing crust, ridge and mantle to disgorge strip-mined desolation where harrowing peaks once stood. The metals so unearthed twisted and congealed into array before him, presenting themselves in uniform ranks as he examined and dismissed frightful tonnages of silver, gold, iridium and mundane platinum.

Nothing. He had scoured nearly half the continent on which they stood and had found not so much as a speck.

Adorie wandered over, hands held pertly behind her back. "What are you doing, Lord Hunger? Leveling the earth to construct a new city? Simply playing around?"

"Acting on an idle thought," he replied, waving his hand to restore the mountains as they were. "The Cloak of Sky consumed all your mythic platinum, and we're inside the Cloak right now, or at least in some spatial configuration associated with it. Let me know if you're not interested in your money back."

She giggled. "Hoping for a re-fund from the wishing well? That's very generous of you, but I don't believe the well of myth can be so easily gamed."

"Nor do I," Hunger nodded, "But it was worth the attempt. We would have felt foolish indeed, if the process had worked, and was never investigated."

"That's true." Adorie said, smoothing out her skirts as she sat. "Lord Hunger is still a wiser ruler than me. There's so much of the outside world that I don't understand. But being in here, it feels a little like returning to the Tower again... Not in a bad way! To me, more than anything, it feels like home."

"The home of your childhood," Hunger replied. "I suppose we have Augustine's mercy to credit, that you still have fond memories of such."

"Mm," she replied, subdued. "It's strange. Even though I've taken the Oath of Winter and eclipsed her power, it feels like I've still a long way to go before truly catching up to her. Sometimes I wonder what she would think of our present circumstances. Did she have any confidants, anyone she was close to? Did anyone know her true mind?"

"Gisena and I had a glimpse," Hunger said. "Provided by the Astral Entity I summoned. She was pragmatic. Focused on her task. Wary of her mother and her mother's forces. The position of Lord Protector brought little joy to her. Necessity pressed her forward. In some ways she reminded me of my own experiences against the Tyrant."

"Even though you were her enemy, you may have understood her best, at the end," Adorie mused. "How would she have felt about that? If you two had worked together, who knows what you might have accomplished? I may have remained the princess in the tower for ever..."

"Perhaps," Hunger conceded, "But it is unlikely. Cooperation often requires hierarchy, especially when the stakes are high and timing urgent. She would not have accepted the subordinate position, and I am unable to. And to retain the tenuous balance of equals, is a noble ideal that rarely persists."

"So cynical," she pouted. "I think you would have gotten along wonderfully! Though perhaps Augustine and Lady Gisena would have fought a bit."

"She believed Gisena resembled her mother," Hunger recalled. "And was convinced she was an agent thereof. It would have been a heruclean feat to persuade her otherwise."

"If anyone could do it, it's Lady Gisena," Adorie nodded, eyes shining.

"Oh, that reminds me!" she sprang to her feet, taking out a book from behind her back. "I wrote down everything I could recall of the magics of myth from the Tower library. It's not much, compared to all the tomes that were there, but maybe it can serve as inspiration for future research! And... well..."

She worried her foot into the grass before them, staining the toe of her sock. "Maybe you might be able to find the library in here, using this as a beacon? It's a silly idea, I know... but since you were able to find that book with Aeira, I thought there might be a chance!"

"I see," Hunger said knowingly. "First you mock me for searching this Realm, then you ask me to do the same for your books? What a spoiled princess."

"I'm sorry!" Adorie bowed her head, hands clasped beseechingly before her. "I shouldn't have made fun of your plan! I'll do extra research on the magic of the Cloak as penance."

"Using your apology as an excuse to study the books that you already wanted to read," Hunger shook his head. "You're growing up into a fine politician."

"T-that's not true," she shook her head, flustered. "I'd much rather read storybooks or histories! Please have mercy, Lord Hunger, I can't keep up with your pace like Lady Gisena."

"Practice makes perfect. Diplomatic relations are part of your duties as Queen," Hunger lectured. "In any event, if this library held such strong sentimental value for you, why didn't you evacuate its contents alongside your staff before I absorbed the Tower?"

She shook her head. "We tried, but many of the books disappeared right out of our hands as you consumed it! Some of them must have been tied more deeply to the firmament than we thought."

"All right," Hunger said, taking the journal from her hands. "I'll see what I can do. Just as with the platinum, it may feel foolish to try; but it would be even more foolish not to, in case that it works."

"Yup!" She rejoined. "With our combined Pressure, if they're present in any form, on any corner of this planet, we should be able to find them!"

"Hmph. If these books have taught you that planets have corners, I'm afraid they won't be of much value."

Hunger stood, and opened the book of notes, flipping steadily though page after page of neatly precise handwriting.

This was a vague notion at best, the issuing of a command to the Realm that it should deliver him a library "with contents similar to this"; little more than a naked expression of will and purpose funneled through a blast of world-encompassing Pressure.

Shockingly, it worked. Unfurling from the earth was a trellis of branches that smoothed out into a frame, from which extruded rich panels of oak that became a proper book-case. Then the stuff of evening itself swirled down from the heavens to congeal into covers and bindings; and as each was completed, filled in with silvery pages of text.

Hunger felt a pang of exhaustion, moreso than when he had called down and re-arranged the stars of this Realm, and fell briefly to a knee. That it had depleted him so badly in the presence of Adorie's bloodline was notable. He waved off the young Queen's frantic concern and stood again, gesturing to the books.

Adorie picked one up and skimmed its contents.

"They're here!" She exclaimed joyously, emplacing that book to pick up another. "This one talks about the foundations of Myth. I remember it was too advanced for my younger self, but perhaps after taking the Oath..."

Cheerfully she hugged his shoulder. "Thank you, Lord Hunger! This is truly wonderful!"

"I didn't really do anything," Hunger noted. "That said, I expect you to work diligently to help me discover new spells."

As it turned out, they had not summoned the full library; only roughly one-third of its contents were present in the bookcase, and any research into the magics of myth were confined to the lens of the Evening Sky. Regardless it was a spectacular find, and Hunger felt an unbidden urgency rise in his mind; for if two throwaway expeditions into this Realm could discover such treasures as they had, what might concerted excavation yield?

On the other hand, these serendipitous encounters were anything but replicable, and his earlier failure with mythic platinum hinted strongly that weight of effort had little correlation wth successful exploration of this type. If he wanted to produce wonders consistently, he was better served exerting himself towards mastery over the Realm itself, its productive functions and laws of reality, rather than simply substituting Pressure for skill. Idly he attempted summoning the solutions to other pressing matters, such as the sliver of his Blade that was stitched but still cracked - as expected, the Realm produced nothing. Some problems were beyond the matter of simply willing them to cease.

Night after night passed into memory. Hunger marshaled the powers of the Realm to call forth monsters capable of challenging him on both fishing line and field of battle. With his newfound Praxis technique, the Refinement of Battle, his durability and striking strength had effectively increased nearly twenty-fold, and the monstrosities required to quicken the Ring Hunger grew ever-stranger and more titanic in scale.

If only Procyon were still around; he would have liked to compare his strength now to the Armament's in its Shroud! Even without Vanreir's technique, he rated his odds favorably, but it was difficult to confirm without an undamaged Armament to test himself against.

Hunger spent considerable effort training, but much of his time was expended in the company of the others, lounging amongst the splendid accoutrements which littered the Realm like heavens-plucked stars. They regretted grievously that nothing produced within could be taken without, save the effects of food and drink and some medicinal elixirs. From this immaculate perch, the outside world seemed cruel and austere indeed; a cold dreary realm, mostly empty, that struggled to match the merest delights within the Cloak.

For Hunger himself this was not habit-forming, having grown accustomed to drastic shifts in his quality of life during his decade-long guerrilla campaign, but Aobaru and Letrizia took the news of their impending departure especially hard, and even Gisena seemed slightly wistful at the prospect of even temporarily losing her enormous research facilities.

The Lady Nullity had spent the last weeks fabricating a series of Graces augmenting her combat speed, allowing her to once more participate in battle alongside Hunger; though her reactions were still on the languid side compared to his ordinary pace, let alone his Refinement-boosted swiftness. Nonetheless, given the outrageous speed of his recent advancement it was a terrifying increase in capabilities, and the prospect that she would be able to effect another such increase every subsequent month was enough to give any right-thinking human pause.

At last the hour of their departure came. Letrizia tearfully consumed her last few bites of perfectly-flaky, indolently rich blueberry pie, washing it down with a helping pitcher of pure ambrosia. Aobaru demonstrated his much-improved fishing skills, grappling with a deep-sea behemoth whose shining length spanned many a river and loch. Gisena and Hunger finished one last spar, while Aeira returned from her latest expedition to regale them with tales of the desolate ruins and hidden ravines that she'd canvassed for relics. And Adorie, true to her promise, had new spells for him.

"The Empyreal Signs of the Evening Sky are built on a theme of warfare," she explained, reading from a text she'd penned. "The First Sign grants teleportation, because logistics is king of the theatre. The Second, grants the strength to resist overwhelming force. The Third allows for the summoning of reinforcements, or the pursuit of unconventional doctrines. The Fourth epitomizes offensive power; the Fifth, defensive. What defines warfare in the modern age? What instrument dominates the battlefield more than any other?"

Letrizia raised her hand. "The Armaments of the Human Sphere, of course!"

"That's right!" Adorie exclaimed. "Though, it was a rhetorical question."

"O-oh," Letrizia said, slowly lowering her hand. She began to sulk.

"Using the Sixth and Seventh Signs, I believe we can induce the creation of an artificial Armament," Adorie continued. "This would allow Lord Hunger to operate in combat with physical strength and speed comparable to his Rank! And in conjunction with his other techniques, allow him to safely engage multiple Armaments simultaneously. Once we depart the Realm of Evening, we should be able to combine the knowledge from the Tower Library and the newly-restored Fonts of Myth to quickly attain both Signs. It'll be a slight detour from immediately returning to the Human Sphere, but well worth it!"

"Good work," Hunger said, applauding the speech. "Though if you wanted to stay in Nilfel a while longer, you could have just asked."

"I would like to see the landmarks I've read so much about," she replied wistfully, "And the natural beauty of Nilfel beyond Miren. But there are more important matters at stake. The Walls of Myth have never in living memory been breached. Naturally as the Queen I must investigate the source of this new threat, and ensure it cannot harm my people in the future!"

---

The winner was [X] Honing, Flight of Falling Stars, and [X] Vanquisher's Grace + Auspice Temporal. Gisena is now capable of reacting at relevant speeds in combat, but will this be enough for her to keep up in the long run?

With Adorie's research, Hunger will be able to swiftly attain the Sixth and Seventh Signs of the Evening Sky, and subsequently an Armament tied to the Apocryphal Curse. By necessity Hunger will have to detach from Verschlengorge, so its Decimation will return, though that is a problem for the long run, given the urgent truth of war in the Human Sphere.

What shall be the Ultimate expression of the Apocryphal Armament, its Curse made sword and shield? Powered by a Crowning Curse, its might is twofold any lesser Armament, and potentially far vaster still.

[ ] Terminal Advent - The arrival of the Apocryphal Armament presages the end of eras, the rupturing of destiny, the annihilation of villains and heroes alike. All are carried away before its flood of epochal destruction: against which none can withstand, and after which the cycle begins anew.

*Special: Even without using its Ultimate, the Armament inflicts a mitigated version of the Apocryphal Curse against any opponents it directly challenges.
*The Armament's Ultimate unleashes an apocalyptic flood of misfortune upon the target and the target's allies, nation, territories and periphery.
*In conjunction with the Armament's actual attacks, a devastating blow that can sunder nations and topple empires. No throne is safe from this walking apocalypse.
*Reconciles you with Dr. Apocalypse, should you encounter him. Recall that he would previously attack you due to the Skyveil advancement.

[ ] Dog of War - Better to be a dog in times of peace, than a man in times of war; but if one must be a dog in times of war, then let one become the most terrible hound ever loosed upon the world. A Crowning Curse imparts peril beyond measure, and the Armament that bears it shall be forged with the strength necessary to overcome those perils. Raw unmitigated might shall be the Armament's province, the power to withstand the end of eons and emerge unscathed and harder still.

*Special: The Armament possesses no Ultimate, but is incredibly powerful at all times, even stronger than Fervenweirr in the throes of its own Ultimate. While most Armaments possess Rank 10 and Attributes in the 800-950 +s range, the Apocryphal Armament possess Rank 11 and Attributes in the 2000-2500 +s range.
*This is further multiplied by the Refinement of Battle, of course.

[ ] Interesting Times - "May you live in interesting times." The times are greater than any one man or any one Armament. Properly summed they encompass the universe entire, so why should one warrior be forced to endure all their upheaval? Nor is the valence of interesting events solely negative, so why should be the Armament's experience of its Curse? When this power is invoked, the weight of interesting times shall fall equally upon the Cursebearer's foes as well as himself, for good as well as for ill, typically with devastating effect upon the irresolute and unprepared. This is by far the most unpredictable of the powers on offer, with the very widest range of potential outcomes; but given that the Cursebearer already suffers the negative effects of the Apocryphal Curse, opening himself to positive events, and his opponents to events of all kinds, can only be a net positive on average.

*Special: Now you can experience the benefits and downsides of heroic protagonism, just like a real isekai hero!

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