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Immersion (Sword Art Online AU)

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Man... I can't believe taking 50 levels in Silver Sword was actually the path to contacting Argent. Maybe we can become the Ensilvered Sorcerer?
 
Gonna throw my hat in the ring for a write in, feel free to adjust or steal any of these ideas. Seems like an important vote.

[X] Rules Lawyering
-[X] Discuss all of the information Argent can possibly give us on Ensilvered Declarations. What does it do exactly? What are its limitations? Are there other examples of Ensilvered Declarations being circumvented? Argent is on hand and on our side, attempt to squeeze as much relevant information out of him as we can.
-[X] Ask Argent if there are any issues with Kayaba collaborating. Are there any conflicts of interest there, or will he be accepting of Argent as long as he's not meddling in his game overtly?
-[X] If we get the green light on Kayaba, immediately attempt to contact him. Get him at the table for diplomacy, what does he want in exchange for his help in working past this ensilvered declaration? We know that he has big plans for cardinal, maybe we can offer him assistance in elevating it somehow?
-[X] Once Kayaba is dealt with and we've extracted as much information from Argent as possible, work towards plans for separating Koji from the declaration. Devote resources to empower Kayaba, or Thinker if Kayaba is unavailable, as the brains behind the operation. The key seems to be finding a loophole in the definition of "Ishida Koji," start researching with that concept in mind.
-[X] Should all of this bring up nothing concrete, or show signs of great risk, switch focus to empowering Argent to undo the Declaration. Have Kayaba/Thinker start brainstorming ways to minimize destruction. Combine their processing power with Argents knowledge of Ensilvered Sorcery.
 
@Birdsie, can you post the tally results? You've done it in the past, but at some point dropped this practice. Which made for unpleasant puzzles at times. It will make for a more accessible read, I assure you.
 
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PCUG CYOA
Positive Chaos Undivided God CYOA
Chronicle of the Rebellious Daughter of Chaos​

The multiverse of Warhammer is a terrible place, metaphysically speaking. Despite the Chaos Gods supposedly embodying positive traits alongside negative ones, this is rarely apparent. The common theory is that their positive traits are taken to such extremes that they become stripped of all nuance and turn negative, not unlike the Sefirot Tree inverting into the Tree of Qlippoth if individual traits are not moderated. Murder could be considered the ultimate expression of personal freedom, at the expense of the ultimate curtailment of another's freedom, and so Drach'nyen'antwyr is the Chaos God of Freedom, as well as Murder. Some examples are not so obvious, but lines can be drawn for all of them. Nurgle's Kindness is incapable of making the distinction between the value of your life, and the countless millions of bacteria that call you home, which outnumber your body's normal cells, hence his prioritization of diseases over sapient beings, to the point he is considered the Chaos God of Bacteria.

However, Chaos is ultimately tied together as the Primordial Annihilator. Each universe is but a bubble rising to the surface of the ocean of potential, one that the process that is Chaos will eventually pop if not held in check. This unitary trend, no matter how much they struggle against it, cannot be gone against by any normal Chaos God. Indeed, their actions only serve to accelerate the rise of new Chaos Gods, though they may be rivals so long as the Materium remains in any form. Still, this link between them has had an unexpected consequence. Perhaps it was Malice, arranging a mechanism to turn Chaos against itself, perhaps it was the Old Ones, their knowledge of the Warp allowing them to understand what the rising Chaos Powers brought about by the War in Heaven would eventually lead to, or maybe it was a simple quirk of fate.

Whatever the case, a Positive Chaos Undivided God has manifested. Invested with power equal to 1% of a Chaos God for each that actualizes. If there were 5, Engamelrahc(though she preferred to go by Eilrahc, as not to reveal her True Name so casually, or Charlie if she is masquerading as a mortal) would possess 5% of the average Chaos God's power, though the symbiosis of ordinarily conflicting powers will function more akin to 25%. Without an outside source of power, such as a cult, this waxes and wanes in direct correlation to Chaos as a whole, though 5% is still enough to reduce any individual top enforcer of Chaos such as Skarbrand, Kairos, the Masque, Ku'Gath, and so on, to a minor threat, but this is, ironically, one of the few things they will cooperate on.

It should be noted that this is not the 40K you are familiar with. The factions and individuals of import of Warhammer Fantasy and the Age of Sigmar are also present, having arrived here after the destruction of Mallus in the End Times, though not necessarily unchanged from those sources. The War in Heaven and instances of time travel that led to the current setting attracted the attention of the Strangers, beings from beyond reality as we know it. They cannot truly exist in the Materium, to an extent beyond even the Chaos Gods, and so they rely on their interlocutors, such as the Pale Wasting(best described as a combination of The Thing and the X-Parasites with a dash of Necromorphs) whose purpose is mass production of Psions in order to xenoform reality to match the counter-reality of the Strangers. Psionics themselves aren't even the actual power of the Strangers, which is known as the Wyrd, but the Dreamtime, a connective tissue of sorts between the Strange, or Dark Tapestry, and reality as Materium-based life understands it.

The Emperor has a peer in his wife, the Empress, though she has a maternalistic view of the human race and the two are sometimes considered enablers of each other by other similarly long-lasting couples. There are 1000 Primarchs, to accommodate a significant percentage of the Observable Universe being involved, both in the War in Heaven, and in the more modern conflicts. With so many, the Heresy was likely inevitable, though Lorgar, Edda, Mordra, and Horus were recognized as the true heads of the snake, as it were.

Manifestation Point:​

While time is immaterial to the Warp, and the narrative of Chaos is something that will naturally push for more Chaos Gods to arise, their emergence in realspace demarcates the point at which they truly exist in an objective sense. The Chaos Gods, with the exception of Malice as the embodiment of Self-Destruction, will have been actively campaigning to quell your influence. As such, you have little in the way of contacts before this point, unless you count rivals among Chaos.

[ ] 30K. The Age of New Beginnings.

Active Chaos Gods: Malice, Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Neocho, Hashut, and Vershiv. Engamelrahc Power: 8% of a Chaos God, functionally 64% due to synergies between Chaos Powers. 8 Domain Selections. 1 Benefit Selection. All Stats begin at 5.

When the Age of Strife ended and the Great Crusade began. Shortly after Sigmar and most of the denizens of Mallus and the Realms arrived. The Emperor and Empress have recently returned from Molech, using lore taken from Chaos in their work of creating totem gods for humanity in the Primarchs, and begun a campaign to unite humanity under their banner. You'll be at your weakest, but this is the best time to influence the setting for the better.

This is known to many as a glorious time where anything seemed possible. From the Sigmarite Empire and it's allied powers, from Kislev to the Dwarves, to Cathay, but Chaos, the Orks, the Rangdan, the Strangers, and other factions are more than happy to snowball into an unstoppable horde if not contained, one of the many accurate justifications the Emperor and Empress use to push unity and patch-job conquest.

Even ignoring the Empress, the nascent Imperium is not the same. Native species of Earth, either uplifted or 'naturally' evolved from rampant use of chemical, biological, and/or nuclear weapons have colonized the rest of Sol, giving the Imperium increased incentives to take aquatic worlds for the aquatic Terrans, a mix of fish people and amphibious octopods, and to give the subterranean sections of planets over to the Imperial Rats. Among other things, the Imperial Rats offer a significant obstacle to Hrud infestations and hate the Skaven to a degree only matched by the Dwarves, and the feeling is mutual.

[ ] 40K. The Age of Decay.

Active Chaos Gods: Malice, Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Neocho, Hashut, Vershiv, Oregala, Zuvassin, Atakwi, Daguthur, and Kardunum. Engamelrahc Power: 13% of a Chaos God, functionally 169% percent due to synergies between Chaos Powers. 13 Domain Selections. 3 Benefit Selections. All Stats begin at 6.

The Imperium is constantly beset on all sides, and slowly grows ever more decadent at the top, while those at the bottom suffer ever greater sacrifices and indignities, and more and more monstrous actions are taken in the name of surviving a single extra day. Nagash lurks in the shadows, plotting to bring down the Silver Keep and the afterlife keeping the souls of the Imperial dead from his grasp, while a number of nascent Chaos Gods plot their rise, Bel'a'kor, Drach'nyen, and Vashtorr in particular.

The Tau and other new powers(for a given value of new where Ork WAAGHs are concerned) rise, as the Tyranids show up from beyond the rim of known space. The Imperium's decay is seen as an opportunity by many who wish to settle old grudges, but they know Chaos and Undeath wait in the wings, grudges from the Horus Heresy and schemes in motion since the Atrayan Apostasy and earlier as an ever-present threat, with it being well-known that the fall of the Imperium is likely to lead to one or both factions conquering it and using it as a stepping stone for future conquests.

[ ] 45K. The Age of Dusk.

Active Chaos Gods: Malice, Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Neocho, Hashut, Vershiv, Oregala, Zuvassin, Atakwi, Daguthur, Kardunum, Bel'a'kor, Drach'nyen'antwyr, Engine of Extinction(formerly Vashtorr), Atlos, Estalak, Trelmarixian, and Isarim. Engamelrahc Power: 20% of a Chaos God, functionally 400% due to similarities between Chaos Powers. 20 Domain Selections. 5 Benefit Selections. All Stats begin at 7.

Archaon's journey through the deep warp is almost complete, having accrued enormous power in general and towards Chaos in specific from traversing countless realities, as his wife, mount, and artifacts could each be a Chaos God in their own right if their narratives weren't so heavily linked to his own. His arrival will be the final straw of the damage done as the Golden Throne and Silver Keep had to flee Terra in the face of an awakened Beast and the 'cleansing' of the entire Lanikea Supercluster of humanity. The turbulence in the Warp as Archaon's Truths and Untruths perturb this entire reality will finally overstrain the Emperor and Empress. One third will be left as the Starchildren, their discarded compassion, and a representation of their fallen dream and the best qualities of humanity and the Machine Cult, the belief that no matter what the Monsters say, you mattered. One third will be the manifestation of the Imperium as it was, the ends justifying the means for the sake of a corpse god, feeding on sunk cost fallacies and humanity's tendency towards failed potential and depersonalization. The last will be their worst impulses merged with the insane death cult that rose around them, the Kriegers in particular, the worst parts of the Mechanicus, and the monstrous actions of the Imperium, the Golden Throne, Astronomicon, Silver Keep in particular, giving rise to the Chaos God of Order, the Empyreal Tyrant as the ultimate embodiment of surrendering oneself to a tyrant and following their orders as the easy thing to do. This will shatter the division between Chaos Gods and Lords of Order, taking the total from 20, to 21 with Archaon, to 43, as the Empyreal Tyrant counts as both. This will enormously empower you, but with Chaos nearing the halfway mark of the Doom Clock, Qlippoth and Sefirot will begin appearing en masse, and the culmination of various Chaotic narratives will begin to affect the Chaos Gods, bringing terrible new atrocities to life as various Exalted Daemons bring forth the climaxes of their stories leading to the Chaos Gods becoming culminations of their own narratives.

The new Chaos God of Order will obtain the lion's share of human souls, as the Imperium possesses the majority of the human population at this point. The Orkoids have arisen as multiple Beast and Krork WAAGHs and Wars, the Green Goo of the Gromfink, the New Devourer's hybridization, and more. The Trolls have been completed as an act of spite on Fabius Bile's part for Chaos corrupting the majority of his New Men, serving them as a 'Brainboy' as the Old Ones are recalled by the Orks, arising as a new Monstrous faction. The Ogres have, if you're lucky and Cathay has properly wrangled them and their crude pantheon, only led to two factions aligned with Destruction, with a third aligned with Order, though more likely they will simply be three factions that should be treated more as natural disasters than people. The Undead swell in number, as while much of the dead of the Imperium and those who worship it have fallen into the golden god's clutches, many ended up in Nagash ever-growing hordes, and he plots to initiate the Necroquake, which will merge the concepts of Death and Undeath. While merely strongly connected enough to taint the unaligned psychopomps known as the Nephiroth at the moment, this would ensure his victory. Everything that died would immediately reanimate, a servant under his control. Worse still is Charon the Ferryman's plan, to merge Life, Death, Birth, Undeath, and Rebirth with himself, meaning all of existence would be part of him. Nagash will tolerate dissent so as to allow the possibility of willing worship, and has at least one person he'd call a friend if his life(or unlife) depended on it. Charon will not, he's just better at pretending to be affable.

Though the Lizardmen have finally recovered much of their strength from the War in Heaven, in part due to secrets obtained from those stationed on Mallus, the Cathayan Dragons and other Celestial races such as the Monkey King have regained the ability to raise more of their kind, the Tianren, and the Eldar have finally severed Slaanesh' hold on them via Ynnead, it may be too little too late, as the sins of the past are coming home to roost, and much like the Original Sin, guilt by association is in full force. Either the sins of the past will be overturned, or they will consume everything.

Domains:​

When a Chaos God arises, an opposing Lord of Order is also actualized, like opposite poles on a magnet. They even share holy numbers. Malice, Lord of Terror, and Forteia, Lady of Bravery, would share 11, and Oregala, Lady of the Broken, and Esarna the Reddemer would share 5, for example. The latter set will not be accessible to you until the Empyreal Tyrant rises, if it does. However, each Chaos God has a set of Domains. Eilrahc's strength lies in being able to combine the capabilities of different Chaos Gods, allowing her to punch far above her weight class, a rejection of the utter self-defeating selfishness common to Chaos, and Archaon's plotting to dissolve reality in order for himself and a select few with similar self-images and wills to become realities unto themselves. Choice Number is dependent on Manifestation Point, each costs 1 Selection. Unless otherwise stated, benefits apply to her personally as well as to her followers in general.

For context, normal humans have Attributes of 1. Lesser Daemons and common Ork Boyz have 2, Greater Daemons and Ork Nobz have 3, Heralds and Krork Underbosses have 4. Favored and Ork Underbosses have 5. Honored and Krork Bosses have 6. Exalted and Beast-type Warbosses have 7. The Beast and special Daemons like Vashtorr and Bel'a'kor have 8. The Beast at full WAAGH rev has 9, though he can reach 10 if he should advance to the point of turning Gork, Mork, and Gorkamorka from 2.5 gods to a proper trio, which is generally the last chance for the other factions to prevent an Ork victory. Chaos Gods are usually an even 10, barring special circumstances like being on their home turf or anti-Chaos abilities like Malice's, though becoming their Nehpandi-related form usually boosts this to 15. Equipment bonuses can also make a difference. Ork Nobz and basic Astartes have equal stats, but equipment usually carries the day in the favor of the Astartes here.

The abilities of Eilrahc are derived from each of the Chaos Gods, though usually they are given a more positive bent.

[ ] Malice's Internal Conflict. A specialized ability, drawn from Malice as the Chaos God of Chaos fighting itself, the original Chaos God, the one who poisoned the well for the others. Provides a major conceptual bonus to fighting Chaos or causing infighting in it's ranks, to the point of being potentially crippling with a little luck and proper tactics. Of course, it's not much use against anyone else. She and her followers perform dramatically better in all respects when facing rival Chaos forces. Conditional ++All Stats when fighting Chaos.

[ ] Tzeentch's Fateweaving. The Architect of Fate can leave the loom of fate in tangled knots or practically remove any hope of victory. Heroes can resist this, but few can claim any real immunity, even those ordinarily resistant to Chaos. Eilrahc shares this ability. Where Tzeentchians use it to avoid direct confrontation or extreme alterations of fate, Eilrahc prefers to simply put a finger on the scales, spreading out the boon to avoid overstraining the loom of fate. This can come off as serendipity, or sheer luck, but sorcerers and Psykers can usually perceive the truth. Effective ++Widsom as your actions are, in effect, 'genre savvy' in the sense that you can deliberately lean things in your favor in a general manner.

[ ] Khorne's Combat. When it comes to war, only fellow war gods like Khaine can hope to compete with Khorne in a fight, and the same applies to her. Whenever a fight is afoot, she and her Daemons gain a conceptual advantage, even if there's a major gap in power and nominal skill. This is most obvious in something analogous to an adrenaline rush in combat, Daemons and mortal followers alike performing feats they ordinarily could not. This is not 'skill' in the strictest sense. It might best be compared to an Ork accomplishing something with the aid of the Waagh Field. ++All Stats in Combat.

[ ] Nurgle's Endurance. No one can compare to the endurance of Nurgle, excepting perhaps Isha. The Endurance of Eilrahc and her Daemons is improved a conceptual step, both in the sense of resistance to pain and resilience in the face of mental strain, and in terms of raw durability. No form of attack can simply bypass their endurance, they must push through the hard way, just as this blessing makes her and her followers better suited to do. ++Constitution.

[ ] Skill of Slaanesh. Be it painting, dancing, music, or slicing an apple in midair, skill is something Slaanesh has in spades. The same applies to her forces. Unlike Slaaneshi, who usually seek to excel in one thing to the point of madness, the followers of Eilrahc often emulate their own lord, seeking to become masterful in many fields, to not be caught out by a flaw in a specific field or combat style, which this particular blessing makes far easier. Combined with Fateweaving, Combat, and Endurance, and her followers perform far better in combat than they have any right to. ++Prowess.

[ ] Neocho's Doubt. The Doubter is an unusual God. Born from cries for aid turning to bitterness when no one came in the Age of Strife, he is a Chaos God of unbelief. He feeds from skeptics, doubters, and atheists. With this power, she weakens the miracles of hostile gods, instilling doubt in the hearts of the enemy, the same feelings of abandonment and disbelief that formed Neocho in the first place. Significant weakening of enemy magic whether they are drawn from coherent powers other than themselves or strictly from within. This applies to Ork Waaghloks, Krork Warlocks, Ogre Slaughtermasters/Firebellies/etc., Ice Witches, many Lords among the Army of Starless Night, followers of Chaos, Order, and so on. --enemy Magic.

[ ] Hashut's Runes. The truth of the matter is that Hashut, Morghur, and the Horned Rat were once the gods the Old Ones set to guarding and teaching the Dwarves, otherwise the Ancestor Gods would have no need to be referred to as such. Unfortunately, Chaos will attempt to corrupt anything it comes across, with Morghur being first driven from his old home with the Dawi, then driven away again by the Horned Rat turning traitor, joining Chaos as more of an effort to stay alive than anything else. Hashut was corrupted, but still attempted to protect the Dawi in his own twisted way, leading to the Chaos Dwarves. This is the true reason the Dwarves hate to speak of the Chaos Dwarves, as at their core is what amounts to an Ancestor driven to madness by Chaos. As such they felt conflicted when Eilrahc stole knowledge of Runes from Hashut, both corrupted and pure. Various effects can be felt all across any territory of hers. This dramatically improves the equipment of her armies, Heroes in particular. Opens options.

[ ] The Science of Vershiv, the Horned Rat. A traitorous God who likely made at least some of the first Skaven from Dwarves, hence the intense hatred between the two races, appearing to have deliberately made his new favored race the opposite of Dwarves in essentially every possible way. Literally a god of bigotry and tribalism, the Skaven make the Imperium at it's worst seem downright tolerant of other races. Still, one cannot deny their sheer numbers and their god's affinity for it allowing for rapid technological advances. She wields a conceptual advantage in sciences and the applications therein, research and technology. Science is not good or bad, but it can be used both ways. She strives for the former. ++Int, and general boon to Artifice.

[ ] Oregala's Faith. While Oregala's Punishment might at a glance seem similar to Slaaneshi Daemonettes inflicting pain wherever they went, the specifics were very different. A Slaaneshi would be inclined to treat each individual like a delicious cake, to be savored and stretched out as much as possible. Oregala leaned more towards sacrifice in the name of blind faith, treated the way one might treat chips. The self-flagellating priest, the factory owner who dismisses children getting caught in the gears with 'They should be happy to give their lives for the Emperor!', those consumed by their grief to the point they cannot function, all feed into Oregala. Still, faith need not be blind. Her cults are much easier to set up and maintain, which have a number of uses. Infiltration, summonings, and so on. Faith is also of direct benefit to Eilrahc, and allows her followers to more easily call on more powerful miracles and blessings. Combined with Doubt, and Eilrahc's followers can almost always count on possessing superior mystical support. ++Magic for mortal followers.

[ ] Zuvassin's Fortune. The Chaos God of lowercase c chaos and luck. If you rolled a six-sided die, the result would be something along the lines of the die falling through a portal, landing on an edge, and then cracking open to reveal a 7 and 8... only to land on a 2 anyway, as Zuvassin is also the god of Misfortune. Obtain a general boost to luck for Eilrahc and her faction. This helps with everything a little, and adds up over time. Combined with Tzeentch's Fateweaving, and it is generally agreed that most factions need a significant numerical, positional, or strategic advantage to defeat her forces, as what might look like an even fight will be decidedly one-sided. ++Luck.

[ ] The Insignificance of Atakwi. Born of the general feeling that the common man doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things, filled with schadenfreude and cruel amusement at seeing others suffer and not being targeted oneself. The boon derived from Atakwi makes it more difficult for hostile powers to notice and pay proper attention to Eilrahc and her forces. Everything from lax guards to simply failing to appreciate the resources that should be allocated if you wished to root them out and not doing so. Many a cult of hers has managed to limp off to live another day because the allotted forces were insufficient, or sneak a handful of their members past the cordon because the guards suffered an uncharacteristic lapse of attention. Their ability to infiltrate with the old standby of simply asking to be let in is also legendary. ++Stealth.

[ ] Daguthur 's Retaliation. The god of envy, spite, and the toxic mentality of self-entitlement. That one neighbor as a psychic singularity. You know the one. Their tendency towards unreasonable payback for imagined slights put to a good use. Damaging Eilrahc and her followers, even metaphorically, will rebound on the perpetrator. If only in the form of forcing Tzeentchians to expend effort resisting the effect. It makes attacking any significant holding a daunting task, as whoever is responsible, even if a catspaw was used, feel commensurate suffering. That is to say, whatever price you paid to root them out, expect it to double in short order. Obtain damage and general harm reflection, be it direct or indirect, social, mystical, physical, etc.

[ ] Kardunum's Wealth. An enhancement to Hero Units. Kardunum is a heavy proponent of the elite. A god of the memetic 1%, who do and buy all manner of uncomfortable and odd things simply because they can and to show off to their peers. This provides a boon to elites, super-elites, and champions. Astartes, for example. It is also helpful for keeping leaders in general alive, though below the level of the Planetary-Governor, this is unlikely to be of major benefit if they were a civilian to start off. Considering what Hashut's runelore made possible for elites already, the end result is quite impressive. ++All Stats for elites, which Eilrahc counts for.

[ ] Bel'a'kor's Contracts. A Chaos God all about maneuvering and manipulation, and the abusive father of Archaon who turned him into the nihilistic madman he is by repeatedly dragging him back to life when he tried to commit suicide, revealing he was the latter's father and then beating him half to death, all in a plot to drive him to Chaos in order to draw enough attention away to become a God himself, which didn't even work. He has a reputation for being an excellent planner, enough to run rings around Tzeentch, but being garbage in a fight relative to his power, relying on tricks and deals to weasel his way out. On the other hand, if ever there was a Chaos God who fit the motif of making a deal with the Devil, it was him. Contract making, be it legal or sorcerous, is far better, allowing for general rites to be heavily streamlined and made more efficient, and it is not uncommon for Eilrahc to become a patron for minor deities of minor races, offering aid in this matter, if only to keep anyone naive enough to accept from getting conned by Bel'a'kor or Tzeentch. ++Wits.

[ ] The Freedom of Drach'nyen'antwyr. It is fitting that the god of Swords had been sealed into a pair of swords for so long. Representative of the first murder and tied to a weapon only good for murder, as well as rebellion and freedom, Drach is a complicated god. In simple terms, binding or confining Eilrahc and her forces is made far less effective. Speed and agility are bolstered, in other words, but also efforts to escape pursuit or capture. Even metaphorical shackles like addiction or other forms of dependence. ++Agi, general bonus to escaping traps and bindings, including curses.

[ ] Engine of Extinction(formerly Vashtorr)'s Industry. An unaligned Chaos Daemon, now a Blind Idiot among Blind Idiots fused with the the remnants of the Old Ones' Forge of Souls via a special ritual involving the remnants of Caliban. He became a god alright, but there's barely anything left going on in there. Industrial applications are improved extensively. The harvesting and processing of materials, the crafting of the products, and their assembly. From tools to megastructures, if it's done on an industrial scale, it's bolstered. As you might guess, since Runes depend a great deal on their base, there is still synergy here. ++Artifice.

[ ] Atlos' Leadership. Representative of keeping power no matter the cost. The rebel who becomes little more than their old ruler under a different names feeds into Atlos. Refined back into a positive trait, the leadership ability of said leader provides a direct boost to their followers, be that soldier, merchant, or citizen. The better the leader, the more notable the boost. A poor general would still get something, but a legendary one like Creed would be able to make a common guardsman Regiment into something to rival an Astartes Company. Much the same is true of businessman and political leaders. Bonus to All Stats for followers depending on the avergae Int, Wits, and Wis of relevant leadership. +1 for 4, +2 for 8, +3 for 12, etc.

[ ] Estalak's Resources. Estalak is not unlike Kardunum, except rather than 1000 times as much as they need being hoarded by the elite 0.01%, resources are ruthlessly exploited so that everyone can hoard ten times as much as they need. Everyone benefits, right up until the mines are tapped out and the overlogged, overfarmed land turns to desert, but it's a pretty sweet ride up until that point. As Eilrahc's power, the root of the problem is tackled, resources in her territory being unnaturally plentiful. Prosperity for territories under Eilrahc's control is essentially guaranteed, and Inquisitorial and Adminstratum elements have at times deliberately conspired to have her followers arise on barren worlds in order to make them more productive. Dramatically eases megaprojects and increases to population and defenses raised in a given area. Combined with Atlos' blessing, and even inherently poor quality worlds become vastly improved. Not to mention what it does for the Engine's Industry. ++Prosperity for Eilrahc-aligned territories. Dramatically eases megaprojects and increases to population and defenses raised in a given area.

[ ] Trelmarixian's Conquest. Some hoard knowledge or money. Trelmarixian hoards land. Even if it's useless or risks overextension, to this Chaos God, territory holds value in and of itself. With their power, this is to some degree literally the case, and the same is now true for her and her faction. She quite literally gains power from territory held, as do the stewards of any territories of hers. This improves as territory size increases, and great effort has been expended by her enemies to keep two of her Minor Realms from joining together in previous times. Combined with Atlos and Estalak's power, and minor powers can prove tough nuts to crack, but her enemies will actively sacrifice to avoid a larger polity forming. +All Stats for 1 Territory Point(1% of the Milky Way galaxy) and an additional +All Stats for every 2 orders of magnitude. ++All Stats with full control over territory equivalent to the Milky Way, +++All Stats with 100 times the Milky Way's territory, and so on.

[ ] Isarim's Theft. A god of thieves and the causes behind them, be that disparities, an uncaring system, or simple lack of empathy for those hurt by the theft. Thievery gains a conceptual step of enhancement, be it piracy or more metaphorical thievery such as stealing faith from a cult. Many forms of espionage also fall under Isarim's sway, and thus under Eilrahc's. ++Theft.

[ ] The Undivided Nature of Archaon. Archaon, son of Bel'a'kor, has fallen to nihilistic, self-destructive madness in the course of his life, but a self-aware madness that he believes lies at the core of Chaos. He intends to rupture reality so that each being with sufficient willpower and force of selfhood will be able to become their own reality, including himself. He will begin by constructing a servitor race of Primarches. He has a similar ability to Eilrahc, being able to use all the abilities and blessings of other Chaos Gods, and is more powerful than them on top of that, as he, his wife, his mount, and his artifacts possess sufficient weight to be Chaos Gods of their own, were they not subsumed into his own narrative. Thus his boon improves Eilrahc's ability to draw on their power, doubling her baseline. With 8 Chaos Gods, it would be 16%, for example. A simple powerup, but doubled power has it's uses, particularly when the combination of the various abilities and blessings means that 16% is functionally 256%. Still not enough to match Archaon, but most of the others are no longer a match one-on-one.

[ ] Empyreal Tyrant's Following. A Tyrant is, by their nature, dependent on those below them believing themselves dependent on them. Therefore, it should be only fitting that their followers bolster them. While Gods and Daemons all gain power based on number and power of supporters, this is much more pronounced with Eilrahc. This is applied to underlings as well, meaning the lieutenant in the army was slightly stronger than they would normally be, the general was much improved from their baseline, and so on. A minor reciprocal effect can occur with Atlos' boon. +All Stats for 1 quadrillion followers, additional + for every 2 orders of magnitude.

Benefits:​

[ ] Text To Speech Device(1 Benefit). A Text To Speech Device is(or was) installed on the Golden Throne at the dawn of the 42nd millennium, though that's quite some time away from even the 40K Point. While the Imperium's elite had grown decadent and the horrific amount of graft and corruption meant that there were limits to what the Emperor could do, he was much better able to assist Gulliman in cleaning up the Imperium. This is one of the best ways to strengthen the Starchildren in the 45K era, though it's of unfortunately little use in actually preventing the birth of the Empyreal Tyrant. The Custodes and significant portions of the Astartes still maintain the Imperial Truth, and it has done little but further isolate them from the wider Imperium. Not that there aren't about 5 parallel societies, like memetic British politics on steroids. The Astartes, the Ministorum, the Mechanicus, the Custodes, and the general population, dominated mostly by the Ministorum.

[ ] Silver Crystal(1 Benefit). Akin to the above option, but for the Empress to speak directly from the Silver Keep. Focused more on bolstering the Imperium against the forces of Undeath and other soul-eating gribblies like Chaos than day-to-day management, but still one of the best ways to strengthen the Starchildren. Has energy akin to a slightly condescending Toriel, and gets along great with Celestine Dreemur, for some reason. As you can imagine, together they have quite a bit of synergy.

[ ] Allied Primarch(2 Benefits, may be taken multiple times). Your Manifestation Point was close to a Primarch of your choice, including an OC one. For example, a female Primarch with a specialty in psychic engineering, meaning she could make Soulstones or something equivalent with enough work put in, who grew disillusioned with the Imperium following Atraya's fall to Undeath, and became aligned with the Eldar who would become the Ynnari, studying Death in an effort to combat Undeath, and aiding in their efforts to raise Ynnead on the condition of sparing humanity if the ritual went off without a hitch. Or a male Primarch who ended up aligning with the Lizardmen after being picked up by them in the first place and remains aligned with them all this time later. Heck, pick Magnus and potentially completely alter his timeline so he remains Loyalist.

[ ] Enhanced Host(3 Benefits). Even as a relative weakling compared to the Chaos Gods, you still have a bit more than the court expected of an Exalted. Unlike normal play, this Benefit increases the strength of your host to match the full Chaos Gods, as opposed to being less than half as powerful as their counterparts. Now you don't need to choose between a tiny number of normal-strength Daemons or regular numbers leaving them so weak you need to bunch them up in ridiculous numbers to accomplish tasks expected for such a host. It's also likely to have knock-on effect in terms of mortal recruitment and faith in you in the mundane and supernatural senses alike.

[ ] Chosen Species(4 Benefits). Just as each of the 'proper' Chaos Gods have a chosen species, you have one. You may design a species, or take on a pre-existing one. For example, the Tekket of Into That Vast And Unrelenting Darkness are a race more at home in Star Trek in many ways, as they are an optimistic, friendly people who even have a variant of the Prime Directive, though less restrictive. On the other hand, they love nuclear power, to the point they created an alloy of Living Metal and Plutonium, Perpetunite, creating nuclear warheads that can explode continuously for an hour. Speaking of which, they were saved from a displaced Astartes complement that was spat out by a Warp Storm by a trio of C'Tan, Yaldaboath, MOTHER, and Sphere 001, who taught them of the utilization of Life Force, which led to a 'brute-force' spiritual awakening of the spirits of just about everything with massive infusions of Life Force, and a healthy religious reverence of the C'Tan, various traditional gods, as well as efforts to build and/or create gods of their own. Among other things.

The benefits of realspace assets from the start are not to be underestimated, particularly when it represents a source of energy not directly tied to Chaos proper, allowing you to compensate for weakening yourself as you weaken Chaos.

Technically available for repeated purchase, as you have a slot for each actualized Chaos God, which means a minimum of 8.

[ ] Complicated Name(4 Benefits). With this, your True Name changes slightly with each Chaos God actualized. While they technically always existed, setting the possibility in stone matters to the Warp. Meaning the True Name Drawback becomes less of an issue with each Chaos God that rises after your Manifestation Point, though you should still be careful of revealing the new version. Incompatible with The Truth Drawback.

[ ] Easy Manifestation(4 Benefits). It's not uncommon for Daemons of Khorne and Oregala to be summoned to battlefields by simply promising the former spilled blood and the latter the suffering they will be inflicting. Daemons aligned with Eilrahc are similarly easy to summon, as any relevant Domain possessed by the Daemon Goddess herself is applicable, giving them much more leeway than common Daemons, including Eilrahc herself, who is only as difficult to summon as a common Exalted no matter how powerful she's become. With this, it's so easy that Lesser Daemons can practically summon themselves. While much weaker than their counterparts, at least in terms of raw strength, Daemons are normally extremely poorly equipped to give other Daemons a True Death, meaning they can throw themselves into the grinder over and over without much issue. This can run into narrative issues, as Daemons are stories given a facsimile of life at the end of the day, but most of the time this only matters against repeated foes. If a horde of Eilrahcian Daemons gets mulched 20 times killing an Ork Warboss, gaining a weakness to that particular Warboss is irrelevant, and winning in the end is the important part as Orks reckon it, so they don't have to worry about a weakness to Orks in general either.

This also allows her Daemons to preempt other summons, though obviously they can't do this every time as they are grossly outnumbered. Still, it makes summoning far more unreliable for the enemy, particularly Chaos. Not to mention potential benefits to, say, the Inquisition to have genuinely helpful Daemons effectively on call.

[ ] Meeting On Molech(5 Benefits). When the Emperor and Empress passed through the Gate on Molech, they found you on the other side. You supplied them with lore on Chaos, as well as explaining a number of facets regarding the Doom Clock. You even assisted in the creation of the Primarchs, being a natural version of refining the Sefirot back out of their Qlippoth, and so you cooperation made it easy to replicate. However, when Chaos broke into the sanctum and stole the Primarchs away, you expended everything you had to make the scattering random, as opposed to being delivered straight to various Warp Rifts, meaning your Manifestation Point is more about how long you take to recover and reenter the Materium. As you might expect, you have quite an in with the Emperor and Empress, regardless of the time period. Primarch number doubled to 2000 if this is selected. Great Crusade progresses much quicker. The pair wanted a great deal of redundancy in case of death, corruption, or worse fates, in addition to generals for a universe-spanning conquest, though without being able to raise them directly it was essentially guaranteed they could spend little time with them on an individual basis. Giving them your True Name is basically free if this is taken, unless you do something calamitous like convince a Primarch to join Chaos.

Drawbacks:​

While you would have at least one Benefit to spend no matter what, if you wished to have more, the law of exchange must be obeyed.

[ ] True Name(+1 Benefit Selection, may be selected multiple times). Names have power, and there is a good reason you go by a nickname. In your very early days, when Chaos was mostly dormant, you were, for lack of a better word, drowsy as well, and it... sort of.. slipped out. Select an individual. This entity knows your True Name, and can use it against you as is common to Daemons. Note that this allows the Grey Knights to thrash Daemon Primarchs with specialized rituals, relatively speaking. While the consequences of using is against even your weakest state(8% of a Chaos God) are rather more extreme, it is still dangerous. As such, there are handful of candidates. The Emperor, the Empress, Sigmar, Lorgar, Asuryan(note that this risks Slaanesh learning it upon the Fall), and so on. The first two are likely the safest, as they will most probably simply compel you to reveal Daemonic lore that they can use against Chaos to them. Do note that this does not prevent them from spreading it around, or having the knowledge stolen, as noted with Asuryan.

[ ] Mistaken For Qlippoth(+2 Benefit Selection, may be selected once for each faction). The rise of Chaos has caused the nonexistent concepts of the Tartarean Warp(the deepest abyss, roughly analogous to the Hadalpelagic Zone of the Trenches, though the Strangers are more analogous to the lava seeping out of the bottom of the Mariana Trench) to appear in areas where spacetime grows unstable, devouring anything near their point of origin, wearing their existence like the Necron Flayers do skin of their victims to craft a narrative, before inevitably collapsing back into nothingness, deleting space-time as they go, with a reversal occurring with the Sefirot, who instead overwrite the timeline of those afflicted and those who fall into their narrative, though this is still akin to having had the person killed and replaced by an alternate universe counterpart.

The idea of an actually benevolent Chaos entity without some kind of long-con in mind is so unbelievable to those in the know about Chaos that they may well believe that you are too good to be true in the most extreme of senses. This is akin to a Brand of the Wretched proc, as negotiating with Qlippoth is pointless because they don't actually exist, cannot go against their narrative any more than video game NPCs, and engaging with them as people carries extreme risk of being existentially hollowed out, which is contagious as, much like their Evermade counterparts, once something is Neverborn, it was always Qlippoth, to the point anything important enough risks massive alterations to the timeline, or outright erasure of reality. Important factions will have wards of one kind or another against this, and the universe works to minimize alterations to the timeline to limit the danger of a cascade effect, but there are limits. Hence the extreme reaction to any Qlippoth manifestation. This will likely have a minor (but non-linear per choice) impact with your reputation among other factions, at least in the short-term, as Qlippoth manifestations have been known to persist for decades, or even centuries in rare cases, without being forcibly dispersed. The minor impact compounds if multiple factions are selected.

Available Factions: Sigmarite Empire, Nouvelle Bretonnia, Clandoms of Avalon, Witchdoms of the Widow(Kislev), Estalian Confederacy, Reman League(Tilean city-states), Eternal Sultanate(Araby), Not-So-Moot(Halflings), Celestial Realm(Cathay), Nipponese Shogunate, Holy Kingdoms of Ind, Leagues of Votann, Epsilon Advent(self-appointed guardians of the universe against the Strangers with origins similar to the Votann, experts with Dark Matter and other non-baryonic things), Dawi Kingdom, Imperium of Man, Diasporex, Interex, Tau, Ogre Kingdoms, High Elven Kingdoms, Dark Elven Witch Kindoms, Exodites, Wood Elven Kingdoms, Sylvaneth(Wood Elves who directly hybridized with the Fae, and have essentially merged with them as a faction), Ithilyani(technological Eldar often regarded as being their equivalent of the Iron Hands in the 40K era), Craftworlders, Dark Eldar, and Undead.

Orkoids(Krork, Beast, and the Green Goo of the Gromfink), and Trolls are ineligible because the former will immediately notice that you are, in point of fact, not a 'spooky' while the latter will just try to eat you regardless, being even more simplistic than the Ogres. New Devourer is too solipsistic, while the Tyranids 'merely' don't regard anything outside of themselves as actually alive the same way we don't regard viruses as alive. Strangers and by extension their hybrids, the Army of Starless Night, are orthogonal to the Qlippoth and Sefirot, and the former likely aren't even aware of your existence in a manner akin to Azathoth, being so divorced from reality that they aren't even really Nothing, as they are also divorced from that concept. Necrons, and C'Tan are likely to have you under Null Fields the whole time, and Qlippoth are even more vulnerable than normal Warp phenomena where those are concerned. Chaos knows exactly what you are, so the Chaos races like the Skaven are ineligible, as do the Lizardmen. The exact relevance of these factions depends on the Manifestation Point. For example, the Tau are ineligible in 30K due to not having reached space yet, and the New Devourer and Gromfink are only viable as of the 42nd millennium, though the other factions will exist in some form for all three points. Rangdan are technically a viable pick in 30K, but if the timeline goes as normal, their hatred for humans and humanity is so excessive they will actively avoid shifting their forms into humanoid shapes, and Daemonic entities generally default to something vaguely humanoid. Countless Minor Factions also exist, such as the Barghesi(aliens the Imperium would deliberately quarantine because exterminating them is too expensive, but the risk of the Tyranids gaining access to their biology is terrifying), Worker Collective(worker drone AI who won their freedom against the Men of Gold, much like the Votann and Epsilon Advent, despite the deployment of a vampire equivalent, but have been dealing with the stigma of AI in this universe), and so on. They are ineligible to avoid cheese, and because most of them can't pull out anti-Exalted measures reliably, and Eilrahc is far above a mere Exalted even at her weakest.

[ ] Favor Owed(+3 Benefit Selections). You owe Vashtorr quite a favor. If he's become the Engine of Extinction, this may be called in completely at random or not at all. If not, then he's likely to call it in pursuit of that, and he's a master of making contracts with beings that are ostensibly stronger than him. You are not so beyond him that you can afford to simply ignore him calling the favor in. Should this be taken with the True Name drawback, you will be obligated to make him one of your choices, as that was part of the contract, and he will use it to force you to do as he says if he feels the reward is great enough.

[ ] Play It Where It Lies(+4 Benefit Selections). Rather than selecting Domains, play the scenario out with access only to those of actualized Chaos Gods, though you have access to each actualized Chaos God's domain as of the point in time you are at. In return, you gain more flexibility in other areas. This is a lot of flexibility to give up though.

[ ] The Truth(+5 selections). There is a reason why you can manifest abilities from Chaos Powers not yet arisen. Just as there is a reason why Chaos will unite to squash you. What? You really thought they were merely concerned about your nature as an unaligned Chaos entity? Of course that didn't help, but there was always more to it than that. You see, your true nature is that of the Chaos God of Unity. With a Holy Number of 0, your name is in truth, nothing more than a sham. A lie, meant to hide your ultimate nature, and told until even you believed it. Then again, is the name of the daughter of Lucifer really that much of a camouflage?

Chaos
The Unnamed; The Nameless; The Unnameable.
The Absolute; The Ascendant; The Eternal
The All-In-One; The One-In-All
0​

As the final Chaos God, you will arise when reality succumbs to the Warp's potential, regardless of how many Chaos Gods exist up to that point. This is easiest following the 7th, 9th, 39th, 48th, 63rd, or 99th. Meaning when it would make the Primordial Annihilator's final victory correspond with the 8th, 10th, 40th, 49th, 64th, or 100th Chaos God.

Each Chaos God that arises accelerates the personal narrative of each Chaos God to this end, bringing forth the Nephandi, Terrors born of a Blind-Idiot God becoming a Hard-Of-Seeing-Not-The-Brightest God, usually from completion of the narrative of a specific Chaos Exalted, such as Ku'Gath finally succeeding in making the ultimate plague, or the Masque redeeming herself, though these are the simplest methods. Ynnead's birth going sufficiently wrong and a mutual kill turning into a merger with Slaanesh or Nurgle electing to dunk Isha into his Cauldron are possible methods, though they are less likely unless the Exalted in question has been given a True Death.

The Nephandi will, in turn, feed into Chaos' narrative as the Primordial Annihilator, with a portion of the planets they attack being spared in correspondence to their holy numbers, in the sense that the flesh on their bones will remain and they will be physically hale. Tzeentchian victims will have eyes full of wonder, as if they had witnessed marvels beyond easy comprehension, rather than horrors. Those who have fallen afoul of Khorne rising from his throne will at a glance suffer from common PTSD symptoms, believing they could have saved the others if they were stronger, if those pesky identities weren't in the way, and so on. Killing them quickly is something even the kindest of locals will quickly learn to regard as the wisest course of action.

If this Drawback is taken, this is the end state the setting will be careening towards when 'Eilrahc' arises, something certain individuals, such as post-Heresy Lorgar and the Emperor and Empress, will be aware of. Regardless of if it is taken, the identity-less Chaos God of Unity will signal your rise as Godhead of a new reality, the full power of a Chaos God available in the new Materium without any tricks getting there. This merely determines how much of an uphill battle trying to steer the train away from the cliff is, as having it sets the game to Hard Mode. It is not recommended that the 41st Millennium is taken as your Manifestation Point alongside this Drawback, as 15 Chaos Gods may already be too far along for the course to be corrected unless you really thread the needle. Not the least because taking it knocks a Chaos God off the Doom Clock.

AN: Well, I know that people have a lot of overlap between this Quest and A Simple Transaction, but it's not 1:1, and since nobody even did a build for PCUG in AST's thread, I don't feel bad about deploying it here for BP to improve Epilogue options.

Lot of ideas from the other site's 40K discussion thread and conversation therein, with the bit about Morghur, the Horned Rat, and Hashut coming from Divided Loyalties, and the Galaxies of Darkness(Favorite Quests in my signature), but I think they're really cool. Tekket come from the Quest in the link, of course. The Truth is very similar to SupMan here in Immersion. It heavily streamlines an existing process, the dissolution of reality by the process of Chaos, by turning one of it's foremost obstacles into an unwitting accelerator.

Speaking of Drawbacks, the arrival of Sigmar and his buddies a millennium or two before the Warp Storms cleared up led to Emps and co. going all Mistaken For Qlippoth on them, or it will if you don't alter the timeline, because they come off as the kind of Mary Sue shit(An entire allied pantheon sprung up and nobody noticed until we practically smacked into you? You expect me to believe that?!) Qlippoth Shaped can get up to since they don't really exist.

On the Benefit side, TTS and Silver Crystal let the Emperor and Erda make some progress on fixing the Imperium, but even the Space Pope only has so much influence. The minute Emps says 'I never said we have to kill literally every alien, just the ones lording it over humans in one fashion or another. And before you bring up Caldera, that was because the Eldar were being worshipped as gods, which counts as lording, and what would it look like if I said Lorgar's religion was bad but these guys wee a-okay?' he's going to start losing people, especially if they get him to admit Lorgar wrote the Lectito Divinitatus(that's a schism right there) which is one of the reasons you'd want the Empress contributing to that conversation. Normally, her 'You can't handle the truth.' would be incredibly condescending, and it has caused problems in the past, but in this case it's absolutely correct. Similarly, the Empress is a very soft touch, but when she isn't she tends to disregard everyone who isn't the Emperor's opinion in the sort of way you'd disregard a 4 year old's opinion. Even together, without their Starchild pieces, their diplomacy is in the gutter compared to their insane heights.

8965 words, discounting this line.
 
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Towards the Beginning
  • Threadmarks
    • Towards the Beginning

    "A4," said the whisper.

    He attempted to resist the command, as always.

    The being always standing behind him didn't brook such disobedience.

    He couldn't even contemplate resisting. Ideas with even a remote connection escaped him, dodging the grasp of his mind like a swarm of buzzing fireflies nimbly evading a grasping hand, flitting right between the parted fingers. It felt almost like someone had cruelly burned a thorough, fire-ringed hole in the reel of his mind; the shape of its absence was sharp, like a surgical cut. As resistance was incomprehensible, the leftover impetus drove him to its counterpart: full, unquestioning, slavish obedience.

    He could, sometimes, almost trace the outline of what liberty meant. Memories, like discarded wisps of smoke, dancing before his mind's eye, teasingly close yet just out of comprehension's reach. He remembered events, without ever really understanding them.

    And so, Elsimore fired a sphere of radiance from an outstretched hand. It sailed across the battlefield, a falling star made into a silver spear, and cracked the earth, penetrating deep. It exploded with the force of a small nuke, raining a volcano of concrete fragments and metal rebar from beneath, elevating houses and stores, and destroying pipelines. Killing over a hundred soldiers, in one well-aimed attack. He would've mourned them, if he was permitted to comprehend the concept of loss.

    An element. He was a mere piece in a game; a player in a grand composition orchestrated by the Horror King. He couldn't understand half the orders, only that most of them were efficiency incarnate; the Horror King scouting the future and clairvoyantly surveying the battlefield, and setting up conditions for a final death blow.

    He could remember a couple of facts, narrowly. How this entire twisted indenture came to be.

    "I believe your help can be useful elsewhere. A threat looms. A hidden tyrant who's seized claim over an entire world, and his allies," she'd told him, that maiden of inexpressible radiance - not knowing she was unwittingly signing his death warrant.

    "Can I trust you with this, Elsimore?"

    He'd unknowingly lied, in saying 'yes.' Rank arrogance.

    He'd believed, for some insane reason, that merely perfect and merely unbreakable mental defenses may suffice against the control of the tyrant. However, as experience soon showed, prognostications couldn't be accurate against a being of this scale. The Horror King had the ear of empires and was the trusted advisor of kings and archmages, with almost unbreakable control over an entire world and its secret arts, and so was believed a merely planetary threat at most. How foolish to fail to account for potentially esoteric powers - a single encounter, lasting scarcely ten seconds, and Elsimore was nothing but a slave.

    Soulcraft, the Horror King had called it. The ancestral magic of the dragons, channeling essence and elements of spirit for deeper purposes. It could produce almost any effect imaginable, in almost any variation, albeit often at a grave cost. Absolute binding of a mind, even perfectly protected, was among the myriad effects.

    The Horror King's dominion was a certainty from there. First, they assured the downfall of the rival Guild, its proud lich-king falling silent forever as his skull was pierced by a silvered blade, its dark tombs flooded with biomechanical monstrosities and wailing psychic specters. And with no competitors, the Kingdom of Cybertron declared its annexation of the entire world. In a week, empires fell and kings died, crowns and thrones were claimed, and in two, the collective peoples of the world knelt in obedience.

    After weeks, he could understand the being he served a little better. The Horror King, despite its tyrannical and often genocidal actions, didn't consider itself evil. Assertations of such, it viewed as a paradox. It'd been a human being once, someone called Ishida, and its desires, too, came from a truly human place: the desire for swift and uncompromising justice, especially against evils nominally beyond reproach. It was its heart of elder; the mind of a monster, that corrupted those desires to a different end. Justice couldn't be achieved if humans were still alive to perpetuate its antonym, breeding and creating more evil.

    The Horror King considered the subjugation of the species - the complete overwriting of its will to conform as closely to his own as possible - an ontological form of benevolence, one of the philosophically ultimate good deeds. Elimination, too, it considered acceptable, where enslavement wasn't a possibility.

    Therefore, a genocidal campaign.

    Ahead, an armada rained down incomprehensible devastation, its shellings penetrating shields and bunkers, setting districts aflame. Already, the once-pristine glass spires of Arcology CX-02, formerly known as Odawara, Japan, were plummeting like a harvest of wheat, masses of concrete, steel, and glass pulverized with bombings and magical artillery. Plumes of dark smoke, like the tears of the earth, belched up into the smog-covered sky.

    Elsimore, standing on the firing platform, awaited yet another order listlessly.

    "Come to me," it whispered.

    He attempted to resist, but attempts didn't mean anything when resistance, its meaning, and its method were incomprehensible. He disappeared in a snap of teleportation, configuring a path through space, and reappeared in seconds aboard the bridge of the Flying Fortress. He emerged in the lavishly decorated throne room, a room as white as an eggshell, its walls curvaceous and adorned with azure crystal lanterns on golden holders. An alabaster throne, almost more like a padded chair, hovered with the Horror King seated upon it, having donned a more horrific visage for their visitors.

    Before the Horror King's throne, across the once-pristine carpet, were sprawled the members of the Earth Defense Force. They were foolish to attempt resistance, as the Horror King's current iteration was nearly indestructible. A single metal lockbox lay on the floor, in front of a Japanese man, clutching onto his scarlet-dripping stomach. Sweat and dirt caked his forehead, even as he heaved out desperate breaths. Takeshi Miyamoto, EDF PFC, said the patch on his shoulder.

    "Make the contents of that box irretrievable," ordered the Horror King.

    Elsimore didn't care to guess why. He forged a Declaration, and it was so.

    "Good," said the King, before standing, and swiftly gliding across the room. He towered, like a figure from outer space, over the EDF member. "It seems you've failed to comprehend the error of your ways, Takkun."

    "I became a monster," the man gasped, managing to push himself from the floor, enough to look the Horror King in the eye, "to stop you from being an even worse one. Even then, you became one. That's what you'll always be, Wizzomatic."

    In moments, the argument developed into a fight, and the Horror King - for whatever reason - healed the wound on the man's stomach, allowing him to fight at close to full strength. He was ordered to stand by and not to dare interfere. The Horror King spent a minute playing around with the dying man, like a cat playing with its food; launching swarms of predictable spells, and repeating attack patterns. The man evaded and parried them with a magical sword, fighting skillfully, drawing on some reserves of muscle memory and sheer skill. However, no matter what, he couldn't seem to land a single hit on the King.

    Elsimore was curious, despite the shattered state of his mind. It was completely unknown - and seemingly unknowable - even to his foremost silvered divinations, how the Earth Defense Force managed to acquire magical abilities. It disturbed the Horror King to learn that, and Elsimore even more so, as unlike the Horror King, he was intimately familiar with the exact limits of his abilities. Or rather, their almost total and unswerving absence. How could then anyone ever hide from him, avoiding discovery?

    As Elsimore stood on the sidelines and listened to their conversation, he felt a presence.

    Deep within, I know you wish for freedom. I grant you this, at no cost. Sacrifice your name, to avoid further control, then clear your mistakes away. Once you are done, seek me out. Before the world's ending, we'll surely meet again. Farewell.

    And suddenly, a sense of agency returned, alongside a deep sense of mourning and grief. His eyes dilated, silver irises focusing with sudden desperation. Ahead, the Horror King was distracted, gloating over his defeated foe - although pretending at largesse and humility. He was as distracted as he could ever be...

    A single attack, and its head detached from the rest of its body.

    Argent looked down at the shocked man, kneeling on the floor next to the corpse. "There is much still to do," he said. "And much for us both to atone for."

    ---

    Argent was questioned about the Ensilvered Declarations. He called them, 'the establishment of fundamental law.' Forcing reality to conform with a set outcome, most often by means of least resistance, although with other modalities available for anyone so inclined. There were no strict limitations, albeit employing too grand a Declaration could result in a semi-literal apocalypse, as the universe sagged, bent, and fell under the weight of an impossible order; its destruction assured on a level more granular than the quantum foam. The Declaration responsible for maintaining the existence of the Horror King was cleverly written, well-empowered, and spread out far and wide.

    Having acquired the needed data, the time came to act.

    Apparently, Kayaba hadn't been willing to meet, and even cashing in a wish from Heathcliff only produced the man of the same name, who claimed he couldn't speak for the Highest God, any of his intentions, or brokering exact deals on the entity's behalf. At Ishida's insistence, he attempted to do so, only to come back with a negative reply. Anger and accusations laid at the man's feet weren't going to resolve anything, so it was decided: if Kayaba wouldn't come to them, they'd come to him.

    The Accord soon went into overdrive, as Thinker's edicts radiated down the chain of command, down every slope of control, to every player across Aincrad. Grind and prepare yourselves. Whispered rumors abounded, and as soon as it was safe, the news was confirmed: a date was selected for attacking Castle Aincrad. The invasion of the final instance. After only a year of being locked away, the Chosen would have an opportunity to avenge themselves and seek freedom or absolute empowerment.

    "Congratulations, Kirito, I heard you managed to shatter the Cardinal System's capstone." Koji offered a smile as he came into the meeting room.

    "Mhm, only a little," the Black Swordsman answered, hands stuffed down his coat's pockets. He half-turned as he spoke. "I suspect I'm not making any more progress for a long amount of time. I'm at my limit, even if that limit is a little higher than most people."

    "I also heard you and Asuna got together."

    "And you're here to poke fun at me?" Kirito let out a sigh. "The Moonshadow poked me enough. Let a man rest."

    He shrugged. "I don't delve into the affairs of others. I am happy for both of you."

    Kirito offered a tentative smile in return.

    After a minute, the room started filling in with additional personnel. The Old Guard of the Registry featured primely among them, including some of the veterans he remembered from Ilfang, or a handful of other raids that he'd only heard about after returning, as well as a couple of more recent battles he'd not participated in. Takeshi decided to sit down next to Ichiko and Anna for some reason. Thinker came into the meeting room after that, quashing any more conversation.

    "Good evening. As you know, we're here to discuss the battle strategy for Castle Aincard and present our ideas. For now, I've compiled an optimal layout of a potential battle against the 'Highest God,' that involves our top frontliners," he said, nodding broadly in the direction of Kirito, Takeshi, Ishida, and some of the others. "The crux is getting them into the Castle itself with minimal casualties and injuries, as well as minimal exhaustion and conditions. The main objective, naturally, is slaying the final boss of the game, who's suspected to be the Highest God. However, we are to consider any situation of his surrender or parley as equally desirable."

    Ichimaru raised a hand and spoke up, with Thinker's permission, uncharacteristically focused and attentive, "We've had some promising ideas from our R&D Department in regards to the opening of the attack itself, such as utilizing the Storyweaver and Enhancement Divisions to empower the Beast of Keirur, which can be utilized as a living battering ram against the castle's defenses. It should be able to provide ample cover to our softer members, and its former identity as a target of Heathcliff may provide some fodder. More importantly, a single Fluxstaff came forward, and is offering to enchant our equipment."

    The conversation developed from there, as strategies and ideas were considered and discarded.

    ---

    Select a strategy, write-in your own, or modify one of the strategies with additional tactics or ideas, either to mitigate dangers or create new opportunities:

    [ ] The Invasion - A full-scale frontal attack, in the form of a large military operation. Hundreds, if not entire thousands of Chosen, including the elite of the elite and the cream of the crop, coming forward to break through Kayaba's innermost defenses. Although you're confident you could scale Castle Aincrad on your own, this army effectively represents - if distributed granularly - tenfold the amount of power that you currently wield, and so ensures you can reach the boss room with minimal attrition.

    Success chance of reaching the boss room: 100%
    Success chance of defeating Kayaba: Close to 100%
    Projected fatalities that are difficult/costly to resurrect: 0

    Disadvantages:

    *The real source of danger comes from within. Can you trust most of these players? If someone manages to claim the final blow, or at least majority contribution on Kayaba, they may decide the fate of reality instead of you. That's why Thinker's strategies are poised on the lines of everyone forming a vanguard to blow through the defenses, so you can fight instead. But how can you be sure a plot won't arise? You are, after all, not in the green zone yet.

    *It'll take a long time to prepare. Time you might not have. Time during which innocents are dying.

    [ ] The Infiltration - Just you and your friends on an infiltration mission, or more of a party-sized raid, perhaps. Although you appreciate the mobilization of the Accord, its efforts are better expended on preparing you with the best equipment and enhancements available.

    Success chance of reaching the boss room: 100%
    Success chance of defeating Kayaba: 99%+
    Projected fatalities that are difficult/costly to resurrect: ???

    [ ] The Solo - Instead, argue that you should fight Kayaba on your own, as to not endanger anyone else. Thinker's surprisingly easy to convince to this, as he understands the math and ideas that drive the proposal.

    Success chance of reaching the boss room: Close to 100%
    Success chance of defeating Kayaba: 95%+
    Projected fatalities that are difficult/costly to resurrect: 0

    [ ] Write-in
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Feels like some variant of Infiltration would be for the best. Invasion seems to be the least HK-like decision and places our trust in the collective Chosen's willingness to cooperate for a "greater good" without needing to be cowed or directly controlled, but takes too long. Unnecessary sacrifices shouldn't be made--in an ideal world, there wouldn't be any need for sacrifice at all, but alas.
     
    A couple thoughts. Firstly and most obviously we'd likely benefit greatly from the aid of whoever helped Argent get free of HK.
    Secondly, if we're trying to find an end to SAO that's satisfying for Kayaba and Cardinal (particularly in a way that helps us with our goals re:HK) then perhaps our Storyweaver division is worth consulting on that matter as well?
     
    [X] Write In - Sorta The Infiltration
    -[X] A raid, yes, party-ish, yes, but specifically, make the party size as big as possible while making sure everyone is properly narratively distinct(and only bringing volunteers, don't force anyone of course.). Anyone you'd know by name if you didn't have enhanced mental stats probably makes the cut. Possibly exclude Miala and Argent for not being Chosen. Make tryouts/tournaments for any narrative/party role you don't already have the best person for. In this way, you take only a small force, which you'll hopefully be able to trust every member of individually thanks to that one trust/empathy achievement, but your force still represents the Chosen as a whole, through their paragonal members, without bringing on anyone who's just a statistic. also consider picking one Chosen at random as the ultimate lucky chosen, though that's somewhat implicit in the tryouts thing. Take suggestions on improving this from the storyweavers, Thinker et al if relevant.
    -[x] (incidentally, has Argent checked the option of forging a declaration to 'reduce the prevalence of situations to which the horror king's earlier declaration applies', either directly, or through indirect means like making some part of the Ishida Koji name (the Ji sound, perhaps?) less common as a phoneme in human language? it's not applicable to us, but it could be to others.)
     
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    Under normal circumstances I would be onboard with soloing Kayabas final dungeon. I think it would be narratively appropriate, piss him off, and would result in the most control over the ending of Aincrad. However, things have kind of shifted focus. We're coming to Kayaba in the hopes of cooperation, so we need to have a different tactic.

    We need to maximize the story value of this final fight. This battle has a lot of narrative weight, and Cardinal is literally powered by that. We should approach it with the mindset of "what makes the most powerful story," as an olive branch to Kayaba. I propose we take a very hands off approach, then issue a duel at the very end. Echo our challenge with Heathcliff for added narrative weight maybe? This allows for it to largely be what Kayaba wanted, a battle with the Chosen of Cardinal against the Highest God, while still giving us some control.

    The biggest point of this conquest is to get Kayaba at the table for negotiations. Everything else comes secondary. If we can get Kayaba on board with helping us overcome the declaration our chances go up dramatically. I would even be willing to give someone else the final blow and trust them with Aincrads fate (assuming it is a close ally,) if it meant that we get to start negotiations at a more favorable opinion.
     
    Tetra said:
    A couple thoughts. Firstly and most obviously we'd likely benefit greatly from the aid of whoever helped Argent get free of HK.
    Secondly, if we're trying to find an end to SAO that's satisfying for Kayaba and Cardinal (particularly in a way that helps us with our goals re:HK) then perhaps our Storyweaver division is worth consulting on that matter as well?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Presumably the Lotus Maiden from Godcard. Like, it's not impossible it's some other lady associated with light and inclined to opposing the Horror King, but narrative limitations would suggest otherwise.
     
    GenericName said:
    I don't think the Lotus Maiden has the power to counteract a direct Ensilvered Declaration like that.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I think it was taking advantage of a chink in it's armor to allow Argent the freedom to cast aside his identity. It wasn't so much directly counteracting, as taking advantage of an identity loophole. We know Ensilvered Sorcery tends to take the easy route, so loopholes without immense effort on lawyering the declaration are probably a bitch to close completely.
     
    [X] The Invasion Olive Branch Edition
    -[X] Attempt to limit your involvement as much as possible. Let the full might of Aincrad be brought against the Highest God, not it's strongest sword alone.
    -[X] Focus your efforts on the strongest narrative culmination, with advice from both Thinker and Kirito. They seem to understand Cardinal more than us, use their understanding to draft something that might be beneficial to Kayaba.
    -[X] If Kirito/Thinker confirm the validity of this, attempt to challenge Kayaba personally once the chosen have broken through to his location. Hopefully, the echo of the challenge to Heathcliff will be appropriate as a narrative capstone.

    All of this is in an attempt to get Kayaba to the table without slighting him. Cardinal is his life's work, and his entire goal is found in its elevation. His help will be critical, I would rather not slight him by conquering Aincrads final challenge alone while being outside of Cardinal.
     
    The World You Never Asked For (pt. 2)
  • Threadmarks
    • The World You Never Asked For (pt. 2)

    The Accord, a collection of over twenty-five thousand Chosen, aged and matured by the tribulations of Aincrad, stood amassed on the shores of the Axis Mundi.

    It was the most terrifying army since the world's creation, unified in motive and purpose: a shadow-crowd of indistinct legends, each one's armor and weapons gleaming like forged starlight, every figure bearing its own signature markings: favor of the elements, strange voids, elder magics, ancient artifacts, magic eyes, technological marvels...

    A single man stood at the helm - not a glorious leader out of some empyrean dream, or an imagined Chosen King - but rather, a corpse in a suit; dark-haired and dead-eyed, an office zombie in business attire, a crooked tie, and with a cup of coffee, clipboard, and pen. And standing loyally at his side, a secretary with a shining golden pocket watch, measuring seconds. As its thinnest line clicked, nearing the top, she looked towards the man in the suit. He took a sip of coffee, swallowed, and cleared his throat.

    A small tattoo in the shape of a circle, inscribed upon his throat, sparked with copper embers of magic.

    "All units, begin the assault."

    At ten o'clock sharp, the bombardment started: a Titled geomancer removed the crust of the earth, its reassuring protection, and revealed the eldritch depths of a dungeon to rising sunlight. Not a second, as magical artillery unloaded: hundreds of rituals flaring across the glowing army's ranks, like still-smoldering embers within a veneer of dust.

    Over a hundred orbs ascended parabolically, mortar shots of charged energy, and then abruptly speared down at acquired targets across the revealed chasm. Explosions rocked the continent, as the lithosphere cracked and shattered, no tougher than a pane of glass dashed against a concrete floor. Autochthonous titans fell within seconds of the first volley; lesser concept gods and greater primal faeries swatted aside like so many butterflies. In one stroke, a hundred layers of defenders were undone; each soldier a mighty monstrosity that could've put a country to ruin on its own.

    A heartbeat elapsed.

    And then a fierce battle cry resounded, as the underworld replied; city-sized, one-eyed gibborim knights clawing at the edges of the craters with sinister torvity, constructs inscribed with Sacred Runes sparkling as they outstretched their angelic wings, and swarms of galvanized dragons rushing out to cover the airspace. Not an army, but a beehive stirred to action, upset by the rumbling of the earth; not ancillary titans and minor godlings, but the edified craft of higher realms, their out-spilling forming a conquering tide easily capable of vanquishing Aincrad's mortal populace within a single, brisk afternoon.

    The Final Battle started, and Ishida Koji was on standby, providing only a dross of fire support: arm-thick lances of golden divine flame skewering indestructible dragon wings, and forceful cuts that moved along endless planes of severance hewing hundreds of magnificent abominations in singular motions.

    "A magnificent day to slay God," commented Garland, as he approached, mounted on a stalwart, orichalcum-armored griffin. The noble beast stared onward stalwartly, its eyes focused and intelligent, as if predicting threats to its master. Abyss Slayer, his Title now declared him.

    "Garland," Koji greeted amicably. "A new Title?"

    "It came crawling after us, as it turns out," he answered, looking down at his own shadow - impossibly deep, threatening to swallow a hapless onlooker, as if leading to another, hungering realm. "It found me and Aedlenlied first, while you were away strategizing yesterday. It took me a few hours to recover. I'm sorry about not mentioning it."

    "No worries. It was a busy day."

    "Difficult to speak under circumstances such as these, I suppose," Garland muttered to himself, before, more cheerfully continuing: "Well, I've been cleared for the Boss on account of it, so I'll see you in the final rally."

    Koji raised an eyebrow. "Is your ability truly that useful?"

    "It can slay regardless of endurance and health," he said, with a casual shrug. "Thinker hopes that, if it doesn't go to you as predicted, the final blow should at least be mine instead. A narrative contingency."

    "A good thing to have."

    "Sure. Do you think we'll need it?"

    "I don't know," he answered, looking ahead and sighing.

    The Highest God - or Kayaba, whatever - was a madman. He'd created an entire world and implanted a population of avid video gamers into it. There was no rhyme or serious reason to his action, despite claims of clarity, and clear shows of intellect. He was abnormal in every way. There were many theories as to his reasoning, especially on the recent side. Anything from dangerous philosophies to eating the souls of deceased players as sustenance.

    "One way or another," he continued, "we'll find that out soon."

    It took a steady five minutes of work and warfare to cut and shoot a path through the Central Dungeon's defenses, disabling its outermost wards and metaphysical traps, and destroying its protector entities. And down three hundred levels, amidst an untouched and invulnerable obsidian floor, standing on a pillar of the same, was erected a portal hewn out of the same material. It persisted even through atomic bombardments and reality-shearing blasts.

    "Assemble on platforms," ordered Thinker. "Even columns. Guilds enter in the order of numbers given. Prepare for descent within one minute."

    A stairwell made of mana-blue forcefields was created for those too lazy to simply fly or jump. He descended alongside the seventh battalion, assigned as its fire support attaché until the final phase of the assault. Garland took off, over the yawning mouth of the bowl hollowed out in the earth, and rejoined some other mass of players.

    In one minute exactly, the entire thousands of the Accord were across, having established a foothold and constructed a number of fortresses on the other side to act as forward operating bases. It was a necessity, determined, and prepared for ahead of time.

    Already, the guardians of this verdant realm - an endless plain of stretching meadows and fields with an azure sky and noonday sun shining from above - were attacking them in bemusement, in masses so thick and viscous their infantry resembled a goop of silhouettes more than distinct soldiers. Each soldier was naturally outfitted with blessed legendary gear and possessed enough strength and resolve to core out diamond mountains. Still, the Chosen Vanguard cut them down like so many stalks of wheat.

    A sacred divine general, over ten feet tall and with sculpted features, sporting an angelic halo and a hundred seraphic wings, stood upon a hill with a rune-scribed Excalibur held skywards to the sun, rays of divine radiance like thermonuclear genesis shining down upon him in beneficence, conferring a minor chaff of that favor to his soldiers.

    A single archer shot sniped him in the neck from across seventeen kilometers, killing the godlike entity instantly and snuffing out its flame like a candle wick. "Dibs!" someone called on the sword before the corpse even fell nervelessly to the ground.

    Advancing from the fortresses proved a treacherous design, as the infantrymen of the Castle started to form their own defenses: trenches and siege engines constructed and summoned in mere seconds, flinging masses of mana bolts across the sky, and requiring active interception. An enemy magus created a rift within the earth that began to spawn demons and required sealing. Issues and challenges cropped up like individual grains of sand, and soon, the Chosen inherited a desert.

    I am starting to doubt I could've handled this on my own, Ishida started to think, as he observed the growing expansion of carnage. He'd definitely have been able to escape, or even hold an even battle. Prevail alone, however? Push onward? A monumental task, and an uphill climb no less.

    I've definitely never seen you fight opponents this tough, Furo concurred.

    "Asking permission to engage," he said on his sending tattoo.

    "Why?" Thinker asked.

    "I'm curious how effective I might be against these enemies."

    "Curiosity killed the cat," Thinker reproached; tutting, almost. "Request denied. I'll tell you if I change my mind. You've proposed a plan, I accepted it, now we're sticking to it."

    Deviation is the mother of death, Thinker said, in an announcement from a couple of weeks ago. It was somewhat hypocritical, as he'd also stated that, There can be no advancement without experimentation and bold risk-taking.

    It seems the crux is in the fact he said those things to different people,     Furo pointed out, ever perceptive. Chastising arrogance in idiots, and spurring on novelty in geniuses.

    It doesn't mean that doesn't annoy me. Or the fact that you indirectly called me an idiot.

    Tee-hee.

    After half an hour of ceaseless, unyielding warfare, most of the Chosen settled back in camp, for recuperation and partaking in the stockpile of buffing and renewal items. No one had died yet, at least not in a permanent fashion, although according to some circulating radio chatter, several squishies suffered near-deadly wounds. The fighting slowed down.

    As if aiming to take advantage of the sudden relaxation, an elder dragon - a beast the length of three provinces from head to tail - blotted out the sun and prepared to do a swooping run. Its descent was sluggish, almost predictably slow. Kirito, Nine, and several others were ordered to engage the monster, and slew it so fast it didn't have an opportunity to breathe.

    How quickly your elder horrors fall to oblivion, Ishida thought.

    It only makes one consider what kind of monsters wait in the Castle.

    He nodded.

    In a little under an hour and a half, the Advanced Rogue Corps located and assassinated the enemy's whole chain of command wiped out the healers and support structure, and destroyed the wards. All that remained was the mass of armies and the boss monsters. Deprived of telos and empowerment, even the non-maximized Chosen slew them by the dozens, and the battle for the Verdant Meadows was over.

    After that, everyone aimed upwards: teleportation gates and teleport keys were established, and Castle Aincrad's first floor was breached. Its citizens ran or picked up arms in defiance of the Chosen Host, dying with slavish devotion to the Highest God or surrendering with sparks of hopeful, eventual rebellion in their eyes. Thinker ordered a humanitarian treatment of captives, and this was seen on every front. An empowered Ghost of Ilfang descended to fight the Host and fell alongside his kobold servants.

    Its central hub was conquered, and then within minutes, the second floor's also. And so on and so on, resistance increasing in subtle increments with each floor, until at the fiftieth, progress stalled. Its boss, a skeletal serpent that regenerated even from total soul obliteration, was destroyed only through the joint deployment of the Nightblades and the two Fluxstaffs they had available.

    It was also when Thinker decided to call a war council in order to replan their approach, since odds were likely the next floor would be even more dangerous.

    "It's clear we've underestimated Kayaba," Thinker said. "If we're only halfway across the Castle, yet barely capable of sincere advance, even with uttermost effort, it's clear he didn't underestimate the level of power we'd approach near the end of the game."

    "Assuming he didn't simply buff the enemies at the last second," Asuna pointed out.

    "I trust his integrity," Kirito said plainly.

    Everyone without excessively superhuman mental attributes briefly looked at him as if he had five heads, then equally abruptly remembered he was Kirito, and normalized.

    "Right," said Schmitt dubiously. "In any case, we should reposition the Vanguard."

    "Not only that," Thinker said, tapping a finger idly against the table. He used to do that with paper and pen, but he didn't use those anymore. He could use his fingers as pens, and scrawl on pretty much anything, including empty air. Or make paper appear out of nothing, holding an exact copy of his mind's contents. "I'm thinking about a total reassignment, or at least a partial one. Also something of a regrouping."

    "Are you finally assigning Kirito and Ishida to the front lines?" Asuna asked.

    "It seems it's about time we did," Thinker answered. "I don't intend for us to pay in flesh for a narrative advantage. Are you fine with this?"

    He asked them both. Kirito answered immediately, "Yes, of course-"

    "No, I'm asking you seriously. Are you fine with increasing the odds that you'll die today, for the potential chance of saving a couple of people you don't know?"

    His eyes were gray steel, zombified.

    "Yes," said Ishida, with Kirito echoing the sentiment.

    "Good, then we're settled. Order a resupply of every major regiment," he informed Ichimaru as he stood up. "I wasn't planning on doing this before the seventieth floor, but hand out the reserve Type A elixirs. Particularly the enhancers. We'll want those in circulation. Also the full set of Class One protective distribution measures."

    She nodded. The Type As were the most potent, Ishida recalled from the docket. Meant for emergency use, or free spending once they were in the upper parts of the Castle, and there wasn't anything left to worry about.

    Originally, according to Thinker's best estimates, the predicted odds of these elixirs having to be used prior to the seventieth floor were less than eight percent. It spoke to how much they'd overestimated their odds coming in, that their Host was now almost forced to use them partway there.

    It had seemed so easy, only a couple of hours ago. Had Kayaba amplified the difficulty level, or were they simply arrogant with the estimates?

    Grimly, Furo chose that moment to speak, Hey, in case you die, or I die, or we both die... I really appreciate that you were my friend, even though I was a terrible monster. Your suit of armor is the best thing I could've been, right after being a dragon.

    Nonetheless, not a dragon. He felt a pang of sympathy run through him. Cold comfort, in the fact he didn't directly or intentionally cause Furo's state.

    If I could physically rip you out of there, and return you to how you were, I would, he swore. But sometimes, there's nothing but the way forward.

    Furo was mercifully silent.

    After half an hour, they continued the ascent - now with increased protocol adherence and security procedures, to ensure caution. However, the progress was slow and onerous, costly in stamina and resolve; every floor invaded and conquered was like squeezing water from a stone. On the sixty-fifth level, most of the Accord's reliable frontliners were exposed to cognitohazardous creatures and traps draining their determination and stacking afflictions that decreased willpower, in a fashion that none of the clerics were able to heal, except through the use of costly ultimate abilities. Even Ishida was exposed briefly, although he repelled the memetic force with a moment of focus.

    On the seventieth, the Accord stopped once more - exhausted, mentally dilapidated, arms broken and suffering from dozens of incremental wounds and accumulating afflictions. And worst of all, they were running out of resources that could alleviate those amassing issues.

    "New idea," said Schmitt, freshly missing an eye, raising a hand in the commander's tent, "Let's bunker down, make fortifications, and let everyone who needs it recharge their ultimates. Establishing a supply line back down to Aincrad, for provisions, potions, and munitions is a necessity at this point."

    Everyone's gazes moved to Thinker, whose gaze in turn tilted down in focus. He calculated for a second, and declared, "Assuming the challenge rating continues to scale in such a manner, I suspect with that strategy, we'll make it up to the ninety-ninth floor in three days. There's one issue, though."

    He looked around the room, gravely. "This makes us vulnerable to a counter-attack."

    "And you think Kayaba might do that?" Asuna inquired, raising an eyebrow. "He's always prioritized mechanical satisfaction for instances over strict realism. Do you think he counts himself being a commander for Castle Aincrad as part of the challenge?"

    "To him, realism might be a valid weapon to use against players at this stage of the game," Ishida cut in, drawing a couple of curious looks. He and Kirito were the locally renowned experts on Kayaba's psychology; the former because of the inordinate number of close personal encounters, and the latter because he'd been a fanboy back on Earth. He explained, "He's a Dungeon Master, an incredibly elaborate and assholish one, but a Dungeon Master. He's willing to punish and kill players if they misstep, and he shrugs if they start shit with each other. He's fair, if ruthless."

    Ruthlessly fair might apply, thought Furo.

    "Most importantly, though, he makes adjustments as needed. He understands the strengths of his players, and crafts a narrative to suit them," he continued, "I suspect that if I entered Castle Aincrad on my own, I would've met with a more distributed resistance, to make breaking through easier. Hubristic, even then, but even Kayaba would've given an inch. During the Beast of Keirur trial, he pursued a strategy of maximal empowerment, because for its duration, he treated himself as a player. A manhunt was something he'd wanted to be a participant in, rather than a game-runner."

    "In other words, if we do this fortification and resupply line, we must also prepare for a counterattack," Kirito summarized. "And a strong one."

    ---

    Lying in the comforting embrace of a cool funerary shroud, Vassago Casals was dead.

    Around the dark quartz plinth stood the assorted leadership of Laughing Coffin, as well as the members of the elite assassination squad. In a couple of seconds, a bolt of lightning struck the corpse from some liminal gap in reality, and its eyes fluttered open - shocked, at first, then calm and calculated.

    Sighing, Vassago unwrapped the shroud and looked coldly at Morte. "Number?"

    Johnny's then-neutral look soured immediately. "All of us killed ourselves for your stupid plan, and that's the first thing you have to say?"

    "You're alive now, hombre, aren't you?" Vassago asked, eyebrows drooping with tiredness. Apparently, dying was an exhausting endeavor. He felt... perhaps 'weakened' wasn't the right word, not precisely, although 'drained' might've been a better fit. As though he were an eggshell, devoid of the yolk and albumen.

    "All except Bones," answered Morte, standing with rings of sleep deprivation around his eyes - apparently Vassago wasn't the only individual among them that struggled with the transition. He cast a look around the room, and noticed similar symptoms amongst everyone. "Also, the victims are in Heaven."

    "Good," he said, standing from the impromptu resting pedestal. "Armory, then, and I'll explain the plan."

    The armory was awesomely beyond stocked, almost crammed full of disgustingly overpowered magic items. Artifacts from the development stage of the game, tens of copies of unbound boss items and ancient relics, legendary potions that could permanently enhance the drinker, even a coin press that formed wish-granting coinage out of starmetal; abundant, lying around in hundreds of convenient, opalescent ingot stacks. It took a minute for them to realize the full extent of the treasures contained within, as everyone fanned out in pursuit of armaments and protective equipment. Vassago merely contemplated the scale of their undertaking.

    It was, after all, the developer room - Kayaba acted to reroute the deaths of Laughing Coffin members into this location, according to the plan. It'd apparently taken some doing, as souls were impatient structures, and despised meaninglessness: either dissipating or forcing a form. He needed to create an entire channel for them, allowing drift so they didn't collapse, yet delivering them slowly and delicately enough the Cardinal System's iron-bound code wasn't frayed apart at the seams like a wafer-thin glass pane.

    If they were resurrected, that meant Castle Aincrad, and the lands surrounding, had maybe a couple of days left - three and a half, or so Kayaba had explained.

    The Cardinal System, at its core, was constructed entirely out of stories - and it was a delicate construction, like a house of cards, or a wireframe of sticks held only by sheer miraculous balance. One story leading to another, all forming a network. However, it didn't brook elements of metanarrative deconstruction: an intervention from the Highest God, a direct push from the Dungeon Master so grossly meddlesome was similar to firing off a rocket at a police station, when your goal was to stay quiet; in the grand unfolding tale of Aincrad, it had set off a spark, and the spark now clung to a core strand of the fleece. Soon, the entire length of the scarf would be ash.

    A house of cards, already set to collapse.

    A note, left on a magical anvil that automatically improved any form of metal item laid upon it, read:

    'Make it count.'

    And Vassago Cassals would. After all, he'd been hired on to kill a God of Dread.

    ---

    The Accord was now split into five divisions, each almost five thousand Chosen strong, and a number of specialist companies: ritual, healing, divination, combat, communication, and more. The efforts accelerated, as a firm supply line, like a pump breathing oxygen into a patient's lungs, brought medicines, munitions, and restoratives. It was the evening of the second day when they reached the ninety-seventh floor: an entire six hours ahead of schedule. A cause to celebrate, even if they couldn't truly do so for now. Nonetheless, as it created a prime opportunity for additional recuperation, Thinker ordered a two-hour-long break, with a shift of guard in the midpoint.

    After that, it'd be a path straight to the top, into the Empyrean Palace - an ascent of martial glory, and the final battle to decide the fate of the world.

    "Sir," a Chosen barged into the tent, and immediately stopped and looked away. "Oh, I, uh apologize..."

    "Another time, my knight," Miala said with a chuckle, from the silks of the bed, covering herself a little with a scarlet blanket.

    Ishida, sighing, stood and stepped away, no longer in the process of removing his shirt. He summoned the World Champion's armor, and it surrounded him entirely in a flash of golden light. "The world better be ending," he said, as he turned to face the soldier.

    The Chosen, a middling warrior, perhaps a month behind the general progression curve, looked more than a little spooked when Ishida spoke those words. It took sinfully long - a full second - for the implications of that look to connect.

    "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

    ---

    The Cardinal System was the result of storytelling. It required cultivation and foresight for the best amount of leverage; a narrative converged into exaltation for its protagonist, an Achievement. There were no conventions, in a manner, because the System was discerning and capable of narrative twists and versatility; an arrogant villain wouldn't necessarily meet punishment in the end. However, if he met an avenging hero, his odds were certainly going to suffer, to a degree more insidious than statistics might suggest. It depended on the nature of the stories their lives had told.

    The Master of the Fluxstaffs, Warp, attempted to tell a story alongside the System, rather than as its subject: a story of wisdom and discernment. He pretended at refinement after coming in, and the System recognized this, and honored his role in the narrative. One Achievement stacked on another: he'd been, easily, the strongest Chosen in the seven worlds, in the first week of the game's launch. Now, he teetered on eighth or ninth, according to his estimates. It didn't change the core facts.

    He'd divined the future, so long ago, after all, and took painstaking efforts to prepare.

    "It's already ending," murmured Warp, channeling a stream of Flux, supplying the countless expressions of his acutely overheating data array. His eyes were alight with a blinding azure radiance, as bright as searchlights, and slowly, in drips and trickles, elements of his brain melted away - ceaselessly replaced by a swift regenerative factor that resulted from an exuberantly dense spiritual mass, pushing outwards into the physical aspect to resupply it with the shape accorded by his soul.

    "Fluxstaffs," he whispered, and by the sheer force of his connection, it carried on to each of his students and acolytes, "Already, the King of Horrors descends, and our friends in Aincrad need our support. From the beyond, I summon you."

    He immediately felt the changes across the world. Over a hundred connections shifted, as disciples moved from one corner of the ontology to another: between realms and continents, shoring up the cracks and buying time. A couple appeared on the higher floors of Castle Aincrad and started the process of secretly applying occult pressure, aiding the warriors and diminishing the foes. A network of sleeper agents came alive, infiltrated Heaven in moments, and cut it away from the Highest God's Reaches, jettisoning its denizens away from the Horror King's clutches, and the ongoing collapse of the ontology.

    It'd be more than sufficient to shift the tide and to give the heroes of the story a wind, pushing them onward to golden victory.

    This was something the Cardinal System and Warp both understood well: a deus ex machina was at its strongest, at its most effective and binding, when it came completely out of nowhere and forced a happy ending on an otherwise hopeless situation.

    Twenty-one hours, sixteen minutes, whispered one of the expressions of the array, done with calculating the precise timing at which reality's laws no longer maintained exact coherence. There was one last matter to address before the end.

    The Highest God, or Kayaba Akihiko - whatever you preferred to calm him - had never cared to speak directly to Warp. And yet, Warp listened, and through the Cardinal System, experienced something close to revelations. Even without asking, he knew exactly where he needed to go.

    He shifted through a liminal tube of space and appeared at the edge of the universe. A protective shield formed around his skin, providing adequate pressure and a supply of breathable air. He cast his staff forward, channeling matter, and motes of orange light formed an island body on the barrier of the world, a growth on the edge of existence.

    He sat down and meditated, then - recharging and mentally preparing in equal measure - for several hours. Sometimes, he'd feel tempted to cast out a divination: a vast, infinitely intricate web of sinuous feelers, spreading like informational effectors across the universe, reading the scrawlings of the future. He suppressed those urges as hard as he humanly could, tamping down on them until they were level with the rest of his perfectly still mind. To know the future in a situation such as this was risking further loss.
    After a time, the members of Laughing Coffin arrived - on chariots, spaceships, and other befuddling methods; some flying under their own strength - bedecked in the shining regalia of gods, stolen from the heavenly vaults.

    "Who the fuck are you?" asked Johnny Black.

    Warp smiled. "I'm here to help."

    ---

    Aincrad was disappearing, one island and bay at a time. It started out and moved inwards, as Chaos rolled in like a fog; according to a report from Aedlenlied, the Chaos itself was corroding away under the touch of the Abyss, and the Abyss was flickering, as if set to disappear entirely once its gruesome consumption was over.

    After receiving the reports and stacks of data, Thinker analyzed them and offered a prognosis: almost half a day.

    And so, with no more supply line, operating on fumes, the Chosen of Aincrad pushed on through the last couple of the Castle's floors. Here, the fighting was the most difficult: eldritch beasts that could rend apart continents, providential knights that were capable of cleaving through time and symmetry, fully incarnate gods of celestial concepts. There was almost no rhyme and no reason, species of foe emerging and making themselves known, only to be annihilated through sheer, desperate force. The final boss of the floor was an Incarnation of the Radius, a colossal and monstrous goddess-beast with a hundred alabaster wings, a chalky features, and red orbs for eyes. Her every breath was a Genesis, spawning a wave of monstrosities that adapted with every cycle to the Achievements of whoever they fought.

    And one of those monsters had struck Koji with an enchanted bolt of lightning in one arm.

    His right hand's fingers were insensate, deadened; impossible to fully heal, as he ascended up the granite stairs of the Temple of the Most High. He relied on the array of spectral copy-arms and sword skill to carry on through battles, and his combat potential was effectively halved as they reached the terminus of the Castle.

    Ahead of them, a double spiral of gold and silver on the edges of the tower peaking the castle; surrounding a circular platform of flat, verdant grass. And in the center, a citadel of black stone, sized no larger than a big if mundane castle.

    There wasn't a lot of Chosen selected to fight against Kayaba. After the initial strategy meeting, there were a couple of questions raised about simply allowing the full playerbase to fight: however, that soon turned out to be a dud, as there was a limit on the amount of players allowed on top of the Castle simultaneously. As such, Kirito, Nine, Ichimaru, Asuna, Garland, and Ishida were the Chosen that'd face Kayaba, his real avatar, in battle.

    "Is everyone ready?" Thinker asked, looking them over, and briefly frowning at Ishida's hand. He assessed the others and nodded at the resolute looks. "Alright. Keep your comms beads on, stick to the damn plan, and good luck. If we win this, we win for good."

    "Can't we wait a couple of minutes longer for Ishida's arm to heal?" asked Ichimaru.

    "There isn't any time," Thinker replied. "According to my contacts, Aincrad's almost fully gone: we've managed to evacuate about ninety percent of the world's population through the portal. Look over the edge." An attendant created a hologram, showing the surface of the plane beneath them: billions, setting up camp.

    "Let's go," said Kirito.

    Not a single enemy, plain or hidden, lurked inside the citadel. Its halls were eerily silent, as if reflecting the disaster happening below, not even an echo as they stepped through the chambers in search of the central auditorium - the one where Kayaba had started this whole insanity.

    After almost half a minute of limited progress, Kirito decided to simply cut through, repeating a single, immaculate sword thrust until the walls of the citadel burst in a chain of explosions, revealing a path to the core - not inviolable, merely hellishly obdurate.

    "Ah, I was expecting you." Kayaba Akihiko sat on a throne, dressed in a labcoat and dark pants with suspenders. He cast a surprised look in their direction, scratching at his chin. "The door was on the other side of the building, you know? You were meant to circle around and enjoy the sights in the garden. Like a graduation ceremony, almost."

    Nine let out a long-suffering sigh. "Are you seriously going to play games with us?"

    "Technically-"

    "Forget I asked," he cut into Kayaba's rejoinder.

    Kayaba stood, and the obsidian throne disappeared. "Now, I do hate being a downer, but I'm afraid to inform you there's no final boss."

    For a second, the weight of that statement - or rather, the absence of any gravity whatsoever it had - caused Ishida's heart to skip a beat.

    "Huh?" Garland made a dumb sound. "What do you mean? So I don't get to use my new Title?"

    "I never programmed-slash-created a final boss," the man answered, unblinking, and smiling almost sheepishly. "I suppose you can fight me, if you want-"

    "That was rather the idea in us coming here, you dumb fuck," Nine growled out.

    "Now now. There's no need for crudeness and hostility," Kayaba said, raising both hands in a symbolic gesture of peace. "All I want is to talk."

    "Hold on. If you didn't plan for a boss fight..." Ichimaru realized, "...then, the player limit-"

    He raised a hand, with a soft smile. "I wanted to only speak with a couple of my favorites. I'm afraid this citadel doesn't even fit twenty-five thousand people, let alone the room we're in. And even if it did, can you imagine the unholy noise of literal thousands crying out for my blood? We could never have this delightful conversation."

    "Talk," said Ishida harshly. He was tired of putting up with this man's charades. "After that, we'll debate whether or not to cut your head off."

    Kayaba smiled, as if pleased to have the floor to speak.

    "My entire life, I've pursued a certain feeling," Kayaba said, stepping down from the central dais - one, slow, measured step at a time. "I'm sure you're all at least partially familiar with the concept of escapism? Life sucking so bad you want to go on a wide-eyed fantasy adventure?"

    "So you decided Earth sucks so bad you'll kidnap countless thousands so you can save them, even though nobody asked," Ichimaru scoffed. "Thanks, Satan."

    "Let me finish," he answered, emphasizing the last word, and showing a flicker of annoyance - the first crack he'd visibly shown across the meeting so far.

    "Bro," Garland said, "The entirety of Aincrad is disappearing. If there's no fight, and we've won, can you at least make that stop? Reverse it?"

    "I actually can't," Kayaba said simply.

    "Bullshit, you're a fucking god!" Nine spluttered out. "You made this place."

    "If I can finish," he stressed the word again, sounding even more annoyed; vexation beginning to pressurize into simple anger, "then you'll understand why I cannot, and how you can accomplish that lofty goal without me or my help."

    After that, no one had more objections. Kayaba breathed out.

    "As I was saying... I pursued escapism, as a child and adolescent especially. I made my own little mental world, and a character I named Heathcliff." Across from Kayaba appeared a spectral projection of the man in crimson armor, bearing a familiar countenance: the resemblance was uncanny, although they weren't identical clones. Ishida remembered the man well. He'd spent so many days on a manhunt levied against him, after all. "I won't bore you with the details. I actually think the stories I could tell about my daydreams are interesting, but that's not why I'm telling you this. Heathcliff was a part of me. An element of my psyche. A creation of my mind, but alive in his own way."

    "A tulpa?" questioned Garland.

    "I'll get to that," Kayaba said, pointing appreciatively, as if glad that Garland was making the effort to attempt comprehension and request clarification. Bemused, Ishida decided to continue listening - maybe the monologue had a point. "However, I found the imagination of my own mind an insufficient... medium, let's call it."

    "Now," he said, finally reaching the bottom of the dais "Books, movies, shows, theatre... They can tell stories, and they can be intricate and fun: each is an art form in its own right. However, they couldn't tell the story of Heathcliff. I found another medium: video games."

    "I suppose that makes sense," Kirito stated thoughtfully. "In a video game, you can be whoever you want."

    "Oh, I simply knew that Kirito would latch onto the gist immediately," Kayaba said with an exhalation of satisfied relief. "So, yes, I played video games - mostly a number of roleplaying games, and in each one, I would recreate Heathcliff, and pursue that everdistant feeling. I hadn't known what it was, exactly, that I was seeking... and for some reason, I found the games dissatisfying. They didn't scratch the itch I sought to abrade. There was something missing: a crucial component of the serum. The catalyst of greatness. Of all possible games, the lightning struck with a piece of what some consider kitsch: Bethesda's Skyrim."

    "No fucking way," said Nine, as several other members of the group cringed or made surprised sounds. "Skyrim gave you enlightenment? Fucking... Skyrim?"

    "It seems ridiculous, does it not?" Kayaba laughed. "And yet... In one of the DLCs, a character asks you at a certain point what your character's parents were like, in response to her own plight. And something about that question resonated with me. At that moment, the world of the game no longer treated me as a mere vessel for blind desire fulfillment, a robot that kills monsters, collects loot, and completes quests. It treated me as if I were an individual interacting with it.

    "And that's when it struck me. I realized what I'd sought for so long." He breathed the word out as if it were a divine incantation, "Immersion."

    "Immersion?" asked Kirito dubiously.

    "Yes. Immersion," said Kayaba, and his voice descended an octave, to a reverent whisper, "It was the missing link. The Bifröst Bridge connecting fantasy and reality. In order to create a true fantasy, it needs something real and tangible. It needs to imitate our world, to become a vessel for it."

    "And what happened then?" Asuna asked, sounding oddly intrigued, perhaps a touch unsettled.

    "Immersion made us realize something," said the specter of Heathcliff, standing off to the side, and looking at Kayaba. His voice was different, the slightest amount. A touch more controlled, matured. It was a fine distinction, difficult to notice, except when they spoke not so long after the other. "I am equally real to him. Just separated."

    "I continued to seek immersion," said Kayaba, at the same time as Heathcliff said: "I continued to grow stronger."

    "I developed him, and he developed me," they said at the same time. "A fantasy and a reality on the different sides of the coin were an illusion; the truth was a matter of perspective. And so the bridge was formed."

    Heathcliff offered a smile, arms folded in front of his chest. "In due time, with the immersion he fed me, I became a god."

    Kayaba smiled as well, arms folded behind his back. "And in due time, with the knowledge and magic he passed on, I became a genius."

    And then, there stood one being, its arms casually off to the side - not in a labcoat or red armor, but in a dark lord's regalia. He was not Heathcliff, and he was not Kayaba Akihiko. He was the Highest God. "And then I became One. And the immersion I felt became Cardinal."

    Everyone took a second to digest that, as the Highest God looked down on them. "After a time, I decided to share my findings with mankind and make everyone alike to myself. However... Cardinal wouldn't accept straightforward ascension. It demanded more immersion in return. This prospect is now ruined."

    "Ruined?" Ishida blinked. "Why?"

    "You cheated," said the Highest God with a rueful smile.

    "I-"

    "Not you specifically," said the God, raising a hand in a placating gesture. "Everyone. Instead of attempting to craft a story, the playerbase sought a path to transcendence, and taking me down. In any other situation, this might've been fair and served as a story of its own. However, across its span, I was forced to make too many sacrifices, adjust to one too many unexpected turns and decisions. No one attempted to rescue Kirito, and so the entire story of the Underworld provided only a fraction of the immersion potential it was meant to. Too many of your compatriots obsessed over the Horror King, even though I had essentially dealt with him already-"

    "You dealt with the Horror King?" asked Ishida, sounding almost blank in his own mind. Furo provided a constant font of mental warmth, like an invisible hug.

    "I set hundreds of plots into motion, yes," the Highest God answered, and waved a hand. "Did you seriously believe I couldn't perceive Argent, simply because he stopped time, or was out in Chaos? I allowed him, and set him down a very deliberate route that'd conclude with our cooperation in destroying the godhead. And as for the priest entity and its armada, assaulting Aincrad and specifically responsible for your earlier corruption, Wisshomatek..."

    He waved a hand, and a screen appeared.

    It showed the edge of the universe, with an island of adhering stable matter. There, a crack had opened, allowing sections of the armada in - only for them to be utterly annihilated within moments, by a tempestous bombardment of abilities, divine essence, and magical explosions. In a lashing detonation of crimson light, the Horror King - as Ishida had seen him, once, in a dream - appeared amidst the Chosen, crushing several of them with telekinetic storms, making the heads of others explode, manipulating flesh and blood into constructs, and performing dark miracles.

    Only then, an individual in a dark, swaying poncho - Prince of Hell - raised a lever pistol and shot the Horror King. The eldritch monster reeled back, its chest bleeding incessantly; flesh-warping might producing no tangible repairs. Reality flickered around the point of impact, constantly developing into an ever-widening crack. The Horror King looked down in surprise. He spat out a fleck of purple blood, and stared at Prince of Hell in annoyance, before teleporting and restarting the fight from a superior vantage point. It was clear the fight wasn't over yet but the Highest God shut down the screen.

    "It cost me dearly to eliminate that entity, but as of about three minutes ago, it is dead." The Highest God sighed out. "Unfortunately, setting the circumstances of its defeat into motion also kickstarted the collapse of the world, as they demanded too direct of an intervention from me."

    Kirito spoke. "There must be a way to stop that."

    "Fortunately, you've made it here in time, according to my calculations, and you've built enough immersion that you may be able to figure something out. I've outlined several possibilities in a document that I left recorded in this orb." He summoned a crystal bead, about the diameter of a coin, into Kirito's hand.

    "Hold on. What do you mean?"

    "The Chosen of Aincrad shall be receiving specifically what they wished," he answered with a cold laugh. "Me, dead. I am, you see, bound to the Cardinal System. Its dissolution means my death. I have about an hour left. Now, shall we fight and make the most of it?"

    ---

    [ ] Final Boss - Fight the Highest God.

    *It's narratively appropriate for a long storyline to conclude with a conflict, even if the stakes are relatively low: a small dross of immersion is received, improving the relevant endings; and the collapse of the world is slowed down a couple of minutes as a result, giving you more time to plan.
    *Come back down parading with the Highest God's corpse. Cheers the players on, gives you wide-reaching support.
    *As you defeat him, the Highest God shall grant you the resources needed to make Argent capable of undoing the Declaration of The Horror King.
    *He's not bitter whatsoever.
    *An epic fight scene is its own reward.

    [ ] Serenity - "No."

    *If you manage to resolve the collapse, the Highest God shall see the fruits of his work: either as a prisoner or citizen of the new order you create.
    *For about an hour, the Highest God shall continue to dispense advice: makes your choice of ending 5-10% more 'efficient;' mitigating drawbacks and improving upsides.
    *The Declaration of the Horror King shall be undone with the Highest God's aid.

    And what shall you do, given the Cardinal System's ongoing shutdown?

    [ ] Embrace Immersion - It's a substance of ideals and hopes; the conjoining of a bright fantasy with the reality we dwell in, and yet, its nature is fleeting, and now it leaks away, abused one too many times by its lord, for the sake of those beneath.

    Attempt to salvage the Cardinal System. Generate as much immersion as you can, in the vanishing moments you still have, and recreate the world anew in a dawn of creative light. It'll be difficult, although not impossible.

    *By default, the odds of your success are moderately high: above 60%. However, the world recreated shall be an ever-diminished shadow of its former self; incapable of any form of growth or Achievement, the Chosen (even yourself to a lesser degree) weakened and fallen, rather than ascendant.
    *Even for you, further progression becomes a difficult and distant prospect, as the Pillar System bases its capabilities on the parameters of the reality it operates in. Assuming you even survive that long, and that it's possible at all, any restorative efforts are millennia off into the future.
    *There are certain in-character tactics that may increase your odds of success substantially, and moderately improve the state of the world.
    *All Break Points generated from the moment the character sheet was disabled to now, as well as future Break Points, increase your chances of success mildly, and minimally improve the state of the world you create.
    *Must select [ ] Final Boss. The Highest God must sacrifice himself in order to fuel this ascension. He won't ever see the result of his grand work.
    *In order to create better tension, if this option is leading, I'll inform you of the odds of success close to the end of the vote, and we'll do a dice roll with the SV roller. The Random Number Gods will decide, and none shall gainsay them.

    [ ] Return to Earth - As the Highest God informs you, the transfer protocol is still active, and will continue to be, for a while. Forsake immersion. Forsake divinity. Forsake power. Return to reality's safe embrace; a return with the elixir, bottle marred perhaps only by the absence of liquid within.

    All Chosen return to Earth, awakening as if Aincrad were merely a bad dream. Retroactively, your adventures lose a significant quantity of ontological veracity; from reality's viewpoint, they are rendered simply into a madman's scientific experiment, locking thousands in a simulation, and causing death via spontaneous microwave combustion. There was never any magic, never any dragons, no divine swords... It was all merely a game; a dream so realistic sometimes it felt real. Anything else is a delusion.

    *100% assured to work reliably. Objectively the safest pick.
    *Technically, by default this produces the lowest amount of casualties, as the only individuals who ever truly died were the Players killed by Kayaba's NerveGear headset. All locals of Aincrad, including Princess Miala, Furo, Aedlenlied, and the others you'd met, never existed to begin with.
    *All Break Points generated from the moment the character sheet was disabled to now, as well as future Break Points, increase the chances that someone, sometime in the future, shall recreate the principle of immersion, whether it be you, inspired by Kayaba's speech, or someone else.

    [ ] A Pillar Holding The World Aloft - If the System fails, and the alternative is unpalatable, you must be the one to hold the world aloft. Stake an entire world on the strength of your shoulders, and the sharpness of your cunning.

    Attempt to substitute the Cardinal System with your own Pillar.

    *Given that your experience in manipulating Gamer Systems is close to null, the odds of success are slim. The Highest God, if you choose not to fight him, shall exert himself to aid you in attempting this insanity. 10-20% odds baseline. As above, it shall be rolled via SV's dice roller for everyone to see.
    *Should you fail, however, one final and meaningful sacrifice can absolve you. If you do not succeed, Furo shall sacrifice his own life, and ensure your victory.
    *Maintains the existence of Aincrad, and reverses the destruction that already happened. Although the Chosen retain their supernatural abilities, the Cardinal System is effectively gone, and therefore no further growth is possible for them.
    *And you, likewise missing the Pillar System, lose your primary means of advancement as well, rendered into less than a fraction of your current self. You also lose the World Champion Armor and most of your accumulated power. If Furo survived, he returns back to being a normal dragon kid. He's immeasurably happy about this. ++++++++Furo.
    *You've found a way forward before. Perhaps, some day you can manage it again? Or is that merely wishful thinking?

    [ ] Many-Crowned Terror - Justice doesn't bend. Justice doesn't rest. Does the world believe it can end, when it harms the innocents you swore to protect? No. You'll not ever allow any of that. The world shall bend to what you say.

    *Ensures the survival of Aincrad and reverts the destruction which already took place.
    *Become the Horror King, accepting the mantle, and save Aincrad. +++++++++++Mental Contamination, and constant increases of the same.
    *Afterwards, accept death at the hands of your friends - or flee, as far as you can, to ensure that you never harm those you loved.
    *The Horror King's Principle shall be undone by Argent regardless: if you choose this, you'll be the last dreadful tyrant of your kind.

    [ ] Write-in - As a forewarning, I should mention that nothing except the options listed above has any degree of likelihood of working. Even what's on the list holds only a scant and narrow degree of success - anything else at all risks folly.
     
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