Universe's End

"I should have done this sooner." Rory complimented himself for the thousandth time since he'd made his new Inscription Tablet, what he'd since officially named the creation.

Inscription Tablet

Grade: Poor

A tool primarily for blueprinting designs of various forms, it is limited to simple design work and latent Pneuma charging.

A grade rating of Poor seemed rather insulting to Rory; he thought it was well made, but it was likely the lack of features more than anything dropping the grade, as well as the low-quality materials involved in creating it.

"And I still wouldn't trade it for the world," Rory said happily while doodling away. He'd truthfully spent the last hour screwing around, having fun scribbling on the tablet that could utilize any color if it absorbed sunlight.

Well, almost any color. Colors that don't make up white light don't seem to work.

Testing that had indirectly confirmed that the light wavelength was the same as in their old universe, another piece of information he'd put into his back pocket.

Finally done messing around, Rory focused on his Inscriptions task.

First, a stability rune.

Rory had used his Earth rune as a substitute, but a proper rune to encapsulate the idea of stability would likely be essential for delicate projects in the future.

"So… What comes to mind when I say stability?"

Trying not to let anything color his thoughts and relying solely on what came to mind first, Rory began scribbling. The first thing that came to mind was a concept he'd once heard about in a space documentary, a theoretical final stage for certain stars known as a black dwarf star. None had existed in their universe; it hadn't been old enough to form any. However, they were theoretically the most 'stable' celestial objects possible, with lifespans measuring trillions upon trillions of years.

Or so he thought; he was no astrologist, and it wasn't like anyone was around to fact-check him.

Whether I'm correct or not isn't really the point either. What matters is my gut reaction.

With the idea of a black dwarf star forming the basis of his stability rune, his next thought was of the element of iron. Using an Earth-centric periodic table, iron was considered the most stable element due to being the point at which fusion and fission no longer produced any form of energy.

Finally, he finished with a geometric representation of stability: the tried-and-true three-dimensional triangle, the pyramid.

The result was what looked like an orb of darkness, a black dwarf star composed entirely of iron entombed within a pyramid. While the details of such a concept didn't actually make sense, a black dwarf star wouldn't be made of iron; its symbolic meaning was what mattered, the convergence point of three differing concepts of stability, like the three points of a pyramid.

Like an artist signing their work, Rory added a quick title, underlining it three times for emphasis.

Stability.

Rory didn't have to question whether the rune had been 'accepted' by Eon, as within a moment of underlining the rune's intent, the entire image glowed with a red and purple shower of sparks, fading a moment later.

"Hey, Eon, quick question," Rory pondered. "Can I see a display of currently known runes?"

Instantly, an interface popped up, and his six prior runes were now joined by a seventh.

Earth. Air. Water- fluid, if I'm being technical. Fire. Energy. Absorption. And now they're joined by their newest sibling. Stability.

Part of Rory felt it shouldn't be so easy to just make up runes on the fly, but then it had been pounded into his head that the universe and Eon itself were still young and developing; it was exactly the time for such things to be done most easily.

Also, with so few actual runes made so far, it's probably easy for them to adopt a principle. Over time, creating new runes will probably become more complex as they must be refined and differentiated from existing ones.

Rory wasn't satisfied with only seven runes; with a swipe of his hand, his Inscription Tablet was cleared.

Next rune. Time for something less conceptual.

One thing stood out to him as the number one contender, given he was absolutely surrounded by them.

"Trees. I need a rune for wood."

Technically, they were separate things; wood was what partially made up a tree, whereas a tree was a living entity.

Let's start with the simpler one first.

How would wood be symbolized? And would wood be useful? Given the different types of wood, would wood need to be expanded upon in the future?

Would, wood, would, wood. I'm losing meaning in the words at this point.

Shaking his head, amused, Rory let his thoughts wander for a moment before, with yet another self-amused smile, he began to scribble. Within moments, he had a sketch drawn up, four square beams interlocked like the base of a log cabin.

This was half the point; it was meant to emulate the look of a log cabin. The other half of the rune's inspiration was a memory Rory could distinctly recall as a teenager in biology-

Or was it in chemistry class? Eh, doesn't matter.

-there were diagrams of different types of cells for plants and animals. Rory could vividly recall seeing one of the diagrams of a plant and thinking to himself how the cellulose that composed the cell walls looked an awful lot like a log cabin. It was a silly memory, but the foundation in the association with a log cabin had kept it as fresh as the day he'd thought of it.

Thus, the rune was born. Repeating the naming process of his previous rune, Rory wrote wood and underlined it several times before a flare of red and purple sparks confirmed his success.

This is easy.

Smiling to himself, it faded moments later as a new thought interrupted his success.

Why do I feel lightheaded?

In the excitement of his success with his tablet and two new runes, Rory hadn't noticed his body swaying, struggling to remain upright.

"That's... probably not a good sign."

As if confirming his suspicion, Rory collapsed wordlessly, faceplanting into the dirt.

---------------------------------

"You do realize you're the only one of my founders who has found themselves with a lapse in consciousness quite so frequently?" A familiar voice suddenly awoke Rory, who groggily rose from his impromptu naptime on the ground.

What… oh, right, I passed out.

Standing over him was Aelia.

"Oh. Hello." Rory gave her a polite nod.

"Do you know why I'm here?" She questioned, ignoring him.

"To congratulate my success?"

"No, to check why one of my founders went from fully healthy to nearly dead in a single instant."

"I think you might be exaggerating," Rory said, trying to rise but finding his body unwilling to listen.

That's a tad alarming.

"No, no, I am not. Check your Physique."

Morbidly curious, Rory did as the world spirit requested. Taking in the display, Rory reflexively sucked in a breath of surprise.

Huh. Well, I guess she wasn't exaggerating.

He was sitting at a grand ten percent health.

How did that happen?

"What were you doing before you collapsed?"

"You don't know already?" Rory asked, surprised.

"No, I don't constantly supervise you all, not when I have my own things to tackle. Eon allows me to have set emergency reports if any of you were to suddenly find yourself near death, which is how I was notified that you nearly died in mere seconds. Considering I know the whereabouts of monster movements on my surface and knew you were safely within your own settlement with no significant predators in the immediate vicinity, you can understand why I was somewhat taken aback."

"Fair." Rory acknowledged. "So, mind explaining how I nearly died?"

"Again, you tell me. What trouble could you have possibly gotten up to within the safety of your own settlement?"

"Nothing, really. I was just preparing for the next wave."

"How exactly were you doing that?" Aelia questioned, an edge to her voice.

"Well, I needed to beef up my walls, and without a team of laborers to work on bringing in stronger materials, I've had to pivot toward magical methods. In this case, I was creating some runes that I could use as the magical foundation of my wall."

"Creating runes?" The world spirit's eyebrows rose. "Yes, I'm aware those became a thing recently. Send me your details, if you will."

Shrugging, Rory pulled up the details on Ancestral Inscription and flicked it toward the world spirit, who, with a single nod, allowed the details to appear before her. Not wanting to feel left out, Rory examined the description himself.

Ancestral Inscription

Rarity: Extreme. Skill Level: Low.

While neither the progenitor of magic nor its most gifted user, the Architect has nonetheless proved an aptitude for the metaphysical. Charting a course that will undoubtedly be followed for the rest of history, the Architect founded the School of Runic Inscription. As the founder, the Architect gains bonuses when working with untested concepts amongst the fringe frontiers of Inscription.

"Rory?" Aelia spoke up after a moment of silence.

"Yes?"

"Are you an idiot?"

"What?" Rory said, taken aback.

"In what world, or worlds, do you think you could do something as significant as creating magical runes for the first time and for it to have absolutely no cost? Did you even bother to wait out the time in between, or did you just jump between them without a care in the world?"

Rory sheepishly recalled doing precisely that, going from creating his Inscription tablet straight into working on new runes, with only an hour of rest in between, an hour he'd only given himself because he'd been having fun messing around with drawing on the tablet.

"Not just that, did you consider what kind of runes you were making? From my understanding of runes, you can think of them as bite-sized Laws. They tap into the core elements that form our universe, our everything, and allow for a more direct control that doesn't require you to actively manipulate it through your intent."

"And in simple terms?"

The world spirit sighed, shaking her head.

"Think of a stream. When it's nice, shallow, and slow-moving, it's not hard to wade across or redirect it. But as it gets deeper, wider, and faster, you can no longer swim across easily; it becomes a colossal effort, if not fatal. That's what you're doing with runes. When you create a rune, you take a nebulous force or concept, pluck it from the fabric of existence, and then give it an identity. With your skill level of Ancestral Inscription at low, that's like going to whitewater rapids and thinking you can skip across like a child through a calm creek. Certain concepts for runes will be shallow streams, with little danger in grappling them into submission, but others… It might be easier to show me the runes you've created. I only know the runes you've added specifically to the walls of your settlement; it's not as if I'm informed of every discovery you make; I'm not a god, after all."

Rory didn't see the harm, so with a quick mental effort, he sent the world spirit an interface displaying his runes, the order of their creation, and what they represented.

Taking a second, she inspected the list. As the world spirit neared the bottom of the list, Rory saw her face scrunched up in a grimace.

"I found the problem," she said after relaxing, highlighting it with her finger before flicking it back toward him. Interfaced returned, Rory saw a circle surrounding his second newest rune, stability.

"Stability?" Rory questioned. "Really? I didn't think that was such a crazy concept."

"It's because it's a pure concept; everything else you've created stems from tangible, physical things or forces you can interact with. Unlike absorption or energy, stability can't be measured AS a thing. It's something that describes."

"So, what, once I made the Stability rune, what happened to me?"

"It sucked you dry of anything you had to sustain the creation of the rune. Specifically, it drew from your vitality, I presume. It was only because of the bonuses to working with 'fringe frontiers' that I presume you didn't just outright die. You were lucky at that point, and had you been more cautious, you might have noticed something felt off. But then you had to go ahead and make one more rune, just for the hell of it. You are so fortunate you chose something as easy as wood. Wood is one of the most abundant things in the universe, ignoring gasses and dust floating through space. Aside from maybe dirt, you couldn't have chosen a much easier subject for your last rune.

Dirt. I should also make a rune for that now that she mentions it.

"So, basically, I didn't die because my enhanced version of Inscription specifically had guardrails against such things?"

"In essence." The world spirit said, an exhausted sigh escaping her. "If I had to guess, you still would have died, but I think Eon might have directly supported some of the burden placed upon you. The rate your Physique was freefalling; it was too dramatic for the instant stabilization at ten percent to make any logical sense without outside interference from Eon."

You know what? Maybe I'll hold off on the runes for a bit.

"So, Eon saved me. Think it will save me again?"

"I wouldn't test it," Aelia answered. "Perhaps it works on a cooldown basis, a get-out-of-jail free card once a month, or maybe it's once a year, or maybe even longer. Or maybe it was a one-off. Let me be blunt. Please try to avoid biting off more than you can chew until you are either more skilled with that skill or have support measures prepared."

"Right," Rory muttered. "I appreciate the heads up."

"Yes, well, having one of my promising founders die for such a stupid reason would have been rather unfortunate. At least if a monster kills you, they gain in your death, but dying for no reason? No one benefits."

"Yeah, next time I almost die, I'll keep in mind that I should feed myself to the nearest monster while I'm at it."

"That's more like it." The world spirit smiled at Rory and vanished a moment later.

I feel like she's progressively becoming less caring about our survival now that she has developed these Den Mother Nuclei, so long as it's a monster that gets the chance to kill us and not random bad luck.

Taking a glance at his wave timer, Rory was able to determine he'd been unconscious for over two hours. Even with Eon saving his life, the backlash of his runes had clearly done a number on him.

At the very least, it was specifically the creation of runes that was taxing and not their usage.

Which means this is probably fine.

Drawing a circle on the ground-

I really should make a dedicated area for this.

-Rory quickly inscribed several runes into the ring: Stability, Absorption, and Energy. With the circle drawn, Rory proceeded to sit directly center, legs folded as he closed his eyes, doing nothing more than breathing. If the reason he'd almost died had been overdrawing on his available resources and not any actual physical wounds, logic dictated that he could recover quickly by replenishing such lost resources.

Each breath felt heavy to Rory, energy saturating them. Minutes passed, then hours, until Rory felt back to normal. No, he was better than expected, absolutely brimming with vitality. A quick examination of his Physique informed him that his health was sitting at a solid ninety-eight percent. More interesting than his return to good health was the addition of a pulsing plus sign next to the percentage. Curious, Rory clicked on it as more information was displayed.

Pneuma-Energized

Bodily functions are boosted by moderate Pneuma saturation of the body.

"Oh, so like the inverse of Pneuma-wracked," Rory noted. "Well, I feel a hell of a lot better."

Rory stood up, stretching his arms overhead, feeling better than he had in…

Well, ever.

It was a testament to the effects of Pneuma-Energized that even after another near-death experience, he was feeling so good.

Maybe I can make some more runes.

It was perhaps a rather stupid idea, given the aforementioned near-death experience, but Rory was feeling unnaturally good. Not to mention that Rory had a timeline to stick to; he couldn't afford to remain idle.

Hmmm. Well, worth a shot. Nothing risked, nothing gained.

At the very least, Rory had learned enough of a lesson to properly consider the runes he wished to make rather than simply trying to recklessly create something on the spot; another rune of such nature as stability would kill him.

Actually, what if I had a way to circumvent that? To make a rune 'easier' to do?

On Earth, if you wanted to make a task more manageable, you broke it down into pieces. If you wanted to move a couch through a doorway, you would remove the cushions and the legs.

So why not the same for a rune?

Well, considering the runes I have, what 'pseudo-rune' might be possible?

Stability, energy, heat, absorption, earth, liquid, and air. He had used several in-rune connections to add a more specified meaning to a rune process but did not outright change the meaning to something new. Grabbing his magical tablet, Rory began formulating ideas, letting his mind wander, trying to avoid being constrained by preconceived notions. He grabbed whatever stray thought entered his mind, turning them over and thinking them through their logical extremes, throwing out any that proved futile or overly complicated until one thought seemed to stick, a random, entirely unrelated thing that had centered on the tablet within his hands.

I never did have a tablet as a kid. My parents said I wouldn't be responsible enough with the charging cables.

It was a minute flare of annoyance, a remembrance of a childish wronging he had received, but a new thought replaced it as it began to fade.

Charging cable. I wonder…

He'd often described the feeling of Pneuma as static-y, so what was to say electricity may not still exist?

Rubbing his hands furiously on his very motley shirt and pants, frantically and cluelessly, it took nearly twenty minutes before he brought two fingers together. A quick shock passed between them as a smile flashed across his face.

So, electricity still exists.

It was all he needed to confirm his intent, scribbling on his Inscription Tablet as he played with the idea of different ways to form a rune for electricity without needing to straight up create a new rune, a way of streamlining the process so it would be easier to handle.

Well, energy is obvious, but for once, I'm not trying to handle the mystical variety but the bog-standard type. Wait that raises the question of if magic and Pneuma are just… regular things, don't they count as 'bog-standard', too?

Rory frowned before shaking his head.

"Focus."

Scribbling out the design for his energy rune, he mused for several moments before sketching the next rune, his rune for fire, directly beside it.

If I remember correctly, both electricity and fire are considered plasma. Or were they? You know what? It doesn't matter. My thought process, my runes, my rules. Therefore, electricity and fire are related.

Nodding to himself, Rory tapped a non-existent pen against his leg, juggling thoughts before sketching down the last rune of his amalgam rune, the rune for air.

With the three runes beside each other, Rory muttered under his breath before shaking his head.

No, no, that just doesn't feel right. It's too… ordinary?

Rory had already established that you could alter the meaning of a rune by connecting it to another rune, so trying to make an entirely different rune by just putting them next to each other felt like it was overlapping and conflicting. It would be like adding a prefix to a word and expecting it to change meaning entirely. Adding 'Pre' to 'historical' didn't suddenly alter the meaning so that it now meant baking, so how could adding 'prefix' runes change their entire meanings either?

Annoyed, Rory went to erase the runes before stopping himself and staring at the three runes with a more artisanal outlook.

"If I first came up with runes by superimposing things from the periodic table, why don't I make a rune by superimposing other runes together?

Starting with the air rune as a base, Rory then overlayed the energy rune. The lightning bolts that composed the energy rune perfectly overlayed several lines from the air rune. Once they had been overlayed, it was as simple as slashing a line through the horizontal axis and applying three floating circles directly below the line, his fire rune.

"Damn, and I didn't even intend them to fit together so perfectly," Rory said as he stared at the new rune. A flash of sparks colored the rune for a moment, apparently accepted as a workable and usable rune.

"Bingo." Rory cheered under his breath. With the new lightning rune, he was up to nine runes created so far.

I need a journal or something to keep track of these all.

It was easy enough while there were only several runes, but as he made more, or if others started to create runes, he would quickly lose track of them all.

Problem for Future Rory.

Rory hadn't actually set out to make a rune specifically for electricity. Still, now that he had it, he may as well test it. Dragging a stick through the ground and drawing up a circle, Rory next drew up the more complicated lightning rune in the middle of the circle. Stepping out from the first circle, Rory drew another circle on the ground beneath himself, the absorption rune in the center. Linking the two circles with a simple line through the ground, Rory drew in Pneuma. Aided by the absorption rune, it only took a bit before the energy he was channeling began flowing into the original circle he'd drawn on the ground. Watching it from the safety of his bound circle, he saw flashes of light crackle as miniature lightning bolts exploded and vanished with the bounded circle.

"Well, looks like it works." Rory grinned.

Electricity still exists.

For a moment, Rory considered whether they could rebuild their old world before tossing the idea away. In a universe of mystical and adaptable energy, electricity was simply far too limited as an energy source. Plus, the matter of generating electricity was still a bit of an unknown. Would solar panels work? Fusion reactors? What about the exotic energy sources other alien races had used in their old universe?

Electricity was a tool that could be used, but it wouldn't bring back their old way of life from the ashes. No longer thinking such unnecessary thoughts, new ideas began to replace them, or more accurately, old ideas were starting to form, ways he could use the existence of electricity to advance himself and, more importantly, withstand the onslaught of waves he was expected to stand firm against. There were still many waves before he hit his goal of ten straight weeks.

Ending the channel of Pneuma, Rory walked over to his first bound circle, staring down at the electricity rune. Seeing the lightning discharges, Rory had an idea for a mighty weapon to leapfrog thousands of years of human technological development, from the Stone Age to modern weaponry, in a single bound.

Well, one issue.

Glancing over at where he'd left what remained of the metal deposit he'd found, he could only sigh.

"Gonna need a lot more of that."

-----------------------------------------

Rory fidgeted, standing on the ladder next to his wall. In his hands, he held the answer to the looming threat of the waves, and while he'd tested it a few times, it hadn't always worked.

In fact, most of the prototypes had exploded, and it was only through the foresight of testing it safely outside his camp and from a distance that he hadn't exploded himself with them. Only the last two iterations of the new weapon had sort of worked.

The issue was he'd run out of time, the wave less than a day away when he'd been forced to accept his newest prototype as the best he would get. He'd only managed to fire it once or twice before calling it a success.

Now, will it explode in my hands later? Well, that's a damned good question.

Still fidgeting, Rory held his breath, waiting. Based on the pattern of the prior waves, he could expect-

"What the hell?"

His expectations were suddenly dashed, as from the forest appeared a monster unlike any he'd seen before.

Well, that's not strictly true.

It was no breed of fox, that was certain. Instead, it was an oversized rabbit with a rack of antlers several times its size; Rory could only wonder how it moved.

Never mind.

Rather than hopping toward his wall, the rabbit hovered several inches above the ground as it floated toward him.

New Encounter-

Jackalope Adept

The elder variety of a Jackalope Neophyte. No longer an adolescent of its species, its magic has grown more potent with age.

"Interface changed again," Rory muttered. Instead of focusing on the new monster, Rory found himself paying more attention to his interface, as, for some reason, Eon had been changing how it displayed monster descriptions as if it weren't satisfied with the prior displays.

Who am I to question a universal totally-not-magical-Ai?

Finally, focusing on what was important, Rory ignored the altered interface. Jackalope Neophytes, the adolescent form of what he was seeing right now, had already been rather dangerous with their matter-erasing orbs of Pneuma. Older and more powerful, the Adept was likely in an entire other league.

Couldn't ask for a better tester.

Raising his newly crafted science experiment-turned-weapon, Rory aimed for a moment, a handy little crosshair at the end of the track.

And here… we…go.

Inhaling one last steadying breath, Rory squeezed the trigger as the weapon sucked in a surge of Pneuma from around him; beneath the ladder, a rather sizeable bounded circle had been drawn out, and Rory had been funneling Pneuma into the area to draw from during the wave. As the magical energy was drawn into the weapon, it vibrated chaotically, the mystical energy transforming into an energy type he'd known well from a lifetime on Earth. Electricity traversed the rather shoddy-looking rails and magnetized the metal he'd harvested from the cave he'd almost died in. Charged and activated, the magnetized weapon roared with power as a crack of thunder shattered the forest's silence.

The rabbit, which had begun to stare at him with a sage-like expression -or as sage-like as a rabbit could look- didn't have time to react as it suddenly dropped, no longer hovering.

Missing your head tends to make using magic difficult, after all.

"Hell yeah!" Rory whooped.

Cradling the weapon, Rory smiled viciously, using analysis on it again.

Pneuma-Powered Railgun Mk. 6

Grade: Poor

A Runic weapon utilizing advanced theories only known by a Precursor, the Pneuma-Powered Railgun uses Pneuma to empower natural forces and propel a metal payload at terrifying speeds.

It had worked and worked far better than Rory could have hoped. Sure, its grade was still poor; it may as well have been held together by magical bubblegum, duct tape, shoelaces, and a lot of intent, but it worked. It had been difficult to construct the metal parts he needed properly; not having a proper forge made melting metals down tricky, and he'd needed to work through several prototypes. Still, all Rory had really needed was a conduit for the Pneuma and the electromagnetic processes. The materials of this planet, or perhaps the entire universe -he wasn't sure yet as he only had experiences on Aelia to infer from- were generally sturdier than the materials of their old universe. Strong as they were, the entire thing held together far better than an earth equivalent would have. Had that not been the case, the whole thing would have blown up endlessly, the forces at play, both magical and natural, simply too much for such a poorly engineered creation.

But it had worked, and that was all that mattered at the end of the day.

"Welcome to the 21st century, mother fuckers." Rory whooped one last time, already ready for the next monster.

Who needs to be a good fighter when you can send metal flying at thousands of miles per hour?