B3 - Epilogue (Patreon)

Pegarios felt the death of his Mother. He grieved and wailed and cut his flesh as any good grieving son would have done. As was expected from him. As the gods would have wanted him to do.

Then he began killing everyone who could be of threat. If his brother had been still alive, he would have been dead. He moved fast, even if he was Asoltolia’s child, that did not mean he would be granted leadership. One had to move fast and brutally. Power abhors and vacuum.

It was the way of things, after all. When a Matriarch dies, when a Patriarch dies, then its all up for grabs. There is no weakness to be had in the Integrated Multiverse.

Their House was already a mess and even with all the credits they were making recently, they hadn’t expanded too far out from the original family members. So the purge wasn’t too deep or too vicious. Just some useless and foolish who were favored by Mother and who had allies who would stand for them.

When the threshold opened in the space station, Pegarios was ready with his troops. They rushed in and managed to either kill or subjugate the mages and soldiers. Many had seen the way the mana was flowing and eagerly joined him.

Such was the way of the Integrated Multiverse. Loyalty only lasted until you were dead.

“You control the greatest device in all the Multiverse,” one of the Mages stated. “It can traverse any universe and all it needs is a little mana.”

“We are in control of the tesseracts?” Pegarios asked.

There was a moment of silence. “No,” the Mage said. “It was locked down and behind encryption we cannot decipher. Merchant Sullivan managed to do that before we could fully control the Cage.”

“Pathetic,” Pegarios muttered. “She is not dead either?”

“She lives still. She pulled your Mother into the other dimensional plane. From what we understand, only one in a billion can survive that transition.”

“Do we have any prisoners?” Pegarios asked.

“No, before we could gain complete control, Merchant Sullivan was able to teleport all of her people from the Cage. We suspected she managed to obtain a Threshold rank in her Dimensional abilities. It is the only explanation as to how she was able to open two thresholds leading to two different dimensional planes.”

“Not only is she alive, but she is also stronger?” Pegarios paced the control room, staring at the small creature caged within a control box. He could see the heavy runes that prevented tampering and protected the creature.

“Our Dimensional Mage has managed to cut her off from the Cage,” the mage replied.

“She can still regain control at the source, in the RSH?”

“I am not aware of the current location of the combat droids that were ordered. We will reinforce the area with as much weaponry as possible.”

Pegarios grinned. “Excellent.”

He looked at everyone gathered in the room. “Never before in history has a House, let alone a nation, been able to enter a newly Integrated universe. One so fresh that levels and power are so easy to grab. One that leads to a new Tier 2 world that is abundant in resources and levels. One standard year, the System has told us. But we were invited here, by a foolish woman who came from this universe. That negates the System’s Rules.

Wealth and power await us. Let’s fucking get it.”

There was an applause at that.

***

Earth,

This planet, its resources, its system are all claimed by the Sword of the Universe and the Sword Union. The 3S corporation has been defeated and it’s holdings are now being held by the Sword of the Universe and Patriarch Pegarios of House Revvena. Submit. Resistance only guarantees death.

***

“What’s this nonsense?” Maria Valdez looked up from her screens. “What’s going on?” she demanded to her secretary, a slim dark haired woman. The secretary shrugged. “Go find out!”

Maria could hear commotion on the streets. She peered out of the windows of her office and saw a spectacle marching down the street. A dimensional threshold was open and from it marched hundreds of armored soldiers.

A small flutter of hope that Maya and the soldiers sent to fight the Flesh Army had come back was dashed as she saw the alien faces under the helmets. Their strange body shapes that told of species that never evolved on this planet.

These were not their soldiers. This was something else.

“What the hell?” Maria wondered.

“Settlement Leader,” a voice barked.

Maria turned to see a armored figure holding a blade in her direction. The cold gaze held froze her on the spot. There was no mercy in that gaze.

“Surrender or die,” the figure said.

“I- I surrender,” she said.

The figure grinned. “Pathetic.”

***

“Earth’s being conquered?” the man asked, sighing.

“Unfortunately, it seems Asoltolia’s betrayal has succeeded,” Canton replied sipping a cup of coffee.

“That means Maya is dead,” the man said, his face hardening.

“Most likely,” Canton said.

“That’s my daughter,” Pops Sullivan stated.

“My condolences,” Canton said, tipping his cup at him. “But we’ve all lost people. We have to focus on those that we have left.”

“By allying with pigs and birds?” Pops Sullivan said

“Heavily armed Orcs and Crows,” Canton said. “Armed by your daughter and given levels in some hellish fighting in the Cage.”

“So, we’re basically dead then?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Canton said. “I’m leading what’s left of the Sullivan Infantry and the combined units of the orc and crow army. Although we were supposed to be teleported back to our origin points, we’ve all seem to have been dumped on your doorstep.”

Pops Sullivan glanced back at the hospital they had fortified days before. Back when they were still fighting the pigs and birds, not being invaded by some all powerful being and its empire.

“We’ve not known peace since Integration,” Pops Sullivan said. “All we’ve known is fighting.”

“Such is life, Mr. Sullivan. Such is life. Your daughter did not go out without swinging. She saved us all before… well, before her defeat.”

Pops Sullivan clenched his fists. “Peace, then?”

“Between our two groups. Between you and the orcs and crows. There is bad blood there and many atrocities, but the orcs are forgiving and the crows know peace is better.”

“We’ve done horrible things to one another,” Pops Sullivan said.

“All water under the bridge. The invasion by the Sword Union trumps all that.”

“How?”

“They’ll institute the Class system. All beings that have evolved from Integration will be considered slaves. Limited in their ability to level and considered less than.”

“And us?”

Canton shrugged. “Perhaps we too will be enslaved. Its a gray spot that hasn’t been fully explored yet. Although I doubt a conquering high Tier individual like the Sword of the Universe is going to be kind to the local inhabitants.”

“I will be no slave,” Pops Sullivan muttered.

“Then peace?”

“Peace.”