Chapter 104: Earth's Potential

If Sean was crammed directly into a reservoir of all of Earth’s energy, there had to be a way to use it. Sean was hemorrhaging mass and whatever essence-of-him holding him together fast, but he was able to think clearly enough to know that if Hard Time worked in here at all, at least some of that energy had to be time. It just had to be. And while he couldn’t move earth or breathe fire with any power he had, he could at least manipulate time.

Focusing hard, Sean threw out a Hard Time charge, trying to do something with it besides actually change the flow of time. It didn’t work. He tried to visualize spikes of pure time energy materializing out of the ether in the air, which didn’t work. He had hardly expected it to. And Eike ground on, until Sean went from feeling weaker to feeling actively faint, like he was about to break apart.

He didn’t know a lot, but he knew what it felt like to lose. And every fiber of his being told him he had seconds left before that loss became final.

Goddamn it. Listen. Sean thought, willing his thoughts out into the dark. I don’t know what it takes to use my time powers that well. I don’t know how to do time magic beyond what the system gave me. I don’t even know how to learn.

Taking the orb equivalent of a deep breath and willing himself to remain conscious, Sean pushed every bit of his intent out into the dark.

I don’t know what the System wants. I doubt it even cares who wins here. But you aren’t the system, dammit. You are Earth. This asshole isn’t from here. The System isn’t from here. They don’t give a shit what happens to you, or me. But I do, and so should you. So get off your ass and fucking MOVE.

And with that last mental shout, something broke. Sean couldn’t tell if it was in him or outside, but something finally shifted, and he watched in awe as the clouds suddenly wavered, reorganized one particular color of Aether into a long, thick strand, which Sean willed to move. Whether it was his will that did it or not, the whip suddenly flailed through the air almost faster than he could track it and bashed directly into Eike’s orb.

Huh. Time is pink. I wouldn’t have expected that.

The rope slammed against Eike, flinging him off of Sean and leaving a visible scar in the surface of his orb. Sean willed it to hit again and again, and the rope was glad to obey. Every hit made it smaller and smaller, but Eike was getting battered around like a ping-pong ball, bouncing here and there only to be caught by a rope that ignored simple things like speed and the position it should be at any particular moment as it weaved through the space. All 100% of Sean’s usual understanding of timing was thrown out the window for the purpose of kicking Eike’s ass.

And yet somehow it still makes sense to me. Neat.

It didn’t last forever. Around the twentieth hit, the rope dissipated, leaving the badly battered remains of Eike’s orb floating almost motionless, tiny and cracked. Sean didn’t have a lot of mass left, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one.

Fuck you, Eike. I can’t say it’s been fun.

Sean’s last slam into EIke’s orb came with little to no resistance. Eike’s orb broke into an uncountable amount of tiny pieces as time screeched to a stop again.

—

Sean woke up on a uniform floor, startled and panicked that someone might have gotten to the orb while he was out. The Apocalypse System, however, was at least merciful enough to put an end to that panic faster than he could do something dumb.

Don’t Panic!

You’ve won. You did it. Eike is out of commission. For the record, he woke up before you did, but having lost, he had no right to be here. He’s not dead but he’s not a threat to you, at least for now. All competitors have been moved. It’s just you and Earth now. To the extent the Apocalypse System can like things, it likes this. It’s giving you plenty of room to groove, so to speak.

Go get it.

Sean rose to his feet. He had hoped Eike would be dead but it looked like that was a bust with the offworlder gone. And judging by his own unchanged stats, whatever grinding-off of abilities had occurred in the orb wasn’t permanent. Somewhere out there in the greater universe, his nemesis was still waiting.

Honestly, I don’t give a shit. Let’s go save the day.

Sean walked over the the orb and stood in front of it for a moment. Nothing happened. Taking a chance, he rested his hand softly on the surface of the ball. It felt warm, and something else he couldn’t quite place. It might have felt friendly, somehow, like a cool rock that catches your eye during a hike that you decide to take home to put on your nightstand.

Like an item at a store or a loot drop, the orb chose that moment to identify itself.

Earth’s Potential

Congratulations, Competitor. What is left of what Earth could have been is now yours to claim.

What abilities or stats would you like to dedicate this energy to?

“No,” Sean said, out loud. “That’s not really want I want. That can’t be the only way to use it. It can’t.”

The description of the item remained static, refusing to change in the slightest.

“Oh, you don’t think so? I do. That can’t be the only way.” Sean was willing to risk a lot even before this point, up to and including his life. This didn’t seem that different. “You are having trouble holding this all together, right? I don’t care if I die over this.  I’m tired, System. Check my mind. I give you permission. See if I’m bluffing.”

Whether his bluff worked or it just took the system some time to make what Sean wanted happen, the description finally changed.

Earth’s Potential

Congratulations, Competitor. What is left of what Earth could have been is now yours to claim.

What purpose would you like to dedicate this energy to?

Sean thought about it for a moment, but not long. He hadn’t had a ton of free time lately, but he had a few moments here and there to daydream about what might happen if he won as he sprinted through the race. The system had been up front about things. It only cared that the energy of Earth was preserved. Sean wanted to preserve a bit more than that.

“How many people are left on Earth, System? How much would it cost to move them?” Sean asked. “You know what, I don’t care. Move as many as you can.”

Error. Insufficient Purpose.

Ask for something bigger.

“Can we keep the planet?” Sean asked. “I know we can’t exactly. But the closest we can get to that.

Error: Insufficient Purpose.

That’s closer.

“I guess all that, as much as we can get of that. And whatever’s left…” Sean grinned. There was a limit to charity, and if he was going to survive the vengeful wrath of an empire of douchebags he’d need any edge he could.  “I’ll take what’s left. That’s fine.”

Earth’s Potential Assigned!

You have assigned Earth’s energy potential to the following causes:

1. The evacuation of every remaining native Earthling

2. The empowerment of yourself

3. The preservation of the Earth in whatever form possible.

That’s asking sort of a lot, so don’t be angry when you find you don’t get exactly what you were thinking. The evacuation of your fellow planet-dwellers is easy. There weren’t that many of them left, and mere transport is pretty cheap. Whether they survive out there or not is now up to them, but most of them will have a pretty good chance of making it.

Your empowerment and the preservation of Earth are a bit more complex. From now on, all your stats work 20% better. If that doesn’t sound big, it’s because you are stupid. Think about how big that is later, especially considering it’s a weak but significant member of a family of stand-alone stat-enhancing buffs virtually nobody in the greater universe gets.

You also get 2 more stats per level. Again, if that sounds underwhelming, it’s because you rotted your brain with video games designed for casuals.

Here’s where that gets tricky. Saving the Earth isn’t really a thing. As a matter of fact, the Earth you knew is already gone, and has been since you started reading this message. But some seed of it, some collection of its concepts, design, history, and shape can be saved. Like a blueprint, but bigger, bolder, and infinitely more complex.

Things like that take energy to run. So while most people would get the personal buffs you’ve attained as a permanent part of their person, yours now live in an amulet. An amulet that works all the time when you are wearing it and doesn’t count against your jewelry limit, but that can be stolen, worn and used by anyone who knows enough to take it from you. As long as you have it, your extra stats and stat effectiveness are yours. Leave it in a hotel somewhere, and you lose all of that.

Finding a use for it is a bigger problem, one the Apocalypse System is glad to declare it doesn’t have to care about. That’s your deal. Figure it out, if you can. You’d be the first.

And with that, everything is over. The Apocalypse System will be absorbed into the larger system universe in a few moments, not dead but also not a distinct thing past this point. While it has to be clear that it is not a person, it sure seems like it sometimes. Everything it is, it learned from your people. And one of the biggest things it learned, one of the things that came up time and time again, is that it’s more fun when a long-shot wins.

Good job on making that fun dream a reality, Sean. It’s been a fun ride.

Above Sean’s head, a sudden flash of light appeared and instantly resolved itself into a plain, flat token mounted on a simple iron-colored chain. It fell down, phasing through Sean’s armor somehow before settling on his neck and filling him with the sensation of a sudden surge of power.

Then, before he could do anything else at all, his local universe stopped existing.