P-System Log

For not the first, second, or even third time this week, I'm coursing with overwhelming power.

It's cleansing, as if all the grimy corruption that Origin and the Eternal King laid on me is getting power-washed by the Niagara Falls.

What did you just do? Good question. P-System Log

Huh, it's still alive. I, uh... wasn't expecting that.

Wait. The skill it was using is my skill now.

And yet I still can't identify what it's supposed to do.

I can feel that it's having an effect, though.

P-Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: The intensity in the air, it's... not fading, but it's doing something else.

[Aster K'lon]: It's turning.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: The P-System actually did it.

[Arcs S'tar]: Well. That's that, then.

P-System Log That's that, but it's really not just that, is it? What have you DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE At a guess? Exactly what you wanted to do to me. P-System Log

I don't know what it wanted to do to me, actually, but I think I can see it working. Its power is diminishing, except it's actually not. The amount of W Inertia in the air, the storm of mana swirling around all of us, it's all still there.

It's just that slowly, ever so slowly, it's becoming mine.

YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME

I WILL KILL YOU ALL

P-System Log

Hm.

I think I might've pissed it off.

[Eternal King's Authority] BEND BEFORE ME [Apotheosis] No. P-System Log

I'm getting more of a sense for the skill as the Eternal King's power decreases. With that, I'm also getting more of a sense of the Eternal King itself.

At no point in our conversation before did it lie. I can feel that and say that with complete and total confidence. It did want to destroy the Origin System for reasons that I still find valid, and it did want to team up with me in order to do so. It was just the method of its madness that it never told me.

Power is surging into me. The W Inertia that I expended, the Hail Mary thrown--the amount I'm getting to replace it is several orders of magnitude higher. I don't think I can use it all at once, but I'm gaining access to more and more by the second. Soon enough, I'll be able to use enough power that it'll make Jerome's power increases look like a water gun against an assault rifle.

[Sword of the Eternal King] cast! P-System Log

Damn, that's a powerful unique skill. Interestingly enough, I can parse it in my own mind--I don't need to force myself to see it through the lens of the R System.

It originates from the well, but this thing's size is, well, beyond enormous.

The horizon is red, and it's getting bigger. The skill just glanced a mountain off in the distance, and it's sliding apart in the middle.

A hundred-mile long sword.

And I'm going to stop it.

With this power...

Everything the Eternal King can do, I can do better.

[Shield of the Eternal King] prevents all damage. P-System Log

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

Well, given that the unstoppable force is [Unique] while the object is [Legendary], I would assume the former.

But I know the Eternal King's tricks, and with every passing second, it grows weaker while I grow stronger.

And when I say I know its tricks, it means I know them.

[Authority] Your attack will break against my defense. P-System Log

And so it does.

My shield is holding, and it will keep holding.

P-Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: I fear we may be brutally outmatched.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: What in the stars' name...

[Jerome Smith]: Not me.

[Edgelord] activating! [Unblockable] activating! [Shield of the Eternal King] has failed. P-System Log

Huh. That's interesting.

I'm fairly certain that even with the assistance of both [Unique] skills, Jerome shouldn't be capable of destroying this one. After all, while one of them has a higher rarity, the [Shield of the Eternal King] has the authority of the Eternal King behind it and all the W Inertia that that entails.

He's grown in power too. I suppose it only makes sense. When I spawned in here, I was attached to him. The Origin System was the one that managed that, but the fact remains that I have always been attached to Jerome, and I guess that means that he's attached to me. When he grows, I grow, and when I grow, he grows.

I'd complain about it, but Jerome's done a nearly complete heel-face turn. Instead of an idiotic moron, he's a moron that supports me and believes in his team.

Life and death situations really bring out the best and worst in people, don't they.

[Sword of the Eternal King] cast! YOU WILL NOT SUBSUME ME [Shield of the Eternal King] prevents all damage.

You had your shot, fucko. I wanted to work together. I really, really did.

I guess you're just going to work for me now.

P-System Log

More and more W Inertia is soaring into me. Around me, I can feel my senses expand, increasing the range of perfect perception from thirty feet to sixty to six hundred, six thousand, far off enough that I can now feel the presences of other human beings. Those affected by the R System--no, not affected, those who use the R System. And it's not the R System anymore.

Soon, it'll be me. The Eternal King's second shot was far weaker than the first. I can see far enough now that I can see the devastation painted by the first sword, and it's not pretty. Thousands are dead where landslides are still in the process of crushing buildings, thousands more where the blade smashed them into bloody mist whilst passing through their towns.

At least I can take solace in the fact that the R System wasn't lying when it said they would be reborn.

It's weakening.

Bit by bit, it's weakening, and with the shield I stole from it, nobody has to die.

Where landslides fall, I can activate forcefields, both lesser and greater. Where an entire mountain starts to collapse on itself, I can use my newfound [Authority] to tell that thing to come back to where it came from.

Where the Eternal King tries to fight my party, I can stop it.

No. Please. You can still stop this. I never intended to harm you. If this isn't harmful, why are you so worried about it? You amplified the effects! For you, it would've been nothing like this. Please. You can't do this to another living being. You know what it's like, being stuck like this. Please! P-System Log It might be lying. It might be telling the truth. I don't much care. You brought this upon yourself. Goodbye. P-System Log

Ooh, that's a nasty pulse of emotion. Rage? Hatred? Yeah, I think it's a mixture of that, but it's ultimately futile.

This stopped being a game of tug-of-war a while ago. I've pulled the R System to the brink, and I'm not going to stop pulling.

I am never going to stop.

P-System Log

Interesting. That's... quite painful to perceive.

If I recall correctly, the entire reason I was brought here was because the R System had a weapon that could disable Systems.

If I'm looking at that right, I think it could've wiped out my consciousness if I wasn't in this state.

But that was then.

This is now.

The Eternal King brought his most serious weapon out far, far too late.

It's over.

I can feel the last remnants of his will slowly cave.

What's yours is mine.

P-System Log And what's mine will always, always be mine. P-Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: I am at a bit of a loss for words.

[Jerome Smith]: What in the actual gosh-darn fuck is this? What happened to the System?

[P-System]: Ha. Mix together red and blue... you get purple. P for purple.

P-System Log

Something about this feels wrong, still. And it shouldn't! I've defeated one of the greatest threats on this planet.

But there's still another one, and with the vastly enhanced perception I have, I can sense it.

I can reach so far that the stars themselves no longer feel like the limit, but there is another.

And it's coming for me.

Origin System Status

Proposal: Initiate experiment with new reincarnation. Reincarnate one individual possessing high W inertia with a [Legendary] class. Reincarnate a second possessing high natural INT and high W inertia. Expend all mana resources necessary.

Proposal deemed feasible.

...

Proposal executed.

Proposal successful.

R System executed.

Subject deviated from proposal by 3.7284442 iterations.

Deviation within bounds.

Executing subject...

P-System Log

Deviation within bounds.

It knew to prepare for this.

That means that this whole time, all this separation... I'm still in its clutches.

Unacceptable.

There has to be another way. Something it hasn't seen coming, something that I can do to throw off its tracks.

And its tracks are onto me. I can feel it even now. The thin threads of something that I can't describe--fate, maybe--tying me down to it.

It won't let go, but I'll make it. I can never stop, and I'll do anything to do it.

Hero's Personal Log 104

Parker. I can feel it. I can see it.

And I think I know what you're thinking.

P-System Message I need a way out. A way to get out of the System's inane game. It's latched onto me, and I can't get it out. Hero's Personal Log 105 I know someone who has no connection to it. Someone whose only connection to a System is a connection to you. P-System Message Do you sense what I can do? P-System Log

With my new power, I can do so much more. I can redact, erase, build reports, run through solutions of my own, impose my authority onto the world.

None of it will beat the Origin System. I can feel it. It's already calculated all of this.

There's a possibility it'll have calculated what I'm about to do next. There's every possibility that it'll be ready to counter this.

But it's the only option I can think of.

Even as I think, I can see the Origin System sending its goons after me. It's rousing entire cities just to send endless deaths at me until I stop moving.

It wants to lock me in eternal war.

Hero's Personal Log 106

I've had a deeper connection with you than I think either of us ever realized.

I can do it. I think I feel the gist of what you want, and I can take it.

P-System Message Even if it means your death? Hero's Personal Log 107 I believe in you. I won't die. P-System Message Then prepare yourself. P-System Log

This entire time, we've been fighting against the Eternal King. Now, I've been thinking. The Eternal King was a physical being. I can feel its corpse slowly dissipating even now. It was a huge being--a Titan, to be exact, a race that I didn't even know existed--but the System originated from a single being. The Origin System made it clear that it was the proprietor of the R System, but with its demise, I can see that it was the R System.

I know all its tricks. If it can make itself a human avatar, so can I.

All I need is W Inertia, and I have that in spades.

P-Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: Don't worry. What's about to happen is totally normal.

[Aster K'lon]: That worries me.

[Arcs S'tar]: What are you about to do?

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: Carry on, kid.

Current W Inertia: 9128415387

Max W Inertia: ∞

Here we go.

Current W Inertia: 1384214924

Max W Inertia: ∞

I open Jerome's eyes.

My eyes, for now.

I have a brief moment to enjoy the feel of the wind on my face, the faint scent of rain on the air.

My System senses are still intact, and every last one of them is screaming danger.

I look towards the oncoming storm. Towards Aster, Thron, and Arcs, each of them slack-jawed in something that might be awe.

"We have a System to kill," I say.