Chapter 231: The monster turns.
The empty streets of the Seattle suburbs echoed faintly of uneartly cries.
Blood green and blue lined the pavement, and the houses looked degraded, worn and in disrepair.
Abandoned for years.
A broken spear lay stuck on a lawn in the ribcage of some mutated creature and the air smelled fresh, if a bit unnaturally humid.
A world abandoned. It's residents mutated into monsters at the whims of a horny teenager and his overpowered but irresponsible drunkard of a grandfather.
Dimension C-137. Years after the cronenberg disaster.
Usually, I wouldn't touch one the Rick And Morty worlds with a billion foot ten dimensional pole.
But this one was empty anyway so why worry?
Strolling down the street, it was easy to spot.
The Smith house.
Mainly because of the futuristic barrier lining it, the shimmer surrounding it that was visible for miles and of course the distinct lack of any other active tech besides this one house and it's black hole gravity well generator.
It sparkled in my technokinetic senses like a firework.
Why was I here?
Simple.
Not only was it fully stacked with all of Rick's bullshit inventions, it also had no inhabitants that I would harm inadvertently when I made my final stand.
First things first though, let's isolate this world from the rest of the Rick And Morty multiverse worlds.
The worms resode sprawled out across multiple parallel worlds.
Which means that if they get here they'll also have access to the parallel worlds with Rick and his tech. Tech I am not going to be protecting.
And that includes the portal gun.
If the worms get their hands on a portal gun?
Everyone is fucked.
Not just me, but the whole multiverse and maybe even the omniverse.
So yeah....not doing that.
Arriving at the Smith house, I used my technokinesis to open the door, and lower the forcefield around the house as I entered the garage.
It was a standard garage with a L shaped counter, a couple of shelves with boxes of assorted items to one side and a torn and dirty carpet obviously hiding a hatch to the underground basement.
Except for the fact the it was lined with super advanced tech and booby trapped to all hell.
"Intruder aler-" The A.I. immediately sounded out.
"No." I ordered, crushing it with my power, before reprogramming it in my own design, better than before.
"Welcome back sir. How may I be of assistance?" My A.I. design implemented.
"Computer, get me a list of all articles currently in stock." I said, noticing the dimension anchor ticked behind the shelf in the garage.
"There you are." I said, flipping the device open and began to fiddle with it.
Connecting it to the computer, I finished my upgrade on it.
"Computer, isolate this universe from the others. And just for the worms' convenience, make it nice and shiny. Make sure they spot it from a good distance. I want them to come straight to this world. No detours or flanks."
"Of course sir." The A.I. replied, adding, "The list."
A holoscreen appeared over the L shaped counter and I interfaced with it via my power, skimming through the list.
"Let's see....nuetrino bombs, black hole devices....no. I've already used them too many times. The worms have already learnt to avoid them.
What else.... what else....not a forcefield. After falling for so many forcefield traps they just blow themselves up now, destroying me and everything inside, and the sacrifice of one of them breaks the forcefield allowing the rest to get away for another round.
Unless...."
An idea popped into my mind.
I looked around for a fish tank, and checking the surveillance found a suitable replacement in the basement lab.
Opening the hatch below the dirty carpet, threw down the spear and descended down the ladder, reaching the underground lab that Rick hid from his family.
I flipped a switch and the lights flickered on, lighting up the dim basement lab. There were tanks and vats, sheoves neatly lined by the walls and vaults carved into them.
All around strange equipment buzzed to life as my power washed over the room and I began to look through the tools and implements stored around the room, rifling through drawers and cabinets, gathered materials. A strip of metal here, a magnographic welder there, a crystal tucked away in some corner, some extradimensional energy charges.
Gathering what I needed I began my work, putting together a microverse.
A very special kind of microverse.
A young and unstable one. Easy to build, easy to collapse.
It was easy enough to imagine what I had planned.
Create a rudimentary universe in a fish tank, invert it. Trap the worms, and then, shroud the world in Darkness.
Man that sounds way cooler than it is.
Like I am a dark lord, glowering down at the enslaved peasants from my dark magic tower, in my spiky black armor.
Heheheheheh.
I giggled.
I really should visit Lord Of The Rings sometime.
With my kids and wives.
Man I fucking miss them already.
Papa needs his daily dose of Star hugs!
I'm already three weeks overdue.
Just then, the A.I. beeped in alert.
"Sir. The spatial boundaries have of the universe have been breached. Counting 1400 entities."
"Alrigh-Wait what?!" I exclaimed.
"1400? I thought only 124 were left? Did the ones chasing Wanda give up midway?"
After these few weeks I realised that most of the 15000 worms surviving at the end of the void battle came after me. Only about a thousand of them went after Wanda.
But to think they're already here?
Did they kill Wanda? Or did she escape?
Or maybe they figured after she destroyed the USB, there was no point in chasing her and gave up.
Either way, that's more than I expected.
I sucked in a cold breath.
The strain of fighting off 1400 worms at once, even with the Darkness....the way I am....
I haven't even mastered nen yet.
I sighed.
I might just have to return to the ship for a new body at this rate.
Well, no harm in trying.
"Computer ... contact my ship. Discreetly. Order your counterpart there to prepare a new body for me immediately." I said as I connected the dimension anchor setup to the newly made microverse.
"And set a timer for the inversion.
You know what to do. Buy me enough time to deploy the Darkness."
"Yes sir. Just one problem." The A.I. replied.
"What? The weak build won't handle multiple inversions at the same time? Don't worry about it. Made it sturdy enough for a once over." I waved it off.
"No, sir. I am unable to contact the ship. I'm afraid...."
"This body is the only one for now? Fuck. Yeah. I get the gist. Proceed with the plan. Minor changes. Add a two second delay to the last inversion. I'll need an escape route." I took it in stride.
It was understandable.
Using the improbability drive and portal gun under the directives of going to a place where no one would find them, the A.I. must have obviously chosen a universe or rather a spot where a universe should have been before it was destroyed. Likely by a higher level being or a data based reality warper or a evil god.
Why? Because while people will dig through even the trash that is dead worlds, no one will or can come looking for a place that doesn't exist.
The remnant of a universe that has been wiped out.
No longer connected to anywhere else directly.
Which also means the signal doesn't reach it anymore.
I have no main body to return to. And usually that would mean I'll end up reincarnating in one of the many clones spread out among the many worlds out there.
Except, just before this, I had recalled all the clones for the adjustment to their code.
Shit.
If I die here, I die for real.
And with the Darkness consuming me in it's entirety, it might very well end up destroying my code and immortality too.
No return.
I do, of course have a solution.
I just need to kill the worms first.
"Sir, it's time." It said and the forcefield pn the Smith house shattered.
"Do it." I ordered, grabbing the entry crystal for the microverse and pocketed a disintegration bomb.
The A.I. didn't bother to respond, simply acting on my orders. The dimension anchor beeped, the fish tank crackled and suddenly I found myself in the microverse, in a mountain cave with the entry/exit apparatus.
"It worked then..." I muttered.
My plan was simple.
Use the dimension anchor to reverse the positions of the universe and the microverse, pulling the universe into the fish tank while pushing the microverse out, trapping the worms in while giving me a moment to prep the Darkness.
Why couldn't I prep it before they came? Because if they see a world covered in an all consuming Darkness they won't walk into an obvious trap.
So I had to wait for them to get into the world and then use the Darkness. But it takes time and they'd rip me to shreds if I did that.
So this.
Outside I could feel the worms. Over a thousand of them.
My geass showed me getting rushed and torn by them in 5...4...
Nope.
I grabbed the entry crystal and activated the finger sized d-bomb, dropping it on the floor as I disappeared.
Appearing inside the garage again and immediately grabbed the spear, rushing out onto the porch.
I slammed the True Longinus into the cement and extended my nen into the Darkness, loosening it's chains.
"Stretch a little. Go. Cover the world in perpetual night! Consume it all!" I ordered as the Darkness fluttered for a bit, confused before it gave off an orderly feeling and twitched in agreement.
Good thing I chose a world like this.
This world was one out if order. That's the whole reason I chose it of all worlds to destroy.
Now free the Darkness shot up into the sky, tied by a loose thin chain, as it spread out across the sky.
Instantly the sun disappeared, the clouds thinned out and dissipated and the light breeze stilled.
The world slowly came to grinding halt as the Darkness began to consume it's tortion, and I held on tight to the spear.
The houses defences came on automatically, stabilizing our position as the sudden halt of the Earth sent everything flying across the surface ar speeds in excess of 600 kmph.
Houses flung off their foundations, building crumbled, entire forests uprooted and the oceans washed across the world in an apocalyptic tidal wave, wiping out all life bar our own, protected under the secondary backup shielding built into the house.
Outside though, it was armageddon.
Behind me in the garage, the fish tank cracked. The glass began to ship and the metal at the edges bloated.
"Alright, computer. Blow it!" I said,
A laser gun emerged fromt he vent above the workbench and shot through the microverse, destroying it, as a concentrated stream of twisted, near one dimensional matter shot out from it and out into the sky, shattering the forcefield a second time.
Above, avatar after avatar unfurled from a thin line like an origami puzzle, and targeted me.
But before they could do anything something else attracted their attention.
Their PTV shards were ringing alarm bells in their heads.
Why? Because the Darkness was here.
"Too late." I grinned like a madman.
"Darkness. Do your thing."
In an instant then, it was over. The world turned black and all light was swallowed.
There was only darkness, swirling around the world, slowly closing it.
The worms tried to fight, yes. But I could already hear their shrill scremas with my technokinetic senses as they died, eaten alive.
Is this how Kang felt, wielding Alioth?
Just a crushing darkness, the world, the multiverse around him getting consumed, fed to some eldritch horror beyond comprehension?
It feels....weird.
I can't quite put a finger on it.
In fact it wasn't just that.
I couldn't feel anything.
It should alarm me but even that didn't work.
It was the Darkness working on me.
It's concept was after all 'Absence'.
And absence of anything and everything.
Only my faint nen tether, chaining the Darkness could be felt somewhere out there in the pitch black.
I extended my nen into an En, trying to feel out for it. I had to chain it back.
Or else it would consume me too.
Of course I could just leave but I didn't want to leave such a vakuable weapon here.
The world had begun to crumble around me now but I was still no closer to catching the chain.
And I was quickly running out of nen energy. The aura.
I could feel the Darkness closing in.
It wanted revenge.
Well, shit.
No choice then.
Either I stay here and try to chain it again in the hopes of keeping the god-killing weapon and risk death.
Or....
With one hand clutching the spear tight to help orient myself, I pulled out the portal gun, opening a portal beside me.
"So long, buddy. Have fun with your new playpal." I let go of the spear and made to walk into the portal but I was stopped
The True Longinus protested, it's ribbons wrapped around my hand like iron shackles.
Don't leave me. It cried.
Tch. It'll get us both killed.
I kicked at it, trying to free myself, but the ribbons didn't give out, tearing into my flesh.
"Tsss...bastard! Let me go you shitty spear!" I hissed, pulling harder.
It rattled, cackling in it's own way and held on tighter, it's ribbons creeping up my body, trying to entangle me here as if to say, 'If I die here, you do too!'.
"You think you have any power here? Think again!"
I dipped my head and portal gun into the portal and with my bound hand, gave the spear one last middle finger as I closed the portal decapitating myself.
My head, hand and portal gun fell down onto the soft grass of a new world as the Darkness consumed the last one.
I fell into the familiar chant, trying to keep my code of immortality working, regenerating my body.
After all, having exhausted my psychic reserves over the past weeks of battle, and with no other active clones out there, I was shit out of luck.
If I stop thinking, I stop being immortal.
And as a disembodied head, that's kinda the only thing keeping me alive.
Slowly, I could feel my body recivering, my lungs forming as I took a fresh, grassy breath of air, snorting as an earthworm tried crawling up my nose.
Then my stomach regenrated, acid leaking out onto the pasture I had landed in, even as I began to feel dizzy.
"Don't stop thinking, don't stop thinking don't stop thinking!"
Alas, just as the hip bone regenerated, I cpuld hold on no longer.
I was tired and sleep was just...so sweet.
Footsteps thumped close by and I could hear a tune being hummed.
A bright light flooded my vision.
It was so warm....happy. Joyful and full of innocence.
A song washed over me, like the warm rays of the sun, a massage that soothed all my aches, healed the very soul.
And the song....it was so beautiful.
It drew tears.
I felt...at home.
And so, I fell into it's warm embrace, unconciousness taking me.
Finally, after weeks of battle, the worms were all dead. And I was free.
____________________
The extra chaoter for 400 powerstones, as promised!
Finally the chase arc is over.
The worms are dead.
MC is safe.
Next time, to the magicians world.
Till then, thanks for reading and see ya!
And don't forget to donate your powerstones!
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