The Eternal Sphere

by Xarmar13

Return to Mosel

As if history repeated itself, a cage of bone emerged at the entrance of the Sealed Cavern and once again, the humans and ponies, with the exception of the undead and rabbit templar, were heaving and doing their best to keep whatever they had eaten recently from reversing course through their digestive systems.

As much as she hated that method of travel, Twilight also needed to cut down on travel time to get to Aquios because she knew that they were in for a long trek to get to the top of Spiral Tower where Crystal Silicon was located.

Once everyone overcame their nausea, the group returned through the tunnel and back to Castle Aquaria.

As they emerged into the chapel, Twilight groaned as she received another transmission from Grape Vine. Still irritable from her disturbing return trip, she took a moment to calm herself using the breathing technique she learned a long time ago from her foalsitter, Cadance. Once calmed, she activated her communicator and saw her employee on the screen. “Another group of profiles? How many more are you planning to recruit?”

“Actually, you may be happy to know that these are the last three. There will be one more if you guys can get that automaton in Surferio working, but you can ignore that one.”

“The automaton?” Twilight asked.

“I gave Roger an AI program that I want inserted into that machine. I suspect that it also needs some serious repairs before it can be fully functional. It would go smoothly if you found the blueprints to the machine though.”

Twilight smiled, glad that Grape could soon finish her project without further assistance and that she could focus on her primary mission. There was also a part of her who would have loved to see the automaton completed though. “I’ll send Dejison and Vanilla to Surferio. I’ll recruit Meryl on the way and send her there as well with the AI and the blueprints that we obtained from Ruddle and Rumina a while back.”

“Thanks for all the help you’ve given me on this project, boss. I’m sure I can make the Item Creation feature a rousing success thanks to you. And here are the last three inventors that we got from the recruitment drive. Now the real work begins for me.”

Twilight waited a few seconds before the last three profiles appeared on her screen.

The first of the last was a small humanoid whose race resembled the fairy they saw in Duggus Forest a while ago. The fairy-like girl named Chilico was nearly a century old and was very knowledgeable in the art of crafting. The problem though was that while she was one of the best crafters in the guild, her small size also made crafting trinkets take significantly more time than others to complete. However, the quality of what she made was often worth the wait. She also had a family to support so she would need to be paid for her services.

Apparently, Chilico had set up shop in Surferio which was convenient for Twilight.

The next one was very inconvenient for Twilight because this one was all the way back in Airyglyph City. Osman was a priest who preached the ways of the gods to anyone who wanted to hear him. While his talent in writing books was very impressive, the books he wrote were also very controversial. Osman was often frustrated by time, the poison that all mortals suffered from. In his advanced age, he felt like he had not accomplished what he desired, but not for lack of trying. He desired to see something unusual; something that went against the mainstream of what society deemed acceptable.

Twilight had a feeling that the book that Cornelius wrote might be what the old priest wanted.

The last one was actually a very interesting inventor. Apparently, they were once the guild master of the artisan’s guild for four years before her cranky personality drove them off. She was also a soothsayer who placed her own program into the communicator so she could give her fortunes to other inventors. Louise ended up living as a hermit ever since her guild moved on without her but there were rumors that said that she had taken a certain clairvoyant menodix as an apprentice.

Louise was unrivaled in her skills as a chemist. The medicines she created were borderline miraculous.

Twilight sighed. “The good news is, almost all of the unrecruited inventors are on the way to Mosel. The bad news is that one of them is all the way in Airyglyph and I don’t have enough stamina for two long-distance teleports.”

“Why don’t you let me handle that one,” Sophia offered.

“Umm, while I appreciate the offer, we don’t have time to wait for you to go to Airyglyph and back. We will just have to wait until another opportunity arises.”

“What do I need to do to recruit him?” Sophia insisted.

“I just said–'' Twilight began before she was interrupted by Thanatas.

“Just trust her, if she believes that she can handle this one quickly, then let her handle it.”

Twilight sighed in defeat and handed the templar the book that Cornelius gave her as well as one of the contracts that she carried around and a quill and ink. “His name is Osman. He’s a priest who runs a church in Airyglyph. Use this book as your bargaining chip.”

Sophia took the items from Twilight and kept them in her jacket. “I’ll be back by the time you guys reach Irisa Fields.” She then raced off at speeds that would have made Rainbow Dash envious.

Twilight’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped, leading to a smirk on Thanatas’ face. “I had no idea that psionic powers could make you move that fast,” the mare said, awestruck. “Could you move that fast, Lyra?”

“I don’t know actually, I did test my speed once, but I had to stop when the G-forces were close to causing internal damage to my organs and bones.”

“Chances are she’s probably faster than you now,” Thanatas said. “Thanks to her Zerg body, combined with her immense psionic power, she may one day become the fastest being in the universe, if she isn’t already.”

The group took the time to stock up on supplies from the stores in Aquios, buying food, drinks and whatever else they would need to survive the perilous trek they were about to take. Once they finished stocking up, they headed across the bridge from the city and toward the Irisa Fields.

True to her word, Sophia returned just as the group had set their feet into the fields. Twilight was once again stunned by the short amount of time it took to get to Airyglyph, negotiate, then return. She realized that if she knew about Sophia’s speed before, she would have let her handle the other inventors instead of burning her mana from all the teleporting she did.

The group traveled through the Irisa Fields to Peterny, dealing with more proclaimers as well as a number of overgrown and hostile moths and yuan-tis.

The group safely arrived in Peterny after a few minutes of crossing the fields. Twilight had everyone take a small break in the center of town while she recruited some inventors. She also placed a call to send Dejison and Vanilla to Surferio while she was at it.

During that break, Twilight paid the blacksmith, Gusto, for his contract along with visiting the church where she gave Evia a fund for his daughter’s future. She quickly left the church before she ended up as a captive audience to Evia’s doting on Aqua.

Twilight returned to the square and received from Roger the tool kit and AI program that he received from Grape Vine. She then proceeded to the eastern part of town and negotiated a contract with Meryl. Twilight opted to not listen when the girl talked about how Symbology was an inferior science because she didn’t have time to argue with her at the moment.

Once the contract was signed, the alicorn sent the engineer ahead to Surferio with the blueprints and AI program. Thankfully, the Executioners followed the same behavioral patterns as monsters so they wouldn’t attack non-hostile characters. She wasn’t sure about the convictors though.

With the inventors in Peterny recruited, the group headed out the west gate and into Sanmite Steppes on the way to Surferio.

As expected, the monsters in the area had been altered. All of the lizardmen, axebeak birds, and harpies had been replaced. Wandering the area now were a new variation of mushroom people, or myconid, a dark-feathered variation of the cockatrice, and more convictors.

There was no sign of anyone being attacked on the way to Surferio so the group took it as a good sign that Meryl made it through the area.

The myconids were as slow as their attacks so they were hardly a threat, which left the cockatrices and convictors as the deadlier foes to be wary of.

After fighting through a few monsters in the area, the group made it to Surferio, which was the last safe area for them to go to before they would have to run the gauntlet all the way to the top of Spiral Tower.

During their brief stay in town, Twilight paid Louise and Chilico for their contracts while she had Thanatas do the negotiations with the Killer Chef because the guy made her squeamish.

As they headed toward the back end of town where the next leg of their journey began, the group saw Meryl and Vanilla working on the inactive automaton. Dejison was lying unconscious on the ground behind them with a huge bump on his head.

“What happened to him?” Twilight asked, concerned about the old inventor.

“This old weirdo kept getting in our way as we were repairing this machine,” Meryl said. “He wanted to dress it up as if it were a woman and then he not only got his disgusting fluids in the sensitive parts, but he got some of his snot on me too. I made sure he wouldn’t get in our way. Thanks to that, the work is going much faster. I have no idea why this dirty old man is here in the first place.”

“Agreed,” Vanilla added. “We also burned the offensive dresses.”

Twilight chuckled awkwardly, “Sorry, I thought he would have something good to contribute and I wanted all of the engineers working on this in case that was what it took.”

“No worries,” Meryl shrugged. “Turns out that me and Vanilla were all that was needed to get this antique up and running again.”

Meryl and Vanilla had put the finishing touches on the machine before they activated it. The automaton stood up and requested orders.

“I shall name you Izak, which means ‘Gentle Steel Knight’ in the language of Greeton,” Meryl declared.

With that event witnessed, the group walked away and headed into the tunnel toward the Mosel Dunes.

New enemies of note in the tunnel were warlocks and giant snakes that were twice the size of a person when straightened out. The warlocks wore dark tattered robes and horned headgear with gold rings around the horns while carrying black staves.

The warlocks had the initiative and tried to cast a Crush symbol on Sophia but everyone else moved out of the way while the rabbit girl quickly burrowed underground to avoid the spell. One warlock was preparing to cast another spell when Sophia emerged from behind him and ran an energy blade through his chest before raising her arm and splitting his head in two, resulting in the spellcaster vanishing.

The snakes were quickly dealt with when Nel and Twilight locked them in place with Thunder Flare symbols while Adray finished them with a powerful strike of lightning from above when he cast his Lightning Strike symbol. Any remaining warlocks stood no chance without allies to divert attention away from them.

The rest of the way through the tunnel was met with more of the same enemies until they emerged into the scorching heat of the Mosel Dunes. Twilight placed some heat resistance spells on everyone to protect them from the oppressive sun.

The group was barely a few meters into the desert when they spotted a powerful monster around the corner. This creature bore a strong resemblance to the chimeras of Equestria, except that the snake head was at the front of the body with the tiger and goat heads instead of being part of its tail. Also unlike Equestrian chimeras, this one had large leathery wings on its back and its tail was on fire.

The chimera lunged forward, mouths open and hoping one of its prey was stupid enough to stand still. No such luck though as everyone jumped to the side to avoid the three maws. It followed up by swiping one of its paws which succeeded in leaving a few shallow cuts on Cliff.

Mirage used her Avenger Charge to punch and kick the beast from the side before she was forced to jump away when the snake head glared at her and unleashed a torrent to flame from its mouth.

Peppita tried to grab the beast by the neck with her cape which resulted in the goat head biting on her cape and trying to eat it. A heavy downward chop from Roger’s axe on its skull forced the goat head to release the fabric.

Everyone was forced to jump away from the beast when it released flames from all three of its mouths at once. With everyone spread out, the chimera attacked Lyra with its fangs, claws and flames, but Lyra’s speed ensured that the beast would not find her easy prey. It then set its sights on Roger. As the beast lunged at the small menodix, its careless charge was brought to a halt when Peppita summoned her giant Dream Hammer, jumped above the chimera and pounded it hard into the ground.

The chimera wasn’t done yet as it shook off the attack and jumped back before spreading its wings and took to the air after a couple of flaps. From its three maws, it rained balls of fire on the group.

Thanatas was having none of that and started firing her own balls of frost from her mouth to counter the beast’s attacks. She then spawned her own wings and met the chimera in the air. The snake head attempted to fire another fireball at the undead but she fired one before the snake could get theirs out of their mouths, freezing the head. One strike from the undead’s sword shattered the snake head, causing the chimera to bleat and roar in agony.

While the chimera was reeling, Thanatas used this chance to slice the beast’s wings off, causing it to have a very unpleasant landing. Another icy sphere from the undead flash froze the chimera before she slammed her sword into the frozen beast, shattering it into many pieces which soon vanished.

Twilight sighed in relief as the battle ended. Of course, there was also a hint of exasperation in that sigh as well as she knew that there would be many more fights like that before they reached Crystal Silicon.

The group proceeded through the desert, taking note of the new monsters in the area. There were more chimeras roaming around along with more warlocks and proclaimers. They also took note of some giant insects that were as big as Peppita wandering around the oases in the area. Thanatas was happy to see that the dragon zombies were still roaming the desert. Just like before, she took control of those undead and used them as fodder to keep the chimeras busy as they didn’t have time to waste dealing with those beasts.

Along the way, Twilight had the group take a detour to the western parts of the desert where she found the menodix peddler Balbados. Twilight showed the peddler the piece of jewelry that she got from Gregory a while back. Balbados was very interested in the antique and wanted to appraise it, which allowed Twilight to get him to sign a contract to work for her.

After their trek through the desert, the group arrived at the ruins of Mosel.

After passing through the room that introduced the group to the basics of Runic Chess, they entered the hallways and attempted to enter through the door on the west side of the hallway to get to the table room quicker, only to find the door opened from one side. This was no problem as Twilight used her telekinesis to activate the door mechanism from the other side of the door and opened the way for them.

Awaiting them in the next room was another hallway that was occupied by a black and red enforcer, a black and red proclaimer, a black convictor and a huge four-armed and muscular stone demon with huge wings to match its size.

Cliff growled in frustration, “These things keep popping up everywhere!”

“Once we get through the door, the Executioners shouldn’t be able to pursue us there,” Twilight said.

The group split up into smaller groups of three to four to separate and defeat the four monsters. Albel, Nel and Maria faced the proclaimer, Cliff, Roger, and Twilight faced the enforcer, Adray, Mirage, and Peppita faced the convictor, and Sophia, Thanatas, Fayt and Lyra faced the demon.

Maria kept her distance and shot the proclaimer with repeated rounds of Pulse Blast. When the proclaimer teleported behind her, she quickly turned around and caught the Executioner in a gravity well with her Gravity Bullet. Albel further held the program in place by catching it in an Aura Wall while Nel assaulted it with her elementally charged blades, unleashing her Mirror Slice. The proclaimer then began spinning while attempting to smite the trio with pillars of light.

Albel managed to move in between the pillars and mercilessly slash the proclaimer with his claws. The proclaimer then quickly casted a Dark Sphere on Albel, where a giant sphere of dark magic impacted in the area around it which created a black hole that siphoned the life around it. For some reason, Albel decided not to move away from the dark energy and instead overwhelmed the spell with his own dark aura.

The proclaimer was shocked when Albel’s dark aura continued to surge after the spell failed. Before she could attack again, the warrior projected the aura onto the proclaimer and ripped the very life out of the Executioner.

“Vampiric Flash!” Albel declared.

The proclaimer vanished as the last of its life was siphoned away.

The initial strategy was for Cliff to keep the enforcer’s attention while Roger attacked it and Twilight would use healing symbols as support. The enforcer broke up the attack when it managed to cast a Dark Sphere symbol around itself. Cliff and Roger knew the attack was bad news so they quickly moved away. The enforcer then created a number of seeking lasers to bombard the trio with. Twilight managed to shield herself from the attack but the other two were singed in several places by the lasers.

Twilight knew that they couldn’t allow the enforcer to stay on the offensive so she decided to not heal the other two yet and opted to cast a light symbol where the enforcer was smited by a cross of light, the Southern Cross symbol. The enforcer staggered, giving Cliff an opening to knock it into the air with an Uppercut while Roger fired a salvo of missiles at the Executioner while it was still in the air. Feeling that she had recovered enough of her magic, Twilight finished off the enforcer by deleting it with her administrative spell.

The convictor got the first attack on the trio that attacked it by electrocuting them in a Thunder Flare. Once the spell had run its course, Peppita and Mirage charged in and rushed it with their attacks: Mirage’s Avenger Charge and Peppita’s Kaboom where she summoned a large star that revolved around her and struck anyone that ended up in its orbit.

The assault was countered when the convictor surrounded itself in tornadoes and forced the fighters to back away. It then tried to cast another spell, but Adray was ready for that with a Silence symbol. He then knocked away the whirlwinds when he summoned his Titan Fist and punched through the winds and into the convictor.

The abomination then healed itself with a Faerie Light symbol, making the trio realize that they needed to defeat it quickly before it got a chance to heal itself again.

“I think I know just the thing,” Adray said. “Keep it busy while I prepare.”

Mirage and Peppita rushed the convictor once more. Mirage knocked the abomination into the air and pummeled it with her Acrobat Locus before she knocked into the ground and into the waiting claws of Peppita’s Faerie Friend who slashed and pounded at the convictor.

“It’s ready!” Adray called out. Mirage and Peppita pulled away while Adray summoned a massive silvery sphere that landed on his shoulders. The sphere was larger than he was, but was able to easily lift it and hurl it at the convictor. The impact unleashed a violent explosion that burned away the abomination who screamed a high-pitched scream before it vanished.

“My Emotion Torrent works every time,” Adray declared proudly.

Fayt, Thanatas and the templars were left to face the giant four-armed demon who roared at the four in challenge. The demon was lured into another room because they had a feeling that this demon knew some widespread attacks.

The demon started off by using its four fists to punch the group. Fayt parried one fist with his sword while Lyra dodge her’s. Sophia and Thanatas both grabbed the fists meant for them. With both of them being as strong as they were, they were able to hold off the demon while Lyra unleashed a Psionic Shockwave attack, like the powerful energy blasts used by Protoss Archons. This caused chunks of stone to break off from the demon who counterattacked by creating a pool of black magic and dipping his free hands into it. Everyone had to back far away as the demon caused dark energies to erupt and flood most of the room for a few seconds.

Fayt tried thinking of a way that he could slay the demon. As he did, he thought about the Southern Cross symbol that he saw Twilight cast and while he wasn’t sure he could replicate that, he instead decided to create some light element with his symbological skills and imbued his sword with it. The technique worked, so he called the ability Divine Blade.

The swordsman then proceeded to slash at the demon with his holy sword while Thanatas created a number of phantasmal swords and stabbed the demon in many places. The demon roared in agony and attempted to flood the room with dark energy again. Sophia prevented this by concentrating a huge amount of psionic power into a small sphere before she crushed it and unleashed a massive torrent of power that obliterated the demon, and caused part of the structure to rumble.

“Okay, in the future, that is an outdoor attack,” Thanatas said. Sophia nodded in agreement.

Everyone regrouped after their victories before they proceeded into the table room.

As they entered, the room rumbled. Thanatas stared at Sophia who glared back, “You know that wasn’t my fault this time.”

Behind the tables were stairways to lower floors. One was opened earlier when Sophia, Thanatas and Lyra explored that section.

The other just busted open explosively.

After the fragments of the door settled, a stone golem emerged from the stairs. The giant approached the group menacingly and slowly.

Thanatas rolled her eyes. “Seriously? The slow giant bit? I found the previous fight more interesting and since I don’t feel like fighting you…” She then tossed a number of flasks that shattered on the golem’s body. The liquids contained in the flasks were highly corrosive and quickly ate through the golem’s stone body. The golem dissolved fully within a minute.

“Feeling lazy already?” Sophia asked with a smirk.

Thanatas shrugged, “We already knew what these guys were capable of when we fought them in the arena. Plus, that battle back there was more interesting than us ganging up on one measly golem who was marching toward its death. Compared to what I could have done, that was a mercy killing. Besides, we don’t have time for a boss rush.”

The others simply shrugged and headed down the stairs that the golem emerged from.

At the bottom of the stairs was a room with a strange looking mural with a small pedestal in front of it. Twilight approached the pedestal and pulled out the Sacred Orb from her pocket dimension before placing it on the pedestal.

Once in place, the orb began glowing with a bright white light. Twilight channeled some of her magic into the orb for the device to recognize her magical signature before the orb fired a beam of light at the mural.

The room rumbled slightly before the mural split in two and pulled away from each other.

“Is Spiral Tower beyond this door?” Fayt asked.

“Yes and no,” Twilight answered. “To get to Spiral Tower, we’ll need to navigate our way through the connecting corridor that exists between my world and the Eternal Sphere.

“The corridor itself is like a maze, so there will be places that serve as puzzles. The corridor serves as a firewall to keep unwanted intruders from getting to Spiral Tower. With Crystal in control of the tower, not even I am exempt from being targeted by the security features.

“Be warned, Crystal will throw the strongest monsters the Eternal Sphere monster generator can make at us. Be ready for anything.”

With the warning given, everyone stepped into the bright portal and moved one step closer to reaching Crystal Silicon.

Author's Note:

While facing an enforcer, proclaimer, convictor and demon at the same time wasn't canon to the game, I felt it would have been a much more impressive boss than some stone giant that could punch hard and attack by falling on its back.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

Every update a cause to celebrate. I read and comment on it once i am home. Thanks for the update.

[Black--Soul]

Tech pervert was a funny situation

Speeeed bunnnny

Thanatas can be very pragmatic

A main Boss fight incoming
Will she have multible life bars?
Maybe like Mass Effect? Shield,Armor than life troughy physical damage?
Shield stops mental attacks for example while Armor helps vs Elemental attack and when both a breached it would be basicly 'bash her smug face in'

[Black--Soul]

Great group fight and funny end to a big boss fight.

I wonder if all Multiverses that Sofias familie guards are artificial. Would explain how the timeline resets. Just so mutch time in existence is written in. Like in a game...