As the world finally stopped shaking, Rory found himself lying flat on the ground, chewing on a mouthful of ash and dirt.

"Bleh," Rory sputtered as he spat out the ash. Momentarily dazed, Rory rose to his feet, taking stock of what had happened. After his Dragon's Fall had impacted the monster, it was as if a bomb, and not a particularly small one either, had exploded. Rory had been blown away with barely the time to muster a single projected shield to blunt the shockwave.

Nearly the entirety of the miniature forest had been leveled, a ninety-meter-diameter circle of devastation, a stark example of the power he could now call down. The only indication that there had been any forest or vegetation there, to begin with, was a four- to five-meter-wide wall of flora surrounding the devastated area.

"Might have been overkill," Rory muttered as he sought the remains of the Araffnid. At the very epicenter of the devastation, there remained some remains-

Remained some remains? Say that five times fast.

-of the monster, its body crumpled and crushed as if it had been smashed underneath a giant rock in the shape of a dragon head.

Not to be mistaken for the sort of state you'd be in if you were crushed by a giant rock that wasn't in the shape of a dragon's head.

As Rory examined the remains, something instantly bothered him.

"Seriously? Volcanic Giraffder? C'mon, Araffnid was right there!"

Issues with the naming conventions aside, the only other notable aspect was that the monster had once had a core within its body, but it was now very much crushed and shattered.

You know, there might still be some use for that.

Tossing the flakes and chunks of the shattered monster core into his inventory, Rory dusted the ash off of himself as he looked upward.

Let's see how much higher I can climb.

Pushing onward, Rory found that beyond the first third of the mountain, the volcano had several more ring-like ledges, where it was seemingly flat for a few hundred meters before rising once more, like a naturally formed step pyramid.

Steppe Volcano?

At each 'rung,' the average level of monsters seemed to rise by one, eventually forcing Rory to remain hidden as he noticed level seventy-seven monsters, well beyond what he felt comfortable trying to kill.

That wasn't the only thing that stopped his ascent, as eventually, even with the aid of his environmental bracelet, the pressure of the volcano was like pushing through molasses that was scalding hot.

Retreating down the mountain, approximately five miles of climb between each rung, Rory rested at roughly the sixty or sixty-five percent point of the climb. He was hidden in a small cave, deep in thought as he mulled over the feeling of the volcanic pressure, when his head snapped forward, sensing a monster encroaching. Rory quickly relaxed as a small smile touched his face, recognizing the presence of the monster's aura after only a moment.

"Is this the rung you've been spending your time on?" Rory questioned as a large serpentine head poked around the lip of the small cave he had taken refuge within.

"Mostly."

Ahh, that was the other significant change in the time spent in their new volcanic home. Since reaching A7, Eia had become capable of speech. However, instead of being transmitted by regular vocal cords, it was as if the meaning of her intent was transferred directly through the permeating energy.

It was a strange form of communication because, from what Rory had managed to put together, it prevented Eia from lying at all. Intent was intent; there was no way to 'deceive' its meaning.

At least, not so far.

"Have you investigated the higher rungs?"

"Yes. My natural advantages are…. Not enough to bridge the gap."

"Ahh, so did you try to hunt a monster above mid-tier seven, and you got your ass whooped?"

"Depending on the matchup, my limit appears to be exactly mid-tier seven."

"Gotcha," Rory snorted. "You've got the stealth skills needed to investigate further, though, assuming you're avoiding confrontations entirely. Anything of interest?"

Eia was silent for a moment, her head tilting before she continued with non-verbal speech.

"A presence claims the peak. I knew better than to assume I would not be detected."

"Huh, concerning." Rory thought for a moment before nodding. "I'm guessing a tier eight."

While the universe Rory inhabited had many game-like features, primarily due to his own hastily schemed hatching of a major law in the chaos of the early universe, it was important for Rory sometimes to remind himself that ascensions had existed before he introduced Eon.

What that meant was that while you'd certainly get 'experience' for killing monsters in the form of ascension energy or from crafting items, ascension itself was also tied to more esoteric mechanics. In this case, Rory suspected that just claiming dominion over the peak of something like an active volcano in a pneuma-rich environment was enough to passively gain progress towards one's ascension, much like Rory had achieved his first-ever ascension.

Combined with the fact that out-tiering the things you killed reduced the overall ascension energy gained, it may have been more efficient for whatever was claiming the peak to remain there rather than hunting the lower rungs, with only perhaps a single rung lower ever being worth its attention.

Now, if something encroached upon its territory? That was a completely different story.

"My hunts prove fruitful."

"If you say so," Rory said. She was still only level seventy, the same as him; the path to tier eight was far longer than even the cumulative path to tier seven.

"How has the foundation of your rightful demesne transpired?"

"Right, maybe a little too grand on the verbiage," Rory said as he rolled his eyes at the talking snake. "But it goes. Got my ass kicked by an intruder, though."

"Who hath the arrogance to transgress upon your lands?"

"Our good ole friend the Bane," Rory said without ever addressing her speech. It was probably just a phase of overly archaic and formal speech.

Probably. Hopefully.

"It was here?"

"Yeah, not even going to question how it tracked me down or knew where to wait, probably Eon bullshit. Petty as it was, it got back at me for the trick I pulled back at the peak of tier six."

"Do you believe it will attempt a similar recourse in the future?"

"Maybe? Honestly, I have a feeling Eon probably wasn't fond of that and only let it go on as a tit-for-tat situation."

Stolen story; please report.

Eon was…. Weird, with some things. As much as it was easiest to think of Eon as an embodiment of the strict rules and mechanics of something like a game engine, it was probably more accurate to liken the cosmic being to a sort of dungeon master that would run a tabletop RPG. Specific systems were beyond its ability to affect, undermine, or manipulate freely, such as Ascensions; otherwise, most others fell under its purview.

So, if the Chosen Bane had decided to pull a cheap move and take him by surprise, Eon would likely sign off on it for as long as it was 'fair.' If that escalated, though, Eon would likely put a stop to it.

Or so Rory assumed. As the 'creator' of Eon, many of his initial assumptions often proved correct. Still, as time went on and it continued to develop in its own way, it would be safe to assume that Rory's innate understanding of it would wane.

"Next time, we shall defeat the invader together. I shall remain nearby where-"

"Stop, pause, and reverse. You don't need to babysit me; it was my fault. Also, unlike me, if you spend all your time hanging around the workshop doing nothing, you'll stagnate if you're not pushing yourself. I at least keep moving forward by working on the workshop itself."

Eia telepathically frowned, or so Rory got from the intent of its feelings passed through the space between them.

"I'm fine, really."

The snake went silent for a few moments before her head sagged a few inches.

"So it shall be."

"Oh, you big baby," Rory laughed. "Come here, I want to check something."

Rory could sense the snake's curiosity as she slithered closer to him, wrapping some of her body around him as Rory peered at her scales.

"Interesting," Rory murmured, staring intensely at her scales. Even with his tier and skill level, it wasn't easy to examine the runes he had inscribed upon her long ago. Meant to integrate the concept of 'energies' that her affinity represented and a more academic view of that same concept, Rory had unified it through the use of a Living Rune that could bind and integrate it into the snake itself.

What was interesting was how it had changed since then. It was as if the script had disassembled itself, melding into Eia's essence, individual runes bubbling up to the surface like a pocket of air from the ocean depths, only to melt away a moment after.

I'm reasonably sure this is beyond my pay grade at this point.

Whatever it was or meant, the takeaway that Rory found himself enjoying was the reality that there was still so much that he didn't know. He had made the field of inscription, sure, but being its progenitor hardly meant his knowledge was all-encompassing, especially in an ever-growing universe.

"Do you see something of issue?"

"No, the opposite, actually. I don't know what I'm looking at."

"And that is a good thing?"

"It is," Rory confirmed. "You can release me now, by the way."

Unwrapping herself from around Rory, Eia looked smugly outward, preening as if Rory had specifically complimented her.

"Alright, well, get going. I know you only appeared here because you sensed me."

"I do not mind-"

"Gah, being too clingy does neither of us any good," Rory snorted. Ever since the snake had become more capable of speech and communicating her thoughts, she had almost taken it upon herself to act at his behest.

"If you insist."

Lowering her head to him for a moment, she quickly slithered away, slipping away from the cave with only the faint sound of scales scraping on stone.

Alone, Rory had time to consider some of what Eia had said, specifically regarding the upper peak of the volcano.

Either a pinnacle tier seven or a tier eight. What exactly would it take to beat something like that?

Dragon's Fall was enough for a low-tier monster, but the wall between a low-tier and a pinnacle was vast. The difference between a low-tier seven and a mid-tier seven was likely more significant than between tier six in its entirety. The only reason Eia was able to hunt some mid-tier sevens was due to specifically favorable matchups.

So once more, what would it take to beat a tier eight?

Having only just ascended to tier seven, it really wasn't his place to think so far ahead, but Rory couldn't help it.

If Dragon's Fall has the sort of explosive power that only high-power bombs from Earth could match, then you'd need what, the strength of a nuke to take out a tier eight?

Rory had technically managed it once before with concentrated fire from a railgun; hundreds of rounds, focus-fired, had only barely done the job, and that was when it was being prevented from doing anything more than attacking directly and without the use of any skills or magic.

I'm not far away, really.

Drawing his hand back, a bow appeared, and a crystal arrow appeared a second after. Inspecting them, Rory shook his head, the bow vanishing back into his inventory and the arrow de-manifesting.

Pound for pound, Rory could easily match the power of his railguns at this point. The main thing he lacked was sustainability. If he could either fire off his most powerful arrows as fast as he could shoot his old railguns or sustain more than a handful of attacks on the scale of Dragon's Fall, Rory believed he could kill a high-tier seven or maybe a weak-tier eight.

But that was also only if they sat on their asses and let him. Even dropping a single Dragon's Fall had required three concentric bound circles drawn around his foe; a more aware monster would have simply opted to exit the circles as it noticed them being drawn.

I'm definitely getting ahead of myself.

Sighing, Rory rose to his feet. With as large as the volcano was, there was plenty more to explore, but Rory was in no rush; he had simply wanted to see how high he could climb with his current equipment and readiness. Satisfied, Rory fully intended to descend back down the mountain.

Maybe I'll see about hunting a few tier sevens on the way.

Not all monsters were made equally, even before one counted in the differences between regular monsters and Alphas, be they Alpha Variants or Territory Alphas. Araffanids or Ash Worms were manageable, but something more along the lines of Eia would require him to fight with his life on the line.

Just have to watch myself.

Near the peak

The self-acclaimed King of the Molten Peak opened its eyes, noting as a visitor rose from the magma.

"Queen of the Hidden Depths," The King acknowledged. "It surprises me to find you so high up. Is there something you need?"

"Too warm," The Queen said with a hint of scorn. "Not for my tastes. You can have this place."

"Yes, yes, I'm aware." The King said, miffed momentarily at having his question ignored. "Once again, I ask, is there something you need? Otherwise, I would be inclined to take this as a challenge."

The tier eight meant it as a warning to the pinnacle tier seven. While it was true that she was powerful enough to inflict lasting damage if they fought to the bitter end, in such a battle, they both understood who would ultimately emerge victorious. The only reason they had split the mountain between the two of them was that neither would benefit from such a battle; the Queen would be slain, and the King could potentially be made vulnerable to the most powerful monsters of the last rung of the mountain, ganging up on him.

"Something new has appeared."

"Something new?" The King questioned, curious. "It must be of interest if you would come all this way. A high-tier seven challenger?"

"No." The Queen said with her limited vocabulary. "It tunnels through, laying roots."

"And thus, the concern is…?"

"None," The Queen answered. "Too weak."

"So, you came all this way…. To warn me about something too weak to be a danger because it is digging through the mountain." The King said incredulously.

While the Queen was considered an intelligent monster, it was a long stretch of the word. At the very least, she wasn't mindless. For her to have swum up the magma shaft, especially knowing that it was there, to mention some random digging gnat, was odd, to say the least.

"I leave." The Queen finally said, sinking into the depths of the magma and journeying back to her lair at the heart of the volcano depths.

If the King of the Peak had a mouth, it would have frowned.

Odd.

It had reigned supreme at the top of the mountain for a little over five years now and was quickly solidifying complete dominion. Given enough time, it was even possible that it could claim the strength of a Territory Alpha, which would require slaying the Queen, but that was of little consequence given she was likely thinking much the same, as it consolidated the strength of the volcano for itself.

Assuming that it didn't count in the grand calculus of who laid dominion over the mountain.

Having reigned supreme for as long as it had now, the thought of a mere seventh realm invader and one who had only just stepped into the seventh realm ever being a concern simply seemed impossible; thus, the King of the Peak never considered the possibility.

Over time, perhaps the Queen could pose a threat once she ascended to the eighth realm, as he had. Still, by then, the King would have also increased his strength, drawing in the energies of the volcano. His domain was rich with significance and power, far more than the Queen's domain, which only had access to the third-ranked place of power. As potent as the crest of the volcanic mountain was, the Queen had no hope of matching his progress. After all, the only location within the volcano richer in power than his domain was the heart of the mountain.

And the King wasn't so foolish as to tread lightly upon those hallowed halls if he even could.

So, why did the Queen take the time to come all the way here?

After pondering it for days and weeks on end, at last, the King settled upon an answer.

Fear.

The Queen had likely recognized her relative position of weakness. Her point of power was inferior to his own; other monsters could snap at her far more easily than they could at him. This 'invader' was likely one that she had sensed as having the potential to overtake her, and thus had decided in her limited mind that the best recourse was to attempt to sway the King to handle it for her.

Indeed, it was her lack of intelligence that made such a simple ploy difficult to discern.

Feeling content, having seen through the Queen's simple plan, the King of the Peak slid from its resting position atop a slab of stone adjacent to the lake of magma within the center of the volcano caldera.

"Well then, little gnat. Go with my blessing, take the heart of the Queen. Ripen yourself for my picking."

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