The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Field Effects

In a matter of moments, fractures in the air encompassed the entirety of my barrier, spreading steadily until it seemed almost as if there were more cracks that air. The fissures connected, intersected, and grew with each passing moment—and then there was a sound somewhere between breaking glass, shrieking metal, and the explosion of the Brahmastra as the pieces began to fall away. Starting from the bottom, the air simply seemed to drop, falling away like the pieces of a shattered window and vanishing into the void until all that was left were Gilgamesh and I. For a moment, there was no light, no heat, no air, no anything and it almost seemed like we would follow the pieces of the world down into the void.

But then the moment passed as reality came flooding back in like air filling a vacuum. From my almost external point of view, I could see where the differences laid, the edges—here, a barren, blasted plain on a lifeless rock. There, a forest full of animals and life. An empty city, a ruin like the one we destroyed, and countless other variations. In the sky of one world, I saw a moon that was whole, while in another laid wholly alien skies. Soon the images were streaming by too quickly to truly pin down.

This was the first step of Et in Arcadia Ego—a failed attempt at denying existence. The entire skill was a failure, really, despite its enormous power and potential; it didn't even come close to accomplishing what it had been designed for.

I would know. It was my skill, after all. Not just a skill I knew, but one that I had made in a previous life.

Et in Arcadia Ego had been intended for Malkuth. Against an enemy whose main weapon was effectively reality, the obvious solution would seem to be simple—not easy to accomplish, perhaps, but conceptually simple. If Malkuth could be removed from reality, from the rules he bent to accomplish his goals, he'd be powerless, or at least a hell of a weaker. It was an interesting idea that was sadly doomed from the very start.

You can't take someone outside Reality—there is no 'outside' Reality. In a lot of stories, you'd hear about things 'outside' the Universe and such, but that was a contradiction; you can't exist outside the Universe, because the Universe is, simply put, 'everything that exists.' And even if it did 'exist,' it probably wouldn't be something you could interact with. People might envision it as a great void with the Universe hanging in it, but Reality goes beyond stuff like that. Outside Reality, who was to say that anything like space or time had meaning? How could you travel there, then, or exist there? How could you even make a doorway to a place that didn't have laws governing motion or interaction? Those were all Universal concepts, after all.

In the end, Et in Arcadia Ego had been an ambitious attempt that got smacked in the face by a dictionary. Even the void it conjured up as it tried to push everything away wasn't 'outside' the Universe; it was still governed by a variety of laws and principles, which was part of why the world quickly seeped back in. Sure, there may be alien places or exceedingly hostile places, but anything that exists…well, exists. It's Real. This that aren't real, aren't logic. That was just basic logic. Et in Arcadia Ego had been an illogical attempt at beating a foe who was bending logic to his cause and it just hadn't worked; no matter where you try to go, some things are still there.

But in the process of failing, it had created something amazing in its own right.

As the world swirled around us like some kind of chaotic sea, I felt it as things began to solidify and emerge, influencing and guiding the process with my own power. I let a grassy plain bubble forth first before drawing up a mountain range. The sky flickered, a dozen different versions of it painting over themselves before it solidified into a singular image, and then air filled the spaces. A sun shined down on us from above, making things warm and shedding light over the empty fields.

They were pieces that shouldn't have gone together, each taken from a different world. Et in Arcadia Ego was a dimensional barrier like Naraka, but it accomplished very different ends. If Naraka created a duplicate of the world by stepping aside, then Et in Arcadia Ego tried to push those within its reach between dimensions and filled things in from stolen, copied pieces. It wasn't limited to a copy of wherever I happened to be, which had its uses—though, truthfully, the dimensional shenanigans that Naraka allowed far outweighed just about any downsides it created.

On the other hand, creating customized maps wasn't the only thing Et in Arcadia Ego was capable of. When I—or my former self, rather—realized that we couldn't remove Malkuth from the game the way we'd originally intended, we'd shifted gears and tried to beat him at his own instead. That…hadn't worked either, but it proved useful in its own way, as the skill allowed me to shift and alter rules in ways that my other barriers did not.

But another advantage that I found—and one of the most useful ones in this particular case—was that it was a lot harder to break out of than Naraka. I would know; my counterpart and I had played with Trespasser a fair bit in what time we'd had before the battle. It meant that I could be at least reasonably confident that Gilgamesh wouldn't simply shatter it and escape, and more than anything that opened up options.

Because in here, I didn't have to worry about collateral damage.

It would be deceptive to say that I'd been holding back against Gilgamesh; I was hitting him with everything I could afford to, barring what tricks requires preparation and set up, such as this one. But I had been mindful of my surroundings, simply because I needed to account for my friends. That wasn't them holding me back or anything—I needed them here, both to keep the Grimm from ganging up on me and as a part of what was to come—but the fact remained that there were some things that you couldn't do while acting as part of a team, simply because of the threat of friendly fire. That's why I dropped the Brahmastras before bringing them in. The fact remained that I couldn't do this without them, simply because this step of the plan required me to be able to fight and focus on Gilgamesh alone for a fairly significant amount of time and if I'd stored my barriers in Patientia instead of the Brahmastras, I'd have been under constant attack from every direction since this began, which would have complicated things to say the least.

Using the Brahmastras, however, meant setting up my barriers the hard way, which all but necessitated Thaumiel so that one of us could focus entirely on that. It also meant the other fighting to hold Gilgamesh off and distract him, to say nothing of the extensive power involved in supporting my Dimensional as he assisted the process. If the Grimm would survived the Brahmastras—the strongest Grimm at Jericho Falls, even weakened and injured as they now were—had been able to get involved, it would have been harder to do any of that as the Grimm ganged up on and distracted me. I probably wouldn't have been able to catch Gilgamesh alone, either, and without Brahmastra hindering the Grimm's regeneration I wouldn't be doing anywhere near as well besides. Getting to this point necessitated a number of things; that I kill as many Grimm as possible, distract the survivors, use the Brahmastra, and fight Gilgamesh alone for a significant time. Arranging that hadn't been simple.

But now that we were here, things were about to change.

I took a breath and felt Suryasta join with me again, activating Agni and my Aurora as a matter of course. The field I'd drawn to our new battlefield ignited almost at once, even distant plants igniting in the horrific heat I'd conjured.

But I wasn't done. Even this, a gigantic sphere of flames that could boil the ground beneath my feet and melt most Grimm by proximity, wasn't enough to truly hinder Gilgamesh. It hurt him some, sure, but not enough—not nearly enough, even with Brahmastra slowly poisoning him. With his armor especially, it only hurt him lightly.

I'd figured as much going in—that the tricks that worked on most of the monsters I fought wouldn't be enough to take Gilgamesh down.

So I'd done my best to prepare a few things that maybe, just maybe, would.

By raising Gravity Crash to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Atlas.'

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Surya,' 'Agni,' 'Gravity Crash,' and 'Lux Aeterna' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Lucifer' has been created.

At once, my Aura began to transform into matter, rising and falling and curling around me to shape an orb of burning light. The sphere itself was fairly small—no larger than my Aurora—but there was a weight to it, a depth that made it something more. To me, it seemed like a gentle warmth, as reassuring as a hug, but it filled the space with something almost blinding, even to my eyes, filling the spectrum with a riotous onslaught of illumination. It didn't stop moving, either, constantly flowing and shifting even as trails of power curled around and through it. It began as a deep red color, but changed quickly, heightening to a hotter orange, yellow, and then to white.

For a moment, the sphere that surrounded me burnt almost the same color as my Aura, but I could feel the power growing within it light a heart beating in sync with my own; a third heart, I suppose, given that my other self was helping me add fuel to the fire. I opened my eyes and felt the plasma that surrounded me press against the orbs as though I were underwater, the touch gentle against my flesh—and something rose in me, burning behind my eyes and then through them as it came pouring out from the windows of my soul as liquid fire, adding to the sphere without making it grow. As my other self and I concentrated, the luminous sphere began to heighten to a blue coloration, a touch lighter than that of my eyes. Slowly, I began to filter my perceptions, blotting out the parts of the spectrum that were flooded and peering through what was left as I focused on the aspects of the world I could still see.

Around me, the world was burning. Not slowly, either—if anything, it was coming apart at the seams, the parts nearest me simply sublimating and ionizing. A massive hole was quickly melted into the ground as if someone had taken a blowtorch to plastic, swiftly annihilating all traces of life. It pushed to the edges of my Sanctuary before turning back on itself, keeping the heat contained by space itself as everything within was broken down to its basest parts as everything was consumed.

And at the center of it all was Gilgamesh. Whereas I'd materialized in the air as the artificial world formed around us, he had landed on the ground just beneath me and was now sinking fast as massive clouds of sublimated matter rose around him. They rose into the size, drawn towards me and the mass I'd created where they were quickly consumed. The same was true of everything around us, with the few things that managed to keep from melting immediately drawing into the air where they were quickly heated further.

The only thing that seemed able to resist the pull was Gilgamesh and he was clearly making an effort to push himself down and away from me—a process made complicated by the matter that was constantly slipping through his fingers, leaving him nothing to hold onto and sending him deeper and deeper into the ground with each passing moment. He was descending so quickly that he almost seemed to be falling, drawing further and further away from me.

But if he thought he could escape like that, he was sadly mistaken.

Abruptly, the earth around him ceased to vanish and he finally seemed to bottom out at the lowest point of a perfectly smooth crater—but if he felt any relief over that, it was short lived, because in the next moment, his hands, arms, and then entire body vanished as he continued to push himself down. At the same time, he reappeared directly above me, exactly above where he'd vanished, and began to fall quickly towards me.

Gilgamesh let loose an almost mechanical noise, raising his arms as if to protect his mass. The surface of his body had already begun to shimmer, liquefying in the heat. His armor was vastly more durable and temperature resistant than anything around him, but even it wasn't designed for this. I saw black ripples flutter over his skin, trying to make repairs, but even they seemed hindered by their proximity to me, melting even as they worked.

After a moment, Gilgamesh touched the edge of my sphere and clouds of black smoke began to hiss as they escaped his armor. He made another mechanical sound and suddenly began to push away, carried by dark looking jets that came from the center and fingertips of his almost skeletal, dripping hands, as well as other points along his chest, legs, and mask. It was a desperate effort, that much was obvious—an unfocused, unprecise attempt to escape my range.

But it worked well enough, at least for the moment, pushing him back far enough to keep from touching the surface of my luminous sphere. Even so, with each passing moment, I could see bits of his flesh fall away in tiny droplets as he continued to melt.

He was in a bad position and he knew it. He couldn't get away from me while we were still within my Sanctuary—or not far enough away to truly matter. At best, he could keep his distance slightly, paying heed to the edges so as to not wraparound—but there was nothing to hold onto anymore, nowhere to really hide.

And I hadn't even begun to move.

This was the combination I'd created and, costly as it was, its power was undeniable. Training my newer skills up enough to make use of this had been difficult in the time I'd allowed myself, but the deck was stacked in my favor. I'd had power to burn, Etz Hayim, my Sephirot skills, and all my other experience boosters—and I'd spent all my time training in as Accelerated a state as possible. However long it had been objectively, this last week had been months for me, and I'd spent every night and day training in some way or another. I'd focused on everything I thought might help, improving my newer skills as much as possible, and Agni, Surya, and Aurora had been near the top of my list, simply because of their synergy. Thanks to the fact that Tiferet's level requirement fell with each level it gained, I'd managed, just barely, to make the cut in a few places of value.

I'd say the results were suitably impressive. With my control of this area, there was nowhere for him to go. Thanks to Tabernacle, I could carry my barriers with me, but its true power was more subtle—I could also turn it off, planting my barriers anew. Thanks to that, I was free to move my barriers around however I felt like, with no warning to Gilgamesh, leaving my free to corner him and cut off paths of escape at will. With every passing moment, he'd take damage and I'd made sure that Sanctuary was as small as I could make it, insuring there was nowhere truly safe. And the more damage he took, the more he'd have to heal, and the worse he'd suffer from the insidious effects of the Brahmastras. Already suffering from status effects and accumulated damage, this was about as far from an ideal battlefield as he could get, with no choice but to take damage constantly, his ability to move and evade meaningless against something he couldn't escape.

As such, I was a bit surprised when I heard him speak.

"This brings back memories," Gilgamesh said, carefully keeping to the edges. After a moment, he grew a pair of mechanized wings that connected to a backpack like structure, and lines of red circuitry stood out on his white armor. He seemed to stabilize himself them, more alterations to his hands and feet allowing him to better keep his distance as he watched me. "One of Gevurah's tricks, wasn't it? As severe as ever, I see…yes. This was Lucifer, wasn't it? Helel ben Shahar."

Lucifer (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 10000000

The Star of Morning—the Light Bringer. Created by the Archangel Gevurah as the flame of Judgement, it devoured and consumed the Fallen, rising in the heavens to show that a new day had dawned on a broken world. In time, it faded from the world and hid itself from the eyes of man—but though the sun sets, it also rises, waiting for the time to burn away the shadows of the damned. With this skill, the user may call forth the power of the Sun, searing his enemies with the flames of Gevurah. Effects increase with MP, INT, WIS, Fire Affinity, and skill level.

All things within 1 kilometer of the user are drawn towards them with a base force of approximately 28g.

All things within 1 kilometer of the user are afflicted by the user's stellar radiance, manifesting in the form of tremendous heat and light.

All things drawn within 100 meters of the user enter the Star of Morning, with temperatures increasing dramatically with proximity to the user.

Additional 10000000 MP used per minute.

I tilted my head slightly, but didn't answer. That it had been one of my fellow Archangels who'd made the skill wasn't news to me, but the fact that Gilgamesh had seen it and survived the encounter was unpleasant. Admittedly, not entirely unexpected—I'd gone into this with a plan that almost no one had any right to survive…and then followed it up with a bunch of other plans, in the interests of making sure. Most anyone I knew would have died to at least one of the things I'd hit Gilgamesh with, but it the legendary Grimm went down that easily, they wouldn't have survived long enough to make it into myth and legend. I'd brought everything I could to this fight; worst case scenario, I could actually reach into my Inventory and bring out a kitchen sink. It seemed unlikely that it would do anything, but I was going to get to use that joke someday.

"I've seen it before, needless to say," Gilgamesh continued after a moment, as if to fill the silence. He was still melting and sometimes drops would fall through the bottom of Sanctuary, come back through the top, and land on his armor. "Though I can't say it was a particularly enjoyable experience then, either. Gevurah was always so good at destroying things…it might have been better to call him Golachab, in the end. Are you familiar with that word?"

I continued to remain silent, figuring that if I had time to talk, I had time to do better things—destroying my enemies, for instance.

To start with, I Fluctuated right next to Gilgamesh, bringing with me the heat of a star.