Dao 4 Epilogue 2 (Patreon)

“More tea, Milord?” Amber poured him another cup, even though he hadn’t said yes.

She still worked to anticipate his every need, even if he had so few now.

“Thank you, Amber.” Dar couldn’t believe that she looked the same, well, maybe a hair taller. She’d had better nutrition this lifetime. But it was his Amber, and he never got tired of looking at her. “Maybe I’m feeling a little tense.”

He also never got tired of other things she did.

“Is that so, milord?” Amber licked her lips and fell to her knees before him. Marcie, ever her shadow slipped behind him and ran her hands over his shoulders.

“DAAAAR!” Cherry came shooting into the room, nearly knocking over Amber to land on his lap.

Thankfully, his maid melted into his shadow and reappeared on the other side.

“Someone broke the seal on Earth.” Cherry shook his vest, and his attention went straight to what she’d said.

“Truly?” He stood, carrying Cherry with him.

“Yes.” She bobbed her head excitedly.

Valdis came through his door. “Oh good, you got him. Let's get going.”

Amber bled into his shadow once again as Cherry grabbed onto Valdis and pulled the three of them into the tree, shooting along its branches and popping out at the world that was Earth.

True to Cherry’s word, the seal was broken.

“Let’s go.” Dar pushed through the tree and shoved the three of them into the world.

Behind him, the sky cracked before healing.

Dar floated high over a metropolis. It was modern, much like when he’d left. But it wasn’t exactly the same. Time had passed beyond what he’d experienced. And it made him let out a deep breath.

They were past when he’d died on Earth; the risk of paradox was over. Smiling, he took in the new world, but he quickly frowned as he studied it.

Mana had formed a blockage where it had been sealed, and now it was flooding into the world. A giant portal rested in the middle of the metropolis, pouring out mana and monsters as well.

Dar frowned and then something he hadn’t expected happened.

A group flew in.

But what made Dar even more curious, was the man leading the group was a spirit. A spirit of mana.

Dar watched as the man fought off the large, tusked, green-skinned humanoids, his ladies joining the fight dressed like video game characters. As soon as they finished and the spirit pulled them into the air, Dar acted.

Reaching out with his hand, he grabbed them and pulled them up to him in the air.

***

Ajax and his ladies finished their fight, working to rid the world of the portals opening as a result of the explosion in Legendary Rule. But just as they finished, they were ripped out of the air and placed before a man and two women.

He wobbled, trying to get his feet under him.

Ajax hadn’t dealt with a final boss yet, but they would deal with the threat.The man in front of him had a glowing body, covered with runes. And the women who flanked him were different, but stunningly beautiful.

“What are you doing? Those aren’t Lilith,” the winged woman said as Ajax worked to regain his balance.

“Go. Find her,” the boss grumbled.

Both women shot off into the distance in two flashes of light.

Then the man focused on Ajax again. “I have a task for you. You can control mana?” The man seemed interested in Ajax’s new class and the abilities that came with it.

It was odd. The game had never questioned Ajax on his stats before.

“Who are you?”

“Apologies. I’m Darius Yiggdrasil. I made the World Tree,” Darius explained, reaching back and punching a hole through space and showing Ajax something he wasn’t sure he could process.

The man was speaking about a world tree, like the one in LR? He wondered if another part of the world had become real. “Are you from Legendary Rule?”

The man frowned. “No?” He didn’t quite sound sure of himself. “What is Legendary Rule?”

“A game, duh.” Sarah rolled her eyes. “The game that made all this happen?” She gestured to the portals popping up around them.

Darius scanned the horizon for a moment. “Your world was made to be without mana, but now that it is flooding in, likely all life on your world will die. Those that survive will mutate horribly and resemble nothing like they are today.”

Ajax swallowed. “Everything? Can’t you do something?”

“Do what?” a woman in Valdis’ arms asked as Valdis flew back.

The woman was older, maybe mid-fifties, yet the sight of her made Darius soften.

“This world will die,” Darius repeated, turning to the woman.

“Dar?” The woman’s voice hitched.

“Long story, Lily. But I’m your Dar. Valdis, have her eat a fruit and do what you need to do to help her.” Darius tossed a round red fruit that glowed with something into Ajax’s vision.

Lily frowned at the fruit. “If you were my Dar, you’d do something to save this world.” She didn’t eat the fruit even though the winged woman looked like she was about to shove it into her mouth. “How do I know this isn’t poisoned?”

Darius let out a heavy sigh. “We can’t spend much time here. My presence alone is starting to destabilize the world. It’s lived without mana, and that appears to have made it fragile.”

Lily clutched the fruit and glared at Darius.

The large man sighed. “Fine.” He turned back to Ajax. “I will give you two generations to acclimate this world to mana. Then you will come with me and assist me in resolving a long-term issue with mana in the universe.” The man seemed to be willing to bargain with Ajax.

“How do I do that?” Ajax asked.

“You are a spirit of mana. It is flowing into this world, and it will mutate the people. You need to control how it affects them,” Darius explained. “Guide their evolutions if you will.”

Ajax thought that sounded awfully like leveling up. “So, I can make the world into a game?”

“Game?” Darius frowned. “Like a video game?”

“Yeah. You said I could guide their evolutions. But how do I do that for everyone?” Ajax didn’t just want to help a few people; he wanted to help the world survive and change.

Darius rubbed at his forehead. “We would have to make some way for you to create something that then would aid them in using dao.”

“Dao?” Missy asked.

Darius waved away her question. “The concept of his power. That’s not the important part. You just need to understand that the people here will be exposed to mana. It’s almost like a radiation, and it will continue to come from portals as they arrive.”

“Please. Dar? Save this world for me?” Lily asked the man.

“It will be like one of those apocalypse LitRPG books.” Daphne grabbed onto Ajax’s sleeve. “We can be the system.”

“Sure. However you want to think about it.” Darius raised his hands and they all disappeared from the sky, appearing in some nondescript room. “Start telling me what you want and make it quick. You’ll live here for the next two generations and help guide this system you want, but I’ll need to make something to distribute it to the world.”

“Anything?” Missy asked.

Darius nodded. “I’m a god of creation. Anything.”

“I want one of those sci-fi matter materializers, and enough to last us two years,” Missy blurted out.

The man raised his hand and a very scientific looking machine appeared in the corner. “Done. Now, work on this system. Acceptable, Lily?” he asked the woman behind him who he seemed eager to satisfy.

She nodded and very pointedly ate the fruit she’d been given.After a few bites, her eyes rolled up into her head and the winged woman held her tight.

“Now, I’m taking her back. Come home soon, Dar. She’ll want to see you when she’s regained her memories.” The winged woman vanished from the space, like she had been sucked into the man’s navel.

“Where’d she go?” Ajax asked, looking around and expecting her to pop back up.

“They all come and go like that. Don’t mind them. Now, this system. Design it. How do people start and all of that? You can bottle up some of the mana within them if you want and let it activate in bursts. I haven’t played a video game in a very long time.” Darius waved his hand and a big white board covered the wall with a tray full of markers.

“There are video games in… god world?” Ajax asked.

“No. My soul was reincarnated from Earth,” Dar said simply, picking up the marker. “So, we have levels, increasing experience with each. Really it will be like filling them up with the radiation they’ve received and then forcing their bodies to mold according to their wishes.” Darius shook his head as he started to squeak his marker on the white board. “Go on and help me figure this out, and then I’ll have to create a delivery system.”

Ajax picked up the marker.

Darius had started creating headers for things he needed to decide.

“Girls, can you come here? Help me figure this one out. How do we let everyone pick their class?” Ajax was feeling like he’d just been thrown headfirst into the deep end, but he had to say that the nerd in him was a little giddy. He’d always thought it would be fun to create a video game.

And this one would be very real.