Chapter Sixteen
Scarcity
The first few months within the Pit were easy compared to what she believed a normal mortal would suffer in the prison, their Aura letting them shield against the toxic particulate and climate control the arid air. Near the river, the air dropped in temperature and added humidity, making their growing base far more habitable. Unfortunately, it meant exploring deeper into the Pit threatened even Pyrrha with an Aura pool only rivaled by Yang. The Cyclops just slightly adapted better than them due to their thick skin and large lungs yet they were imprisoned within the Brass Fortress for a good reason, the unknown depths of the Pits posing significant challenges.
Most of her day, what they figured out was a rough 24 hours anyways, she spent within her soulscape, a term Pyrrha tacked on and stuck. Pyrrha managed the precious metal convoy in her absence and prowled the newly erected border walls. The Cyclops that didn't work the forges, something Pyrrha had to pull them from and hash out a schedule, patrolled while she was away.
The constant silence grated on her nerve more than the weird reality of her soulscape, Phlegethon warning them of the roaming packs of hostiles. Yet after what seemed like several months at this point, the only other pack they'd noticed was Night's wolves moving a long distance away in pursuit of prey. Other than making them question how exactly the food chain worked in a place where only the River That Sustained offered nourishment, nothing beyond the Pit itself dared bother them.
The part of Summer that survived Prune didn't like it one bit but she pressed the Cyclops into further developing the first versions of the turbines they needed to get electricity running, taking what advantages they could before other Titans or unwanted guests realized the Brass Fortress wasn't manned by the cruel, hybrid monster is was for centuries. What scant amounts of copper, gold, and iron the Cyclops found went not into creating the fleet Ruby wanted but into just enough weapons to arm everyone and then run wiring from the River into the Cyclops's Forge and Research Annex. After weeks of building off memorized plans and theory, they could sustain enough electricity to get their scrolls back up and running, unlocking the trove of schematics and designs stored within.
Pyrrha refused to leave the scrolls with the Cyclops, keeping them both in the Command Center in the Fortress and painstakingly copying them onto scraps of parchments or managing them personally. Several turbines and generators exploded in violent flames or shocks before they got a couple working.
What was left of the metal was enough to construct one more in the event of an incident and maybe one of the hovercraft the SDC used to transport materials across flat land. Unfortunately, what they lacked in materials also came with the lack of expertise and machines used to create many of the luxuries they came to enjoy to Remnant, most importantly semiconductors, transistors, and other electronic devices needed to create the Airships and communications network and, so far, she couldn't easily replicate the method she used to talk to Pyrrha in her mind, connecting to her star within the soulscape.
She hoped to solve at least one of her problems while she still had the energy to spare after giving Pyrrha access to her reserves. Another Titan hunt waited on the horizon with the Nothing greedily prowling the edges of her reality bubble in wait for her next tribute. While not entirely sure how the merciless physics, math, or magic entity governed her world, she knew enough to keep it pacified and its attention far, far away in the egregiously larger bubbles sequestered off in the distance. Her's was a small meteor compared to the supergiant red star.
Still, it was currently large enough to suit her needs, only Pyrrha and she needing the metaphysical space to house their souls and the energy from the dead Titan. One experiment with a foregone conclusion she accidentally solved was how easily she could return to the soulscape. It was with frightening ease she could send her consciousness from her body and then connect to Pyrrha's star, accessing most of her thought processes and even memories. The Ruby in her kept Summer away from those, only tapping into the active thoughts and sending a stream of thoughts out.
Pyrrha kindly told her to fuck off after she admitted that but she kept the connection there for emergencies.
It did, however, give her a different idea.
If she could pull souls into her reality with their permission, what stopped her from pulling any inanimate object without the inherent need for consent? She went in first to the Nothing because she offered herself to preserve against the might of a god, accepting a spot in a realm that could quash that strength without hesitation. She offered Pyrrha a place next, waiting on her permission first, with the Nothing hunting her down and sucking her at the moment she gave it. But crucially, it didn't move without both her offering and then another's acceptance, something an inordinate object couldn't do.
She'd even do it by accident again, pulling her clothing and Crescent Rose with her, which gave her the idea to do that with any item she could find. At first, she could do it quite easily but it required her to also follow that object into the bubble, almost as if she was a portal, but Pyrrha told her otherwise. The objects she held didn't disappear, instead turning into shallow copies within the bubble since she didn't exert the will to move them somewhere else in space and physically pull the object through using the soulscape as a transfer node.
Pyrrha almost gave the order to evacuate the Fortress after she disappeared in a black hole, only to then reappear a few meters away from her. A shallow copy was fine for just checking out the state of the soulscape and an energy transfer but to fully utilize its trans-planar properties and move between real space, she needed to send entire beings in at the increasing cost of energy she stole. The larger the object, the more it cost and she already had to ask Pyrrha for energy back. Whatever Titan was next on Phlegethon's list would serve her well in a few weeks.
Now she just needed to summon a Primordial again and rather than chase down a pack of Hellhounds to break the monotony of her base, she resorted to calling out Nyx's name. After weeks of prowling the fortress and her soulscape, she felt intimately the change in temperature and density of the shadows as the personification of the cosmos regressed to this lowly domain. The Aura pressure of her presence blanketed hers yet she never felt threatened by it, safely secured in her little bubble outside of this deity's control.
You rang, abomination? Her voice echoed around inside her skull with the force of Yang's Supernova, drowning out her subconscious. Her form coalesced from the shadows into the tall beauty she sensed through her extrasensory field, impossibly large wings stretching from her back and crumpling against the corners of the command center. They twinkled with the light of distant stars, pinging off against her shells as the nebulous strands wavered in and out of reality.
"Nyx," At the mention of her name, the shadows and stars pulsed with power, a shudder of overwhelming force coursing through her. "I require two favors and I wish to negotiate for your service."
Nyx's laughter surpassed the strength behind her voice easily, the chime of hundreds of stars exploding and ringing in her ears. Her eyes glowed bright enough to register against her shells, hard light she knew well from encounters with Neo, attempting to pierce through her. You certainly don't do anything by half, do you? Her presence abated back into her more human form, wings folding into her form and a dress molding to her androgynous body. Nyx took a seat next to her newest curiosity, finally getting a chance to observe her directly after she met with her errant daughters. She reached across and took her chin into her hand, carefully prying open her eyes to gaze into the Nothing within, her quasars dimming slightly in response.
Ruby didn't mind the improper touch.
"So what is it you want?" Nyx hummed nonchalantly, unperturbed at the Nothing staring back at her after pulling more of her essence from the nearest sun. Another solar flare erupted from its surface, startling the reigning sun god who resolved to figure out what exactly caused that if it wasn't one of his tantrums. It thankfully ejected opposite to where the Earth orbited and spared the planet but it didn't sit well with him to have another deity interfere with his domain. "Most people don't dare summon me so casually."
"And most deities don't answer when called on so we're both after something," Ruby answered neutrally, relishing the faint trickling of energy as her eyes absorbed the light from Nyx's. "You answered because you want something just as I do." Nyx betrayed nothing on her face but nodded carefully at her observation. "Good. The Pit doesn't have the resources I need and it's theorized your vast cosmos contain asteroids containing titanium and other materials worthwhile to me. The second request is your permission to experiment with a star."
Nyx stared at her for several minutes, only the nebulous ends of her hair pulsing softly in varying shades of green, orange, purple, and blue. This oddity dared not only summon her, not that she had many things to manage since the universe spun mostly on its own, but also ask for several things only she could grant. That was a point of leverage she held over her yet she also knew this creature had her over the rope. Primordial names weren't used lightly for a reason, drawing their very essence to the location they were spoken. They didn't need to answer, they were after all embodiments of creation, but their names were like pokes. Tolerable and harmless but noticeable. She showed up here for a reason, not to smite her down as she probably could destroy her mortal shell, but for the answers she sought.
"I will allow your first request in return for an exchange of information. Asteroids are aplenty and missing one won't interfere with the balance laid out." Ruby accepted her offer without hesitation. "I'll get to your second request after we talk." Again, she only nodded and waved her hand forward for her to continue. "You are an oddity. A creature of abomination that doesn't conform to the rules of this universe. You have no death in this universe and you have no life here either."
"I've been called worse." Ruby grinned widely. Nyx ignored her comment and barreled forward.
"My daughters control the fate of every living creature in this universe and you aren't bound by them. Your string of fate doesn't exist, has never existed, and will never exist. That isn't possible. Every creature that has died, dies, and will die has a string of fate with events bound to them. They have a start and an end." She allowed herself to monologue, drawing in her one audience. If there was one thing Chaos loved to do before its passing, it was talk and she inherited that lovely trait when it dumped the universe on her shoulders and drifted off into eternal slumber. Personally, she thought he just went off to a beach or went chasing after Ananke but those weren't mutually exclusive.
"Even gods?" Ruby asked, connecting the dots far faster than she expected.
"Yes." She leaned forward, letting the inky black of her hair cascade forward and shield her sight from this abomination. "Non-primordials deities have strings of fate. A beginning and an end. Primordials have their system but even we had a start and will have an end, all governed by my charming sister Ananke." She could use that name just fine, her annoying sibling off somewhere in the distant multiverse and far too preoccupied with something called Tinder and Hinge to notice. "So, the only conclusion I can make is that you're not from this universe." She trailed off, meeting Ruby's eyes again and staring in wonder at the nightmares held within.
"Is that all?" Ruby drolled, far too bored by her statement to answer more than that. She had projects and resources needing completion and requisition and appeasing this Primordial wasn't high on the list. She was a potential acquaintance she needed for the moment. It just so happened she was a Primordial as well.
"You don't get it yet, do you?" The temperature in the room dropped to an absolute zero only found in her furthest regions. The air around them froze and stilled, atoms and molecules suspended. Nothing in the room dared so much as jitter, electrons held in stasis under her might and refused freedom, superposition held at bay, quantum mechanics forgotten.
And yet Ruby could move, a familiar dark skin speckled with light creeping across her body to protect her and grant her the ability to defy the universe itself.
"You're not the first interdimensional traveler here. Chaos beyond, Ananke likes to bring her lovers on fantastic tours to amuse them before crushing them from existence but their string remains, transferred over. There is a record, a cause and effect, a ripple, something to indicate an existence." She poked Ruby in her chest to get her next point across, "And you, my horrible abomination, don't exist. You can't exist yet you're still here."
Ruby grabbed her hand after a blink of silence, running her fingers along the exquisite craftsmanship the Primordial created in this body. Her skin was softer than silk yet had enough strength to absorb a quasar with nails sharp enough to tear open a black hole. Her impromptu inspection continued along her arms, Nyx watching bemused at her methods. She eventually reached her hair, fingers carding through trapped nebulas and startling stars from their orbits. "You're the first to figure this out, congratulations." She practically whispered into her ear yet it wasn't seductive in the slightest. "We didn't advertise this fact but we're not gonna share it with everyone." She made sitting in the lap of the Lady of the Cosmos completely normal and if she wasn't entirely sure Ananke could never have demigod children, she'd believe Ruby was one. The abomination rested her head in the crook of her neck, settling in almost happily.
"I will not lie to you." She started speaking again after inspecting her neck and finding no breathing or movement of blood. "I remember dying in my world twice and then waking up here where the only commonality was an annoying chaotic deity likely related to yours. My goal is to build up a military to suit my need to protect innocents. That is how I was raised and that is what I will do but I will use this as a mercenary company to repay the favors I ask for today if you require it. You have no obligation to help me and I have no illusion we have any relationship. This is a negotiation between two parties, Primordial or abomination notwithstanding." Ruby certainly didn't mince words in the slightest, alleviating Nyx's concerns with her short yet blindingly clear mission statement and goals. Ruby wanted something and was prepared to make a deal for it. That was it.
There wasn't any begging from worshippers to fulfill their effervescent needs or demands from siblings for something or another. This was a simple transaction as she stated. Her being the Cosmos themselves was the very reason she wanted to deal with her and her alone, not because she happened to be one of the strongest Primordials in existence. It was nothing to do with power but with what she could offer in a trade.
She slightly relaxed into the awkward hug she found herself in, wrapping her arms around this odd creature in a stilted hug. While not entirely comfortable with this creature violating reality with her very existence, she soaked in the possibility she brought to the table. The Fates couldn't touch her which meant nothing she did affected anything until it had already passed, her daughters left blind to the knots in the fabric of the universe they tied into, the future left in flux until established. Ruby was the ultimate quantum superweapon and she wasn't letting her go anytime soon, her misgivings aside. She'd finally humble them from their constant knitting and might eventually convince them to go to a bar.
"You hug worse than I do." Ruby finally gave up on freaking the Primordial out and slid off her lap. Even if she didn't understand those pesky subtle social cues, she observed how they functioned with others. "If you wish to talk at any time about anything, the Fortress is yours provided you don't harm those under my care. You're the first potential ally I have and I will keep you if I can." Nyx blinked several times at that, her hair turning violently purple and pink, entirely sure she didn't know the rules that bound deities from simply teleporting into claimed domains. On top of that, she was sure she didn't even know she had claimed a domain, the Brass Fortress no longer sitting empty within the Pit.
Primordials had very few allies, born from the start of this very universe. The highest tier of Protogenoi interacted with each other the most and she could call them all acquaintances and allies: Ananke, Chronos, Erebus, and Eros. The rest of them, despite officially termed Protogenoi, were glorified gods in strength. Massively overpowered when compared to the so-called Olympians but, for instance, Gaia only managed one planet and she shared that with Pontus, Ouranos, and the others. Nyx on the other hand managed the entire universe. There wasn't any comparison.
She took Ruby's hand and pulled them into a black hole, the abomination's speckled defense shrouding her form automatically. Several pulses of her energy ejected from her body once they stepped from the hole, floating carelessly in place with the far warmth of a foreign star warming her skin. The Nothingness rebelled against the starlight, shifting restlessly at the border of her soulscape. A smaller part nestled within her wanted it for itself, singing in harmony and clashing violently on the thin boundary. She clamped down hard on both reactions, reinforcing her entire reality and vowing to find the source of insidious warmth causing problems.
The same helplessness that affected any normal human never made itself known, Ruby moving about in the free space with the faint application of her Semblance. The black defensive shell combined with her Aura shields protected her from the elements, cutting off both the vacuum of space and removing the need for her mortal body to breathe. It was a marvel and a side effect of her deal with the Nothing, held in stasis where the causality of the universe couldn't touch her. Nyx watched bemused at her new pseudo-deity friend, freezing a large asteroid that passed in front of them with a wave of her hand.
Ruby turned to the monstrous rock hovering next to them, vision shells expanding drastically to wrap around it until she couldn't reach beyond the 20 km mark. Nyx got glomped in a lightspeed hug she couldn't see coming, an impressive feat considering she was one of three Primordials that could move at that speed. She dispersed into star particles to wiggle her way free, slapping her over the head and sending her cartwheeling into the rock with a loud crash. She blinked and Ruby was right back next to her, shaking off the rubble and scattering light and dark essence along with it.
I wasn't sure if you'd survive the vacuum of space. You mortals are so very fragile. She dropped her mortal facade, connecting a tendril of her consciousness to Ruby's mind. She suppressed a shudder at the cold, unfeeling she exuded, not a single spark of life she felt within other humans and deities. It was wrong, a violation she wanted to eradicate but couldn't, Ruby stuck outside of her control. Destroy her body and she'd come back from her unreality, an abomination with unknown abilities. Better to keep her pacified until she figured out how to get rid of her or tie her a bit closer to her domain. Welcome to space.
Thank you. Ruby's voice sounded perfectly normal despite what she felt through the connection, completely unbothered by her form. Depending on how much metal is in here, this will fuel my war machine for the next few decades.
And how are you planning on transporting it back to the Pit? You only asked for it, doesn't mean I can even move it. Not only would Tartarus throw a fit for imposing in his playground but he'd move her Mansion just to screw with her.
All this for a simple conversation. Ruby placed her hand against the gigantic rock, sending a pulse through to measure it. She could only estimate it somewhere above 100 million tons, not used to having such staggering weights and sizes of objects to deal with. Another pulse of Aura shifted the dark shell around her into the asteroid, coalescing onto itself. One tiny moment in space collapsed inwards with a screech as she imposed her will into Nyx's universe, a black portal tinged crimson and silver spawning around her hand. The entire portal didn't grow to cover her prize but instead warped space around it, slowly consuming it entirely and then relinquishing the null space in a blast of sonoluminescence.
That was terrible. Nyx shuddered after it disappeared, real space subsuming Ruby's form of warped subspace. It was a terrible itch that crawled across her skin in her mortal form and something that scratched at the core of her being, a zit or wart she needed to cauterize with a regular black hole in an attempt to rectify the unreal. The asteroid, while not important in the grand scale of her universe and how it expanded and contracted, still had a presence, a material form she understood intimately where it was and when. Now, what is this about a star?
A source of energy that doesn't revolve around the death of an immortal to fuel my unique form of immortality. Ruby didn't need to see to stare at the star they orbited around to know Nyx didn't like that at all, sending a solar flare to slam into her and send her careening far into the reaches of this solar system. Just like last time, she used her Semblance to cross across the massive distance in the blink of an eye, Nyx tracking the disturbance and noting she didn't teleport like other deities and instead physically moved through space to yet again float by her side. She didn't retaliate for her attack, waiting patiently in case of another. When nothing came forth, she asked, What do you want for a star?
Nyx narrowed her eyes, quasars shrinking into pinpoint sparks of light. A star is not so easily given away, abomination. It is more than simply energy, it's a gift of life in a hostile universe. It's more than nuclear fusion, a strong force, it's a potential for far more than just that.
I'm hoping and relying on that case. My immortality isn't based on faith or society like the Olympians and instead more like yours, based on the idea or existence of a concept. Yours: Night and the Universe, and mine, on Sacrifice to the Nothing. That much I know from suppressing it at the borders of my bubble reality. It simply wants energy as a tribute for keeping me alive, whatever IT is, so I require a star, a source of energy that far outstrips even immortal lives.
Let's start with a smaller star near the end of its life for your test, one I don't mind handing over as it's already reached the end of its main sequence and collapsed into a white dwarf. Nyx wrapped them both into a black hole and transported them through the singularity over to another part of the universe. Ruby accepted the travel request and sank into it, appearing right next to Nyx and basking in the light of a dead star. Heat still radiated off yet it'd never support any life on any nearby planets, left as a slowly dying source of energy for the next quadrillion or so years. Near the start of this universe, it supported a planet of nearly three trillion sentient life forms. Now the entire system is dead and it'd eventually fall into the event horizon of a black hole. In this case, taking this star would extend its lifespan.
Nyx grabbed her hand before she could consume and move it over to her reality. It doesn't come free. It's still a star, a part of who I am. For you, it's a necessity. You gain life for potentially millions of years and for those millions of years, you'll take care of my Hellhounds. The Greeks hunt them and the Pit is a danger to all so I want them cared for. You'll use them in your many wars to come, no doubt, but better you care for them as your soldiers than they die in useless conflicts.
I never plan for wars. Ruby answered with a bite, ashamed Nyx's opinion of her dropped so low she only saw the bloodthirsty monster she locked deep inside. That was a new one for her: shame. Was that how Remnant saw her? Was that how Beacon secured its future? By turning her into a bogeyman to hold over the fledgling Council after Blake's assassination? Summer didn't mind that after all, ruling through fear without question and then instilling loyalty into her Hunters. She'd never harm her own without reason, Beacon teaching its student near-blind loyalty to the Commander, and while she did execute a team for disobeying her S-ranked orders, it did its job incredibly well.
Conflict is inevitable. Your soul has enough scars on it to know this, and I know this. Life itself breeds conflict, whether through resource scarcity, ideological conflicts, misunderstandings, trust, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. You're already an abomination, embrace it.
I don't seek conflict, Nyx. Many times I've fought to defend and uphold the rights of the oppressed. I've fought before but that doesn't make me a conqueror or warmonger. Ruby didn't bother touching the white dwarf, reaching out with her senses and eyeballing the center. The same portal appeared within it, slowly pulling the massive celestial body from where it hung. I will care for your children just as I will care for any of my soldiers. That is my word and that is my bond.
Nyx nodded and released her hold on the star, watching as the darkness claimed one of her quadrillions of children. The same screech roared through both space and her form, the universe trying to rectify the missing star. Every dead planet and asteroid trapped by its gravity soared free into the distance, unchained. Ruby held the portal open until an explosion scattered stardust into them, the system quieting down with a beautiful cloud of yellow, red, and orange floating where the star once hung.
Her soulscape revolted against the incoming star, clamping down hard on the edges of it until Ruby channeled the nuclear energy now trapped there against it, simultaneously feeding it the sacrifice of potential life and keeping it at bay. The light trapped in the center of her world loved the white dwarf, singing in harmony and helping push back the tide of Nothing that threatened the space Ruby carved as her own. The Nothing prowled for a moment more before greedily yanking the offered constant trickle of energy. Within her bubble, everything shifted outward to accommodate the star, the red and green soul stars growing in size until they shadowed over the new one. The tiny floating Mt. Glenn shrank until it orbited around the dwarf, basking in the light of Ruby and Pyrrha's souls.
Ruby curled into herself painfully, her mortal shell rapidly pulling energy from the star and burning possible millions of years as it struggled to contain the exponential growth. The tethered connection tore apart at the seams, rapidly healing over and then growing more, the process repeating itself over and over as she suffered under the new torrent. It eventually tapered off, Ruby groaning and her dark shields steadily deepening in contrast and starlight brightening around her eyes. Nyx felt the realspace around her warp as her power increased, collapsing in on itself and then warping out to level out. While before she towered over mortals as a Titan, she stood over Gaia and the others tied to the Earth now. A massive jump she didn't expect, and with each star, she'd climb closer and closer to Aether. Thank you. She disappeared with a portal this time, leaving her alone in the true dark of space.
She tried not to think about Hemera's rage when she learned she'd handed over one of her stars. She technically only could do that because Chaos liked her more than her when it passed, all the higher Protogenoi sharing responsibilities and control mostly equally. Ananke and Thesis were in their own category on a bad day and the less said about them the less she worried about Thesis taking away another part of her. The humans still couldn't explain the cold spot in the cosmic microwave radiation. With Ananke, the humans here lucked out when she decided other multiverses were more fun and left them alone in a fairly uncomplicated timeline she let Chronus handle.
With how nothing majorly changed within her form after she finished handing off the star, only a black hole growing slower and taking an extra millennium to collapse. It'd roast the wrong part of an asteroid belt when it detonated but was eventually insignificant when the fallout would occur after the end of this universe.
Probably.
She knew Ruby would crawl back for more stars once she used up this one yet she had nothing to offer her anymore in return, her immortal children protected on Earth and her creature ones now safe under the abomination. Very few things caught her attention enough to warrant her interference and as long as she occupied Ruby's attention, the less she had to deal with her tendency to break physics.
When she teleported through her singularity back into the Pit this time, briefly feeling Tartarus loom over her and not block her passage, she could instantly sense the Brass Fortress open up to her. Her second, Pyrrha, commanded in her absence, a muted presence of green fire surrounded by tiny pinpricks of light coated in the touch of the ocean. Ruby's muted crimson glowed from near her Mansion. Her acquiescing to the deal gave her enough permission to walk near her domain without setting off any alarms. This time, instead of growling at her, her Hellhounds practically barreled over each other to receive her pets and scratches, clawing at their nearest packmate to get closer.
She sighed before squeezing into the Fortress to tell Pyrrha what happened, Ruby turning in that direction at the resulting, "She did fucking what now?"