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Chapter X

The culmination

As the heroes returned to their home universe, a grand preparation to the final showdown had started!

Having summoned the greatest scholars and engineers of all cosmos, the Network bestowed upon them the blueprints of a weapon capable of breaching the Tower’s impenetrable walls. But in order to reach said walls, they still needed the power contained within Dexter Orb – shamelessly stolen by the loathsome Blue Prawn after that fateful battle!

So alongside with Valrax – who was now free to leave his khreon homeworld – three champions located the Prawn’s base.

It was on a small floating island on the most distant, most literal edge of the universe!

And so they headed there – to their final quest before the ultimate resolution.

On the Network’s flagship, with the legion of robots by their side.

And as they set their feet upon the barren, rocky hills of that dreadful island, they beheld their destination hovering far ahead – a massive flying citadel, suspended high above the ground. Countless malformed cyborgs were patrolling the lands beneath – and as they clashed with the Network’s robotic army, an epic battle erupted with fire and thunder!

And witnessing this warfare from above, the Prawn had decided to unleash his most fearsome trump card yet!

By performing the dreaded occult ritual involving the act of smocking an absurdly large cigar, he managed to summon the Lung Cancer Demon – the most powerful demon of them all! And as the infernal, fume-shrouded crab had manifested before him, he commanded it to take the heroes down once and for all!

And so it descended from the floating castle and attacked!

The heroes fought back, but after some time, the demon decided to tap into its special power instead of brute force – and possessed Valrax, the only one of the three heroes who just so happened to have lungs!

With the expression of terror, the khreon collapsed on a ground and started convulsing uncontrollably, spewing hellfire and smoke from his every orifice – so the Network had to bright him back to the flagship, where the demon could be safely exorcised. This intricate procedure required maximum concentration, meaning that Network could no longer participate in the battle directly – and so Maxis was left alone on the battlefield.

Again.

But their determination was strong nonetheless!

By jumping to the lower side on the castle, they for the third and final time had performed their signature maneuver of crawling through the sewage pipes – and entered the castle’s hallways.

With blood and sweat they reached the citadel’s core.

A massive hall with a huge mechanical heart – beating deeply, and suppling power to the whole structure.

And beneath that heart, on a pedestal, encased in a silver cage, the sought-for Orb was lying.

Guarded by none other than the Blue Prawn himself!

And as Maxis faced this merciless creature once again, they asked him – why?

Why subject the entire universe to the immeasurable torment? Why assist the force willing to annihilate the creation itself? People of all species were known to perform all manner of evil for their personal gain – by what gain one can attain from destruction of all there is?

To which the Prawn replied that he lived a lot of centuries and whitened all these evil acts firsthand. He saw wars, he saw famines, he saw injustices and persecutions – and no matter how strongly he tried to fix this, the vices of men just came back again and again. So the world must be corrupted to its core, he concluded. Broken beyond repair, unfixable. And no matter how you try, the happiness will always be fleeting, and suffering will always prevail.

And it is then when he realized that Soursage, prophesized by ancient legends, was not the horrid being of pure malice, but a savior! A benevolent god that came to liberate us from these shackles. To cleanse this flawed universe in its entirety – so that something other, something better can arise in its place.

Maxis, really infuriated by such a repulsive outlook, rushed forward and stabbed the foe with the Sword of Good and Evil – but the Prawn’s dedication to his ideology was so strong that the weapon had no effect on him!

So realizing that he was truly a lost cause, Maxis attacked the crustacean fiend with a vicious ferocity!

Clashing with claw and blade, they started a fight!

Exchanging blow after blow, strike after strike!

And as their duel was approaching its culmination, far on the edge of the island, the Network had finally managed to remove the Cancer Demon from the Valrax’s ailing body. And concentrating all of its demonic essence into a tight fireball, they casted it back to where it came from!

And the moment it hit the castle walls, its cancerous power went wild – and countless growth of malformed crustacean flesh started to spread around and inside the castle, consuming everything and everyone on their way.

And just as these metastases had touched the castle’s metallic heard, it had suddenly arrested!

And with no energy coursing through its arteries, the castle began to fall!

In a subsequent chaos, Maxis pushed disorientated Prawn away, snatched the Orb from its cage – and in a graceful motion had leaped through the nearest widow, where they were caught by one of the Network’s smaller ships. And with a thunderous explosion, the flying citadel crashed onto the ground, bursting into a pile of rubble – while the three campions, celebrating their triumph once more, had left the barren island on the edge of Abyss and headed back, to the center of the universe, to finally finish their noble task!

And as their fleet had quietly disappeared beyond the cosmic horizon, the Prawn had crawled from under the smoldering ruins.

In despair, he raised his claws to the heavens and prayed to Soursage for help.

And suddenly, from a rift in the space-time before him, the Black Shade had emerged – stripped of the most of its power and cleansed from the physical realm, it was still lurking in the deepest layers of the universe, ready to resurface when the time shall come!

And kneeling before it, Blue Prawn asked – begged it for the succor.

The Shade starred at him for a few seconds, and then unceremoniously squashed him and devoured his corpse.

Chapter XI

The Tower

At last, it has begun!

After countless quests, struggles, victories and defeats, now it was time for a final step!

The Dexter Orb was cracked open, releasing the White Shade – and with its power, heroes imbued the Network’s flagship, allowing it to cross the Soursage’s flames. And with a great cannon mounted on its bow, with the Logicron secured in its hold, the three legendary champions had ventured into the eye of the storm!

Like a surgical needle their vessel pierced the flesh of the universe-devouring monster.

And with a single blast of their ultimate cannon, it had penetrated the impenetrable walls – leaving a crack just wide enough for three of them to jump in. And so with Logicron beside them, they leaped straight into the gaping hole – and just as all three made it through, the opening had sealed itself right behind their backs.

And for the sliver of second, they had a fleeting feeling that something else had slipped inside alongside with them – but after closely inspecting their surroundings, it became clear that they were completely alone.

So turning their faces towards the center of the Tower, they began their march to the core.

The first layer of Tower was a maze of intertwine tunnels – large tubes with ribbed surfaces, twisting and branching in the impossible, non-Euclidian ways. But as the heroes moved deeper, these narrow passages gave a way to the far more spacious chasms and gorges.

Essentially, the next layer was comprised of countless massive black pillars and monoliths, with the relatively narrow spaces between them. But while narrow in width, the vertical size of these spaces was incomprehensively large – to the point where neither ceiling nor floor could be seen at all. Only a hazy, orange sky from both up and down…

The black pillar themselves were covered in various scaffoldings, platforms and bridges – presumably, once upon a time this place used to house large numbers of people. But now, they all were empty and eerily quiet – with only occasional clangs of some distant machines echoing through these desolate metal ravines.

And as the heroes walked through this eldritch place, the Network had finally managed to get a full access to the Tower’s data library – something that they started during their last visit, but failed to properly finish because of the Soursage’s arrival.

And in doing so, they had finally uncovered – and delivered to the rest of the team – the true story behind the Tower’s creation, and the World of Delirium as a whole!

* * *

Once upon a time, trillions of eons in the past, a being of primordial chaos was born in the depths on interdimensional Abyss. And as it grew larger, it became hungry. And the longer it drifted through the void, the stronger its gluttony became…

Starting from a small spark of primeval cosmic energy, it became ravenous force of destruction!

The force eager to consume worlds…

It became the First Soursage!

But deep dawn, something prevented it from engaging in such a rampage. A voice of conscience – or, perhaps, something similar to it. And as the time passed, these thoughts grew stronger and eventually took a physical form within the Primordial Soursage, becoming the Opposing Gods.

With a great effort, the Opposing Gods restrained the Primordial Soursage from the multiversal destruction, creating a metaphysical cage around it – but their power was ultimately insufficient to actually destroy it for good.

They needed more strength.

They needed more people.

They needed entire world by their side!

And so they spread the seeds of creation thought the Abyss – and each and every one of them had spouted into an entire new universe! With one of such universes being the World of Delirium.

From its earliest days, the Demiurges – envoys of the Opposing Gods – had arisen in this world and started to cultivate numerous races across the stars. Hoping that with their craftiness and ingenuity, they will find a way to harm and ultimately destroy the Primordial Soursage. But as the countermeasure, Primordial Soursage had spread its own influence – tainting each seed with its own parasitic spawn!

And so Delirium, just like all the other seeded worlds, was infested with a lesser Soursage.

For countless eons, forces of creation and destruction were switching back and forth – with periods of prosperity alternating with periods of absolute ruin. But after numerous cycles, Demiurges finally managed to accumulate enough knowledge to create the Assembly Tower. And while one of the purposes of this legendary devise was to cleanse the universe from Soursage, it was just a tip of an iceberg! If one is to reach the uppermost chamber of this megastructure, and to get hold of the legendary key – the Palm of Primacy – the Tower will assume its final form, and its actual purpose will be finally revealed!

Chapter XII

Finale

And just as the Network had finished telling their epic tale, the three heroes had reached the walls of the inner chamber – the place they entered during their first visits, now filled to the brim with the raging fires of Soursage.

And as they ascended over them, they stood before the Tower Nexus.

A massive, shrine-like machine surrounded by the circle of pillars – with a seat for the Logicron at its heart. But as the heroes approached this apparatus, the Network realized that the connecting port was secured and required some hacking to be unlocked. But as they tried to enter the security system, a number of guardian phantoms appeared – floating, shapeless, ever-changing holographic entities armed with lasers and thunderbolts!

And as Valrax and Maxis started to protect their companion from the waves of these digital specters, the latter had once again experienced a strange feeling of the foreign presence. So having departed from their allies, they rushed even further upward – to the sacred chamber on the top, the site of the legendary Palm!

Whatever this presence was, thay had a strong feeling that it may pose a threat to it.

And by crossing countless staircases, twisted in the impossible directions – as if materialized directly from the Escher’s paintings – they reached the threshold of that fateful hall.

It was a massive circular space – with a colossal dome at the top and the vortex or swirling ruinous flames at the bottom. Its walls were sown with the flickering, circuit-like patters – and the only walkable surface was a relatively small round platform on atop a pillar in the center, connected to the doorway via a narrow bridge.

And on that platform, someone’s lone figure was seen!

As Maxis moved closer, they noticed that this figure was also a custodian – and, moreover, it was near-identical to Maxis themselves.

And as they approached this mysterious doppelganger, they suddenly spoke!

And they asked Maxis – is it all truly worth it? This struggle against the natural order? This opposition? Sure, soon the Network will unlock the core of the Tower and place the missing piece on its rightful place, extinguishing this world’s Soursage once and for all. But the forefather of all Soursages will still prevail, able to curse this universe again at any moment. And in case the people would dare to stand against it, the immeasurable destruction would be brought upon a world regardless of their effort – and even if they somehow manage to defeat it, no one can guaranty that another universe destroying threat won’t just emerge from the Abyss in a next millennium or two…

Once upon a time, they said, this other custodian was also a noble warrior, just like Maxis.

In fact, once upon a time, they were Maxis!

Until the Lord’s blade had showed them a different pass – and they were separated from Maxis, becoming their own person. And the pass they saw was the pass of strength! The rule of the strongest, and the survival of the fittest! So jumping into Delirium through the magical mirror right in the moment when the heroes made the Assembly Towered accessible, they reached the sacred chamber.

And now, there were planning to claim the Palm of Primacy – and with it power, to reach the Primordial Soursage, to break the cage and to become the Destroyer. A knight of chaos and a harbinger of ruin – marching ahead the devourer of worlds on the never-ending multiversal conquest. For while the bliss of the peace may be nothing by transient, the thrill of the violence will be eternal!

Maxis doubted whether or not such scenario was even possible – but in any case, they simply couldn’t allow the Palm to end up in the hands of this person!

So with unshakable determination, they attacked their other self.

And two Maxises clashed in a final battle – a battle that will determine the fate of the multiverse!

Unleashing their full power, they spouted all manner of ballades, thorns and stingers from their bodies – and locked horns in what could be the most brutal duel Delirium had ever saw! They pierced each other’s shells, hacked and slashed each other’s flesh! With the terrible violence they gnaw one another, ripping their bodies in pieces – and yet none of them both was even thinking of giving up!

And as this combat roared, deep below – it the Tower’s very heart – Valrax and Network had finally managed to put the legendary artifact in its rightful place, marking the end of the Sourage of Delirium.

And feeling that soon the flames will be extinguished, Corrupted Maxis – dripping green sludge and ichor from the countless wounds – had charged onto Pure Maxis with an almost rabid frenzy, pushing them both to the very edge on the flaming pit. And exhausted from a fight, Pure Maxis had realized that there was only one way to end this duel in a decisive victory right now!

So during their foe’s final move – intended to throw them of the edge – they grabbed them tightly with all their tentacles in the act of ultimate self-sacrifice.

And entwined together into a ball of flesh, they plummeted straight into the pit of raging fire!

* * *

Suddenly, Maxis opened their eyes.

And slowly, they rose up to their feet.

They stood upon what appeared to be a mountaintop, surrounded by puffy white clouds.

Above their head, there was clear blue sky – bluer than any other sky seen anywhere in the entire Delirium. And in that azure heaven, they beheld towering figures of Opposing Gods, rising above the cloudy veil...

And it the echoing voices, they spoke:

"The Palm of Primacy cannot be found"

"One may only earn it"

"And in performing the ultimate sacrifice, one had proven their trustworthiness as the Lord of the Tower, usherer of the new age. Right now, the essence of the Primal Ruin is writhing in the darkest corners of creation, seeping through the cracks on existence itself. Soon, its destructive power will overcome the effect of enchanted sword, and erode this universe into nothingness at last"

"But do not despair"

"For with the Tower unshackled – with combined achievements of their forebear by their side – one will be able to leave these crumbling foundations behind, and reach their place among the true stars"

"Let the Exodus begin!"

* * *

And as Valrax and Network had hurryingly rushed into the sacred chamber, they beheld a majestic, glorious palm tree of pure white light spouting from the central platform!

Golden glow was streaming upward from the pit below, and flames of chaos were no more.

And then – from one of the coconuts on the Palm’s top – Maxis had emerged anew, covered in amniotic fluid. And as they got to their feet yet again, they repeated the saying of the Gods:

"Let the Exodus begin."

And with these key words, the Assembly Tower had finally taken it ultimate form! Its walls had opened, like a petals of gargantuan flower – and countless tendrils of golden light had emerged from inside it!

Soon, these tendrils had reached and enveloped all the planets, one by one – but unlike the tentacles of Soursage, these threads brought not ruin, but salvation!

For by enveloping the planets, they transported them inside the Tower – into its massive, impossibly large non-Euclidian pillar, capable of holding the entire worlds within. And as it salvaged the entire cosmos – every planet, every island and every tiny rock, bearing at least some traces of intelligent life – it had transformed from a Tower into an Ark!

And rushing forward and beyond, it breached the borders of the Abyss.

And started its voyage to the cage where beast dwells!

And as the legendary heroes had walked onto the balcony and gazed oved the black void of pure nothingness, they saw countless dots appearing in a far distance – these were the Arks from the other worlds!

Yes, if their ultimate fate is to stand against absolute evil, the immeasurable destruction will, indeed, be brought upon them…

But at least in this ultimate struggle, they won’t fight alone!

* * *

A-a-and… this is how the story concludes!

Well, this retelling of the story, at least – the original roleplay didn’t have a definitive ending, and this open finale is the best thing I could pull off. The reason it stopped so abruptly back then was that I and my friends just decided to abandon the roleplay part in favor of writing an actual story based on it.

And, well… here it is! After all these years!

Huh, I can’t believe that I actually made it.

And to reiterate again – despite being a direct spiritual predecessor for the Assembly saga, this story exist in its own separate canon, and there is a good reason for that! Not only these two worlds have a drastically different lore and creation myths, but their themes are very different too.

The contemporary Assembly is very existential in its nature – in came into being naturally and used to be a wild, formless wasteland until a group of powerful, yet ultimately ordinary creatures decided to reforge it into what they wanted it to be. It just exists for its own sake, with no end goal or cosmic meaning, yet endless potential. But the old Delirium, on the other hand, is far more religious in its core – it was created by literal physical gods, and its existence had a very concrete, definitive purpose. And for that reason, the entire universe basically revolves around this purpose of defeating the ultimate evil of the First Soursage.

Assembly is self-sufficient, while Delirium instrumental.

Assembly is about building your own destiny, while Delirium is about fulfilling a prescribed duty.

And lastly, the Assembly is a medium that can support all manner of stories, whereas the Delirium is a setting revolved entirely around one specific story – and as a result, it can’t really be meaningfully developed beyond this particular tale.

And that’s why I eventually renounced the latter in favor of the former.

And yet… deep inside, there is still a part of me that wants these two worlds to be somehow connected in the grand scheme of things!

Perhaps, in defeating the Primordial Soursage, inhabitants of Delirium had engraved themselves into the fabric of space-time – and because of that, were eventually reborn into a different universe to continue their legacy. Or maybe it’s quite the opposite, with Demiurges peeking into different realms across the time and space, seeking legends and bringing them back to life as a mean of persevering against their ultimate foe!

Or perhaps, it was something else entirely.

All versions have their merits, and I think I’ll better leave it open to your own interpretation. At least, for now… You may even suggest your own ideas in the comments, if you wish to.

But in any case – while the story of Delirium is over, the three heroes shall live on.

In a different world and under different skies, when the dire times shall come – they will arise anew for sure. And the evil shall tremble in fear of their power – the power and glory that endured throughout the space and time!

But that, my friends, will be a different story for another day…

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Description

Chapter X

The culmination

As the heroes returned to their home universe, a grand preparation to the final showdown had started!

Having summoned the greatest scholars and engineers of all cosmos, the Network bestowed upon them the blueprints of a weapon capable of breaching the Tower’s impenetrable walls. But in order to reach said walls, they still needed the power contained within Dexter Orb – shamelessly stolen by the loathsome Blue Prawn after that fateful battle!

So alongside with Valrax – who was now free to leave his khreon homeworld – three champions located the Prawn’s base.

It was on a small floating island on the most distant, most literal edge of the universe!

And so they headed there – to their final quest before the ultimate resolution.

On the Network’s flagship, with the legion of robots by their side.

And as they set their feet upon the barren, rocky hills of that dreadful island, they beheld their destination hovering far ahead – a massive flying citadel, suspended high above the ground. Countless malformed cyborgs were patrolling the lands beneath – and as they clashed with the Network’s robotic army, an epic battle erupted with fire and thunder!

And witnessing this warfare from above, the Prawn had decided to unleash his most fearsome trump card yet!

By performing the dreaded occult ritual involving the act of smocking an absurdly large cigar, he managed to summon the Lung Cancer Demon – the most powerful demon of them all! And as the infernal, fume-shrouded crab had manifested before him, he commanded it to take the heroes down once and for all!

And so it descended from the floating castle and attacked!

The heroes fought back, but after some time, the demon decided to tap into its special power instead of brute force – and possessed Valrax, the only one of the three heroes who just so happened to have lungs!

With the expression of terror, the khreon collapsed on a ground and started convulsing uncontrollably, spewing hellfire and smoke from his every orifice – so the Network had to bright him back to the flagship, where the demon could be safely exorcised. This intricate procedure required maximum concentration, meaning that Network could no longer participate in the battle directly – and so Maxis was left alone on the battlefield.

Again.

But their determination was strong nonetheless!

By jumping to the lower side on the castle, they for the third and final time had performed their signature maneuver of crawling through the sewage pipes – and entered the castle’s hallways.

With blood and sweat they reached the citadel’s core.

A massive hall with a huge mechanical heart – beating deeply, and suppling power to the whole structure.

And beneath that heart, on a pedestal, encased in a silver cage, the sought-for Orb was lying.

Guarded by none other than the Blue Prawn himself!

And as Maxis faced this merciless creature once again, they asked him – why?

Why subject the entire universe to the immeasurable torment? Why assist the force willing to annihilate the creation itself? People of all species were known to perform all manner of evil for their personal gain – by what gain one can attain from destruction of all there is?

To which the Prawn replied that he lived a lot of centuries and whitened all these evil acts firsthand. He saw wars, he saw famines, he saw injustices and persecutions – and no matter how strongly he tried to fix this, the vices of men just came back again and again. So the world must be corrupted to its core, he concluded. Broken beyond repair, unfixable. And no matter how you try, the happiness will always be fleeting, and suffering will always prevail.

And it is then when he realized that Soursage, prophesized by ancient legends, was not the horrid being of pure malice, but a savior! A benevolent god that came to liberate us from these shackles. To cleanse this flawed universe in its entirety – so that something other, something better can arise in its place.

Maxis, really infuriated by such a repulsive outlook, rushed forward and stabbed the foe with the Sword of Good and Evil – but the Prawn’s dedication to his ideology was so strong that the weapon had no effect on him!

So realizing that he was truly a lost cause, Maxis attacked the crustacean fiend with a vicious ferocity!

Clashing with claw and blade, they started a fight!

Exchanging blow after blow, strike after strike!

And as their duel was approaching its culmination, far on the edge of the island, the Network had finally managed to remove the Cancer Demon from the Valrax’s ailing body. And concentrating all of its demonic essence into a tight fireball, they casted it back to where it came from!

And the moment it hit the castle walls, its cancerous power went wild – and countless growth of malformed crustacean flesh started to spread around and inside the castle, consuming everything and everyone on their way.

And just as these metastases had touched the castle’s metallic heard, it had suddenly arrested!

And with no energy coursing through its arteries, the castle began to fall!

In a subsequent chaos, Maxis pushed disorientated Prawn away, snatched the Orb from its cage – and in a graceful motion had leaped through the nearest widow, where they were caught by one of the Network’s smaller ships. And with a thunderous explosion, the flying citadel crashed onto the ground, bursting into a pile of rubble – while the three campions, celebrating their triumph once more, had left the barren island on the edge of Abyss and headed back, to the center of the universe, to finally finish their noble task!

And as their fleet had quietly disappeared beyond the cosmic horizon, the Prawn had crawled from under the smoldering ruins.

In despair, he raised his claws to the heavens and prayed to Soursage for help.

And suddenly, from a rift in the space-time before him, the Black Shade had emerged – stripped of the most of its power and cleansed from the physical realm, it was still lurking in the deepest layers of the universe, ready to resurface when the time shall come!

And kneeling before it, Blue Prawn asked – begged it for the succor.

The Shade starred at him for a few seconds, and then unceremoniously squashed him and devoured his corpse.

Chapter XI

The Tower

At last, it has begun!

After countless quests, struggles, victories and defeats, now it was time for a final step!

The Dexter Orb was cracked open, releasing the White Shade – and with its power, heroes imbued the Network’s flagship, allowing it to cross the Soursage’s flames. And with a great cannon mounted on its bow, with the Logicron secured in its hold, the three legendary champions had ventured into the eye of the storm!

Like a surgical needle their vessel pierced the flesh of the universe-devouring monster.

And with a single blast of their ultimate cannon, it had penetrated the impenetrable walls – leaving a crack just wide enough for three of them to jump in. And so with Logicron beside them, they leaped straight into the gaping hole – and just as all three made it through, the opening had sealed itself right behind their backs.

And for the sliver of second, they had a fleeting feeling that something else had slipped inside alongside with them – but after closely inspecting their surroundings, it became clear that they were completely alone.

So turning their faces towards the center of the Tower, they began their march to the core.

The first layer of Tower was a maze of intertwine tunnels – large tubes with ribbed surfaces, twisting and branching in the impossible, non-Euclidian ways. But as the heroes moved deeper, these narrow passages gave a way to the far more spacious chasms and gorges.

Essentially, the next layer was comprised of countless massive black pillars and monoliths, with the relatively narrow spaces between them. But while narrow in width, the vertical size of these spaces was incomprehensively large – to the point where neither ceiling nor floor could be seen at all. Only a hazy, orange sky from both up and down…

The black pillar themselves were covered in various scaffoldings, platforms and bridges – presumably, once upon a time this place used to house large numbers of people. But now, they all were empty and eerily quiet – with only occasional clangs of some distant machines echoing through these desolate metal ravines.

And as the heroes walked through this eldritch place, the Network had finally managed to get a full access to the Tower’s data library – something that they started during their last visit, but failed to properly finish because of the Soursage’s arrival.

And in doing so, they had finally uncovered – and delivered to the rest of the team – the true story behind the Tower’s creation, and the World of Delirium as a whole!

* * *

Once upon a time, trillions of eons in the past, a being of primordial chaos was born in the depths on interdimensional Abyss. And as it grew larger, it became hungry. And the longer it drifted through the void, the stronger its gluttony became…

Starting from a small spark of primeval cosmic energy, it became ravenous force of destruction!

The force eager to consume worlds…

It became the First Soursage!

But deep dawn, something prevented it from engaging in such a rampage. A voice of conscience – or, perhaps, something similar to it. And as the time passed, these thoughts grew stronger and eventually took a physical form within the Primordial Soursage, becoming the Opposing Gods.

With a great effort, the Opposing Gods restrained the Primordial Soursage from the multiversal destruction, creating a metaphysical cage around it – but their power was ultimately insufficient to actually destroy it for good.

They needed more strength.

They needed more people.

They needed entire world by their side!

And so they spread the seeds of creation thought the Abyss – and each and every one of them had spouted into an entire new universe! With one of such universes being the World of Delirium.

From its earliest days, the Demiurges – envoys of the Opposing Gods – had arisen in this world and started to cultivate numerous races across the stars. Hoping that with their craftiness and ingenuity, they will find a way to harm and ultimately destroy the Primordial Soursage. But as the countermeasure, Primordial Soursage had spread its own influence – tainting each seed with its own parasitic spawn!

And so Delirium, just like all the other seeded worlds, was infested with a lesser Soursage.

For countless eons, forces of creation and destruction were switching back and forth – with periods of prosperity alternating with periods of absolute ruin. But after numerous cycles, Demiurges finally managed to accumulate enough knowledge to create the Assembly Tower. And while one of the purposes of this legendary devise was to cleanse the universe from Soursage, it was just a tip of an iceberg! If one is to reach the uppermost chamber of this megastructure, and to get hold of the legendary key – the Palm of Primacy – the Tower will assume its final form, and its actual purpose will be finally revealed!

Chapter XII

Finale

And just as the Network had finished telling their epic tale, the three heroes had reached the walls of the inner chamber – the place they entered during their first visits, now filled to the brim with the raging fires of Soursage.

And as they ascended over them, they stood before the Tower Nexus.

A massive, shrine-like machine surrounded by the circle of pillars – with a seat for the Logicron at its heart. But as the heroes approached this apparatus, the Network realized that the connecting port was secured and required some hacking to be unlocked. But as they tried to enter the security system, a number of guardian phantoms appeared – floating, shapeless, ever-changing holographic entities armed with lasers and thunderbolts!

And as Valrax and Maxis started to protect their companion from the waves of these digital specters, the latter had once again experienced a strange feeling of the foreign presence. So having departed from their allies, they rushed even further upward – to the sacred chamber on the top, the site of the legendary Palm!

Whatever this presence was, thay had a strong feeling that it may pose a threat to it.

And by crossing countless staircases, twisted in the impossible directions – as if materialized directly from the Escher’s paintings – they reached the threshold of that fateful hall.

It was a massive circular space – with a colossal dome at the top and the vortex or swirling ruinous flames at the bottom. Its walls were sown with the flickering, circuit-like patters – and the only walkable surface was a relatively small round platform on atop a pillar in the center, connected to the doorway via a narrow bridge.

And on that platform, someone’s lone figure was seen!

As Maxis moved closer, they noticed that this figure was also a custodian – and, moreover, it was near-identical to Maxis themselves.

And as they approached this mysterious doppelganger, they suddenly spoke!

And they asked Maxis – is it all truly worth it? This struggle against the natural order? This opposition? Sure, soon the Network will unlock the core of the Tower and place the missing piece on its rightful place, extinguishing this world’s Soursage once and for all. But the forefather of all Soursages will still prevail, able to curse this universe again at any moment. And in case the people would dare to stand against it, the immeasurable destruction would be brought upon a world regardless of their effort – and even if they somehow manage to defeat it, no one can guaranty that another universe destroying threat won’t just emerge from the Abyss in a next millennium or two…

Once upon a time, they said, this other custodian was also a noble warrior, just like Maxis.

In fact, once upon a time, they were Maxis!

Until the Lord’s blade had showed them a different pass – and they were separated from Maxis, becoming their own person. And the pass they saw was the pass of strength! The rule of the strongest, and the survival of the fittest! So jumping into Delirium through the magical mirror right in the moment when the heroes made the Assembly Towered accessible, they reached the sacred chamber.

And now, there were planning to claim the Palm of Primacy – and with it power, to reach the Primordial Soursage, to break the cage and to become the Destroyer. A knight of chaos and a harbinger of ruin – marching ahead the devourer of worlds on the never-ending multiversal conquest. For while the bliss of the peace may be nothing by transient, the thrill of the violence will be eternal!

Maxis doubted whether or not such scenario was even possible – but in any case, they simply couldn’t allow the Palm to end up in the hands of this person!

So with unshakable determination, they attacked their other self.

And two Maxises clashed in a final battle – a battle that will determine the fate of the multiverse!

Unleashing their full power, they spouted all manner of ballades, thorns and stingers from their bodies – and locked horns in what could be the most brutal duel Delirium had ever saw! They pierced each other’s shells, hacked and slashed each other’s flesh! With the terrible violence they gnaw one another, ripping their bodies in pieces – and yet none of them both was even thinking of giving up!

And as this combat roared, deep below – it the Tower’s very heart – Valrax and Network had finally managed to put the legendary artifact in its rightful place, marking the end of the Sourage of Delirium.

And feeling that soon the flames will be extinguished, Corrupted Maxis – dripping green sludge and ichor from the countless wounds – had charged onto Pure Maxis with an almost rabid frenzy, pushing them both to the very edge on the flaming pit. And exhausted from a fight, Pure Maxis had realized that there was only one way to end this duel in a decisive victory right now!

So during their foe’s final move – intended to throw them of the edge – they grabbed them tightly with all their tentacles in the act of ultimate self-sacrifice.

And entwined together into a ball of flesh, they plummeted straight into the pit of raging fire!

* * *

Suddenly, Maxis opened their eyes.

And slowly, they rose up to their feet.

They stood upon what appeared to be a mountaintop, surrounded by puffy white clouds.

Above their head, there was clear blue sky – bluer than any other sky seen anywhere in the entire Delirium. And in that azure heaven, they beheld towering figures of Opposing Gods, rising above the cloudy veil...

And it the echoing voices, they spoke:

"The Palm of Primacy cannot be found"

"One may only earn it"

"And in performing the ultimate sacrifice, one had proven their trustworthiness as the Lord of the Tower, usherer of the new age. Right now, the essence of the Primal Ruin is writhing in the darkest corners of creation, seeping through the cracks on existence itself. Soon, its destructive power will overcome the effect of enchanted sword, and erode this universe into nothingness at last"

"But do not despair"

"For with the Tower unshackled – with combined achievements of their forebear by their side – one will be able to leave these crumbling foundations behind, and reach their place among the true stars"

"Let the Exodus begin!"

* * *

And as Valrax and Network had hurryingly rushed into the sacred chamber, they beheld a majestic, glorious palm tree of pure white light spouting from the central platform!

Golden glow was streaming upward from the pit below, and flames of chaos were no more.

And then – from one of the coconuts on the Palm’s top – Maxis had emerged anew, covered in amniotic fluid. And as they got to their feet yet again, they repeated the saying of the Gods:

"Let the Exodus begin."

And with these key words, the Assembly Tower had finally taken it ultimate form! Its walls had opened, like a petals of gargantuan flower – and countless tendrils of golden light had emerged from inside it!

Soon, these tendrils had reached and enveloped all the planets, one by one – but unlike the tentacles of Soursage, these threads brought not ruin, but salvation!

For by enveloping the planets, they transported them inside the Tower – into its massive, impossibly large non-Euclidian pillar, capable of holding the entire worlds within. And as it salvaged the entire cosmos – every planet, every island and every tiny rock, bearing at least some traces of intelligent life – it had transformed from a Tower into an Ark!

And rushing forward and beyond, it breached the borders of the Abyss.

And started its voyage to the cage where beast dwells!

And as the legendary heroes had walked onto the balcony and gazed oved the black void of pure nothingness, they saw countless dots appearing in a far distance – these were the Arks from the other worlds!

Yes, if their ultimate fate is to stand against absolute evil, the immeasurable destruction will, indeed, be brought upon them…

But at least in this ultimate struggle, they won’t fight alone!

* * *

A-a-and… this is how the story concludes!

Well, this retelling of the story, at least – the original roleplay didn’t have a definitive ending, and this open finale is the best thing I could pull off. The reason it stopped so abruptly back then was that I and my friends just decided to abandon the roleplay part in favor of writing an actual story based on it.

And, well… here it is! After all these years!

Huh, I can’t believe that I actually made it.

And to reiterate again – despite being a direct spiritual predecessor for the Assembly saga, this story exist in its own separate canon, and there is a good reason for that! Not only these two worlds have a drastically different lore and creation myths, but their themes are very different too.

The contemporary Assembly is very existential in its nature – in came into being naturally and used to be a wild, formless wasteland until a group of powerful, yet ultimately ordinary creatures decided to reforge it into what they wanted it to be. It just exists for its own sake, with no end goal or cosmic meaning, yet endless potential. But the old Delirium, on the other hand, is far more religious in its core – it was created by literal physical gods, and its existence had a very concrete, definitive purpose. And for that reason, the entire universe basically revolves around this purpose of defeating the ultimate evil of the First Soursage.

Assembly is self-sufficient, while Delirium instrumental.

Assembly is about building your own destiny, while Delirium is about fulfilling a prescribed duty.

And lastly, the Assembly is a medium that can support all manner of stories, whereas the Delirium is a setting revolved entirely around one specific story – and as a result, it can’t really be meaningfully developed beyond this particular tale.

And that’s why I eventually renounced the latter in favor of the former.

And yet… deep inside, there is still a part of me that wants these two worlds to be somehow connected in the grand scheme of things!

Perhaps, in defeating the Primordial Soursage, inhabitants of Delirium had engraved themselves into the fabric of space-time – and because of that, were eventually reborn into a different universe to continue their legacy. Or maybe it’s quite the opposite, with Demiurges peeking into different realms across the time and space, seeking legends and bringing them back to life as a mean of persevering against their ultimate foe!

Or perhaps, it was something else entirely.

All versions have their merits, and I think I’ll better leave it open to your own interpretation. At least, for now… You may even suggest your own ideas in the comments, if you wish to.

But in any case – while the story of Delirium is over, the three heroes shall live on.

In a different world and under different skies, when the dire times shall come – they will arise anew for sure. And the evil shall tremble in fear of their power – the power and glory that endured throughout the space and time!

But that, my friends, will be a different story for another day…

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