A few minutes after driving on the road.
BOOOM!!—
An explosion more powerful than anything I had seen. It was likely Marcus' ability. I assumed his explosion was as strong as a nuke since it only activated once and in exchange of his life.
But no- it was far, far stronger. On a scale of magnitude unimaginable by any human, an explosion in scale of the universe; A supernova.
At the moment of the explosion, Earth was, then the next moment it wasn't. All of the world was just… gone. People, cities, countries, continents all stripped down and reduced to cosmic dust spreading out in the vastness of space.
Ofcourse I died the instant it happened… Anna did too. So could you tell me why I can still witness the world even after my death?!
I looked at the system for answer, it already had three messages prepared.
[Congratulations, You have cleared the challenger wave, Round 2 Wave 9]
[Time taken to clear: 00:05:09. Leaderboard rank: 2nd]
[Human 6,415,405,425: Anna Quincy Adams had died, All properties have been destroyed. You have lost Ether's Challenege: Exponential Tower Defence.]
It appears that the supernova cleared the 9th wave. Yea it would be stranger if it didn't.
"Indeed it would… Miss Jean."
A voice spoke behind me. How… are they speaking in space?
"Because we aren't in space." The voice responsed.
What?
I tried to turn around and look at the speaker but as I turned, a familiar site greeted me. Trees native to my ranch, I'm in a car and Anna is right by my side driving said car. I got so used to her stoic face that the sight of her being tense and worried deeply unnerves me.
My eyes widened in recognition, this was moments before the explosion.
"Indeed, you died here but then again you also cleared the wave." The voice spoke from behind me again, the voice was soft and it's words flew gracefully like an evening dove, unable to resist the voice's tempting draw, I turned to see it.
And as soon as I turned the world changed around me again. I was standing in my yard, pristine and flourishing. In the foreground the main mansion stood tall just as it always had.
What?… no it didn't always stay like that, I was in ruins a week ago. Why am I thinking things that I know are false?
"Why indeed." The voice now seemed closer than ever, it's source was right beneath me.
I looked down to see Mr Plates lying on the ground napping, just like when I first confronted him about the hole but this time around his neck was streched and contorted and laid flat on his chest with a sick purple hue.
Instinctively my mouth opened to scream, but not a sound escaped my throat instead it bounced up and about and inside and throughout my body. My own voice echoed through my bones and pulverised my organs a billion times over. I heard -illions upon -illions of itterations of my voice, as if each cell was screaming out in pain, telling me to make it stop.
As I was seizing on the ground, the strange entity in Mr Plates body approached me.
"My, that's not how a distinguished lady should greet someone."
"Quajuysbwjalpiskajau" I tried to reply through the unbearable pain but my body refused to act the way I wanted.
"Hmm, that won't do". Snap. With a click of his finger my body stopped seizing and the pain left away. Just the lack of feeling that pain felt more euphoric than anything I ever did.
Panting, I looked up. His face weilded a nasty smirk, as if he was amused at my suffering. To wield such supernatural powers as to effortlessly bend the rules of reality I became to be accustomed to, is this entity perhaps… the system?
"Oh?" Mr plate's eyes lit up. "That's quite the strong guess, young lady. What if I were to say you are wrong?"
"Am I?" I responded.
"No, not entirely."
The background of my mansion bended, swirled and folded as it collapsed into itself and spewed back out again in the form of a … luxury sofa?
The entity sat on said sofa and continued. " I am the one who wields the utmost power over this system and who bestows said portion of my powers along with the system unto you. You can call me Ether."
After Ether spoke, I felt strange as if my body no rather as if my 'self' was being distorted and the next thing I knew I was seated on a luxury sofa facing Ether.
"Now then Lady Jean, we have a lot to discuss regarding the your Ether ability."
He spoke.
He looked me up and down and said. "Before that, it appears you have a question in your mind?"
"Yes I do, many infact. Why did I not recieve my ability after I cleared the 8th wave. Are your name and the powers you give both called Ether? Doesn't it get confusing? Is there a reason why the names are the same? What's up with the reality bending? Why didn't I get my powers at the same time as everyone else in the world? Why di-"
"Alright that's enough questions." With a snap, my jaw clasped upwards refusing all efforts I made to move it back down again.
"My name is Ether and all the supernatural abilities everyone in the world has gained so far belongs to me, hence why they are called 'Ether's Ability'."
"It's not confusing, infact if you give it some thought it seems only logical that my abilities will be called mine. I don't know what you are referring to as 'Reality bending' regardless we aren't in the real world currently."
"And lastly the reason you didn't get your abilities immediately was because no one did. You see I am rather possessive over my abilities and only bestow it upon those who pass my tests and show they can wield my ability better than I can. Few people passed their tests within a few days, most took a week but due to the nature of your test it took over 2 weeks and hence you were left without any."
"Now that your hunger for answers are sated, let's get to the reason why we are meeting today." Ether undid my forceful silencing as it finished talking.
"Sure, to what do I have the pleasure of meeting a god?" I asked.
"We are here to discuss your test and then negotiate what your ability will be." Ether replied.
"As I told you, I test everyone to see if they can use a power of mine better than I can. Almost all the time a person has me beat in atleast one category so they take that set of my abilities."
"But you see, every-so-often the result of a test really intrigues me and when I see potential for greatness I can't help but give them a harder test. This test is made to be impossibly difficult because I want them to fail so I can see the extent of their skills. The sudden wave 9 you faced is an example for an extra test."
"But sometimes, through overwhelming skill or dumb luck they beat even the harder test I set out for them. Your case was one such example of the latter. Through a series of extremely improbable cosmic coin flips you and your last property managed to survive just long enough to clear the challenge I set out for you."
"Are you saying that because I didn't clear the stage by the proper method it's now considered invalid?" I asked.
"No, it's entirely valid. You see Miss Jean, while I don't consider luck to be a measure of skill. I do consider it to be an indicator of fate. Albeit through unconventional means, you have still accomplished an impossible victory."
Ether continued. "As such, I am now conflicted about what ability to give you."