Ke'an stabs the machete down into the monolith surging all of the magic he accumulated into the structure. He could feel it retaliate with magic of its own like a thrashing beast. The solid light around him ripples outward as it flickers. Parts of the monolith began to bleed red magma as it melts under the intense pressure of Ke'an's magic. The glow of the monolith retracts as more and more molten rock bursts out from deep inside it.
Suddenly the world is righted and gravity inverts back to normal as the monolith descends to the ground. Ke'an is unprepared for the shift and is thrown from the side of the falling structure. Even with Ke'an no longer delivering the destructive magma magic into the monolith the chain reaction has already begun and the world is alight in the soft glow of the magma streams. As he falls it is as if all of the stress and pressure he had been fighting through hit him all at once and he blacks out. He is certain he is falling to his death and soon System will have to follow up on her promise to deliver his body to his family.
"Wake." System's voice cuts deep into Ke'an's mind.
Ke'an takes a deep gasp and flings his head up. He is temporarily blinded by the bright all white room of the Reality Crucible. There is a portal above him showing him the piller crash into the ground and lisetaurs below as an ocean of magma drenches the landscape. Ke'an lies back down, his arms outstretched and his body sore and tired as he lets out a long breath. The portal over him collapses in on itself disappearing into the air. A second smaller one appears next to his hand and a roasted bird leg falls into Ke'an's open palm.
"I guess this means I passed and not that I am dead." Ke'an says.
"Yes, you have passed the first trial." System says in a wheeze. "And it is garlic butter chicken how you like it… as a thank you for not dying."
Ke'an ate then just slept a rather peaceful sleep for the first time in the past few days. When he wakes up he is still sore so uses his sari'vas form one aps to rejuvenate now that he can do so uninterrupted. After a long needed bath he finally gets back to his desk to ask System about the trial and the world it took place in. He has so many questions that it is hard for him to decide what to ask first.
"Was that place real?" Ke'an asks as a starting point.
"Yes. It is a world of its own in the far reaches… not of this universe." System responds. "What you fought are snow obru… or in your language the universe eater. It is a virus in the code of creation that multiplies and consumes."
"They didn't seem powerful enough to destroy a universe." Ke'an says.
"What I am speaking of is the pillar not the summoned inecie… you were in the Graveyard… the realm I banished them to… there they die alone. Each pillar was the body of a universe eater, the one you killed had consumed three hundred thousand of my universes… over its long life. When you faced it--it was little more than a starved beast on its death rattles. Had it been lucid, your attempt to take some of its magic would have killed you instantly or corrupted your soul."
"So my trial was to put down that creature once and for all, which I passed with flying colors." Ke'an muses.
"Yes, congratulations. There are thirty-six more of them I will need you to kill next."
"What? One was hard enough right?" Ke'an says.
"Once I die those that remain will be able to escape the Graveyard… Even if you survive taking my power, you will not be strong enough to kill so many after they consume a universe. My power will take many thousands of years to fully manifest in you. In that time they will multiply across many realities and possibly this one."
"Thirty-six though? That is going to take a long time. If it is possible at all." Ke'an says.
"You have already defeated the most powerful of the remaining… also do not attempt to take their power or the power of their minions. The snow obru are multidimensional beings… opening yourself up to them, even in their weakened state… will at best turn you into one of them and… at worst allow them to consume your soul. I know your people look for suitable creatures to take the power from but I do not recommend trying your hand at them."
"That is why I could not take my other equipment?"
"No and yes. The main reason is because if to much material from outside of the Graveyard appears it will alert the inecie and they would have swarmed you. I also knew you would try to take the power of the inecie, but that is power you do not want."
"I am guessing the lizard-insect-centaur creatures are the inecie, right?" Ke'an asks as he rests his head in his hands. "I've been calling them lisetaurs."
"Yes, but this world does not have centaurs. How do you know of them?" System says with genuine surprise in her weak voice.
"Folktales and legends." Ke'an says. "Wait, are they real?"
"I see. Centaurs do exist in the code but not for this reality… hmmm… maybe it is just convergent ideas between realities… Anyway I like the name, from now on they shall be called lisetaurs… As for your second question, yes centaurs were real, they are extinct now… They existed many yottaseconds ago on another world of mine. There was a group of gods I had to get rid of… they were a nasty bunch that abused their power and tortured their mortals… They created centaurs by tricking some king into sleeping with a cloud… It just so happens that the people of that world were also human…"
"Wow, that is a lot to unpack." Ke'an shifts in his chair with a furrowed brow. "What happened to the people without the guidance of the gods?"
"They made new ones… and prayed to gods that were not there. They did well for a while but so much promise was lost when… actually let's not speak of this… I want this world to be better."
"So what is the plan? I just go to the Graveyard and take them out one by one?" Ke'an asks.
"Yes, I will not rush you, there is plenty of time. The lisetaurs are not the only creatures… they have summoned. When you are ready to travel back to the Graveyard… just say the word."
Ke'an goes back into his routine of study and training with expeditions into the Graveyard every few days. Now that he knows what he is up against he can plan for his next excursions into the Graveyard better. His second expedition goes much easier than the first since he travels to one of the least bright floating snow obru and finds that he is not attacked at all. The magic had almost completely drained from it and it barely levitated a half meter off the ground.
After a few weeks he has eliminated many of the weaker snow obru which are all significantly less powerful than the first one he killed. None of them had the power to invert gravity or cause the hurricane level winds. He only encounters a few monster minions most of them being the lisetaurs but they lack the ability to divide themselves into more and their healing factor is greatly reduced.
In a surprising move from one of them Ke'an found out that there is a mutant variant that could breathe fire. The fire breathers are slower and have sacks of flammable fluid in their humanoid torsos. Ke'an's revolver with the fire stamp makes quick work of them as shooting one in the sack will cause them to explode.
"Does that lisetaur have brea-aaahh. They breathe fire now?" Ke'an says to himself dodging a burst of fire as he pulls out his gun. "A heads up would go a long way, System."
One of the other creatures he came across is a spider-like monster with ten arachnid legs. Instead of making webs they shot spikes from their extended thorax and ambush by jumping down from high up on the monoliths and showering Ke'an with projectiles. They are not very tough, but are even more mobile than the lisetaurs. Luckily Ke'an's armor protects him from the majority of their quills though he has never gotten through an encounter with them unscathed. Several times the only reason he survived is because once he destroys the snow obru, System returns him to the Reality Crucible and heals him if he is too tired or spent to heal himself.