First of all, let's start with confirming that 5.l was the last chapter of Exponential Growth (barring a potential interlude to lead into the next project). I've planned to do a follow-up/sequel thingy but more on that later.

Second, before even starting this fic I already decided that it would end like this or in a similar enough fashion. In no way did the comments or feedback cut the story short.

Third, to bring those statements into context, let me tell a little story on how this fic actually started. Around the time I started it, I was thinking about giving horror stories a stab on my quest to hopefully, one day, develop some writing chops instead of just winging it and hoping for the best. Problem was (and still) is, I didn't trust myself to write anything that wasn't just positively drenched in cliche and stereotype since I have the misfortune that I have a bit of an acquired taste, unapologetically and unironically adore cheese, can make justify most nonsense to myself depending on the level of sleep deprivation, and have no experience at all building suspense and horror beyond mild body horror description. During a particularly tired period, that desire collided with my spiteful sense of fun and being reminded of the Sliver. Thus, I decided that if I set up an environment where the antagonist wouldn't mind if people escaped or defeated them because there'd always be a next time, I could play around with different horror scenarios and viewpoints to keep things interesting.

An actively malevolent sliver-pocalypse would do nicely. Trying to write the proverbial fall from grace also seemed like an interesting experience - if only to see how long it would take until I'd get called out for forcing the character or people leaving for making the MC too unlikable - and setting it in the Birdcage would both aid the former and give of a change in pace compared to the Monster Hunter crossover. Taylor getting killed, losing, at the end of this part was planned and hopefully somewhat foreshadowed to give that final push and because one more thing that might seem surprising: I'm not particularly fond of blatantly overpowered characters in fiction. At least not if their power doesn't come with personal costs or restrictions attached. Playing around with the trope with the ending in mind felt more than a bit like having my cake and eat it too. Another reason to go this route as opposed to continuing the more gradual change, was to avoid the story meandering about in politically heavy, circular arcs that lack a defined, personal goal for Taylor. That prospect, reminded me too much of other stories that spent too much time in the defacto win state of the MC. Others might be able to pull it off, but I doubt my linguistic, pacing, planning, and storytelling skills are anywhere near robust to avoid. Similarly, with the ever-increasing scale and the chosen PoV, trying to parse the story in a readable and understandable form would very soon surpass my lacking grasp on the English language. Arguably I passed that point one or two arcs ago already.

Fourth, what's going to happen now? Taylor is dead and revived thanks to the ever-so-lovely noodle Billow. However, her personality wasn't uploaded completely onto the cloud and now she lost her ability to even. I was toying with the idea to organize the next part/sequel as the "Dark Souls of quests". In actually, this would mean that it would be a collection of shorter stories all starring different PoV and themes where the goal was to survive/escape against hostile odds. Those PoVs might also include one of the Endbringers in a 3v1 fight against the noodly overlady but might to start with something like one of the S9 while they investigate the rumored clusterfuck on their way back from Bumfuck Alaska. That said, I fear that I'm lacking the confidence, time, or skills to truly make such a format successful. Nor do I have any idea whether there's enough interest in that format to make it work. The urge to concoct "horror" is still present, so it might be adapted to a collection of short stories where the PoV might be decided through voting. In either case, information on Taylor's current status will be restricted to what the characters would know. It seems like fun to me, but then again, I'm a bit of a spiteful, sadistic bastard.

Either way, thanks for sticking with this trainwreck until the end and thanks for the few good chuckles some of the reviews/comments gave me.