Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 64 (click to see context) from:
* TakeAThirdOption: Since Connie is destined to destroy the world with the power of The Key, it's either "allow her to destroy the universe" or "have her die a GloriousDeath before that happens. [[spoiler:Except her GloriousDeath with release all that entropic energy anyway, as The Foundation planned all along. When Connie figures this out, she uses The Foundation's connection to the wider multiverse and disperses all that energy through small, harmless acts of entropy (small bits of bad luck, the destruction of unpopulated worlds, etc) and infusing individuals with the power, creating countless Caretaker Destinies in the process.]]
to:
* TakeAThirdOption: Since Connie is destined to destroy the world with the power of The Key, it's either "allow her to destroy the universe" or "have her die a GloriousDeath before that happens. " [[spoiler:Except her GloriousDeath with will release all that entropic energy anyway, as The Foundation planned all along. When Connie figures this out, she uses The Foundation's connection to the wider multiverse and disperses all that energy through small, harmless acts of entropy (small bits of bad luck, the destruction of unpopulated worlds, etc) and infusing individuals with the power, creating countless other Caretaker Destinies in the process.]]
Changed line(s) 67 (click to see context) from:
* ToxicPhlebotinum: Being a semi-physical force of cosmic entropy, The Key's powers has an inherently destructive effect on those exposed to it. [[spoiler:When Hiro become its vessel, it slowly kills him, nothing but his "ninjaly" willpower keeping it from destroying him immediately, and every car they take to get him to Patty Perkins' headquarters suffers from some type of catastrophic meltdown. When Patty's men try extracting it, [[BrownNote gazing upon it directly causing most of her men to go mad]].]] The only ones who are immune to its effects are Connie, Tia and Byron by virtue of possessing the Caretaker Destiny.
to:
* ToxicPhlebotinum: Being a semi-physical force of cosmic entropy, The Key's powers has have an inherently destructive effect on those exposed to it. [[spoiler:When Hiro become its vessel, it slowly kills him, nothing but his "ninjaly" willpower keeping it from destroying him immediately, and every car they take to get him to Patty Perkins' headquarters suffers from some type of catastrophic meltdown. When Patty's men try extracting it, [[BrownNote gazing upon it directly causing most of her men to go mad]].]] The only ones who are immune to its effects are Connie, Tia and Byron by virtue of possessing the Caretaker Destiny.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TakeAThirdOption: Since Connie is destined to destroy the world with the power of The Key, it's either "allow her to destroy the universe" or "have her die a GloriousDeath before that happens. [[spoiler:Except her GloriousDeath with release all that entropic energy anyway, as The Foundation planned all along. When Connie figures this out, she uses The Foundation's connection to the wider multiverse and disperses all that energy through small, harmless acts of entropy (small bits of bad luck, the destruction of unpopulated worlds, etc) and infusing individuals with the power, creating countless Caretaker Destinies in the process.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: [[spoiler:The Foundation is the "foundation of all reality, of all possibilities", being the sentient awareness of the nothingness that predated creation and the VoidBetweenTheWorlds.]]
Added DiffLines:
* BlessedWithSuck: While the Caretaker Destiny is this from a certain point of view, Byron was "lucky" enough to only inherit the part of the mantle that ensured its host would have a GloriousDeath. [[spoiler:It's later revealed to be a ChekhovsGun when The Foundation tries and fails to make Connie explode because without Byron's piece, she's "a bomb without a trigger."]]
Added DiffLines:
* TheChosenMany: [[spoiler:One of the ways Connie manages to prevent PhlebotinumOverload is by evenly distributing the excess entropy across the multiverse, essentially creating countless new Caretaker Destinies in the process. It's implied that Risky, the girl Connie and Byron consider adopting at the end of the book, is one of them.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
* ExpertConsultant: Patty Perkins works as a "supervillain consultant", an independant contractor helping "wealthy idiot" mastermind put their operations together, whether it's designing logos and uniforms for their henchmen, to designing death traps and {{Death Ray}}s.
to:
* EntropyAndChaosMagic: While Doctor Malady first theorizes that the Caretaker Destiny is an accumulation of negentropic energy, [[spoiler:it's later revealed that the opposite is the case. The Caretaker Destiny is actually a fixed accumulation of entropic energy left by The Key, and that when its host prevents disasters and saves lives, [[WindsOfDestinyChange it is actually absorbing potential entropy, snatching triumph from the jaws of tragedy by absorbing cosmic decay]]. Having accumulated so much entropy through countless hosts, it has reached a point of PhlebotinumOverload which will destroy the universe.]]
* ExpertConsultant: Patty Perkins works as a "supervillain consultant", anindependant indepenent contractor helping "wealthy idiot" mastermind put their operations together, whether it's designing logos and uniforms for their henchmen, to designing death traps and {{Death Ray}}s.
* ExpertConsultant: Patty Perkins works as a "supervillain consultant", an
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
* ApocalypseMaiden: The IncitingIncident of the book shows that various parties with access to precognition believe that Connie will destroy the universe in the near future, though no one knows how, when or why she accomplishes this. [[spoiler:In the third act, it's revealed that the Caretaker Mantle is a manifestation of The Key's pure entropic energy, and that by thwarting disaster and saving lives, the Caretaker has been absorbing and accumulating all of that entropy. After countless generations of heroics absorbing all of that unused destructive potential, Connie absorbing it from Hiro has caused it to reach critical mass, all that destructive potential ready to go off [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 and take the multiverse down with it]]]].
to:
* ApocalypseMaiden: The IncitingIncident of the book shows that various parties with access to precognition believe that Connie will destroy the universe in the near future, though no one knows how, when or why she accomplishes this. [[spoiler:In the third act, it's revealed that the Caretaker Mantle is a manifestation of The Key's pure entropic energy, and that by thwarting disaster and saving lives, the Caretaker has been absorbing and accumulating all of that entropy. After countless generations of heroics absorbing all of that unused destructive potential, Connie absorbing it from Hiro has caused it to reach critical mass, all that destructive potential ready to go off [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX4 and take the multiverse universe down with it]]]].
Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", [[ThePowerOfTheVoid its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe]], the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects.
to:
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", [[ThePowerOfTheVoid its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe]], the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects. [[spoiler:It's revealed that the device itself is nothing more than a LeakingCanOfEvil created in a vein attempt at containing it, The Key itself a remnant of oblivion before the universe spreading pure entropy.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* ApocalypseMaiden: The IncitingIncident of the book shows that various parties with access to precognition believe that Connie will destroy the universe in the near future, though no one knows how, when or why she accomplishes this. [[spoiler:In the third act, it's revealed that the Caretaker Mantle is a manifestation of The Key's pure entropic energy, and that by thwarting disaster and saving lives, the Caretaker has been absorbing and accumulating all of that entropy. After countless generations of heroics absorbing all of that unused destructive potential, Connie absorbing it from Hiro has caused it to reach critical mass, all that destructive potential ready to go off [[ApocalypseHow/ClassX5 and take the multiverse down with it]]]].
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
* ManOfKryptonite: [[spoiler: Because the caretaker destiny is the diametric opposite of The Key, those who possess it (Connie, Tia and Byron) are immune to The Key's malignant effects. They only manage to get Hiro, who becomes The Key's host, to Patty's facility without the output of energy destroying everything around them thanks to Tia's constant physical contact.]]
to:
* ManOfKryptonite: [[spoiler: Because the caretaker destiny is the diametric opposite [[spoiler:itself a manifestation of The Key, Key's entropic energy]], those who possess it (Connie, Tia and Byron) are immune to The Key's malignant effects. They only manage to get Hiro, who becomes The Key's host, to Patty's facility without the output of energy destroying everything around them thanks to Tia's constant physical contact.]]
Added DiffLines:
* PowerOfTheVoid: The Key is a force of pure entropy that manifested naturally in the dawn of the universe (and possibly before that), indiscriminantly wiping out entire galaxies before a [[LizardFolk reptilian]] race of {{Precursors}} found and contained it. Well, [[LeakingCanOfEvil barely contained it]], bits of entropic energy gathering [[spoiler:and eventually manifesting as the Caretaker Destiny]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TheCameo: In chapter 22, Agent Lucas Harrison (who's been absent since the first book), Larry Peril and Apollonia make an appearance, having run-ins with Connie [[spoiler:after her merging with The Key fragments her across reality]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* ChekhovsGun: Shia gives Connie the Strand of Hemsut, a bracelet that makes her invisible to those who can read fate, in order to keep the attempts on her life to a minimum while she sorts it all out. [[spoiler:She then takes it off when Patty attempts to kill Hiro, resulting in the assassination attempts coming full-force, breaching containment of the facility as a distraction.]]
* ManOfKryptonite: [[spoiler: Because the caretaker destiny is the diametric opposite of The Key, those who possess it (Connie, Tia and Byron) are immune to The Key's malignant effects. They only manage to get Hiro, who becomes The Key's host, to Patty's facility without the output of energy destroying everything around them thanks to Tia's constant physical contact.]]
* SetAMookToKillAMook: [[spoiler:Having cloaked herself from fate's eyes on her with the Strand of Hemsut, she takes it off when it becomes apparent that Pattty plans on killing Hiro, causing all of the assassins who think she's an ApocalypseMaiden to show up and clear out Patty's goons in an attempt to get to her and using the chaos as a distraction to get Hiro away from there.]]
Changed line(s) 52 (click to see context) from:
* StupidEvil: Like so many other self-proclaimed evil masterminds, Ajaw Cassowary fits this too a tee. We're officially introduced to him having his lackeys try to destroy The Key's container with the intent on absorbing its entropic power into himself, killing one of them with his bare hands when he insists that they should runs some tests for the danger first. The resulting explosion destorys his castle and The Key's power (which bonds itself to Hiro) destroys him.
to:
* StupidEvil: Like so many other self-proclaimed evil masterminds, Ajaw Cassowary fits this too a tee. We're officially introduced to him having his lackeys try to destroy The Key's container with the intent on absorbing its entropic power into himself, killing one of them with his bare hands when he insists that they should runs some tests for the danger first. The [[spoiler:The resulting explosion destorys destroys his castle and The Key's power (which bonds itself to Hiro) destroys him.him]].
Added DiffLines:
* ToxicPhlebotinum: Being a semi-physical force of cosmic entropy, The Key's powers has an inherently destructive effect on those exposed to it. [[spoiler:When Hiro become its vessel, it slowly kills him, nothing but his "ninjaly" willpower keeping it from destroying him immediately, and every car they take to get him to Patty Perkins' headquarters suffers from some type of catastrophic meltdown. When Patty's men try extracting it, [[BrownNote gazing upon it directly causing most of her men to go mad]].]] The only ones who are immune to its effects are Connie, Tia and Byron by virtue of possessing the Caretaker Destiny.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* AGodAmI: Ajaw Cassowary believes himself so superior from others that he likens himself to a God, a delusion he attempts to make real by absorbing The Key's cosmic power into himself.
Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe, the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects.
to:
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", [[ThePowerOfTheVoid its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe, universe]], the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects. effects.
* BadBoss: Ajaw Cassowary's EstablishingCharacterMoment opens with him breaking one of his scientists' neck with his bare hands for "stifling [his] greatness" by suggesting that using [[ArtifactOfDoom The Key]] without testing it first.
* BadBoss: Ajaw Cassowary's EstablishingCharacterMoment opens with him breaking one of his scientists' neck with his bare hands for "stifling [his] greatness" by suggesting that using [[ArtifactOfDoom The Key]] without testing it first.
Added DiffLines:
* StupidEvil: Like so many other self-proclaimed evil masterminds, Ajaw Cassowary fits this too a tee. We're officially introduced to him having his lackeys try to destroy The Key's container with the intent on absorbing its entropic power into himself, killing one of them with his bare hands when he insists that they should runs some tests for the danger first. The resulting explosion destorys his castle and The Key's power (which bonds itself to Hiro) destroys him.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
** Connie's intense hatred of Kansas is brought up again, though she admits she has no love for Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma and Missouri either because they're the states that surround Kansas.
Added DiffLines:
* TotallyNotACriminalFront: Ajaw Cassowary's SupervillainLair happens to be a conspicuous castle in the middle of Nebraska.
--> '''Connie:''' Masterminds. Most can't help themselves.
--> '''Connie:''' Masterminds. Most can't help themselves.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
** It's mentioned more than once that Tia and Byron had inherited a fraction of Connie's caretaker destiny in the climax of ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''.
* ExpertConsultant: Patty Perkins works as a "supervillain consultant", an independant contractor helping "wealthy idiot" mastermind put their operations together, whether it's designing logos and uniforms for their henchmen, to designing death traps and {{Death Ray}}s.
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: At some point between this book and [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]], Connie had picked up Chestnut the Wonder Dog, a dog that was trained to steal and infiltrate.
to:
* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: At some point between this book and [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]], Connie had picked up Chestnut the Wonder Dog, a dog that was trained to steal and infiltrate. He was apparently trained by a larcenous animal trainer that worked for a PerformerGuise group called the Circus of Crime.
Added DiffLines:
* IMinoredInTropology: Patty Perkins claims to have minored in child psychology, something she managed to use to great effect to "sooth more than a few egos" whenever one of her [[PsychopathicManchild supervillain clients]] comes to her to complain.
Added DiffLines:
* PunchClockVillain: Patty Perkins herself isn't an evil mastermind, but more of a "supervillain enabler" (as Byron describes her), making a living helping wannabe masterminds become a genuine threat to world peace. She doesn't even mind Connie constantly thwarting their plans all that much, seeing her as beneficial to an industry that would crumble if any of her clients actually succeeded in their endeavors.
--> '''Patty:''' A megalomaniac spends millions building a criminal empire only to have someone like Connie waltz in and bring the whole thing crashing down. If that megalomaniac survives, they often come back to me with renewed ambitions. If they perish, there's always someone else eager to fill the void. Connie and her heroics are great for my bottom line. I'm the very best in my field, but it's a speciality that wouldn't be much use if any of my clients actually succeeded.
--> '''Patty:''' A megalomaniac spends millions building a criminal empire only to have someone like Connie waltz in and bring the whole thing crashing down. If that megalomaniac survives, they often come back to me with renewed ambitions. If they perish, there's always someone else eager to fill the void. Connie and her heroics are great for my bottom line. I'm the very best in my field, but it's a speciality that wouldn't be much use if any of my clients actually succeeded.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:987:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/714_rypujhl_sl1500.jpg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:987:some caption text]]
Her friends are getting married and Constance Verity -- savior of the universe several times over -- is considering doing the same with her long-term bo Byron. Unfortunately, the constant adventures that permeate her destiny have taken a dark turn and now everyone is out to kill her, convinced that her continued existence will lead to the sudden end of the universe.
''Constance Verity Destroys the Universe'' is the thirteenth novel written by Creator/ALeeMartinez published in 2022, and the third and final installment in the ''Literature/ConstanceVerity'' trilogy after ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'' and ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''.
----
!! ''Constance Verity Destroys the Universe'' contains the following tropes:
* AIIsACrapshoot:
** PlayedForLaughs. Doctor Malady expresses that he regrets programming his robot wife Automatica with free-will when she helps Connie keep Malady from falling back into his super-villainous ways.
** PlayedForDrama when any computer system that tries encoding Malady's entropy tracking-device goes crazy and tries to kill Connie, seeing her inherent link to The Key and its entropic effect on the universe.
* ApocalypseCult: In the first chapter, a scientist working on a deadly virus is discovered poisoned in a restaurant and Connie deduces that it was the work of a {{Cult}} that believed that the MayanDoomsday was meant to happen, didn't, and now they're out to course-correct as a terrorist organization.
* ArtifactOfAttraction: The book starts with aliens asking Connie to look after the glurbakashah, an EvilWeapon that's the cause of an interstellar war. It takes the form of a blade that she is physically unable to put down as it whispers promises of glory and conquest atop a throne of skulls into her mind. Having dealt with [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] all her life, Connie having been established to be ImmuneToMindControl in [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]] and her having SeenItAll, she barely acknowledges its negative qualities when it becomes apparent to her. The only way to alleviate these symptoms is with a blood offering, one she manages to provide in a DuelToTheDeath with a GalacticConqueror that came to take it for himself.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe, the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects.
* BenevolentAbomination: On one adventure, Tia and Connie encountered an EldritchAbomination named Zyrothruactholhar the Recondite. He's apparently a real down-to-earth guy for a god-emperor.
* CallBack:
** When Connie comes to Tia's pre-wedding party, all of Tia's other friends are noticeably wary of Connie considering she had to beat them all up when they were possessed by the evil roquefort in ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''.
** Tia's first wedding -- the one where mobsters crashed it -- was mentioned in ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'' and is brought up again here. While Tia is fine with it, Zoey still blames Connie by association.
** Connie's honorable epitaph to Yars mentions "The Hungry Earth", the name of the EldritchAbomination present at the beginning of the first book.
* ChessWithDeath: Connie once played a game of chess with a Mountain God to keep it from sinking all of Asia into the ocean.
* CounterpartArtifacts: It's revealed that The Great Engine was designed as a counter to The Key, having been built to inhibit its entropy-accelerating effects on existence itself.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Any computer Malady puts to the task of creating a device to find The Key sees something in the calculation that turns it into a MurderousMalfunctioningMachine with a single-minded obsession with killing Constance Verity. His robotic wife Automata goes into kill bot mode and deactivates her own off-switch, while one of the computers Malady tried putting to the task jury-rigged itself a [=WiFi=] connection and tried launching missiles in her general location. Malady deduces that because The Key is the ultimate source of entropy and the Caretaker Mantle is the ultimate source of negentropy (the diametric opposite of entropy), them colliding would be so incomprehensibly disastrous that [[LogicBomb the AI's inability to comprehend it drives it mad]]. This is also implied to have an effect on prophets and seers, resulting in various agents being sent to kill Connie under the presumption that she will destroy the universe.
* GrandfatherParadox: According to Doctor Malady, Archimedes Lovelace accidentally killed his own father using his time-machine, Malady's temporal anomaly field generator being the only thing keeping him from being erased from the timeline because of it.
* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: At some point between this book and [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]], Connie had picked up Chestnut the Wonder Dog, a dog that was trained to steal and infiltrate.
* HandyMan: Les Newsmith runs a home-repair business that Connie has on speed-dial to fix the apartment whenever someone or something wrecks it. Not only does he do quality work, but he's a laid-back kind of guy that doesn't give her hell for the steady workload. It also helps that his services came with complementary lollipops.
* HardboiledDetective: Among many of the unusual people living in Connie's apartment complex is Azalea Slate, a hardboiled PI who's accumulated a lot of enemies in the criminal underworld.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Connie fakes getting a text message from the CIA to get out of an awkward conversation with Tia's mom over Hiro.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: Not having gone without something weird or suspicious happen within the span of a few hours, it becomes rather worrying when days pass by without a call, text or {{Random Encounter|s}} whisking Connie away on some grand adventure.
* ItsThePrincipleOfTheThing: Hiro admits that a part of him resents Byron because he feels a sting to his pride that Connie ultimately chose Byron over him. He's in a loving relationship (and new marriage) with Tia and he knows that he and Connie would never have worked out, but being a self-admitted narcissist, he feels cheated that someone as ordinary as Byron would out-do him on this one thing.
* KiManipulation: There are forms of chi manipulation that can be used to disperse ectoplasm on contact. To put it simply, Connie can literally punch ghosts, an ability she demonstrates when The Guardian -- who is nothing more than a ghost itself after its temple was destroyed -- gets uppity.
* KungFuWizard: While Hiro's ninja skills seem to be all stealth, his sister Sayuri on the other hand knows magic, being able to transform into smoke, redirect lightning with her sword and even offers to turn Tia's mother into a cat as a favor to Connie.
* TheMeaningOfLife: Not only does Connie know the meaning of life (or 90% of it, at least), but apparently it isn't as interesting as you would think it is. Simply telling The Guardian counts as fulfilling its UnfinishedBusiness and allows them to move on into the afterlife.
* MissingTheGoodStuff: It has become a habit for Byron to go off momentarily, only for something to happen with Connie and resolve itself by the time he comes back none the wiser. On a supposedly quiet day, Connie and Tia had to deal with harpies while he was at the bathroom. Later that day, she had to prevent an AlienInvasion remotely while he was getting them churros. More recently, Connie just barely avoided having to deal with an art thief scoping out an art gallery in disguise.
* MundaneUtility: Connie and Tia enlist Doctor Malady's WeatherControlMachine to ensure perfect weather for Tia's wedding.
* MythologyGag: Having encountered a lot of divine enemies, Connie keeps a [[Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest god-killing axe]] on-hand.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: While Connie and Byron were at Tia's wedding, Chestnut the Wonder Dog (who, aside from being smarter than the average pooch, is just a regular dog) somehow managed to beat and hogtie a commando sent to kill her.
* ParentsAsPeople: Tia's mother Zoey disapproves of her friendship with Connie, seeing her as a bad influence and the role of sidekick being no place for a grown woman. She even admits that she and her husband tried to keep the two of them apart for her own good, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive only for the caretaker destiny to involve Tia anyway]]. Though the trope can be Zig-Zagged by the [[FantasticallyIndifferent Fantastic Indifference]] common with {{muggles}} in the series, Zoey treating the adventures the two going on as no more worrying than shenanigans any other child goes through.
* PrecrimeArrest: The Invisible Scythe are an assassination agency that employs seers and other psychics to locate people who will eventually endanger the world and then sends someone to kill them. Naturally, they send a sniper to kill Connie, only for Duke Warlock to incapacitate him.
* ResolvedNoodleIncident: In ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'', it was mentioned that mobsters had crashed Tia's first wedding. Here further details are given; they had crashed the reception, not the ceremony, and they were after one of the waiters who was in WitnessProtection. Granted, Connie's caretaker destiny [[WeirdnessMagnet made something crazy happening inevitable]], but Tia doesn't blame her for it.
* ShoutOut: Agent Ellington calls the [[EvilWeapon cursed blade]] Connie has in the first chapter a [[Franchise/StarTrek bat'leth]].
* TheSingularity: Doctor Malady admits that Automata's learning code has become so complex, even he doesn't know how it works anymore.
* StickyFingers: Having been trained to steal things, Chestnut the Wonder Dog is a master of pick-pocketing and running off with valuables despite being an otherwise normal dog. Connie has been trying to wean him off of this since adopting him.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In the first chapter, Ellington asks what "that smell" is (ox, raw fish and general B.O. from Connie's latest adventure), Connie merely answers "destiny." An investigation and brief car-chase later, Connie makes it to a gathering with Tia, Hiro, Byron and their families and Tia remarks that she "smells like destiny."
* SwappedRoles: At the beginning of ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld'', Connie calls Agent Ellington to ask for a cleanup involving an alligator woman in her apartment, only for Ellington to [[WhatHaveYouDoneForMeLately dismiss the favor owed]]. ''Destroy the Universe'' opens with Ellington calling Connie over matters of international importance, citing their agency cleaning up after her adventures as Connie owing them a favor, only for Connie to brush her off.
* VampiresHarem: Parodied. Duke Warlock, the vampire that lives in Connie's apartment, has six ex-wives that he has to deal with and has given up UnholyMatrimony for the foreseeable future. When he needs "comfort", it usually involves brief flings with modern goth girl vampires.
----
%%[[caption-width-right:987:some caption text]]
Her friends are getting married and Constance Verity -- savior of the universe several times over -- is considering doing the same with her long-term bo Byron. Unfortunately, the constant adventures that permeate her destiny have taken a dark turn and now everyone is out to kill her, convinced that her continued existence will lead to the sudden end of the universe.
''Constance Verity Destroys the Universe'' is the thirteenth novel written by Creator/ALeeMartinez published in 2022, and the third and final installment in the ''Literature/ConstanceVerity'' trilogy after ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'' and ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''.
----
!! ''Constance Verity Destroys the Universe'' contains the following tropes:
* AIIsACrapshoot:
** PlayedForLaughs. Doctor Malady expresses that he regrets programming his robot wife Automatica with free-will when she helps Connie keep Malady from falling back into his super-villainous ways.
** PlayedForDrama when any computer system that tries encoding Malady's entropy tracking-device goes crazy and tries to kill Connie, seeing her inherent link to The Key and its entropic effect on the universe.
* ApocalypseCult: In the first chapter, a scientist working on a deadly virus is discovered poisoned in a restaurant and Connie deduces that it was the work of a {{Cult}} that believed that the MayanDoomsday was meant to happen, didn't, and now they're out to course-correct as a terrorist organization.
* ArtifactOfAttraction: The book starts with aliens asking Connie to look after the glurbakashah, an EvilWeapon that's the cause of an interstellar war. It takes the form of a blade that she is physically unable to put down as it whispers promises of glory and conquest atop a throne of skulls into her mind. Having dealt with [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] all her life, Connie having been established to be ImmuneToMindControl in [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]] and her having SeenItAll, she barely acknowledges its negative qualities when it becomes apparent to her. The only way to alleviate these symptoms is with a blood offering, one she manages to provide in a DuelToTheDeath with a GalacticConqueror that came to take it for himself.
* ArtifactOfDoom: The Key is an ancient device that predates the universe that acts as an "entropy amplifier", its existence slowly but surely destroying the universe, the Great Engine having been created with the express purpose of redirecting and inhibiting its effects.
* BenevolentAbomination: On one adventure, Tia and Connie encountered an EldritchAbomination named Zyrothruactholhar the Recondite. He's apparently a real down-to-earth guy for a god-emperor.
* CallBack:
** When Connie comes to Tia's pre-wedding party, all of Tia's other friends are noticeably wary of Connie considering she had to beat them all up when they were possessed by the evil roquefort in ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld''.
** Tia's first wedding -- the one where mobsters crashed it -- was mentioned in ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'' and is brought up again here. While Tia is fine with it, Zoey still blames Connie by association.
** Connie's honorable epitaph to Yars mentions "The Hungry Earth", the name of the EldritchAbomination present at the beginning of the first book.
* ChessWithDeath: Connie once played a game of chess with a Mountain God to keep it from sinking all of Asia into the ocean.
* CounterpartArtifacts: It's revealed that The Great Engine was designed as a counter to The Key, having been built to inhibit its entropy-accelerating effects on existence itself.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Any computer Malady puts to the task of creating a device to find The Key sees something in the calculation that turns it into a MurderousMalfunctioningMachine with a single-minded obsession with killing Constance Verity. His robotic wife Automata goes into kill bot mode and deactivates her own off-switch, while one of the computers Malady tried putting to the task jury-rigged itself a [=WiFi=] connection and tried launching missiles in her general location. Malady deduces that because The Key is the ultimate source of entropy and the Caretaker Mantle is the ultimate source of negentropy (the diametric opposite of entropy), them colliding would be so incomprehensibly disastrous that [[LogicBomb the AI's inability to comprehend it drives it mad]]. This is also implied to have an effect on prophets and seers, resulting in various agents being sent to kill Connie under the presumption that she will destroy the universe.
* GrandfatherParadox: According to Doctor Malady, Archimedes Lovelace accidentally killed his own father using his time-machine, Malady's temporal anomaly field generator being the only thing keeping him from being erased from the timeline because of it.
* GratuitousAnimalSidekick: At some point between this book and [[Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld the last book]], Connie had picked up Chestnut the Wonder Dog, a dog that was trained to steal and infiltrate.
* HandyMan: Les Newsmith runs a home-repair business that Connie has on speed-dial to fix the apartment whenever someone or something wrecks it. Not only does he do quality work, but he's a laid-back kind of guy that doesn't give her hell for the steady workload. It also helps that his services came with complementary lollipops.
* HardboiledDetective: Among many of the unusual people living in Connie's apartment complex is Azalea Slate, a hardboiled PI who's accumulated a lot of enemies in the criminal underworld.
* INeedToGoIronMyDog: Connie fakes getting a text message from the CIA to get out of an awkward conversation with Tia's mom over Hiro.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: Not having gone without something weird or suspicious happen within the span of a few hours, it becomes rather worrying when days pass by without a call, text or {{Random Encounter|s}} whisking Connie away on some grand adventure.
* ItsThePrincipleOfTheThing: Hiro admits that a part of him resents Byron because he feels a sting to his pride that Connie ultimately chose Byron over him. He's in a loving relationship (and new marriage) with Tia and he knows that he and Connie would never have worked out, but being a self-admitted narcissist, he feels cheated that someone as ordinary as Byron would out-do him on this one thing.
* KiManipulation: There are forms of chi manipulation that can be used to disperse ectoplasm on contact. To put it simply, Connie can literally punch ghosts, an ability she demonstrates when The Guardian -- who is nothing more than a ghost itself after its temple was destroyed -- gets uppity.
* KungFuWizard: While Hiro's ninja skills seem to be all stealth, his sister Sayuri on the other hand knows magic, being able to transform into smoke, redirect lightning with her sword and even offers to turn Tia's mother into a cat as a favor to Connie.
* TheMeaningOfLife: Not only does Connie know the meaning of life (or 90% of it, at least), but apparently it isn't as interesting as you would think it is. Simply telling The Guardian counts as fulfilling its UnfinishedBusiness and allows them to move on into the afterlife.
* MissingTheGoodStuff: It has become a habit for Byron to go off momentarily, only for something to happen with Connie and resolve itself by the time he comes back none the wiser. On a supposedly quiet day, Connie and Tia had to deal with harpies while he was at the bathroom. Later that day, she had to prevent an AlienInvasion remotely while he was getting them churros. More recently, Connie just barely avoided having to deal with an art thief scoping out an art gallery in disguise.
* MundaneUtility: Connie and Tia enlist Doctor Malady's WeatherControlMachine to ensure perfect weather for Tia's wedding.
* MythologyGag: Having encountered a lot of divine enemies, Connie keeps a [[Literature/HelenAndTroysEpicRoadQuest god-killing axe]] on-hand.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: While Connie and Byron were at Tia's wedding, Chestnut the Wonder Dog (who, aside from being smarter than the average pooch, is just a regular dog) somehow managed to beat and hogtie a commando sent to kill her.
* ParentsAsPeople: Tia's mother Zoey disapproves of her friendship with Connie, seeing her as a bad influence and the role of sidekick being no place for a grown woman. She even admits that she and her husband tried to keep the two of them apart for her own good, [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive only for the caretaker destiny to involve Tia anyway]]. Though the trope can be Zig-Zagged by the [[FantasticallyIndifferent Fantastic Indifference]] common with {{muggles}} in the series, Zoey treating the adventures the two going on as no more worrying than shenanigans any other child goes through.
* PrecrimeArrest: The Invisible Scythe are an assassination agency that employs seers and other psychics to locate people who will eventually endanger the world and then sends someone to kill them. Naturally, they send a sniper to kill Connie, only for Duke Warlock to incapacitate him.
* ResolvedNoodleIncident: In ''Literature/TheLastAdventureOfConstanceVerity'', it was mentioned that mobsters had crashed Tia's first wedding. Here further details are given; they had crashed the reception, not the ceremony, and they were after one of the waiters who was in WitnessProtection. Granted, Connie's caretaker destiny [[WeirdnessMagnet made something crazy happening inevitable]], but Tia doesn't blame her for it.
* ShoutOut: Agent Ellington calls the [[EvilWeapon cursed blade]] Connie has in the first chapter a [[Franchise/StarTrek bat'leth]].
* TheSingularity: Doctor Malady admits that Automata's learning code has become so complex, even he doesn't know how it works anymore.
* StickyFingers: Having been trained to steal things, Chestnut the Wonder Dog is a master of pick-pocketing and running off with valuables despite being an otherwise normal dog. Connie has been trying to wean him off of this since adopting him.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In the first chapter, Ellington asks what "that smell" is (ox, raw fish and general B.O. from Connie's latest adventure), Connie merely answers "destiny." An investigation and brief car-chase later, Connie makes it to a gathering with Tia, Hiro, Byron and their families and Tia remarks that she "smells like destiny."
* SwappedRoles: At the beginning of ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld'', Connie calls Agent Ellington to ask for a cleanup involving an alligator woman in her apartment, only for Ellington to [[WhatHaveYouDoneForMeLately dismiss the favor owed]]. ''Destroy the Universe'' opens with Ellington calling Connie over matters of international importance, citing their agency cleaning up after her adventures as Connie owing them a favor, only for Connie to brush her off.
* VampiresHarem: Parodied. Duke Warlock, the vampire that lives in Connie's apartment, has six ex-wives that he has to deal with and has given up UnholyMatrimony for the foreseeable future. When he needs "comfort", it usually involves brief flings with modern goth girl vampires.
----
