Another day another chapter. I don't have much else to do while waiting on the new job but once that happens I promise to write weekly if not with more content on a monthly basis. Right now I'm kind of on a runners high only in this case it involves writing.
To XaiGRS: I'm so happy you like the sweet parts but brace yourself this chapter is a little bit sad. And don't worry I will focus on myself too in the upcoming days but right now I have allot of free time on my hands until the company is done processing the backround check and drug test. Right now I really feel like writing, I'm not forcing myself and I'm touched you are worried about me. For now I will keep enjoying the writing high.
With that being said enjoy the chapter guys and I will see you in the next one!
Rudeus looked at the woman, caution was clearly written all over his face. He was crouched mid-way to the ground with a rock bullet at the ready and he was prepared to flee should that option be required for his survival.
Whoever she was it was clear she was powerful. Energy practically oozed off of her, most of the energy seemed to be centered around her pinky finger which looked to be cut short and was covered by a small metal thimble.
She on the other hand looked absolutely bored if not a little annoyed that the boy would dare fight her.
She tried to speak in English again but Rudeus was nowhere near fluent enough in understanding it.
"Do you speak Japanese?" Rudeus asked in slightly sloppy English.
"Yes I can speak it." She said, the pronunciation was perfect and everything. "I was saying I don't like fighting boy but I don't think opposing me is your best option. You are a hostage right now even though you don't realize it. I could just leave you in this world and you would be the loneliest person in existence."
"What do you mean by that?" Rudeus asked, still on guard.
"Look around the city and wherever else you wish to find out." She responded. "Either way when you want to talk again I will be in the castle hall that you spent your time getting dance lessons in." With a flash she was gone, like she was never there in the first place and Rudeus was allowed to explore.
The sky was the same, it was the same cool fall day if not a little darker and breezier than before. It felt creepy to Rudeus as if his bare skin was exposed to the elements while he remained completely defenseless.
He chose to go back to the marketplace and found everything was torn apart and ransacked, like a mob raided the place tearing it down. Tents, wooden crates, and completely decomposed food was all over the cobblestone making it difficult for anyone walking to traverse safely. Rudeus chose to float slowly above the ground since it seemed like there was no one there.
As he continued to explore he got more and more worried.
"Eris! Ghislaine!" Rudeus would shout out but nothing responded, only utter silence. No bird chirped and no voice was heard. Rudeus went down into the sewers but had to rush back into the streets at the sight in the sewer. Hundreds of bones lined the sewer, mothers cradling their children, baby bones grasping for life, fathers collapsed onto the ground pounding the earth with the last ounce of will they had to curse the world. It was clear something terrible happened.
Rudeus built up his strength and cut off his emotions, breathing in and out slowly to calm himself. He had to confirm something in the sewers before he continued his search. He surrounded himself with a sphere of pure air to keep himself from catching any diseases from the rotting bones if there was anything to catch.
He found what he was looking for in the tunnels, and it was absolutely nothing. More specifically it was where he stored the teleportation circle that linked him to the other major cities of the world. Rudeus then expanded his aura and didn't find Hollow where he left him back in the mountain near his home village. He continued to expand the radius wrapping around the entire planet but still Hollow didn't form a connection with him, the creature just stopped existing.
Rudeus flew into the castle, searching room to room while excluding the castle hall as to avoid the strange woman that summoned him here until he could find some answers.
The last room was Eris's bedroom. Rudeus took a deep breath and prepared himself for anything. When he opened the door it made an eerie sound like it hadn't been opened in years.
What Rudeus saw he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life. Three adults, two were male and the other was female based on the clothes that hung on their rotting skeletons. There was a fourth skeleton that was being held together by the other three skeletons, it was a child and Rudeus recognized the hair that had fallen to the ground at the feet of the child, it was a bright blood red like ruby sunlight. The corpse was Eris as she was being held by her family.
Rudeus trembled. He thought of this possibility based on the corpses that lined the sewers but he didn't want to accept it until he saw it with his own eyes. Walking slowly forward tears began to stream down his cheeks without restraint. He cupped the cheek of the corpse as the skull leaned forward almost toppling in front of Rudeus. He leaned the head back to balance the skeleton, keeping it from falling on the ground.
'Sylphy!' At this point the boy's sanity was slowly braking. He didn't want to see the women he loved die. He didn't want to lose them like how his future diary showed.
He shot out of the castle a sonic boom following behind him. Rudeus was pushing the surrounding air in front of him out of the way while increasing the density behind his jet stream to add to his speed. He didn't care about the damage his body could receive if he wasn't careful with this he needed to know what was going on.
As he went he saw hundreds of mass graves that were dug along the surface of the ground near the city of Roa, the corpses were like fields of wheat.
Soon he reached Buena village and landed at Sylphy's home. There he saw that it wasn't the same house he was used to seeing, this one was without windows or an extra room for Sylphy. He rushed inside and found it was the same image as Eris's family. Sylphy was being held by her parents as they lay together on the floor. They were just bones. It was clear their last moments spent together were ones where they were trying to comfort each other.
Rudeus needed answers now. He flew to his home, the Greyrat household where he burst through the front door.
"Father! Mother! Lilia!" He screamed. Rushing upstairs he saw Paul and Zenith cradling the bones of a baby in their arms and when he inspected Lilia's room he didn't find anything. He ran outside and to his horror found a half dug grave in the backyard where she was trying to bury a small coffin, Aisha's coffin. But Lilia had died before she could continue the burial and she had fallen forward into the shallow, half dug grave for her own daughter. This was a nightmare.
Rudeus collapsed onto the ground, the only thing left alive were foliage like grass and trees, everything else was dead. He clasped his heart and he screamed up into the sky. His rage responded in kind as the wind began to blow, his anger and pain fueling the hurricane as the wind ripped apart the ground along with the trees and anything else that wasn't in the eye of the storm. In the center of the eye was Rudeus and his home as he continued to cry.
A full hour passed while the store raged on as he lay on the grass weeping, collapsed, completely lost and devoid of any happiness.
The boy then looked back at the house. He had to find the answer as to why this happened. He then walked inside and found a book laying down on the kitchen table along with several glass beakers that hadn't looked like it had been touched for years. The book was titled "Research notes on Plague." Witten by Zenith, she was working in collaboration with the villages doctor to try to come up with a cure or slow the disease Rudeus figured, it made sense considering her knowledge of healing and detoxification magic and she would do all she could in order to help out those in need.
Rudeus hesitantly opened it up and found the notes explaining the symptoms, and her trials to either hinder the speed of the disease or cure it. All failures. Based on her explanation, they were the exact same symptoms that the Superd race had suffered leading them to extinction in many of Orsted's past timelines. This however was a worst case scenario where it didn't just affect to the Superd race but every race as well.
It was a planet destroying plague which the people, including Zenith, figured out all too late that the disease was air born and transferred quickly from person to person.
The notes further went to explain that four years ago everyone had a common cold over the course of three months in the Asuran kingdom, from what was heard the demon continent also experienced the cold and every other neighboring continent. Everyone marked it off as just a common cold and those with detoxification magic cured all the symptoms. But then two years ago people started to get severely sick, most were rendered unable to work and the ones that were able to move either looted what they could to survive or tried to study the disease while burying the infected that had already died.
It took only one month for the disease to wipe out ninety percent of the population and after a few more days the world itself seemed to grasp that there was no hope left at life, the ones that were still alive remained close to their families.
Rudeus understood the disease, and wished he could have arrived five years before this had even happened to find the cause and remove it. But he understood that the plague was one of the worst kinds, lying dormant within everyone until it evolved into something deadly. The perfect silent assassin.
However for his own safety Rudeus didn't need to worry about catching the Virus. There was no food left for the virus to feed on and after years of there being no fuel supply the disease most likely died off. Rudeus also realized what the woman meant when she was bringing him here as a hostage, she put him in a position where she made the entire world his prison and it would most likely take him a lifetime to find a way to teleport back to the world he came from, Perugius's library would be the best resource to get back home.
The boy shook his head, he was planning for the worst case scenario under the belief that he would be left behind in this baron, empty hell.
One thing was sure, she had allot explaining to do.
Rudeus shot back to Roa with another sonic boom. Once he made it to the mansion he burst through the front doors and went into the great hall to find the woman sitting on one of chairs. She was reading a magazine, leaning against the table while sipping a glass of wine with a French wine bottle not too far from her. A steaming plate of fresh French baguette with assorted cheeses were also on the table.
"Oh, you chose to come. Please, have a seat." She said calmly gesturing at the seat opposing the other side of the table.
Despite Rudeus not opposing her request he chose to be rude. He was beyond pissed off at her for putting him in this hell. He dragged the chair slowly making it screech against the stone.
She looked up at him out of the corner of her eyes not bothering to tell him to stop.
"Apologize." Rudeus seethed between his gritted teeth. "Apologize for showing me this hell."
"No. I did this so I wouldn't have to fight you, I'm putting you in a position where you have no choice but to listen to me, now stop acting like a child and sit down." She said, a little irritated at the immaturity of the boy in front of her. She took another sip of her wine as she flipped through the magazine some more.
Then something clicked to Rudeus and he smirked, maybe it was his anger that was clouding his judgement but he wanted to get under the woman's skin a little bit.
"No." Rudeus said, his voice was calm and cold, no longer trembling from his rage.
"Excuse me?" She said cocking her eye at him, putting the paper down.
"I said no. Kidnapping is an act of violence, it's cruel and you are turning the entire world into your prison as the warden. You say you hate fighting but you clearly don't hate violence, you put me in this hell."
She paused for a moment, maybe Rudeus touched a few strings there too, maybe something from her personal experience as if she had been kidnapped as well in her past. Either way it was clear his words were felt by her.
"You have one minute to explain yourself, otherwise I'm walking out." The boy continued. This was a huge gamble but Rudeus now had some leverage over her. "From the looks of it you went through allot of trouble just to kidnap me, and yet you said you can leave me here at any time you wish. All that work for nothing? Seems like a damn huge waste of time." He smirked.
She bit her lip a little bit. After a moment she looked softly at the boy breathing out a sad sigh of defeat. "You got me in a box here."
"AHA!" Rudeus shouted pumping his chest in victory. It felt good to get back at this bitch.
"I will need more than one minute to explain myself though." She took a sip of wine like she was trying to loosen up a little bit.
"Fine. What do you want?" Rudeus chose to give some compromise dropping the cold hard businessman attitude. "But I won't stop acting like a child when I have seen the corpses of the women who I would marry and my family!" He spat out sitting down at the table.
"I can't blame you for being angry but I want you to listen to me and it's unlikely that you would have without trying to make countermeasures to defeat me unless I did this. My intention for coming here was because I came to warn you Rudeus." She put down the magazine and looked directly into his eyes.
"Warn me? From what?" His anger dulled a little bit because her logic was albeit flawless, he would have made countermeasures based on how he reacted to most opponents and since she had the option of the first move she chose the safest option to avoid fighting. She was brilliant as a tactician but sorely lacking on understanding people.
"First let me get introductions out of the way, my name is Elizabeth. I'm what you would call a traveler between worlds. I've been doing it for some time now. The person coming for you, he is also an interdimensional traveler."
"How did you get to me first instead of him." Rudeus asked getting straight to the point, interdimensional travelers were not much of a surprise ever since Infinity told him that there were an infinite number of universes with an infinite number of possibilities, it made sense that there were people that figured out how to travel between those universes.
"I have a better connection to the doors than he does. He, however is far more powerful than me. I can get here faster than him and I wanted to give you a heads up before he gets to your world which will be in about two years, he could get here allot faster but he is choosing to walk instead of run, probably not to frighten you. Normally I wouldn't mind helping him to get from point A to B allot faster but he is unbelievably stubborn in his crusade and insisted on doing this alone unless I help out directly in a fight which I refuse to do."
"The person in my dreams, the being walking towards me in that fog of stars. That's him, what is his name?"
"If I tell you his name you might know who he was in his past life and he would come after me for spoiling it for you. I will keep quiet on who he is but I do have some leniency to tell you what he will do to you if he finds out you are a dud. As for if you are a dud or not, I'm not sure."
"What do you mean if I'm a dud?" Rudeus was getting more and more confused.
"That would be spoiling it for you. I said what he will do to you if he finds out you are a dud. He found out I was a dud so I wanted to tell you what he did to me and most likely what he will do to you." She explained. The state of emotion she was in was calm, collected, but also full of foreboding as if the man she was talking about was an absolute monster of an individual.
"Alright then, explain what he did to you? Something cruel and torturous?"
"Something like that, he didn't hit me or physically hurt me but he is more for Psychological torture, he hates giving people physical pain as he just calls that being amateur to doing real damage. A persons body can heal and even when it can't things can be done to hide the damage, but destroying someone mentally, that will last with the person throughout their life." She responded as she casually took a bite out of the bread and cheeses on the table.
"And did he do that to you? Psychological torture." Rudeus leaned forward, like listening intently to a terrifyingly real ghost story.
She nodded sadly. "He put me on a plain of existence that was a composed of a sea containing the bodies of my dead father. His corpses floating on the blood-soaked waters. It was brief but it left quite the impression on me. After that point he just threw a temper tantrum and sent me to the beaches of Normandy during world war 2 on D day, while I was in shock he killed every Nazi and destroyed their defenses using his abilities, which I also wanted to warn you about."
This was allot to prepare for so far. If Rudeus was a dud would he be subject to the same images that this Elizabeth described? Possibly. And if this was the case then he had no idea as to how to mentally prepare himself for such horrors. He also understood her secondary reason for bringing him here was also to expose him to the horrors that might be in store for him. Back to the warning though, this mans abilities.
"He is originally from the six sided world, from a different timeline. And much like you he cannot naturally develop what he called a touki through battle aura. According to him it requires a more primitive level of thinking, so he developed and invented three artificial touki that are significantly more powerful to such an extent that no person could pose a threat to him. The third one he developed after he left the six sided world and he said he doesn't really use it for fighting, only using the first two. The first two he has told me about but he has so far not told me about the third, I haven't even seen him use it or explain it so there is not much I can tell you there."
At the very least Rudeus knew what was coming, so he continued to listen.
"Can I beat this person? Even knowing what you are about to tell me?" He asked.
She only responded by shaking her head. "I have seen him nose dive into a sun, a black hole, and the explosion of a cosmic egg which is literally the birth of a universe, a big bang. Every time he just appears a few days later completely fine and tells me about what he experiences, being burned to a crisp or stretched as thinly as an atom while going across the event horizon."
'How OP is this guy?' Rudeus thought terrified.
"The two touki's he has told me about are what he calls the transmission touki, and the immovable object touki."
"Can you expand on their abilities?" Rudeus inquired.
"Yes, the transmission touki he uses raw mana around him to form gears and cogs, if someone was to see the gears they would see hundreds of manual, automatic, and sequential transmissions that one would find in a car. However, the more mana he inputs into the gears the faster he can move an object or slow it down. The radius is one meter away from his body."
"I don't understand, how can he speed up or slow down a piece of physical matter?"
"Like I said he uses it through the transmission touki surrounding him. Let's say you have a car and your brakes don't work, a normal driver would freak out as they repeatedly press on the brakes with no result as they go down a road into oncoming traffic, an experienced driver would know the right thing to do would be to shift the gears down which makes the vehicle move more slowly but it has allot more torque when the gas is applied. It's all a matter of gear radios when it comes to a transmission. The simplest visual of a transmission is the gear ratio on a bicycle which is what he started with, later working his way up to the complex engineering of a vehicle transmission."
Rudeus understood a little from what she meant so far. In other words when he moved quickly there wasn't allot of torque behind the attack but the same amount of mass. Rudeus beforehand read the theories on what would happen if a needle was moving at the speed of light and it struck the earth. Some theories stated that the needle would simply cut through the earth and go out the other side, other theories stated that it would vaporize the atoms around it including it's own atoms creating an explosion like a nuclear bomb from a sewing needle. Meaning if this man chose to, he could adjust the gear ratio to make him punch at near the speed of light, it would take an unbelievably large amount of energy to perform a punch like that though.
And when this man moved slowly he could potentially pick up a mountain with little effort but he couldn't do it quickly. Using a gear ratio like 10:1 a person would output ten times as much torque than they originally put in, the downside is it would be ten times slower of a movement.
"How do I beat this touki?" Rudeus looked the woman straight into the eyes when he said this.
"That's simple, you use an attack that has a miniscule amount of mass but allot of energy. If you shoot a bullet at him then it will just slow down and look like it has stopped… well it will still be moving but it is moving so slowly it would take years before it could touch him. But if you shoot a particle at him then that's allot harder to slow down since he is just dividing the force, and mass is required for him to recognize the incoming object as a threat and use the artificial touki."
Rudeus nodded committing her words to memory, still it was allot to take in and it felt like his brain was about to burst. It was the same feeling he had when Orsted and him had their first and second meeting at which Orsted gave Rudeus several dump trucks of history and information to process.
"And the immovable object touki? That sounds kind of unstoppable?"
She smirked with a short laugh as if he had said something stupid. "Quite the opposite actually. Have you ever heard the theory as to what would happen if an unstoppable force met an immovable object?"
"Yes I have, but I haven't heard the answer, I didn't think there was one since there isn't such a thing as an unstoppable force or immovable object." Rudeus responded, if theorists were not dealing in absolute laws then the hypothetical theories could get out of control rather quickly as their imagination carried them away from reality.
"Well he managed to accomplish the immovable part with his second touki. The answer to the question of the force and object is that they must pass through each other in order for the law to hold in place that the force is unstoppable and the object is immovable. Think about it, both rules are still sound and hold true while they pass through each other."
"So he can pass through objects? Like a ghost?" Rudeus asked.
She nodded at this taking another sip of her wine.
"He does this by selectively controlling the electrons in his body or the electrons of an object. You can already control atoms as far as I have seen so far but you only do it on the chemical level, to get to his level you should study about physics and quantum mechanics."
"Whoa whoa whoa, that's way too complicated." Rudeus said shaking his hands. "The math to me just looked like gibberish and I don't nearly have enough time to learn about the subjects. The mathematicians who were on that level had to spend like ten years at minimum to get there if not their whole lives, I can't get there in two years unless you have a hyperbolic time chamber lying around." It would seem he was facing an oncoming unstoppable force.
"Then don't try to learn the subject. Just try to adapt and understand the electrons he is manipulating in order for him to phase through an object, once you force his electrons to go back on the same level as the rest of the world you can render his second touki useless as long as you maintain that control."
"And lets say, hypothetically that I manage to get passed his first touki, and render his second touki inactive. You would still say that I can't beat him."
"I'm afraid so, I'm positive it's the third touki that guarantees his victory which would explain why he hasn't told me how it works. At the very least you would end up in a stalemate with him. And I'm afraid at the point you are right now he could easily crush you, still you have about two years left to multiply your mana to catch up and match his energy capacity. If you don't do that then the outcome will be your defeat every time."
"Jeez thank you so much for the encouragement." Rudeus said sarcastically.
She scowled at him. "I'm doing you a favor the way I see it. Be grateful that I even bothered warning you about his abilities. Now that you have heard me out do you have any questions for me?"
Rudeus paused for a second, contemplating what to ask her, for right now he was running a blank.
"Can you ask me again a few days from now? And please don't bring me back to this world again." Rudeus pleaded, he needed more time.
"No and no. This is your one shot kid and a one time favor. After this I would rather we not talk anymore." She was firm in her offer, if Rudeus was going to ask her anything he had to ask her now.
"How can I trust you?" Rudeus eyed the woman doubting her words so far.
"I have no reason to lie to you, I'm just doing this as one dud to a potentially other dud. The way I see it you will still gain allot if you follow my advice and continue to multiply your mana capacity until you're ten, the universe is yours for the taking at that point." Her response made sense so Rudeus chose to accept it.
"I guess I can try using his preferred method of torture against him, using Phycological attacks? How would I go about doing that?" Rudeus asked.
"Hahaha that is a bad idea to try and pull his at his psyche, if he snaps he can destroy literal galaxies. But if you tried using people he cares about against him he cares allot for two people in particular, he talked to me about them when we formed a friendship and traveled the multiverse together for a while. Those two people are Eris Greyrat and the Dragon god Orsted." She revealed.
"Why those two?" Rudeus asked. 'So he has a history with them from his time in the version of the six sided world he was in?'
"Don't know why those two, he is very secretive about his personal life so if you ever develop a friendship with him understand you are the second person he has allowed a friendship with, the first being me." She seemed rather proud at that last statement, a friendship with this stranger wasn't a competition but yet she still held it above Rudeus's head like a trophy. "And if he tells you about his personal life, he has truly dropped his guard around you, don't abuse that level of friendship got it." That last part sounded like a threat from the woman, while she was admitting to being less powerful that this stranger that was coming for Rudeus it still sounded like she valued him.
"What are his morals, I would like to know what I can hold the man too." Rudeus asked.
She leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling smiling as if she was daydreaming for a second. "He has a very strong sense of justice, things like discrimination, inequality, slavery, and unfair behavior gets to him in which he strongarms allot of people into going towards his way of thinking. In a sense that can be viewed as injustice by some. For example he talked about one of the people he hates the most, The armored dragon king Perugius."
"What? Why does he hate him? He is a rather nice guy once you get to know him." Rudeus asked a little baffled, hate was a strong word after all.
"Yes but he bans anyone of the demon race from even stepping into his palace even if they hold no loyalty or affiliation toward Laplace. He compared Perugius to some child saying something as petty as "No girls allowed." That angered the dragon king, once he was ordered to leave he refused and they had a fight. He killed all 12 of Perugius's guardian spirits. He shattered Perugius's method to reform the spirits which put the dragon king in quite the bind since he had very little chance of defeating Laplace once the Demon God resurrected without his servants aid. The two had a very long extensive argument about why the dragon king was wrong."
'All 12 spirits!?' Rudeus thought in shock. 'All of them are at least king class in terms of ability.'
"I would think that Sukeakoto the time spirit would be the most troubling for him. His power allows him to stop time for a person he is touching while at the same time stopping himself. If he managed to touch this person you are talking about the rest of the spirits could easily slaughter him while he is in a standstill." Rudeus argued.
She sighed at this statement. "Both him and I understand that the people of this world have a ridiculously simplified view of how so-called magic actually works. From what he explained the time spirit doesn't stop a persons time they only freeze the atoms of the subject, stopping the atoms from moving making it look like time is stopped."
"So this person…." Rudeus was about to start guessing.
"Prevented his atoms from stopping countering Sukeakoto's ability yes." She completed the explanation for him. "From what he told me it was a systematic massacre, one he takes allot of pride in."
"Has there ever been anyone in this world that he had a challenge against?" Rudeus asked, he had to find some other weakness.
She shook her head. "Once he reached full energy capacity at the age of ten the only thing that stood in his way were those faster than him, such as the seven world powers who most had a touki. When he fully developed his two artificial touki he steamrolled anyone in his way. Nowadays he simply refers himself as a cunning thief for some reason or a lone wanderer," She then snapped her fingers like she just remembered something, "… oh yeah there is one person he said he fears but I think he more or less meant it as a joke or a reference to something."
"WHO! I must know." Rudeus stood up making the chair he was sitting on fall to the ground.
"Ultra-instinct Shaggy. Don't know what ultra-instinct is or who this Shaggy character is but like I said I think he meant it as a joke."
"… it is a joke." Rudeus sighed defeated at his false sense of hope. He knew who the character Shaggy was but he hadn't heard of ultra-instinct before. "Any other useful piece of information?"
"Useful? No not really, but he isn't that bad of a person if you really want to know who he is, when he is relaxed he likes to cook BBQ and work on cars, or swing dance to 1920s music…. So I don't know… give him a stack of ribs and a catalog of sexy women standing next to muscle cars or something. He also has one hell of a chaotic sense of humor, maybe it's because nothing is a challenge to him, or his method of dealing with depression. Meh probably both." She just shrugged at that last statement. She got up finishing off the bread and cheese she had remaining, grabbing the bottle of wine for later and recorking it.
"Shall we get going?" She asked.
"Will I see you again? I'm not looking forward to it. And could you not spy on me anymore? And one last thing, you are sure we will not get the virus that happened here and bring it with us?"
"You will see me if innocent people are involved in your fight with him, he would ask that much of me regardless of his motivation for the fight. And I can't blame you to not looking forward to it but if it's any consolation I promise not to bring you back to this world. As for your final request the answer is unfortunately no, I can see the doors and everything behind the doors so it's not just something I can just turn off. If it gives you some sense of relief though I have a literal ton of other stuff I'm seeing right now, think of it like I'm going through someone's browser history and I just briefly see one tab of porn history that you have saved while I'm scrolling down at incredible speed, it's so brief I barely have time to process it."
"That still is creepy." Rudeus mumbled.
"Oh well, shame for you. And to answer your last question yes I made sure of it, the virus that wiped out the world has long since died, I even took the precaution of coming here with a hazmat suit and taking hundreds of samples, there is nothing left alive. One request I have from you though is that you don't share this information we have discussed here with anyone else, he doesn't like it when too many people are spoiled on his abilities, kind of ruins the shock and awe according to him, also he will be angry with both me and you so best to avoid that. You can talk about me though if you'd like with the people that you trust." And with that she waved her hand across the open air. Much like before the world blurred and became static and Rudeus stood in the great hall of the mansion. The woman was gone along with everything else she brought back with her from the previous world like the magazine and plate that had cheese and bread on it.
Rudeus rushed through the mansion, not caring how many people see him in a rush, immediately going to his room. He sighed with relief when it was back to how he left it, the teleportation circle was under his bed and the research notes along with the binder containing the magical circles were still there. He was back in the world he had left. He looked outside and saw that it was nighttime.
Just as Rudeus was about to exit his room Eris burst in while Ghislaine leaned against the door. Both looked relieved and pissed off at the same time. Eris immediately punched Rudeus in the gut.
"Where the hell were you Rudeus! Both Ghislaine and I were worried sick you had gotten kidnapped!"
Instead of Rudeus huddling on the ground to protect himself he embraced the girl, she squeaked with surprise while she tried to get him off of her, continuing to punch his ribs but he simply would not let go. She stopped punching when she noticed tears were streaming down his face onto her shoulder.
"I was so worried. It's good to see you Eris." He breathed out between a mixture of inner and outer pain.
"….Hey… um… it's okay Rudeus. Just tell me who bullied you. I will punch them for you."
"I had a very long conversation with a woman, she… she showed and told me nightmares, she also gave me some helpful things to know… but never mind that. The point is I'm okay and well." Rudeus hugged Eris again trying to comfort her feelings of anxiety, truthfully Rudeus was the one that needed comforting right now.
"I have some things to think about. I'm fine honest but I need some time alone." Rudeus said looking up at Ghislaine, she nodded understanding the situation but it was clear that anytime he needed to she was there for him to talk to even if she didn't understand most of the stuff he was talking about.
Eris initially refused Rudeus's request but Ghislaine pulled her away leaving the room empty once again. Rudeus pulled out his binder containing the magical circles. If he only had two years he would not waste a single day to continue to grow and multiply his mana. And thusly he depleted his mana reserves for the night falling into a state of unconsciousness once again.
Review please! Your words and feedback mean so much to me if I'm doing good as the story goes along.
Hello again dear readers. I got some mixed reviews from this latest chapter, allot of you liked the future diary dark level feeling it gave while others expressed their concern that a DBZ character is coming and it seems like they are random, I will try to address both in this chapter.
Now to individually address the messages.
To Guest: Hello again, I'm happy to respond to all the reviews you give and I take allot of your word to heart. My main reason for bringing in these two people is because if I didn't bring them in then Rudeus would face no challenge what so ever in this new life. Elizabeth actually isn't a character I made up, she is from a video game and I dropped a few hints as to what game she is from if you haven't noticed it yet. As for this chapter I introduce this new character and who he actually is so I'm hoping and praying you like him, if not that is fine too. I can't impress everyone. Either way enjoy this chapter. I also corrected a few other things in the chapters you had mentioned before in your previous comments and I'm going over them a few more times to correct some spelling errors I'm finding that you mentioned. Hope this addresses some of your concerns.
To 321Jaz: Glad to have you back Jaz reading my chapters again. I totally understand your point with DBZ and I address that in this chapter, the new character, while OP, won't do much that's grand and explosive unless if and when he fights Rudeus. Anyone else he fights he will use the least amount of energy and care in order to win a fight, kind of like how Orsted would only use his fists to win a fight and resort to the God Sword when he was in a pinch. I also tried to address your issue with run on sentences and I hope this chapter doesn't have as many for you to see.
To Zairyo: Could be angry with him, could not be. Let's find out haha. As for being above the big bang, AND THIS MIGHT BE SPOILING IT a little bit so skip this line if you want to, the new character does but doesn't survive the big bang. I will explain more in future episodes.
To XaiGRS: I took your advice to heart. I think writing in my spare time has given me allot of time to write long and good chapters. Speaking of long and good chapters I think this new chapter fits that description.
Rudeus paced the great hall that he had done most of the dance lessons in so far with Eris. He had gotten there a few minutes early to think over the most recent events that had transpired a few days ago.
"Three artificial touki, two are known, one is unknown. The transmission touki can slow down or accelerate the user or an object like a sword or bullet. And the immovable touki allows the user to pass through an object without damage." Rudeus bit his thumbnail going over and over these facts again.
One thing was clear though, if this person was from the sixth sided world he wasn't invincible. At the very least the person would still be human but just with extraordinary abilities. Even Immortal people in this world weren't really immortal, they just had incredible regenerative abilities paired with longevity. To the average person they were immortal by all intents and purposes but if this being was thrown into a sun their atoms would still be burned to a crisp as they became apart of the nuclear fusion.
But Elizabeth said that this being survived something as huge as a big bang which seemed absolutely ludicrous to Rudeus.
"She said she saw him completely fine and talking about the experience a few days later but she never said his body survived, she only saw him taking on those cosmological forces and talk about it later." Rudeus thoughts so far on this was that it was like reincarnation for the third touki while at the same time preserving the users memories of the experience. Technically Laplace could survive a nuclear bomb and just reincarnate a few hundred years later when his soul found the right body to latch onto through the process of the Laplace factor. But yet this being came back in the original body that he had experienced the damage in.
Speaking of this being and his powers, she also said if Rudeus continued to multiply his mana then he would be just as strong as this being. That put some things into perspective into how powerful he was getting however he didn't feel that powerful. If anything his mana was no longer trying to explode from his body, instead it felt like it had permanently expanded beyond his body and was there for him to grasp it whenever he felt like it. Experiments would have to be done in order to find an answer as to why this was happening.
The first thing to do was to find a target that Rudeus could actually release all of his mana on but that would have to be at a later time. For now he had some dance lessons to attend.
Edona walked in not a moment later but Eris didn't follow behind her. The etiquette teacher noticed the look on Rudeus's face which was written with anxiety and stress but she chose to remain silent. The two just remained in the room in awkward silence. Then Edona chose to speak up.
"It would seem Eris is running late for her lessons, I fear she doesn't want to attend."
Rudeus understood her meaning behind those words, she wanted the young boy to find the red haired girl and get her to attend. He nodded. "I'll go try and find her, if you don't mind you can return to your other duties. I feel I might need to talk to Eris for a while to get things sorted out." She bowed giving her approval and Rudeus departed to go find Eris, in all honesty all he wanted to do was go back into his room and take an afternoon nap and forget about all the stress for a moment. But he knew that the moment he opened his eyes again the stress would only return and be worse than before, he needed some form of relief or answer to his pent-up anxiety.
It didn't take long for Rudeus to find Eris. She was outside of the barn on a stack of hay looking up at the sky with her hands behind her head as she ignored her problems.
"That's a fine stack of hay. May I join you?" Rudeus asked looking up at the queen of the hay bail. She only scoffed looking away from Rudeus, she was in some sort of mood it would seem.
Instead Rudeus sat down leaning against the pile of hay that Eris lay on top of, he knew he would just be kicked off if he tried to join her. He didn't say a word as he looked up into the sky, a moment later he closed his eyes and felt the cool breeze trace it's fingers through his hair and tickle his cheeks. It was a pleasant experience to take a pause now and again.
"I don't need dancing." She finally broke the silence with a statement of absolution. In a way she wasn't wrong. In Rudeus's previous incarnation she devoted her life to being a swordswoman to stand by Rudeus's side and she had lost the ability or care to dance. But for now the lessons were important for the family reputation in this life.
"But…" Rudeus was about to say.
"I'll skip the party." That response sounded a bit more sad than absolute. She was worried about messing up it would seem.
"It's your party. You can't skip it." Rudeus spoke the truth in that. This was something unavoidable, kind of like what he would be facing in two years only on a life or death scale.
"Why do I have to do things I'm trash at?" She asked, still with allot of attitude laced in her voice.
"Eris, you may not believe me… but I know how you feel. I want to run away from allot of things, I want to run away right now actually from something that will be coming up when I turn ten. But I can't run away from it either. There are some things we have to face."
"I doubt you get it Rudeus, you can do anything." Now envy took the lead in her voice. He didn't blame her for that. She was a competitive person by default and in their previous life together had confessed to Rudeus that she liked it when he acted so weak when they were in bed together, it made her feel like she had won.
"There are still plenty of things I can't do." Rudeus confessed. He felt the hay above him shift as Eris looked down at him briefly, intrigued by his response.
"Really?" She asked.
"Really." He confirmed. "I'm not strong enough to protect the ones I care about and love, I'm not strong enough to prepare for the future to come, and I'm not strong enough to protect myself."
In one sentence of confession he had given the entire reason why Rudeus worked himself in his previous life to become so strong. At first it was simply for educational reasons of growth. Then as time passed on he grew alongside Orsted to protect his family from Hitogami, but every moment he felt like his family was in danger so long as the man god lived. That feeling slowly faded as they continued to beat the man gods plots but the feeling never truly died. Rudeus felt around his wrist and at that point wanted Orsted's bracelet to be there for comfort. Instead there was nothing so Rudeus just clasped onto Roxy's necklace that was tucked under his shirt, the one given to him as a gift before she left for her next teaching job.
Now he had worked himself far beyond what he had previously thought possible to attain the power necessary to stop the teleportation event. To save Zenith from being trapped in a labyrinth and to save Paul's life from having to even step foot into that dangerous place. Rudeus had grown as strong as he could and now a shark had noticed his presence and was swimming towards him in the murky waters to consume him, at least that was what it felt like.
"I still have a long way to go. I need to keep growing, even in skills I'm no good at." Rudeus whispered, clenching his fists in determination.
"Why?" Eris asked quietly.
"That is a hard question to answer. Maybe it's because the worse I am at something, the better the feeling is when I overcome that obstacle."
"You are strong enough Rudeus, I'm no where near your level." Eris refuted.
"No… I'm weak."
Eris looked down at him to retort but stopped herself when she saw the look on Rudeus's face. Anxiety, stress, and depression were engraved onto the features of his face and eyes. It looked like the boy hadn't eaten in days, his skin a shade paler than normal and his eyes were sunken in slightly. Rudeus had still been eating but the food had no flavor to it and his mouth always felt dry and stale.
Eris slid down from her hay bail and looked at the young boy.
"Who did this to you?" Eris said crossing her arms. It was clear she wanted to fight the person that had inflicted such damage onto Rudeus's mental health.
Rudeus hesitated for a moment but he knew if he kept this a secret from the young lady her concern for him would only grow. Later on she was feel sad thinking Rudeus didn't trust her enough to depend on her. He sighed, choosing to confess a little about what was plaguing his mind.
"Someone is coming for me Eris. In two years that someone will arrive and I don't know if I will be strong enough to face him. Hell I don't even know if he wants to fight me or befriend me. I just know he is coming."
"How do you know about this." Eris asked.
"There is a person that is walking towards me in my dreams now and again. And that woman I talked to a few days ago when I disappeared in the market, she was the one to confirm that person is real and is coming for me." Rudeus confessed.
Eris took a pause for a second thinking it over. "Any enemy of Rudeus's is an enemy of mine, and any friend of Rudeus's is a friend of mine."
"What do you mean Eris?" The boy asked looking Eris directly into her scarlet eyes.
"I'm saying I will stand beside you." Eris said firmly.
Rudeus's mind ran blank for a few seconds and it was clear to him that Eris didn't understand the depth of her own words. Soon he was able to tell that she had fully processed it when her face turned as bright red as her hair. She had just said the corniest, most beautiful, romantic thing that Rudeus had ever heard. He laughed at her reaction which quickly earned him a harsh punch in his shoulder but he couldn't help but feel relieved from her words. Embracing her in his arms while he leaned against the hay she didn't protest or punch him anymore, she just froze up completely.
"Thank you, Eris, you made me feel allot better. Promise me this though, if I tell you to fight with me you can fight, but if I tell you to run you will run." Rudeus said, his face serious. He didn't want the young Eris to get hurt or die trying to save him much like how his future journal said when she fought the demon king Atofe.
She hesitated for a moment but nodded. Then she seemed to realize how little dance practice seemed in comparison to the challenges that Rudeus was facing.
"If you want to, let's get back to dance practice." She said outstretching her hand.
Rudeus then cursed himself for letting Edona free for the day so he could allow Eris to spend some quality time talking to him.
"Edona left for today when you didn't show up. I'm sure we can find her though if you like?" Rudeus began to list his other options as to what they could do for the day but Eris wasn't listening. She grabbed Rudeus's hand and lead the way briskly toward the great hall.
When they got there she stood in the middle, her arms folded in her traditional Tsundere fashion. When Rudeus approached her she outstretched her hand, inviting the boy to dance. He smiled, accepting the request as they went from one move to the next.
Her moves weren't anywhere near graceful so Rudeus whispered in her ear the thing he knew would make her flow with the steps. She already knew the moves but she regularly outpaced her dance partner as she visualized the person she was dancing with as an opponent rather than a teammate. Not having Edona clap in the back round was helping but it wasn't enough yet.
"Eris, close your eyes." Rudeus said to Eris while she quickly moved around to preform the next move.
"What?" She asked, thinking that his demand was ludicrous.
"I will cast a charm on you, it will make you a good dancer." He said smiling.
"There is a spell for that?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement believing that Rudeus had power over human will.
"It's not a spell but a charm. When I give the word preform the next move as if you're dodging an attack."
She was about to protest but Rudeus interjected.
"Ready. Now!" She closed her eyes and went with the movement. Rudeus knew that if he paired the dance move with fighting then she would link the two together and truly understand the practice.
It was a smooth fluid motion as she twirled around.
"Now!" The next move was also fluid as she remembered Edona's teachings, the pace, the rhythm, and the moves. Paired with Rudeus's command she flowed through it with ease.
When they were done dancing she opened her eyes astonished.
"That was perfection Eris." Rudeus said as he held her in his arms, the were low to the ground with his right hand on her waist and his left hand holding hers. Lifting her up slowly he let go and started to clap. She looked at her own hands and then beamed at him smiling.
"You are amazing Rudeus." She said returning the compliment.
"You honor me milady." He bowed goofing off a little and she just tapped him lightly on the head laughing.
"One more time." She said smirking.
Rudeus smile widened, he was proud of her. Normally she would have just run away at this point but she was having so much fun right now she didn't want it to stop.
"Okay, but this time I want you to hear my voice in my head. If you need to practice, whisper it to yourself. You know the timing and when you hear my voice within yourself, you will know when to preform the next set of moves."
She nodded as they continued to dance. It took her a few tries but soon it was one fluid movement as they went together around the great hall. Their footsteps and breathing was the only thing that echoed throughout the hall but it was pleasant. It seemed like their heartbeats sang together in unison as the dance neared it's conclusion.
When they were done they both panted sweating from the excitement as they looked at each other. She embraced him and without saying another word walked away, leaving the room quickly as she seemed embarrassed by her action.
Rudeus smiled as he looked back in the great hall. Remembering a few days prior in that dark parallel world the conversation he had with that woman.
'I need to practice and prepare. That is the most I can do for now.' Rudeus said reaffirming his determination. He had thought about talking to Perugius and try to get in contact with Orsted about the oncoming teleportation event but the Dragon King would most likely be hostile toward the young boy and refuse to help him. Speaking of, Rudeus had seen his castle flying by now and again. Most likely the Dragon King was also observing or studying the red orb that was the epicenter of the calamity.
Rudeus sighed. There was no one in the world that could help him in this potential upcoming fight if the words Elizabeth said were true, so the only solution would be to build up Rudeus's arsenal.
He went to his bedroom and used the teleportation circle under his bed to go to his first underground base in the mountain near Buena village. When he went to his study he shuffled and organized the piles of blueprints of the device that he was building to stop the teleportation event. Putting the papers away he got out a new paper and began with a title for the design.
Magic Armor mark IV
After a few hours Rudeus came up with an outline of the design. It would be a mix of the mark I and mark II magic armor allowing for a high amount of mobility while at the same time not compromising on strength.
The mark I was a 3 meter tall tank of a suit with a large shield on one arm and a gatling gun on the other side that could shoot rock bullets, basically a small Gundam. The mark II armor on the other hand was something that Rudeus wore everyday where it had a shotgun built into the gauntlet of the suit and offered allot of protection from basic attacks. It was concealed by the robe he normally wore when he was working for Orsted. And the mark III armor was developed by Roxy and Zanoba, that armor he designed to be sold to armies and adventurers alike. Rudeus this time chose to go with a combination of the mark I and II armors.
This mark IV armor wouldn't shoot bullets though because of the opponent that was coming. The rough sketch so far was a 2.3 meter tall suit. Rudeus in his small body would control the arms and legs with the required magical circles and mana while he remained safely inside the chest plate of the suit much like the mark 1.
8 spheres the size of a fist would be floating around the set of armor like an orbiting asteroid belt, four of those spheres would be replicating the four attack magic categories, fire, wind, water, and earth. The magical output of these spheres could go up to God class but the magical items would be at risk of destroying themselves from the magical output if he chose to go to that level of destruction. Hundreds of magical circles would be engraved into the sphere to make the attack magic feasible. A good example of the God Class mana the spheres could output was the miniature sun Rudeus had created when he demonstrated his abilities to Roxy, that felt like so long ago.
2 of the other spheres would be based on healing and detoxification magic which would be able to heal his organs and limbs with ease or stop a deadly poison from spreading throughout his body then extract the poison rendering the damage inert.
The final 2 spheres would be based upon Gravity and Time. Unlike the Future version of Rudeus from the future diary Rudeus didn't spend allot of time learning how to go into the past using time travel magic, instead this sphere would replicate the Perugius's Time spirits abilities where it stopped the atoms of the person but Rudeus would make it more difficult for the being to adjust to this by randomly changing the speed of his atoms. The gravity sphere on the other hand would be strong enough to replicate the pressure a person would feel if they were at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean discovered by man. The pressure someone would feel would be eight tons per square inch or about a thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure on earth.
Rudeus's hope was that if the being turned hostile then Rudeus would use the time sphere to slow him down and then use the gravity sphere to crush and kill him. But in order for this to work both spheres needed to be in physical contact with the person for the magical circles the spheres contained to have any affect. As per Elizabeth's warning this wouldn't mean a win for Rudeus, only a temporary stalemate until the being came back and resumed the fight so this method of killing would be Rudeus's last resort.
The priority when the two finally met would be determining if Rudeus had to fight in the first place though. But he would make every countermeasure he could to prepare for if things went south.
He continued to go through design after design on the base armor but couldn't land on one.
"I should try and find some inspiration." Rudeus said going down into his summoning chamber. The chamber itself hadn't been used in awhile, he mainly used the new and improved summoning chamber near the capital of Ars but this would do for now.
Wiping away a small layer of dust from the center panel he placed his hands down and concentrated on what he wanted to summon and replicated.
They were pertaining to books that detailed how certain armors were made, going as far as the materials used at the time and the blueprints of such armors.
The summoning chamber creaked to life as his mana fueled the mechanical arms. The arms gathered the magical circles necessary to narrow down the search to what Rudeus desired. Once the magical circle was complete book after book was summoned and created detailing armors throughout the history of humanity.
Once all the papers and books were gathered, he walked through the hallways until he reached the library where he would study the various armor designs and then add them to his own concept. Sitting down in the center desk he flicked on the lamp, a classic green study lamp. Then he began to sift through the material.
After hours of looking at the different designs from many cultures Rudeus chose to settle on a blueprint. A Japanese Samurai Armor paired with a mid-evil based chainmail. The body armor would be a dark blood red paint with gold accents and framing. The underbody such as the chain mail and the mask would be pitch black.
The mask would look like a smiling demon with red eyes. Other than that there weren't any features like horns on the helmet or elongated shoulder guards that would be easy to grapple and pull. Everything was sleek, tight, and efficient in allowing movement while aiding in durability throughout the suit.
Speaking of durability Rudeus chose to implement plates of pure tungsten into the concept design of the mid evil samurai suit which would provide the most protection. The chainmail underneath the tungsten plates would be microscopic in size but thick like a leather jacket and completely composed of graphene, the strongest formation of carbon atoms. The armor would be so heavy the suit would cripple any mobility for a normal man but Rudeus would pair the mark 1 skeletal design to assist with movement as well as having an active gravity magical circle that would reduce the weight to the suit but not the mass.
Rudeus would also work on magical circles that would be his highest level of absorption magic and engrave them on the inside of the suit. At that point any magic based attack would go into the absorption and convert back into mana rendering Rudeus unscathed.
Elizabeth didn't indicate the beings main form of attack method wither it was with magic, a sword, or something along those lines but based on what she told him the person was prideful and cocky. So Rudeus took an educated guess in that the being would want to be up close and personal to humiliate the prey before killing it, like a cat playing with a mouse.
Orsted mainly used his hands and resorted to the God Sword when he was in a tight pinch. The sword required a massive amount of mana to use and he only brought it out as a trump card in order to survive. So Rudeus would assume the being he was preparing for would use a sword or his fists as well.
When all the drawings were done Rudeus sighed leaning back in his chair glossing over the entire concept design. It would take him about a year to complete the armor given his current schedule. When Rudeus was tricked into trying to kill Orsted he devoted himself to the task in order to protect his family. However now he would only have an hour or two to spare before he had to go back to working on his other projects.
Rudeus walked outside of his study room, walking up towards the cave exit. It had been so long since he had opened it and in this moment at least, he wanted a breath of fresh air. When he opened the cave entrance the cool fall air overtook his lungs as he breathed the smell in with all the force he could muster. Relief overtook him as he grasped Roxi's necklace while he closed his eyes remembering the sensation of her sitting on his lap with her head cradling in his embrace as he smelled her hair and kissed her tenderly.
Then a moment of sadness paused his tender memories.
'If the multiverse truly is as massive as Infinity and Elizabeth have said, then I probably haven't travelled back in time, I have just gone to a different universe where it would take me a lifetime to find any difference.' That thought made Rudeus feel pathetic that he wasn't 100% prepared to accept death and go into the afterlife… come to think of it he didn't even know if there was an afterlife. Hitogami told Rudeus before he faded away that a persons soul normally degraded into mana, but it was possible that the man god said that to try and make Rudeus sad out of spite for beating the mosaic being.
Rudeus shook his head. He needed to accept the consequences of his actions now as he carried on.
Looking up at the stars he outstretched his hands and expanded his mana far beyond what he had ever expanded before. He thought it would just stop at the world but it kept going. He could feel everything, from every blade of grass to every asteroid in solar system he resided in.
He felt Sylphys mana respond to his, Eris, Roxy, his family, and so many others like Ruijerd. The only person he couldn't detect was Orsted, his abilities really made him invisible to other people's mana. Rudeus reflected on his ability to detect others using mana, it must be like how the Superd Race can used their third eye as a radar. Most of the time the farthest they can reach is a few hundred meters but the largest factor that determines the size and strength of the radar is ones own mana.
Rudeus shut off his radar knowing people like Ghislaine, Kishirika and others with demon eyes that could detect mana would be bothered if not blinded by the prolonged mana exposure of Rudeus's wave. More importantly people like Perugius would take notice of the sudden mana pulse and search for the source with the intent to kill believing that it could only come from someone as powerful as Laplace.
Still the extent of Rudeus's radar was unbelievable, it didn't even feel like he was straining himself and yet he could feel every living thing on this planet, he had never felt so connected.
"She said I will become as strong as the being that is coming. Just how strong is that?" Rudeus looked at his hand pondering the answer. Mana doubled everyday if the user exhausted their tank consistently, Rudeus thought he would hit a limit when his body was no longer able to contain the vast amounts of mana. Yet his expanded outside his body and was only noticeable by people like Ghislaine when he manipulated his magic to form a certain purpose like a radar or a rock bullet.
He looked down at his hands.
"One grain of rice that doubles everyday for thirty days will be 536,870,912. I've been doubling the number everyday for almost eight years…. So how big is the number now?"
With that thought in mind Rudeus got back up. Patting off the dirt. And descended back into the cave to continue his work.
In another part of the world, in another time, and in another place in the cosmos, the place Rudeus had left the mortal plane of existence behind a blue haired woman walked toward a graveyard with a bundle of flowers. It had been eight years since the man she had fallen in love with so long ago had passed away peacefully from old age and yet the pain didn't subside at all. So every month she visited his grave, sat down next to his tombstone and talked about her day, then asked him how he was doing.
Roxy Greyrat still looked like a young girl but she was almost 150. She waited for the day that she would be rejoined with Rudeus but that day would come faster if she paid attention to her work at the university, however most of the work felt hollow ever since Rudy died.
"Eris sure was lucky to grow old with Rudeus, I wish I could've had that." She whispered sadly. There was no crueler thing than being separated from a lover. She then snapped herself out of her sorrow for the moment shaking her head, no, it wasn't good to be jealous because of another's mortality. She could only imagine how Ruijerd felt when Norn passed away. He still had about 400 years before he would die of old age.
For now her two children that Rudeus had helped her bring into the world were her greatest joy. Other than that it was nice to talk with Sylphy about Rudy but she always talked about him whenever they were alone in the house which just reminded Roxy of the loss she was feeling without Rudy holding her in his arms and placing her on his lap.
She was almost at the tombstone but when she looked upon the hill Rudeus rested on she saw a tall man, about 1.9 meters tall, looking down at her husband's grave. He was dressed finely in sleek black pants and a white button up shirt where both sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his forearms were riddled with scars that looked like they were self-inflicted. The man's hairstyle was a bit unusual, shortly cut on the sides and back of the head where the length increased until it reached the top of his head at which his hair was flicked to the side on top, a fade haircut with a combover. Most people chose to go with a long haircut or go bald but this was something in-between. What was more noticeable was the mans hair color, it was dark red like blood or wine. In the right light it would look more brown than red but in the setting sun his hair was a blood red. He was quite muscular as well but not too much.
'Weird, I didn't see him there before.' Roxy thought, she was sure the hill was absent of anyone. At least that was what she saw a few moments ago.
The man kneeled down and started to touch the tombstone standing on top of Rudeus's grave. Roxy was about to run forward in fury that anyone would dare disrespect Rudeus's resting place but she then witnessed the man was cleaning Rudy's grave with magic. A layer of dirt and moss ripped itself off of the tombstone and burnt to a crisp in the mans palm making the tombstone look brand new.
'Silent spellcasting?' Roxy thought. He must have been a student of Rudy, probably paying respect to his master. Yeah, that was it.
She kept her distance, eavesdropping was wrong but she wanted to hear what this man had to say about her husband.
The man took a deep breath to compose himself. "So this is where you kicked the bucket huh Rudeus. I'm curious why you wanted to start over again instead of buying the farm? Well, I suppose you will tell me the answer in due time when I see you."
'Is he dying of some illness?' Roxy thought. But what was on the forefront of her mind was the man kind of sounded like Paul, but not exactly the same. This man had a voice that was a tad bit colder, like some sorrow constantly plagued the mans thoughts.
She decided to approach.
"Did you know my husband?" Roxy said.
The man shook his head without turning around to face Roxy.
"No, but I thought it would be nice to sightsee and pay my respects before I continue my journey to see him in person. And if possible, I would like to know what kind of man he was."
"I can talk about who he was if you'd like. I knew him ever since he was a young boy. I was his teacher and later on his wife after he saved me from a Labyrinth when he grew up and became an adult." Roxy said. She figured now this man wasn't a student but an admirer, that he was dying and wanted to introduce himself before he passed. That was understandable, most people in this world knew the name Rudeus Greyrat.
"That sounds nice." The man said, he turned around and smiled softly at her and she was taken aback by the resemblance to Rudeus… no that wasn't it, he looked allot more like Rudeus's father Paul but the man had dark scarlet red hair and purple eyes. He even had a small mole on his lower left eye just like Paul and Rudeus had.
"Are you related to Rudeus at all? You look allot like him." She was on guard now, Rudy had never told her about this man.
"In a way I am related to him, he's more of my half-brother but in terms of relation I am closer than most. My name is Perseus Greyrat, son of Paul and Lilia Greyrat." The man smiled softly at her noticing her stance and realizing that she was prepared to run or fight in that moment, however no hostility radiated from him.
'This was too strange. Neither Lilia or Paul had ever mentioned having a son, what is even more strange is that this man looks no more than 25, chronologically he should be dead from old age by now and yet he looks so young.' Roxy thought.
"You don't know about me but I know you, you were my teacher as well when I was 3 after I was first born in the six sided world." Perseus exclaimed as he reached down his shirt and pulled out a necklace, it was the same necklace that Roxy had given to Rudy all those years ago.
"Explain now." She said, still on guard, she had no memory of this man at all.
The man sighed. "I don't have much time before I need to get going so I will make this short and simple. I am from the sixth sided world, just not yours. I'm from a different version of this world one where Paul did the idiotic thing, he took Lilia's virginity aaaaannnnddd forgot to pull out. Lilia became pregnant and Paul, despite him being a huge playboy took responsibility and cared for Lilia. He was an adventurer for a majority of the time spending months separated from Lilia while she raised me in Buena Village. They both wanted me to learn the sword, but magic, magic was my bread and butter. I continued to grow my magic in pursuit of multiplying and expanding it enough to reach the cosmic plains so I could explore and find out who I was originally before I was born." His response was quick and slightly sarcastic as if he was running through explaining the worlds biggest joke.
"So that's it, you are from an alternative timeline?" She concluded.
"That's a linear way of putting it. No. I was simply born into a world where the big bang in that universe happened a few hundred years before this world is where it is now. Not only that my universe was identical in particle pattern as this one so it formed the same world, same people, same actions, but the only difference was Paul, Lilia, me, and later on my younger sister Aisha. No Rudeus, and no Norn. Anyway now that I'm done explaining who I am and where I came from can we get back to the main question?"
Honestly at this point Roxy had a huge number of questions to ask this Perseus person but she stopped herself. She would honor her offer to tell this man about her husband.
"He was a kind man, a little perverted but a good man who prioritized family over everything. Rudy faced off against Orsted to protect us and at the brink of death pledged allegiance to Orsted in order for the dragon god to help protect our family. He continued to serve the dragon god until he died of old age." She said smiling at all that Rudy forced himself to endure in order to protect her and her children.
"How did he react when someone threatened you or his family?" The man asked inquisitively.
"One time at a nobles party he was an honored guest and one of the nobles insulted me or Sylphy, it was so long ago I can't remember who the noble insulted but Rudy took such an offense to it that he grabbed the noble by the collar and burned down a whole forest. It was a visual demonstration of the man's rage." She said snickering at the fact that the noble utterly pissed himself at the physical image of Rudeus's rage.
"Hmmm good to know, I would hate to tick Rudeus off so I will remember that." The man said smiling sweetly. He sure was being cryptic with his responses and questions.
"Anything else you wanted to know?" Roxy said, she wanted to get back to asking a few more questions but then she heard allot of footsteps behind her.
"Roxy get away from that man!" A deep voice of authority shouted behind her. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she heard that voice, she knew who it was.
She turned around and saw Orsted in a battle stance, fists clenched and his helmet was off, killing intent radiated from him. Behind him was Roxy's daughter Lara, Leo the spirit dog was growling behind her, and Sylphy's son Sieghard was on the right side of Orsted. Both were glaring at Perseus. There were two others that were with the group, North God Kalman III the left hand of Orsted and the immortal demon empress Kishirika. She was vomiting into a bucket while holding her hands to her eyes crying.
"Roxy run! He is countless times stronger than Laplace!" She screamed as she continued to vomit into the bucket panting like her life was being clawed away by Perseus.
Roxy looked at Perseus with hostility and fear but the man seemed irritated at the most. He didn't show any fear in the presence of Orsted nor killing intent. When he laid eyes on the Dragon God he smiled sadly as if recalling a distant memory.
"I would like to apologize to you Orsted." He shouted from the hilltop down at the Dragon God. "I kept you from your mission to kill Hitogami and I would like to report with joy I have completed your mission. Well at the very least a different version of you, but since you are here now I wanted to get the chance to say I'm sorry." Perseus said smiling. He then looked at Roxy.
"Like I said I don't want to anger Rudeus without reason so I won't do something as petty as hold you hostage in front of your children. You can run to them if you'd like." He said smiling.
Roxy chose to run down behind Orsted trying to keep her knees from shaking too much in the presence of the Dragon Gods curse.
"How do you know the name Hitogami?" Orsted snapped.
"He tricked me a long time ago, telling me a lie that he knew who I was originally. Simple as that." The man shrugged like he had no care in the world.
"So you're an apostle of Hitogami?" Orsted's glare intensified but Perseus showed no reaction to the waves of murderous aura.
"I am worse than that, far worse."
"Stop with the cryptic bullshit." Kalman interrupted brandishing his sword, he was itching to fight against someone that Kishirika herself was terrified of. It would be a legendary battle.
"I have no desire to fight Orsted, I would hate to waste his mana reserves. But you Kalman, you are part immortal, not to mention your cocky attitude pisses me off. So I can have some fun with you." Perseus said, a huge grin of anticipation and sadistic emotion forming on his face. "But let's not fight here. I would hate to desecrate Rudeus's grave."
"Fair enough where would you like to…" Kalman began to offer to take Perseus to a field to fight in but was interrupted. The speed of the man was faster than the North God could react, Orsted himself barely had any time to register the movement.
Perseus in one swift movement appeared right in front of the man and punched Kalman in the gut. Roxy heard bones snap and flesh tear as the punch penetrated the mans touki, ripping apart the mans skin as his intestines flopped onto the floor. A massive pressure wave from the punch was felt by the rest of the people in the group.
The ground itself vibrated from the attack as Kalman flew into the air flying far beyond the borders of the city disappearing from view. Orsted struck his hand forward in an attempt to punch a hole through the mans chest… well his fist did go through his chest but no hole was made. It was like he was passing his hand through a ghost.
Perseus just looked directly at Orsted as he laughed. "The only one who will pose a challenge for me is Rudeus." Perseus took a step back and removed Orsted's hand from his chest showing now damage was made. "Other than that, this fight is just me dicking around."
And with that Perseus shot up into the air as if propelled by some invisible force. He flew forward in the direction of Kalman.
"We need to get in contact with Perugius. Sieghard run as fast as you can to the teleportation circle to the Dragon Kings Palace and get as many of his spirits as you can, especially Karowante. Lara with me. Roxy and Kishirika go back to the house pack up your things. If we are not back tonight travel to the Ars capital to bring the kingdom under a state of alert." Orsted instructed, with those words said he began to run toward the city gates as Lara got on Leos back. Leo barked and took off in hot pursuit of the Dragon God.
A few minutes later Orsted arrived with Lara in tow to the battlefield that was commencing between Kalman and Perseus. To put it simply it was a one-sided slaughter. The two became a blur when they were prepared to fight but every time the dust settled Kalman had an arm missing or a leg severed in tattered pieces of flesh. Perseus let the man regrow or reattach his limbs after waiting a few moments at which the two would fight again.
The process repeated itself five times before Orsted managed to engage. His fist once again passed through Perseus like he was just punching open air.
"I thought I told you I didn't want to fight you. You need to save up your strength for Laplace returning and containing Hitogami." Perseus sighed.
"Orsted! No matter how many times I strike him my sword just passes right through him without any damage." Kalman yelled out on the other side of the field as his left leg continued to grow back. His right arm was severed too and the seal that Rudeus had put on it to keep the arm from growing was broken as well during the fight. Soon he would be back at full capacity.
In the meantime Orsted was trying to analyze this man's abilities but they were unlike anything he had seen before. That was why he wanted the spirit Karowante of Insight. He would be able to determine the persons powers and give them some insight to beat this person.
Orsted outstretched his hand resorting to disturb magic. He saw the magic travelling toward the target but the mana warped around Perseus rendering the magic useless.
'So he has a counter to disturb magic just like me?' Orsted thought.
The dragon gods opponent just stood there yawning. "Look it's been fun but I will say this one last time. I do not wish to fight you Orsted, if you continue I will beat you into the ground." An aura radiated from the man at this point, it was an aura many times stronger than Orsted's and for the first time in the dragon gods life, his knees trembled.
In a moment of desperation, he summoned the dragons gate. The abortion magic would drain Perseus's mana enough for Kalman to deal a fatal blow.
A few minutes passed, Perseus made no attempt to flee from the gate or resist it. He just let it consume his mana.
"Hundreds of years ago that would have worked on me." Perseus said gradually growing more pissed off. "But if the dragons stomach is smaller than the thing it's chewing on and it continues to eat…."
The gate cracked and burst into shards a few seconds later. Orsted was left completely stunned, even his best counter attack was rendered useless. Regardless the mana the gate absorbed was a huge amount so he was sure that the man had little mana left. A moment later a flash of light appeared behind him.
"It's not often that I hear you requesting my help Orsted." A deep voice said behind the Dragon God. Orsted turned and saw Perugius with all twelve of his servants as well as Nanahoshi. Sieghard stood in front of the black-haired Japanese girl to protect her.
The atmosphere suddenly changed to one of killing intent. It was coming from Perseus. The air responded to his rage as the sky darkened with black thunderclouds forming above their heads, no rain fell though. It was like a scene someone would imagine that would set the stage for a grim and dark battle.
"Hello Perugius, tell me, have you started treating the demons in this world fairly? Or do I have to beat that into you by bending you across my knees and smacking your ass a few times."
Perugius seemed to be taken aback by the man's insult but he regained his composure a moment later.
"Almanfi and Sukeakoto! Engage." Perugius shouted out as the two spirits rushed forward, Sukeakoto reached Perseus first as Almanfi rushed in to attack the man frozen in time. Their plan was to stop Perseus's time and then cut him down while he was frozen. Almanfi grabbed Perseus by placing his hands on the mans shoulders and the two entered into a standstill.
'So he is weak to attacks by spirits? Unlike everyone else Sukeakoto was able to physically touch this Perseus person.' Orsted thought.
"I can't see Perugius!" Karowante of Insight shouted when he tried to analyze the mans abilities.
"What?" Perugius asked. "You mean you can't see his abilities?"
"No… I'm blind." Karowante yelled out holding his hands over his mask trying to see something, anything.
No later had the spirit of insight cried out in desperation than had Sukeakoto burst into flakes of light as a fist punched through the spirits skull and came out the other side. Perseus broke through the time entrapment.
Everyone paused and stared blankly at the man before him. His fist was covered in a white glowing liquid that looked like the blood of the spirit. Almanfi leapt back barely avoiding a follow up punch from Perseus as the spirit made a strategic retreat. Going back to the main group.
"How….?" Perugius began to ask.
"To quote a mad savage scientist, I reject your reality and substitute my own." Perseus said laughing. "But in all honesty that pitiful excuse of a being wasn't stopping someone's time, they were only stopping their atoms from moving."
He flicked the blood off of his fist and looked at Karowante. "And to answer why Karowante is suddenly blind, he is not blind. I simply controlled the frequency of the equation E = h v E=h\nu E=hv. In other words I'm controlling the waves of electromagnetism around him preventing any rays of light from reaching his eyes." He exclaimed grinning.
Everyone excluding Nanahoshi looked at the man like he spoke absolute gibberish.
"You aren't from this world." She whispered, she didn't understand the math he just said but it was math more complicated than anyone in this world could understand. A moment of joy flashed in her eyes that she didn't have to be alone in this world again.
"Correct Rice Cake. And before you go calling me a racist I'm calling you that because of how depressing conversations with you used to be. You were bland and stale. My relationship with you is best visualized in the reaction of Peter Griffin when he started his diet by eating a rice cake, do not watch the first video on youtube though with 5.1million views, that one is ear rape. Watch the second one with 1.7million views…. Ah shit that's right you don't have internet here."
Despite the insult to her personality Nanahoshi continued with her questioning coldly asking. "Do the names Shinohara Akihito, and Kuroki Senji mean anything to you?" She asked in Japanese.
Perseus proceeded to roll his eyes and gag as if the conversation took a huge amount of effort to endure. "Typical Nanahoshi, always prioritizing herself and no one else, just like Perugius, no wonder the two of you got along so well. I wonder why Rudeus was so kind to you in this world. Yes I know the first name Shinohara Akihito you dipshit. As for the last name, nah I've never met him in the sixth sided world.
And before you go asking another stupid question I will answer it for you. Shinohara Akihito will be summoned to the six sided world during the time of the Playback Miko otherwise known as Riria. She was the one responsible for summoning you to this world. Her shear willpower tore through time, but since her rudimentary perception of time is so pathetic she caused a paradox, deleted a universe, etc."
"Wait what…" She began to ask.
"Do you mean by paradox?" Perseus said interrupting her. "About your theory that the future is keeping you from travelling to your world? Yes it is correct okay! Although here is the second fuck up you did since you are still here it means you are a perfect clone. Think about it, Perugius's teleportation device worked perfectly but yet the playback Miko and Shinohara both met you in the future in this world. That is a paradox between two worlds and so in order for the motion of events to continue the machine worked while the universe itself created a perfect clone of you to preserve the already fucked up time line. This world and the cosmos itself almost has a consciousness and you put ice cold peas in its porridge. So it went through all this hard work to keep itself from destruction."
"I'm a clone." She whispered seeming to break down on the inside when someone revealed that her life was nothing but a hollow empty shell.
"Wow! Is that all you can focus on and not the other words I just said. Well to answer your selfish question yes." Perseus said coldly. Then his tone changed to one of sarcasm. "Well not exactly, you are a different but equal version of the Nanahoshi that went through the teleportation circle back to Earth. When the timing is right you can go back home and you will most likely be fused back together with the version of you that's already on Earth."
She fell down on her knees like she had given up all hope.
"Don't do that. Think of it like you are a piece of the pie and a part of the whole. When the two versions of you fuse back together then you will be a complete pie again…. Dammit now I want Marionberry Pie." Perseus said. It was clear he made no attempt to comfort her, only spilling out the truth of her situation.
Then in a moment of despair she reached for Sieghard's blade to end her life but a stone hand came out of the ground and stopped her. It was Perseus, earth magic surrounded her and chained down her hands and feet restraining her movement.
"If you do that you will just be proving my point that the only thing in this world that you care about is yourself. And it will prove how weak you truly are." He whispered into her ear.
"What do you mean! So what if I want to end it? I hate this world." She proclaimed clawing at her restraints trying to break free.
"Regardless you will be forming yet again another paradox. The two people who see you in the future meet you and yet you kill yourself now. At that point this world is destroyed and has to make a perfect copy of itself, one where despite my words you choose not to kill yourself and continue to press on toward the future."
"How do you know of all this!?" She screamed out.
"Because I've already had this conversation with you Rice Cake." Perseus said, his voice no longer was chastising or sarcastic but soft and pleading. "Look at it like this, it is the second most important law in the universe, time must continue. And the multiverse will do all it can to make that rule happen. In most cases it just creates another branch in the timeline but in this case someone who has a false perception of time is meddling with it, that's the Playback Miko and without knowing it just put a thumbtack on the office chair of the cosmos. The two people that have used the correct form of time travel without having to worry about paradoxes is Orsted and Rudeus, they just hopped over to an alternative universe."
"Either way we are getting off topic. If anyone else wishes to fight me come at me. I promise not to do anything dragon ball Z or gurren lagann level, that's just not my style. I am a tactician and physicist at heart." Perseus said outstretching his hands. "But I will tell you this. None of you stand any remote chance of winning, I can make objects pass through my body, I can accelerate my body or decelerate anything thrown at me, meaning no matter how many opponents come at me I can make it a one-on-one fight."
Perugius wasn't listening in his fury as all of his remaining spirts, eight in total, descended onto Perseus. But Perseus just laughed at the approaching warriors.
"The only person who can pose a challenge to me is Rudeus, I thought I told you all that." He giggled sadistically like a child that was about to pull out an uno reverse card.
Almanfi was the first to reach him but he stopped mid air looking like he had fallen through a pool of invisible corn starch. Perseus outstretched his hands on either side of his body and clapped them together, in-between the mans hands was the spirits head which was still moving in slow motion. The clap shattered the head and mask of the spirit as more white blood coated the mans hands. The headless spirit collapsed at his feat bursting into shards like glass.
The remaining spirits followed in a similar fashion, having their chest get a cannonball sized hole created by the mans fist. Or a swipe to their head as he decapitated them. Soon none remained.
"Well that just about wraps things up. Anyone else?" Perseus said snapping his fingers, once he had snapped his fingers Karowante removed his hands from his mask being able to see again. Perseus was now stained with the blood of Perugius's spirits but none of that seemed to bother him.
"Man this must be what Riley Reid feels like every day." He said laughing to himself.
A hiss could be heard as the white blood began to evaporate from Perseus's body.
"If it's any consolation I won't come back to this world… probably… I just wanted to pay my respects to Rudeus and learn more about him before I continued my journey. But it would be funny to see your reaction of absolute despair again sometime Dragon King Perugius." A bright light engulfed Perseus and just like that he was gone.
Everyone was just left speechless.
Leave your reviews and I will respond to you all in the next chapter.
Authors notes:
What do you all think? I'm so concerned about your opinions on this latest chapter. I wanted to drop the ball as to who this person was before the teleportation event began and do it when Rudeus and Perseus finally met but this should add some well paced explanation to the new character Perseus. As for why I chose that name I figured anyone that heard the name would be able to pair Rudeus with Perseus that they are both brothers.
To summarize Perseus in which I gave the info on him and who he is in this chapter: He has no memories of who he was before he was born into the sixth sided world, kind of like Perugius's reincarnation being incomplete and therefore not being able to retain his memories of his life before he became the Armored Dragon King. Perseus's goal is to reach Rudeus and people like him to find out who he was originally. More depth will follow on this.
He will not be DBZ level of destruction. For example if he was faced off against a fight against someone like Perfect Cell he would just synthesize several nanograms of Botulinum toxin around the bug faced man that smells like patchouli which would kill him. To put this toxin into perspective a single gram in a cities water supply can wipe out the entire cities population. So ultimately Perseus is a big believer in using the least amount of force in order to generate the largest result.