Xavier blinked. Now she was talking nonsense. He was sure about it. “What do you mean, too strong?” He didn’t think it would be possible to become too strong. Besides, he was still only E Grade.
What the hell was she getting at?
“The System tries to give new worlds a fighting chance,” she started.
Xavier couldn’t help but interrupt her. “A fighting chance?” He scoffed, opened his arms, trying to encompass the entire world in the gesture. “I’m not really sure that’s the case. The System let others invade this world. I was told the chances of it surviving were one in ten thousand.”
“The world, its people, they would have survived.”
Xavier shook his head. “No. It wouldn’t have been the same. It wouldn’t be under our control. And we wouldn’t be free.” He bunched his hands into fists, suddenly feeling an intense frustration bordering on anger. “The survival you’re talking about would have left this world and its people a shell of what it had been before.”
Adranial waved a hand. “That’s not what I came here to talk about. For now, Earth is safe. You’ve done a wonderful job protecting it. However, things might change. Fast. If you continue to call this place home, and continue to grow in power as you are, all you’re going to do is attract danger to your world. Danger that you may be able to withstand, but others? They will not.”
“What are you trying to say?” His fists were still bunched, but the frustration he’d been feeling was slowly draining. “What did you mean when you said I don’t have as much time as I think? That I’m becoming too strong? Explain yourself, Adranial.”
The woman dipped her head. It was clear she was struggling to say what she wanted to say. Xavier had never seen her like this before. She’d always been so self-assured and confident. Or was it a System contract that was stopping her from telling him these things outright?
“First, I have to tell you who sent me. Not his name. Not where he is. But who he is.”
Xavier’s hands relaxed. His fingers unclenched, opening on the table. He focused hard on the woman, remaining quiet, hoping if he didn’t speak it would make it feel easier for her to do so.
He’d never thought this would be something she told him. At least, not so soon after meeting her.
“I can’t tell you everything. I’m not supposed to tell you everything. But there are certain things… certain things that I’m allowed to say.”
Xavier let out a silent breath. It seemed like she was speaking without really saying anything. Maybe she was still trying to work up the courage to say whatever it was that she wanted to. But he knew that she wasn’t just here to tell him who’d sent her. She’d specifically said she wanted something from him, and then said he was getting too strong.
If she tells me I need to slow down… well, that’s simply something that I can’t do.
He couldn’t see how that would be in either his, or Earth’s, best interest, and if that was what she wanted for him, then he would simply say no.
“I’m a descendant of the very first Progenitor. The first True Progenitor. From the first world to have ever been integrated into the System.” She paused. “At least in this reality.” Her gaze snapped to him. “The very man you’ve been taking the top titles in the Tower of Champions from. He is the one who sent me here.”
Xavier blinked. He remembered contemplating who might have been the very first Denizen out there to become a progenitor, and whether or not that person could possibly still be alive. “But…” He trailed off for a moment. Closed his mouth. He was feeling lost for words, yet he felt like he needed to say something, despite having told himself he would remain quiet while she spoke.
It was one thing theorising about a person, it was another to hear that they actually existed. Not only that, that they were still alive.
“But how? They must be… they must be billions of years old. How can a person like that even still be alive?”
“My ancestor is a person you’ll find very hard to kill.”
Xavier shook his head. “That’s… not what I meant. I mean, shouldn’t he have died of old age by now?”
“When you’re as powerful as him, dying of old age is no longer an option.”
Immortality. Or something close to it. Xavier nodded slowly. That presence he’d felt… no wonder he’d felt so small when he’d encountered it.
He tried to contemplate what living for billions of years might look like. For someone who hadn’t been on this Earth for a quarter of a century yet, it was simply unfathomable.
Is that really who had been watching him? He knew he’d accomplished something remarkable, gaining those record titles, but even so…
The very thought made him shudder. He looked at Adranial, and wondered if she were here to warn him off gaining more record titles. “Is that why you’re here? To threaten me to stop gaining record titles in the tower? To stop me from getting strong too fast? So the old man doesn’t have his titles usurped?”
Adranial blinked. “No. Of course I’m not here for that.” The woman looked genuinely confused “Why would you think that?”
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“You said I was getting too strong.”
Xavier felt a shiver of fear run up his spine. There was nothing this man could do to him right now, but in five years… There would be nothing in this entire sector able to stop him from destroying Earth.
Hell, there would be nothing in the entire sector to stop the man from destroying every planet within it.
The communion with the otherworldly spirit… it had warned him of this. Or something like it. Warned him of the fact that the sector would be in danger of another purge. Xavier hadn’t used the spell again, even though he’d had plenty of opportunities and even good reasons to. It hadn’t been on cooldown for a long while now, but he was warry of his otherworldly spells since the Spirit of Vengeance had told him using them damaged his soul.
Something he’d been investigating in the weeks that followed. Something he’d found to be true.
“So you think I came all this way to threaten you on his behalf?” She smiled. “Oh, Xavier, do you really think so little of me?”
“Honestly, Adranial, I still don’t really know what to think about you at all.”
He wanted to snap at her to get to the point, but a part of him felt like he had enough to worry about that he didn’t need to be given more.
Though he wasn’t one to live with his head under the sand.
“Please, just tell me what you mean.”
“As I said, the System tries to give some sort of protection to new worlds. Give them time to become strong enough to defend themselves. But sometimes, the System changes things up.” Adranial eyed him as she spoke. “Sometimes, it’s given a reason to.”
Xavier knew that was true. That the System sometimes changed things up. It had done that to him on the fifth floor. He’d become so strong that it reduced the number of Mastery Points he gained from the enemies there. Something which stopped him from gaining as many levels as he wanted.
But what else was the System liable to change?
“The planetary restriction?” Xavier asked. “Is the System going to lift it early?”
Adranial shook her head. “No. It would never do something like that. But it might put a target on your back.” She tilted her head to the side. “In fact, it already has. Did you know there’s a title one can gain for killing a Progenitor?”
“I didn’t know that, but I can’t say that I’m surprised.” Xavier crossed his arms at his chest. “But what does that change? I’ve already put a target on my back. There’s nothing anyone on this planet can do about it. Not for five years.”
“You think the restriction on this planet is going to stop everyone from getting to you?” Adranial asked. “That the message you sent will stop every single world from having an interest in this one?”
Xavier frowned. “You’re the one who told me to send that message. Tell me, did I make a mistake in trusting your plan?”
“No. It was the best move you could have made at the time.” The woman shut her eyes. Sighed. “There are things I can’t say, so I know it will be difficult to understand. What I mean when I say you don’t have as much time as you think, I’m not talking about the restrictions on Earth, or the threat to your sector.”
Xavier stood up. “Threat to my sector? What are you talking about?”
“This sector has been purged twice since it came into being. You don’t think I did my research before coming here? The Empress Larona has an interest in you for a reason, Xavier Collins.”
Xavier shut his eyes. This woman was talking in circles, and so far she hadn’t explained any of what she’d meant.
It was starting to piss him off.
“If you came here just to frustrate me, you’re doing a wonderful job. Start at the beginning, what do you mean when you say I’m becoming too strong? Because despite you saying otherwise, it certainly sounds like a threat to me.”
“It’s one thing to be a True Progenitor. With the number of new worlds that are integrated into the System, it’s no surprise when a True Progenitor pops up, even if it’s something that tends to shake up an entire sector.”
She sighed. “But you? You’re not a True Progenitor. At least, you’re not only a True Progenitor. You’re something else. Something the Greater Universe hasn’t seen since its beginnings. Something we never thought it would see again.” She leant back in her seat, sinking into it. “But there’s a problem you face that my ancestor never did. You see, he was the first. Of everything. Everywhere. The universe wasn’t ready for him. For someone with so much power. There weren’t other worlds invading his as he trained and killed, because there weren’t other worlds yet integrated into the System. Most worlds didn’t have life of any sort yet. The System had to wait a long time after the birth of the universe for life to emerge before it could adapt it.”
Xavier bit his lip. He thought he was beginning to understand what she meant. “The message I sent. The display of power, not just to one world, but to two…” He looked away. “Are you saying it was too much? That I’ve shown myself to be too powerful? Your ancestor didn’t have other, established worlds with people at higher grades to worry about, but I do.”
She smiled. Not a warm smile, or a kind smile. More an acknowledgement that he was on the right track. “Exactly. Perhaps that’s my fault. Perhaps I should have warned you…” Her eyes glazed over, and he didn’t think it was because she was looking at a notification. She was just… staring into space. “But I didn’t realise how powerful you were. I didn’t realise what you were capable of.”
Xavier stared at her. Hard. He was finding that difficult to believe. This woman had had access to every single one of Howard’s memories during the melee. That was when she’d forced that System contract onto him.
Which made him wonder. Was there some way that she might benefit from all this? Was she angling for his demise, or something else?
“You didn’t know what I was capable of? You knew that I’d killed a D Grade before.”
“I knew you’d killed a single D Grade, and that was one from a backwater, weak sector. And the man was barely a D Grade. He was mediocre.”
Xavier struggled to think of the Lord of the Endless Horde as mediocre, but he supposed in the grand scheme, he certainly was. “You’re saying I did too good a job of sending my message, and what, now the whole sector wants to kill me?”
“Oh, I’d already assumed the entire sector would want to kill you after what you did, but that’s not the issue. Or it won’t be, when the System lifts the restrictions on this planet. I’ve heard reports that what you did, the information packet regarding it, it’s reached other sectors.” She paused, her gaze flicking down. “It’s gone viral. People all around the Greater Universe are seeing it, and plenty of them will be doing the math, seeing you’d only been integrated into the System for two weeks when you killed those D Grades. Those smart enough will know what that means. They might not know the extent of it, but they’ll know your either a threat or an asset.”
“You’re saying I’m famous?” He made it sound like a joke, putting humour into his words, but it didn’t feel funny. What she was getting at was beginning to sink in.
It was one thing being famous on a planet, or in a sector when you had the most powerful Denizen in it looking out for you—even if she wasn’t doing it in an obvious way.
It was another thing entirely being famous in the entire universe. Having other sectors looking his way.
It was too much. Way too much. For a moment, he couldn’t help but envy the first person to have ever done what he’d done, and how much easier they must have had it, not having to contend with other forces.
He gritted his teeth. Clenched his jaw. “I had intended to keep my identity a secret.” He leant forward in his seat. “You were the one who suggested I do otherwise. You were the one who suggested I send this message.” He tilted his head to the side as he stared into the woman’s eyes. “Tell me, Adranial, was this somehow part of your plan?”