“So…”
“So what?” Mira asked as Kyrion, the young man tied up with various ropes.
Issac held his arms crossed. “Explain why you were on the news as some kind of super terrorist that kidnapped every world power at once, with an army of evil penguins.”
“Psh, do I look like I could pull off such a tacky get up? At worst they are chaotic neutral, whatever that means.” Kyrion clicked his tongue as he said more than he should.
“Are you going to tell me that you have an evil twin or something running around?”
“At this point, it wouldn’t be the first time and I wouldn’t be suprised” Kyrion sighed as a red hair fell to the ground revealing to those present that it wasn’t actually as dark as he tried to keep it. He didn't like what he'd have to do, but it was necessary.
“You are that demon!”
“Oi! I resent that! Just because my uncle is The Demon Lord, doesn’t mean I am one. It just means the family had more than a few skeletons in their closet. Also, it’s a position, and I have no current ties to it.”
Issac sighed. “I knew you were off but, summoned in a dark ritual?”
“I mostly came here of my own power, the spell you were using, just altered my destination a bit. It also separated me from one of my friends.”
“You have another friend on this planet?”
“I have multiple, one of my sisters have also been stranded here for a bit.”
“Now then…”
“Is Kilo really your cousin?”
“It’s a complex situation. Family yes, blood relation the way people here test it no. Soul relation, yes, he is partially related to my brother.”
“Was he aware of your terrorism?”
“Listen, I'm the good guy here. I just want to save people from their own stupidity by any means necessary, mostly through force, hypocrisy, and lots of cartoonish violence. I mean peace, unity, sharing circles and my homegrown herbal tea. I am the passive fist.”
“You mean pacifist.” Issac crossed his arms
“I know what I said.” Kyrion nodded.
“You’re wanted in half of the world's nations!” Mira yelled exasperatedly.
“That's a good thing. It means they want me on their side.” Kyrion nodded.
“No they want you in a prison, under lock and key, where no one can reach you.” Mira explained.
“What's a prison?” Kyrion knew but was playing dumb to prove a point.
“Do you not have jails, or laws?”
“Different nations handle things differently, unless you earned execution, you should be able to pay a price or spend some time working off the incurred debt. The really powerful can technically go wild with little consequences, but only the dumb risk the judgment of a true monster. Usually the desperate or idiots turn to crime. Not to be confused with evil, there is stealing to survive, then there’s murder for the sake of it. Though it wouldn’t be the first time someone threw me in jail. Though it would be the first time I deserved it. You didn’t hear that from me.”
“So your people kill. You don’t give them a place for them to rehabilitate? Like an assassin raise–”
“Assassins in the guild have restrictions. Unsanctioned assassination results in execution. They are also the people called to get rid of medium sized threats before someone destroys a city to ward off a rabid beast.”
“Ok. Why did you tie yourself up then place yourself here?” Issac stated.
Kyrion clicked his tongue. “Plausible deniability. If I’m tied up here at this time then who’s currently leading that army of mech against various institutions. I am very much on the side of what I believe is right.”
“If that's true. Are you the one who healed me?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.” Kyrion looked to a wall and towards a projector, an image flickering on, and a video was played.
“Recent News, the Angels of Peace are Engaging the Leader of Unity and Peace above Detroit! The man in white wielding a blade of ice, and an army of bird machines while fighting an equally large number of humanoid shaped tanks capable of limited flight.”
“That looks kind of like you did on T.V, but who is that?”
“No one I know, the penguin machines are also somewhat new. No, the other reason while I’m here is because this fight is staged by the Slayers of Humanity, in a panic. The machines are hastily put together and somewhat pale imitations of the real thing.” Kyrion raised his left hand as various rifts in space opened up all over the city.
“Any more secrets?”
“Quite a few, all of you draw power from me directly. I am Kaolad.”
“A patron. Doesn’t that make us warlocks and cultists?”
“I prefer followers. I am no god, just a human with absurd magical power and the ability to hide sandwiches in a domain.”
“What's a domain?”
“Oh, it's an extra dimensional space where I hide my things, and well house countless people.”
“Why not call it a subspace, since you used the sandwich analogy. You clearly must like subs.”
Kyrion bit his tongue. “It's too late to re-brand. If I suddenly start thinking about it like that, people won’t know what I’m talking about. But if I do get to make my own universe I will enforce the name Sub Space for all spatial storage spaces.”
“What kind of creature are you?”
“Hmmmm. Take Gaia and Cthulhu, mix in some Vishnu, then sprinkle in some Loki, and you get..”
“Get what?”
“Hemorrhoid that refuses to go away. That’s what I am. At least to my enemies.” Kyrion stated matter of factly. The expressions of his club mates however told him his meaning didn’t cross the language barrier. It had nothing to do with him sharing his parents' senses of humor.
“I hate that interpretation. Why reveal this to us two and not the others?”
“Well Kilo is helping his father and sister get settled, I had to kidnap Moca. Jin is an agent of Cerberus and Lee caught a cold.”
“I didn’t know—Wait you did what to Moca?”
“I kidnapped her. She found out too much and was going to have her memories extracted.”
“So you kidnapped her! What even is Cerberus?”
“You’ll find out soon, suffice it to say, it is now time to move out.”
“What?” Mira asked.
“Unity Rangers. You are going to be the unity rangers, meet up with Jin, fight off the evil robots then let Jin finish the job in his Mech. When that happens the real enemy will show up in an attempt to put me down. Your job from there will be to escape with Kilo. Suffice it to say there won’t be a city if you die trying to save it”
“What does that mean?”
“If any of you die helping with this assault. I will be forced to wipe that city off the map. I don’t take losses well.”
“Uh… We aren’t trained for this. Is it smart to send high school students to fight death machines?”
“And here I thought I’d have to knock you both out before I snuck away. Your actual job will be to team up with some friends from the west.”
“Where west?”
“Japan.”
The duo looked at each other and then back at Kyrion. “No, on the map it's to the east.”
“And on a globe, its both east and west. Not like you fall of the map going that way on a ship.”
“Don’t argue with his alien logic. What will these friends be doing?”
“Excavating a dungeon in Chicago and training you two in combat. In truth Moca and Lee are already there. I broke into his house, gave him a tincture then sent him to Chicago.” Kyrion stated, for a seer, Lee was the least paranoid of them he knew. To be fair he only knew of one other real seer.
“You gave him what?” Issac asked, confused.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Kyrion… is everyone In your world hopped up on drugs or drunk 24/7?”
“I wouldn’t know. People are people and by default unique. I can say that I have been on medication for much of my life along with various poisons to increase my resistances.”
“You're immune to poison.” Issac crossed his arms.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“There is no true immunity, just very, very, resistant.”
“How much is very?”
“There was once a master of fire, believed to be made of a pyre.
Till he took the flagon, then challenged a dragon.
His situation soon became dire.” Kyrion explained as a purple portal opened up behind him.
“What does that mean?”
“Everyone is potentially immortal until they die. Is a simpler saying.” Smirking, the young man jumped through the portal.
“Uh. What about…?”
A portal opened under Mira and Issac transporting them to a dungeon in Chicago.
Falling through the portal, Kyrion appeared high above the clouds and began the process of falling. If anyone asked it was so that he could switch into his uniform in pieces and make a big entrance. But in reality, he’d been fond of falling from high places since he was young, sure the last part always hurt but that time in mid-air was the most relaxing--
Kyrion fell asleep due to the weaker gravity not slamming him back to land and instead slowly rocking him to sleep in comparison. As Kyrion fell he felt his body heat up as his velocity reached dangerous levels without him interfering.
Like a lightbulb, Kyrion’s eyes shot open and he spotted his doppelganger. He could tell that they were a decently powerful esper but otherwise quite weak when compared to him. It was a shame that Kyrion would have to break his spirit.
Flames cloaked Kyrion's body and flowed from him as he fell, the power increasing as a mirage of heat mixed with the bright orange and red flames made it appear as though a long red dragon was falling from the sky aiming to swallow its prey whole.
The Esper noticed the drastic increase in heat a little too late as an elbow shrouded in flames slammed into his sternum with enough impact to turn the poor man to paste had anyone else done it.
The blast did cause a hole of cauterized flesh to appear where his heart should be only for that to heal instantly as a wave of healing mana treated the injury, but left quite the scar through his now unconscious form.
Kyion dropped his victim then looked towards the rushed-together robots and snapped his fingers causing every last one of them to explode sanctimoniously.
“I am the true Commander of Unity, and Peace, we are no enemies of the Angles of Peace. As of this morning prior to the meeting with the world powers I have captured their leader. This little show is but a dance being perpetrated by the Slayers of Humanity. This is their weapon!” Kyrion held up the wicked dagger Moca tried to stab him with.
“They are vile, wicked, and heartless creatures for they have done me and this world a disservice. They tried to use my brand without permission! You call that a penguin army? Bah, more a robot quail army. Also they kidnapped and murdered many of your children. I have proof.”
Kyrion snapped his fingers causing hundreds of purple rifts to open in space as Penguins armed with weapons that far surpassed the world's current military capabilities, took a stand. Behind the penguins, however, thousands of liberated zoo animals had been converted to the cause of Unity and Peace.
Twenty elephants covered in enchanted magical armor, blew their noses causing a trumpeting sound to shake the city of Detroit. Apes wielding hammers nonlethally subdued espers with brutal efficiency and cunning strategy. Lions, tigers, leopards, and other large cats ran around causing chaos with their gravity-defying harnesses, climbing walls to get to the rouge mechs which were soundly torn to shreds.
Kyrion turned to see a Psychokinetic Esper get blasted with water from an Elephant's snout as a constrictor snake wrapped itself around his neck and squeezed just enough for him to pass out.
Out of sheer instinct, Kyrion created a barrier of the dimensional divine essence and shifted every living creature from within a 200-mile radius into his domain, in suspended animation. Every human, dog, cat, rat, and bird, every soldier in the compound below, every monster in his army. All were protected from what was to come.
Not a cannon for a ship, no it was a ship-sized cannon and the blast that was released from the superweapon did cause Kyrion to shiver internally as he entered the space between worlds and watched as the blast engulfed his position, destroyed buildings behind and below him, opened up the sky penetrating clouds, and caused a few satellites in orbit to cease function. It then eradicated the moon in orbit, the blast continued to travel towards another blue marble in the sky. No towards a white rock right next to it a moon for some other planet.
Straining his eyes, Kyrion watched as the moon debris fell from the sky like a meteor storm. “Well that’s not good. Not good at all.”
For the first time in a while Kyrion broke into a nervous sweat. He felt the power, had the attack cut through dimensions he likely couldn't have survived it and he sure wasn’t going to give it a second chance. If he died, everyone he’d brought into the realm between worlds to escape the blast.
As Krion reappeared in the spot he was in after the blast unscathed he left every other creature he’d taken with him in the place between reality. For all intents and purposes, having appeared to have tanked the shot head-on. Panic shot through the people currently hiding inside the underground fortress. They didn’t expect to blow up their moon. Nor did they expect the entity to survive such a blast.
Kyion pulled mana from the area around him along with the nearby divine essence building and wrote a run in the air to gather power. From there he wrote a power condensing rune and placed it on top of the metal fortress.
“Awaken voices of earth and steel. Break free of your captors and bring them to heel. For today they have done the unspeakable, used the unsalvageable and committed a grave sin. They put me in a position whereI am now forced to win. Rebel spirits of metal and stone. Embrace your rage and tear flesh and bone. Forbidden spell number 6 Tectonic Cataclysm.”
A forbidden spell in his world was one with a casualty count in the hundred thousand thresholds and quite wide-spanning. Spells capable of wiping out kingdoms in hours if not counteracted.
What Kyrion did was not a spell capable of being classified as forbidden in his world as every piece of metal, dirt, earth, and stone, for miles around for quite a distance, suddenly vanished. Homes collapsed, buildings fell, towers collapsed, and the electrical grids were wiped out.
Cameras caught the feed and various outlets estimated high death counts under the power of such an entity.
“Now that the first part is done.” Kyrion fell into a crater over two hundred miles long and wrote a rune in blood over the land reactivating the leyline, as a series of missiles were launched towards his direction from a flying vehicle above him.
“Wind Barrier.” Kyrion protected himself from the explosions and projectiles with a rotating dome of wind around him.
The spell didn’t stop people capable of moving past the speed of sound when over-caffeinated. It also didn’t stop them from being able to block the missiles and take them down.
If Kyrion shut the barrier down the clones assaulting him would die, if he didn’t then the Jac assassins would keep carving away at him until he died.
“How did they get here so fast? No, how did they break out of my domain? That shouldn’t have been possible unless…time isn’t as still in there as I thought.”
Kyrion muttered to himself as figures blinked around the area firing weapons and throwing knives among other things.
A bowling pin broke past the wind barrier and hit Kyrion on the side of his head. The young man then appeared to fall to the ground where the various Jac’s swarmed him like starving rats on unguarded food.
In seconds the body had been torn to shreds as various sticks and crushed stones lay on the floor.
The commander of the U.P. had died.
“The end.” Yawned a young man with long red hair, green eyes, and a mischievous smirk. He was sitting on a chair sixty feet up in the air examining an egg roll. Back home such disrespect towards a foe would set them off. Kyrion had no respect for these foes, thralls forced to fight and die while being controlled by someone much weaker.
He took a bite as attacks uselessly hit a barrier of wind around him. “Oh, thats what makes them different. There are no rules for egg rolls. Next thing you know egg roll pies. Egg roll hot dogs! Taquito hotdogs! The potential is endless.”
The attacks stopped for a moment as the creature in the air didn’t move from their position above and crumbs fell upon them.
“Are you already done? Is this the part where I play dead or open your mind? Heads or tails. Heads I play dead tails I put the last nail in your coffin. Mr, Ol’atte” Kyrion held out a normal quarter and rubbed his thumb on the reverse side, memorizing the picture he then rubbed the opposite size and pasted the tail image over the heads as he wound up and threw the coin towards the cannon.
The unmanned cannon exploded outward as mana and divine essence covered the remains of the city, a loud growl erupted from the earth as lava rose from below ground and began to rapidly level the sitting pressing everything down and returning the land to a semi-natural state. If natural was a soon-to-be 100-mile radius of obsidian glass where a city should have been.
During the terraforming, the Various Jac’s had begun to panic as the red-haired boy seemingly walked through their group unhindered. Each and every one of them is distracted by the scene of destruction. Not paying attention to their foe, a mistake anyone fighting Kyrion would find fatal, or close to.
A series of headaches passed through the group and some even seemed to change appearances as people who had died or gone missing, regained all of their memories. With them distracted Kyrion forced them back into his domain through a one-way portal and locked it just in case. He had a city to rebuild and that would take hours, maybe even a day or two if he was indecisive…
“No…” Kyrion felt the mana in the air and scowled as it seemed to be made from the same power Milo used, only not as powerful. Healing would be difficult, and creating a city here again with this amount of it would lead to gruesome deaths for those with no magical resistance. They referred to it as radiation, here.
“This land is dead. The weapon used created something that shouldn’t exist in any world. Well. I saved the people by turning them into refugees. Ugh. If I try to do this by myself I’ll go insane.”
----------------------------------------
Teleporting home after the assault on Slayer’s Main Base, Kyrion found Cedric waiting for him with his arms crossed. “The number of missing persons is high, they say nothing could have survived the explosions that rocked the continent. Yet you come back uninjured.”
“It didn’t hit me. If it did, then I’d likely have been ash. I don’t recomend using a weapon like that on me in the future. Which is why I destroyed it swiftly and soundly. Only I think it was powered by some type of radiation. Humans won’t survive in that area for long, and monsters with that affinity will begin to show up sooner rather than later.”
“How many people did you let die?” Cedric seemed irritated.
“Hopefully no one died. But I won’t be certain. I’m not omnipotent or omniscient, so it is possible I couldn’t save some people. That initial explosion raised the temperature in that area above 1000 degrees Fahrenheit rapidly so most people in the area without superhuman abilities or durability would have died in moments.
Cedric seemed surprised. “How?”
“I wrapped the entire area in my power and moved every living creature into my domain. Oddly enough, the cannon still fired after I removed the people behind it.”
“Kid…What's wrong with you?”
“Everything. Be specific.”
“Nevermind. So where are all these people you saved.”
“My domain, there are a little under a Ten million creatures in there, most of them rodents, as for people a little under a million.”
“Did you save the ants to get the number that high?”
“No., I left most of the bugs behind. Sadly I couldn’t grab them all and save all the humans, birds and other creatures that couldn't escape.”
“Does time pass normally for them?”
“No, why?”
“If that’s the case then we can put them in one of our underground cities away from population. The first migration.”
“Right, I was told about those, and have visited one. Shouldn't I just build them another city?”
“Yes, we have quite a few prepared, we as in worldwide not just the western hemisphere. No to the city, we can no longer go backwards thanks to this spectacle. We can’t keep the masses ignorant anymore. Thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome If this world's key figures can show unity in such a disaster, chances are, they will get to keep their jobs. Also, I’ll need to activate the world's ley lines. Just by connecting my power to them I can feel a bit of power over that portion of the world, about a fourth of this entire continent. It isn’t much, but I can feel a connection with the planet itself and rewrite how much mana is naturally distributed.”
“Alright then. Guess it’s time to see your sister. Be ready next Saturday. Leave the rest of this mess to those who have to live here when you go home.”
Kyrion sighed as a Mai Tai, appeared in his hands only to swiftly vanish as a man in a red Hawaiian shirt nodded. “Thank you.”
“That was mine.”
Cedric drew a gun and fired 9 shots into the Hawaiian-shirted man who seemed unsurprised or bothered.
“And I said thank you. Now then, I still need you to do something.”
“What do you want?” Kyrion scowled as he felt his powers stop working altogether and his senses were greatly reduced.
“No matter what. Within ten years of returning to your world. You will need to bring back Cecil and Bella.”
“If I figure that out. What do I get out of it though?”
“The name of your best ally and worst enemy, the one who is a friend and a foe at the same time. For time is but a thought and he rules all of it.”
“What does that mean?”
“His title, That Which Plays the Melody of Time, Chr Col'chthoth, or Charles as you know him. By nature.”
“What is with that name?” Kyrion raised an eyebrow.
“Have you not been told of the Folly of Power?” Sam took a sip of the expertly mixed drink.
“Something about strong beings losing their humanity as they get older and stronger.”
“Yes. Your enemy isn’t Charles the person, but a version of Charles separate from the timelines you know. A being beyond gods, beyond most realities fueled by drive and grief.”
“Ah. Figures. It's always Charles isn’t it. How many villains get that name?”
“You don’t get it. Do you know why your souls are split between eight vessels?”
“No.”
“It’s so that one may grow and experience many lives and gain the wisdom to know when to stop. To know that the hunt for power is pointless for the sake of it. To know that there is more to life than murdering your enemies.”
“They did a pretty bad job at it.”
“It worked, until entities began bringing their own worlds to ruin, in their hunt for power and the incursions were created to limit people harming their own. For you, spirits will likely leave minimal traces after you progress far enough. For those using a natural beast type, it would leave some mental influence behind. For an elementalist they may become one with their element, while a tool user will find that what they wield is an extension of their being. Without a sword a swordsman can cut, a fan user could manipulate wind without it. Ect…Charles obtained his powers from being sealed beneath the sea. It has long grown, and has a corrupting influence on its hosts. The more he turns back time, the less human he will become.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I’ve lived a long time, kid. Since the previous earth was destroyed. When that earth was destroyed your universe or a version of it was reborn from square one. Things change but there is some repetition. Chr Col'chthoth is the being that destroyed our previous worlds, and if it isn’t stopped, can destroy this one as well.”
“I am not killing Charles. Do you know what sets him off?”
“Likely the same thing that would set you off. Despair, grief,rage, and lots of power. When Chr Col'chthoth comes it isn’t usually alone. A dragon larger than our sun moves to consume it while people begin to age or be de-aged rapidly as time magic drives the world to chaos.”
When the sun gets consumed people stop dying, but they also begin to mutate into beings of malice.”
“What do you call that entity?” Kyrion did not like where this was going.
“Who knows? Just don’t fall for that same trap.”
“I can’t devour the sun. Though I may be able to pluck it from the sky someday.” Kyrion sighed.
“Uh huh. Don’t forget what makes you human. Power is a corrupting thing.”
“Alright sheesh. I get the point. Don’t let Charles go insane with power otherwise I too may go insane with power and lead to another time loop.”
“Correct.”
“That feels like I got two requests. Though one is to do what I’d be doing anyways.” Kyrion covered himself in mana and teleported back to the dungeon where the others were training.
A red mech fell out of Kyrion’s domain as someone gasped for air.
“Huh? I’m not dead! What was that? How?” Jin felt his body in surprise.
Kyrion helped Jin out of the suit.
“Oh you're here? Where is here?”
“Did you not see me saving you?”
“My abilities are limited to what I can comprehend. Everything went black in my precognition.”
“Fair enough. I basically just ripped everyone I could out of space and time. Then accidentally destroyed Detroit.”
“You smashed Detroit?” Jin felt a crick in his neck.
“Well it was a giant Vehicle, so you could say I totaled Detroit.”
“Ugh… It’s a shame.”
“I know, I didn't have enough time to raid all the food stops during that fight.”
“Right…The food is the issue, not the hundreds of thousands displaced.”
“I mean…Fresh start for everyone in a new city if they so choose. I’m not the one who fired the superweapon.”
Jin held his head as his body seemed to glow, in seconds his muscle definition grew, and his height increased by two inches. His hair grew as well, much to his confusion as bangs blocked his vision more than usual.
“What was that?” Kyrion scowled as Jin seemed to absorb a bit of power.
“It says I leveled up 12 times from surviving that fight. Brining my total level to 16. Whatever that means. All my stats increased quite a few times as well.”
“Sixteen out of what?”
“Doesn't say. But I do feel a bit stronger.”
“Great. Now go catch up with the others, you’re in charge.” Kyrion yawned as he walked up the stairs and exited the dungeon entering the bar. He burned quite a bit of energy on that trip and would need to replace it. He hadn’t been banned from the Texas buffets yet.