High in the sky, on what might have been the top floor of a skyscraper. A man sits behind a desk, with a name tag of gold sitting on his desk, Ailill Dumnorix, listening patiently, as a woman expands on everything in her reports debriefing everything. She had almost excluded the magic she’d seen not wanting the FBI agent to think she was crazy; in case he wasn’t in the know. That ship had sailed at this point, seeing as she had put it all in her reports. She was berating herself as it wouldn’t take much to get her sent to the looney bin at this point. There was something off about the man, not to mention the office. It was filled with mana, it was moving. Extremely slow, but still shifting. She had not seen that before, especially with how much filth that covered it.
Alice felt like she had been talking for hours, as the man sat there and listened. When she finished he stared as he raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve read your report before. Gone to the time stamps you indicated in the footage for this, so-called, magic.” He said typing into his computer never looking away from Alice. Something was unsettling about his words, and the way he moved.
“Sir, it was there.” She said seriously.
“Did you know out of all the people monitoring Nicholas Knight you’re the only one to mention anything about magic blue lights, or an arrow? Or any kind of special effect?” He said as he turned the monitor around for her to see Nicholas Knight sitting in front of a magic circle. The one she had just mentioned. His hair was blown back, the glowing blue light there including the arrow pointing off in the distance.
“See right there. There was even wind blowing around him. Why wouldn’t they mention it?”
The man laughed, “Oh no, there was definitely something happening. The spontaneous rearranging and little items he seemed to create.” He pointed to the items in the image moving around the room. She didn’t notice them before.
“Why wouldn’t they mention the lights or energy?” Was I the only one dumb enough to mention them? Was I supposed to leave it out? The idea that mentioning magic in an official report was taboo. Didn’t even cross her mind. The thought she would sound crazy did. Well, I’m screwed.
“To answer your question. They couldn’t see it. Not something like they weren’t supposed to put it in.”
Alice’s thoughts ground to a halt, confused. “But…then why?”
“Why were they monitoring him?”
Alice nodded.
Ailill shrugged, “He was suspicious and I needed to see how he had my insurance.”
“Insurance?” Alice had been suspicious before, with all the oddness around them not to mention how the mana began to move swifter every time the man moved. Encircling him.
“ So tell me, Alice Bennet.” The man leaned forward his eyes intense. For the first time, she looked into them. They were old, so impossibly old, for an instant the image of the man shifted from a young forty-something, with facial hair, to an impossibly old man. He had a dry cracked smile. Old. Impossibly old. The man was a corpse sitting at a desk. Skin tight clothing clinging to his dessicated facade as he walked back and forth. He stopped noticing her look. His eyes blue jade stones. She blinked as the man returned. Those eyes though, stayed. “When did you learn to see magic? was it before or after you stole his book?”
#
Somewhere between one world and the next. In an impeccably sci-fi-themed room, with just the right amount of blue ambient lighting, unknowable slightly pulsing lines of light, and just the right amount of access panels. A man and a Doll, pretending to be an android, stand next to a circular console as the man began to push buttons and turn knobs as the images shift and changed.
He was shifting through planet after planet only stopping for a moment to read the type, Cultivation, Card, Magic, Rune, Devour, Morphing Grid, Superhero, Magical Girl, Grudge, System, Anit-System, Symbiote, Science, Virtual, skill, and so many more. Then each one had a subcategory, making the number of options so much more than Christopher could have even thought.
Christopher turned to the small android, to confirm something, “I can pick any world I want?”
“It is an infinite multiverse.” She confirmed.
If that’s the case. “Could I pick my world with a system?”
The android bounced seeming to think, “I suppose—”
“Wait.” If it’s an infinite multiverse, “Could I do my world where we just got the system? And I just get to have my own apocalypse adventure”
“You could.” The robot giggled, “But you’d also have a double of yourself.”
Then one where another copy of me suddenly disappeared right before it all happened. Gone to his own adventure to another world.” There was no way it was that infinite. Unless. He looked down watching the robot think. Realizing that infinite might actually be infinite.
“I guess.” She sounded disappointed, “If that’s what you want.”
Unsure of how to respond, he turned back to the screen. Clicking on a tab called custom, he could see where he could put in his own parameters. The options seemed endless when he reached a class option. “What’s this?”He asked pointing towards the page, the android stepped forward to look. “I can make my class?”
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“I don’t normally tell people this but seeing as you’re going through the options. Anything you do here you won’t necessarily remember why you chose that, that you should choose it, it is also possible that you will pick something that will fully take you off the path you make here. Your experiences down there might completely change your mind. Also if you make a class from scratch it will be available to others and the new world’s system, if it is a system, may adapt to it.”
“But if I set up the perfect path, why wouldn’t I follow it?” It wouldn’t make sense if I created it to fall off.
The android rolled its eyes, “You won’t remember why you set them up. Especially, if they synergize with things later on, and are not immediately useful.”
“I wouldn’t do that?” It was his life he would look at the long game. Even if he didn’t remember he knew he would create a plan and stick to it.
“If its the difference between life and death? Or perhaps, it would let you avoid a beating, or an upcoming fight. Something that could take years to level or reach the stage that the skill or ability is actually viable. You’d have to survive long enough to use it. Look at the hole picture.” She said as she gesture up at the floating image of a blue world reminescent of his own. Right next to it was a label:
System.
Details:
Level by skill leveling.
Level Speed: Speed slow.
Average Level: 5
Highest Level: 20
Max: 100
Seeing the Details Chris was starting to realize he would need to be much more detailed then he realized. “Good advice. What about a cultivator world?” He wondered as he began to dig through the system. To find out what he would make his next life.
“Looks like your going to be a while take your time. And when your ready hit that red button and step through any door. Before that there is a library and food in the cafeteria.”
With that the little robot steped outside, and Christopher began to research his perfect world.
#
Alice stared at the man, or was it a corpse? Terrified at what was happening. What have I gotten myself into?
“Well?”
What do I do? She debated internally for a while before finally settling on the truth. “Both.”
“Oh, that’s very interesting. I take it you lost the ability during your childhood at the institution.”
How did he know? That was expunged from her records. “Yes. Then after I read the first page I could see again.”
“So it doesn’t grant what isn’t there?” He asked eyebrow raised, then reached out a hand to the book sitting on the desk. The one filled with magic.
“Sir.”
Ailill paused raising a curious eyebrow, “Yes?” He asked holding the book in front of him.
“It. It knocked me out when I first tried to read it.”
“How thoughtful. Let’s see if I react the same.” The energy in the room began to swirl over Ailill as he opened the book. The man seemed to freeze in place as his glamor fell away, leaving the desiccated corpse in its place. An embalmed mockery, of life as a deep polluted whirlwind of power grew thicker and thicker.
#
A man and a witch sit having a nice lunch at the mall across from a familiar skyscraper. A place they had recently been ushered out of. The woman, Jillian, was starting to think the strange magic man sitting across from her, despite sounding crazy was kind of fun. When she first helped him in a coma, she never expected him to come to her with something insane, impossible, yet somehow plausible.
It was exciting a mystery, that she got to help solve, not to mention use magic. She rarely had a reason outside her nursing job. Ninety percent of the time she was just a simple travel nurse. No one ever called her for crystal healing thinking it was bogus. Though she couldn’t blame them, most crystal healers were. She just so happened to be magic. Now she was sitting next to Nicholas learning some new things.
“Ok.” She said taking a bite of her. “So let’s say everything you’ve told me is true.”
“It has been.” He replied dipping his sandwich in au jus sauce.
“Fine let’s say everything is true and you are this powerful inter-dimensional person who controls the destiny of Heroes. And from the context you provided, literary Heroes appear in other worlds. Like in Anime.” She pointed her sandwich at him, “Something that sounds insane without a company directing them.”
“You really like exposition.” He said before taking a big bite.
“It’s for the drama.” She said seriously. It also helped her get her thoughts in order. “Now let me finish.”
Nicholas gestured for her to finish.
“A shadow company expanding worlds.”
“Universes.” He corrected.
“Universes.” She acknowledged.
“And conceptual realities, nonrealities, never wases, have always been, what might possibly be's.”
“Poetic nonsense.”
“That too.”
“Insanity.” She glared at the man. “Something you could easily prove but then I’d essentially be dead.”
He shrugged finishing his sandwich, “Pretty much.”
“Now assuming I believe you.” Something she actually hoped was true. It would mean there was so much more out there. Stuff she never could have imagined. She continued, “Why tell me? You barely know me. I understand the little you told the coven and whatnot. But why tell me? Even offering to let me read this book filled with vast magical power.” That was definitely something she was worried about. Especially if it came with some kind of price. Though he could just be using it to hit on her, which she hadn’t quite yet ruled out.
Nicholas looked at her smiling, “That's simple. It’s because I don’t know you.”
“Now you’ve lost me.”
Nicholas laughed, “I don’t know you. You don’t know me. There’s no baggage either way. I have no reason to hide anything from you. It lets me unburden myself and possibly help people. I like it when I help people. Give them a chance, it’s probably a flaw of some sort. Also, who would you tell, who’d even believe what I told you? We both know I sound insane and — thank you by the way — for listening to me.” His smile looked a little sad to Jillian. His story still felt a bit unbelievable. “It’s nice to just say what I do without obfuscating it. And you looked happy about reading it and I can give you that with little to no cost. So why wouldn’t I?”
“That was a bit of exposition yourself.” She eyed him as he took a sip from his drink trying to understand. “Still can’t tell if you’re naive, a genius, or insane.”
“Why not all.”
She leaned back in her chair laughing, “Ha. So after lunch we done with the search or you got something else?”
“How about you come with us.” A group of men in well-pressed black suits stepped out of the restaurant surrounding them both. “Well, shit.” Maybe he is telling the truth.
Nicholas took a bit longer to process what was happening before he laughed, “And that is bingo on my magic world bingo card.” Nicholas took out an honest to goodness bingo card, and marked a square. As the two stood from the table to follow the nice men in suits.
* * *