Alexia

It takes me a good while to calm the two down, and even after that, they both won’t stop glaring at Ethan. Which makes me wonder why the dragon in question was stupid enough to even bring this up in the first place.

Seriously, does he have a death wish or something? Dragon or not, he can’t take on both Gramps and the Hound of the Apocalypse.

Even I wouldn’t be able to take them both on at once and would have to flee via teleportation. Although getting away from them wouldn’t be that hard at the end of the day.

Not that Gramps would ever hurt me. The Hound on the other hand, I’m not sure.

Either way, after calming them down, I go ahead and have Ethan fully explain himself to the three of us. And he does so without hesitation.

“Two decades ago, the most powerful seer amongst the dragons saw everything occur on the angel’s continent,” Ethan begins what is likely going to be a long story. “When a quantum being known as a Quantum Balancer jumped into the Hound of the Apocalypse’s body and decided to use him for the sake of rebalancing the universe.”

I hear a growling sound coming from the Hound, for obvious reasons. But he doesn’t do anything more than that. At least not yet.

Ethan grows visibly nervous, but he continues speaking anyways, “According to the seer and my mother, every quantum being has a role to play in the mortal realm and the quantum realm. And while the Quantum Architect’s role is to bring about structure to the mortal realm and the quantum, the Quantum Balancer’s role is to keep the balance. But neither my mother nor the seer knew what exactly that entailed. All they knew was that the Quantum Balancer – who was far to powerful for even my mother to stand up to – decided to take over the Hound of the Apocalypse’s body and frame him for the massacre of the angels that happened two decades ago.”

He doesn’t say anything else after that, leading me to realize that he’s done talking.

Okay, never mind then. That wasn’t a long story after all.

“So why didn’t you tell the Hound about what happened?” I ask for the angry man behind me.

The dragon scratches the back of his neck and answers, “Well, mother told us not to say anything. Said that the Balancer wouldn’t do anything without a good reason. Otherwise the Quantum Ruler would interfere.”

I open my mouth to retort, only for a certain Quantum Architect in the form of a bat on my shoulder to snap his eyes open with a glare and speak, “The Quantum Balancer does whatever he wants. That bastard is always interfering in my affairs, and father wouldn’t bother with interfering with him so long as he does his job. So I wouldn’t put any faith in him.”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Then he closes his eyes again and falls silent, as if the only reason he chose to say something was to insult his fellow quantum being.

Come to think of it, if quantum beings each have a role in the mortal and quantum realms… what would my role be? Culling people or something?

I’m pretty sure the System is trying to push me into its personal reaper or something, but what do the quantum beings think?

I stare at the Quantum Architect on my shoulder for several seconds while ignoring the shocked look of the dragon who apparently didn’t realize who the bat was. But the Quantum Architect simply ignores me.

So I let out a sigh and glance at the Hound, only to surprisingly find him having gone silent as he seems to contemplate something.

Hmm. Maybe that bit about his temper that I’ve heard really isn’t true after all?

Then again, considering that the thing he’s most infamous for wasn’t actually his doing after all, I guess I shouldn’t judge him by what I’ve heard of him. Although that doesn’t mean he isn’t still dangerous. He is immune to magic after all.

And magic is my strongest weapon.

Doesn’t matter if he’s my biological father or not. While I can’t say that he doesn’t care about me at all, considering his earlier apology, I can’t say that he cares enough not to be a threat in the future either.

“Come to think of it,” I mutter before turning to look at Ethan. “Did my mother know about all of this?”

Ethan blinks once and shakes his head, “Not that we know. From what our seer could find, she left because she believed your father had gone insane. And she didn’t want to have his insanity infecting you or your sister.” He frowns after that. “It also seemed to have significantly affected her trust in other species.”

Oh, well that’s not good.

“Crystal…” the Hound mutters with a soft tone of voice, making both me and Ethan turn to look at him, finding the man looking down with a sad expression on his face at his hands. Where I see a ring on his ring finger.

Does he still have their wedding ring on?

The image of the Hound of the Apocalypse I’ve always had in my mind clashes repeatedly with the one standing right in front of me. Especially when Gramps, to my shock, steps up and pulls the Hound into a hug and begins patting him on the back.

“I’m sorry, old friend…” Gramps mutters, making me begin to wonder if I’m in some bizarre dream or something.

The Hound tries to shake his head amidst the hug as he quietly says, “It’s not your fault.”

Huh. This is surprisingly heartwarming.

Then a System Message echoes in my vision.

{The Dimensional Champion and Leader of Dimensional Block #1000 has entered Dimensional Block #108. Should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1000 you may challenge the Dimensional Champion to a duel so long as you are still within the same Dimensional Block. The winner of the duel will therefore claim control of the Dimensional Block for their own Block and the Dimensional Wall between the Blocks will no longer require Authority to pass through for citizens of the Blocks. Furthermore, should your Dimensional Council declare war on Dimensional Block #1000, if you capture or kill the Dimensional Leader of Dimensional Block #1000, you will be given one hundred votes on the Dimensional Block #1000 Council for a single vote. One only usable for declaring Dimensional Block #1000’s surrender towards Dimensional Block #108.}

“Oh come the fuck on, just how many Dimensional Champions and Leaders are going to be crashing our damned Block?!” I can’t help but shout, startling the others in the clearing who didn’t get the message.