For the first time in a long while, Arthur felt truly physically exhausted. His supernatural stamina had allowed him to fight for days straight whilst he battled with the hydra back on Earth, and it had effectively nullified any need for sleep that had been so vital before the system had arrived. Yet, it seemed he had finally met his match in the vast urban landscape that was the one and only true capital city of the Imperium.
However, to call it a city was beyond misleading. Whilst the majority of its inhabitants of Hergalexy lived above the surface, to say the city was only surface level would be a lie of tremendous proportions. Where Arthur and Maximus had landed, there was no indication in sight that the super planet and the city that was placed on it were in anyway different things. In other words, the separation between what was a part of the city and what was part of this planet’s ‘nature’ was purely theoretical.
Upon landing, Maximus had told Arthur that he had arranged an appointment for Arthur with a witch capable of lifting the hex of Lucas’ body, however, he’d need to find the witch by himself and bring her back to the ship as the Marshall had very important business to attend to in the Imperial palace. Arthur had not initially found much of an issue with this arrangement as not only would this give him the opportunity to learn about the city and its various important locations, but it also gave him a task to distract his mind with for the time being.
Now that he’d spent the last 7 hours running through the city’s endless streets searching for the correct address, he realised that the task of finding the right address in and amongst the endless rows of buildings would be nearly as difficult for him as defeating the adolescent hydra had been. Arthur had tried politely asking some of the locals for help with directions, but of those willing to talk to him, which was a surprisingly small group, none seemed to know the address he was asking about. Arthur had given up asking after the hundredth person gave him a wary sceptical look as he talked to them.
Not only had he had no luck finding the witch, but he’d also now come to know first hand what being a foreigner in a strange unfamiliar land was like. He came from elsewhere, and almost everything about him spoke to this fact. The way he wore his clothes, his accent, his mannerisms, and even the shade of his skin as compared to other humanoids. Everything told the citizens of Hergalexy that he was a foreigner, and beyond that, Arthur was a foreigner with an aura that was saturated with power and speaking with him could only result in more trouble for them and their families in their own minds.
Arthur sighed in defeat as he looked around himself and saw nothing that said to him that he was near where he was supposed to be.
Where I am supposed to be. Arthur thought curiously to himself, as the words inspired a deep self-reflective mode within him. He’d always implicitly known where he was supposed to be back on Earth, as he’d always been somewhere where he had felt like he was at home. Sure, the England he’d grown up in was very different to the England where he’d reached full maturity, but his feeling of love for the country that he’d been born into had never changed in spite of it. No matter his objections to the merits of the fads of the age, the essential spirit that had sheltered and nourished his soul had never abandoned him in his time of need and or doubt. Throughout his whole life, the one thing he’d known for certain was that England, no matter its flaws, was where he was supposed to be; where he belonged. Yet, now, all of that was gone.
His former homeland was nothing more than glorified space debris. If that. The single unavoidable question that followed from that reality did not escape Arthur’s attention, and he pondered whether he would ever find himself truly at home in the Imperium or whether he would forever have a void in his heart where his motherland had once been. Arthur had come to respect the Imperium, its wealth and power were undeniable, however, he highly doubted that its culture would become his to belong to and feel a part of. For quite obvious reasons, he felt literally galaxies apart from nearly every life form he’d met so far on Hergalexy, and the former butler doubted this would change as time progressed. Perhaps if he was younger, but certainly not now that he was already in his 90s.
The old man shook his head, he had to refocus on the task at hand – especially now that he could feel his stamina quickly regenerating inside him. Yet, this time, Arthur swore to himself that he’d try and be a bit more methodical in his approach and try and figure out how the locals navigated the city if they didn’t know even the smallest fraction of the city’s road names. He remembered as a youth using maps to navigate whilst hiking over the south downs, but so far as he had seen, no alien was nervously checking a foldable paper map for directions. Then he realised his mistake, and he seriously wondered how he’d not realised it sooner.
Arthur remembered the system-based map that he’d been given back on Earth and he could only guess that the locals possessed something similar. This guess however did not provide all the answers, as Arthur was still unsure where one was supposed to acquire such a rare thing as a map of an entire planet-sized city. He spent the next few hours searching for some kind of marketplace where he could purchase this map, but no matter how far he walked, and or how many people he once again asked for directions, he had come no closer to finding a currently operational marketplace. Or at least, not one that was selling non-illicit products.
Time had slipped through Arthur's hands and now a tiny blue sun was setting over the horizon and darkness began to cover the world. Arthur felt nothing but anger at himself as the city's streets became illuminated by magical floating balls of light rather than the sun, and an unfamiliar ocean of stars began visible in the night sky. It had been a while since he last felt so defeated. Arthur found it terribly ironic that it seemed the only thing he never seemed to fail at was the precise thing he hated doing the most, fighting, and that this newfound talent for violence had exacted the cost on him of potentially losing nearly everything and everyone that he loved.
A brief glimpse of a memory flashed in his head as an idea came to him. Maybe there was no physical marketplace because everything in this damn multiverse worked based on the system. And, sure enough, when he, for the first time, opened up the system marketplace, a number of system prompts containing infographics about many different businesses as well as their wares appeared. Arthur found an array of purchasable wares both incredible and somewhat frightening, but quickly refocused himself and brought up a prompt for an establishment that specially crafted full maps of the capital city - equipped with a search function.
System Marketplace
Balance: £2,845,780
Sellers Name: Hergaleasy Emporium
(Note from User Manual: Purchases made in the System Marketplace are subject to automatic taxation by the local authorities via the lord/governor module of the system. (Current locations' VAT rate: 20%))
Map of a City District (Select the District prior to purchase) - Price: £6.25
Full System Map of the City of Hergalexy (Premium) (Now 25% off! Limited Offer!) – Price: £31.25
Full System Map of the local galaxy (Premium) (Now 50% off! Limited Stock Available!) - Price: £925
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Arthur couldn't help but feel slightly impatient as even after having waited for at least 30 minutes, nothing had fallen out of the sky into his hands - despite the fact he had purchased the Full System Map of the City of Hergalexy from the store upon first opening it. He guessed that not only were the products and prices made by other sapient life forms, but it also must fall on them to deliver the product - which made the system marketplace at least somewhat less reliable than the coin shop.
As he waited, he lambasted himself for not thinking of purchasing a map earlier but quickly came up with a justification for his own foolishness. And, of course, it related to the enormous mental and emotional strain he felt now that he felt that he was so close to lifting the hex on his grandson. Anyone would stumble and make mistakes in my position, he thought to himself. A part of him knew his justification was definitely more of an excuse, but that didn't really matter to his nervous mind - it taking almost anything in the ballpark of a rational justification/excuse to just calm down and stop laying blame on itself.
Arthur was brought out of his thoughts by a metallic box the size of an old landline phone hitting him right on the top of his head. He rubbed his head with one hand as he picked up the remarkably intact box and began inspecting it and instantly realised what it was and began trying to open the box. However, this was easier said than done, as it were as though there was some kind of superglue keeping the lid of the box tightly sealed onto the base.
Then, a system prompt appeared.
Authorised User Detected
Open Enchanted Steel Lockbox?
YES / NO
Arthur selected yes and suddenly the metallic lid flew off its base and revealed the contents within. A small sci-fi-esque syringe that seemingly held no liquid was laid within the dull grey confines of the lockbox. Arthur manipulated the syringe in his hands for a few minutes, trying to come to terms with how an empty syringe was supposed to provide him with a map and he then recollected that he had been given his first quest in such a way. It seemed that for humans to actively input things into the system, one needed to actively input 'something' into their body. Arthur wasn't quite sure how that worked but it didn't matter for now.
He briefly wondered whether it was necessary to stab into a vein with the syringe, but quickly dismissed such thoughts and just decided to get it over with. He wasn't too concerned with tearing open an artery or a vein, or tearing a muscle, as though such things would definitely not be fun, he felt like he'd survived worse, and his healing was pretty monstrous at this point. So, with a sigh, he raised the hand which held the syringe in it and brought the needle down and into his exposed thigh.
A strange mix of pain and pleasure coursed through his leg as system prompt after system prompt appeared. Arthur, however, tried his best to find the most important one, the one informing him that he'd received a complete map of the city, and through the prompt, he brought up a similar, but far larger, map to the one he'd had back on Earth. The whole city of Hergalexy was displayed before him, and the sheer gargantuan size defied all logic. If the city was truly as large as it seemed, then it must have been home to an untold number of people from an untold number of places - making the most populous countries from back on Earth look like small hamlets in comparison.
Arthur quickly found the search feature and put in the address and felt his heart skip a beat as the map showed him his destination and how to get there. Without wasting a single moment, Arthur dashed in the direction the map pointed him in - desperate to see his grandson healed.
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Lucas was startled as he felt his consciousness form again.
The silent darkness of the abyss that had claimed him had now been replaced with a swirling mess of colours that screamed into his ears. He was not disoriented physically, but instead, it felt as though his very soul was being spun through a loop. He felt an overwhelmingly soft sensation cradling his back, but this only inspired greater confusion in him as he was pretty sure that there had been nothing so soft in his cultivation space.
Deep within his nascent soul, the boy wondered whether this was what the afterlife was like. Sure, it didn't fit any description of the afterlife that Papa or Mama had ever told him about, but neither had anyone ever spoken to him about a multi-verse spanning system and walking the path of demonic cultivation prior to Earth's integration. With the end of the world had come many new startling revelations, and so the idea that perhaps the afterlife was a mix of both incredible softness and shrill screaming made a kind of sense to his disoriented mind.
However, this notion was quickly rebuked as he felt a sudden rejuvenation flood through his body. It was as though the essence of life itself was being poured into his mouth, and suddenly the world became clear as day around him and everything felt... right - especially heartening among the sights around him was a somewhat familiar face whose gentle eyes held in them a sincere love.
Lucas felt tears form in his newly functioning eyes as he beheld the much younger-looking form of his grandfather. Despite all that he had gone through before his fight with the grand lich and during the aeons he'd spent being tortured in the void, he had never forgotten how sad he had been when news of his grandfather's death had reached his ears. He remembered crying into his mother's chest for hours because he'd assumed him dead, so to see the man not only alive but seemingly even more lively than before, his heart felt as though it were going to explode from warmth.
Yet, thoughts of his mother made him look around the room that he was in looking for her yet he couldn't see her anywhere. Realisations about what must have happened pierced Lucas' heart like daggers, turning his tears of joy into ones of pure loss and despair. His grandfather seemed to notice this shift, and the warm smile and gentle eyes that had first met Lucas' upon waking up changed and formed a facial expression whose clear emotion was a deep concern.
"My boy, what's wrong?" His grandfather asked, worry shining through every word.
It was a question to which Lucas couldn't yet bring himself to answer. No matter how hard he tried, his body hadn't spoken in months and his vocal cords felt atrophied, combined with the sheer depth of emotion he was feeling right now, he was completely unable to communicate using his own words.
His grandfather saw his efforts and realised what was wrong, so didn't press him to try and speak again. Instead, he turned to a strange-looking person whose head resembled that of a deer, and bowed low and said in what Lucas could barely recognise as the Imperial Common Tongue, "Madame Lola, you have my utmost gratitude for having saved my grandson."
The deer woman's face contorted into what kind of looked like a smile, and she said in a voice dripping with faux-seduction, "Oh it was nothing handsome, after all, your benefactor paid me quite handsomely for this small little service so don't think anything of it." And with that, she shot a smile towards Lucas, before heading out of the door to the room, leaving the grandson and grandfather alone.
Arthur sat back down beside Lucas' bed and sat in silence for a long few minutes before he eventually started speaking. The first words that came out of his mouth were a surprise to Lucas.
"My boy, I am sorry for everything." The man said in English before pausing momentarily, letting his words sink in. "I am sorry that I left you alone in that room back on Earth when I should have stayed with you. I am sorry that I didn't make it in time to help you and or your mother in that accursed dungeon, events and people just got in the way and by the time I learned of your fate you were already in a hex-induced coma."
The old man choked up before he finally said, "But, most of all I am sorry that your grandfather took so long to lift the hex that was placed upon you, I cannot even imagine the pain and suffering you endured whilst under its effects."
Lucas had never received such an apology from a parental figure in his entire life. In his father's mind, it had always been Lucas' role to apologise to him when things went wrong with one of the man's plans, even when the failure had little to absolutely nothing to do with Lucas in the first place. The experience of hearing the older man apologise was almost surreal, and for the first time since he had been much younger, he felt... loved. The man sitting beside his bed cared for him and didn't want to treat him as a weak and stupid kid to push around and tell what to do. This apology was genuine as was the love expressed through it.
Lucas felt as though his heart was riding on an emotional rollercoaster. Since waking up, he'd felt pure joy and utter despair, and now he was having his bruised mind touched by genuine love and affection. The two extremes were battling it out on his face and in his heart, a state of emotional turmoil that Lucas had never experienced before. Minutes passed in total silence as Lucas' rivalling emotional states battled it out in his heart until eventually, things began to settle down within him and two words just about managed to escape from his chapped dry lips.
"Thank you."