0 A.R. (2020 A.D.)
And when I said ‘sure’, that’s not what I actually meant. What I actually meant was one of the following: ‘what the literal fuck’ or ‘are you fucking kidding me’ or ‘if you can . . ?’.
I couldn’t help but stare numbly. at the massive slumbering beast that could chew its way through redwood. To be perfectly clear, I was stunned that I had taken down this animal in a non-lethal manner without explosions or bloodshed. Nevermind that actually trying to accomplish something with this creature presented headaches one right after the other that I didn’t want to deal with.
Why did I say ‘sure’? Just had to shoot my mouth off. Why not Johnny? Why not say you can have a carnivore large enough eat an entire herd of buffalo? God I’m stupid.
But first, I just wanted to get some sleep and get on my way down to Florida, and second, I didn’t really want to be here when it woke up. Reasonable paranoia was screaming its bloody little head off, warning me to pop smoke and disappear from any area inhabited by oversized magical animals, and if I wasn’t dumb enough to do that, then the best option would be to put the damn living rock-tank-with-fangs down for good.
Gingerly walking up to the slow-breathing bear, I halted five feet away behind its snout. The sheer girth was awe inspiring but its breath was kickin’. Reaching out with my Mind Sorcery and wincing at the spike of pain in my temples, I carefully rooted around in its brain and found where the hibernation instincts were. Gently following them to where they were interwoven at the edge near where the normal sleep instinct patterns started, I paused again to double check myself. Weaving a small runic diagram of peace undergirded with safety and security, I wedged the tightly wound mana packet right between its instincts and put plenty of oomph into it, long enough that it should last for a month unless I removed it. Taking a few steps back, I gathered up my companions and quickly took them back to camp.
“Ok,” I started, making sure to keep my voice softer than usual. “No creature is dumb enough to mess with a bear that big except for us, and now it won’t wake up unless we do something stupid. I want to head down south and fast.”
“My lord,” Reeanth whispered. She looked around at the peaceful yet torn up landscape. “Is this not another opportunity?”
“For us to get eaten?” I whisper-snarled back. “Yes, that’s exactly what this is. Play stupid games and you win stupid prizes.” My pounding headache grew worse.
“Aw come on man!” Johnny interrupted, his voice barely louder than my own. “Can you see me riding that beast into battle? We could be badass kings if we wanted to! You got your flaming dog and I get a mountain bear, and we find something stuck up and chunky to fit your giant lady friend.”
Before another fight could erupt, I put my hand on Reeanth’s arm and squeezed just a bit. Her readied outburst died in her throat as I glared at her. “Now’s not the fucking time for this.” I growled at both of them. “I say we sleep and get a move on early and let the bear wake up naturally in a month and do bear things.”
Reeanth cleared her throat, her hands loosening as she reined in her temper. “My lord is correct, although, if it is still asleep when we return then it may be a valuable resource to harvest. There are many in the multiverse that would pay a handsome price for such a specimen. Mana-mutated animals on this scale tend to be rare, and can even be potent ingredients for weapons, food, supplies and alchemical potions.”
“We are not turning my bear into a goddamn rug!” Johnny fired back. “I’m gonna tame it, ride it, and we’re gonna be best friends!”
My head dropped into one hand as the bitch of a headache crept down from my temples into my neck. Throwing the full weight of my Flesh Sorcery’s healing at my headache, I stood stock still in shock as half of my batteries drained completely. Three deep breaths later, I figured out what had been hurting. Overusing my mental sorcery without practice or allowing it to fully integrate with my soul caused it to strain my nervous system. Parts of my brain kept swelling and then healing over and over as my magically enhanced natural regeneration battled the overuse of power. It took concentrated effort to fully heal the problem.
[No more mental stuff for a bit.] I thought to myself as I looked Johnny dead in the eye. Had to get refocused on the here and now.
“You ok man?” Johnny pointed at his own cheek. “You uh, got a lil’ somethin’ right there. Like a tear but darker.”
“How?” I asked, ignoring his second question but addressing the first. “How in the world are you going to tame that?”
“With this!”
A small flash of light pulsed from his staff that was currently in its short walking stick form. A small scroll popped into existence just above his hand and plopped down suddenly. My intense bewilderment prompted Johnny’s giggle. Reeanth and I squinted at him.
“My staff dude. It’s like a magical suitcase. I can stick stuff in there and this scroll came with it. Some mumbo jumbo voice told me when I was high that this could get me a pet or something, but I would have to choose.”
To my magical senses, the scroll appeared to be a completely normal piece of paper. I examined it in every way I could imagine and even had Reeanth take a look at it. The paper was a light tan color and its texture reminded me more of vellum. There were a bunch of black, silver, and blue scribbles on the inside that I couldn’t immediately decipher, but there was no mana or magic or sorcery in that scroll whatsoever.
“So, I’m going to do something really dumb man,” I replied, somehow squashing my surprise enough to formulate a coherent thought. “I’m going to trust you . . . even though this entire idea is absolute bullshit.”
Johnny took a deep breath as his face lit up. Reeanth quickly smothered his imminent explosive jubilation with her hand. “Quiet cretin! This definitely does not work if you wake it now!”
Sheepishly nodding while clutching his scroll, Johnny went really still to show he got the picture. His exaggerated tiptoeing almost made me trip from rolling my eyes so hard.
Reeanth snatched Johnny by the arm, pulling him back closer to us. “Good, now stay that way, or I’ll break your leg and kick the bear in the nose, leaving you here as a distraction!” She whisper-threatened, taking her hand away from his mouth. She casually swung her mana-maul around in her other hand to show she meant business. That weapon weighed well over thirty pounds and Reeanth tossed it around like a child’s toy. Johnny’s Adam's apple jumped up and down as he gulped with a hint of fear, miming zipping his lips closed.
Turning to me, Reeanth wasted no time. “My lord, is there a way that you can keep the bear mentally pliable or vulnerable? I believe that this scroll seems to be a Chaos based artifact form when the Ripple altered the Earth. It is also most likely made out of essence or Chi, another form of Chaotic energy. Cultivators use it instead of mana. There is a very good chance that this would work on the bear, and honestly, it would be an incredible asset to have.”
Looking back towards the monstrous bear and then back at me, she continued with her explanation, “Everything in the universe respects strength, and your strength attracts more of the like. It would be a waste and a shame to not take advantage of this opportunity.”
I took a few minutes to think about it as my two companions gathered dead wood from the surrounding area. Threats of waking the bear and assurances that I could keep it asleep sufficiently motivated them to do the work for me. The light from the enchanted lightstone was calming as sleep poked at the edges of my awareness, which I promptly pushed back with Flesh Sorcery. A giant bear, who would have thought? And besides, a giant armored bear, you couldn’t ask for a better playmate for Spot.
I really wanted to let Johnny have at it, but the simple fact that the scroll looked like nothing significant to me bothered me on a different front the more I thought about it. Does this mean that the energy that Johnny uses is invisible to my senses, kind of in the same way that my pure magic is invisible to him? He does his cultivation meditation thing and I can see in the magical spectrum that his body is changing, but I cannot see the agent or medium by which it is. It just looks like his body is doing its own thing, taking in a nutrient that I can’t perceive, and getting better because of it.
“What’s it really like out there?” I asked, directing my question to Reeanth who was building the fire. I checked to make sure Johnny was still sitting up on top of the wall surrounding the camp meditating. “I know the universe is big and all, probably in the way that I cannot conceptually conceive it, but . . .”
Taking her gathered wood and arranging it into a pyramid, Reeanth touched it and softly spoke a word. A spark jumped from her fingertip and the fire was lit.
“The many realms are not just ‘big’ my lord, but they are far apart as defined by how you understand space. Some races choose to brave the endless wastes of the cold void in search of new places to settle, while others manipulate space itself to shorten the distance. Portals, gates, spatial cracks, wavelength transportation, are just a few methods to name and the most insane travel by way of the Cosmic web.” Leaning back against one of the piles of dirt that I molded into the shape of a couch, she put her feet up and stared into the blaze.
“There are many ways to get where you’re going, but you have one of the safest methods of them all, the World Tree my lord. If you’re wise, that can take you anywhere. But that holds danger in and of itself. There are many realms above and below in frequency. Your people had many tales of what we call Mirrored worlds. Sister realms tend to be the closest in relationship, but your planet Earth has always been quite strange. Earth not only had the Faerie realm occupying the same space but different frequencies, but your Mirror Earth was directly across the sun from Earth. You simply couldn’t see it due to your technology’s shortcomings.”
I gaped in abject wonder with equal parts disbelief and terror. “What?! No way that’s true. I mean, the Faerie realm, sure, but the Mirror image of Earth on the exact opposite side of the sun? I call bullshit.”
Reeanth nodded once in the flickering light of the fire. Her grip tightened on her mana-maul. “I do not joke, my lord. Before the Great Rending, Earth and her sister Terra . . “
“That is terribly unimaginative.”
“Yes it is, my lord.” She said without skipping a beat. “Humanity also has its lows as well as its highs. As I was saying, this planet functions as a small nexus for a significant confluence of interstellar energies within the Cosmos. It’s not hard to go from here to anywhere as long as you know where to look. Your realms of Nirvana and Sheol are just as close to Earth as Faerie, but far more dangerous. Your ‘demons’ and ‘angels’ come from there. As far as my empire knows, their war is the only true constant in the universe. Theirs is the only conflict that stretches back consistently into the expanse of history.”
My eyes squinted as I looked at her. “Do you not remember Gav’riel?” I asked. “Big dude completely made out of light, you know, not a normal occurrence?”
“It’s completely possible to meet an angel or demon and not remember it. They are the undisputed masters of thought and memory manipulation. They’ve been doing it to Earth for millenia although most of you can’t remember it, only shards of vague memories seem to remain. The best course of action is simply not to anger them. A good example for you to remember is Sodom and Gomorrah. They were real, and I’m sure you’re familiar with that particular ending.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
A few suddenly tense heartbeats elapsed as I scanned my brain with my Consciousness Sorcery to look for gaps. Nothing came up, but that’s the kind of thing that really conjures up fear, the thought that someone can change or alter what fundamentally makes you you and you do not even recognize it.
I let out a massive sigh as I pieced my thoughts together. “So angels are real, got it, and apparently demons, but that was probably a given. But what else? Is the universe undergoing some crazy giant war, or is there some kind of intergalactic peace? Who rules the roost around here?”
She took her time formulating an answer, almost too long. Aliens are weird. I watched her, looking for any kind of normal human tic. She didn’t play with her hair, bite her lip, crack her neck or knuckles, nothin’. It was almost like watching something human-like play at being human but without the proper socialization to do so.
“There is much of the universe that is at peace, simply because most of those planes have some kind of Patriarch or LawKeeper that can keep the sector in line. Distance is another great factor when thinking about war; portals are far more efficient at interdimensional travel than ships are at interstellar travel and portals are far easier to defend. But as I said, strength matters. The Hungry Ones have their secret set of realms and worlds, and much to the multiverse’s dismay, no matter how many we find and destroy or liberate, they are like cockroaches. They always come back from somewhere, and they’re always at war with anything that lives. It also is not uncommon to find a completely untouched natural realm. Terra was one such natural paradise before the Great Rending and now it is a desolate wasteland.”
“Don’t stop now!” I spat as she went quiet. “What happened?”
She went pale. “Humans. We happened. Millenia ago, the Greatest ArchAngels of the Fives Churches, Mik’hael and Gav’riel, didn’t dare to break the treaty with the Desolate Legions and fight on Earth, but Terra was a perfect substitute. Almost nine centuries of the most vicious war with sorcerers and battle wizards with their golems and giants and dragons at the center of the fighting, the ravenous dead of the Hungry Ones simply couldn’t resist. Several of their Nightmares and Deathnaughts at the direction of Eelgatroth the Lich, the Holder of the Scepter of Pain, poured their forces through portals powered by sacrifices. The temptation of all the piled up mountains of dead was too much. Those corpses would have been realm-changing in terms of reanimating a demon and angel undead army. Due to this, both sides decided on their first cease-fire to burn the world to ash using wytchfire. Now, only shattered fragments of skeletons remain there to this day. It was a painful reminder to both the Host and Heathens.”
More flashes of memories that weren’t mine scraped the insides of my eyeballs clean for a split second before I banished the pain.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
Reeanth put her hand on my shoulder. “I would argue that after retrieving your family, you make your next priority to rid Earth of the Hungry Ones. There is a collective agreement that whoever is the most instrumental in removing the threat of the undead from a plane is put in charge of it. Again, strength is respected, but also rewarded.”
The fire spat angry sparks as the wind picked up. “Lady, I got bad news for you,” I countered. “As far as I can tell, the ‘Hungry Ones’ are literally my weakness in every way possible. The only true weapon I have against them is the big ass flaming canine. That’s one reason I wanted the Centauri weaponry even though it’s gone now, but I was hoping to maybe fill in some of the gaps for combating them. My guess is that light as well as fire hurts them, but it’s not like I have a specimen or two to experiment with.”
“There’s always the High Council of Witches. The Hags would do anything if you were to help them out with their little problem.”
I sighed again. “Assume I do not know what you’re talking about, please.”
She let out a soft chuckle as her eyes followed the dancing flames of the fire. “The Witches are an incredibly powerful force, almost half as big as the Centauri Empire but far more deadly. Known to be staunch allies but treacherous by nature. They’ve discovered how to preserve themselves into a mockery of eternal life, but eternal youth, that is what eludes them.” She turned to look me up and down and continued. “And Flesh Sorcery would return them to their younger, more beautiful forms. In fact, they may even want to trap you forever simply to keep them looking young.”
I gulped. “Uh, no. Not gonna risk eternal imprisonment for someone’s vanity.”
“You may not have a choice soon my lord. Their Amazons are most skilled at seducing and controlling men. They’re also one of the most feared fighting forces. They excel at hunting magic wielders and their reptilian mounts have fought off dragons. Imagine breeding houses full of viable men packed with magical talent whose only purpose is for breeding so that hopefully some of their offspring will have the potential to be a Witch.”
I fought off a shiver. “Ok, note to self, immediately flee or mindwipe Amazons.” Cracking my neck, I broached the subject that just wouldn’t stop nagging me. “Ok, well, what do you know about cultivators, like Johnny? I’ve learned some disturbing information, but it does conflict with other things I’ve learned.”
Breaking a stick in two, Reeanth threw it in the fire. She grabbed a few more, making a separate pile before answering. “They’re both respected and feared, my lord. They follow what we call the Dragon’s Creed. The older they are, the more powerful they become. Their hoard is their lifeblood and they’ve fought wars with pretty much every race in their search for items and objects of power. Their last great war was with the Riders of the Flame, humans who lived with and cared for the fire-aligned dragons in exchange for bits of soulbound fire sorcery. The Riders were a most deadly foe, the combined cunning and creativity of their wiley human craftiness supporting and directing the raw power and presence of a dragon turned many battles. They were the frontline against the Hungry Ones for many centuries. That clear stalemate lasted until a group of cultivators decided that dragons and their breeding grounds were meat farms and the sorcerers would be fantastic as magically bound combat slaves.”
“That’s not reassuring me about him,” I said, motioning towards Johnny with my head.
“My lord, cultivators occupy one of three areas. They either do not matter in the most literal sense when they are off contemplating the mysteries of the universe for uncounted years, or they are your worst enemy. But, it has happened before, they could also be your best friend and most powerful ally. It truly is up to you. I believe that you may stand a chance at shaping a young one if you play your cards right.”
“Fuck it, I’ve decided.” Letting instinctive impulsivity rule the day for once, I stood up and jogged to the wall where Johnny sat. “Get up dude, we’re gettin’ you a bear!”
******
335 A.R (After the Ripple) - (2325 A.D.) - Not So Distant Future
When traveling through Yggdrasil, one slip, one minor deviation in focus can send you careening through all the myriad layers of Creation. A left turn past the Celestial Nodule and you just took a nosedive into the Third Layer of Sheol. A vertical twist below Jotunheim’s Tertiary Branch and you’ll find yourself in a watery hellhole where everything attacks everything else with beams of light and cacophonic sonar cannons.
Which is how I can explain that I have NO idea where the freaking hell I am. I should have just turned around but the vivid drug trip of a landscape was just too tempting. How in the worlds? How in the dimensions? I don’t even know how to properly frame the usual question that accompanies genuine surprise . . . and I already know that ‘what the fuck’ is an extremely overused part of my vocabulary.
So I kept my mouth shut. For the moment.
I know for a fact that the brilliant author of Gulliver’s Travels couldn’t have come up with this. Tolkien himself would have murdered his own mother for this kind of fantastical inspiration. Green and blue clouds that tumbled across the angry violet sky? Volcanoes of ice and mercury battling for supremacy? Floating palaces of innumerable kinds of crystal adorned with unearthly gems . . . each one indiscriminately carpet bombing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
And why, oh why, oh why . . . are there dinosaur people here? How have they survived this insane mess?
And WHO the FUCK gave them rayguns?
I still didn’t say a word, just stupidly looked at the weaponized craziness as Kraken screamed as loud as he could through our mental link. It’s not his fault. I was watching Jurassic Park mixed with the Clone Wars and a dash of Terminator mixed in there. What I saw was burned into my mind forever. There were people riding the dino-soldiers, and that was only half of them. The other half had parasitic growths covering their eyes, ears, and parts of their skull, like they were controlled by mutant fungi.
A near miss of a few gigantic beams of light from oversized dino-soldiers with their respectively sized futuristic firearms galvanized me into action, cutting my fascinated analysis short. The blasts lit up the very ground that I used to create a berm to shield myself. This strange world’s dirt felt strange to me, as if my own Earth Sorcery barely recognized it and could only work at twenty percent efficiency.
Reflexively, I tried to tunnel into the ground but no matter how hard I pushed, it was at a much slower pace than usual. I couldn’t spare the brainpower while Kraken yelled something about ‘different Natural Laws’ and ‘Universal Physics Constraints not being literally ‘universal’’.
Translation: magic doesn’t work the same everywhere because some places are screwy.
[Back to the Tree! Back to Yggdrasil!] Kraken screamed, finally getting through to me. The feedback from my magic barely working was excruciating, the way it mauled my senses to the point I could barely think.
Multiple explosions targeted me underground, the sonic shockwaves completely bypassing my defenses in their reduced state. Blood vessels burst under the vibrational energy, wounding me worse than my last fight with a demon. Even my tools were strangely silent. Gungnir glowed dimly and Svalinn’s blade extensions could hardly cut through the dirt as I physically tried to assist digging through the alien soil.
Kraken kept shrieking while doing his best to assist me with my rebellious magic. [You are UNDERLEVELED for this zone! I don’t even know where this is? How are those sonic weapons operating with platinum antennae!? RUN FASTER!]
It was all I could do to reach a shriveled root of Yggdrasil, using all of my stored mana to force myself back into the hidden skein of the UnderVerse. By the time I managed to warp out of this wretchedly dangerous layer of reality and get back into Yggdrasil’s veins, I could feel the bombardment of energy still reverberating into the World Tree damaging its withered roots.
My Nature Sorcery pulled at me, claiming recompense, demanding that I take action. My Soul-Tree froze deep within the sheltered parts of my soul, reminding me that my powers came with duties.
My spirit-familiar shook his head, changing his mind over and over the longer he mulled over my shifting desires. [Are you serious? You’re considering going back there? It’s a hell-cursed death-trap for you! But you have to, Nature Sorcery can’t abide natural places being drained of life.]
I paused, still intangibly anchored within the dimensional river that was the real expression of the World Tree. My body, soul, and familiar hovered just outside the dying branch of Yggdrasil, one small effort of will away from leaving this wretched place forever, and yet I couldn’t. Something was wrong about that world. It was dying a slow and painful death.
Basking in the flow of purest mana, I refilled my stores of mana and reconnected with Gungnir and Svalinn who had gone dormant. My Mental Sorcery extended telepathic tendrils, rousing them from their unnaturally enforced slumber.
[If I’m going to do this,] I said, calmly setting my mind to the task. [I can’t approach this like a sorcerer.]
[Of course not!] Kraken agreed. [Your magic barely works out there! You’re lucky you escaped with your life!]
[But it works well enough just outside of that accursed place!] I said, grinning as my body began shifting. My Flesh Sorcery began exaggerating the dormant DNA sequences I had stored away, shifting my skin to grow thicker scales and undergird those scales with magic-shedding minotaur skin. Gungnir shifted in my grasp to become a nasty flanged mace while the left gauntlet of Svalinn swelled to become a half-moon shield with an extra blade extending out another two feet.
Kraken examined my new body, far less human under the efforts of my Flesh Sorcery. [Instead of outer expressions of magic, you’re going with inner expressions of magic . . . so this is the extra durable dragon-man barbarian version? This form already limits how much magic you can output by concentrating on cellular regeneration and muscle strength exaggeration. Even the magic you won’t be able to use just goes toward making you less vulnerable-OOOOOOH! That makes sense!]
With my stores of power refilled, my gear prepped, and a far more physically robust body at my disposal, I strode back into the midst of the fog of war.