Chapter 31
Don’t Mind Me
Everything was going smoothly. Even our getaway plan of me being princess carried by the Iron Butterfly was going well. Her wings were impressive I had to give her that. They seemed to deny gravity and physics as they bent and pushed us ever upwards. Every so often we would take a quick rest in the thick branches of the world tree. This might be considered sacrilege under most circumstances, but with the city and likely whole world of Endar burning around us, I don’t think anyone would care. Or if they did care, they had every right to come here and complain to my face; where I would promptly then kick them and throw them down the world tree.
Panting.
Rayquel was panting. During these breaks I made sure to give her the full complement of my magic. Cleanse, Healing, Create Air. After a few seconds of this, her body would generally relax and recover easily. I tried to do this while she was moving, but her wings had an odd effect with magic. While flapping her wings seemed to absorb the energy around her. This of course made casting healing spells very tough, while we were moving.
In a way her wings were a perfect system of death and killing. He wings would draw in the ambient energy of spells around her, which her body would then absorb and redistribute out as spell boosts. Most of her spell boosts went to increasing her lift ability. I offered to provide more spells during her flight, but she quickly denied that stating the one time I did it was so much energy that it threw off her balance.
So now we have a system, fly up a few hundred feet, rest, cast healing spells, then repeat. We are a good thousand feet up in the air and still have a bit to go. This tree is impressive. Even while dying it is still a picture of power and poise.
“Incoming.” Rayquel says, gesturing behind me.
By this point I don’t even have to look as I can feel the minds of the different creatures. Now I would like to say that I didn’t even turn around because I thought it would look badass to take out an entire fleet of the floating monsters without looking. It did, I knew. But that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t turn my head. By this point I was feeling the jitters of mana exhaustion, my mind was trying to process everything using the minimal amount of energy needed to do each task. I had the ration bars, but even if I ate them now, they wouldn’t do anything for this fight. Instead, I just focused on the individual minds and blinked them out of existence one by one.
A look of relief filled Rayquel’s face, until she got a noted look of concern.
“Why didn’t you get the big one?” She asks.
I mentally felt for a mind, even doing the tricks I had practiced finding the cloaked Endarian minds, but nothing appeared. I turned to look where she was looking, and whoom.
A branch, a fucking ancient tree branch, was broken off and used as a spear to stab at me. I was so taken aback that I didn’t even register the attack at first.
Not even thinking I ducked out of the way.
“Oof!” Rayquel, who had been right behind me, groaned as she was impaled by the branch. A branch that if I hadn’t been so mentally exhausted, I could have caught and hurled back with my own Telekinesis-X.
Now I was mad. Not only could I not detect this creature’s mind for whatever reason, but then he had the audacity to use my own power against me?
Rayquel began to fall. Mentally I kicked myself, as I clearly needed her if I was to get out of this in one piece. I did a number of things all in unison. First, I grabbed her with a Telekinetic-X hand. Then I used a second hand to grab and remove the branch that was impaling her. Then with the branch removed I cast Cure Wound on her body. All of this took less than the time to describe the actions.
The only problem was I was already mentally tired. My refusal to eat the ration bars earlier was coming back to haunt me now. Also, I looked up to where the horror had begun its attack, only to find empty air.
Damn it, the monster could shield its mind, use Telekinesis and fly? This was too much.
Whoosh.
Flames erupted up around me. Given that we were in a tree, a very large, very dying tree with plenty of bald spots this high up, this was a big problem. Okay, maybe resting in the great sacred tree was a bad idea. But now I was pissed. This jerk had the audacity to use Pyrokinesis against me?
“Oh no. No, no, no!” I shouted as I mentally placed Rayquel at the base of the tree while I let go of Telekinesis-X and switched to Pyrokinesis-X. If this guy wanted to test out powers, I was all for testing out powers. I had just given myself an Omega class upgrade and was ready to see how I now fared against others. Mentally I reached out and placed my will over the flames. This was a simple enough task, and soon I controlled the flames and removed them from the tree itself. This is the equivalent of creating a flame over your palm, versus on your palm. One looks badass, the other means you need to see a healer.
I raised the fire up, looking to hurl it at my attacker. Only to realize swoosh.
Another tree branch was coming right at me. Again, the limitations of magic, only one spell from one branch could be used at a time. This meant that if I wanted to wrestle control of the branch that was being pushed Telekinetically at me, I needed to drop the flames I had just gained control of.
Taking a split second longer than necessary I blinked the flames out of existence, then turned my attention to the branch. That split second was all my attacker needed.
Whoom!
I heard the slicing of air around the branch, a split second before it hit. This is what it means to have exceptional Perception. You can hear death coming just before it takes you.
Pain. Unimaginable pain filled my mind as the giant fist sized stick pierced my abdomen and then continued to drive forward as I was impaled on the shaft of wood.
Even dying and being used as a implement of death I could feel the energy of the world tree inside the broken branch. Even as a hollowed shell of its former glory this branch still had power. I felt that, with every fiber of my being. Then I felt the branch as it was slowly being turned in my body. Mentally I cast Nullify Senses. This was the most humane spell I had at my disposal, and it was often one of the first taught to healers. This as its name implies just cuts off the parts of the brain that can feel and respond to pain. I needed it right now, as I had a giant dick of a monster to kill.
My eyes scanned wildly, until I saw it, a dark humanoid form. I think the shape of the monster was what caught me by surprise more than anything. Before when I had first looked for the monster, all I saw was a dark blur. But now seeing the dark monster, I was reminded of the old renditions of the grim reaper coming for one’s soul. The monster had a exoskeleton hood that came up over its head, much like a cobra’s hood. The only difference was that this was thick and was clearly capable of withstanding the pressures of space.
The beast even had glowing white puss filled eyes that looked like tiny balls of smoke more than anything. Looking at the creature I was surprised, but my thoughts of trying to identify characteristics of the creature was quickly cut off as the bastard had switched attacks again.
Whoosh!
Once again flames erupted up around me. This time I didn’t bite, instead I focused on the monster and using all my newly gained Telekinesis-X powers I squeezed. The monster might be able to hide its mind, but that didn’t mean much when I could see the creature. I watched as the monster’s body began to crumble from the shape of a long thin man, into a tiny ball.
Flames burnt me, which I quickly tried to douse with my limited ability with water. This did little more than overtax my mind that was already at its limits, but I focused. My mind went to the point of exhaustion and beyond. I felt my adrenal glands ignite, giving me just that little bit more of focus and energy. With my second wind from the chemicals that were coming to life within my body I focused and crushed the monster until it was the size of a basketball. A full humanoid shaped monster, brought to the size of a basketball, there was no way to come back from that. But just to be certain, I then cast the ball on fire.
Not my smartest move. The reason it wasn’t my smartest move was that the beast was already likely dead. And as was noted earlier I can only perform one mental attack at a time. Thus, switching from Telekinesis-X to Pyrokinesis-X caused the previously floating monster to catch on fire and then plummet. That’s right, a burning ball of monster fell and began crashing through different’ branches of the dying world tree.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
I really hoped no one was recording this, as I’m pretty sure setting the world tree on fire, is listed as a universal hate crime in some way. Even if I had fully justifiable means as to why I did this, the result is the same. Oh well, maybe I could claim that last spell wasn’t mine, but was his? Its? I don’t know what pronoun to use to describe an inter-dimensional monster that resembles the grim reaper and can fly.
I am exhausted. A quick glance down shows that while the burning ball did touch the branches below, none of them caught fire. Also, it appears that the ball soon stopped burning due to how quickly it was falling.
Sighing from exhaustion, I relax and nearly collapse against the tree.
At least that had been the plan before, squish. The three-foot-long fist sized tree branch that had impaled me was jostled free as its pointy end, that was out my backside pressed against the tree trunk.
“Right, this stupid branch.” I say to myself near delirious with exhaustion.
I feebly grasp at the branch, trying to remove it manually. I know I could use Telekinesis to remove it, but right now my mind is like mush, and I can’t even focus. Besides I’m saving what little energy I have left on my own healing spell.
Blood wet slippery hands grasp and try to remove the shaft that I have been impaled with. I am so focused on my own trying to remove the stick that I am surprised when the shaft is removed almost entirely.
“You need to eat.” Rayquel says, her own stomach fully healed. Apparently, she had healed up enough to come and help me not bleed to death. This was good as I was close to healing my body around the damn world tree branch. I nod, first using the last of my mental energy to cast a healing spell on me. Then I reach in my pocket and pull out a ration bar.
I don’t even look at it as I peel off the wrapper and begin chewing down on a substance that tastes like lightly sugared cardboard and woodchips. A flavor that quickly turns to glue in my mouth. Still, it is heavenly as my body is craving something, anything. Somehow, I manage to eat the entire thing, I would be impressed with myself, if I could manage such intricate thoughts.
A cool breeze begins to blow, and I let my mind relax slightly as I wait for the food that I managed to swallow to slowly make its way down my throat.
Flip, flap, flutter.
The ration bar wrapper that I had been clinging to, began to fly away.
Movement.
With a quick movement, Rayquel lunges past me, her hand out swiping for the ration bar wrapper that is gently rolling on the wind. She is about to go off after the wrapper, but then looks at me and decides to stay with me instead.
Seeing me, her face changes entirely and I can see concern? Again, Endarian faces are hard to read.
“Do I look that bad?” I ask.
“You just littered on the world tree.” Rayquel says, gesturing to where the wrapper blew off to. At that, I just laugh. It is a deep and pain filled laugh as even now, even with my senses dulled, my healing body still hurts.
“I guess I did.” Is my only response, as a smile crests my lips. With that I am so tired, that I just shut my eyes, not caring if this is it. If I die again, well I just hope I don’t wake up. My last thought is of me falling to my death, falling, and striking every branch of the world tree before I finally hit the ground. It is a mildly concerning thought but made even worse as it would only be the fourth worst death I experienced thus far.
I close my eyes and am immediately embraced by the gentle caress of an empty mind.
Darkness.
***
Beep, beep, chime.
I awake in a hospital of some kind. I guess Rayquel saved me.
Chime.
That chiming sound is super annoying, I think to myself as I try to regain my thoughts and senses. I feel exhausted, almost beyond exhausted really.
An orderly comes into the room.
“Oh, you’re awake.” A voice speaks up. Something is off about the voice. It takes me a second to realize the voice is speaking English. This means I am at a human hospital. I think. As I force my eyes open and view the male nurse.
“Where?” Is all I get out.
“You are on the First Fleet’s Flagship, the Khardashian.”
I nod, nothing but the best for the first fleet. Still, I am wondering why I deserve to be on such a ship.
“One second,” the nurse says after turning off the chime. “I will be right back with the doctor.”
Hearing that I nod, though that was apparently a bad idea, as my head starts to pound from the movement.
I wait and wait. Then finally I am just about to pass out again when.
Knock, knock.
Of course, this is how it always happens with doctors. Then before I have time to respond, the doctor comes in. At least that is who came in at first. But soon the room is filled with several faces. Some are human, some are Endarian. A few I know from my previous lives, or visions of past lives. However, there is one face that is new, but surprisingly familiar.
Everyone enters, but my eyes remain locked on her face.
“I wanted to thank you personally for what you managed to do for our people. We thought it was just a good PR stunt. To send you two in together to gather the world tree seeds.” General Fellina began. “But then seeing how the world tree reacted to your presence, even going so far as to mark you with its special blessing. That proved that you were one to take note of. This is why, we offer this to you.”
The General said, holding out the smallest of the seeds, the one that nearly gave me a concussion. I awkwardly smile, but soon realize there is a drone hovering to take a wide angle recording of this. I try to smile, but don’t quite know how it appears. So many thoughts go through my mind.
“We only have one condition. This seed can only be used on Endarian soil.” The general said, making sure to lock gazes with the other human officers who were gathered around.
Looking at her, I almost wonder if she knows my true story, about how I am not from here. About how the world tree from my universe was destroyed over a millennium ago.
“Thank you.” I speak.
With that General Fellina smiles brightly, placing the seed down next to me in the bed. Then an attendant comes up with a stick that has a big red crimson stain on it. The stick is instantly recognizable and seeing as I can see my handprints from where I desperately tried to remove the stick from inside me, I can tell this one is mine.
Seeing the recognition in my eyes the General nods and then begins a speech. “This is a branch from the world tree. As you can see there were originally two branches like this.” The general began and pointed to a second stick that was being firmly held in the hands of Rayquel, the Iron Butterfly, who had her wings on full display. Clearly this was an organized press conference. I likely had some type of concoction pumped in me to force me awake at this exact moment, I think as I look at the dripping vine of fluids that is still wedged into my arm.
“A new form of Prolaxian appeared out of nowhere. Like the others of its kind, it could fly. But unlike others it had multiple mental attacks it could call from. Seeing the monster trying to destroy the world tree, our two heroes fought valiantly. First wiping out a wave of the scourge, then fighting this new Scourge General that was the embodiment of death itself.” The general began, as a close of the monster appeared.
Well close of what was clearly a body camera image of the monster. Looking at it, the monster had to be from my camera, as I remember getting that exact look.
“We will now play the entire scene out for you. So, you can witness the joint efforts taken by both Endarian and Human forces. We hope that this will be a testament of what we need to do, to succeed in the future, together.” General Fellina said.
Then what appeared to be a rending of the exact fight came to life. There were scenes of us first getting to the facility where the great tree stood. Then of us fighting our way into the building that was already occupied by scourge. Then us gathering the seeds and me once again being sprayed by the tree’s musk. Then me getting struck repeatedly by the different seeds. Even on camera it was clear how five of the dozen or so balls began to glow after contact with me. Seeing that I shook my head in anger, stupid tree.
The scene then showed Rayquel lifting me up and me first pulling the tree seeds Telekinetically behind us. Then our fight with the grim reaper, where we were both impaled. How I took a spear to the stomach to make sure Rayquel was safe. Then how I proceeded to be set on fire, all so I could deliver the killing blow to the monster. They of course left out the part where I almost set the tree on fire by trying to burn the grim reaper. They also left out the part where I inadvertently littered on the tree, two things I was exceptionally thankful for.
There was a moment where Rayquel stripped me? Well not entirely, but she did take off my jacket top. Only a moment later, did I see the purpose for this. The seeds that I had been Telekinetically carrying needed to be carried out. Fortunately, in the scuffle they only fell one branch down into an old nest of some kind. Rayquel took the four seeds from the next, my fifth one was still glowing in my pants pocket.
Then using both my blouse and hers she fastened a harness out of the two jackets and held them together with the long branches that had been used to impale the two of us. Then there was one final image of us flying away, Rayquel carrying both me and the seeds in her make-shift backpack.
The scene ended when she flew up and out of the world tree enclosure and into the rising sun. It was a touching picture, and one that had clearly been spliced and edited from our different views.
Only once the video was done playing, did General Fellina move. She was still there, holding the blood-soaked branch.
“It is with great honor, that I present to you, on behalf of the Endarian people this world branch. Let this both be a metaphorical and literal branch of peace between our two races.” She said, as she offered the branch. Then Rayquel came forward, her face slightly red as she came close. For a photo op she let her branch touch mine, something about a symbol of unison. Now our branches touched, they began to glow, likely with residual energy from the world tree. Or much more likely by an enchantment put on by the general and her staff to make this event even more grandiose than it needed to be. She was sensationalizing the peace efforts between our two races.
Normally I would be opposed to such outright lying and grandstanding, but for this because I felt it was justifiable.
“We also wish to inform you, that the threat posed by the Prolaxians is no longer a concern of the Endarian people. We can confirm with one hundred percent confidence that the Prolaxian threat is now fixed. We are also offering a branch of peace to the Dwenvarians, who are also going through their own troubles with the alien menace.”
“Also, I have one thing.” Rayquel said, a tinge of nervous anxiety filling her as she cut in on her general’s speech. With a nod of approval from General Fellina, Rayquel acted.
“As a personal thanks from me. I offer this.” Rayquel said, as she leaned down and before I had a chance to react, she grabbed my and gave me a deep kiss on the lips.
Fire and passion burned within the kiss. I was so caught off guard by the sudden action that my mind couldn’t process anything. Here I was freshly awoken from a drug induced stupor. Where I was awoken to an impromptu but scripted award ceremony, where the result was a kiss?
My mind was doing loops trying to catch up. Then suddenly as she broke away, that’s when I remembered Mel. I felt sick to my stomach, violently ill. I had cheated on her, well not directly, but I didn’t exactly pull away from the embrace either. She was in a different universe, but did that really justify this?
Suddenly I felt like a huge hypocrite, one who speaks out against injustices done to him. But then does nothing when the same type of scenario happens to him. I needed to tell Mel.
Cough.
General Fellina’s eyes glowed in a way that I knew meant she was having a vision of some kind. That cough also brought me back to the present, the kiss had been nice. Well nice was an understatement, it had been an electrical tingling of my senses. But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t let my mind go down that path. But I focused and changed my demeanor, forcing a strained smile on my face for the sake of this photo-op. Still, I couldn’t help but feel dirty in some way.
Rayquel seemed to have noticed something in my stiff demeanor. She nodded, and then a look of sadness filled her, but she soon too recovered for the sake of appearances.
By the end I was back to myself, at least pretending to be. I said the right things, made the right gestures in both English and Endarian. I was told this was a big hit.
I even quipped “I went and saw the world tree and got impaled for my troubles.” It was a lot funnier in Endarian, because I used the pronouns denoting me as a trashy tourist, something that doesn’t quite translate back into English. Also, the fact that I must explain the joke likely isn’t helping matters either. You know what, never mind just assume I was hilarious, and we will leave it at that.
That was how it ended. My first trip to the world tree, in any lifetime, was a success. I managed to make inter-galactic peace between our two races, also a first for me. And I got impaled by a branch of the world tree and lived. Not that this last one compared to the others, but it was also a first, though one I would soon rather forget. Then there was the kiss with Rayquel, I caught her stealing nervous glances at me throughout the conference. Seeing her I couldn’t help but feel off about the whole situation. It was something I couldn’t let happen, I had been down that road many times and knew that I could only be in one relationship at a time. So, I resolved that regardless of whatever happened I would not cheat, again.
I was still mostly drugged, but by the end I realized one very important thing. Rayquel and I were being teamed up together to go and help the Dwenvarians defend their own home planet from the Prolaxians. More photo-ops and sensationalized meetings, I thought to myself. Even in a parallel universe one could not get away from the ramifications of politics.