"I want answers," I stood facing the avatar of Infinity beneath the Shogun gate of Undertown.

"Oh?" Infi tilted her head at me, her holographic image shimmering with pixelated, violet sparks made from flickering glitches.

"I used the Infinite Mirror to connect with a version of myself - Alexa Terranova, a daughter of a supervillain. I can clearly remember how her day went and I know what she's doing right now, but she cannot remember me nor does she realize that I exist. What's going on?"

"Ah, that," Infi smiled. "She's a copy of your soul trapped behind the subscription barrier of Eureka."

"What?" I blinked. "That Earth is under subscription still?"

"Yes," Infi nodded. "The world of heroes and villains you've connected to is a manufactured fantasy located deep inside the core. My Infinite Mirror is a bit of a backdoor into another version of you, but it's failing to connect fully due to the shield between subbed and doomed worlds."

"What exactly is Alexa?" I asked.

"She's a project of a local supervillain Dr. Terranova," Infi said. "An ultimate weapon, a supervillain designed break the power of the heroes."

"Damn," I whistled. "Why is her mind a soup of discordant memories that sort of belong to me and also don't?"

"The heroes have precognition powers," Infi explained. "If Alexa cannot recall who she is, it is much harder for the heroes to predict her future actions. She is designed to be unstoppable in every conceivable way, designed to operate against precogs."

"Wait," I squinted at Infi. "Are you behind her somehow? Are you somehow guiding this Dr. Terranova?"

"That would be telling," Infi winked at me.

"Games within games," I muttered. "Where did Alexa jump to, exactly? Is it really the future of her world?"

"The bracelet on her hand translocates her to an exact copy of her Earth four hundred years in the future," Infi said.

"Why?" I asked.

"The double-universe setup is part of the game," Infi explained. "The Eurekan user who bought the dream wanted to have incredible power as a superhero and a really tough challenge to fight against, a cataclysmic scenario so real that it can actually be visited as the most likely future outcome. The game was set up to be unwinnable by anyone other than him."

"Is he going to win this game against villains or whatever?"

"His subscription will expire before he wins and both of the worlds will be ejected from the core," Infi replied.

"Is there nothing I can do?" I frowned. "I can't open this gate into the Atomic Cafe and directly help Alexa out? I know exactly what the place looks like so..."

"Alas," Infi sighed. "This gate cannot be opened into subscribed worlds."

"What about... one of the doomed worlds?" I asked. "Can I use this gate to step into one of the doomed planets Cali visited, for example?"

"You could," Infi rubbed her chin. "But I would really advise against it because you never know what sorts of Dead Zone nasties could be waiting for you behind the gate. It's a bit of a gamble, plus Rozaline might not approve being connected to other distant, doomed worlds beyond the stars."

"Installation Rozaline has an avatar then?" I asked.

"She does," Infi nodded.

"How can I speak with her?" I asked. "Would she be on our side, help us with our mission?"

"I cannot speak for Rozaline," Infi shrugged. "You'll have to ask her yourself."

"Right and where do I find her?" I inquired.

"You'll meet her soon enough," Infi intoned without specifying anything.

I frowned.

"What about Earth that I was born on?" I asked. "Can I open a gate there?"

"You can," Infi nodded.

"Lets do it then," I said. "Open a gate to Yulia Ishenko's garage!"

I excitedly drew in breath waiting to meet myself. The gate behind us flickered for a second and became dark again.

"Hrmm," Infi squinted at the gate. "We're being blocked. Guess someone really didn't like you opening the gate right above Eureka."

"Rozaline?" I asked.

"Yep," Infi nodded. "She has jurisdiction over all of the gates. She must have noticed what we did."

"Bah," my frown deepened. "I had so many cool ideas for opening gates to places. Wait... open the gate to my old workshop in the skull!"

The gate flashed open, revealing a square portal into the interior of the half-melted dragonskull house.

"Woo! Now, open the gate to my room in Amadea's palace!"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The gate flickered and the view of the Infinite Chasm vanished and became replaced with that of an empty, albeit quite fanciful room. I recognized it immediately.

"Well, at least I have a quick path into the dungeon and around Illatius that bypasses all magical shields, so I have that going for me," I muttered feeling both annoyed and elated.

I paused and rubbed my chin thoughtfully.

"Can I... relocate the entire gate into Nemendias?"

"The gate is bound to its location on Installation Rozaline via a space-time anchor," Infi shook her head. "Moving the gate would require breaking this anchor and will result in catastrophic consequences."

"Hrm," I pondered. "Right. I'll just build Nemendias around it then by relocating parts of Nemmy to Undertown! I don't want anyone to sabotage my precious gate."

"An interesting solution," Infi barked a laugh.

"The deeper levels of the Infinite Dungeon have more mana in them, right? If I point the gate into the depths of the dungeon, will I be able to pull lots of magical power through the gate?" I asked.

"Yes," Infi's violet eyes flashed. "If you find a mana-rich level, you could do that. It won't be an easy mission to reach such a location, but it's definitely possible."

"Excellent," I clapped my hands imagining a magical power plant located in Undertown that pulled mana from the lowest level of the Infinite Dungeon and through a series of crystal hexagrams all the way up to Nemendias.

"What is the gate powered by, anyway?" I asked.

"A very small dark matter engine," Infi said.

"Is that similar to the dark matter engine Cali has on her ship?"

"It's a lot more advanced," Infi replied.

"Could you..." I started to speak.

"No," Infi shook her head. "You're not the gate's admin and I cannot allow you to redirect the gate's power to violate its primary function. You're more likely to break it and then we won't be able to have our lovely chats anymore."

"Can I shave a bit of the immovable metal off the gate with Endy?" I asked. "I'd like to make immovable armor."

"You want to disrupt the gate's structure just so you can make yourself armor?" Infi raised an eyebrow.

"Just a little off the side you're not using," I grinned, tapping the hexagonal-textured floor with my feet. "Look at all this Eurekan metal! Surely I can shave a bit off for myself?"

"How will you even smelt it?" Infi asked.

"I realize that I can't smelt it, but I could make a very primitive segmented armor out of thin plates of it," I said.

"To what end?"

"To make magic-impervious armor!" I grinned.

"It won't make you fully impervious to magical attacks due to the gaps between the plates," Infi said. "Besides, you're more likely to damage Endy against immovable metal."

"Endy is just infinity concepted into the shape of a knife," I shook my head. "I don't need it to carve things out anymore. PJ can manifest an entire array of Endies in the Astral. I think I could use them to carve things really, really precisely as long as I focus. I could make a mixer out of my Endy-blades, grind the metal into a very fine powder and apply it all over my night-crawler armor in layers so that there are no gaps."

"That's my girl," Infi grinned.

"So, which part of the gate can I cut off for my personal use?" I asked.

"As the avatar of this gate I advise you not to carve the gate," Infi rolled her eyes. "But, since I know that you're 100% intent on doing it anyway regardless of what I say, you might as well carve off a few inches off each side of the base."

"Aw yuss," I fist pumped. "Immovable armor, here I come!"

. . .

Having left Juni's body to PJ to slowly and meticulously shave metal off the Shogun gate, I went to breakfast as Grogtilda.

Nemendias campus was a massive array of gothic buildings and towers hanging above the Alezia river outpouring into the chasm. Breakfast could be had at the main hall in central building if the student was inclined to walk there or at any of the numerous cafes dotting the tower rooftops.

Since Grogtilda's legs were still healing, I chose to have breakfast right above my room in the Justice Cafe atop the Lawmaker's Tower.

Many of the students from the House of the Infinite Searchers congregated in the cafe, since the tower was part of the House of Infinity campus section.

I enjoyed dragon-style bacon and a variety of other mysterious foods harvested from the dungeon with Voltara at my side, with Emerald sitting off to the side.

Voltara enjoyed the fine foods presented to her, while Emerald sent me glances sipping on her cup of coffee.

Amber entered into the cafe and sat across from me with a deep sigh.

"Morning, roomie!" I shot her a smile. "Ready for another magical day at Nemendias?"

Amber nodded at me. She seemed to have accepted her position in life forced upon her by the dastardly personification of Infinity.

"What's on the agenda today?" I asked Voltara as I bit into a succulent yellow fruit.

"Historymancy," my maid reported.

Voltara and I finished our breakfast. The plates rattled on the tables as students began to leave to class.

Wind tousled the curtains at the windows as maids began to clean the cafe. I grabbed the tab, paying for myself and Voltara.

We jogged down the stairwell and across campus.

By the time we reached the Hall of History, plump clouds in puffs of white started to roll above us in a blue sky. Even though the days were growing colder, I felt warm as the campus was shielded by Nemmy's ward.

A strong breeze blew leaves in circular patterns around us. A few fluttered into my hair and landed on my shoulders.

I slowed down to admire the beauty of colorful falling leaves. Many of the trees and shrubs on campus had been brought from the dungeon and looked a bit alien and bewitching. Enchanted leaves shimmered as they drifted down. I pulled one from my hair and twisted it in the light admiring the violet and pink, semi-transparent hollows filled with glittering, crystalline fractures within its surface.

We reached and entered the Hall of History. Exquisite tapestries lined the walls. Ancient portraits hung beside them, depicting long-dead archmagi and Emperors with stern and curious expressions. The depictomancy-made portraits whispered things to each other and turned our way as we passed them by.

Soon enough we stepped into the lecture hall.

A tall, imposing woman with long, black hair shaped into a tight bun stood at the lectern.

The lecture hall itself was a fancy room filled with vast quantities of books and artifacts. Preserved bodies of ancient beasts were on display in glass containers and a monstrous skeleton of some sort of a flying creature was hanging from the ceiling, its bones pulsating with foreboding flashes of magic.

"Welcome to Historymancy," the teacher said with a smile, dark eyes looking over the crowd of sitting students. "I'm Instructor Ninna Liss Rozaline."

Her eyes finally reached me and froze upon my person and Voltara.

"Maids are not permitted to attend class," she said, her voice resonating across the hall.

I smiled.

I was ready to bring this woman down, ready to use my reporters and any other means necessary to shake answers out of her, to bend her until she snapped. She had voted against me attending Nemendias. During my interview with her she seemed quite flustered about something and I was curious to find out as to exactly what that was.

"Well, you see..." I began my retort.

"No," Instructor Rozaline said sternly and time stopped.

I blinked, looking left and right. The lecture hall looked wrong, somehow offset color-wise, like an old, grainy film. Voltara did not move, did not blink, did not breathe. The same puzzling effect had applied to all other students. The clouds outside did not move. The trees did not flutter in the wind. Leaves hung suspended in the air. I moved my hand and watched as it flickered with offset colors, imprints of my hand floating in the air before they faded away.

"Urm," I sputtered. "What the...?"

"You are a dangerous problem threatening my stability," Rozaline said, taking a step forward and leaving her body behind, a hundred slowly fading imprints of her trailing behind her. "I do NOT like problems."