Fiel’s Perspective.
She seemed no different from any other child, although she was a lot smarter than usual children and she had more depth of wisdom than other children her age.
I looked at my nails, Red, Orange, Cyan, Cyan, Yellow. That meant that A Grandmaster was meeting me. I tapped my nails along the frost oak table, a wood that looked like oak but kept exuding a chilly breeze. It made my table have a constant fog of coldness that fell from the top to the sides like a slow waterfall that I enjoyed.
The nails changed again. Red, Red, Red, Red, Red. Ah. Grandmaster Nova. I tapped twice with my index finger and then with my ring finger, a translucent door was opened large enough for an elephant to walk through. It's frames looked like it was ice frozen in the void of space, cyan blue with a tint of black. The frame looked like it was a normal golden door frame that was frozen over time through a nitrogen tank. In the middle was a pool that reflected bits of fieriness, like I was looking at the heart of a volcano through the impasse of space and time. Slow moving, it looke like a mirror that was broken and shattered along space-time allowing me to see a slight glimpse of the fiery lands that it connects my world to.
I don’t have a throne, or an office for that matter. Everywhere I went I carried my office with me, that’s how I roll. If people want to communicate with me they go through my secretary, paperwork is dealt with by someone who does it better than me, and sometimes I check in for stuff I need to decide personally. Emergency meetings and important discussions are notified to me through my nails and I respond accordingly. My specialty is dealing with people, not the paperwork that Grandmaster Nova is more accustomed to.
Grandmaster Nova walked out of the mirror.
“Welcome Grandmaster Nova” I greeted him
He looked around, his fiery ashen lion head sniffed the air. He had the head of a lion, with hair that was as black as volcanic ash and fur that looked like solidified lava. His fur looked like that of Igneous rocks, with cracks forming around his eyes and mouth, everytime he blinked, the cracks moved with his face. On his neck, the cracks were more apparent, and it looked quite artistic. His black mane ran down his head and went down to his chest where he was wearing an unbuttoned fur., with his large fluffy and signed mane overflowing. He was a bit more, well, Undressed than usual.
He looked like he came out of a volcano with his clothes burnt although his fur looked perfectly fine. That was weird, his clothes should be ultra-heat resistant. I wonder what happened to cause his shirt to burn up in flames.
“I like your new style” I teased and chuckled a bit, wanting to see his reaction.
He often wore something business smart or business casual. Today he wore a suit tailored especially towards him, with Exclusive Crescew Fabric and made with the tailored hands of the Abyrhinge to make a flame resistant suit. He loved that suit, a shame to see it go in shame though, it was a three piece I believe with an undershirt that was unbuttoned, an inner piece and an outer piece. Currently the outside edges of the suit were singed, his watch unharmed though, and the patched holes inside his suit gave me a glimpse of his toned and strong body, that had fur the shade of volcanic rocks, slowly moving with every breath. The skin was still black,like it was made from some glittery rocky material. His eyes were burning Red but he had an annoyed look to his eyes right now.
“You seem annoyed Nova, has anything happened recently?”
“Well first, my systems malfunctioned, we lost the kid, the kid played an illusion to get me to fight Afereo, and now Afereo won't stop coming at me with presents. I’ve told him it was okay but he still hasn’t calmed down. I can’t go into any room without Afereo waiting with a bunch of presents and it’s bothering me lately. Anyhow, how did the meeting with the child go?”
I chortled, I can see Afereo do that. He was a strong assistant with a soft spot for Nova. “She’s doing fine, I got the story from her end. Apparently she came in, was scared, woke up in a different place, thought you were going to kill her, and then came up with that plan to escape”
“There are too many holes in that plan.” Nova grunted. Each step he took made a small snowstorm letting the snow surrounding us go up into a puff of smoke. “Can I have a seat?”
I waved my hand and the snow around him formed into a large dark oak log. It was fire resistant, it should be enough to resist his passive flames. The snow around him was already melting showing the white grass hidden underneath the patches of snow.
“I’m going to have dinner with her to ask her more questions and learn about her. Do you want to come along?”
“I’ll have to check with Afereo to see if my schedule is free, but I feel like she would be intimidated by my presence.”
“Not if you disguise yourself as Afereo” I smirked, “Plus, overtime she’ll learn more about you and then become less frightful.”
“I might just get Afereo to go for me then. He’s a smart kid, he should question her”
“How old is Afereo again?”
“I don’t know 400 or 500?”
“You still call him a kid?”
“He still acts like a kid, plus that’s not even close to my age.” Nova sat on the oak log, “Do you have a drink? Maybe something more fiery”
“I’ll see what I can do” I searched the snowflakes around me that had flame properties. I found a few, it should do. “I have a really concentrated shot for you”
“That works fine, it’s too cold here”
“I can make it warmer”
“It’s fine, I just need a shot after a long day.”
I waved my hand and a glass cup appeared with drops of transparent blue liquid filling the glass. It looked like a little rain appeared over the cup.
“Thank you” Nova took a small sip, and then gave out a large Gahhh~. “That’s exactly what I needed”
His cracks grew faster, his breath became more ragged, it felt like I was looking at the personification of an active volcano.
“So what brings you here?”
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“That child isn’t normal, I’m impervious to all illusions underneath the level of a Grandmaster, until today. She’s either a Grandmaster that got too bored, pretending to be a child, or a child that’s incredibly lucky but there’s something that doesn’t add up. A child doesn’t simply place Afereo and Me under an illusion at the same time.”
Interesting I said in my own mind, A child who can put a pseudo Grandmaster and a real Grandmaster under an illusion at the same time? Only a Grandmaster who got bored and pretended to become a child could accomplish that...or someone on the level of a grandmaster disguising as a child.
“Could it be an enemy?” I inquired
“I’m not sure, but we can’t rule out that possibility” Nova responded, “Tell me, do you think she’s an enemy?”
“”I saw within her, a very wise and old soul, but not one with impure intentions. There’s a hint of childness that’s usually gone once you grow up, that still hasn’t disappeared yet.”
“So you’re saying...there is a part of her that’s old and decrepit, like us” Nova guffawed, “And another part that’s young and childlike”
“That’s what I saw” I shrugged, “Any theories?”
Nova thought for a second, put down his drink on the snowy grass which made the snow around it to melt very fast, and then went through the red portal only to come back with a rolled up piece of paper.
“There was something we found that complicates things” He snapped his fingers and the world around us was layered in a mirage. “You don’t mind if I use my powers here right?”
“You could’ve just asked me to isolate this space” I pestered him, It was etiquette for Grandmasters not to use their powers in another Grandmaster’s space.
I snapped my fingers breaking his mirage and then an illusionary snowstorm of broken glass showered around us, with us in the eye of the storm. Each raindrop seemed to fracture a piece of the world with it, it looked like it was raining shards of glass, the iridescent rainfall seemed real and fake at the same time, like it was taken from a torn world of glass and that world of glass was crying.
“No one can listen to us anymore”
Nova nodded, he spread out the blueprint as he began to talk. “I first met Azalea because one of my underlings recommended her to become an agent. For the first test we decided to put her through the fear room with max safety. Nothing beyond the user’s tolerance, Nothing that is beyond their ability to imagine. Thing was, our safety measures didn’t work, and she was summoned to one of the bloodiest battlefields I’ve seen. Bodies covered the ground like a sea of dead ants, with blood, mucus, organs, and pus being the water. It was a horrible sight to see, even for me. She eventually escaped, but when we reviewed the world she was in we discovered a notable weapon.”
Nova finished unfurling the piece of paper revealing a blueprint for a cannon, equations that didn’t make sense, and on the bottom right was a halberg, on the bottom left was a diagram of a crystal that was shaded blue with a single formula underneath it.
E=MC2
“Nova, you know I’m bad at physics. Well I’m not the best, can you explain it to me in layman terms?”
“I discussed this blueprint with Head Researcher Lyssia and she said that these equations would theoretically work in another universe.”
I tilted my head sideways to express my confusion
“Basically, these maths, they don’t make sense to me or you, but Lyssia was able to understand the basic rules of logic of this new form of maths at a single glance, and under these new rules of logic she concluded that this was a planet killer. It has been classified as a Class 7 Weapon. This new branch of mathematics, shouldn't exist here, in this universe, but it exists in another one”
I raised my eyebrow in amusement, “Are you suggesting she’s from another universe?”
“Most likely, and when I was talking to her via my Robin she said that she wanted to learn more about the portals. I assume that it's so that she can go back home”
“Do you think it’s possible? For her to go home?”
“I don’t know.” Nova responded nonchalantly, “Lyssia said the shift in mathematics between universes can harm the precisions these gates have.”
Nova tapped the icy golden frame that was right beside him. “But if she has a better idea to go to another universe, I say why not?”
“Because..well….What are your plans with her?” I changed the topic
“I planned to send her back home. Her home in this world”
“What if she can go to another Universe though?” I tempted, “What if she opens a new Universe for us?”
“That’s something for Goddess Avelynn to decide” Nova said
“Wouldn’t it be a portal to endless resources?” I added on, “A portal to end all hungry children, end all suffering, end all wars?”
“Could also be a portal to endless death, and we have more than enough resources in the undiscovered reservoir of dimensions”
“What about boredom though? Aren’t you bored?”
“Not bored enough to risk my subordinates lives, and to disobey Goddess Avelynn”
“But it's for the greater good, If we can have a portal to another universe we can finally defeat our fated enemy.”
Grandmaster Nova paused, “Are...Are you using mind control powers on me?” He seemed a bit confused.
“Well your mind still seems strong” I sulked. I tried to use a bit of my powers to see if his mind control resistance has degraded. “I tried to tempt you into making an irrational decision and you kept your rationality”
“I thought it was bad etiquette to use your powers on another Grandmaster” Nova pouted cutely for a guy his stature.
“But you’re in my dimension” I gleefully interjected “I just wanted to see if your mental fortitude was still the same as before” I continued, “If your defenses were down then you probably would’ve jumped on using her and extoring her for the ‘greater good’”
“You know as well as I do that that kind of mindset is what brings useless wars and pointless revolutions. It’s basic ruling 101.”
“I know, your mental fortitude is as strong as ever, I wonder how she got in.”
“I wonder about that too”
“Why don’t you just ask her that?” I asked Nova, “We’re going to get dinner soon, care to join?”
“I’m afraid I might be busy for dinner”
I pouted a bit. Nova’s mind is as rigid as a stone, like boiling lava, slowly going down a very very slow river. “So why are you here? You could just get Afereo to talk to me, there has to be some other reason why you’re here, in the flesh instead of some messenger. You know it’s not rude to send a messenger to another Grandmaster”
He took another sip, “You’re right. I am here for another reason. The knowledge of her being in another universe is only known to me, Lyssia and now you. I need to confirm if she is from another Universe and how we’re going to assess her.”
“Assess her?” I repeated his last statement, signifying that I wanted more information.
“If she is from another Universe, then it might not be wise to send her back to her home. We can say that she got accepted to a boarding school far away from the most prestigious universities while she trains here. You know I give the final tick to all agent candidates, but I don’t go this far for any particular prospect agent.”
“That is true, and you got me to talk to her myself. I assume it to be a big deal. If my intuition serves me right, there is something you're not telling me which might make my ridiculous proposal actually plausible”
Nova nodded. “When he fainted in the fear room, she teleported to a random location in my dimension. Without me knowing.”
“Woah” I gasped out. A Grandmaster’s dimension might as well be the back of his hand, he could see anything that happens in there and control everything as well. I fhse could escape his gaze then… “It sounds like she knows how to navigate this spatial space with this system of mathematics, and she’s pretty adept at it too, then...she probably also knows how to spatially teleport in her old Universe as well”
I locked eyes with Nova.
“It’s just a conjecture.” He added on sipping on his alcoholic drink, “Nothing is confirmed yet. Can you help me confirm?”
“Sure, I’ll just give her books to read and observe what books she chooses from.”
Nova raised his eyebrow in a bit of confusion. “Anything else?”
This time I raised my own eyebrow, and then scrunched it, “Care to propose any ideas Nova?”
“I thought you had some mind controlling powers which let us see into her past.”
“I do, but she’s just a child at 7, and that thing is used on guilty convicts. Plus, she has some mental prowess and we always preferred to make friends rather than enemies”
“You do hold a point.” Nova finished his drink before letting it sit on the log with a nice refreshing Ahhh~ leaving his mouth. “Anything else for me to do here?”
“Not that I can think of, I’ll tell you if there’s anything interesting that happens on my end.”
“Alright, I entrust her to you”
I nodded and gave him a reassuring smile.
Nova got up and began to walk to the portal, “Tell me if you need anything” I waved at him.
He gave a shy wave back and walked through the portal. The frozen frame was shattered and the frozen pieces transformed into snow which was carried off with the blizzard.
I turned to the log, waved at it, and it turned into snow again, the blizzard of broken glass stopped, and I was left in the middle of the plains alone only with endless snow in sight. I sighed, and got up, and snapped my fingers.
My vision turned blurry and then I saw a golden ornamented house, with various frozen creatures that were sleeping on statue podiums. As soon as I looked around, a couple woke up and slowly paced towards me and slept by my side. A butler and my assistant came up to me with a folder of papers, filled with big key decisions I needed to make concerning our direction as a dimension and the future course of this division.
“Grandmaster Fiel” The Butler in the trimmed suit addressed me. They were waiting a respectable distance, this was usually so that they could receive my orders.
“Give me the reports, I’ll make the decisions right now”
The butler and my assistant walked past the frozen creatures. I walked towards a large leopard, the size of a massive bear that was sleeping, with white fur and golden black spots. I climbed up and sat on its rib cage with every breath slowly lifting me, and lowering me. I scratched the leopard’s neck, and it cutely smiled and snuggled while its eyes were still asleep.
Adrian, my assistant began handing me a piece of paper which was a debrief of the context as well as possible solutions for each decision.