Ch 104. Double trouble (Patreon)

Lambert’s eyes lit up as he stared at the heavy, magisteel door.

“Which Builder of Andross?” He asked, his voice trembling with unconcealed excitement.

“Infi,” I said. “I think… I’ve created a permanent, open gate between Nemendias and Undertown. There’s another copy of Endy in that gate, powering it up, keeping it open.”

“By the Emperor,” Lambert uttered.

The avatar of Nemendias shaped like Nora shook her head, clearly not happy about the gateway I made into her domain.

“Infi is behind this door?” Agatha blinked. “The Goddess of Death?”

I nodded with a yawn.

Agatha's face paled.

Lambert rubbed his chin and looked at me.

“If this is indeed a permanent gate, this… matter can wait,” he said. “I need to interview our time-traveling prisoner, plus I reckon someone needs to level up.”

He looked at me with a fatherly look.

“You can see that, eh?” I stared back at him.

“You’re twitching pretty bad,” Lambert nodded. “There is more magic in your body than is safe to hold for very long. Level up, right now.”

“Very well, Mister Scrutimancer,” I nodded. “I shall retire… to this couch and level up while you do your thing.”

“Can I participate in the interrogation?” Agatha asked.

“Me too,” Emerald butted in.

"Sure," Lambert nodded. 

“I’ll watch over you,” Voltara offered, placing her hand onto my shoulder.

“Only if you’ve got nothing better to do,” I yawned. “This might take a while. Nemmy can…”

Voltara didn’t accept my weak protest. She pulled me to the couch, smothering me in her protective, motherly-like, warm embrace. I curled into her side.

“Level up,” I whispered the order to the System and closed my eyes as my body ignited from within.

. . .

As I opened my eyes to the dream of Chernobyl, I noticed that my vision was doubling, no… quadrupling?

I pulled myself apart with a twang-like snap, my soul-body flickering and disconnecting into my various, distinctive specialties.

As I turned my head, I saw the cheerful face of Juneberry, Junezia's pursed lips and… someone new, someone that I didn’t entirely expect and yet I knew about quite well.

“Hey you, or should I say… me?” The girl in front of me said, tilting her head. 

Her face was very grim and covered in dark fissures. Starlight-like... sparks flickered beneath the tears in her skin as her silver-ember eyes examined me. She was wearing a black, leather jacket and pants. The jacket I had once worn while biking. Her hair was jet-black and almost akin to dreads, each dread ending with an extremely sharp, knife-like edge that was floating through the air. It was as if her hair had no weight to it whatsoever. I noted that each dread was moving separately like the tentacles of octopus at sea. There was a black leather choker on her neck with a stylized number 8.

“Whoa,” Juneberry stared the dark, raven-haired version of me. “What are you…”

“She’s an Astral-Phantom-specialized version of us,” Junezia said, her sharp eyes examining the newcomer. “An incredibly dangerous one at that. Those hair strands are shards of Infinity.”

“Future me, hum?” I tilted my head, examining my new mental companion. “You’ll need a name… let me th…”

“You can call me June-Phantom, or simply... JP,” the phantom-girl nodded. “I’ll be your Weapons Officer.”

“Pfff,” Juneberry giggled. "She's quick on the uptake."

Junezia continued squinting at JP.

“Don’t worry, Junezi,” JP said. “I’m here to make sure that we won’t die… again.”

“Your hair is so pretty,” Juneberry interjected, circling JP and pawing the floating, black strands. “I’m extra jelly. You're like an adorable, emo-jellyfish!”

“Thanks,” JP smirked with a slight wince. “Took… a lot of sacrifice and pain to become… what I am. I don’t think you’d want to be me, J-Berry. I ate Gattaca’s soul… on purpose, with zero regrets.”

“Don’t be a glum crumbum,” Juneberry wrapped JP in her embrace. “You did what was necessary to survive.”

“Hold up, you’re not made from a single broken infinite mirror like us,” Junezia commented.

“Correct,” JP said. “I’m a very big soul-shard, equivalent to about half of a human soul, a phantom with lots of infinite blades. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that the parts of me that were Juni, Juneberry and Junezia are now fused to each of you. We're all bound, connected, part of a greater, inseparable whole.”

“Hum, you’re right,” Junezia looked down at herself. "I can think... faster."

“Oh snap,” Juneberry grinned. “No wonder I feel so alive! Thanks for the boost, JP!”

“If you’re an Astral Phantom tied to us and you’re nearly an entire soul on your own, that means you can move out of us and….” Junezia mulled, her eyes lighting up.

“Correct,” JP smirked. “I can take over the body of Grogs and we can be in two places at once.”

“Wicked!” Juneberry clapped. “Finally! We can do twice the things now!”

“We aren’t going to do anything unless we sort out this mess,” Junezia pointed at the interior of the ruined power plant that we were standing in. "Need I remind you? We have tons of Infinite Mirrors but another reset would shatter our soul."

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I thought that I could take a break and deal with it, but I guess that all of us want to do stuff in the physical world, not be cooped up in here.”

“I tried,” Junezia sighed, copying my expression. “I couldn’t go back to soul-work once I was in control, sorry. Finding Nemmy was too much fun.”

“Let's all work on cleaning up this place together, ye?” Juneberry said. "There's four of us now, that's like four times the stuff we can do!"

“Together,” I nodded, extending my hand to her.

Juneberry’s fingers wrapped around my hand. Junezia’s hand joined in. JP placed her fissured hand on top of ours,

“Together,” all of us said in unison in a single voice as our hands broke apart.

We set out to repair our soul in earnest, motivating each other with jokes that only I found funny.

. . .

“From the distant fields of Yore,

A girl came to sing upon the white shore.

Her jet-black hair flung by the wind,

Remember this tune and rewind.

The world has been stitched together,

The planet goes on forever.

The Moonman wants for us to die,

He wishes to scorch the land and the sky.

He thinks that his plan is clever,

He thinks he can end whomever

All the Moonman wants -

Is to turn us into dust.

But you and I shall stand together,

Against the Never Never

Even though some of us -

Are doomed to die.

Futile is your endeavor,

Your life I will surely sever

He whisper across starscape -

Into my mind.

It matters not whatsoever,

As long as we are together

We will have the strength -

To stand against the ever-watchful eye!”

Voltara was singing softly as she was petting my head. As I listened to the tune, it took me a few minutes to realize that the words of her song were in English. 

Voltara’s voice was lovely, augmented by her Vitality-maxing. She sang the words with an accent, leaping over syllables and swallowing up vowels as if she had no idea what the words meant or how to pronounce them correctly.

“You’re awake, my Lady?” Voltara smiled as she noticed that I was staring up at her.

“This song,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Where did you learn it?”

“I... umm,” Voltara muttered, looking shy. “A highborn Lady visited Palais De La Solstice seven years ago. She left a song-gem as a tip to me, as I was her room-maid. She said that it was the ballad of an adventurer-knight that faced impossible odds in the Infinite Dungeon against infinite, unlikable monsters. Do you know what its about, Juni?”

“Volty,” I said. “I know exactly what it means. Those words are in English… It's a song from Inaria.”

“Really?” Voltara blinked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “What did this lady look like? Do you still have this artifact?”

“It’s been too long… I cannot recall her face,” Voltara shook her head. “The Archmaid saw that I was carrying the song-stone and took it from me, calling it a distraction. She threw it into the fireplace and set it ablaze. Nothing remained of it.”

“Hrmm,” I frowned. “Meeting you wasn’t an accident it seems.”

“Oh?” Voltara blinked.

“I think it’s my patron’s work,” I sighed. “Here, let me translate the lyrics for you.”

I took a bit of time to explain what each stanza meant to Volty.

“I think that this song is about Infi,” I concluded, glancing at the magisteel doorway. “She’s… set up a multitude of threads for me to unravel, people for me to meet, things to overcome. I have no idea what or who this Moonman is… though.”

“We could ask her, no?” Voltara tilted her head at the shut doorway.

“She probably won’t fess up,” I sighed. “Information is constantly being observed by her near-omniscient enemies, so she’s feeding me clues in a very ridiculous, roundabout way.”

“Well… at least someone like that is on our side,” Voltara commented. “Right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I just feel like I’ve been conscripted into a war, one that’s far, far beyond my abilities or even understanding. I just wanted to make armor and to have fun and…”

I thought back of the wish I made upon Chernobylite. The truth was that back on Earth, I was bored. Not just bored, I was powerless and unable to make a difference against the backdrop of seven billion people, billionaires, corporations, armies and powerful nations.

Here, on Andross, I had the chance, however ridiculous, however minute… Infi had given me a chance to change everything, guided me, gave me the knowledge to save an entire world or perhaps even... two of them.

“How long have I been out?” I turned back to Volty.

“About ten hours,” she answered.

“You’ve been sitting here for ten hours?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I am your maid,” Voltara said, glancing at her shiny armacus. “A bit of relaxing waiting is nothing for me. You freed me from my dark Angel, gave me more than I ever dreamed about. I know you’ve been through a lot, my Lady. I’m here because I wish to support you in every way possible, to show you that I am dedicated to you with my entire heart.”

“Thanks, Volty,” I smiled. “I really appreciate... your friendship.”

Voltara cast a saccharine smile back at me, hazel eyes twinkling.

“Want to see something really neat?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she nodded.

“Close your eyes,” I ordered.

Voltara complied.

“Open them,” I said in about a minute of fumbling.

Voltara’s eyes opened wide as she stared at the girl standing in front of her.

“W-what?!” She looked at me and then looked at Grogtilda. “How?! You’re…”

“I’m twice the girl I used to be,” I spoke through both of my lips, taking a bow to the maid with a double-wink.

. . .

Seeing the world through two distinctive bodies was incredibly weird, sort of like piloting a drone while walking. Thankfully, thanks to Gattaca’s bullshit artifact, I now had one and a half souls and four personalities to manage both of my bodies. 

Nevertheless, it was a completely new experience to me, thus both of my bodies were performing the exact same motions half of the time.

“An impressive upgrade,” Lambert commented, his spectacle-covered, silver-blue eyes looking from June to Grogtilda. “But you really need to practice moving as two separate people.”

“Yeah,” I blushed twofold, rubbing the back of both of my heads. “I do.”

“Eeeeeee,” Emerald bounced around both of my bodies. “This is way Astral-wicked! What does it feel like?”

“Pretty damn weird,” I said with two voices as she poked Juni's side.

“You’re like your own duet,” Emerald laughed.

“Just when I think that things can’t get any weirder, you manage to up the weirdness another notch,” Agatha lamented from her corner of the Keeper’s office, staring at my dual performance.

“Don’t be so square,” I laughed at her.

“I have no idea what that even means,” the eldest Amadea Princess shook her head.

“It means don’t be dull,” I double-explained. “As the future Empress, I expect that you’re going to be dealing with much whack weirdness from archmages. I’m training you for your future position, see?”

“I very much doubt that any archmage can outdo the levels of your nonsense,” Agatha said, crossing her arms. “Present or future.”

She nodded at the door to Undertown with a deep sigh.

“Right Dawn?” She added.

“Quite right,” Dawn nodded from Agatha’s dress.

“Are we all going to die if we walk through that door?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” Dawn shrugged. “Inarian artifacts and anything that is interacting with them cannot be observed with precognition magic. I’m quite at a loss here. It’s up to all of you to decide whether talking to the Builder of Andross is worth it.”

“We could speak to her from inside of my wards, no?” Nemendias offered, standing behind the Keeper’s desk.

“If the information-eraser manifests here, I don’t think you could stop him, Nemmy,” I sighed. “Did you even manage to observe Zero while she erased the second Gattaca out of time?”

“I saw the second Gattaca, yes and then I saw… something that unmade her,” Nemendias said. “Something that moved very quickly. If I was ready… I could have accelerated my mind to catch up with whatever happened.”

“We should take every precaution possible,” Lambert nodded.

“I can focus ALL of my wards on this room,” the Arcanarium’s avatar said. “It will take some time, but I will make sure that you’re safe. If something non-magical comes through or manifests in here, I’ll gate you to my heart in an instant and collapse this office.”

“A good plan,” I nodded both of my heads. “Get your wards ready and focused, Nemmy. I just hope that we don’t all get erased out of reality by something that we can’t even see.”

Agatha gulped.