Ch 127. The Price of Power (Patreon)

The heavy rain passed in sheets, and then the sun emerged once again, draping the countryside in warm tones. Drops of water trembled on the tips of leaves and grass blades and glittered like jewels.

I got off the bike, and walked through puddles, occasionally kicking up sprays of water. I linked my index and middle fingers together raised my thumb up and pointed my imaginary finger gun at a large rock.

"Divide by zero!" I shouted.

A blue window with gibberish description appeared in my right eye. It soon faded away, but the rock remained where it was.

I sighed.

"No luck?" Pavel asked.

"Nope," I muttered. "I suck. My identification spell sucks. I think I only destroyed that tree in my garden because it was a dead tree that I was planning to cut down for years. It's much harder to unexist a concept that I don't personally know that well."

[I think we have a problem,] Junezia's voice distracted me from my rock-killing plans. [I've just went over our stats and updated everything manually. Our data was a bit off. The System made by Rozaline wasn't updating itself, since there is NO said system on Earth.]

[Stats,] I pulled up my info-data again, running over the lines.

"Ohh," I gasped.

The menu that came up revealed to me a very concerning truth - I was no longer connected to Grogtilda or Juni in Nemendias, they were now as disconnected as my other dead selves.

"Shit," I swore.

"Hm?" Pavel looked down at me.

"I don't have a connection to Installation Rosaline anymore," I replied. "I... lost everyone, for the third freaking time. I... I can't get back anymore!

"Damn it all," I sat down on the rock that I failed to kill with a frustrated huff.

"Do you still not have more Infinite Mirrors?" Pavel asked looking over at me with his blue eyes. "Could you not open another way into another Juni, perhaps into a moment before you got attacked by the Dracolich?"

"I... I suppose I could," I looked up at him. "But that would mean skewering through another Juni and I don't know if I could actually do that unless I die."

"Why not try it?" Pavel inquired.

"I... err... it feels wrong. I don't want to skewer another Juni. I don't want to abandon MY Illatius!" I growled. "It's my life! I'm not freaking giving it up! I'm not freaking dead, I just... screwed up, got my ass kicked by Rozaline."

"So what are you going to do?" He asked.

"I don't know," I sighed. "Maybe... wait... wait. There IS a gate here into the Astral Ocean. There has to be! I took it once. I can take it again!"

"Chernobyl?" Pavel stared at me.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"You think you can touch chernobylite again and find your way back to your Nemendias? Are you ready for such a journey? Do you have a plan for defeating the dracolich? You can't even defeat a rock," Pavel pointed out. "Don't just rush off into things!"

"You're right," I brought my eyes back down to the ground. "I have no plan. Nobody can protect you if I leave you behind, become just a girl named Yulia. There's no mana on Earth. I can't get stronger here. I don't know what to do."

"List me your stats for me again," Pavel ordered.

I did.

"You have twenty four Infinite Mirrors left," He pointed out. "Why not unlock more worlds? Why not try to find a world where you're a strong archmage? A world where you already WON the game, defeated all your enemies."

"Do you really think that exists?" I asked. "What if I'm the strongest Yulia cross the manufactured multiverse?"

"Then at least you'll know that you're the strongest Yulia," Pavel pointed out. "It's either that or try to connect with that System Error thing. Are you not at all curious what's in there?"

"Oh I'm very curious," I said. "But I'm also terrified of the complete unknown that it represents. Whatever that Error is, its freaking weird. I'm not sure IF I could even connect with it."

"You've connected with yourself here," Pavel said.

"I know myself," I crossed my arms. "I don't know what this freaking Error is. It could be a monstrous version of me that eats people for breakfast."

"There's people in the Dead Zone?" Pavel asked tilting his head and lighting a cigarette.

"A person," I nodded, rubbing the back of my head. "His name is Charles Snippy."

I went over my choices.

I could attempt to leap into another Juni. Could I kill Rozaline if I did, stop her before she activated the dracolich? No. Installation Rozaline was gargantuan and insanely powerful. There was no way for me to win against her. Even if I somehow struck her avatar down with Endy, she would most likely manifest another one. Rozaline was Nemendias times a billion, a Dungeon Master whose game I could not beat.

I could dive into the System Error and discover what it was about?

No. It was too dangerous. If Infi was to be believed there were things in the Dead Zone that could fry my brain with a mere gaze. It was too dangerous to dive into the Dead Zone without being stronger.

Knowledge and power. I needed it badly. I needed to find a version of myself who was a mighty wizard already. There had to be one. There had to be a doomed world where I was an Archmage, where I controlled gates, where I could do incredible things.

"If I faint, drive me back home," I told Pavel as I climbed into Dnepr's side car. I slowly reached out to an empty, glittering surface of an Infinite Mirror within my soul.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm going to find a magically-strong version of myself," I said. "Hopefully she can help me out of this pickle of a situation. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Good luck," Pavel said.

I closed my eyes as the Infinite Mirror ignited, reaching out across the boundary of Eureka.

. . .

My gaze was transfixed upon the red stars hovering above the spires of Kremlin.

Though at first they were a distant, heart-warming red, the longer I stared at them, the more they alive they seemed. The red stars swirled and spun, folding and unfolding in a mesmerizing display of fractal infinity.

I watched in ever-increasing awe as every single star seemed to whisper to me an order.

"Smile," the chorus of the stars sang.

A wave, an ocean of positive emotions overwhelmed me until I could do nothing but comply. A deep sense of urgency, passion and focus struck me as the stars sang, their words reverberating in my mind.

A cheerful smile traced my lips. As my gaze drifted beyond the windows of the Soviet Ministry of Magic, I was met with a sea of happy faces a few below me, their smiles set in stone. But beneath the facade of joy, I could see a sadness in their eyes, one that only seemed to deepen as they stared up at the star-tipped towers.

“Work hard today,” the stars sang. "Grow stronger. Focus."

"I shall," I nodded in compliance.

The sky above the city was a canvas of rolling clouds. Hovercrafts hummed through the air as if it were a solemn requiem, their sleek black forms cutting through the clouds like blades piercing through hot butter.

The rays of the sun reflected against warship Roraima, breaking up into a multitude of circular rainbows. The ten kilometer black pyramid-like form made the sky appear to warp around it as Roraima's shields pushed away everything that touched it akin to a black hole that warped light.

The powerful and almost divine female voice of Wizard Revolution broke through the low hum of the distant hovercrafts, "Greetings citizens of USSRA, our fight against the Oceania Imperium wages on! Tensions with other sectors are high, but ultimately our motherland shall prevail. The USSRA representative is in Oceania's capital this week discussing a ceasefire on the Eastern Front..."

A man with silver hair and silver-blue eyes stepped into the office. I turned my head away from the view of Moscow.

"Good morning Dr. Kerenski!” I broke out into a wide smile, pushing back my silver-blue hair. “How lovely to see you this mor...”

I choked as I saw his face, my morning routine broken, suddenly interrupted.

Grandfather.

My grandfather stared at me. He didn't look as old but I recognized him anyway.

"Morning," Slava replied. He saw that I faltered. "Is everything alright?"

"Grandfather," I uttered, my voice trembling. My head lowered as an array of new memories exploded in my mind, flooding my soul with new, impossible information. "I... I found you."

Slava's face paled.

"What did you just say?" He asked, taking a step back.

I looked back up at my grandfather.

His hand held an armacus-like device pointed at me. A spell array flashed over the magitek weapon.

"I'm not your grandfather. Focus on my voice Zary! You're skewered," he said. "Someone must have snuck through the wards of the Ministry of Magic and meddled with your mind."

"What?" I blinked.

Impossible, wrong, not-me memories swirled in my head. Yulia Ishenko. Donetsk. Pavel. Nemendias. Rozaline. Infinity Paradox Proxima.

"Your name is Zariya Grimmaldri," Slava said. "Fight the mind-skewering curse. You're the second strongest archmage in USSRA, Zary. I don't want to put you down and drag you off to the NKVD and have your mind turned into a sponge. Our research here is far too important. If we fail, USSRA falls to the Dead Zone. Those memories are foreign to you. They were most likely placed in your head by an Agent of Oceania to confuse you to delay our project."

"I'm Archmage Zariya Grimmaldri," I nodded, my hands trembling.

I tried to segment, to fold, to separate my own personality from the lie which the skewering curse was offering me.

My work was insanely important. I designed the fractal stars with Dr. Kerenski. I was going to stop the Dead Zone from devouring our Glorious Motherland. I was...

...wrong about everything I knew.

Saving the universe was more important. Defeating Rozaline was important. Saving Juni was important.

This wasn't an enemy curse, wasn't a spell. I was a girl named Yulia Ishenko, somewhere else across infinity of possibilities.

Could I get to Installation Rozaline from here?

Yes.

An ancient, impossible artifact, a black, hexagonal textured Gate stood in the -7th level of the Soviet Ministry of Magic. If I could touch it with one of my Endy blades, I could take a step with it... anywhere. I knew exactly how to use it now.

"Zary, please. I need you to be yourself," Dr. Kerenski said. "If you don't crush the skewering curse I will press the trigger and then I won't see you for a long time. Fight it. Look at the Stars! Embrace our mission."

I pretended to look at the Stars outside. They were a weapon. A weapon I helped design myself, a weapon pointed at ourselves. A spell of focus, of absolute devotion, dedication and motivation.

A charisma spell, a resonance song that repeated itself, broadcasted across all of USSRA.

A spell that I invented with Slava many years ago when I took a vow with him to protect the people of our dying world. A self-focused spell that I burned into my soul that over the decades made me the strongest Archmage of the newly made nation, now surviving amidst the Dead Zone, surrounded by monstrous, inhuman enemies from all sides.

"I... I'm alright Slava," I said. "There's no enemy spell on me."

"There isn't?" Slava slowly lowered his armacus. He evaluated the truth in my words with a truth-hex.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm alright now. I'm... me. I'm fine. Let's get back to work."

There was nothing I could do here.

I was mighty, yes, but I was bound by my obedience to USSRA, my obedience to survival at any cost, my devotion to my mission of saving my people. Without the broadcasting towers uniting humanity, we would fall victim to the horrors of the Dead Zone. I had to work on installing more Stars, lets we succumb to our enemies, people that have already submitted themselves to the gods from beyond the stars, became more than human, turned into impossible, grotesque horrors.

I stared at my grandfather's... no my best friend and teacher's face, trying not to cry. He was so close to me and yet so far. It was ironic how our souls met together and drifted apart, ironic how I was so strong here and yet so weak, absolutely powerless to change the course I set for myself long ago to save my people.

"Look at the Stars," Slava ordered.

I did and my mind began to drown in their song.

"Take my knowledge," I thought to myself across the infinite divide with the last of my will. "Use it. Help us. Please."

. . .

I opened my eyes and inhaled. Gray, rain clouds slowly drifted across the summer sky. Pavel was looking down at me with a look of worry. It took me a few moments to recognize his face, to stop thinking about the perfect Stars built by the mind-boggling Soviet Ministry of Magic that existed somewhere in depths of Dead Zone.

[+1 Infinite Mirror. Archmage Zariya Proshkovna Grimmaldri, USSRA, the Dead Zone.]

"Did you find what you needed?" Pavel asked.

"I found an Archmage version of myself on a really effed up Earth," I rubbed my face. "I think I'm beginning to understand why Infi chose me out of all the others..."