Ch. 60 – Astragos I (Patreon)

Roy grinned, “With whom?”

Felix looked at Tinuriel, “There’s that Vugog place on the Tier under Avelion, right?” She nodded, “And it’s full of violent cannibal tribes?” Another nod. “Then any who are interested in becoming by next Versewalker Escort and filling an Animancer role are going to be put through the ringer.” He looked at Roy and Gina, “Any who wants to volunteer will need to experience real combat firsthand. Roy, I know you’ll keep them from dying with your powers. While you’re doing that, Tinuriel and I will be in this new ‘Verse – Astragos – and try to figure out the situation going on there.”

Roy nodded and stood up, “I’ll send the word out right away.”

Gina stayed seated and tented her hands in thought, “I…I’ll bring up your proposition. But I wouldn’t expect many applicants.”

Felix nodded, “Roy, you’ll monitor them as they fight on Vugog. Pick out the ten who either fare the best or are the most dedicated.” He turned to Melanie, “I want you to put together a comprehensive interview for each of the candidates that Roy identifies. I’m looking for someone who is devoted to the cause of fixing problems. They should be altruistic and morally conscientious, but also be able to do what needs to be done if called for. Make sure that they know during that interview that I can strip their powers at any time if they try to cross me or do something I don’t approve of. That ought to dissuade some malefactors from signing up.”

She nodded and bowed her head, “Easily done. I can filter those ten down to the best options.”

“Perfect,” Felix said as he stood up. “Then unless anyone else has something?” No one spoke up. “Then this meeting is adjourned. My thanks for all you do.”

Lucifer merged with Felix as he and Tinuriel walked back to the Portal Room. He walked to one of the empty doorways. “Alright Lucifer, do your thing.”

“Now arriving in ‘Verse #548 – Astragos.”

Felix walked through the grey portal and onto the shore of a small lake.

Felix looked around as Tinuriel hopped through behind them. Both looked relatively like how they appeared in the VBV – but their equipment’s look changed. It was more intricate, ornate, and decorated. Tinuriel’s armor looked to be even more well-articulated and illustrated with thin-line depictions of some type of mytho-history. Her ears shifted to match Felix’s, and she reached up to feel the change before pouting towards him. “That’s not fair.”

Felix frowned and nodded slightly, empathizing with her. “It’s something the System thinks you need to fit in.”

“It’s another small ‘Verse that contains a single planetoid just like Zephelam.”

She pulled her blade out and Felix checked his own gear – they looked more…epic, for lack of a better term. And more advanced. Whereas Heimfold had relatively simple weaponry – except for the higher Tiers – these had their appearance altered to reflect smithies that had been perfecting their craft for hundreds of years.

His Hardlight Recurve was missing, and he frantically looked all over until he spotted an odd, curved shape along his wrist. Feeling along the bracer, he found a small button and a wrist-mounted crossbow – minus the bolt – extended from the top of his wrist. A small device protruded into his palm, and as he pressed the trigger, the string drew back and a hardlight arrow manifested. Letting the odd trigger go, the bolt shot off over the lake before vanishing. “Lucifer, what’s the tech level like here?” He fiddled with the bracer once more and found another button which retracted the device.

“The equivalent in your ‘Verse would be around .35 on that Kardashev Scale. Just about to hit the Scientific Age – laws of motion and gravity, very basic firearms like muskets, the scientific method being established.”

Then crossbows – even folding ones – wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Felix nodded, “So not quite hitting the Industrial Revolution. And there’s two empires?”

“Yes. Here’s the basics…”

Astragos was created by a pair of deities. A god of the earth and a goddess of the oceans. They made the world half terrestrial and half aquatic. They made their humans – taking the template from the System – capable of surviving both above and below water. This trait persisted to the current generations. They had several children who were known as the god-kings, and who set up a variety of kingdoms both under the oceans and on the land.

The creator deities either died or left – the System wasn’t sure – and those god-king descendants began to fight amongst themselves until two came out on top. They named their new empires after themselves, and those are the ones that came to a truce. One for the land, one for the ocean.

“…I’ll pull up the Crisis log from the System.”

[Crisis: Astragos - Several Options are available. Solving multiple Crises will result in extra Multiversal Charges.]

[Note: Some Crises are mutually exclusive. Solving one option will negate all others.]

1.      End the Unification War.

A.    Resolve in favor of the Monolith Empire

B.     Resolve in favor of the Coralith Empire

“Weren’t there supposed to be civil wars also?” Tinuriel asked.

“We’re too late for those. That’s all been quashed and dealt with. All that’s left is the Unification War.”

Felix looked around and spotted a small puff of smoke trickling upward in the distance. “Come on, let’s see if we can gather more information.” He set off with Tinuriel right behind. To his surprise, she pulled an item out of the shared inventory space – a small harp – and she plucked a few strings…poorly.

He must have winced at the sour note because she gave him a pouty face, “At least I’m trying to learn a new skill while we’re traveling.”

Felix pulled up his hood and mask, “And drawing attention.”

She shrugged, “I don’t mind. We haven’t had a good fight in a while.”

The travel was pleasant, and Felix was able to take in the views that helped to distract him from the horrid string-plucking of his traveling companion. The lands they were traversing were the type of craggy coastline spotted by beaches that one could find on the West Coast of the United States back in his Universe.

The salt-spray of the water crashing against the cliffs brought the familiar scent and taste of the ocean to his senses. It instantly took him back to fishing on the bay with his grandpa. Back when life was simple. Before the cancer took him away. He smiled fondly at the memory of catching his first fish; the feeling of pride and elation at doing something new…and being halfway decent at it.

Just like being a Versewalker.

Compared to other Versewalkers that were recruited around the same time? Yeah, you’re miles ahead. There’s a reason Vicky is paying attention to your reports. A lot of those other Versewalkers are just cowering in their VBV and doing simple Crisis events in low risk ‘Verses.

Hopefully that garners some respect from this System Admin who has it out for us.

Doubtful. Not until we kill this Basilisk thing back in your home ‘Verse.

And we will. Tell me more about the level of contact you have with the System.

The easiest way is to use some terms from your ‘Verse. You’re like a computer user. I’m the computer, and the VBV is like a router you’d connect that Wi-Fi stuff to. The VBV connects to the System, which is sort of like the ISP or NSP backbone.

I think I get it. I give you instructions, you input those instructions to the VBV, which then fetches the information from the System.

That’s the basics of it.

What do you know about the origins of the System?

Not much. I just know that ‘Verse #1 is the first one to breach the Multiverse, and that those people formed the System.

What ‘Verse are you from?

I’m from ‘Verse #3. They’re numbered in the order in which they were added to the System. That happens when either (A) the System finds that ‘Verse, or (B) that ‘Verse touches the System. Which is called ‘Touching the Multiverse’ by some.

Why is my home ‘Verse #5067? Was I not the first person to ‘touch’ the Multiverse?

You are the first Versewalker from your home ‘Verse, but someone else way back in your history managed to touch the System. I’m, looking now…nope, that information is blocked off.

That sucks. Felix sighed in disappointment. He looked back at Tinuriel who had paused her strumming of the strings and looked at him with concern. “I’m fine,” he replied to her silent question, waving away the concerned look.

Astragos had three suns that slowly rose overhead in the vermilion skies. The bright light made it difficult to see the smoke clouds, but eventually they arrived at a small hut on a hill. An orchard extended out to one side, a small vineyard across the hill on the opposite side, and an herb garden in the front. An older man and woman were sitting on their porch as Felix hailed them, “Hi there! May we approach?”

The old man turned around, “Ghell! Visitors!” He sat down and smoked something from a pipe.

A middle-aged man came out of the building. He had a large build and walked down the porch towards the two before stopping about ten feet away and crossing his arms. “You’re heavily armed. What do you want?”

Felix put on the best customer-service smile and voice he could. “Just asking for some information. Where are we?”

The man was taken aback for a moment before he frowned, “You’re just screwing with me.”

“No, I assure you, I’m not,” Felix replied. “I’m a Versewalker and just got here a few hours ago.” The man’s eyes went wide. What did Versewalker translate to?

What he heard was ‘Archon.’

Ghell knelt on one knee and dipped his head, “Versewalker, you grace us with your visit. Please, come inside.” He stood up and ran back to the house, whispering to the two older folks who also stood up and bowed deeply. They went inside the house.

Tinuriel glanced at Felix with a brow raised, “Shall we?” She led the way inside. The building was cozy and well-lived in. The trio were busy setting the table up and bickering over what to serve Felix.

“Thank you for the hospitality, but really, I just need some information then I’ll be on my way.”

The trio paused what they were doing. The older woman gave him a gentle smile, “If you insist. What do you want to know?”

“Where are we?”

She looked at him confused for a moment before nodding, “You’re on the edge of the Monolith Empire. The Far Shores as it is called. Horace, don’t we have an old map somewhere?”

Horace nodded and went to a small shelf, pulling away several objects before lifting a small book that other items were sitting atop. He set it on the table and opened the book to the back. He grumbled out in a deep bass, “This is a few decades old. Been in the family for generations. My eyes aren’t what they used to be. Valerie?”

The older woman smiled fondly at him and nodded, turning to Felix and Tinuriel as she showed them the map.

It was a Mercator style map and showed a single, enormous, Pangea-like landmass. They were on the Southern edge of the continent marked as the Monolith Empire and were almost eight hundred miles away from the capital city of Foundation. A twenty-six-day journey on foot if we’re going fast. Sixteen days by horseback…how do I know that?

Oh, that’s (P) Multiverse Adaptation at work.

His gaze was drawn to the other side of the map. The whole rest of the world was covered in ocean, but there were borders marked out. “What’s this about over here? It’s ocean, but there’s borders marked.”

Valerie nodded, “That’s the boundary of the Coralith Empire. That’s where the sea floor drops off – an enormous underwater cliff – before you’re on the lower plains. That’s where the Coralith mark the edge of their territory.”

“Or at least they did,” Ghell commented as he came over with a few wooden cups full of watered-down wine. He handed them to Felix and Tinuriel, “Empress Xadana – the ruler of Coralith – has been pushing hard to take over the Monolith Empire.” He shrugged his shoulders as he took a sip of his drink. “We’re so far off I doubt anything will affect us. But banditry has increased a bit in the heartlands as soldiers are pulled from patrols to the front.”

Valerie nodded and returned to the map, putting her finger on the center line of water – an enormous sand bar – between the Monolith and Coralith borders. “That’s where Emperor Quarilon is setting up the defenses.”

Horace coughed to interrupt before looking at Felix, “You’re going to get involved?”

Felix nodded and gestured to Tinuriel, “My Escort and I will be trying to fix this whole mess.”

Horace grimaced, “Fat chance of that. A few months ago? Maybe you could’ve. But Quarilon’s son was killed in a botched assassination attempt. I doubt you’ll be able to get them to agree to peace.”

I knew that already, Felix thought as he pulled up the Crisis log momentarily in his vision. One side must win. It was something he had been dreading and had already discussed with Lucifer and Tinuriel. He would have to choose a side. And, given my skill set, the best way to end this whole conflict without the deaths of thousands is if I cut off the head. It was the most pragmatic and logical way to go about it. But Felix still felt uncomfortable with it. He wouldn’t be able to just knock them unconscious.

You’ve killed before. Remember, it’s just one life weighed against possible millions.

“Which of these towns would be the best place to acquire horses?” Felix asked as he put aside the moral quandary for now.

Ghell pointed to a small town to the North, “Fielden is the closest place where you could purchase them.” He smiled, “I’m heading into town tomorrow with a load of goods for the market. I don’t mind showing you the way.”

Felix nodded and looked at Tinuriel. She shook her head, “Sorry, that’s a no,” she stated. “If there’s a war, speed is of the essence. You look strong – but you wouldn’t be able to keep up with our pace.”

Ghell chuckled, “Fair enough.”

Felix stood up and pulled out 50 VC, setting it on the table as the coins shifted to some type of laminated cloth currency. “Here, for your troubles.”

The trio of farmhouse residents all went wide-eyed before profusely thanking him. They gave him a bottle of their wine, and the two set off down the small dirt path before traversing the open fields. Heading North.

Towards empires at war.

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