Ch. 84 – Earth #4003 I (Patreon)

Days passed pleasantly as Lucifer returned to his observer duties. Roy’s sister settled in with Gina’s magi and she kept flirting with Reth. Melanie and Roy were in and out of the VBV, tending to various tasks.

After a week had passed post-Beth-rescue from the College of Heaven, Felix received a heads-up from Lucifer. You’ve got that empress – Xadana – from Astragos waiting to see you. Want to come out to the conference table?

Yeah. Give me a minute. Felix rolled out of bed and leaned over, giving Tinuriel a kiss as she snuggled deeper under the covers. He willed his clothes and equipment from his inventory onto his person and left the house, walking to the table where Lucifer and the empress were already sitting. “Thanks for waiting,” Felix said as he took his seat. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

Empress Xadana smiled gently, “I wanted to come and thank you for your efforts. That Multiversal Trading Post has been quite useful in expanding our horizons on Astragos. I have a question for you. A request.” She snapped her fingers, and a servant brought up a sheet of paper – a large one – setting it down onto the table. She unfurled it and gestured to the schematic. “There were reports of some type of serpent creature in the waters of the Coralith Empire. After talking to your Overseer here, I learned that it is something called a submarine. I was hoping you would be willing to look at these designs and see if we are on the right track to replicate the device.” She looked up at Felix with a wide grin, “We’ve never been able to figure out a rapid way to traverse the waters, save for magic. But if we had something to facilitate travel? So much more could be accomplished.”

Felix looked at the schematics – and had no clue what he was looking at. He glanced at Lucifer who shrugged as well. “I’m not an engineer,” Felix began, “But the engineers on Mercantus could probably figure this out better. I’ll pass it along to them, and have a messenger get back to you.”

The empress nodded and stood, “My thanks. I trust everything goes well for you as well?”

“It does,” Felix said.

“Always a pleasure, empress,” Lucifer said as he stood up and bowed slightly. “I’ll be in touch.” He turned to Felix as the empress departed. “What next? Another Universe, more Experience, the usual?”

“That’s a possibility…but I had another idea.” Felix sat back down. “We’ve not really been challenged at all throughout our last few ‘Verses. The bars don’t lie – we barely suffered any real damage, let alone a threat.”

“You’re thinking of jumping back to ‘Verse #5067? Your home Universe?”

Felix nodded, “I know it’s locked until we hit Core Level 50, but there has to be a way to appeal that. I mean, this last ‘Verse we were in didn’t even challenge us. I haven’t had to us Elixirs in a good, long while.”

Lucifer sat down and put his head in his hands. “I really don’t want to risk you dying. You’re right – the last few ‘Verses have been easy to deal with.” He sat up straight and stared off in the distance for a few seconds – a look Felix knew implied that he was querying the System. “I’ve put in a request to the Admin about letting us try before Core Level 50. But…in case-” He looked off again and his face became a frown, “The Admin approved it…”

“Great!” Felix replied as he stood up. “We can get Penny!”

“Yeah…sure…”

“What’s wrong?”

Lucifer looked at Felix and he saw the fear in his eyes. “The System Admin hates me. I can’t think of a good reason why he would be willing to allow it. My guess? He wants us to go there, and for you to die.”

“I have to fix the Crisis though, right?”

“Technically, no. Any Versewalker could. But you’re the best suited. If a Versewalker came from Heficyre, for instance, they would be best suited to solve Crises on Heficyre. There’s a…code, is the best way to put it, that prevents other Versewalkers from traveling to the home ‘Verse of another Versewalker. It’s meant to prevent bad blood between them which could lead to inter-VBV conflict.”

“But if I die, the Admin can send anyone.”

“That’s right.”

Felix sat back down and stared at the table. “I don’t need to be there long. A quick in-and-out to rescue Penny.”

“From a government facility whose location you don’t know. Plus, as soon as we arrive, the time-lock will end, and the Basilisk will be released.”

Felix put his head down and ran through several scenarios in his head. Lucifer, of course, was right. Earth was huge and even if limiting himself to the U.S.A.’s territories where a facility would most likely be located…he had no way to rapidly travel once there. But then, a thought hit him. “The Multiverse contains infinite possibilities, right?”

“Yes…why?”

“You can read my mind. You know what I’m thinking.”

“I haven’t been doing that for a while now. Trying to give you your privacy. It’s been easier since more stuff to manage in the VBV has cropped up.”

“Oh…thanks.” Felix felt touched that Lucifer wasn’t just sitting around rummaging through his memories. “I appreciate that. Okay, here’s what we should do. Look through the Multiverse System and see if there’s a Universe that is just like the one I come from. One without a killer AI.”

Lucifer’s face went into a quizzical look before he grinned broadly, “Holy shit! That’s an amazing idea.” He leaned forward, “We can grab her and get out – re-enabling the time lock after only split seconds there.” His eyes glazed over and he shook his head. “You’re not going to believe this…but there’s a ‘Verse that is like your home ‘Verse. It’s just a little outside of your Core Level range, since it’s post-apocalypse. Like that TV show with the Vaults you had me watch recently.”

“Sounds interesting, but why that ‘Verse specifically?”

A version of you lived in that ‘Verse. And they also had an AI uprising like your Basilisk; but it’s not as much of a threat now. I can’t guarantee anything, but we could use Detect Object to find that ‘Verse’s Penny…or her remains. Might give us a clue as to where she would be in your home ‘Verse. Then, we could use a Multiversal Charge to arrive where we think she is in your home ‘Verse, grab her, and leave as planned.”

Felix stood up, “Let everyone know. We’re heading there. ASAP.”

The trio met up at the Portal Room. Reth looked absolutely thrilled and was all smiles. Tinuriel was all business and serious warrior-demeanor as usual. Lucifer came over and merged with Felix. “Ready whenever,” he said.

Felix went inside the Portal Room, past the various people coming and going, and approached an empty archway. “Hit it.”

“Activating Universe Selector. Target – Universe #4033, Earth.”

The grey portal opened, and Felix stepped through with his allies.

Now arriving in ‘Verse #4033 – Earth.

<Image of shattered post-apocalyptic Earth>

As they stepped through the portal, an oddly familiar sight greeted Felix. San Fransisco, California. The Golden Gate Bridge was unmistakable. Reth and Tinuriel stepped through behind him, and he glanced down at his gear. Nothing had changed. “Why is our gear the same?” Felix asked.

“Querying…System says that…oh fuck.”

“What?” Tinuriel asked as she pulled her blade from the inventory. It looked identical.

“This is one of those post-apocalyptic Universes. One that had a cross-‘Verse collision.”

Reth shook his head, “That implies something happened that forced multiple Universes together.”

“That would be correct. According to the System, this ‘Verse, #4003, and ‘Verse #4004, collided and merged.”

“What caused it?” Felix asked as he readied his wrist-pistol and pulled his knife from his inventory.

“They both had Artificial Intelligences that were unleashed. Both touched the Multiverse at the same time, and before the System could respond, they found their neighboring ‘Verse. Each tried to invade the other, and the System just isolated the pair. The Jormungandr AI, the one activated in this ‘Verse, won out. But the Leviathan AI extracted a heavy toll. This ‘Verse consumed the other. ‘Verse #4004 is no longer in existence.”

“What are the Crises here?” Tinuriel asked as she scanned their surroundings.

[Crises: Universe #4003 – Earth – Several Options available. Solving multiple Crises will result in extra Multiversal Charges.]

1.      Stop the Leviathan AI

2.      Stop the Jormungandr AI

“They both are around still?” Reth asked.

“They’re both on this Earth in this ‘Verse.”

Felix’s eyes caught movement and he turned to face it. Some type of mutated jackal-creature was emerging from the rusted, ruined remains of a pile of cars. “Guys? We have company.”

Tinuriel turned and raised her blade, “Behind us as well. We’re surrounded.”

“Bad luck for them,” Reth replied.

Felix let loose a pistol shot from his new wrist-mounted variant, and the hardlight bullet arced out and slammed into the mutated creature’s head. The creature didn’t seem phased, and snarled, barking loudly. He had to cover his ears as some sort of sonic attack drilled into his psyche. It seemed targeted, as Tinuriel and Reth did not seem affected.

The creatures behind them charged in, and the battle was engaged. Tinuriel reacted the fastest of the trio, activating several Skills in rapid succession. Deathless Juggernaut, Bastion, Icy Shell, and Aura of Frost.

She cleaved her sword across three of the jackal-mutants, and they backed off as the sudden burst of frozen fury swirled around her. She didn’t relent, and chased after them, yelling a battle cry as she chopped clean through one of them.

Reth was beset by two, and they bit onto his clothes, tearing them and drawing injury. “Get off me!” he shouted as he slammed his staff into one of them. “Dread Orb!”

The purple-white orb exploded from the tip of the staff. The jackals surrounding him and the ones Tinuriel was engaged with were blown back and their skin sloughed, eyes wild as they fled with loud barks.

Inviolable Will.

The ringing cleared his head, and he took aim once more at the creature that had been barking. With the others fleeing past it, he finally noticed a difference between this one capable of some type of psychic attack and the others that had charged in. This one had a collar; one that looked futuristic with swirling, liquid metal. He fired off several rapid shots – all aimed at the head. They thudded into the creature and it let out a whine before falling limp.

[Experience Awarded = 40]

[Congratulations! You have reached the Experience threshold to level up! Speak with your Versewalker Core when you are ready to Choose your next Class.]

Tinuriel carved a second one of the creatures in half before they, too, scattered and fled. In less than twenty seconds the brief skirmish was over. “That wasn’t too bad,” Tinuriel stated as she walked back to her allies.

“Speak for yourself,” Reth muttered as he held up an arm that was bleeding pretty badly – and starting to turn an infected, greyish color. “Oh, that’s not good. Cleanse.”

The pink and purple flower petals flowed from his staff to his arm and wrapped around it for a moment before falling away. His flesh was still injured and bleeding, but the pus that had begun to ooze vanished in an instant. “They are very infectious,” Reth muttered.

“Two Crises to solve, and to see if we can find this ‘Verse’s me or Penny.” Let’s focus on Penny first. Detect Object.

The golden line went up to the top of the nearby bridge, and then shot off towards the city of San Fransisco – the ruined skyscrapers a testament to the fact that this was, indeed, a post-apocalyptic land.

“That’s intriguing,” Tinuriel said. “We arrived close to whatever objective you focused on.”

“Why would they keep Penny in a large city?”

“Her disease,” Felix muttered. “They called it Nevermore Spectravoresis. A chronic condition that caused a lot of lung infections. That’s why she spent so long in hospitals.”

“What did it do?” Reth asked.

“I don’t know. It was still being studied. But the government in my ‘Verse took her for study. It’s how I got into this whole Versewalker business.”

Tinuriel looked behind herself, “Those creatures will probably come back once they regroup. We should head out.”

Felix went over to the one he had killed, “For the Hoard!”

[Loot Obtained]

·         Gatetech Psychic Collar

[Loot Bonus from For the Hoard!]

·         200 VC

Gatetech?

Querying System…Appears to be a high-technology company from ‘Verse #4004. That Earth advanced along psychic and psionic technology, harnessing the power of the mind, versus this one that relied on fossil fuels.

Pretty different from mine – we had nuclear power all over the place.

Different Earth, different advancement. The same can be said for any other number of planets.

Felix stood up and began trekking up a small trail littered with scrap metal, making his way to the top of the bridge. Staring down the heaps of piled, twisted chassis of vehicles, he began the long walk across the span.

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