There won't be any visible progress happening if I stay here for any longer, dungeons can only provide so much exp, and Naela is waiting somewhere out there for me, maybe searching...
But I cannot leave for a longer amount of time; the everpresent threat of the Player is too great for me to risk going out far from the base.
My current, unfortunate, situation is one I wouldn't wish upon anyone, captured in a loop of worry and training, no way of rest even though I'm supposed to be free. Prison, with a warden that doesn't know of its existence.
...Maybe he does, and has everything planned out, a really deep scheme to end me.
I would've gone insane if not for Gamer's Mind, being completely alone for such a peroid of time.
Is there anyone, any being that is truly free?
Everything and everyone is bound in some way or another, either by emotional bonds, contracts of all kinds and forms, their own contained as well as uncontained feelings, their imperfect body, by duty to a king or queen, or to their friend.
Even gods are susceptible to some kind of limitation.
Well, I guess omnipotency could technically free one from everything.
Becoming all powerful, it is the goal of all life; reaching infinity.
So, a goal that's most likely impossible to accomplish is the only true way of being free?
The only way to be free is to be all powerful.
...I shall reach it, the highest height.
...
As I stated before, the two things I do in the kingdom of my creation are training and worrying. Does such thinking classify as the latter, or the former? This is one of the many unnecessary questions I wouldn't be asking myself if there was more to do in this place.
And time shall forever flow, mercilessly and dutifully, taking and giving eternally.
-x- Some time ago, Secret Admirer POV
Bloody eyes, burned into my core memory from a fading figure.
Crimson embers, everything else shrouded by a thick, almost liquid like, darkening mist.
The outline of a castle, a complete ruin, far behind the mysterious being; dissipating into nothingness, as darkness consumed all.
Then, a pure white א.
It was the symbol of Beginning, and of all that the eyes stood for; the aeonic story upon which the figure was written.
I opened my eyes, to be met with an old wooden ceiling, sounds of a busy street come muted into the room.
A dream.
Nothing that I remember from it makes sense, and yet I understand what it was, every detail.
My mind doesn't comprehend it, yet my soul does. That's the best explanation of my current state regarding that dream.
If it even was only that, for I doubt it.
-x-
A horror; being of everything. I saw the unseeable, the unexplainable. A place where reason has no power, it is not chaotic, yet more so than the concept of chaos. Of zero and infinity.
White and black flames lit up my surroundings yet there was no light there, only an illusion.
They consumed the Known and Unknown, from spots akin to fire eating paper, but instead of it they enveloped reality, destroying it, leaving nothingness.
True nothingness; not darkness, nor emptiness.
The absence of existence.
Then I awoke to the familiar ceiling of my hideout.
That was the second dream, one night after.
-x-
A woman with long black hair, and a scar running across her cheek, between red eyes, staring right at me.
A rock appeared in her hand, which she pointed in my direction, before a א burst into existence with an ethereal glow, imprinting itself on me.
I see it now.
I remember everything.
I must find Her.
-x- One month later
According to how the hills are laid out, the Dream's location should be right in front of me; a few hundered meters.
I will finally have some answers to the question of who She is, what those dozens of visions, dreams mean...
I understand what She stands for, and I wholeheartedly agree with Her, yet Her identity is still unknown to me.
It's like being friends with someone for many years, and still never seeing them eye to eye. Understanding what's inside without knowing what the outside is.
With a few breaths to calm myself, I resume my march.
-x-
The site is really something to marvel upon.
A pile of rubble.
Before it spherical craters are scattered, as if the ground was separated with ideal precision. There's also blood pooling some of the holes, but no bodies.
As I walk across the scene, a glint of silver under my boot catches my eye.
A dagger; half of its blade cut off, the handle just outside of one of the unexplained spheres of nothing.
No blacksmith could have done this, it's just too...
Perfect.
There really is no other word for it.
I decided to take the broken weapon with me, tucking it into my bag.
Is there anything else of note, here?
Maybe if I had the correct tools to sketch them, then the unusual holes could be something to 'take' with me. Eh, not like my memory would fail me, doesn't happen often, and definitely not regarding such marvelous work of spellcasting what definitely is Wild magic. For why would it not be involved here? Dream visions, ones with places that exist but haven't been explored by me? So much information, contained within one symbol; א. Decades of experience, gained in a single night; a person that I know exists, without seeing them once, for the evidence is right here. This ruin is what confirms Her existence.
She was here, both in dreams, and in reality.
Both in dreams, and reality.
This ...is significant.
Today was a great victory, the woman I'd been seeing in my dreams is real. I know so much about her, yet nothing - but now there's a realistic chance to find out.
"Return..." I whispered lowly.
What? Return? Why...
Ah.
The Beginning has given me knowledge. I do not know it, but my inner self, soul does.
But I still don't know what I meant by 'return', other than a nostalgic, melancholic feeling washing over me at the thought of said word. This isn't helpful, the fact that my subconsciousness seems to know so much more than the wakeful me.
Searching the place some more, there's not much of note other than the unexplained blood around the craters.
-x- A day after the ending of the last chapter (months later in relation to the last scene)
Here I stand, before the door of a seemingly random building, though it is a bit different from the other ones, being entirely made up of wood.
The sign out front reads, 'Inhocepi', it seems to be a bookstore. This place has been shown to me in one of the Dreams, and I just happened to know where it was. Of course that could've been just a regular dream, as I passed by this place a few times before, but an otherworldly feeling of reminiscence was there, and I could somehow feel Her precence. No idea how.
Holding my breath, I enter.
On the right side of the room five bookcases only describable as worn down can be seen. They're filled to the brim with many yellowed scrolls and books alike, neatly sorted, but it looks like noone has touched them for some time due to a visible layer of dust. A counter's on the other side.
Browsing the shelves is a brown haired woman wearing a light green cloak with black lining, underneath which heavily worn leather armour can be seen. Her face isn't visible; a large hood is obscuring it.
"A customer? The store's closed, I'm only here to..." She cut off, lost in thought.
"Yeah, I am a customer, and this can't really wait. I came to this place looking for answers, to questions that had been nagging my mind for months now." Taking a deep breath, I carry on. "An individual commonly known as Nature's Wrath has caught my attention, do you happen to have any information regarding that dryad? Accounts? Documentations of sightings? Written interviews with witnesses? I'll make do with anything."
The woman froze for a moment, then turned to me, taking off her hood.
That...
She has been shown to me in one of the Dreams. An important person, connected to Her, closely.
"No longer terrified, no longer angered; everything ends, everything reaches infinity; all goes to Her, all goes to Balance; All hail the Spiral." I recited a sentence from a book I didn't read, but my soul did.
Wha..?
Why did I say that?
Ah.
From a Dream.
Alright.
"You must go with me." I said.
"What? Why?" She seemed confused, her tone was underlined by cautiousness.
"We're close..." I whispered, caught myself, then continued. "Just... Come with me, I need to show you this, I know you will be grateful."
She still didn't seem convinced, so I added -
"I know she's dear to you."
That got a reaction.
The woman denied my claim, but I knew better, Dreams have shown me a lot.
"I swear it upon my Name, Savir Dovala, that you will get answers when I show you my work."
-x-
It took a bit more convincing, but she did agree to follow me. We went to my place, in which the corkboard with all my findings is located.
"Wow... This is, I have no words for it." She said, as she examined all the specific documents. "It all ties together so perfectly."
The woman turned to me, and smiling, said,
"My name's Naela, you have my most sincere thanks for making me realize, confirm many things that have been troubling me for months now."
-x- Naela's POV
"No problem. Wanna join me in my search for the Dryad? The things I'd gathered should give us enough of a chance of finding her at last." replied Savir.
All that information, did it truly change my view on Her again since that time, or was it just the spark necessary to ignite our undying connection?
The paths I walked, they aren't that different from Hers.
Should I?
My mind's undecided, but my soul says yes.
Do I have anything to lose?
Nothing that I'd care about.
I should.
"Yeah... I just need to pack some necessities, and we can go."
...Am I feeling anything?
-x- Still Naela's POV
Throughout the past months I've done many different things; gotten involved with the authorities on numerous occassions and varying circumstances, joined a prestigious mage academy, dug in a gold mine alongside dwarves, assassinated a (I think so) corrupt noble, walked around half the continent and stole from a lich twice, those are but a few examples of the things I'd done.
I imagine the entire story would take a thick book to summarize, maybe one day when my life calms down just a tad, I'll write something.
At first there was denial targeted towards Suisei, then betrayal, and finally anger. I did things that were thought by me 'despicable' at the time, thought necessary.
"Suisei finally freed me
from an empathic prison
us, apart for months three
separated by false reason
but no longer
was it so
with guidance of Her
away by a stone's throw
this close yet that far
this loving yet such hate
this bright yet black tar
I'm coming back home late."
A modified local poem, it summarizes my state of mind after we parted.
Now that I've seen Savir's unusual work, I understand that my thoughts were faulty.
-x- Suisei's POV, five weeks later
Nothing interesting has happened, still.
Except the fact that I'd been growing in power.
I can now lift (thanks to the Superman Physics perk for making it possible) a five story building, as tested in a dungeon, fire feels warm but doesn't really harm me anymore, I don't even feel boulders crashing on my head, and apparently my speed now allows me to fly through the air through kicking it, compressing the atmosphere beneath my foot so that I may do what amounts to a double jump, just infinitely. My flight speed seems to be similar to my running speed.
Inventory training was progressing nicely as well; I did a lot of digging by hand, especially the more precise parts, drawing runes in stone with my finger, instantly making all the splinters that shoot out disappear.
I can now inventory a boulder twice my size within a second.
Most of my runes have also become much more powerful due to spending many stat points in INT and WIS.
Notably, I've recently finished work on the never ending Bouncing Burst rune program. The concept seemed fairly simple, but it took much more time to figure out the details of the code than I'd like to admit.
When it fires, it will accelerate by 200% per second, mowing the planet out of all of humanity within a minute. There's a Matter Eater modifier so that the projectile eats all dead matter, including everything it shreds in alive matter, this way it won't destroy the planet by creating all kinds of deadly physics phenomena due to accelerating many times the speed of light.
The negative is that it lasts for a very short while, that won't be important here, but once I planeswalk to Warhammer 40k, it will not be capable of just one shotting the whole galaxy, dissipating way before it can reach a neighbouring solar system.
Even if there's no galactic 'I Win' button, at least it will kill any sentient organics on a single world.
It isn't all that bad.
A personal Exterminatus button, hehe.
...
In my most recent dungeon I reached level 200, and yet there's no sign of a World Jump message. Why is that?
[You will get said message as soon as you leave this verse.]
Thanks for telling.
Other than things regarding my personal prowess, the underground fortress has become even larger, now harbouring at least a thousand different halls, most the size of a cathedral, a few larger. It's more akin to a giant maze rather than a place to live in.
I've disturbed dwarves a few times in my mining ventures.
Don't know how that happened, the nearest mountains are far behind the horizon.
I guess either they've got some really long tunnels, or my place's much more massive than I realized.
I do have a map room; filled with many rolls of parchment and dozens of tables on which are numerous mappings of my base, the world, and specific locations, but it seems that they don't really show the size of it all.
...Wondering how it'd all look if the halls were made into buildings of the same size, and put on the surface.
Probably akin to Rome, but upsized many times.
-x- Savir's POV
We'd traveled for weeks now, no sign of Her, nor anything that would've led us.
It may be that we're wandering 'blindly' across the world, but I am sure that once I find a certain place from my dreams, unassuming yet so different, we will end this journey.
And it is near, I can feel it.
-x- Naela's POV
I'm starting to doubt him, even though what he had back at the city, that corkboard, it was connected in ways that are just... Logical.
I don't know.
But were there other ways to do it?
Of course.
Were any of them successful?
No, none gave any results, and I tried at least twenty different ways within the first two months.
Then why doubt Savir, if he has so much information on Her?
It has been two more months since we left E-Rantel.
-x- Unknown POV
In a small, neglected room, on a small bed, an old man wearing faded light blue robes was sitting.
He seemed to be quite joyful at this moment; smiling from ear to ear.
"I will not be there to see it, but she will reach balance. I know it." He smiled blissfully. "The Spiral will be hers to control."
He paused.
"...Do I?"
-x- A day later, Suisei's POV
I was laying near one of many pillars, in one of many halls, like a homeless person who snuck into the largest temple the world has ever seen.
But unlike one, this oasis is mine, and mine alone.
Noone else's here, I can do whatever I desire.
Even laze around on the floor of one of my throne chambers.
'Throne' chambers. They're what amounts to art projects, created only to alleviate some of the Boredom. I highly doubt anyone would see me sit on any of the ornate drama-chairs I carved.
Suddenly, the floor lit up.
I stood up, looking below me.
The number two, and an 'H' beside it.
That means two humans are within five hundered meters to my teleport location; it's a practically useless detection system I designed with all the free time to spend.
Activating a secondary, more useful scanner, I confirm there to be no undead, or corrupt energies within a four hundered kilometer radius, so there shouldn't be much danger coming from the Player.
My surroundings changed from the brightly lit stone halls to a forest lit by long streaks of orange light between shadows, seems like the sun is nearing the end of its journey across the sky for today. Now on grass, I start walking towards hopefully some entertainment, easy prey I can play with before killing for exp.
Minutes later I spot them. A robed man, along with-
My eyes widen as I take in the person wandering amongst the trees, lit up by the last direct sunray of the day.
It is her.
Naela.
After nearly five months of being lost, bored and ...depressed, I finally see her, the woman of most my thoughts, light in the dark and only Friend in this world.
I care not for the man, my sins are Greed and Wrath, no Envy.
She saw me, our eyes met and the shortest moment became an eternity.
I laughed.
She screamed for a second, calmed down, stared at me deeply, with furrowed brows. Many emotions were dancing across her face.
Her lips curled up into a smile, then a grin, and finally a laugh escaped her as well.
All this was from a distance of a few hundered meters - it felt much, much closer.
I started walking towards her, as she did to me.
Without words, we came together and hugged.
This one moment lasted longer than the whole time we were apart.
How was it that she, who I know for less than a year, has become so dear to me in such a short amount of time? It's as if we were together for decades.
-x- Naela's POV
How was it that she, who I know for less than a year, has become so dear to me in such a short amount of time? It's as if we were together for decades.
-x- Savir's POV
I have found the One of my Dreams.
It seems to be obvious Naela has known her through more than just visions though. I wonder how long they'd been together.
...If they were immortal, at least a hundered centuries.
But they weren't, so the only correct option is 'their whole lives'. Can't imagine someone loving another person so much after less than that.
-x- Suisei's POV
This is the best moment of my life here on this world.
No.
Best moment of the entirety of my life.
But, because nothing can truly last forever, we were interrupted by the person who was with Naela, ceased embracing.
"Couldn't you wait a minute?" I muttered.
"Uh, I think much longer than a minute has passed since you two started hugging."
Wait, what?
Looking around, it's completely dark, not even a sign of orange as stars shimmer above, on a cloudless sky.
Huh.
I guess, when one's doing something they love time passes faster. Yeah I remember working on something on my computer and whole days passing in the blink of an eye.
But for the effect to be so drastic?
"And who are you exactly?" I asked the guy, who was still an unknown to me.
"I was a nobody, just a random petty thief and one-time murderer, before the visions at least. Visions, many dreams of you, what you've done and what I assume you will do. They motivated me to find out who you are, as I discovered you really existed."
"That's an interesting story, but not enough of a reason for me not to kill you." Human exp is worth more than some passing curiosity.
"Wait, don't do it, I very much enjoy his work and I'd be saddened to see him die." Naela said.
"Hm? What is his 'work' then?"
"Savir - that's his name - can create theories, amusing ones, ones that make sense, in a way that doesn't. I have no idea how. Somehow."
"I care not for what he does, it was only curiosity that made me ask you; but he'll live, probably." I'll add him to the party, now he doesn't have to eat nor sleep. The moment he does something suspicious, he'll be dead.
And I have a plan, if he passes, he lives. But he should pass, my theory's most likely true...
Why would I spare this Savir individual? Because Naela wants him alive, and one less exp package is not that important in the grand scheme of things, especially if not ending him makes Her happier.
A silence fell upon us, me and Naela content.
-x- Savir's POV
Well that's an awkward silence.
I wonder what kind of life lies before me now, having abandoned my latest hideout...
Assuming the dreams had any truth to them, an interesting one.
"Now the two of you, are you interested in seeing what I've been busy doing the past months?"
Huh? What is it? I am very much interested.
Then in a flash, the peaceful greenery of a forest gave way to grey stone and blinding light.
My eyes adjusted to the lighting change after a moment, and I was left speechless at the sight before me.
Hundereds of meters long and tall hall, dozens of giant stone columns adorned by glowing runes of pure white, a gateless gateway at its end leading to another such place.
-x- Suisei's POV
...And he passed.
Savir's still alive after being injected with a minute's dose of my modified light.
The hypothesis is true, my runes don't work on people who are in my party. I can now safely teleport Naela.
A quick flex of my will to activate a rune program and she's here now.
-x- A month later
Naela and Savir have moved into my base, having gone back to the city to gather 'essentials', which include but are not limited to as many books as Naela can carry, all her gold, a whole-ass ink barrel, a few writing feathers, a shortsword and then even more books, in her case. Savir got a few corkboards, rolls of parchment, a chess board, and a knife to name a few.
Naela has asked me to transport her to a zombie dungeon, remembering our nightly sessions from before we parted.
She was very proud to show me the most advanced spell she can cast - Chain Dragon Lightning. As the Zombie dungeon no longer scales with my power, the spell shredded the boss easily.
I now know how an artist feels when they get shown something way below their skill level by a friend proud of their own work.
But I guess it may be something notable, as that spell's of the seventh tier, and mortals on this world are supposed to be maximum capable of fifth tier, higher ones being reserved to gods.
Well, she has the somewhat limited, concealed game system I granted her with her addition to my Party, so that may've played a role.
Savir on the other hand, was content to be left to his own devices in a crude room I carved for his use.
He isn't nearly as annoying as I assumed at first, some of his theories are actually quite humorous.
-x- Four days later
Today is a special day.
Runecrafting LVL 99 [99%]
Today is the day I choose my next class.
Carving the last line of the last rune in a sequence that allows me to melt large amounts of metal, the level goes up to 100, and a new pop-up appears.
Select a class.
[Fighter] [Ranger] [Support] [Mage] [Rogue]
Having already decided what I want, I select Mage, then the Elementalist specialization, and finally Geomancer mastery.
My mind's instantly filled with knowledge of how to cast three spells.
[Launch Boulder]
Stomp your foot to the ground after concentrating mana within it. A boulder of the size you desire (Maximum size is MP/50 by MP/50 by MP/50 meters) will shoot up from the earth anywhere you want in a MP/40 meters radius.
Shoot the boulder by punching the direction you want it to go, it will fly at the speed of WIS + INT KM/H.
[Raise Wall]
Raise your hand high in the air after concentrating mana within it. A wall of the size you desire (Maximum size is MP/50 by MP/50 by MP/50 meters) will raise from the earth anywhere you want in a MP/40 meters radius.
[Raise Spikes]
Move both your hands in the direction you want the spikes to raise to. You may create spikes in a radius of MP/70 meters around you, their maximum number is WIS, maximum height is MP/50. They will shoot up at the speed of WIS + INT KM/H.
Here's me hoping that once I reach max level with this class it will be less restraining. Raising a wall of magma isn't gonna help me locate the Gem.
At least my quite large mana reserves let me do somewhat impressive feats even with those starter spells.
I've got 7000 MAX MP at the moment.
7000/50 is 140 meters.
The highest spikes I can make reach more than a hundered meters into the air, the largest boulder could most likely knock over one of the eldritch monsters the Player commands. The max speed in which it moves is also beyond the speed of sound, there's a sonic boom if I put all my mana to the launch - just tried it with a small pebble.
Of course, those don't hold a candle to what I can do with runes, but they're only starting spells.
-x- Some time later
Two days after the acquisition of the new class, my first level-up is here.
I got a single new spell alongside it, seems that's the system of this class, a new spell per every level.
[Bombardment]
Move one of your hands in a sweeping motion, and where you want dozens of small rocks will shoot up from the ground, bombarding a designated area; moving in a forced arc through the air. They will shoot at the speed of WIS + INT*2 KM/H.
That is way beyond the speed of sound, certainly enough to make regular pebbles punch through layers of steel. They can reach sufficient velocity, as people used to say on the old internet forums.
-x- Hours later
Suddenly, an alarm went off, showing a screen for me to see what exactly is wrong. On the surface above the base there stands the Player, surrounded by blue magical circles and floating runes, his form is partially see-through.
He's charging something up.
There are no other sentient beings in a hundered kilometer radius, he's here alone.
He must be charging a spell to be used against me, my home and Naela.
Another alert.
Looking up at the sky through a different screen, I see that one of the stars seems to be getting brighter, with a blueish hue around it.
I squint my eyes at the thing, they widen a second later.
That is not a star.
Nor a planet for that matter.
An asteroid.
Damn the player.
I sprinted towards where I knew Naela was.
-x- Savir's POV
"...And that's how the height of a frog's jump influences the celestial realm." He finished explaining his latest project to Naela, standing before a corkboard with a pointing stick.
"T'was a good one." she replies, snickering.
Of course it was, I spent an entire week observing the frogs!
The door to the room flies out of its hinges, as Suisei makes her entrance.
"We must go. Now." She loudly stated in a shaking voice, before glancing at the both of us, eyes widened in a kind of panic.
"What's happening?" Naela asked.
"A fucking meteor is coming down on the base as we speak!" The dryad shouted, all the while making my corkboard and other appliances I use disappear.
I have never before seen her express so much emotion.
"Go grab what you need, we're leaving this world!" Suisei added, bolting out of the room.
Wait...
Grab what you need.
I left some things in my old hideout.
Eh, it was just a few scribbles early on in my search for Her, nothing that important at the moment.
-x- Suisei's POV
Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK!
How in damnation was he able to track me down?! I thought I covered all my tracks!
What in the world...
How was it possible I was still underestimating his capabilites, even after I constructed this supposed-to-be-impenetrable base?!
Well, what's happened that's happened, no fixing mistakes now. What I need to do now is get the things that aren't in my inventory, and we're off to Warhammer 40k.
Why?
I can't go outside; the player would snatch me instantly, can't go to the dungeon, as the player could be waiting outside, at this stage the possibility is too high that he knows I don't teleport.
Best option is to just go to the next verse, get stronger there, and because time stops in worlds of the multiverse when I'm not within them, return here after a few years to destroy the coming asteroid, as well as kill the player.
After less than a minute, everything I wanted to pack is packed.
Getting to Naela and Savir takes a few seconds, using my max speed.
They look nervous, Savir's visibly shivering, Naela seems to be more than usually relieved of my appearance.
Both are carrying a few things, items important to them.
Without a word, I make all of it disappear to the inventory, quickly grab them by the hands, and almost shout:
"Planeswalk!"
[A/N]:
This chapter has fought me tooth and nail, I swear it didn't want to be written.
Okay, so Savir's dreams might seem like an asspull plot device, and they are a plot device, but not an asspull; they're part of a greater plan I have in mind for this fic, you might've caught some things in earlier chapters that don't have an explanation - it's all connected.
My pat r eon is "loudsilence" (sorry)
Also, a question to everyone who's following/reading this fic - why are you following? Why are you doing this? What is it that makes my fanfic worthy of being read? Why do you like my writing? What can I do to improve?