15 – The Mind of God
The choices before me and the path that would follow them flashed in my mind, quickly organized by Agate, then all was clear.
Though I considered that saving Matilda was a lost cause—she wouldn't likely survive regardless of what I did—I nevertheless resolved to act according to my current persona, because as Agate reminded me…
'You're still in your Axion armour! We don't know if Myoz's dolls can be used for remote communications, or if anybody else might be watching.'
It wouldn't do for the hero Axion to so easily abandon a comrade, even one of little value. If I were to discard this persona, I would do so on my own terms, and retain the element of surprise when my enemies would have miscalculated my willingness to use despicable means at a critical moment.
Now was not that moment.
The fake Matilda had not taken two steps from the house when I threw a smoke bomb and flash bang.
There was the barest hint of surprise on her face before smoke covered us, and I activated my infrared vision mode.
These dolls were surprisingly accurate mimics of the real human body while they were active. Earlier, even Agate hadn't noticed anything physically off about the fake Tiffania. It was only her unnatural stillness and lack of activity that gave us a clue as to her true nature. A real person would be doing things in their own house even when nobody else was watching, but the fake Tiffania just sat there staring at the door as if waiting for the moment to fulfill its purpose, and it wasn't any sort of meditation.
I jumped high, boosted with my Armoriont wings, and reached fake Matilda in a single motion and slashed right through her.
"Woah! What are you doing?" Derflinger cried out. Because Agate and I were communicating telepathically, Derflinger didn't know why we were attacking all of a sudden, but after absorbing the magic in the alviss, he quickly caught on.
"Huh? It's a gargoyle! How did you know, partner? Nice going!"
Without knowing the full capabilities of these gargoyles, the best thing to do was to use Derflinger's magic absorption to quickly put them out of commission.
Behind me, the children's body shapes morphed just as I suspected and grew much bigger.
"Hang on Miss Longueville! I shall save you from these evil beings!" I shouted.
I rushed through the door and slashed at the space in front of me in anticipation of something moving there.
A man in mercenary attire appeared under my sword and was cut in half with an uncomprehending face.
Agate had watched while the little girl had morphed into the mercenary and went towards the door, which is how I knew where to strike as if I had precognition.
Unfortunately, by the time I got through the door, the fake Tiffania was already holding Matilda with a dagger to her throat.
The fake Tiffania had reacted quite fast after the fake Matilda was killed, as if the dolls could communicate with each other without speaking.
"You cretin! Have you no honor! Unhand Miss Longueville at once!"
I stood in the doorway facing her down while she held the real Matilda, who was too weak to even struggle now.
"Hahaha…! Honor? What use is there for honor in war? And to demand honor for an elven sympathizer of all things? Those who consort with the elves are no better than the elves themselves! Blasphemers and apostates who have turned away from Brimir's light! They deserve no mercy!" Her face turned into an angry snarl.
I scoffed. "Enough with the pretensions, Myozunitonirun. I'm well aware that you care nothing for the crusade or Brimir."
As we spoke, I racked my mind for a solution to this hostage problem. There was no way I was fast enough to take out the fake Tiffania before she could slit Matilda's throat.
I had a laser gun that might be able to take her out if I was accurate enough, but the time it took to draw it out was already enough to end Matilda's life. Even if I had the gun out already, it was only in trashy movies that you could see people shooting the hostage holder. The risk of a fatal mishap was far too high.
Then there was the strategy of pretending not to care, but that wouldn't work here because Matilda wasn't only a hostage—Myoz probably actually wanted Matilda dead, she was only keeping her alive for the express purpose of keeping me back…and if that I couldn't be held back that way, why not complete at least one objective?
"What are you talking about? Myozunitonirun? You must be delusional, mistaking me for that legendary familiar," the fake Tiffania said.
"Cut the crap and get to the point. You're just an expendable alviss. There's no reason for you to hold Miss Longueville hostage to protect an expendable tool. If you wanted Miss Longueville dead, you could easily finish her off right now and lose nothing by it. Since you haven't done that, you must want to talk to me. What do you want?"
For the moment, I could only entertain her.
The fake Tiffania raised an eyebrow, and quirked her lips in a smile. "You seem so sure of that. I could just be buying time to surround and kill you."
"If that's your plan, then you should find better spies. I won't be defeated by anything less than an army of mages. I could kill a hundred thousand of your alviss without breaking a sweat," I boasted groundlessly.
"Hah! We haven't even shown one percent of our power yet, missy! Didn't your spies tell you about that?" Derflinger added.
The fake Tiffania showed no sign of being surprised at Derflinger being able to talk, not even giving the sword a second glance. Perhaps because she'd already known from the spy reports, or because Myoz' power to understand and use magical artifacts was working even through the doll. Or, the doll was too stupid to understand the significance of it so ignored it…though I wouldn't put any money on that last theory.
"It seems that reports of your arrogance were not exaggerated, oh mighty hero from another world. You would do well not to underestimate this land, Lord Axion. There are those less cultured than me who would see your words as an insult and seek to show you your place."
I shrugged. There were people like that everywhere. Some would even try to show me my place without any insult whatsoever. Like that Planeswalker who started my journey by trying to kill me just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I didn't need her advice to know that I had to be careful, but an arrogant persona was also a tool that would cause some people to underestimate me, and others to overestimate me for the wrong reasons.
"Then let them. I'm an adventurer now. It's easier if they come to me and hand over their loot and XP instead of making me do a long quest."
"Expy? What is that?"
"Nevermind…I wonder what world you got summoned from." Was she even from another world at all, or was it possible for Void familiars to be summoned from somewhere in Halkegenia?
"My past is no concern of yours. Let us get to business then. You are right that I wanted to speak with you. Why have you allied yourself with this deserter?" She gestured to the unconscious Matilda in her arms. "What sob story did she use to trick you into helping her?"
"That's it? And here I thought you had something meaningful to say. If you want to make small talk, let Miss Longueville go first. I'd be happy to have a coffee chat with you after Miss Longueville gets treated."
I thought hard, but ultimately determined that, other than talking our way out of it, the only way to resolve this situation was for Agate to launch an independent surprise attack.
It was a card that I never wanted to reveal back on Worm, as I wanted to keep it in reserve as my ace against a few specific precognitive opponents who would be unable to perceive Agate in agatespace, but who might be able to start modeling her after being exposed to that sort of thing a few times.
Now in this plane, such immensely powerful precognition shouldn't exist, so perhaps there was no need to hold back.
'Yes! Let me fight!' Agate cheered. She maneuvered to build up momentum.
The fake Tiffania sighed and shook her head. "You're on the wrong side, Lord Axion. This traitor isn't worth your effort, but I see that there's no—"
'Do it!' I ordered mentally.
In the next instant, Agate materialized just before smashing into the fake Tiffania's wrist in an explosion of colorful lights, the impact knocking her hand away from Matilda's throat. I seized upon the opportunity and crossed the short gap between us in less than a second, Derflinger stabbing forward.
The blade struck true and tore through the alviss' chest, eliciting an expression of shock before it melted away into the blank visage of the doll and shrunk.
Agate dematerialized and went outside to see that the children had all transformed into men in mercenary gear. So these alviss could take on more than a single form.
The twenty or so men surrounded the doorway of the little hut.
With my free hand, I brought out the new wand I'd created from Louise's blood, and eagerly brandished it forward while absorbing the wind mana in one of the many stones I now kept within my Armoriont.
With a quick incantation and channeling the elemental energy into the wand, a large blast of wind blew out the door—actually blowing the door itself and part of the hut's weak wall away with it, and pushed the men back. Unfortunately it wasn't strong enough to knock them completely off their feet, thus showing that this wind breeze spell still wasn't good enough for offensive purposes, even after the explosive effect added by the wand.
It was however, a decent method of crowd control, and I used the opening it created to cut down some disoriented merc alviss.
What followed after was the obvious outcome of fighting a group of unpowered mercs.
Once Derflinger had sliced them apart and Agate confirmed that we were alone, I went back to check on Matilda.
Unfortunately…we were already too late. The initial wound struck by the fake Tiffania managed to hit the abdominal aorta, which is what caused the profuse bleeding. On top of that, she cut upwards after the initial stab, enlarging the wound further.
The floor of the hut was practically covered in blood by now, and I had no means of safe blood transfusion on board the AAPV. I mean, I could morph a makeshift set of transfusion equipment using the Armoriont, but there was no compatible blood available. The Armoriont could only make blood compatible for me, being tied to my DNA, and there was no way I would be handing out my own blood in a magical setting where that might be used against me in the future. Even if I did have blood supplies, given the injury to the circulatory system, there was no good way to actually stem the bleeding either.
It was an unfortunate consequence of having mostly geared up the AAPV for my own protection, not as a mobile medical center.
Matilda didn't even have the chance to say any last words to me, being unconscious, as I felt her pulse slowing down to a barely perceptible level, then ended entirely.
"There goes another one," said Derflinger. "May she find peace in the next life."
"Do you think something like that exists? Another life after death?" I asked.
"Who knows? But people have been telling themselves that for thousands of years. The humans say that mages go to Valhalla, the commoners go…somewhere I can't remember, and the elves say the dead join with the Great Spirit."
"What about you? Do you think you'll have some place to go if the worst comes to past?"
"I can't see how I'm ever going to pass on when I can just find another sword."
I spent a little more time digging out an unmarked grave for Matilda before burying her in it.
Even though I believed that I could consider myself among the stronger beings in this world, there was still a lot that I couldn't do. Matilda's death wasn't a significant loss to me, but if this had happened to anyone important, I would be just as powerless.
With that, I flew away and regrouped with Offensive Bias inside the AAPV and started to adjust the appearance of the Armoriont.
As the AAPV started up, I shook my head with a sigh. "We still have a long way to go. Perhaps I've been too relaxed, thinking this world had few dangers for me. It's always easier to attack a known enemy than to defend against the unknown."
"What are you going to do now, partner?" Derflinger asked.
"We should go to Cromwell to take the Andvari ring while we know where he is," Agate said aloud. I confirmed the route plan Offensive Bias presented on my visor and we prepared to head for Newcastle.
"The ring of Andvari? I've heard of that ring before. Partner, I can't break the magic of that thing. You'll have to be careful," said Derflinger.
"Really? What's so special about it?" I asked.
"I can't do anything about mental effects, unless you want me to cut open your brain…just kidding, don't do that, it won't work either."
"Hahaha! Good one. What about the false dead it can raise?"
"Can't do anything about those either. The spirits inhabiting the bodies can fight me off."
"I guessed as much. You have a harder time with any form of continuous spell, so that doesn't surprise me. But the truth is I'm not that worried about Cromwell himself being a danger, even with the ring. Objectively speaking, it's just not that impressive for direct combat uses. Any mental powers it might have, I should be able to avoid by staying out of sight. No, the real problem is…"
"…we won't know how to use it, even after we get it. Even Cromwell probably doesn't know that much about it. It's Myoz that has the knowledge. And we still don't know much about what Myoz can do." Agate finished for me.
"Why don't you just ask the Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake? That's who the ring belongs to," said Derflinger.
"Because she'll want it back herself? Why would she tell us?" I countered.
"I don't know, maybe you can trick her."
I shook my head with a sigh. "I've considered the possibility, but the chance of succeeding is remote and could easily backfire on us. As far as I know, the Water Spirit simply doesn't trust humans at all. And it's strong enough that I'm not eager to get into a fight with it if negotiations break down."
For a moment, Derflinger was silent. Just as I thought he wasn't going to say any more, he spoke up again.
"You might have a chance, Partner. You're different from the humans here. All the spirits should be able to feel it. Technically I'm a spirit too, I ought to know."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't just go with any random guy that picks me up, Partner. Your swordsmanship was good but it's nothing special. I was waiting for a specific person. You're not that person, but you're even more interesting. You have an aura I haven't felt for thousands of years, which I only felt once before."
"Derf, what are you saying? What aura?"
"I don't know how to describe it. It's just the feeling that you're not of this world. It's different from that kid Gandalfr. That's who I was waiting for before. He's not from this world either, but his world is connected to this one now."
"I'm getting the sense that there's a lot of context I'm missing here, to understand this. His Earth is connected to Halkegenia?"
"That's right. I think it's time I told you a bit of the true history of the Void. With Gandalfr and Myozunitonirun both appearing, something big's going to happen. You'll need to know to prepare yourself…if you want to get involved. Well, maybe you don't. Might not be anything good."
"I'm listening."
"6,000 years ago, a human with a special power tore through whatever lies between worlds and landed here. He called himself Brimir, and wielded a magic that defied the natural order of things. Every spirit could feel it for leagues upon leagues when he used that power he called Void. He took magic from the land even though he was not a spirit of the land, and did strange things with it. I wasn't there in the beginning, so I don't know too much about what he did, but at some point, he met an elf and they fell in love. The elf made me with the ancient magic of the spirits, and helped him experiment with his magic which he himself didn't fully understand."
"You knew Brimir personally?" I had suspected some link there, but to think he really knew Brimir that closely…and Brimir fell in love with an elf? The same man that tried to commit genocide on them? Must have been a pretty awful break up.
"Yep. But I was young then, so my memory of it is pretty spotty by now. The important thing is that Brimir had that aura too. It was obvious to any spirit that he didn't belong here, even aside from the fact that he could wield magic whereas the humans here couldn't. Of course, his aura was a lot more disturbing than yours, like he was tearing a hole in the world everywhere he went. Yours is just a sense of unease, but fundamentally it's similar, and I can never forget it. After a while, he told my maker why he came here. He was searching for a safe haven, to help his people escape from a terrible enemy. He said that his God must have given him his special Void power, and led him to this wonderful land so that he could lead his people here. The only problem was, his power only let him travel to this land by himself. He could go back whenever he wanted, but he couldn't bring anyone over. One day he disappeared back to his homeland to help his people fight off their enemies, and didn't come back for years. When he finally did come back, he wasn't alone."
"You mean he actually succeeded then? He brought all his people over?" If Brimir really did bring people over from another plane, that was a feat I had to respect.
"Not without a heavy price paid. He was a different man when he came back. Crippled, barely hanging on to life. He still had his magic, but it just wasn't the same anymore. My maker did her best to heal him, but though the physical marks of whatever he did were erased, there was clearly something wrong with him on a deeper level."
"Was it some kind of soul wound then?" Agate suggested.
"Who knows? He never got better. But the few mages he brought along with him were pretty strong too, even though their magic was also different. They had the same magic the nobles here use now, only a lot stronger. They helped him construct a magical device. The elves have it now. They call it Shaitan's Gate. And it was using that Gate that the rest of his people came flooding in. The Gate wasn't without problems either. That thing seriously messed up the world. All the flows of magic energy changed, and spirits couldn't get near it without feeling like they were dying. The elves hated it, but tolerated it until Brimir could get the rest of his people here, taking pity on them. Until they found out that the Gate couldn't be closed or destroyed. Then the elves kicked them out and they went north. Brimir's people had new problems everywhere they went, and fought a lot of other races before finally becoming the dominant civilization on the continent. Long story short, over time their descendants became part of the world proper and lost the otherworldly aura. Similarly, the Gate kept the two worlds connected, and any time someone got here from that world, they didn't feel otherworldly anymore. Which means that if you have the aura now, you must be from somewhere else. That makes you special. And the Water Spirit will be able to tell too, though how she'll react is anyone's guess."
Derflinger finished his explanation and I carefully considered the new information given. Perhaps the most significant point of interest was that Brimir may have genuinely found a way to connect two different planes, albeit at an extraordinary price. I had initially thought the World Gate void spell was most likely only connecting to a part of the local multiverse, similar to Worm's alternate Earths, but the new story told by Derflinger suggested that the spell may be tied to the presence of the permanent Shaitan's Gate. Of course, there was also the method Brimir used to bring his first few followers here to construct the Gate.
Though I knew little of Planeswalker lore, I did know that the inability to transport other people across the planes was a major limitation they shared with me, after some cataclysmic event in the ancient past which reduced all Planeswalkers' powers. Brimir was perhaps a lead on solving this problem. On the other hand, the damage he caused to himself in the process was not appealing in the slightest. This, combined with the fact that the World Gate spell might only be capable of traveling to Saito's Earth and no other planes, would mean that researching the Void further would need to take on a lower priority.
"Thanks for letting me know Derf. I suppose in that case, the Water Spirit's an option we'll have to keep open. Do you know why Brimir wanted to wage war on the elves after?"
"Can't remember that part. The guy wasn't really all there by the end, if you know what I mean. It was something of a religious conflict, I think."
"Alright. Enough about Brimir then. We're almost there anyway."
For the next operation, I wouldn't be using my heroic Axion identity. The quieter I could take the ring from Cromwell, the better.
Ideally, I wouldn't appear anywhere in person at all.
'My turn to shine!' Agate thought.
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A/N: This might be MC's first failure since the beginning of the story, even including the prequel. At least, I can't remember any other instance where he gained absolutely nothing and lost an ally to boot. It was bound to happen at some point, and it will happen again when the MC deals with competent opponents where he doesn't have the advantage in metaknowledge.
Thanks for reviews! Responses below.
FerunaLutelou: Trust was definitely a part of it, though I believe the defeat of Fouquet contributed. It was considered a pretty big accomplishment in-story. There are a lot of instances later on where the students gain ranks in the military and even have a knight corps established, so clearly their society doesn't care too much about the student status.
TheOnlyKing: At least half my readers like the MC because he's amoral and even if that wasn't true, I wrote the story because I wanted an amoral character so that's not going change.
Cade2065: I'm glad you're now enjoying it. As for Tiffa, well there hasn't been a body yet.
Imotekh: I was thinking more in terms of how the MC would find a reason to stay. I mean, the MC won't have the metaknowledge, so how would he come to that conclusion after arriving and looking around for a bit? It will just look like a world with some giant physically powerful creatures and a couple of individuals who can transform into them. Compare that to what Amy can do and already did for him in Worm, and MC probably wouldn't see the value in it-he can get better and more versatile upgrades from her.
ZhaWarudo: That's really the premise of the story so there's no much I can do about it. It'll be a long time before he finds anyone he actually cares about beyond their usefulness to him.
LostSoul000: Those are on my list. Naruto is actually quite scary. Characters just move too fast there.
Guest: Saito was told about MC's technology from the beginning, in the infirmary scene. MC claimed that he came from a world where technology was more common than magic.
Guest: Good analysis. That's exactly what Kaleidus does in this chapter.