The days after my visit to Carlos revolved around finding a new normal, I didn't have a garden to tend to or school to go to in the mornings nor did I have just a few magical subjects to study and train in the afternoon.
More importantly, I didn't have Luna and Xeno to goof around with throughout the day.
My parents were great, but they're not the kind of people who would do that. Our family's vibe was completely different and that was great, but I was missing the dynamic I developed with the Lovegoods.
My first thought was to get my friends involved, but Carlos said to wait until the next year so they could start with a fresh class instead of getting dumped at the Academy with only 3 months left until the end of term.
So, I was left to focus on my studies.
The first week was rough, the mundane subjects moved forward at a breakneck pace thanks to the lack of other students and magic had me teaching the professors what I had learned about the mechanics of wanded magic so they could see about adapting spells between the two systems.
But things got better, a few weeks in I was mostly finished with my first year of high school, and my magic teachers were almost succeeding in adapting a few of our spells to wanded magic. Of course, their endless complaints about being unable to practice what they were studying gave me vast amounts of amusement over that role reversal from when I was first learning.
Unfortunately, my amusement dried up after a while as they would be incredibly more efficient if they had wands to test out new theories instead of constantly calling me to do it, and I wanted this project to work.
So I had to start planning when I would be going there next. I really wanted it to be during Christmas, but spending another month there wasn't advisable so soon. Carlos didn't have that much problem doing it the first time, but doing so again in December and another time in July would establish a pattern that would be noticed by the other Campione, something that was bound to cause trouble.
I sat down on the couch and lit up a cigarette, trying to come up with a way to make it work without the drawback of a long cooldown.
After a few aborted ideas, I came up with one that felt right: making a permanent passage through our worlds.
What gave me that feeling wasn't my Authority, but Janus' Key in a pendant I wore around my neck.
I thought the way the Key connected to my Authority was similar to apparition, just another way to open Doors, but apparently, it went deeper than that, which shouldn't surprise me as it was one of the Divine items of the God that I usurped my Authority from.
It could open Doors normally, as per the tests the Italians did, but it was almost telling me that it could make them permanent too, although there was a strange vagueness to it that I couldn't decipher.
Putting that out of my mind for the moment, I got up to try it, moving towards a small closet that we hadn't found a use for yet.
As I walked, I pulled up the door to the unused closet in the room Xeno let me use while I was there, I barely glanced at it before moving on when I froze.
Up until that point, I hadn't yet pulled any Doors for that world after my return, I didn't need to.
But I should have. Because from a little over a month, the cooldown had been reduced to two weeks.
For a moment I didn't know if I should woop in joy or immediately get to work on my Authority, but it was just a fleeting moment, I took the joy and left my curiosity for another day.
I was coming down from the high of actually being able to go to the Yule ball with Luna guilt-free when my phone rang.
I checked the caller ID and my good mood soured slightly, it was Carlos, which could only mean that I had work to do.
With a sigh, I answered the call.
"Carlos, what's the problem? Do the nerds need me to come again to test out a new theory? They do have my number, y'know?" I said in exasperation.
He snorted. "Calling them nerds? Pretty rich coming from you. And they wouldn't need me to call if you actually answered them."
"Do you have any idea how many times they called me in when I gave them my number? Because I don't! I lost count on the first day. So don't give me that," I said.
"Fine, fine," I could hear him rolling his eyes at me. "But that's not why I called, we have a situation," He said seriously.
I immediately went into alert, Carlos is rarely actually serious, he always has an easygoing 'vibe' that takes the edge out of him whenever he is trying to be.
That 'vibe' was gone now, his tone conveying that he meant business and he sure as hell hoped me to mean it as well.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"Get dressed for the South and Door to my office for briefing, you have your first mission," He said before hanging up.
Putting my phone away I quickly changed into a pair of light brown boots, thick jeans, a black shirt, and a grey jacket for extra pockets.
Grabbing my things, I pulled up the door to Carlos's office and stepped through.
I entered Carlos' office to see him furiously tapping away on his computer while holding a phone to his ear with his shoulder.
"I got the picture! Tell your agent he's on the way!" Carlos exclaimed as he finished tapping, hanging up the phone back on its base on his table.
He let out a sigh before raising his head and spotting me.
"Alex, good! We don't have much time, the situation is escalating as we speak." He said, grabbing one of the papers on his desk. "As of a few hours ago, weird magical phenomena have been happening over the town of Schroeder in the state of Santa Catarina. It wouldn't even have been noticed if we didn't have an agent in a connected city."
He pushed a paper on his desk my way, it had a map printed on it, zoomed in to show the city of Jaraguá do Sul and how the town of Schroeder might just as well have been a slightly separated neighborhood.
"The agent was sent to investigate but never reported back, so we started mobilizing what agents we had in the region into a task force to deal with the issue." He paused to take a breath. "But we were too late to stop whatever was causing it, by the time our first agent reached Joinville, which is still one hour away from Schroeder, the phenomena happening turned into a heavy layer of mist that covered the entire town, our agent reported it to be divine in origin, and that's when I called you."
I absorbed what he said, getting more and more excited after each word.
"So I'm meeting up with the agent in Joinville and you already have the picture for me to apparate directly there," I said with a nod.
"Yes, I couldn't find anything from Schroeder and only bad quality panoramics from Jaraguá do Sul. And after this everyone will be required to have a smartphone, needing to find pictures close by to where he is online was a waste of time." He said, turning the monitor to me.
The picture was of a big orange and yellow building, with other buildings from the same complex behind it, center stage of the picture was a plaque saying "Bolshoi Ballet Theater School".
"Really?" I asked.
"It was the easiest," Carlos shrugged in response.
"Fine," I rolled my eyes before focusing on the picture.
And with a push of my will and Authority, I was there.
Appearing in Joinville I immediately froze, I could feel it. Even from so far away, the stench of divinity carried. It was faint but clearly noticeable to me, and it was getting stronger.
"Sir!" Came a voice to my right, it was a short, extremely pale blond man waving at me. "This way!"
"Where to?" I asked while approaching him.
"The car is this way," He said, jogging to a light grey car parked nearby.
We quickly got inside and the car started rolling.
"I'm Lucas, Scryer for the Order." He said, maneuvering through the afternoon traffic.
"Alex, local Campione." I replied. "What can you tell me?"
"Not much, the mist is still thickening and spreading, but the divine presence was too strong for me to get anything beyond that." He said.
Hearing that, I took a deep breath to center myself, this would likely be my first my against a God as a Campione and I wanted to get into it with a clear head.
But it was hard, the excitement I was feeling only grew as the car moved towards the city limits. It was a slow, gradual change, but fairly obvious when I started trying to calm myself.
"How long for us to get there?" I asked.
"Around an hour if we're lucky," Lucas said, finally clearing the last red light and getting on the highway.
"Fuck," I muttered.
"Yeah, I already lucked out getting here, hopefully, it holds." He nodded.
I gave a hum of agreement.
Around 30 minutes later, my phone rang, it was Carlos.
"Alex! How far out are you?" He asked.
"Around halfway there," I said after checking the time.
"I just got the report from the regional leaders of the area, they caught one of the leaders of the cult running South."
"Good! So what's going on?" I asked.
"The culprits are most likely from a cult called Last Asgard." He said.
"So it's from the Norse Pantheon," I nodded. "Do you know who in specific?"
"We have a few options but…" He hesitated.
"But?" I prodded after a few moments.
"But it's not good." He finally said. "It can be pretty much any of their heavy hitters, they made the ritual to be an open invitation for any Deity of the pantheon to reach out."
"How does that translate to this being one of their heavy hitters?" I questioned.
"Because it's ritual sacrifice, Alex," Carlos said somberly. "And this one is massive in scale, the plan is to sacrifice the entire town, all fifteen thousand inhabitants, to empower the ritual."
My blood ran cold at that. Fifteen thousand people, the mist, the steady increase of divinity even when we were stopped, the sheer power for it to be felt tens of kilometers away…
How many lives were already lost? How many more did they have?
"Lucas! We don't have time! Blow up the engine if you have to!" I exclaimed to him while I pulled my wand out in case we had any problem, be it obstacles or cops.
"Anything else, Carlos?" I frantically asked, hoping beyond hope that that was all.
"No. Good luck, Alex, and don't die!" He said, hanging up.
It didn't take long after that for us to arrive, not in Schroeder, but at the edge of what was once the mist but now was a severe storm.
I got out of the car, unconcerned about the rain, and turned to Lucas.
"Go back to Joinville, I'll call Carlos when I'm done," I said, turning back towards the raging storm.
"Good luck, sir!" Lucas said before turning the car around and driving off.
I walked forward, pulled out a soggy cigarette from my pocket and tried to light it, when I failed, I used my wand to cast a rain repellent and a drying spell on myself.
Now smoking my cigarette in peace, I looked at the storm.
If its presence didn't give it away, then the lightning and thunder sure did.
"So, Thor huh?" I muttered as I walked deeper into the Storm God's domain.
A/N: And so, it begins!
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