75 – Echoes

The void-realm contained monsters that had eventually tired out even Vivi—if just by sheer number. She was reasonably worried about what she might find investigating ‘foreign energy sources’. Anything of special interest in this threshold-world was going to be of considerable…well, interest. Which suggested danger, and no small amount of it.

Hence she approached as carefully as she could. Her various presence-masking abilities had improved massively, along with the rest of her grimoire, thanks to the research she’d conducted while erasing what felt like half a planet of void-creatures. Still, even her most optimized spells were far from truly penetrating the material—or maybe she should say energy, since the potential there wasn’t quite the material itself—and so she couldn’t with confidence approach the target without knowing that she and, more importantly, Isabella were hidden from prying eyes.

She questioned whether she should be taking a thirteen-year-old girl into her research to begin with. But in general, Vivi believed that the safest place in the world was next to her. She was far from omnipotent, but she had yet to run into a threat she couldn’t erase from existence if she needed to. The Red Tithe had proved that much. One of the most powerful assassins wielding the most potent version of voidglass, and still, she’d been able to eradicate him on an impulse.

Most true threats to her, she knew, were informational and tangential. People she cared about being in danger, especially without her knowing. Thus, keeping Isabella at her side, even if it meant flying them into the mouth of a volcano, gave her more confidence in the girl’s wellbeing than any other option.

There were a few of the non-human, non-voidling energy sources that [Detect Presence] had picked up. Vivi flew for the one near the High King’s Palace, its positioning piquing her curiosity. Although she was worried for her and Isabella’s fate, she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t utterly fascinated too. As she soared over the dull-gray copy of Meridian, her imagination ran wild inventing theories for what she might find.

As it turned out: a ghost.

A partially transparent human clad in full plate armor walked with long, confident strides. Like the environment, his color had been leeched out, but only partially. While not as vibrant as she or Isabella, not as real feeling to her senses, the man’s gold-and-red cape, his crown with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, were bright and easy to make out—slightly pastel colors rather than barely tinted grays.

Vivi knew this wasn’t another human. Not a living one. [Detect Presence] had returned a strange result that, if she were allowed to personify the spell, had seemed like confusion, the magic unable to decide whether or not the ghost counted as a presence. If it was alive, it was in a nonstandard sense of the word.

Vivi floated around to get a look at the man’s face. Simply from his bearing, the square-shouldered confidence he strode with, she was unsurprised by what she found. The visage of a king met her. Handsome with a strong jaw and serious blue eyes, he radiated an aura of regality so thick Vivi almost dropped to the ground, dispelled her [Invisibility], and bowed. Not out of fear or submission, but of honest respect for a righteous leader of men, a king who deserved his crown, a virtuous monarch who upheld every expectation laid onto him and served his people as much as they served him.

The impression thrust onto her was so potent she automatically checked [Mind Fortress]. But it wasn’t a magical effect—these were her own emotions, simply inspired by viewing this man.

Or rather, not a man. She was gazing at a Concept.

Somehow, she knew what her [Inspection] would return before she sent it. It was a purely perfunctory response the System returned. An unneeded confirmation.

***

An Echo of a King Who Stood Above Kings

***

Isabella broke the silence. “That’s High King Alistair, isn’t it?” Her tone was hushed, the awe in her voice mirroring what Vivi also felt. “The Uniter. What is he doing here?”

Vivi considered for a long moment. “No. This is just what he represents.”

“What he represents?”

“This whole city is more conceptual than real. It’s color imprinted onto a void. And this is an impression of an ideal.”

Isabella clearly didn’t understand fully. To be fair, Vivi didn’t either. She would say she was only guessing, taking a stab in the dark, but by now, she recognized that her instincts when it came to magical and otherworldly tended to be pretty reliable. Her guess was far better than most.

“He’s heading for a Voidbeast,” Isabella pointed out.

Indeed, the ghost—the Concept?—had his hand on the pommel of a great sword, and his unhurried, inevitable strides were carrying him toward the nearest prowling monster.

She wondered what would happen when the two existences met. What were these voidlings, anyway? The natural fauna of this…between-space…and clearly predatory to other life. She could tell that much. But Vivi assumed dimensional shatterings didn’t happen often, so what did voidlings eat? Each other? How were they spawned in the first place?

Maybe analyzing creatures of such alien nature was pointless.

Nearing his target, The King Who Stood Above Kings pulled a sword from his sheath with a scrape of metal on metal. He pointed the elegant, jewel-encrusted sword toward the creature and spoke three words.

“Begone, foul beast.”

The monster alerted to the presence of the King, and made to spin and sprint toward him. But the King’s attack manifested before it could so much as execute a lunge. A huge ghostly replica of his sword crashed down, slamming into the spine of the high-Titled creature and severing it in two.

The King spared a brief, disapproving look—since such a man could never look disdainful; it wouldn’t align with his ideals—before continuing his unhurried patrol around the perimeter of the Palace.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Vivi watched the man with Isabella, mulling over what she’d seen.

“They’re white blood cells,” she said in sudden realization.

“They’re…what, my lady?”

Vivi paused. She’d been surprisingly consistent with not accidentally using Earth terminology. The revelation had just struck her with such fascination that she’d blurted the words out.

“They’re defending us from the voidlings,” Vivi clarified.

She hesitated as soon as she said it. Were they, though? Comparing the wandering Concepts to an immune system implied they were protecting their world somehow. While they clearly attacked voidlings on sight, Vivi didn’t think these monsters were slipping past the boundary—she’d never seen or heard of creatures like them in Seven Cataclysms. So did killing them help in any tangible manner, if they could never breach into their world anyway?

Would something bad happen if this copy of Meridian filled up with voidlings? Was it like a termite infestation, or a virus in the world’s bloodstream? Was too many even being near their reality dangerous? Were they nibbling at the dimensional boundary?

Maybe, again, trying to analyze such foreign existences using earthly parallels was silly. She was only human, so she couldn’t help but think about things logically, but she really doubted logic held total sway on this domain. There was no cycle of life, or food chain, not in any literal manner, surely. What was, was, and there may or may not be a purpose behind any of it. The worldly hated the otherworldly, because it didn’t belong, and so these strong Concepts killed void-creatures on sight. That was the only conclusion she could draw with certainty.

“Do you think he’ll speak with us?” Vivi asked Isabella.

She was somewhat wary the king would attack if they showed themselves, but nothing so far indicated he would. They weren’t void creatures; he was of their world. So he shouldn’t be aggressive.

Still, he was strong. He’d smitten a mid-tier Voidbeast—a level 1500—without the slightest bit of strain. No level had been assigned to him when she had used [Inspect], and she wasn’t sure what that meant. Did he exist outside the System’s influence? Even so, the System could have approximated his strength, like it did for the voidlings.