66. Forgiveness, Not Permission

Gravity returned to Alex as he settled on the ground. He’d been excited to step from the Rift and back into the real world. Eager for the fresh air of his home world and a short break from the constant eyes on him in their travel across the Rift lands.

He’d also been eager to get back on the road, assuming it would be an easy time for him to resume focus on his testing. With the huge leap in Intellect, his spells should be stronger, and if Maelis’s was right, he should more easily be able to understand the intent and concepts behind new runes.

In that time of constant management, travel, and coordination, however, he hadn’t gotten to do any testing. He’d thought through some new spells or routes he’d like to take his studies next, but without the use of actual clone bodies, he’d been limited to what he could accomplish in his mind.

All of that together drew him away from the reality of the situation outside.

The sewer stench that slapped him in the face as soon as his senses returned brought reality crashing back around him.

Alex knew that the sewers waited for them. He’d been putting extensive thought into how he’d manage to get a large number of alien creatures out of the Safe Zone without causing a panic.

The second sense to assault his mind was his hearing.

Screaming, crying, and arguing could all be heard echoing from the nearby sewer walls.

“The hell?” Alex said, moving away from the portal even as Robert, Aisha, and Luis stepped out after him. He tucked the Runic Apprentice amulet back under his shirt as he stepped over the bodies of Kinley’s men. They still lay where they’d fallen. Even though more than a week had passed in the Rift, little more than 24 hours had passed in the normal world, and the Hunters Association hadn’t yet made it to the Rift site.

The confirmation made him grunt in frustration.

He moved through the tunnel that curved to exit into the larger chamber of the underground area. There, across the small gap of sewage, he saw ten humans huddled around the previously abandoned camp.

Kinley’s bounty hunters had used the camp to hold his clone and other innocents hostage, staging them in a cage while waiting for the cleansing of existing prisoners.

Those same prisoners, gladiators, and once-office-workers now stood in the camp.

“Take the lead,” Alex told Robert. “A familiar face here will do more for us here than I could.”

Robert picked up his pace and passed Alex just as they stepped onto the metal crosswalk, its sound drawing attention from the group. Several of them ceased their arguing, falling into combat stances, though only one of them held a real weapon, while two others held pipes like quarter staves.

“Hey! What are you guys still doing here?” Robert called, waving his hand. “Jeremy, is that you? Thank god you’re still alive.”

At the use of a familiar name, the group slowly lowered their guard, one man stepping forward with a smile as they got closer and Robert’s face became visible in the dim light.

“Rob! You guys made it out!”

“We did. There are quite a few more staged in the Rift behind us waiting to come out.”

“Why are they waiting in there?” another man asked, eyeing Alex as he greeted the trio of familiar fighters.

Alex looked around the small camp, counting twelve people. His original assessment hadn’t noted the two figures who lay motionless in their blankets, watching the conversations around them with blank looks.

Several of the others watched on as well, though they didn’t stand from where they were seated. Two of those clutched at bandaged wounds, but didn’t seem in dire need of healing.

“They’re in there so we can figure out what we’re doing before they all start coming out,” Robert answered.

“How many are there?” Jeremy asked.

“Another nine of us from the arena.”

“That’s not too many. Why not bring them here, and we can all figure out what we’re going to do?”

Alex raised an eyebrow at the comment, but stayed quiet.

Robert shook his head at the suggestion. “We have a couple dozen Koru’qai with us as well. They’ll be joining us soon. Just need to make a plan to get them out of the Safe Zone without causing too much of a stir.”

“The Koru?”

“What?!”

“No, you can’t—”

The chorus of answers to Robert’s statement wasn’t surprising to Alex, but he was interested in watching all of the reactions while he wasn’t the focus of attention.

A woman stood from where she sat and almost tripped as he tried to grab onto Robert. “No, Rob. Please, you can’t bring them out here. How would you— no, I mean. Please, no, please.”

Jeremy was shaking his head as well. “They can’t leave the Rift without it breaking, right? A lot of Koru died in the escape, and we definitely culled monsters on our way out of the jungle.”

Alex was impressed with his knowledge of the Rift mechanics, considering his situation.

Perhaps he was doing some adventuring before he was taken.

The woman beside Robert continued to cry, while a man near the seated group dropped his head into his hands.

Robert looked to Alex then, unsure of how much he wanted to share about the ability to bring out the Koru’qai.

Alex shook his head and stayed where he was.

“We can bring them out. They want to leave the tribe, so we’ll give them a place to stay,” Robert said.

“Why would they…” Jeremy thought aloud. A moment later, his eyes snapped back to Alex. “You. You’re him, aren’t you? It’s the only reason they’d leave the tribe— if they thought there was another chief to follow.”

Alex nodded.

The quiet that followed had several more pair of eyes turning toward him. Jeremy puffed up his cheeks and blew out some air. “Well, after what I saw, I’m not sure who the hell’s going to try and stop you. But I can tell you I don’t want anything to do with the rocky bastards.”

“Jeremy, come on. That’s a bit harsh,” Robert said.

The other man seemed unapologetic. His broad, bare shoulders straightening. “They just went about their lives like we weren’t being kept there. They followed him like he was some sort of chief worthy of anything but hatred.”

They went back and forth several more times, but Alex slowly tuned the conversation out. He was happy to help people how he could, but he realized he also wasn’t there to change people’s minds. They didn’t have to join him, and they certainly didn’t have to like what he was doing.

But he realized his power was reaching heights that made it so it didn’t really matter. Even though the group of escapees was powerful compared to the normal population, they weren’t a match for him, even together.

He surveyed the group once more, not seeing anyone who caught his eye, before scanning the surroundings.

The logistics of getting not just the Koru out, but also the supplies and wagons that they planned to pull supplies in, would be challenging. The vertical nature of the sewers meant that he’d likely need to use his spatial items to get things out in trips.

It would take a shuffling of resources from his Realm Walker’s Storage, mainly because the new stone pillar he had was taking up a majority of the space.

He took into account the amount of supplies they had in the Rift and how many trips it would take for him to get them out.

He sighed and scratched his forehead, thinking of the work that would take.

“Nothing to do but to do it,” He said to himself. Tuning back into the conversation, he heard that they were still going back and forth on the morality of bringing Koru’qai to Earth. He coughed once in an attempt to interrupt the conversation.

When that didn’t work, he simply started speaking, knowing that at least his people would pay attention. “I’m going to go back to the Rift. I want to chat with Walter and Martin.”

He was pleased to note that the conversation paused when he spoke, even though he didn’t raise his voice.

Aisha tilted her head at his statement, but seemed to understand. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, you stay here. Watch out for Robert and see if these people need anything. A few of them seem shell-shocked and might just need some time.” He thought for a moment before jerking his head to the side to call her closer. “I know some of them who fled are likely already back on the surface, but we need to try and keep the Koru quiet. Don’t force any of them to stay unless they’re making it clear that they are going to go and make a fuss about the Koru. If they go out screaming about a group of Rift dwellers about to be marched through the Safe Zone, it’s going to cause a huge panic. Right now we have a window, since the exit to the sewers is in a construction and industrial zone that they’re working on. I’m hoping there are few enough people that we can get out without any major issues.”

“Didn’t you say you had government contacts?” she whispered. “Can they clear the way for us?”

“Eh,” Alex said, teetering his hand back and forth. “They might be able to. But this is a large group, and I’d rather ask for forgiveness, rather than permission. Plus, I told you before: I don’t work for the HA. I just work with them and know that it’s best to play nice.”

She nodded. “Understood.”

Turning, he walked back across the walkway and down the small tunnel. It felt bad to potentially keep traumatized people from their freedom that was so close, even if it was just temporary.

That’s a soft way to think. I accepted the oaths of the Koru, and that goes both ways. Someone leaving here to try and stop us could cause serious issues.

Once he neared the Rift, he stopped and thought through next steps. Once he was certain of the order of things, he walked back into the Rift.

He was greeted by a camp around the Rift. Nearest the Rift were where most of the humans were, since most of the Koru felt too uncomfortable around the portal itself to stay within thirty yards of it. This was a phenomenon Alex had briefly described to him by Eura when he was first in the Celestial Rift, but not something he’d really understood until speaking with the Koru.

They described it as a deep seated feeling that something was wrong in the area. They felt as if the natural magics there were wrong, and he could only relate the descriptions they gave to the feeling of unease that someone might feel around a graveyard on a misty night.

Some of the Koru’qai seemed unbothered, while others refused to be near it.

“Back already?” Scott said with a friendly wave.

“Just for a minute. I need you to help me start staging the supplies closer to the Rift. Get them lined up here in a few rows of five. I’ll need to take them out in groups to get them out of the sewers and onto flat land. For now, make sure no one messes with this…” he held out his hand and pulled his right hand further away from the bracer while using [Feather Step] to jump a few meters in the air.

The pillar of brilliant blue stone dropped to the ground.

Scott’s eyes went wide, and he took several steps back.

“I’m serious, though, Scott,” Alex said, dropping his voice. “No idea what could even happen to this thing, but protect it at all costs and don’t mess with it. All right?”

The black haired man bobbed his head without taking his eyes off the magical stone.

“Good. Stay patient in here. It’s going to take a little longer to get out since I’ll have to take all the supplies out myself. With the time dilation, it’s going to feel like a longer wait in here, but it’ll be worth it.”

“R-Right. No problem. I’ll pass on the word.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Alex returned to the sewers and found a comfortable spot that didn’t smell as bad as the open tunnel, but still had a good enough view of anyone entering.

Splitting his mind, he began the process of creating his [Fractured Body] clones. The process would take a bit of time, but having extra bodies outside of the Rift would be valuable on many different levels.

With one mind focusing on the creation of the clones, he split his mind into all four lines of thought. One thought more on logistics, while another thought on communication steps with the Hunters. He meant what he told Aisha and knew that asking for forgiveness after getting the Koru away from the Safe Zone would be the best route to take things. However, not communicating with anyone, especially the director, could lead to more issues down the road.

The final mind examined the Rift portal nearby. He’d put considerable thought into the elven ritual during their trek to the Rift exit.

He was confident that he could make a significantly closer attempt at success with his increased stats and the Cadence Stone.

At the thought of the item, he removed it from his ring and held it in his palm while activating its effect. With the flows of mana more visible than ever, he observed the flow of mana around the portal and how it swirled. It both drew in mana and expelled it at the same time.

An hour passed in this fashion, focusing on the Rift, next steps, and immediate preparations.

For a time, he entertained the idea of trying the elven ritual right then and there. He had the downtime to make the attempt, and a Rift sitting right there.

But, the moment he considered the worst case scenario, he dismissed the idea. The best outcome was that the ritual recreation was successful, and he upgraded the Rift from an Epic E Rank to an Epic D Rank. This would have the benefit of allowing him to reenter the Rift and see how things had changed. However, that also came with the downside that he’d already reported the Rift as an E Rank Rift in his voicemail to the director and in his information to Sarah and Jonathan.

If the HA showed up the next day or so, only to find that the Rift was a D Rank, he’d be forced to lie and say that he’d misspoken. It was shaky ground, and he hated the idea of lying, even if it would be for such a great discovery.

So even the best-case scenario had downsides he wasn’t comfortable with.

The absolute worst-case scenario was that the Rift had an effect he was hoping to avoid. He knew from the Integration Champion title he’d received that his attempt to stop the Sun Elves had been at least partially successful. The most obvious conclusion to that was that he’d prevented the Rift from immediately breaking open and releasing the powerful elves to Earth.

If something like that happened in his attempt, he’d be responsible for a Rift the scale of which he’d never even heard of before happening. Even worse, it would happen in the heart of a Safe Zone, under the ground of hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting civilians. Some of which weren’t even awakened.

The thought alone made him sick.

He pushed the idea aside. As eager as he was to see if he could achieve success, he wouldn’t take those risks.

While it did temper his excitement, it didn’t stop him from making plans for Scout to immediately leave the sewers and hit the countryside. If they could find a Rift between Philly and Jersey, Alex would have the group stop there to make camp for an afternoon or evening.

The caravan could rest and recover from travelling while he tested the Rift— away from potential collateral damage.

He let out a breath and refocused his mind on their given tasks. Patience was needed more now than ever, and daydreaming about potential progression wasn’t worth the loss of anything else he’d gained in the last several weeks.