Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 8) - Chapter 10 - The Hand of Justice

[Author Note: Sorry for the late chapter guys! Nothing more than a simple mistake.]

The intricate web of different spell patterns and the countless runes they composed of lit up so bright Xavier’s vision needed to adapt to the light—even if that only took a fraction of a second. The power that emanated from each of those patterns was palpable.

Xavier breathed it all in.

All the different spell patterns activated. A large portal appeared directly in front of him. This wasn’t a normal portal. Nothing like the kind he normally created. This was more akin to a communication device.

When he looked into the portal it looked like nothing more than a mirror floating in front of him in the air. He could see himself, hovering there, staring into it. The doubt in his heart wasn’t evident on his face. For that, he was grateful.

If they saw his doubt his plan would not work.

Though when Xavier looked at the portal he saw himself, it was no mirror, it was simply impossible for his mind to comprehend what was actually on the other side of that portal—for the other side of that portal had over ten billion different destinations. This one portal led to every single inhabited world in the entire Ventorin sector. If anyone else were to step through the portal from his side and couldn’t resist the power of the portal—something he wasn’t about to test—they would be stretched in a billion different ways until their entire body was split, a little bit appearing at each destination.

This was not a portal that had been made for others.

Xavier, on the other hand, as the creator of the portal would be—in theory—in full control over the portal. If he stepped into it, he could appear wherever he wished.

He was hoping, however, that he wouldn’t need to step through it.

The portal hadn’t specifically been made for the purposes of travel. It was a conduit and an amplifier. For his power and, perhaps more importantly, for his voice.

Xavier had become more and more used to public speaking, but even so there was a part of him that might never feel “good” at it. A part that always felt nervous standing in front of a crowd, even when he held complete dominion over them and had the ability to crush the life out of all before him…

That kind of power didn’t always translate into confidence.

Roln hovered in the air not far from him, his arms crossed, peering at the portal. The mental construct didn’t speak, but his visual presence in this moment was comforting. Here was a man who’d been more powerful than anyone in Xavier’s universe, yet he’d thrown his life away in the hopes of advancing Xavier’s path.

Xavier raised his hand. A thin thread of energy pulsed out from his fingers and stretched toward the portal. When it touched the portal, he felt that energy split into billions of parts, something even his powerful mind had difficulty grasping. The energy allowed his image to appear above each and every one of those ten billion worlds. His image didn’t merely appear once over each world, but at several different points, hovering in space larger than the moon in the night sky back on Earth, so no matter where someone stood, they would be able to see him.

Taking a deep breath, Xavier altered the time dilation field he stood within, and he spoke to the people who would soon be under his rule.

~

Alanda sprinted down the street and hid in an alleyway as the sky burst in a brilliant light above him and the heat of thousands of fires radiated from the explosion. Two years from gaining the System, Alanda was slow on his feet compared to a Denizen but fast compared with his peers. He huddled behind a few discarded old boxes with his hands over his ears.

It had all happened so fast. He’d been sitting on stool behind their stall in the market, watching his father argue with a customer, when all the adults got that look about them at the same time. Alanda knew what that look meant—that they were looking at System information. But he’d never seen everyone just stop simultaneously and become glassy eyed statues.

Must’ve been some sort of world-wide notification…

He hadn’t seen it, and no one had told him what it was.

Once people snapped out of the daze of reading it, chaos ensued. The customer his father was arguing with suddenly pulled his sword and ran his father through, taking the item they’d been haggling over then teleported away.

Violence in the cities was prohibited. Not only prohibited but bound by a contract—what the man had done should have been impossible, or at least it should have broken his contract and killed him on the spot.

Yet it hadn’t.

Alanda had run. No one looked at him twice as he fled through the streets. They all started fighting amongst themselves. Denizen against Denizen. Well, not all of them—some ran like he did. Some simply disappeared in a flash of light or seeped into the shadows.

Others still tried to protect.

Alanda, too weak to do anything, hid.

“Citizens of the Ventorin sector, I bring tidings from the castle in the capital.”

Alanda blinked. That voice… It was coming from everywhere. Strong and powerful. He glanced around, then looked up. The fire from the explosion had cleared—Denizens fighting in the sky—and something was revealed high above. Something massive.

A man with massive wings hovering in the sky.

No, not the sky… He’s hovering in space!

“Cease your fighting and heed my words. I am the one responsible for the death of The Collector.”

In the sky beside the giant winged man a broken throne appeared. And in front of that throne was a corpse. The body, like the throne, had been cut in half. But it was clear who it was…

“The Collector. God…” Alanda breathed. “God is dead.”

Suddenly, all the chaos made sense.

~

Above the skies of ten billion worlds the fighting stopped as the usurper’s words rang out. But it wasn’t only words the man shared. He shared something else.

Memories.

In a remarkable show of power, balls of light drifted down from the sky on each inhabited world in the Ventorin sector as though it had started snowing everywhere at once. The memories were each System-verified, stating that though they had been altered the truth of them was guaranteed.

Curiosity was one of the strongest forces in the universe, and unshackled from the rule of The Collector, his former subjects couldn’t help but grab for the memories to see what they held.

The memories showed many things.

First and foremost, they showed The Collector’s death at the hands of Xavier Collins. The memories didn’t show the entire fight, just the way it had ended.

Crucially, the memories showed what Xavier, with Palini by his side, did afterward, as they’d gone around the throne room, to each and every Denizen, and shown them they were safe. Shown them that they now had their freedom. And that they could do with it what they would.

The citizens of the Ventorin sector might have been swayed from these two memories alone. The first memory showing that the man who was to be their new ruler was powerful, the second showing that he was merciful.

But that wasn’t all the memories showed.

There was a third. This was something he’d discussed with not only his found family back in the Roving Seed Base, but also with the loyal Denizens from the throne room.

What would happen, if every person in the entire sector knew that the universe would one day come to an end?

The knowledge had never been public. Not as far as Xavier had ever found. It was a total wildcard. Logic would dictate that faced with such a reality, the people would see the folly of their conflicts and come together. But Xavier knew that the opposite could happen, that a loss of hope might arise.

Then there were the possible apathetic reactions.

The most powerful thing about the memory, however, wasn’t simply that it was showing that this would one day come to pass—it was the emotions they would feel as they experienced the memory. And this was the case for all the memories. Xavier was, in a way, opening his own intimate, private life to everyone who received the memories. They would experience, on a visceral level, how he felt about killing The Collector—the disgust he felt for the man, the thoughts that ran through his mind. They would feel the hope he had for the people in their sector.

And they would feel his drive toward stopping the end. His drive toward unity.

Each and every one of these people were currently facing something they never had—the loss of the world as they knew it. They were in a crucial, emotional state. A turning point that would be defined by whatever actions they took. These memories and what they felt when they experienced them would be all the stronger for their current states.

At least, that was what Xavier hoped. He had never done something like this, after all.

No version of him ever had.

All Xavier could do now was watch and wait. These memories weren’t the only things he had up his sleeves. He wasn’t simply going to rely on the better judgement of every individual in this sector. The destruction that had already been wrought in such a short time showed how little restraint many of these people had when their contracts were cut.

They never had to learn self-control, because they never had the agency to do so.

And that was why he knew that though he wanted to be merciful, he couldn’t ignore any true injustices that came after the people had seen the memories that floated down toward them. Any of these injustices—murder, rape, enslavement—that he witnessed would be dealt with swiftly.

These people would suffer a true death. He would reap their souls when he was through with them. That kind of death engendered fear in even the bravest of Denizens.

Though it felt like an age to Xavier, it didn’t take long for the people to witness the memories. Ten billion worlds was an unimaginably large amount of ground to cover. Even with his ability to effectively stop time, policing every world and every injustice upon them at once was an impossible, never-ending feat.

So, once the appropriate amount of time had passed, and those who were going to experience the memories had experienced them, Xavier set down the laws, one by one, telling the people what would happen if they went against these rules.

“You will be sentenced to a true death,” were his final words before he went silent. He turned to his people, the ones within the throne room still huddled around the hologram that showed images from all around the Ventorin sector. Though not all of the Observation Crystals were intact, enough of them were that this should work.

It didn’t take long for the first injustice to be identified. Barely a few seconds passed before someone returned to wantonly killing those around them. The hologram zoomed in on them. The man had a red aura around him, an aura Xavier found instantly familiar.

The Denizen—a demonkin—was experiencing a berserker rage. A rage that either he was unable or unwilling to pull back from. Xavier raised his chin, pointed at the hologram, and announced that the hand of justice would soon be dealt.

There were other things he could do to the man. He could control the demonkin’s mind or force a contract upon him. He could imprison him for the rest of his life. He could speak with him, see if there was a way for him to change and become a better person…

But none of those things would be enough to prove to the citizens of the Ventorin sector that he was strong enough to rule them—and not just rule them, protect them. The System’s influence over the Greater Universe, the conflict it had wrought and made to appear natural over billions of years… It stopped him from showing a higher level of mercy.

Even if it didn’t, Xavier himself didn’t think a man murdering innocents around him deserved such a thing.

Xavier altered time, slowing it outside of the field encompassing the throne room to its maximum. The hologram, the man dealing murder, Xavier’s pointing, had been seen on over ten billion worlds.

But there were already an unimaginable number of injustices happening—injustices that had begun seconds after his announcement—that it was difficult for him to contemplate stopping them all.

And yet that was what he intended to do.

Each of the Denizens that surrounded the hologram, including Palini, had their eyes wide open, glowing white. The hologram was simply a screen that showed a single Observation Crystal, or several of them at once. The Denizens around the hologram, however, had access to every single one. Their minds were incredibly vast and nimble. Many of them had already had the ability to split their minds before Xavier started training them.

Now they were all masters at splitting their mind.

They used that ability to its fullest as they searched through the Observation Crystals. Despite Xavier’s announcement, despite the memories he’d shown, there were still countless numbers of Denizens out there who seemed to think they could get away with murder and other terrible things.

Then there were those who had been battling before his announcement. Those who hadn’t stopped to watch the memories, though they would have heard his words and laws.

Some of these people might very well be innocent. Simply defending themselves. Xavier would be the hand of justice, but he wouldn’t mete it out without reservation.

Xavier closed his eyes and thought about the weight of responsibility he’d put onto himself by walking this path. Responsibility had been on his shoulders for a long time now. The weight of his world, his sector, the universe…

But though those things were heavy—incredibly so—there was an impersonality to them. They were far more abstract than what he was experiencing right now. And those responsibilities… So few people even knew that was what he intended to do, that those things were in his hands.

Now, every single person in this sector was looking to him.

Sometimes it felt as though this path had been chosen for him, or that he’d stumbled into it by accident—he’d certainly chosen the path of the Champion without first fully reading what that had entailed. He supposed, in a way, he was an Accidental Champion…

However, so much of what he’d done since had not been an accident. He may have stumbled onto this path unawares, but he walked it with his head up and his eyes wide open.

I choose to be here with every step I take. This responsibility hasn’t fallen on my shoulders; I put it there.

“Time to turn thought into action,” he whispered to himself before addressing the Denizens around the hologram. “First coordinates.”

Palini looked up, then gave him the location of the demonkin berserker.

One of the other Denizens, a dark-haired and slender C Grade woman who wore leather armour and spiked, fingerless gloves, pulled something from their Storage Ring. It was a large crystal that glowed with a constant pulsing, purple light. It hovered in the air. Though he hadn’t told them every aspect of the plan, these people knew him well enough by now. From watching everything he’d just done, they understood what came next.

“I’ve keyed this Observation Crystal to your energy signatures. It will record your every action until commanded otherwise.” The dark-haired Elivi raised an eyebrow at him. “It isn’t as fast as you, however, so you’ll have to tether it to yourself so it doesn’t get left behind.”

Xavier nodded. “Understand. Thank you, Elivi.”

The woman blinked and gave a small nod. Even after so long with him in the time alteration field, these people weren’t used to being thanked. Though he knew that in the grand scheme, their time together was barely anything compared to how long they’d each been captives of The Collector.

Xavier turned in the air to face the portal once more, seeing his own face in it, carefully blank of expression. The things he was about to do, the executions he was about to perform…

He had been the hand of death many a time, but too rarely had he been the hand of justice.

The young dragonkin, soon to be the official ruler of the Ventorin sector, flew through the large portal with the first coordinates in his mind.