Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 25 - Just Seeing How Far I Can Push Things

I held three hundred spell patterns all active at once, Xavier said in response to the blue-robed spirit.

And the spell patterns would have been glowing, as energy was primed and ready to enter each of them. This is akin to holding all of your energy pores open to a dam of energy ready to flood into you. The pressure you felt at simply doing this must have been incredibly intense. It would have served as a warning not to continue. Is this true?

Xavier pursed his lips into a thin line before responding. Yes.

Yet you continued… And you succeeded in using every single one of those three hundred patterns… And you survived. The spirit released a long sigh. Again, the sigh didn’t make a sound, but Xavier heard it in his mind. When you started to initiate those spell patterns the energy came from the universe, but it was being regulated by the strength of your channels. Tell me, have you ever given any thought as to why spells have cooldowns?

Xavier hadn’t. Not really. To him, they had always felt arbitrary. I can’t say I have. No.

They are a protective measure. Considering all you have discovered, it is clear you have found out that the System is what creates these spell patterns and imprints them into our minds. The System constructs these cooldowns, putting them into spells, basing them on a Denizen’s attributes as well as their proficiency with a particular spell, as a kind of… Failsafe.

Xavier raised his chin. So a Denizen never overtaxes their energy channels.

Quite right. I was born into the System, but here in the Otherworld I have spoken to a great deal of spirits. Some of those spirits have been around for a period of time that even I struggle to fathom. I call you child, Xavier Collins, because I have been around longer than the birth and death of countless universes. They are so old they look at me and think I am positively infantile.

Xavier’s interest was already well and truly piqued by the conversation, but now it was thrown into overdrive. They were around before the System’s creation! Tell me about them. Please. Can I speak with them? What question should I ask to summon them?

The blue-robed spirit held up a hand. Your interest in them is understandable. Encouraging, even. But speaking to a spirit from that time is a difficult thing. Possible, but difficult. It is also beyond the parameters of the conversation we are having now, a conversation that already stretches the bounds and confines of the Otherworldly Communion spell, I might add. Though over my very, very, very long time as a spirit I have learnt how to stretch an answer as long as everything spoken of is something I believe to be relevant, if I so wish to do so. The spirit smirked at that, clearly proud of himself. But even I cannot push too far.

As I was saying—I have spoken to spirit from a time before. The universes they came from sound remarkable. The feats of creation they were able to accomplish, and the imagination, the ingenuity required… It boggles the mind, Xavier. It truly does. But it was not all rainbows and unicorns, a colourful phrase I learnt from a version of you. It wasn’t all creation and imagination. It was destruction and despair, too. It was a volatile, chaotic time. These peoples were just as likely to harm themselves as empower themselves without the restricting and helping hand of the System. Without hard-earned knowledge or help from already powerful beings, it was difficult for a person, peoples, or world to come to power.

The creation of the System changed all that. A Denizen from a backwater world can be slowly drip-fed things that they can handle, slowly given access to power as they become stronger, rather than being unchained.

Unchained. That was exactly what Xavier was trying to do to himself. Only unchained would he be able to become as truly powerful as he needed to be. And yet… It did sound dangerous, even if it was a danger he could handle.

Or thought he could.

So, when I used all of those spell patterns it overtaxed me because it’s something I wouldn’t have been able to handle without the use of spell patterns? I thought the Universal Pressure came because of the souls used, and with this current spell because it transcended universes.

That is one piece of the puzzle, but not the whole picture.

Xavier still didn’t understand it all, but he was starting to.

The energy comes from the universe’s energy channels in subspace, but that energy is still tied to me, somehow channelled through me, even though it doesn’t touch my actual channels, it’s based on my own strength… This is why when I used roughly a thousand Willpower Infusion spell patterns I had no issues. Time was all but frozen around me, but I experienced hours between using each pattern as I had to draw it again, giving a chance for me to recover. When I used all of them at once, in a very, very short window of time, it was more than I could bear. That is why I was damaged?

Yes and no. It was more than you could bear, and as the universe was using you as a conduit and control for the energies, it became more than it could bear. I have studied this long and hard, Xavier Collins, and I still don’t understand why a Denizen is needed in this process after a spell pattern has been drawn and activated, only that they are. The Universal Pressure is a type of failsafe, seemingly hardcoded into reality itself. You could not handle the energies, and that made the universe at that time and place vulnerable. You controlled the spell patterns, therefore you controlled the flow of energy. The pressure was placed on you in order to stop you.

To stop me… So that a hole in reality wouldn’t form.

That was always my theory, yes. Though I never did observe a hole forming in this way, as I nor any Denizen I ever encountered was strong enough to bear that pressure long enough to make such a thing happen. And I will be honest with you, Xavier, even if I wasn’t compelled to be by Otherworldly Communion, a hole in reality is not something you want.

Xavier nodded slowly. He had caused a hole in reality that day. He’d felt it. Seen it. When he’d replayed that memory in great detail with his more powerful spiritual sense at work, the hole—and what had come through it—had been very clear to him.

Except… He didn’t think the hole was large enough to admit a Void Being, like the one that had been created on the hundredth floor when he’d faced the Elemental Dragon. That hole had been caused by too many unfoldings of alternate time streams in an area where the walls of reality were thin.

This had been different. The hole created had been pinprick small. A Void Being wouldn’t have been able to tear its way through that, as far as he knew, not unless it could make the hole bigger… And whatever other threats were out there, the ones the Spirit of Time had alluded to when she’d said she could not push the unfoldings further.

You look thoughtful, the spirit said. This is good. You should be. What you did was very dangerous. It is a surprise to me that you live. The man’s eyes glazed over. Not just live… But thrive.

My cores are still shattered, Xavier replied.

Oh, the question you asked me has given me a window into your very being, Xavier. I can see the damage that was done—whatever damage still remains. And I can see the other things you have done, too, though I have no idea how you managed it. The spirit’s eyes widened then. What is that? That energy… I haven’t sensed its like before!

You signed a contract, Xavier reminded the spirit. Confidentiality.

Yes. This is covered by that.

And so, Xavier explained. He didn’t see the harm in it with the System-binding contract. Not only that, there was something about the spirit that he couldn’t help but trust. The familiarity was clearly there, even if Xavier hadn’t experienced it himself, he still somehow felt it. This spirit had known a different version of him—had even met several different versions of him. As the spirit had to be truthful, it was clear none of that had been lies.

Once Xavier had explained everything he could, there was a long, stunned silence.

Another System… A different energy… Reality Core…

The blue-robed spirit’s eyes were almost comically wide once more. The man was so filled with shock and awe that it took a long while for him to relax again and carry forth the conversation.

You created artificial cores with this energy… What I said before, about you being insane, I think that was quite the understatement. I have met you so many times before, Xavier Collins. In my physical life and this afterlife, too. This is not the first time I have answered your call for guidance. He shook his head. Never before have I encountered you able to do this. And so soon after your world was integrated…

But how am I still alive?

Xavier was aware he was asking another question. That the spell didn’t normally allow for that. But they were already stretching the bounds of this conversation to its limit. If the System chose to pull the spirit out, Xavier would summon it again and again until he had all the answers he could wring out of the blue-robed man.

That, my friend, is a good question, and one I can only theorise upon. I can see how you can withstand the pressure you are under right now. Something remarkable has happened to your energy channels, despite the fact that this spell should be far beyond you. You energy channels, they are far stronger than they should be. You said they were shattered, that you had to rebuild then. They weren’t this strong before, were they?

Xavier shook his head. No. I made them stronger as I recovered. The Reality Energy and the Reality Core played a part. A big one. Though the channels became stronger than they had been before I discovered the core. My advancement to Tier 2 in this other System only made the channels even more powerful. That strength has continued to improve as the years have passed.

Indeed. Improved. Considerably, it seems.

The blue-robed spirit paused and glanced upward. This was a universal sign Xavier had come to recognise. Something all Denizens seemed to do when they were wary the System would stop whatever it is that they intended to do next.

Sam, back in the Tower of Champion’s tavern, had done it a lot. The movement always seemed to remind Xavier of him.

You have asked me what this pressure is, and what it is doing to you. To fully answer your question, I need access to your memories, to see when this pressure affected you initially.

The blue-robed spirit glanced upward again, raised his eyebrows, then gave a slight nod. An almost imperceptible smirk tilted the side of his lips.

Xavier took a deep breath. Sharing memories was becoming something he was used to. But it was usually other people’s memories he shared. He wasn’t one to offer up his own, though he had done it for the others inside the Roving Seed Base, to help them in their mental practice.

Still, he hadn’t even known a spirit could ask for that, and the memory with all that pain, and all he’d thought, all he’d done, the way he’d been broken… It felt very personal. Sharing it didn’t feel right.

Yet some things needed doing, even if they didn’t feel right.

Xavier inclined his head. I will share the memory.

An instant later, he felt the spirit’s presence in his mind, rooting around. The presence seemed to push outward, grasping for things that weren’t the specific memory it was looking for. Xavier was acutely aware of this. He shut his eyes and entered his own mind with his mental apparition. Whether this was how the spirit saw things or not, what Xavier saw was the spirit trying to walk into the wrong room.

“The memory is this way,” Xavier said, gently but firmly motioning to another door. It sounded as though he was speaking aloud. His voice bounced off the walls of the room in his mind.

The blue-robed man, looking oddly corporeal inside the room, whirled around like a child caught rifling through the pantry for sweets they weren’t allowed to have. The spirit straightened, composed himself. “Oh, right. Just—” The spirit cleared his throat, gave a resigned sigh and a slight glare at the ceiling. “Just seeing how far I can push things.”

“Such a pesky thing, this spell, and the contract on top of it, forcing you to speak the truth,” Xavier replied. He narrowed his eyes at the man. “You strongly implied that we were friends in your universe.” He tilted his head to the side, gaze piercing into the spirit. “Tell me, were you playing with the truth?”

“Friends…” The blue-robed man raised his chin. “Yes, I suppose that is one word for what we were. What we are.” A strange look came over his face. His forehead creased. His eyes burned. “Though there is another word.”

He’s angry.

“Did I harm you?” Xavier asked.

“What?” The spirit looked at him warily. “Harm me?”

“I see anger in your eyes.”

 “Yes. You would see that.” The man waved a hand. “It is complicated. You wouldn’t understand,” he muttered with a sullen look about him. “We weren’t just friends. Oh, you are so young. It is strange seeing you so damned young. I have seen you so many times but never like this. Never this soon in your life.”

Xavier looked at the man again. Looked at his eyes. His hair. His features. The world familiar entered his mind. He’d trusted this spirit more than he trusted any other. He’d thought that familiarity was because the spirit knew him. But there was something else.

“You were born into the System,” Xavier said.

“Yes.”

“You knew me. But you’ve never seen me this young.”

“No.”

Xavier blinked. His mind was going to strange places. Absurd places. But this man had a look about him. And the more Xavier looked the more he saw.

“Are you…” He paused. “Are you my son?”