Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 40 - No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy

The grand throne room was silent. Stars twinkled through the glass dome above. Xavier idly wondered if he could see Sol, the star at the centre of Earth’s solar system, through that ceiling.

Xavier had felt the fear coming from the throne room long before he’d made it here. Fear was something he’d felt the moment he’d stepped out of the portal and into this world. Palini had told him The Collector was a fearful man.

Now, Xavier had felt just how fearful the man was.

Out of everyone in that throne room—everyone in the entire city—the stench of fear was strongest from its tyrannical ruler.

At least, it had been until the man had seen Xavier step in front of his throne room’s open doors. The instant he’d seen him it hadn’t only elicited the man’s laughter, it had also dispelled the man’s fear.

And why wouldn’t it?

He doesn’t see me as a threat. But he will. Soon.

Palini didn’t like this plan. The man hadn’t understood why Xavier would give up any of his advantages. He told him it was foolish and theatrical.

Xavier agreed—it was foolish, and above all, it was theatrical.

It was the latter aspect of the plan that was the reason Xavier was doing it. He and Palini had spent a great deal of time assessing the city’s defences along with the defences of the castle and throne room itself, to the point where they’d been inside the city for several weeks by their own time—even if not a minute had passed in actual time since they’d come to the Ventorin sector.

Hell, not even a minute had passed since they’d left Sovereign Rewke Fouran’s throne room and entered this one.

Xavier didn’t let his guard down—didn’t have a single break in his time dilation field—until he knew it wouldn’t jeopardise his or Palini’s safety.

Getting inside the city’s defences without leaving a time dilation field had been easy once he’d solved the puzzle. After Xavier had taken Palini into the Roving Seed Base and shown the man the spell pattern for Pocket Time Stream, which allowed the man’s spells to reach the ends of their cooldowns, he’d ask the man to cast Strike-Out again and used Recursive Analysis on it.

With the goal of showing Palini even more of what he was capable of, Xavier had decided to use Strike-Out himself for the next part of the plan. To do that, he had to draw another spell pattern—Time Alteration. Once that was initiated, he could cease using the spell himself.

They’d been standing outside the Roving Seed Base when Xavier finished drawing up the Time Alteration spell pattern and initiated it. Once his own Time Alteration spell cooled down, Xavier stepped up to the large standing grey stone that housed the base.

Putting his hands on the grey stone, he cast Strike-Out. It was still a temporary spell. Xavier would etch it into his mind when he was inside the city. The Roving Seed Base glowed. Instantly, it appeared within the city’s barrier. Xavier felt the power of the runes slam into him, stripping the temporary spell from being active.

He smiled.

The temporary spell was the only one affected by the runes.

The next step was simple. He recast Time Alteration, after recovering its cooldown with Pocket Time Stream, then created a portal straight inside the Roving Seed Base.

He’d considered tossing the seed across the line and through the city’s barrier to allow it to grow, but that would have needed him to make time pass outside his field. This, however, was perfect. The runes didn’t affect the inside of the of the Roving Seed Base as it was a spatial device—this was the same trick he’d used while in the containment room with Palini, just for a different outcome.

When he stepped through that barrier, his time dilation field wrapped around both him and Palini, his spell didn’t get stripped.

Inside the Roving Seed Base, standing on the grass—not far from where they’d fought—Palini looked over at him. “Your spells will still be stripped when you step out, won’t they?” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m really not sure what this accomplished.”

Xavier smiled. “The runes can’t pierce the spatial device. Which means…”

“Which means… What?”

Xavier showed him once he’d etched the Strike-Out spell into his mind.

On the outside, the Roving Seed Base appeared as nothing more than a large stone. On the inside, they could still see out. They could even cast spells through the seed base’s barrier. And so, Xavier was cast Strike-Out, making his soul weapon in the form of a stylus appear outside of the Roving Seed Base.

Allowing him to alter the protective runes that powered the city’s defences.

Xavier had quickly discovered, when analysing those runes, that while the protections covered the entire city, they were only able to because each section of runes covered a section of the city. It wasn’t one big shield; it was hundreds of shields. That allowed him to alter the runes in their area without being able to reach the ones farther away.

They stepped out of the Roving Seed Base without having their spells stripped, and without anyone in the city aware of their arrival.

That was when Xavier had painstakingly altered every single protective rune in the city to reverse them, and turn their powers against the inhabitants.

Including the portal and teleportation locks.

The Collector, being the fearful man that he was, would no doubt have an escape plan if he worried that his life was truly in danger—a portal off planet, or even straight out of the sector.

Xavier’s plan was to kill The Collector. He needed the man dead.

There was no way he’d let him escape.

“I still don’t understand,” Palini had told him later as they stood at the end of the hallway, the throne room’s doors in view. “He doesn’t know you’re here. Doesn’t know anyone is here. Why are you doing this? You told me to be truthful, to question your orders. Did you not intend to give me answers?”

Xavier had pursed his lips in response, and Palini had continued.

“You want him afraid, is that it? You want him to see you best him? To prove you’re better than him? Is that why you’re going to give him warning? Allow him time to prepare? You could walk in there with him frozen in time and bombard every spell in your arsenal at him before he has a moment to breathe. Yet, what, your pride is getting in the way?”

“That’s…” Xavier had paused, then, frowning. The truth contract he’d signed with the man wasn’t one-way. Since he’d decided to take on Palini, the man had grown prominent in his future plans—plans he’d yet to actually tell the man about. Those planes required Palini to trust him, and for him to trust Palini.

Hence why the two-way truth contract was so valuable.

But it prevented Xavier from telling him that wasn’t the reason he was doing this. The man was right. Xavier wanted The Collector afraid. Wanted him to feel weak.

Wanted him to know that he couldn’t control everyone.

And that actions had consequences.

“That isn’t the only reason,” Xavier had ended up replying.

Then, he’d released a long sigh and told Palini exactly what he’d had in mind—and why.

Now, even if he still didn’t like the plan, the man understood.

“Xavier Collins,” The Collector drawled.

Xavier had seen several pictures and even a few stored memories of the B Grade ruler on the other side of the throne room and found that Gregori The Collector looked just as douchey and terrible in person as he had in those.

The man was stripped to the waist, his bulging muscles on display. The only thing he wore were thick grey trousers. No armour. No shoes. Not even socks.

His hair was golden and went down to his shoulders. The way he smiled it was as though he was sneering at the entire universe, looking down on everyone and everything.

“I’ve been looking for you.” The Collector tilted his head to one side and chuckled. “I thought that bitch reneged on our deal. That or died.” He shrugged. “Looks like she didn’t warn me of the threat for another reason. Because you aren’t a threat.”

Xavier figured this would happen. Figured if he stepped out and didn’t look threatening, the tyrannical ruler of the Ventorin sector would start villain-monologing. He frowned, however, at the man’s words. Something tugging at him.

Gregori’s smile only became more disturbing. “Ahhhh… What it must feel like to be betrayed by your own empress!”

Xavier’s frown deepened. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Greg, though I do find it interesting.” He took a step into the grand throne room, boots slapping on the marble, echoing off the walls. “Am I to understand you have a deal with Empress Larona?”

“Indeed.” A look of anger flickered onto The Collector’s face. “She refused to become part of my collection—much like you have refused—but that bitch’s damned visions gave her enough leverage to get out of my grasp.” He grinned. “Though not without making a deal, first. Call it a ceasefire. In exchange for her freedom, she must warn me of any and all threats to me or my sector.” He tilted his chin up. “This is the first time she’s ever sent me a gift, however.”

Xavier smiled. “You think that’s what I am? A gift?”

He didn’t allow himself to get distracted by the man’s words. He was already re-examining what he knew about Empress Larona. About the lies she’d told him regarding The Collector. He didn’t know why she’d told him those things and didn’t think it had to do with this “ceasefire” contract.

But it was interesting…

The Collector was, of course, wrong—the reason Empress Larona didn’t warn him wasn’t because he wasn’t a threat. It was because she couldn’t see Xavier’s future anymore.

She was blind to him.

“I think that woman filled your head with lies then sent you off to me. Why else would you be feeling no fear right now? Though I can’t understand why she would do such a thing, I’m never one to ask questions when good things happen to me.” The Collector spread out his muscular arms. “I deserve everything I have.” He dropped his arms. Stared at Xavier. “Why question it?”

Xavier smiled. “Larona didn’t send me here, and you’re the second person today I’ve had to tell that she isn’t my empress. No one controls me, Greg.”

The Collector’s face dropped. “Call me that one more time and I’ll skin you alive, drop you in a vat of acid, then crush your bones with boulders. But I won’t let you die—I’ll have my healers keep you an inch from death. And when you finally pass out, I’ll do it all again, and again, and again, until your mind has been stripped to ribbons and all you know is pain and you’re begging to sign any contract I put before you.”

“Whoa,” Xavier breathed. He shook his head. “That’s pretty messed up. Creative, though… Not very, if I’m honest. Flaying? Boulders? A little unsophisticated. Tell me, Greg, were you treated poorly as a child?” He gestured around the hall. “Is that why you do all this? To prove to daddy you’re strong? To prove to mummy that you’re the one in control?”

Xavier didn’t usually talk like this to his enemies. He usually fought them. But Gregori The Collector and everything he stood for was the exact opposite of what Xavier wanted the universe to be. The man embodied every single thing that he despised. It was petty to aggravate the man. It was prideful to give up an advantage at a chance to humiliate him.

But it just felt like it had to be done.

Maybe I haven’t learnt quite as much as I thought over the last decade…

The Collector’s face reddened with rage. “Why, you insolent little shi—”

“Greg, Greg, Greg,” Xavier boomed, interrupting the man as he took a few steps forward. “I’m not one of your contracted slaves.” He kept walking down the long hall. “I’m not a prize you can claim and control for your collection.” His bootsteps and his words filled cavernous space. “You can’t speak to me like that.”

“I can talk to you however the hell I want,” The Collector raged. He was shaking now he was so full of it.

Xavier halted his walk along the hall when he was halfway across it. “Since you saw me, have you stopped to think, even for a moment?” He tilted his head to the side. “How did I alter your city’s defences? How did I get inside your castle so quickly? How…” He looked around the hall. “How am I inside the time dilation field one of your mages has set up?” He tapped a finger on his chin. “Shouldn’t I have been stopped from getting this far?”

The Collector’s eyes widened, bulging like over-inflated balloons. They looked like they were going to pop right out of his face.

“Guards!” Gregori yelled. “Seize him!”

“Seriously?” Xavier muttered.

The time dilation field on the room wasn’t the only one active. Xavier had a time dilation field of his own. He’d stretched his field wide enough that it encompassed the one he stood within. That way, it wouldn’t be visible to anyone powerful enough to see it. Now, he snapped that field back, shrinking it until it only covered him.

Everyone in the room stopped moving.

Well, they didn’t stop completely. Xavier hadn’t broken through the time dilation field around them. They were still moving incredibly swiftly compared with the rest of the universe. Surprisingly swiftly, actually.

That was because the Time mage who’d cast the spell was B Grade.

That week Xavier and Palini had spent in the city hadn’t gone to waste. He’d used his spiritual sense coupled with burning Reality Energy to incredibly good use, allowing him to pierce the veils of everyone inside the castle. It had been a painstaking thing to do. He’d had to do it one person at a time, and he’d needed to replenish his Reality Energy on several occasions before he’d completed his sweep.

But that sweep had paid off. He’d discovered that Palini’s hunch was right—The Collector wasn’t the only B Grade in his sector.

There were twenty-five others, and they were all in this room.

They were the ones moving the fastest even as Xavier was wrapped inside his own field. Still, they weren’t as fast as him.

This was the part of the plan that Xavier was least sure of. Palini had been right—he was prideful. He’d allowed The Collector time. That time had given him the opportunity to have his mages cast their own Time Alteration spells.

It didn’t take away his advantage, but it did significantly damage it.

Xavier had placed a strong restriction on himself for this fight—he would only allow himself to kill The Collector.

Well, at least, that was the plan. If it came down to it, he would kill whoever he needed to survive. He didn’t think it would come to that, however. He sorely hoped so, at least. Still, it was good to remember: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

And this fight would be very different to the last fight with a B Grade he’d been in. That had only been against a single opponent, Palini, and the man had no ability to alter time. In fact, his spells had been incredibly limited in scope.

That wasn’t the case for the twenty-six—including The Collector—B Grades Xavier was about to face.

Their spells were incredibly varied, and they’d trained for many, many years to fight and die alongside each other to protect their ruler.

They were contracted to do so. Until Xavier broke those contracts, every single one of them was his enemy, regardless of whatever plans he’d made inside his head.

He’d killed plenty of contracted enemies in the past; but he wanted these people, the strongest Denizens in the Ventorin sector, to see not only that Xavier was capable of great power, but also that he was capable of great mercy.

Only then would they willingly accept him as the new ruler of the Ventorin sector when The Collector lay dead on the marble of his throne room floor.