Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 7) - Chapter 3 - What in Ten Hells Did You Do?

Mareketh was exactly as he remembered it. The time that had passed since his last visit hadn’t changed the place at all. The streets were as bustling as ever, the people just as varied.

It was strange walking through the markets without his Farscope ability. As unnatural as the ability to see everything around him sounded, it had become normal for him. Walking around without it was an eerie experience, one that made him feel like danger could be lurking anywhere, and he wouldn’t be able to see it.

Not only that, walking around so many Denizens, any of whom could end up being his enemy with the Collector still wanting him captured, without the ability to cast any spells…

That made him feel more vulnerable than ever, and he absolutely hated the feeling.

Even without his spells, Xavier knew he was strong. Powerful. For his grade. But he had no idea what that would mean for a fight. Against another D Grade, he was confident he would win, even with an enemy’s ability to cast spells evening the odds.

But against a C Grade? Especially a C Grade Hunt Squad, like the one he’d already faced? Xavier had come a long way since that encounter. His attributes were massively stronger than when he’d faced the Collector’s squad.

But something told him his attributes alone wouldn’t be enough. What exactly could he do if he was immobilised?

Xavier had looked at his stats. Bringing them up was one of the first things he’d done after he’d found out what happened to him. The sheet looked exactly as it should. Nothing about it had been altered—except for his energy reserves.

They all said 0/0.

He should have done more before coming here. He should have tested his skills to see if they were still intact.  He should have tested his soulbound weapon to see if he could still turn it into any weapon he wished. Bones was in the form of a sword, safe inside its scabbard at his belt. Xavier had woken up in the Staging Room with the hilt clutched in a death grip. The last thing he remembered before falling unconscious was the weapon being in the form of a stylus.

His mental communication with the soulbound weapon still functioned. The connection to his soul was still intact.

But Xavier couldn’t feel his soul anymore.

Soul Energy, like Celestial Energy, wasn’t ever anything that showed up on his stat sheet. Xavier wasn’t sure why the System didn’t quantify it. It was a quirk he hadn’t thought much about. Once he’d become familiar with the different energies, he’d always known instinctively how much he’d had. He’d never needed a stat sheet to tell him that.

But not being able to feel his soul? That had shocked him into thinking it was gone the first time he couldn’t sense it, even though he knew that just because he couldn’t feel his soul, didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

It just meant something was deeply wrong with him.

Yeah, like I didn’t already know that…

Xavier held his head high as he walked through the streets of the densely populated city. He didn’t want to become skittish just because he felt vulnerable. Didn’t want his newfound fears to make him turn into a different person.

He was Xavier Collins, the man turned dragonkin who was to become the Weapon of the System. He had toppled empires, changed the fate of entire worlds and even sectors. He’d been punching above his weight since the moment he stepped into the Greater Universe.

Fear won’t control me.

One thing he did test was the class graft Empress Larona had put on him that made him appear to be a swordsman class when scanned. He’d done that before they’d stepped through the portal from Earth to Mareketh, asking his party to check.

The class graft was still in place.

The fact that his veil was down and anyone with the power to sense his cores would be able to tell they were shattered was another story. The others told him they didn’t sense anything strange about him unless they looked, and as he wasn’t producing any energy or aura, without closer inspection it simply appeared as though he was still veiled, meaning there would be no reason for anyone else to look.

At least, that was the theory.

Elitsa Flian’s bookstore was still there, looking exactly as it had the last time he’d been to Mareketh. Xavier hoped the empress would be inside. Hoped she would somehow be alerted of his presence. He knew he wouldn’t be able to control the portal door that led to her personal space; she wouldn’t just allow anyone to access such a thing.

He was about to open the door and step through the entrance when the door opened from the inside.

Empress Larona stood there, staring wide-eyed at Xavier. The True Progenitor C Grade Seer wasn’t in her guise as Elitsa Flian, humble bookstore owner. She instead looked like herself. The dark-haired polished beauty that was the most powerful Denizen in the entire Silver River sector. The woman who’d seen his fate. Seen him defeat the World Destroyer.

“What in ten hells did you do?” Empress Larona said in a cold, hard voice. Her eyes weren’t only wide in shock, but icy rage. The doorhandle shook in her hand, the metal dented where she held it.

“We need to talk,” was all Xavier said in reply.

The empress shuffled Xavier, Howard, Justin, and Siobhan into the shop. Siobhan’s gaze roamed around the place, settling on one bookshelf after another. Howard was glancing through the door to the street before he closed it with a sharp crack, his eyes finding all the windows, stairs, and other doors in the place, habitually checking where threats might come from—not that anyone on this world could be a threat to this woman. Even the Collector himself wouldn’t stand a chance against her, despite being a grade higher.

Justin only had eyes for the empress, his mouth falling open a little, clearly besotted by her beauty.

Empress Larona didn’t say another word as she led them up the stairs to the back room, then through a portal door and straight into her personal space. The sounds of the city suddenly ceased as they entered her plush office. She walked around her desk but didn’t sit down on her chair.

Xavier had only met the woman once, but he’d never imagined her to be this flustered, this afraid, this angry. He’d sense fear in her before, but nothing like this. It flowed from her in waves.

It was only then that he became conscious of the fact that he could still sense others’ fear. The process had become so natural he hadn’t even realised he was doing it.

That must be a part of my dragonkin race.

Her anger, however, seemed enough to outstrip that fear as, still standing behind her desk, she turned her gaze on Xavier. “What did you do?”

The others were quiet. There were enough seats for each of them, and they sat down on the other side of the empress’s desk. The last time Xaiver had been here, there hadn’t been that much seating, but it was clear she’d known he was coming.

Xavier sat in the chair directly opposite the one the empress refused to sit in. He peered at the woman. “You had a vision.”

“Obviously,” the empress said. “But I asked what you did, not what I did.”

“What did you see?”

Empress Larona shut her eyes. Her whole body trembled. It looked as though it was requiring everything of her to keep her calm. A sharp breath in, then she opened her eyes once more. A mask seemed to settle over her face, her eyes no longer wide, her posture no longer so rigid and stiff. Her body stilled of its shaking.

The fear, however, was still there. Xavier wagered everything else was still there too.

The empress finally sat down, then spoke, “I saw nothing.”

Xavier leant forward. “The World Destroyer…” He didn’t finish the sentence.

The empress shook her head. “It’s all blank. Two years from now, I see nothing. Before I could see the World Destroyer wreak its havoc. I could see you battle it. Win or lose, whatever the strand of fate, I could see it. I could see you. Now…”

Xavier frowned. “You can’t see me?”

The empress stared at him. “Not a single thing. Not from a minute from now, a week, a month, a year. I thought you had died until I saw you out there. I can’t see you, or what happens with the World Destroyer.”

“But you seemed to know we’d come,” Siobhan said, speaking up. When the empress’s gaze flashed to her for the first time, the red-headed healer looked a little embarrassed for having spoken. Then, she ploughed on. “How could you know if you couldn’t see him?”

“I saw the three of you, and I know who you are. I also knew there would be a fourth person with you, but it wouldn’t show me their face.”

“Is that common?” Howard asked.

“No,” Empress Larona replied flatly. “Sometimes things are hazy. Unclear. This was different.”

Xavier sunk back into his chair. He’d been hoping to gain insights about his future, about how he ended up dealing with his current… predicament, from the empress. She’d been cagey about giving him information about the future in the past, but he’d figured he could cajole something from her given the circumstances.

He hadn’t anticipated this.

“It’s as though your strand of fate no longer exists,” the empress said. “I have seen strands fade with death. I have never seen them vanish. Now I see you still breathe, I think that is why I can’t see the World Destroyer. Your fate and its fate are still intertwined. Even if I can’t see your strands.”

Xavier swallowed. “What does this mean?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea, but it isn’t good. You came here for a reason. You did something. Tell me, what—” The empress’s eyes widened once more, shock returning to her face. It seemed she’d finally turned her senses toward him. “Your cores!”

Xavier lowered his head, a bout of shame forming in his chest. He pushed it away as fast as it had come. The feeling did him no favours. It would only hold him back. “They’re all shattered.”

He did not tell the empress the whole story. Did not tell her about the spell patterns. He had come to this woman for help, but he knew that their interests were aligned because of what she’d seen him do. What she wanted him to do.

Xavier wasn’t sure how the woman would change if she came to believe he could no longer defeat the World Destroyer. If he told her he could create spell patterns and what they could do, she might very well force the secrets of them out of him.

I don’t trust her. Not like I trust my party, or even Adranial.

He could make her sign a contract… But even that was something he didn’t want to do. This woman wanted to save the Silver River sector, but he didn’t know what she was really like. Didn’t know what she was capable of to have come as far as she had, to rule so much of the Silver River sector as she did.

The woman knew he was holding back, but she did not push. She did not question. She simply listened to his highly redacted version of events, even though it was clear she knew he wasn’t telling her everything.

When he was done and had explained to her everything he knew about his current condition, he waited as patiently as he could for the woman to reply.

She looked like a different person sitting in that chair. Whatever anger she’d been feeling had slipped away. The fear was still there, though it was subdued. Her eyes were downcast. Her hands neatly folded on the desk in front of her.

“Shattered cores,” she said in a soft voice no louder than a whisper. “I have seen it happen a few times in the thousand years I’ve been around.” Empress Larona blinked slowly. Her dark hair was down, and several strands had fallen over her eyes. She did not brush them aside. “I’ve never seen anyone overcome it. I wouldn’t… wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

The woman raised her chin and peered at him once more, her head tilting to the side. “Your soul is still strong. The strongest I’ve ever sensed. Though… It appears damaged. Hurt.”

“So, you don’t know anything?” Justin blurted.

The empress glanced at the young swordsman. “There is much that I know. But in this case, child, you are right. I don’t know how to fix a shattered core. From everything I know, it’s… It’s impossible.”

Xavier lowered his head as he heard the woman’s words. Hearing something like that from someone who’d been alive roughly forty times longer than him should have been disheartening. With all the roadblocks he’d been hitting, with the utter hopelessness he’d felt when this had first happened to him, and even for several days afterward, it wouldn’t be strange for those words to be crushing. To return him to that hopeless state. To start thinking like his counterpart on the eightieth floor.

Hope is for fools and Disney movies.

Instead, Xavier raised his head back up and found he was smiling. For the first time since this had happened, he didn’t just feel like he could try to fix this. He felt like he would fix this. Felt like it was inevitable.

That unbridled confidence that many would say was simply sheer arrogance started to flutter within him once more.

The same confidence that got me into this mess in the first place, Xavier thought, but he didn’t let that thought get in his way.

He’d been capable of so much more than anyone had imagined, than he had imagined. Why in the Greater Universe would he ever let anyone else tell him what could or could not be done? When had that ever stopped him in the past?

Empress Larona cocked her head. “Why are you smiling? I’ve just told you I can’t help you.” He couldn’t help but hear a little venom in those words. That cold anger she’d greeted him with was still in her heart.

“You used that word.”

The empress blinked. She looked entirely out of her element. It must have been strange, her sitting across from him, not being able to see anything of his future. Not being able to even anticipate the next words in a conversation. “What word?”

“Impossible. You’re not the first person to tell me something I want to do, or need to do, is impossible.” Xavier stood. “If you can’t help me, I’ll find someone who can.”

And he knew exactly how he would do it.