Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 38 - Defiance

Xavier blinked, staring back at Empress Larona. “What do you mean, what am I?”

The woman had just experienced a premonition. She had looked into the future and seen something that frightened her. Something he’d done. The heavy breathing she’d been doing came to an end as she composed herself from one second to the next, straightening her back in her seat.

“Maybe you do have a chance.” Empress Larona’s voice sounded different to before, as though all the emotion had been sucked out of it. Despite her having composed herself, Xavier still felt a hint of her fear in the air.

“What did you see?” He leant forward. “What frightened you?”

The empress narrowed her eyes. “You have clearly met me before. You wouldn’t have been able to make your way to my Personal Space if you hadn’t. That being the case, you know I’m not going to tell you.”

“No. I suppose you won’t.” Xavier sunk back into his chair. “Will you help me, then? Will you help me contact him?”

The woman held out her hand, palm facing upward. A Communication Stone, pulled from her Storage Ring, appeared. “You can use this. I can’t guarantee he will listen to you. The future I saw… It is still one of only many possibilities.” She tilted her head to the side. “This isn’t your universe. Isn’t your fight. You could turn around and go home. I know you have already completed the requirements of the floor.”

Xavier inclined his head. He’d had the same thought a thousand times since he’d stepped through the portal to this woman’s Personal Space. And he’d discarded the thought just as many times as it had come.

He took a moment to ruminate on the words, to let the thought of abandoning this floor reach the surface of his mind. “I can’t explain to you why I have to do this,” Xavier said, after the moment of contemplation had passed. “I could tell you it’s because I can’t stand the thought of the people of Earth dying—or the people in this entire sector dying.” He shook his head. “That is part of it, but… There is another part. Something driving me ever forward, into more and more impossible situations.” His eyes flashed to the empress’s. “A rage against how things are. A defiance.”

Xavier heard himself speaking, but he wasn’t entirely sure where those words had come from. He had never… Put such things into words before, he’d barely even put them into thought before.

But he knew it was true.

He thrived in the Greater Universe. Thrived in life-or-death situations. Thrived against impossible odds. He could live in a universe like this.

But he knew that it wasn’t fair. Knew that there were people out there that simply couldn’t fight the way he fought. People who wanted peace but couldn’t get it because of the status quo.

There were trillions of people in this sector alone who would die for no reason at all other than one entity wanted to consume more power. An entity that didn’t need that power for anything other than gaining more of it.

The sector-destroying beast already had enough power to do… Most anything it wished. But like the billionaires back on old Earth it wasn’t about having something, it was about the pursuit of more for the sake of it—regardless of the cost.

He took a moment to think of those lives that would be lost—the lives that were already lost. It was impossible for him to fathom all of them. People who simply wanted to live in peace. To have a family. To pursue a craft. To enjoy their lives.

There were terrible people out there. Certainly, many of the worlds in this sector could be considered his enemies. But did that mean every single person on those worlds deserved to die?

At his core, Xavier understood the raw pursuit of power perhaps as well as anyone else in the Greater Universe. What he didn’t understand was the pursuit of power without cause.

Being powerful felt… Amazing. There were times when he thought there was nothing he couldn’t do. But he didn’t do it for himself. He didn’t do it simply for the sake of it.

He did it for others.

Empress Larona stared at him, but the look did not linger. “There is little time. If you are to do something, you must do it soon.” She placed the Communication Stone on the table with a sharp tap.

Xavier picked up the stone and held it in his hand. Making a connection to the stone took less than a second. He hesitated—not because he doubted his actions, but because he honestly didn’t know what he would say to… himself.

Xavier: [Hello, Xavier Collins. This is… Xavier Collins.]

He sighed. God, how could he feel socially awkward even talking to himself?

Other Xavier: [What? How did you get the empress’s stone? What do you mean you’re Xavier?]

The tension was clear in the man’s voice. Xavier had no idea how he was holding the entity off. No idea how the entity even fought. But hearing that strain, that fear, in himself… It made this whole situation feel all the more real.

Xavier: [I came to this world through the Tower of Champions. I was summoned to Earth. I want to help you. The empress has seen that I can.]

The rest of the exchange was quick. The shock of finding another version of himself here didn’t seem to faze the Xavier of this world. He supposed it wouldn’t be too surprising if it happened to him. It made him wonder if this Xavier had encountered other versions of himself already.

How many more times will I meet myself?

In their exchange, there was one question that tripped Xavier up more than the others.

Other Xavier: [Can you fight in the vacuum of space?]

This was something he had never done before—something he had never tried. The cold, he was sure, he could handle. But Xavier needed to breathe. Everyone needed to breathe, right? In all of this, he hadn’t thought… Hadn’t thought about that enough.

Xavier looked at the empress, before he even opened his mouth, he noticed there was an item sitting on the table. As they locked gazes the woman pushed it across the desk toward him.

“Force-Shield Armour,” Empress Larona said. “I saw you wearing it in the vision. This will allow you to survive in the void of space. It will go over whatever armour you are already wearing and provide you with the oxygen you need.”

“Thank you,” Xavier said more sincerely than he perhaps ever had.

“If you survive this, reaching C Grade will allow you to survive in the vacuum naturally.”

Xavier had wondered about that. It was certainly something he would need to learn in the future. He wouldn’t always be able to rely on Force-Shield Armour. He paused before attempting to use Portal to get him where he needed to go—back to Earth. He hadn’t seen the place where the other Xavier was fighting the entity—not enough to be able to use his Portal spell to get there.

“Can you send me there?” Xavier asked. Another gamble of his coming here.

Empress Larona nodded. Once again, an item appeared in her palm. It was a Sector Travel Key. “I’ll open the portal for you,” she said. “But I will not give you this key.”

Xavier inclined his head. “Thank you,” he said again.

“When you are out there, remember this—retreating doesn’t make you weak, Xavier.”

He hesitated before asking another question. “Will you fight by our side?”

Empress Larona shook her head. “It is not my place. I will not be as much help as you might imagine.”

Xavier wondered, yet again, if he would be as much help as he imagined. He wasn’t exactly sure how he could have such an abundance of self-confidence mixed in with all the self-doubt, at the same time feeling as though he could do anything, and yet feeling as though every time he stepped toward a true threat it would be the end of him.

The empress didn’t say another word as she walked over to the nearest door, placing the key inside the lock. Xavier knew the woman had a portal door here that she could turn a dial on, making it go to different places. But he imagined those portals were locked and relied on a matching Portal Stone or something similar.

This was taking him somewhere she wouldn’t have an established portal connected to.

She turned the key, and the portal opened. “Good luck, Xavier Collins. You’re going to need it.”

Xavier didn’t much like the sound of that, but he didn’t hesitate as he stepped through the portal. He’d made his decision. Now, he needed to live with it.

Maybe he wouldn’t be able to help himself destroy the entity—but he had to try.

I’ll give myself the option to flee. Just the option. There is no point losing my life fighting a battle that isn’t even mine.

He was quite confident he would be able to create a portal from near Earth back to the ground in Paris where the room to the Staging Room door was.

Stepping through the portal and materialising on the other side, he suddenly found himself weightless. A sensation he had never experienced before. It almost felt as though he were falling, and yet there was no wind rushing past him.

He tried to orient himself by flapping his wings, but that only made him zip away. Moving through the void of space, through zero g, it wasn’t quite the same as flying.

His eyes widened as he saw something ahead of him, something hard to see in the expanse of black. A man, soaring through the void—no, not one man.

There were two, and they were fighting with everything they had.

Xavier’s eyes widened as he saw something else—something behind the two fighting Denizens. An asteroid. A damned big one.

Power flooded off it in waves. The feel of that power threatened to immobilise him on the spot. It ramped up the fear and doubt he’d been feeling at doing this. He gritted his teeth, fighting against it. Fighting to be here.

The entity…

Xavier still had his time dilation field active, wrapped around him like a cloak. He thanked the System, the universe—something—for his ability to take it through portals with him.

I suppose I have Yarien to thank for that. I’m not sure if I ever would have really tried to do that without her help.

Xavier’s attention moved back to the two fighting Denizens. Their movements were so damned swift even he was having trouble discerning them. He shifted the flow of time inside of the bubble, slowing it down outside until the movements he witnessed were crisp and clear.

He saw… Himself.

This version of Xavier had clearly not gone down the same path. He must have pursued the Soul Reaper path above anything else. Xavier could see soul apparitions forming and dying and forming and dying. Could see the other version of him swing a scythe twice as long as anything Xavier had ever wielded.

Xavier released a breath within the Force-Shield Armour before contacting the other version of himself.

Xavier: [Retreat back one hundred metres.]

Other Xavier: [What? Why?]

Xavier: [You’re just going to have to trust me. Considering I’m you, that shouldn’t be too hard.]

A moment of silence passed before the other version of him acquiesced to his request.

When the man was within range, Xavier changed the flow of time once more, speeding it up within the bubble to make it as frozen outside of it as he could. Then, he snapped the time dilation field wider, making it stretch just enough to encompass the other version of himself.

Xavier: [So, is there any way to make this meeting not awkward?]