Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 36 - This Is What I Have to Overcome

[Author Note: Here's a bonus chapter because the last one was late!]

Xavier stood in the middle of the square, a time dilation field around him, thousands of people outside of it fleeing toward the massive portals, trying to escape the Earth.

This Xavier only reached C Grade a year ago?

That made Xavier wonder how many versions of him there were out there that had followed a similar path to his own. The world he was standing in… To be here, the original universe these events happened in had to have been around billions of years ago, before the System had first created the Tower of Champions in Xavier’s own universe.

This floor, with Earth, had been here since before the Earth was even formed.

Now that was a difficult pill to swallow. Xavier wondered how long it would be until things like that began to feel normal. The scale of time was just… Immense. He was still feeling that since the time he’d met himself.

That version had been a much older version than the one from this world.

He wondered if he would be able to meet himself again…

“I’m sorry,” Xavier said. He bent his head forward. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

The man’s fist unclenched. He shook his head. “You didn’t fail us. You did everything you could. A planet couldn’t ask for a better leader. This universe just… Isn’t a fair one.” The man sighed. “Earth’s fate is sealed, but having you here to help evacuate these people… You are doing a good thing, Xavier Collins. Both out there, and down here.”

Xavier looked around the square where the portals were. “There must be more places like this in the world.”

The man grunted. “There are only so many mass portals available to different planets. There are portals that can get to the other side of Earth set up all over the world. We’re trying to get people here, but the portals aren’t accurate—most people haven’t been here before. They’re popping up all over the city, and people are having to run and fight their way here.”

Xavier’s forehead creased as he looked at the muted stars again. There was a whole part of the sky that was just… Black. At first, he’d thought maybe there were some clouds covering the area, but with his superior eyesight he would have been able to spot the clouds easily enough.

Then he realised—that was the entity. Whatever it was, it was large enough to block the damned stars behind it. Either it was as big as a damned planet, or it was getting immensely closer.

Xavier swallowed, taking in the sight of this thing. Not that it was much more than a black blob in the sky. For the first time in a while, Xavier felt fear.

This is what I’ll be fighting… And not in twenty years, either. In less than three.

Xavier knew that three years had only been one of the Empress Larona’s predictions, but he was all but sure that it was the truth of things.

He took a moment to compose himself.

“Portals all over the city. People trying to make their way here.” Xavier nodded. “The System said I need to save 10,000 people to get to the next floor. But don’t worry, I’ll be aiming to save a hell of a lot more than that.”

His gaze was still locked on the blacked-out part of the sky. He was out there, right now, fighting this thing.

I took my party out there? And an army?

Xavier didn’t plan to fight the entity with others alongside him, but this was a different universe. He couldn’t rely on anything here being close to the same as back home.

The entity might even be different, come to think of it… But he had to believe that the System had allowed him to do these floors for a reason—and to him, it seemed like this was the reason.

So he could see what would happen to Earth if he failed. So he could learn more about the threat that was coming to the Silver River sector.

There was a part of him that was aching to get out there. Aching to meet himself. To fight alongside the other version of him and defeat this damned thing.

For now, he shook those thoughts away. First and foremost, he needed to help the people who were right here on the ground. Besides, he didn’t even know if he could survive out there in vacuum… He still needed to breath, didn’t he?

There was more Xavier wanted to know about this world, but he didn’t think the man across from him would have the answers he sought.

“What is your name?” Xavier asked.

“Terrence Carter. I’m from Boston. Came over here to protect these people. I’m not leaving Earth until the last possible second.” Terrence’s voice was thick with determination. “I was a Champion. Made it to the fiftieth floor.”

Xavier hesitated before laying a hand on the man’s shoulder. It seemed the right thing to do. “Good man.” He didn’t have the heart to tell him he wouldn’t be needed now. “Why don’t you wait here by the portals. Protect those who come. I’ll clear the city of beasts.”

The man chuckled nervously. “You’ll clear the city of beasts? What, like the whole city? That’s a little ambitious, don’t you think?”

Xavier smiled. “Not for me.”

He stepped backward. As he did, he took the time dilation field with him. Terrence Carter now stood outside the field, face frozen in a look of doubt. Xavier spread his wings wide then launched himself upward with a powerful jump, carving the time dilation field through the sky as he went.

He had a grin on his face as he flew over the city—it was time for some target practice.

Xavier figured if he was going to go through all the tower floors he’d missed, he might as well have as much fun as he could. He’d never been one for playing video games on easy mode, but there was a certain satisfaction that came from crushing his enemies with minimal effort. A satisfaction that he found he craved.

He peered down at the city below him. Terrence had been right—he could spot all the different portals in the city. They were literally miles apart. And now that he was high up in the sky, from this vantage point he could see the devastating number of beasts out there.

And the people. God, it was hard to tell how many there were, but to him it looked like there must be hundreds of thousands of them. They came through the portals in a constant stream. Sometimes it wasn’t only Denizens who came through those portals, either. On occasion he saw beasts attacking people as they stepped out, then begin to wreak havoc, attacking the fleeing humans until those beasts got put down.

And the System only asks Champions to save 10,000 people.

That made him fume. Ten thousand… That simply wasn’t enough! There were hundreds of thousands of people still here—there could be more than a million, if not millions, of people still on this world.

And the System only asked for 10,000.

Xavier had been angry at the System before, but the anger he’d felt previously was like a candleflame compared to the blazing fire he felt in that moment.

These were his people—his universe or not—and he was going to save as many as possible.

Even if they don’t survive much longer in this sector…

There was a part of him that knew whatever he did here might very well be futile, but he didn’t care. Giving these people just a little more time had to be worth something.

Xavier, using his bow, began to loose arrows at the beasts down below. He could have used Soul Strike, but, just in case, he was going to save that until it was actually needed. He flew down to the ground near one of the portals and switched the bow into a sword, carving through the beasts one by one. They didn’t even know what hit them. They were frozen in time until he neared.

No. A sword wasn’t visceral enough.

The Lost Bone of a Dead God transformed, reinforcing his claws as Xavier tore and ripped and sliced through the beasts closer up. He needed an outlet for his rage, and this was all there was right now.

The Earth is almost no more… A mere twenty years after integration.

That was something that shocked him more than anything else. Twenty years in the Greater Universe, twenty years having the System, it was nothing. No time at all in the grand scheme of things—barely any time at all for a normal human lifespan before the System, even.

His teeth gritted as he fought. He didn’t even notice until they were cracking under the pressure.

The Xavier of this world was making a last stand out there, sacrificing himself fighting the enemy. Xavier was damned if he was ever going to do something like that.

No. He would never let it get this far.

His goal, and the consequences of losing, were staring him right in the face.

And this wasn’t even his ultimate goal—it was merely one step on his journey.

One by one, he cut through the enemy beasts, clearing them from the city. He flew from one end to the other, landing among the beasts and expanding his time dilation field outward to encompass them, killing them all before they knew what hit them only to move onward and fly to another location.

He didn’t know how long it took—keeping track of time within a time dilation field was always tricky business. But it didn’t feel like long before the entire city was clear of beasts.

But Xavier didn’t stop there.

He stepped through the portals, finding himself in all different parts of the world. China. Australia. Germany. London. Somewhere in Africa.

Xavier killed the beasts on the other side of each of the portals so more people could make it through to Paris.

When he returned back to the main, large portals, everyone here was still frozen in time. Not a thing had changed. Terrence Carter stood exactly where Xavier had left him

Xavier glanced up at the sky, at the black portion where the entity making its way to Earth had blacked out the stars. His eyes widened at the sight. Something… Something had changed. He was sure of it. So sure that he looked through his memories of staring up at that sky the last time he’d been standing here.

The blackness in the sky had spread. There were less stars—the entity had grown larger. Well, no. It hadn’t grown. It had come closer.

Despite Xavier’s time dilation field being active the entire time.

Xavier had seen enemies move even while his time dilation field was active, but the spell had grown incredibly powerful since then. As he’d grown stronger and stronger, his attributes being boosted to previously unimaginable heights, it really did seem as though he was stopping time. Even if he knew that wasn’t truly the case.

He couldn’t remember the last enemy he’d faced who he’d been able to perceive move outside of the time dilation field without many hours or even days having passed within.

This is what I’m training to fight. This is what I have to overcome.

Xavier didn’t cancel out the Time Alteration spell. He wanted to keep it active as long as possible—which for him, was a damned long time. Instead, he simply matched the field’s speed with the time of the universe he was currently in.

People outside of the field began to move normally once more.

They flocked to the portals. The Denizens who’d been fighting as a rear guard looked confused by the fact that there were no more beasts to fight. Xavier had scoured the entire area, destroying every beast he could find. Even so, he still kept an ear out for danger.

The roads were clear. The people of Earth made their way to the mass portals as fast as they could. Despite the beasts having disappeared, no one grew complacent. The main threat was still coming for them, still sending fear rippling through everyone on the entire planet.

Xavier could feel the entity’s presence. Feel its aura. A trickle of fear dripped down his spine, and the hair on the back of his neck raised. He knew that if he stopped masking his own aura, it would have a similar effect on those around him, but this entity, this beast… It was on another level.

Terrence blinked. Xavier’s position had moved. He looked momentarily confused before he turned and spotted him. The tank jogged over, the metal armour clanking on each step, his helmet and shield still in his Storage Ring. “What happened?”

“I cleared the surface of beasts. The way to the portals is safe.”

Terrence’s mouth fell open. He looked like a gaping fish before he recovered. “You… You did all that?” There was a hint of doubt in the man’s voice, but mostly he just looked reverent.

Xavier looked him full in the face, his expression clam—despite the trickle of fear he felt from the entity’s aura. “I did.”