193. The Hunt

Kadeus, father of Kadeus, tapped into the World of Dreams.

It was as natural as breathing to him. As a Visionary at the threshold of Exalted, he could access the World of Dreams, the Astrashan. Therefore, he saw.

Dozens of universes on the frontier spoke to him. Trillions of quaint, short, pointless lives. If only he could pluck their Mana away to fuel his own cultivation, he would.

His subordinates scavenged six different frontier universes at once. All in search for the key.

There was a legend along the most southron Quintessential Streams of the Leyline of Carnation’s Maw. All the involved polities in the region had heard of it. That along the frontier, there laid dozens of hidden worlds, stashed away by the rulers of the age for a tumultuous future.

No one knew precisely where the rumor came from, and no one yet had found such a stash in the current aeon. That did not dissuade generations upon generations of lone explorers and empires that stretched universal clusters from continuing to search.

And somehow Kadeus was the leader of a team that found… something.

The dowsing artifact they were using was guaranteed to be accurate. The leader of their faction had ensured that at the expense of half of their entire coffers. All on the back of a lead that his own master, Lord Cypher, said he had received from an “old friend.”

The moment they had crossed into the universe, some extreme frontier locale ruled by the so-called Final Frontier Empire, the artifact blazed.

Kadeus scarcely believed it himself. The world they were looking for was close-by. They had to then find the key to unlock that world.

He peered through his 32nd son’s perception. Like all his male progeny, he was named after his father. This Kadeus was remarkably untalented, at the level of a frontier brat. That was why he had given the little Kadeus a mission in enemy territory with only three Early Adept bodyguards and his internal guardian. Iron sharpened iron.

Another failed planet. That was to be expected.

Within the Astrashan, he felt the ripples of Visionary cultivators arriving en masse. Their actions had not gone unnoticed. Soon, the valuable assets would have to be extracted, and the weak would be culled. Such was the way of the cultivator that all understood.

The arrival of the locals was irrelevant. Now that they had the universe in question correctly identified, it would only be a matter of time.

-------

Kadeus stared at the dowsing watch.

The object he held in his hands was only a replica tied to the original via his father’s Dao, but it still looked the same as masterpiece construction that their polity had paid a pretty penny for.

It had a silver bezel etched with shifting runes, surrounding a crystalline face that revealed layers of rainbow energy in floating patterns. Blue-gold hands hovered above glowing gemstone markers. The mechanical arms worked via a water wheel-like winding mechanism, where the variegated fluid ebbed and flowed.

The watch told him one thing. That the key was on Nuevo Invierno. But it didn’t make any sense.

Nuevo Invierno was clearly not a sealed world. But then again, perhaps the key itself had been separated from its original worlds?

His father had told him it would glow a certain hue upon finding the key, and would direct him via instinct. The issue was that it was glowing, but the hue wasn’t quite right. On top of that, he barely felt anything. If anything, it wanted him to go down.

They couldn’t just excavate the entire planet, obviously. The watch was supposed to be much more sensitive than what it was giving out. It wasn’t as if there was a user manual for it, either.

“What the fuck is this supposed to mean?” Kadeus muttered. “I thought it would correct itself once we got closer, but I’ve been all over the planet and it’s not changing.”

“Isn’t your father watching us right now?” Gloria asked. “Can’t you ask him?”

Kadeus shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. As the leader of the mission, he’s not even in this universe. Plus, I don’t think he would know any more than us.”

Protokoptian outstretched a metal arm. “Let me observe.”

Kadeus tossed the watch to the automaton. Even the replica was a Visionary-realm equivalent artifact. If they combined all their strongest abilities, they would not remove a single atom.

Protokoptian scanned the item with its blue orbs for eyes, analyzing it from a new perspective. “Have you considered the possibility that the key is not on this world?”

“Of course,” Kadeus said. “Father said there was a possibility that the key and the world could be separate.”

“That’s not what I meant. Perhaps even the key is not on this world.”

“I don’t get it,” Kadeus said. “The color?”

“It’s not a precise match,” Protokoptian replied. “It’s off by a few nanometers in wavelength.”

“Perhaps that means we’re just not close enough. We don’t know how it really works.”

“Perhaps,” Protokoptian said. “I have an eidetic memory. I recall exactly what shade the watch turned upon entering this universe. I also recall that the watch did not turn its current shade until precisely four days after we arrived on this planet.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Gloria interjected. “We were gonna take a break from searching until it randomly turned amber.”

Kadeus frowned. What had changed four days into their arrival? That was the same day that he had killed his false comrades and almost killed Jindor. Then Jindor survived due to the help of those two Foundation siblings. The male sibling was unusually powerful, Kadeus remembered.

“Protokoptian.” Kadeus gestured for the automaton to come closer. “Can you scan my memories and extrapolate the theoretical position of the male Foundation I saw with Jindor over time, while simultaneously tracking the watch?”

Protokoptian didn’t answer him, which Kadeus felt was a bit disrespectful, instead immediately placing spindly fingers on his head. “There were minute changes, on the order of .5% hue difference when close to the Foundation. In addition, I noticed slight alterations in the energy patterns, almost as a language or code. This is highly unusual considering the previous stability of the watch.”

“Our priorities have shifted,” Kadeus said with a grin. “Finding a man should be far easier than a mysterious key.”

Alistair had been watching Jindor for almost two days.

He treated it as a test of willpower. A time for contemplation and meditation. Others moved around, his sister hunted beasts for levels, and he just sat there unperturbed.

It wasn’t like he was doing nothing—he cultivated the entire time, slowly breaking down the blockages in his meridians and growing his soulcore. But he could do that while sleeping, literally. Being thoughtless was far more difficult than fighting.

The Black Star disciple didn’t move either. He remained a stone with his head pointed up, staring, peering into the central station.

“They know where we are.”

Those words shocked Alistair out of his trance. “What?”

“They’re hunting for you now. Whatever they’re looking for, they think you have it.”

Alistair met Jindor’s eyes, man-to-man. An unspoken conversation happened in the blink of an eye.

The monk didn’t have any reason to protect Alistair further. The life debt had been repaid when he defeated Fara. If Jindor was looking for a way out, this was it. He would be the main fighting force as their only Adept.

But Alistair already knew that the man was too honorable for that. That was the understanding that passed between them. They were in it together, for better or for worse.

“Let’s set the terms of the battlefield,” Alistair said. “What are their forces?”

Why me? Alistair wondered as they excavated the cave, shaping it to be the ultimate fortress. I mean, I am pretty special, but I’m not that special. Is it my Subclass?

Being one of a million chosen by a Truthseeker in an event that only happened once every thousand years was amazing. However, Alistair doubted that it was an enormous benefit since he had the feeling the that the mark was more like a confirmation of the path of justice, a sealing and mark that would inspire those who walked down the hard road.

Not that the Badges and Subclass didn’t help him a lot, but he felt that the Sage of Eternal Mercy primarily was reminding the youth of the multiverse that they were not alone.

But what would they even do with his Subclass? Maybe it was his bloodline. The dragon that he had met felt unspeakably strong, and surely his blood was valuable. He struggled to think of anything else.

They had around an hour before Kadeus and his crew arrived, according to Jindor. The first step was seeing who would stand their ground. As their only Adept, the monk claimed that he would challenge all three of Kadeus’s Adepts at once, so they would only have to take on Kadeus and whoever else he brought.

Still, only a few volunteered to fight. Alistair didn’t entirely blame them. Either way, if they lost, they would die. However, by fighting, that increased their chance of dying if they won. Most of them weren’t strong enough to tip a fight between Foundations like Alistair and Kadeus.

The ones who volunteered were Haley, which Alistair was expecting, Ymira, which he also was kind of expecting, and a gruff-looking old man named Elbert.

They dug a hole for the rest of them, with all the cultivators who could provide wards working overtime to add protections. Alistair finished opening more of his meridians, reaching level 84 without a hassle. They set up some traps, though he doubted most of them would do that much.

Jindor was doing something strange with the ceiling of the cave that he refused to explain. When asked why, the monk told Alistair that Kadeus’s automaton bodyguard was a combat robot that had exceptional deductive abilities, reminding him of William St. James. Alistair couldn’t imagine how useful the young man would be in this situation. Wherever someone like that went, despite not being the strongest fighter himself, he would be in high demand.

“What are you thinking?” Evangeline asked him as the time drew closer. With his perfect internal clock and Jindor’s tracking, they could be sure of exactly when the enemy would arrive.

“Our chances?” Alistair asked with a grin. “We got this.”

“How can you be so confident?” Evangeline asked. “You know, I don’t get stuck in these situations as much as you do. Maybe that’s the key. Maybe I just need more experience being near death.”

Alistair nodded. “That part is true. One reason why I’m confident is the big guy. I think we were lucky to run into him.”

“If his information is accurate, he’s going to have to face three Adepts at once if we want even a sliver of a chance. And we’ll still have to face Kadeus and whoever else he brings.”

“Yep.” Alistair looked at his sister like she was the biggest idiot in the world. “And?”

“You suck sometimes,” she said, though a smile bloomed on her face. “Haley’s much nicer than you. You know, I think she has a crush on you.”

Alistair looked over at Haley. She was short, with very straight light brown hair and a curvaceous body. Back before the initiation, his type was black hair, tall, and striking, but now he didn’t care as much. For a cultivator, she didn’t seem exceptionally beautiful, but the scale of attractiveness was shifted so far to the right. In Earth terms, she would have been the most beautiful woman you saw in an entire year.

Dev’rox pushed his head forward with his tail. Alistair gave her a wink. She responded with a smile and turned away.

“You’re not a player, you’re not fooling me,” Evangeline said. “I won’t let you break a poor girl’s heart just because you got a little cocky now that you’re Earth’s savior or something like that.”

“You think too little of me.” Alistair shook his head.

Jindor’s voice flooded the chamber they had excavated, which now was the size of a large theater room. “Everyone, get in your positions. We have one minute.”

The six of them lined up in a loose formation. Jindor on the right, while Alistair was fifteen feet away on the left. In the middle but behind them were Evangeline, Haley, Ymira, and Albert in a square.

That minute, which was precisely a minute as the monk had said, felt like an eternity. Alistair summoned his Materia of True Martial Clarity, the nearly transparent wraps shimmering around his hands.

A series of powerful presences tickled the edge of [Reality Sense]. The three Adepts that Jindor had told them about walked out of only tunnel to and from their manmade grotto.

Was it arrogance that they carried themselves with, or earned confidence? Xu Tai came out decked in a shimmering, diaphonous cloak and wizard’s staff adorned with an enormous blue diamond. Gloria had a series of living silver plates over her skin, moving around and morphing to protect her like lilipads floating over a lake. Kadeus wore a black coat and conical Asian hat, with a pair of thick sunglasses hiding his eyes. He had long blond hair that came down to his shoulders, thick and full of fantastical volume.

The automaton came in last. The most nondescript, the golden robot looked the least threatening, but Alistair suspected it to be the most troublesome one of the bunch.

The three Adepts allowed Kadeus to to take the center stage, fanning around him like it was some kind of performance art.

Kadeus pointed at Jindor. “I don’t care about you. Give that—” He pointed at Alistair, “man up and we’ll be on our merry way. You won’t ever hear from us again.”

“And if I say no?”

“We have three Adepts and none of your lineages are even close to as pure as mine,” Kadeus said. “And, this.”

Over a dozen Peak Foundations emerged from the entrance. Six Kinetic Mages, floating through their own power and draped in wizard’s robes, four zombie generals, and three human-looking mercenaries of various flavors.

“Last chance,” Kadeus said, giving Alistair a hollow glance.

“I’m sorry, but I refuse. Perhaps you’ll be able to convince me when we meet in The White Star.”

With those words, everything became bathed in white starlight.