Chereads / Vague Ends, Distinct Means / Chapter 12 - A Stroll Through The Countryside

Chapter 12 - A Stroll Through The Countryside

The kingdom of Oeust was a powerful kingdom in the western half of the continent of Justine. It was the head of a coalition of kingdoms within the continent that had gathered together to oppose the aggression and tyranny of the empire of Est to East.

Tensions were always high between Oeust and Est but there was great thousand mile long, hundred mile deep forest separating the two kingdoms. They called it the devil's black wood.

The great forest all but split the continent in half. All the woodsmen and foresters of both lands were unable to make a dent in the forest's greenery. Few rangers or soldiers had ever been able to travel through the wood and tell the tale.

Thus the forest became an unofficial buffer and the villages, towns, and cities that surrounded the forest were protected from the war between the western and eastern kingdoms.

One day, the forest disappeared. All those villages, towns, cities and the numerous fortresses built amongst them found themselves face to face with the enemy. At first no one did anything. The two sides were too taken aback by the sudden disappearance of the devil's black wood.

Then with a single sacking of a village on one side by the drunken soldiers of the other side, the war began in earnest. Beginning ten years sooner than it would have begun otherwise.

The continent was made all the more chaotic as the season of shadows arouse. Lapine's season of shadows was the wretched twenty-eight day period between fall and winter. It was a period when all the haunts and unhallowed places that held beasts and monsters were roused and the land was overrun by evil creatures.

Unbeknownst to anyone this year's season of shadows would be worse than ever before because a great evil was rising in the south, and unlike years prior the pale witch of the black forest who fed on men and devils would not be around to stop it. Allowing the fledgling Demon-Lord to grow in scale and following.

Thus began the continent of Justine's hundred year derangement. A dark and horrific period filled with strife madness, and disdain. Not that our protagonist knew or cared about any of this.

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"Hm, this is a...this is really a nice day?" said Danke. As he and Wis walked along a country road.

"Do you really think so, master?" said Wis.

"Nope...I still f**king hate everything. And are you absolutely sure, I'm not allowed to try and punt this planet into the sun?" said Danke.

"My apologies, master. I assure you it 'does' get better. Also, even assuming you were presently strong enough to do as you've suggested the angels and gods who watch over the lesser worlds would intercede should you attempt to destroy this world." said Wis.

"Damn...Alright, I'll chill. I'm cool. I'm copacetic. I'm…"

*Roar!*

*Bamf*

There was a snarl followed by a sharp yelp. A creature that had once been a normal direhound and had been twisted by dark magics into something much, much worse leapt out at the passing duo.

Unfortunately, for the monster. One of the prospective future generals of the future demon-lord, the two humanoids that it had attacked were plainly outside of its league.

Thus as soon as the creature leapt out of the bushes it was punted into the sky. Breaking through the clouds with enough force to strike and kill a passing dragon. Another of the future prospective generals of the nascent demon-lord.

This would be a pattern that would continue for the pair. The inadvertent cause of Justine's great war would also be the inadvertent savior of humanity, as many of his actions would serve to weaken the demon-lord and his army. Weakening his threat and shortening his reign of terror, so that the peoples of Justine could triumph over the fiend a century early.

Of course, our protagonists neither knew nor cared about any of this.

"Careful, master… You don't want to hurt yourself." said Wis.

Danke swore beneath his breath, hopping on one foot as his leg rapidly healed from the damage he'd inflicted on it.

There was something worse than the headaches. There was something even less pleasant than the strange fundamental wrongness that made up the world. There was something even less savory than the weakness of the world's magical energy flow.

That something...was the fact that despite all those trillions of years spent trying to get OP, Danke had ended up waking up only moderately strong.

It was disgusting really. Imagine spending a trillion years pumping iron to find that one's muscles and the effects of those muscles were going to be nerfed because the universe couldn't withstand just how pumped you'd become.

"Oh, I f***king hate this place. Is it too late to get that dimensional filter thing?" said Danke. Rubbing his aching leg.

"I will not lie to you, master. So I cannot say it is too late… However I will say that I have no attention in aiding you with taking the easy way out." said Wis. Her tone stern.

"Hmph...Fine." said Danke. Taking a test step with the leg he'd nearly broken by punting that three ton monster-wolf into the air.

"It'll be fine, master. Think of all the others who go through thousands of evolutions only to end up as an invisible presence on par with a ghost, or low-level demon." said Wis.

"Is...is that really true?" said Danke. Looking down at the white-haired woman.

"Yes, master. The lesser worlds lack in power and dimensionality and those unexpressed sums mean that higher-beings like yourself are liable to be weakened if wonder through the land in your actual bodies. This is what they call the dimensional restraint."

"Hmph, they call it dimensional restraint, I call it f**king bullsh*t." said Danke. Pouting with his arms crossed.

"Master…" said Wis. Her tone both soothing and stern.

"Fine… Fine. I'll stop whining." said Danke.

"Look on the bright side, master. This just means becoming powerful down here, will make you even more powerful in the higher realms." said Wis.

"That's true… Wait, does that mean that beings of lesser worlds are all super powerful in the higher worlds?"

"No, master. Of course not. I'm afraid a powerful being within this world while dangerous to you now...would still just be an ant to you if you could meet it with your true strength. The power of the dimensional restraint is similar to power of gravity over a landed whale. That is the whole purpose of the dimensional restraint to keep beings of power from the higher realms from interfering with the lower realms unreasonably. With that being said, if a restrained entity manages to survive while under the restraint their powers will grow exponentially."

"Ah...okay, I guess that doesn't sound that bad." said Danke. Rubbing his chin.

"AFYFJHD! AHDUFHJS! DHFOPFHF!"

Wis and Danke's conversation was interrupted by the screams and bellows of several armed and armored men. The two suddenly found themselves surrounded. Danke raised his arms, his instincts from his old world shining through. Wis just stood there. Looking unimpressed.

"Wh-, What's happening? What are they saying?" said Danke. Warily watching the men as they waved swords and spears at them. His gaze growing dire as he saw a few of them holding bows and arrows.

"Hm? Oh, their saying 'ah, foul beast. We shall send you and the witch back the hell from which you came'...or something to that end. A few of them might have made suggestions of making use of my body before or after my death...The usual brutish threats of violence, master." said Wis.

"Mh, that doesn't sound good. Wait, you can understand them?" said Danke.

"Of course I can. Remember we are beings of the unwinding world, master. We know all languages by default. It just takes a while for us to adjust to the local dialect when we find ourselves in unfamiliar places."

"Nh, that sounds about right. I think I also know a way to hurry things along." said Danke.

While the two conversed the men attacked. Right in time to be speared by a tangle of dark red spikes that suddenly popped into existence. The soldier then burst into flames screaming before they and the spikes were swallowed up within the palm of Danke's hand.

"What was that, master?!" said Wis.

"My power...My magic, so to speak. I originally only had the ability to turn dreams into data and energy to fuel my powers as a figment After a trillion years of absorbing and processing the dreams of countless dying worlds and their inhabitants that ability to consume dreams has crystalized into a new ability that memories of the unwinding world apparently call [Ideation]."

"M-, Master?! Is that true?" said Wis. Sounding awestruck.

"Yeah. Why?" said Danke. Not really getting what the big deal was, since as far as he knew there were tons of similar powers, just none that were suited for his grand dream archivist form as this one.

"Ideation is one of the foundations upon which the unwinding world was built. Our world is literally a world of thoughts, fantasies, and dreams made real and intermingled with the cosmic law. If you're able to use the power of ideation already, it means you're even further along as a child of Abwickeln than I thought." said Wis.

"Er...Thanks." said Danke. Choosing to take it as a compliment. Though honestly, even he wasn't entirely sure what separated this power from what he had before, beyond a certain vague nuance and the fact he could now create things with the power instead of just consuming them.

"A-, Anyway...Ideation allows me to convert mental energy and things made from mental energy such as dreams or emotions into either data or physical objects, at will." said Danke.

"And that allows you to do things like turning your opponent's anger or despair into literal weapons that you can use against them…Truly amazing, master." said Wis. Making Danke feel like a kid whose mother wanted to post their most trivial school work on the fridge.

"Ye-, yeah." said Danke.

"And I also figured out why they were going to attack us. Apparently, 'I' look like a monster and a few months ago, while we were in my core-world getting things set up, two local countries started a war. So things, in whatever continent this is, are a bit volatile right now" said Danke.

"Was this knowledge gained with your power of ideation, master?" said Wis.

"We-, Well, yeah...I got it with the data extraction aspects of the powers...but that's just because it's basically just the 'grownup' fully developed version of my dream consuming power from before. It's seriously no big deal." said Danke.

"Wonderful, master. I can't believe you've become so adept with the power that you can now consume the ideas, memories, and thoughts of others when you consume them instead of merely consuming their dreams and biological data. Fascinating. Simply fascinating." said Wis.

"R-, Right. Aren't I amazing? Praise me more." said Danke. Speaking nonsense to mask his growing unease over how seriously Wis seemed to be taking his "ideation" ability.