We arrived at the Tartarus rift early the next afternoon. Since we had no idea what to expect, we decided to leave the Pocket Castle a short distance away, while Alice, Ilias, Sonya and I would investigate Tartarus. I'd wanted Sonya to stay behind as well, but unlike Lime, she didn't listen. The imps needed no encouragement to remain behind.
I shouldn't have been surprised to see a large number of people at the site. Wherever there is a mystery, there are bound to be investigators. In addition, there were military present, probably to keep random people from endangering themselves, or looting the place, assuming there was anything valuable to find. Alice seemed a bit surprised by the sheer number of people as well.
"Hmmmm…." Alice said. "I don't like this. If they don't want to let us go down there…"
An official looking fellow came to greet us. "Are you Luka?" he said to me.
"I am," I said.
"Excellent!" the man said, in a friendly yet businesslike tone. "We were told to expect you at some point."
"The church?" Sonya asked.
"Yes," the man answered. "The church is keeping the appearance of Ilias to this boy secret for now, but we had to know if only because Luka needs to be free to investigate Tartarus. I'm Patrick, but you can call me Pat. I'm the head of research here."
"So what is the Tartarus, anyway?" I asked.
"Thirty years of research and we still aren't sure. What I can tell you is that what's down there was created by science far more advanced than our own. Here, let me show you."
Pat led us into a large tent that contained even more people, mainly scientists, studying a variety of artifacts pulled from the massive hole in the ground. I recognized none of the technology. Either it was alien, or so advanced I had never seen anything like it.
"We send soldiers into Tartarus periodically to find whatever they can and bring it out, but that's been…. Costly," Pat explained. "There are…. Things down there."
"What kind of things?" Ilias asked. "Monsters?"
"We're not sure," Pat replied, a pained expression on his face. "I wish I could show you one of them, but we've never captured or killed one. Assuming they are even alive to be killed. From the description of soldiers who have come back, the 'things' could be machines, monsters, or a combination of the two. Or maybe something completely different."
"Well, we're going to go down there and have a look around," I said. "Could you please not send anyone else in there anymore? How many lives have been thrown away to get these artifacts?"
"That's classified. And while I've been instructed to allow you unlimited access to our work and the site, you do not give orders here."
"Well I do," Ilias said, coming forward. "Send no more men down there."
"And you are, young lady?" Pat asked.
"I am your goddess Ilias," she declared proudly.
"Do you have any identification that could prove that?" he asked skeptically.
"Identification?! Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Hero Luka," Pat said patiently. "I understand your concern for our mens' lives. But I'm not sure you're in a position to talk considering that you're bringing children into that hole."
"You know what?" I said, starting to get a headache. "I'll go down there and we'll make a point of collecting as much as we can. Maybe we can make it unnecessary for you to endanger anyone else for awhile."
Pat led us back outside, where we took our first good look at the entrance to Tartarus. I saw that rope ladders had been lowered into the rift. Since no one in our party could levitate, that would make things significantly easier.
Alice and Ilias, impatient to get started, were already beginning to descend the ladders. Sonya, gazing into that bottomless pit, seemed to be having second thoughts.
"Is there anything in particular that you want us to find?" I asked Pat.
"What we're most interested in is the makina," he replied.
"Makina?"
"It's what we call the things we can't identify. Machines, basically, but we call them makina to differentiate them from machines that we're already familiar with. Basically, if it looks electronic, or looks like a weapon, or looks like it does anything at all, we'd appreciate it if you brought it back. We don't even think we've scratched the surface of that place. Hero Luka, I really hope you are able to do better than the soldiers have."
"I'll try," I assured him. Not knowing what to expect, I could make no promises. "Sonya, are you sure about this? You can wait here if you want."
"Where you go, I go," Sonya said firmly.
"You're a good friend, Sonya."
"How would you know?" she asked as we began our descent.
"Because Lukas don't have bad friends," I said, not really sure that my assertion was completely true, but deciding not to think about it too much.
The climb down took quite a bit of time. I was grateful that I had stayed in shape all those years. Well, I'm probably being too generous to myself. I stayed in passable shape. I've never been as well conditioned as I was by the time my first quest with Alice had ended. I was a juggernaut, at least physically, at the end of that adventure. I had since become merely…. Fit. Still, my fitness was miles ahead of my mostly sedentary life on Earth. As a result, I made it to the floor of the pit still breathing easily. Sonya's conditioning was just as good as mine, if not better. I began to imagine what her body must look like under her battle gear. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind. I really had become a pervert over the years, hadn't I?
I took a moment to look around. I'd expected that we'd need to light a torch or that someone would have to produce some magical light, but the area was well lit with artificial, electrical lighting. That alone would not have been unusual in this world. Almost every city had some electricity. But the place I found myself in reminded me more of Promestein's labs. Sterile, mechanical, unnatural.
"What is this place?" Sonya breathed. "I have a really bad feeling, Luka. Maybe we should go back?"
"This is the key to whatever is threatening the world, Sonya," I said, still trying to take it all in.
"I know. I just didn't expect… this."
"Guys!" I heard Ilias call to us. "Come look at this!"
I walked over to where Ilias was standing, over an opened box. I looked inside. The box was full of rifles. No rifles that I'd ever seen before, but definitely rifles. I picked one up, found the chamber, and checked for rounds.
"You know what these are?" Alice asked.
"Firearms," I said. "Do you not have these on your world?"
"We do," Alice said tentatively. "But nothing like that. I knew they were firearms, but what exactly do they fire?"
I wasn't willing to test it to find out, so I simply placed it back in the box. We were only about fifty feet away from the ladders. How far had the soldiers advanced if these weapons were still down here? And what had stopped them from exploring further?
"Hey there!" a voice said further into the facility. "Oh, looks like you found me!"
It was the white rabbit. "Luka! Do it!" Alice yelled.
I was getting better. The third time it took nothing more than a thought and Alice and Ilias were at full size again. I wasn't sure how much good it did them given that it didn't increase their magical power, but Alice at least preferred to face the white rabbit at her normal size. We all chased after the rabbit. I knew that she had meant for us to find her and wanted us to follow her. And If I knew it, everyone else must have known it as well.
We didn't get far. The rabbit turned a corner and we followed, only to run smack into several of the "things" that we were told were down there. The rabbit had somehow gotten around them with ease and was nowhere in sight. We weren't so lucky. I don't know how to describe what we faced. Some of them looked skeletal, with weird appendages. Others looked humanoid, but with steel bodies. They attacked without warning, firing a hail of bullets from mounted weapons on their shoulders.
Alice and Ilias reacted instantly. Sonya was frozen in place. I tackled Sonya to the ground as the bullets flew overhead. I reached out my hand and lashed out with my power. All of the creatures were knocked down, some no longer moving. I helped Sonya up and we ran for cover as more of the things rounded a corner and began firing.
Sonya and I took cover behind a bank of machines of some sort, which fortunately seemed to be made of pretty solid material. I saw Alice and Ilias behind another such bank, returning fire with holy and dark magic. Their return fire seemed to be having some effect, despite their reduced power. More of the creatures went down. That's when a much larger one came to the front and leveled an even more futuristic looking weapon at them.
"Alice! Ilias! You need to move!"
My two full sized companions broke from cover to dash towards Sonya and I just as the weapon vaporized the bank of machinery they'd been hiding behind with what looked like a laser blast.
"I take it back! I want to be little again!" Ilias cried. "I'm too big a target!"
With a thought, I returned them to their small size, and with another sent another blast towards the new threat, while with yet a third mental command, raised a shield. My shields weren't effective at stopping physical projectiles, but I had yet to meet any kind of energy that my shields couldn't block. And Ilias at her most powerful had tried. Sure enough, a followup laser blast from the larger creature impacted harmlessly against the shield.
A blast from behind us caused the laser firing monstrosity to explode. We looked behind us to find Sonya wielding one of the firearms that we'd found when we'd first entered the facility. A few more blasts from the weapon ended all resistance. When I was satisfied that we were no longer in danger, I went to Sonya and placed my hand on the weapon, lowering it for her. She was breathing hard, fear in her eyes, as she had continued to point it down the hallway from which the creatures had come.
"You did good, Sonya," I said reassuringly. "We're safe."
"For now, anyway," Alice said. "I'm sure there are more of those things."
"Oh, many more where they came from!" the white rabbit said brightly, hopping into the room. "But that's not what I'm here to show you! Come see!"
The white rabbit hopped down the hallway, our party in pursuit. We saw her hop down a flight of stairs. We followed. That led us onto another floor of the facility. And to more trouble.
Ilias was slashed by one of the creatures, giving a tortured cry that I hadn't heard since…. Well, since Eden had been stabbed. The wound Ilias had suffered didn't look nearly as bad as what had been done to Eden, but if she wasn't used to pain…. Sonya rushed to her and placed her hands on the wound. I drew Angel Halo and disabled the creature with one blow. Others advanced on us, charging at us with wicked looking cutting implements. Alice destroyed two of them with one tail blow. I advanced into the fray, swinging Angel Halo with more skill and precision than I thought I still had, never taking more than one or two hits to defeat my enemies. I detected no sentience from these beings, and Angel Halo didn't seal them. They simply stopped functioning.
"Luka, you're hurt!" Ilias said, placing her own hands on my back. At her touch, I felt the wound for the first time. One of the creatures must have scored on me with my back turned. It must not have been bad, however, because it took her only seconds to end the pain and presumably, heal the wound.
"Ilias, are you all right?" I asked, knowing that one such as her was not used to feeling pain.
"I am now," she replied uncomfortably. "I'm sorry that I made such a sound. I should be stronger. I'm just… not used to that."
"I know," I said gently. "We should talk about that later. For now…"
"For now, you guys are so slow!" the white rabbit taunted, continuing to lead us by the nose to wherever it was she wanted us to go.
Where she wanted us to go turned out to be all the way at the other end of the floor. Despite the fact that she had turned no corners, we simply lost sight of her. But I had a pretty good idea what she had wanted us to find. A strange door was at the other end of the lower floor. In contrast to the technological feel of the facility, the door looked like something ancient, something one would find in ancient ruins.
"Where did that damn rabbit go?" Sonya asked, frustrated. "Is this what she was leading us to? This door? Did she go through it?"
Sonya attempted to open the door, but there was no knob, no handle, no sign that it could be opened from our side. She pushed at it, but got nowhere.
"How does this thing open?" Sonya asked.
"I don't think we can open it," Ilias said. "This is a door that separates space itself. But why would such a thing be here?"
"Separates space itself?" I asked. "I don't get it."
"Ilias probably knows more about such things than I do," Alice said. "But I know a little of alternate dimensions. On the other side of that door is another dimension."
"I still don't get it," I said. "That's now how alternate dimensions work."
"How do they work, Luka?" Alice asked.
"There are these force lines, in subspace, and they connect different worlds. You travel to them along these force lines."
"Is that how you did it?" Ilias asked.
"Well, no, not exactly, " I said. "I have no idea how to use force lines. I just know that it's how I was transported between worlds, whether through magic or science. I've never heard of a door being used to let someone walk from one universe into another."
"You have more experience, Luka, but I understand more theory," Ilias explained. "There are many ways to travel along force lines. Someone who would want to create an easy way to do so would make a doorway, so that it's as easy as stepping into another room. I've never actually seen such a door, but I can tell from the magic emanating from it that this is the purpose the door serves. What do you think, Alice?"
"The magic I'm picking up from this thing is definitely used for space-time manipulation," Alice replied.."But this is god level magic. I don't think we can open this door at our current power level."
"The white rabbit may have gotten past it somehow," I noted. "She obviously led us here. That means she wants us to open it. Probably."
I reached out and touched the door. To my surprise, it simply swung open. I had thought of trying to use my magic to will it open, as I'd been told that my magic was god level, but I hadn't actually had the thought. The door just responded to me.
"That's incredible," Alice breathed. "What are you?"
"I've never received a definitive answer to that," I replied. "But the answers we need to our immediate problem are probably straight ahead. Shall we?"
We stepped through the door and immediately into sunlight. I looked around. This was a city! It looked…. Wrong, however. And unfamiliar, although I guess I shouldn't have expected to find myself in Atlanta, Georgia or something like that. Ilias, however, recognized the place immediately.
"A town?! And not just any town, this is unmistakably…. But how did it end up here?! And the fabric of space itself appears to be eroding. This should not even be possible."
"Please, Luka, let's turn back," Sonya urged. "This place is giving me the creeps."
"Our answers are here, Sonya," I said. "C'mon, let's ask someone where we are."
There were people about. If not for the weird atmosphere of the place, it would seem like a normal city. But everything felt unstable, almost fragile, as if the city might disappear at any moment. It already seemed to be degrading. There were holes in the sky, and on the ground. Homes were missing roofs, or doors, or walls, and yet the people inside went about their lives as if they'd built them that way.
"Excuse me, Citizen A?" Alice asked a passerby.
"Yes?" Citizen A replied. Who responds to "Citizen A"?
"Is this Remina?" Ilias asked before Alice could say anything else.
"Why, yes it is!" Citizen A replied. "And welcome! There's a lot to see here. Are you tourists?"
"Um, yes, I guess," I said.
That must have been the wrong answer, because Citizen A began to transform into a horror. "Class A otherworld contact. Destroy."
The man became a creature similar to the ones we'd seen on the other side of that door. Sonya wasted no time disabling it with her club. It twitched on the ground.
"Must destroy. Must destroy. Must destroy." It said repeatedly.
"I know what this is now," Ilias said. "It's called the apoptosis effect."
"Halitosis?" I asked.
"No, idiot!" Alice snapped. "I've read about this. It's a mutation caused by chaos in spacetime."
"Call me crazy," Ilias said. "But I think this twisted spacetime has an immune system and these beings are it. It's mutating organisms from its environment and using them to repel foreign invaders."
"Wait, so all of those things we killed were alive?!" I asked In horror.
"They once were," Alice replied. "But not life as we know it. Anything living that got trapped here simply became raw material to transform into… that."
She pointed at the apoptosis on the ground, which had stopped twitching, its eyes staring vacantly at nothing. I'd seen many weird things in my life. This, however, was entirely beyond my understanding.
We decided to take shelter in a nearby home that appeared to be unoccupied, and talk things out before proceeding any further.
"Why do you think the rabbit wanted to show us this place?" I asked. "It's super weird, I'll admit, but what does it really tell us?"
"For one," Alice replied. "It gives us an idea of what that Ilias that spoke to you in the temple is so worried about. Those Tartarus rifts have been here for thirty years, brought here by the Great Disaster, but evidently they pose a danger."
"Maybe that danger is close to revealing itself," Sonya added. "This is scary. Could our world end up like this?"
Before anyone could answer, we heard sounds coming from the kitchen of the house. Everyone went silent, to see if the sounds would repeat. They did, even louder, as if there was something rummaging around.
We slowly approached the kitchen, expecting another of the …. Apoptosis? Apoptoses? What we found didn't look either human or like an apoptosis. More like a monster, but not any kind of monster I'd ever seen. It had eight tentacles, which believe it or not, is not all that unusual for a monster. It also had a human upper body, again, not unusual. And yet I'd never seen anything like it.
"Alice, do you know what kind of monster that is?" I asked.
"I have never seen anything like that in my life, nor have I ever read about anything like that," was her reply.
The creature turned towards us, noticing us for the first time.
"Kyuu!!!" it yelled, fearful.
"I think it's scared!" Sonya observed. "Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you!"
If the creature understood, it gave no sign. Tentacles lashed out, causing all of us to scatter. Sonya was hit, struck on the side of the head, and went down, further damage being done as the side of her head impacted a kitchen counter. The thing didn't stop to do any further harm, moving past her to get to her remaining opponents.
Ilias held out her arm to fire a blast of holy energy at the creature. I shook my head and made her lower her hand.
"We don't know how strong she is! We need to try to calm her first!"
"Luka, make me big!" Alice yelled.
I did as she asked, her lovely form knocking down furniture as she grew to her full length. The creature, recognizing the threat, attacked Alice. With contemptuous ease, Alice simply wrapped the creature up in her tail, restraining most of her tentacles in the process.
"Ilias, please go check on Sonya," I instructed. Rather than argue, Ilias returned to the kitchen to check on our fallen comrade.
I watched as the creature's three free tentacles continued to lash at Alice, who didn't even bother to dodge them as they impacted uselessly against her body. She may not have had her magic, but even without it her body gave her natural strength and durability matched by few in the monster world. Whatever this thing was, it was outclassed. Alice simply stared at it as it struck her again and again.
Finally, it's energy spent, Alice spoke to it. "Are you done?" she asked.
"Kyu…." The creature said dejectedly.
Alice lowered it to the ground and released it. It took another look at me, as if considering whether it wanted to attack me instead, but apparently decided against it.
"I don't know if you can understand us, but we mean you no harm," Alice said. "Are you a monster by any chance?"
"Kyu…" was all it said in response.
Sonya emerged from the kitchen, followed by Ilias. There was no sign of any wounds on her head. It was good to know that we had effective healers, even if it was only useful for minor wounds. I hadn't had anything like that on my first adventure, where I'd had to heal the natural way whenever I'd been hurt, delaying our adventure. And draining my finances, as I'd had to keep Alice well fed during those downtimes.
Sonya reached out to touch the creature. It flinched.
"It's okay, I'm a friend," Sonya cooed reassuringly. The creature relaxed as Sonya touched one of its tentacles. It gently wrapped one of the tentacles around Sonya's wrist. "See, I'm friendly. I'm not dangerous. I'm sorry we bothered you. We won't bother you anymore, okay? We'll leave now."
"That sounds like a good idea," Alice said, beginning to shrink. "We should probably explore a little more."
We began to leave, but the creature followed us to the door.
"Go away!" Ilias shouted. "Shoo!"
"Oh, Ilias, I think she wants to come with us," Sonya said. "Can we keep her, Luka?"
"She's not a pet," I said. "But this is no place for… anything living. And she's clearly not an apopopa… Apizza…."
"Apoptosis," Ilias corrected.
"Yeah, that. If she wants to follow us, I say let her."
"She's clearly a monster, Luka," Ilias said. "She'll stab us in the back."
"I don't know that she's a monster. But I do know she won't stab us in the back. There's an innocence about her."
"Don't be fooled, Luka. You always see the best in people. Even if they aren't people."
"Well, she's following us, so unless you want to use force to stop her, we might as well let her," I said. "But if you do decide to use force, you'll be on your own."
"Fine!" Ilias said, folding her arms petulantly. "Keep up, you… kyuui thing."
"We need a name for her," Sonya said. "You're kinda slimy, so maybe…. Nuruko? That's what you'd be called in the language of Yamatai."
"Yamatai is Japanese here?" I asked. "Interesting."
"Nuruko is a stupid name," Ilias said. "It's a good thing you didn't create the world, or else it would be full of things with stupid names."
We walked around the city, avoiding anything living, lest they turn into more creatures bent on our deaths. The city was sparsely populated, so that wasn't terribly challenging. We began to see graffiti on the walls. One message written on a wall of a building said "All become apoptosis." Sonya shivered. Eventually we came to a tunnel. Stepping into it, we found ourselves not in a tunnel, but somewhere…. Else. The sky had turned into night, but the stars above our heads were not the stars I'd fallen asleep under many nights while camping. The atmosphere was different as well. It almost reminded me of….
"Wow," Sonya breathed. "Now where are we?"
"I think this is subspace," I said.
"It is," Ilias agreed. "None of this makes any kind of sense."
"Kyu," Nuruko agreed quietly.
With no other options but to turn back or move forward, we pushed forward. There was no life, only a land bridge that meandered, leading us to… somewhere.
"I think this is a force line manifested as dry land," Ilias said. "I think it leads to another universe."
We walked for several minutes along the strange path, until we found ourselves back in the facility.
"Okay, that's weird," Sonya observed. "We're right back where we started?"
"No," Alice replied. "This is not the same facility. I mean, it is…. But it's not."
"We've traversed into another dimension," Ilias said. "I can't believe it. I'd always thought of perhaps trying this someday, but I never imagined I'd actually do it. It's so dangerous!"
"You don't know the half of it, fake goddess!"
The white rabbit again. Always just out of reach. She bounded away, beckoning for us to follow.
"You know, you could just say, 'hey, follow me,' and stay in sight," I said sourly. The white rabbit ignored me as she disappeared out of sight yet again.
We faced no opposition in this particular facility, which to my eyes looked exactly the same as the one we'd left, down to the rope ladders leading out of the giant hole. We ascended the ladders, fearful of what we would find above. I prayed that it would be Disney World. Instead, it looked a lot like the site set up by the researchers, except it was abandoned. The white rabbit was waiting for us. This time she didn't run away.
"You managed to follow me all the way here? You're very persistent."
"As if you didn't lead us here intentionally!" Alice barked.
"Honestly, I wasn't sure you'd make it," the rabbit laughed. "But I just had to see if Luka could open that door!"
"Since you're standing here, perhaps you'd care to explain where we are?" I asked.
"I'm just a guide, not an answer woman," she laughed again. "You'll have to find answers for yourself. Bye now!"
And with that, she was gone again. Teleportation? I looked at Alice questioningly.
"I have no idea how she does that," Alice replied to my unspoken question. "It's not like any teleportation I've ever seen."
"Well, let's keep moving, find out what kind of trouble we're in," I sighed.
"Why is there so much holy energy in the air?" Ilias wondered aloud.
The nearest town, assuming this world was similar to our own, would be Iliasville, a few hours away. I was extremely reluctant to get that far away from the Tartarus rift, but we had no choice if we wanted to learn anything more. We walked, mostly in fearful silence. There were no signs of life. In places where there should have been forests, there was only wasteland. Poisonous swamps that looked like the one just outside of Iliasville were everywhere. The stink was unpleasant, especially for Alice, whose sense of smell was so much better than ours.
"What do you think happened here?" Sonya asked.
"Can either of you detect radiation?" I asked Alice and Ilias.
"Not 'detect', per se," Alice admitted. "But if it was at dangerous levels I'd feel it. High radiation makes my skin tingle. I'm not feeling anything like that."
"If a bomb went off, it was a holy bomb, not a nuclear bomb," Ilias added.
"A holy bomb?" I asked.
"Figure of speech. But not a bad idea."
Finally we arrived at Iliasville. The story was basically the same there. Iliasville was devastated, no living things in sight. But the bodies…. Skeletons everywhere. It reminded me of the scene in Star Wars where Luka found his uncle and aunt. It seemed as if half the town was poison marsh.
"Iliasville was destroyed?" Sonya said, tears starting to flow.
"Not our Iliasville, Sonya, remember that," I cautioned. "This is a parallel universe where something horrible happened."
"A warning, perhaps, from our rabbit friend?" Alice wondered aloud.
Buildings were destroyed. All that was left of my inn was a husk, a sign saying "inn" hanging by one nail, swinging in the wind. I couldn't bear to look too closely at the bodies, for fear that I'd be able to identify someone, even though there were mostly only bones left. Old hatred of Ilias welled up inside me. Something like this had happened to my Ilias Village, at her orders. So many that I'd loved had died, some killed with sadistic cruelty. The angel who had carried out the massacre had paid the price for her deeds. Ilias, however, would remain forever unaccountable. But that was another Ilias, not this one. I could not blame her for what she had not yet done. And I had made amends with that other Ilias, in part because it was just my nature to forgive, but also because it had been necessary in order for a better world to emerge from the ashes of the old. Was it fair? I'd never been willing to face that question head on. Seeing the ruins of Iliasville reminded me painfully.
Whatever had happened in the village, it hadn't happened all at once. If it had been an attack, there must have been waves. The cemetery was full. Evidently there had been people here to bury most of the dead at some point. Those who survived the longest never had anyone to bury them. They remained out in the open. I perused the graves. So many names that I knew. Including…
"This is my grave," Sonya whispered, kneeling down. "Ilias… in this world I'm dead!"
I decided not to tell her that in no world I'd been in did I even know she existed, but clearly she did in fact exist in more than one. Or had at some point. Sonya looked to the grave next to hers.
"Luka! Your grave is here, too!" she cried. "And your diary is here!"
Sonya opened the diary and began reading. I looked over her shoulder. "Skip ahead, this is all childhood stuff."
In fact, many of the entries were almost verbatim what I'd seen written in the diary of the Luka I'd replaced. Whatever this world had once been, it had been nearly an exact replica. Except for one horrifying event that had ended life in this region. Or perhaps ended life in the entire world.
"Wait, stop, let's read this," I ordered, noticing the name "Granberia" written in the diary. Sonya read the words aloud.
"I couldn't do anything when faced with the monster swordswoman Granberia. That setback at Iliasburg was a setback for my adventure itself."
"You said you fought Granberia in Iliasburg!" Alice exclaimed. "This Luka apparently didn't do so well."
Sonya continued. "I kept telling myself that I couldn't be expected to beat her then, but surely someday…. Anyway, my adventure ended almost as soon as it began."
"I remember," I said. "I remember an encounter with another Luka at Iliasburg. He was hiding behind a tree, afraid to face Granberia. Understandably."
"You could encounter yourself?" Alice asked.
"Sometimes I replaced a Luka when I went to a different universe, but other times I met him. On those jumps, Luka would always look different from me. Shorter, purple hair, even more idealistic and innocent. And no experience at all. I wonder if this is that world?"
Sonya flipped ahead. "Oh, goddess," she gulped. "The angel army razed the village to the ground. So many people died in just one attack. I plan to fight if they come back. I'll pick my sword back up and defend the people of the village."
"Angels attacked this place?" Alice asked. "That must be why there's so much holy energy in the air."
"There's more," Sonya said, her voice quavering. "the final three lines are in someone else's handwriting. Luka fought bravely to the very end. In his final moments, he showed that he was really a hero. Rest in peace, true hero."
I held Sonya as she cried. I was tearing up as well. Another Luka, one far more innocent than me, had laid down his life for this village. He'd probably had no power, no chance, and yet he'd stood and fought to the end. Would I have done the same?
"I think this is what we were meant to see," Alice said. "We should probably go."
"Yes, let's leave this terrible place," Sonya croaked, pulling herself together. She looked up at me and I let her go. The look she had given me was meant for her Luka, but in the moment it sure felt like it was meant for me.
"You shall go nowhere!" a voice said from above.
The hatred for Ilias that flowed through me upon seeing the death of Iliasville a second time found outlet in a new target. It was the archangel who had destroyed Iliasville on my world, and presumably this one as well. My power raged inside me, demanding release. I hadn't felt it so powerfully in centuries.
"Ranael!" Ilias yelled. "Thank goodness you're here!"
"Be silent, imposter!" the archangel ordered. "For this blasphemy you shall pay with unimaginable pain!"
I stepped in front of Ilias. 'So Ranael is your name," I said, hearing a dangerous tone in my voice that I hadn't noticed in forever. Even Alice appeared frightened by me. "Are you responsible for this?"
"I serve the goddess Ilias," Ranael replied. "These sinners were destroyed upon her orders. As you shall be."
"Destroyed on Ilias' orders?" Sonya asked. "Ilias?"
"This is a different world!" Ilias protested. "Pay attention to the immediate problem! Renael! I am the goddess Ilias!"
"The goddess Ilias of this world might have something to say about that," Alice said dryly.
"Indeed she has," Ranael said. "Prepare for judgment!"
A tentacle materialized from her body out of nowhere, exposing the beautiful angel for the monster she truly was. The tentacle attempted to bat me out of the way so that she could get at Ilias with a venus flytrap like opening that she had also materialized from under her robe. I had seen that once before. She had bragged about using it to painfully dissolve several villagers whom she judged to be sinners. Her tentacle never made it to me, nor did that terrifying mouth. With cold fury I destroyed her a second time, unleashing my full power. Everyone simply stared at me in shock as what was left of Ranael rained down upon the ruins of Iliasville.
"That was an archangel," Ilias breathed. "At my full power I could have done that, but… for a human to have such power…"
"Come on," I said gruffly. "We've seen enough."
We walked back towards the village entrance, ready to embark on the hours long journey back to the Tartarus. My anger had caused a reaction, however. Minutes later, before we reached the entrance, countless angels descended from the heavens.
"I think you made this world's heaven angry, Luka!" Alice yelled.
"He killed an archangel! Such an act would not go unavenged!" Ilias responded. "Luka, please tell me you have enough power to do to all of them what you did to Ranael!"
"Not likely," I said. "Quick! Alice, Ilias, take my hand! Sonya, grab onto me! Nuruko, just grab all of us!"
"Are you going to try to teleport us out!?" Alice asked taking my hand. "This is another universe! You cant teleport between univ-"
"-erses!"
"Yah!" Hans cried, falling down as we materialized right into the same place in Iliasville where we had stood in that other universe.
"Such power," Ilias said in wonder. "Destroying an archangel is one thing, but instantly traveling from one world to another, just because you wanted to? Is there any limit to your power?"
"Just my little human pea brain," I said. "Haven't done anything like that, ever. But I had no other options."
"Oh, thank the goddess that we're home!" Sonya exhaled in relief. "Ilias, what was that place? Why would the goddess destroy Iliasville? Is she evil in that world? Were the people of Iliasville evil?"
I knew the answer to that, but wasn't sure how to bring it up and maintain party unity. Ilias shuffled her feet, looking very uncomfortable.
"I don't know," the goddess replied. "I was only there as long as you were. I don't know why things happened the way they did."
"We need to discuss what we've just seen," Alice said. "Preferably in my castle in the conference room. Luka, we left the castle a few hours away by the rift. Do you think you can teleport us again? It's the same world, should be a snap."
I hated the idea of teleporting, as I had always been afraid of it and had little confidence in my ability to do it safely. But my success rate, the few times I'd done it, had been one hundred percent. With Alice and Ilias unable to do so, perhaps it was time to start getting used to the idea.
"Sure," I said. "Everyone hold onto me again."
Alice had wanted me to teleport us to where the castle was, but I'd done her one better. We materialized inside the castle in the main foyer.
"Indoor teleportation?" Alice said in wonder. "I guess it's no big deal if you've teleported between universes."
"Sorry," I said. "I teleport by envisioning where I want to be. I don't recall much about the area you left the pocket castle in, but I am familiar with your castle. Parts of it, anyway. It was just easier to envision us here."
"Familiar enough with the Monster Lord's castle to clearly see it in your mind, and also familiar enough with me that I showed you my true form," Ilias observed. "You have a very interesting story to tell, Luka. And sooner or later, you're going to tell it."
"Oh, believe me, Ilias. We are going to talk."
Ilias quailed under my glare, looking guilty.
"But for now, I agree with Alice," I said. "let's sit around a table and talk about next steps."
The table in question was one of the smaller conference tables in the castle, since only five of us were present, as opposed to the much larger meetings that often were held during previous crises, which could easily involve the Knights, several queens, and sometimes even human royalty, such as during the war against Ilias.
"Why is that…. Thing here?" Ilias asked. "Can it even understand us?"
"Kyuu!" Nuruko exclaimed angrily. Great, I thought. Groot was more articulate. Yet she demonstrated enough intelligence to sit quietly and listen, so I decided not to join Ilias' protest. Whatever Nuruko understood, if she had decided to accompany us, she had a right to be a part of things. The other monsters in the castle found meetings boring.
"Any ideas on what the big threat is that my Ilias was so worked up about?" I asked to open the meeting.
"Obviously the degradation we saw in Remina is going to eventually spread to our world," Ilias replied. "What I don't know is why it would be an imminent threat after thirty years. Is a new Great Disaster about to happen? If so, how do we stop it?"
"There are other Tartarus rifts all over the world," Alice said. "We need to explore those as well. There might be answers there."
"I heard some of those Tartaruses are inaccessible though," Sonya said.
"Then it's going to have to be up to Luka to get us into them using his magic," Alice replied. "Assuming that we need to investigate all of them. There's another one on this continent, near Rostrum. We can investigate that one next."
"Isn't there an inaccessible mountain range between us and Rostrum?" Sonya asked.
"There's a tunnel through those mountains," Ilias replied. "It's dangerous, though. Not that it would be a problem for Luka. If he wasn't so hellbent on not killing monsters. He had no problem killing one of my archangels."
"First off, she wasn't YOUR Ranael. I assume last you heard, your Ranael is still alive?" I asked.
"Yes, as far as I know. I wish I could contact her. Assuming you wouldn't just murder her again."
"That Ranael massacred a village and was about to kill you," I pointed out. "In the most painful way imaginable. How did that little cut feel, Ilias? What do you think it would have felt like to have your body covered in acid?"
Ilias shuddered.
"In any case," I said. "Ranael was a powerful archangel. I had no recourse but to use my power. Perhaps I could have calibrated it better. I wish I had, actually. I hate killing. But she triggered me. Iliasville…."
"We understand, Luka," Sonya said gently, placing her hand on mine. "I know how hard that would have been for my Luka. I'm glad to see that no matter how much she deserved it, you would have avoided it if you could have."
"I think I know why you can't contact heaven, Ilias," Alice said.
"Really?" Ilias asked. "I assume it's because I'm too weak. I wanted us to go to the top of a mountain, where I can better be heard."
"I don't think that will work. Where the Navel of the World used to be, where Heaven's Gate was, there's only a Tartarus now."
"What!?" Ilias exclaimed. "So then heaven…. It's… gone?"
"We haven't heard from heaven in thirty years, Ilias," Sonya said. "maybe it's inside the rift and the angels just can't get out?"
"Then we have to go there!" Ilias exclaimed. "My angels!"
"That's a long way away, Ilias," Alice said.
"Luka, teleport us there! Right now!"
"I can't, Ilias," I replied sadly. "I've seen the Navel of the World maybe twice, and it's not even there anymore. I'd always just teleported directly into heaven."
"Then let's go to heaven!"
"If it's not there, where do we end up?" Alice asked rhetorically. "Luka's already scared to death to teleport. You're asking him to take you someplace that may not exist. What that would mean, we don't know."
"Then perhaps the closest location you remember?" Ilias asked.
"The geography of Sentora has changed even more radically than Ilias continent," Alice pointed out. "Luka can probably teleport back to places we've already been, which will be very useful for saving time. But teleporting to unknown locations that won't be anything like he remembers them would be too dangerous."
"Kyuu!"
"You're right, Nuruko," Sonya said. "We're discussing problems, not solutions."
"You understand her?" I asked.
"I…. I guess I do," Sonya said, hesitating.
"Okay, so solutions," I said. "What next? Do we still want to deal with Harpy Village?"
"I think we should,"Alice replied. "But in the end, it's your call. We need someone to make decisions. I think it should be me, and I'm positive Ilias thinks it should be her."
"Fuck yeah I think it should be me!" Ilias yelled.
"Language," I admonished.
"Eat shit!"
"You tell me to speak like a normal person, you need to start speaking like a goddess," I argued. "This world is going to need its goddess."
"Kyuu!" Nuruko said, before Ilias could launch into a string of profanities. I didn't need a translation. We were being scolded.
"So as I was saying," Alice continued. "Luka makes the most sense as the person who should be the ultimate decisionmaker. I trust him. I assume you do, Ilias?"
"Yes," Ilias pouted, slumping in her chair. Apparently her childlike brain was affecting her at the moment.
"So it's settled then," Sonya said. Nuruko expressed agreement. Apparently I was officially in charge.
"I'm as worried about heaven as Ilias is," I said. "There are people I love there. My instincts are to go straight to Iliasport and get a ship to Sentora and make a beeline for that Tartarus where the Navel used to be."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Alice said, shaking her head.
"Didn't you just say he was in charge?!" Ilias roared.
"Luka is in charge, but hear me out," Alice argued. "Being in charge doesn't mean absolute rule. I know that's what you're used to, Ilias, but humans and monsters do things a little differently. The ultimate decision is Luka's, but we should still make our arguments."
"Go on," I urged.
"Sentora is a much more dangerous continent than this one," Alice said. "I know you have tons of power, and now you have Angel Halo as well, but protecting all of us, while trying not to kill your opponents, will still be difficult. In addition, Ilias and I need to regain some of our strength as well. I notice that we're already getting better at using the magic we most have an affinity to. Me, with my dark magic, and Ilias with her holy magic. Some more time on this continent facing more manageable threats would do both of us some good. This quest shouldn't fall entirely on your shoulders, Luka."
"So it's kind of like a video game, where you level up," I said.
"Speak like a normal person!!!!" Sonya, Ilias, and Alice yelled. "Kyuu!!!" Nuruko agreed.
"I think Alice explained it well enough. Sorry about the strange reference. Okay, so why don't we work on Harpy Village first, assuming that it won't take too long. Then, we'll go to that second Tartarus and see what there is to see."
"You're forgetting something, Luka," Sonya said.
"What's that?"
"Your… Luka's father. He set off on a quest to deal with the threat to the world. There are rumors that he went into one of those rifts. Maybe he's inside one of them."
"Marcellus does sound like a significant factor in all of this," Ilias mused. "I still don't care about harpies, but if it's not too out of the way…."
"A few hours, if we make good time," Sonya said.
"How long from where we are now, at Iliasville?" I asked.
"Two full days. It's east of Iliasburg, towards the coast."
"Then I move that we adjourn and get some rest," Alice said. "It's been a rough day. We have some travel ahead of us. Hopefully the next couple of days won't be as difficult as that 'piece of cake' quest in the Irina Mountains."