Forcing his lethargic body upright, Serpentine sat on the grass and tried to make sense of his surroundings. The lush, rolling hills stretched endlessly in every direction, dotted with trees and wildflowers. The beauty of the dimension was undeniable, but it felt foreign, untouched by the chaos of his usual escapades.
Not to mention, despite all the extravagance and beauty, this world seemed... eerily mundane. No green or scarlet sky, or bluish-purple soils. The rivers were of water, as in hydrogen dioxide, not suphur dioxide or anything of the like. The air was rich with not just magic, but nitrogen, oxygen, and more, rather than argon, putracine, or do on.
It seemed... surprisingly reminiscent of planet earth.
'A counterpart, maybe?'
A dimension or a timestream that depicted an only slightly altered version of another dimension or timeline was called a counterpart. But that was just speculation, so Serpentine returned to what he knew were cold, hard facts.
As his breathing steadied, he replayed the events leading up to this moment. He stole the Kickstarter Campaign's budget from the Primordials, and he was chased around the cosmos for a while. Then Fate offered to help him, but that was only a set-up to promote the Kickstarter Campaign by using Serpentine's entire life as a grand foil.
Following fate's betrayal was the reveal of his whole life being orchestrated from the start – which technically applied to every creature because, you know, fate, but Serpentine had lived his whole life believing in free will and had been led to believe even Fate didn't have an absolute hold on him, so it hurt more than one would imagine.
Then there was the attack centred around the symphony of fate somehow, which he just decided to call an Ultimate, and then there was… now. That was when he woke up in his dimension.
The strain of remembering was too much. Each attempt sent a pulse of discomfort through his skull, like an over-wound clock threatening to snap.
"Enough of this," he muttered, dragging himself to his feet as he grabbed a tree branch and pulled himself up. His attempts at experimenting with what was left of his abilities left him even more fatigued. His legs wobbled, but he refused to stay grounded, and moved forward.
He stumbled through the hills, his mind shifting focus. Where am I? And why here, of all places?
He didn't know, and his thoughts kept spiralling as he walked. He walked through the forest, across a river, past many magical animals not found on earth – rebuking his earlier theory – and beyond the forest into a mountainous terrain.
After what felt like an eternity, Serpentine reached the edge of a cliff. Below him stretched a sprawling city, a titanic wall encasing a bustling concrete jungle, with a golden spire glinting in the sunlight faintly in the distance. The architecture alone was fantastic, but the engineering would have been impossible without any magical aid here.
From his vantage point, he could see hundreds of figures moving through the streets, their forms radiating a soft, golden glow. Some carried themselves with an air of purpose, while others moved leisurely, as though they had all the time in the cosmos.
And most intriguingly, they were all a blend of different colours. Some wore Roman battleskirts, while some wore Greek Robes. Some wore Japanese kimonos, while some wore Indian sarees.
The same went for the architecture. Japanese styled buildings, cuboids with countless glass panes, constructs made of Roman Concrete, and far more.
_'Let's hope we speak a mutual language. I barely know three hundred and ninety seven dimensional commonalities.'_
Serpentine sighed as he crouched, his leathery, bat-like wings unfurling. With a leap, he dove off the cliff, gliding effortlessly toward the city below. The wind rushed past him, a welcome sensation that momentarily distracted him from his weakened state.
As he flew over the streets and buildings, he noticed a handful of individuals emitting a strange aura – something familiar yet unplaceable. Their energy resonated differently, as if they were tethered to a higher purpose.
His first thought was the ability of Probability Manipulation due to what happened earlier, but he quickly discarded it. It wasn't similar in the least.
For better or worse, he did not have time to ponder over it any further, because soon, he spotted a face he recognized.
"Deer!" Serpentine yelled, his voice cracking with excitement as his serpentine eyes widened, a silly, genuine smile marring his face for the first time since he woke up. He adjusted his descent, angling toward the figure below.
The spirit turned, his golden glow shimmering faintly in the sunlight. His eyes widened in surprise, then delight.
"Serpentine!" Deer shouted back just as Serpentine dove down into a tackle, hugging him and causing them both to roll and stumble over the dirt and hay for several metres before they stopped.
A few tens of seconds later, a couple of groans resounded as the two figures forced their bodies upright. They gazed at each other for a few moments, and their laughter echoed through the street. Deer's expression shifted between joy and disbelief as he studied Serpentine.
"What are you doing here?" Deer asked, stepping back to take in his old friend's disheveled appearance, while picking off the blades of leaves from his hair.
"I could ask you the same thing," Serpentine replied, his grin crooked. "Last I checked, you were off doing... violin practise, was it?" Serpentine shuddered. "I still don't know why someone would choose to play that."
"You don't even understand the irony of an Ascended Demon saying that." Deer chuckled to himself.
Seeing Serpentine confused, he asked, "Ever heard of Paganini?"
"Nope." Serpentine confessed, popping the 'p.' "Anyway, where are we?"
Deer looked confused at the question. "The... Auxile District?"
"No, like, this dimension." Serpentine hurriedly waved his hands.
However, this seemed to confuse Deer even more. "Did you not get here by becoming a Wheel Character?"
This time, Serpentine leaned forward, his serpentine eyes glinting in the sunlight. "Oh? Is that how you get here?"
Deer paused, parting his lips to speak, before shaking his head with a smile. "Pretty much. Welcome to the Nexus of Faith, my friend. The heart of the Wheel's multiverse."
"The... Nexus of Faith, you say?" Serpentine echoed, glancing around at the glowing figures. "What is this place, exactly?"
"It's the linchpin holding the Wheel of Faith together," Deer paused, before clarifying, "And I mean linchpin in the most literal sense. It is the linch that pins the wheel, the axis around which it is spun."
Gesturing with his hand, be continued, "Everyone you see here is a canon character from the Wheel. Every fighter, every strategist, every anomaly – they're all here, part of the grand tapestry."
Serpentine frowned, taking it all in. A few seconds later, he turned his head, his gaze lingering on a few individuals radiating that strange, familiar aura. "And what about them? The ones with the weird glow?"
Deer's lips curled as he chuckled. "That… you'll have to discover for yourself. Let's just say they're significant in ways you might not expect. They are your people, after all?"
"My people?" Serpentine raised a brow, but seeing Deer's smile, he knew he wouldn't get any more information. It could mean a lot of things – chaos infected folks having ascended, people who back The Kickstarter Campaign, people who Void Energy in some form, and way more.
"And what about the Primordials?" Serpentine asked cautiously, focusing back on the conversation.
Deer waved dismissively. "They don't meddle here. This place is under the jurisdiction of just one man, and trust me, he couldn't care less."
"The Architect?"
"Nope."
"Then who?"
Deer smirked. "You'll meet him soon enough. Come on, I'll take you to him."
Serpentine furrowed his brow, but shrugged as he started walking, Deer leading him from afront. "So, uh, do the Primordials choose not to interfere or can they simply not?"
"They don't dare."
"...what?" Serpentine blurted out, before trying to rationalise what he had just heard. Yes, it made sense. Certain spaces are simply inaccessible or incompatible for certain beings. That was how he had been escaping the Primordials all along, by running in a dimensional crossroad where they were weakened.
It is not outlandish to think there might be another such place in the Wheel's linchpin, with someone under whose jurisdiction it existed.
"Whatever theory you are cooking, I can almost guarantee you it is wrong." Deer smirked at Serpentine's focused expression, causing the demon to pout.
As they walked through the city, Serpentine chose to recount his tale, from stealing the Kickstarter budget to his resurrection. Deer listened intently, nodding occasionally but saying little.
"So, what's your plan now?" Deer asked when Serpentine finished.
Serpentine's expression hardened. "I need to rebuild. Regain my strength, and if possible, surpass my peak to reach a new apex. Fate was suppressed beyond our wildest imaginations when he faced me, and he still wiped me out with a single blow."
He clenched his fist tightly, before releasing it with a sigh. "If only there was a way to get stronger, fast."
Deer's eyes lit up with mischief. "You want a quest, then?"
Serpentine paused, his eyes lightening up with enlightenment. "I totally forgot about that!"
The pair both shared a childish excitement, as Serpentine stepped back, "Come on, Deer. Do your thing!"
Deer too stepped back, a golden wheel materializing above his head. Its neon glow radiated with an almost divine intensity. Grabbing the axis, Deer gave it a dramatic spin. A deep, almost holy sound like someone saying 'oum' rumbled lightly through the space around them.
The wheel clattered noisily as it spun, a line of golden text slowly flickering into existence, only completely decipherable when it had spiralled to a halt.
[Quest: Slay the Big Bag Evil Guy]
Another wheel, this one silver, appeared beside it, and Deer spun it all the same, a pure, silver light illuminating everything around it. It, too, spiralled with a low hum, this one sounding similar to someone saying 'ling' until their lungs collapsed. Eventually, it stopped with a faint ding, revealing the words:
[Reward: Bottle of Root Beer]
Deer cringed. "Uh… you can't win every time."
Serpentine burst into laughter, clapping Deer on the back. "Don't worry about it. The Quest is in line with what I was looking forward to anyway."
He did need to test out his current arsenal in a practical situation.
As for the root beer, well, he couldn't blame Deer. The quest and reward were both randomised. You could get anything from having to bend the laws of reality to get a bottle of root beer to baking a pizza for the ashes of a god.
He'd prefer if it were something more citrusy, though.
As the wheel above then became static lumps of glowing gold and silver, Serpentine stretched. "Root beer's fine. Let's do this."
Before Deer could reply, a blinding light enveloped Serpentine. The city dissolved around him as he was whisked away to his next challenge.