Chapter 44: Chap. 36 : Secrets from the Other Side

Yuulvan looked around. Is this a dream ? It certainly felt like one, as he was here, hovering in a burgundy-colored void streaked by white. As he looked around, however, his magic sensed something. I am not alone. He turned around, and found someone.

There was a presence there, but he felt no threat from them. It was easily the weakest entity he ever laid eyes upon in terms of magic, in fact, but he felt as if that was irrelevant. Their presence was sunny, bright, radiant like summertime zenith. He looked at them, and asked a question almost by reflex, as if he knew they would answer with the truth.

"How do a microwave oven work ?", he asked, and the voice started to talk. It was a female voice, not that of a girl nor that of an adult woman. He could hear the smile that they were wearing in spite of how little he could see of them.

"So, sir, you know what an atom and a molecule is, right ?", she started, and Yuulvan nodded.

"Yes. I have read about those in one of the books." An interesting realization. It had explained a lot about the difference between lead, copper and iron. And that was disregarding carbon. That was a whole other mess.

"Good !", the voice said, and then she started talking. About magnets, and chronometers, and spinning water molecules. She explained the speed, the system. It wasn't overtly detailed, but it was still informative.

"Remember, a microwave doesn't really cook things in the way an oven does.", she explained. "It's better for reheating than for actually cooking like an oven. It doesn't heat every part of the food to the same amount, and doesn't work well with certain things. I wouldn't want to taste microwave-reheated patties, for example. Sounds gross."

The voice emitted a small, girly laugh before turning back towards him, assuming she had even moved. He wasn't sure, things here felt off to his senses. "Anything else on your mind, sir ?"

"Have you heard of a man called... Columbus ?" He cared little for history, especially of a man he never heard of... but it could nevertheless enlighten him a little, if nothing else.

"Ah, yes, of course, everyone knows who he is ! He is one of the few men who managed to discover a continent, and on accident to boot ! Well, re-discover, because the Vikings were here before, but they didn't stick around, so whether they count is up to the beholder, I suppose.", she started. "It was... roughly 500 years ago. Right ? Right." This matches the Warden's comment.

Discovered a continent ?, he reconsidered. That was... Hmmm... Is there even anything beyond the ocean ? Not that he knew of, but the Demon Realm, that was border to the ocean, tended to not care much for expanding their lands further. They had specialized Wardens for that, often Umdoranz hybrids.

And the southern ocean ? A few travelers he had met some time ago spoke of a land, ruled by someone called a "sultan", that existed beyond, but the Seaguard Greatwoods and mountain ranges got in the way of exploration for the human realms.

Maybe he could do that some day, but with so many years left in him, it was no pressing priority either way. "Thank you for your time.", he said, instead, properly thanking the mysterious presence for their time and effort.

"Glad to have helped, sir.", she answered before the dream faded.

---

Zoemie woke up from her sleep feeling still out of it. She shook her head, and considered. What to do ? She decided to check on the kitchen. Old man isn't here, but breakfast is. She teleported there to grab her breakfast first.

After eating her breakfast in silence, and finishing the following routine, she returned to her room, and after some time spent gaming, took her bath, dressed herself, and went back to her room again.

She had thought a bit about what she wanted to do, and had settled on a bit of preparation for her next piece of equipment. While Zoemie's sword was both strong and reliable, it wasn't necessarily the best-suited to close-range encounters.

Zoemie looked at her record on the scanner. Nothing much had changed, but one thing had crossed her mind before. Combat gloves. Zoemie knew only a little about those, but she had had a conversation with Nethany some time ago where Nethany had mentioned the existence of gloves with powdered metal to increase force.

While Zoemie, who had teleported to her workshop didn't know the proper name of those, she had managed to conjure one anyway and was considering what to do with it. Let's try it out, I guess ?

She went to the other room, where the old cursed slab of rock still stood, and started punching it. Okay. Yeah, I like those. A tearing noise interrupted her punching. "Oops. Well, shit.", she said as the glove tore open. "Guess those I'll make will need tougher materials." Nothing that should be too hard, I think ?

She took the time to try other types of combat gloves and other fistfighting equipment, as well, including brass knuckles and boxing gloves, but it didn't really make her changer her mind. Still worth checking out, I guess ?

Afterwards, Zoemie teleported to her workshop and pondered. Beyond that and her classic boilerplate enchantments, she wasn't sure what else the fused gloves would need. A strength booster ? No, I don't think that would solve the problem.

"What's the problem, even ?" The need for close melee makes me antsy... A defence booster. That should work better. It struck her as a better investment that even more raw power, of which she already had plenty of. The sounds of footsteps broke her focus, however, Zoemie turning her head and facing Xajymzia. "Oh, hey.", Zoemie said as Xajymzia nodded.

"Working on a new equipment piece ?", Xajymzia asked, looking at the slight mess of gloves on the desk.

"Yeah, combat gloves. Like actual combat gloves to punch people in the face. I've got the setup mostly down, now. Need to conjure and curse 'em, then setup fusion. The usual, pretty much.", Zoemie continued. Always dealing with problems the same way's kinda boring, but yanno. If it works, it works. "What about you ?"

"I have been working on personal projects, for the most part.", Xajymzia answered. "I was thinking about asking Yuulvan for assistance on some of them, but if I ask for his assistance, I might have to reveal things about your origins, by example.", Xajymzia explained, as Zoemie thought about it a bit more.

For now things are going okay, but... Zoemie sighed. "So far, things have been good, but... I'm still worried that the other shoe is going to drop at some point, ya know ?" Wouldn't be the first time that happened...

Zoemie sighed. "Am I being paranoid here ? Or, rather, is that paranoia justified ? Because, like, when dealing with the other fuckers, it 100% is, but with the old man I'm much less sure." She looked at Xajymzia. "The more you can keep secret the better, but, like, if you need to reveal shit to him, I can't really stop you. Just... be careful, okay ?", Zoemie continued after a bit.

---

Yuulvan wandered through the dungeons corridor for a little. He had gathered even more knowledge about materials, but he could only think about it for a bit before his mental wandering was interrupted by noises of magic.

He quickly came by the correct door, and knocked during a bit of calm before entering, the Warden raising her head to look at him. "Oh, hi, old man.", she said as she fiddled with a device on the side.

"Training, I take it ?", he said as he looked at a strawman reforming by itself. It was a little unsettling to watch, if he was being scrupulously honest, but it didn't really matter either way.

"Yeah.", the Warden said as she shut down the device. "Tryin' to cast my spells faster and stuff.", she continued, which surprised Yuulvan somewhat.

"Increasing your speed ? I see..." That was somewhat unusual area to train one's spells in, but he was a little curious. The Warden didn't really strike him as the type of person to do things "just because".

"Well, the thing is that I don't really need more raw firepower.", the Warden explained. She's... probably not entirely wrong. "And if I really needed more I could probably figure out a bunch of ways to get more of it. What I need is casting my spells faster, because that's much more likely to be useful."

Yuulvan nodded. "That makes sense". In a kind of crude, crass way. Although there was something he was slightly curious. Why ? Why did the Warden need to train ? He decided to approach it from another angle. "With your already impressive level of power, I dread a little the level of power you'll be capable of reaching..."

The Warden sighed. Hmm. "Very frankly, I'd rather not have to train. I fucking hate fighting." Oh-oh. "But, like, the bastards fucking hate me. They hate me, and I don't know why they do, but they fucking do."

"And they're preparing something. They ain't gonna be happy being denied me to hurt for that long. And I wanna be ready for it because they won't stop until they're all dead or I am, and I'm not giving these bastards a ghost of a chance.", she continued while Yuulvan wondered idly for a minute.

He knew of no group of persons with enough martial prowess to justify such extensive combat preparations. Who could that be ? Unless... Were their power over the Warden even martial ? That very well might not be the case. He had no idea who these people could be or what they had done to earn the Warden's vitriol.

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He reconsidered. Is it really worth wondering about ? He did not want to prod what was clearly a very sensitive subject for the Warden. It sounded like a very bad idea. So instead, he looked at the regenerating strawman. "This is quite the clever idea for having it repair itself.", he said.

Most master-of-arms would balk at the idea of using something that soft for training... but with the Warden's sheer power, even professional training dolls weren't much hardier. "Yeah, uh, I... didn't know what to use, so I just conjured a strawman. And a chronometer later to check my time when casting spells."

As he was about to ask what a chronometer was, he remembered from the dream conversation that it was a time-monitoring device. "And compare with your casting speed of the same spell beforehand ?", he said instead.

"Yeah. Make sure to vary it up from day to day, tho, not just cast one spell over and over again." Yuulvan shivered. He had started to notice this beforehand, but it was more obvious now. This Warden is scary in part because she's not a monster. She tried to think ahead and prepare intelligently.

Whether she succeeded was a different question, but it was for him a rather unsettling realization either way. "Yes... this makes sense. Having numbers can help giving a sense of progress for things like this.", he said, instead, dispelling the thoughts, which reminded him of something else. "That certainly explains why you managed to eliminate the Crimson Wraith so easily."

"The Cr... oh, right, I think it was that bandit guy.", the Warden said. "Bastard passed by my territory. I don't know what he expected, but...". She sighed. "I hate killing people. But someone needed to make that guy stop, you know ?"

Yuulvan nodded solemnly. Somewhat... naive, maybe ? But he couldn't deny the Warden was right. "Indeed. I was passing by one of the villages he raided, I believe it was... a few weeks ago ? I was assisting with the reconstruction. Many people shall sleep sounder at night now, if nothing else."

This made the Warden seemingly smile a little. "But I have taken enough of your time, for now.", he said. "I shall leave to your training, as the books are calling me again.", he continued, the Warden nodding in return.

---

Zoemie looked at the door as the old man left. She hadn't really been sure of what to say. She never did – she wasn't good with people, especially like this.

Zoemie closed her eyes, something hollow within her. She had known the bandit dude was a bastard, but there was knowing and knowing. Yet, a part of her still thought back of this night grimly. Like it had been a terrible mistake. Would a man like him even change ? But knowing that people felt safer because of his death... did make her feel a little better.

She sighed, and returned to the strawman. She was starting to get anxious about whether the spring shoes were really a good idea. She had anticipated it wouldn't be easy, but even then she couldn't help but second-guess herself. Maybe making the gloves now isn't the best idea, then...

"I'll need even more training to integrate all of this together..." What a pain in the ass. Zoemie shook her head, and refocused. Like it or not, this training's isn't gonna do itself. She braced herself and started leaping around. "I think I'm getting more comfortable with this..." Movement alone is mostly down, but it's jumping around while attacking that's a harder problem.

"Casting spells while jumping around hasn't proved too hard, but using the sword is a lot trickier." It's about balancing my movement. Zoemie here wanted to use the extra power her bursts of speed gave her to do more damage, but managing to do it without dropping her sword was no easy task.

After a few more attempts, Zoemie managed to land successfully on her legs after a swing. Okay. I think I can do this. Just need to keep practicing how to do it. It reminded her of a racing game, where she just bashed her head with repeated attempts until she got a good time. This made Zoemie smile a little.

---

Yuulvan looked at Xajymzia as the latter beckoned him over, while he was returning to his quarters. "I would like your assistance with something.", she said, and he nodded as he approached. "To be more exact, I would like you to take a look at something I cannot make much sense of."

"Certainly.", he answered, before Xajymzia teleported both of them out of the dungeon and next to the mountain. She then drew his attention with her magic to what appeared to be dimensional anchors within the ground. Impressive. "Who made these ?", he asked.

"I have not the slightest clue. Is there anything you can tell me about them, or unwinding them ?", she asked him in turn, but he shook his head.

"I have never seen such advanced anchors before... All I can tell you is that whoever made them is extremely skilled, more than me." A bit of an unsettling thought. "While I can't unwind them, I would like your assent to study them anyway."

Just looking at them had given him several ideas on how to reinforce the anchors holding various Apocalypses sealed. Upgrading those could easily save a lot of trouble down the road. "If that is your desire, then I won't stop you.", Xajymzia answered with a nod. Yuulvan smiled. This would a worthwhile investment of his time... later.

Just not right now. His magic told him books were the better things to do right now, so he left the area after a moment, and returned to his quarters, entering his study. He had finished his last book, and was about to start a new one too.

Yuulvan looked at the pile of books, and opened the next one on top of the pile. Hmm... let's see what this one is about. He started reading. More of these atomic physics. Good to know. It helped him get in the proper space to approach it, preparing books he had read before in case he needed to refresh or confirm something.

As Yuulvan kept reading the book, however, something felt wrong. His blood ran cold. Shivers went up his spine and arms. His vision almost clouded over for a second. Is that ? This can't be right... This is familiar, he thought as he looked at the table detailing the effects.

He had seen this before. He knew these symptoms. He had seen them. 2-7-4. He gritted his teeth. This can't be a coincidence, he thought as he remembered the dying. They get sick, like a stomach injury, they seem like they recover, and then they die. Why the curse lasted, lingered for so long.

It would make sense. Why no one understood what it was. Why no one understood how it spread, how it killed. We were looking at it from the wrong angle since day one. And no one could be blamed for it. No one could have guessed. Not even me. The amount of background knowledge necessary was already an huge barrier.

"The truth of it was... utterly out of left field." he whispered to himself, slightly fearful. Now he understood where his magic was bringing him for the last day or so. He shivered, as he thought. If I hadn't stopped here, I think this truth would never have been found.

You cannot defend yourself against what you do not understand, he reminded himself. Maybe this was it ? It seemed like it. Is this the answer I've looked for so long ?Yuulvan sighed. If this was correct... he could finally deal with one of his oldest demons. There would only be one way to know for certain, however.It was to confirm with empirical data.

Yuulvan got up his chair. I need to talk to the Warden about this.

---

Zoemie raised an eyebrow as she saw the old man move towards the meeting room in the middle of the afternoon. She had finished her training and had been relaxing on her bed, but something about him felt... off. Zoemie decided to change to her combat outfit before teleporting to the meeting room, preparing to receive him.

He entered the room. She couldn't quite decipher his expression, but he didn't seem angry, or if he was, not at her. "You okay, old man ?", she asked, and he looked at her mask before taking a deep breath.

"No.", he answered bluntly. "I have... How to... There is... something I must talk to you about. But first, I need to ask a few questions.", he started, clearly trying to not talk a mile a minute. "My apologies, this may be a little fragmented, but I promise it will make sense when I've explained everything." Zoemie nodded. "Do you know what an Apocalypse is ?", he asked.

"Nope, never heard of that.", she answered, to which the old man nodded.

"An Apocalypse is an extremely powerful, one-of-a-kind monster.", the old man explained. "Some have ravaged... entire countries. We refer to them with numbers, as they do not have names." Zoemie nodded. Sounds nasty. "I... mentioned that I couldn't help as many Umdoranz as I wanted because of other duties, right ?"

"Yeah, I remember that. An Apocalypse rampage ?", Zoemie guessed, to which the old man nodded. Good to know that things like that exists... Guess the name's fitting if nothing else. Zoemie felt slightly strange for a moment. Seems like that combat prep might be useful for more than just those assholes.

"Yes... but not just any Apocalypse." He looked to the side, uneasy. "Its number is 2-7-4. It's one of the most dangerous Apocalypses, one I dealt with time and time again as it kept breaking free. It is a large, mothlike abomination that spreads an horrific curse through its scales. If intervention hadn't been immediate, dozens of thousands more would have died from the... "curse" alone."

Dozens of thousands ? The fuck ? Yikes. "And I take it you... found something about it ? About that curse ?", Zoemie asked. Seems like this is where this is all leading. She shivered as the old man said nothing. Instead, he pulled a book from his storage and slid it across the table. Zoemie read the title.

Radioactivity for Newbies.

"Well, shit."

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