Chapter 161: Chapter ??? : Spreading Seeds

Motiniqua Plains.

The twenty-kilometre-wide barren plain lay on the borders of the Western Region nations of Joena and Poloriqa. It was disputed territory, though only in documents. In reality, neither nation showed any great interest in the wasteland. There was nothing of worth to be found here; officials and unofficials had searched the place top to bottom to no avail.

The plains were cracked like cobwebs, barren and lifelessly. Shades of brown and red were in abundance, but green, not so much. It had an array of rock formations to look at, but this was pretty much it. In the daytime, it was an unforgiving sauna and at night, a similarly ruthless freezer. It couldn’t even be used as a Monster Zone as even monsters seemed to loath the place. There was no saving grace to be had here. Travellers, Adventurers…the living in general, avoided it, leaving it desolate most of the year.

Today - or rather, tonight didn’t contribute to that most of the year statistic as a single soul could be found crossing the Motiniqua Plains.

*Vrrrmm*

A man sliced through the night on his black sports bike.

Gloves, scarf, helmet, trenchcoat; he had dressed for the occasion, wearing several layers of blacked-out clothing to stave off the biting night cold.

Covered up as he was, those observing from afar or even up close wouldn’t be able to catch any of his handsome features. Inside the full-face helmet, one would find the fair skin, bright blue eyes and head of short well-kept blonde hair belonging to one Federick Fulker.

Federick Fulker?

To most, this name held no significance. No one would casually utter the name, and even if they did, no bells would ring because of its mention. However, while the man’s given name wouldn’t stir anyone into a frenzy, his moniker, ‘Transporter’ could.

Those in the light might recognise the title but where it truly shined was in the shadows of society. In the underground world, the Transporter was a legendary figure. In the business of getting goods from one place to another, he was unmatched.

No border, security checkpoint or system could stop him; every job he had taken was successful, and this was saying something considering he had taken easily more than a thousand jobs in his decades-long career. The only thing that could match his productivity and success was his mysteriousness.

Despite being the equivalent of a household name in the underground world, very little was known about him, not even his name, Federick Fulker. Even him being male or just one person wasn’t a confirmed fact. He was an enigma known simply as the Transporter.

With his identity in the dark, many theories spawned about him, like the one that stated that the Transporter wasn’t just one person but a group working in tandem, or the one which posited that he was the son of one of the Ten Underground Kings, or the one that…

While many in number, the prevalent theory was that he was one of Dimitri’s vessels. This made sense to most; they could easily imagine Dimitri achieving the stellar results the Transporter had shown, and couldn’t easily imagine that a lone non-Dimitri vessel was responsible for the Transporter’s work.

But this theory was incorrect. While Federick had established many connections during his line of work, he ultimately ran everything as a one-man show. It was absurd and yet true. To explain the ‘how’ and ‘why’, a brief trip through his past was useful.

Federick had a rough upbringing, being born in the harsh slums of Irul to junkie parents. They didn’t just use drugs but also acted as pushers for the Glumino Family, Irul’s biggest and strongest gang. Federick was roped in this operation early in life. Not long after developing object permanence, his parents threw him on the streets to ‘do his part’.

The young Federick had been used on many occasions as a transporter for these drugs. This categorised much of his early life. He’d go street by street, visit the usual customers and make the trade. It was dangerous, tense and unpleasant, but he eventually acclimated to the transporter role.

It was why, even after both of his parents died from overdosing, Federick continued transporting drugs. Living in the slums as a parentless 12-year-old, he had to adapt to survive, so he made ends meet in the best way he knew how. After their deaths, he approached the Glumino Family in hopes of becoming an official pusher to make money. He laid out his ‘resume’ and showcased his various drug-related skills.

His pitch worked out better than he expected and he was taken in by the Glumino Family. Life under the gang wasn’t pleasant. While he was a hard worker, Federick was on the quiet gloomy side and this didn’t gell well with most in the gang, resulting in him being bullied and ostracised. Things were hard but he persevered, quietly and by himself.

Then, it happened.

A few days after his fourteenth birthday, he awakened to become a psionic, and not just any psionic, but the rarest type, a Unique. Even better, his Unique power was space/time in nature and very easy to understand and use.

Doing some experiments, Federick foresaw his potential as the ultimate transporter. It was then that big ambitions started filling the young man’s head. He didn’t tell his fellow gangsters about his awakening, playing everything close to his chest as he always did.

Uniques’ automatic activations were a coin-flip. Some were violent and flashy while others were discreet and barely detectable. Federick had lucked out in this regard, having the latter. His psionic awakening went unnoticed by the world, and it would stay this way for a while.

In his downtime, Federick experimented by himself and came to learn the ins and outs of his power. While absurd in details, his Unique power wasn’t too complex.

His power gave him access and control to an enormous cubic private space/ dimension. Federick called this private space Divine Treasury.

To teleport things into Divine Treasury, the Unique had to conjure special 3D spacial shapes first. He had saved several in his Conceptual Memory, but a cube was by far the most commonly used one. Instead of the shape itself, Federick summoned an outline of the shape. The shape’s size could be altered at will, so it could be as small as a Rubik’s Cube or as large as a mansion.

Regardless, everything within that shape’s confines, from the desired object to the air particles and even the space itself, would be teleported into Divine Treasury with a thought. Then, this snippet of reality would stay within Divine Treasury. Interesting, time didn’t seem to flow in Divine Treasury. Federick had confirmed this fact by using stopwatches and produce.

On a related note, an object’s initial momentum was preserved perfectly. So, if an object was ‘captured’ in motion, it would leave Divine Treasury in motion. Regarding that, there were two ways.

The first was to return it as is, meaning, use the original 3D shape it was encased in to teleport it back to the outside world. This was referred to as ‘Divine Return’. This was one way, but the more common method was to use spacial gates in the form of 2D spatial shapes. This method of ejection was called ‘Gate of Providence’. Federick mainly used circles. From them, the desired objects would eject.

The last thing to mention regarded himself. While Federick could teleport other living things into Divine Treasury, he could not teleport himself into it - or rather, he didn’t do so out of a fear of dying. He could do parts of himself, of course, but his head region was a no-go - he was certain of this. He would just die.

With all this in mind, Federick used his Unique power to great effect in his jobs, impressing the Glumino Family higher-ups while continuing to keep his abilities and identity secret. He had no plans to stay under their wing forever. The gang was ultimately a lowly faction in the grand scheme of things and he knew his value to be much greater. More than this, he desired to stand on his own feet, and for said feet to be far from others.

Six months after awakening, he put forth his intention to leave the gang to the higher-ups. As one could imagine, they weren’t too willing to let go of their talented money-maker.

Federick, of course, foresaw this possibility. He had prepared for it; he always prepared. Over the months, he had been strengthening his arsenal. He used his power for thievery and the hundred percent success rate had garnered him a lot of funds. He used most of these funds to purchase various armaments from the black market, all the while, making sure to disguise himself in various outfits. Doing this for months, he had accrued a most deadly collection.

Grenades a second away from exploding, a barrage of bullets in flight, cannon shells in flight, bombs on the verge of exploding, a flame thrower’s fire spurt, poison gas, ogin-triggered devices…

He wasn’t a violent person by any means, but even he couldn’t help but feel glee at getting back at those gangsters who bullied him previously. Opening spacial gate after spacial gate, sometimes dozens at a time, he unleashed devastation upon the gangsters.

After wiping out the Glumino Family, Federick disappeared from Irul. From there, it was a life of wandering. Within the next few years, his title of Transporter would become known. He roamed the world, carrying out job after job.

He lived for himself and only himself, hiding deep in the shadows under a blanket of mysteries while using the money he generated from his successful jobs to live a cushy and luxurious life.

He always kept on the move though - not because he had a job, but rather, because he could never truly settle down anywhere. With this being the case, he often took jobs just because he was heading in a certain direction anyway.

The idea that he was multiple people came from the fact that he’d disguise himself as different people when he met clients. He was a man of a thousand faces.

With all this mystery surrounding him, there were many who wished to undercover his true identity or find out more about him. But those asking and those snooping would find themselves at the wrong end of his spatial gates. Over the years and decades, Federick’s arsenal had grown even more frightening.

Grendo bombs, lasers, light and sound bombs, acid, lava, water jetstreams, draconian stone, netherian, vantaquake armour and shields…

It reached a point where only Micheal could compete with him when it came to versatility.

He was prepared to deal with any situation…well, this was what he always believed. Eventually, he ran into someone he could not deal with, Dimitri Drazan. The World’s Shadow had heard of the Transporter and grown interested. He moved to meet him and did just that.

Federick could handily best most of Dimitri’s vessels in battle. The Raven had reasoned that this might be the case from all the rumours surrounding the Transporter’s combat prowess and so chose to bring out the big guns for the meeting - or rather, the big gun.

Shock reverberated through Federick as he desperately summoned spacial gate after spacial gate. But it was to no avail; in the end, he couldn’t even land a scratch on his lone opponent.

The loss cost him. Dimitri, wanting Federick’s Unique power for his own, possessed the man and the rest was history.

To be exact, this happened a hundred and fifty years ago. Now, as a vessel of Dimitri, Federick Fulker, crossed the barren Motiniqua Plains at night, the full moon’s light guiding him along.

His middle-aged look and physique were products of Dimitri’s doing. While not as good as Micheal, the World’s Shadow had successfully developed several immortality/longevity potions already. Federick’s vessel was one of his most useful vessels, and amongst his strongest, so extending his life was a no-brainer.

Dimitri coasted along - well, jittered along on his bike. While exceptional, his motorbike’s suspension wasn’t up to the task of handling the uneven cracked terrain. He could make his experience comfier or cross the plains faster with Psi, but he refrained from doing so.

He didn’t want to attract attention. Dimitri was naturally cautious and lowkey - and his current vessel only added to that. To be discreet was just in his bones, literally. Even in the chilling cold, he refused to erect a barrier to shield himself. Only minimal Psi bursts would do.

Dimitri slowed his bike down to a halt, not to catch his breath but to warm it instead.

Gate of Providence!

A disc-sized circle materialised beside him. When it came to 2D spacial shapes, one side would be plain silver in colour and the other side, the portal side - also silver in colour - would have a dynamic vortex-like swirling pattern on it.

From said vortex dropped down a steaming mug of green tea. Catching it with his telekinesis, Dimitri grabbed hold of it with his right hand before dismissing his Psi entirely.

‘Aah, even better than usual.’

Warmth spread through his body as he drained the mug of its contents. Exhaling, he watched his visible breath with a satisfied look. Body temperature back to acceptable readings, Dimitri ceased his idling. He tossed the empty mug aside and then before it could hit the ground, materialised a spacial cube to teleport it back to Divine Treasury. Then, reequipping his helmet, he throttled the accelerator and sped off.

What was he doing in this place?

Transporting, naturally.

While not part of the Control group, Dimitri had continued to primarily use Federick’s vessel to transport goods to and from and was on one such run currently. Of course, not for a client or for money’s sake, but for his and the Shadow Raven’s sakes, which were ultimately one and the same at this point.

And so, he continued to search for the perfect drop-off spot for his goods.

‘There should be good,’ Dimitri thought as he appraised the rocky hills up ahead.

Deciding on a location, he marked it on his global map. But just as he marked it down, a problem arose.

Senses tinkling, Dimitri cast his gaze skyward. Up ahead to his far-right, a formation of Psi planes was flying high in the sky, heading in his direction. He grumbled at his poor luck before considering what to do next.

Draw their attention or bank on them not spotting him? The latter was promising. Dimitri was wearing dark clothes and had relied on his enhanced senses and the moonlight alone to guide him forward. Also, his bike’s low hum was barely audible amidst the passing winds.

The latter was promising, and yet like most promises, it didn’t hold up. One curious Telekinetic out of the bunch had been sweeping the land with her enhanced vision and found Dimitri. She informed her companions at once, and their leader, Brian Engel, gave the signal to descend upon the lone biker. As a unit, the Psi planes did a loop and then once near Dimitri’s position, they dematerialised their Psi contraptions and entered a free fall.

Freed from his previous choice, Dimitri stopped his bike and waited. Watching them descend into an encircling formation, there were few doubts in his mind as to what would transpire next.

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‘Definitely not good samaritans,’ he mused internally; his eyes showing an indifferent light.

The group of a dozen Telekinetics landed all around him, some positioning themselves on the ground and some on the rock formations. Brian chose the latter, of course. With the moon at his back, he flashed a rotten smile from his rock tower and addressed his latest ‘prey’.

“Well well, what do you have here? Trying to sneak across the border in the middle of the night, that’s no good, pal,“ Brian said to the sound of his fellow bandits letting out chuckles and sneers.

Dimitri just watched this play out with a bored look on his face. How many times had he seen such a scene?

The answer: too many times.

“So, what are you doing around these parts, pal? You’re moving pretty sneakily, so I’m guessing some type of smuggler but,” Brian rubbed his chin as he eyed Dimitri’s person, “....hmm, you’re travelling rather light, no? Delivering a secret message in the form of a letter, perhaps- wait, that’s quite the fancy bike you got there. Ah, I got it!” The man snapped his fingers in jubilance at having cracked the mystery.

He flashed a smile. “Ha, I’ve figured it out, just like that famous story, the bike is the thing you’re transporting across the borders, right…haha…I amaze myself sometimes.”

“Whoa! I never thought of that.”

“That’s amazing, leader.”

“I expect no less from the boss..”

“Brains and brawn, the perfect fusion.”

His fellow bandits chipped in with praise. Brian basked in it for a bit before refocusing on the still silent Dimitri. He clapped his hands, silencing his crew. Upon separating his hands, his previous jovial aura was shed and replaced by a callus one. At the same time, his Rank 7 Telekinetic aura grew rowdy around his figure.

“Okay, mister smuggler, you’ve reached your final destination. Good work, now dismount and get lost. It’s a long walk either way, but you’ll keep your life. So, what’s it going be?”

Dimitri sighed but did as the other wanted. He slipped off the bike, kicked out the kickstand and then walked away.

Brian cracked a smile. “Wise choice and so professional. I’ll be sure to leave a good review for your splendid services - oh yeah, I need a name for that…hey, mister smuggler, what’s your name?”

Dimitri’s steps grounded to a halt at the question. His lips couldn’t help but curl up; moments such as these were a guilty pleasure of sorts. He glanced up to the moon and then after a few seconds, released a string of phonemes that would render the world silent.

“I am…Dimitri Drazan.”

Stunned by the infamous name’s utterance, the bandits’ mental cogs ceased rotating altogether. Only five seconds later did it spin again. In those seconds, their blood went from freezing to boiling. Faces flashing red, their auras collectively surged as killing intent filled their gazes.

“This bastard! How dare he invoke that name….”

“You think we’ll fall for that!”

“Let’s just kill him!”

“Skin him alive!”

After the initial dread, the bandits flared up with angry outbursts. They didn’t appreciate the ‘scare’, not taking the biker’s claim as anything other than a desperate fear-inducing ploy.

“Mister smuggler,” Brian spoke up, his face darkened and scrunched up. “I’ll give you this, you’re pretty ballsy. To reward your bravery, I’ll give you a choice. Which way do you prefer to die?”

Dimitri shook his head lightly at the question. “I’ll return the question. Which…do you prefer? You have two choices. Die now or die later? Make your choice, and be quick, I have places to be.”

“You fucking bas-”

*Boom*

Dimitri’s patience had grown thin from the group’s antics. He ceased all pretence and unleashed his Psi. Seeing his golden aura invoked a second bout of silence in the bandits, one even longer than the first. Eyes widened to their limits and incomprehensible muttering left the bandits’ mouths as they struggled to process the reality before them.

“A-Ascendant…”

“He really is Dimi…tri no way no way no way…”

“This can’t be happening…”

“Wait wait wait, this can’t be…”

‘No no no no no…’

Just like his fellow bandits, Brian’s mental faculties instantly broke down in the face of the revelation. Even if the other wasn’t Dimitri, they had just antagonised an Ascendant at worse and Combat Telepath at best. Either way, they were screwed. Understanding this at once, he entered fight or flight mode. Ignoring the pleading looks his fellow bandits were shooting his way, he turned tail and bolted away at his fastest speed

152 metres away from Dimitri…

303 metres…

458 metres...

He had heard the stories of Dimitri’s numerous demonic endovenous: the tortures, the human experiments, the death games…

‘No! I have to get awa-’

Gate of Providence! Gate of Providence! Gate of Providence!...

Without moving from his spot, Dimitri summoned seven spatial gates near the fleeing bandit leader. Leaping out of these circles were seven nearly identical silvery wolven monsters.

These were Dimitri’s strongest specially trained tamed monsters. All were Rank 9 Ki masters, each one comparable to a Named monster - no, much stronger in fact.

Dimitri didn’t let them move uninhibited. After arriving in the outside world, his golden tethers connected to their minds, instantly bringing them under his strict control again. Sending a mental signal, the monsters responded accordingly. Working as one, the monsters’ ocean of green drowned out the Telekinetic, killing his momentum in an instant and locking him in place.

‘Ah fuck fuck…no no no…’

The bandit leader attempted Psi Disruption but the aura difference was far too great. He was helpless to stop what happened next. At Dimitri’s order, the monsters returned Brian to his original place on the rock tower. The other bandits went pale at the sight of the powerful monsters. All thoughts of escape vanished from their heads as they began accepting their current fates.

“So foolish,” Dimitri said, seeing their despair-ridden faces. “There were a thousand ways to go about this and a thousand warning signs present, and yet, you chose to go down this route. Don’t avert your gazes, this is all your doing, the result of your choices, the result of your foolishness.” He shook his head before making his way back to his bike.

“You should have started on a good foot, as any endeavour should. Put on your best smiles and pretended to care about my well-being, then offer to transport me to wherever while assessing whether I was a psionic or not. Asking is one way, but some Psi hijinks would have been more than enough. Without knowing that, you should have never tried anything. And yet, you did…and now we’re here…now, you’re here, having thoughts of your end swirl through your head, cursing at yourself and your companions…especially your companions, for getting you into this situation.” Dimitri shook his head again, now fully on his bike. “So…foolish.”

His words struck the souls of the bandits. Stomaching this truth, their faces twisted up and their jaws and fists became clenched up.

Dimitri let the silence extend for a few more seconds before giving the throttle a superficial twist.

“No need to fret though. While there’s no medicine for regret, foolishness can be cured. Time is the best method but you lot will have to settle for the second-best method…and that brings us back to my earlier question. So, which will it be? Do you wish to die now or later? Make your choice?”

“Later.”

After a moment’s pause, the bandits collectively went with ‘later’. Dimitri accepted their decision with a nod. “Very well, retract your Psi then.” The group did just that and Dimitri summoned large spatial cubes.

The outlines glowed with a golden hue and appeared as though they were made of thin glass tubes. Dimitri instructed the bandits to enter the spatial shapes’ confines. They did so without question and with a thought, he had them all enter Divine Treasury. They were trash, no doubt, but luckily for them, the saying ‘one man’s trash was another man’s treasure’ held true in this case. Dimitri wouldn’t turn away pawns, foolish or otherwise.

After doing away with the bandits, Dimitri had the monsters return to Divine Treasury as well, before continuing with his original intention. Habits getting the best of him, Dimitri decided to skip the previously identified rock formations. It would take another thirty minutes before he finally settled on a place.

‘This will do.’

He stood before a rocky hillside, all alone. He had confirmed this fact using several methods. He moved to it and then summoned his cubes again. They overlaid onto reality, and with a thought, they began bitting into the hill, to create a perfectly neat tunnel. Dimitri entered said tunnel while maintaining the interior with his telekinesis.

After fifteen metres in, he focused his sights downwards and then proceeded to tunnel into the earth using the same method. While descending, he erected a Psi barrier around his body and had a Gate of Providence provide him with fresh air. After a hundred metres of digging, he ceased descending and used his spatial shapes and telekinesis to carve out a giant cubic cavern. He did so quickly and precisely, positioning pillars at key points, made from the stone he had previously taken in.

Dimitri prioritised practicality over aesthetics; he just needed a place to drop off his goods after all. Once done, he directed his mind into his Conceptual Memory/pocket dimension. With the help of his ever-active Natural network, he ejected dozens of wooden crates, filling up the cavern in seconds.

In these crates, one would find a treasure trove of high-tech weaponry and equipment. Grendo guns, grendo bombs, vantaquake shields and armour, draconian stones, ray guns, cannons, turrets, and enough ammo to fight a small war…

It was a sight that would leave a warmonger drooling and a pacifist trembling with concern.

Dimitri did one last check on all the items, before heading up the way he came. As he did, he filled in the gaps with the dirt and stone taken from before, to the point where, when he reached the outside world and looked back, one wouldn’t be able to tell that anything had taken place here. This was, of course, exactly what Dimitri wanted. He didn’t want these weapons to be found too early or by accident, and took great pains to make sure it was hidden.

He mentally noted the position - well, his Natural network already had, before getting back on his bike

‘Onto the next one,’ he thought as he rode off.

These sites were but seeds in his grand scheme. He had planted many so far, but there were still many places which required his gardening. It was a lonely and thankless job, but he didn’t mind, especially not in his current vessel. To achieve his goal, he’d do anything and everything. Spreading seeds was merely the first step in his grand plan.

And he would keep on walking.

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