Xavier still sat inside the mental space within his mind, the dead Wanderer across from him. He felt frozen to the armchair, even the heat from the fire wasn’t enough to thaw him.
Not that the fire’s real.
“S Grade…”
The fear he’d felt when he’d first sensed the True Dragon had been entirely justified.
He was still coming to terms with what he’d just learnt. First, he hadn’t even confirmed, until this very moment, that there was an advancement beyond A Grade. It made logical sense that there must be. He’d certainly had his suspicions. He’d gotten to the point where he could mow down A Grades. And while he wasn’t exactly doing it with ease, he was doing it far better than he thought he’d be able to at this stage in his advancement.
And yet he knew, for a fact, that there was a massive gulf between the A Grades he was currently facing and the Denizens that ruled the inner sectors. Denizens like the Old Man and Jhanku. They would be nothing like the A Grades he’d been facing on this floor. He’d thought that was simply because they were at the highest possible level, and that they’d accrued far more titles than these A Grades could even manage to gain, as they had been around for billions of years—especially the Old Man, who had the advantage of gaining the first titles for just about everything.
But as Xavier had learnt as he’d gained more and more power himself, power wasn’t merely in titles. There was far more to it than that. And so he’d thought the Denizens running the inner sectors must simply be True A Grades.
The best of the best.
And perhaps some of them were… but the most powerful among them? They weren’t A Grades at all.
They were S Grades.
And now, there was an S Grade on this very floor, turning all the A Grades around it to ash with nothing more than a breath of flame. Through one of his drones, he’d felt exactly how powerful those flames were—and he’d sensed that power with his Immortal Soul lens—he knew for a fact that if he were to get hit by a stream of that True Dragon’s flames, he wouldn’t be able to survive it.
After a long while, Xavier pushed himself up from his chair. The legs of his mental apparition felt unsteady. He leant a hand against the wall and stared into the flames, watching as they flickered and moved.
He’d finally dealt with the extra waves on this floor, and the Champions who’d chosen to fight for the Empire of Servitude had finally made it down to the planet. They had been his worst fear here, the wildcard he worried would throw off his plans.
Yet even with all of them in the same place, taking on all of them at once, he’d been able to more than hold his own.
He’d had no doubt that the chaos he’d caused among their ranks would have been short-lived. He was sure that one of their number would have ended up taking charge—they were all old and powerful A Grades, after all, there was a reason they’d gotten this far. They would have gotten organised. The tide of the fight would have turned, and there was a good chance he would have been forced to retreat.
Xavier wouldn’t have been able to take down all three-hundred-and-fifty A Grade champions all at once.
But even so, he’d sensed that he could win this, and he’d known that by the end of this floor he would finally reach B Grade. That advancement would give him a boost he sorely needed once he returned to the sectors he ruled.
But now those four dragonkin had turned into a single S Grade True Dragon…
“You need to abandon the floor,” Roln said.
Xavier shut his eyes.
Abandon the floor.
He’d been waiting for Roln to say that.
He’d been thinking along the same lines himself. It would be insane to fight an S Grade. That True Dragon was simply too powerful. Especially when Xavier was suffering from the limitations of not being able to benefit from his time dilation field…
But there was also a traitorous part of him that was filled with excitement, which he supposed should come as no great surprise. Since when would he not be excited at the prospect if fighting something he shouldn’t be able to fight?
Xavier pushed off the wall and looked at Roln.
“No,” Roln said. “No, that’s not a good idea.”
Xavier raised his chin.
“It’s S Grade, Xavier. Do you have any idea how powerful that thing is? You’re not ready to face something like that.”
“But what if I did face it?” Xavier asked. “What if I defeated it?” A smile slipped onto his lips. “Could you imagine the title I’d gain, defeating an S Grade as a C Grade?” Even if he were B Grade, the title would be insane. His smile widened.
He was warming to the idea, even with how absolutely impossible it sounded.
Since when does something I want to do not sound impossible? Isn’t doing impossible things my whole reason for being?
Roln stood. The mental construct looked more tired than he ever had. “Xavier. This is not a good idea.” There was something behind the dead Wanderer’s eyes.
Xavier tilted his head to the side. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
Roln frowned. “Why would I have to be keeping something from you for this to be a bad idea? It’s S Grade, for gods’ sake! I know you have some sort of death wish—”
“I don’t have a death wish, Roln.” Xavier tapped his head. “And you know that better than anyone. So, I’ll ask again. What aren’t you telling me? You know something about this True Dragon that you aren’t saying.”
Roln looked away, and it couldn’t be more obvious that Xavier was onto something. Xavier let the silence stretch. It must have gone on for at least ten minutes before the mental construct let out a sigh. “There’s a legend. A myth. About True Dragons.” Roln motioned to the armchair. They both sat back down again. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this, Xavier. I’m not sure if… if you’re ready to hear it.”
Xavier leant forward in his chair. “Tell me. What legend? What myth?”
“It’s about the origins of…” Roln sighed again. “Of the Interdimensional Dragon.”
Xavier sunk back into his chair, letting Roln’s words sit in the air. His mind took him back to the first time he’d laid eyes on the Interdimensional Dragon. A beast so large it took up more space than a galaxy. The way it was ripping through reality, getting into Roln’s universe…
And that wasn’t the only time Xavier had seen the Interdimensional Dragon.
There had been other times. Xavier had sifted through the mental construct’s memories, walking down that bloody hallway when the dead Wanderer had been damaged, and a great deal of the man’s memories had been of that dragon. He’d observed it, again and again, as it had destroyed yet another universe. Roln had watched, unable to do a damned thing, while Xavier knew he’d been wishing more than anything to stop it.
“You’re saying the Interdimensional Dragon was originally a dragonkin? Or… well, several dragonkin?” Xavier shook his head. “But… how?”
Roln looked away. “It’s nothing more than a legend.”
Xavier lowered his head. “A legend…” There was something about the way the mental construct was saying the word legend that made Xavier suspicious. He was well aware that there wasn’t only one Interdimensional Dragon out there. The beast that devoured universes had popped up more than once over the many universes that existed. There were likely billions, trillions—more—of Interdimensional Dragons out there. They would have come into existence in a great many alternate universes.
Which meant that Wanderers, with their powers to move from one universe to another, one corner of the multiverse to another, and their exceedingly long lives, would have come across the origins of the Interdimensional Dragon in one of those universes. And they wouldn’t have just stumbled upon it, they would have searched for it. They would have looked through countless different universes, trying to find out where that damned thing had come from.
What it originally was.
The other Interdimensional Dragons that were out there were nowhere near as powerful as the original. Following the same route to power, they couldn’t be. They simply didn’t benefit from the same headstart. And if they ever did encounter the original, it would devour them easily enough.
So really, whenever they spoke of the Interdimensional Dragon, they were only ever speaking of that one.
The big one.
Xavier supposed no one out there could be 100 percent sure where the first one had come from. Technically, it wouldn’t be a lie to say it was merely a legend that it came from a True Dragon, even if it had been observed happening in other, younger universes…
Roln, being able to read every single one of Xavier’s thoughts, knew exactly the line in which he was thinking. Xavier didn’t need to ask the question aloud. But he did it anyway. The dead Wanderer looked like he needed a push to get the words out.
“Roln, this isn’t just a legend, is it? You’ve seen it happen, haven’t you? You’ve seen where it comes from?”
Roln shook his head. “No. I haven’t seen where it comes from.”
Xavier narrowed his eyes. “There’s more you aren’t saying.”
Roln’s eyes flashed. “I’ve already told you more than I should have. I’ve already told you enough. True Dragons are the most dangerous beings in the multiverse, and that one out there is an S Grade. Abandon this floor. There are other floors you can gain Mastery Points from. Hell, you could do this floor again—you won’t encounter the same Champions a second time. The people of this world, in this universe, are doomed to be enslaved by the Empire of Servitude, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You have to get comfortable with the fact that you can’t save everyone, Xavier.”
Xavier gritted his teeth.
The mental construct was, in a way, right. There was nothing stopping Xavier from abandoning this floor—something he was sure he could do via the void—and getting to B Grade another way. And with the threat of an S Grade…
What was the point of sticking around?
Why would he want to go out there and face certain death? Just so he could prove that he could?
If the Old Man stood before him and challenged him to a fight, would he simply stand there, nod, and say, “Okay, let’s do this?”
Xavier released a dark chuckle, because there was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to do that. A hunger inside him to face the ultimate challenges. And not just to face those challenges, but to overcome every single one and come out on top.
How else would he become the Weapon of the System?
How else would he become the one who, once and for all, defeated the Interdimensional Dragon and allowed a universe to finally survive its attack?
Yes, Roln was right. Walking away from a fight you couldn’t win was the wisest thing anyone could do.
But how did Roln know Xavier was sure to lose, if he didn’t even try?