Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 10) - Chapter 11 - What Happens if I Refuse?

“Jhanku is dead?”

The smell of ale was thick in the air. The floor was sticky and covered in straw. A candle burned on the circular hardwood table between Xavier and the man who’d spoken. No sound came from the other patrons, even though the establishment—a tavern about two dozen galaxies away from outskirts of his empire—was enjoying its busiest time of day, packed to the gunnels.

Everyone else was frozen except him and the big man with the big frown.

“Xavier, I hate to say this, but that’s impossible. I just saw you off… how could Jhanku be dead?” His eyes narrowed. “And how did you find me, anyway?”

The A Grade kept glancing at the door, and that wasn’t the only tell. His spiritual sense was pushing as far outward as it could go—which was much farther than the tavern the planet was on. Whatever he was looking for, he wouldn’t find it.

“Don’t worry, no one else could find you the way I did.” No one in this universe, anyway.

The Xaviers had used their combined powers to tap into the connection the Communication Stone had with the one Striker held in his Storage Ring. Xavier could have simply contacted him through the link, but to hear the man’s response would have taken a long time from within his time dilated empire.

It had been easy to track him down once he’d put his mind to it. Or rather, once he’d put his minds to it. When the Xaviers had dealt with all the other Jhanku’s in all two thousand of their universes, they’d decided it was time to track down the Denizens they’d freed from Arrack’s underground base. Starting with Striker.

The Communication Stones had a thin line of energy connecting them. The thin line of energy wasn’t in normal space but a different phase of reality. It was designed to be impossible to track. It hadn’t been.

Striker didn’t relax at his reassurance. Xavier felt energy moving within the man, as though he were readying himself for some sort of ambush.

“Jhanku’s dead because I killed him.”

Striker’s entire attention, which had been pulled several different ways, returned to Xavier. “What? That…” He stood, his chair scraping along the floorboards before it fell behind him. It froze midway to the ground, hitting the edge of the time dilation field. “Why are you lying? What’s going on?”

Xavier withheld a sigh. He understood the man’s doubts. From his perspective, Striker and the others had been freed from the base mere minutes ago. They’d scattered all around the area, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. Each and every one of them afraid that Jhanku would find them. He’d offered them all a place in his empire, and only the two brothers, Dybal and Lydad, had accepted his offer.

A ball of light appeared in Xavier’s hand. He hovered the System-confirmed memory above the table toward Striker. Striker stared at it, as though it was some sort of trap. He looked squirrely, like at any moment he was about to bolt. But there was nowhere for him to bolt to. He was stuck inside a time dilation field, and he’d seen how powerful Xavier was.

“No one’s pulling my strings, Striker.”

“Forgive me for being wary, considering my former enforced line of work.”

Xavier tilted his chin downward, eyes boring into the man. “I will never allow anyone to control me. Now sit, review the memory. And if this is a trap, you don’t really have much of a choice.”

The big man sighed before a little smirk graced his lips. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right about that.” He glanced back at the chair frozen halfway to falling, shook his head, then grabbed it and sat back down. The wood creaked beneath him as he shifted. He stared at Xavier, and in his eyes Xavier saw the man wanted to believe him. If he was truly afraid this was a trap there would have been more fear in him. The fear that he did seem to feel could have been about this all being too good to be true.

Striker touched the System-confirmed memory ball. His eyes turned upward, showing the whites, before they fluttered closed.

A moment later they snapped back open. “You’re telling the truth.”

“Yes.”

“Jhanku is… he’s dead.”

“Yes.”

“And you killed him.”

“Yes.”

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

Xavier smiled. He leant back in his chair. “You didn’t join my empire because you were worried about Jhanku. Now that he’s dealt with, I want to extend the offer a second time.”

Striker stared at the memory ball hovering in front of him. His face paled. The fear in him was actually higher now than it had been before. Some realisation seemed to dawn on him. “You killed Jhanku…”

“We already established that.” Xavier waited a beat. “You don’t need to fear me.”

Striker stared at him. “Are you quite sure about that?”

An image of the Interdimensional Dragon flashed through Xavier’s mind, along with the fact that it had come from him, that it was him. “Yes.”

Striker’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the pause, and that little glance up to the top left that lasted less than a fraction of a second.”

“You have no reason to fear me, Striker.”

“Assuming I join your empire, you mean? What happens if I refuse?”

Xavier considered that. “Why would you refuse?”

“What if I don’t want to be told what to do?”

“Then you can live freely.” Xavier folded his hands in front of him. “Only those who wish to fight, who wish to help have to. That is how I run my empire. There are some few people on every planet under my rule who have decided to live their lives the way they see fit. As long as their lives don’t cause harm to others.” He shrugged. “Then I do not give them a second thought. That’s the kind of universe I want to live in, Striker. That’s the kind of universe I’m trying to create.”

“You still haven’t said what would happen if I refused.”

Xavier blinked. “I still don’t understand why you would.”

Striker stared down at his hands, though really it seemed he was just avoiding eye contact. “You’re making it sound like the best choice, when it really doesn’t sound like it’s a choice at all. Do you realise that? That is exactly how all conquerors think.”

“My rule will pave the way to a better, fairer universe for everyone. And that isn’t the only reason I’m doing it. The universe is at stake, Striker.”

“I told you, when you freed me, that I owed you a debt. At the same time, I told you that debt wasn’t one of fealty. You respected my wishes then. Has that changed?”

Xavier was… stumped. He was now the ruler of ten sectors. Ten entire galaxies. When he took over a planet, it wasn’t much of a choice for the people of that planet, but there were ways to smooth that transition… ways to convince them…

Some of those ways involved intimidation, even if that didn’t mean actually harming anyone. The populace was shown that there was nothing they could do to stop him from ruling them. It was better than any other conqueror in the universe would give them. That was something clear to them as well. These people had lived on worlds that had been in the System for thousands of years. They knew what the score was, and they knew Xavier’s offer was a fair one.

But Striker was right… it never really was much of a choice, and he didn’t want it to be. He needed to unite everyone.

So what would happen if Striker continued to refuse him? Xavier thought Jhanku being alive was the only thing stopping the man from coming over to his empire, but now that little had been cleared…

He didn’t actually want to hurt the man. He didn’t want to threaten him, either.

“You don’t have to join me,” Xavier said. “But one day, and to say that that day is coming fast is an understatement, my rule will extend to the sector we’re in right now, and the one after that, then the next. I mean to rule the entire universe, Striker. You can keep walking away, but eventually…”

“Eventually you’ll reach me wherever I am.”

Xavier inclined his head. “I won’t harm you, Striker. Not unless you do something to harm me or the people under my rule.”

Striker looked at his hands again. They were clasped together, fingers interlocked. Tense. “I need a drink.”

Xavier nodded. He extended the time dilation field to encompass the entire tavern. He doubted anyone here would notice the time distortion, not unless they were staring at their cooldowns or trying to walk out of the place. They wouldn’t be powerful enough to sense it.

All at once, the clatter of the place filled his ears. Laughter and chatter. Drinks clinking and being gulped down. The scuff of the servers’ boots as they made their way from one table to the next.

Striker hailed a man bussing a nearby table. Less than a minute later two large mugs of sour-smelling ale were placed onto the table.

Xavier’s nose crinkled. “I’m not really much for ale.”

Striker reached over and pulled the mug that was in front of Xavier toward him, sliding it along the wood. “Who said either are for you?” He polished off the first mug in one long drink.

Xavier contracted the time dilation field back down to the two of them.

Striker grasped the second mug, took a sip, then held it between his hands as though it brought him comfort. “You’re serious about this. About uniting… everyone. You told me that already, but…”

“But it sounds like nothing more than a dream?”

“Yes. At least, it did.” He nodded at the memory ball that still hovered over the table. “Then you showed me that. I knew more time would be passing for you than me with those fields of yours, but this… Tell me, how in all hells did you do it?”

Xavier smiled. “Well, that kind of information isn’t something I’d offer up to someone outside my empire. And… there are some things I haven’t even revealed even to those closest to me. But if you join me—”

“You’ll tell me some of it.”

“No, Striker. Not just tell. Teach.”

Striker blinked. “You’re really just handing out your secrets to anyone who joins you? That’s a recipe for disaster, Xavier, if I ever heard one.”

“It’s a recipe for unity. On a scale like never before.”

He hadn’t even mentioned the multiversal portals that were in place in his empire, and the empires of the other nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine versions of him. He didn’t want to give the man too many things to wrap his head around.

“Now, I’m going to ask one more time, and if you say no I’ll walk out of this place and leave you in peace until the next time we happen to meet. Jhanku is dead. There’s nothing left for you to run from. Would you like to join my empire?”

Striker released a long sigh, but Xavier knew what his answer would be. If he were honest, he’d known since the moment he’d seen the man. All these questions, they seemed to be nothing more than trying to get the measure of him.

“I’ll join you. As long as you guarantee that no one inside your empire will ever suffer from what I or anyone else on that damned base suffered from. I won’t be party to something like that. Not again. Do you understand?”

Xavier nodded.

“Good. Then we have a deal.” Striker extended his hand.

Xavier reached over the table and took it. Then he stood. “It’s time we get out of here and found the others. If you and they all agree, you’ll all be a part of the same team again, but this time of your own free will. I want to train you up, in an advanced time dilation field—one that moves faster even than those around my empire. Much faster. There’s a job I want you to do.”

Striker raised an eyebrow. “What job?”

Xavier laid a hand on his shoulder. “All in good time. Now, let’s get out of here.”

He waved a hand and a portal appeared in front of him.

Xavier stepped through first, knowing Striker was guaranteed to follow.