Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 9) - Chapter 49 - Are You Afraid of Me Now?

Roln? Roln, are you there?

Xavier still sat in the same place, in the middle of a room inside one of the Empire of Solitude’s spaceships. His drones surrounded him, controlling the time dilation field he was inside. The one he’d had them set up for his advancement—an advancement he hadn’t even tested out or acclimatised to yet.

The mental construct remained somewhere deep in his mind. Xavier could feel him. But he wasn’t appearing.

Roln! Why won’t you talk to me? Xavier called out inside his mind.

He was breathing heavily. When he’d ceased communicating to the Ancestral Soul version of him and come out of that deep meditative state, the revelation had weighed heavier and heavier on him, pushing down on his chest like a physical pressure. Like a large moon, or even an entire planet, was sitting on top of him.

ROLN!

The dead Wanderer appeared, snapping into being a few feet away. It looked like Xavier’s mind shout had done the job.

The mental construct looked afraid. Seeing the fear on his face made Xavier steady his breath and calm his rapid heartbeat.

You’re here. Thank you.

He spoke the words within his mind. He didn’t want the System listening in to his side of the conversation—it couldn’t listen to Roln’s side.

Xavier stared hard at Roln, but his voice was calm as he asked: Did you know?

Roln shook his head, but it was clear he was holding something back.

You… suspected, didn’t you?

“There have been whispers, for… a great many years.” Roln shut his eyes. “I always thought they were nothing more than rumours. Sheer, unfounded speculation. You have to know that the name Xavier Collins is well known among Wanderers. A great many Wanderers are Xavier Collins. Versions of you often become the Weapon of the System, in some form or another, in many different universes. It was a hard pill to swallow, thinking that someone like you could actually be the Interdimensional Dragon.” The mental construct sighed. “I’d always thought someone had spread the rumour because they hated you.”

That would mean they would have hated every version of me.

“There are plenty out there who hold a great deal of hate in their heart, Xavier Collins, and if you think about what even you have done—someone who fights for good—you leave many in your wake who might wish to seek revenge. A lesson worth remembering.”

But it’s not a rumour.

Roln sat down on an armchair that materialised out of thin air as he lowered himself down. “I’m as surprised as you are, Xavier.” His forehead creased. “And despite how long I’ve been around, I’ve never heard of this Ancestral Soul being you communed with.” He shook his head. “That is something far beyond my knowledge. I didn’t realise there were still secrets like that out there that I didn’t know… I have to say, it puts a lot of things into perspective. All those insights, all those clever tricks, those ways you’ve gotten out of danger… They were you, but at the same time…”

Maybe they came from my Ancestral Soul.

Xavier had been contemplating that a great deal. In a way, it made him feel as though his accomplishments were somehow… lessened. But he knew that was a foolish way to think about it. The Ancestral Soul could only influence or nudge. He was the one making the decisions. He was the one pulling all of this off.

Not only that, if Xavier’s understanding was correct, everyone would have an Ancestral Soul, including every single other version of him. Yet they hadn’t been able to accomplish what he’d accomplished. He’d met other versions of himself. Weaker versions, like the one on the eightieth floor of the Tower of Champions who couldn’t stop the World Destroyer, or the one who’d died and become a Void Being.

They would have had the same Ancestral Soul. The same opportunity to commune with it. And yet, they hadn’t.

Then there was every other being in the entire universe.

They would all have an Ancestral Soul out there trying to influence them. Trying to nudge them into surviving and becoming more powerful or achieving whatever goal it was that they wished to achieve.

So, in the grand scheme, Xavier could take the credit. Influenced or not, it had been him who’d accomplished all of this. His rise to power was faster than any Xavier—or perhaps even any other being—who’d come before.

And while his Ancestral Soul may have guided him, it was him who’d taken that guidance and used it.

Xavier snapped himself out of his thoughts.

Are you afraid of me now? he asked the mental construct.

Roln stared at Xavier for a long moment. The longer he stared, the more he appeared to relax, until he finally shook his head. “I can see every part of your mind. I won’t deny there are parts of you that frighten me, but I don’t fear you, Xavier. I know your intentions.”

Good. Xavier nodded. Good.

“But others might not think as I do.”

I know. I don’t intend to tell anyone else. He gazed up at the ceiling. And I don’t want the System to find out.

“Yes,” Roln replied. “That is wise. I would hate to think what the System would do if it found out. The experiments it might run—”

Xavier raised a hand. I’m not sure I want to hear about that.

Roln gave a small smirk. The smirk fell away as swiftly as it had come. He sat there, waited. He more than anyone knew that Xavier needed a bit of silence in that moment.

The silence stretched. Xavier stared down at the metal floor, though he wasn’t really looking at it. His mind was elsewhere, experiencing memories of the Interdimensional Dragon. Roln’s memories, the ones Xavier had visited when he’d walked that bloody hallway.

Eventually, his head rose. This doesn’t change anything. My goal is the same as it always has been. Kill the Interdimensional Dragon. Save the universe—every universe. And take down the System while I’m at it.

“What about the S Grade True Dragon?” Roln asked. “You shouldn’t face that beast, Xavier. You’re not ready.”

Oh, I know I’m not ready. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be. Soon.

Roln would have known exactly what Xavier’s response would be, yet he still managed to muster up a frown at Xavier’s words.

That was alright. Xavier didn’t need the mental construct to believe in everything he tried to do.

Xavier climbed to his feet, only a little unsteady this time. Before he took down the next ship in the Empire of Servitude’s armada, he needed to train. And he needed to train hard.

He had a new advancement to adjust to.

~

Training was always best when one had someone to train with, but unfortunately there was no one on this rock that came even close to equalling his power other than the S Grade True Dragon. Even the queen and her A Grade entourage wouldn’t be able to keep up with him in a sparring session—him against every single one of them—so it didn’t seem worth bringing them along.

It was times like these he missed being able to train with Xavier Prime. Though as he thought about that other version of himself, he had to wonder if the man had advanced yet.

Perhaps it was a little arrogant to think it, but he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the two of them were no longer equals. He supposed it was bound to happen that one of them would, at some point, outpace the other.

Xavier had been the one to first harness the Immortal Soul lens. He wouldn’t be too surprised to find out he was also the first of them to advance to B Grade. And his Ancestral Soul had told him he was the first version of Xavier he’d ever communed with so deeply, so surely Xavier Prime hadn’t made contact with that presence. Not yet, at least.

I’m going to have to create more versions of me soon enough. Versions who have experienced these things exactly as I have, if Xavier Prime is already falling behind…

Not that he knew that for a fact. Though he supposed his Ancestral Soul would most definitely know. It seemed too petty a question to ask the Ancestral Soul, however. Besides, it had stopped responding to him.

It wanted him to move back into the world instead of continuing to contemplate his navel.

And so that was exactly what Xavier was doing.

He trained alone, though he’d moved from that room on the ship to the rocky, barren moon where he’d first appeared on this planet.

The ship was simply too small and vulnerable a place for him to train. The barren moon, on the other hand, was the perfect place to test his new abilities. There wasn’t a soul in sight, innocent or otherwise, who might interfere with his training.

Just him and his drones.

The first thing Xavier did was get a handle on the way his body moved. Unenhanced, without a single spell or even any energy cycling through his body, he trained with every single different weapon he’d mastered, moving through fighting patterns he’d learnt and thought he’d mastered over the years.

As always when he’d gained this much power in one go, he found it difficult to slow down his movements, and difficult to hold back his strength.

And god, was he so much faster and stronger than he ever had been before.

He didn’t know how much time passed as he trained, though it felt as though many months went by as he moved through one pattern to another. Years could have passed and he would have been none the wiser. He wondered what this kind of training must have felt like for other Denizens out there when they advanced. Very few of them would be able to, or even willing to, utilise a time dilation field. They would have to train for years of universe time before they got a true handle on how powerful they’d become.

Xavier could do all of that inside his time dilation field, barely a moment passing outside it.

Though the longer he was inside, the more he wondered what that S Grade True Dragon was up to. It moved faster than any other being he’d ever encountered. If a year of training passed, what would that mean for the dragon?

He shrugged that thought away. He could have used his Immortal Soul lens and The All-Seeing Eye to observe the dragon, but that seemed like a bad idea. He’d already had the problem of observing an enemy allowing that enemy to feel him observing. Any plan that tipped the S Grade True Dragon off was a bad plan in his opinion.

Even so, not knowing what the S Grade True Dragon was up to was a very unsettling feeling for him.

Still, he didn’t let it get in the way of his training. As he trained with different weapons, he strengthened his ability to create bone weapons. As he’d suspected, his bone swords were far more powerful than they’d been before. So powerful that even he wasn’t strong enough to break them without reinforcing his strength with a spell.

Even then, if one of the swords got destroyed he could just… create another.

Training the use of his spells was easier than training the use of his body. His mind was an even more powerful machine, but it didn’t take as long to adjust to. Perhaps because he’d been adjusting to the power of his mind the entire time he’d been training the more physical aspects of his new level of power.

There were other things Xavier did in this time. He summoned many, many drones—drones that were far more powerful than the ones he’d been using before his advancement, as he could now summon C Grade drones who shared all his unique abilities—and used them to farm Refined Celestial Energy.

Whenever he gained a new level, he was able to use more Refined Celestial Energy to reinforce every aspect of his body, mind, and Living Soul. He’d been hoping the same would be true when he advanced to a new grade.

And he’d been right.