Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 10) - Chapter 17 - Nothing but the Darkness of the Void

Xavier and Adranial stood inside the mental space he’d constructed to keep their conversation from reaching the System’s ears.

Adranial took the news well. She didn’t even seem as shocked as Xavier thought she would be.

“I knew you were keeping something from me. You intend to become the most powerful being in the multiverse. I trust you with everything I have, Xavier, but it’s hard to imagine you not having a secret or two. And there have always been things that you knew, that you shouldn’t be able to know.”

“Are you hurt I didn’t tell you earlier?”

Adranial smiled. “Only superficially. You have your reasons, and I don’t begrudge you them. I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same.” Her smile turned into a smirk. “Considering how we met, I’m hardly one to judge your choices.”

“You’ve come a long way since then.”

“As have you.”

There was more Xavier wanted to do before he left, but with Derrida still standing right there in his tower library… well, they weren’t things he wished to do in her presence. There was also more he wished to tell her. Because she was right, he did have secrets, and Roln wasn’t the only one he’d been keeping from her. He hadn’t yet told her he intended to take down the System.

And he hadn’t told her what the Interdimensional Dragon truly was. That was a secret he wanted to share with those closest to him but didn’t know if he ever would.

But if Derrida knows it and still trusts me enough to think I’ll be the one to defeat the dragon, then maybe those closest to me will still trust me after they learn of it as well…

That wasn’t a theory he was about to test. Not any time soon.

He didn’t want any seeds of doubts in their minds regarding the reason he wanted to become all-powerful.

Xavier tucked a strand of hair behind Adranial’s ear then rested his hand on her cheek. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Adranial wrapped her arms around him. “You better be.”

He released them from the mental space, and found himself standing with their foreheads touching, still clasping hands. This was, of course, not the first time they’d parted ways. It seemed their relationship had more gaps in it than anything else—especially for him, considering how much more powerful his own time dilation field was than hers or the ones synced to his empire.

For him, it had been years between their meetings. Now, he wondered just how many years it would be until their next.

It made him wonder if this was the way he wanted to live his life. It made him wonder if, perhaps, Derrida would agree to bring Adranial along. He glanced at Derrida, knowing the elven Wanderer would have read that thought, knowing he wouldn’t need to voice it.

Derrida raised her chin, holding eye contact with him, then slowly shook her head. This is something only you can do, Xavier Collins. The words entered into his mind, the same way a spirit, or his mental construct, spoke to him.

He sighed. It was probably for the best. If the challenges he faced out there in the wider multiverse were so dangerous not even Derrida could guarantee she could save him from them, then was that really an environment he wanted to put the love of his life into?

And this is exactly why I haven’t considered having children yet…

“It’s time to go, Xavier.”

Xavier had been about to release Adranial’s hands when they froze in his grip. His eyes widened as his head snapped back to look at her.

She was frozen in time again. Except, he was still touching her. The way every time dilation field he knew about worked, that shouldn’t have been possible. His touch should have had her join him in the field. And if she were in a Time Prison of sorts, stuck in another universe’s time stream, he wouldn’t have been able to touch her at all.

“What…” He turned on Derrida. “What have you done to her?”

Derrida sighed. “Nothing that will harm her. I simply didn’t want the goodbye to stretch onward. Long goodbyes can be awful dull for spectators, Xavier.”

Xavier pulled his hand away from her frozen grip and touched her cheek one last time. For some reason, this particular goodbye was hitting him harder than the last few. Perhaps because he had no idea what he would be walking into.

Then again, he often didn’t know what he would be walking into.

There was also a hint of guilt in his heart, because he wanted nothing more than to go with Derrida. The woman had been right. He craved a challenge, and a challenge is exactly what he hadn’t gotten. Not for some time. Not since the seven-hundred-and-fiftieth floor.

And, though it sounded insane, she’d been right about his rule over this universe. That it was… inevitable. It was strange to think there was nothing left for him to learn here, and he wasn’t sure that was entirely true. But he supposed advancing to the next stages wouldn’t be hard for him, especially not with the way he could manipulate time.

Time…

His absolute rule over this universe was just that, only a matter of time.

Xavier faced Derrida once more. “All right.” He nodded. “I’m ready to go.”

“Excellent.”

A shimmering portal appeared next to the woman. He hadn’t sensed the energy gather in Derrida, nor had he sensed it gather in the air. His Immortal Soul lens was heavily pointed at the woman—even though it hadn’t worked on her so far—and still he couldn’t feel anything.

He hadn’t known such a level of concealment was possible.

“When one travels through the void, one learns to conceal their powers. Think what showing your power in the void has attracted, then imagine what showing mine would do.”

“Something tells me the Interdimensional Dragon would be very pleased to feast on a Wanderer.” He hadn’t really intended to say that out loud, but she would have heard the thought anyway.

“Indeed. And it’s not only the Interdimensional Dragon I need to worry about.”

Xavier glanced at her. What else need a Wanderer like her worry about? Other Wanderer factions?

He stepped over to the portal, examining it. Except, like the woman, there was nothing for him to examine. Not with his spiritual sense, anyway. All he could see of the portal was what lay before his natural eyesight. Even The All-Seeing Eye spell couldn’t perceive this thing—just as it hadn’t been able to perceive her.

“How did you manage that?” Curious, he tried to make a portal of his own but wasn’t able to. The Portal Lock was still active, though of course it wasn’t active for her.

“I think you’ve asked enough questions,” Derrida replied. “Step through the portal, Xavier.”

The shimmering portal didn’t look quite like any portal he’d ever created or seen. It had some of the same hallmarks of his inter-universal portals, but it didn’t even take on the same shape. It created an archway. A half-oval that stretched up from the ground, rounded at the top. The edges of the portal threw off tiny sparks of blue and gold. There was something strange about those sparks. Something familiar. But with only the naked eye to look at them, he wasn’t sure what. The colours within the portal were a swirl of purples and oranges. They curled inward like a whirlpool, constantly rotating. From that whirlpool he felt a pressure pulling him toward it, as though the portal had some mastery over gravity—perhaps it was dense in the same way a blackhole was dense.

Or maybe the mastery was over his mind.

He took another step toward it; this one almost felt involuntary. He didn’t decide to take it. He just took it. Maybe it was the excitement he was feeling, maybe it was that strange pull. Either way, his desire to make his way through it was incredibly intense.

Xavier could have fought that desire, but he didn’t want to.

He entered the portal.

~

The portal did not simply drop him out on the other side. In this portal, unlike any other he’d been through in the past, he could actually feel his passage. There was a deep part of him that had a vague awareness of rapid movement. This part of him felt the energies he passed, perceived the stars and planets and entire galaxies he hurtled through, until all energy ceased and there was nothing but the darkness of the void.

But even in the endless void there was life. From time to time, he felt that life, even the undead life that was the Void Beings that roamed through the void. There were other beings too, the ones that were still considered alive though they had inhabited the void for time immemorial. The interdimensional beings, ones far more powerful than the World Destroyer he’d faced, though nowhere near on the same level as the Interdimensional Dragon.

He felt other things, too. Little sparks of energy. The spirits of those who’d only just ventured into the void, spirits who might find their way to an afterlife like the Otherworld or the others likes like. And he felt those afterlives. Those havens for the spirits, where they could be called upon by those who still lived. Some of those havens were small, perhaps the size of a town. Others felt bigger, the size of an entire planet. Still others were even larger, the size of multiple galaxies or even universes.

Then, he felt the holes in reality. The little gaps that allowed for the peeking into whole universes. Even in this strange, half-awake state he was in, the energy pulsing out of those gaps was what attracted him the most, for each was a small oasis in this endless desert.

Xavier tried to reach for those gaps, to claw his way through them and back into a universe full of energy, full of life. But the pressure of the portal he was moving through was too hard for him to fight, and it kept dragging him onward, forever onward, for what felt like an eternity.

Then, finally, he was plopped unceremoniously on the other side.

He landed on his back. The floor beneath him felt like solid stone. Hard and cold. Above him was a stone ceiling, oddly low—maybe only nine feet high. Torches flickered along the wall, their light brighter than true fire. The portal he’d fallen through was still open. On this side it looked exactly as it had on the other, except the swirling purple and red rotated the opposite way, and he didn’t full attracted to it but pushed from it.

Derrida, the ancient elven Wanderer who’d sent him to this place, stepped out gracefully. The portal closed behind her. She looked down on him, lying there on the stone, and raised an eyebrow.

Xavier made it to his feet, and it was then that he realised gravity was heavier here. A lot heavier. As he got up, he almost felt as though he was in a normal human body. He’d forgotten what it felt like to feel so… unathletic.

Okay, not just unathletic, but weak. He even swayed slightly on his feet, his wings snaping out to keep him balanced. He found himself feeling a little woozy from going through that portal. Another sensation he hadn’t felt in some time.

It wasn’t pleasant.

Xavier frowned. His Immortal Soul lens had somehow been deactivated. He tapped back into it and spread his spiritual sense outward. Except… he couldn’t sense a thing in this place. Nothing but himself, at least. Derrida, he still couldn’t sense. But it wasn’t only that. He should have been able to sense the energy coming off the flames in those torches on the walls, yet he wasn’t able to. It felt as though he was standing in the void, except here there was air he could breathe.

“What is this place?”