Free Tier - Accidental Champion (Book 9) - Chapter 53 - I’m Sorry, I Must Have Misheard You

Queen Aecia’s knees weakened. She looked as though she would stumble and fall to the ground, but as shocked as she was, she was still A Grade. She straightened and smoothed her expression into something resembling steel, but her pale face reflected her true feelings.

“S Grade?” the queen’s words came out weakly. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t even know if that was possible. I thought, perhaps, that S Grade was merely a myth. Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t be telling you if I wasn’t,” Xavier replied.

Queen Aecia turned and looked at her castle, then her gaze shifted to the horizon. That gaze seemed to take in the entirety of her planet in one go. She shut her eyes. “You must abandon this place. You’ve already done more than I could have possibly imagined for us. Thank you for trying.”

“You’re forgetting about the good news.”

She sighed. “What good news could possibly balance the bad?”

“I wiped out the entirety of the armada. Only one wave remains on the planet.”

The woman’s eyes snapped back open. “You… wiped out the armada? How?” Queen Aecia raised a staying hand. “No, don’t answer yet. First, tell me, do you have a plan for this S Grade? If you were able to take out the armada, maybe…” A hint of hope had entered her voice, but after she’d trailed off her shoulders slumped and her head fell. “But what possible plan could you have?”

Xavier wanted to sound confident. He wanted to reassure Queen Aecia that he would defeat the S Grade True Dragon and that her queendom, her planet, would survive this, but he wasn’t confident of that fact himself. And there was still the problem of all that destructive energy up there. But he supposed, if he didn’t defeat the S Grade True Dragon, that destructive energy wasn’t all that important anyway.

“I have a plan,” Xavier replied after a beat. “But I’ll need your help, and the help of your people, to execute it.”

Queen Aecia narrowed her eyes. “How could my people help? You’ve seen how few A Grades I have. None of us are powerful enough to fight by your side against an S Grade. And truthfully, Xavier, you can’t believe that you’re powerful enough, can you?” She looked him up and down, something dawning in her eyes. “Though… there is something different about you.”

Xavier smiled. “I advanced.”

The look of shock on the woman’s face was rather delightful. “You advanced? So, wait, you’re S Grade too?”

Xavier bit his lip. Turned away. This next bit of information he was sure wouldn’t land well. “No. I didn’t advance to S Grade. You and the others only assumed I was A Grade when I arrived. I wasn’t.”

“Then, I don’t under—” Queen Aecia blinked. She stepped forward, and her bearing turned stern. “Do you mean to say that when you arrived on this planet, you were only B Grade? We put our trust in a B Grade?” She paused. “But the things you were able to do…”

Xavier chuckled darkly.

“You think this funny, Xavier Collins?”

Xavier wiped a tear from his eye. “Well, honestly, a little. More just wondering how you’ll react when I tell you…” He trailed off.

“Tell me what?”

Xavier tilted his head to one side. “That I wasn’t A Grade when I arrived. I wasn’t B Grade either.” He raised a hand. “And before you think I was S Grade and advanced to something beyond that, if that were even possible, that’s not what I’m saying either.”

He took a breath. He’d known that if he’d revealed his grade when he’d first arrived, none of them would have taken him seriously until he’d proved himself. He hadn’t felt like going through the effort. What did these people need to know about his grade or level? Let them judge him from what he was able to do, not the labels the System put upon him.

Queen Aecia crossed her arms at her chest, and the stern expression on her face grew only more so. She impatiently waited for whatever it was he was going to reveal.

“When I arrived, I was C Grade.”

The A Grade blinked. She didn’t look shocked. She didn’t even look surprised. Merely… baffled. “What? I’m sorry, I must have misheard you, because you can’t seriously be saying you were C Grade?” She frowned. “I don’t understand what kind of joke you are trying to play on me here, Xavier. Perhaps people where you come from have a very different sense of humour to what I’m used to. Are you trying to somehow break the tension I’m feeling? Because I have to tell you, this isn’t helping.”

Xavier sighed. “I’m not joking.” He sent a confirmation through the System, one that allowed him to share his grade but not the rest of his stats. “That convincing enough for you?”

Queen Aecia’s eyes glazed over as she stared at the notification he’d sent her. “That… that can’t be. B Grade? Level 410? You can’t really have been…”

She did collapse, then.

Well, not fully. An armchair materialised behind her, drawn from her Storage Ring, and she fell straight into it. Her mouth gaped open, and she stared off into nothingness for a long while—it was clear she wasn’t looking at the notification anymore.

Finaly, her gaze turned back to him. “You were C Grade.”

Xavier nodded.

“And now you’re B Grade.”

Xavier nodded.

“And you want to face an S Grade?”

“I’m not sure if want really comes into the equation. It’s the only way to save your people, and unless I find out it’s truly impossible, I’m going to act as though it as.”

“That’s insane. You’re insane. You can’t possibly think you can face that thing?”

“You’ve seen me fight.”

“Yes, but—”

“That was when I was C Grade. Just think about that for a moment.”

Queen Aecia dipped her head and went silent. Eventually, she raised her head again and stared into his eyes. “This plan of yours, what is it? What do you need me to do?”

Xavier summoned an armchair of his own and sat back down into it.

Then he explained to the woman what his plan was. She nodded along, waiting until he’d gotten out all his thoughts to ask questions. He was surprised she didn’t interrupt. There were many concepts that he threw out at her that she would never have heard of before. To her ears, he must have sounded more than a little unhinged.

And yet, she listened, and when he was done, she simply nodded. “Okay.”

~

Years passed within the time dilation field as Xavier’s plan was executed—a time dilation field that had spread to every other citizen of the planet of Galadsea.

Tentatively, and with more caution than he’d ever exhibited in the past, Xavier had checked on the status of the S Grade True Dragon, always using his natural vision. To his great relief, even after so much time had passed inside the field, the dragon hadn’t moved all that far.

But it had moved.

It had gone as far as ripping apart all the other members of its wave. Every single ally—whether it was one of the other Champions that had come down with the wave, or the soldiers from the Empire of Servitude—the dragonkin had teleported down with had been torn to shreds or burned to ash.

Thus confirming that the S Grade True Dragon was faster than any other being Xavier had encountered.

Seeing the beast of a thing never failed to make him shudder. But that wasn’t the only thing Xavier felt whenever he saw it.

He felt a strong resolve to defeat it.

The longer he stayed on that planet, working on the various steps of his plan, the stronger that feeling became. He got to know the inhabitants better and better. The world felt more and more real, along with all the people who lived there, not just the queen and her entourage.

The Denizens on the planet of Galadsea were being transformed in the same way that the people of Earth and every other planet under Xavier’s rule back in his universe had been.

The Denizens were gifted Reality Cores. They were trained in the art of creating spell patterns. They were taught how to use time dilation fields.

And the two Defender spells—Territory Defence and Unity Defence—were taught to them as well.

Most importantly, they were taught to Queen Aecia.

The thought of taking over this planet in order to use Territory Defence and Unity Defence himself had come to mind more than once, but it simply didn’t feel right to him. Yes, Xavier intended rule over his own universe, but his intention had never stretched as far as ruling over other universes.

Though he couldn’t help but contemplate the possibility at times, even if he were to do that, he wouldn’t take over this planet from Queen Aecia, even if he could return to this exact place, during this exact timeline, through the use of his universe-hopping portal.

All the while as the people were trained up, Xavier would check on the S Grade True Dragon and its progress, always doing so while concealed, always using nothing more than his natural vision to lay eyes on it.

Even if he wasn’t worried about what it might do if it realised he was in a time dilation field, he didn’t want to use his Immortal Soul lens on it to see how powerful it was. The memory of sensing its power was still strong in his mind, no matter how much time had passed for him since he’d done that.

He didn’t need a refresher.

“You’re really going to face that thing, aren’t you,” Roln said, and it clearly wasn’t a question.

Yes, Xavier replied in his mind. But I won’t be doing it alone.

~

Xavier stood on the palace balcony. Queen Aecia was ahead of him. None of the other members of her entourage were here. It was only the two of them. He stood, deferentially, behind her, but the people of this planet knew who he was, and they knew he was the more powerful of the two.

He’d needed to reveal the depths of his power to them to gain their trust for this plan to have a chance of working.

Though the entirety of her planet could obviously not fit in the courtyard beneath her palace, Queen Aecia was able to address everyone in Galadsea from where she stood. Her words would be broadcast to every single one of them through the observation crystal that was focused on her.

Queen Aecia raised her chin. “Our world has faced its greatest threat. The arrival of the Empire of Servitude’s armada. And while the armada itself has been defeated, the most powerful remnant of that fleet remains.” She paused. “Every single one of you has trained for this moment. Every single one of you knows what’s at stake if we fail. Galadsea will fall. Will you stand by and let that happen?”

“NO!”

The word came from every voice on the planet. Every man, woman, and child. Xavier had never heard a sound so loud, and he feared for the eardrums of those who had not yet reached System age.

“You all know the plan. You all know what to do.” Queen Aecia turned to Xavier. “Have you any words for my people, Xavier Collins?”

Xavier walked up to the edge of the balcony, looking down at all the faces, looking out at the observation crystal broadcasting this moment. He’d never been much for speeches. He’d gotten most of what he’d gotten through sheer power alone. “Each of you is strong in your own right. Together, we are stronger still.” He sighed. “But the time for talk is over. Now, it is time to act.”

He extended his wings, snapping them out in a flourish, then rose in the air above the crowd.

He didn’t say another word. Instead, he teleported to the other side of the world, several dozen miles away from where the S Grade True Dragon had taken to the air. Even this far away, he could see its massive form in the air as it had taken flight, its shadow blanketing the buildings beneath it, its eyes ablaze with fire, its gaze searching and searching.

Searching for him.

Xavier released a long breath. It was time to let the beast find him. It was time to face the S Grade True Dragon.

But he wasn’t going to do it alone.

Xavier activated a portal—a portal similar to the one he’d used before when facing the World Destroyer and its Soul Amalgamation.

He had the entire planet of Galadsea at his back, and all the power they now wielded.

He just hoped it would be enough.