Anti-Mage

Chapter 82, Fate's Pawn



Anton watched as the General held up his hand, "You mentioned introductions?"

"I did, but first, let's get what you did out of the way. The blue circle you're looking at on your monitor is a portal into the Astral Plane. For those of you who play Role Playing games, yes, a place just like what you've read about."

"That preposterous…" one of the captains next to the General started to say before he found himself locked into his chair, surrounded by an unseen force as Anton surrounded him with a Force Construct. A moment later, it turned opaque everywhere except over his eyes. Anton also made sure to leave two small holes near his ears with channels that led around the side of his face so that he could hear and breathe.

The Captain started to talk again, but Anton cut him off, "If you continue trying to talk, I'm going to seal you in completely, and you will not be able to breathe."

"Release him now!" The General declared!

"No, this is not a negotiation; this is not an exchange. Honestly, I need nothing from you, and if I were a complete prick, I'd let you keep doing what you're doing and leave. Spoiler: If I do, I expect less than 10% of the population of the Earth to survive. Now, are you going to listen, or do I leave you to your ignorance?" Anton asked.

The General thought about it for a moment and then said, "Captain, if you're not being attacked, just sit there silently."

A muffled, "Yes, Sir," came out of the force construct.

Satisfied that they were listening now, Anton continued, "Now, as I was explaining. There was a pinhole into your universe from the Astral Plane. Not your fault. There were some assholes from where I just came from who were trying to come here. Unfortunately for them, they are not me, and as soon as they appeared in the Astral, they were annihilated. That big sphere that was growing but not really doing anything, yeah, that was those idiots exploding and creating a mess on the Astral Plane."

"You're saying that the giant translucent dome that appeared initially was some explosion or explosions in an adjacent dimension?" a Lieutenant asked.

"And we have our first gamer," Anton said with a smile, "Yes, that's exactly it. General, after I share the information I have, please ensure this lieutenant reviews it. He will probably understand most of what I put together for you. Now, back to the subject at hand. Yes, I was able to stop them, but the pinhole was created, and magic was beginning to leak into this Universe slowly. And before any of you say magic is not real. I have effectively surrounded Mr. 'Preposterous' in a Wall of Force that he can see out of and hear out of, but is otherwise conformed to his body perfectly. It's completely safe. In fact you could shoot at him with any firearm, up to and including a fifty caliber sniper rifle and he wouldn't feel a thing. Please, feel free to touch the magic that does not exist. I'll wait."

"You can see us?"

"General Collins, I can see everything in every room on and under Elmendorf Air Force Base. I am not utilizing Electronics to do that. To speak to you, I am also taking control of your computers, but that's just to make this easy. Now, if you would so kind as to reach out and touch the force barrier to verify that it actually exists."

The General reached out and touched the barrier, as did a few of the other people in the room. While they did that, Anton surrounded the table in a Force Construct from the floor to the ceiling, preventing anyone from entering the area around the conference table. He then set up a separate screen to separate the General from everyone else.

The General looked around and then addressed the room, "Why did you want me to verify that my Captain was in a wall of force?"

Anton teleported into the office beside the General.

Two of the officers at the table stood and launched themselves at Anton, only to slam into the Force Construct he'd created. Anton noted the Lieutenant was not one of them. Anton teleported for two reasons. He wanted to check and see if a destination that he was viewing with Aura Sense counted as a known location, and he wanted to make sure his new teleport power with its extended range worked; both questions were answered n the affirmative.

The General froze for only a moment before he launched into a series of hand-to-hand attacks that were meant to maim and incapacitate him. Anton stood there and waited for the General to realize he wasn't doing a damn thing. The general chopped his neck, tried to grapple and take him to the ground, and even punched him full force in the face, which resulted in a crack sounding in the General's hand.

Through a strained, pain-filled voice, General Collins asked, What are you?"

"I am, or was, a normal human from what you would consider an alternate Universe. Now that I've been shot, cut, chopped on, and finally attacked by you personally, are you ready to listen, or do I just leave your world in the dark? If you don't want my help, I'll wash my hands of this Universe, because make no mistake. This is NOT my Earth, and I know for a fact, since this is the fourth Earth I've come across personally, that there are alternate Earths and that another one will probably pop up eventually. They might not have you or the people of this Earth on them, but each time, the Earth has been pretty much the same."

The General took a breath and visibly calmed himself after attacking Anton. He seemed to be able to ignore the pain from whatever he did to his hand. In a restrained voice, he asked, "You said something about Introductions?"

"I go by Anton. Yes, there is an alternate me on this Planet, I checked," Anton said before he paused thoughtfully, "Or am I the alternate?" Anton thought about it for a moment before he continued, "Doesn't matter. Anyway, there is an alternate me running around on this planet. No, I'm not from the future, so attacking him will do nothing to me, well, besides piss me off if I'm still on the planet, so let's not test that, shall we?"

The General nodded, "Okay, you were saying something about a dimensional breach?"

"Very simply, what you think of as magic is real. In the various dimensions and planes that make up the Multiverse, the energy that allows beings to access magic needs to meet a specific threshold before people can utilize it."

"If that's true," General Collins said, interrupting him, "Why can you utilize magic, and as far as I've seen, no one on Earth can?"

"Until that pinhole, now portal was created, the SYSTEM designated this a Mana Starved Realm, which seems to indicate that this Entire Universe was Mana starved. As I said before, I'm not from this Universe. My reserves are high enough that I can force a connection with a thought and alter reality with the energy I carry."

"And you just expect us to believe that?"

"I neither expect you to believe me, nor will I try to persuade you. I am simply going to give you all some information, and then I'm going to head back to Whitehorse and wait to see how the flood of mana into this world is going to accelerate your integration into the SYSTEM.

"That's the second time you've used the word SYSTEM, "The General said.

"It is, give me a couple of moments to compile a document for you," Anton said as he quickly correlated a document within his Mindspace and then began downloading all the basic information he had concerning how the SYSTEM Integrations he'd participated in went and what the people of Earth could expect. He also added basic information about levels, classes, skills, spells, Ranks, and the disparity between the Ranks as he knew it. When he was done, he had the document he'd created published to every terminal in the building and then emailed it to various news agencies through backdoor email channels from an anonymous source.

When he was done, he turned back to the General, "The file I've left with you will detail what could happen as well as what you can expect. Full disclosure, I have also provided copies of this document to every news station out there and sent it to a few civilian websites that will take it a lot more seriously. I would suggest that you send this up your chain of command and that you read it from front to back. I would also suggest that if you have anyone you care about, you get them close to you. Technology usually doesn't work during a SYSTEM Integration.

"Why should anyone believe you?" General Collins asked.

"Believe me, or don't believe me. The Ambient Mana on this planet was so low that it didn't register when I arrived. It rose to 1% and seemed to stabilize there for a little while before the explosion, which created the pinhole. Now, after you dropped your MOAB, it's up to 25% in the local area, and mana is flooding into this world. I do not know how long it will take, but I do know what that's going to do. Magic will get introduced into this world. Plants and animals will mutate, monsters will manifest, and people will be able to either grow from the experience or die. By the way, when this happened on my Earth, there was a lot of dying."

Anton paused for a moment as he made sure to establish a couple of Electronic Bridges to computers that were off on the side, and then through those access points elsewhere on the base through the network. He wanted to be able to reconnect to this room later without needing to shift Aura Senses' focal point. Maybe he should consider augmenting the skill so he could have two focal points, but then they probably have to be smaller. Then again, if he area he was taking in currently was ten times greater, couldn't he create ten different focal points with a 2,000-foot diameter? That was definitely something to think about.

The General cleared his throat and Anton brought his attention back to the current conversation and he continued, "I expect a lot of death and mutation. As for your question, I don't care if you believe me. There is a group of alien assholes that have caused this problem for me and now you. I couldn't completely stop it, which has left us in the predicament."

"If you're so powerful and untouchable, why are you talking to us at all?" The General asked.

"Because I'm not a Giant Asshole. Make no mistake, I can be an asshole, but I'm not a giant asshole. Without this information, a lot of people would die. I have found that doing the right thing goes a lot better for you in the end. When you're integrated into the SYSTEM, you'll see this attribute on your Status Screen, kind of like a character sheet called Karmic Luck. When you help others, that attribute tends to go up. What you do not want is for that attribute to go negative. Simply, helping you helps me," Anton said.

"So, not a completely selfless action," General Collins said.

"No, Sir, not completely selfless. Now, back to the subject at hand. I am giving this information to help you prepare. Just understand that when the ambient mana hits 75% the SYSTEM Integration threshold will be reached, and then pop-up windows will appear in your vision. When that happens, the shit will truly hit the fan."

"And if we don't want your help and decide to come after you."

Anton laughed, "No offense, General, because I know how crazy things are going to get for the people of this world. If you want to waste your time looking for me, feel free. Nothing you have can hurt me, and I include your nuclear arsenal in that statement."

The General appeared as though he was about to respond, but Anton cut him off, "Now, General, I'm going to get back to what I need to do; you have a document to read and people to call. Before I go, I would suggest looking at the fictional titles I've provided in the various documents I've created and left on your computer. They're on your Desktop, in a folder titled 'Magic is Real' that I created. "

"Fictional Titles?" The General asked.

"Yeah, it seems that this world also has a LitRPG genre. I suggest looking at a few of those series, if you get the time. Or, find someone who has read them and ask them some questions. While what is going to happen probably won't be anything like what some of your authors have created in some of the fiction that's been created about apocalypses and SYSTEMS and the like, if you look into the LitRPG genre, quite a few ideas are floating around. Read what I've provided and then check out some of those series. You will be surprised by how uncanny the resemblance is between what the authors created and the reality you will soon be living. With that, Good Luck!"

Anton dispelled the Force Constructs and Teleported back to the cave under Ibex Mountain simultaneously.

SYSTEM Link Established

Local Area Ambient Mana: 37%

Realm Ambient Mana: 2%

SYSTEM Integration Threshold: 75%

Anton looked at the Notifications and sighed. It looked like they were going to reach Integration a lot quicker than even he suspected. Unless he could slow it down a bit to give them some time to prepare, maybe he could create something to surround the portal and prevent Mana from flooding into the Material Plane?

Anton teleported to the neon blue portal and stood in front of it. He created a dome hemisphere Force Construct around the portal with a 500-foot radius. He placed it at ground level, surrounding the portal. It was a Mythic-Ranked Force Construct; nothing should be able to get through it. He created it just in case the military decided he made a nice target, or if they planned to bomb the portal again.

Next, he walked over to the Portal and extended the void out of his body to surround it. He made sure not to let the sphere of void energy he was controlling touch the force construct he'd created to protect the area. His idea was to block off the input of the energy from the Astral Plane by allowing it to be absorbed by his Void Core.

It would be a little while before he'd be able to tell if it was working, so he sat down, closed his eyes, and began working on upgrading some of the mana-based spells he'd picked up. He started with Wizard Hands. He made sure only to invest mana that was regenerating naturally and concentrated. Pretty soon, he was lost in the process, and the outer world fell away. Two hours later, he finished just before he felt another MOAB drop into his Aura Sense's Area of Effect. He could have destroyed it with Void energy, but decided to let it hit the Force Construct to make a point.

***

The MOAB exploded 494 feet above the six-foot detonation point. They were usually set to detonate when it slammed into the dome of force that Anton had created. The explosion rang out, destroying everything within a mile, except for the dome and everything in it. Once the mushroom cloud rose away and the dust cleared, the military realized their weapon had no effect. Anton signed and went back to work.

***

Inside the Generals' Conference, five men and two women watched the monitor. As the screen cleared, they could clearly see the man sitting next to the sphere of darkness that was now surrounding the area where the neon blue portal had been. As they watched, the man raised his hand and flipped off the camera that was looking at him.

"No change, Sir," A captain said to the general's right.

"I can see that, Captain. Thank you." The General said with a smirk. He thought Anton was boasting, but there he clearly sat. As a smirk crossed his lips one of the speakers under the monitor crackled before Anton's voice rang out, "What about NOTHING you can do, did you not understand? Now stop being stupid and let me get back to work.

***

Anton disconnected from the speaker, though he kept the connection for later use. He quickly looked over the Force Construct to make sure it would still protect the portal. The most powerful non-nuclear weapon man had ever created had only reduced his Force Constructs' hit points by 1,000 hit points. A Common explosive had done enough damage to equal ten times the durability of most common-ranked items and structures. That meant the nukes would likely cause between 1,000 and 10,000 points of damage. Still not enough to break his Force Construct.

Anton quickly checked the last Mana level notifications he'd received.

Local Area Ambient Mana: 38%

Realm Ambient Mana: 2%

The Ambient Mana level had increased by 1% over the last 2 hours outside the void sphere he'd surrounded the barrier with. The Mana was still making its way into this universe. Anton

stepped through his Void barrier and looked at his new mana level notifications.

Local Area Ambient Mana: 100%

Realm Ambient Mana: 2%

Anton considered the two sets of readings for a moment. Outside of the void sphere he'd created around the portal, the ambient mana was still increasing, but at a much slower rate. It probably had something to do with the dimensional fabric not really being limited to only the first three dimensions. Sure, he could see and block the hole. But the barrier around the hole must have weakened, allowing some bleed-through to occur. There was no way to know how far the damage extended.

Still, it looked like he could slow down the rate at which mana was coming into this Universe and utilize the higher density of mana on this side of the void barrier and continue creating and upgrading spells much more quickly. Anton expanded the void bubble so he could sit down near the portal and started with Magical Bolt. Having multiple ranks of that spell would give him another versatile magical attack. Next was Cleanse Affliction. Obviously, being able to heal any affliction up to mythical rank was desirable. Finally, he chose Fly to increase the duration and speed of his flight. Also, this version of flight was sustained by mana, which meant that he now had a spell that would allow him to fly for each of his mental resources.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Anton went through his Spell and Psionic List and began upgrading everything. Sitting inside the bubble of void energy next to the portal, he lost track of time as he created the various ranks of spells and psionic powers he already had. He was going to augment them so that he could cast each at various ranks without increasing his resource cost to do so.

He still didn't understand how the SYSTEM pulled that off. The powers and spells should take the same amount of energy as the original, but he knew for a fact that augmenting a lower cost worked. It was almost like each augment, or allocation of spell slots, acted as a step-up transformer, decreasing the amount of initial energy required to activate the power or spell. He wanted each spell and power to be able to be cast for either 10 mana or 10 psychic energy, so if he ever found himself in a situation where he was limited, like in a mana-starved realm, he could still use all of his spells and powers.

He pulled up his spell list. While it didn't list out the augments, the list contained the spell or power, its primary resource, and the ranks at which he knew the spell. Also, if the spell was augmented, that was indicated as well.

Spells & Psionic Powers

Fireball<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Teleport to Known Location<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Force Construct<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Flight<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Teleport<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Adaption<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Boots<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Fire<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Food<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Pants<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Shirt<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Drink<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |.Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Item<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Detect Magic<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Launder<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Light<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Magical Bolt<:> Both | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Wizard Hands<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Maintain Life<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Cleanse Affliction<:> PE | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Contract<:> Mana | Common |.........(Augmented)

Message<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Slow<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Adjust Weight<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Mind Shield<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Disintegrate<:> Mana | ..Rare |.......(Augmented)

Camp<:> Mana | ..Rare |.......(Augmented)

Fly<:> Mana | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Shield<:> Mana | Common |Uncommon |Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Invisibility<:> Mana | ..Rare |.......(Augmented)

Summon Dark-Based Creature<:> Mana | ..Rare |.......(Augmented)

Omnisense<:> PE | Common |.Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Create Astral Storage Location<:> PE | .......Mythical |..(Augmented)

Access Astral Storage<:> PE | Common |.........(Augmented)

Electronic Bridge<:> PE | Common |.Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Memory Compression<:> PE | Common |.Rare |Advanced |Master |Epic |Legendary |Mythical |..(Augmented)

Technically, each rank of each spell was a spell unto itself, but he'd decided to keep all spells of the same name listed as a single spell or power to keep his list shorter. He then checked his Spell Slots. With his intelligence bonus, the number was, well, a lot, at over 360 million. Without his Intelligence bonus, his class levels had earned him 9,173 Spell Slots. Now, three days later, he'd used 5,663 of those slots.

There were a couple more spells he'd like to try to get, but before he went and made more spells, he needed to check on what was happening outside of his void bubble, especially since he'd lost track of time. Well, that wasn't exactly true; he knew how much time had gone by, he just hadn't cared or been paying attention to anything happening outside of his force construct.

Anton pulled up the status of the Dome he'd created. It was still holding strong. Next, he checked the level of Ambient Mana.

Local Area Ambient Mana: 39%

Realm Ambient Mana: 2%

Creating the spells must have used up the little bit of mana that was trying to get through. So, actively creating spells had a significant slowing of the mana saturation of this universe. 1% over three days meant that the world should reach the Integration threshold in 108 days, if he kept creating spells and using mana.

Anton paused as Aura Sense picked up something coming in from the north and west. It took a moment for him to identify what he was seeing because he hadn't actually expected to ever run into someone stupid enough to mobilize and utilize one of those weapons. It was a W79 Artillery-Fired Atomic Projectile, four of them to be exact. A quick check of their trajectory indicated that one would hit on each side of the barrier.

A quick internet check revealed that the effective range was just over 10 miles, indicating that the teams firing the four Howitzers must be positioned along the highway leading north. He conducted a quick search with Aura Sense and located the Army team at the Ibex Valley Volunteer Fire Department, where they were set up in the parking lot. The rest of the Army had set up in a makeshift airfield, another three miles west of the fire department, just north of the Alaska Highway.

Anton sighed. He had taunted the General a bit. Whatever, if this was going to be ground zero, clearing out the surrounding area to see what came through the portal was probably a good idea. Anton brought Aura Sense back to center on himself and waited. Everything he'd just done had happened in the time it took the shell to travel the 1.8 miles it had to traverse before all four shells exploded simultaneously.

Anton waited for the mushroom clouds to clear and then stepped out of the Void bubble and waved to the Northwest, where he'd detected the scout up on the mountain who was watching him with a telescope. Anton waved and then stepped back through the void barrier. Through the speaker back in the general's control room, he voiced his unbiased thoughts on the matter, "Fucking Idiots."

It looked like the augmentation to split Aura Sense up was the next thing he needed to work on. He sat down and invested eight skill points. Thirty-seven minutes later, he could split his attention to 10 locations within range. That was effectively ten places on Earth. It was time to take advantage of Aura Sense and Electronic Bridge.

He shifted his focus and assigned an area to the general. Another one was set on the Artillery position. The Third was set on top of himself. The fourth, he put on top of the Pentagon, the fifth, the White House, and the sixth, the Capitol. The last four areas were dedicated to locations with high-density internet connections: Hong Kong, Japan, Kajaani, Finland, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Hong Kong and Japan, as this would provide him with access to foreign markets and overseas hackers. Finland and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, were chosen because each location had a Cray supercomputer.

Anton set up four Electronic Bridges and then dropped into his Mindspace. With what he'd learned already, he jacked into the internet in all four locations and began going through as much information as was available on the Internet. He also hacked into the government and military servers.

He did all this while maintaining the void bubble around the portal and the force dome around his location. He felt the artillery hit the shield with a volley each time, which occurred about once every five minutes for a half hour. He was learning so much about various mundane subjects that he really wasn't paying attention. He also didn't make any more statements to General Collins or his staff. He was now watching the individuals calling the overall plans from a conference room in the Pentagon.

***

"Have you made any progress destroying the dome around the portal in Whitehorse General Walters?" The President of the United States asked over a teleconference monitor.

"No, Sir."

"You've hit that barrier, what, ten times with 40 warheads?"

"Yes, Sir," The general said in a tone that left no doubt he wasn't happy about the results.

"And the information that this, Anton, provided, have you reviewed it.

"Yes, Sir, I have."

"Personally?"

"Yes, Sir."

The President looked thoughtful for a moment before he asked, "Has Anton done anything to threaten the United States or Canada?"

"No, Sir."

"Very well, this is what we're going to do: stop firing on the dome. We've already done enough damage to the ecosystem up there that once it's found out, we'll never hear the end of it. Of course, if Anton is correct, we won't have to worry about that for too long. If not, we'll adjust accordingly.

"Yes, Mr. President," The General said as the connection terminated

General Walker turned to a Captain at the edge of the room. He was about to issue his orders when the captain looked startled, "Sir, you're needed in the situation room, now!"

The General stood up, walked out of a door behind him, and down a short hallway into a room with multiple monitors, where military personnel were keeping track of the situation in Whitehorse. As the General walked into the room, he called out, "Inform the 11th that they are to cease fire!"

One of the technicians called out, "Sir, the Package is en route, Impact estimated at 31 seconds."

That's when the General noticed that the neon blue portal was visible again and was now ten feet in diameter. "What happened to the black sphere and the distortion that indicated there was a barrier around it?"

A large monitor at the front of the room shifted to an image from one minute ago, displaying the shimmer that indicated a barrier was still there. Beneath the barrier, he could see the black sphere that surrounded the portal. Fifteen seconds later, a flash wiped out everything within the barrier, which then seemed to be sucked toward the portal and through it. The distortion that was the barrier also appeared to be flexing inward before it vanished. There was a rush of air as any loose dust or dirt was drawn toward the portal. Ten seconds later, the rush of air ceased, and all that remained was a ten-foot-diameter neon blue portal.

"Does anyone know what happened?" General Walker asked.

"No, Sir."

"SHIT! Abort the artillery shells, Abort them NOW!" The General declared as the 31-second timer counted down from 2 to 1.

As the General was reviewing what Anton had said to General Collins in the briefing he'd read crossed his mind, the four nuclear shells detonated two hundred and fifty feet from the portal, one each at ninety degrees opposite each other at the cardinal points: North, South, East, and West. Everyone in the command room held their breath. Ten seconds passed, then twenty. The general took a breath; maybe everything was going to be okay.

The lights in the control room went dead as backup batteries kicked in, and a screen popped up in mid-air in front of every person in the control room.

SYSTEM Integration Initiated

Welcome to The SYSTEM

***

Anton reincarnated and found himself floating in the Astral Plane. He activated Adaptation, Flight, and Stealth before he started looking around to get his bearings. He was naked, of course, and he had no idea where he was. He began going over what he could remember last. He'd been surfing the internet and various sites and servers when he'd been inundated with multiple energy types. He opened his Status and checked his Notifications and Event Log.

Ascendant Realm Breaker Device detonation detected.

Ascendant Realm Breaker is from a Realm antithetical to this Realm

Astral Ream has been destabilized

10% of the damage has translated through the portal into the material realm

Damage has been confined to a 500-foot area.

Dimensional borders in this region have been destabilized.

Detonation output has increased tenfold.

You have received 10,000,000,000

72,009,205 Damage mitigated by Physical Damage Resistance.

9,927,990,795 Total Damage

Hit Points have been reduced to 0

Excessive Damage: 2,183,625,949

Your body has been disintegrated.

The area of the Realm upon which your body was disintegrated has been disincorporated.

Luck Attribute inspected

Luck…

25,603,450,559

Reviewing previously stated goals and directives.

Review halted, Energy Input detected.

Destabilized zone compressed to critical threshold

Temporal Shearing detected

Physical Realm seared, Astral Plane further destabilized.

Soul has become untethered from your current realm

Soul has become untethered from your current temporal frame

Chronomancer Class Core Detected,

Immunity to Temporal shearing and permanent Temporal disincorporation. Noted.

Title "Fate's Arbiter" Detected.

SYSTEM Adjustment Initiated.

Karmic Luck Reduced by 1,000,000

Ascendant Realm Breaker Origin Realm Identified

SYSTEM Alteration Initiated

Time to Respawn 25.4 Hours

You have Respawned.

Perk "Recognize Plane or Dimension Type has activated"

Current Manifold: Unrecognized.

Current Plane: Astral

Current Temporal Frame:

Working

Manifold SYSTEM Check

Temporal Traveler detected.

Current Temporal Frame:+4.41 E16 Turns

Anton paused as his mind converted that number of turns into…14 billion years. Anton reached out to Commune with Death.

Divine Being out of Range.

Damnit, he was in a different Manifold. Was he in a negative one or a positive one? He tried to access his Portable Exchange. It opened normally, and he was able to pull out some clothes. He also felt a presence reach out to him and recognized that Keres, the Goddess of Death, wished to make contact with him telepathically. As they connected and spoke, he put on the clothes he'd pulled out.

Anton, it's been a long time. I'd ask where you've been, but instead I'll ask, How did you get there?

Get where? Anton asked, confused.

You are in the universe from which those who attacked us came, the group that sent the Selechi.

How do you know that? Anton asked.

Because the SYSTEMS are not allowing me to travel there, the war between that universe and a few near me has been going on for a very long time. The SYSTEMs are making sure that we, the Divine, don't accidentally interact.

Before we go any further, how long have I been absent? Anton asked.

It's been over 14 billion years, the Goddess said.

And my family?

Long dead

Is anyone left?

Caitlyn is still around, but she's fully transformed into my Avenging Angel of Death. Please keep in mind that your family might have moved on or could be serving me. I can tell you they all lived good and long lives and they were able to make their own choices. There was one hiccup concerning your sister, who still serves me. Before you ask, how do you think Caitlyn earned the Title and Class Avenging Angel of Death? Finally, it's been 14 billion years, and the planet they were on no longer has humans on it. It may again, but not right now.

That was a lot to process for Anton, so he focused on what was immediately relevant. So, the assholes that caused me to come to the future are here somewhere.

I believe so, the goddess said hesitantly.

Anton thought about how she answered and put two and two together, and you can't help me, can you?

No

Very well, thanks for the information. I will be in touch when I've dealt with them.

I look forward to seeing you again, Death said.

Anton closed his connection to his Portable Exchange. As soon as he'd closed it, his telepathic link was severed. That was a hell of a loophole, but he'd take it.

Time to go for a walk within this Realm and find a city. He had people to find and kill because throwing him this far into the future so that he couldn't even see his siblings grow up or say goodbye to his parents was the kind of dick move that would receive a response. Yeah, there was going to be a reconning, though, would the assholes that did it even be around now?

Anton activated Transverse Reality and began floating through the Astral Plane in search of a city. He smiled; these assholes probably thought he was long dead. If they were still around, they would never see him coming.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.