Leveling up the World

Chapter 978: Fake Personal Realm

Several dozen cars had gathered at the scene of the accident. Initially, just a few technicians from the electric company had been sent to check things out. They had quickly found that the problem was a lot more serious and phoned back for instructions. Their account had sounded so absurd that photo evidence had been required. After that, all hell broke loose. Emergency crews were sent, along with the fire department, local police, and an ambulance for good measure.

The commotion had quickly attracted the attention of the city council, multiple inspection offices, even people from the state administration. Ironically, the media were the only ones not interested.

Everyone was demanding answers. The local residents even wanted the accident fixed. Yet out of all of them, the only person who worked on overdrive was Atol, systematically chipping away at people’s concerns to the point that everyone was somehow convinced it was the wind that knocked the pole over.

An hour before that, Dallion had started the conversation with Alien and Katka. The differences between what they had been and what they had become on Earth were far greater than he could imagine. They had kept their memories and their spellcraft skill. As expected, magic was the trait of exceptions that gave awakened a far greater chance of remembering who they were. On the other hand, it had also failed to have them resolve their inner flaws. While one could argue that Alien was a lot better here than in the awakened world, Dallion couldn’t agree with that.

Standing at the window, Dallion kept looking outside, while two of his instances focused on the pair of mages in the room. Even without his music skills, he could tell that everyone was on edge. For some reason, he got the impression that he wasn’t the reason for that.

“They'll fix it eventually,” he said. “Who are you hiding from?”

“You,” Alien replied, with a fake laugh. “The emperor, the archbishop, anyone else I’ve come across there.”

There was some truth to his words, though not entirely.

“You tried to kill me first.” Dallion remained calm. “The echoes, the illusions. That’s more than a few safeguards.”

Katka looked at Alien, yet the archmage didn’t budge. His eyes locked on Dallion, as if he were afraid that if he looked away the boy might strike.

“What’s really going on, Alien?”

There was no response.

“Do you want me to make a new Moon vow?”

“Moon vows…” the man shook his head. “They’re nothing here. Astreza doesn’t bother showing his face and Galatea’s too far away. This place is absolute shit.”

The phone in the room rang again. Still combat splitting, Dallion went to it in one instance and picked it up.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“It worked?” Atol sounded surprised.

“Yeah.” Dallion went back to the window. He could barely see the woman approach between the trees. “You better call someone to get the power fixed. I’ll have a chat with my friend until then.”

“Is that a good idea? If the power is back up, he’ll—”

“Thanks.” Dallion ended the call. He was still able to hear her cursing all the distance away, though.

“New minion?” Alien asked.

“A friend. She’ll make sure that you have power again.”

“Yeah. And that’ll make everything fine.”

“I’m not the one who tried to kill you, Alien…”

“You’ve become a cultist, you hypocritical piece of shit!” The man stood up, despite Katka’s attempt to keep him in his seat. “You came here with void powers with the intention to kill! The moment you asked where I lived, I knew you’d come here to finish me off. It took you a decade, but here you are, ready to finish the job.”

“And I had hoped you'd have left your paranoia back there.”

Dallion felt sorry for the man. That was what happened when someone used magic to cover up the flaws they were supposed to overcome. In terms of power, it could be said that Alien had been rather skilled. When it came to awakening level, he wasn’t even mid-tier. Dallion could only imagine the number of inner demons and lessons left unlearned. No wonder most mages were in such a state.

The saddest thing was that looking at Alien, he knew it as well. The man remained standing, barely keeping himself from shivering in anger. If one would guess, he was angry at the world just as much as he was at anyone else.

“He’s better with magic around,” Katka said apologetically. “I won’t lie. It was a tough few years, but it got a lot better afterwards. Illusions help a lot.”

How things had changed. Back in the awakened world, mages were the cream of the crop. By the look of things here, they were at the bottom of the food chain.

“I’m not here to kill you, Alien,” Dallion repeated. “I need your help.”

“My help?” For a moment, the mage remained perfectly still, then burst out laughing as if he’d heard the most absurd thing possible. The emotions emanating from him were a complete mess, but at least Dallion could tell that they were genuine.

“What can a wreck like me teach the world conqueror?” The man tilted to one side. “I’ve nothing you don’t have. I couldn’t even stop you after a decade of—”

“Magic,” Dallion interrupted. “I want you to teach me magic. I want you to get me back there.”

Alien’s expression abruptly changed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“You want to go back?” he asked, caution emanating from his very being.

“Yes,” Dallion nodded.

From past experience, one would expect the mage to flat out refuse or to start bargaining.

Outside, the sounds of a car were heard. It was impressive that someone had arrived at the scene in such a record amount of time. Having a power cable disrupted in this part of town tended to do that. In all honesty, Dallion hadn’t bothered to concern himself with the consequences of his actions.

“I’ll go start the generator,” Alien said, turning towards the door. “It’ll be faster than waiting.” He gave Dallion a brief glance. “Coming?”

“Go with him.” Katka formed the words only with her lips. If it was an act, Dallion had to give them credit for the efforts. As the saying went, if they were this good, they deserved to get him in a trap.

As the two went down into the basement, it was remarkable how clean the walls were. If one didn’t know better, they would almost say that the real living spaces were below and everything above was just for decoration.

“Open this,” Alien said once they reached a massive iron door with a wheel handle.

Dallion gave him a questioning glance.

“I‘m not strong enough when the power is down.”

One of Dallion’s instances touched the wheel. Nothing bad happened. It was almost refreshing not being taken into a trap.

Putting in some force, he turned the wheel, then pulled the door to the side. The inside could be described as a typical garage setting, complete with lots of heavy tools, two workbenches, and blueprints on the walls. To the uninitiated, the blueprints would look like art designs or constellations. Those in the know would immediately recognize them as magic symbols.

“I started this when I first got back,” Alien lazily went to the generator. It was one of those gas ones that could provide power for hours. Stacked next to it were close to a dozen metal containers of fuel. “Fill it up.”

“Heavy duty.” Dallion did so, picking up one of the fuel containers while the mage removed the cap from the generator. “Aren’t you worried about fumes?”

“Won’t matter once I get power.”

Not an ideal answer, but with three instances, Dallion decided to take the chance. Even so, he always kept one by the exit.

Once a full container of fuel filled the generator tank, Alien started it. The noise was bad enough to make Dallion’s ears bleed, but soon enough, the single bulb connected to the generator lit up.

Seeing that, the mage reached to an open socket and before Dallion’s very eyes pulled out a thread of electricity. The sight was surreal, much in contrast to the dark, cramped surrounding of the basement—like pulling out a thread of light from a swamp.

Not one to bother with explanations, Alien kept pulling it, drawing a series of symbols in the air. Just as in the awakened world, there were safeguards and dummy symbols preventing Dallion from learning the specifics of the spell. From what he could make out, there was a portal component, though. After another few seconds, there was no longer any doubt.

MAGIC AWAKENING

A purple rectangle appeared before Dallion’s eyes. It took him considerably longer to find that the rest of reality had somehow disappeared, leaving him and Alien in a blank canvas.

“Give it some time,” the former archmage said. In this environment, his appearance had changed as well. No longer was he the skinny, scruffy person in the basement, but a confident, well-kept man in an expensive, yet casual suit. “Electricity is slower than proper magic.”

Threads of magic became visible, spreading from the man’s feet, creating a floor. Trickling like water they continued in all directions, changing the whiteness around them into reality: fine wooden floors, a tended garden beyond it, the start of a lake, and an evening sky in which a constant aurora borealis could be seen.

YOU ARE LEVEL ???

A purple rectangle emerged above Alien.

Your destiny has been set.

Looking at it sent a shiver down Dallion’s spine.

“Depressing, isn’t it?” Alien asked, in a calm, accepting tone. “Took me years to come to terms with it. Here our destinies are set.”

“This is your personal realm,” Dallion said.

“No. It’s an image of it. You can say it’s an image of what your realm used to be. You can look, enjoy, but never change a thing.” Alien drew a symbol in the air, causing a lightning bolt to form.

Without delay, Dallion leaped to the side, combat splitting again. All of his instances rolled out of danger. His instinct was to counterattack, stopping the mage from continuing with another spell. And so, he did, rushing forward, then knocking Alien down with a low sweeping kick.

COMBAT INITIATED

MINOR STRIKE

Damage dealt is increased by 10%

Two red rectangles emerged.

Alien’s hands and fingers moved wildly, casting several aether barriers between him and Dallion.

Keeping the momentum, Dallion continued with the multi-attack, shattering them one after the other like thin glass.

“Stop!” Alien shouted as he managed to cast a flight spell onto himself. “Look at the garden!”

Blobs of fear grew within the man’s body, reaching the size of oranges.

Using one of his instances, Dallion took a risk and turned around. To his surprise, the garden remained completely unchanged. Not even a blade of grass was bent, as if nothing had happened at all.

“It never changes,” Alien explained. “Nothing changes.” He cast another bolt of lightning at the garden. It struck its target with a blinding flash, yet did nothing else.

Slowly, Dallion relaxed his posture. He didn’t stop combat splitting, though.

“It’s like a ROM world, constantly reminding me what could have been. It’s not a personal realm, just a copy.”

It was impossible to say whether he was just coping with the situation or there was a deeper reason for it. On the other hand, he had still managed to get a glimpse of it.

“Lux,” Dallion said, waiting for something to appear. To little surprise, the firebird didn’t materialize. “I guess you can’t summon anything, either.” “No.” Alien cautiously floated down. “With enough magic, I can recreate almost anything, but never the real thing.” His fingers moved about again. A copy of him emerged. Even in his current state, Dallion was able to see the magic threads flowing through it.

“An echo.”

“The embodiment of a thought,” Alien explained. “It took me a while to make the first one, then half that much to figure out how to place it within someone. They’re like light-bulbs—burning out every few years. Replacing them is a pain.”

“And you had to do all that just to kill me.” Dallion shook his head.

“After what you did in the Academy, how was I supposed to react?” The man snapped, losing his composure in part. “I thought you’d kill me. But that wasn’t the only reason.”

“Oh?”

“Why do you think we’ve having this conversation here? The commotion you made getting to me has put me back on their radar. It won’t be long before they come for all of us.”

“They?” Dallion smirked. This sounded just like the paranoia a former mage would come up with.

“Why do you think it’s so difficult to find anyone from that world? There must be hundreds of us right now, probably more.”

“And most of them don’t remember a thing.”

“Yes. They are in control now.” The blobs of fear within the mage grew larger. “What’s better than keeping your powers, but forgetting the reason you’re not supposed to abuse them?”