Odyssey of the Guardian Emperor

The state Alaric woke up in the next morning made it into his list of the top ten weirdest mornings. Having slept like a log, he was refreshed when he opened his eyes, or at least tried to—it took a while. His body weighed a ton, his muscles shivered and resisted like rusty cogs as he pushed on them.

It took at least ten minutes for him to get seated.

As he pulled himself up to stand, the room tilted and spun, sending him crashing onto the smooth floor. Alaric clutched his head and groaned silently. 'What is this?'

[ That's what you get for using your powers to accomplish something above your body's capabilities. ] Alia's voice echoed through his head.

[ It got you to talk to me, so I think it was worth it. ] He responded with a groan.

[ That's foolish. ] The guardian scolded him.

[ Then I am a proud fool. ] he answered.

The morning was going to be a tough one, but he didn't mind. Everything in his life was already so complicated at this point that adding one more really made no difference.

"Where is Alistair?" he asked, as he pulled himself up.

The shadows in the room bubbled, and from them, a boy of his height walked out. He was of the same build and height but had a different face—the same face Scarlett and Lucy had come to know as Alistair.

"You look like shit," Alistair chuckled.

"Yeah, well, help me get into the bath as you tell me what you've found," Alaric grumbled.

The clone laughed as he helped him up and to the bathroom. "Well, this demiplane is interesting. I'll tell you that."

"How so?"

"Rail'ak has wanted his father's place for over a century now, but it was only until fifteen years ago that he got serious about it," the clone said as he helped Alaric into the tub and turned the faucet on with a few words in the Old Tongue.

Only after a few moments of silence did Alaric ask, "What else?"

"Oh. That's all I've got for now. Everything else is scattered fragments. There is a girl I found who hated Rail'ak so much she couldn't get through three sentences without launching into a cussing frenzy," the clone added, "Those who like him seem to be brainwashed, while those who hate him can barely contain themselves. I'll need more time to gather information.

I can tell you, though, that something big happened fifteen years ago. Makes me think it had something to do with the Day of the Black Sun. From what I can tell, the timelines are close, but no children were to be born around that time that I can find. It's like their catastrophe had nothing to do with the deaths of thousands of infants."

"So, something else happened," Alaric noted.

"Yes, and whatever it was, it gave Rail'ak the confidence to disrupt the peace of the demiplane and rally hundreds of demihumans behind him," Alistair added.

Alaric nodded, impressed, "Good work. Keep digging."

Alistair bowed, "I'm happy to be of help. Shall we handle briefings in the mornings like this?"

"That would be perfect. Just not with me bathing," Alaric sighed, sinking into the warm, refreshing water of the bath for a bit. The clone took that as his cue and disappeared into the shadows.

'It would seem the Calamity from fifteen years ago had greater ripple effects than I originally assumed,' Alaric thought to himself.

The dizziness went down enough for Alaric to take a bath and put on a new set of clothes. These clothes were a little less 'flashy' for the Eagles of the demiplane. Draped in gold, white and navy-blue accents, Alaric had managed to achieve something a little less 'jarring'.

His shirt was a mess of fabric, two layers more than anything he'd ever worn, which, for someone with his background, was incredible. Blue was the sparsest colour of the three and only went around his collar, sleeves and along his thighs, outlining his athletic build more than he noticed… obviously.

By the time he was combing his hair in the large mirror, his head was starting to clear up, and the stiffness in his muscles were starting to ease up as well. The sluggish side-effects lingered, but not enough for him to consider staying in the Pantheon the whole day.

He stared at his Storage Bracelet and sighed, pulling out an item he hadn't given much attention to lately: The Keeper's Almanac.

The silver device was the most peculiar object in his possession, easily glowing a purple colour for a Five-star item when he appraised it with the Matriarch's ring.

The orb's surface was smooth, and there was almost no way to interact with it except through his mind. Even then, it was always listening in for a question, no matter how vaguely it sounded as it passed through his mind while also managing to always remain quiet with questions that were too personal—as Alaric had noticed. Those were reserved for Alia.

As Alaric brought it back to the bracelet, the ball vibrated and flew out of his hand, hovering in front of him and pulsing with aether, like a heartbeat.

There was a moment of silence before the air around the Keeper's Almanac began to glow, bathing the boy's face and the room with a pale ethereal blue glow. Sheets of the same blue light flew out of the Almanac and filled the large room, displaying writings and drawings of all sorts.

Alaric blinked several times, confused by what he was seeing. A single thought echoed through his mind, 'What is this?'

{ Incoming transmission from Keeper Gregory. }

The panes of information flew away from the orb, scattering across the room as the orb floated to the centre of it, effectively putting space between itself and Alaric. An ethereal silhouette of a man in flowing robes burst into view, his white, lucious beard flowing almost down to his waist.

His face bore the wrinkles that came with old age and plenty of smiling with warm, deep eyes that hid boundless wisdom within them. He looked just like Alaric remembered him, except for the bags under his eyes. 'Do powerful slayers get sleep-deprived?'

[ Takes a lot to achieve that. ] Alia chimed in observantly.

"Elder Gregory?" Alaric called.

The man looked at Alaric with the most bored expression he could muster, "Three weeks, Alaric! That's how long it's taken me to get a hold of you, and in half that time, your enemies attempted to destroy an entire city full of people."

"A small…"

"It doesn't matter what size it was. Merchant Cities can't afford to be as large as Emerlin and the others, but that won't be the case now that the Matriarch managed to create her domain. Good job, by the way," Elder Gregory cut him off, agitation leaking out of his tone, "And why are you always surrounded by people? I've been trying to reach you through your Almanac, but you're always surrounded."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Alaric rubbed his temples, "Why can't I just stay at the Tower?"

"Believe me when I say that's what I wanted. Unfortunately, your situation is complicated," the man answered with a shrug.

"How so?" Alaric asked and gave the man his full attention because he just couldn't understand how that was the case.

"The Tower of Seekers is a neutral party, and that means all sorts of people come in looking for information. It wouldn't be safe here unless the Tower chose to stop being neutral. And believe me when I say there have been people searching for information on your whereabouts. Fortunately, the Tower can't sell information it doesn't have," Elder Gregory explained.

"I don't think I understand. Why does the Tower have to act like we're not on the same side? Aren't I a Keeper Candidate?" Alaric furrowed his eyebrows.

"Ah, you're thinking! That's good. I was starting to think fighting is all you were capable of," the man exclaimed with a mix of glee and sarcasm, "Is Alia listening in?"

The knight emerged from the shadows with a small bow. Alaric looked between the two of them, "When did the two of you meet?"

"I met with his guardian in the In-Between and asked him to keep quiet about you being the Guardian Emperor," Alia responded.

"Exactly. Being the Guardian Emperor makes you non-neutral," Elder Gregory confirmed calmly, "Frankly speaking, that wouldn't have bothered me, but ever since you made that request, I've been walking on eggshells. The Tower hasn't had a Keeper Candidate in ages, my daughter being an exception. Revealing another would raise more questions, which would make your secret a lot harder to keep. One misstep and… well, let's not go there. I like to think of solutions more than problems."

"You have a solution?"

"The most obvious one is for you to grow stronger," the man spoke, "In your past life, no one could even think of going against you. So, that is what we must achieve. I've already been briefed by Finn on your progress through Body Tempering, so I don't have to tell you how important it is to improve your Temper Rank.

Reclaiming your domain would be a great boon, too, but you're not strong enough to do that yet. So, the greatest asset I can give you right now, however, is the Keeper's Almanac. It has access to most of the information in the Tower. Just will it, and the Almanac will do everything to provide you with what you need, including visual information.

The panels you see floating around you are examples of that. Using the Keeper's Almanac, you should be able to learn about anything you deem important. I've already set aside several recommendations for you to get started on if you wish to pull ahead."

As the man spoke, the blue panels floated around, words and pictures filling them as information poured out of the little metallic orb. Elder Gregory pointed to a large pyramid on one of the panels, sand surrounding it as far as the eye could see. Lodged into its side was an image of the sun.

"There, the Dungeon of the Sun, home to an endless number of traps and harrowing Aether Beasts of the desert, is designed to kill all Slayers who brave the labyrinth that lies within it. It also has a powerful guardian that will kill anyone who gets close to the Sun Gauntlet. Finn told me about your group's interest in this when he was here, so I thought I might pull up the information for you," Elder Gregory explained.

"What about my Tempering Ritual?"

"The Dungeon will still be there when you wake up. Studying about it is just another way for you to get ready for it. That said, you'll need to equip yourself with a lot of antidotes to combat the poisons from the creatures in there," the man explained.

"Can't I just go with high-quality Healing Elixirs?" Alaric tried.

"Those are rare, and it's not uncommon for some toxins to be accelerated by Healing Elixirs. If a Healing Elixir could heal everything, there would be no need for anyone to study toxins, now would there?" The man chuckled, "Regarding toxins, I've also prepared books for you to go through. Pick them up when you get some free time or just use a cloning spell if you're too lazy."

"Understood." Alaric nodded, feeling the dizziness from earlier start to return. He didn't even want to think of the cloning spell the man had just mentioned, as that was an entirely different topic on its own. "Is there anything I should learn during my stay here in the Stone Gate demiplane?"

Elder Gregory furrowed his eyebrows, "Hmm. None that I can think of. Those sentinels have an interesting culture, but I can't think of anything you'd need right now. Of course, that's just my perspective. I trust that you can make the best of your stay there. I hear you found an alchemist."

"Yes, he's good at what he does," Alaric responded, his eyes poring over images of various creatures that were said to dwell within the Dungeon of the Sun, "I watched him refine bases yesterday."

"That's good. Well, use the time you have to train, study… and whatever else it is you might find interesting in the demiplane. Just remember to limit how much you get distracted," Elder Gregory nodded approvingly, "I am going to send Finn back to Emerlin to investigate the Academy and find out more about the Sun Dungeon while he prepares for the journey when you return. It would be good if he was at least peak Glass Rank by the time you wake up."

"How is he?" Alaric perked up, "Finn."

Elder Gregory's face turned softer, "He's thriving. I don't know what you said to him, but he's doing all right now. If anything, he's a little too eager."

Alaric's heartbeat went down, and a smile returned to his face. He'd been thinking of asking Elder Gregory to offer the boy more help, but as it turned out, that was unnecessary.

"You really care about your friends, don't you?"

"They are my family," Alaric responded.

"Then I'll be sure to remind them of that when I get the chance. I should take them gifts. Any ideas? I'll say they came from you," the man asked thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't."

Elder Gregory chuckled, "I'll simply visit them then. Get them something from the demiplane for when you see them next."

Alaric nodded, and with that, the pair went over several more pressing matters, many of which Alaric had no idea were important to discuss, like how many missions he'd be committed to taking on in a year or how many protectors he'd like assigned to him.

At times, he saw the man raise up a sheet of parchment to read more things off the agenda he had ready for this impromptu meeting.

Three hours later, he was coming down the stairs, mentally overloaded. Not only had he received a massive dump of information from the master of the largest repository of information on the continent, but he also had his clone's intel to think about.

At the bottom of the stairs to the next floor below, he found a large man seated, his head leaning against the wall, fast asleep. Alaric sighed, 'You don't have to wait for me every morning.'

He took a seat next to LionHeart and waited for him to wake up. A few minutes later, the guard woke up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and yawning loudly, "Did you sleep well, Alaric?"

"Better than you, it seems," Alaric responded.

"I got bored waiting and decided to take a trip to the In-Between. I never would have imagined my guardian relaxing in a rainforest whenever he's not here with me," LionHeart answered, "Shall we go? The others left to get breakfast about an hour ago."

Alaric nodded, and they descended the stairs. In the mess hall, they found various light dishes and fruits set up for them, preserved by a scattering of runes to keep the food warm till they arrived. The others had left, so there was no use wasting time as they started eating.

"So, I spoke with Elder Gregory."

"Really?" LionHeart's eyes popped out. "Did he mention me?"

The boy laughed, "No. We were too busy talking about more important things."

LionHeart gasped, "Oh… So it's like that." Alaric took a bite out of a piece of bread while nodding, sparks of glee in his eyes. The protector shook his head, a smile playing at his lips, "So, what did you talk about with the boss? I hope everything's alright."

"Yes, everything's fine," Alaric responded before continuing to update his protector with a summary of what was discussed during their conversation. It soon became clear that it had been that very conversation with the Keeper that had kept Alaric from descending the stairs early enough.

Halfway through the conversation, Alia asked to leave the shadows and join Scarlett in the courtyard. The bond between her and Alaric was slowly starting to repair. While she wouldn't let him into her mind just yet, her presence was back in his.

It was better than nothing.

After breakfast, the pair left the Pantheon and got started with their day. They visited Alaric's places of interest, including the plaza to check up on a very busy Troy, before finally making their way to the one place Alaric was most interested in.

Alaric had been thinking about how he was going to spend his time in the demiplane besides reading books on the Almanac and had finally come to a conclusion.

Trudging through the Textile District, the boy and his protector arrived at a store lined with clothes on display and a large loom humming with intricate aether flow at the front of the store.

An old woman worked the loom tirelessly, sending golden strings through it, refining them slowly and gathering the final product into a ball of golden string floating between her hands.

At first, Alaric didn't understand this process, but as he stared at her longer, he noticed how different the string was from when it entered the loom to when it joined the growing ball of yarn.

"You're enchanting the string," he breathed, but then he felt as though he was still missing something. The string was just humming with more aether. It was vibrant and, to some extent, entirely different from what went in, "Oh, it's more than that, isn't it?"

A bright smile cracked on the woman's face, "You're more observant than I gave you credit for, Great Protector."

"Just call me, Alaric."

"Call me, Morn'ak," the woman responded, "What can I do for you, Great Protector?"

Alaric paused, took in a deep breath and looked around first. He'd seen enchanted clothes before, and the only thing he knew about them was how expensive they were, so his interest was piqued. "I'm here to learn. Do you have time for a lowly student such as myself?"

"For you, I can make time. However, I have run out of material, so we can't do anything until I get more," the woman responded.

"What can I do to help?"