NOVEL NEXT 3:13 The Challenge
The Rival and I sat across from each other, he assessing me, and me vibrating with unspoken questions. But I let him speak first, seeing the gears turning in his mind and soul as he looked me up and down. Smoke was practically pouring out of his ears as he rifled memories from his soul in the sky, sorting through them as recognition increasingly dawned upon his face.
"You were Sylvia, right?" he asked slowly. I nodded happily, shifting my body momentarily into the form he was more familiar with; a Scottish woman with blonde hair, severe features, yet kind eyes. Even my clothes changed to the tight suit I used to wear. I winked at him, he grinned, and I shifted back. "Damnation. I never thought I'd see you again; didn't think you had the Monkey Wrench mark on your soul. It is good to see you; and I can see you've grown even more beautiful since our parting. It is true what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder." He winked at me and I snorted, leaning back in my chair.
"And I can see you're still the same flirt you always were." I accused. He shrugged and smiled at me shamelessly, running a hand through his black hair like he was the rockstar I remembered him being, setting one foot up on the table as he leaned back in his chair.
"Gotta do what you gotta do." He said with a little laugh, wiggling his eyebrows.
"I was your psychologist." I deadpanned, and his grin just widened.
"The taboo made it more fun. That, and that you never fell for me. I consider myself quite charming, y'know? Do you know how damaged my confidence was, realizing I had whiffed on you? I had to go redeem myself." He teased.
"Spare me the details." I rolled my eyes while he openly cackled. "You even chased me into the afterlife. Imagine my surprise when you come sauntering up to me as a spirit, all ready to try and woo me all over again."
"Love knows no bounds, not even in death." The Rival shot back, though it sounded far more teasing than serious. I shook my head at him. He'd been a damn rockstar in that lifetime. One of the greatest musicians of our age; or he could have been, had his ambition been higher. Never would I have expected him to have accrued enough good karma to follow me around in the afterlife. Not that I fell for him during that time, as I'd been too focused on making it to angel status.
He'd even acted as a spirit guide for me in my last lifetime as a starship captain. We'd butted heads more than once then, even if I hadn't really known who or what I was butting heads with at the time. I couldn't see spirits, though I knew they were there.
"How have you been since we parted? You were still in that universe when I left, right? I…admit to the time being a little fuzzy for me. You were still my underling, helping me run messages back and forth. I think last I saw you, you were getting into a fistfight with an archangel. Or was it a demon?" There was a blank space from when I'd left my old universe to when I arrived here. It wasn't quite a void, but it was a lot of things that were out of focus and unclear. My gut told me it was the transition period, and was blurred on purpose so I didn't realize parts of my soul were being shorn off to make room for the Origin Deity stuff.
"Eh, I didn't last much longer there. Nexus worlds are hard for monkey wrenches to stay in. Jesus, Gotama, Mohammed, they were all a little miffed when you vanished – the higher ups told us you were transferred. Word was, the order came straight from the Origin God himself." The Rival shook his head and I frowned. "Transferred" technically wasn't a lie. "Kind of odd to hear it from the OG, though. I've never met an origin deity to my knowledge, so I didn't think Monkey Wrenches were a big deal to them."
He'dd never met a origin deity? But…one was sitting right in front of him. He didn't recognize that? I smiled a secret little smile and shook my head, resting my elbows on the table. Tea filled my cup at but a thought and I took a sip, deciding to shelve that information for now and pick the Rival's brain for more information on the multiverse.
"You said 'nexus world.' What is that? I've figured out there might be something special about earth, but the details are hazy." I asked. Something shifted in the Rival's aura as he pondered the question, the karmic strings he used to shield himself gently unwinding, revealing hints of memory. Images flashed across my vision, showing a dozen worlds all eerily similar to my Earth.
"The earth you remember is a bit special, but that's partly because of its place in the greater multiverse. Imagine the spread of energy and ideas as blood, pumping through a body; the body being the larger multiverse. Earth is called a nexus world because it doesn't just exist in the bloodstream, but in the Heart of the entire multiverse. There, almost all information and ideas come together in a massive, swirling conglomeration. That's why you can find myths that actually happened, and echoes of greater events portrayed in the history and myths of the planet itself. Hell, even fiction can be real. I've lived in worlds your people thought were fictional before. And as for myths...well, Jesus, for example, might have been exactly who he said he was. And he probably was! But his creation and story might also have been an echo of the true Jesus, someone who existed long before him and whose actions and words had a greatly profound effect upon the multiverse. Thereby creating echoes, especially in heart universes." The Rival explained. "I'm not actually sure of the accuracy on that one. Had no way to confirm it. I do know that universes like Yggdrasil existed before though. We monkey wrenches serve a similar function as Heart Universes by carrying energy throughout the main body. Kind of like bloodcells, I guess. But Earth was even more unique in that it was a specific planet set aside in the stream; at least four major Gods or otherwise powerful beings had claim over the planet and nearby solar systems, as far as I know."
"I see." I said, nodding. That made some sense, actually, from what I'd been learning. "And you were suppressed in power there because it was such a unique universe?"
"Yep! Me and my buddy – though he would never call me the same – use those places as resets. We get to relax some because we simply cannot interfere too much, even though his ambition drives him to try to change the world regardless. That said, I can see the Four Realms becoming a heart universe too. Lots of inspiration from other things, here, and that typically means the origin deity created it from the heart, in their own image." The Rival drawled.
"You think so?" I smiled at the words. The Four Realms were made from the heart? That was a statement I could get behind.
"Yep. This is me just guessing, though. I'm not super privy to all the juicy secrets of the multiverse. Just most of them. Either way, it seems you've been doing good for yourself. This powerful from, what, only a few lifetimes as a Monkey Wrench?" The Rival continued, picking at the sleeve of his shirt. He seemed a little…bored, almost, a teenager lounging in his chair speaking with an adult.
Only I was fairly certain he was far older than me, chronologically speaking.
"This would technically only count as my ninth lifetime. But I think you're misunderstanding something." I said, taking a slow sip of my tea. "I'm not a monkey wrench." At that, the Rival froze.
"You aren't?" The Rival sat bolt upright, staring at me with renewed interest in his eyes. "No, wait, you aren't. I knew it! Monkey Wrenches can't reincarnate within the same universe, we get one life then one afterlife! I just assumed that you…I mean, I even acted as your spirit guide...wait, then what the hell is going on here?" I took another sip of my tea, slurping on the hot liquid noisily. His eye twitched in annoyance as he glared at me, mind working furiously.
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"Why don't you tell me?" I asked, slowly standing. The Rival sat forward, clasping his hands before his face and narrowing his eyes at me. Unlike him, I did not hide myself. I bared it all, spreading my aura out and letting it blend with the entirety of the Four Realms, soothing its aches and pains with my presence. Yes, I was suppressing them. But I was here to help, as well. To protect. To guide. And the greater universe understood that, even if mortals misunderstood. Birds sang a little louder, the wind whistled softer, and firelight from lanterns and torches burned brighter.
"This is a xianxia universe," the Rival muttered. "So you have to be some sort of powerful cultivator…a god, maybe? I heard those might be around, but I figured that was just local myth. Cultivators and gods don't mix well." I chuckled a little, shaking my head.
He hadn't spent a lot of time here, yet. Over a dozen years now, but mostly in a backwater village, away from all major religions, mythologies, and other such things. His people worshipped a minor mountain god that was fairly active in the area, having taken a shine to the local mountain ranges. I don't think my name, or any variation thereof, had ever reached the village.
"I wonder how long it will take you?" I mused aloud, folding my hands behind my back.
"You're not going to tell me?"
"No. I'm challenging you. Come find me. Tell me who I am. Just call my name, and I'll come to you." This little challenge would do a lot, actually. I'd love to hear about the Four Realms from an outsider's perspective, and someone who knew me before I became who I am. "I trust it won't take you too long."
"…I don't think you understand what you just asked me to do." The Rival said slowly, a challenging gleam sparking in his aura. I leaned over the table, until we were eye level and our noses were inches away. My smile had to be nothing short of giddy as I stared into his eyes. This? This could be fun.
"The challenge has been laid all the same. As I recall you couldn't even figure out who all my past lives were, before. This time there are plenty of hints. I'll be waiting." And with that, I promptly vanished. I didn't merely let the incarnation fade, but wiped it away entirely, letting only the memories return to me and its energy sink into the land and, in that same motion, returned the Rival to the street he had been standing in before deciding to use the talisman, back on his home planet. The sun was starting to go down, and no one noticed the young, teenaged boy's sudden appearance among them.
I giggled to myself as my true body rolled its shoulders, looking away from playing with Kei toward the Physical Realm.
"You suddenly seem happy. That's suspicious." My granddaughter accused, rolling over from where she'd been playing in the mud of my garden, a victim of her own prank. She'd tried to dump a mudball on me, and now she had it all over her face and hair.
"I met an old friend. Today was a good day." I said, then immediately regretted my words as the nine-tailed fox girl perked up, ears twitching at the nugget of information I had let slip, a sinister smile stretching across her face.
"A friend?" she asked, sing-song.
…she was going to cause problems, wasn't she.
***
The Rival stared slack-jawed at his surroundings; at where the tavern and Sylvia had once been. Just a moment ago he'd been sitting there. Now he was standing, surrounded by a relatively familiar city, street vendors hawking their meat skewers and cultivators running about on the walls. Had she just – she had! Again! Given him a cryptic message and gone running off to who-knows where just because she knew it would annoy him enough to do what she asked!
Not only that, but that was high tier spacial manipulation! He hadn't even felt anything when he was teleported here; which wasn't saying a lot considering his cultivation level was piss-poor, but was saying quite a bit considering his experience in the subject. That was…that was just cheating! She couldn't give him a puzzle like this! He sucked at puzzles!
…but he loved a good challenge.
Shit.
"She doesn't seem to understand." He accused the air. "I am not the one who is challenged. I am the one who challenges. That is why I am the Rival." Predictably, the wind did not answer. But the challenge had been laid all the same, and he sighed dramatically, slumping over and letting his arms hang dramatically toward the ground. "Shit." And he straightened, his soul-fragment reaching up into the great power that floated outside of the Four Realms, the power that he had collected through the course of his uncountably long lifespan, to call upon something he rarely used.
A little screen appeared in front of him, green, almost like the chat room screen of an old video game, his username blinking at him. This was a little skill only the oldest of Monkey Wrenches could use, the ability to connect with others of their kind, no matter the distance. It took something like twenty five hundred lifetimes and meeting dozens of others to actually form.
{[contender69: yo, old buddy old pal, long time no annoy, got a sec?]}
A few heartbeats passed before he got a reply, which was honestly much quicker than he expected.
{[numba1: what do you want?]}
The Rival hesitated for just a split second, then cracked a grin and continued to type.
{[contender69: i ran into an old flame and imma go chase her. mind calling a truce? you don't do any crazy plans, i don't annoy you, how does that sound?]
[number1: your reincarnated? I didnt see u coming in. Where did u reincarnate?]
[contender69: the four realms???]
[number1: Im not there.]
[contender69: nice, nice we havent been split up in a while. Truce then?]
[number1: pretty sure we have to, since we aren't near each other. which is nice. might actually get to plan some things.]
[contender69: siiiiick. so i wont see u even if i wanted to. dont do anything too crazy without me. see ya!]}
And with that, he logged off and cracked his fingers one by one, looking up at the sky and pointing dramatically, heedless of the weird stares he got because of it.
"Just you wait, realms! I'm about to hit you!" then he paused, remembering his deal with the Overgod about being mostly an observer. Considering his goal now… "Well, maybe not hit you, but at least you will be graced with my presence! The game is officially on!"
"What are you doing?!" he flinched the moment his sister's yell pierced his ears, slumping over and fearfully looking over his shoulder at her, storming toward him with hair whipping about her head as a result of her furious qi. "I told you to get tea!"
"Uh…I did, but I met a beautiful girl and she drank it?" he tried weakly. Predictably it had little effect on his sister as she stormed towards him. He fled, cackling the whole way, a spring in his step and a song in his heart as he scrambled away.