Somebody Stop Him [A Progression Fantasy Epic]

Dr. Greyfield's yell seemed to slightly dislodge me of my Cinder-wing caused stupor.

Digging deep into my soul, I reached for the tiny sliver of Stollwurm skill I'd absorbed from Kat, letting it seep into my being. The world around me seemed to dim, colors fading at the edges of my vision. I felt a strange pull downwards, a sensation of sinking, of reality becoming less… solid.

Using Umbramancy, I willed myself to dive halfway into the Deep. Then, in a blur of motion, I streaked forward, feeling myself pass right through Cinder's body.

Spinning around, I swung the heavy magisteel shield with all my strength, aiming for the back of Cinder's head. The shield connected with a satisfying thwack, the sound echoing in the suddenly silent lab.

Cinder yelped, careening forward a step, her guitar strings twanging discordantly. She growled low in her throat, spinning around to face me, her blue eyes narrowed dangerously, wings flaring agitatedly.

"You bring rains?" I laughed, adrenaline surging through me, breaking free from the oppressive charm of her song as I dropped the shield onto the floor. "What are you, a kelpie now?"

Cinder's snout stretched, revealing sharp teeth. "Hey, thinking up lyrics on the fly is hard!" she growled back at me, rubbing the back of her head. "You try writing a song in five seconds!"

"Not a Bard," I shrugged.

Vespera giggled from her seat as Cinder swatted my head as revenge.

"Good show, Miss Nova! Your Charmchain focus has improved since we spoke last time. An excellent demonstration of Umbramancy, Mr. Glock!" Dr. Greyfield clapped with a delightful expression. "Bravo, bravo!" He gestured for us to return to our desks. "Please, take your seats, you two! A truly… illuminating display of Omnid skill interaction."

As Cinder and I returned to our corner inhabited by Vespera, Dr. Greyfield bustled over to the Astralscope, fiddling with the controls. The holographic projection lit up again, replaying the interaction between Cinder's Charmchain magic and my barrier shield in slow motion.

"Observe, class!" Dr. Greyfield declared. "Note how Ms. Nova's Charmchain threads focused and gradually penetrated the barrier shield! But the truly fascinating element, in my humble opinion, was Mr. Glock's… counter-maneuver!"

Black radial ripples exploded from the body of my hologram, showing me in 3rd person as I sunk into the deep, turning into a half-transparent shadowy version of myself that rushed forward.

The Dover Demon-Human Hybrid Omnid paused the replay, zooming in on the moment I'd streaked through Cinder. "See here, class! Mr. Glock utilized a partial dive into the Deep, effectively employing Umbramancy to phase-shift his body, becoming… less tangible. This ingenious application of shadow-diving allowed him to escape the mental hooks of Ms. Nova's Charmchain threads! A truly… inspired tactical choice! Any questions?"

A few hands shot up across the classroom. Dr. Greyfield beamed, gesturing towards the familiar Kelpie in the front row. "Yes, Ms. Rannoch?"

"Umm. Alex isn't a full Stollwurm, Dr. Greyfield," June pointed out, glancing at me. "How can he use Umbramancy?"

Dr. Greyfield chuckled. "Ah, an excellent question, Ms. Rannoch! A question that delves into the very heart of Omnid potential! And the answer, my dear, is… The Omnid Fractal Engine Heart!"

He tapped his chest for emphasis. "You see, my dear students, the Omnid Fractal Engine Heart is a truly remarkable organ! A limitless wellspring of magical potential, capable of… anything at all."

"Anything?" June asked.

"Absolutely anything," Dr. Greyfield affirmed. "An Omnid Fractal Engine Heart is not merely a biological organ–it is a limitless Astral-Fold-Strata nexus. A conduit to endless possibilities! It is capable of learning, adapting, mimicking, and mastering… theoretically, any skill, any ability, any magical art that exists within the Omniverse boundary reached by our gates!"

A ripple of excited murmurs went through the class.

"But if that's true," June commented, her watery mane swaying as she tilted her head, "then why don't all Omnids just… learn everything? Why are we limited to our… Omnitype skills?"

Dr. Greyfield chuckled. "Ah, Ms. Rannoch, that is the million-O-bux question, isn't it? The answer, my dear, is… Omnid nature."

Confused whispers.

"Laziness, my dear students! Plain, simple, good old-fashioned laziness!" The Instructor revealed.

A few students chuckled.

"The Fractal Engine Heart is capable of great achievements," Dr. Greyfield continued, his voice regaining its professorial boom. "But unlocking that potential requires… dedication. Focus. Effort! Most Omnids, I fear, are… creatures of habit. We are naturally inclined to rely on our innate talents, skills that come to us with ease."

He waved a spindly hand, making a pause. "It is… efficient, yes. Practical, perhaps. But hardly… ambitious! True potential lies not in clinging to the familiar, but in pushing beyond those self-imposed limitations! In exploring the boundless horizons of your Fractal Engine Heart! Mr. Glock's… inspired use of Umbramancy is a perfect illustration of this very principle! So, by the end of this semester, I want to see all of you try to learn a skill that is entirely outside of your Omnitype! Your first assignment will be a short essay about which skill you'd like to learn and why. Pick a partner from class and learn their skill over the coming months!"

Another hand shot up, this time from a Jersey Devil with bat-like ears and multiple piercings. "But… isn't it dangerous to try and learn skills outside of your Omnitype, Dr. Greyfield? I heard stories about Mystagogues… overloading their systems, hurting themselves, even… combusting?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A collective shudder rippled through the class. Dr. Greyfield, however, simply beamed, seemingly delighted by the morbid question.

"Ah, yes, the infamous Elisabeth Zartella incident!" he declared. "A cautionary tale, indeed, one brought about by our current reality of higher aetheric density. But let us not mistake caution for fear. Yes, there are risks involved in pushing beyond your comfort zone. The Fractal Engine Heart is a powerful Astral organ, and like any powerful engine, it requires careful calibration and control. Overexertion, misuse, or a simple lack of understanding can indeed lead to… unfortunate consequences such as… implosive combustion."

He paused, letting the word 'combustion' hang unspoken in the air for a dramatic moment. "However," he continued, his voice regaining its cheerful tone, "with proper guidance, with rigorous training, and with a healthy dose of discipline, those risks can be… mitigated. Minimized. Even… embraced, as part of the learning process! The curious thing about an Omnid Fractal Engine heart is that it is excellent at adapting to change. Why, if the Stabalist Order didn't fix all of your memories yesterday, you would have gradually awakened to them in a few months' time regardless. One does not need to be a Scrut to look inward!"

Another student, a Sasquatch with neatly groomed brown fur, raised his hand. "So Elisabeth Zartella actually died in the forties? Or did she never exist? I don't understand how the dimensional shift works exactly."

"Elisabeth Zartella died and she also didn't," Dr. Greyfield. "The awakening of the Wormwood Star superimposed another reality over ours, rewriting space and time. It is a bit of a paradox."

"Is that… bad?" Another student asked.

"Oh, it can be quite catastrophic," Dr. Greyfield nodded. "We shall get a visitor pretty soon, I suspect."

"A visitor?" The students stared at the Instructor.

"The Archangel of time," Dr. Greyfield said, pulling out a wardstone and tapping the runework on it. "Metatron, her name. Absolute Number Zero. Best we deal with her sooner rather than later. Prepare yourselves!"

Runescripts ignited across the classroom floor, glowing a vibrant emerald green. They pulsed with a low hum, focusing themselves into a precise circle pattern on the grey tiles. A single dark dot shimmered into existence in the air above the runic circle, hanging suspended for a heartbeat. Then, it wobbled unnaturally, expanding outwards, unfolding out of itself with geometric precision.

A figure materialized within the circle, coalescing from dark metal. It was an Angel, impossibly tall and slender, clad in reflective armor. Her form was distinctly female, yet utterly devoid of human warmth, all sharp angles and cold, metallic grace. Where a face should have been, there was nothing but a polished, mirror-like surface, reflecting the startled faces of the students back at them in distorted fragments.

The Archangel, Zero, looked left, then right, her mirror-head swiveling with an unnerving smoothness. Her gaze, though faceless, felt piercing, absolute. Then, a voice that was cold and sharp, echoed through the lab.

"Which one of you idiots broke time again?"

Every student in the room seemed to shrink back in their seats, a collective intake of breath filling the sudden silence. Zero's faceless gaze swept across the room, stopping abruptly, focusing on our corner.

"You!" the Archangel declared, her voice like the chime of a thousand distant, ice-cold bells. Her mirror-head tilted slightly, reflecting me, Vespera, and Cinder. "Why is it always you four? What do I have to do to get you to stop breaking time?!"

I gulped.

Dr. Greyfield coughed delicately behind the Archangel, as if suddenly remembering his manners. Zero spun around towards him, her entire figure folding and unfolding to face the old Omnid. "What?" she demanded, her voice laced with impatience.

Dr. Greyfield beamed. "Ah, Zero! A delightful surprise! Worry not, dear Zero, all is… well, and under control!" He gestured around the lab with an expansive wave of his hand. "A minor temporal anomaly, a slight… dimensional hiccup! Nothing that we cannot handle! The Stabalist Order is already addressing the… discrepancies, and soon the temporal flow will be back to its usual… linearity!"

Zero remained unmoved, her mirror-head still tilted slightly, as if considering Dr. Greyfield's words with deep skepticism.

"You are aware that currently your entire… world… is a giant, fractured mess, yes?" Zero crossed her arms.

"Well, yes, from a… cosmic perspective of an Omniscient observer, perhaps it is a tad… messy," Dr. Greyfield smiled. "But there are enough of us to correct things and to get everything back on track!"

Zero remained silent for a long moment, her mirror-head reflecting the fluorescent lights of the lab, the nervous faces of the students, Dr. Greyfield's enthusiastic grin, and my own increasingly bewildered expression. Then, with a sigh that sounded like the rustle of dying stars, she spoke again, her voice losing some of its sharp edge, becoming almost… weary.

"Assure me, Wizard," she said, her voice still devoid of emotion, but now carrying a hint of… resignation, "Assure me that this… 'situation' is being… corrected. That the damage to time is being… contained!"

"Oh it absolutely is!" Dr. Greyfield nodded vigorously. "Absolutely, Zero! Contained, corrected, and… meticulously documented, of course! Our Stabalists are handling the discrepancies with utmost efficiency. We are truly dedicated to Syntropy and Law, the beauty, if you will, of smooth linearity!" He beamed again, his smile wide and almost manic. "Everything is… under control, Zero. Perfectly… under control. You need not worry! Everything is being stabilized! We will make sure that no further temporal incidents occur!"

"Very well," Zero said.

She gave me another glare and then her figure wobbled and folded into itself, as if stepping out of reality, gone as if she never existed to begin with. The hexagrams on the floors dimmed.

Students stared with wide eyes at the spot where she existed a moment ago.

"So!" Dr. Greyfield beamed at us. "That was a demonstration of how to deal with Absolute Syntropic Entities!"

My hand shot up.

"Yes, Mr. Glock?" The old Omnid smiled.

"What was she?" I asked.

"The concept of stable time," Dr. Greyfield bobbed. "Metatron."

A hologram of a star entwined with a hexagon, entwined a bunch of circles manifested in the air at his command.

"Her job is to make sure that reality doesn't come apart into an incoherent mess," Dr. Greyfield explained.

"Numbers," I said. "You said that she's a… Number. What does that mean?"

"Zero is a truly ancient Agent of Order," the Instructor said. "Her xeno-classification is an Omnipresent Conceptoid. Some believe she was a lawful Omnid who ascended towards absolute limitlessness and is now working hard to prevent temporal paradoxes across the Omniverse. Others believe that she is a representation of the Omniverse itself, the song of the Machinery of the Stars, the Kabbalistic Word of 'Time'. We do know that she is attracted to temporal paradoxes. She is assuredly not to be trifled with, for she can erase a person out of time in a blink of an eye. As you have just witnessed, she can be asked politely to depart, if assured that we are fixing any temporal… issues ourselves."

"Can something like her be killed?" My lips asked.

"Theoretically her local avatar can be permanently terminated, yes," Dr. Greyfield shrugged. "You would need some kind of a limitless gun that can kill a god to do it, a weapon to break the laws of reality. Such is of course total nonsense."

The hair in the back of my neck stood up.

"Hang on," I said. "Isn't Metatron bound inside the Stratos Vault?"

"A fraction of her is," Dr. Greyfield explained. "One that was devoured and corrupted by the Wormwood Star and contained within a shard of the Leviathan hoarded by the dragon Clan. Omnipresent concepts can be imprisoned and free at the same time."

"Is that a paradox?" I asked.

"Sure is," the Instructor answered. "That's why releasing them can have such dire consequences."

He gave me a poignant look.