ROTLE- Chapter 167- Something Greater

Alobam had lost interest. Aiden could see it in how the colors in his eyes seemed to dull and die out. The giant’s smile waned a little. It almost dipped into a frown but he kept it in place.

He held it for what seemed to last forever before he just deflated.

“Did it have to be that?” he asked. “There are a million more things that you can ask, why does it have to be that one.”

Aiden was not dissuaded by Alobam’s disappointment. “Because it is the one that matters,” he answered.

“But have you ever wondered if you are even fit for your home anymore?” Alobam raised a brow at him. “Think about it. If you go back home the way you are, will you fit in? And if you go back home without your class and what comes with it, will you be happy?”

Aiden had thought about this so many times in his past life, enough times that he had, at certain points, not wanted to go back home. If he returned home with powers, what would he do with them? Would he simply keep them to himself and live a life dedicated to being normal? Could he even take a wife?

It was rarely a problem on Nastild, but everyone knew that there was aa difference between those with levels and those without. There was a level of physical protection that came with having mana. As for the relationship between those with classes and those without, it required a significant level of control, control that he possessed.

I could teach Ted, he’d always taught. Control could be taught.

Then he had wondered about returning to Earth only to find himself powerless. That had been a thought that had plagued him for a while. All that power, just to give it all up. Had he though that it would be worth it? No. In his opinion, he had not wanted to give up his abilities.

But he had continued to dream of a way. Why? Because of Ted. He had to get his brother home because his brother wanted to go home.

What about now? he asked himself. You have what it takes to be more powerful than you ever were.

But was it enough to abandon his wish to return to Earth?

“That’s a lot of thinking, Walker,” Alobam said. His smile was returning now. “Thinking so much. Would you like to make another purchase?”

Aiden forced determination into his gaze and looked at him. “You are no genie. You are not Iblis. It’s not like I get one wish.”

Alobam’s eyes lit up. His smile was feral now. “There he is,” he said. “There the master is, a piece always left in those he has touched, spreading the order of his chaos like a loose seed.”

He knows the master, Aiden thought. Of course he knows the master.

In the Order there were rumors that the master had been present for the sundering. The division of Nastild. If that was true, it would mean that he and Alobam would’ve met.

“The price of this product,” Alobam began, “is an enchantment.”

Aiden could do that.

Releasing the reins of his jepat, he folded his arms over his chest. “What enchantment would you like?"

"Oh no.” Alobam tsked at him, wagging his index finger. “I give you an enchantment, not the other way around.”

Aiden’s brows furrowed in suspicion, in distrust. A realization came to him slowly. Throughout the entire conversation Alobam had not looked at his blackened arm, not once.

“If I may,” Ted said.

“I hope that you may not,” Alobam was quick to interject. “But, alas, what is hope but things we cannot control.”

“Hope is more than that,” Elami said quickly, as if the very premise challenged his principles.

Alobam chuckled lightly. “Tell that to Oncot the Bloodied over there.”

That got Aiden’s attention. The others might not have known, but he did. He looked back at a quiet Oncot. The man had stiffened on his jepat, silent as a still breeze.

Bloodied, Aiden thought.

The others had looks of interest in their eyes. It was probably at the knowledge of Oncot having a titles. Titles, after all, were an interesting thing on Nastild.

But Aiden knew better. In Oncot’s tribe, being called Bloodied was a brand, and not a good one.

“What does it mean?” Feira asked, she had the decency to address Oncot and not Alobam.

Oncot’s eyes were on Aiden. Aiden read them. The large man did not want him to ask. He was hoping that he wouldn’t ask, maybe even praying.

Aiden didn’t have to. Very few people held that title, fewer still lived to have it. To be bloodied in Oncot’s tribe meant to have slain an entire family, and not just a family, a royal family of the tribe.

That was not an easy feat.

“Here.”

Aiden turned his head back to Alobam and found the giant holding out his hand. In his palm was an enchantment Aiden had never seen before. It left him disconcerted to see something he did not know, specifically an enchantment he did not know. Even worse, he could not understand it.

It had curves that were straight and squares that were circular. Aiden frowned, knowing that it was impossible. In situations like this, it was nothing but a trick of the enchantment. His brain simply could not understand it.

Ted grabbed Aiden by the arm. His grip was strong, firm, almost painful. Aiden’s head snapped to him immediately.

“What!?” he hissed.

Ted gave him a no nonsense look. It was enough to calm Aiden. Once Aiden was calm, Ted raised his other hand and touched the skin between his nose and upper lip.

Aiden mirrored the action, touched his upper lip. His finger came away warm and stained with blood.

He looked back at Alobam.

The giant shrugged. “It is not my fault that you are not strong enough. People shouldn’t go around trying to understand enchantments that they are not supposed to understand.”

Aiden couldn’t agree more. In fact, it was one of the things he taught his enchantment students back at the Order.

“Don’t feel bad,” Alobam said. “There are people more powerful than you who wouldn’t be able to fathom what this is. That said, would you like to make this purchase?”

Aiden paused, gave it a thought. “What does it do?”

“Nothing harmful to you and yours.”

“Where will you put it?”

Alobam grinned. “Let’s not act like we don’t know.”

“My arm.”

“Yes,” Alobam nodded. “Your arm.”

Aiden held his blackened arm up, and Alobam nodded once more.

Ted leaned into Aiden. “This doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

“It’s a way home,” Aiden pointed out.

“Exactly. A way home, which means that there are other ways.” Ted’s voice was firm. “We can look for them.”

“Eleven years, Ted,” he told him. “Eleven years and you only barely found a way. And you were powerful. This is a way.”

“This is a shortcut.”

“This is me trying to get us home!” Aiden snapped. “Don’t you get it? There is no shortcut here. This is about getting back to mom and dad. They must be worried sick.”

“I wouldn’t be in a hurry to say that,” Alobam said. “But fair point. So, would you like to make this purchase?”

“What do you mean you wouldn’t be in aa hurry to say that?” Aiden asked.

At the same time, Ted asked, “What is the enchantment supposed to do?”

“I’m sorry,” Alobam said very slowly, seeming to address the both of them, “but I do not have that in stock.”

The giant’s words filled Aiden with new worry. “I will like to make the purchase.”

“Aiden Lacheart!” Ted hissed.

“This purchase has been made,” Alobam said. “In the library of living truth, there is a section called ‘the wont’ you’ll find a book of exiles. Your answer is in the last three pages.”

“That’s not enough,” Aiden said, feeling cheated.

“Because I am not finished,” Alobam replied, unbothered. “If you do not want to follow that route, then you can cut through it and head to the—”

“Frost mountains,” Aiden cut him off. “I know that. Tell me something I do not already know.”

Alobam paused. “Alright tthen, something you do not already know. The third mountain on your right in the frost mountains to the north of Atlanaian. Ask for the elder Dlob.”

Aiden swore under his breath.

At the same time, Fjord asked, “Where is Atlanaian. I know a lot of places on Nastild and have never heard of such a place.”

“That’s because it is not on this side of Nastild,” Aiden muttered. “It’s on the other side.”

He’d really been hoping that he would not have to cross the boundaries. Because the only way to cross the boundaries was by becoming a system sanctioned monarch or swearing fealty to a system sanctioned monarch. The former was an impossible feat and he was not willing to do the latter.

“The purchase has been made,” Alobam said suddenly, “and my time is up. Use the products purchased wisely. Don’t do anything you shouldn’t do.”

“Alobam,” Elami said as the giant turned to leave.

The giant paused, looked at him. “I’m listening.”

“I wish to make a purchase.”

Alobam’s brows furrowed. A slight frown creased his lips. “I do not like you. You know this. You know why.”

Aiden looked back at Elami. He didn’t remember Alobam having anything against anybody. The giant was supposed to be far above people, uncaring of them, often treating them with intrigue at best.

“I can understand that,” Elami said with a nod. “But I am harmless, wishing no harm. You know this. Your dislike is a bias.”

Alobam nodded. “It is. What would you like to purchase.”

“I want the wielder of Nosrath.”

“Even if you will not need it?”

“It does not matter. I would like to purchase the wielder of Nosrath.” He seemed defiant. “Do you have it in stock?”

“I do.”

“And what is the price?”

Alobam gestured to the wares behind him. Chests of varying sizes and designs. Gold and wood. Silver and tin. It was eerie to see a chest made of nothing but tin.

“I will leave behind two of these and you must choose to open one,” he answered. “That is the price.”

Elami shrugged. “That’s fair.”

“We also need a storage space that can hold the thing on Aiden’s chest,” Zen interrupted.

Alobam looked at him. “I apologize but we do not have that in stock.”

“What if I want it?” Aiden asked, unable to believe that he had not asked for such a thing. In his defense they had gone into the purchase of knowledge that he had all but forgotten that the merchant of Nosrath was in fact a merchant who sold wares.

Alobam looked at him, then the pouch on his chest, then back at him. “I am sorry but we do not have that in stock.”

“I will make our purchase,” Elami interjected, looking annoyed at being cut off. Then again, it was justified since the others hadn’t been cutting each other off.

Alobam nodded as if their conversation had not been interrupted in the first place. He held out his hand and what looked like a lung appeared upon his palm.

“The wielder of Nosrath,” he said simply.

Elami moved his jepat forward but the item floated from Alobam’s hold and settled in the air in front of him. Elami gave the giant a scornful look but took the item carefully.

“Your bias has been the undoing of so many, merchant,” he said. “You are old enough to know this.”

“I am.”

Alobam turned and started walking. He treaded a path that led to the walls that Aiden and the others had just walked through. As he moved the chests turned slowly into golden dust, gold, wood, and tin alike. And the wind blew them away.

All that was left were two chests of gold and tin.

Alobam bent as he reached the archway and Aiden frowned at that. He had bent lest his head hit the top. Aiden’s distance and height calculations were most often correct. The raised archway was at least twelve feet tall.

Wasn’t he around eight feet?

“That’s a tall motherfucker,” Zen muttered.

Curious, Aiden asked him, “How tall?”

“I don’t know.” Zen shrugged. “Maybe twenty feet?”

Zen was a commoner lacking actual education, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew his measurements.

“Fifteen,” Feira said, wishing to correct him.

Aiden frowned, had the merchant been under a glamor or was he just—

Pain went through his arm and he groaned. He looked down at the blackened arm with a frown. There was a gentle white glow on his wrist, a glow that came and was gone just as quickly. Then the pain left as well.

“Giants,” Elami muttered under his breath. “Annoying creatures. Anyway,” he looked around, “can someone help me with the opening?”

Fjord was already coming down from his jepat and walking over to the chests.

“Which one?” he asked.

“How about both?” Zen said.

Elami scoffed. “If you’re trying to get us killed. Open to the gold.”

Fjord did as instructed. He went through the process of trying to figure out how to open it, looking for a lock or something, before simply just lifting the lid up. He paused, obviously surprised.

Then the chest let out an ear piercing shriek. It was loud, reaching so far that Aiden doubted there was anybody within a two mile radius that did not hear it.

It lasted all of three seconds before it went silent.

Then the two chests disappeared.

“What the hell?” Ted asked. “Was that supposed to be some kind of prank?”

Elami frowned. Aiden groaned in annoyance. Oncot smiled. In the end, it was Elami that answered Ted.

“That was not a prank.” He nudged his jepat so that it walked backwards slowly. “It was a cry.”

Oncot climbed down from his jepat and walked forward. With one hand he unstrapped his massive cleaver from his back.

“It calls to monsters around,” Elami finished.

“What kind of monsters?” Zen asked, drawing his sword.

“Monsters of every kind. It is just level specific.”

Feira’s jepat was already moving, falling back as Elami’s had. “Are we lucky enough to know what levels this one called?”

Aiden heard the sound of footsteps, only then did he realize that they were on a plateau of grassland with no road. He looked around and there was nothing but grassland as far as the eyes could see. Not a single tree to obstruct his vision, nothing to hide behind.

Then where was the sound of footsteps coming from? Apart from the wall behind them, where would the monsters come from?

“Lord Lacheart,” Feira all but shrieked.

It forced Aiden to turn, to look at her. He found her pointing to the side. His eyes followed and he froze.

What in the fuck?!

He watched a paw as large as his head hit the ground, stepping out of nothing but thin air. This was it. This was what was going to happen. The merchant of Nosrath had summoned the monsters.

Ted got down from his jepat with a frown.

“You know interesting people, Aida,” he said as his own summoned familiars began to crawl out of the ground as if from portals of their own. “Let’s do our best not to die.”

Aiden got down too.

“Let’s,” he agreed, as three more massive creatures came out of thin air as if the air was a portal between worlds.

Above their heads each had a level. The lowest was level ninety. And each beast was taller than a man. Still, Aiden didn’t feel as if they were going to lose for one simple reason. A single word hovered above their heads and he was very much aware of their presence.

Aiden read the word with a smile.

Prey.

…

Nalbath of the North sat quietly, stroking a chest of as small as a human’s head on his massive palm. There was a solemn look on his face, a sadness for what he had sone.

It was necessary, he told himself, knowing it to be true.

There was rarely ever only one way to do things in his life, but this was the surest way. It was the only way that he could say with certainty the desired outcome would be certain.

But they were just children… are just children, he corrected.

He stroked the chest once more with a single finger. The size of the chest paled in comparison to the tip of his finger. Yet the chest itself was so powerful, keeping everything in lock. It held secrets that even he did not know, secrets that he could not unlock.

Nalbath sighed.

He missed the days when he was nothing but a simple giant. The days before he had been forced to become more by the actions of those around him. The thought brought the glamourous one to mind. Elami.

A scoff slipped from Nalbath’s lips. His hate was biased, but it was still hate. Hate did not have to make sense to be. It simply had to be for a reason.

“A chest beyond me,” he muttered. His words morphed the darkness in front of him, twisted and turned it as if a burst of air through a mist.

Nalbath hated and liked it here. It was as much his prison as it was his sanctuary. His freedom was only granted when Nosrath respawned and the rising darkness reached a certain level. If these two things did not coincide, he was not free to walk Nastild.

With a shrug of will, the chest vanished, along with its secrets. In many worlds it had many names. But there were still worlds that were unaware of its very existence. In the lands of Aiden Lacheart the Walker, it was popularly known as pandora’s box, some called it pandora’s vase.

But only if they knew how desperately wrong they were. The box was more than just that. The box was something greater, something so much greater that epics of creation were named after it.

He looked to the horizon before him, the horizon in the darkness. There was no sun or moon or sky or stars. But there was a horizon. A horizon that dwarfed even him in his true form.

Nalbath looked to this horizon with a sad smile.

“What do you think, old friend?” he said. “Will I ever find a way to Enuma Elish?”

The horizon said nothing back.

But he knew that it had heard him, for even in the darkness, an icon hovered over it. It was a simple icon with a simple description.

[Multiverse Agent Lvl Max]