Volume 5 – Chapter 4 (in-editing v1)

Volume 5 – Chapter 4

As soon as the faintest hints of awareness formed in Micheal’s consciousness, he woke up in an instant, instincts honed by a decade of survival in the 7 Layers kicking in.

As he came to, memories of his battle with Orion and the ambush they had just avoided flooded into him. His Ki resonated within him, no longer flagging and weak, but fully rested and restored. The Mana Circles in his Soul glimmered, teeming with power and primed for combat.

‘Hmm…’ After a moment’s consideration, Micheal nodded as he reached a conclusion.

‘The Crown of the Angel King has no lasting side-effects on me.’ It was a welcome discovery, confirming his conjectures that he could dodge its negative side effects through the use of his Life Orbs.

Micheal was still in the cave, sitting down on the sleeping mat he’d bought from the Shop. Shin, and his mat, were both gone, but it wasn’t exactly hard to guess where they went. He could hear his friend outside cooking.

Micheal began to stand up, storing the mat and pillow in his Spatial Ring. He had fallen asleep fully dressed, exhaustion overtaking him before he could even take off his shoes.

‘Not that I would have, regardless.’ Most humans that survived for long enough learned to sleep in their Cloud Stepping Shoes on the Third Layer.

‘I need to talk to Shin about that… and everything.’

As Micheal exited the cave, he took note of his surroundings. The air was comfortably warm, which meant very little. The lack of a Sun on the Third Layer meant temperature remained fairly consistent and seasons, like Winter or Summer, simply didn’t exist.

Everything just was.

The Third Layer was a strange world.

“Heyo, Shin.” Micheal turned to his left, sensing his best friend just off to his side. As he turned, a small blue Life Orb emerged from his right hand and slowly began to rotate around his arm. After being forced to use up his Life Orb reserves in his fight with Orion, it felt good to have a new Life Orb ready to go.

Micheal found Shin just a few meters away from the cave entrance, hunched over a small fire, holding a black cooking pan. A few patties of sausage and eggs sat cooking, sizzling faintly in the still air.

“Yo. Preciate the rescue, big dog.” Shin said with a wince, bloodshot eyes piercing towards Micheal as he nodded. He looked slightly paler than usual.

“I sure do like not being dead.”

Micheal rolled his eyes, and then nodded back.

The morning hangover after you overdrew your Ki was never pleasant.  

He hunkered down next to Shin, dragging over a small boulder that must’ve weighed close to a thousand pounds and placing it down on the other side of the fire. He then opened the Shop and bought himself a quick breakfast, a couple of hearty sausage and cheese kolaches and an apple.

As he scarfed down his food, he sat in silence with Shin, sharing a moment of solidarity.

The quiet calm of the morning sat at odds with the frantic, fast-paced attacks and battles of the previous day.

Even now, Micheal still felt himself adapting to the fact that he had already left the Second Layer and arrived on the Third. Earlier than he had planned on leaving, it was true, but not by much.

He couldn’t afford to dilly-dally in the lower Layers, not when events in the higher Layers demanded his attention.

As he finished eating, he noted, with some amusement, that some things never changed.

In both timelines, this one and the original, Shin enjoyed cooking his own meals, despite the fact that the Shop sold perfectly fine, already cooked meals.

Shin’s favorite breakfast food also remained unchanged: freshly cooked bacon, cheese, and mayo on toasted bread with a side of scrambled eggs. The familiar scent brought back a wash of nostalgia, for times long ago, and now, yet to come.

‘We truly are blessed.’ Micheal couldn’t even fathom how difficult life would have been if Humanity never possessed the Shop.

The Shop provided the Human Race with an incredibly stable and easily accessible source of food and clean water. This aspect of the Shop proved to be incredibly valuable here on the barren Third Layer, where more than half of all floating islands were practically uninhabitable.

Micheal stood up and walked away from their camp, finding an obscure side of the floating island to relieve himself. After washing his hands with a small globe of water he conjured using a basic Spell, he began to head back towards Shin, his mind shifting gears as he focused on the day ahead.

“Shin – how’re you holding up?” He spotted his best friend packing up his cooking supplies.

“Better, now that I got some food in me. I took a Mid-Tier Healing Pill too, it’s bearable.” He looked less pale, a bit of color returning to his face.

“Good. Before anything else, we need to talk.” Micheal jumped right into it as Shin paused before slowly nodding, a serious glint appearing in his eyes.

Briefly, Micheal explained his conjectures about the attack they had dodged. He had already explained to Shin who Jay sol Arget was back on the Second Layer, but now he went into even more detail, explaining exactly who Aaron Bartram was, who Bastien Amiot was, and outlining his plans for the Third Layer.

Shin didn’t question his source of knowledge, long since accepting his friend’s powerful ‘Seer’ explanation as fact.

Micheal also explained a certain added need for caution they would need to have going forward, in light of the time-travelling ambush.

“Hey, at least there’s a silver lining there. If we’re being targeted from the future, that means we must’ve made a difference, right? Enough to be noticed.” Shin’s unwavering optimism continued to not fail him.

“Yeah.” Micheal shrugged, before slowly nodding.

“I guess that’s true.” It was perhaps the nicest way to describe their current situation.

“Regardless - it was a smart ambush, hitting us at our weakest with no time to prepare.” It was how Micheal would have gone about eliminating his enemies if he had the option. Professional, cold, and decisive, without a hint of ego or any trail leading backwards.

If nothing else, despite the fact that the attack failed, it stood as a stark warning. They were being hunted by a powerful being that was both extremely skilled, and extremely careful.

‘Jay sol Arget’s Soul should be crippled by now, but he’s still a Titled Deity.’ It was entirely possible they might end up having to face the Deity in direct combat.

“Sophia knows where to find us, but I don’t think we should plan on finding her anytime soon.” Being separated again was unfortunate, but inevitable, given the circumstances.

He couldn’t predict where she would appear on the Third Layer, and therefore couldn’t count on her finding them anytime soon either. Sophia would know that as well, but at least the notebook he gave her had more than enough information to guide her in his absence.

‘She’s smart and incredibly talented. She’ll be able to handle herself.’ Micheal had left an incredibly positive impression on the Lord Justiciar and the Farians as a whole, which should make her life far easier.

‘The same applies to Serena.’ If there was one thing Micheal was frustrated about, it was from being separated with Serena so quickly. She would have been an excellent addition to his team, but that relied on her continuing to climb up the 7 Layers, a decision Micheal now had no way to influence.

It was a callous way to think, he quietly acknowledged, but needs must. The reality of humanity’s fate forced him to consider every option, every opportunity.

“Anyway, before we get moving, there’s one more thing…” Micheal waved towards the clothes he was wearing as he changed topics,

“We need to change outfits.”

.. .. .. .. .. ..

The Third Layer constituted a pre-industrial, medieval society dominated by city-state enclaves ruled by local nobility. The latent energy in the air interfered, to some degree, with some of the small ways physics worked.

Technology that might work fine on Earth, or the First and Second Layers, became far more finnicky and unreliable on the Third. Magic could replace technology, to a degree, but never entirely.

Fashion, likewise, was also regressed.

Micheal adjusted the loose, brown leather shirt, and comfortable, padded, dark brown leather pants he had changed into. A large, black cloak wrapped around his back, its hood drawn back and resting on his shoulders. At his right hip, the sheathed form of his sword, Lightshorn, rested, ready to be used at a moment’s notice.

Micheal had also stored his new pair of Neo-Levitation Bracers in his Spatial Ring, keeping them handy just in case.  

He looked the spitting image of some of the more agile mercenaries or hunters many Void Nobles employed. He didn’t look rich, but was clearly not a peasant, dressed in nice enough, specialized gear to label himself the opposite of an easy target. His muscles were thick and corded, his rigorous Ki and training improving his physique to a tremendous level, and readily apparent through his clothes, the carefully cultivated appearance of a skilled and powerful veteran.

As Micheal waited for Shin to finish changing, he considered his most pressing goals, breaking it down in his head.

‘Aaron dies at some point before the Fifth Wave.’ With 5 months left until the Fifth Wave began, the time range they had left was sizable. The White Knight's death was believed to have happened in the final months before the Fifth Wave, but…

‘I can’t rely on that. Our presence and that ambush indicate the future may have already changed.’ He couldn’t afford to be sloppy now, not when mankind’s fate was on the line.

‘I need to hurry, too. I can’t waste too much time here on the Third.’ Micheal thought with a frown, his eyes creasing.

With only 5 months remaining before the Fifth Wave began and brought a billion more humans to the First Layer, Micheal also had to consider his longer term plans.

‘Sion Swordsoul kills the Endall Tree at the end of the Fifth Wave, around 17 months from now.’ The devastating attack had horrific long-term consequences, turning the Fifth Layer into a hellish landscape, and was one of the main reasons why the Jester of Fate, Bosmend Jingleton, gained such absolute influence over the lives of others.

‘It would take around 19ish months to travel to our exit point out of the 3rd Layer if we go by land.’ Shin’s long distance teleportation might be able to put a dent in those numbers, but even if he cut their travel time in half, it was still too much.

‘We’ll have to cross the Empty Sea.’ It would shave off almost a year from their travel time, dropping them down to 7-8 months, at the most.

‘It will also put us exactly where we need to be.’

Bastien Amiot, as best Micheal knew, lived on the border of the Empty Sea inside the Atlas Duchy. He didn’t have an exact location, but it was still more than enough information to find the wayward Swordmaster. On the Third Layer, at the present moment, there were far fewer humans than on the Second Layer. There simply hadn’t been enough time for most people to climb up, humanity was still very much in the early period of their development.

Micheal would be surprised if there were even more than 50,000 humans present on the Third Layer.

‘Most humans are still spread out. The Purgatory Church and the Knights of the Round Table are both trying to rectify that, but…’ He shook his head.

The Purgatory Church was, or soon would be, undergoing a schism as Dark Void split off from them, while the relatively newly formed Knights of the Round Table were busy trying to develop a reputation that would force arrogant Void Nobles and Heroes alike to think twice.

‘The Revolutionaries are also active right now.’ Micheal paused as the thought struck him, carefully considering the timeline ahead.

It was an event before his time, an organization Micheal never interacted with in the original timeline.

The ‘Revolutionaries.’ A group of radical humans that sought to destabilize the regimes and ruling order of the Void Nobles, to incite rebellion and rise up against the noble caste. This early radical human organization turned Humanity on the Third Layer into a pariah race, at least until the Round Table made a name for itself.

‘The Void Nobles wouldn’t care about a small group like them normally…’ There were dozens of other races arriving on the Third Layer, all climbing up the 7 Layers just like humanity. Humans, in their small numbers, didn’t stand out all that much.

‘But…’

The Revolutionaries were competent.

Extraordinarily competent.

Because, of course they were.

Constantine Lancaster demanded nothing less than perfection.

‘Of course Constantine has to have a hand in every major conspiracy we come across.’

The Commander of the Revolutionaries, Hayden Montacerry, was later identified as one of Constantine’s men. While no other members were confirmed Seeded, Micheal felt it was safe to assume most, if not all, were under Constantine’s influence.

“…we’re already much too late to interfere with them.” The Revolutionaries were one of Constantine’s earliest major schemes, started during the Second Wave well before Micheal was Chosen.

‘And even if we could…’ Micheal shook his head.

For once, he had no intention of clashing with Constantine.

Society on the Third Layer was almost entirely centered around the existence of Apex Void Predators. Only a Hero was powerful enough to fight off an Apex, so no major city-state could exist safely without the protection of a Hero, thus spawning the lineages of a Void Noble.

The Revolutionaries had a simple goal:

Kill every Apex.

Without any Apexes alive, the entire socio-political order of the Third Layer would undergo tremendous unrest, as the very fabric binding the necessity of Heroes and their lineages would be dissolved, as would the one, uniting enemy all Void Nobles no longer shared.

It was a clever plan, with far more going on under the table than anyone realized until much, much later, and exactly the mix of indirect and direct attacks that Constantine loved to utilize.

‘Aaron and his Knights frequently travel, but they also keep close to the Empty Sea.’ Most populated areas bordered the Empty Sea, and his Knights weren’t prepared to expand beyond that yet.

‘Aaron began hunting his first Apex around this time. He might’ve even already killed it.’  It was an act that jumpstarted the Round Table’s reputation.

‘That’s where we’ll start.’

Micheal stirred from his thoughts as he looked up, feeling Shin teleport into existence to his right.

His best friend was dressed in darker versions of what Micheal was wearing, a black leather shirt, black leather pants, and a dark grayish black cloak. On his feet were a pair of Cloud Stepping Shoes, donned at Micheal’s insistence.

Despite the little use he’d made of it, Shin had also strapped a sword to his waist, mostly for appearance’s sake. The culture of the Third Layer had a very distinct impression of what mercenaries were supposed to look like, and walking around without a sword at his waist would make him stand out.

Micheal gave Shin a thumb’s up, and received one back in return.

“Alright, Shin. Before we leave, I’ll say it one last time.” Micheal began,

“Going forward, we’ll need to be careful about what we say, especially in the Atlas Duchy. Their lineage’s ability to scry the past can’t really be avoided.” Irritating Abilities like this only became more common as one travelled higher up the 7 Layers.

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. My lips are sealed, and I’ll talk in code if I have to say anything sensitive.” Shin returned, before holding out a clenched fist.

“Let’s save the world, bro.”

Micheal couldn’t help but to smile and stuck out his own fist, bumping against Shin’s.

“Already on it.”

“Let’s go!”

.