Chronicles of the True Wizard

Chapter 232 - Book 5

Moving his consciousness into his Mental World, while just a negligible fraction of it controlled his body in the real world, Felix appeared in his Soul garden. Grim appeared next to him in his ominous form a moment later.

"What did she do?"

Grim gave him a conflicted look, "At first, it was mostly… good… things."

Felix groaned, "Where is she?"

As an answer, Grim moved the two of them instantly into what appeared to be a palace. The walls were dark marble and hosted many murals with perfectly even gaps between each of them. The ceiling was missing however and instead, Felix looked up at various climates ranging from sunny to snowing to thunder storms to the bottom of the ocean. As they walked along the massive corridor, the climates above shifted from just skies, to mountains, deserts, beaches, tundra's and plains warped and wrapped around above them.

"Finally!" Felix was dragged out of his reverie by a familiar voice. His gaze snapped ahead of him onto Melody's projected form, bolting across the hall towards him. Instead of the clothes she had worn, she was wearing something that looked like a child's design made real in a fantasy movie. It wasn't discordant, but it was extravagant with a set of glistening armor and a billowing cape of shadow that appeared to distort reality behind her.

She leapt onto him, latching her arms around his neck, "I thought you'd forgotten about me."

"Forgotten about you? Your body is still draped over my shoulders and you're in my head."

She jumped back onto her feet, "Yeah, that's why I thought you had forgotten about me. It took me a while to figure out what was going on but… I think I've figured it out."

He cocked a brow and his head in confusion, What is there to figure out?

Grim responded without looking, Hear her out.

Melody, not privy to Felix's thoughts, assumed he was waiting for her to continue and so, she did, "In your Integration, you found something ancient."

"Like what?"

She quickly shook her head, "I don't know but from what I can tell, it seems to match everything I've heard about The Realms." She looked upwards at the missing ceiling and various landscapes above them.

"The Realms of Annihilation?"

"Yeah. This must be like, a prototype or just another realm like it. Somehow, it latched onto your Soul. This is what you use as a Soul Space, right? No one's ever found anything like The Realms but, your an integrated. There's always weird shit being unearthed from the past in Integrations."

Felix nodded slowly, "Like a realm?"

She shrugged defensively, "Well, I mean this is one of the most… insane things I've heard of but, I mean I've seen it now, I've felt it. Not much point in denying it."

"You said you thought I had forgotten about you?"

Her eyes widened as he jogged her memory, "Well, I spent a bit of time exploring. Visiting buildings, shops and just walking around. Then a few hours had passed and I was certain you'd have grabbed me by then. Then a few days passed and I realized you'd forgotten about me. So… I may have started… messing with things a little."

"What did you do?"

She held up her hands, "Nothing that bad, I just wanted to find the limits, you know? I talked to people and probed them. Tried to find the edges and the seams but… there was nothing to be found. That's when I realized, this is like The Realms, the time I spend in here must not even be attached to the real world at all."

"I see. How long have you been in here, in your time?"

"Almost 200 days. How long has it actually been?"

"Just over 15 minutes."

She gawked, "Oh man I can't wait for The Real Realms if they're anything like this."

"So you spent 200 days here. What did you do?"

"Oh right, so. At first I was just exploring, walking around and talking to people. I was convinced there had to be cracks somewhere, where something would give. By the way, it all makes sense now, about Mera and all that. Don't get me wrong, it's still super impressive you managed to move her outside of this Realm but she's not a construct."

Felix just offered her a blank expression, giving nothing away.

"Anyways, once I realized this was like The Realms, I figured I'd have some fun with it. Kind of like… practice. So, I started gaining favor, standing."

"Why?"

She threw her arms up in the air, "I don't know what else was I supposed to do? Moving on, I pretty quickly managed to weed my way into Arkade's political system and… well, one thing led to another and I helped Orion get reelected as Emperor."

"Reelected? Emperor?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot, "Yeah, it's an elective monarchy. Do you spend any time in here?"

Felix shrugged, "How am I supposed to track everything happening when time is completely detached? I have shit to do in the real world."

"Alright alright, fair enough. Yeah so, Orion was the one who set up the entire governing system of Arkade in the first place. He ruled as the fairly elected emperor for quite a while at which point, as would happen to any politician, people got unhappy. They blamed him and decided they wanted change."

Felix sighed a little but just kept listening.

"So, Samuel was elected in his place and they completely changed a bunch of things right out of the gate. As you can imagine, it was a disaster. He was ousted almost immediately but the people weren't ready to welcome Orion back just yet, they still blamed him for… well, basically everything."

Felix interrupted her story, "How do you know all this?"

Melody gave him a isn't-it-obvious look, "I just downloaded the history in the library. Anyways, they rotated through a bunch of Emperors until people finally realized how good they had had things with Orion so, he became Emperor again. This exact same thing happened again a little while later and once again, it was a disaster. That was when the library started letting people download history directly, so they could be better informed. At that point, it was too late though and Orion was disillusioned and tired of trying so hard."

Holy shit, things in here are way more complicated than I imagined. Also, Orion became Emporer?

Grim responded without giving any indication to Melody that they were having an internal conversation, Yeah, he set up the system of government and did such a good job that he just kind of stayed there for a while. It really did seem like his calling at the time.

"I was trying to solve a much smaller political problem at the time I downloaded all the history, by the way, download is a weird word, anyways… I learned about Orion and basically dropped everything. I ventured out to find him in the middle of nowhere where he had become a farmer with very well trained cattle."

"It took me a few days but eventually I managed to convince him to come back and try again but this time, I was going to help him make sure people were happy and stayed happy, you know with my… talents."

Huh. That sounds like an oddly perfect use of her abilities, manipulating entire civilizations, if a little dystopian.

"Well anyways, he was elected again in no time and I helped him out for a bit."

Felix nodded, "Sounds productive."

"Yeah well, that was my first 50 days or so."

That was just 50 days?

"After that, I traveled the Realm for a bit and eventually ended up at Alo'Ward where I helped Arysha transition from Founder and Dean to a more re

Kjarne, could have noticed her if he were paying attention but most often, he simply didn't bother. Her footsteps though, produced enough sound and were distinct enough from Fyrden's companions that he grunted, without turning in his throne at all, "I thought you ran away."

Melody scoffed, "No you didn't."

He just grunted.

She stopped a few meters behind his throne, forcing him to move if he wanted to face her instead of walking to him, "You summoned me."

"Days ago."

She shrugged slightly, "I had matters to attend to. I am quite busy you know."

His grunt this time was notably more exasperated.

"Well, if there's nothing else I have a few sponsors looking to meet…"

He groaned and rose from his chair, in a way that looked like he was old and decrepit despite his completely perfect physical form. Even through the thick layer of ruffled fur, he had the same rippling muscles that had been fashionable ever since Rhonan, which meant essentially forever.

Standing on the lower level and turning to face her, Melody's father was still taller than her by a large margin but she had carefully chosen the distance with which she stood so she wasn't looking upwards too much.

"Be done with this game. You cannot win."

She shrugged, "I think we have a decent shot."

His expression fell a little as he sighed, "You did well on the first day but you're only falling behind."

"Really?" Melody gestured towards one of the screens behind Kjarne, silently proud of herself for her impeccable timing. On the screen, Felix was in the process of flying through the smog looking for switches when suddenly an array of lights appeared in the sky.

Those lights spread out in a pattern then connected themselves all throughout the sky before diving into the ground and identifying the locations of the remaining switches.

Kjarne watched silently for a few minutes as they activated the switches then raced through the next room, the view shifting to Adaline as she obliterated the next two floors.

He grunted then turned back to Melody, "You've always had a knack for finding hidden talent." Then he shook his head and gestured with his snout towards a number of other screens, "It's not enough."

On the screens he had gestured to, Melody already knew what they held. Romar completely destroying massive castles like he was an unstoppable cannonball. Zeraxes throwing his Divine Bolt into the air, teleporting to it then striking the ground with Lightning, wiping out everything in sight then teleporting himself 8 times quickly to collect the keys that had dropped. Il Doras and his party projecting massive auras of warmth and comfort as they smited their enemies without even looking.

Shadelle using an army of Shadow Summons to single handedly search and clear the floor at once. Novren shooting an arrow through a boss then flying straight through the hole it left behind. Hyd, Lumeris, and a few elites not from Eramith were also displayed, all of them clearing floors far faster than Felix had been and even matching or slightly faster than Adaline was currently.

"I don't know what game you're playing, letting them fight for you but you must realize you can't win. You're falling behind and even if you did help, you aren't enough to make up all the difference."

She shrugged, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

He spun quickly in anger, "No. You've already wasted so much for these people."

"I'm not wasti-"

"I had three planets ready and dedicated just for you. You could have cleared them and The Realms in just half of your recruitment. Instead you opened a bakery and you refused to gain levels. I can only presume it was so you'd remain a similar level to the rest of your party."

"Just because I dedicated my time to something other than your grand plan for me, doesn't mean I've wasted it."

"You've been attached to others like this before, but never to your own detriment. We gave you leeway after The Shadow Dealer and the others but this is too far. You aren't just helping them, you're ruining yourself for them."

"No, I'm not. I just don't agree with your whole life plan for me. I don't want to be at some God's beck and call as their personal support bitch."

Kjarne snapped, "Enough!"

He sighed and scratched at his temple with his claws, "With the prophecy in place, time is quickly approaching where I need to either back another champion or declare my own. You will support them."

"Of course I'll support Fyrden if you declare him, he's my brother and he's not a complete tool like Talrain was, but I will not dropping everything for him."

"Dad," Fyrden sat up and scooted to the edge of the nest, "We all know it's not gonna be me. Don't waste your resources. As for Melody, when has she ever been wrong about people? They may not be the ones mentioned in the prophecy, but you know as well as I to never doubt her ability to read people."

Melody looked over and met her sibling's gaze for a moment, offering him an expression of gratitude before turning back to her father.

Kjarne looked at Fyrden with a cacophony of emotions mostly consisting of anger as his Aura began to spread, like smoke rolling out from his body and filling the room. As it did, the pressure it gave off increased until it was almost suffocating. Melody and Fyrden both managed to remain standing, because they had experienced it before, they both had Soul training and their Souls were created from his.

Fyrden's guests however, did not fare nearly as well. All of them looked like they were drowning in a matter of seconds.

Before they did however, a quiet whistling tune echoed throughout the room, in perfect harmony carrying an incredibly potent calming effect.

Just like that, the Aura vanished as Kjarne's emotions were calmed and he regained control of himself. As he closed his eyes and mentally reined in his emotional turmoil, Melody's mother gracefully rose from her seat and drifted over next to him, placing a gentle hand on his massive shoulder.

No one dared interrupt the silence for nearly a minute, even Fyrden's guests contained and suppressed their coughing and gasping as much as they could.

Finally, Kjarne sighed, "This prophecy… you're playing a dangerous game daughter." Then, he stepped forward and walked right past her, out of the room, "Fyrden. Enough play. It's time to train."

Fyrden quickly nodded, and hopped to his feet, equipping his armor from a spatial storage. He nodded to Melody then hurried along and followed his father out of the room.

With him gone, Fyrden's guests looked at each-other then scurried out of the room into one of the bedrooms as Melody's mother drifted over from the lower level to stand in front of her daughter.

She smiled warmly as she stood close enough that Melody could feel her body heat, and was completely enveloped by the core of her calming Aura, "You know your father can be as stubborn as a bear."

Melody snorted involuntarily and immediately regretted it, considering how awful the joke was.

Her mother leaned in, "Win this thing. Show him."

Melody wanted desperately to just accept what her Mom was saying at face value but her unique talents made it so she couldn't. She knew the real reason her mother wanted her to win, "Mom, I'm going to win for me."

She nodded as if she didn't have any ulterior motives in supporting her daughter, "Of course."

Melody pushed her mom away with both her hands, not aggressively, but forcefully, "Mom. Seriously, I'm not doing this to impress some other champion or God so they protect me. Why can't you just want me to win for me, why can't you ever want me to be my own person? Just because you spent your entire life dreaming about supporting a God doesn't mean I-"

"Melody."

Melody stopped and calmed herself with a quick breath. She knew what that tone meant. It was something they had come up with when she was much younger and much more obstinate. In fact, it made raising Melody a breeze in her Mother's eyes.

So, Melody reached out and felt her Mother's Soul. She felt everything and she understood what her mother was saying in its entirety, all the implicit meaning and context. She understood her emotional state and everything that went into why she was saying what she was saying. Why she felt the way she did.

Her mother genuinely believed it was the best way to protect her. Which also meant she genuinely didn't believe Melody could be her own person.

It wasn't anything Melody didn't expect. It wasn't anything she hadn't felt before. It was completely unsurprising and it was completely disappointing.

As much as Melody respected her Mother's position and beliefs that having someone protect her was the best way for her to survive and be happy, she just didn't agree. Especially not with her Mother's ideal candidates.

The memory ended and Melody turned to Peace and Felix, offering an expression of acceptance towards her situation.

"So you want to win, but you also don't because that's what your mother wants and you disagree with her reason." Peace cocked his head slightly, unsure of his own statement.

She sighed, "Not exactly…"

Felix nodded, "The only way to engineer this favorably is for us to be the underdogs then completely win, not just by a little."

Peace quickly nodded in understanding, "We need to make it irrefutable that we won because of all of us, not just because Melody started supporting us. Otherwise, your father would be right and it would have been better for Melody to support someone else."

Melody nodded, "He basically thinks of me like a multiplier, which isn't… wrong it's just… not the whole picture. If I'm a multiplier, we need to prove you're the highest baseline to multiply."

Felix slightly cringed, "Or we prove that you're more than just a multiplier, a support for other people. That way… Look, I don't care what other people think. I don't want them to know about me."

Melody dropped her head to the side, "You know this is the end of staying under the radar. Not just if we win but even just competing. You must have already accepted that."

He sighed, "Of course. Still, why does it matter if we're the ones that are stronger than them?"

She shrugged, "If all I wanted to prove was my father wrong, it could be anyone. That's not what this is about though, not entirely, at least. You guys are better than them."

Peace slightly curtsied, "While I appreciate the vote of confidence-"

She shook her head, "Seriously, you guys are way different than the other students. I've told you this before but, Felix you genuinely enjoy what you're doing and have no ulterior motives. Peace is literally just having fun and trying to figure out who he is. Adaline is… more normal but… I can at least respect her motivations."

Felix shrugged, "Thanks… I guess."

Melody sighed, "Another reason… I grew up surrounded by Gods. Not just my father and his dealings, but he was visited, there were parties, and I was introduced. Do you know how many people at those party's were there just to have fun and see people? Do you know how many of them weren't scheming to ingratiate themselves with someone, plant a seed or even just spy on someone?"

"I'm guessing not a lot."

She shook her head, "Not one. Maybe at one time at a specific party but everyone who's gotten to where they are, have very specific personalities. For whatever reason, you and Peace are close to all these others who have trained or shmoozed their entire lives and so, it's a chance to go against the Gods. Show them that the way they do things is… not the only way."

Felix tilted his head a few degrees, "They can't all be that bad, right? Thorin and Blizz seem normal. Amatara?"

"Thorin and Blizz are focused on their own relationship and sharing that with others, sure. They still focus on who can most benefit them and their power though. If you weren't as strong as you are, they wouldn't have offered you a recruitment. If they didn't think it would benefit their futures, they wouldn't have bothered. It's not like they take in anyone. Amatara… I can't really read her and I've only met her once, you might be right. You know who stands out to me as being better?"

They both shook their heads.

"Akaroth. As awful as he is, he's perfectly clear about what's happening and… I can respect that. He doesn't go around and manipulate anything. He's completely up front. It's why I don't use my shifter abilities."

Felix's eyes widened, "Your what?"

She cocked her head, surprised by his confusion, "You know, how all my siblings shift something about them? Talrain is a personality shifter, Fyrden is a build shifter, Tanryel is a brain shifter-"

Peace shook his head and squinted, "What does a brain shifter mean?"

"He can shift his brain to be better at certain tasks. Honestly, kind of boring." She shrugged, "Anyways, I'm a desire shifter."

Felix's jaw dropped in realization, "You're a succubus…"

She nodded, "Yeah. It's basically just an Aura thing and the main reason I'm so good at reading people. I need to know someone's desires to reflect them. I just learned to tune into the whole reading thing which, I was just always really good at. I usually suppress the whole aura thing as much as possible because it becomes… problematic. Even still, the number of people that approach me…" She smirked, "You never wondered why?"

He shrugged, "I thought you were just famous."

"I am somewhat but, not that famous."

Felix slowly nodded, "So… when we walked into the arena? That was-"

"Yeah, exactly." She grinned with the side of her mouth, "You know, I was kind of hoping for some kind of reaction from you there. I knew Peace would be able to contain himself but…"

Felix shrugged, "Uh… Sorry?"

She released a long drawn out and exaggerated sigh, "A girl can dream."

"Are we done with this then, can we get back to figuring out how to win?"

Melody and Peace both nodded.

"First things first," Felix pulled up a number of screens from the outside and his own memories of The Abyss, "Why are these things so strong? Every enemy I've fought in there, is way stronger than I expect for their level."

She nodded, "It's because your descending further into the past with each floor. It's less noticeable now but later on, you'll fight things at your level and they'll seem like they're at least a grade above you."

He nodded, "At the party in Osgard, you mentioned this. I thought it would be mostly items and be way more gradual."

She shook her head, "Around floor 450, you'll be fighting almost entirely Ancient enemies. They won't identify like that though."

"Wait… what?"

Peace nodded, "Some people think it's because the floor is in the past and so, there, they aren't Ancient."

Melody nodded like that was a perfectly logical explanation, "Yeah, exactly. Point is though, they'll be way strong. Like, you remember the Ashound, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah. Took me a while to finally kill that thing."

"Right, that's not just because it was higher level than you. Abilities and strengths will start to become weird, like being able to duplicate yourself from ash."

Felix looked to Peace, "Why do they get stronger the further back it goes?"

Peace shrugged a little, "This is one of the secrets The Reaper hasn't shared. From what I've seen though, it's mostly Anima density. Will power and Soul Strength was just better. For example, that Ashound couldn't split itself unless it had enough Anima to literally split its Soul."

"Is that why items get better too?"

Peace cocked his head a bit, "There are also some materials that just don't seem to exist anymore. I've asked The Reaper many times but this is probably the one secret he wants to share the least."

"Does Rhonan know? He's been around since the first integration?"

Melody shrugged and Peace shook his head, "No, I doubt it. Maybe he's learned why on his… adventures but, I'm pretty sure this all started before The System."

Felix just looked at the two of them, "I don't understand why neither of you aren't more worried, interested, curious about this."

They looked at each-other and shrugged.

"What am I supposed to do? Who do I go to to ask what is happening and why?"

Peace nodded in agreement, "I've asked The Reaper a bunch of times about it. What else am I supposed to do?"

Grim, Mark, ask Rewdan about this.

On it.

"So, just to be clear. When I'm fighting a Lava Lizard and it seems way too strong, that's because it's from the early integrations?"

Peace nodded, "Pretty much."

"Some people think this is why Rhonan is so much stronger than everyone else." Melody nodded along.

Felix looked at them both for a moment then shook his head, "I guess… we'll just keep descending and maybe we'll find out more."

"You could try asking in The Realms but, you might have to get to floor 2000 or pretty close to it to get a real answer." Melody shrugged.

"Wait… is that delving into the past too?"

She shrugged, "Not as explicitly but… the people in it are strong and knowledgeable in ways people now aren't so, it seems likely."

"Why floor 2000?"

"Well… From what I've heard, the residents become more aware the further you go. Early on, they won't even know about other cities on their continent. Later on, they know about the multiverse apparently… Well, maybe. They've said some weird things that may or may not come from implanted memories."

"Okay, I guess I'll just get to floor 2000 then."

She nodded, "Oh really? You're jus-"

Before she could harp on him any further, he dropped both her and Peace out of his Soul Garden at the same moment as he stepped through an Aether Tunnel, vanishing from The Records Room and leaving the two of them behind.