Monsoon117
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194 Another Realm
🕑 Added 2019-01-22 18:11:10 +0000 UTCI watched the edited footage, a seed of genuine hatred forming in my chest. The video editors connected the footage in such a way that I hated the gialgathens, and that I supported Thisbey. The news report had never been live. It was a staged act, spreading propaganda for Thisbey's media campaign.
It was a good thing I filmed it. Even then, it felt ridiculous that this kind of bullshit was even allowed.
"Why are they allowed to do this? Surely this is illegal."
Kessiah shrugged, "On some planets it is. Giess doesn't really have a government to look after this kind of thing. It's too spread out and chaotic for that. It's a, 'If there's no one to report the crime, then no crime was committed!' sort of thing. Sucks for sure."
Torix stepped up into the forest clearing, pacing out of the stairs behind us. With his arms crossed, "Well that interview was a disaster. IT seemed rather unlike you. Perhaps an explanation is in order?"
"They framed me," I stated with a shrug.
"Ah yes, of course they would. Hmmm, this is a rather testy predicament we've found ourselves in."
I pulled out my obelisk, "Not really." I showed the footage of myself, "For once, I thought ahead and recorded everything before it happened."
"Well well Daniel. I'm impressed. I believe this should be all the proof we need that your words and intentions were altered."
"Where am I supposed to post this video? Is there a site for it or something?"
Kessiah bit her lip, "So, I've got bad news about this. You know, great idea and all to record the footage. Posting it won't matter much though. No one will see it anyways."
Torix cupped his chin, "Perhaps you could explain why that is?"
"See, here's the thing. Very few people own an obelisk on Giess anyway. Even if you could get your video up on a dozen different sites, no one on Giess would see it. You'd be putting your word against the media corporations too. That would be hard to pull off, and we don't even have two months too pull that off."
Althea chimed in, "Why don't people have obelisks though? They aren't expensive or hard to get."
Torix gestured a hand to Althea, "Obelisk operate on your personal reserves of mana. Considering the lack of leveling or use of personal mana by most espens, obelisks are out of reach despite being subsidized by Schema."
"But couldn't he get it posted onto some news channels maybe?" Althea chimed.
I scoffed, "Yeah, Thisbey would shut that shit down in seconds. His hands in the pocket of everyone on this damn planet."
"Ok, so it's not all bad though," Kessiah said while spreading her hands. "Those revolutionaries are going to spread like wildfire after seeing this. That means they clear the dungeons, which helps a lot with clearing out Giess."
I grimaced, "We're sending them on a witch hunt. It doesn't sit right with me to start a race war to help save Giess. Sure, the revolutionaries might kill off the silvers and eldritch and take back Giess. Whoopdy-fucking-do. They'll do to cull an innocent species. I'm no saint, but that's fucked."
I shook my head in disgust, "At that point, what would we be saving?"
The group replied with somber silence. Althea rubbed her forehead with a hand, "It's so hard to win this fight. We're fighting on Thisbey's home turf, in a battle that he's so good at. Thisbey is probably organizing the revolutionaries right now and making obelisks outlawed in their groups. He's probably feeding them a bunch of lies, and then the people start to believe them...Just like with Yawm in the lab,"
Althea's eyes hollowed, "It's like everyone just feeds on each other. The worst part is, the bigger the lie, the easier it becomes to believe. Uh, at least from what I saw."
I shook my head, "Not quite that grim, though I can get your reaction considering the situations you've been in. Still, I can't help but wonder what Tohtella is even doing?"
"I imagine it's quite difficult for her. Thisbey was born and raised on this planet. She's an outsider, so she doesn't fully understand the culture and influences here," Torix said.
Kessiah rolled her eyes, "Uh huh, sure. From what I can tell, she's just incompetent."
"I'd hate to agree, but yeah. That's what this shit looks like. She's getting throttled during this entire media campaign. It's weird though. The Overseer seemed to think she was pretty intelligent. So far, she's failed miserably at, well, everything."
"Uhm, she did seem stressed last time we saw her." Althea crossed her arms. "I can't even imagine having that much on my plate. I'd crumble."
I grabbed the side of my head, "Hmmm, this shit's complicated."
"It's not too bad though." Kessiah said. "You can just post the video during the fight while the cameras are rolling. Thisbey might have the stream shut down before you can show the entire interview, but maybe not."
I snapped my fingers, "How didn't I think about that? That'll put Thisbey in a very, very shitty position. Hell, he might have dug his own grave with this one in fact."
Torix opened his status, "Well, the Harbinger, Lich, and Arbiter can't think of something that simple...Perhaps you should be running the media campaign instead of Tohtella."
Kessiah stood up straighter, "About damn time I point out something you guys missed."
"Now, on to the next matter at hand," Torix spread his arms. "Perhaps we can ascertain the location of Emagrotha and Lehesion's battle site?"
"The only hint I've got is from Chrona." I waved my hand, trying to remember. "She mentioned that Lehesion drained his surroundings to gain enough mana to defeat Emagrotha. Millions of lifeforms dead, standard apocalypse stuff."
Torix tsked, "What an amazing revelation. Truly noteworthy."
I narrowed my eyes while tapping the side of my head. A few moments later, an actual revelation popped into my head, "Wait a minute. If Lehesion drained that much mana, then he must have created a ridiculous amount of mana pollution."
Torix's fire eyes grew larger, "Wait...that kind of cataclysmic event would leave an ocean of sludge behind."
I pointed at the lich, "And we know where an ocean of that gunky bullshit is."
Kessiah pursed her lips, "We do?"
Torix moved his hands across his status screen, "In fact, it's quite close to where we warped on Giess. Remember how Daniel carried us over that purple ocean that had been walled off? That is by far the largest concentration of mana pollution we've seen on Giess."
Althea raised her hands, "So, hm...that means they fought somewhere there."
"Precisely. In fact, they most likely fought at the bottom of the ocean there. The mana pollution came thereafter." Torix said.
I gripped my hands into fists, "Yes. We got a lead now."
"I'll analyze our flight path and gather historical records of the wall's construction surrounding the indigo ocean. Using a bit of geometry, I should be able to get a rough estimate of the sea's center." Torix said.
Althea raised her hand, "I'll get the location of Thisbey."
Kessiah glanced at Althea, "What for?"
"To kill him," Althea said with a frown.
"Oh..." Kessiah mouthed. "That's going to raise your bounty. You sure that's worth it?"
Althea scoffed, "Uh, yeah. I'm sure."
Kessiah crossed her arms, "Well then...I...I don't know what I'll do."
Torix gestured a hand to her, "What? That's preposterous. You can simply practice that healing magic you asked me about."
Kessiah stared down, "Could you shut the hell up, please?"
"Now why would I do that? You came to me practically begging for healing magic manuals. What did you say exactly? Hm, something like, 'I want to help save my friends!' Torix finished his words with a high pitched, mock voice.
"When you wondered what to do, I believed it necessary to remind you of the conversation." A strange glee injected into Torix's voice as he continued, "I interjected my own thoughts in the most polite manner possible. That's all."
Kessiah flushed, embarrassed about trying to learn the magic. Althea hugged her, lifting Kessiah up in the air, "Ahhhh, you really do care."
"Let me down you shape-shifting, mini-brute," Kessiah gasped while shoving her holder. Althea held on with utter ease, overpowering Kessiah like she was a child. With one last squeeze, Althea set her down. The revenant sent Althea and Torix a dirty glare,
"Oh, you'll both pay for that one."
Torix waved a hand, "Whatever are you talking about? We did nothing wrong."
Althea just grinned at her. I found the scene heart warming and painful at the same time. Kessiah's history with her Blood Arts made for a touchy subject. Torix's sadism was leaking out a bit, but he meant well at the same time. It wasn't like Kessiah could hide her lessons forever. Better to break the ice now than wait until it was some massive undertaking to tell the truth.
Althea played along and tried distracting Kessiah. In their own way, they were trying to take care of her. It reminded me of guys at my gym who'd roast some guy after he lost a boxing match. Even if it was rough at first, it stopped the loss from lingering. By teasing their friends, they toughened them up and stopped them from having soft spots.
I always looked at it like training. It was a bit too tactful for me though, so I stayed quiet. Better to let the pros handle it. Besides, if I said anything, I'm sure I'd make an ass of myself.
Kessiah looked like she was embarrassed a bit about caring for us too. If anything, I admired her for that line of thinking. If I was honest with myself, I hadn't seriously considered healing magic at any point. It paled in comparison to my regeneration, but ultimately, I was too selfish for it. It wasn't in my nature.
Still, it was time to get a move on. I clapped my hands, interrupting their chitchat.
"Alright, let's get going guys. We've got a lot of work to do."
The group straightened up, and I walked downstairs. As I did, Torix and Althea opened up their statuses, getting to work on their own projects. Kessiah followed me downstairs before stepping into her room. I sat down on a chair I crafted out of stone, setting out on my own task.
After an hour of research, I found nothing about Chrona Carsiary. For a famous general, there was little known about her. Her powers, tactics, and techniques all hid from everyone's point of view. They basically boiled down to, 'she moves really fast.' That's a given considering the level of competition this high up in the tournament. The only other tidbits were that she made other people slow. Great. Real helpful.
Without much to go on, I opened my grimoire and focused on etching in the blueprint I created while searching for Mt. Ash. Its complexity threatened to overwhelm me. The dozen pages of the outline evolved into a novel's worth of work when I began carving out the actual project. Despite the nigh-infinite workload, the task cheered me up. It felt good to spend my time on something meaningful.
With a focused intensity, I mulled through the challenging project, passing the time until the fight fast. I kept at the project even while walking to the stadium, my thoughts absorbed. Kiki Most hyped up the match, but I enraptured myself in the task at hand. I also carved after jumping into the arena, pissing off many gialgathens who booed me to no end. Surprise, surprise, they hated me now.
When I revealed the video, their jeering would make my redemption even better.
Kiki Mosk announced above me, "Are you ready, Gray Giant?"
"Yup."
I had already charged enough mana for a singularity at this point. Even dimly aware of Kiki's voice, I wasn't about to let myself start with a disadvantage. Chrona thought the same, having a blue ball of mana floating above her. It sent out dimensional ripples, its power vast. With my blood saturated in mana, I mirrored her preparations, both of us ready to wage war.
I closed my grimoire shut and put it in my pocket dimension. I glanced up at Chrona who snapped at me with a telepathic wave,
"Are you finally done with your reading now?"
"Carving, actually."
"Oh, carving into pages. That's new."
"Eh, it's easier that way when the pages are like rock."
I raised my hands, both my fists harder than iron. Around us, the lava bubbled with the small steel arena hot as a frying pan. Chrona's white, smooth skin glowed with mana. Her eyes pierced at me, her confidence resolute despite my own victories being dominant. I was okay with that. Good on her.
Before the battle began, I glanced up while pulling out my obelisk. I intended on recording the fight to show that the obelisk recorded events reliably. As I prepared the device, Ddzens of camera men floated around Chrona and I. Above them, the same massive zeppelin floated over us as before. Thisbey was mysteriously absent. Wow. Who'd of guessed?
With my obelisk set, Kiki Mosk sighed, "Well it's good to see the Gray Giant put that damn book away! Both fighters may begin."
I peered down, reorienting with the fight. I reached out a hand, aiming a singularity at the center of Chrona's chest. Before I cast my spell, Chrona's blue ball of mana ushered forth a massive dimensional ripple. Around me, large swaths of magma hardened as she drained the mana to fuel her spell. I didn't even feel the ripple, but it still left me stunned nevertheless.
I stood still because of the ripple's effects around me. My singularity should have killed Chrona already. It didn't though. In fact, it took a full ten seconds before it started forming at all. I even shook my hand like it was a broken remote for a TV. Confused as hell, I stared at Chrona who already crawled away from the spell. I smashed my hands together, wondering if she had some antimagic at her disposal.
It was her turn to be surprised. She gawked at me in amazement, her utter confidence draining from her face. Chrona croaked,
"How...how are you moving like that?"
I raised my hands, "What are you talking about? I'm not even running yet."
"But...That's impossible."
I still didn't get what the hell she was talking about. She wasn't the only one surprised. The entire crowd of gialgathens and newscaster's stared at me in silence, all of them frozen in place. It left an eerie, unnatural silence in the arena. I looked around,
"What's wrong with everyone?"
"What plagues them is what doesn't plague you. I...I dilated our dimension. You're not even affected."
I clapped my hands together, no sound ushering out. I reached out a hand, creating a gravity well above the magma behind me. It sauntered up in a slow crawl as if the lava wasn't molten. I nodded my head, gaining an understanding of the situation.
"You're slowing down time, aren't you?"
Chrona shivered, fear racing up her spine,
"Yes, but somehow, you're immune to the flow of time. It's as if you're in a different realm..."
"I'm not walking in a different realm."
I banged my fists together as I grinned, "I am the different realm."
Comments
alexander julian
Tho he's not immune. Re just resists them unlike everyone else
alexander julian
Indeed
alexander julian
I liked the portrayel of Torix's sadism. Ive always been a little confused as to why his son hated him so much
Shannon Smith
That's cute. She tried to alter the dimension around one of the only beings in the universe immune to Schema's dimension blades, lol.
Pwn_Sniper
Found a typo: "As I prepared the device, Ddzens of camera men floated around Chrona and I." Ddzens >> Dozens.
Monsoon117
Ah man, this is a great idea. Thank you BigBuckler.
BigBuckler
I think the early dialogue with Torix is better, but is still a bit OOC. Daniel has never had issue with telling the truth, just with having foresight and planning ahead. So I think it would make more sense if Torix immediately believed that Daniel was framed, no questions asked, but is pleasantly surprised when Daniel shows that he had the idea to film the interview for proof. This arc in particular has shown growth in Daniel and his ability to think ahead. I think this could be used as another example of that.
Michael Nistler
That flows a lot better compared to before.
Cormir
Flows better for the most part, I think. I'm happy that was changed before this went live on RR, else you might have had more people confused by those paragraphs.
MattMick222
I thought Schema would be more Big Brother Control or Fox News the Glorious Leader can do no wrong. Makes me think that Thisby has someone on the inside of the bigger power structure backing him.
Monsoon117
I'll see if I can't improve the line some. EDIT: I changed it to this - Chrona shivered, fear racing up her spine, "Yes, but somehow, you're immune to the flow of time. It's as if you're in a different realm..." "I'm not walking in a different realm." I banged my fists together as I grinned, "I am the different realm."
Monsoon117
Ingenious and so simple, yet I missed it lol. I'll adjust the chapter accordingly.
Monsoon117
I can change Torix's reaction. Everyone's given pretty solid reasoning for it. Thanks for your thoughts.
Monsoon117
This is a very solid point. I'll change that segment mentioning him finding it strange by mentioning some other insight. Preliminary thoughts for the change involve Daniel thinking about how it was clever of Torix and Althea to break the ice that way. I'll also change how Torix assessed the situation at the beginning of the chapter. Easy fixes for the most part, and they don't require changing stuff that happened chapters ago.
Monsoon117
Schema doesn't care too much if you're a racist per say. The A.I. is totally fine with it if it furthers his goals to kill off the eldritch. I get what you're saying though, and there are limitations placed on certain kinds of slander. For instance, death threats against sentients and the like are considered illegal. I hope this makes sense.
Grevis165
Hey Monsoon, first off, I'm loving your story. As far as dialogue improvements, you could add in descriptors for character's facial expressions in the middle of their dialogue. For example, "What plagues them isn't what plagues you," she croaked. "I... I [and then the rest] It doesn't have to be that exactly. But that is one thing I've seen Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman do in their DnD-themed novels, and those are pretty popular. P.S. Yes, the frog pun was intentional there haha
Atlas Dwarf
In Torix's defence, they do have an experienced Speaker who should have covered any foul play in a Tournament setup by Speakers. Also, with Thisbey (aka the genocidal maniac) being the most likely candidate behind this, you can bet that the editing was well done and extreme.
pukeofhurl
Honestly i think schema should actually monitornreputation slander on a large scale otherwise when the powers at be on a planet believe these reputation scandals they can place a false bount over them giving an innocent person a bount not just an unknown... since criminals get schema bounties... and there are off world species watching these happenings whose to say they are against rascists and that whats said isnt potentially a crime om one of their worlds
Connor Alexander
Agreed! Seems a bit odd for all of them to gang on him when they know this would be way out of the ordinary.
Itisn1tmyname
nah, I think the "the" is pretty important here...
Michael Nistler
To me 'I am the different realm' feels clunky. Simply shifting 'the' to 'a' might make it flow a bit better. 'I am a different realm' sounds like it carries more weight behind it whereas 'I am the different realm' doesn't seem to roll off the tongue in a smooth way.
Cormir
If so and Daniel was flustered there after, it didn't come across that way to me, Torix came off as serious instead of joking.
Joshua Little
Should have requested to show his real interview before the match since everyone is watching. Thanks for the chapter.
Jacob Santos
In the attempt to further meaningful conversation, you may always be first.
Omega
I didnt get that feeling, but maybe thats just me
Kevin M
I thought that was just Torix being humorous?
Maybe swap ‘different’ in both cases for ‘another’ & ‘other’... Any takes? Feel like it’s a bad ass line but ‘different realm’ doesn’t seem to flow the same the second iterence, may just be me.
Cormir
Personally, I think she's the researcher behind all of the hybrid experiments, and either is looking to continue them as long as possible on this world, or didn't expect her forbidden research to get out of control like that (and that possibly other factions have gotten ahold of it.)
Corwin Amber
thanks for the chapter
Omega
Thanks for the chapter, tge end was great, but the start was a bit shit, torix acts like an ass, jumping to conclusions, which isnt like his usual personality and his interactions with kessiah are weird, this bit in particular was janky "You bring shame to us, Daniel. I never imagined you'd be a bigot. You came from the lowest class imaginable, yet you scorn-" also, this, So far, she's failed miserably at, well, (ital)everything(ital)."
Cormir
I've got two hangups with this chapter from a reader's pov. "I found the scene strange, kind of out of the loop. I didn't quite understand where Kessiah's shame in trying to learn magic was coming from." Ch. 191 ""Hard thing that...to lose one's family that is. After I say it out loud, it makes more sense why she's struggling. It would be like if you killed Althea with your mana just now. It might be hard to use it afterwards, as you'd fear another mishap of the same vein." He was right about that. I couldn't even imagine what that would be like. Maybe telling Kessiah to suck it up wasn't the right approach. I'd have to think about it later."" This chapter makes me wonder if Daniel's short term memories are fucked, or if he just really wasn't paying attention when Torix explained about Kessiah's hangups a few chapters ago what with killing her parents. (Is this the 2nd time he's had this explained to him? I wonder if another Dimensional squid is on him from an old one.) 2nd is that reading this and the end of the last chapter, he seems surprised when he finds out the footage was edited, which is weird to me because if anything he should feel... smug/good/Calm? for prerecording himself and premeditating his plan of action if such a thing did occur, instead of minorly freaking out and yelling. Little hurtful how quickly Torix jumped to conclusions about Daniel with such a simple media ploy. Anyway to close this I enjoyed the chapter, it's great coming back to this story after putting it down for awhile and seeing your work ethic, you really put alot of time into this everyday. Props man, looking forward to the next chapter.
Frederic Vincent
That's what he sent Tothella for.
Monsoon117
Thank you Mason.
Monsoon117
Schema controls things it consider's substantial. This kind if reputation slander is definitely not something it cares much about.
Monsoon117
It'll be hard though. He has to beat out established media corporations that people trust. Even then, verifying it was actually him, the Gray Giant would be difficult too. There's all kinds of reasons it would be hard.
MattMick222
Schema has an inconsistent control. In part it is very intrusive but not controlling the Media seems out of character for the AI.
Mason Sudul
That last line was badass, also, really liked the character interaction this chap. Good on ya Monsoon
Jonathan
i like the obelisk twist. the only gripe would be that all the levelers, guild members, and tournament participants would likely have an obelisk. considering that powerful people are typically leaders, publishing the video should still reach a non trivial percentage of the population and people in power; granted it would be something small like <10%.
Tyler Babcock
How are you always first?!
Gardor
Grab Thisbey by the neck and start shaking until news cameras show up, problem solved.
28th00
Well, sorry to break your mind being whose name is literally another word for "Time", but I am a living dimension.
Monsoon117
Got a full night's sleep, so I felt really good today. I'm trying to inject more variety into the dialogue structure's of the story, but let me know if it's awkward/bad. They need to improve the writing, otherwise their not worth learning. That's mainly because I still have so much other stuff I need to learn. Anywho, enjoy the rest of your evening guys.
Damn:D
Firdt
Jess Koch
First
