Nick Kane
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Gateway 20
🕑 Added 2025-01-02 19:22:07 +0000 UTCI completely forgot to say it in the last chapter, but Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!
___
I woke up with a start. Memories of strident screaming, a flash of violet, and green eyes quickly put on the back of my mind in favor of noticing my surroundings.
I was alone in the back of an ambulance, and a quick self-check showed that I was in perfect condition, although my clothes were pretty much ruined. Hopefully, the Mending charm could fix the damage, I liked those clothes.
I stretched a little before getting up, it had been a while since I actually needed to rest so the feeling of getting a good night of sleep was decidedly sublime.
In a good mood, I moved to the back of the ambulance and opened the doors to see what was going on.
Chaos.
Dozens of people were all around the square where the ambulance was parked, the sounds of helicopters overhead, dogs barking in the distance, and the general noise that comes with so many people in one place made the cacophony even more chaotic.
I had barely taken a step outside when a light-brown-skinned woman with soft, curly hair carefully stepped into my field of view.
“Sir! You’re awake!” She exclaimed. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, miss?” I prompted.
“Amanda,” she said.
“Amanda,” I said with a nod. “What’s going on?”
“After the storm started dissipating the teams gathering at the edge of it moved in to start rescue operations, we found you passed out close to here so it was decided to let you sleep it off inside an ambulance. I was chosen to keep the inside silent and report to you when you woke up.” She answered promptly.
“Good. And thanks for letting me take that nap, I really needed it.” I said with a smile, which she just nodded in response.
“How long was I out?” I looked at her. “And how long since the battle started?”
“A couple of hours for both, the battle took 4 hours at a maximum and you’ve been asleep for 3.” She said after looking at her phone for a second.
With a sigh, I let the smile fall off my face to look at her seriously.
“Now, what’s the damage?” I asked.
“Damage to the city was extensive, even apart from the area where the battle happened, some kind of root system hit almost every building. We already have people checking out the foundations to see what can be saved.” She said.
With a nod, I took a fortifying breath to ask the question I’d been dreading since I got in this town.
“How many dead?” I asked, and I instantly knew it was bad when she blanched.
“Not sure,” she said, shaking her head. “Last I heard at least a quarter of the population. The roots I mentioned? Some desiccated bodies were found impaled by them.”
She shivered at the mention of the bodies, and even though I didn’t outwardly react, I agreed, what a macabre thing to happen.
And wasn’t that a gut punch? I knew things were bad before getting in, but to think the killing continued during the fight and especially while I was unconscious? Odin really was out to remind us of who he was.
“So, what now?” I asked. “Do you guys need help with anything?”
“Not really,” she shook her head. “We already rescued the survivors that needed urgent care, now what’s left is finding the bodies of those who tried to run into the storm and make people forget any of the supernatural parts.”
I let myself finally relax at that, I focused on my Door for a moment before remembering something of vital importance.
“Hey, did you guys find the bodies of two wolves and two ravens?” I asked nonchalantly.
“Yeah, one of our Scryers to preserve them and leave them close by.” She said, giving me an inquisitive look.
“Great! Where are they? I might as well take them with me so you guys don’t have more work.” I smiled, the materials from those would be a great start for a wand.
“Sure,” she nodded, leading me to a secluded alley where there was a tarp covering the bodies.
Pulling out my wand, I cast a protective enchantment on the bodies to prevent rotting before conjuring a door so I could take them with me.
Remembering something else I might want to take, I turned to Amanda.
“Hey, did you find a sharpened big stick by any chance?” I asked.
“Uh, can you be more specific? A stick isn’t exactly noteworthy.” She said, shrugging.
“It’s around my height and just about as thick as my hand can hold it,” I said, making a circle with my hand to show her. “It should be covered in blood, and probably surrounded by destruction too if the damage carried over.”
“Ok,” she nodded. “I’ll spread the word, hopefully, someone will have an idea about it.”
“Thanks!” I said, using my wand to levitate the bodies before opening the conjured door in the research room at the Academy. “I’d hate to lose the stick I used to kill a God. See you later Amanda!”
I closed the door to the sweet sound of her shocked squawk.
___
Finding a place to put the bodies wasn’t hard, we had an unused closet in the room with the perfect size for it.
Unfortunately, the place was empty, probably an all-hands-on-deck situation dealing with the utter clusterfuck Odin caused. So I left the bodies in the closet and cast some spells to try and make sure it kept until we could extract all the components we might need.
Leaving the closet, I wrote a note for the researchers and stuck it on the door.
With that done, I pulled up my room’s Door and stepped out.
___
It took a few days for the cleanup to get far enough along for me to be able to talk to Carlos. He wasn’t necessarily needed for it but his taking charge of the situation like that was too good a move to cement his leadership in the South/Southeast for him to pass up.
In the meantime, I had to deal with my parents' worry, which while justified was not something I wanted to weigh on their minds, so I stayed around the house acting like nothing noteworthy happened.
Of course, the 24/7 news about the situation didn’t help, but seeing me completely unharmed did a lot to assuage their worries. Hopefully, they’ll start trusting me to be safe in a few months, all of this was still new to them, after all.
Other than that, I got in contact with a few of the researchers once they got freed from whatever duty they had, and to say they were excited would be an understatement.
I was pretty sure that closet was the most heavily protected place on the continent after they were done making sure that ‘no one would even think of touching the bodies’.
It was just a pity I didn’t have any information on wandmaking so we couldn’t render the animals ourselves, but I was sure Ollivander would appreciate doing all the work in this specific instance.
___
In the end, I sat down in Carlos’ office after debriefing him on what happened in Shroeder.
“To think Odin himself would answer the summons,” Carlos muttered, shaking his head.
“Yeah, can’t say I was a fan,” I snorted.
He rolled his eyes at me.
“But seriously, how are you feeling after that?” He asked in concern.
“More annoyed than anything. In hindsight, I was very obviously outclassed for the entire fight and it still took me until I almost actually died for me to take it seriously.” I said.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Alex. This was your first fight as an equal to a God, that you’re not experienced at it is expected, and that you managed to win without an offensive Authority to help you is proof you have what it takes to become one of the greats!” Carlos replied.
“Carlos, I am a Campione, I’m already one of the greats,” I said, shaking my head with a smile.
“Ah! But you can be one of the greats among them!” Carlos nodded at his flawless logic.
“Sure,” I rolled my eyes at him. “By the way, did they find my stick?”
Slightly thrown off by my question, he needed to shake himself out of his dramatic persona before answering.
“Yeah, it should reach the state in a few hours,” He said. “The stick used to kill a God, what are you planning on doing with it?”
“Don’t know,” I shrugged. “Probably see first if Olivander can use it to make the base of my new wand. If he doesn’t, well, probably try and turn it into a mage’s staff, or maybe a spear? Ohh! What if I do both!?”
“Forget I asked,” Carlos sighed, leaning back on his chair.
“So, was that enough breaking the ice for you to ask what you really want to know?” I asked after a few moments.
“Yeah, that should do it,” Carlos said. “Thanks for going along with it, after the last few days I really needed to unwind a bit.”
“I get it, man. You needed some easygoing banter after all that seriousness,” I said with a nod.
“Yes, yes I did.” He said with a small smile, before taking a deep breath and turning back to seriousness.
“So, what did you get?” He asked, the question lingering in the air for a few moments before the air exploded out of his lungs in a giant guffaw.
“Moron,” I said with a snort.
I let him recompose himself for a bit before getting into it.
“I got the runes,” I said.
That took the air out of his sails in a way his previous laughing fit couldn’t.
“You’re serious!?” He exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’ll have to train a lot to be able to use them well enough without invoking the Authority itself, but I know it’ll be worth it in the end. I said.
“I imagine so, Odin’s runes are on a completely different level even amongst other deities.” He nodded. “Does it have anything to do with the situation you woke up to?”
“I don’t know,” I shook my head. “I just think it’s slightly suspicious that I got this Authority, but it’s also the Authority he most used during our fight, so it could be either.”
“Eh, then I guess we’ll never know,” he shrugged. “Or, well, I’ll never know and you’ll have to wait for him to reform and fight him again if you want to know.”
“I’d rather not bother if it’s all the same to you.” I deadpanned.
He snorted and looked at me. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, but I’d rather not say until I know exactly what it does,” I said.
“Hoh?” He lifted an eyebrow at that but left it go when I didn’t answer. “That’s fine then, I guess that’s everything for now.”
“Yeah,” I said, standing up.
“Thanks for the help, Alex,” He said, shaking my hand.
“You know you don’t have to thank me for that, Carlos,” I said, stepping back. “And give me a call when my stick arrives!”
“I will!” Carlos said as I pulled up my room’s Door in my mind and took a step.
___
As I arrived home I went back to the project I’d been working on since my fight with Odin.
On my way to the little workshop I had set up in one of the unused rooms of the house, I stopped to stare at myself in the mirror.
There, looking at my left eye, I could see a soft golden glow emanating from deep inside the eye, invisible to anyone who isn’t a Campione paying direct attention to it.
The source of that glow, I knew, was an almost microscopic rune, a circle in the middle with eight equidistant lines coming out of it along its circumference and, at the end of each line, another circle.
___
A/N: And that’s that folks!
This chapter was slightly rushed due to the fact that this is my first day of real rest for a least two weeks, yesterday doesn’t count because I was too hungover to appreciate it.
Thank y’all for supporting me, y’all are awesome, and I’ll see y’all next week, hopefully better rested!
Comments
Nick Kane
Honestly, the reminder is nice, especially after this last month, so thanks! Now, in the subject of pacing and chapter lenght, although at the start I focused heavily on it, now I mostly start a chapter with its end point in mind, and the reason they come off at that lenght is because that's all the time I had for writing them between editing and planning, as I get more time to actually write the chapters will probably increase. As for the burnout, I genuinely thank you for the concern, but this has been my dream for a long time, and thanks to the way the Brazilian economy is tanking I might actually fulfil it this year. So don't worry overmuch about it. That's why I avoid delays. Soon enough I'll be able to start cutting back on work to focus on writing so the quality will increase and, if everything goes right, I might get some extra time to get into canon and non-canon omakes too! Seriously though, thank you for this, it's nice to get a kick in the ass once in a while to remind me to actually pace myself, I might ignore the advice if needed to, but it'll be a concious choice instead of a instictive one.
Zerak
A pice of advice regarding pacing (and not just because I want more to read, though partly it is) You currently average around 2.3k words a chapter, this will mean it will make things drag on a lot (irl time) given this is a multiversal fic. Idk how you decide the length of chapters, but you will likely start writing longer chapters as the story progresses and things get more complex. When that happens I would recommend letting the scene reach its natural conclusion. There will be some times like now when it’s a bridging chapter, and it is hard to decide where to cut it off. You want to be careful not to brake these into too many chapters as it can feel like nothing is happening. This issue is only for those reading week by week, for those binge reading it likely won’t be an issue as they can just start the next chapter. I might be telling you something you know, or I could be wrong. Just thought it was worth mentioning, since the same thing happened during the early chapters in HP, it felt sometimes like half chapters, while others it felt like a good ending place, even when they were the same length. If you are busy it’s fine to delay the chapter for a bit, or jump a week during holidays (granted there is more pressure when the story is still in its infancy phase to make sure it’s consistent in its release). Don’t push yourself if you are too busy, or you might burn out. TL;DR: The cutoff point of a chapter can be as important or more so than the content. So be careful where you cut them off. And take care of yourself, or you will burnout.
Nick Kane
Yeah, I spent almost all of yesterday writing the chapter with zero chance to reread and edit it with fresh eyes like I usually do, things should return to normal by next week. And yeah, Yggdrasil is something that Alex will need to build up courage to go back to, although it shouldn't take long after the next new universe.
Zerak
Chapter feels lacking in some way. Like it was leading to something but didn’t get to it. On a seperate note, while fighting on the branch of Yggdrasil he created a bunch of doors. He can use those doors to go back there at a much cheaper cost. Then he can get recourse from the tree (though probably best not to abuse this).
