Nightmare Realm Summoner

“Isn’t the Empty Court months away?” Mite asked with a frown. He looked torn between trying to get answers from Alex and running off to go play with his new Blueprint. But, eventually, his curiosity won out. “How are you going to get there before… well, anything? Months is a hell of a lot of time. Especially now, when everything is still pretty fresh.”

“It’s months back,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “Not away. The trip over shouldn’t take us long at all. It’s literally in the Teleporter. Even if we have to hunt around for the actual entrance, I doubt it’ll take us too much time to actually find the Court. It’s getting back that’s the problem.”

“Pretty big problem,” Wess said, adjusting his hat. “Are you going to abandon Mirrorwane for months? Not that I mind running around without a leash… but that doesn’t seem very smart in the long term. The Town is still young.”

“No way,” Alex said. “That would be stupid.”

“I have to admit, they’ve got a bit of a point,” Claire said with a small laugh. “Both the trip over and the one back are going to have to count for something like this. How are we meant to get back in time for anything if it takes months?”

“I’m kind of betting on the Empty Court just having something to get us back faster than expected,” Alex said. He scratched the back of his neck. “Is that too optimistic?”

“I mean, I’m sure someone can do it,” Claire said. “If anyone is ridiculously powerful enough to pull off a few months of travel in a short period of time, then it’s probably a safe bet to assume that they’re in the Empty Court. Either that or Zeal drastically screwed up our expectations of what we’ve got waiting for us.”

Alex’s lips pursed. Zeal… and Teddy.

I — you know what? Nah. I’m not even going to think about whatever the hell is going on there. Not until I can corner him and get some answers.

“Maybe we can ask Finley if there’s some kind of way to return quickly,” Alex mused. “We do have a lot of Credits. Could be something that lets us quickly get to a Starstone or the like? Or just a portal to a town or some shit. Surely there’s one of those. Every single RPG ever has them.”

“I don’t think this is an RPG,” Aaron said.

“Tell that to TryFinger,” Alex said with a small grin. “I think the world is whatever the hell you make of it, for better or for worse.”

“Might agree with that,” Mite said. He glanced down at his Blueprint. Then he cleared his throat. “I’m going to go now. Best of luck. Don’t die. Thanks. Bye.”

Then he darted off.

If anything, Alex was surprised that Mite had managed to contain himself for that long. He’d been practically vibrating in his shoes to get to test out his new toy. Compared to the Mite that Alex had met for the first time just a short while ago, this was an astronomical display of self-restraint.

“I’m sure you two can figure this out yourselves, so I’m going to go bugger off as well,” Wess said. “Don’t bother saying bye. Gonna be killing some cool shit. But don’t you worry. If you leave the town, we’ll keep it safe. For a price.”

He tipped his hat, spun on his heel, and strode off in the opposite direction from Mite. Finley, who had been just stepping around a building and heading in their direction, nearly got run over.

The merchant jumped back, then glared at Wess’ back before hurrying over to join Alex, Aaron, and Claire.

“Finley,” Alex said, nodding in greeting as the merchant drew up alongside them. “You’ve got good timing. I don’t suppose you happened to overhear any of our conversation?”

“Too far, I’m afraid. Welcome back, though,” Finley said. “It sounds like the auction was a massive success.”

“I’d say that,” Alex said. “Though we’ve got some new shit to worry about. You ever hear about a Third Initialization?”

Finley’s features went still. Then, very carefully, he shook his head.

“No. Don’t ask me more. You know how the system is, Alex. And don’t bother asking Rhyss either. He’s even more tightly bound than I am. Even if you could pay off all my debt and completely free me from the chains… I wouldn’t be able to give you enough information for it to be useful. It’s not the same. It never is.”

Alex raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Understood. I’ll drop it. Then I’ve got a different question. Do you have some kind of fast travel item?”

Finley blinked. “Fast travel? You’ll have to be clearer. Is that like that boost how quick you run?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“No,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “Not… wait. You have those?”

“No,” Finely said. “But they do sound quite useful. A magical item that can provide such a significant boost isn’t going to be easy to get. You aren’t just going to find it floating around on the market.”

“What about fast-shoes is that rare?” Claire asked curiously. “I can see how they would be significant, but they don’t seem obscenely rare in theory.”

“It’s the benefit. Something that just gives a permanent and direct improvement to your power is going to be a powerful item,” Finley explained with a shrug. “That’s the kind of thing you need to get specially made or from some ancient power. I won’t have it sitting around in the store or through any normal connections. Now, if you want a Memory Stone about something using fast shoes, I have you covered.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Forget the shoes. I want to get several months away, and quickly. Well — the opposite. I want to get back to Mirrorwane from somewhere very far, and I want to do it fast. Without a Teleporter. Is there a way?”

Finley tilted his head to the side in thought. “That’s an interesting question. There are definitely ways. The System has ways to do everything. It’s just a question of what you’re willing to pay. I assume this is for the Empty Court?”

“It is,” Claire said. “We don’t want to be gone for long. And we want a way to get back quickly if things suddenly take a sudden turn toward the worse because of the Third Initialization. The Starfallen got their hands on an item that can activate it at will. We don’t know when they will, but we need to be ready to react quickly when it does happen.”

“But we want to get out and prepare as much as possible before that happens,” Alex added. He glanced up toward the sky and let out a small huff. “So you can see the problem. The Empty Court is probably the best possible place we can get answers and strength about anything. But if we’re trapped there when everything goes to shit…”

“Mirrorwane will be in serious trouble,” Finley finished. “I see your concern. But I’m afraid to say that I don’t have any items that can let you pull off what you’re asking. Not yet. In the future, something like that would be easier to get your hands on. But at this stage… the System is still restricting what it permits. Powerful traversal items like that are still forbidden.”

“Figures,” Alex said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. If he was actually fair, then it was probably a good thing the System had magic instant transportation items blocked. The Outworlders would have been practically unstoppable if they could just be anywhere, anytime, without any trouble.

Goddamn it. How the hell are we supposed to pull this off? We need to get to the Empty Court. But if we can’t get back to Mirrorwane in time… maybe we really do have to wait until the Third Initialization is over?

“We could take over a town,” Claire said quietly.

Finley let out a bark of laughter. “That would work. Destroy whoever has control over the nearest Starstone and then connect to Mirrorwane.”

“Finley?” Alex asked. “She wasn’t joking.”

Finley’s smile fell away. Then his eyes widened slightly. “I — oh. Yes. So I see.”

“It wouldn’t be my first choice,” Claire said. Her lips thinned. “But we have to be prepared to do what must be done if we want to stay competitive with the Outworlders. Getting to the Empty Court will go a really long way in helping us do that.”

“Can we buy a Starstone somehow?” Alex asked.

“No,” Finley said. He coughed into his fist, then swallowed. “Not without buying the town around it. And I doubt you’re going to find someone with a Town for sale. I’m afraid Claire’s suggestion would be considerably more effective.”

Claire crossed her arms behind her back and chewed on the insides of her cheeks in thought. “And it’s not like we can just establish a normal connection between Mirrorwane and another town. It’s too much risk. We can’t have someone following us back.”

Well… we’re probably strong enough to take someone out if they try to follow us back into Mirrorwane. But Claire is right. That’s a huge risk. If anyone manages to share our location, we’ll be in some serious trouble.

It wasn’t that he wanted to go slaughter a town of people for absolutely no reason. But realistically speaking, it probably wasn’t going to be a Nativeworlder Town. The majority of them would be Outworlder controlled. Even still, Alex wasn’t looking to just go out murdering people purely out of convenience.

I promised myself two things. That I’d have a good time in the Apocalypse, and that I wouldn’t let the System turn me into a monster.

Slaughtering a town out of convenience was pretty undeniably the actions of a monster.

But, as Alex tried to dig through his thoughts for a potential solution, an idea suddenly struck him.

He blinked.

Then a grin pulled across his lips.

“I think I got it.”

“You did?” Finley asked. “A way to destroy the town?”

“No,” Alex said. “Well, probably not.”

“That isn’t reassuring,” Aaron said.

“You should like this more than anyone else,” Alex said, sending him a sidelong glance. Then he turned back to Finley. “The way back to Towntown is still open, right?”

Finley frowned. “Yes. I do believe it is.”

“Okay,” Alex said. “That’s half. The easy one, I guess. The other… you said it was hard to send messages right now. But we’ve got a good amount of Credits. Is there some way you could maybe slip a tiny one through with one of your contacts?”

“It would be ludicrously expensive,” Finley said. “A few hundred Credits. And it would be have to be someone whose signature you have. Probably recently. The last few days. When you run into people, faint amounts of their aura remain mixed with yours. Basically like an orbiting planet. If there’s enough of that signature, it might be possible to send a very short message. But I doubt it’s worth—”

“No. That should be just fine, actually,” Alex said with a grin. “Can you schedule the message? So it comes out in a few minutes from now?”

Finley blinked. Then he nodded. “Yes. I do suppose so. If you’re certain.”

“Depends,” Alex said. He glanced to Claire. “You ready?”

“Probably not,” Claire said with a wry grin. “I recognize the look in you’re eyes. You’re about to do something rather stupid. But I don’t see why not. I want to see the Empty Court as well. If you think we have a way to get back… let’s hear it.”

“Should be pretty easy, actually,” Alex said. He looked to Finely. “Okay. I need you to schedule a quick message to go out five minutes after we leave.”

“Okay,” Finley said slowly. “But… to who?”

“The only person we’ve seen teleporting around like it’s nothing.” Alex grinned. “I want you to message Absolution.”