System Change

“Dammit…” Derek muttered as he floated above yet another teleportation array. He’d been at it for at least half a day—moving from array to array in Indria—yet he hadn’t found any clues as to where Jakis could be. From there, he turned to the telltale glow that indicated another protection barrier and lunged towards it using Powerstride.

I guess that’s one good thing about doing all this hunting without finding anyone, he thought as his Powerstride ended and he prepared to use it again. I’m getting a lot of use out of my non-void traveling skills. An hour or two later, Derek found himself above another array.

This time, however, when he looked down, he was surprised to finally see something. No, it wasn’t a Champion or anything like that, but he at least saw a small group of invaders. Not missing this chance, Derek used Void Shift and appeared directly in front of them, causing the leading bug-like soldier to recoil back.

“W-wha… who…” the bug-like creature that was leading the group chittered. Even the way the bug spoke sent shivers down Derek’s spine.

“Hey,” Derek said. “Do you know who I am?”

“G-guardian…” the creature spoke.

“That’s right,” Derek said. “Now, tell me where you’re heading.”

“N-no… where,” the bug said. “J-just scouting.”

“Thought so,” Derek replied with a sigh. “Well, tell me this. Where is the Champion Jakis? I heard he was around here.”

“N-not here…” the bug replied. “Left…”

“He left?” Derek’s eyebrows raised. “So, he was here?”

“Y—” the bug started, but Derek cut it off.

“Stop talking,” he said, then pointed at an elven-looking man. “You, speak.”

“Uh… yes, sir,” the man said as he swallowed hard. “Sir Jakis was around here up until this morning, then he just left, and I have not heard anything else about him.”

Dammit! Derek cursed inwardly. He had just missed him.

“What about you?” he asked the others, but they all either shook their heads or replied that they hadn’t heard anything about the man. “Are you able to get in contact with him? With your bracelets?”

“No, sir,” the elven man answered. “We are not high enough to be able to contact any of our Champions. Also, our communications are very limited at the moment. Before, we could send and receive messages and communication requests from planets away, but now, the range is very short. So, we have not been able to gather much information about anything.”

“So that’s why it’s so hard to interrogate people,” Derek muttered. They just don’t know, and can’t find out because communications are basically down, he thought. “In that case, it would be best if all of you either huddled up inside the protection barrier or found a way to go home. I’ll let you leave this time, but if I see you again…”

“T-thank you… Guardian,” the elf bowed, then turned and ran.

Derek pulled out his communication crystal, then pushed some of his energy into it.

‘Derek? Have you found anything?’ Edgar’s voice came back inside his head.

‘Just that the Jackass already ran away,’ Derek said. ‘I’m disappointed. By the way Natalie made it sound, he was supposed to have been a good fighter. I didn’t think he’d already be gone. He may still be close by, though. What about you? Do you have anything? Anything for me to act on? I’m itching to get my hands on another Champion.’

‘You and me both,’ Edgar replied. ‘But no, you have all the information that we do.’

‘And the regular invaders don’t know much because they are limited in communications,’ Derek said. ‘Figured that out a couple of minutes ago.’

‘Yeah…’ Edgar replied. ‘One of the invaders we captured mentioned something about that.’

‘In that case, I’m going to head over to the other continent,’ Derek replied. ‘Tell every—’ he started, but was cut off by Edgar.

‘Oh!’ Edgar sounded surprised.

‘What?’

‘The Queen and Amelia,’ Edgar said. ‘They are in battle.’

‘Great!’ Derek sent back, genuinely happy. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’ Without giving Edgar a chance to reply, he ended communications and stored the crystal. Okay… The Queen, he thought. She has to be from Linderis, right? I mean, there were those couple of smaller kingdoms that Alanah didn’t even bother mentioning, and I’m pretty sure the Queen of Linderis is supposed to be strong…

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He’d been thinking about the identity of The Queen, and that was the only explanation that made sense to Derek. Damn… he clicked his tongue. I should have explored more of the continent. He wasn’t sure where the Capital of Linderis was. He’d only really been to the abyss where he fought the big tree. Oh well, I’m sure I can find my way from there. With that, Derek ripped the space open and stepped inside.

***

Amelia stood in the center of a courtyard—vines wrapping up and down her body. She stared at the ephemeral figure in front of her with a blank face. The woman had long, flowing, sky-blue hair and wore a stunning dress that reminded Amelia more of a nightgown than any type of armor or daily clothing.

Around the beauty were four male elves who, though not as stunning as the woman, were well above average in their looks—even for elves. Two of those men were on a knee with their hands on the ground, directing the vines to lock Amelia in place.

“You need to give up, now,” Amelia said. “Say the words, let the system take you, then I will leave and nobody will be harmed. That is the best that I can do for you.”

“I… do not know what you are,” the beautiful elf said as she squinted her eyes. “But you are in my domain… Amelia.”

“Oh, so you can read?” Amelia snorted. “Then you know that the lists are sorted by strength, do you not?”

“I do, and that is true,” The Queen replied. “But I’m sure that you will find me… much harder to deal with than you would imagine.” With that, The Queen dissolved into hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny blue motes of light and then scattered.

“These tricks?” Amelia looked around, unamused.

“They are more than tricks,” The Queen reappeared. However, this time, there were dozens of her standing around the courtyard. “Hold her!” she yelled, then every version of the woman raised their right hand, and a sky-blue arrow came shooting out.

“Wow…” Amelia muttered as she was pelted by the arrows. Surprisingly, every arrow that landed was real. She’d expected all but one or two of the arrows to be fake, but they weren’t. “Your illusion magic is much more interesting than other illusionists I’ve fought.”

“That is because it is not petty illusion magic!” dozens of The Queen’s voices sounded from all around Amelia.

“I can honestly say that I’m intrigued,” Amelia said. “Unfortunately, I am on a…” Amelia paused, then whipped her head to look in another direction. What… who’s that? Out of nowhere, the pull indicating a Guardian appeared. It was in a totally different direction than the one indicating the ones by the other Stronghold.

“What’s wrong?” the elven queen asked. “Are you afraid that your arrogance has left you in a dire situation?”

Still with wide eyes, Amelia turned her head back to look at where the first queen had been. “It seems that my time has gotten even shorter,” she said, then with the two fingers that weren’t wrapped up by vines, flicked them down.

Instantly, the vines crashed to the ground. From there, Amelia raised her hands in the air, and the four men lost their footing on the ground. With a push, Amelia sent the men flying—it was anyone’s guess as to where they would end up. All that she knew was that they wouldn’t stop until they were miles away.

“Y-you!” The Queen stammered. “My men!”

“Yes… your men,” Amelia said as she turned in a circle to eye each version of the queen. “But you should worry more about yourself. Know this, I am sorry. I gave you a chance to save yourself.”

Every version of The Queen opened their mouth to say something, but Amelia acted before they could. She channeled her energy and released her aura. An aura so thick that it could be seen by the naked eye and then some flowed out of the woman. It was a dull, purplish-gray, and it was heavy.

Amelia pushed at the ground, then heard dozens of yelps sound out all at once. Every queen that was surrounding her had fallen to the ground—face down. “They… are all real?” For a moment, Amelia was stunned once again. But she didn’t have time to think about it because, at that moment, she felt the pull double in its intensity. Then it grew even stronger.

“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, then began pumping more and more of her energy into her attack.

“Gi… give… u-up,” the queens barely muttered, then they were gone.

Amelia didn’t spend any time collecting items from the area. Instead, she kicked off the ground and shot high into the air so she wouldn’t leave a trace. Then, she took off in the complete opposite direction of where the new Guardian was coming from.

***

Derek was mad. He was too late. It hadn’t taken him long to find an elf and coerce the location of the capital out of him. In fact, once the man saw that his queen was under attack and that Derek was a Guardian, he gave him the information quite easily. The capital was close, but apparently, it wasn’t close enough.

Derek had pushed Powerstride to its limits to try to make it in time, but it wasn’t enough. Before he arrived, the list updated with The Queen’s defeat. At least she’s not dead… Derek thought. Which… I guess is a good thing? I don’t know. These elves are all stupid, and she’s the queen of stupid, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Still, while he was lost in his thoughts, he was pushing himself as hard as he could to get to the capital. The Queen may have been lost, but there was a chance that he would be able to find the Champion who’d done it. He just hoped that Amelia was confident enough in her strength that she would stay for a fight instead of running off.

A handful of Powerstrides later, Derek was hovering over what could only be the capital. It was almost like Eloria, except for the fact that the elves of Linderis didn’t seem to hold their natural surroundings in quite as high regard as those of Indria did.

Instead of everything being woven from living trees and nature, most of the buildings were made of stone—some of which Derek recognized. This was especially true once he arrived at the palace, which seemed to be made out of the same stuff that Alanah had built her restaurant in the capital of.

However, when he arrived, everything was quiet. All he was able to find was a destroyed courtyard. In a massive circle, the ground was pushed in multiple feet. Small bits of blood pooled around the edge of the circle. In the center, a pile of crushed vines lay dead.

“Dammit!” Derek cursed again. He’d said that word so many times already that he’d lost count. He frantically looked around—trying to find any trace of the Champion. However, there was nothing.

“My queen!” A shout suddenly rang out, and Derek looked up to see a bedraggled man with wings sprouting from his back, hovering above him.

“She’s gone,” Derek said. “But not dead. It looks like she either got knocked unconscious or surrounded before she died.”

“Who… are you?” The man floated down and landed ten feet away from Derek.

“Me? Apparently… I’m late,” Derek answered. “But you may know me as the guy who chopped down that big piece of firewood.”

“You! You are with the Dawn Siren!” The man stared at Derek in shock. He seemed to be a little less frantic after realizing that The Queen wasn’t dead.

“Right now? No,” Derek said. “I’m by myself. I saw that your queen was under attack, so I came as quickly as I could, but, like I said, I was too late.”

“I see…” The man looked at Derek skeptically.

“Now,” Derek said. “Tell me everything you know about this Amelia.”