Path of the Slayer B3 67. Modern Earth Realm

There was a significant difference between my party before the ceremony and my party afterward.

The synchrony was so sharp, so stellar, I could shut all of my senses and know with one hundred percent certainty where and what my new nomad family was doing. In return, they knew what I was doing as I stood on the cliff with griffins circling above and cool gusts sending the colorful sea-grass below wavering like a watery surface.

Merlin joined my side. There was a weight on his soul, something he’d been meaning to get out for a while. I stood patiently with my hands on my hips, my loose shirt and leggings wavering in the wind.

“I came from a decent family,” he started off slowly. “One side was well-to-do dwarves. The other side was well-to-do elves. They usually end up hitting anywhere from Rank 2 to Rank 3. And they’d serve under Rank 5s and a few passing Pathwalkers because of our blacksmithing and spellcrafting.

“My old man, he was a tough dwarf. He wanted me to be like him. Blacksmith. Kinda reminds me of you, but less flexible, less cool. Keep your head down and work hard. Serve the Pathwalkers, pray to the System, and stay the course. That’s my dad.

“For whatever reason, my mom was the opposite. She’s an elf. And the hippie hipster type of elf. She encouraged me to push myself out of my shell. Get out there. Even at the risk of being crushed by society. I took more after her, as you may have noticed.”

Merlin let out a long sigh.

“I’ve been worried what they would think when I go back to see them. Would they expect me to make them all Pathwalkers? Would my dad still treat me the same? Would my mom still love me if she knew some of the terrible things I’d done? I killed a lot of people. And some in painful ways. Would they understand that I’m probably going to defy our allegiance to the Dragon Supremacy and risk it all even more?”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “What makes you think I won’t take the knee in front of Melody?”

Merlin scoffed. “Don’t play with me, Arden the Nomad. We both know that’s not the type of man you are. We’re going for the gold, right? We’re going to prove a point with our little nomad family. Against them all.”

“You sound happy about that.”

Merlin looked down at his hands. His shoulder hunched up. His body trembled. Finally, a burst of sound came out of him, packed with emotion: joy. He laughed and laughed.

Only after he settled down did he speak again. “Yeah, I am. Surprise, surprise. I got an ego. And being part of this nomad thing makes it all feel okay. It would be better if I could make my family nomads, too. Maybe my mom would agree. But … I’m not gonna stress it. After last night, I know deep down there’s a lot more for me the further we go.”

Turning around, I cocked back my right arm and swung it. Merlin swung his right one in sync with mine, our hands meeting with a resounding clap.

We shook on it, released, and bumped our knuckles to complete the dap.

With us face to face, I saw he was dressed in a riot of festive colors, with loose baggy leggings, multiple scarves, and a round white cloth around his head. The style reminded me of Syleth.

“An ancestor told me there are spells that can help speak to the dead beyond just our roots,” Merlin said. “I’ll have to do some digging. Get stronger. But I figured it’ll be cool to let Syleth know I’m trying out the stuff she bought for me. Gives me more of a wild wizard prince vibe, doesn’t it?”

“It does.” I clapped him on the shoulder before glancing at the others.

Thumper wasn’t hiding his face anymore. The days of being the hidden prince were behind him. Hell, he was dressed in all white and silver, too, with a magnificent wolf’s pelt draped around his shoulder to top off his slick suit and shiny dress boots.

Beside him, Grimmy wore a slim diamond-style gown and heels, with the jewelry to go with it. No more silly impressions. She looked regal and confident, with her hair styled in long, thin braids. The light makeup beautified what was already there, too.

I didn’t know how to describe my style. Especially with how I wore sandals instead of boots. Then two words traveled through the roots and gave me the right description for it.

Islander vibes.

Nodding, I glanced at our fifth member, Doomie. She was wearing a little dress now that she fashioned from her own shady body. She nodded enthusiastically, wings fluttering, tail snapping, ready to go.

We crossed through a brown Realm Portal without checking what it was. Partially because it didn’t matter what it was, the Grand Generational Passing was on the other side. I also wanted the exact nature of the next Realm to be a surprise.

And what a surprise it was.

[You’re entering the Modern Earth 2020s Realm: Rank 0 Deviant (Common)!]

[Alert!]

[Modern Earth Realms require strict regression protocols. The System requires undeniable access to your Personal Parameters to proceed. You will still have access to all of your powers, but the regression will reduce the likelihood of heavy collateral damage.]

[This means various Grades and Path Energies will be far closer to each other in power, so all must be wary here.]

[Do you agree to be placed under strict regression protocols? If not, you will be rejected from this Realm!]

[Alert!]

[Slayer: This private message is to alert you that this Deviant Realm automatically connects to a portion of the Slayer Sanctum. This will be obscured from all curious watchers unless you inform them.]

[Slayer: When you are ready, you’ll feel where to go for a third visit to the Slayer Sanctum.]

I kept the news about the Slayer Sanctum to myself. We all agreed on the regression parameters. The softest dimensional waterfall I’d ever felt passed over us quietly. The snap and pop from transferring into another Realm barely registered compared to the sharp fall off to my overall power.

A shiver passed through me. The others stumbled, shook, and blinked in confusion as our own Personal Parameters shackled us, impressing the System’s regression upon us.

I groaned while taking time to adjust when a mechanical honk caught my attention. The screech of rubber on the hard, strange surface under us sounded out. A boxy carriage – an automobile – was trying to stop while I was standing on an active road.

Reaching out with my simple prosthetic, I helped stop the car, my palm denting the weak metal front. Despite my regression, the sudden jerking stop was worse on the car and the driver.

The driver was fussing with what looked like an airbag deportation device I’d read about in multiple engineering books. More noises caught my attention from everywhere. More automobiles rolled by, some honking, many rumbling.

A river of voices swept past from crowds of people on the sidelines designated for foot track. Towers of glass, steel, and stone stood over me, reminding me of the ruins from my old Hell Realm, but whole and complete.

Through the gap in the towers, a metal bird flew in the sky. It wasn’t all that high – Merlin’s Dragon Gunship could reach those heights – but that was with magic. The thing above – an aeroplane – was flying purely with engineering genius. No magic involved.

It was incredible.

“What the hell, man?!” shouted the driver, a grossly overweight man with unkept hair. He waved his fist at me without throwing a punch. “You better have insurance! You don’t have insurance, do you? I’m calling the cops!”

I tilted my head at him. I wasn’t sure what the cops were. Some sort of guard force? That would be bad for the guard force. Even while regressed, I was leagues above this mortal man and the people of this Deviant Realm.

“Just great. Absolutely wonderful! We finally got Arden to a Modern Earth Realm, and he’s getting the cops called on him!” Merlin griped. “I swear this isn’t how I wanted to start things off.”

“Should I knock him out?” Grimmy asked. “This is my first Modern Earth Realm. Is fighting okay?”

The angry man stopped and looked down at the half-gob in the glamorous diamond dress. There was a mix of distress, bewilderment, and uncertainty in his eyes.

Then Doomie walked up and poked him in the shoulder.

“Ahhh!” the man screamed, turning to run.

We watched him go. Other mortals watched as well, taking out small rectangular devices and pointing them at us.

I waited to see if they would attack us with these devices. They didn’t. They stood there and seemed too busy looking at the flat rectangles or talking to them personally.

The flat rectangles talked back. It didn’t take me long to realize these were communication devices similar to orbs for scrying and transcommunication.

“Let’s get going before Arden gets caught up with all the tech discovery. Or we’ll be here all day.” Thumper tapped me on the shoulder to follow.

We didn’t need me to lead the way. They all had roots. And our goal was so close that just being a plain Pathwalker would’ve gotten us there eventually.

Thumper took us on the roundabout way like a true nomad, starting with one upward bound. He cleared sixty floors to land on a tower.

We all followed him, jumping easily into the air, the people below shouting, pointing, and directing their rectangular com devices at us. We left them behind as we hopped from rooftop to rooftop with ease, the gravity here lower than I’d ever felt. Even with our reduced power, covering a few hundred feet with one jump was well within our capabilities.

I kept looking around at a world without magic. It also led me to look internally and come to realize how much incredible power every Pathwalker generated on their own. Our power was truly enormous in the grand scheme of things compared to a world filled with nothing but Rank 0s.

Technological marvels appeared from everywhere. A strange bird Merlin pointed out swooped through the air while using spinning blades on top of its chassis and on the end of its tail – a helicopter it was called.

We landed on top of what Thumper called a yacht that moved using motors and underwater propellers. It helped us cross a river that separated one large section of human civilization from another.

“Why are there no other folk other than humans?” I asked.

“It’s been a question a lot of us wondered about but haven’t found satisfying answers to,” Merlin said, sounding like his scholarly self, his colorful clothing ruffling as we hopped and soared over the city. “They’re called Deviant Realms because after so many years, each of these Realms resets to stay within a certain era of Modern Earth. But they don’t necessarily reset with the same humans. Hence, they still deviate with each reset.”

Thumper took over. “Here, we could destroy entire cities with our normal power. They have no magic defenses. And their technologies are weak against us. But these Realms are the only places with an emphasis on pure tech. If you take any of this stuff out of here, they completely disintegrate on you, or worse, become something deviant and weird. There’s also information here that’s blacklisted. Like if you try to learn it, the System will take it out of your head.”

As we ran up the wall of a tall, shiny tower, Thumper continued. “A lot of the aristocracy believe the Modern Earth Realms are special places the System maintains because they remind her of home. Maybe she came from such a place a long, long time ago. Or maybe the Realm Verse System started from Modern Earth Realms, and the System expanded from there. Either way, these Realms heavily influence the Realm Verse with their culture mixing with ours.”

“What Professor Thumper said,” Merlin harrumphed, clearly unhappy with his scholarly thunder being stolen.

“I wanna see an anime!” Grimmy declared, holding Doomie’s hand as the two trailed behind the men. Doomie gave the impression that she wanted the same through our roots. Grimmy cheered. “See! Doomie wants anime! I want anime! That’s what Modern Earth Realms are good for. Anime!”

“I’m curious about that, too,” I said. “It’s about time I learned about all of those references. Though I’ll prefer it if we avoid the hentai otaku stuff.”

“Drat. We’ve been foiled,” Merlin muttered.

“Next time,” Thumper said.

“We’ll have to drip feed it to him. Little by little. Until he’s a depraved hentai otaku.”

“He won’t know what hit him until he asks Melody to dress in a maid’s outfit.”

The two of them laughed, and I shook my head at them.

Before we could do anything else, a figure in the sky caught all of our attention. If it weren’t for our reduced power, we would’ve spotted them far sooner.

We landed in a clear field that had plenty of open space and looked like a coliseum. The stadium had tens of thousands of mortals in the stands. There were two armored teams of humans about to play some sort of game with an oval-shaped ball made of brown leather.

Our arrival interrupted their game. Mortals shouted, pointed, and raised their com devices. We waited patiently as the stranger landed in front of us.

“Arden the Nomad and companions,” said a half-dragon man dressed in sharp black and white servant clothes. “The ruler of the Dragon Supremacy, the leading forerunner, the Dragon Princess, has sent me to inform you of a summons. In the next half hour, you must kneel in front of her at The Grand Plaza Hotel, and no later than that.”

I waved him off. “We’re going to watch anime. We still have time before the event. We’ll see her then.”

The man’s eyebrow twitched. “The Dragon Princess has allowed your rudeness to go unpunished long enough. I refuse to accept this behavior. Show your respect to your princess, or I’ll teach you respect.”

Path Magic activated: Predator Storm!

Other powers came to the forefront as well. The messenger’s eyes widened as he thrust a hand forward and began activating his own powers. But he was Locked at Level 101 just like me, and there were few Veterans equal to me.

I took his fire beam to the chest, activating Pain Eater Juggernaut, making myself even stronger. Path Energy defended my clothing from damage and ensured the fire beam wouldn’t divert and hurt the innocent.

After crossing the distance, I clapped my hand down on his shoulder. He buckled instantly, his knees slamming into the artificial grass. The ground shook, tossing the nearest mortals off their feet.

The messenger shuddered while staying kneeled in front of me. The fight in him gave out, like I snuffed an ember underfoot.

“I’ll see her sooner or later. Before the big event. Tell her that for me,” I said, withdrawing my powers and walking away.

My party hopped out of the stadium with me. The messenger remained kneeling in a ten-foot wide crater at the center of a strange game for mortals.