Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ruwen materialized to find Xavier looming over him. Twelve balls of plasma spun around the Celestial moving so fast it looked like a halo. Xavier’s seven-foot cylindrical form had a purple-blue color that hurt the eyes to view.

“Chicken!” Ruwen yelled.

For a moment Ruwen thought Xavier might attack him despite the Celestial obviously recognizing him. The halo effect disappeared as the plasma balls slowed, slowly rotating downward and disappearing inside Xavier’s body. The air crackled and popped where the plasma passed, the temperatures vaporizing the air so completely it created small pockets of vacuum.

“As usual your humor is as unwelcome as it is unfunny,” Xavier replied.

Ruwen didn’t bother hiding his disappointment. To transition into an adult Xavier had needed to reach the center of a star where he could undergo his metamorphosis. This had occurred when they were all traveling in Shelly after Ruwen’s friends had picked him up on Rainbow’s End. The new adult form wasn’t completely stable in the beginning and had provided Ruwen and Sift hours of enjoyment calling out different animals that Xavier had helplessly transformed into.

Ironically the hazing had revealed a more human side to Xavier which had made it easier for Ruwen to form a bond with the Celestial. Rami had accused Ruwen and Sift of bullying, but Ruwen didn’t see it that way. Hamma, Lylan, and Rami thought the method of relationship building that came so naturally to Ruwen and Sift was just mean.

Ruwen could understand how many of the interactions Sift and Ruwen had looked juvenile and stupid but that was a very superficial way of viewing it. Hamma had begun to understand as she advanced her emotional intelligence. Or maybe in this case, she’d needed to dumb down her emotional intelligence to understand. Regardless, she’d at least glimpsed the value in the way Ruwen and Sift build relationships. Rami still just thought he was being toxic.

“Looking back,” Ruwen said thoughtfully, “that period was one of the best in my life. I’m glad you were there.”

Xavier evidently didn’t know how to respond to that, but the harsh violet color softened into dark blue.

“How did you sense the teleport?” Ruwen asked. “I thought I had the equations perfect to minimize the dimensional bleed.”

Xavier scoffed. “You call that minimized? Why didn’t you use your cheat?”

“Harmony isn’t cheating just because you can’t do it, and I’m trying to master this the old fashion way.”

Xavier folded his arms, crackling energy dancing across his form like trapped lightning. He sighed, which sounded like the sizzling of overheated air. 

“I assume, given the sheer amount of dimensional bleed, that your arrival was intentional and not the result of some catastrophic miscalculation?” 

“Ouch, was it that bad? I got here didn’t I.” 

“Yes, much like how an explosion technically ‘opens’ a door. Inefficient, crude, and a waste of energy.” 

Xavier extended a tendril that reminded Ruwen of a solar flare. Xavier flicked the tip, and luminescent equations materialized in the air—intricate glyphs interwoven with numerical notations that burned fiercely as if trying to etch themselves into the air.

“Teleportation is not simply the folding of space. It is the harmonization of topological discontinuities. You, however, have managed to generate what I can only describe as a ruptured geodesic manifold, an amateurish failure to maintain phase integrity.” 

“Okay…but it was fast.”

“And I detected you just as fast. Do you not understand the principles of extrinsic curvature suppression? The moment your transition began, you created a wake—an imbalance in the surrounding tensor field that bled into adjacent dimensions. Observe.” 

Xavier gestured with a new tendril, and a three-dimensional projection of space appeared. A single bright line—Ruwen’s teleportation path—was jagged and surrounded by glowing turbulence. 

“Your traversal function lacked proper damping. The fundamental equation is simple.” More formulas filled the air between them. “Your field instability looked something like this—” 

The projection warped, and the once neat equations turned chaotic. 

Ruwen winced.

Xavier continued. “You introduced unnecessary tensor distortions, producing a cascading effect where adjacent eigenvalues collapsed into stochastic variance. To summarize for your tiny brain: you punched a hole through reality instead of slipping between the cracks.”

“Fine,” Ruwen responded, trying to ignore Xaiver’s condescension. Why did he always need to be such a jerk when explaining this stuff. It’s not like this was easy. There were only a handful of people alive who could probably follow the Celestial’s explanations. That Ruwen could should make Xavier happy, not turn him into a math-bully.

Ruwen continued. “How do I ‘slip between the cracks’ then?” 

Xavier’s plasma took on red hues, which Ruwen knew from experience meant he’d irritated or frustrated the Celestial.

“You must treat dimensional warping as a function of gradient-neutral topological transitions,” Xavier stated. “Instead of tearing through space, you must align with the minimal action path, ensuring a null-propagation trajectory. The correct approach follows a generalized phase-lock equation.”

A third and fourth tendril materialized, and more formulas appeared in the air. “These account for local curvature distortions in extradimensional space. If done correctly, your passage should produce no detectable signature.” 

Ruwen studied the new equations. Xavier hadn’t taught them to Ruwen when they’d been training during the alchemy contest. He suppressed a smile. That meant Xavier had been impressed enough with Ruwen’s teleport that he’d offered this more complex method.

The complex dimensional math confused Ruwen a bit, but he knew how to prod Xavier into offering more information even when the Celestial was reluctant.

“That sounds like a lot of extra work,” Ruwen said.

Predictably Xavier turned a dark red. “Yes, well, ‘work’ is a concept lost on those who prefer brute force. But if you insist on leaving behind these reality fractures, at least attempt a basic recalibration before you teleport. This will mitigate the worst of your incompetence.” 

Ruwen buried his satisfaction away, hiding it from Xavier. “And how do I do that?” 

Xavier crackled irritably, the air around him warping. With a snap of yet another tendril, more equations appeared, its notations impossibly complex. 

Ruwen gave a disbelieving look, as if doubting Xavier’s equations.

Xavier tendrils thrashed in irritation. He looked like an angry octopus. “You compute the correct warp phase offset like this.”

Xavier used multiple tendrils to solve the math equations. After ten seconds he snapped all the tendrils to point at a solution. “This ensures your teleportation event aligns with the principal null geodesic of the target manifold, reducing excess turbulence.” 

Ruwen stared at the formula, then at Xavier. “You do realize none of that made sense to me, right?”

“Yes. That’s because you’re an imbecile.”

Ruwen sighed, rubbing his temple, knowing Xavier would never be able to resist lecturing him. 

Xavier’s voice betrayed his annoyance. “Stop thinking of teleportation as an instantaneous jump. It’s a gradient field adjustment. You must feel the curvature of space-time, not just force yourself through it. Next, reduce your spatial phase variance. Instead of a sudden displacement, adjust your delay coefficient. Smooth transitions, not erratic jumps. Lastly, compute your destinations intrinsic warp metric before initiating. If you don’t, you will always produce a detectable wake.”

Ruwen tried to hide his joy. This had helped an immense amount. Despite Xavier’s arrogance he was surprisingly good at explaining complex issues. He had a knack for breaking down intricate problems into solvable chunks.

“And if I don’t do all that?” Ruwen asked, not able to help himself.

A harsh whistling filled the air as multiple dimensional rips appeared behind the angry Xavier. “Then I, and every being even remotely attuned to dimensional shifts, will see you coming from an eternity away. And then, Ruwen, someone far less patient than myself will turn you inside out. Which you most certainly deserve.”

Ruwen absorbed the glowing equations, understanding how they worked as a whole, not just as pieces required for a calculation. Notifications appeared.

Gong!

You have increased your Knowledge!

Level: 8,600 to 8,625

Knowledge - seized by intelligence, tempered by wisdom, balanced between peril and power - illuminates greatness.

Shing!

You have gained a new skill!

Skill: Dimensional Manipulation

Level: 50

Effect: Dimensional wakes decreased by 25%.

Ruwen bowed to Xavier. “Thank you. That was an excellent explanation, and it helped me a lot.”

Xavier didn’t verbally respond to that but most of the red energy faded back to blue.

“Why are you here?” Xavier asked. “You are keeping me from my sentry duty.”

Ruwen snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah. I came to tell you Rami is fine and not to worry. She is training with her dad and is safe.”

Xavier turned a soft yellow as the compressed cylinder lost some of its density. He was obviously relieved by the news.

Ruwen wondered once again why Xavier was so weird. The news was obviously incredibly important to the Celestial. Why wouldn’t he just ask about Rami immediately?

“You came here just to tell me that?” Xaiver asked, his voice lacking the normal arrogance. “Did Rami ask you to do that?”

Ruwen shook his head. “No, I just figured you’d be worried, and wanted to let you know before I took off.”

Xaiver didn’t respond and an awkward silence formed.

“I’m headed to that place we accidently sent the hydra if anyone asks,” Ruwen said.

Ruwen looked around, realizing how quiet it was. “Is anyone even here?”

“There are periodic arrivals, but only Hamma, Lylan, and Sift were staying here full time.”

“Oh, they’ll be gone for ten days. I forgot to mention that. Aren’t you lonely here by yourself?”

“I enjoy the silence, and Io remains here when I desire conversation.”

Ruwen could relate to enjoying the quiet. He briefly considered taking Io but didn’t want to deprive Xavier of a companion. “Thanks for guarding our stuff here. I appreciate that.”

Xavier didn’t respond.

“Okay then, well, I’ll be headed out, I guess. Thanks again for the math lesson.”

Xavier didn’t respond to that either. He’d evidently recaptured his irritating arrogant side.

Ruwen used his new understanding of dimensional manipulation to teleport behind Xavier. It happened far more naturally than before. Xavier had been right, Ruwen had previously blown holes in reality instead of using its existing cracks. To his immense satisfaction Xavier hadn’t detected the teleport.

“Turtle!” Ruwen screamed from behind Xavier.

Disappointingly, Xavier didn’t shift forms, but he did spasm in surprise, which was almost as good.

Ruwen teleported back to Echo as Xavier tried to spear him with plasma.