Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 8) - Chapter 19 - You’re Enjoying This Just a Little Too Much, Aren’t You?

Xavier appeared in the same hallway he always appeared in when taken to the Tower of Champions. There weren’t many Denizens here. He spotted one or two other Champions of Earth, but they were far down the hall and not paying him any mind.

To his left was the door to his room here. It was closed, locked. He touched a hand to it, ran his fingers along the solid wood, and took a breath.

He’d lived countless lifetimes since the last time he’d set foot in this place. He’d delivered justice to billions of people.

I delivered death to them.

In that time, he had changed in a million ways. And yet… There was a part of him that thought he didn’t feel as different as he should. That thought the weight of everything he’d done should be heavier on his shoulders. Should be too much for him to bear.

Yet it wasn’t.

A voice inside told him he should step into his room and cast Time Alteration. Have a proper rest. Sleep for hours. Read a good book or ten. He could spend some time recharging. Though he hadn’t been injured during the fight with Sovereign Rewke Fouran—something that was honestly a surprise to him—the universal pressure had been a lot to bear.

But the last thing Xavier wanted to do in that moment was stop moving, even if he deserved rest. Even if it would be good for him.

There were far too many things going through his mind. He did, however, activate Time Alteration. He said a silent thanks to one of his spells, Pocket Time Stream, for allowing him to—essentially—no longer worry about having to wait for cooldowns.

The hall felt eerily silent with the rest of the world all but frozen in time. He walked down the spiral stairs, heading for the bottom floor, then made his way through the double doors and into the tavern, pushing one open with each hand. This didn’t need to be his first stop, but he wanted to see who was here.

A quick glance around the tavern showed him that his old party wasn’t here—but of course they weren’t. He knew they wouldn’t be. However much time had passed for him since the last time he’d seen them, only a day or so had actually gone by. They weren’t due back in the tower for a while yet.

Sam, of course, was standing behind the bar, polishing a glass as if no time had passed at all. A few Champions were sitting at the different tables, about three different parties, though none of the parties had a full complement of four denizens in each of them.

Xavier didn’t alter the time dilation field speed, nor did he spread it to envelop everyone in the room. He recognised a few of the faces in here and he was damn sure they’d recognise him. The last thing he felt like doing was answering questions or getting significant looks.

There was one person—well, two, if you included Sam—in the place that he did feel like talking to, however.

Adranial sat alone at one of the tables in the far-right corner of the large tavern. Frozen in time, she was halfway through sipping a large mug of ale. Her party wasn’t in evidence, which meant they were either sleeping or training in their Staging Room.

I wonder why she’s sitting alone.

Xavier headed over to her. Though he supposed it was a little presumptuous, he took the seat across from her before encompassing her in the time dilation field.

Adranial spat out her drink. “Where in all hells did you come from?”

Xavier grinned. “What, I thought you’d be happy to see me?”

The woman took a breath and wiped her face with her sleeve before giving him a quick grin. “Oh, I’m happy to see you.” Her expression shifted. “Though I’m a little confused. We were supposed to meet here months ago, then you just…” She waved a hand. “Disappeared.”

Xavier leant back in his seat. “Right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You know, I meant to contact you.” He’d spent a fair amount of time training before he’d regained the use of his time dilation field—before he’d regained the use of any spell. He hadn’t even been able to use his Communication Stones back then. In that time, he hadn’t been able to keep in touch with Adranial. Then when he was able to, he kept putting it off…

“Where have you been?” Adranial frowned, leaning forward a little. “You look different.”

Xavier glanced down at himself. His armour was normal enough. He wasn’t exactly sure why he would look different.

Though he knew that even if he didn’t look different to his own eyes, he was different—entirely different—to the last time he’d sat across from this woman. He had a whole other path of advancement, and he’d finally advanced to C Grade. Not that she should be able to tell any of that at a glance.

“I should have contacted you.”

Adranial crossed her arms. “Yes. You should have.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t.”

“You’re sorry?” She raised an eyebrow. “Can’t say I expected you to apologise.”

Xavier sighed. “I’ve had a… Well, let’s just say I’ve been busy. I’ve gone through a lot since last we spoke.”

“Why did you disappear? You asked for my help, then poof, gone. I worried you’d stepped onto a tower floor and gotten yourself killed.”

Xavier frowned. “I’m sorry. It hadn’t occurred to me that you might think I died. I didn’t even think you’d be worried.”

“It hadn’t occurred to you?”

Xavier shifted in his seat. “I didn’t think you would have spared much of a thought for me at all, after what happened.”

“After your cores were shattered, you mean?”

 “You told me yourself no one comes back from that. You were sent to watch me, to befriend me, because of your ancestor’s interest in me. What interest would there be if I was no longer a weapon anymore?”

Adranial took a hefty sip of her drink. “You don’t understand women at all, do you?”

Xavier’s forehead creased. “I’m not exactly sure what that’s got to do with anything.”

“Of course I was worried about you, you fool! And yes, I may have been sent here for that reason, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t grown to care for you.” She drank more of the ale, then sighed, turning the mug over only to find there was nothing left. “So, what was so important? Why did you disappear? You haven’t been stuck on a floor this entire time, have you?”

“After my cores we shattered, after we spoke, the System pulled me from the tower. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, and I wasn’t able to use my Communication Stone to contact you as I wasn’t able to use it.”

“Because of your cores…”

Xavier nodded. “I couldn’t even access my Storage Ring, and letting someone else access it, because of the way I secured it—”

“Might have destroyed it.” Adranial inclined her head. “Sounds like you’ve had a rough time.” She scrunched up her nose then narrowed her eyes. “That begs the question—how are you back now?”

The young dragonkin scratched the back of his head. He’d just faced a True B Grade sector ruler and yet, for some reason, he felt more trepidation being honest with the woman in front of him. “Well, I, ah, regained the use of my cores. And more besides.”

“So… You were able to contact me eventually, but simply chose not to?” Adranial tilted her head to the side. “You could have asked someone else to speak with me, too. Another Champion headed for the tower. There’s more than one way to get a hold of someone, isn’t there?”

Xavier sighed. “I’m not going to make any excuses.”

“You mean no more excuses.”

Xavier tilted his head to one side. “You’re enjoying this just a little too much, aren’t you?”

Adranial looked momentarily offended, then she smirked. “Well, when you seemed genuinely sorry, I couldn’t help but milk it for everything it was worth.” She gave a shrug. “It’s not often I see you wrongfooted, Xavier Collins.” She picked up her drink then, remembering it was empty, placed the mug back down. “I did worry.”

“I know.” Xavier put his elbows on the table and leant toward her. “There’s something I want to ask you.”

Adranial blinked. For a moment, she was the one who looked wrongfooted. “What do you want to ask?”

“Well, first, let’s put all our cards on the table. Your ancestor, the Old Man as people keep calling him, he knows what I’m capable of.” Xavier pointedly looked up at the ceiling. “He’s watching over me. A lot.”

Adranial didn’t say anything in reply. She simply remained silent. But he could tell she’d known about the surveillance. Hell, she was a part of the surveillance.

“Something tells me, however, that he doesn’t share everything he sees with you?”

“No,” Adranial breathed. “He doesn’t. Otherwise, I would have known you were alive.”

Xavier nodded. “I figured as much. Well, a lot of people are soon going to find out a few interesting things. Very soon. I’ve just allowed a great many Denizens witness how powerful I am. Word’s going to get out that someone who’s only recently been integrated into the System has the power to defeat a True B Grade.”

Adranial’s face slackened. “What? You… you told me you defeated the Arakashinai Queen, she’d B Grade but only just…” She trailed off, her mouth working but not finding any more words, until she cleared her throat and stared heavily at him. “If what you’re saying is true—”

“I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this.”

Another small smirk arrived on the woman’s face. “What would you like to me about?”

“That’s not what I—”

Adranial waved his reply away then stared at him seriously again. “You defeated a True B Grade? When? How?”

Xavier released a long breath, then told her several things.

Before he told her about the fight, he told her exactly how he’d regained his cores. He figured there was no point hiding any of it. Adranial, no matter how she’d gotten here or the dubious things she’d done in order to establish communication with him, was an ally.

She, like her ancestor, wanted the universe to be saved.

That was why the Old Man had tried to intervene when The Collector almost killed him with that void portal and the massive burst of Soul Energy. He hadn’t been trying to hinder Xavier’s growth—he’d been trying to save his life so he could go on to fulfill his destiny of saving the universe.

That means we’re all in this together.

Though, of course, it wasn’t that simple. There was a part of him that wondered if he should simply go to the Old Man and speak frankly to him. Tell him of his goals to unite the entire universe. The man already controlled a vast number of universes. Their goals were aligned. But someone as powerful as that wasn’t about to let go of all that power and put it into Xavier’s hands, was he—and it needed to be Xavier who ruled.

Didn’t it?

But Adranial was different. She may have been a part of her ancestor’s world, but she was also an outcast. She’d been made an outcast. She’d put her loyalty toward Earth. Fought as a Champion of Earth. Her memories of her home, the ones that connected her to it with her deepest emotions, they weren’t even inside her mind anymore.

They were inside Xavier’s—not that he had access to them, even though he probably could gain access if he wished.

Is that why she was so worried I’d died, because it meant I would have lost her memories?

While it was easy for him to think that was the reason, something told him it was more than that.

Adranial listened intently as Xavier told her the story of what had happened after he’d been forcefully returned to Earth. He told her about the training he’d undergone. He got detailed, too. Inside the time dilation field there was no reason for him to make the story a short one, and her interest in everything he’d done was quite clear.

And if he wanted her as a true ally, then he would need to be honest with her.

About everything.

Well, almost everything…

There were a few things he held but.

Still, he told her about Reality Energy, and about his Reality Core. Told her about the other path of advancement he’d gained. About the artificial cores he’d created. About the spell patterns he could wield and the depths of their power.

He didn’t tell the woman about Roln. Having a mental construct that could, theoretically, control so many aspects of him wasn’t something he wanted to share with her. And, as he wasn’t even sure if the System was aware of Roln, it wasn’t something he wanted to mention aloud.

Roln didn’t think he should be sharing as much as he was with the woman, but the dead Wanderer—thankfully—kept much of his opinions to himself.

At one point in the conversation, Xavier extended the time dilation field so it encompassed Sam. He made a twisting line from their seat to the bar, avoiding the other Denizens, and reached only for the barkeep.

Sam was less surprised than Adranial about the sudden shift, though when he looked at Xavier there was a scent of fear coming from the man that hadn’t been there in the past. That fear made Xavier wonder just what the man knew.

How much has Empress Larona told him?

The empress could no longer see Xavier’s future. That was something that had frightened the woman.

Then, there was the fact that she’d surely been sitting in the seats in that last fight… That was something he’d thought about but hadn’t yet considered the consequences of. There were things he’d learnt about the empress, things he wanted to speak with her about—a deal she’d made with The Collector, one that meant he left her alone.

At the price of her warning him about every danger before it came his way.

That was one of the only reasons the bastard had lasted as long as he had.

Because of her help…

If Empress Larona had been sitting in those stands, and he was quite sure she must have been, then she would know just how powerful Xavier had become. She’d know he was more than strong enough to take her out, if he wished. She would also see his ambitions.

For a long while now Xavier had intended to spread his rule around the Silver River sector, the sector that was home to Earth. It would certainly be faster if he simply took hold of the empress’s territory…

Xavier and Sam didn’t say a word about any of this, however. Xavier had simply allowed him to be in the time dilation field long enough for him to serve them some drinks and a meal, and then the conversation had continued.

Adranial had almost choked on her food when Xavier got to the part about defeating Sovereign Rewke Fouran and becoming the ruler of an entire sector.

“You defeated a True B Grade by hitting him in the head a lot?”

Xavier chuckled. “Well, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound half as impressive.”

Adranial shook her head. “Not half as impressive? It’s ten times more impressive! All these things you’ve told me… I’m having a hard time believing any of it. Another path of advancement, from a universe far, far away… Other Systems?” She gripped the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger and shut her eyes a long moment. “This is insane, Xavier. Insane.”

“You know, I have heard that once or twice,” Xavier muttered.

When his story came to an end and he’d told her about the notification concerning Sovereign Rewke Fouran’s missing soul, Adranial simply stared at him for a long while before replying.

“So, Xavier Collins, why did you tell me all of that?”

“Because, Adranial, I think it’s time I bring you into the fold.”