Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 8) - Chapter 8 - You Are Insane

“I was right,” Nalthair said after he’d delved through Xavier’s memories, having free rein. “You are insane.”

The elf stood a few feet from Xavier in the middle of the arena, sweat dotting his brow, heart thudding—the mask he’d worn to hide his fear gone.

“Does knowing what I know, seeing what I’ve done, change anything for you?” Xavier asked.

This was the part Xavier was least sure of. You can show someone the truth, pile irrefutable evidence in front of them, yet even when something is staring them in the face there’s no guarantee they’ll believe. He’d seen that enough times pre-System integration to know it was part of people’s nature to keep believing as they’d always believed, regardless of the proof to the contrary.

That sort of attitude wasn’t any different for more “advanced” Denizens. If anything, having such a long lifespan made beliefs more entrenched for Denizens.

Yet that wasn’t what Xavier saw in the elf.

“It…” Nalthair scrunched his eyes shut. Shook his head. “It changed everything.” He opened his eyes, stared at Xavier. “The Old Man knows about this. That the universe will end.” It wasn’t a question. The elf had seen it in Xavier’s mind. “Yet the old bastard didn’t deign to tell anyone. To warn people. We could have been preparing for billions of years!”

Xavier raised an eyebrow. “Do you think Jhanku doesn’t know about this?”

The elf blinked. For a moment, he looked offended, then dropped his head. “I can’t imagine how he doesn’t know.” He summoned an armchair and slumped into it.

Xavier copied the elf, sitting in his own summoned armchair.

Nalthair laughed, glancing about the arena. “This is not the fight I imagined when the System pulled me here.”

“It’s not the fight I imagined, either. I wanted to make whoever came against me surrender—I didn’t think it would be someone like you.” Xavier bent his head forward. “So, you say this changes everything. What does that mean for your plans?”

“I can’t go back to Jhanku. Not like this. Not with my contracts erased.”

“You still feel loyal?”

The elf faltered. “There is a part of me that wants to stab you for asking a question like that. But… I’m not even sure I know the answer. Somehow that’s more shocking than everything you’ve shown me.”

There was a time when Xavier thought people would react differently to finding out about the universe’s inevitable end. That they would simply shrug off the eventuality and say, offhandedly, that it was so far away it wasn’t their problem.

Xavier’s instinct had been to react in a similar way when he’d first discovered it. He had always figured the universe would come to an end one day, so it wasn’t exactly a shock. But to have it confirmed, and to know that his lifespan was now such that he could end up living long enough to greet its end… It made it feel different.

He had found that to be the same for almost every Denizen he spoke to. Pre-System, it was human nature to believe one would live forever, to push away even the mere contemplation of death.

Memento mori. Remember you must die. It was a fact everyone knew.

Yet unless you were staring death in the face, why would you ever want to think about it?

But when you’re a Denizen and immortality is not merely a dream but something within your grasp… Why wouldn’t you contemplate living forever?

The universe coming to an end has a whole different feeling to it when immortality comes into play. Denizens were used to looking far forward into the future.

And so that was why the elf before him questioned every single thing he knew as this fact came to the fore.

“What am I fighting for if everything is just going to come crumbling down in the end?” the elf whispered. “What is the point of propping up an empire that would inevitably only be a brief spark in the history of reality when this universe ultimately dies?” He sighed. “No. I don’t know if I’ll feel the same loyalty to my master, my people, as I did before learning this.” Nalthair stared up into the sky. The arena they were in was a System construct, much like the Tower of Champions was a System construct, so it sat somewhere outside their known reality.

Meaning there wasn’t a “sky” above to look at. It was just darkness.

To Xavier’s mind, it looked like what the end must.

“I’m questioning everything I’ve ever known. Questioning everything I’ve ever fought for. Death, my death, has always been inevitable—it’s not that end that has me so… changed. Gods, there’s a strong part of me that wishes I hadn’t met you, Xavier Collins.”

“Is that part the one that leads your actions?” Xavier asked.

“No, for there is no benefit in wishing things had ended up differently. Besides, had I gone to the afterlife like I’d expected… This would have all become clear to me there, wouldn’t it? Maybe I would have come to terms with it in death, but I’m not so sure.” The elf stood from the armchair and stared down at Xavier. “You’re a crazy bastard, you know that? Unifying the universe… I don’t know how you imagine that will ever happen through truth and trust alone.”

Xavier stood, returning his armchair to his Storage Ring as he did. “Oh, truth and trust aren’t the only things in my arsenal, Nalthair, son of Galandir.”

The elf chuckled. “No. I suppose they aren’t. What you can’t convert to your cause you will reap, won’t you?”

“I told you—I will do whatever is necessary.”

“From what I’ve seen of your mind, despite this naive, idealistic front you wear, I believe that. Which makes me wonder what’s worse—the universe ending, or the things you’re willing to do to stop that from happening.”

Xavier blinked, taken aback by the elf’s words. They dug straight into the heart of him. But he couldn’t deny them. The things he would do… They were terrifying and regrettable. But not only were those dark deeds things he could imagine, they were things he knew he was fully capable of carrying out if they were what brought the universe to its victory.

“Let’s hope it never comes to that.” Xavier tilted his head to the side. “So, what do you plan to do now?”

The two Denizens had not signed a truth contract. There was every chance that Nalthair could lie about what he was to do. From the look on Roln’s face, the dead Wanderer as disapproving as ever, he still thought this was a terrible idea.

Nalthair paused for a long moment as he took the time to consider this. “I will do what I have been trained to do. I will step back into the shadows.” He cracked his neck. “And I’ll watch your back. I can’t return to Jhanku, nor can I go to his other agents who are out there—not in this condition. But even if I could, you must know that they are not the only ones out there who have an interest in you. As strong as you are, you’re still a pup compared to the true powers.”

 “True powers.” Roln scoffed. “As though this elf knows anything of what those are.” The dead Wanderer paused. “But he is right to warn you.”

Xavier produced something from his Storage Ring. A Communication Stone. It was only a Sector-wide one, but it would do the job for now. “Take this.” He passed it to the elf. “In case you need to contact me.” He tilted his head to the side. “I’m especially interested in the other agents you mentioned.”

The elf pursed his lips. “I’m no longer your enemy, and after seeing your mind… I Believe in your cause. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to betray my comrades.”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking,” Xavier replied. “I don’t only have my eye on the Ventorin sector.”

“That much is clear.”

“I’ll be moving into the neighbouring sectors as soon as I can get a foothold. Whether that is a week, ten years, or a thousand... I must move forward.”

Nalthair inclined his head. “I’ll keep you as updated as my conscience allows.”

Xavier grabbed the elf’s wrist in a warrior grip. “Thank you, Nalthair, son of Galandir.”

“You’re welcome, Xavier Collins, Mad Bastard of Earth.”

Xavier grinned, dropping his hand back to his side. “There’s one more thing you need to do, and unfortunately, is isn’t share a pint with me in a tavern..”

Nalthair sighed, glanced upward. “I hereby forfeit this match.”

Your opponent has forfeited the match. You are the winner!

Await the arrival of the next opponent.

Nalthair disappeared the instant he surrendered.

Roln’s gaze lingered on the spot Nalthair had been standing in. “I’d say I hope you know what you’re doing, but I know how little you know of what will come of this.”

Xavier dipped his head. “Every moment of life is a risk.”

“The way you live, maybe” Roln muttered.

The other opponents the System pulled from the world were weak. Not a single one above C Grade. The System, fortunately, had not plucked any of his loyal Denizens out of the throne room for this.

These Denizens were easy to convince to surrender. Considering how the System had brought them here, Xavier was gladdened the System let them to forfeit at all.

When the “fights” were done and he materialised back in the throne room, having won the claim for what was, and would be again, the capital world of the Ventorin sector, he hadn’t spilled a drop of blood in the arena. And he’d gained a new ally along the way. One he hadn’t expected.

That didn’t mean it was all good. That he was being monitored by Jhanku, and that the A Grade ruler cared about him enough to send his Denizens to claim the Silver River’s surrounding sectors… it threw a spanner into the works that he hadn’t anticipated.

These facts did not deter him.

Standing in the throne room, with the most powerful citizens of the Ventorin sector already loyal to him, he contemplated his next move.

He needed to show this entire sector, before he was pulled back to the Tower of Champions, that it was in their best interest to follow him. Now t he’d let time flow forward and claimed this world, every single world in the sector would know of The Collector’s death.

Palini rushed to him the second he arrived.

“What is it?” Xavier called across the hall.

The other man had been huddled in the middle of the throne room with the other Denizens. They’d been standing in a circle, staring at a hologram showing a world from orbit. The hologram was active. Sparks of energy flared across the surface of the planet. Some of those sparks looked an awful lot like the mushroom clouds from a nuclear blast.

“The fighting has started.” Palini’s face was white. “It’s worse than we thought. On thousands of worlds, fights such as these are breaking out. Billions of lives are being lost by the second!”

Those within the throne room were already within a time dilation field. Xavier had trained each and every one of these people to be able to enact them using a spell pattern. But none of their time dilation fields were as strong as his. Xavier activated his own. He was about to issue orders, when he noticed more than half the Denizens who’d been in the room before were already gone.

He stopped himself from reacting and instead forced himself to slow down and respond. “Palini. Full assessment.”