Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 45 - A Commendable Effort

Perspective: Xavier, Version 1.1—Alternate Timeline Above Earth, Eightieth Floor of the Tower of Champions.

To use his Portal spell effectively, Xavier had to be able to have an “intimate” knowledge of the place he wished his portal to appear.

Usually, that meant he would need to either see the place or have been in the place in the past.

Xavier had never been where he wished this portal to connect to, but in a way… He had intimate knowledge of it. This place had been a part of his life every single day he’d spent on Earth, which was still most of the days that he’d been alive.

And even now, floating above Earth, he could still see it. Even if he couldn’t see it up close.

That was part of why this plan was so insane—but only one part.

He’d also never created a portal this far away before.

Xavier put every single ounce of concentration he could toward the casting of the Portal spell. That was why he had to cancel the Time Alteration spell—so the pressure of the World Destroyer trying to manipulate it would no longer be pushing and pushing at him.

There was an instant, barely the merest fraction of a second, that passed between Xavier’s casting of the Portal spell, and the materialisation of that portal.

That moment seemed to stretch onward forever. If this didn’t work, he would lose the casting—he’d tried to cast Portal to places he hadn’t been before, and while the spell failed, it still started its cooldown.

When that stretched-out moment finally ended, and there was a hint of the portal materialising, then spreading outward to become just as large as the portal he’d already summoned was—large enough to encompass the World Destroyer asteroid—Xavier’s excitement piqued.

He smiled. Manic glee overtook his face. The plan hadn’t worked yet, but the first part of it had been a success.

God, it was hard to hold the portal open. The strain on his mind was almost as bad as it had been when he’d been pushing time forward, clenching his fists, screaming a scream that ripped his through raw.

Focus, focus, focus.

There was still another step for him to complete.

Heat radiated through the portal on a level that he’d never felt before. Xavier had expected that. In fact, it was a damned good sign.

The Portal he’d just created was directly in front of the Portal that was acting as a shield between Xavier, other Xavier, the Soul Amalgamation, and the World Destroyer. A wall floating between them.

This was a connecting portal—if one went through the twin of the first portal, one would go through the second portal.

And straight into the Earth’s sun.

Xavier moved the twin of the first portal through space. Thanks to his Farscope ability, he could clearly see where the Soul Amalgamation was. It was looking a little bored, a little curious, staring at the portal that had just materialised.

The portal behind the Soul Amalgamation encompassed him completely, sending him through.

Xavier flipped the massive portal’s direction so it faced the World Destroyer asteroid—then he moved it so swiftly that it encompassed it completely.

The instant the World Destroyer had moved through the portal Xavier cancelled out all the portals he had open and huffed a breath, shaking his head.

He’d done it.

He’d bloody well done it!

The Soul Amalgamation along with the World Destroyer had exited the other portal he’d created, right at the very edge of the sun.

Xavier knew Denizens and beasts were incredibly strong, but there was no way they could resist the heat of a star burning right in their face.

Could they?

The other Xavier looked at him in awe. [You… You did it?]

“Always the tone of surprise,” Xavier muttered to himself. Although, while he had been elated the moment he’d pushed the enemy through the portal, he suddenly had some very, very strong doubts.

No kill notification had popped up into his vision.

He waited, wondering just how long the enemy could hold out. Surely, the World Destroyer would be burning up, its health dipping all the way to zero. Xavier was breathing heavily as he looked over at the sun, hanging in the black void.

If this plan worked—throwing enemies into a sun—he would be able to do it again. He imagined, for a moment, the possibilities.

Maybe I should throw The Collector into the sun… That B Grade bastard deserves nothing less.

Time, however, kept slipping by with no sign of a kill notification. His Portal spell reached the end of its cooldown—he could escape back down to the ground and head through the Staging Room door if he wished.

But he needed to see this through.

Other Xavier: [It must have survived.]

They couldn’t see the World Destroyer from here. The sun was absolutely huge, but as large as the asteroid had been, surely it would be like a black dot against the background. Even if a miniscule one, it might still be large enough to spot.

Xavier grunted, realisation striking him. Of course they couldn’t see what had happened. Even above Earth like they were, it would still be roughly seven light minutes from where they floated to the sun—the largest distance he’d ever been able to create a portal.

Which meant they wouldn’t be able to see what happened for a little while—if, indeed, it could be discerned with the naked eye. Even if that eye was enhanced.

Xavier: [Surely it can’t survive long there… It must at least be weakened.]

He had a bad, bad feeling about this. Perhaps the worst feeling he’d had in a long while, as though he’d made a rather terrible mistake.

When those seven minutes had passed, the two Xaviers simply floating in space, watching, something finally started to happen.

But it wasn’t what either of them had expected—it wasn’t what either of them had hoped.

The sun’s light began to dim.

Xavier’s eyes widened as he watched, stunned by the image before him, and the consequences of it.

The World Destroyer devoured everything it came upon. Xavier thought there must be some things beyond it. But no. He’d been wrong. He’d been a damned fool.

The World Destroyer wasn’t consumed by the sun—it was consuming the sun.

Other Xavier: [Oh, no…]

Xavier: [I’m sorry. I thought… I thought it would work.]

He’d not only failed to kill the World Destroyer, he’d done something a hell of a lot worse. Even if, somehow, they still won this—and Xavier knew that wasn’t going to happen—he’d doomed the Earth anyway.

Two months had passed since the threat had come. He’d cleared the ground, the other sides of the portals, of beasts as much as he could. He hoped that had helped get people out…

Other Xavier: [It’s worse than that… You know what can happen to a dying star.]

Xavier’s eyes flashed wide.

The dimming light began to brighten once more.

Oh, god. It’s going nova!

~

Xavier watched, unable to do a damned thing from his position as merely an observer in his own mind, as Earth’s sun went supernova.

The blast radiated outward at a tremendous speed.

Xavier felt the other version of him turn and narrow his eyes, forehead creasing, as he looked at the older version of him.

There was so very little time, but the minutes that had passed as they’d each watched and waited had restored two spells: Time Alteration and Portal.

Time Alteration was cast, and a plan of escape was hashed out.

The two versions of Xavier would survive, even when the Earth would be obliterated. But despite the sun going nova, no kill notification ever came.

The World Destroyer, too, survived.

Xavier was returned to his own timeline.

He let out a long breath and looked at the Spirit of Time, that beautiful elf-like woman floating in the vacuum of space, her golden hair hovering about her, the terrible thing she’d just witnessed not marring her serene expression in the slightest.

That was a commendable effort, young Denizen. I did not know you were able to create portals that connected such distances.

I didn’t know that either. But… The power of an exploding sun wasn’t enough to kill that thing…

Indeed. But you will learn from this. Do you wish for another unfolding?

Xavier hung there in the void for a long moment. This seemed more futile by the minute. He couldn’t help but think of his own universe, with the same threat heading toward it.

How was he supposed to combat this thing?

Xavier nodded, feeling as though he didn’t have a better choice to make.

Do it. Another unfolding.

The trick with the portals had been a clever one. Xavier hadn’t himself hadn’t known his portal could connect such a distance. The other version of him had done it purely on faith.

Not for the first time.

The second unfolding began. The version of Xavier that was just created would have all the memories Xavier now possessed.

It was time to try again.

~

Perspective: Xavier, Version 1.10—Alternate Timeline Above Earth, Eightieth Floor of the Tower of Champions.

Another unfolding.

Xavier gritted his teeth. He was now the tenth iteration of the original Xavier who’d stepped onto the eightieth floor and decided coming up here was a good idea.

It wasn’t.

At least, it wasn’t going to help him defeat this damned enemy now.

He had tried everything.

Gaining mental control over the Soul Amalgamation was impossible. It wasn’t that the soul-construct had a strong mental barrier, but rather the fact that it seemed to have no mind—or if it did, that mind didn’t reside within the soul-construct, but rather within the World Destroyer itself.

And gaining mental control over the World Destroyer? If only it were that easy. Perhaps if Xavier were hovering there as a B Grade, but a D Grade? There simply wasn’t a chance.

The entity’s mind was not only well protected, it was also so alien to Xavier that there seemed to be no way for him to pierce it—even when he used Chronomantic Mindforge, he hadn’t been able to find a way in.

Xavier had tried using Time Prison on the World Destroyer asteroid, to see what kind of effect it would have, even though the other version of him had explicitly said not to touch it because of its Devour spell.

However Xavier, as stubborn as ever, had tried it anyway, thinking that the Time Prison spell would interrupt the Devour spell.

He’d been right. It had interrupted the spell. But the Devour spell was more powerful than he could have imagined. In the fraction of a second that he’d made contact with the entity, it sunk his health down to 5 percent and drained his cores almost completely.

The World Destroyer had been frozen in time for one and a half seconds.

Xavier had tried fighting side-by-side with the other version of him against the Soul Amalgamation, thinking their combined efforts would be enough. Xavier’s melee fighting skills were exceptional for his level and grade.

He was a powerhouse. A machine. An absolute beast.

But he wasn’t any of these things compared to the Soul Amalgamation.

That had been one of the unfoldings where Xavier had died—the Soul Amalgamation didn’t want to play.

It severed his head clean off.

Sending this thing into the sun, and having the damned sun explode, wasn’t enough to take this thing down.

The other version of him looked at him. [Xavier? Did you cast the spell?]

Xavier released a sigh. [For the tenth time, yes.]

The other man blinked. Shook his head. [That does not bode well. Is there anything helpful you’ve learnt?]

Xavier swallowed, hating himself for the next words that fell out of his mouth. [That hope is for fools and Disney movies. There’s no way we can beat this thing,] he said through the Communication Stone, then he muttered to himself within his Force-Shield Armour, where the other man couldn’t hear, but the observing Xavier could, “I’m sorry, Xavier. It’s time to go home. I’m not fighting this thing one more time. Not when I know there isn’t a chance of winning. We have to know when to walk away.”

Now all he needed to do was convince the other version of him that it was time to escape. That there was no point continuing to fight this thing.

He wasn’t sure if he would have any luck.