Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 7 - Legends

Xavier found he couldn’t resist watching the castle’s exodus.

He’d destroyed the fifth wave in almost an instant, dismissing the notification that came up saying he’d cleared the floor, eager to about Celestial Energy. But the queen had to see to their people through the portal, and he wasn’t selfish enough to keep the adviser from that.

Queen Alastea stood by the portal. They were in a large throne room—the largest hall within the castle. Kiralla was flanked by her Queen’s Guard along with two female mages in white robes. If their robes indicated their class, Xavier would assume they were support of some sort. That assumption was reinforced by the fact that they had been the ones to activate the portal.

The portal looked startlingly familiar. It glowed yellow, sparks flying from it as though it were made from liquid lightning.

It brought him right back to standing at the window of his university class, the lecturer droning on as a portal formed outside in the courtyard, a bloody goblin stepping out of it. He shuddered at the memory. He may have dealt with all the goblins on campus—almost dying in the process—but he knew there would be countless more roaming Earth’s streets.

He blinked, turning his attention back to the present moment. One of the soldiers from the wall had fetched Howard, Siobhan and Justin from the library. Siobhan had a book clutched in her hands, which wasn’t much of a surprise, but she had the courtesy not to read it during the proceedings.

“Kiralla is about to address her people,” Xavier said, leaning in as the others came to stand around them.

“Kiralla?” Justin asked.

Howard peered over at the portal. “I think he’s talking about the queen.”

“Ohh.” Siobhan grinned over at him. “You’re on a first name basis with the queen, are you?” The redhead waggled her eyebrows.

“Uh,” Xavier uttered. “I suppose.”

“Playing it cool, I see,” Howard said in a flat tone, the tiniest hint of a smirk touching the sides of his lips.

“On the other side of this portal,” Queen Alastea said, speaking in a loud, clear voice, “the rest of our people await. They will welcome you with open arms.” She lowered her head. Xavier could have sworn he saw shame flicker in her eyes. “I wish that I could have done more for you all. I wish that I could be the queen that you all deserve. But the fate of the Queendom of Arala has been written in the stars for centuries. The arrogance of my ancestors is what lead us here. I do not share their arrogance, and as such, I will not be following.”

Gasps sounded in the crowd and chatter began. Some shouted refusals of what she said, others begged for her to come along. Many were silent, however, stoic looks on their faces. These people were to be the last to leave their world. They knew what the Endless Horde was. Knew what it would mean, if it were to break through their walls.

One thing he noticed about those gathered was their age. Most of them were older—though who knew what their actual age was, given what he’d learnt about lifespan for Denizens in the Greater Universe. These would all be noncombat, support classes.

There were no children.

All of these people… they probably volunteered for the last portal, knowing it might never come, knowing they might never leave this world.

Queen Alastea raised a hand. It silenced the room. “There is nowhere in this sector that I can hide from the Endless Horde indefinitely. Even if I were to find somewhere and live out the rest of my days in peace, it would come for my family eventually, just as it has now. I will notput that risk on my people, or my descendants. I have already made many speeches to you all over the last few days—you know what awaits you when you leave here, the deals I have made. One part of that deal is that I remain. No other world wants us bringing my problem with me, and I refused to lie about why I was leaving.”

It still looked as though some citizens in the room wanted to complain, but they did not. They would understand the realities of the situation, the harshness of living in the Greater Universe. Xavier was more surprised that people weren’t angry with her. He imagined people back on Earth would be furiousto discover that their leader’s family was responsible for the downfall of their queendom.

The people walked through the portal without much ceremony. Queen Alastea stood in front of it. They touched hands to hers as they passed, one by one.

“She seems well loved,” Howard said.

“She does.” Justin was full-on staring at Kiralla, in a way that only a clueless teenage boy can.

Not that I’m one to speak about women and having a clue, Xavier thought.

As the procession through the portal looked as though it would take a little while, he decided it was about time he told the others about what he’d learnt—about the fact that these people were real, and that they were in an alternate universe.

That every single time a Champion entered a floor in the Tower of Champions they created another alternate universe.

The three remained silent as he spoke. Their expressions varying. Justin’s eyes perpetually became wider, his mouth falling open. Howard’s forehead creased, then creased some more, until he had what Siobhan would call stink-face. Siobhan, however, looked excited.

“Oh… my… god! Alternate universes? Are you kidding me?” she asked enthusiastically. Then she stopped, her face falling. “So those armies we faced…”

“They were real people,” Howard said in a dark voice. “And we killed them.”

Xavier rubbed the back of his neck. “The System didn’t give us a choice.”

“We always have a choice,” Howard muttered. “But this damned System just makes it so none of them are good.”

Justin’s gaze fell to the ground. “I suppose we always knew we would have to kill. This invasion… there will be humans coming to Earth too, won’t there?”

“Probably,” Xavier said. “Though human, elf or otherwise… they’re all sentient.”

“Just hits different when it’s…” Howard sighed. “Suppose that’s not the right way to think of things. We have to deal with what’s in front of us.” He looked over at the portal. “I’m glad we helped these people, though I don’t know that learning this changes anything.”

“Are you kidding?” Siobhan said. “It changes everything!”

Xavier frowned. “Because these people are real?”

“No. I mean, yes, that’s important. But it means this placeis real. It means the Endless Horde has an end, as you said.”

“That doesn’t mean we’ll ever see it,” Xavier said carefully.

Siobhan crossed her arms at her chest. She smirked. “You don’t think you’re up to the challenge? Remember, we don’t have to worry about how long we spend on this floor. Only an hour will pass back…” She trailed off, shook her head and let out a chuckle. “Back in our universe.”

Xavier considered his next words carefully. He looked at each of them in turn. “I think you think I’m stronger than I truly am.” He motioned at himself. “I’m FGrade. The Endless Horde covers half of this sector.” He waved out toward the castle doors. “Those Denizens and beasts out there are nothingcompared with what they’ll throw at me later.” He remembered, clearly, what it felt like to have something stronger than himself observing him. Feeling like a damned speck of dust—like nothing. Xavier might be strong for his level, but how was he supposed to fight… what? Half a galaxy? “It’s insane to think I’ll be able to defeat them all.”

Siobhan tapped a finger to her nose, the book she had with her held in her other hand, by her side. “Maybe.” She leant forward. “But… you’ve noticed how weak these people are, haven’t you?”

Xavier bit his lip. “Queen Alastea told us the soldiers here are all new recruits. That her mother was the fighter.”

Siobhan raised the book she’d brought. “I didn’t bring this along just because I like carrying books. I mean, I dolike carrying books, but…” She shook her head. “I’m getting off track.” She tapped the hard cover. “I don’t know what things are like in our sector, but here, in this universe…” She tilted her head to the side. “According to this book, there’s no one stronger than D Grade.”

Xavier shut his eyes. He gripped the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger. “I. Am. F. Grade. How am I supposed to defeat a D Grade Denizen?”

“We’ve been talking,” Justin said.

“You’re F Grade now,” Howard added. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t break through to E Grade here.”

Xavier raised an eyebrow at the man. He hadn’t thought quite that far ahead, but… that was awfully tempting.

“And there are records of E Grades defeating D Grades in the library,” Siobhan said excitedly.

Howard looked sideways at her. “Records is perhaps putting it optimistically. They were more like legends.”

“Myths,” Justin added. “Fables. Stories.”

Siobhan raised a hand. “I choose to believe the records.”

“Just because you believe something doesn’t make it true,” Howard said in a sigh.

Xavier glanced at the doors out of the hall, contemplating the waves upon waves of the Endless Horde. “Half a sector. Do you understand how insanely largea galaxy is?”

“Ah!” Siobhan opened the book, stabbing her finger at something. “This sector—Alrari… Alrayrir…”

“Alraririan,” Howard stated confidently.

“Right! This—what he said—sector is apparently what’s called an infantsector. This infancy doesn’t refer to the sector’s age, it’s actually been integrated for just shy of a million years.”

Xavier blinked at that. A million years. He could barely even contemplate that kind of time frame.

“But, even though it’s been around for a while, it’s a smallgalaxy, and therefore a small sector. The sector doesn’t have all that much to offer. Whenever someone becomes strong enough to leave it for greener pastures…” She shrugged. “The powerful flee this place. That’s what created a power vacuum that the Endless Horde were able to fill. The book says that in the Greater Universe they’re actually considered to be a very weak force.”

“Is this a history book?” Xavier asked.

Siobhan nodded.

“But you only just discovered this place was real, so you were reading it before thinking it was… fiction?”

“I thought the knowledge might come in handy,” Siobhan said.

Howard grunted. “Especially when we discovered the Endless Horde isn’t as endless as we thought.”

“We were going to tell you, we just wanted to gather more information first,” Siobhan said. “Now, as I was saying, apparently almost the entire sector was destroyed, or rather consumed by something called a…” She paused, running a finger along the page, tapping a line when she found it. “Galaxy Eater. Man, those sound bad.”

“Really bad,” Justin said. “Anything that eats galaxies…” He shuddered.

Xavier released a breath. He had thought a galaxy would hold millions, maybe billions of worlds. Though he supposed he didn’t know how many would be inhabited. “How many worlds does this sector have?”

“It contains a thousand inhabited worlds, with varying levels of population,” Siobhan said. “Smallpopulations. An infant sector, remember?”

“When you say small?” Xavier was still sceptical.

“The System causes a lot of upheaval and death, and not everyone is a soldier,” Howard said. “There’s no telling how accurate this book is, but it puts the population of this sector at three billion Denizens.”

Xavier frowned. “That can’t be right. We have more than twice that many people on Earth.”

“Do we?” Siobhan whispered. “We’ve no idea how many people died while we were gone.” She closed the book, held it in her left, placing her right hand over it. “It might seem like… like we’re stronger now, with the System. And we are, in a way. But… there are a lot of dangers out there. More than there ever were before. Things like the Endless Horde aren’t the only things. Almost every world is in constant conflict and war. And not only with other worlds, but their own. And apparently there’s something called cosmic diseases, epidemics on the scale of multiple worlds that kill weaker denizens in droves. Without a Denizens of at least C Grade to protect a sector from threats, or to keep some semblance of peace… it’s difficult for a sector to grow strong.”

Xavier shook his head, taking it all in. Galaxy eaters? Cosmic diseases? What the hell has Earth gotten into… “That still puts the Endless Horde in the many millions. Maybe even at a billion. If the waves are all at three thousand strong…”

“The waves will increase.” Adviser Karlon suddenly appeared beside them, the queen to his left. Xavier hadn’t even noticed him walk over. The throne room was clear of people. Everyone but those in his party, the adviser, and the queen had left through the portal—which remained open. “Not just in the level of their Denizens and beasts, but in the number of them they will throw at you. The System will soon adapt to your strength. So far, you have dealt with waves of three thousand enemies. Soon, there will undoubtedly be waves with far more than that.”

“How many more?”

Karlon lowered his head. “I don’t know.”

“But we heard what you were saying, about our sector,” the queen said. “It’s true. We are a weak sector. But to do something like this, defeat the Endless Horde…” She trailed off. “It would indeed be a thing of legend. If it were to be done, the System would reward you more greatly than you could ever imagine.”