Chapter 25

I helped them for around fifteen minutes, and only stopped once I saw they were coming to terms with their new attacks… and Destruction’s group was getting dangerously close to the Transport tower.

I pulsed out a message to warn everyone again of the danger of destroying our only means of escape before creating a shield around the structure, as I probably should have done twenty minutes ago.

I followed the contours of the building rather than the throw-up spherical shield I normally produced, as we really needed nothing else left standing once we were gone.

The people below saw the shimmer of the new shield and began to panic, meaning I had to shout down words of encouragement as I worked.

That seemed to settle them, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing as their frantic pace eased off again. I was half tempted to give them a visible reason to run, but Aly interrupted my thoughts, which could only mean trouble.

"Clive, I may have been mistaken with the Guardian's directive being solely to follow your command. They seem to have an autonomous drive of their own that carries them past your direct order.”

“What are you talking about? Cut to the fucking chase Aly!”

“They have accessed our main systems. I'm currently trying to lock them out while searching through all of our databases and Alo-im history for more information on them."

My blood ran cold. "Shit. That's really not good. I mean how is it even possible? How can they navigate around you?”

"I do not know. I do not have access to their data, but it is concerning."

"Okay,” I replied calmly, taking a deep inhale through my nose. “So, what do we do now?"

"Wait and see if I can remove them from the system. I may need clearance from you."

“Just say the word,” I grunted, looking down at the base of the transport tower. There were no refugees in sight now, which was some small relief. “I’m going to head back down and have a word with them."

Deeper into the tunnel I found the back of the cue and cursed inwardly. I’d rather they weren’t here for my questioning of the guardians.

In the basement itself, everything seemed calm, and the Guardians were standing exactly as they had been earlier.

"One of you have forced access to the Administration System. I need to know who and why?”

Aly’s voice was back in my mind. "Clive, that's not exactly true. They didn't force access. They just had access."

"Fuck," I muttered and looked back across the room.

“Is there a reason you wouldn’t wish honoured guardians to access the Administration system intended for us all to maintain the Realm?” One of the Red Armored ones asked in a deep male voice that held an edge of threat.

“I don’t know who you are! You guys are an outlier I wasn’t expecting and I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment.”

“Our only aim is only to assist you to the best of our ability, Universal Administrator. And we cannot do that without having a full understand…”

I stood for a few seconds waiting for him to continue. It was another guardian who spoke next to me. A silver, their voice almost a whisper. “This cannot be…”

“How could they?” The red in front of me snarled.

“How could we,” A white added.

I huffed at the cryptic merry-go-round “You guys wanna fill me in?”

“Our people have left and we have been forgotten.” A Dark offered.

“You’re Alo-im?” I gasped.

“No,” Red in front of me said. “We are Avatars of Alo-im long dead now. It has been so very long since we were last activated.”

I heard only sadness in his voice now. “But you are actually Alo-im up here?” I said tapping my temple.

“We were,” white armor said. “We are hollow shells now. Our identity and worth were measured by our duty. What are we now? Nothing. Only two Alo-im remain and they are at war.”

“We know of Hakan,” a black joined in. “But your lineage is unclear. There are no records of you until around an Onnekan year ago.”

“Hakan had left his mark on me as he sought to leave the universe. He left the great barrier active in such a way…”

“We know why he is a criminal and we support the decision by the system. We do not know who you are. If all of our race left, how are you here?”

“I evolved into an Alo-im,” I replied flatly. “That’s why Hakan came back. To kill me and stop me from saving the races that still occupy the universe.”

“That answers that question,” white armor said. “But how did you evolve? How is such a thing possible. We’ve been devolving for thousands of years when we move away from the Nexus.”

I shrugged. “There are a few working theories,” I replied.

“The Nexus willed it,” a silver said. “No matter the literal circumstances of your evolution, it is by the mysterious design of the Nexus. You have already vented the great barrier prolonging its life.”

I couldn’t fight a frown. “Seems unlikely. You do all know it’s dying, right?”

“We do. The end was predicted before we took up our duties. Efforts were being made to prolong its life. It seems those efforts failed and a new plan was put into action.”

“Pathetic,” A brown spat. “Running off to another universe. Only the Catalysts would propose such a plan. Dow we know how they managed to oust the high council?”

“We do not. The records have been culled to the point that they are almost useless.” A blue said.

Red growled low. “So we are trapped in a dead universe, following an Alo-im of questionable founding.”

My head was spinning and I didn’t know whether to be excited or terrified by the new development.

“So, what will you guys do?” I asked tentatively. “We could really use your help and your knowledge. I know this is not what you expected to wake up to, but there’s still a life here to be had for you all.”

“A life?” The red mocked. “You understand nothing. You are a mongrel who has lucked their way into a fortunate position.”

I felt the rest of the guardians bristle at his words. I didn’t know which way they were siding, though. And it didn’t alter for my response, as I set myself ready to fight. “I love it Red whatever your number. You’re a ghost of a forgotten race that not only abandoned their universe, but sentenced it and the countless races they fathered to an early death. And you think I’m lucky because I’m the dumb fuck who stumbled into this and now has to try and save everyone? Believe it or not, this wasn’t my first fucking career choice dickhead.”

With those words, I straightened and turned to the others. “I understand that there’s a lot for you all to take in and I honestly don’t know enough about you all to know what your choices are. But I was under the assumption you were sworn to follow my orders as the Universal Administrator, is that right?”

“That is right,” the same silver who’d spoken earlier said swiftly and with eagerness. Before I could reply, Aly Spoke across the entire portal room so the guardians could hear.

Hakan’s efficiency has increased again. I estimate twenty-five minutes remaining until Total Distortion Field failure.

“Thanks Aly!” I replied, before sucking in a breath to find calm. Then to the others with the most emotionless and authoritative voice I could manage, I barked out. “Well in that case, you all need to help me buckle the rest of this city. Because if Hakan gets his hands on anything here, it will strengthen him and I can’t afford that to happen. We can discuss any problems anyone might have with me,” I said glaring at the red. “Once this is all over.”

I didn’t have the time to wait for answers or back and forth, and as the last of the people escaped Onnekus, I shot out from the Portal room.

I didn’t look back until I was out and high in the sky. All one hundred and twenty guardians had not only followed me, but kept pace with me. Admittedly, I wasn’t going that fast, but they’d followed so smoothly that I was excited to see how powerful they were.

I didn’t have to wait long. I thought they’d be useful, that wasn’t the case. Useful would be like calling the ocean a river. They were fucking epic. My initial reaction was that they were more powerful than me. But that wasn’t quite the truth.

What I was seeing was a team of well-trained individuals working together seamlessly.

I was both mollified with my theory that blending the powers in the right way was where true power lay and also that they… even red armor… were fully behind me.

Sania led a flurry of questions from my friends about the damage being done, and I explained the best I could, given the circumstances. There was no doubt a deeper conversation would be held later on.

What most itched at my mind was that the Alo-im specialized. Everything I’d learned so far suggested the access to all was where true power lay. Now I wasn’t so sure.

I watched in awe as the attacks similar to what I’d described to my friends earlier, played out on a much larger scale, created by multiple armored guardians.

The twenty-five minutes we had to destroy the place and escape, suddenly looked like an eternity now. Not to be outdone, and miss out on the practice, I joined in and began creating the most damaging attacks I could, watching and picking up some bits from the Guardians as I went.

As our progress increased five hundred fold, I spoke across the bonds of the others.

“Seriously guys, another five minutes and the Hub will be demolished whether you’re here or not, so let’s get you all to safety and let the Guardians finish up.”

I sensed a bit of disappointment among the usual suspects, but on the whole, most of them were happy to get the hell out of there.

“You should come as well, Clive,” Danivra replied. “Let them finish things here and avoid any unnecessary risk.

“Hakan getting his hands on these guys is an unnecessary risk. I’ll make sure we’re free and clear though, don’t sweat it.”

They were all converging on the transport tower as I spoke.

Sania was first to reach me. “Are we sure we can trust them?”

“Who knows, I’ve been double crossed more times than I care to admit. I’ve also gotten the best friends ever. Being a little accepting is just a risk I have to take. You all know that better than anyone,” I said, eyeing Destruction, Devotion and Natom in particular.

I received strained smiles of acknowledgment from Devotion and Destruction. Natom cackled. “You make a valid point, Clive! What will become of the Guardians? Will they follow through?”

I grimaced though I knew I should be happy at the reinforcements. “They will. They can join the Guardians in Toukal. I’ don’t know where we’ll take it from there. Now go. Time’s running out here and I still have work to do. We can talk once things are settled. This has shown me we need to increase the Sphere as quickly as possible on Falritas and protect the full planet if we can. As the last of the hub was laid to waist, I pulled the guardians back into the tower.

I spoke loudly to them all as no one had presented as a leader yet. “I can cut the Transport Tower from the system and I will, but do any of you guys know how to drop this building once we’re gone? I really don’t want Hakan having access to anything if I can help it.”

“We can help with that,” one of the oddly armored, Void Guardian with a female voice said. None of them had spoken prior, so I was a little shocked.

“You can?”

“If you hurry we can dismantle the tower and travel to Falritas through our own means.”

“A guardian trick?”

She shook her head. “A Void Specialist ability. We can generally go wherever we wish, though not through the Distortion Fields.”

“Good to know. We have a lot to talk about. I threw a thumb at the portal. Later on. Come on you guys. Let’s get out of here.