Save State Hero 3 -ch 20

Chapter 20

Edmund found nothing.

There was no door, no window, no entry, no exit.

Edmund had followed the wall around to the doorway and entered it. Found nothing other than a six by six space, then came back through the doorway.

Moving along it all the way back to the point he started.

Genuinely there was no way to transit into this area.

Nor did it seem anything could reach this location either given that Oz and Srit continued to fail to respond. Just about the only thing he had that worked with him was the Log but it’s answers were being unhelpful.

Many questions simply came back as ‘unknown’ or ‘undetermined’. No matter which way he’d asked the questions.

It’d only been perhaps ten minutes since he’d been in here, and Iren had knocked on the wall twice, to which Edmund responded twice to of course. He imagined they were curious but he didn’t want to leave just yet.

Or to utilize a Save-state and travel out of this place.

Because the simple reality was he wasn’t even sure if he could return to it.

When he’d asked the log, it’d responded with ‘unknown’ as if that were the best answer it could give. Yet even then, Edmund didn’t actually doubt it. Didn’t even for a minute think that the Log was somehow holding back from him.

“Because… Ryker made the log with Runner’s help,” Edmund said as he leaned back at the table he was sitting at. There was no way something Ryker or Runner made would be able to access an area that Ryker and Runner… could not. “That leaves me back at the start. Here I am in a place that realistically seems built for a number of people, but I swear there’s never been anyone here.

“Yet Ryker and Runner birthed me into the universe, and I can access this location. They wanted me to be more than them, solve the problems in the world they couldn’t, yet didn’t know this location even existed.

“I’m not sure if they expected me to be able to access it yet here we are. Sitting in what feels a lot like a break room, perhaps for gods, looking at screens that really feel like a real time display.”

Turning his head, Edmund looked to the number of view points that he’d briefly glanced at earlier.

They were truly a first person view of multiple people. People going about their lives in various ways and locations. There weren’t many of them, maybe a hundred, give or take when Edmund counted rows by columns, but they were there on the wall.

Crammed together for space and going about what looked to be very normal looking lives.

Or at least, fairly normal looking lives.

A great many of them were battling what looked like monsters of some sort as well as other people. Engaging in some elongated fights that really left Edmund scratching his head as they took hits, blows, and magical attacks, that really should’ve killed them.

Edmund was of the opinion that these people were all likely the same types of people who had green Save-states. That the coloring was more than just their location, but he really didn’t want to look into it.

Amongst all those views though, there was one that’d caught his eye.

One that just… felt strange to him.

It was a black screen that sometimes flickered with almost dim light, then became black again. As if someone were sleeping, dozing, or dying.

“I can’t do anything here,” Edmund finally determined, staring at the log.

This place was interesting, it gave him a greater insight into the universe that he was a part of, but didn’t actually do anything for him.

Other than a means to leverage his Save-states in a way that he didn’t quite think was possible.

Because he hadn’t missed the fact that the current Save-state that had him visiting here had changed color.

Or more specifically, into two colors. The Save-state was strangely a shifting mass of black and white that continued to shift back and forth. No longer red, green, blue, or purple.

He was somewhat confused if he had to be honest because whenever he’d mixed red, green, and blue together it came out as dark poo brown or bordering on black.

Not white.

Getting out of the seat, Edmund girded his resolve, walked up to the strange semi-black screened view and stood in front of it. He put his attention to it and considered what exactly it was.

Now that he was staring at it up close, he got the impression it was indeed of a person sleeping.

Though, oddly enough, it felt like they were sleeping in front of pane of glass. Or some type of a reflective surface. Every now and then as the eyes fluttered, it almost seemed like there was a reflection in the barest cracks.

Grimacing, Edmund reached out and put his fingers to the panel. Then tapped at it.

There was an immediate response.

A series of Save-states were organized on the display.

Except there was a strange disconnect between one half and the other. As if they’d been broken apart and no longer currently part of the whole.

Edmund had never seent he like before.

On top of that, there was a misalignment in the tree.

The green Save-states had shifted a considerable distance to one side.

Sniffing, Edmund grabbed the two ends, then jerked them together. Using his ability to join them together as one might a broken bone. Holding onto the two end points with his ability and mind, Edmund just waited. He didn’t want to let go immediately just in case there was some kind of resistance.

Except he couldn’t feel any.

Everything he felt through the Save-states was one of settling.

As if someone had just taken a deep searing breath after a very long sleep. A breath taken on the verge of suffocating and no longer being able to hold their breath anymore.

Releasing his hold on the Save-states Edmund watched it for several seconds.

It remained one solid unbroken line. From the start to the end, it stretched ever onward and into the distance. No further breaks were present and everything was it should be.

“Huh,” Edmund mumbled and looked back to the display.

Whoever he had just intervened on the behalf of was now hunched over. Throwing up onto their own feet while standing on what looked a lot like an iron or steel grate.

A strange milky substance with chunks of pale brown in it.

“Ew, what the fuck is that. Milk oatmeal congealed? God damn,” Edmund hissed as the individual continued to throw up. Only to go from bending over at the waist to collapsing to hands and knees.

Sniffing, Edmund shrugged, then stepped away. He looked to the other displays.

They all seemed quite normal and without an issue.

With a click of his tongue Edmund sighed, lifted his chin, and gave the exit command.

“My name is Edmund Issac Strator and I would like to exit the Vigil of the Reliquary,” Edmund stated.

There was a sudden and odd shifting around him, and Edmund appeared back in the hole that he’d left from. As if he was simply returned to the place he had been taken from.

“Oh! And there you are,” Iren said with a loud laugh. “What is it? What’s in there? Is it gold!? Tell me it’s gold!”

“It’s… a god’s break room,” Edmund stated with a shrug. He then described it the best way he could, with his own understanding of the situation. “It even had a form of TV on, I think you could call it. Not a single gold coin though. Or food. Or even beer. You would’ve been bored in under thirty seconds and whining at me to fool around or go back out.”

“Haha, probably,” Iren said, put a hand behind her head, and stretched with a grin. “Sorry? Not sorry.”

Then she promptly grabbed him by the shoulders and leaned in close.

“Hey, Alina went off to talk to the others about what was going on. I stayed here just in case,” Iren began in a low voice. “I’m naked, we’re alone, dirt can’t hurt my back and it’s not the first time I’ve pulled leaves and crap out of my hair after you’re done with me. And uh… I’m ready for Teddy?”

Edmund only smiled somewhat ruefully.

In a way, he wasn’t surprised, but also buoyed by how constant Iren was in her personality and thoughts.

***

Standing in the hole with Harper, Dot, and Iren, Edmund adjusted his armor. Then the backpack that was on his back. Shifting it around.

“Are those handprints?” Harper asked curiously, looking down at the dirt beneath them.

“Uh? Huh. Yeah, they look like hand prints,” agreed Dot.

Both women sounded confused.

Edmund didn’t need to look, but he glanced at it anyways, and stepped right into the spot Iren’s knee impressions would be. Looking to the handprints as if he didn’t know they were there.

“Could’ve been me,” Edmund offered with a shrug as if it were barely worth talking about.

“Haha, that’s where my hands were when Teddy rode me,” Iren observed without a care. “Why?”

Edmund nodded his head, said nothing more, and just stared straight ahead. He really didn’t want to respond further because if he did, Iren would just say something else that would bury him.

Instead, he prepared himself for the shift into Zeus’ world. They were waiting for a particular moment so that they’d shift over at midnight. A time that would be the least likely to have any concerns or problems one way or the other.

“Really, Teddy?” Dot asked in a strained voice.

Thankfully he was saved by a soft beeping noise coming from what he was certain was Dot’s phone.

“Fine. This’ll end here, but I fully expect you to let Harper and I have a turn,” Dot growled. “I’ve seen how harems go on both sides you know. They only work if you don’t play favorites.”

“Of course he has a favorite, it’s Ellie!” offered Iren up with a warm laugh. “But that’s because they’ve been together for thousands of years.”

Dot glanced at the Dragon, didn’t respond, and then moved her hands in a weaving motion.

A portal suddenly appeared nearly atop the steel wall that led into the Vigil.

All four people stepped through, though Edmund went last. Because if something happened, it would just be better if it was to everyone else, rather than him.

 Upon entering Edmund found nothing of what he had been expecting.

Not in any way shape or form.

Knowing that Zeus was a god, one that was entirely bent to the idea of killing Runner, Edmund had expected a certain amount of weirdness. Maybe something similar to what he’d seen Ryker do or how Ryker had handled his special weapons.

With laboratories, testing facilities, expansive areas built to house and catalog everything.

That wasn’t this.

At all.

This looked more akin to some sort of macabre view of the inner workings of a mad god.

Spread through this wide area were strange items of various designs, looks, and questionable purposes. To the point that Edmund didn’t actually know what to do, where to go, or even what was safe to touch.

All around him, as far as he could see, were just items strewn about. As well as tables littered with designs, plans, maps, and objects mid assembly or disassembly.

There were several contraptions and things that resembled car engines that even had tools inserted into them, and left there. As if they were in the middle of screwing something in, or taking something out, and walked away from it right in the middle.

“I… don’t…” Dot began, her words a low and quiet thing. As if she were afraid to speak too loudly.

Edmund felt it as well. That though there was supposedly nothing here, he didn’t want to actually talk.

As if they’d crept into the house of a giant and were contemplating how to get into the pantry to raid the monster of some vegetables. Hopefully without it discovering them and crushing them to nothing more than a bloody stain.

“I don’t like this,” Harper finished for Dot. “At all. I’m just… mostly human. Every part of me is screaming that this is wrong, and we need to be leaving. As soon as possible, in fact. That this is a very bad idea. A bad idea and… and… my knees are quivering.

“This is worse than when I told you to move in with me, Teddy. I was-was so nervous that day. I threw up just minutes before asking you to move in with me. It’s why I was chewing gum.”

Iren shook her head and seemed to expand herself. As if she were standing up to her full height, making herself as large as possible.

“There’s something here. We’re not alone, but I don’t know what it is,” Iren stated firmly and without room for argument. She seemed absolutely certain about the situation. “Dot, open a portal? Just in case? Can we leave? I want to make sure we can leave.”

Dot hestiated for a moment, then gently expanded her hands in front of herself. Multiples square runes forming in front of her and combining into the portal spell he’d seen earlier.

It didn’t open.

“No,” Dot answered. Her fingers flashed and she started contorting the spell work into a multitude of other shapes forms, and configurations. Elegant nails flashed in quicker and more furtive motions as she twisted and bent her spell forms over and over.

Almost as if she were attempting random things, Edmund watched as her patterns fell apartn and deteriorated from squares, to circles, to the haphazard and wild lines he’d seen Claire working with.

She’s desperate to make something happen.

From how Ryker makes spells, to Shirley, and now Claire. It’s like trying every password you know trying to guess at it when you can’t remember what it was and the ‘forgot password’ button doesn’t work.

Shit.

“It’s all blocked,” hissed Dot as her spell fizzled out into nothing. She shook her head and looked to Iren then Edmund. “Teddy? Save-state?”

Harper was here because she could be and they’d need all the hands they could get. Yet without a rifle or some type of weapon, she really was just a very brave, very loyal, childhood friend.

A human.

Iren, for all her strength, all her speed, was a Dragon that relied on her physical abilities and little else. If it wasn’t something she could hit, stomp, kick, or breathe fire at, there wasn’t much she could do to it.

Edmund flicked up his Save-state ability.

It was there, and working, but everything around them was red.

Everything.

Even his own Save-states were currently red.

Not purple, not blue.

Red.

He’d never tried leaving a Save-state that was actually red, or pushing into one, either. It was an unknown variable.

“Who are you?” demanded the voice of Zeus. It was an unmistakable voice to Edmund as he’d dealt with the god directly. There was a sharpness to it that always made him feel strange.

“Edmund,” stated Edmund. “You’re not supposed to be here, Zeus. You’re supposed to be elsewhere.”

“I am elsewhere. I am only monitoring this location. Though, yes, I am Zeus. You are Edmund,” Zeus stated. “You should be attempting to destroy me. You are not with the others who are currently seeking to fight me directly. Why are you here? There is nothing for you to destroy here.”

Edmund thought quickly. As quickly as he could.

He went through everything he knew about Zeus, everything he had put together about what he knew of the strange god, every bit of information anyone had ever told him.

He never learns.

He never truly adapts.

He leaves things around exactly as they are the moment they do not suit him or no longer serve the purpose he wishes. Everything here is discarded or being readied.

This isn’t a vault.

It’s… a trash can.

This is a location that he was using to build, work, and labor in. Things that would be used, were taken elsewhere. That’s why everything is the way it is.

It’s being worked on, or it’s not. There’s no in between.

Which means… I’m dumpster diving, and he may not care.

“I wanted to go through your trash to see if there’s anything I can use to break into one of Runner’s worlds,” Edmund said. It was actually the truth. Just skewed to serve a purpose that didn’t sound like it was Runner’s. “I want to break through his rules, destroy them, and forcibly change something that’ll drastically alter his life in a permanent way.

“He’ll never be the same afterward and he won’t even be able to stop it once I find what I’m looking for. Apparently, according to the log I stole from Ryker, is here in your trash can.”

There was a heavy and uncomfortable silence immediately afterward.

To Edmund it felt like Zeus was evaluating the situation over and over. As if he were turning it over to view it from multiple angles and attempting to figure out what Edmund’s plans were.

“You’re going to try and break one of his covenant worlds?” Zeus asked finally, his voice no longer as ‘precise’ as it had been only moments ago. It sounded somehow softer, but not quite.

Perhaps it was just less aggressive.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I want to do. I want tear the rules out of one of his worlds, shatter the covenant, and do what I want with it,” Edmund stated. Which was once again, all true. Every word of that was accurate, it just wasn’t really in Zeus’ benefit. “Any chance you could give me directions to some device that would let me break into one of Runner’s worlds and cause problems?”

Once again there was a long pause.

This one lasted an entire minute.

All four mortals stood there, standing next to one another, wondering about what was going on.

Personally, Edmund was confident.

Zeus would’ve already acted if he could have. This reminded him a lot of the last time Edmund had killed him outright.

“No,” Zeus stated. “But I will not impede you hunting through the objects around you. You may leave when you wish.”

With that said, Edmund felt like Zeus left.

Left and left Edmund and his group alone.

In Zeus’ dumpster.

“I’m not sure if it’s the adrenaline but I could really go for some Teddy’s-in-my-guts time right now,” Iren blurted out.