ULTRAMagic Interval - Chapter 20
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After an extensive series of questions in the Anomaly Containment wing, Umuka and Orion were free to go. Umuka’s concern had actually worsened given what he had learned about The Xanthous King, with Orion affirming his intervention. Ultimately he would just have to live with it and hope M.A.I.G. and the ACF could handle it. And of course he had to question Orion’s actions given how risky it was. The boy had to do something as he had a bad feeling about the destruction that could have occurred.
While on his way to take Orion to Reynard’s quarters for dinner with his newfound parents, Umuka spotted Mayhem and Faustus who seemed to be waiting for something. It was perfect timing as no one else was in the hall and Umuka had the strangest feeling about Orion. Maybe the two devil’s could help elucidate him. Either way the mystery was driving him nuts.
“Ah, Faustus, Mayhem! How are you two doing this fine evening?”
“Hey, Umuka,” Faustus replied. “Just shooting the breeze and whatnot.”
“And Orion’s with you, how perfect,” Mayhem pointed out. “It is a pleasure to meet you, young man,” he said as he held out his hand.
Orion was a little nervous. He had heard of devil’s before, but seeing two out in the open was bizarre to him. “Nice to meet you too” he said as he shook their hands.
“I must say, Orion, that you have bravery on par with that of Sir Blood-Wraith Andrew Raynot. To just walk up to Valentin and foil his plans like that isn’t typically seen in human children…”
“What are you getting at?” That insinuation caught Orion off guard.
Mayhem glanced over to Faustus and Umuka, who were eagerly listening. “Orion, I’ve gone well beyond the confines of this universe and its Inferno and, well, you seem similar to some of the entities I’ve met in my travels to the great beyond…”
Orion gave a quiet groan, then looked around to make sure no one was listening in. “Valentin’s not around here, is he?”
“Of course not,” Faustus answered. “M.A.I.G. has some of the best security around.”
“Alright, don’t tell Sam and Will yet, but I’m actually an astral entity.”
“Wait, a what?” Umuka questioned.
“An astral entity,” Mayhem replied. “They come from the Dream Realm, Somnium, and the Outer Void. They’re believed to be related to the old gods and the Ar’ton.”
Umuka studied Orion for a moment. Upon closer inspection, he could see subtle nuances that indicated Orion was from somewhere well beyond his imagination. “So why are you really here, Orion?”
“Well, my people have been on alert ever since The Lich of Old intruded into The Dark Grand Desert,” Orion explained. “I left my universe in the Somnium Sponge Cluster because I wanted to see what was going on in the Cosmos…”
“The Somnium Sponge Cluster?” Umuka was baffled by that.
“It’s a Menger Sponge that…” Mayhem started to say.
“Wait, those actually exist?” Faustus cut in.
Mayhem nodded. “Indeed. Anyways, the Somnium Sponge borders the Cosmos and Dream Realm as a whole. I’ve heard tell that they are all over the Outer Void and function as multiverse’s beyond the scope of the Cosmos.”
Faustus looked like his brain had melted. “I don’t even know how to respond to any of that.”
Mayhem gave a slight cackle. “You think that’s strange? A friend of mine, Vapor 6, explores the Dark Void. It is truly beyond our comprehension, especially when you start looking into IGL universes…”
“STOP, MY BRAIN HURTS…” Faustus exclaimed as the others chuckled. He then shook his head to regain his composure and turned his attention to Orion. “So, kid, are you really an orphan?”
Orion nodded. “Yeah, I sort of just popped up one day back home.”
“Well shoot, welcome to the family,” Faustus said as he gave Orion a hug.
“Why did you pick Sam and Will in particular, Orion?” Umuka wondered.
“Because they seemed cool. I’ve been watching them ever since they arrived in the city.”
Umuka smiled and laughed a little. “Well I may be a bit biased, but I firmly agree with you on that one. Come on, dinner should be done by now.”
Will and Sam were glad to have Orion join them and Reynard was happy to have him as a guest. The boy seemed like a kind enough kid and really took to Reynard’s cooking. Orion’s accommodations were up in the air, but Reynard had a good quality air mattress in the guest room closet. That would do for now until they figured things out. While everything was quite merry at M.A.I.G. headquarters, the same could not be said for Bethany’s crypt.
Bethany was laughing hard. “YOU GOT PUNKED BY A KID!?” She fell over on the cold, stone floor, laughing even harder. “A KID WITH A SLINGSHOT!? WHAT IS THIS, DAVID AND GOLIATH!?”
Valentin was sitting at his workspace, chewing on a toothpick, and watching Bethany with a sour scowl on his face. “Of course a child would revel in such petty immaturity…”
“Jeez, Val, where’s the rest of the Gathian soldiers?”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” he barked.
Bethany kept laughing. “If I wasn’t dead, that would’ve killed me! HA!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I need to meet this kid, where is he?”
Feeling anger well up inside of him, Valentin banged the stone table with his fist. “DAMN IT! It took weeks to gather up those materials! I was so close to getting rid of Sebastian…”
“Hold up, why didn’t you just do that in the first place? That probably would’ve saved us a lot of…”
“Okay, you try getting a 50 soul, gestalt entity to obey your orders. BE. MY. GUEST.”
“Alright, jeez, settle down. Point taken…”
Valentin took a moment to think. He was out of ideas and needed to start over… on top of running out of time. “Get rid of the boy.”
“And that relates to Will’s soul, how exactly?”
“That boy has been stalking me ever since I got here and I don’t want him interfering with my plans any further.”
“Okay, but what do you want me to do?”
“Kill him, maim him, have M.A.I.G. relocate him, I don’t care. Just get him out of our hair by any means necessary while I reformulate my plans.”
“Alright then…” Bethany agreed as she went to the entrance, opening the doors which scraped across the floor.
“And Bethany, be careful with this one.”
She paused. “Pardon?”
“That boy is not human. If he shows you his true nature, close your eyes or look away.”
“It’s that serious? Well, um, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Truthfully Bethany was a little concerned if even Valentin was worried.
The following day, Milan had another lecture to give at the academy. This one was about Atlantean alchemy and he had a lot to say given what he had studied growing up in Ertheval. Aelia, Will, Sam, Orion, and Faustus were relaxing in a park that the academy owned while they waited for the lecture to start. The park in question was a lush meadow filled with beautiful flowers and flanked by tall trees. All of it was quite serene and a perfect place to take it easy or study.
“An astral entity? What a fascinating turn of events” Aelia remarked. “I’m flattered you picked Earth, Orion. Are you sure about this planet though? It can be quite dangerous and primitive at times.”
“I’m aware, Miss Albus. It’s just that humans have always fascinated me. There are a lot of sentient species in the Cosmos, but humans are neat. They start out overly simple, but have the potential to turn into truly advanced beings under the right circumstances.”
Sam nodded, not sure how to process that assessment. “Er, thanks, Orion.”
“And it’s especially intriguing when they’re a dullahan and a succubus,” he pointed out.
“I see,” Aelia noted. “Now no offense, Sam, but Orion: are you certain Sam and Will are the ones for you?”
“Yup. Why do you ask?”
Will was pacing back and forth, waiting for Faustus to do something and was fairly distracted. “You cannot run from your own bunghole…”
“Boyo…” Sam interjected.
“There is but one bunghole: The almighty bunghole…”
Sam snickered. “Boyo!”
“Huh, what? What’s up?”
“William, must you insist on watching that crude cartoon?” Aelia questioned.
He laughed. “Sorry, I got the lines stuck in my head.”
Faustus had walked up and shook his head. “And in front of Lady Aelia? Aye yai yai, sport.”
Aelia sighed as Will gave a cheeky smile, causing the others to chuckle. “Well I can’t say the Romans were much better,” she recalled.
“Romans?” Orion was curious.
“Yes, I was born sometime during the 1st century BC, probably 56 BC if I remember correctly. Back then we would have called it AUC 717, but in the current calendar it would have been January 1st, 56 BC. Initially I was trying to become a philosopher, but pivoted towards alchemy when the great Hermes Trismegistus appeared in Rome. Naturally we had to keep our activities on the down low as we weren’t sure how the republic would react to Atlantean alchemy…”
“Wait, wasn’t Rome an empire by the time you would have been studying that?” Faustus interjected. “If I remember my history lessons correctly…”
Aelia had a slight glare on her face. “Wasn’t Rome an empire?” she mocked. “Since Augustus is long dead and I won’t be punished, I have something to say to him…” she got up and turned away from the group. “BALDERDASH TO YOU, AUGUSTUS!” She called out. “Rome should have stayed a republic…”
Sam was a bit surprised by that outburst. “Are you okay, Aelia?”
“Most certainly, Samantha. I just needed to get some frustrations off my chest.”
“Well, um, very neat, Lady Aelia…” Will commented. “Your birthday, not the balderdash part.”
“Don’t worry about it too much, William. And a little fun fact for all of you: Rome actually knew a lot about Atlantis. It was like what ancient Rome is to modern day studies.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “What happened to all of the records then?”
“They were stored in the Library of Alexandria.”
“Ohh, right…”
“Well ain’t that the short end of the stick,” Faustus commented. He then looked at his watch. “Oh shoot, we have five minutes.”
Aelia stood right up. “Let’s not dawdle anymore then. Follow me, everyone.”
The group arrived just in the nick of time and sat down as Milan stepped up to the podium. Sam and Will were curious to see if Orion would be able to sit through an entire lecture. Surprisingly he did fine, showing no signs of boredom. Aelia figured as much, as Orion sounded fairly intellectual, despite his young age. When the intermission rolled around, Orion stood up and stretched.
“Do you think the academy would be fine with me buying some ice cream from one of the vendors, Miss Albus?”
“I don’t see why not, Orion. Do you have some money on you?” He nodded. “Then just tell them you’re with me if they ask.”
“Alright, I’ll be back in a moment!” he said as he left the hall.
Something was not sitting well with Will. “Did you guys feel like something was watching us in the park?”
Sam thought about it, wondering if she had sensed anything. “I’m… I’m not sure, boyo…”
“Well it could have been a familiar of one of the students, right?” Faustus suggested.
Aelia had an uneasy feeling as she summoned an ornate, winged sphere that zipped out the doors. “If Will is on edge, we should keep our ears and eyes open…”
Orion went back to the park and found a fairly fancy ice cream stand. The vendor was a little surprised by the boy, but was more than happy to serve him a double vanilla scoop in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles. Orion happily went off to a bench overlooking a pond to eat his treat as food and drinks were not allowed in the lecture hall. Compared to the ice cream in the city, this cone was fantastic, being creamy and tasting vastly more natural. Orion was having a good time as the birds chattered above him. He even saw a mother duck lead her young past him. Unfortunately he had nothing to feed them at the moment.
Upon finishing up his ice cream and eating the cone, Orion noticed something was off. It felt like he was being watched… no, stalked. He looked around and saw nothing, only for a bush to rustle. Fortunately it was just a squirrel, but that did not alleviate his worries. Also it left its acorn behind when it scurried off. Was that normal? Taking a deep breath, Orion began to make his way back to the main building. The tension was starting to mount, like something was trying to get his attention, so he hurried his pace.
Orion was close to the front doors when he heard what sounded like the subtle growling of a cat? No, it was bigger, like that of a lion or a tiger. Orion turned around and looked at a patch of trees. In the bushes was the silhouette of a face. Was a student stalking him? Why?! Against his better judgement, he took a moment to study the individual.
A glint of teeth quickly clued Orion in that this was not a student. A sense of dread crept in as he began to notice the shape of a beast behind the face, with it looking like it could have been rearing up for something. It all made sense now, why the animals were running away. It was not because of him, it was the thing in hiding. Orion had a sinking feeling that he needed to run right then and there… and run as fast as he could.
Next: Chapter 21
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
After an extensive series of questions in the Anomaly Containment wing, Umuka and Orion were free to go. Umuka’s concern had actually worsened given what he had learned about The Xanthous King, with Orion affirming his intervention. Ultimately he would just have to live with it and hope M.A.I.G. and the ACF could handle it. And of course he had to question Orion’s actions given how risky it was. The boy had to do something as he had a bad feeling about the destruction that could have occurred.
While on his way to take Orion to Reynard’s quarters for dinner with his newfound parents, Umuka spotted Mayhem and Faustus who seemed to be waiting for something. It was perfect timing as no one else was in the hall and Umuka had the strangest feeling about Orion. Maybe the two devil’s could help elucidate him. Either way the mystery was driving him nuts.
“Ah, Faustus, Mayhem! How are you two doing this fine evening?”
“Hey, Umuka,” Faustus replied. “Just shooting the breeze and whatnot.”
“And Orion’s with you, how perfect,” Mayhem pointed out. “It is a pleasure to meet you, young man,” he said as he held out his hand.
Orion was a little nervous. He had heard of devil’s before, but seeing two out in the open was bizarre to him. “Nice to meet you too” he said as he shook their hands.
“I must say, Orion, that you have bravery on par with that of Sir Blood-Wraith Andrew Raynot. To just walk up to Valentin and foil his plans like that isn’t typically seen in human children…”
“What are you getting at?” That insinuation caught Orion off guard.
Mayhem glanced over to Faustus and Umuka, who were eagerly listening. “Orion, I’ve gone well beyond the confines of this universe and its Inferno and, well, you seem similar to some of the entities I’ve met in my travels to the great beyond…”
Orion gave a quiet groan, then looked around to make sure no one was listening in. “Valentin’s not around here, is he?”
“Of course not,” Faustus answered. “M.A.I.G. has some of the best security around.”
“Alright, don’t tell Sam and Will yet, but I’m actually an astral entity.”
“Wait, a what?” Umuka questioned.
“An astral entity,” Mayhem replied. “They come from the Dream Realm, Somnium, and the Outer Void. They’re believed to be related to the old gods and the Ar’ton.”
Umuka studied Orion for a moment. Upon closer inspection, he could see subtle nuances that indicated Orion was from somewhere well beyond his imagination. “So why are you really here, Orion?”
“Well, my people have been on alert ever since The Lich of Old intruded into The Dark Grand Desert,” Orion explained. “I left my universe in the Somnium Sponge Cluster because I wanted to see what was going on in the Cosmos…”
“The Somnium Sponge Cluster?” Umuka was baffled by that.
“It’s a Menger Sponge that…” Mayhem started to say.
“Wait, those actually exist?” Faustus cut in.
Mayhem nodded. “Indeed. Anyways, the Somnium Sponge borders the Cosmos and Dream Realm as a whole. I’ve heard tell that they are all over the Outer Void and function as multiverse’s beyond the scope of the Cosmos.”
Faustus looked like his brain had melted. “I don’t even know how to respond to any of that.”
Mayhem gave a slight cackle. “You think that’s strange? A friend of mine, Vapor 6, explores the Dark Void. It is truly beyond our comprehension, especially when you start looking into IGL universes…”
“STOP, MY BRAIN HURTS…” Faustus exclaimed as the others chuckled. He then shook his head to regain his composure and turned his attention to Orion. “So, kid, are you really an orphan?”
Orion nodded. “Yeah, I sort of just popped up one day back home.”
“Well shoot, welcome to the family,” Faustus said as he gave Orion a hug.
“Why did you pick Sam and Will in particular, Orion?” Umuka wondered.
“Because they seemed cool. I’ve been watching them ever since they arrived in the city.”
Umuka smiled and laughed a little. “Well I may be a bit biased, but I firmly agree with you on that one. Come on, dinner should be done by now.”
Will and Sam were glad to have Orion join them and Reynard was happy to have him as a guest. The boy seemed like a kind enough kid and really took to Reynard’s cooking. Orion’s accommodations were up in the air, but Reynard had a good quality air mattress in the guest room closet. That would do for now until they figured things out. While everything was quite merry at M.A.I.G. headquarters, the same could not be said for Bethany’s crypt.
Bethany was laughing hard. “YOU GOT PUNKED BY A KID!?” She fell over on the cold, stone floor, laughing even harder. “A KID WITH A SLINGSHOT!? WHAT IS THIS, DAVID AND GOLIATH!?”
Valentin was sitting at his workspace, chewing on a toothpick, and watching Bethany with a sour scowl on his face. “Of course a child would revel in such petty immaturity…”
“Jeez, Val, where’s the rest of the Gathian soldiers?”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” he barked.
Bethany kept laughing. “If I wasn’t dead, that would’ve killed me! HA!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I need to meet this kid, where is he?”
Feeling anger well up inside of him, Valentin banged the stone table with his fist. “DAMN IT! It took weeks to gather up those materials! I was so close to getting rid of Sebastian…”
“Hold up, why didn’t you just do that in the first place? That probably would’ve saved us a lot of…”
“Okay, you try getting a 50 soul, gestalt entity to obey your orders. BE. MY. GUEST.”
“Alright, jeez, settle down. Point taken…”
Valentin took a moment to think. He was out of ideas and needed to start over… on top of running out of time. “Get rid of the boy.”
“And that relates to Will’s soul, how exactly?”
“That boy has been stalking me ever since I got here and I don’t want him interfering with my plans any further.”
“Okay, but what do you want me to do?”
“Kill him, maim him, have M.A.I.G. relocate him, I don’t care. Just get him out of our hair by any means necessary while I reformulate my plans.”
“Alright then…” Bethany agreed as she went to the entrance, opening the doors which scraped across the floor.
“And Bethany, be careful with this one.”
She paused. “Pardon?”
“That boy is not human. If he shows you his true nature, close your eyes or look away.”
“It’s that serious? Well, um, thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Truthfully Bethany was a little concerned if even Valentin was worried.
The following day, Milan had another lecture to give at the academy. This one was about Atlantean alchemy and he had a lot to say given what he had studied growing up in Ertheval. Aelia, Will, Sam, Orion, and Faustus were relaxing in a park that the academy owned while they waited for the lecture to start. The park in question was a lush meadow filled with beautiful flowers and flanked by tall trees. All of it was quite serene and a perfect place to take it easy or study.
“An astral entity? What a fascinating turn of events” Aelia remarked. “I’m flattered you picked Earth, Orion. Are you sure about this planet though? It can be quite dangerous and primitive at times.”
“I’m aware, Miss Albus. It’s just that humans have always fascinated me. There are a lot of sentient species in the Cosmos, but humans are neat. They start out overly simple, but have the potential to turn into truly advanced beings under the right circumstances.”
Sam nodded, not sure how to process that assessment. “Er, thanks, Orion.”
“And it’s especially intriguing when they’re a dullahan and a succubus,” he pointed out.
“I see,” Aelia noted. “Now no offense, Sam, but Orion: are you certain Sam and Will are the ones for you?”
“Yup. Why do you ask?”
Will was pacing back and forth, waiting for Faustus to do something and was fairly distracted. “You cannot run from your own bunghole…”
“Boyo…” Sam interjected.
“There is but one bunghole: The almighty bunghole…”
Sam snickered. “Boyo!”
“Huh, what? What’s up?”
“William, must you insist on watching that crude cartoon?” Aelia questioned.
He laughed. “Sorry, I got the lines stuck in my head.”
Faustus had walked up and shook his head. “And in front of Lady Aelia? Aye yai yai, sport.”
Aelia sighed as Will gave a cheeky smile, causing the others to chuckle. “Well I can’t say the Romans were much better,” she recalled.
“Romans?” Orion was curious.
“Yes, I was born sometime during the 1st century BC, probably 56 BC if I remember correctly. Back then we would have called it AUC 717, but in the current calendar it would have been January 1st, 56 BC. Initially I was trying to become a philosopher, but pivoted towards alchemy when the great Hermes Trismegistus appeared in Rome. Naturally we had to keep our activities on the down low as we weren’t sure how the republic would react to Atlantean alchemy…”
“Wait, wasn’t Rome an empire by the time you would have been studying that?” Faustus interjected. “If I remember my history lessons correctly…”
Aelia had a slight glare on her face. “Wasn’t Rome an empire?” she mocked. “Since Augustus is long dead and I won’t be punished, I have something to say to him…” she got up and turned away from the group. “BALDERDASH TO YOU, AUGUSTUS!” She called out. “Rome should have stayed a republic…”
Sam was a bit surprised by that outburst. “Are you okay, Aelia?”
“Most certainly, Samantha. I just needed to get some frustrations off my chest.”
“Well, um, very neat, Lady Aelia…” Will commented. “Your birthday, not the balderdash part.”
“Don’t worry about it too much, William. And a little fun fact for all of you: Rome actually knew a lot about Atlantis. It was like what ancient Rome is to modern day studies.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “What happened to all of the records then?”
“They were stored in the Library of Alexandria.”
“Ohh, right…”
“Well ain’t that the short end of the stick,” Faustus commented. He then looked at his watch. “Oh shoot, we have five minutes.”
Aelia stood right up. “Let’s not dawdle anymore then. Follow me, everyone.”
The group arrived just in the nick of time and sat down as Milan stepped up to the podium. Sam and Will were curious to see if Orion would be able to sit through an entire lecture. Surprisingly he did fine, showing no signs of boredom. Aelia figured as much, as Orion sounded fairly intellectual, despite his young age. When the intermission rolled around, Orion stood up and stretched.
“Do you think the academy would be fine with me buying some ice cream from one of the vendors, Miss Albus?”
“I don’t see why not, Orion. Do you have some money on you?” He nodded. “Then just tell them you’re with me if they ask.”
“Alright, I’ll be back in a moment!” he said as he left the hall.
Something was not sitting well with Will. “Did you guys feel like something was watching us in the park?”
Sam thought about it, wondering if she had sensed anything. “I’m… I’m not sure, boyo…”
“Well it could have been a familiar of one of the students, right?” Faustus suggested.
Aelia had an uneasy feeling as she summoned an ornate, winged sphere that zipped out the doors. “If Will is on edge, we should keep our ears and eyes open…”
Orion went back to the park and found a fairly fancy ice cream stand. The vendor was a little surprised by the boy, but was more than happy to serve him a double vanilla scoop in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles. Orion happily went off to a bench overlooking a pond to eat his treat as food and drinks were not allowed in the lecture hall. Compared to the ice cream in the city, this cone was fantastic, being creamy and tasting vastly more natural. Orion was having a good time as the birds chattered above him. He even saw a mother duck lead her young past him. Unfortunately he had nothing to feed them at the moment.
Upon finishing up his ice cream and eating the cone, Orion noticed something was off. It felt like he was being watched… no, stalked. He looked around and saw nothing, only for a bush to rustle. Fortunately it was just a squirrel, but that did not alleviate his worries. Also it left its acorn behind when it scurried off. Was that normal? Taking a deep breath, Orion began to make his way back to the main building. The tension was starting to mount, like something was trying to get his attention, so he hurried his pace.
Orion was close to the front doors when he heard what sounded like the subtle growling of a cat? No, it was bigger, like that of a lion or a tiger. Orion turned around and looked at a patch of trees. In the bushes was the silhouette of a face. Was a student stalking him? Why?! Against his better judgement, he took a moment to study the individual.
A glint of teeth quickly clued Orion in that this was not a student. A sense of dread crept in as he began to notice the shape of a beast behind the face, with it looking like it could have been rearing up for something. It all made sense now, why the animals were running away. It was not because of him, it was the thing in hiding. Orion had a sinking feeling that he needed to run right then and there… and run as fast as he could.
Next: Chapter 21
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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