Leveling up the World

Chapter 993: The Broken Star

As the door opened, a smell of chemicals filled Dallion’s nostrils. The combination almost made him take a step back. The cleaners had clearly gone overboard, though maybe with reason. On the bed, with several sets of restraints, lay the person Dallion had come to see.

On paper, her name was Margaret Willows. Dallion, however, only knew her as the Broken Star—supposedly the one who had started it all.

“I’ll be fine alone,” Dallion whispered to the orderly accompanying him. “Go do your rounds.”

The door behind Dallion clicked. Normally there would be no getting out, but that was only if he didn’t have someone like Nox to help when needed.

The girl was still very much a teenager. Given how old the article about her was, she had to have been little more than a child when she was first sent here. Without a doubt, she had done terrible things in the awakened world, but even so, this was the closest thing that Earth had to a prison item.

Without wasting time, Dallion approached the bed.

“Where is she?” he asked all the items in the vicinity.

A chorus of replies instantly followed. Unlike nearly every item Dallion had come across, these didn’t seem surprised that someone could talk to them. That was optimistic—it suggested that the Star had frequently spoken to them.

She’s with me, the IV tube said. Will you join her?

Spending one’s time in an IV realm was slightly macabre, but after all this time, the Star had probably gotten bored enough to enter anything she was in contact with. Taking a deep breath, Dallion touched the tube.

SPHERE ITEM AWAKENING

Reality shifted, transporting Dallion into a world of a giant tube, continuing into the distance. The interesting thing was that he found himself in the tube itself, almost like in a sci-fi movie. Alien looking structures stretched in all directions, and if one looked straight up, they’d see the opposite point of the tube’s diameter, hanging over like a sky.

You are in the land of IV.

The land has achieved its destiny.

Achieved? Normally, everything on Earth was supposed to be sealed. Clearly, the Star had a few tricks left after returning to the world.

“Why are you here?” a voice suddenly asked behind him, in a distinct British accent.

Dallion’s usual reaction was to split into three instances.

COMBAT INITIATED

MAJOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 50%

MAJOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 50%

MAJOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 50%

A series of bullets riddled one of the instances, causing it to abruptly fade away. No sooner had that happened, that the Star pointed her weapon to one of the remaining two.

“I asked you a question,” she said in a merciless voice.

It can’t be, Dallion thought. The person that stood before him was a splitting image of the Star echo he had fought all that time ago.

“You’re just like in the pocketknife,” Dallion said. In his mind, however, he was already fighting.

“Pocketknife?” the girl lowered her weapon. She was wearing the same goth clothes and mascara that the echo had been. “You mean Goth?” she asked, as if pulling out a memory from an eternity ago. “So, something must have survived those bastards. That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Dallion attempted to use his aura vision on the girl. After a bit of effort, a rectangle emerged above her, but the only thing he could see within was blackness.

“I came to ask you something,” he went straight to the point. “You were able to take objects from Earth. How—”

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“Ask me something?” The girl laughed. “You know where you are, right?”

“In the loony bin,” Dallion kept his calm.

“I sense the arrogance of a domain ruler. What were you before you were kicked out? Ninety? A hundred?”

“A hundred and sixty,” Dallion said.

The girl’s smile vanished.

“An architect.” Envy emanated from her. Interestingly enough, Dallion wasn’t able to see any blobs within the girl. It was almost as if he were talking to an Overseer, yet not quite. “Since you’ve seen Goth, you must have popped up a while after me.”

“I know you found a way between worlds,” Dallion pressed on. “I want to know where it is.”

“You want what?”

“I want to go back.”

“You need to be here more than me. The Moons don’t like anything moving between worlds on its own. And since you probably purged all the void, you bloody well can’t use that.”

“Tell me how to get there and I’ll deal with the rest.”

The Star narrowed her eyes—made all the more apparent by the many layers of mascara.

“No,” she said.

“No? Why not?”

“Because you want it too much.” The Star sounded almost amused. “It’s my policy never to give anything to people who want it too much.” She paused. “Unless they give me something in return.” The pistol in her hand melted into a block of blackness that quickly merged with her black clothes.

Dallion had gone through this conversation hundreds of times in his head. After all the time on sedatives and drugs, he imagined she’d need a very long explanation of what was going on, who he was, and how she could help him. Not once did he imagine she’d be this sharp. The girl had managed to retain her sanity by entering realms and talking to the guardians. It wouldn’t be out of character for her to have destroyed a few in the process, out of boredom.

The question was, what did he have to offer? What could someone in her position want? Only one thing came to mind, although he wasn’t certain it was a good idea.

“I can get you out of here,” he said. “But if you act crazy again, you’ll end up back in.”

“I knew you’d go for that.” The Star sighed. “I’d hoped you’d at least be original in your lies.”

“I have a way to get rid of the drugs in your system,” he said. “It might hurt, though.”

“Shock therapy? They’ve tried.”

“I have a healing firebird.”

The girl froze, as if Dallion had uttered a forbidden taboo. He could sense disbelief emanating from her to such a degree that even the void matter wasn’t able to hold it in.

“I’ve no idea how it’ll affect your void, but it’ll get rid of the drugs. I know from experience.”

The gun appeared once again in her hand.

“Companions don’t survive the journey,” she said, pointing the weapon at Dallion’s chest.

“These ones did. They’re void creatures. A crackling and a firebird.”

“Have you any idea how rare it is for that to occur?” The Star didn’t appear to believe him. “Getting a crackling is a million to one, and as for a healing firebird…” her hand moved slightly, as she fired three shots.

Dallion instinctively attempted to evade them, but both his reflexes and the awakening markers proved too slow.

COMBAT INITIATED

MAJOR WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 50%

A void bullet pierced his left shoulder.

Splitting into instances, Dallion dispersed in different directions, only to have the star lower her weapon again.

“Prove it,” she said. “Heal yourself without using spells, and I might believe you.”

Dallion gritted his teeth. There were undoubtedly a lot less painful ways to prove the same. It wouldn’t be a good idea to argue, though. Their power level was highly unbalanced in her favor.

The seconds crawled on. Dallion knew that Nox was within him, yet there was no telling how efficient he was in the realms. Awakened logic suggested that the firebird should be more powerful here, yet time in the real world passed a lot slower.

For a quarter of a minute, nothing happened. Then, finally, a green rectangle emerged.

MINOR HEAL

Your health has been increased by 5%

“What do you know?” The pistol melted away again. “You really kept a healing pet.”

“I said that already,” Dallion grumbled. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Provided you get me out of here first.”

“Are you kidding?”

“You’re desperate. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have gone to this piece of hell to ask a favor from the evilest being in existence.” She crossed her arms. “If you want the answer, you’ll hear it after I’m out.”

“How do I know you’re really telling the truth?” Dallion asked. “You could be doing a cold reading.”

“That’s for you to find out.”

You piece of crap, Dallion thought.

She was right, though. He had taken a lot of risks on the faint glimmer of hope that he’d find his answer here. It was unlikely he’d just walk away. On the other hand, the Stars weren’t known for their honesty. There was the option to split into instances and try a few approaches, but chances were that the Star would see through that.

“You’re just as desperate as I am,” Dallion said in a final bluff. If there was something that he’d learned was that people rarely gave up hope once it was given to them. “You don’t want to tell me? Fine. But I showed you proof, so will you. If not, I’ll leave and let you rot here. And trust me, after I leave, no one will be able to come back. The entire awakened world is carefully watching you. When they see you were close to escape, they’ll triple the safeguards not to allow that to happen.

It couldn’t be said that the option was preferable, but Dallion knew he couldn’t afford to bluff. If she refused, he was perfectly prepared to hunt down other leads, even if it might take him years. Based on the turbulent changes in the Star’s emotions, she feared the same.

“What’s your plan for escape?” she said. “With specifics.”

“I use my firebird to get you on your feet, then break the lock with my crackling,” Dallion explained. “That’ll get us in the corridor. I already messed up all electronic surveillance, which leaves the guards and orderlies. They’re very susceptible to music skills, as are their dogs.”

The Star just stood there, without reacting.

“How many skills do you remember?” she asked.

“A lot. So, what is it?”

Everything considered, Dallion put his chances at ninety percent. Given what the girl had been through, though, there was a fifty-fifty chance that she might refuse, just based on pure pettiness.

“I can’t give you any proof,” she said after a while. “If I do, it’ll be the same as telling you everything. Then you’ll just leave me here.”

MINOR HEAL

Your health has been increased by 5%

Another rectangle appeared above Dallion.

“You’ll have to decide. All I can say is that it won’t be easy. Chances are that even after I tell you the way, you won’t be able to make use of it. The Moons guard their secrets jealously. I still think that the real reason they destroyed the eternal city was because I found a way to bypass them. There’s a chance that they do the same to you.”

“They know I’m trying to go back. They’ve known I will even before they sent me here.”

“Which is something else that doesn’t make sense. You shouldn’t have the will to get back. I was the greatest power in existence; nothing came close, and I still will be damned before I set foot back there. Why are you different?”

“I don’t know,” Dallion admitted. She wasn’t the first person to tell him this. “I just know I have to.”

“You’re saying that you’ll use your firebird to burn through the drugs?”

Dallion nodded.

“I’ll let you burn through my void matter as well,” she said. “Without it, I’ll be just another no-level awakened without even a fraction of your skills. Of course, I could be lying, but that’s a risk you’ll have to take. I’ll be relying on you to get us out. Once I’m safe, I’ll tell you everything.”

Not the offer that Dallion wanted, but it was unlikely he’d get something better. It was all down to trust and his ability to make the Star stick to her word.

“Alright,” he agreed. “Once you’re safe. Now, let’s get started.”