Leveling up the World

Chapter 994: The Secret That Destroyed a City

The heavy smell of cleaning detergent greeted Dallion as he returned to the real world. His conversation with the Star had been short. Thankfully, the time passed in reality had been even shorter.

With a slight hesitation, he removed the IV and took hold of the girl’s hand. No sooner had he done so when a blotch of void matter covered the palm of her hand, as thick as a lump of clay.

“You know what to do, Lux,” Dallion said and placed his hand over it.

The void matter squirmed as it came into contact with healing magic, yet refused to flee. It seemed that the Star had kept her word. Black vapors came out, mixing the smell of burned bone to the other smells of the room.

Wanting to speed things up, Dallion used his free hand to cast a healing spell on the girl’s face. Everything considered, it wasn’t going to be much, but at this point, every little bit helped.

For close to twenty seconds, Dallion could feel the void matter squish beneath his hand, as if he were holding jelly. Then, finally, he felt the sensation of solid flesh beneath. It was just a small match, but an indication that the real work could start.

Took your time, he thought.

In the grand scheme of things, not even half a minute had passed, and still it seemed like such a waste of time. The watcher choppers were no doubt already on their way. Judging by his own brief experience with sedatives, it was going to take at least several minutes for the girl’s system to get rid of it. And that didn’t account for atrophy and orientation. After spending all this time here, Dallion had to assume that she wouldn’t be as mobile as he would have liked, making every moment of the essence.

One of the girl’s fingers twitched.

“Don’t rush it,” he said, suspecting her intention. “We need to do this right.”

The Star’s lips moved in an attempt to speak, yet no sounds came out. It was only on her third attempt that she managed to compose a phrase.

“Bloody Architect,” she uttered.

“I’ve been called worse,” Dallion replied without hesitation.

The girl smiled. All the fingers in her hand could move now and she used them to grip onto Dallion’s hand. The grip wasn’t particularly firm, but Dallion could feel strength constantly returning to it.

It would have been nice to take that as a sign that her recovery could be faster than suspected. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. It took well over four minutes for her to attempt to sit up, then half a minute more for her to stand on her own two feet.

“I don’t suppose you brought some clothes,” she said, looking at the medical gown she had been put in.

“I didn’t think I could get you out. I just planned for the chat.”

“At least you’re honest.” Of course, both of them knew that lies could easily be detected with the abilities they possessed. “So, we just walk out?” She looked at the door.

“No, we run out. Watcher choppers are already on their way. We must get as far away from this place as possible before they get near.”

“Watcher choppers?” the Star looked at him.

“It’s the organization that keeps track of awakened,” he explained. “No memories from the awakened world, but enough skills and knowledge to have an idea of what’s going on.”

“Watcher choppers…” she repeated.

“I’ve seen them in action. They’re well organized and funded. Almost like…” he stopped. Originally, he was about to say the Order of the Seven Moons, when he realized that was before her time.

“Watcher choppers,” she said yet again. “I like that phrase. I’ll be stealing it from you.”

“Very funny.” Dallion glanced at the door, then at her again. “Are you well enough to walk?”

The Star let go of his hand and took a few steps in the room. Her balance seemed perfectly restored.

“Looks like.”

“How about running?”

“Let’s find out.”

With a nod, Dallion went to the door and put his hand on the spot where the handle was supposed to be. A series of deep cracks appeared. They were followed by a second and third.

Sorry, door, Dallion said. Hope it didn’t hurt too much.

With the tongue of the lock no more, the door swung open.

“Okay.” Dallion reached out to the Star with his left hand. “Time to go.”

The two rushed into the corridor.

“Emergency session,” Dallion shouted, using his music skills. It was a terrible excuse, but music made the implausible likely. “We’re going outside for an emergency session.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The orderly who had brought Dallion to the Star’s room looked at the pair as they were rushing by and just nodded. Everyone knew that doctors were a weird bunch. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen a doctor rush out a patient, after all. And Dallion was a world-renowned therapist, so everything had to be okay.

“No defenses?” the Star asked.

“They’re just human,” Dallion explained as he went for the exit.

Two of the guards had remained in front of the facility, engaging in idle chatter. The “escape attempt” had been the highlight of the week and would remain so for months to come.

“Taking her to do an MRI,” Dallion blabbered, the first thing that came to mind. As for you, he addressed the dogs, you’re happy to see us again.

The guards weren’t certain what to make out of this, especially so soon after a breakout. However, seeing their dogs wag their tails in joy made them relax. Animals were a key judge of character, after all. If they were calm, then everything had to be fine.

“Let me help you with the gate,” one of them said, rushing to open it for them.

“Thanks.” Dallion smiled.

“No worries. You take care, right?”

With a brief wave, Dallion hurried off, leading the Star by the hand. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have discerned that something was not quite right. Even if Dallion happened to be a doctor at twenty, people weren’t just whisked out of mental institutions in their nightgown.

The walk picked up pace until it became a run. So far, there was no sign of any watchers. Maybe they hadn’t noticed or didn’t care, after all? Even if that were the case, Dallion couldn’t take the risk. Complacency was the greatest reason for failure. The best way was to continue with the original plan.

“You brought a car?” the Star asked, as the two rushed towards it.

“We’re not taking it,” Dallion replied briefly. “It’s bait for the choppers.”

“Ah, for the watcher choppers,” the girl said with a smirk.

Dallion was just about to make a sarcastic comment when he heard it—the sound he had been dreading even since jumping the facility’s fence. A faint sign of chopper blades was audible in the distance. They remained too far away to be seen, even with his awakened senses, but they were approaching and a lot faster than they were supposed to.

Seven minutes. That was approximately how long Dallion had broken into the facility. Apparently, it hadn’t been enough.

“Shit!” he hissed through his teeth. “Start digging!”

He let go of her and rushed to the car.

“Get out of here!” he shouted as loud as he could. “You’re late, so you better step on it!”

It remained unclear whether the driver understood what he meant, but the music skill used managed to clear any blanks. Burning rubber like a race car driver, the man turned around and sped off. With luck, that would attract the choppers’ attention and grant Dallion enough time.

Turning around, he found that the Star was just looking at him, not doing a thing.

“Why?” she asked.

“They’re on their way!” He said, hastily taking out car batteries from his pockets. “I need to make an illusion.”

“But why dig?”

“I don’t have time to make it properly. I need to cover them with soil so they aren’t detected!”

Without warning, day changed into night. A veil of impenetrable darkness covered dozens of feet, shrouding Dallion and the Star from reality. Dallion had seen firsthand how effective that could be. This veil was different from Janna’s, though. He could feel the nothingness of the void resonate within it. Just by looking at it, his conscious mind was certain that nothing beyond it existed. There was no world, no sky, and definitely no “watcher choppers.” Everything beyond was nothing but endless nothingness.

“Surprise,” the Star said, any trace of humor vanishing from her face.

“You didn’t get rid of your void,” Dallion said. And he had been so certain that he couldn’t see any within her.

“If something is good at hiding, it would be great at hiding itself.” The Star took a few steps towards him, then sat down. “How long do we have to wait here?”

Dallion wasn’t certain what to say. If it came to a fight, he had a minor advantage thanks to the remaining car batteries. Yet, he wasn’t certain how long they would last. The Star likely wasn’t, either, or she would have attacked him already.

“Ten minutes,” he said. “Half an hour at most.”

“Half an hour. I guess enough time to have a chat. A promise is a promise, after all.”

Concentrating, Dallion looked at the girl. Now that she had stopped pretending, he could see the void tendrils intertwined with her magic threads. There weren’t a lot of them—even less than what Jenna had. The difference in skill level, though, was apparent.

“Our deal was that I’ll tell you everything once we’re safe,” she continued. “Well, I see this as being good enough. Also, thanks for warning me about the watcher choppers. I’ll keep that in mind so I don’t end up back there again.”

Dallion swallowed.

“Do you know why I was called the Broken Star?” she asked.

“You were the star pupil who wanted to become the second Architect.”

“There’s that, yes. It doesn’t explain the Broken, though. It’s used because the Moons broke me. I was the most powerful awakened the world had seen and still, they refused to accept me.”

“One fallen from grace,” Dallion whispered.

“That’s one way of looking at it. It didn’t help that I was a brat. I was so obsessed with what the Moons thought about me that it drove me nuts. In a way, being locked up in that piece of hell helped me clear my mind and see things from the proper perspective.”

There was no telling how long she had spent talking to item guardians; probably decades, if not centuries, Dallion would guess.

“And being broken made me want to compensate. I was driven to despise those fuckers to the point that I thought of ways to circumvent them. And I did.”

Void matter poured out of her pores, transforming the hospital gown into a black t-shirt and a pair of black jeans.

“That was the reason that the Moons destroyed the city—the fact that I managed to pull it off and by doing so, I found the greatest lie there was. Do you know anything about the Eighth Moon?” she asked.

“It’s the first Moon,” Dallion said, still going through combat scenarios in his mind. “The one that banished all races and summoned the Seven new Moons to—”

“False,” she interrupted. “The Eight Moon is the only Moon.”

Dallion blinked in confusion.

“The Seven Moons were never Moons. They only appear to be when seen from a certain perspective. The truth is that they’re actually planets.”

Planets? Dallion was just about to ask something stupid, when a thought popped into his mind. He remembered seeing pictures of the Earth made by Nasa, even the “blue marble.” If viewed from the moon, Earth would be no different—just a blue sphere floating about in the night sky. Just like a moon—a Blue Moon.

“Earth,” he said, still struggling to come to terms with the concept. “Astreza is Earth.” The deity had never sent him to another world. It had taken Dallion back to itself.

“There you go. And what does that make the awakened world?”

Dallion didn’t say it, even if he knew. If what she was saying was true, then the awakened world—the one he had spent years leveling up, the same that Euryale was stuck on—was the same satellite that billions of people had looked up at every single night: Earth’s moon.