Collide Gamer

“Interesting… are you capable of opening such gates between worlds as well, perchance?” Devos asked, as he followed them all through the portal and into the Guild Hall.

“Nope, just between some spaces,” Lee answered.

“A vague answer, I respect that.” The Mite King looked around the empty field they found themselves in. “I’m foreign to your world. You must have played with the thought to eliminate me immediately. You must still be considering it.”

“I’m not in the habit of genocide,” John responded. That was the truth, but he hadn’t philosophically ruled it out either. Matters of wiping out an entire species of sapient entities got more complicated if that species was opposed to humanity’s interest. Wiping out the Guinea worm was generally considered a positive endeavour. Now what if the parasite could think? Ought one withstand suffering so another could live? How much?

Devos proved himself savvy enough to regard John with a long gaze. It communicated, without a word spoken, that they were on the same page. The Mite King was considering whether he would be attacked for his nature. Fusion’s Emperor was considering if that nature was hostile. Assuming the Mite King was truthful in not knowing this world, then he did not know himself whether he was incompatible.

They both operated on trust. Not blind trust, of course, just enough trust to maintain a civil engagement.

“Do you have a means of masking yourself in the mundane?” John asked.

“I have been moving about invisibly. I hope this will suffice?”

“If you haven’t been smote yet, it should,” John agreed.

They left the Protected Space Lee used for teleportation, then immediately entered the Guild Hall. There was no way to mask their arrival, so John appeared with the Mite King in tow in the middle of the Park. There were some people around, immediately intrigued by what the Gamer had brought along this time.

“This is your capital, then?” Devos asked, moving his head around. “It is quite… darkly coloured.”

“From my perspective, you are pretty pale,” John responded and led the Mite King down a path. “So, you arrived on this world via that portal we found in the city.”

“Not quite. That portal was the second time the screaming one entered my home world. He was declaring that I should stop following him now that he had brought me back to where he had found me.”

“…Why didn’t you stay there?” John asked.

“It wasn’t in my nature. That world, you see, already has a Throthaxen kingdom. As the newborn king, it is my duty to seek out a new home for my subjects.” Devos gingerly stepped onto the blue circle on the floor of the teleporter. A blue flash brought him, John and the haremettes to the palace. “This is quite confining,” he said, actually complaining for the first time.

“I apologize, we’re just not as tall as you are on average,” John responded.

Then, his true self appeared from another teleporter in the room.

“I hope this isn’t overly confusing,” the real Gamer said, while Devos turned his head back and forth between the two Johns in the room. Though the insectoid creature couldn’t emote in the same way he could, he made up for it plenty with body language, including the way his antennae twitched. “I have command of multiple bodies. I was using a disposable one to investigate the portals in case they closed behind me.”

“Ah, yes, that does make a lot of sense,” Devos agreed.

To make it easier on his guest, John had the Creator Puppet switch to its true form and drop to the back of the group. “We’re almost at a place where we can sit,” he promised.

‘Are you 100% sure about this plan?’ Momo groaned mentally. She and Eliana were already back from their appeasement assignment. Due to the pretty little psycho’s occasional volatility, he had not sent her too far away.

‘I’m currently operating in best faith and this will allow us to make the greatest impact.’

‘Can you negotiate with someone else’s books?!’

‘Last I checked, I own you, so I own your books.’

‘Oh, that’s the kind of talk that will get me to leave again, mister!’ Momo snapped back. She wasn’t entirely serious, but neither was she absolutely joking. She was quite worried about her library – for good reason. If Devos was half as powerful as John feared he was, then a clash between them would see the entire structure destroyed.

John hoped that even in the case of a clash, the Mite King would prove himself reasonable enough to take the fight somewhere else first. If not… Well, hopefully Momo’s contingencies to protect her truly valuable, irreplaceable books and artefacts held strong.

Aclysia and Beatrice waited at the double-winged door. They pushed them open, gesturing for Devos to step in first. The Mite King was quite pleased to step through a door that didn’t require him to lower his head. Just as John was about to follow him into the library, the phone in the inner pocket of his suit buzzed.

The Gamer pulled it out. An unknown number was calling him. ‘What does Richard want now?’ he groaned mentally. He poked his head into the library and found Nightingale awaiting him, her and Momo. Once the harpy had weaved together an obfuscation cloud, he took the call. “How did you get this number this time?”

“That’s not important!” Layla was not the voice he had anticipated on the other end of the line. “Whatever you just brought into the Guild Hall, it’s legion!”

John pulled his shoulders back. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean! It is legion for it is many, you are too smart not to get what I mean.”

“I mean what do you mean by that precisely? What do you see?”

“I see a turquoise soul carrying ten-thousand pale embers, that’s what I see.”

“…Thank you for the warning, Layla. Genuinely.” John meant it. Anything that was a warning could be used to figure out how truthful the entity he had offered hospitality was. “I can leave the phone on, for what comes next, if that would ease you?”

“Yes!” Layla’s confirmation had such force it figuratively threatened to blow up his eardrum. “That you would even suggest hanging up on me. Urgh, I thought you were my gentleman!”

“Well, I have an important guest… I’ll hand you to Aclysia now. She’ll keep the camera pointed at the events. If things go sideways, do NOT come here.”

“But-“

“I will not allow you to throw yourself in harm’s way, you get that? I care about your safety.”

“Oh, uhm… hihihi… oh… yeah, okay… I won’t hurry over… immediately.”

Manipulating Layla with her infatuation was a bit scummy, but in this case he deemed it necessary. As announced, he handed the phone to Aclysia. “Sorry about that, important business,” he told Devos.

“That is quite alright,” the Mite King answered. He was now seated on an extra-sized chair. At two and a half metres, he was enormous but not so huge that they did not have the furniture to accommodate him. “I see you have brought more witnesses? Or should I call them assurances?”

“Keen eyed, still,” John commented. “I am being cautious. I also tried to present you with what you want – actual books. Knowledge of this world.” The Gamer gestured at the hovering shelves far above them. “Hopefully one gesture neutralizes the other.”

“It more than does. If anything, your caution flatters me. You respect my strength, despite your palace proving yours.”

“Indeed… then let us continue in the spirit of equality. I ask one question, you answer it, then you ask me a question in return, does that meet your agreement?”

“Fully.” The Mite King nodded deeply. “You may begin when you are certain of your first question.”

John appreciated the offer of time, though he would not need much of it. With him in the room now were Nathalia, Metra, Lee, Lorelei, Nightingale, Momo, Aclysia, Beatrice and Nia. The last of that list was important for an unusual reason: Devos did not seem to care about her presence at all. Usually, creatures of magical origin were thrice as afraid of a pariah in their presence, yet the Mite King was not mustering her any more than the others.

It spoke to immense self-control, immense confidence or a lack of that instinct. John wasn’t sure which of the answers he would have found the most terrifying.

The Gamer decided to begin the questioning with what he most needed to know. “You mention you were following a screaming one – who and why, if you will allow me the double question?”

“I do not know the who, I confess,” the Mite King answered.

Immediately, a window opened up in front of John. He kept his biological eyes locked on the Mite King, but his Possession vision moved to read the simple message Lorelei had just sent him.

Lorelei: Certain truth.

“As for the why… I am not entirely clear. It may have been that my appearance simply startled him, after I dragged him to me. I then followed him, since I did not know what else to do.”

“Dragged him to you?” John asked.

“I understand your curiosity, but I believe it is my turn first,” the Mite King insisted. “How large is this Kingdom?”

“510 million square kilometres, of which about 70% are water. Though this is no Kingdom, this is Earth,” John responded.

The mandibles of the pale insectoid clacked repeatedly, his head tilted in confusion. “All of reality is contained in Kingdoms.”

“This is the original planet, the source of all Kingdoms,” John responded.

“Do you- no, it is your turn first.”

“What do you mean you dragged him to you?” the Gamer continued with the obvious question.

“As Mite King of a future Throthaxen realm, the shedding of my pupae also allows me to pull to me one capable of breaking the wall between Kingdoms. It is meant to be a symbiotic act, you see, for me to find the seneschal with whom I shall find the next holy land where my people may thrive. My question: do you have proof that this is the original world?”

“And irrefutable proof in this instance? No, but there’s plenty of research on the matter. If you stay here, we can give you the necessary instruments and books to test the claim. I hope that is good enough for you?”

Devos bowed his head deeply. “For this purpose, yes. Continue, please?”

“After you contacted the screaming one, as you call him, what happened?”

The Mite King remained silent for a moment, uncomfortably shifting around. “I request that you believe me when I say I had no ill-intentions.” He cleared whatever passed for his throat. “As is custom, I emerged from my pupae as he manifested in my realm. He then screamed at me. Unknowing of his language, I screamed back. He proceeded to run, shattering open space. I followed. This repeated for several days. I learned his language through him and others we encountered and deciphered that he was panicked. Once I realized, I attempted to calm him. This did not work. I elected to give him some space, that is when you found me.”

“…I see.” John swallowed his immediate follow-up question. He also gave the Mite King another onceover. Though he was an impressive specimen of a fantastical creature, John could see why he wasn’t reported to any official channels. To the average Abyssal just passing by, the Mite King would, without any flexing on his part, just look like an albino insect-humanoid. Rare, yes, but not unheard of in the Abyss.

The information that their Latebloomer had been running away from a perceived threat all this time was already worth a lot. Lorelei was still providing him with confirmations on every statement. As far as the seer knew, the Mite King had not lied a single time.

“My next question…?” Devos asked cautiously, apparently having expected a physical response. He sighed in controlled relief when John nodded. “May I see a map of this world?”

“Momo?”

“Already on it,” the sassy maid said and quickly grabbed one of the dozen maps she kept rolled up in a barrel. Though the age of technology allowed much, sometimes an archaeologist’s club needed a big thing of paper to unfurl and put markers onto. Four weights on the corners kept the paper pinned, once it had been spread between the two monarchs. “This is a map of our world’s topography,” she said.

“Impressive to have measured all of this,” the Mite King said, blue eyes scanning everything. “And we are…?”

John permitted that follow-up question and put his finger on their current location. “This is the city where we are currently located.” He outlined all of Fusion with his finger. “This is the domain to which I am sovereign.”

“Thank you. Your next question?”

“Do you have the means to find the man that brought you here again?” the Gamer asked.

“No, I have faith that he will return to me if I require him.” The Mite King stopped. “Do you intend to find him?”

“Your escapade has led to much confusion in my realm and I have seen what kind of entities, beyond you, can live on the other side of such gates. I can’t let someone who can tear them open at will just run around – especially if they are, as you described, a nervous wreck. Would you help me in this endeavour?”

“Yes.” The Mite King did not even contemplate the question, only sounded relieved that this chance was being offered to him in the first place. “Do you have any further questions for me?”

“What kind of world are you seeking? What would it look like if you erected your kingdom?”

Devos was still inspecting the map. “I sense that this world holds what I need, yet not quite… It is a mysterious sensation. I will have to investigate and, if I do not find what I need, move onto another Kingdom that has the required biome. As for what my realm would be, one of harmony and service. Us Throthaxen reclaim ravaged lands and stabilize the life therein. I am certain we can be of use to each other.”

Lorelei: He is certain that this is the truth.

“Well then,” John reclined in his chair, “mind telling me why you lied about being alone?”

The confrontational question made the Mite King tense up. “I… did not lie… though I did obscure,” he admitted. “At this point, in the name of trust.” Air rippled with the familiar effect of a pocket dimension being reached into. Devos’ hand returned with a pale, round sphere in his hand. Through the opaque surface, John saw the pulsing body of a developing insect. Hastily, the Mite King put it away again. “Time outside the chamber makes them mature and it is not yet their time,” he explained. “They are my future subjects. Thousands of fertilized eggs, given to me as my birthright. It is for them that I must find a home.”

‘Fascinating,’ John thought. ‘An extremely powerful king, produced as the vanguard of a species that reclaims dead lands in Kingdoms? I suppose the cosmos can produce all manner of interesting organisms.’ “Very well then,” he spoke aloud. “Let’s start with this then: what does our missing man look like?”

The search continued in another phase.