Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 37: English

Alex followed the man as he wound through a series of maintenance corridors below the arena. They covered areas that Alex didn’t even know existed, let alone had seen. Meaning, that whoever this man and his employer were, they had some deep rooted connections, literally.

They passed hallways and sealed doors until Alex was pretty certain they had moved out of the arena area, past the outer grounds in deeper into the city. At the very end of their walk was a large metallic door which opened without any prompting.

Beyond was a large room that appeared to be a greeting venue for a palace, even containing windows high on the walls casting light down inside. The aether around such windows told Alex they weren’t real, and they were still underground, but it was a good fake.

The room almost looked charming.

Inside, a single man waited on their arrival. He was lean, dark silver-peppered hair, and a slim black suit. His eyes were dark and stern, but his gaze wasn’t cruel. The posture that he held himself in was surprisingly strong, squared shoulders, straight backed in a way that told Alex he was a military man at some point.

But none of that really mattered. This wasn’t the first time Alex had seen him. He reconginzed that he saw the man before. This was the man with the tattoo.

“Alex Pierce,” the man said with a faint Eastern European accent. “I’ve been hoping we’d meet properly.”

Despite having to have probably expected it, Alex was taken aback when he realized that the man was speaking English.

“Who are you?”

The man smiled faintly. “Apologies, introductions are necessary. I am Erich von Dämmerung. Born in Hamburg. Raised in Latvia during the revolution before my family escaped the violence into Russia.”

Alex blinked. “… you mean?”

“Yes. I am from Earth, of course.”

Alex’s pulse quickened, his palms suddenly getting clammy. Another worldstrider, from Earth? So he wasn’t crazy. It was true.

“When?” he asked.

“That depends,” Erich said. “What year are you from?”

“We traveled over in two-thousand eighty-eight.” Alex said truthfully. He say no reason to lie to the man. If he wasn’t from Earth, this information would mean nothing to him. If he was from Earth, and Alex lied, he’d just end up getting bad info in return.

The truth was the best option.

“Nearly a hundred years ago, by your reckoning.” Erich paused, his eyes veering off into the distance as if he were remembering something. “That can’t be… well, it makes sense actually.”

He stepped closer, and Alex instinctively read the flow of his aether. Fourth Tier, Sage level. His aura was dense, weighty, as though reality bent slightly around him.

“I was part of a project,” Erich continued. “Near some small town called Chernobyl.”

Alex froze. “You worked on the plant?”

He knew Chernobyl, history classes taught citizens about many tragedies of the past. Besides the many world wars, there were big events like the incident at the nuclear plant that almost anyone in the world would know from what Alex knew.

Erich’s brows lifted in mild surprise. “You know of it?”

“Yeah,” Alex said quietly. “I know exactly what it was.”

Erich chuckled softly. “Then you understand the irony. We sought power beyond our understanding… and I found it after being shunted out of existence.” His gaze turned distant for a moment. “The experiment that should have ended me instead cast me here.”

“So it was that incident that brought you here? Were you alone?”

He leaned against the accent table behind him. “Two other’s came with me. They have long since been dead. There have been others since.”

Alex stepped closer, now far more drawn into the man’s words. If felt a little strange speaking in English, and the accent was… difficult to parse. But he listening with all his worth.

“There was a Japanese man, about seventy years ago. Brilliant man really, but he was reckless. I lost contact with him long ago. I learned from him that he came over during what your world called… Fukushima.”

Alex nodded. “So… it’s not just me and my friends, there have been others.”

“Far from it.” Erich’s smile turned thin. “Though we are rare. And usually… Worldstriders are not known for their long lifespans.”

“No one has made it back? Have you tried? If there is spatial magic, we can set up a spell to—“

“All attempts that I’ve tried, have failed.” Erich interrupted him. “Spatial Magic is complex, for more than basic magic. It is something I have been forced to learn after many years. It is also why sotrage items are almost always Dungeon Shop items, and also why Aetherships are the chosen means of transportation for Sages, even between planets.”

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That’s it then? Just… failure. No way to get back? Alex starred at him, his mouth slack.

Erich spoke again. “I won’t waste your time, Alex. I know what you’re after, freedom from the Empire’s leash. And a chance to get home. I understand that, even if I have given up on the idea of getting back to Earth many years ago.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “So, what do you want?”

“A partnership.” Erich’s face turned to a bare smile. “You and your squad are chasing something powerful. An Inheritance Dungeon, even for myself, is no small thing. Share its rewards with me, and in return, I’ll give you whatever I can.”

“I—“

“Before you reject me, let me make something clear.” Erich stepped forward and raised a hand.

In his palm, water formed a ball the size of a marble. Then lightning shot from his fingertips through the orb’s center. The electricity seemed to separate the water, turning it into hydrogen and oxygen, as it burst into a gas instantly. Where the subsequent bolts ignited, changing the orb into a ball of hot plasma that floated above his skin.

With his other hand, a pulling force was generated, stretching that plasma out into a long rod which here then sent flying into the wall.

A hole was burned through the panels and into the bedrock and beyond.

Alex’s eyes widened. He knew how powerful the building materials for the structures in Athrastas were. All of the wood, rock, and other substances were taken from third stage trees, or heavily aether reinforced marble, and other stone.

To casually send an attack then pierced straight through such aether dense material… it was beyond impressive. Even for a Magus.

And Erich hadn’t just used water aether and air aether. He used them both tor structure an impromptu fire aether spell. It was the kind of magical knowledge and aether control that Alex never seen before.

How powerful is he?

“I have contacts, resources, and… knowledge the Empire would kill to possess.” Erich said. “Together, we could work towards your and your team’s escape. If not, we can push you toward power that others simply cannot control, or demand obedience from.”

“How did you… in only a hundred years?” He asked.

Alex understood, admittedly, not a whole lot about the magic of the world yet. But everything in his experience, and what he knew from Celeste, Sylvaris and others, told him that reaching the peak of Magus Tier—which Alex suspected Erich was—took more than just a hundred years.

Alex and the others were fast tracking fiercely, reaching Peak adept in almost no time. But that wouldn’t be the case forever, no matter how much they tried.

Once reaching Magus, just like Adept, there were intermediate stages. Unlike the mortal and the adept tiers, progressing through Magus wasn’t about how much aether one could culivate into their core, at least that wasn’t the only thing. Instead, it required understanding various truths around their attuned element, and etching such understanding onto their core.

Early, Middle and Late elemental truths; or Fledgling, Naive and Mature truths, as they were called by the general populace, took immense amount of time to understand. It was like old school eastern stories that Alex had read from back home. Meditating and enlightening one’s self on the nature of their innate power.

Over all, it was difficult stuff. Pushing from a nascent magus into early fledgling stage took decades. Then even longer for middle stage. And then Late stage.

Celeste said it took around three centuries for someone to reach late Magus.

If Erich had done it in one…

“No, not a hundred. I’ve been in Aetherios for nearly four hundred years, Alex.”

“What?!”

That couldn’t be right. Even Erich had said so. Alex was from a hundred years in Erich’s future on Earth. Nowhere near four times that.

“Time is strange, Alex. You understand science, yes?” Erich said with a soft smile. His demeanor changed from a proud and powerful mage, to that of an old man teaching his grandchild.

Alex nodded, though was unsure where he was going with that question, and unsure if he wanted to receive a lecture.

“The Ascendancy, the cycles of this system… they are not like Earth. From what I have been able to discern, time moves faster here. It was many more years than I realized by the time the man from Fukushima, Takeshi, arrived. It had been nearly a century for me already.”

Alex said nothing at first. It was true that even from what scientists understood back on Earth, this was a complicated thing. Science told him that in various ways from his education that time and the perception of it was… weird.. Of course, he didn’t know the nuances and details involved, that would actually be far more Adam’s wheelhouse than his own.

But he didn’t need to understand it to have it be real thing.

So, if time moved far faster in Aetherios, four to five times as fast, that would explain the difference in Erich’s statements. It would actually explain a lot of things.

But that also meant, if they made it back to Earth in four years, only one would have passed back home. That was actually a good thing. Maybe.

“I see.” Alex nodded.

If Erich was telling the truth, and he had been learning his powers and building his path for so many centuries, having him helping in building their power would be huge. Especially as he was also a worldstrider. He would have insights into how to bridge their Earth knowledge with the reality of the System’s mechanics.

“So we enter the Inheritance, and we share what we get with you. And in turn, we become partners. Not vassals, or underlings. But true partners?” Alex asked.

“Yes. And unlike Lady Xhiu, I am not beholden to the thrones here in Urhara. I am beholden to no one.”

That was a rather bold claim.

Even after his study into the many other competitors, Alex didn’t know all the factions of the continent or the planet for that matter. To say that he wasn’t attached to any of them, while still having enough influence to offer them such protection, it was impressive on Erich’s part.

Should it be true, it was a tempting offer. But it came with the risk of pissing off the greatest power of the continent, the Urhara Empire. And the Empress, along with her husband, were not mere Peak Magus Tier. From what Alex knew, they were Sages, fourth Tier mages.

Having their ire one their heads was even beyond Alex’s level of crazy.

“And yet you want to accept.” Obby said.

As usual, the damned pebble was right.

He’d need to be careful, go through his options. He’d talk to Holly and the others before comitting to anything.

“I’ll think about it,” he said finally.

Erich smiled faintly. “Good. That’s all I ask.”

Alex turned to leave, but paused at the doorway, glancing back. “But first,” he said, eyes glinting, “I need to make it the top fifty, yes? Do you have any advice?”

Erich’s expression darkened with amusement. “Then win, Mr. Pierce. I’ll be watching.”