World Seed

Author’s Corner: Beware, the anticlimax. Enjoy the chapter!The rest of the day went by incredibly slow. I couldn’t help but feel like there was some looming disaster just waiting to strike. I mean, Malthan sent us a on a journey for a full year to get here. If the Qu’Lopti were as capable as they seemed, then there shouldn’t be anything we can help them with.Thankfully, it is very hard to get a restless night when you have the softest hug pillow ever imagined. The next morning, I found Celeste in her room to check up on her progress learning the language. For some reason, she seemed extremely depressed all of the sudden.“What’s wrong?” I asked the Deus Ex, sitting in a nearby chair.Slowly, she looked up to me, but shook her head. “It’s… nothing. I learned the language, so I’ll go ahead and pass it on to you.” Rather than sitting around and having me ‘download’ the language for a few days, she waved a hand and sent it directly into my mind with her own Soul Arts.Since she went to this method of sending the language, I automatically understood all of it. She even included both written and verbal language. Nodding my head slightly, I stood up. “Well, if you need to chat, you know where to find me.” I tapped my own head while saying that, and she smiled slightly before I left.When I got to the bridge, Ackbar once again beat me to the punch by announcing, “Captain on the bridge!” Is there some position I can give him to make him not do that every other time I come here?I quickly raised my hand to stop everyone from the normal salute procedure. Of course, a few people from Earth were looking around confused. “Open up a communication channel with the leader of one of the Qu’Lopti countries.”Soon, I would regret my decision… Rather than the normal holographic screen, this time a full three dimensional display appeared in front of me. “You are speaking with Tordaedron, bearer of the chains of chaos, owner of the black hand of death and wielder of the demon's eye! For what purpose have you contacted me?”Displayed in the center of the room was a large figure of a blue man, a thin metal chain wrapped around his shoulder. On his right hand, he wore a black glove, while on his left he wore a white one. His eyes were likewise different colors, one being golden and the other being red.“Uhm… Tordaedron…” I shook my head, ignoring the weird titles. Thankfully, nobody else on the bridge could understand him. “I am Captain John Hulett of the Ariadne. We are currently in orbit around your planet, and have chosen to make contact with your people.”“Are you the promised emissary foretold by the stars, the one that has come to lay claim to our world?!” The figure shrank back in an exaggerated pose, as if he had been actually hit in the face or something.“Uh… no. I’m here to help.”As if nothing had happened previously, Tordaedron stood proudly on the display. “Ah! So you have come to aid this world against the fiends that wish to ravage it! Together, we shall join hands against the darkness!” He proudly lifted up his black gloved hand as he spoke.Must… not… blow up… planet… “Something like that, yes…” I was starting to get an idea on why these people did not exist in the future… And maybe how they were able to learn magic on their own.“Very well! The people of the third realm shall welcome you with open arms! Let all know that you bear my blessing!” He waved his hand towards me in another exaggerated movement, and seemed to be expecting something.“Right… will do.” I signalled for the connection to end, and then sighed when the hologram disappeared. “This… is going to take a while.”Tapping on my comm, I called Celeste. “Their entire race is like that, isn’t it?”I heard a light groan from the other side of the comm. “Unfortunately, yes. The more dramatic, the more popular. It’s a race full of eighth graders.”I was a bit surprised, honestly. I mean, Celeste seems like the kind of person that would be all for this. “I can understand why it’s a bad thing for me… but why are you depressed?”“Because I’ve been outdone by an entire race!” I could practically hear her arms flailing around in the bed. “Even their kids do it better than me! It’s so frustrating.”...Okay then… “Ah… sorry about that? I take it that their government is mainly comprised of each country’s best actors?”“Yeah, it’s pretty much the same as Earth in that regard.” I’m just going to let that one slide. “But anyways, from what I can tell, some time almost two years ago, a few kids were playing ‘stop the demon lord’. Naturally, when the kid playing the demon lord actually called out real fire from his hands… everything just snowballed from there.”I could picture that easily enough. Suddenly, I was thinking about a bunch of blue skinned midgets running around playing tag, and accidentally throwing a fireball. “So, the relation between their language and runes?”“Coincidence, most likely. They’ve been using the language for over a century, so there’s no way they got it from the system. Oh, and there was no ‘foretold emissary’... He was trying to impress an audience.”It was at this moment that my face had a brutal rendezvous with the palm of my hand. Malthan…?