Chapter 117
The Prophecy of EightsCash’s words hung in the air for a moment. The tension didn’t quite break, but it shifted. Some of the heroes relaxed slightly. Others remained wary.
Alexander’s attention remained on the armored lady who hadn’t lowered her guard. A Nordic giantess of a woman, easily six and a half feet tall, in heavy armor that covered most of her body. A massive two-handed sword rested point-down against the platform beside her, and she held it casually, like it weighed nothing. Red hair was visible beneath her helmet, pulled back into a practical braid.
She studied Grimnir with calculating eyes.
To Alexander, she felt considerably stronger than the others.
One of the other heroes, a younger man in a blue and silver suit, spoke up. “We were told we were getting reinforced. Are you going to help?”
Alexander turned back to the group. “Yes. But first, I need to examine the gateway.”
Augustus stepped forward smoothly, reading the situation and taking charge. “We’ll coordinate with you on rotation schedules and defensive positioning.”
“We’ve experienced two different invasion events,” Talia added. “Any intel you can share on this one would be helpful.”
The Nordic giantess continued watching Alexander for another moment, then gave a single sharp nod, apparently granting permission.
Alexander gently lifted up and flew toward the gateway. Droney followed, hovering around his shoulder.
Behind him, he heard Augustus already organizing. Heard Annie’s voice as she introduced herself to the other superhumans with her typical enthusiasm.
The gateway loomed in front of him.
He passed over the defensive positions. Mobile platforms with mounted weapons. Barriers providing cover. Automated turrets tracking in smooth arcs. The defenders manning them glanced up at him as he flew by, but didn’t stop him.
The orangutan on the hill beyond the gate tracked his movement. Those intelligent eyes followed him with unnerving focus.
Alexander stopped a few feet from the gateway’s edge. Droney beeped softly, questioning.
“I don’t know yet,” Alexander said quietly.
He’d examined a gateway once before, during their first invasion defense. That one had a black aperture that kept them from passing through. Until they’d forced it open enough to see the world hidden on the other side.
This time was different.
The world on the other side of the gateway spread out before him. It made less sense than the others he’d encountered. The System had made it clear that to have a Dream, a level of sapience was required.
Yet, what he saw appeared to contradict that. The creatures milling about the hill were clearly of Earth origin. Most of them shouldn’t have the level of intelligence required to awaken a Dream. Let alone an entire reality dedicated to the concept.
And on the hill, the orangutan. Watching.
Alexander reached out slowly and touched the gateway.
Reality rippled under his fingertips.
The effect spread outward from the point of contact, distortions moving across the gateway’s surface like rings on water. Beautiful and unsettling at the same time. The forest beyond wavered and shifted with each ripple.
He tried to push his hand through.
Nothing.
He pulled his hand back. The ripples faded slowly, reality settling back into its strange equilibrium.
Droney beeped again, more insistent this time.
“Patience,” Alexander said.
He closed his eyes and extended his powers.
As with the first gateway, the suppression was the first thing he noticed. Despite the powerful resistance, he worked his way through it until he could feel what was hidden beneath.
Technopathy found no streams of data or circuitry, though it recognized it as a machine.
Metallokinesis found no metal structure, but he could feel the existence of a frame that wrapped around the gateway, flickering in and out of his senses.
Electrokinesis found enough energy to power a city, though it streamed into existence and back out with no discernible pathways, ignoring the principles of physics as if they were merely suggestions.
Then Animachina.
Alexander paused.
This was new. He hadn’t had this power during the first invasion. The gateway possessed a quality similar to Droney. To Sleipnir. It had the spark, the connection, that marked it as ensouled.
But where Droney and Sleipnir were welcoming. This was foreign. Resisting. It belonged to someone else.
Alexander centered himself and activated his Cultivator’s Core.
All four powers cycled together. Technopathy and Metallokinesis and Electrokinesis and Animachina flowing in synchronized rhythm, each one amplifying the others. The synergy stronger than the sum of its parts.
He pushed deeper into the gateway’s nature.
His Will pressed against the Will of the gateway’s owner. The resistance increased immediately.
Alexander probed harder. Carefully, but insistently. Testing the boundaries of that ownership. Searching for any weakness or gap in the connection.
On the hill beyond the gate, the orangutan stood to its full height and roared.
Alexander felt the shift through his connection to the gateway. The being’s Will pushed back against him fiercely. Unlike the smooth pressure of his own power pressing down on the gateway, the orangutan’s crashed against his like a wave of raw, animalistic force.
The gateway was an extension of the orangutan’s will. A projection of its power. Connected to it as completely as Droney was connected to Alexander.
He pulled back slowly. Not wanting to provoke further just yet. Not wanting to turn the examination into a confrontation.
Alexander opened his eyes.
The orangutan was still watching him. Those intelligent eyes locked onto his across the dimensional barrier.