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Luka's Story-Paradox	By : Ditmag Category: +M through R > Monster Girl Quest Views: 2709 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Monster Girl Quest Paradox is the intellectual property of Tortorro Restistance. I make no money from this.

Chapter List
- 33
- 34
- 35
Access to the Tartarus rift was a problem. A poisonous swamp surrounded it. I could see in the distance that there was a camp there. Alice, with far better eyesight, informed me that there were people in the camp.
“Gotta admire their determination,” Ilias said. “They would have paid a price to cross this swamp and then clear an area to set up a camp. They really want their king back badly.”
“Sabasa loves its king,” Sara said. “And I love my father. If there’s any chance that he’s still alive….”
“So how do we do this?” Sonya asked. “Is the swamp shallow enough for us to cross?”
“No need for that,” Alice said. “Luka can teleport us to the camp.”
“I can only teleport where I’ve been,” I objected. “I have to remember a place well so that I can visualize it in my mind.”
“Oh, did you become blind, idiot?” Alice asked sarcastically. “You can see the camp. If you can see it, you can teleport us to it.”
“Stop bullying him!” Ilias exclaimed. “Luka, if visualizing things is the best way for you to use your power, try this. Stare at the camp over there in the distance.”
Alice was being unfair to me. I could see the camp, but not well enough to picture myself materializing in the middle of it. I squinted and stared at the camp as Ilias instructed. I still couldn’t see it clearly enough to make teleportation to it safe.
“Now, rather than imagining yourself in a camp you can’t see very well, magnify it so you can see it well,” Ilias instructed.
“What? How would I do that?” I asked, confused. Alice rolled her eyes.
“It’s like trying to teach a baby how to use time magic!” Alice huffed.
“Instead of trying to imagine that you’re in the camp,” Ilias continued. “draw the camp closer to you, so that you merely step into it. Just pretend that you’re enlarging it. Don’t actually enlarge it, though. That would also enlarge the rift, which might cause bad things to happen.”
That seemed to make some kind of sense. When one stares at something, it can sometimes appear to move, or grow larger, or smaller. Our eyes are designed to detect movement and see patterns, which means that we sometimes see things that aren’t there. Except for me, if I saw something and wanted it to be true, I could make it true, at least for a moment. I stared even harder at the camp in the distance. It seemed to grow in my sight as I focused on it. I willed the growth to continue, but was careful to not wish for actual growth, but for us to draw closer to it. The camp grew until it filled my vision, standing right in front of me. Then, I merely stepped into it. My companions moved forward as well. And just like that, we were inside the camp.
Rather than the alarm a sudden appearance would be expected to cause, it had appeared as if we’d merely strolled into the camp. There were only two researchers present. They were mildly surprised that we had made the journey across the swamp, but since they had done it themselves, presumably without magical assistance, it wasn’t that remarkable. They immediately recognized Sara.
“My Queen!” one of the researchers greeted her, bowing slightly. “This is an unexpected surprise. I wish we had better news to report.”
“I am no longer the queen,” Sara said. “I don’t know if you’ve been briefed, but I acquired a…. malady which made me unable to perform my duties. Sabasa is now governed by its parliament.”
“I’m actually glad to hear that, if I may be frank,” the other researcher said.
“That’s funny, because his name is actually Frank,” the first researcher chuckled. “I’m Axel, by the way.”
“Axel?” Alice asked. “What an odd name for a scientist.”
“So’s Frank!” Frank said. “But anyway, you probably came here to see if we’d found anything out about your father, your majesty. I’m afraid we’ve learned nothing new. He fell into the hole months ago and we found no sign of him down there. We don’t believe he’s dead. The fall should have killed him, but he was strong and there would have been a body.”
“I assume you couldn’t get very deep into the rift due to the apopt…. Damnit,” I said.
“Apoptoses,” Sonya said helpfully.
“Can we just call them robots?” I asked. “Or terminators? Or cyborgs?”
“Since they are none of those things, no,” Promestein said, piping up for the first time. “It would be a crime against science to mislabel them so. Even non-sentient beings deserve respect.”
“Well, we’re going to explore it,” I said to Frank and Axel. “We’ve already explored two and come back. If the king is down there, we’ll find him.”
“You look like a pretty strong group,” Frank said. “Best of luck to you. But first you’ll need to move that giant mound of dirt out of the way.”
Mound of dirt? I looked over at the entrance to the hole. Indeed, there was a mound of dirt. I guessed that it would be possible, of hazardous, to just climb over it, but that would have led to a descent down an unsteady slope to a rope ladder, which sounded like a great way to splatter myself at the bottom of the hole.
“Why did you guys put a mound of dirt there?” I asked.
“We didn’t,” Axel replied. “A white rabbit was here one morning, digging up dirt and putting it in front of the entrance, while humming a tune.”
“Now why would she do that?” Ilias wondered. “Doesn’t she want us to explore these?”
“Maybe she doesn’t want us to explore this one?” Sonya mused.
“I’ve waited too long to get a chance to see another one of these,” Promestein said. “I’m going to see if I can move it.”
Promestein approached the huge dirt mound and began to speak an incantation. It got immediate results, but probably not what Promestein had been hoping for. The mound simply adjusted whenever Promestein tried to move it telekinetically. She let out a frustrated sigh.
“Gnomey can move that stupid mound!” Sylph suggested. “Hey Gnomey, we need your special skills!”
Gnomey asked a silent question in my heart. She was seeking permission to use her power through me. I granted it at once. My hand raised and the mound simply collapsed, most of it falling into the rift.
“Luka, did you use your power to do that?” Sara asked.
“No, it was the earth spirit,” Alice answered for me. “That was a bit too subtle for Luka. He would have blasted it and gotten dirt in our eyes and lungs.”
Why was Alice being so negative today? I wondered. Then I remembered that on our first adventure, she’d demonstrated true jealousy for the first time when I’d had an encounter with Sara. Alice didn’t mind me feeding her cute little subordinates, so long as it remained impersonal. But she probably could tell that there was a lot more to it when it came to Sara. I really needed to think about my behavior and how it was affecting my companions. Things were getting very complicated. I couldn’t not feed Sara, could I? Sara in this world had the cravings, but also didn’t want any other men but me. I supposed that I could redirect the other monsters to the other men in the castle. Most of them already were feeding primarily off of them. But Sara presented more complex emotional problems. That connection was clearly still there, despite the fact that she was gay. Or was she? This was a different world. While people were generally the same from universe to universe, did that include sexual orientation? Was there a gay Luka running around somewhere?
Getting lost in my thoughts again, and right before we needed to do something really dangerous and important. I shook my head and glanced at my companions. Alice, Ilias, Sara, Sonya, Promestein, and the silent Hild were with me, ready to climb down the ladder. Alice, Ilias, and Sonya constituted the core group and I knew that they would all be coming no matter what. Alice and Ilias for answers, Sonya due to her fierce loyalty to me. Sara would not be denied despite the danger because her father might be down there. And Promestein, well, she’d endure any danger to learn something new. If I’d told her no, she would have simply had a chat with my penis instead and gotten the answer she wanted.
As I began to approach the ladder, I heard a small “bamf” behind us. The white rabbit had appeared. Good. I needed a question answered.
“So you show yourself again, white rabbit!” Ilias said accusingly. “Was this your latest way of harassing us?”
“Was there a reason you didn’t want us going down this hole?” I asked.
“Oh, I want you to go down there!” the white rabbit said cheerfully. “The mound was simply to insure that you were ready. I didn’t want you going down there without Gnome. You’re going to take damage down there. The apoptoses are too strong and can adjust to your power. I assume you still haven’t figured out how to block physical attacks with it?”
She had done her homework. I admitted that not only couldn’t I stop physical attacks, my body was still very human and vulnerable. Without healers with me, I’d already be dead or disabled.
“That’s why you needed Gnome!” the white rabbit laughed. “Not only does it bring us closer to the correct history, she’ll also save you when you get shot up down there!”
“Gee, I’m so looking forward to that,” I said.
“These rifts only get more dangerous as you progress. Promestein made a good observation that they are like an immune system. Even though each rift is different, they learn from their encounters with you. That’s why you need to level up sufficiently before entering each one. Having Gnome and Sylph will save you because the system doesn’t know you have these new abilities.”
“Level up?” I asked. “Are you playing video games now?”
“All the time!” she laughed. “Now go, and witness the chaos covered world within!”
That was pretty dramatic. She added to the drama by disappearing with a poof.
“That sounded serious,” Sonya said. “I wonder what’s down there?”
“I imagine that the world itself can be either more or less dangerous than the ones we’ve encountered so far,” Ilias observed. “The first was actually the most dangerous, and without Luka’s power we’d all be dead for certain. The second was relatively harmless. But getting to those worlds might be more hazardous, each one more dangerous than the last.”
“Well, we have the spirits, and Hild, and you’re boasting more power than before as well, Ilias,” I said. “But Sonya, you really should stay up here. You’re… only human.”
“I know I’m weak,” Sonya said. “But I’m not waiting around up here while you face that danger.”
“Sonya, you’d only be a liability,” Alice said.
“That’s not fair to her, Alice,” I said. “Sonya is a good fighter and a good healer. She’ll be an asset to us, especially knowing that we will be taking hits if the white rabbit has judged correctly. Sonya, I still think you should stay up here for your own safety, but I won’t tell you that you can’t come with us. You have value to me. The decision is yours.”
Alice scowled. Again, she was being unfair. Sonya wasn’t the only one who would be out of her depth down there. Really, it should have just been me, Ilias, and Hild going in. Promstein, Alice, and Sara had no business down there given their relative weakness. I wondered how much of Alice’s resentment was about me, and how much was about the recent lack of equality between her and the goddess. I’d have to find a way to balance those scales for the sake of the party. Argh. So much party politics to consider! I wasn’t cut out for this!
Just as I was about to finally start down the ladder, the white rabbit appeared again.
“Oops, almost forgot!” she said playfully. “I wanted to give you these. They aren’t worth anything, but I needed to get rid of them.”
The rabbit handed me a pair of glasses. It was obvious they were Nero’s. They were too modern looking to be from this time period on this world.
“How did you get these?” I asked. “And why?”
“I stole them from him when we were going at it,” white rabbit said. “Glasses, my glasses!’ he kept yelling. What a riot!”
“I know Nero well enough to know that’s not a thing he’d say,” I replied. “Nero doesn’t even need glasses for seeing.”
“All right, you caught me! He didn’t say anything. He actually ripped my head off in revenge. But no need to worry, it grew back right away. Anyways, see you later! Have fun down there!”
She disappeared again, this time without a sound.
“She grew her head back?” Alice wondered. “Was she even seriously threatened by me wrapping my tail around her, or was she just pretending for fun?”
“Well, let’s just head down there and find out what kind of trouble we’re in this time,” I said with resignation, pocketing Nero’s glasses. I imagined that Nero would be back for them. Good. He was another person I wanted to talk to.
We finally got underway, lowering ourselves into the dark hole, having no idea what we would face. Myself, I was worried about pain. Gnome could save me from death, but I hated getting hit. I felt silly wishing that everyone would just rape me rather than shoot at me, or cut me, or beat me. I sure had changed since arriving in this twisted world so many centuries ago.
We reached the bottom and looked around. Instead of a modern facility, this time we were just in a cavern.
“Did it go away?” Sonya wondered.
“No, there’s just more chaos here,” Ilias replied. “I see more modern tile flooring ahead. Be cautious. The place probably moves a little in space and time. A wall that wasn’t there might suddenly be right in front of you.”
“What if it moves to the space we occupy?” Sonya asked nervously.
“That’s unlikely to be a problem,” Promestein explained. “The walls won’t materialize out of nothing, so you can’t just get stuck in one. But they might move and knock you down.”
I mentally gave Gnome permission to use her power in any way she saw fit. It would have been prudent to summon her at once, but I knew that she tired quickly, especially when I’d first received her power. I had to wait for a threat to use her, and my reactions might not be as fast as hers. I would need her to save me if I got caught napping.
“What’s with this black crevice?” Sonya asked. “It’s like both the wall and space itself have cracked.”
Indeed, there was literally nothing in front of us. A passage continued to our left, but straight ahead was no wall. No…. nothing. It was empty space.
“Is this a fault made from nonexistence?!” Ilias exclaimed. “How can nothingness itself take form and erode spacetime?! If this spreads, the world itself will turn into nothingness!”
“The chaos that covers the world,” Sonya added. “That’s what the other Ilias warned us about. This must be what she meant.”
“I may have to reassess our risk,” Promestein said. “If that nothingness advances on us, we will cease to exist. I wouldn’t get too close to that.”
Promestein was keeping her distance, which was warning enough, since Promestein was the type to approach a crocodile to get a tooth to study. We quickly proceeded to our left, where thankfully there were only solid walls on either side of us and solid floor beneath us. On the other hand, if those walls decided to move….
The narrowness of the hallway posed a different problem, however. Standing in front of us, blocking our path, were two apoptoses. As was normal for them, they had a frightening appearance. These were tall and humanoid, with long claws. But instead of a chest, they had giant, gaping mouths with huge, razor sharp looking teeth. With an inhuman cry, they charged at us. Hild leveled weapons and opened fire at once, dropping the two in an instant. Already she had proved her value.
“Targets neutralized,” Hild announced. “Now that I have their signature, I detect many more in the area. Proceed with caution.”
Gnome summoned herself, as did Sylph. I felt their power course through me as we proceeded down the hall. Hild insisted on taking the lead, as fighting apoptoses was one of her prime directives. Despite her warning, we didn’t encounter anymore of the creatures, at least not before our hallway suddenly turned into a weird kind of spacetime. It’s tough to describe what it looked like. The ground had become almost crystal. The air was stale. There were no walls, but the area was foggy. It felt like outdoors, and yet with the claustrophobia of a tight indoor space.
“This is very unusual,” Promestein noted. “We should probably hurry. This is a transitional state between something and nothing. If we’re still here when this place disappears….”
“Luka, be ready to teleport us all back to… wherever at a second’s notice!” Alice warned.
Good plan, I thought. We briskly moved on. And hit a dead end. The crystal path abruptly ended, leaving nothingness ahead of us.
“Turn back!” Promestein yelled. “This isn’t the way!”
We didn’t have to be told twice, running quickly away from the area and finding ourselves back in the modern looking facility. We continued to wander, on the lookout for apoptoses but also for what we knew would be in this facility: a door that only I could open.
Three more apoptoses ambushed us as we turned a corner. One slashes me with her claws. I call it “her”, because the form was obviously feminine. I would have been sliced to ribbons if not for Gnome. As it was, deep slashes shredded my shirt and sent blood pouring down my chest. The pain and surprise caused me to lash out ahead of me with my power. I was glad I was in the lead. I didn’t enjoy taking that hit, but at least I didn’t inadvertently hurt my friends.
I also didn’t do much damage to our attackers. I had not released much. It had been more of a hiccup. But it had hurt and confused the creatures enough for my companions to retaliate. Ilias disposed of one with a simple blast of holy magic from her finger. She was indeed growing stronger. Alice required a little more effort to blast one with fire, creating a large fireball that whizzed past my head and singed my eyelashes, but disabled one of our opponents. A pinpoint head shot from one of Hild’s guns took out the last one. Sonya placed her hands on my wounds, partially healing them. At least the bleeding had stopped.
“I’m sorry I can’t do more,” Sonya said. “We can’t wait around here.”
That was for certain. Despite my shirt being tattered and bloody, we had to continue on. I was no longer in danger, thanks to Gnome and my good friend’s healing abilities. We explored more passages. This particular facility was more of a maze than the previous ones had been. I remained in the lead despite my wounds, Gnome and Sylph still summoned and not yet tiring. It seemed that passively protecting me wasn’t as much of a strain as actively exerting force.
Another attack soon followed. This time we were rushed by different creatures with long arms ending in blades. The arms also fired projectiles, causing us to scatter, since we were not caught in a narrow hallway, but a larger room. Hild, for her part, simply stood tall and fired back, felling three of them in the first ten seconds, while taking hits to her body that didn’t seem to bother her, although they clearly did damage. Feeling protective of Hild, I charged at three more apoptoses trying to flank her, my sword reducing them to scrap and disembodied flesh in seconds thanks to my elemental power. Alice and Ilias took care of the rest, while Sonya, Sara, and Promstein took cover.
Promestein quickly emerged from cover when the fight was over to gather samples from one of the fallen creatures. She made sure to collect both metal and flesh samples, as well as withdrawing a bloody chip from the heads of one of them.
“This should give me insight into their programming,” Promestein said with satisfaction.
Alice shouted a warning. Too late. Promestein was instantly felled by a bullet. I turned to feel several rounds strike me like hammer blows in my legs and chest. I fell to my knees.
“Luka!” Sara shouted, putting her own body between me and the attackers. It was a brave gesture, and also a foolish one. Hild covered her as best she could, dropping two of them instantly with her unerring accuracy. I don’t think we would have survived that rift had Hild not been with us. All I heard after that were shouts, curses, the sounds of magic and gunfire. When it was over, Sonya was attending to me, Ilias to Sara, who had also taken several rounds to the chest and one that grazed her forehead, knocking her out.
“There are no more threats in the vicinity,” Hild announced. “But this unit has taken significant damage. I must rest and recharge. There are places for Hild to do so here.”
“Thank you, Hild,” Alice said. “Do what you have to do. I’m afraid we can’t heal you. But we can’t stay here either.”
“There are quite a few of those cracks in space around here,” Sonya observed. “This is bad.”
“It’s spreading,” Ilias said. “Luka, Sara, Promestein…. Can you all walk?”
I shakily rose to my feet and nodded my head. Sonya had healed me well enough to keep going, although I wanted nothing more than to lay in bed and moan. Sara was in worse shape, but Ilias’s healing powers had become far greater than Sonya’s. Sara had been on the brink of death. Promestein, on the other hand, had been knocked down but not particularly hurt.
We continued on, reluctantly leaving Hild to recuperate on her own. She was well suited to fight any stragglers off should they attack her, but Promestein assured me that she was in no danger. The apoptoses would recognize her as one of them. She was built not just to fight them, but to confuse them as well. As long as this area wasn’t claimed by nothingness, Hild would be here when we returned.
Finally, we reached the spacetime door. It was the same door we’d seen in the previous two rifts.
“Luka, would you do the honors, please?” Ilias said. I nodded and lightly pushed on the door. It swung open easily.
At least what we saw next was familiar. Normal seeming ground, but with no signs of life and what appeared to be subspace all around us. It appeared that the world had been eaten away by nothingness as well. We began to walk, looking foranything interesting. I stood ready to teleport everyone back home at a moment’s notice.
“How come you didn’t dodge those bullets, Luka?” Alice asked. “Were you just not paying attention?”
“I did get caught by surprise yes,” I admitted. “But even with Sylph, I doubt I could have dodged them. I need Undine for that. Sylph makes me fast enough to dodge bullets, but they still move faster than I can react. Undine gives me access to the flow, which enables me to see all of the threats as if they move in slow motion.”
“At least you had Gnome,” Sonya said. “Without Gnome, you’d be….”
“Can you even die, Luka?” Ilias asked.
“Of course I can die!” I replied. “This body is very mortal, I assure you.”
“No, I understand that,” Ilias said. “But didn’t you already die? Whoever sent you here, if you died, wouldn’t they just send you back? If they can create a body for you out of nothing once, I’m sure they could just do it again. It doesn’t seem likely to me that you’re going to your eternal reward until whoever sent you here is good and ready to let you go.”
That was an interesting thought. I wondered if that’s how it actually worked. It also called into question whether my Ilias had actually sent me. While I believed she still had the ability to hurl my soul across worlds, she absolutely could not have recreated me in a new universe. That meant that assuming she was involved at all, which seemed likely given her message to me, someone was assisting her. That someone could not be the White Rabbit or Nero, because both had been caught by surprise by my appearance. That brought me back to Justin once again. This whole caper had his fingerprints all over it.
After hours of walking, we arrived at a grand tower, in truth, the largest and most modern looking tower I’d seen on this adventure. The front doorwas open, so we simply walked in. We were greeted by a small robot.
“Welcome to the tower,” it said matter of factly. “I am Radio. I am a machine life form. I have been instructed by master to welcome you.”
“Do I know your master?” I asked, realizing it was probably a stupid question. I might know who Radio’s master was, but it was unlikely Radio or her master knew who I was.
“Unlikely,” Radio answered. “All life on this world is exinct.”
“All life?!” Sonya exclaimed. “So…. Everyone is gone?”
“The last human died twenty-five years ago. The last monster, six years ago. Only master and I are left. Please follow me.”
We followed Radio through many long passages, until we reached a staircase, which Radio directed us to ascend. As we climbed the stairs, violent shaking began.
“What is that?!” Sonya exclaimed. “An earthquake?!”
“Chaosization is increasing at a fast rate,” Radio explained. “This world is doomed. Master must speak with you before time runs out. Please hurry.”
We continued to follow Radio, who led us to another staircase that led to the third floor. The ground shook again, this time before we even began climbing.
“A powerful apoptosis has entered the tower,” Radio said. “Unit name confirmed to be Adramelech. It is approaching while turning the surrounding space into chaos.”
“That sounds really bad,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Be ready to get us out of here,” Alice warned.
“Always,” I assured her.
We proceeded up another floor, then another, before we finally arrived at the top of the tower. Sitting at a desk in a large study was a masked figure dressed entirely in black. The figure stood up and greeted us.
“Welcome, guests from another world,” a woman’s voice said. “I am La Croix, the lord of this tower.”
“Who the heck are you?” Sonya asked.
I knew, sort of. La Croix has been in league with Promestein. I hadn’t met her. She was Chrome’s sister, and Chrome had dealt with La Croix herself, killing her in the process. The Promestein with me obviously had no clue who La Croix was, although I could see La Croix looking at her meaningfully. Promestein noticed La Croix’s interest.
“If I may, La Croix,” Promestein began. “Do I know you? The tech in this building resembles the kinds of things I would design.”
Before La Croix could reply, another strong tremor shook the tower.
“Adramelech has intruded into the tower,” Radio informed La Croix.
“I’m afraid there is no time,” La Croix said in answer to Promestein’s question. “My identity is unimportant. I am undead. There hasn’t been a living thing in this world in six years, since the last angel died.”
Ilias gasped. To think even the angels in heaven had died out!
“What happened here?” I asked.
“The chaosization of this world began in Remina,” La Croix replied. “Dimensional cracks covered the world, and chaos eroded existence. Thirty years later, our world is finally ending for good. I estimate that we have less than an hour.”
“That’s the same time the Great Disaster happened on our world!” Alice exclaimed. “What caused it to happen here?”
“We gathered the most brilliant minds in this tower. Most were claimed, either by apoptosis or chaos before we could get answers. But enough survived that we figured a few things out. First, this world did not follow the correct history.”
“There’s that correct history again,” I said sourly. “Why is that so important?”
“It is important, young man, because failure to follow the correct history created a paradox. The contradiction of events disrupted reality, turning the world itself into chaos.”
“A paradox giving birth to chaosization would return the world to a disordered state,” Ilias explained. “I’m beginning to understand what’s happening. Not all paradoxes cause a fatal level of chaos. But something happened here that did. Something even more severe than what happened on our world.”
“Adramalech is on the second floor,” Radio said.
“You understand the nature of time well, angel,” La Croix said. “But the paradox didn’t originate on this world. It occurred in another, and the chain reaction impacted ours.”
“Wait, so you’re saying that the paradox might not have happened on ours, either?” Ilias asked. “Then how does following the correct history on our world save it? Oh wait….. I see now. Following the correct history reduces the rate of chaosization. It’s like managing a cancer. You can’t cure it through following the correct history, but you might be able to slow the spread.”
“Yes,” La Croix said. “Picture the entire multiverse as a single organism. The main body is lost, so each organ must fight its own losing battle. Some organs will succumb sooner than others. But eventually all will die. All that will remain is complete nothingness.”
“That…. Makes no sense!” Ilias yelled. “That’s not how time works!”
“Your concept of time is based on a single universe,” La Croix explained patiently. “Just as Newtonian physics cannot explain how things work beyond a certain point, such as and object approaching the speed of light, even your impressive understanding of the nature of time only applies to your own universe. The multiverse functions differently. I wish that I had time to learn more.”
“Adramelech is on the third floor, master,” Radio said.
“It appears we are out of time,” La Croix sighed. “Return to your world. And take this.”
La Croix handed Promestein a notebook. “Contained in that notebook is all that we have learned about chaosization. If anyone can find answers, Promestein, it is you. Seek the truth, my friend. If there is a version of me on your world, perhaps she can help as well.”
I was barely paying attention. Slowly ascending the stairs and coming into view was the most frightening thing I’d ever seen. It had a face out of my worst nightmares, with wings and tentacles and heavy armor.
“Go!” La Croix said. “I will hold it off while you escape!”
“We can all escape!” I said.
“No! It will follow you back to your world if we try to leave together. It must not detect your teleportation signature! Go! Now! Do not worry about me! I am no longer alive!”
Concentrating, I willed us all, except for La Croix, back to the castle. Nothing happened.
“Luka!” Ilias yelled. “Do it now!”
“I tried!” I protested. “Nothing happened!”
“Use my teleportation circle, then!” La Croix yelled, as she was locked in combat with the apoptosis. “It is specifically designed so that she cannot counter it!”
Alice pointed to a teleportation circle at the back of the room. We rushed to it. Alice, having more knowledge of how teleportation circles worked, silently cast a spell to activate it and we were gone.
“This isn’t home!” I said.
“Oh, do you think?!” Alice replied.
We were standing in a narrow area of land with nothingness on either side of us. The nothingness seemed to be slowly closing in on us.
“Luka, you can do it now!” Ilias exclaimed. “Get us out of here!”
I tried again, but just before I could envision us back at the castle, I was grabbed from behind. Everyone screamed.
“Disappear! Must… make you…. Disappear!” a cold voice said from behind me. I didn’t have to be told who that was. I prepared to use my power.
It proved unnecessary. I was inexplicably let go. I turned to face the nightmare, only to find her cut neatly in two, a man in futuristic looking armor wielding a sword even stranger than mine standing over what was left of the apoptosis. He looked remarkably like me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Luka!” the man said. “protect your own world! I will protect everything else!”
With that, the man strode into a portal and was gone. Could that have been….?
“Luka, we’re out of time!” I heard Alice’s voice shout. With a thought, I returned us to the castle.
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Luka's Story-Paradox