Chapter 526 (Edited)

A/N

Edited chapter after hearing some of the criticism. I added and edited a few things in the first half or so of the chapter to somewhat change the tone to make it come off as less ‘whiney’ if that makes sense. So we’ll see how this one does and if I need to edit things again. Chapter is about twice the size with a lot more added, so please read.

@***@

I sat on my butt, looking at the twisted world around me, silently.

Eventually, I fell on my back and looked up at the strangely beautiful sky. It was sort of cracked and warped in a way that reminded me of those kaleidoscope toys, but without the myriad of colors.

Rather ironic, considering everything.

[Are you seriously waiting here like she asked?] Ddraig’s voice sounded in my head.

“I’m just….taking a moment.” I let out a sigh. “Less than an hour, Ddraig. I did absolutely nothing, if anything, I did a good deed by overpaying for the stuff I just bought. And still, less than an hour, and something happens.”

[I heard some rumors that Gremorys had some bullshit luck.]

“You think it’s because of my bloodline?” I questioned him.

[Well, no. But I thought it would make you feel better if you could blame it on that. Honestly, I think you’re just a magnet for trouble.]

“….thanks Ddraig.”

[Like seriously, you get into more trouble than I did in my life. I actually caused trouble intentionally, I can’t remember the last time that you tried to cause trouble rather than it just happening because of your presence.]

I let out a sigh again.

“I’m going to complain to her manager.” I sat up.

[What if the monk girl is the manager?]

“Then I’ll write a bad review.” I stood up, brushing myself off.

[Alright, Karen.]

Though, this place was kind of interesting.

I immediately took out Mirage and stabbed it into the ground so I could begin some calculations about this strange place I found myself forcibly put in.

Obviously, I could pretty much leave whenever I wanted, but for what reason was I here if not to explore new and interesting things?

While that was going, I took out my wand and put a pile of books on the ground next to me. Figured I could multitask while that was going on, and one of my goals was to get a beter mastery of this wand-based magic system that was developed where Kunou is staying.

I had skimmed these books here and there, basically with cursory glances mostly. I kept telling myself that I would sit down and study them properly later.

The thing is, these books aren’t what I would call….reliable, in every context. Some of them were meant for younger readers, some of them were…..let’s say generous with their explanations on how certain things works.

For instance, the Snake summoning spell!

Just one of the hundreds of spells I’ve glanced over that made me question the purpose of it being added to the systematic learning conventions they developed.

What possible use would someone have to summon a snake compared to one of the thousands of other spells they could potentially learn?

One of the baffling things I suppose. Not to say I’m ever against additional and non-dangerous knowledge being freely available.

Simply, it’s one of those head scratchers that I wish I could peek into the minds of the authors.

But I digress, I was going off on a mental tangent.

The most hilarious thing was that the book stated quite authoritative that the snakes were ‘created from thin air’.

Yes, clearly every Witch and Wizard was creating life from nothing with a casual wave of their wand a handful of words to accompany it.

It just made me roll my eyes.

No, it was a summoning spell. It summoned the nearest creature matching the spell’s structure to your location. Which, was ingenious enough that I don’t know why they had to bullshit it with that other nonsense.

Though, it was a bit of a misnomer.

Reading up on it, looking over its spell structure, it could also summon other things closely related to snakes, mostly other reptiles. However, there seemed to be a limit to the mass. I’m pretty sure I could summon a baby Alligator with the same spell if I tried.

Why was any of this important? Well, this place I was ‘trapped’ in, I couldn’t sense any life so rather than just waste time trying to examine it closely, I was just going to overpower this spell and see what happens.

I flared my substantial Magical Energy. “Serpensortia!”

I felt the spell actualize, I was experienced enough to catch it just based on feeling, however, it sort of fizzled after a moment or two.

I clicked my tongue and twirled my wand in my hand absentmindedly.

Honestly though, I wasn’t surprised. Just one of those things that I tested just for the sake of it. This basically implied that there was no ‘life’ within dozens of miles of myself.

Sure, I guess there could be something else, but with such a vast area, if no reptiles existed, then no proper ecosystem existed, which heavily implied no life.

I was just too lazy to actually go inspect myself. Otherwise, such a spell would be completely overlooked by me in every other situation. Truthfully, the vast majority of spells I’ve been looking at from Kunou’s world are….well, they could be call cantrips.

It was unlikely I would ever use any of these spells in an actual fight. Maybe I could get inspiration somewhere, maybe there was a spell I could bring up to my standard. However, that wasn’t the point in learning these spells.

I was a researcher, I would always be expanding my breath of knowledge. Summoning a snake? Yeah, that was ignorable and almost mundane compared to my life, but who knows when something so pedantic could be useful a hundred years from now.

One of the reasons that Gramps is so feared is because of his knowledge across nearly all fields. He may not be an expert in every single Craft in existence, but it was almost impossible to find something that he didn’t have some knowledge about. You can take almost anything to him and he would have insight on it and his own personal experience to share.

That is the state that I admire and seek to emulate from him.

And well, I didn’t really have much else to do right now as I was waiting for my calculations to finish.

I had some first guesses at what this place actually was, but before that, I flipped through the books quickly again until I found the spell I wanted.

Humming to myself, I looked it over then found the corresponding detailed text in another book. It only took me a few moments to get a proper understanding of it. I always admired simplicity when it came to spell casting.

Getting the job done in the most simplistic manner was a mark of talent in my eyes.

I looked around to find a suitable target and noticed a trash can not far away.

“Bombarda!” He flicked my wand at it.

The trash can immediately exploded as the light from my wand connected with it.

It was rather loud and boisterous, perhaps even moreso than the equivalent of blowing it up with the same correlated amount of explosive.

The spell was actually intriguing though. As the name implies, it causes things to explode, rather violently.

But that didn’t quite do it justice because nothing else around the trash can exploded with it.

Based on what I read and my own observations, the spell seems to specifically cause the internal structure of the object it connects with to explode rather than causing an externa explosion around the object. Despite it literally being a spell to blow the shit out of something, it was very constrained and delicate with its effects.

I also took note that some of the pieces of the trash can were suspended in air, like they were frozen in time after the explosion occurred.

I walked over and flicked one, it sort of glided through the air a bit more, like it was pulled by a string, before it came to a stop, still floating in the air.

This place was certainly strange.

One last experiment, there was a secondary activation associated with the Bombarda spell. On the surface, there was an additional spellword and a slight deviation in the wand movements. However, underneath that, the spell sequence changed drastically, yet still retained the same overall identity.

This time, I wanted to see both the effects of pumping it up and what would happen to the surroundings, so I set my sights on what looked like a ten story building just a bit down the street.

“Bombarda Maxima!” The light erupted from my wand and collided with the building, and a thunderous explosion rang out, sending shockwaves throughout the false city.

Like glass, the building shattered into millions of pieces, a stark difference compared to the real world.

I also noticed that nearby structures or object were also damaged. It was rather easy to see because no ‘dust’ or ‘debris’ was kicked up as it doesn’t exactly exist in this place.

Interesting, the Maxima combination removes the limiters of the spell and just pushes it past its original constraints into a full on explosion.

Well, I was satisfied.

Seeing that destruction didn’t mean anything here, I just started throwing around spells haphazardly, blowing stuff up.

I admit, it put a bit of a smile on my face, watching everything shatter and collapse under the hundreds of spells I released.

And it was a wonderful stress relief, especially after the time I spent in the Fae realms. I havn’t felt this relaxed in awhile.

[Seems like a good place for some training.] Ddraig commented.

“I had the same thought. I’ll see if I can’t mimic this somehow. I’m sure Scáthach and the others would love the ability to cut loose for whatever reason without the concern of collateral damage.” I nodded along.

Because I was sure this wasn’t a ‘real’ place.

Well, that was fun. It’s rare that I find a time to play around so childishly without something happening around me.

Part of the reason I came here was to relax somewhat – a working vacation. What was the point in that if I couldn’t have a bit of harmless fun every now and then?

Casually, I walked back to Mirage in the ground to see what the calculations it finished it. Of course, it’s not like the numbers just gave me an absolute answer as to what this place was, but it was enough that I could solidify my hypothesis.

I went over and double checked them a few times and pursed my lips.

“It seems like a higher dimension was quite literally pulled down around us.” I summarized.

[Like a godly realm?] Ddraig asked. I’m not surprised that’s his first thought, considering what he’s used to back home.

“Kinda, sorta.” I tilted my head back and forth. “There are hundreds if not thousands of smaller dimensions connected to the Dimensional Gap back home. Of course the more famous ones are known, as that’s where the gods had carved out their own domains. Olympus, The Nine Realms, Heaven, Takamagahara, etc etc. But not all of them are godly in nature, some just exist by happenstance or by other creation. Take that Soul Cairn we visited awhile ago.”

[So what, just a weird reflection of reality?]

I shrugged. “I’m not omnipotent, I’m only guessing at a few things at the moment. But yeah, it seems to be the case. This dimension we’re in doesn’t really do anything by itself.”

I made it sound mundane, but it’s actually really neat!

Not many forces play with dimensions like this, it’s a rare thing to come across. If nothing else, this little discovery made the trip worth it just for the intellectual value. I think gramps would absolutely love the data I’m collecting on it as well. Don’t know where it will be useful, but I know it certainly will be later at some point.

[Can you copy it back home?]

“Probably not, it’s a dimension native to this world and connected to it. It’s like asking if someone here can step over to Asgard back home.”

Regardless, it was time to leave, I got all the information I needed here.

Some quick calculations and I opened up a new portal, about to step through, but I came to an abrupt stop.

[…pretty sure that’s not where we came from.] Ddraig said first as I looked through the portal.

The stench of death and decay immediately invaded my senses. Almost right away, I was reminded of how it felt to go to Yomi for the first time.

Not to mention it was very dark and eerie on the other side, no stars or moon or sun could be seen. Yet, there seemed to be some strange aurora that hung overhead, illuminating the place, if barely.

I pursed my lips because I was certain I copied the same coordinates used previously.

“Ah….” I blinked. “Seems things were reversed somewhat. Like how my calculations would have been turned upside down when trying to go to the Fae Realms. Similar concepts, really.”

I just feel silly for not realizing immediately.

And easy fix, literally could do so with a snap of my fingers, but now I was curious.

Where did I accidentally connect to?

I wasn’t really in any hurry for anything. It’s not like any sources of that metal are going to up and vanish if I take a small detour of an hour or so.

Fuck it, I’m partially here to explore and I’m in a good mood, so I stepped through.

@***@

The place was, exactly how it looked from the proverbial outside.

It also felt strangely….familiar, like I should recognize it despite never being here before. I knew for a fact it wasn’t Yomi, nor was it the Land of Shadows and it certainly wasn’t Hades. I can’t think of any other place that would elicit a familiar feeling from me that also had such a strong sense of Death.

It was well and truly a Death Realm like the ones I’ve been to before.

Hmm, there wasn’t nothing here again.

Well, there was atleast more of ‘nothing’.

I kicked a rock and it….behaved like a rock when it rolled and cracked and broke into pieces.

Weirdly, this Death Realm seemed more in tune with normal universe physics than whatever that previous place was.

With a shrug, I took out my Kaleidophone and just took a few pictures. Realistically, I had nothing else to really peer into the mysteries of this Death Realm with.

Calculating its location in relation to Earth is…..irrelevant? I’m clearly adjacent by how I managed to come here and I could easily come back now after knowing the initial Calculations.

Though, I paused because I did notice something.

There were a bunch of stacked rocks not far away. Stacked in a way that is clearly by design, not something possible through random chance or whatever.

Oddly enough, there was another. And there seemed to be more going off into the distance.

I followed them, like a trail left behind by someone. They weren’t…of anything in particular, it looked like someone was just seeing if they could stack stones as awkwardly as possible without them falling.

Someone must have been really bored….

I followed along several dozen, maybe walking a couple miles before I finally found something, noise and I picked up my pace.

Someone cursed in a language I didn’t recognize, and there was the sound of rocks hittings rocks and seemingly falling over.

There was a woman, with messy black hair, in some sort of green – albeit torn – body suit that looked to be some kind of leather.

My presence did not go unnoticed because with a rock in her hand, she froze, turning to me and her eyes widened.

There was a moment where it seemed like the world around us froze.

“…..house cleaning?” I blurted out.

“Odin!” She bellowed and threw her hands forward. Out of the air, swords seemed to appear in the dozens and fly towards me.

Flying words, a woman after my own heart!

Actually, that’s very literal.

Because they were most certainly aimed at trying to kill me.

Jesus Christ, I felt it now, she’s a Goddess.

I dodged out of the way from her abrupt attack but more and more swords were seemingly throwing magically through the air.

And they weren’t something to swat away either, each one of them had the oomph behind them to bury themselves dozens of feet into the ground if they missed.

Also, don’t know what’s going on, but fuck Odin. Why did it seem like in every reality, he shit the bed in some way? I’m starting to regret becoming blood brothers with him at this point.

“Stop throwing swords at me!” I shouted, as more came at me.

“No!” She screamed hysterically.

“What did I do to you!?”

“Exist!” She screamed back.

Seriously, why is everyone so hostile towards me!? What the fuck did I even do? Did I somehow time travel and piss off everyone in this world without knowing it? Or did some Odin here really piss her off and I’m just getting blasted by extension?

I was curious at what she was doing too, was that Gradation Air? A form of it backed by Divine Power?

Well, I had my own pride. With a scoff from me as one of her blades attempted to stab me in the eye, my own swords flashed out.

The sword about to stab me shattered as Dawnbreaker swung through it. To my right, Whisper deflected another sword. Ascalon slammed down from above, piercing through another. Mirage swept a few to the left. And from below, my Sword of Destruction turned a few more into shards on impact.

Of course, she didn’t stop. And the sheer number of swords she created was respectable.

The sounds of weapons colliding filled the world, a proverbial whirlwind of broken swords danced around me, sparks frayed off right before my eyes, yet my swords continued to protect me, not letting any of her own blades through.

I began to take steps forward, hands clasped behind my back like I was taking a stroll.

Each step I took, shards of broken blades were left in my wake. Eventually, I was standing but a few feet from her, her eyes filled with a maniac fury, but her attacks finally ceased.

I of course shot her a smug look.

Silently, she stared at me, looks of confusion mixed with surprise. It was hard to decipher her thoughts through the expressions she was quickly shifting through.

She opened her mouth, but stopped again.

However, I was a bit distracted by something else.

My nose twitched and scrunched.

“…..when was the last time you took a bath?”

Whatever she was thinking, it all disappeared because her face twisted into a scowl and a newfound fury reappeared in her eyes. She seemed to erupt with a bit of power and the sky turned a strange hue, the aurora above reflected off the glistening edge of tens of thousands of swords hovering in the sky.

Huh.

“We can talk this out.” I said evenly.

She looked at me tilting her head, and pushed through the sky, a dozen or so massive sky-scraper sized blades emerged, pointing down at me.

“Die.” She responded with a hiss.

Well then.

Seems like the perfect time to skedaddle.

I raised my hand, pointing behind her. “Odin, is that you!?”

She jerked her head around without a second thought. I was genuinely surprised she even fell for that. Like, this has worked a surprising amount of times against people who it really shouldn’t have.

But I didn’t waste time, my brain went into overdrive and I quickly went through everything I had in my ring.

No.

No.

No.

No.

Ah, that’ll work.

The split second that took her to turn her head back towards me, white frosting already splattered across her face.

[Did you just….throw a piece of cake at her?] Ddriag asked incredulously.

Yes.

[Why?]

I didn’t have a brick on hand…..

[I don’t know why I’m surprised anymore]

Very slowly, the unknown goddess wiped it away from her face and stared silently at me with a very clear and distinct anger.

Time to leave.

@***@

Screams followed as I quickly jumped through a portal.

Screams of anger that is.

Along with plenty of sharp edges trying to stab me in some very unpleasant areas.

What’s wrong with everyone here though?

That’s two times now, I did absolutely nothing wrong and I get targeted like that!

Hmph.

“Just wait until I come back.” I promised.

[Why would you want to go back?] Ddraig asked.

“My pride was challenged. I can’t lose out on flying swords, Ddraig.” I just needed to finish my Mystic Code, then we’ll see who can throw more swords at whom!

[Why didn’t you just….actually fight her?] He finally asked.

“I was technically an intruder. I mean, that’s her home….or something, right? Despite her attacking me, I was the one who came to her.” I said with a shrug. “If I suddenly popped into Hades, wouldn’t the God of the Underworld have full excuse to treat me as he wills if we were strangers?” Of course, I object as the one on the receiving end of pointy objects. However, I wasn’t oblivious to my own ‘fault’ in this situation.

It's not like Soul Society where I had a reason to act so flippantly in someone elses home.

Where was I now?

I looked around, noticing I was back in London and nodded to myself. I knew it didn’t take much to correct my previous calculations.

Actually, I wasn’t too far from where I was before.

Oh and look at that, I noticed some spells being cast in the area. It seems like all the humans around just stopped what they were doing, with glazed eyes, and started leaving the immediate vicinity.

Followed by that, some people dressed in similar monk attire to that first woman were running around for some reason.

Hmm.

I wonder if I can follow them back to their home?

I think I’m owed some compensation for the emotional distress I was put under.

Let’s go see what goodies they have.

I was surprised with how much of those monks there were. I saw half a dozen faces immediately, but there must be more around here that I didn’t find.

Well, I did my best to hide myself. Illusions were never my forte but I was a decent hand atleast and I began skulking around.

They were running towards the place I was at originally, I wonder if I accidently did something to raise alarms?

With a quick burst of Shunpo, I scaled to the nearby rooftops, watching down from above. I dared not fly up into the sky even with my illusion. The fact that I was somehow ‘detected’ when literally just arriving in this world left me confused and a tad hesitant in my actions.

 I was able to pick things out more clearly, it seems like the robes they wore were slightly different. In fact, I could pick out a few differences between the younger looking ones and the older looking ones.

A plan formed in my head as I watched them.

They were most certainly using Magic, but it was…odd.

I found myself growing even more curious as I eyed a younger man running down the street, seemingly moving towards a nondescript house not far away.

I took out a Diamond from my ring and held it up to my eye, closing the other to get a better look. Through it, I could see quite a few magical defenses around the house.

Well, they were much closer than I thought. Maybe the proximity is what led to everything?

Who knows.

I saw the young man leave the house again, running back towards the previous group. I cast a quick illusion to make him turn around another street, and he took a few more turns according to my gentle guidance until I led him to a dead end.

As soon as he realized it was a dead end, it looked like he realized something was wrong. Around his hands, sparks flew and Spell Circles engraved themselves in the air as if he were ready to make a move.

Hmm.

Still was giving me a strange vibe. Havn’t seen Magic Circles like that before, they seemed more…..aggressive in existence, if that made sense.

Regardless.

He looked up at me and I obscured myself with shadows.

“Who are you!?” He blurted out, noticing me on the roof.

“I’m Batman.” I said with a gruff voice before using Shunpo to appear behind him and poking him on the back of the head. His eyes rolled back and he nearly fell on his face. I caught him, no reason to make it painful if there was no reason to.

He was innocent and all that, I was just….acquiring some accommodations.

Gently, I laid him on the ground and tilted my head back and forth as I looked at his robes.

It really was Soul Society all over again, wasn’t it?

I tugged at his clothing, and sighed in relief seeing that he apparently had some clothing on underneath.

I guess I could also leave some gold for him.

@***@

I tugged on my newfound robes.

Completely purchased through legitimate means.

Yup.

I think I pull them off quite well.

I dare say I even look rather dashing.

Of course, I dismissed my illusions. Getting a look at the protections around the house, they almost all protected against aggressive entry from what I could eek out.

I’m pretty sure I saw some very old ancient protections against obscuring one’s image. Were those Celtic in origin?

The obvious against literal forced entry as well, but those didn’t need mentioning.

Overall, they were rather impressive, but there was one loophole I noticed. Perhaps not a loophole, but a simple side effect of location.

I walked up and knocked on the door.

Someone even came and answered. An older gentleman, wearing the same type of clothing, if slightly different, probably denoting his higher status.

“Who are you?” He looked at me strangely.

I think I detected a hint of an American accent? Kind of funny to see an American Monk Wizard or whatever he was.

Welp, time to bullshit.

“I’m here to report from headquarters.” I said with full sincerity and seriousness.

“…..headquarters?” He repeated, furrowing his brow. He stared at me for a long moment before opening the door wider, giving me another scrutinizing gaze.

“….sorry, it’s my first assignment, and I wanted to sound professional.” I scratched my head, giving the impression of a bit of nervousness.

The man sighed. “Alright, just….don’t be too stiff. We’re not soldiers. But I wasn’t expecting any new initiates to be sent to the sanctum.”

“My……teacher – “ I settled on. “Got caught up in the big thing happening on the other side of the world.” I remember what that woman mentioned, something about something. I was keeping it just as vague as her. “I was supposed to be introduced a couple days from now, but he just dropped me off here and told me to make my way while he helps over there.”

His eyes flashed, his skepticism seemed to lessen to a degree. Perhaps my knowledge of ‘the thing’ happening was enough that he was willing to believe me for now.

I gave an innocent smile, my years of theatre were paying off.

“Your name?” he finally spoke again.

“Takao Shimoda, sir. I’m from Japan.” I introduced myself with a hint of faux enthusiasm.

Again, his expression softened slightly. “And what is your specialty?” He looked me up and down. “If you’re going to be joining the Sanctum under my watch, I need to know what branch you specialized in while training on the mountain.”

“I specialize in Onmyōdō and Norse Runes.” I cheerfully answered.

Why did he not ask for my ‘teachers’ name? I was anticipating that and had some bullshit to blurt out, but surprisingly he just glossed over it. Perhaps there are just too many people for him to remember everyone so he didn’t bother?

After a few more moments, he stood a bit to the side and pushed the door all the way open. “Well, come inside then. The others that defend the Sanctum are out dealing with a small thing a few blocks away. You can meet them when they come back.”

I smiled and politely thanked him, stepping into the house.

It reminded me of Hogwarts in all honesty, the way the Magic Power gathered around this place. I wouldn’t be surprised if the building sat on a convergence of leylines.

The door shut behind me and I stilled.

I looked down and there was a Magic Circle under me. I looked up, and above me on the ceiling there was also a Magic Circle.

On the walls all around me as well.

“Do you take me for a fool?” The man crossed his arms with the shake of his head. “By the will of Osiris, reveal your true form and be chained, Demon!”

He spun his hands and a Magic Circle emerged, connected to the others and they all actualized with a combined spell that…..wash over me harmlessly.

Nothing happened.

It seemed to be a combination of a binding spell and a spell of revelation?

….Magic Resistance.

He stared at me silently, I stared back at him.

Roll with it.

“Is this some kind of hazing for a new initiate?” I asked.

He blinked, looking at his hands, then back at me. “That….should have revealed the true form of any Demon hiding. And the Sanctum’s defenses would have aided it, so there’s no way it would have failed.”

“I….believe there is a misunderstanding there.”

“…..are you really a new initiate?” He hesitantly asked.

“Yes.” I said with a face full of seriousness.

Well, he looked rather embarrassed now. The magics around me started to disappear, not that they actually had any effect on me to begin with.

“I….apologize. We had an incident not far from here about a demon somehow appearing without warning. It was trapped in the Mirror Dimension and then somehow escaped. Things became a little chaotic because we had warnings of an incursion of another dimension overlapping with the Mirror Dimension that was deployed as well.” He started rattling off.

And I learned a bit more information then.

He looked at me again. “And the nonsense you said about your specializations…..”

I reached into my sleeves, to hide retrieving from my storage, and withdrew several Talismans to hold up for him to see. “Onmyōdō.” I reiterated again. I then held a finger up and drew a Rune in the air. “And Runes.”

He gaped a little as if realizing he fucked up.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he never heard of the former and dismissed the latter as something nonsensical. Runecraft is treated as…..lesser in the Mages Association as well.

“Would it also set you at ease if I showed my Japanese ID? Well, it’s called a Number Card over there, but it basically serves the same purpose.” I didn’t give him the chance to refuse to further keep him off balance. Doing the same trick with the Talismans, I pretended to find my wallet under my robes and take it out, showing him my info, conveniently covering up the date as that would be a little awkward to explain.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t get a good look at it, and it was in Japanese too, but he was completely caught off guard now and feeling embarrassed, so I felt confident despite him staying silent.

Well, just make it too awkward for him to keep questioning me!

He cleared his throat, regaining a semblance of proper demeanor. “I’m Master Alexander, I’m the current watcher for the London Sanctum. If you need anything, please feel free to find me. We have several guest rooms available on the fourth floor as well. If a door isn’t locked, you’re welcome to find one that you like. Have you gotten a relic yet?” He asked.

“Uh…..no?” I hesitantly answered.

But he just nodded as if it were normal. “Don’t worry, most of us didn’t get a Relic to recognize us until we had a few more years under our belts. Feel free to walk around our Relic Hall, if any react, you’re allowed to take them. You just need to register it with myself or the Vice-Watcher when you do.”

I performed a polite bow. “Thank you, Master Alexander.” And I think he smiled just because I wasn’t making a big deal about what just happened.

“The others should be back by the end of the day and we can get all the proper procedures with your admittance sorted.” He said with a bit of reassurance, not with a single hint of a accusatory tone sent my way.

I forced a smile. “That would be great, thank you again.”

He nodded and seemed to go about his own business, or rather escape this conversation.

So I had a few hours before any gets suspicious.

He said something about a Relic hall?

I just followed up the path of the stairs, noticing that the insides were much larger than they seemed on the outside. Spatial expansion was by no means new to me, but it spoke volums about the skill of the ones here.

Many back home and in the Clock Tower couldn’t perform such feats, so it was genuinely something to admire.

It didn’t take long for me to actually find this supposed ‘Relic hall’.

Mystic Codes is what we call them back home. And dear lord there were a lot of them. Everything in the room I just entered appeared to be a Mystic Code at first glance.

Hell, there was a chair to my left that was a supposed ‘Relic’ by their terms.

Let’s see, a sword without an edge that can cut a magnitude of things. A pair of shackles that can bind non-material things, that’s neat.

A staff made of a wood I didn’t recognize.

Oh, I noticed a rather dangerous sword not far away in a box with a bunch of seals on it. Funny, I could see it trying to reach out to me, but my Magic Resistance was blocking it.

I rolled my eyes and slapped another Talisman on it, this thing was clearly up to no good. An extra seal would stop it from attempting to tempt anyone.

A mirror that didn’t show a reflection, that was interesting. It seemed more like a sealed portal.

Ah!

I found a top hat.

I of course grabbed it and put it on my head.

It made me miss my own top hat that I gave to Olga. I adjusted it slightly, it was a bit bigger and heavier than my own hat, but it felt good on my head.

Well, let’s see what else I can find.

Before I could keep looking though, a clanking sound grabbed my attention. I jerked my head to the side to see someone sitting in that weird magical chair at the entrance to the room.

The same woman who dropped that ‘mirror dimension’ on me as it had been named.

The bald woman sat there, legs crossed, stirring a cup of tea in her hands.

She looked up at me, taking a sip. “Oh, don’t mind me. Please, continue to peruse at your leisure.”

Well, fuck.