Chapter 26: Ch66. Same fight - 3
Octavius’ eyes went wide with shock.
"You’ve been to Earth before?"
Rhegal let out a laugh that was more of something like a barking growl.
"I knew you humans were naive, but to actually see it first hand is something else entirely." He stopped laughing and his eyes narrowed down to a slit. "Do you really think the Kha’Ur hit just your world?"
Octavius fell silent for a long while, weighing everything he knew about the red crystal fragment.
Everything that mankind ’didn’t know’ about it.
"But... It’s been three centuries since the Disaster hit Earth, and the only thing that happened were the Nests... Is it the cause of the opening of the Nests? Have you been fighting a red crystal all this time?"
Again, Rhegal came with that bark-growl-laugh.
"Don’t be fooled by what your eyes and senses tell you about the Kha’Ur, Octavius. You and your history might say that it has been three hundred years since it landed on your Earth, causing what you know as the Calamity. But it’s only been thirty years."
"WHAT. THE. HELL?" Xander’s voice echoed through the door and both Rhegal and Octavius stared at him. "Sorry... I couldn’t sleep, so I came here. Am I interrupting, captain?"
Octavius thought for a moment and after Rhegal nodded, he let his subordinate step into the room.
"I do need an extra pair of ears to check if I’m not having the craziest dream of my life..." Octavius sighed. "Would you mind telling him what you just told me, Rhegal?"
"With all due respect, captain, there’s no need. I heard basically everything that he said. And I actually think that it makes sense..."
"What?"
"Captain, permission to talk as a civilian, not a member of the guild."
Octavius looked at him like he was the alien in the room, but nodded.
"Granted."
"So, after I was promoted to the main attack squad, I learned that only three guilds know about the location and shape of the Disaster, and that everything the history books teach in the school’s and academies are highly filtered information given by the Association’s PA department, right?"
"Go on, Xander..." Octavius incited while Rhegal just watched the young man speaking.
"So, only three guilds know about it. Guardian, The Holders, and The Enders, taking in account that both The Holders and The Enders are secret guilds from the Association, founded to raid Nests that even Guardian isn’t capable of dealing with. Which means that, in truth, only one guild knows everything there is to know about the Disaster until now. Why?"
Neither Octavius nor Rhegal said a word, but the latter had his lips curled up ever so slightly. Xander took it as a cue to keep going.
"Doesn’t it make no sense at all that after three hundred years, just a single guild knows about it?" Octavius raised his brow, frowning. "And what about our technology? It’s been three centuries and all we have about mana-related tech is a few gauges and readers owned by hospitals, guilds, and the Association. Everything else makes perfect sense in a society living in the year of 2323, but... Doesn’t it feel ’wrong’ that we had so very few advancements in technology in such a long time span?"
Octavius had his jaw dropped low, but Rhegal laughed that strange laugh of his.
"You are something, young man! You definitely are something! But there’s still something missing in your theory, right?"
Xander fell silent for a few seconds along with Octavius, but looked at Rhegal awkwardly.
"Uhm... I don’t think I can go on with more than that. I’m not part of the science division, so I don’t have any more information about it than these theories of mine."
"It’s limited, but you’re on the mark, Xander." Rhegal retorted. "The only missing piece to the puzzle is exactly the properties of the Kha’Ur. And that’s where things get tricky, because the Kha’Ur isn’t just an object imbued with mana that can cause a large scale calamity. And it also hasn’t fallen ’only’ on your Earth."
This time, both Octavius ’and’ Xander said at the same time, exasperated.
"What?"
"Exactly what I said." Rhegal’s tone became dark. "The Kha’Ur isn’t just an object... It’s actually the remnants of a much larger conscience. To be more precise... Kha’Ur was a sentient planet, and it roamed the universe feeding on small planets that held a very special mineral in its cores... We call this mineral Essentium, and that’s what keeps the planet alive, feeding it constantly with mana."
Silence fell over the hall as Octavius covered his mouth with his hand, and Xander looked at Rhegal with wide, shaking eyes.
"And what fell to your Earth wasn’t the entire Kha’Ur... It was just a tenth of it."
"Then... How did it fall...?" Octavius asked, seeing a chance to finally understand the true shape of the war he’d been fighting ever since he awakened.
To finally understand the real truth behind the veil that apparently had been conjured in front of mankind’s eyes.
And to understand what kind of mistake he had done to his son.
"As I said before, you’ve been fighting the same fight that us, Ishir, have been fighting. Only that we’ve been fighting it for much longer. But ever since Kha’Ur found the Earth in a specific world-line, it decided to divide itself in eleven pieces, traveling through time and space, to feed more and grow stronger than it already was. Now it’s only me and my fellow warriors here, along with Zaval, with the mission of defeating Kha’Ur once and for all."
Rhegal’s words were the only ones heard throughout the hall, as Octavius and Xander exchanged glances with silent questions.
Octavius nodded and Xander spoke all of a sudden.
"World-line? Traveling through time and space? Do you really mean that... That..."
"That our universe isn’t the only one...?" Octavius completed Xander’s question.
Rhegal’s eyes glowed in a dark green as he answered.
"Not only this universe isn’t the only one, but it’s also part of a very intricate system that composes our very reality. And after we detected the emergence of the Kha’Ur’s new host, on your Earth, it becomes imperative that we take action, because if it awakens the powers of Kha’Ur and their consciousness merges with the planet’s, it would be as if a god is born, with the power to devour reality in its entirety."
