The Machine God

Chapter 273

The Empress’s Offer

“I’m afraid the offer for tea and conversation was a one-time thing,” Artensah said.

“Fuck your tea.” Alexander pointed at the gateway. “What the hell is that?”

Artensah turned. The illusion studied the gateway in silence, hands still clasped behind his back. The smiling eye stared back, unblinking, teeth pressed against the edges of the opening.

On the floor above, the wizards stopped at the top of the stairwell. Alexander tracked their signatures through the ceiling. They’d reached the door, and held position.

Waiting for orders, if he had to guess.

“What do you see?” Artensah asked quietly.

“A creepy crossover between Pollock and Lovecraft.”

“I have no idea what that means.” Artensah’s expression shifted. The illusion of warmth faded. What remained was a tired man. “But I see a horned beast that wishes to bring fire and destruction to my world.”

That didn’t make sense at all. The thing on the other side of the prismatic barrier looked nothing like what the wizard was describing.

Artensah continued. “They are elemental. Dangerous beyond belief. Every single one of its kind that has breached a gateway has required at least one archmage to put it down. Because of your System. Because it bound our magic to its rules, took away our ability to work grand castings, and now even forces our simple talents to exist under its laws. It has weakened even the greatest among us.” He paused. “But you already know this.”

Alexander shook his head. “Nope. No clue what you’re talking about.”

Artensah’s eyes narrowed. “Do not act ignorant. It is beneath you. Your System is siphoning our mana, sending it to your world. The one declared the origin of all Dreams. It insists we prove our Dream by conquering your world, then punishes us with gateways to a world of nightmares when we fail.”

Alexander stared at him. His mouth opened and closed.

“At first we thought conquering your Earth 1 would be easy, but you superheroes are powerful. Then one of our archmages opened a gateway to the Nexus, and we thought we had found an alternate solution.” Artensah sighed. “But we couldn’t even begin to fathom the number of aliens that exist and the advanced technologies they possess. Besides, our ships do not fit through the gateways, so we cannot afford to risk fighting our way onto the Nexus.”

Alexander held up a hand. “Okay. Let’s pause for a second. I am barely keeping up with everything you just said.” He blew out a breath. “First, it’s not our System. It’s messing with us, too. Second, we’ve mostly been defending ourselves against you and the other worlds.”

Artensah watched Alexander, his gaze cool.

The wizard obviously didn’t believe a word he’d said.

“Seriously. It just appeared one day and started throwing us into battle against knights and priests and cultivators and wizards and dinosaurs.”

“But you have never seen one of these?” Artensah gestured to the gateway.

“Nope. I would remember a monster that looked like a drawing of a six-year-old’s night terror.”

“And you have not been instructed to invade and conquer the other worlds?”

Alexander hesitated. He didn’t need to know about the Beastworld gateway kept in the basement back home. “That’s a little more difficult to answer. I, personally, have never invaded another world—”

Artensah’s eyes narrowed.

Alexander held up his hands. “Okay. I know how it looks. But I didn’t come here to invade. I came here hunting one of my own. The one that torched one of your villages?”

“Was he the one who attacked our Discipline Ship?”

That gave Alexander pause. ‘Discipline Ship’ carried exactly the type of meaning that made him want to fight the Empire of Stars.

“The ship attacked us first.”

“But you destroyed it, and stole the Control Staff and Spellbook, did you not? There were many witnesses to the destruction you wrought.”

“Well, yeah—”

“So, to be clear,” Artensah said, cutting Alexander off again, “you have invaded our world, slaughtered our people, assaulted our military vessels, stolen our magical artifacts, and have now been caught infiltrating another highly protected base meant to secure dangerous, hostile entities that would wipe out the entire city if they could?”

Alexander blinked. At least the wizard didn’t know about his plans to start a revolution. “Look, when you put it that way it sounds really bad.”

Artensah looked off to the side.

Alexander followed his gaze. It was just a wall.

Artensah turned back with a smile. “I have been granted the honor of delivering to you the Empress’s words. She makes you an offer.” He stood straighter. “Surrender yourself immediately, and you will be granted a position of honor at Her side. You will be permitted to guide the Empire’s Grand Exodus into your world. She will permit you land of your own, where you may keep any number of your peoples and where you shall reign as a king. You will be permitted to retain your traditions and cultures, so long as you simply swear fealty to Her Majesty.”

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Alexander’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open as the wizard spoke. He was standing in a mad house. There were people in literal pods, being used as mana batteries to power a magical barrier which was the only thing holding back a poorly drawn monster, while a wizard delivered an ultimatum from a crazy space witch.

When he was done, Artensah waited patiently.

Alexander took a deep breath. “You can’t actually believe I’ll accept that offer, right?”

Artensah cocked his head. “Why not? The Star of the Arcanum, the First Empress of the Stars, is the most powerful being in this reality. She stands first in our world’s rankings, and seventeenth across all realities, according to your own System. You have proven yourself a dangerous warrior, it’s true, but you cannot hope to withstand the might of the Empire. And there is no way home for you while the gateway remains closed.” He paused. “It is a generous offer, superhero.”

Alexander laughed.

“Did I say something funny?”

Alexander waved a hand. “Sorry. It’s just that those rankings don’t mean what you think they mean.”

“How so?”

Alexander shook his head. “Well, you see. In my world, we all know who the strongest guy is. In fact, he’s so strong, nobody questions it. But I actually passed him a few weeks back because the rankings heavily reward killing other bounty holders. It doesn’t measure power alone.”

He glanced at the gateway. The creature had somehow flipped itself upside down while he wasn’t looking, so now its grin hung the wrong way up along the top of the gateway even though the eyeball looked the same.

Alexander turned back. “So, congratulations, I guess.” He started slow clapping. “Your Empress is probably just the most successful killer on your planet.”

Artensah’s smile faded.

Alexander continued. “Here’s my counter-offer. Give me back my things, and leave the fortress. In return, I’ll take a little vacation until the gateway opens, then return home immediately when it does. We all get to live to fight another day.” He stepped closer to Artensah, staring into the wizard’s illusory eyes. “And if you don’t, I am going to spend the next month becoming the biggest pain in your arrogant Empress’s magical ass.”

They stood there in silence for a long moment.

Then Artensah unfolded his arms from behind his back. “Very well, superhero. You have refused the Empire’s generosity for the last time. When next we meet, you will be in chains, and I will personally drag you before the Empress, where I expect your punishment will be both creative and eternal.”

Bioelectrical signatures rushed down the stairs into the basement hallway. Immediately blasts began to ring against the metal door being held in place by Metallokinesis.

Alexander shook his head. “You’re very wrong about that, Artensah. I’m no superhero.”

Artensah looked confused. “Then what are you?”

Alexander grinned. “A supervillain.”

Then he exhaled. His Domain burst into existence, crushing Artensah’s in the process. Unlike every Domain he’d experienced so far, the wizard’s felt more like a breeze. The illusory image of He Who Whispers vanished.

Metallokinesis pulsed. The door exploded from the frame, crashing into the first guard in the hallway, then carrying them into the second, and the third, knocking all three over.

Alexander and Droney followed behind it, then burst up the stairs, physically bowling through more guards trying to rush down.

The two Tier 2 signatures vanished, reappearing on either side of the mansion. Putting distance between him and them.

He was getting tired of dealing with teleporters.

Alexander reached the main floor of the building, and Metallokinesis pulsed again. He seized the metal frames hidden in the floors and the walls, along with the cutlery, candleholders, nails in the wood, and the chandelier.

The entire house came apart, rising and orbiting around him like a vortex.

Alexander came to a stop, looking down on the wizards frozen below. He’d left the basement of horrors alone. That would need to be dealt with afterward.

The Tier 2s rose into the air, firing spells as they went. Below, the Tier 1s shook themselves free of their shock and opened fire from metal wands, spreading out.

Alexander shifted debris into place, intercepting the attacks. Then his Will stretched further, beyond the limits of his Domain, reaching for the wizards.

The Tier 2s rebuffed it easily enough, but the rapid fire from the Tier 1s slowed.

He reached out a hand and seized dozens of wands, and a single pulse tore them free of their grips. The wands raced through the air toward him, then vanished the moment they reached the limits of his Domain, disappearing into the ring.

Alexander raised an eyebrow. The range in which he could send things into the ring had grown too. That was useful.

With the guards below neutralized, given their lack of staves, that left only the two wizards racing around outside the orbiting barrier of debris.

He caught glimpses of them as they circled, trying to fire spells from wands through the gaps. Both had a spellbook floating in front of them, and a staff in their other hand.

And both were women. One was older, gray hair waving in the air as she flew. The other woman’s hair was brown, cut into a short bob.

Alexander watched without attacking, tightening the orbiting shield of metal around him. The problem was he didn’t know which one was the Marquess. He didn’t know which one was responsible for the magic sealing the gateway below. Obviously they were using the pods to power the shield, but he couldn’t risk killing the wrong wizard without knowing if it would disrupt the magic itself.

He didn’t want to unleash the gateway monster on the city.

In fact, he didn’t even know what his objective was. He’d just wanted to see if the Marquess was responsible for kidnapping people. He’d been expecting to find a weird sex dungeon, cannibals, or maybe that she bathed in their blood to moisturize her evil skin.

And while he’d been correct and the Marquess was indeed kidnapping people, he didn’t know how to fix it without creating a bigger problem.

Actually, for once, he had no idea what to do next.

Alexander frowned. The sound of spells crashing against debris had stopped. The two bioelectrical signatures had pulled back.

They both shouted words in a language Droney didn’t recognize.

The hairs on the back of his neck tingled.

Alexander threw out both hands and sent metal streaming at both of the wizards. He’d just have to hope for the best.

A ripple of transparent black energy washed across the metal, and the debris slowed. Worse, he felt his own power over it fade.

Metallokinesis pulsed hard, and he raced upward, avoiding the spell they’d cast.

Alexander threw out his cybernetic hand and unleashed a fully charged bolt of lightning at the older woman.

She shifted her staff, and the magic flowed between her and the oncoming attack. Lightning met the black amorphous blob, slowed considerably, then fizzled out.

It wasn’t exactly the same, but it reminded him of the cultist’s entropic energy.

Alexander raised an eyebrow.

Maybe he’d underestimated them.