28 Through the Void
Before the chapter I just wanted to say a couple things.
Thanks for all the messages, it seemed more even split than I thought so heres what I'm going to do. I'm going to do My hero Academia first then Konosuba and after that I'm doing Fate Apocrypha. The world after I'm still on the fence with but I know what I'm doing after.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter.
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"I've never been a big fan of the superhero genre...it just irked me the wrong way for some reason when they went around calling themselves heroes with their Hollier than thou attitude." Alex said.
"Kinda wish I sucked it up and actually watched the series now…." He said again.
"This was inevitably going to happen. It's impossible to know about every world that exists" Mr. Black replied.
"In fact this is probably going to happen just as often as going In with previous knowledge." He finished.
"That's brings up an interesting question, couldn't I just purchase the corresponding manga/novel/anime/book to any world I go to for future knowledge?" He asked.
"Nope. There are rules in place about gathering future knowledge. The only loophole is knowing before one takes the job like you did." Mr. Black stated.
"That's convenient...." Alex said absentmindedly.
Mr.Black just raised an eyebrow in response.
"Unless.....it wasn't a coincidence?" Alex asked with eyes narrowed.
"Let me put it this way, our enemies go for quantity, we go for quality. And that's all ill say on the matter." Mr. Black said with a smirk.
"I'm guessing more rules are in play that you can't say anything...am I ever going to learn these 'rules'?" Alex asked.
"Not unless you want a promotion and start doing what I do after you finish your current stint and a 'counter guardian'." Mr. Black answered.
"Not likely." Alex replied immediately.
"Yeah, not many do that's why we're almost all created instead of born from a world throughout the multiverse." Mr. Black said.
"Huh...…how does that work?" Alex asked.
"Kinda just popped into existence one day with all the knowledge I would need." Mr. Black replied.
"It isn't as bad as it sounds though. We actually have quite a bit of freedom, I've even had a family before on a world that no longer exists. Of course that was hundreds of thousands of years ago." He stated.
Alex was just silent for a few moments to process. It really is a bit humbling to really consider the just vast amount of time the multiverse has existed. His entire existence was merely a flicker that didn't matter in the grand schemes of things.
"Oh yeah I wanted to say this earlier, but do our 'enemies' have an actual name or designation, calling them 'enemies' or something equivalent is a bit annoying and confusing in some circumstances." Alex said.
"Everyone calls them different things, what do you want to call them?" Mr. Black asked.
"I have nothing witty or cute, so how about just 'Shadows'?" Alex said bluntly.
"A bit cliché." Mr. Black answered.
"Says 'Mr. Black'." Alex replied.
"Touché" He said with a chuckle.
"Anyways, lets steer the conversation back to your next job." Mr. Black said.
"We've been tracking a handful of 'shadows' to this particular world." He said again.
"Couple questions, first off: 'tracking'?. Second: How precise is this 'tracking'?" Alex asked.
"To answer them both as the same time. We can to some extent track shadows who havn't gotten strong enough to avoid our eyes. Its not perfect but its better than nothing. They are one of the very few things that can actually move through the void between worlds." Mr. Black answered.
"We have a pretty good guess that there are only 5 on this specific world." He finished.
"Do you have any ways to gauge their power?" Alex asked.
"Similar to tracking, we can to some extent. There are four levels to 'shadows' that we've been using over the years. Its vague but it generally gets the idea across. To use your new name for them the levels are: Lower-Shadow, Intermediate-Shadow, High-Shadow, and finally Transcendent-Shadow"
"What you fought previously were the very lowest of the lower-shadows. They don't have a very high intellect nor are they powerful on their own. They generally take over something to increase their abilities. Though they are usually limited on what they can take over."
"Also don't be thrown off by the levels, its vague because their varying power levels are vague in of itself. A shadow that's on the cusp of intermediate level could take out dozens of the lowest run of Lower-shadows with ease. Right now, the lower-end shadows shouldn't give you any problems on a straight up fight, but the more intelligent ones won't make a fight that easy if they engage. Going into Intermediate levels, those are about where you are at right now. Be careful if you encounter them and take it very seriously."
"Moving onto High-shadows...this is the realm where heroic spirits and gods reside, I don't believe I need to elaborate on that any further. Finally…..Transcendence. You are no where near this level right now but I'll put it into perspective. Gods run when a transcendent being makes themselves known. You have an emergency recall button on your tablet incase you run into one for any reason. If you even think there is one around, run away immediately. There will be no penalty for doing so."
"The likelihood of running into one is very slim though. There are only 4 in the entire multiverse and one of them was newly ascended due to the aforementioned tree branch cutting incident." Mr. Black finally finished.
"So what are the power levels of the ones I'll be encountering?" Alex asked.
"4 lower-shadows and 1 possible newly ascended intermediate." Mr. Black replied.
"A few more questions, I noticed when I came back here that my injuries vanished, is that going to happen every time I complete a mission or just because I came back to this specific place?" He asked.
"This room heals those who enter and since it isn't likely for you to come back here after missions once you are let loose, you can consider this a beginner perk so don't get used to it." Mr. Black replied.
"Second question, I've been worried about the use of EA and my overall influence on the worlds I go to, exactly how much authority do I possess?" Alex asked.
"That's a good question and I've been meaning to cover this. Basically every world has a will thought very few are as active as Gaia or Alaya. Beings on that power level know about our existence and know to concede to our will and you as an agent reap that benefit. You pretty much have free reign but be warned, if you abuse your authority you will be punished." Mr. Black said.
"So don't over use EA and rip the world apart?" Alex said with a chuckle.
"Pretty much." He said.
"Can you elaborate on 'beings on that power level' because I can understand 'world's but are there other things?" Alex asked.
"Transcendence isn't used just to describe Shadows. There are beings across all worlds that had reached what can be described as transcendence. Its very complicated but just assume they are exceedingly powerful. Most of the time, these beings become aware of the machinations of the multiverse even if they can't access it." Mr. Black explained.
"Any more questions?" Mr. Black asked.
"Just one, whats my enter strategy?" Alex asked.
"Well before that I want to remind you that you shouldn't try to force yourself to take the same approach when you integrate with a world, different worlds sometimes require a different take on how you handle yourself." Mr. Black stated.
"Whats that supposed to mean…..?" Alex asked in confusion
Just as he finished his words, a portal opened up underneath him and everything went black.
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Alex suddenly found him self being hurled through the void.
He had no control over himself as he was being shot into a direction of a small light.
As he got closer he saw something odd but recognize it immediately.
It was a shadow....
It was a shadow viewing the world through what looked like a window it created.
Alex was equal parts confused and disturbed at the whole situation. Though it made sense on some level, these creatures could navigate the void, what he was in right now and it was almost entirely empty so it stood to reason that they could puncture holes into worlds at their leisure.
"Well regardless, time to start work~" He said with a smile.
He got close to the creature before it finally turned around and noticed him.
If he were to guess, the creature was probably very dumbstruck and confused at the whole situation, considering that it did not move as Alex rammed head first into it and shatter through the 'window' the creature created.
The void immediately turned bright as they entered into the 'world'. A clear sky above and a paved street below as they crashed into the concrete ground.
Surrounded by building, Alex quickly recovered himself. Only mildly confused as to why he didn't take any damage from the high speed dive into the ground.
He stared at the creature, the creature stared at him. Intelligence was in its eyes, that much was clear.
They weren't the only ones either.
The whole street basically stopped. Every person that was out and about stopped and stared at these two 'people' who had essentially came out of a tear in the sky.
Alex had no time to think as he brought forth his invisible air and shot towards the creature.
The shadow responded quickly and jumped back to gain distance. Its body seemed to be malleable and it was able to shift its form with ease, something Alex learned beforehand and now as shadowy tendrils shot forth as they tried to pierce him.
"Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind King" He cried out quickly as the torrent of air shot forth.
It erupted and burst through all the tendrils that were coming at him, causing the creatures body parts that were extended to be ripped to shreds.
Though it didn't seem like it had much of an effect as there was not any kind of painfully screech nor did its body look any smaller at the loss of mass.
The people on the street were quick to start running away and taking cover. They were used to 'people' of power suddenly start fighting so this wasn't anything new but still frightening.
The creature noticed them running and reached out to grab them.
For just sheer annoyance or to use them as a distraction? Alex didn't know but he moved all the same.
He propelled himself forward as he unleashed a torrent of wind with invisible air behind him and quickly sought another weapon out of the gate as he dismissed his invisible blade.
A red barbed spear spun around in his hands as he quickly cut through all the tendrils that made their way towards a woman on the side-walk.
His eyes suddenly widened as he felt a chill go up his spine.
Above the creature appeared to be some time of spell circle in a language he couldn't understand even with his ability as a heroic spirit. The circle itself was emitting a dark energy and its power accumulated until it reached full capacity.
This occurred in merely less than a second in which Alex noticed the spell being prepared.
He didn't have time to deploy a shield as he could grabbed the woman that he had just rescued an put his back to the spell, hoping his innate resistance and amour will withstand the blow.
A purplish-black beam of energy was fired out as it collided with him.
Alex grit his teeth as he used mana burst to try to mitigate any damage that was coming.
The spell didn't last long, it was quick burst of damage and it finished.
Alex didn't have time to worry about the damage, though he felt his armor have a hole in it and blood running down his back.
He didn't want to waste any time as he rushed forward and activated the noble phantasm in his hand.
He wasn't sure if the shadow had a heart, but he was assuming it had a 'core' just the same which the spear would go toward.
He thrust forward as he called out its name.
"GAE BOLG" The spear of piercing death shot forward towards the creature.
It moved out of the way on instinct but it didn't matter.
If anyone of noteworthy strength were watching, they would have noticed an odd phenomenon occurring. It seemed as though time rewinded and resumed only for the spear to adjust its path and pierce to where the creature dodged to.
The creature finally let out a blood curling scream as it finally took some damage, though to what extent Alex did not know.
The creature seemed to not wish to continue the fight as it took off into the sky towards the black cracked hole that was still present in the otherwise bright sky.
Alex quickly went over his option, he needed to remove that thing before it got away…...
"fuck me, Boss probably planned for it to go this way…." He cursed in annoyance.
He threw the spear back into the gate as he took back out his invisible air as it quickly unraveled.
He bore his blade to the world as it began to shine with its bright light. He kept the power to minimum as he only released one seal.
"EXCALIBUR" He roared as he swung his blade down, the beam of light shooting off towards the shadow that was about to escape.
The holy light made quick work of the creature as its existence was eradicated.
Alex let out a long held breath as he slumped his shoulders down. He had released a few noble phantasms in quick succession there, it was a bit tiring.
He reached back to feel where he got hit. His back was relatively fine, a few burns and some bleeding but he was fine. Though that whole situation took him by surprise.
"Can't get cocky." He mentally told himself. He couldn't assume they were all brainless and all had the same abilities.
He thoughts were finally broken as dozens of police and several caped figures suddenly surrounded him.
"Oh right...super heroes…." He muttered as he held his hands up.
Yelling to put his weapon down and to get on the ground ect were suddenly being thrown around.
Alex quickly dismissed Excalibur and his armor as he put his hands above his head and laid on the ground.
"Fucking hate super heroes." He muttered again as he felt the cold steel wrap around his wrists.
