Chapter 43: Missing!

"The Omniverse?" Isaiah Sharpe whispered in shock.

"That's right, boyo. It also explains your world could be so different. Because overly clusters of universes are always similar to one another. If they are too far apart, they are bound to be some major differences such as the magic system used by the people. You can think of the multiverse as galaxies and the Omniverse as a universe." Zelretch explained.

Isaiah stayed silent,

'All this time, I thought there was only one Multiverse and this world was part of that, but there are more out there? Did I misinterpret the knowledge Root gave or something?'

"I thought there was only one Multiverse and this world was just part of it," Isaiah said.

Zelretch nodded, understanding the boy's confusion.

"You're not exactly wrong. Multiverse simply means a multitude of universes. If there are multiple multiverses, you could still call it a multiverse since technically there are a multitude of multiverses. However, If you simply look at the nearby universes, you'd be right to think that there is one Multiverse. But if you look far enough, one would notice the difference. I had the same misconception when I first learned to use my Magic. After going far enough as well as achieving the eight requirements, I realized that there are more multiverses out there."

"Have you been to another one before?"

Zelretch nodded,

"Yes. Although, it's a little harder due to the distance and many other factors."

"Can you give me an example?" Isaiah asked with childlike curiosity.

"Hm, let me see," Zelretch thought as he stroked his beard when a lightbulb lit up in his mind,

"Oh! There is one world I visited where the moon is partially destroyed."

"The moon was destroyed?"

"Yeah, A part of the moon was destroyed and for some reason stayed in orbit around the Earth instead of crashing onto it. Intrigued by the unusual sight, I decided to explore a little and you know what?"

"What?"

"A small number of people use some knockoff version of Magic by materializing their souls to fight creatures of darkness."

"They have Reality Marbles!?" Isaiah asked in surprise.

"You know about Reality Marbles?"

Isaiah nodded,

"Well, they don't have those. It's more like they have a spell ingrained in their souls that they would use in a variety of ways."

"Woah."

"I know. But I usually remain within my multiverse. I would sometimes visit others that catch my fancy. It would just take a little more time to reach." Zelretch said, but Isaiah could detect some smugness oozing out of him. "But this is the first time that someone came to me. I must say, it's quite an experience."

Isaiah nodded.

"I can say the same."

Suddenly, Isaiah's image began to flicker.

"Hm?" Zelretch let out seeing the phenomenon.

Isaiah looked at himself flickering like TV static.

"Seems like I'm waking up."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm sure my father is worried since I didn't explain about this."

"Your father doesn't know you use magic?"

"Well, he does. But he just recently learned about it. In fact, we just recently found out about each other."

"Truly? Then, it's best you return and reassure your father. Although, I will try to visit your world soon since I would very much like to meet and talk." Zelretcg asked.

Isaiah raised an eyebrow,

"You're not going to cause a mess are you?"

Zelretch simply chuckled,

"Although I'm prone to mischief, I try not to mess around as it would cause irreversible damage. I don't know if you know, due to our connection with the Root, our very presence can cause immense changes in a world's timeline."

Isaiah nodded,

"Yeah, my teacher, as well as the three Fate Sisters, told me."

"Fate sisters?"

"You know. The three sisters in the Greek mythology?"

Zelretch understood what he was talking about,

"Does that mean the Age of Gods never ended in your world?"

Isaiah swayed his head from side to side,

"It's complicated."

Zelretch smirked,

"Interesting. Very interesting."

Isaiah's flickers began to grow intense,

"Until next time, Mr. Schweinorg."

"You can call me, Zelretch, boyo. And I'll be seeing you soon."

Isaiah smiled and his projection faded away leaving secret h alone in his office.

The man chuckled as he went back to his seat.

"Seems like something interesting has fallen into my lap. I look forward to seeing you, Young Isaiah." the old vampire said as he grabbed his pen and went back to writing.

"Now, let's see how to bring magical girls to life. It's going to be quite an interesting project."

***

Tony Stark was sitting on the sofa where Isaiah was sleeping when he heard a low moan from the latter. He whipped his head toward the boy and saw the child stirring.

'Pepper! Her Pepper! I think he's awake." He quickly called his assistant.

"Hmm." the boy moaned once more before opening his eyes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living! It's fun until you grow older," Tony said as he greeted the bit while imitating the voice of an airplane pilot.

Isaiah looked at his father weirdly,

"What?"

Pepper came into the room,

"He's just messing with you Isaiah. Although, he was really worried when you blacked out. You should have seen him," she said with a giggle.

The woman then gave a glass of water to the boy,

"Here. I brought you some water."

"Thanks, Ms. Pepper. How long was I out."

Isaiah had heard his father call him by this nickname so many times, that even he started calling her like that.

"About two hours," She replied.

The boy sat up and downed the glass before setting it on the table.

"Sorry for worrying you guys."

"It's okay, kid. Your teacher told us that you had nothing to worry about. But what the hell happened!?"

Isaiah rubbed his temple,

"Can we call my teacher here first? She's gonna want to hear this."

"Sure. Sure." The man said as he took his cellphone and called Fiona.

A few minutes later, Fiona had arrived in the Stark Mansion and all four were now sitting on the sofa.

"Welcome back, Isaiah. I heard you had some news you would like to share?"

The boy nodded,

"So here's how it goes..." Isaiah explained what happened in his vision.

Ten minutes later, Tony and Pepper looked worried while Fiona looked pensive,

"I see. Should I prepare countermeasures for Mr. Shweinorg?" The Ancient One said.

"I mean you could if you want to, but Mr. Zelretch is not one to interfere with worlds unless it's his own. He just wants to talk."

"Hmm, Isaiah?" Tony interjected.

The boy turned to his father,

"Yeah?"

"When old men go out their way to meet young boys and say they just want to talk... it's bad news." Tony said with a serious expression.

Isaiah looked at the man confused,

"Huh? I don't understand."

Pepper looked at her boss indignant,

"Tony!"

The latter looked at her,

"What? I'm right!"

The pre-teen simply looked at the two adults back and forth without knowing what they were talking about.

Fiona decided to interject before the argument escalates,

"Anyway, so what you are saying is that Mr. Shweinorg is currently finding a way to this universe to meet you? am I correct?" she asked.

"Yeah" the boy replied.

"I see." Fiona nodded, "Very well then. I shall be on the lookout for any extra-dimensional breaches in our dimension. I will also be ready in case something goes wrong."

"Thank you, teacher. He probably memorized the frequency of my soul or something since he seemed confident to find me in the vast Multiverse." the boy said.

He decided not to mention the Omniverse since he didn't want them to worry for now.

"Alright, Isaiah." Fiona stood up and opened a portal back to Kamar-Taj.

"Thank you for informing and be careful," she said as she patted the boy's head. The boy simply let it as he felt his hair being ruffled.

The woman smiled and left through the portal before collapsing it leaving the trio alone.

A silent atmosphere when Tony clasped his hands loudly,

"Well, that was lovely. We just have to wait for some weird old alien wizard crossing universes just to try and meet my son. And I don't have to worry, am I right Isaiah?"

The boy smiled,

"That's right."

"WRONG!" Tony loudly said making the boy and Pepper jump.

"What?" Isaiah asked.

"What do you mean what!? Do you not see what's wrong here, Kid?"

Isaiah tilted his head to the side,

"Mr. Zelretch is not a villain, Tony. He's known to be an ally to humanity for a very long time. He's not exactly evil, he's... eccentric. Besides, I also want to meet him. It's not every day you get to meet another person who reached the Root."

Tony simply placed his head in his head and groaned out loud while his son continued to look at him confused.

Pepper decided to speak,

"I don't really know what's going on. I don't know who Mr. Zelretch is, but why don't you put some trust in Isaiah a little. He probably knows about this more than us." she told Tony.

The latter looked at her and sighed,

"Alright, fine. If he tries anything, I'm bringing my biggest weapon and blast him with it."

"I wouldn't do anything to him, honestly."

"I don't care!" The man stood up and walked away,

"I'm gonna be in my workshop. Don't disturb me unless it's an emergency." Tony said as he went downstairs.

Only Pepper and Isaiah were in the living room. The latter looked at the man in confusion.

"Don't worry, Isaiah. He's just worried. With all these new things around unknown to the mass, it's bound to stress people."

"Why is he worried though?"

"Because he doesn't want you to get hurt."

Isaiah was still confused,

"But he knows I won't get hurt?"

Pepper smiled,

"It doesn't really matter much since he will worry. I guess it comes with being a parent."

Isaiah looked down in thought,

"Huh. I guess."

'Although, is till don't understand.' he thought.

Suddenly, the air beside them shimmered before a ring of rainbow appeared. The view inside the ring blurred before showing some familiar faces.

"Isaiah!" Percy said.

"Hey, Percy. Looks like you finally came back from the dead," Isaiah replied as he saw Percy along with Annabeth and Sally inn the living room.

Pepper saw the boy talking to the empty air. She was confused until she heard the boy say his words. She quickly grabbed her Anti-Mist glasses and put it on. Suddenly, white fog appeared in her vision before being dispersed revealing the Iris message, although she wasn't seen by the callers.

"You don't seem surprised." Percy looked at him.

Annabeth looked at the younger boy confused while Sally smiled. "Does that mean you already knew that I was alive already?"

Isaiah shrugged,

"You got me."

Annabeth looked at the younger boy confused,

"What? How? And why didn't you inform us?" she sounded angry.

"It's the Order's trade secret. Sorry can't tell you." Isaiah shook his head.

"Then why didn't you tell us!? Don't you know how worried everyone one was!?" Annabeth looked like she wanted to scream at the boy,

"Again. I can't tell you. In fact, I couldn't tell you."

"Why?"

Isaiah sighed,

"Once more, it's part of the Order's trade secret."

Annabeth became pissed and before the situation could escalate, Percy intervened.

"Looks like I was worried about nothing then." the teen gave an awkward chuckle.

Isaiah nodded,

"Yup, congrats on blowing up a volcano though as well as destroying a prison."

Percy looked at the boy,

"Wait. How do you know that? You know what, I'm not going to ask." Percy asked before quickly changing his mind when Isaiah deadpanned at him.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to find someone who's going to help us navigate through the Labyrinth." the demigod replied.

"Hm? Have you found another way different from Ariadne's string?"

"Yeah. That's why we're going to find her."

"Do you know her name?"

"It's the one I told you about at the Hoover Dam. Remember?"

Isaiah thought back about it and remembered.

"Oh yeah. Are you talking about that clear-sighted girl?"

"Yeah. Guess what? She also lives in New York. I met her again at the Goode Highschool Orientation."

Isaiah noticed Annabeth had a weird expression when the teen talked about the girl.

" I see. That's good. Call me if you need anything. I'll try to help out if I can. And welcome back, Percy," Isaiah said.

"Thanks, Isaiah. I see you next time." Percy said and closed the Iris-message.

As soon as he ended the call, the air shifted once more,

"Another one?"

"Why don't I leave with your call since I still have many things left at the company."

"Okay, see you later Ms. Pepper."

"You too, Isaiah!"

Soon the ring of a rainbow formed, however, this time, he saw a horrified-looking Bianca. She even looked on the verge of tears. He couldn't really see her background though,

'She's probably using her prism. Must be an emergency.'

"Hello, Bian-"

Before he could even greet her, He was interrupted by the girl,

"Isaiah! Nico's missing!"

Taken aback, Isaiah had to process what she just said.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Nico! Nico's missing!" the girl shouted.

Isaiah's brow furrowed,

"Missing? Where? You're gonna have to give me some context here."

"N-Nico and I were guarding the entrance of the Labyrinth that we found inside the camp. Nico got excited by it and started observing it. B-But he accidentally touched the key and fell through! I tried to catch him, but he had already fallen through the entrance! When I opened it, I couldn't even find anymore!" Bianca quickly explained as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

"Did you inform Chiron?"

"Yeah, he told me that he's trying his best. But what if something happens to Nico before he can even mount a rescue or something? Is there a way to use your portals to find Nico?"

Isaiah shook his head,

"Sorry, Bianca. I don't know if you know, but the Labyrinth is a place where time and space are warped. Opening a portal inside is almost impossible since there is no point of reference."

Bianca had a look of despair at Isaiah's answer.

"I'll find him. Nico's my friend and it'll be just me instead of the Order. I'll also try not to involve in the war since I just went to find someone."

Bianca wiped her tears,

"I'll come!" she said.

Isaiah nodded,

"Sure. I'm not going to stop you. But I don't know if Chiron will let you."

"Who cares!? This is my brother we're talking about!"

"Alright then. Come to my place, then we'll go see Teacher."

Bianca nodded and ended the call.

Isaiah leaned back on the couch,

'Did Nico really just fall into the Labyrinth on his own? Or is there something I'm missing? I know he's curious about everything around him, but even he should know about the Labyrinth, right?'

The boy shook his head,

'Doesn't matter right now. My friend is missing and I'll find him. Looks like I'm going to enter the Labyrinth after all.'