Sidequest part 3: The saint, the otherworlder, and The Madness

  

  It seemed like the Throne did not fare too well in this version. Even though the aftermath of the second Void war was still present, encapsulated by the giant mountain in the distance missing its top half, my fellow otherworlders had managed to survive here. How tragic that some of them surviving was an extraordinary feat. It all boiled down to the whims of a mindless creature, the one Rachel described as the System Manipulator's familiar. In contrast, someone who never relented to her whims was the sword saintess. No matter where I went, the mighty sword saint chose to end herself. That was why morals were useless. They never help you get anything done.

  My dealings with the System Manipulator gave everyone some time to breathe. I was no fool. That creature would never see anyone of them as an equal. The only way to save everyone was to kill everyone. Of course, Rachel hated that plan. Forbid me from it. Trying to hunt down their familiar was all she would accept, and I listened — other than the Hero I needed no more enemies. Her plan on the other hand, that one was completely insane. There was no I was going to help her with it. Hopefully, my backup plan will come to fruition soon. Who better to defeat a primordial eldritch creature than another primordial eldritch creature?

  - Lutherion 'Luther' Abalonius, The Beast, former member of the Delinquents

  Tom stared at the beautiful woman in front of him. Had he actually been summoned to another world? The last he remembered was going to bed. He could clearly remember it since he had a massive fight with his parents; they found out he watched a new isekai anime with his little sister and accused him of trying to sabotage her education. Next to being able to have a proper sleep, going on an isekai adventure was something he always wanted.

  The woman smirked. "Do you wish to become one of my servants?"

  "Huh? Hell no!" There was no way this was an isekai. "Did you kidnap me?"

  She sighed and moved her hand closer to his face.

  "What are—?"

  ***

  Tom stared at the beautiful woman in front of him. Had he actually been summoned to another world? The last—.

  "Do you wish to make a contract with me?" The woman asked, interrupting his train of thought. "It is a huge honor being able to work with me."

  He grimaced. "A contract? I'm not sure I—."

  ***

  Tom stared at the beautiful woman in front of him. Had he actually—?

  "Work for me, or else!" The woman demanded.

  He stared at her. "You ... what?

  She sighed. "Right iteration. Learn the lesson," she mumbled.

  "What do you—?"

  ***

  Tom stared at the beautiful woman in front of him. Had he actually—?

  The woman got down on her knees. "Oh, honorable hero. Would you save this world from disaster?"

  He looked at her and smiled. "Definitely." Finally something positive was happening in his life.

  She stood up and made a small bow. "Then please follow me, and allow me to tell you of this world."

  ***

  Rachel stood on top of the castle and looked over the entire capital. Where had Tom gone? She specifically remembered bringing him here. Then he just disappeared; something that was expected of course, but she usually managed to find him easily.

  Strange.

  Even from here, she could feel Luther's location, who had run off again in his feral state. Tom was a blur, as if the spirits were leaving out his locations for some reason. That had never happened before. She wanted to bring him here to have another go at moving past the firmament. Looking up at the sky, she used her knowledge of the world to leave out the clutter of spirits to see beyond. Another oddity. Usually, she would be able to see the dark purple colors of the void, but that was not the case anymore. Beyond the sky, all she could see was blue. Or green? No, orange? Or was it pink? For some reason the colors were shifting, similar to the aura of an observer shifting between different colors, only that the shifts were much more frequent.

  What was that? Luther's doing perhaps, or had the System Manipulator finally decided to move out of hiding? Whatever the case, she needed to find Tom immediately.

  ***

  His head hurt since arriving here, and his face felt like it had been punched a hundred times, but after talking more with Lyra the truth was undeniable: Tom had been summoned to another world. A world suffering the aftermath of a catastrophe at that. Everything felt so surreal. He had long dreamed of going on an isekai adventure — and his wish came true!

  "So, you are telling me that around half the otherworlders turned evil, creating a group called 'the Delinquents'?"

  Lyra nodded. "Indeed. They were swayed by the lies of the System Manipulator, and later on the treacherous Hero." Opening another door, she led him through another hallway, walking past people who curiously looked at him. "Do not misunderstand. Even though some of the otherworlders betrayed us, everyone understands that not all otherworlders are bad. There are quite a few otherworlders who are still on our side, helping us tirelessly to this day. The lesson that otherworlders are no different from ourselves was one well learned."

  "I understand. Then if no new otherworlder has been summoned for a long time, what am I supposed to do in this world? I still don't know who this Wandering God you talked about is supposed to be."

  "Yes, I realize that now. Actually, this Wandering God is an elusive god not many have encountered. I can with certainty say that only a handful of people in the entire universe would know of their existence. Yet this is the place they were last seen." Opening a door she led him into a balcony.

  From the southern balcony she had shown him the entire capital city, along with the mind-blowing gigantic hole — not to mention the mountain having its top half cleanly cut off! To the southern balcony, he saw what could only be described as a mess. After leaving the walls of the capital, past a simple grassy field, was a dense forest. Anyone who looked at this place from the ground would think the forest was all there was, but from the top, he could see the forest abruptly ending. It was like a part of the forest was purposely held intact to hide the giant fortified wall from sight.

  "From what I have heard, that wall there is our only defense against the southern invaders." She shook her head in disappointment. "Foolish people who were manipulated by the whispers of an old creature way past their expiration date." She looked at Tom. "You asked me what I want you to do? I want you to join me on an expedition to enemy territory, controlled by the remnants of the Delinquents, and destroy their System."

  "System? As in floating screen system?"

  She tilted her head. "Intriguing that you know of that one, but it's not the kind of system I am talking about. In every planet, every galaxy, every universe, there are beings that hold power akin to what you people call a god. They hold power over existence, sometimes called an authority, and to keep the peace they create specific systems in place. Think of it as a set of rules for reality. That is a System."

  "And why are we destroying it then? Aren't rules a good things if this world went through a catastrophe?"

  "Not exactly." She hesitated. "Perhaps it would be easier to say that the Delinquents control it? Do you understand now?"

  Tom nodded. "I do. That sounds horrible." Simple mortals having control over the rules of reality — obviously a bad thing.

  She smiled. "Glad you understand. Then, let us depart." Walking closer to the ledge, she clapped.

  Ascending from the ground was a flying metal vehicle. Tom had never seen anything like it before. There were no powerful motors to see, but a flat disk with a curved roof, almost as if it was rejecting gravity and nothing more. Carefully standing on the railings, they both jumped on the vehicle and were met with a friendly face.

  "Hi there. The name is Mark," a blue-haired boy said, reaching out his hand.

  Tom shook his hand and nodded. "My name is Tom. Nice to meet you." Why did he look so familiar?

  Mark went back to control the vehicle while Tom and Lyra sat on the side. It was a small — not even cushioned — seating area which was already starting to hurt his butt.

  Lyra looked strangely at Mark and moved closer to Tom's ear. "If you don't like that thing, feel free to ignore it. This Mark is the overly helpful type who wants to assist anyone to fit in. A rare type of subordinate. Having everyone keep to their own goals does get tiring after a … time. If push comes to shove, leave him behind and continue fighting."

  "Leave him behind?" Tom whispered back. "Why are we bringing him with us then?"

  She shrugged. "An interesting person. Thought I perhaps could breed with him later to see what kinds of children I would bear."

  "Huh!" He said out loud and grimaced, making Mark turn his head.

  "Is everything alright back there?"

  "Don't worry about it," Lyra repeated back.

  Tom stared at her. "You are weird." She responded with a smile. "And what do you mean by fighting?" Now that he thought about it, the adrenaline kicking in had made him step onto this vehicle. What kind of summoner, or perhaps otherworlder guardian, made them fight right off the bat? He could feel his stomach tingle. That could only mean one thing. "I do not know how to fight, so I think it's about time you tell me about my OP powers."

  "OP? Oh, someone told me about that recently. If it is being overpowered you seek…" She pointed down. Will that do?

  Looking down he saw a small teddy bear inside his pocket. "Wait a second, since when was that there?" He should have noticed it, but he could barely feel its presence, as if it were a natural part of him. It shifted its head towards him. Was it alive? And why was it furiously waving its arms? Was it trying to tell him something?

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Tom grunted and grabbed onto his head. He felt such a strong sense of deja vu.

  Lyra moved her hand closer and pulled the teddy bear out of his pocket with ease. "This is a purpose created out of desperation. A failure. But one that still can have some use."

  Purpose. He shouldn't have understood what she was talking about, but strangely enough, he could. Spirit. Middle grade. But how did he know this?

  "This is something called an Adjustment. They act as conduits for specific exceptions. This purpose represents being merged but has no considerable effect on the world itself. It acts as an alternative frame of reference, one that can be resonated with when one wishes to merge auras." She snorted. "A novice approach to fixing a problem."

  "That sounds complicated. How does that relate to my powers?"

  She stared at him. "Your aura is an oddity. It is rare for someone to be born with such an innate state of mediocrity."

  "Uh, thank you?"

  "Fortunately, that is what this world likes the most." She got up from her seat and pointed the teddy bear towards the trees below. With one motion she yanked her arm upwards and uprooted an entire tree. The tree rose into the sky before falling back onto the rest of the trees.

  Tom clapped. "Wow! That was cool. How did you do it?"

  She spun around, obviously enjoying his compliments. "An advanced understanding of spirits. Unfortunately, this isn't something you can do right away, but closer to a target you should be able to merge it together with the purpose and pull it as if you were pulling your own."

  Walking over to him, she handed him the teddy bear which he took with his right hand. Waving the hand around he realised it was stuck. No matter. As long as he knew how to use it, his EPIC ADVENTURE was inevitable.

  When they got closer to the wall, he could hear the guards on top of the wall shouting at them.

  "What are they saying?"

  Lyra shrugged. "Protocol. They like doing weird things to distract when they see us people above."

  The moment they were past the wall, the landscape abruptly changed. Instead of forest, in front of them was an apocalyptic wasteland. The ground was devoid of green, with craters scattered around. Up above the sky turned into a much murkier red color and the air musty. In the distance he saw a small circular city, and behind it was a giant hole in the ground. It looked similar to the giant hole north of here.

  "Why is there another hole here?"

  "Some people prefer to crumble things from the inside. Not something I have a lot of experience with."

  As they approached the city, he could properly have its monstrosity into view. Building after building, made of a type of smooth stone in a circular pattern. On the ground were rows of people pulling slabs of stone, working on a half-finished construction. A person lost their grip on the rope and fell to the ground. In retaliation, a nearby more fancier dressed individual, whipped them until their feeble clothes were dyed red. Sitting on a platform above were a group of people laughing. They wore clothing similar to camo clothes from Tom's world, with glowing weapons tucked away on their side. What a cliché. The evil otherworlder enslaved the local population. Tom for sure was going to get some major main character points from defeating them.

  On the same giant platform the otherworlders sat on, there was a glass globe in the center. Carved on the rock were circular patterns reminiscent of astrological signs. Tom nudged Lyra and pointed at the glass globe. "Is that the System?"

  "Looks like it." She scrutinized the surroundings. "I have no idea how this feeble thing is supposed to be significant to the power dynamics of the wider universe, but I guess we will see."

  What the hell was she talking about? Tom had first thought of her as the stereotypical saintess. Kind. Caring. In reality she was extremely weird and—. "Why haven't they noticed us?"

  "You'll see."

  As they descended, several slaves curiously peeked at the flying contraption but were quickly reprimanded. The Delinquents on the other hand lost their laughter and got up from their seats. When they had carefully landed on the platform, Layla walked out to confront them.

  "You finally showed yourself again, sword saintess." One of the otherworlders said.

  Compared to the rest who were more lightly dressed, he was wearing some sort of thin golden plate that was difficult to notice from far away. On his side was a claymore. He had to be their leader. Dressed in golden-plated armour, calymore, and with a full beard. He looked at Tom. "And this is?"

  Tom gave a nod. "I am another otherworlder. Arrived here today, actually."

  That caught their intrigue.

  "Another otherworlder?" His eyes widened. "So it was true after all." Shaking his head, he coughed and regained his composure. "My name is Liel." He gestured at the others. "And that is Marie, Oiel, Paul, and—." The otherworlder named Marie moved her long blonde hair to the side to reveal a small creature on her shoulder. It looked humanoid and had grey skin with purple wings. A fairy. "That is Pip."

  "Hiiii!" The fairy said with an extremely squeaky voice.

  Liel shifted his focus to Lyra. "Sword saintess, have you finally decided to cooperate? Faking your death — perhaps Rachel was leading us astray after all. Glad you have come to your senses and decided to work with us."

  Tom gasped. "Why would she ever work with you? You all are obviously evil. There are literally slaves over there."

  All the Delinquents broke into laughter.

  Liel shook his head. "Us, evil? You really did arrive today. Don't worry. Those people over there don't matter."

  "It may sound bad, but it is the truth," Paul said, fixing his glasses. "Think of them as a mirage, ants even. Something that is supposed to disappear anyway."

  Oiel nodded. "Us on the other hand; we are special."

  "Special!" Pip squeaked.

  "I don't buy that for a second. The only ones that look like ants here are you people."

  Lyra nodded in agreement. "That is true. Time to exterminate!"

  Unsheathing her sword, she threw it at Liel.

  The Delinquents looked at their leader in shock as his entire torse fell off his legs. It took them only a second to get themselves back in order. Marie used her bow to shoot at Lyra. Tom could feel time slow as the arrow headed towards her. She had for some dumb reason thrown away her sword, but it didn't seem to worry the least. Standing there she simply stared at the arrow as it collided with her, then bounced off like it was a piece of paper. The moment the arrow touched the ground, Paul's glasses exploded. He screamed covering his eyes as all the shards had penetrated his eyeballs.

  Tom yelped and was barely able to dodge a dagger thrown at him by Oiel. With no way to defend himself, he ran for cover behind their vehicle. "You could have at least given me a warning before you started!"

  Out of the vehicle ran Mark. "Are you alright lady saintess? You—!" He stopped in his tracks as a dagger cut clean through his chest and dug itself into the vehicle's metallic roof. Then he dissolved.

  Layla stared at the pool of water on the ground, then rolled her eyes. "Of course, he had to kill himself. Now I remember why I don't have these kinds of servants anymore."

  Resorting to new tactics, Oiel conjured a flame in his hand and threw it at Lyra. This time she didn't stand still, but opened her mouth and sucked in the fire. She licked her lips. "I'll give it two out of ten stars. Lacks stronger emotions."

  Marie glared at Lyra. "Who are you? You aren't that doormat of a saint."

  "I am who I want to be." Lyra didn't bother elaborating further.

  "You are dead, whoever you are!" Oiel said and started changing in a strange language.

  His eyes glowed white and he ascended into the air. Raising his arm, a giant sigil appeared above them.

  Tom, deciding it was his time to contribute, used his right hand with the purpose to touch the vehicle. Then he copied Lyra's movement. Nothing happened. He tried raising his hand, but it was stuck. The vehicle was much heavier than himself. He needed to make their connection more similar, and then eject the vehicle. Similar… Or average. He could feel knowledge flood his mind. "[Stabilize]." Instantly he felt something had changed. The auras. Another strange skill came into mind.

  Trying again, he raised his hand in a throwing motion. "[Mirror]." The vehicle flew from the ground and plummeted right through Oiel, crashing them both into a building behind. The vehicle fell to the ground, and Oiel's motionless body was embedded into the wall.

  "Awesome!" He had managed to defeat one bad guy.

  Lyra smiled at him. "Good job. No wonder they became intrigued by you. Such a good understanding of our arts."

  Tom wasn't able to ask any follow-up questions as her entire body was flung to the right, as if gravity had switched directions. Where she had stood, the top half of a tower fell, creating a crack in the giant disk. Jumping down from the air beside Tom was a new woman. She wore similar clothing to the Delinquents, with one of her eyes hidden under an eyepatch, long chestnut brown hair, with her roots dyed a strange red — Tom gripped his head. The color of The Madness? Where was this information coming from?

  He quickly stepped away from her. "Who are you? Another Delinquent?"

  "What — No! It's me, Rachel." She sighed. "I was planning on teaching you how to keep your memories, but it appears someone got here before me." She glared at Lyra who silently stood where she was, smirking. "Who are you?"

  Lyra put her hand on her chest and bowed. "The sword saint Lyra So—."

  "Don't try that bullshit with me. I have already accepted that Lyra is dead. Every version. The destined death brought by The Madness. Now tell me: who are you?"

  "Now, now. I just told—."

  In one quick motion, Rachel took her gun out of her holster and shot Lyra. The bullet went clean through her head, and Lyra's entire body convulsed and started to crumble into a pile of red dust.

  Marie raised her head. "Ouch. I didn't think there would be anyone here capable of coating their attacks in The Madness. I let down my guard. That was—."

  Rachel shot a bullet through Marie's head, making her brain matter paint the surroundings.

  "At least let me finish," a squeaky voice said. "I seem to have struck a nerve." The fairy Pip ascended into the air and flew towards them. "Actually, I am here on a vacation of sorts. My first time in a long, long, long—."

  Rachel shot Pip. It fell to the ground as red dust.

  "You really are in no mood to talk are you?"

  Tom turned and saw one of the slaves looking at them from below the platform.

  The slave-handler, who had seen all that had transpired, whipped at the slave out of pure instinct. Instead of hurting the slave, the whip bounced off, but the slave-handler's helmet vibrated and cut into his head. His corpse silently fell.

  "I have already conquered this boring System, so I would agree: it is time for me to leave." The slave nodded at Tom. "Nice meeting you. I gave out a lot of praise for the mere fun of it, but if you manage to survive this last part, then I would consider leaving a good word for you." They raised their hand toward the giant globe. "Because, there is one last thing I want to see."

  Tom heard the sound of glass shattering and turned to see cracks appearing on the globe.

  "Shit!" Rachel grabbed Tom.

  "Hey, what are you—?"

  He screamed as his body was dragged into the air. With a firm grip on him, Rachel ran away from the capital with unprecedented speed, until they had gotten half the distance to the wall. She let go of him and took a moment to catch her breath, sitting on a nearby boulder.

  "Excuse me, but what the fuck was all of that?"

  She panted, shaking her head. "No idea. I have never encountered someone like that before. Able to change their body — or were they part of them all along?"

  Tom stared at her, and once again he felt his head throbbing. "And what was the last thing they wanted to see?"

  Rachel pointed behind him. "That."

  He turned towards the city they had just fled from and could see the giant globe completely crumbling in the distance. A loud roar echoed in the air. Climbing out of the giant hole was a grotesque worm-like creature. Its mouth was humongous, making the city look small in comparison. Helping move its body were four giant limbs several times the size of skyscrapers, and following behind was a long tail with no apparent end to it.

  With one motion, the creature swallowed the city whole, widening the hole it had appeared out of. Then it proceeded to do the same to the barren landscape around it. It ate through the land, swallowing everything in its wake, and consequently causing their body to bloat in size.

  "That is the Bug," Rachel said. "When the equilibrium of systems is broken — even if only one System is destroyed, that thing always appears to devour the world. The process of figuring out which world is useful to keep compared to the rest … An experiment. And that is not even its whole body. Only remotely controlled form made to do the dirty work."

  Tom was speechless. This did not sound like the isekai world he wanted.

  "Once the throne fell, so did the order in this world. Multiple possibilities taking place, with no true god to observe and choose the correct one." She looked him in the eyes. "In this case, which possibility is the correct one?"

  "Why are you asking me a philosophical question all of a sudden?" He thought about it. With all the mess he had experienced, it would be good to focus on something else. "Multiple possibilities. That sounds a lot like multiple timelines or dimensions. In that case, all of them would be the correct one."

  "And what if you couldn't do that?"

  "What do you mean?"

  She coughed. "What if you could only choose one timeline? What if all of this mess was a danger to the universe." She hesitated. "We need to kill everyone to save everyone. Do you agree with that?"

  He rolled his eyes and looked at her like she was being stupid, because she was. "Of course not. You are an otherworlder as well, aren't you? The entire point of being summoned to another world is doing the impossible. Even if the world is crumbling around us, saving as many people as possible is our job. How else would we make being summoned to another world worth it?"

  She opened her mouth, preparing a rebuttal, then closed it and smiled. "You are right. Forgive me, it seems I have fallen too far into pessimism."

  "I don't judge you for that. That was a pretty traumatizing experience, to be honest." He put his hand on his face and tried to strike the collect pose possible. "But now that I am here, you have nothing to worry about. Just tell me the mission, and then we can make it work -- somehow. I have read a lot of isekai light novels. That knowledge would come in handy."

  She laughed and leaned back, relaxing her composure. "If you say so."

  The sound of rock crumbling intensified. They both looked at the Bug, grown in size, heading for their patch of land.

  Tom gulped. "Now, what do we do about that?"

  "Nothing. This world is doomed." She sighed and stood up. "It's time for you to head back to a safer world. Let me teach you how."

  She held out her palm and conjured a crimson-red flame. Just by looking at it, Tom was filled with a sudden rage — an intense desire to destroy anything.

  "This is part of The Madness. It is one of the oldest aspects of reality, born the very day the universe came into creation. An intense desire for the destruction of the universe. The antithesis to this is the countless probabilities. The Madness prefers the probabilities to be lower. Time. Laws of physics. Life and death. Those are the byproducts of this ideal. Coming into contact with this will reduce your grasp of reality. As a byproduct, you arrive in a space between the countless possibilities. Then you only have to follow The Madness bidding."

  "Destruction?"

  "No. Observing. There is no true god in this world, therefore everything is a mess. But as an observer with countless possibilities before you, you can choose one as the proper, and The Madness will send you there." She tilted her head. "That still doesn't make sense to me too, but it seems The Madness is somehow inclined to let fate play its course."

  Tom nodded and reached his hand closer to the flame. "And how do I choose this safer world?"

  She smiled. "You already know that deep within you. Your own goals that this world respects oh so well."

  Taking a deep breath, he touched The Madness. His entire vision turned crimson red. There was an important goal he sought after. One he had forgotten. He didn't arrive in this world alone.